Day 5 4:30 AM
*Bang *Bang *Bang
"Stop the truck!" I shouted to Abigail. The truck stopped. I hopped out and looked in the direction of the port city. Bennie hopped out. "What? What's the matter?" Bennie asked. I looked back at the direction of the border town.
Abigail leaned her upper body out. "What's going on?" she asked. My eyes were drawn to the two singularities that were attracting gravity right now. They were being pressed sensually in the car window. With those pajamas too. Ooohh. "Singularities, I-I mean no," I said startled. I looked at Bennie. "Abandoned but functional," I said while laughing.
"I don't get it." Bennie looked at me confused. Amber set Amy down gently on the passenger seat and got off. She stretched as she was checking to see if her arms and legs were able to do a full range of movement. My gaze followed Abigail while she went back inside the pick-up.
"Remember our last punishment because we got caught sneaking into the town even if it was our workday?" I asked. "What do you mean? We were caught hundreds of times. Get to the point." Bennie exclaimed. "Okay. Okay. Remember what the HR department ordered us when we got caught sneaking out besides getting a pay cut?" I clarified.
"You don't mean that do you?" Bennie exclaimed. "I meant that exactly." I asserted. "What are you talking about?" Amber said as she walked up to us to clarify what was going on.
We both look at her. "But we are not sure it's viable. How long has it been like, 3 months ago? Give or take." Bennie looked back at me and said it in apprehension. "You're right. But hear me out." I said with an intrigue to entice Bennie. "What are the chances that the maintenance crew checked it?" I asked. "Low," Bennie answered back. Amber just listened quietly, knowing now wasn't the time to interject. Abigail finally turned off the engine.
".. and what did HR say to us specifically?" I tried asking Bennie making sure he followed. "We need to shut it down, make sure it won't get tampered with, and grab all the supplies and equipment back to the storage department." Bennie starting to get the picture I was getting at.
" Yeah, and you know what SD said to us before that?" I asked him again. "Heller was a bitch. but I remembered her saying "How the hell should I know? The stuff is already labeled and all I got to do is to make sure they don't catch fire." Bennie fumbled while mimicking a quote-on-quote sign.
"She also said that most of the stuff there was going to be disposed of anyway," I added. "Due to lack of maintenance, damaged or just plain outdated." Bennie continued. "That old hag. Her and her high-pitched grandma's voice. It sticks to you, doesn't it? I hope she survived this shit." I said and offered a silent prayer to the old hag of the storage department.
"Can somebody fill me in?" Amber said with a bit of exasperation. "We know where to go," I said proudly. "Bennie has to drive though," I said as I pointed at him.
A few moments later, Bennie was driving towards the port town. With Amber and Amy on the passenger side, and Abigail and me on the trunk bed. I bet Abigail wanted to sit with Bennie but we got Amy and Amber to think about.
"So what do you mean by going to a mini hydro house?" Amber asked Bennie who was driving. "It's basically a hydroelectric power plant but on a smaller scale," Bennie explained. "So a power station like the mesa but smaller?" Amber clarified. "It's not the correct term but yeah it's close enough," Bennie replied. "So why do you think it's a good idea to go there exactly?" Amber asked.
"We don't," Bennie said with a shrug. "What!?" Amber said exasperated. "Hey don't look at me. You know as well as I do that cities would be hell right now if this was widespread. The army's not gonna help because from what I've seen I'm pretty sure they are trying to get a grip on things. For all we know this came from outside the nation. Like a bio terror-whatchamacall it stuff." Bennie exclaimed.
"You're free to go, ma'am. We are not holding you prisoner. We are just trying to survive until this blows over or if it ever will. But the pickup stays with us." Bennie said coldly. Amy just sat quietly as she looked at Amy. She sighed. "I'm not stupid. I just don't like to leave things to chance." Amber said resigned. "Understandable, all I can say is If things go the way Bennie and I think. We can be secure for a while at least. I'm just thinking about this on the fly but. What if this won't be solved until next year? It's late summer now but winter is going to be difficult if we will be on the move. Also, based on how those bikers behave. In cities, not only the unclean but the survivors too are a threat." Bennie said plainly. Imagining how the definition of hell would be in cities.
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"What can we expect from this place that you called power hydro what now? Not the job description but the general stuff only. What is there exactly?" Amber asked patiently. "I thought I was gonna teach you on how a hydro powerplant works." Bennie chuckled. "That place was the first to be built before the border town and the mesa. It was used as a temporary power supply station to power up essential facilities in the border town before the mesa was built. As you can see the border town was built in the middle of nowhere. Without resources to be mined or spoken of. They just built it smack dab in the middle of the coastal desert. I don't why. That is above my pay grade. I'm just a technician." Bennie said assertively as he saw Amber was gonna ask about the why.
" Anyways," Bennie continued. "This mini hydro-power plant, MHP for short was built to power the administrative building, the lodging, medical and equipment storage respectively. All other places like the temporary bar we had were secondary." Bennie explained while looking at the side mirror. "We were with the first ones to be invited to the border town. The so-called essential personnel. With good money and all the perks that came with it. We didn't even second guess it." Bennie said while shaking his head a bit.
"Long story short, after the main mesa was done and got connected with the border town. The temporary MHP was deemed redundant and only added to maintenance costs. HR apparently doesn't want to waste more money on new personnel and disposal teams, so they decided to just shut the place down and remove all reusable units on it and leave it at that." Bennie added.
"Then what happened?" Amber asked. "Then two idiots decided to make that place a weekend party club for a while. Bringing gals and pals from the border town and mesa workers alike," Bennie said with a smirk. "Let me guess, the management found out?" Amber guessed. "Not exactly, we were found out by the maintenance teams on a Monday when we partied so hard during our day off. We were friends with the security so we got through easily. They got to enjoy those parties too you know. It was gonna get abandoned anyway so yeah." Bennie commented.
"Maintenance crews reported to the HR Department but HR was swamped because of the personnel swap to the main mesa facility and were busy getting things in order," Bennie said while adjusting on his seat. "They didn't want to get it to management or else again they will be swamped with more work so guess who they sent to shut down the place and put every available resource to storage in the mesa facility," Bennie said with a bit of sarcasm. "The two idiots." Amber bellowed in disappointment. "Guilty as charged. I'm sure they did it for payback though. A pay cut and free labor for them." Bennie said while making a goofy salute. "We said to HR that it was done. They didn't even bother to check and the old hag at the storage department didn't care enough for things that were going to be disposed of." Bennie said while smirking.
" You didn't do what I think you did right?" Amber asked exasperatedly. "Yeah, we just shut it down, tripped it off the power grid, covered any equipment and supplies with plastic in the facility there, and left," Bennie said with satisfaction. "Would there be any food supplies there?" Amber asked. "There should be. As it was the first to be used before the mesa there was a permanent lodging there for essential personnel. A basic medical room inside. A simple storage for shipment retrieval from the port city. Richie and I didn't even bother to take anything. It's just a pain in the ass." Bennie said.
"You didn't even get caught? Not even once did HR bother to check. I can't still believe it." Amber clarified. "It was technically an abandoned facility when we disconnected it from the local power grid. Management probably thought that it was done. HR didn't think about it because it wasn't their department to check. Even the maintenance crew thought that the schedule was followed to the date. It's basically a ghost structure the moment it got disconnected." Bennie explained.
"Game face on. I can see the high rises of the port city from here."
Bennie's tone and sudden change in attitude took Amber by surprise and also looked ahead.