6-28-31

Cut and Carry

Dad and I rode snowmobiles toward the outer edge of the abandoned data center some thirty miles from the RV park. The facility was halfway through its construction when the downturn came, and like many large-scale projects across the country, everything was put on hold as sites like these were left abandoned. After riding for nearly an hour and a half I was beat, but we had to keep moving. We reached the outer fence and cut through pulling back the chain link far enough for our vehicles to pass. We rode along the back trails through the trees as the facility slowly came into our view, and it was massive. We positioned the sleds to face the trail for a quick departure, covering them along with the tow sleds with a camouflage tarp. Dad marked its location with an infrared reflector affixed to a nearby tree just in case it’s dark by the time we start heading back. We broke out the snowshoes and headed in on foot, making our way towards the tree line that served as a buffer between the facility and the back of a once thriving residential neighborhood just beyond the sound wall. We stayed low, using fallen trees and the landscape for cover. Looking through my monocular, I searched for signs of trouble, people, pickers, security cameras, aerial drone launch tubes, and walking security robots. Dad looked through his binoculars for the same.

“Looks like the secondary fence has been cut.” I said. “I bet it’s all been picked clean in there by now.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” Dad said, resting his binoculars on his forearm. “Most scavengers are in a rush to get in and get out. They miss the little hidden gems these places can sometimes have.”

“I see cameras.” I said, “But it looks like someone already cut the cabling that leads to them. Someone has been here before.”

“Yeah, there are tool marks on that door.” Dad said, pointing in the general direction. “See the chipped gray paint? The door looks reinforced. Someone was definitely here before.”

As we monitored the facility, a white SUV pulled up into the data center parking lot with a man and a woman inside. They parked and seemed to be arguing about something. The woman gestured with her hands while the man in the driver’s seat remained perfectly still.

“Oh, look at this?” I asked, watching the couple. “Secret rendezvous?”

“Secret something.” Dad said, “Well, he doesn’t look very happy. We’ll have to wait them out.”

I took off my glove to rub my eyes. It was cold out, so I quickly slipped it back on.

“When was the last time you heard from Mom?”

“Last month, she sent me a text to let me know she and “Mitch”, are moving to Da Nang. Apparently they will be running a wellness center there.”

Dad raised his eyebrows and chuckled.

“You really hate that guy, “Mitch”?

“I don’t hate him; your mother and I didn’t work out but, maybe now she can find with him what she never quite had with me. But you know what, I got you Son, and I thank God for that. So, why did you choose to live with me? You could be swimming in the East Vietnam Sea right now instead of freezing your tail off out here in the woods.”

Dad laughed in that way he always does when something troubles him, but he doesn’t want to let it show.

“Mom always seemed like she was searching for something else, something more. If it wasn’t her monthly sabbaticals to California, it was her adventures in South America, while our life was falling to pieces. I just hope one day she finds whatever “it” is.”

Dad nodded in agreement as we continued monitoring the facility. The couple was now making out, and it was clear this was going to take a while. Dad looked at his watch as we waited.

“On the way back, we will probably be riding in the dark at this rate.”

Dad looked over the area, checking out adjacent office buildings and cooling towers. Then he glanced back at the couple who had now laid both of their seats back.

“Oh, that’s just great.” Dad said as the couple vanished from view. “Couldn’t spring for a hotel room?”

I laughed, leaning my back against the fallen tree trunk. Dad turned around and joined me as we sat waiting for them to leave. I took a winter camo tarp from my pack to shield us both from the snowfall. Just me and Dad under a tarp together. It reminded me of those times when he would join me inside my pillow fort when I was a kid. Dad was always willing to take time out of his day to join me in whatever imaginative world I created, even if it was just a pretend zombie survival compound where I was in charge, and he was a loyal member of my imaginary crew. Those were the good days, the very best days. It was another reason why when the judge asked me who I wanted to live with; I chose my father, and I would choose him every time.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my mother; I don’t hate her, nor do I resent her. She’s the woman that gave birth to me, and I am grateful for that, but she is also the woman I spent too many days waving goodbye to at the airport. Too many nights crying over counting the days until she came home. Most of the time though, even when she was home she was absent, and I think Dad felt it too.

