LOSS System: Last Store Standing

On the morning of the eighth day, Jack and Megan had just stepped out of the convenience store when they saw Walter approaching with exhaustion written all over his face.

“Jack, there’s something I need to tell you...”

“Not now,” Jack cut him off. “We’re testing the shelter’s cooling system at noon, and we’ll need you there. Go get some rest first. Whatever it is, we can talk after you’ve slept.”

He added, “Make sure Colt gets some rest too.”

Walter hesitated, then nodded.

“All right. I’ll go straight to the shelter at noon.”

After Walter left, Jack and Megan headed to the growing area.

Marg was watering the seedlings. When she saw them, she asked, “You’re up early.”

“We’re going to find Hal and ask what we should do with the seedlings,” Jack said. “Come with us.”

Marg put down the bucket and joined them.

They found Hal near the brick kiln, checking the brick blanks. After hearing why they had come, he left what he was doing and followed them to the growing area.

The potato plants had grown considerably, while the wheat, soybeans, corn, and sorghum had all sprouted. Marg watered them every day, but as the weather grew hotter, some of the seedlings had begun developing curled leaves.

Hal went through the growing area, examining the different crops one by one. He stopped beside a corn seedling, crouched down, and brushed aside the soil around its base.

Once he had finished, Jack asked, “What do you think? Is there any way to save them?”

“We definitely can’t save all of them,” Hal said. “Forget about the potatoes. We can plant more after the heat wave. For the wheat, corn, and the others, we’ll choose the healthiest seedlings. When we dig them up, we’ll keep plenty of soil around the roots, then transplant them into wooden boxes.”

Jack looked over the potato plants. It seemed a shame to abandon them, but he knew Hal was right.

“Will the others survive after we transplant them?” Marg asked.

“As long as we don’t damage the roots, some of them should make it,” Hal said. “Let’s build the boxes and fill them with soil first. Once we decide where to put them at noon, we can dig up the seedlings.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Jack said.

“I’ll help,” Hal added.

They left the seedlings alone for the time being and returned to prepare everything they would need for the transplanting.

At the construction area, the four selected several leftover boards of similar length and thickness.

Hal laid a few of them on the ground, compared their lengths, then glanced toward the growing area.

“They don’t need to be too large. We can plant several seedlings in each box.”

Jack sawed the boards to the lengths Hal indicated, while Hal joined the cut pieces together. Before long, the first wooden box was finished.

After checking it, Hal made several small holes in the bottom.

Jack pointed at them.

“What are those for?”

“Without drainage holes, water will collect inside and the roots will rot,” Hal said. “Cover the holes with a few small pieces of wood. That’ll keep the soil from falling out.”

Jack found some leftover wood, cut it into small pieces, and placed them over the holes.

Hal checked the finished box once more.

“A few more this size should be enough.”

Jack pulled the remaining boards over and continued cutting.

The next boxes came together much faster. By the time all eight were finished, the sun was already high overhead. The PATCs were still running near the construction area, but it was noticeably hotter than it had been that morning.

Hal put down his tools.

“These should be enough.”

They loaded the eight boxes onto a cart and pushed them back to the growing area. Jack and Hal dug up soil from an unused patch along the edge and filled each box.

Just as Jack put down the shovel, he saw Walter and Colt walking from the tent area toward the shelter.

The four washed the soil from their hands and followed them inside.

Walter and Colt checked the wiring one last time. Walter was about to close the main breaker when Jack remembered that several thermometers had arrived with the earlier shipment of camping supplies.

“Wait.”

He hurried back to the convenience store and soon found one.

Since he already had it with him, Jack checked the temperature inside the store first. Once the reading stopped changing, he discovered that the store’s climate control system had been maintaining a steady temperature of twenty-four degrees.

“This climate control system really is something.”

Jack pushed open the glass door and stepped outside with the thermometer.

Scorching air rushed over him. The reading climbed rapidly from twenty-four degrees, passed fifty, and finally stopped at sixty-one.

Jack stared at the number.

