Barry leaned in and let the man know they had arrived at the ironworks shop and with any luck would soon link up with the teen and two women. John redirected their route so they arrived by way of the rear, like Devon had showed them into the shop. They crawled under the fence, replaced the dirt-covered board, and moved to the rear door of the shop. Jared grabbed the wire and pulled, causing the door to open. He didn’t lean his head in, but gave a low cheery whistle to let Devon know they were back.
The last thing anyone needed was a .22-caliber bullet bouncing around inside him. Due to the sudden departure of modern medicine, this could very easily mean death to the unfortunate soul who’d been shot.
John nudged Jared out of the way. “Lucy, I’m home,” John chortled in his best but possibly the worst imitation of Ricky Ricardo Jared ever heard.
Jared frowned and shook his head at the terrible attempt at impersonation, which John ignored, pushing his way inside, gun leveled in case there was trouble. As Jared followed John inside, they heard a light tap above their heads. Both men jerked their eyes skyward and saw Devon perched on a rafter nearly twenty feet above their heads.
“I think you’ve eaten one too many squirrels, kid,” John said. “Come on down, and where are the ladies?”
The door to a giant tool locker pushed open, and both women stepped out with looks of relief on their faces. Jared could only imagine what they’d been through since he’d last seen the two. They were prisoners, rescued, and then left with a teenager as their protector. This was probably not the best way to go about things, but in their current situation, people were being forced to deal with and move on from things that in the past would have constituted dozens of sessions with a therapist. Now there was not only a shortage of therapists, but people had things that absolutely must be done to ensure their survival, leaving little to no time for lamenting bad experiences.
Jared smiled at the women in hopes they would appreciate the fact he and John came back and that everyone was alive and seemingly in good health. The women instead looked nervously at Dwight, which amused Jared since Dwight, even to Jared, seemed as harmless as the women did. Sure, the man was armed, but he was not truly trained in any sense of the meaning, and Dwight was grossly out of shape, which became evident when the four of them were forced to delay their trip a day and a half.
Devon climbed down from his perch as the women were introduced to Dwight. Once Stephani and Claire saw Dwight was not a threat and seemingly part of John and Jared’s team, the two women relaxed slightly. Stephani and Claire had survived on the food left by the three men, refusing to eat the rats and squirrels Devon hunted for them. The two parties caught each other up on what had transpired during their time apart, which amounted to very little in regard to the women and Devon. The teen had hunted while the women remained hidden in the shop for the majority of the time Jared and company were gone.
“Now what?” Stephani asked, her voice heavy with nervous energy.
“Good question,” John said, twisting his mouth to one side and scratching his chin. “We had planned on coming down and getting Dwight so we could grab a Tesla car battery and see if it would work as power storage for a solar setup. We didn’t plan on three more people being part of that operation.”
“Why wouldn’t you just use a Tesla Powerwall? They’re designed for that,” Devon murmured, his head lowered, eyes turned slightly up, making minimal eye contact with John.
Every head in the shop turned to him in amazement.
Dwight and Barry turned to each other; their lips parted for the briefest of moments.
“We need to find a Tesla dealership,” Barry snapped.
“They don’t have them,” Devon said flatly, his eyes now locked on Barry’s.
“Who does?” Jared questioned incredulously. “And how do you know about this?”
“I did a paper in school on clean energy, and it was something I researched,” Devon said, shrugging his thin shoulders.
“Tell us more about your paper,” Barry prodded.
“Tesla sells the cars, not the Powerwall units. Solar companies sell the Powerwall units as a package along with a solar array—you know, the panels?” Devon said, not knowing if the men understood what he was talking about. Dwight, Barry, and Jared understood completely.
“And do you know where any of these companies are located?” John asked as Devon finished.
Devon shook his head. When the group looked exasperated, like he’d wasted their time by speaking up, he hurriedly added, “I actually got a tour of the company. I just don’t know the address, but I know the name, so if we can find a phone book—” Again he shrugged, looking embarrassed.
“Well,” chirped John, “if there was any doubt about how fucked we were before, I think the fact that our little scavenger hunt includes a phone book pretty much confirms it.”
Wanting to stay focused, Jared interjected, “Where would we find a phone book in San Jose?”
“Train stations, some public spots like a jail or city building may have one. If that doesn’t pan out, then I’d say older folks’ homes. Not everyone from the older generation embraced technology like people born in the eighties and nineties,”
