Conflicted Home (The Survivalist Book 9) by A American (learn to read books TXT) 📕

Taylor was busy cutting squash and putting it into jars. She would fill a jar and place it on the table in front of Mel. Mel would then dip a measuring cup into a pot of boiling water and pour it into the jar. Then she’d place the lid and ring on top of the jar and give it a gentle shake to remove air bubbles. Once it was sealed, she would pass it to Bobbie, who was standing in front of the canner. She had a small wind-up timer and was monitoring the cook time of the water bath canner.

It was a smooth process and efficient. As a result, there was a huge amount of vegetables being put away. The dining table, kitchen counter and nearly every other surface were covered with jars. When Danny came up onto the porch, Bobbie looked at him, “We need to find a way to store all this.”

“I’ll figure something out,” he replied.

“Why don’t we just distribute it out between all the houses. It’ll take care of the issue of space as well as not keeping all our eggs in one basket,” Thad said.

“That’s a good idea,” Danny replied. “We’ll know where it is and can always bring it back.”

“I’ll make a list of what goes where. I already have an inventory going,” Kay said. She had a penchant for organization.

“I’ll still build us some shelves here,” Danny said.

“You want to go to the hardware store?” Thad asked. Danny nodded, and Thad said, “Let’s take the little red truck. It’s out front.”

The hardware store was actually the shop behind one of the houses. It was the home of an older man who was found having shot himself in his recliner in the living room. That very pistol was now tucked into Jess’s belt where she sat cutting zucchini. While the house wasn’t fit to go into, the shop was a veritable treasure chest of useful and hard-to-find materials. From fasteners to assorted lumber, the shop was a constant source of supply.

The wipers bumped back and forth in a pathetic attempt at keeping the windshield clear of water. The little truck splashed through the water flowing down the center of the road. Since traffic was now so limited, the frequent summer rains had washed it out considerably. Thad did his best with the tractor to maintain it, but it was still a rough ride.

The truck bounced in a particularly large rut. Thad said, “Soon as this rain stops, I got to get out here and do something about this road!”

Danny was clinging to the oh shit handle and agreed with him. “Good idea, I think. This is getting ridiculous.”

When they got to the paved portion, the ride smoothed out. But they had to make an immediate turn into the driveway of the hardware store. Thad pulled to a stop in front of the large roll-up door. “What are you thinking of for shelves?”

Pulling the hood of his raincoat over his head, Danny replied, “I don’t know. Let’s go see what’s in there.”

Inside the shop was a dry refuge from the unceasing rain outside. Shaking off the water, Danny took his coat off and laid it over the workbench. Thad hadn’t bothered to put one on and was just dealing with the wet. It was dark inside despite the large door being open, and both men put on headlamps.

“Let’s check out the lumber,” Danny said as he moved towards the back of the shop.

“Why don’t we just take these?” Thad asked, pointing at a couple of the black plastic shelving units that can be had from any hardware or big-box store.

Danny shook his head. “I hate those things. They’ll bow with any weight on them. And with the number of jars we’ll be piling on them, they would certainly sag.” Thad nodded in agreement. “But those,” Danny said as he pointed at another set of shelves that were more industrial looking. Like pallet racking from a warehouse, only smaller scale. “Those are perfect.”

Thad ran his hand over the plywood shelf. “Someone put some good wood on these. They’ll hold some weight.”

“Let’s clean these off and take them.”

They worked together to move the material from the shelves they wanted to other available space. Thad was simply moving things in as efficient a manner as possible and piling them on whatever surface was available. But that didn’t sit well with Danny’s OCD tendencies. He started rearranging the material. Sorting it according to type and size wherever possible.

Thad looked at him and laughed, asking, “What are you doing?”

“Just organizing it. That way, if we need to find it later, we can.”

“We know where to find it. In this here building. It ain’t going nowhere.”

Danny picked up a couple peanut butter jars full of screws and replied, “I’m a little more organized than that.”

Thad nodded. “Oh yeah. I think I remember Morgan saying something about you having OCD or something.”

Danny laughed. “It ain’t quite that bad. But you could say I’m the polar opposite of him. His idea of organization is throwing shit in a corner.”

Thad laughed, covering his mouth. “You right about that. He seems to do a lot by the seat of his pants.”

“You got that right.”

Thad picked up a box full of metal framing straps and asked, “Where do you want these?”

They got everything moved and disassembled the shelves they were going to use and carried them out to the truck. It was still raining, and they decided to hang out in the open door for a minute. Thad stretched and wandered back into the bowels of the building, which had not been thoroughly searched yet.

Danny could hear him shuffling around as he looked up into the desolate sky and asked, “What are you doing back there?”

“I found something. Come help me,” Thad replied.

Danny made his way back through the rows of shelves and found Thad stacking boxes of jars. “Look at all these,” he said as he