Chapter 18

Bryan snipped the last of the wires across the roll of welded wire. He had enlisted the help of the three boys to help him in the construction of the new bay of rabbit cages. Of the three, only Jake was truly interested in the project. He held the other end of the tape measure for Bryan, who had measured out a twenty-four foot strip of wire mesh.

It was the third such piece and the other two boys were struggling to unroll the fourth, roughly guessing the length in relation to the other already cut pieces strewn around on the ground.

"Ok," Bryan was saying to Jake. "I want you to unroll this roll of wire here and count to ten cross wires. Between number ten and number eleven, cut the long wires." Jake nodded, smiling as he grasped the large wire cutters, almost in awe that he got to be the one that used them.

"Alex, David, come hold this piece up for me."

With the pair of J-clip pliers he began attaching one strip of the mesh to another, effectively connecting the bottom and back of the cages. As he went along, clipping the two together David and Alex moved down, keeping the wire as straight and upright as possible, allowing him to finish the task as best he could. Behind them Bryan could hear Jake snipping wire after wire.

It was clear to him that Jake was a project oriented boy. He liked to work for the sake of working. David and Alex however, had more intuitive minds and once they figured out how something worked quickly lost interest.

They were both, however, invaluable when something new and exciting needed to be experimented with. Rabbit cages were old hat to them, and their interest was only fleeting at best. At this point they were following orders, but Bryan could tell that they were itching to go off and do something else.

He reached the end of the cages, clipping the last j-clip onto the wire. "Ok," Bryan said. "One more!" He attached the next piece of wire in much the same manner, using the boys to hold it in place. By that point Jake had several of the Wire partitions cut. They attached one at each end, and with a measuring tape set out to give each rabbit cage approximately nine square feet. He had to build double partitions between each cage or the rabbits would bite each other through the wire. He chose to use the space as hay feeders for them instead.

He cut holes for doors in the front while Jake, who like always, was thrilled to help by putting the J-clips on. And as always his brothers stood by watching and offered their unsolicited and unwelcome advice. Such was the curse of being the youngest brother.

By the time that Bryan had gotten all of the door holes cut, Jake had one entire side clipped on. Bryan took over at that point, Clipping the ends and the front, and then clipping the middle partitions.

With a grunt he picked up one end of the cage. It was almost one hundred pounds and it flexed a bit, not really rigid enough to stand on its own. But he had a plan for that later.

The men toiled for several hours, Alex and David expressing their boredom over the task every few minutes, but Jake grinning from ear to ear, soaking in every bit of information and technique that he could.

At last they stood and admired their handiwork: six rabbit cages, consisting of six holding areas each, for a total of thirty six cages. This would more than double their rabbit breeding potential, making it easier to feed the increasing human population.

Before any of them realized it Andrew was standing between them admiring the cages as well. "Looks nice," he said. "I have seen whole families in Afghanistan with setups like this and that's practically all they ate."

The boys started, as the stranger in their midst spoke seemingly appearing out of nowhere as he did so. Bryan was a bit startled as well, having been so wrapped up in his work that his situational awareness was somewhat off. His lapse had let the man walk right up to them without so much as acknowledgement.

Andrew stood there, rough and tattered, a sly smile on his face, almost feigning innocence. He had the gear that Bryan had loaned him slung over his back, apparently all his meager possessions kept on his person.

"Boys," Bryan said, regaining his composure after a few awkward seconds of silence. "This is Andrew Dennison. He's going to be helping out around here. Andrew, this is Alex, David and Jake."

All three boys shook his hand silently, not quite sure what to make of the bearded dirty man. Bryan had to admit that he was a little scary at first take.

"Uh," Bryan said. "Would you like a hot shower before we try and do anything else?"

Andrew looked at him, his eyes lighting up like a kid in a candy store. "Is that really a question?" he asked.

Bryan turned to the three boys who were suddenly without a task to do and unsure what they were supposed to be doing. "Go run along, do whatever," he told them. "We can finish these later." The boys scurried off, never having a shortage of things to do or see.

He led Andrew up to the shed on the hill where a solar shower had been set up as part of the water system. The two hundred fifty gallon water tank that sat on the rise above it was visibly steaming in the air, apparently quite warm in the bright sunshine.

Inside the shower itself, was the remains of a bar of soap and a small sun faded hand towel. Bryan showed him the facilities and went to the house to fetch some razors, a bigger towel, and some shampoo, as well as some clothes for him.

Two hours later, a very different man appeared from the shower stall. He looked a little bit like Andrew, but he was clean shaven, dressed simply but neatly, and clean. It had taken him nearly an hour to scrub all of the dirt and grime off of himself, and probably a comparable amount of time to remove the excess facial hair.

The clean shaven Andrew looked quite a bit more comfortable and relaxed, though somewhat itchy in clean clothes. "They just feel too soft," he said after Bryan looked at him questioningly. "It's been so long since I've worn clean clothes that I guess I forgot what they felt like." He looked up and his face showed a mix of emotions. "Thank you," he said slowly. "I can't tell you how much I appreciate this."