“Well, this looks like it’s going to be a while.” Dad said. “Just sit tight; let nature take its course.”

There we waited as the snow came down around us. I took a peek to check on the couple in the SUV, but the front windshield was now covered in snow, we couldn’t see anything. Dad had that look in his eyes, the look I imagine he must have had when he served. The lines on his face told a story, one that I longed to know, but he simply never talked about the war, and I never asked.

“All right,” Dad said, “It looks like if we get up onto that roof there, cross over to the next building, then climb up one more level, we can go in through the building’s roof access. See the rust-colored hatch right there?”

“Yeah, I see it.” I said, checking our surroundings one more time with my monocular.

The snow was really coming down now, covering us both as we waited the couple out. Soon, the SUV engine started and pulled out of the lot.

“They’re gone.” I said, “Looks like nobody else is out here right now. I think we are good to go.”

“Thank God,” Dad said. “I can barely feel my backside. Alright, let’s move out.”

Once inside, it was dark, cold, and huge. The racks seemed to go on forever. Dad cracked a white chemlight as we took a look around. While checking out the facility, we came across a set of cabled racks and partially installed cooling equipment, along with what we came here for; a thick bundle of power cables. Dad pulled out his knife and scraped off the thick outer insulation, exposing the pristine copper beneath.

“Jackpot.” Dad said. “I’ll cut you carry.”

“Got it.” I said as I pulled out the bolt cutters.

Dad and I went to work cutting the cable into manageable lengths. As Dad cut, I pulled and packed the precious cabling into duffel bags to carry out. We worked for nearly two hours cutting, pulling, and packing, while keeping an eye out for the unexpected. Now and then, a gust of wind would blow past outside, and the facility’s doors would move and whistle, causing us both to freeze in place listening for more sounds to come.

“It’s just the wind.” Dad said.

He stepped up the pace. Snip, snip, snip; the satisfying muted sound of our haul as the bags filled with lengths of copper, so much so that I could fit no more. As I took a look around, there was so much more still there, in the racks above and down every other corridor, far more than we could ever carry; we would have to come back. For now, we had quite a haul. Two large bags filled and ready to go along with lengths of cable that draped across my shoulders and around my waist. We put on our snowshoes and headed out closing the outer door behind us. We made our way across the parking lot; it would be dark soon. We stopped at the fallen tree where we took cover to readjust our load. After a moment, we continued past the tree line where our vehicles were stashed. I pulled off the tarp as thick snow fell away.

When I looked at my Dad, he had a green dot on his chest. Before I could say a word, a man and a woman stepped from behind cover. The man was holding a loaded crossbow aimed right at us.

“What you got there in them bags?”

“Nothing that concerns you.” Dad said.

“Looks like copper, quite a haul too, y’all scrapers?”

“We like to call it recycling,” I said, irritated.

“Quiet, Eddie.” Dad said. Holding his hands low between us.

“Why don’t you leave them bags right there and just walk on away.”

“That’s not going to happen.” Dad said. “Now why don’t you put that crossbow down before you get hurt.”

“Before I get hurt?” The man said with a chuckle. “I got you dead to rights old man.”

“What you got is one arrow, one shot, and it’s going to take a hell of a lot more than that to stop me.”

“Tommy,” The woman said. “I don’t like this. Let’s just go, please.”

“God fucking hell, Cindy! Don’t use my name! How many times do I have to tell you!”

“Don’t you yell at me!” she screeched. “You just used my name!”

“Look, just shut it and let me handle this!” Tommy said.

“Handle it? You call this handling it? Easy peasy my ass!”

