Chapter 8
"So how do you change into an animal?" Harper asked the following morning.
"I don't really know," Bellamy admitted.
"Well, what were you thinking the first time you did it?"
"I'd just seen a film with a puppy in it and wondered what it would be like to be a dog instead. I was thinking of the shit humans do to each other and wondered if they'd be more likeable to puppies. Next thing I know I'm looking at my quarters from a foot off the ground!" Harper laughed.
"So what happened next?"
"I was looking around, trying to figure out why I was lying down when I turned my head around and saw a tail! Freaked me right out!" Harper was full out laughing now, she was holding her sides because it hurt to laugh. "It's not that funny!" Bellamy said, but he had a grin on his face.
"Yes it is!" Harper gasped out. Bellamy waited until Harper got herself back under control.
"So what did you do?"
"I concentrated on being a human again. It was a relief to find I could go back to myself. I never did anything again for a couple of days and then I got curious to know if I could do it again. I turned into a puppy again. This time, I explored my quarters from that level. I turned back into me and then tried a rat. I liked that one. I could go into places too small for a human. I had the run of the tunnels and maintenance walkways. It was a freeing experience," Bellamy said.
"So you just concentrate on which animal you want to turn into and you do?"
"Yeah." Harper nodded as she concentrated on what animals she'd like to turn into.
"Alright. I'll try a domestic cat, you know, one of those pet ones from before the war." Bellamy nodded and stood back as he watched Harper concentrate. Soon enough there was a silver tabby cat sitting on the sands. He bent down.
"Harper?" he asked. The cat looked at him and then changed back into herself.
"Wow! That was weird!"
"Too weird?"
"NO! It was totally mind-blowing! I love it!" Bellamy smiled. "And I didn't lose my clothes!" Harper said grinning.
"Is that normal?" Bellamy asked.
"Well when I've been turning into something of a different size, I either lose my clothing or rip it. My clothes don't change with me."
"But this time they did," Bellamy mused.
"Maybe my clothing becomes the animal's fur or something," Harper said, shrugging her shoulders. Bellamy nodded and smiled.
"Good. now we have to figure out which animals we've seen enough of to turn into them."
"Like what?"
"I don't know. The only animals I've seen down here are dead and skinned ones the hunters brought back." Harper nodded.
"We need a book of animals or to go and find some."
"How?" Harper thought about it.
"We could ask if Troy could take us back to Tondc to talk to Anya or Indra," Harper offered.
"Yeah, let's go ask before we get roped into something else."
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"Clarke!" Bellamy called.
"Yeah?" she returned.
"Do we have any books with animals in them?"
"I don't know. Why?"
"We don't know enough about animals to know what they look like. If we're going to turn into them, we need to know about them. What they look like, how they move, what they can do like leaping or flying or running, stuff like that."
"Okay, I can see you need that, but I don't know if we have any books here."
"We thought about asking you if Troy could take us back to Tondc to talk to Anya or Indra about them and maybe going to see some. If we can study them, we should be able to turn into them."
"Alright, but that means animals like horses, deer, boar, wolves, panthers or bears. That's not a lot of animals and none of them would be around here."
"I know. Maybe if we find a book, we can find desert animals. Maybe camels or desert foxes or something," Bellamy replied. Clarke nodded.
"Okay. I'll go see if Troy will help you. Go see Idona first. See if there's any books in those cargo places. If not, then he can take you to Tondc - if he wants to. This is not necessary right now so it's up to him." Bellamy and Harper nodded at that caveat. Neither of them wanted to overextend themselves so they could understand Troy not wanting to either.
They set off and walked over to the cargo part of the airport and went to find Idona and any animal books they could find.
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It took three weeks to get everything in place and people moved into Fairsands. Myles had moved to the second level with Drew and Bruno. At first, Myles would light the room for them but after two days, Drew and Bruno decided to get some shovels and dig out at least one window so they had some natural light. They didn't want Myles to overtax himself.
Once everyone was settled in and the rosters were done, Idona and Charlotte had water duty while Drew, Monty, Raven and Brenda were on guard duty and Finn, Miller, Jasper and Atom were on sentry duty for Fairsands.