Bryan shook his head. "It's not a hand out," he replied. "We both know that. It's more like employment."

"Have you looked at me lately," Andrew retorted. "I mean now, yeah, someone would have hired me, but before?" he shook his head doubtfully.

Bryan was getting the feeling that the man was going to break down and hug him if he didn't change the subject, so he chose to make a switch before the conversation potentially took that turn.

"So how did you get in here anyway?" Bryan asked, trying to keep the conversational direction change from seeming obvious.

If Andrew noticed he kept the thought to himself and didn't hesitate, saying: "Right over the gate like last time. You really need to do something about that if you intend to keep people out."

Bryan shrugged. "Well let's go look at it and see what can be done," he said. "While we're on the way I'll give you a tour of the place, all right and proper."

They started at the water supply, the main shed, and the aboveground greenhouse. They took in the poultry barn, the sheep barn, the corn crib next to the loafing shed where the cattle were kept. Bryan explained the purpose of the drainage canals, the tree fences, and the dividing walls as it pertained to the growth patterns and land form. He explained the make-up of the outer walls and their camouflage shell of vegetations.

Andrew seemed impressed with that last bit of knowledge. "I never would have thought there was anything behind it," he said. "Even having grown up here I thought that it had just grown up in brush and that was why I couldn't find my way in through the sides. I couldn't even tell that it wasn't natural."

"That is about three months of solid work right there," Bryan replied. "The wall itself is probably about the same. There are so many tires in those walls that I can't even begin to count."

Andrew shook his head. "You certainly have gone to a lot of work to keep things hidden and secure," he said. "This gate and the one in back are really the only holes in your plan."

They had come to the gate and were eyeing the thing, hoping to find a way to either reinforce it or at least obscure the path a bit more and make it difficult to get through.

"That sign needs to come down," Andrew pointed to the extensive sign on the gate. "It just invites attention. Attention invites curiosity. Curiosity invites trouble."

"And we want none of the above," Bryan agreed. "Good observation."

"I'm sure when things are normal that it is very useful."

"Well, I've never seen a tax assessor around here and the tax assessment is the same that it was five years ago before we moved in. Does that tell you anything?"

"That speaks volumes."

Three hours later, the gate had taken an entirely different look. Bryan had scrounged up some corrugated iron sheets. They were rusty and full of holes, but they were effective at blocking the view and would be difficult to move. Using clamps and bolts and even some wire, they managed to attach the old sheet metal to the gate. The result was a rusty looking monstrosity that filled the entire gap, so that no one could see past nor climb over or through. More supports had to be added to carry the additional weight, as well as give the upper parts of the corrugated iron something to attach to.

They were looking over their handiwork. Andrew, who was looking at the setup suddenly stiffed up.

"May I make a suggestion?" he asked Bryan.

"Shoot," Bryan answered. He wondered what the other man was thinking.

"Now I've seen things like this in Afghanistan in the regions where Al Qaeda operate. They add another layer of defense." Andrew closed his eyes and shook his head as if remembering something especially horrific.

"Such as?"

"Well," he said. "When they knew they weren't going to be going in or out for a while, they would put in these barricades that butted up against the gate that even if a truck hit it, the gate wouldn't fly open."

Bryan looked at him with a curious look, wondering how they were going to accomplish something of that nature.

"And on the same note," Andrew continued. "We need something to keep the gate from popping open if a chain is tied to it and pulled on."

"Good God," Bryan sputtered. "I hope it doesn't come to that."

"We all hope for the best," Andrew said solemnly. "But those that plan for the worst usually are the survivors. Those that hang on to the best of times usually perish sooner or later."

"I guess I've planned for something bad, but you're telling me I haven't planned far enough." Bryan shook his head. "God I hope things don't go that far."

"Me too," Andrew said quietly. "But I've seen enough of what human beings can do to each other in the last three years to make me err to the side of caution." He pointed to the gate. "That may all be unnecessary. But if just one sadistic maniac gets through it, then what's it worth for us to spend a few hours reinforcing it? The risks may be low now, but later?"

Bryan looked at the gate thoughtfully, thinking of his options. "I agree," he said at last. "Got any ideas how to pull that off with what we have available?"

Andrew surveyed the scene for a moment then looked at Bryan. "Do you have any steel pipe?" Bryan nodded. "Anything bigger than the pipe the gate was made out of?"

"I have some four inch square tubing,"

Andrew stood there a moment, contemplating the scenario. Finally he nodded, the idea seeming to come together in his mind. "That should work if we have enough of it."

Bryan smiled. "I think there was enough to construct a forty by one hundred twenty foot building if I remember correctly."

"You sure you want to use that?" Andrew asked. "Sounds like a kit building to me."

"It was," Bryan said. "Initially we were going to build it, finish out a portion of it to live in, and then use it to run the businesses out of when we finished our house. But in the end I found a cheaper and more economical way to build the house and just did that instead of wasting the time constructing a steel building too. I just never got around to needing it."