“They were in the Carpe Diem house,” James explained. “That’s where they rode out the storm last night.”
“Whoa, Carpe Diem is under water up to the first floor, isn’t it?” Bob asked.
“Yes,” Becky said.
“I’ll bet it was a frightening night.”
“I’ve never been so afraid in my life,” Sarah said.
“We thought we were the only ones out here, until Mr. Laney came over in his boat to get us this morning,” Becky said.
“What in the world were you doing there?”
“We had a gift shop in Mobile, but when everything started going bad, we had to close our shop. Then things got a little dangerous there. My folks have this place down here so we came down, thinking it would be safer,” Becky said.
“Of course, without TV or radio, we had no idea we were coming right into the middle of a hurricane. We got here yesterday morning, the hurricane hit last night,” Sarah added.
“You’re lucky the house didn’t blow away,” Cille said. “So many of them have.”
“Nineteen in The Dunes alone,” James said. “Including Jerry’s house.”
“I’m sorry, Jerry,” Bob said.
“It could’ve been worse,” Jerry said. “Gaye and I could have been in it.”
“I guess that’s right.”
“Wait until you see the front of The Indies condo,” James said. “The entire front wall came down last night. It looks like a giant dollhouse. You can see into every unit in the building.”
“And we’re going to have to live with this a long time,” Bob said. “It’s not like it was with Katrina and Ivan when everyone started rebuilding right away.”
“At least we don’t have to worry about the power coming back,” Jerry said. “Because it never is coming back.”
“I’d love to know what’s going on in the world,” Bob said. “It would be nice if they’ve impeached Ohmshidi. Surely, by now, those idiots in Washington have figured out that this idiot is the one who totally destroyed our economy.”
“We don’t have a government anymore,” Becky said.
“You can say that again. I mean if they are just going to sit by and watch Ohmshidi destroy us without doing a thing to stop him . . .”
“No, I mean seriously. Since the three atom bombs, Ohmshidi has dissolved the government.”
“Three atom bombs? Government dissolved? What are you talking about?” Bob asked.
“And where are you getting all this information?” Jerry added.
“There is a man in Mobile who lives close to us, who has a shortwave radio,” Becky said. “Boston, New York, and, I think Norfolk, were all hit with nuclear bombs.”
“Son of a bitch!” Jerry said. “It’s not enough I’ve lost my house. We’re losing our entire country.”
“Losing our country?” James said. “Sounds to me like we have lost it.”
“Well, there’s one good thing,” Bob said.
“What’s that?”
“It can’t get any worse.”
Despite himself, Jerry laughed. “And that’s a good thing?”
“Any port in a storm.”
“Oh, don’t talk any more about storms,” Becky said. “The one we had last night was enough.”
“Well, we all made it through, so what do you say we have some breakfast?” Jerry suggested.
“Sounds good to me,” Cille said.
“How about biscuits and gravy?” Bob asked.
“Biscuits and gravy? You’ve got biscuits and gravy?” Becky asked. “How? I mean, where did you get it?”
“You just don’t know my talent,” Bob said. “I can make something out of nothing.”
Ellen laughed. “He’s telling you a big one. But he is good at making do. And since nearly every house out here had a well-stocked pantry and there is nobody here anymore, we have sort of inherited it. Flour, cornmeal, canned vegetables, condensed milk, and several canned meat products.”
“What about water?”
“Every house out here has a hot water tank. Some of them have two tanks,” James said. “We’re okay on water for a while.”
“What happens when you run out?”
“As you may have noticed, last night we get a lot of rain. We’ll build a catchment and storage system when we need it.”
A little less than an hour later all eight sat down to a bountiful breakfast of biscuits, gravy, and fried Spam.
“Oh,” Sarah said as she took her first bite. “This is good!”
“Life is good,” Bob said. He chuckled. “Or, at least as good as it can be under the present circumstances.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Although Fort Rucker wasn’t hit with the full force of the hurricane, there were sustained winds of sixty miles per hour as well as torrential rains, and the wind and rain pounded the walls of the hangar throughout the long night. When Jake and the others emerged from the hangar the next morning they were surprised at the amount of damage the storm had done. Because none of the helicopters on the field had been tied down, many of them had been overturned, or pushed into other helicopters nearby.
“I’m glad we found a helicopter when we did,” John said. “Look at that mess. I doubt there is one airframe left that could be used.”
“Yes,” Willie agreed. “It’s a good thing we moved the zero-seven-seventeen inside.”
“The only thing we have left is to connect the servo, right?” Jake asked.
“That’s it.”
“How long will that take?”
“No more than twenty minutes to connect it and bleed it,” John said. “Then it’ll be ready for a test flight.”
“Why test fly it?” Marcus asked. “Let’s just climb on it and go.”
“No,” Jake said. “If this thing is going to fall apart in the air, I’m going to be the only one on board. I won’t do a complete, by-the-book test flight, but I do want to make sure everything is okay before I risk anyone’s life but my own.”
Half an hour later, Karin and Julie pulled on the chain to raise the door as the men pushed the helicopter out of the hangar and onto the tarmac. Although the U-60 is a twin-engine aircraft, they had made the decision to disconnect the left engine from the freewheeling clutch at the transmission. That way they were able to cannibalize it for the other engine. It meant that the helicopter would have less power and would fly slower with less of a payload, but it also meant it would use just over half as much fuel.
“All right, Jake, why don’t you climb in and see what we have?” John said.
“You don’t mind if I do a pre-flight, do you?” Jake asked.
“Have at it,” John said.
Jake did a thorough walk-around inspection, checking all fluid levels, as well as the rotor system for any loose or missing items. He looked at the blades to make certain there was no damage or separation of the laminated surfaces. After that, he started checking for leaks in the engine, transmission, gearboxes for the tail rotor drive train, hydraulics, and blade grips. Everything checked out.
After the walk around, Jake climbed in to the right seat to start his cockpit checks. He put on his SPH4 flight helmet, then plugged in the radio jack. Once he had a good start with the engine and rotor coming up to flight idle