Idona and her group set off with the containers to get the water for the day. They were filling up the water bottles when Monty called out about people moving towards them. Charlotte looked at them and read their minds.
"They're curious about us but aren't threatening," Charlotte said. Idona nodded and she and Drew moved closer to them and waited.
"Hei," Idona called out to them.
"Who are you?" one of them asked.
"Idona kom Skaikru," she replied.
"Skaikru? The Commander gave you permission to be here?"
"Sha, she said we could make our home here as it is part of her lands and no-one lives here." The man nodded. "Who are you?"
"Arlin kom Sangedakru, Heda of my people." Idona immediately bowed as did everyone with her.
"Welcome, Heda Arlin," Idona said. "Do you need water?"
"Sha." Idona stood aside and let them fill their water containers.
"Wish we had a pond where we come from," another man said.
"Quiet!" Heda Arlin said. "They are being generous in sharing their water with us."
"You're the sand people, right?" Idona said.
"Sha. We don't have many places to get our water from and those we do have, we guard."
"I understand that, Heda. This pond is our only water source as well."
"But you are sharing with us?"
"Only because there are only a few of you. Many more and we would be forced to defend it." Arlin nodded.
"Don't suppose you know a way to stop the sun from taking it, do you?"
"You mean evaporation?" Idona asked.
"What's that?"
"It's when the sun is so hot that the water turns to vapour and rises to the sky where it forms rain clouds. Once the clouds become heavy enough, it rains."
"It doesn't rain on our lands!" another one said.
"The wind moves the clouds around," Idona said. "I don't know why they take water from one place and rain it down on another."
"We need a way to keep the water we have." Idona nodded.
"I know, we can't move far from this source. The Commander hasn't given us permission to use another one."
"Do you know where the next one is?"
"There's one around 7 miles northeast of here," Idona supplied. Heda Arlin pondered on it.
"I think next time, we'll go there for the water and leave yours alone," he said, magnanimously.
"Mochof," Idona said, bowing again.
"Mochof for the water. I would like to be able to come here again, maybe to trade?" Arlin said.
"We don't have much to trade at the moment, I'm afraid," Idona admitted. Heda Arlin nodded.
"We will think about what we could trade and maybe we'll call here again next time I'm going home from seeing the Commander."
"That would be fine, Heda," Idona said. There was no need to make enemies of others, she didn't know if they'd need them for something. They waved as they walked off, back towards the mainland.
"That was weird," Drew said. Idona shrugged.
"At least they are not new enemies."
"Yeah, there is that," Drew said, watching them leave.
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They finished their water run and took it back to Fairsands.
"Who were they?" Atom said.
"Heda Arlin kom Sangedakru, on his way home from seeing the Commander. They needed to stop for water first." Atom nodded.
"Will they keep taking our water?"
"No, I told them where the next one was and they said they'd take their water from there the next time. He also wanted a trade deal but neither of us could think of what we had to trade. He'll be back next time he goes to Polis. Maybe then we can think of what we need from the sand people."
"Hope they'll be peaceful," Atom said.
"They should be, Charlotte was reading their minds and emotions and said they were curious but not belligerent."
"Alright, let's get this water inside," Atom said, moving to help them.
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Idona was thinking about what they could offer the Sangedakru. With their talents there should be something. The problem was water evaporation. To stop that, they'd need a way to keep it cool in the heat of the day. Idona was sitting on the sand and absently moving the sand around with her hand as she thought. She moved some sand and then moved more from the same place only to find there was a slight temperature change. She stopped thinking of the problem and began digging a hole in the sand. The deeper she went, the cooler it became. Maybe if they could bury a tank in the sand with a tap attached so they could get the water. The water should stay cool and the sun wouldn't evaporate it!
Idona went to get a shovel and started digging. She knew from digging out the hotel that the sand would be loose, dry and fall back into any hole they dug. She kept digging, trying to figure out how much sand would have to be moved to keep the sand out of the hole. Maybe she could put boards up to keep the walls upright and the sand back.
Clarke came over and asked what she was doing. Idona explained about the problem with evaporation the Sangedakru were having and the thought she had.
"You think you could build a tank underground, fill it with water and with a tap or pump attached, they could have cold water all the time?"
