Chapter 2

John woke up the next morning to the aroma of fresh ground coffee brewing. Sitting up, he watched Sarah move around in the tiny kitchen making breakfast.

"Hey, sleepyhead, I hope you don't mind but I am an early riser. It saves our resources to work while the sun is up and saves on the batteries. How do you like your eggs?"

"Scrambled with salsa," John grunted. "Where did you get the coffee maker and coffee — I hate the stuff. I don't mind caffeine, but I like mine cold and carbonated."

"Oh, is that why there is a soda dispenser in the door of the fridge instead of ice and water?'

"What are you talking about? They don't make those for campers!" John snorted.

John took a quick look at the fridge, and started mumbling as he went into the tiny bathroom.

While he was showering, John came to another realization. His camper had no electricity until it was plugged in at a campground. How the hell did the coffeemaker work? He quickly dressed and went to talk to Sarah.

Upon seeing John, Sarah commented, "John, I love this kitchen. It's the first stove in a camper that I have seen that was electric instead of gas. I have always hated trying to mess with burners adjusting the flame and not burning stuff."

"Sarah, the electricity isn't even supposed to work. There is no generator and the only battery circuit is the one that runs the few lights in here. Did you do anything special to make the coffeemaker work?"

"No, all I did was plug it in. What do you mean no electricity? It works fine. I looked around, while you were showering. It has electric heat. The fridge is electric. You have a bunch of electric things here in the kitchen: a food processor, a microwave, a mixer and what not."

John looked annoyed and got out his flashlight to help trace the wiring. He checked through the compartments. The wiring bundle went into the pipe leading to the propane tank. Checking the bottom of the tank, he saw a couple of wing nuts. The entire tank lifted off like a cover and revealed a rectangular box. The box had some lights on it and space for a couple of more plugs and a 220 volt plug as well.

He rejoined Sarah and suggested they eat breakfast.

After breakfast, conversation took a serious turn. After throwing ideas back and forth they came up with a list of what could have happened.

1. They were both crazy and having nightmares.

2. God saved us and put us here. — Not likely. Though God works in mysterious ways He wasn't known to play with people's minds like this.

3. They were abducted by aliens. — Possible given all the circumstances, and they do like playing with peoples minds from the stories about them.

4. They were saved by someone in the future, to change something in the past. — Possible, but about as likely as aliens.

5. We traveled through some kind of natural time warp. — Least likely of all, given the new condition of the vehicles and the extra stuff inside the camper.

They also came to some conclusions as to what they should do next. First, it really didn't matter why or how they got here. They would have to work together f they wanted to survive. Each of them had skills the other lacked. They needed to check what they had in the way of useful supplies in the trailers and vehicles. Based on the fact that they had a limited water supply, they would need to find water. To find water they needed to see if the vehicles worked, then figure out a direction to go. The list was long but their only choice was to keep moving forward on it.

They decided to check out Sarah's Suburban and trailer first. It was supposed to contain personal belongings, pictures, clothes, kitchen stuff and the little bit of furniture that would fit in an efficiency apartment.

Sarah started unloading boxes from the back of the SUV.

Startled, she exclaimed, "Medical supplies!"

The boxes all contained a huge variety of medical supplies. There was enough to supply a small clinic.

Then she added, "And look in the topper! Instead of my suitcase and clothes, those are all the guns, or copies of them, that Dad and I used hunting. Look at all that ammo! There must be at least a case of it, for each rifle and pistol."

Meanwhile John was looking at the U-Haul. It was twice as wide as any U-Haul he had seen and a lot longer, too. There were cases of canned fruits and vegetables as well as other foods. Once these were out of the way he noticed that there were two large chest freezers on each side of the trailer with a walkway down the center. Even more interesting was that the freezers were full of frozen meat, and they were running.

While pondering this unforeseen situation he heard Sarah's comment and realized the sturdy stainless steel tops of the freezers would make good examination tables. Above the tables were bins full of first aid supplies and other test equipment. There were even surgical supplies and a couple ceiling mounted lights. Last, at the end of the little isle between the freezers was a machine labeled clothes cleaner.