This is what Dad called amateur hour. Desperate people with no preparation, no surveillance, no planning, and no skill. I suspect it was these two geniuses who tried to breach the facility’s reinforced door. The chipped gray paint, the cut camera cable all of it haphazard and sloppy. Slowly I reached for the snub nosed 38 caliber revolver Dad gave me for self-defense, but Dad shook his head “no”. In a split second Dad drew his pistol, but he did it so fast and so smooth that my mind failed to register it, I had never seen my father move like that before, the fire in his eyes, the position of his body, the look on his face wasn’t anger, it was focus, as he smoothly moved in front of me keeping his pistol flat, steady and trained on the man with the crossbow.

“Drop it!” Dad said in a voice that startled me so much I flinched. “Drop it now and walk away or die where you stand!”

“Tommy for God’s sake please, let’s just go.” Cindy pleaded pulling at his coat. “Sir, we are so sorry.”

“Nah! Nah man, no fucking way!” Tommy said. “That haul belongs to us! We been trying to get into that place for weeks! I sure as hell ain’t walking away now! Not with that much loot on the line.”

“Dad?”

“Don’t move Eddie. Drop it and walk away. Final warning.”

Tommy’s left hand started shaking, but Dads was rock solid. For a moment, it was as if time stopped, like a paused video. That is when Tommy made a mistake. He drew his crossbow tight to his shoulder and brought it level to fire. When he did, Dad fired a single shot, hitting Tommy dead center of mass. He dropped like a rag doll into the snow, triggering the crossbow. The arrow hit Dad in the upper thigh as he stumbled back.

“Ah, fuck!” Dad screamed in pain as I tried as best I could to lower him down onto the seat of his sled.

“Tommy! Tommy!” Cindy exclaimed, shaking as her boyfriend’s breath went ragged.

“Oh god! No! No! No! Tommy!”

The snow around Tommy slowly turned from white to red, steaming as he bled out. He looked at my father, at the sky, then at Cindy.

“That old bastard fucking shot me.”

With those last words, Tommy died then and there. His girlfriend wailed, holding his lifeless body.

“You asshole! You didn’t have to kill him! My Tommy. What am I going to do now! He was all I had in this world. Help me! Somebody please help me!” She shouted between tears, but there was nothing and no one for miles.

“Dad! Dad?

“Med kit, now!” Dad said pointing at our packs.

I took off my gloves. My hands were shaking; salty tears were welling up in my eyes as I wiped them away making the back of my hand ice cold. My heart was pounding in my chest as I ripped the Velcro kit open. My hands shook no matter what I did. Cindy wept uncontrollably, her breathing sounded off. Something was wrong with her. She kept clutching her chest. I tended to my father’s wound his voice from years ago playing over and over in my head.

“Eddie, Eddie!, look at me Son. Breathe, just breathe and remember what I taught you. Focus first. You got this, ok?”

I shook my head and tended to my father’s wound just like he taught me; stabilize the object to minimize movement. Control bleeding, monitor his breathing. I wrapped the arrow and his thigh before using my cutters to snip off the point and the fletching.

“Can you ride?” I asked still shaking as Cindy wept over Tommy’s body.

“No, not with this fucking arrow in me.” Dad said through clenched teeth. “The signal mirror, give it to me.”

Dad used the mirror to inspect my bandaging work.

“That looks good.” Dad said. “Real good now, the woman. Tend to the woman.”

Cindy took out an inhaler and activated it, and although she was still crying, she managed to regain normal breathing on her own. I reached out to her with an offer of help.

“Don’t fucking touch me!” She yelled, recoiling.

“Let us help you.” I asked.

“I grew up in these woods. I don’t need your goddamn help! You have done quite enough already.”

“Eddie, forget about her,” Dad said, “Prep the sleds son, prep the sleds.”

I connected Dads sled skis to the back of mine with a bungee tow line, then packed both bags of copper onto Dad’s seat. I laid him down carefully in the rear tow sled. He sipped water from his canteen, but I could tell he was in serious pain. Cindy managed to bring her SUV up the road adjacent to the trail and had already rolled Tommy’s body into the back of the vehicle, the same white SUV we saw before.

When she gets back to town with a body, there’s going to be cops and questions coming our way. It’s just a matter of time now before this all links back to us, and when it does we, are fucked.

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Episode 1: “Ground Wire”

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