"Something like that. I want to experiment with one for us first," Idona said. "If I can refine it and figure out how to keep the sand back at first, then we could also have cold water on tap. We'd still have to go fill it up with water from the pond, but it would stay cool, Clarke and no evaporation!"
"Wonder if Raven can sniff out anything to help," Clarke said.
"Like what?"
"Well what about old water pipes? Would there still be water in them?"
"Maybe but if it was standing water, it'd be no good for us. There's all kinds of nasty things that grow in still water. We need flowing water."
"The pond's still, though," Clarke pointed out.
"Not exactly. It get's fed from somewhere. Probably some underground stream and the constant input of water would keep it moving, if only a little. It would be enough to keep things from growing in stagnant water, plus the wind moves it a little as well." Clarke nodded.
"Need help?"
"Maybe tonight. I'll talk to the others about it and see what they think. Maybe one of them can think of things to do."
"Where would you get the metal?"
"I think I need to dig down to some of those planes or vehicles. I can use them to make watertanks. I'll need Raven's help in figuring out the taps or pumps for them, though."
"That's fine," Clarke said and then moved off, leaving Idona to her work and musings.
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"So what's your thinking?" Clarke asked her when everyone was gathered.
"I was thinking that if I can find some metal, I could make us a watertank we could bury under the sand to keep the water cool. We'd still need to fill it up, but if we can get either a tap or a hand pump, we wouldn't need to keep going for more. If we do enough water runs to fill it up, then we only need to do the usual two trips a day." Raven was interested.
"How deep?"
"That's what I was trying to find out today. I dug down several feet, but the sand was still dry down there. If we dug out a deep enough pit to bury it, we'd need to dig it out to at least three times the size we need, otherwise the sand will just trickle back into the hole. I thought about making walls to keep the sand at bay, but I don't know if that's feasible."
"I'd like to experiment with doing that," Finn spoke up. "If I could use a forcefield to keep it at bay, would you still be able to put the tank in?"
"No idea. I think this is one of those things where we just have to try it," Idona said, shrugging her shoulders.
"Alright, how big a tank do we need?" Atom asked. Idona looked at Raven.
"You're the engineer," she said.
"Mechanic," Raven said.
"Whichever, can you calculate the volume we'd need?" Raven looked thoughtful.
"I think so. It's more how much we can store safely. We need the tank built to withstand the weight of the water. The bigger the tank the more reinforcement we'd need."
"Then we need to figure out how big a tank we need," Idona said.
"I'll figure that out tomorrow. You can go and find some metal we can use."
"Good. Did you find any pumps or anything we could use in the cargo stores?"
"None of them, but then again, Megan and I were looking for electronics."
"Jasper and I can return to see if we can find some," Monty piped up.
"Yeah, okay," Clarke said. "See if you can find some pipes as well."
"Will do," Monty said, nodding to her.
"So, I go and find some metal, Raven does those calculations and Monty and Jasper go off to find hand pumps or taps for us. Finn, you want to practise tomorrow?"
"I can do, but it would be better to wait until we know the size and where we're putting it," he said.
"Makes sense," Idona said, nodding.
"Okay, after Raven does those calculations, she can see where would be a good place to put our water tank. Once Idona's made it, Troy can move it to the area and then we get digging. Finn can see if a forcefield would hold the sand back enough for us to dig and place the tank and cover it back up again." They all nodded.
"Alright, let's get to bed and we can figure everything out in the morning." Idona nodded and got up with the rest of them and went to her room. She was sharing with Roma. She walked in and had the room to herself for a while. Roma always went out for a quick fly around in the evenings, checking to see if anyone was near. Bellamy wanted to find a way to turn into a bird and join her. They could share the duties.
Idona sat in a chair and pondered everything they'd already done and what else they could do. If she got the tank right, she could offer that as a trade item to the Sangedakru. What else could they offer other clans? The only thing they had right now was their skills and they had to be careful with them. Using them should be a considered thing and not something they did everyday just because they could. Idona knew how close she was to total collapse when she built the homestead. Other clans might not be so considerate about them and ask them to do things that could kill them. It would be better to find other things they could offer, but right now, they had nothing.
