Chapter 4

The small group took the rest of the day and all the next to recuperate from the attack and finish processing the bear. Early the next morning they took off for what was once Birmingham, Alabama years in the future or perhaps was that city on another timeline. It took the group three more days to reach the location from which Roger had departed. When they came into sight of the wreckage the Indians and Margarita stopped and stared. They all cautiously walked around the detritus and looked at the wrecked vehicles.

After the small group walked around every vehicle and tentatively touched some of them Margarita turned to Roger and said, "What are these strange things Roger? They seem to be made of metal and glass and with those wheels they must be some type of conveyance but none of us has ever seen the like. And what is this strange grey rock strewn around them?"

"You got it in one Margarita. These are the carriages of my time. We called them automobiles except for that one and the longer one. Those are called trucks. They equate to one of your wagons. The smaller one is mine and was called a pick up. The larger one is called a Semi Truck. The large rectangular box usually hauled products from place to place. The front part was called the tractor and acted to pull the trailer much as horses pull a wagon or cart. They have what we call an engine to provide power to make them move. The engines run on a liquid called fuel. Most ran on gasoline but my truck and the larger one ran on a fuel called diesel. When the fuel in their tanks is exhausted they will not be self mobile any longer unless I can figure out how to manufacture more fuel.

"One of the things I must do almost immediately is make a more detailed inventory of the items we find here so I know what I have to work with. After that I want to move all the vehicles to a different location where we will build a permanent settlement. Until fuel runs out I can use some of my tools and the metal from some of the vehicles to help in the construction. We may even be able to live in the large trailer."

Margarita wandered around some more and came back to Roger. "Roger what is that smaller brown vehicle on the other side of the large truck you called a Semi?"

Roger walked around the semi and saw a United Parcel Service delivery van hidden back in the woods. He was surprised that he had not seen it before. Roger walked up to the cab and looked in. He felt bad and had a hard time holding his stomach. There was the body of a woman inside. He had not found her because he did not do a good job of surveying the accident scene. Unfortunately in the heat the body was mostly decomposed. The stench was almost unbearable just standing outside the truck. With a sigh of sorrow Roger turned and walked back to his truck. He got his shovel and walked over to the grave site to begin digging another grave. The rest of his group walked over and watched. After he was finished he put on a mask and some gloves. He took a tarp from his truck and walked slowly back to the UPS truck. He carefully pulled the body from the vehicle and put it on the tarp then pulled it to the grave. Before he rolled the woman into the hole that would be her final resting place Roger went through her pockets. He saved what he found including identification.

While he was burying the woman that died in the UPS truck Roger noticed all the women were gone. Bear Stalker stayed at the grave site with Roger. He carried his bow and arrows and kept watch as if he was on guard. When Roger got back to the old brown van he stopped. All the women were busy cleaning the van of the remains of the poor woman who died within. Dawn came to Roger and took the tarp from him. She immediately took it to the stream and began cleaning it. Roger walked over to his truck and added the latest ID to those he collected from the previously buried bodies. He added the latest name to his previously prepared list of bodies he interred.

After the truck was cleaned everyone went back to the fires and began preparing for the meal. Roger and Bear Stalker were relegated to the sidelines while the women scurried around cooking. Roger watched for a moment then had a better idea. He walked to the small vehicle the young family died in and rummaged around in the trunk for a moment. When he returned to the fire he was carrying two cooking pots and a skillet in his hands. He gave them to Margarita. She stared at them for a moment and smiled. She handed them to Sunny and wrapped her arms around Roger. "Oh, thank you. Those are the most beautiful pots. Where did you find them?"

Roger explained they came from one of the vehicles. "Oh they're wonderful. Are there more of them?"

"Not that I know of. Tomorrow I need to begin an inventory of everything contained in the vehicles. Before when I went through them I just listed the larger items. I especially want to look inside the trailer and the large brown truck. I might find more pans or other cooking utensils when I do that."

The next morning Roger finished his breakfast just as the sun was peeking over the treetops. He handed his dishes to Margarita then walked to the Tru Value trailer. He inspected the rear door and saw it was padlocked. He walked back to his truck and obtained a set of cutters then returned to the trailer and cut the lock off the door latch. When he opened the door he stood there and broke out in a large smile. The truck was fully loaded. From the boxes he could see next to the door opening it contained a load of general hardware merchandize. The packing lists he could see on the rear boxes indicated it was destined for a new store that opened just blocks from where he thought he had his accident. Their Grand Opening sale was still going on. He stood and looked at the load trying to decide how to determine what the trailer contained. He knew the bill of lading the driver had inside the truck cab should tell him in general terms but he wanted to see exactly what was in the trailer.

Finally he walked back to his truck and started it. When the engine began running the three women and Bear Stalker backed up to the edge of the clearing and watched. Their expressions showed shock as he moved his truck. He had to back and pull forward several times to get it between the trees. Luckily the forest was very thin this close to the edge of the clearing and he was able to back up to the rear of the trailer. He then stopped the truck and climbed onto the bed. Roger began removing boxes from the trailer and making a record of their contents per the list on the side of the box. Some boxes contained all one item; some were mixed with a paper packing slip attached.

