Read Online Fuel (Best Laid Plans Book 1) by Nathan Jones - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Nathan Jones
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getting to it that you just brought up.”
“I'm sure you'd rather have the option of solving those problems later than losing your stuff entirely,” Lewis replied. “I mean if worse came to worst you could always let people in Aspen Hill know it's there, that way if anyone wants to make the trip to go after it at least it'll be a neighbor benefitting rather than some random looter.”
He supposed that made sense. “Okay I'd better get to work. See you in a few days.”
“For 50 miles with a full pack?” his cousin said lightly. “I expect to see you here tomorrow before noon.”
Trev grimaced at his phone after his cousin hung up. He seriously hoped that was a joke, since to go the distance in that time he'd pretty much have to walk nonstop. That would be brutal even without lugging as much as half again his weight in a backpack.
Time to worry about that later, though. He spent a few minutes digging out his spare tarps and the folding camping shovel from his backpack. All bought at Lewis's suggestion, since he wouldn't have even thought of them. Then he set them on top of a pair of buckets and made the first trip down the steep slope to the copse of trees he'd spied earlier. He might not be able to hide his car behind them but he should be able to find a great spot for a cache.
There was one, near the middle of the copse in an ideally sized clearing with trees blocking the view of the outside world in every direction. His first task was to dig down as deep as he planned the hole to be and then wait a bit in order to make sure no groundwater seeped out: caching all his expensive, important stuff in what basically amounted to a well was about the best way he could think of to destroy it.
The water table around here was incredibly low, usually hundreds of feet deep, and it didn't rain too often, but with something this important it was better to be safe than sorry. After he'd dug down about three feet and waited a few minutes, making a trip to the car for another load, he felt the bottom of the hole and satisfied himself that it was bone dry and should stay that way.
He still dug the remainder of the hole with a channel at the bottom, which he filled with most of the smaller and medium sized rocks he dug up to make a drain. The drain was an idea he came up with on the spot, and between it and the tarp he hoped everything would stay dry.
It was hard to guess exactly how big the hole needed to be to fit all the stuff he planned to leave behind, so he went the extra mile and made the hole bigger than he thought he strictly had to. The small shovel wasn't his ideal tool and he spent most of the roughly two hours he spent digging cursing at it, and at the frequent rocks he encountered in this stony soil. At least he had plenty of experience digging, most recently while helping Lewis bury their shelter with the aid of a backhoe and their back muscles, so the job was familiar enough.
Finally he had a hole he liked, or at least one that was good enough after hours of backbreaking work on top of a sleepless night. Trev paused for a meal of jerky and trail mix and drank most of a bottle of water from one of the cases, then extended his break a bit longer as he lined the hole with one of the tarps.
After that it was time for more backbreaking work ferrying everything down the steep slope. He started with the buckets and boxes as a base, then filled up the space on top and around them with plastic bags full of cans and bags of rice and beans. For a bit of added water protection he tightly tied the grocery bags shut before piling them on, leaving enough leeway in the handles so he could still carry them that way later.
Last of all he piled on all the more delicate and valuable stuff he didn't want destroyed inside a sort of nest between the softer bags filled with rice and beans, covered it all with his blankets and winter gear that was too heavy and bulky to take along in his pack, then covered it with a second tarp and
“I'm sure you'd rather have the option of solving those problems later than losing your stuff entirely,” Lewis replied. “I mean if worse came to worst you could always let people in Aspen Hill know it's there, that way if anyone wants to make the trip to go after it at least it'll be a neighbor benefitting rather than some random looter.”
He supposed that made sense. “Okay I'd better get to work. See you in a few days.”
“For 50 miles with a full pack?” his cousin said lightly. “I expect to see you here tomorrow before noon.”
Trev grimaced at his phone after his cousin hung up. He seriously hoped that was a joke, since to go the distance in that time he'd pretty much have to walk nonstop. That would be brutal even without lugging as much as half again his weight in a backpack.
Time to worry about that later, though. He spent a few minutes digging out his spare tarps and the folding camping shovel from his backpack. All bought at Lewis's suggestion, since he wouldn't have even thought of them. Then he set them on top of a pair of buckets and made the first trip down the steep slope to the copse of trees he'd spied earlier. He might not be able to hide his car behind them but he should be able to find a great spot for a cache.
There was one, near the middle of the copse in an ideally sized clearing with trees blocking the view of the outside world in every direction. His first task was to dig down as deep as he planned the hole to be and then wait a bit in order to make sure no groundwater seeped out: caching all his expensive, important stuff in what basically amounted to a well was about the best way he could think of to destroy it.
The water table around here was incredibly low, usually hundreds of feet deep, and it didn't rain too often, but with something this important it was better to be safe than sorry. After he'd dug down about three feet and waited a few minutes, making a trip to the car for another load, he felt the bottom of the hole and satisfied himself that it was bone dry and should stay that way.
He still dug the remainder of the hole with a channel at the bottom, which he filled with most of the smaller and medium sized rocks he dug up to make a drain. The drain was an idea he came up with on the spot, and between it and the tarp he hoped everything would stay dry.
It was hard to guess exactly how big the hole needed to be to fit all the stuff he planned to leave behind, so he went the extra mile and made the hole bigger than he thought he strictly had to. The small shovel wasn't his ideal tool and he spent most of the roughly two hours he spent digging cursing at it, and at the frequent rocks he encountered in this stony soil. At least he had plenty of experience digging, most recently while helping Lewis bury their shelter with the aid of a backhoe and their back muscles, so the job was familiar enough.
Finally he had a hole he liked, or at least one that was good enough after hours of backbreaking work on top of a sleepless night. Trev paused for a meal of jerky and trail mix and drank most of a bottle of water from one of the cases, then extended his break a bit longer as he lined the hole with one of the tarps.
After that it was time for more backbreaking work ferrying everything down the steep slope. He started with the buckets and boxes as a base, then filled up the space on top and around them with plastic bags full of cans and bags of rice and beans. For a bit of added water protection he tightly tied the grocery bags shut before piling them on, leaving enough leeway in the handles so he could still carry them that way later.
Last of all he piled on all the more delicate and valuable stuff he didn't want destroyed inside a sort of nest between the softer bags filled with rice and beans, covered it all with his blankets and winter gear that was too heavy and bulky to take along in his pack, then covered it with a second tarp and
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