Roma entered the room.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"Nothing, I'm just thinking about what we have that we could use as trade items. I suppose we could make bricks and metal ingots from the things around here and use those to bargain with," Idona said.
"Or we could just ask them what they want," Roma said.
"Maybe, but if they know of our skills, would they want those instead? We all know how much we can be wiped out by overusing them, would the clans insist we only use them to trade with?"
"We'll just say no and ask for something more reasonable," Roma suggested.
"I know. Living on the ground is harder than I thought," Idona said. "Maybe if we lived somewhere with trees and plants, it would be easier."
"Well then, we need to build some plant boxes and find some soil and then plant some food plants and mabe some trees for shade."
"Good idea. We need to know what trees can stand this much heat and sunshine," Idona said, sitting back and putting her feet on her bed, head back.
"If I can find that solar panel place, I hope we can utilise some of them for power."
"Right. There's so much to do and we don't even know what order they need doing!" Idona said, throwing her arms in the air and letting them drop sharply. Roma grinned.
"Whatever we do won't be enough. I think it'll be another three years at least until we're really on our feet here."
"Alright and on that note, I'm going to bed. Maybe I'll be in a better mood in the morning. Goodnight, Roma."
"Night, Idona," Roma said, moving to her own bed and getting changed. It would be a long day tomorrow and they soon fell asleep.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
The next day, Idona was in a much better mood. She had the idea that if the containers in that container yard that Raven had found were good enough, they could fill them with sand and just leave them on the ground somewhere. Once down to the buildings, Idona wanted to see if she could dismantle them for trade goods. She hoped that Fox could make rolls of materials from the clothing or other material goods they found. Those too, could be used for trade or to make more clothing for themselves. The only thing they would have problems with were things like plastics. Neither of them had the ability to mould them.
With her renewed vigour, Idona got up and went to the slit trench before getting some food and water. She went to Clarke and Atom to see if she could go find some metals to work with. They agreed as long as she took a security detail with her and went to the cargo places with Jasper and Monty. There should be planes there she could dismantle - if she could find them. Idona agreed and went to sort out the arrangements for the day.
They got to the cargo place a couple of hours later and Monty and Jasper went to find the handpumps, taps and pipes with Megan and Wells, while Bruno and Drew were Idona's guards. Raven was back at Fairsands trying to figure out how big a tank they needed. Idona stood on the top of the cargo place and looked out across the sands, trying to figure out the best place to find planes or cars.
She was looking south towards the water and saw the passenger part of the airport, or rather, the main passenger part. From the map she'd seen, she thought she was actually across a road from the main part. It was the main cargo part of the entire area, but the plane part was across the road. There must have been a place near those passenger places for cars to park. She couldn't see people walking long distances with baggage to the airport!
Alright, she thought, let's try across the road and dig down and see what there is. She led Drew and Bruno over to the site she wanted to dig down to first. She started digging and soon she hit a roof. She cleared off the sand as much as she could until she found the edge. She continued cleaning the area. It took most of the day to clear the entire edge of the roof. She'd be back the next day to clear some more. If she could get inside from the roof, she hoped to find things they could use, especially metals.
They trudged back to Fairsands and Idona only had enough strength to use the slit trench, eat and drink before collapsing on her bed, asleep before she took her clothes off. Clarke and Roma pulled off her boots and outerwear and put her into bed. Idona didn't even flinch.
"Is she okay?" asked Atom.
"She will be, she dug instead of using her talent. She's just physically exhausted."
"She wouldn't let us help," Bruno said. "We even said one of us would dig and the other would watch, but she said no." Clarke nodded.
"Tomorrow, there will be a group that goes there and digs. Idona can use her talents to get into the building while the others clear the area around it. Don't suppose she said what kind of building it was?"
"No, but she was looking for places people parked their cars," Drew said.
"Alright, tomorrow we send those who are not on watcher duty or fishing duty. I don't want her to burn out." They nodded and made their way to their beds.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
The following day, half of them were back with all the digging tools they had. Idona was told to move aside while four of them dug out the roof until it was all cleared. Idona then made a hole in the roof and looked in. She got out her torch and played it around.