Roger worked for most of the morning and became happier and happier as the day progressed. He had enough material to give his little settlement a wonderful head start. He was only about half way through the trailer and had found a veritable treasure. There were bolts, nuts, washes, nails, screws, tools of every type, some plumbing fixtures, pipe and fittings and many types of hardware. There were even two wood stoves, chain saws, fuel cans, oil, chain, ropes. In short the truck contained a representative sampling of everything you could purchase in a modern hardware store. There were even two large pressure canners and some jars and lids for them. There were not a lot of lids but he thought they might have enough for several years at least. More if he dared try to reuse the flats when they opened the jars the first time they canned.

Roger was ecstatic with his treasure trove. He didn't know whether to use the trailer to store the items it had originally contained or to use it for his residence. None of the items were particularly desirable or easy to steal in this time so he could store them in the cars or even build log structures to store them in. If he used the trailer he could not access the items if and when he needed so he leaned toward building storage buildings. The first thing he decided to do was get out one of the garden tillers, fuel it from one of the car fuel tanks and till up a large plot to plant some of the garden seeds he found inside the trailer.

One argument in favor of using the trailer for a residence was safety. If all the bows and arrows were like the one Bear Stalker used the arrows would not penetrate the metal trailer if they were attacked. Of course if anyone should happen along with a fire arm, even one of the primitive ones that existed in this century there would be a danger it would penetrate the trailer. Another plus was that the trailer would not catch fire as easily as a cabin would. It was completely water tight at least for several years until rust set in also.

As with his truck, when Roger began using the tiller the Indians watched in shock, awe and even a little fear. They were impressed with the speed with which he tilled the garden spot however. The only problem he had was getting the tall grass and weeds cut so they didn't foul the tiller tines. He used one of the weed eaters that was in the hardware trailer for that task. Roger carefully raked the cut grass and piled it as he would for hay. He felt sort of silly doing that because he had no animals to feed but it felt like the right thing to do.

Roger stopped tilling the garden when he estimated there was between two to three acres ready to plant. Roger's only regret was that if he kept using power tools he would use his gasoline at a rapid rate. He decided to get his crop ground tilled first then worry about how little he would use the other engines. He knew fuel would not be stable long so wanted to maximize its useful life without squandering his resources. Roger remembered the Spanish imported horses into Florida with their colonies. Maybe he could go down there and purchase a couple to use as draft animals. He thought he could build a few dirt working tools like a plow and harrow with the metal from the vehicles. He could rig up harness and collars so the horses could pull them.

Roger spent the next three weeks working on his garden, hunting and generally improving his new home site. The three women were excellent help and even Bear Stalker improved enough to be of some help. He did refuse to work in the garden because he felt that was woman's work but he consented to do some of the other work needed to get their new home site set up. He did a lot of the hunting even though his bow and arrow was not as efficient as Roger's fire arms. He kept the small group well fed and they were stockpiling some meat for later.

After the garden was in Roger spent a whole day walking around trying to decide where he was going to place the vehicles and build his buildings. He finally decided on a location near the swiftly running small stream. There was a nice slope there where he could cut out the side of the hill for a basement. He thought he could then build a stone foundation using much of the concrete that was lying around where the vehicles had appeared. He also thought there was enough drop to the stream he could rig up a millrace and waterwheel to power the alternators for power. In the future he thought he even might be able to use the same wheel to power a grist mill. He planned to use the runoff water from his waterwheel to water his crops if the need arose. Some of it would even be used for cooking and so forth so they didn't have to carry it as far.

Roger worked several days getting his machine set up to generate electricity. Roger used one of the chain saws he found in the trailer to cut down some trees for lumber to make a flume. He lined the trench he dug from the stream to the head of the flume with rock and he was set. Roger made a lot of the lumber the old fashioned way—splitting it off by hand. It took an hour or longer to split one board from some of the trees but he was already in the conservation mode for his precious gasoline. He did as much of the work as he could on his whole settlement by hand to conserve fuel.

He took the radiator fan from the Lincoln, straightened the blades somewhat and used it as a water wheel to turn his alternators. The flume directed the water onto the fan. He would need to build a larger water wheel if and when he put in a grist mill. He used one of the large serpentine belts to run three alternators at a time. His contraption looked strange but he managed to keep his batteries charged perfectly. Roger unloaded the trailer and stored the smaller items in the cars. The larger ones went into the UPS truck or were stacked outside under tarps. He hooked up the lights from the front of the Lincoln in the trailer and ran them from batteries charged by the alternators. Roger planned to light the basement he would build at the trailer's permanent location the same way.

Roger and his small group worked from dawn to dusk almost every day for two months setting up the small settlement. Roger carefully cut trees until he had a road he could drive the Semi down. He pulled the trailer to the hillside where he intended to build his home and stopped it. The truck and trailer were about halfway up the little hill and leaned dangerously. Roger carefully lowered the dolly wheels on the trailer and moved the tractor away. He then spent almost two days jacking the trailer up and leveling it.

Roger began digging on the downhill side of the front of the trailer until he had a level place deep enough to build his first support pillar. When he got that done he built the support under the front corner of the trailer then moved to the rear and repeated his work. After he had four supports on the downhill side Roger began digging underneath the trailer until he had four more supports on the rear. Next Roger dug out from under the wheels, removed them and placed supports under the axels. Roger used some flat rocks he found nearby to supplement the concrete from the future when he built his foundation. He did have enough concrete to build his foundation for the trailer but wanted to save it as much as he could for locations where smoothness was important.