Tom took her hand. “Beauty is only skin deep. I was complimenting the beauty of your soul. You’re a good person. You make me better.”
Kate’s heart melted, but she remembered her ribs and changed the topic. “Speaking of grain and chemicals, what about an answer?”
Granny B had walked up behind them. “Stop flirtin’ and give us a report on what ya found.”
Tom’s head shook as he answered. “We obviously need grain. The benzene and methanol could easily fuel a hit and miss engine and maybe our older vehicle engines. I don’t think we’d get much life out of the engines, but there have to be parts in the auto parts stores and junkyards.”
Kate remembered the old vehicles. “I also found a private junkyard between here and the train. It had acres of old vehicles and machinery. We might get some of the old vehicles and farm machinery running. I even saw a couple of old gas tanker trucks. They’re straight trucks, not semis.”
Tom was delighted with the news. “Great! We’ll get the farm trucks ready to haul the grain and get it first. That’ll be a hell of a lot of shoveling.”
Kate smiled. “I’ve worked at my uncle’s and a couple of other farms during the summer to make a little spending money. They had something called an auger that would pick up the grain and deposit it in the truck or silo. I saw a couple of them in that junkyard. Maybe we send Jerry down with a crew to see if he can get one working. That would be a lot faster and wouldn’t kill all you big, strong men.”
Tom thought it was a great idea. “Can you describe the auger to Jerry? I’ll bet it runs off a tractor’s PTO. We’ll probably have to take one of our tractors down to power the thing and then auger the grain. That makes me think about looking for other old school factory and farm equipment. I’d give all the money in my worthless bank account for a couple of huge hit and miss engines.”
Kate laughed. “A few hundred dollars for life-saving equipment would be a bargain.”
Tom shuddered. “Make that $9.75 million in my worthless bank account.”
“Holy crap! How did you get that much dough?” Kate asked.
“Remember back in the spring when a local man won the thirty million dollar lottery? That was me. The joke was on me because I only bought two Jeeps, three farm trucks, and some gold and silver. Oh, and I did buy some survival gear and guns.”
Kate’s eyes popped open. “I’m married to a millionaire who can’t spend his money. As Granny B says – that’s FUBAR!”
“Yep, FUBAR.”
***
Jackie watched as June circled the area around the junkyard. “June, you’re doing great. Move the drone down to street level in front of the large building at the street side of the machinery.”
The drone descended rapidly and flew to the front of the building. A large sign over the door read, “Billing’s Antique Machinery Restoration.”
“We need to get into that building. There could be restored machines on display,” Kate looked at June and then added, “Look, that right side overhead door is open. Fly the drone into the building.”
June moved the small joystick slowly to enter the door. Kate tapped her back. “Turn on the lights. It’s the button above the return to launch site button.”
The lights came on, and the darkness peeled away to reveal a row of farm equipment on the right side and old vehicles on the left. All were in various states of disassembly. June said, “Nothing’s ready to use back here. Look at the front wall.”
The lights shown on a nice showroom with several tractors, a two-ton farm truck, and an enormous hit and miss engine. Kate said, “Tom would give a million dollars for that putt-putt engine.”
June shook her head. “What’s a putt-putt engine?”
Kate said, “That big hit and miss engine with the red flywheel. They were popular around farms over a hundred years ago when there wasn’t electricity or today’s small gas-powered equipment. Most farmers called it a putt-putt engine because that’s what it sounded like when it ran. The flywheel turns slowly compared to modern gas engines. Tom will love this one. That is, if he can load the thing on our flatbed.”
***
The sun rose over the mountains as Tom’s crew arrived at the junkyard. The drone surveillance showed the area to be isolated, with all of the homes within a mile abandoned. Tom chanced the daylight run so Jerry could work on the machinery as fast as possible. Just working on the machinery was dangerous enough without stepping on something in the dark.
Jerry started one of the restored grain trucks parked in front of the restoration shop after apologizing for not thinking about checking the restoration shop out much earlier. “Tom, I bought most of the parts to fix or restore our old vehicles where I worked before the shit hit the fan. This is where I bought those parts. This place is a mechanic’s dream.”
Tom’s crew loaded the hit and miss engine on the grain truck and secured it for the ride back to the ranch. He couldn’t wait to power some shop equipment for Jerry. He found a smaller engine that he wanted to take to the cave. It was on wheels. He hoped to figure out a way to vent the exhaust to the outside.
Jerry then checked out the three augers in the junkyard and found two were operational. He chose the best one and greased all the fittings before running it with the tractor’s power take off (PTO) unit. “This is ready to go. Hey! Tom, there are dozens of machines and vehicles we could use if I can get them running. The