"I think this is an open air car park!" she called back to them. There's loads of sand coming in the sides, but the middle's clear."
"Can you get in?" Atom asked. Idona nodded and carefully climbed down until she hung around six feet off the ground and then dropped. She landed and looked around her.
"Plenty of vehicles here!" she called out.
"Can you make some stairs or a ladder for the rest of us?"
"Yep, on it," she said, moving off to the nearest car and started deconstructing it. She soon moved to the next car and was moulding the stairs for them to come down as well.
When most of them were down, they had a good look around.
"How are we doing this?" Atom asked.
"I'll make some ingots from the metals. Those should be easier to move than large bits of metal. I can do that with any wood I find as well."
"If I find some materials, I can mend them as well," Fox said. Both of them moved off to find and make things they could take back. Idona made fifty metal ingots, each weighing roughly two pounds each. Most of them would be left there and brought back whenever they went back to the airport for anything. Ten of them were taken with them for the tank and if they needed more, Atom said he'd trek back and get some more. Fox had several bolts of cloth. Those were taken back. All they needed now was some sewing supplies to make clothing. They didn't want Fox wearing herself out trying to make clothing for them.
They went back to Fairsands and waited until the following day when Idona and Raven would try to figure out how to build the tank and the best place to put it. It couldn't be too far from Fairsands and it needed to be away from the slit trenches.
Idona wondered if they could bury their slit trench waste in another tank, but that would have to wait until they'd figured out the water tank.
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"Okay, if we build a tank 10 by 10 by maybe 7 or 8 feet high, that should give us plenty of water for a few days," Raven said. Idona paused as she thought about the tank.
"How thick?"
"I'd say around 5 mil, should do it, but if you want to make it a little thicker, I'm okay with that." Idona nodded.
"Where?"
"That's the tricky part. We'd need it deep enough to stay cool AND to make sure that when we do dig out this sand, it doesn't tip over. Now, I've gone over the plans for our new home and if we could dig a hole down to the ground level and set it down there, it would stay stable. We'd have to cover it back up of course, but if we can add piping and a tap or hand pump to it, we could get water from that."
"So where do you recommend?"
"Round the back. There's a small road where cars go to get parked. Get this, they had multi level car parks on hydraulics!"
"Seriously? Could we use them?"
"For what?"
"I can make the metal into ingots and then we could stack them someplace to use for either our use or for trade." Raven pondered whether it would be a good idea and finally nodded.
"Okay, it could give us some more space if we needed it," she agreed. Raven took Idona around to the back of the property and showed her roughly where the car park should have been and how deep it was.
"If we dig that out first, then we know the exact measurements we'd need to place the tank," Idona said, looking at the sand.
"Yep."
"Wanna go get your boyfriend and see if he can push the sand back with a forcefield?" Idona asked Raven with a smile on her face. Raven's lit up too and she went to find Finn. Idona went for shovels and several others to help dig.
"How do you want to do this?" Finn asked. Idona thought about it.
"What if you try to push some sand away using a forcefield? Have you done something like that before?"
"No, but I'll give it a try," he said. Everyone moved out of the way and Idona pointed out where they wanted to dig out first. Finn focused his energies on his talent and started forming a forcefield. When he deemed it big enough, he aimed it towards the sand and started pushing. He found that by aiming shallow, more across the sand than down, it moved the sand layer by layer. Once he'd gone five feet down, Idona stopped him.
"Finn, we'll start digging from here. You rest up. We may need you later." Finn nodded and collapsed the forcefield.
"Go get some food and water and have a nap, Finn. Thanks for your help." Finn nodded, kissed Raven on her cheek and went back inside.
"Alright, if we keep the sand moving southwards, we can store it in a container later," Idona said, grabbing a shovel and starting to dig. "Oh, by the way, this is just a bare frame structure, not one with walls. I don't know if it has a roof or not, but everything will be covered in sand." The others nodded.
Atom and Bruno grabbed shovels and between the three of them, they started digging out the rest of the structure. It wasn't long before they found the top of the structure and there was no roof.
"We'll have to be careful guys, one wrong move and we'll need Clarke out here fast!" Idona warned them.
