The Damaged Climate Series (Book 2): Drought Warning by Tate J.R

Author:Tate, J.R. [Tate, J.R.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Post-Apocalyptic | Dystopian
Publisher: J Tate Publications
Published: 2016-10-10T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Steve was excited to get back to Harper Springs. He rigged up a way to drag the wheelbarrow behind the horse and was able to tote the bags of seed and would have to go back to get the plow. He was greeted by Chief Rayburn and two other men.

“What were you able to find?”

“Corn and a little bit of cotton. The cotton isn’t much but I’m more excited about this.” He motioned behind the horse and slid off, helping Mindy down. “Wheelbarrow, seed, and there’s still a few things back at the gin that we can use. There is a really old plow that we can fix up. It’s ancient but hell, to me, it’s like looking at a fancy tractor.”

“I’ll send a couple of my guys to get it.”

“I don’t mind going,” Steve replied.

“You can stay here and take a break. When they get back with the plow, it’s probably best we get started. We’ve wasted several days now and I know you have noticed that the ground is already starting to dry up. The river level is down, which means the lake is soon after.”

Steve nodded. “Yeah. And we don’t really have a way to move water for irrigation.”

“We are trying to come up with a way to make a hydraulic pump that doesn’t use water but without normal supplies, it’s not really working. For the time being, we’ll have to fill buckets up and do it the old-fashioned way. The wheelbarrow you found will come in handy with hauling water back and forth.”

“And where are we getting buckets?” Steve asked. Day to day items were hard to come by now. When he’d come up with an idea on how to do something, the problem was finding supplies to get it made up.

“We found a couple at the firehouse that managed to survive. We can even haul water in the wheelbarrow. It looks like it’ll hold several gallons. Listen, Steve, it isn’t gonna be pretty, but we gotta do what we gotta do. I’ve looked over our food down in the shelter. It’s not looking good. Once that’s gone, that’s it.” Chief Rayburn spread his hands and bit his bottom lip as he looked at the ground. “Corn is a good start. It grows fast but takes a lot of water. That’s the big issue with it.”

Steve ran his boot over the top layer of the dirt. It was dry but the deeper he got, he found moisture. “The topsoil is in bad shape but just a few inches below looks good. Plowing up the wet stuff will help kick start the growth.”

“What about other vegetables? You find anything else?”

“Nothing, but I haven’t really had a chance to explore. We went straight to the gin this morning and found this stuff. Darryl Gibson mentioned volunteer plants he had around his place. If we’re careful, we can transplant them closer to town so we can make sure animals don’t tear into them.”

“Did he say what all would grow out at his place?”

Steve shook his head.

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