2nd Earth: Shortfall by Edward Vought Read Free Book Online Page B

sitting for at least thirty years. Tomorrow we are going to see if we can at least get it to turn over.

5
    In the morning Tim and I don’t even wait to eat before we are outside checking out the truck. It’s a 1969, ¾ ton pickup with a slant six engine and a three speed transmission with the shifting lever on the floor. There is a toolbox behind the seat with a dent puller in it. That is very convenient, I use that to pull the ignition out and I can try to start it with a screw driver, which is also in the toolbox. As expected nothing happens, batteries don’t usually stay charged for twenty or thirty years if they are not being driven. I ask Dayna and her dad if they know of any garages or gas stations in the area. Dayna’s dad, whose name by the way is Tom, says he remembers cars and trucks and knows where we can find what we are looking for. He has been much more active and talkative the past couple of days. That could be because there are a lot of new people around or it could be just one new person, like Billy’s mom.
    We head east for about ten blocks and sure enough there is a car dealership here. There are new pickup trucks in the lot and even on the showroom floor. All those tires are flat as well. We go back into the garage area and here we find tires that are on rims, but not on cars. They are soft, but not totally flat. Luckily this is a dealership for the type of truck we are working on so the rims will probably fit. I check around and find a generator in the shop that we are able to get running and a compressor that is building pressure in no time. We fill the tires full and check them for leaks. We find a small hydraulic jack on wheels so we take that with us as well. I always feel like we are stealing when we take things, I feel like leaving an IOU at least. We get everything back to the home with the help of a couple of grocery carts. We also found a five gallon can and filled it with gas from a tank they have in the garage. The gas in the truck may not be any good and there is a good chance this will not be either, but it is worth a try.
    It takes us a good hour and a lot of laughing to get all four tires changed. They hold air so we are at least halfway there. Since it is a standard we figure we will push it to get it started, but first we have to clear the street of enough debris to get it going in. With that done, I climb in while Billy and Tim push the truck so I can jump start it. It coughs a few times, but doesn’t seem to be firing so we dump some gas right into the carburetor and try again. This time it actually catches and runs until the gas is gone in the carburetor. It takes several tries before we get it to stay running for any time at all. Our family is very impressed with our mechanical prowess and can see the advantage if we can get motorized transportation. Dayna and Charity are as proud of us as they can be. After our efforts to drive the truck we spend some time working out and on our fighting then have a nice celebration meal and either read or work with the others to teach them to read.
    In the morning the truck starts up pretty easily compared to yesterday. We still have to push it, but it at least catches and is pumping gas to the engine. We decide there is no better time than the present to see if it will go far enough to be any good, so we decide to drive to the market we have been going to most recently. On the way we pass a couple of other stores and decide to check the stock rooms to see if anything has been missed. We are pleasantly surprised to find at least two pickup truck loads of canned goods in this markets stock room. I also find an excellent set of knives in the meat department. Just because we have nothing to cut up yet, doesn’t mean we never will have. The truck is working great, it runs a little ragged, but that is probably from condensation in the gas tank. While we are out on our third trip of the day we decide to stop at the gun shop and clean out the