"Let me see what's under the sand first," Raven said, moving to their side. She scanned under the sand nearest them.
"There's a car there, one there and then nothing until the end one," Raven said, pointing to where they were.
"Alright, Atom, take the end one, Bruno and I will take the other two. Be careful how you remove the sand because once the cars move, the sand around them will too." Both nodded and they began the careful excavation of the sand around the cars.
Once Idona had the roof exposed, she opened a small hole and looked inside before she closed it up again. She continued her careful digging around the vehicle and once she got down to the wheel level, she felt the car start to move. She backed up and watched as the car began to sink a little as sand settled into pockets of air suddenly exposed.
"Alright, we need careful handling of this," she said.
"I can move the car from there and place it on the sands over by the other side of the building," Troy offered.
"Good, do it," Idona said. Troy nodded and mentally picked up the car, slowly raising it so it didn't scatter sand over them and then 'placed' it on the other side of the building, well away from their own dig sites on that side.
Once he had, the sand around the car began to fill in again. Roma took over and Idona stepped back to rest. Bellamy and Jasper were next to dig for the other two.
It took them most of the day to expose the structure down to the second level of three. By then, Idona had an idea of how to keep the sand at bay as they built the tank and got the pipework built for it. The structure was nothing more than a metal framework. If she could use the two end pieces for two sides of the area they wanted to clear, then she could take the struts in the middle and turn them into more sides. She'd fill them in with metal taken from the cars, but she could in theory, build siding for the hole to keep the sand back.
"Troy?" she asked.
"Yeah?" he replied.
"How much weight can you lift?" I know you lifted those ships from the Ark, but were they in gravity when you did, or were they already detached from the Ark and you just took them to Barbados?"
"Freefall first. Why?"
"I was thinking we could find a container at that yard Raven found on the maps and put it into the hole on its side so the doors were at the top and then fill it with sand. Close the doors and you could place it somewhere out of the way. We wouldn't need to empty it, just leave it in the container."
"Yeah, I'd have to practise first. I know I can move an empty one, but I'm not sure about a full one," Troy mused.
"Okay, how heavy were the trees you moved when we first got down?"
"I moved them in one's and two's. They wouldn't be anywhere near the weight of a full container," Troy countered.
"Alright, what about those ships? You had to move them through the atmosphere, into our gravity to get them down." Troy thought about what he'd done.
"They were being steered and their engines were on. I don't honestly know how much of that was me and how much was the pilots," he admitted.
"Bummer," Idona muttered to herself. "Then we'd need to practice," she said. Troy nodded.
"First we need to find the place," he said.
"Go see if Harper can turn into a bird and fly there. Bellamy and Roma and Finn have been busy and need to rest and recuperate before they do anything else." Troy nodded and went off to find Harper.
"The rest of us will go back and get something to eat. Those of us on night duty, we'd better have a nap as well before we go on duty," she said to them. They nodded and they all made their way back inside to rest and sleep where necessary.
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For the next two days they dug down until they reached the ground level. Idona had told Raven her plan to keep the sand back until they needed to bury the tank again and Raven agreed with her. Raven helped to modify the car structure and soon enough they had an area big enough for the tank to be placed. Now they just had to make it. Clarke told Idona that she could turn any metals from the cars into ingots she could use for the tank but only twenty a day. Any more that was needed would be done when they could but Idona was not to overextend herself. Idona agreed.
Harper had watched all the birds they saw from the shoreline and watched some when they landed not far from them. She studied them for two days before she tried it for herself. She turned into a seagull and started flapping her wings in preparation for taking flight. She launched herself into the air with a squawk. She flew high enough to see a large amount of the land around the hotel and then moved off to the northwest to find the container yard. She found it and landed and then turned back into herself.
She made contact with Charlotte who looped Troy into it and then Troy transported himself to her position.
Troy looked around him and marked certain parts for landmarks and then he picked Harper the cat up and transported them back. He put her down and she changed.
"Did you see anything from the air we could use?" he asked.
"Yeah, there's a lot of those containers in different sizes towards the north of the area, plenty more to the south and some near the water's edge. Not sure how big they are, but there are definitely some there. We just have to check them out for holes and stuff."