The heat wave was still five days away, yet the temperature was already nearly ten degrees higher than usual. If it continued rising at this rate, he couldn’t imagine what the outside world would be like once the heat wave actually arrived.

He headed toward the shelter with the thermometer. As he approached the construction area, the cold air from the four PATCs began cutting through the heat, and the reading started to fall.

By the time it stabilized at forty-four degrees, Jack had reached the shelter.

“It’s already sixty-one degrees outside.”

The others immediately understood the seriousness of the situation. The approaching heat wave might be even worse than they had imagined.

Jack placed the thermometer in the center of the sleeping area. After the reading stabilized, it showed fifty-one degrees.

Walter checked it, then closed the main breaker.

Four PCCUs and three IARUs installed throughout the shelter started one after another. The RHDU and three MEFs came online as well, drawing the hot air out of the building.

Jack stayed beside the thermometer and watched the numbers fall.

After ten minutes, the temperature had dropped to forty-eight degrees. Ten minutes later, it reached forty-five.

Jack carried the thermometer around the sleeping area, then followed the central passageway to the far end of the shelter. The temperature there was one degree higher than in the center of the sleeping area. The area near the washroom and toilet section was about the same.

He returned the thermometer to the center of the sleeping area.

After the equipment had run for another twenty minutes, the temperature dropped to forty-two degrees.

An hour after the test began, the thermometer showed forty degrees.

Jack waited another ten minutes, but the reading remained at roughly forty degrees.

He watched it for a while, then turned to Colt.

“Turn off two of the PATCs and let’s see how high the temperature rises. We can’t keep all four here. The trading post needs them too.”

Colt left the shelter to switch off two of the PATCs.

For the first ten minutes, the reading barely changed. As the cooled area outside gradually shrank, however, the temperature inside the shelter began to rise again.

Forty-one degrees.

Then forty-two.

After another half hour, the reading finally stabilized at forty-four degrees.

“This isn’t good enough,” Jack said. “We need to bring the temperature down further.”

Warren looked up at the exposed roof.

“Looks like we’ll have to install the MCPs after all.”

“How long will that take?” Jack asked.

“The panels and suspension frames are designed to fit together. We should be able to finish installing them today.”

“Let’s wait until tomorrow,” Jack said. “We’ll test it again tonight and see how much difference there is between the daytime and nighttime temperatures. Once the MCPs are installed tomorrow, we’ll run another test.”

He checked the thermometer again.

“We need to keep the temperature below forty degrees during the day and below thirty at night. If we still can’t get it that low, we’ll add more PCCUs.”

With the next round of testing decided, Jack asked Colt to move two PATCs to the new trading post. He then returned to the growing area with Megan, Marg, and Hal.

Marg crouched beside the seedlings and looked over the different crops without touching them.

“It’s too hot right now,” she said. “Let’s wait until sunset before digging them up.”

“Then we’ll wait,” Jack said.

As the sun began to set, the temperature outside finally started to drop.

The four returned to the growing area. Marg carefully went through the wheat, soybeans, corn, and sorghum, selecting the healthiest seedlings.

Following her directions, Jack used a small shovel to loosen the soil around each one, then lifted it out with the soil surrounding its roots still intact.

Marg carefully placed each seedling into one of the wooden boxes and filled the empty space around it with more soil.

It took them quite some time to fill all eight boxes.

Marg brought over a bucket and watered the newly transplanted seedlings. She straightened the ones that had begun to lean, leaving tiny droplets clinging to their leaves.

They loaded the eight boxes back onto the cart and pushed them toward the new trading post.

Colt had already started the two PATCs and placed one on each side of the building. Cold air flowed in through the open entrances, clearing away the heat that had accumulated inside during the day.

Marg placed the boxes near the entrance for the time being. The seedlings wouldn’t be directly exposed to the cold air there, and the evening light could still reach them from outside.

Once the seedlings were settled, Jack looked at the darkening sky and headed back to the shelter.

The equipment inside had been running continuously since the afternoon. When Jack checked the thermometer, it showed a steady thirty-four degrees.