"Great! Once Idona's got that tank built, we can go find some containers and see if I can move them."
"You know, maybe we could find a small container and use that as a tank. All Idona would have to do was make sure it was watertight and fit the pipes and handpumps," Harper said.
"Brilliant!" Troy said, grabbing her hand and dragging her towards Raven and Idona. "Come on! Let's go tell them your idea!" Harper smiled at his enthusiasm.
"Hey guys? Harper had an idea that could save you time and effort, Idona." Idona turned around.
"What?"
"If we could find a small container, could you modify that into a water tank? It would save building one from scratch. You'd need to make sure it's watertight and fit the pipes and stuff, but wouldn't that be better?" Idona's eyebrows rose as she turned to Raven. Raven nodded.
"We can go see if there's any of the right size," Raven said.
"Alright, we run this past Clarke and Atom and if they say yes, we go look for one." All of them nodded and set off to find their other leaders.
With permission granted, Troy took them to the container yard. It took them only a few minutes to find small containers but Raven said they were not big enough.
"Can we make one out of two?" Harper asked. Raven and Idona looked one over.
"It may be better to find a twenty foot long container instead," Idona said. We don't need to fill it with water, just enough for us and some spare. If they're roughly the same dimensions with only the length as the difference, the twenty foot one would be bigger. Maybe the ten footer could be used for the nomads," Idona continued.
"Alright, let's look for one," Raven said. They moved on to the next stack and found some. Several of them had too many holes in them and some were dented quite badly ,probably from being battered by flying debris.
"This one!" Idona said. They went to see it.
"What needs to be done to make it waterproof?"
"I can meld the metal doors to the structure to make it watertight."
"Is that all you need to do?" Troy asked.
"No, I need to make sure that each inch of it is structurally sound enough to take the weight of the water and the sand we pile on top of it. We need to make sure that there's nothing left in there that could rot or contaminate the water."
"Like what?"
"Wood, oil, other spilled liquids, animal droppings, even fluff if there's enough of it!" Harper made a face of disgust.
"Are we taking this back with us?" Raven asked.
"Yeah, we can do the cleanout near the ocean."
"Why?"
"I'm not using more than we have to of our precious water supply," Idona said. "We can scrub down with sea water and then rinse with freshwater." They nodded in understanding.
"Alright, everyone hold on to the container and I'll take us back," Troy said.
He placed the container down on the oceanfront and they all trudged back to Fairsands for a rest.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Clarke led Idona, Raven, Troy, Drew, Sterling and Jasper back to the container and started cleaning it out with some of the cleaning supplies they'd already found. Drew started a fire when Clarke asked him to warm some water up for them to use. They all scrubbed the insides of the container down. Luckily, there was no wood or animal dropping in it, the container doors had stayed closed for the entire time since the war. A few dust and sand particales had crept in though, and these they cleared out and scrubbed down the walls and ceiling and the floor.
Clarke then asked Drew to make some of the water boil. It would be used to steralise the inside before Idona began the task of making it watertight. It took them several hours of hard work to get the entire container cleaned out the best they could. Idona then made it watertight and they left it on the waterfront and trudged back to their home to eat, drink and sleep for the rest of the day.
The following day, Troy placed the tank into the hole dug for it and then they leveled it off using the spirit level they'd found. Once it was all level, Idona attached some pipes to the tank and sank them deep enough so that they sat only an inch or so from the bottom. They'd be able to bring up most of the water but leave any crap that seeped into it on the bottom where it would sink. Raven helped attach the hand pump and the refill pipe with a lid before they buried the tank, leaving only the hand pump and refill pipe sticking up out of the ground. After that it was a non-stop trip to the watering hole to get enough water to fill it. Raven advised they leave it a day before they used it to let any sediment sink to the bottom.
The following day, they gathered around, wanting to check if the water was indeed cold. Raven pumped the first load up into a bucket and they all dipped their hands in to feel the coldness of it and then scooped up a handful each to taste.
"Hoo, yeah!" Jasper said.
"That's cold and very, very nice!" Octavia said. Everyone was pleased that they could now have continual cold water on tap. They all relaxed just that little bit more now they had a supply of water for a few days.