He then carried it outside the area covered by the PATCs.

Although the sun had already set, the heat accumulated during the day had not fully dispersed. The air still carried a noticeable burning heat.

After a while, the thermometer stopped at fifty-three degrees.

Jack walked back into the area covered by the PATCs. The reading slowly fell, eventually reaching thirty-seven degrees.

He returned to the shelter and placed the thermometer in the center of the sleeping area.

More than half an hour passed. The reading continued to fluctuate between thirty-three and thirty-five degrees, never falling below thirty.

Warren came over to check it.

“That’s already a good result. Once the MCPs are installed, we should be able to lower it a little further.”

“It’s still not enough,” Jack said. “We’ve already come this far. We might as well do it properly.”

Warren nodded.

People began entering the shelter one after another and immediately noticed the difference.

Dale stood in the sleeping area for a while.

“I never imagined we’d have a night this cool again.”

“It’s still thirty-four degrees,” Jack said. “That’s nowhere near cool.”

The others were speechless.

“Maybe not to you,” Cass said. “The rest of us aren’t that demanding.”

“Should I remove all the equipment, then?”

“No!” Dale answered at once. “Cass doesn’t know what he’s talking about. My standards are very high.”

Everyone burst out laughing, then began looking around the spacious sleeping area.

Warren watched them for a moment.

“We don’t have to wait until tomorrow,” Warren said. “The MCPs are easy enough to install, and we already have plenty of people here. We can finish tonight.”

Everyone turned to him.

“Let’s put in a little more effort. If we finish the ceiling tonight, everyone can move in and spend the night somewhere cool.”

The thought of moving into the shelter that same night immediately lifted everyone’s spirits.

Nolan, Noah, Aaron, and several other younger workers stayed to help, carrying over the MCPs and their matching suspension frames.

Helen, Grace, Ruth, Edith, and the others returned to the tent area to pack. They gathered the sleeping mats, bedding, clothes, and other belongings they would need, ready to move everything once the ceiling was finished.

The shelter quickly became busy again.

Warren divided the ceiling into sections. Several groups began installing the suspension frames, while the others prepared the MCPs below and passed them up one by one.

Whenever a panel needed to be adjusted along an edge, they marked the required size and handed it to Grant for cutting.

Walter and Colt lowered the lights so they wouldn’t be hidden above the suspended ceiling.

Light-gray MCPs gradually spread across the ceiling, concealing the exposed roof structure and wiring. The once-bare upper section began to look much neater, while the RHDU remained in the space between the roof and the suspended ceiling.

They worked until well past midnight before the final MCP was secured in place.

The younger workers immediately went to help with the move. Tents, sleeping mats, bedding, clothes, and other belongings were carried into the shelter.

Following Warren’s original layout, everyone set up their tents along both sides of the sleeping area, leaving the main passageway open through the center.

By the time the last tent was in place, most of their earlier excitement had given way to exhaustion. After working throughout the day and late into the night, everyone soon crawled into their tents.

“This is amazing!”

No one knew who had shouted it, but laughter immediately spread through the shelter.

Before long, the conversations faded, and everyone gradually fell asleep.

Jack and Megan had already returned to the convenience store while the others were still installing the MCPs.

Neither of them knew that thousands of kilometers away, the expanding heat wave had already swept through several survivor settlements.

Crude tents and makeshift shelters offered no protection against the extreme temperatures. Some people failed to escape in time and never emerged from their shelters again.

The remaining survivors had no choice but to gather what little food and drinking water they had left and abandon the wastelands where they had lived for years. Under the steadily rising temperatures, they continued on foot.

During their journey, some of them remembered a rumor that had spread from another wasteland.

A convenience store had appeared there.

The store supposedly had plenty of food and drinking water. Some even claimed that stones could be exchanged for supplies.

No one knew whether the rumor was true. Nor did anyone know whether they would survive the journey.

But they had nowhere else to go.

Groups of survivors began following the general direction described in the rumor, making their way toward the region where the convenience store stood.

Jack knew nothing about the people heading his way.