47

We got to the out building about five minutes later. They called it a out building which would suggest it was a small building, but really it was the size of a three car garage. Mark had converted one section into a mechanics garage, another section into a work shop and reserved the last section for his generator. It just felt nice to be out of the barn and looking around. I didn't really care what the hell they were doing in there as long as it didn't concern me and numbers. Able didn't say a word to me the whole ride there. He didn't seem to be one of those who liked to talk a lot to me.

As we walked into the building all of Marks guys and one girl were busy doing projects. My truck from the trip out was up on jacks with the front end removed and a couple of men were working to fix what ever damage I did to it. Another group of five were busy in the workshop area and i couldn't tell what they were doing other then welding and cutting and bending things. We walked past them and into the generator area as they were calling it. Here there was about a half a dozen people crawling over the two turbines and one large electric motor we got out of the plant welding things and hooking up wires to boxes. It kind of reminded me of an ant hill. I couldn't make heads or tells of what they were doing.

“Nice to see you again Kyle!” came Mark's voice from behind me.

I turned around to see Mark and another guy standing there with the barrel of weld wire between them. They were both covered in grease, dirt and grim. Marks eyes looked tired. Which didn't surprise me. He left the dinner last night and began work on the generator. His people and him worked on it all night and all day.

“Good to see you to!” I said. “Just came by to see how you were doing?” The last I said like it was a question.

Mark and the other guy set the drum down and he looked at me. “You want to see it work?” He said with a smile a ten year old would give when given a piece of candy.

I was taken aback by this a little and just asked. “Is it up and running?”

“Not quiet yet!” he said with a smile. “It runs fine, but we have to hook it up to the ranch and secure it better to the ground. But Yea! It's running.”

“I didn't believe it either until a few hours ago.” Said the man with him.

I looked over at the ant hill and said “Well! Lets fire it up!”

“Never say fire around here! It makes some of the guys nervous!” Mark said and then smiled and walked past me. “OK guys get down and lets do another test run.”

All the people jumped down from the machine they all had stupid smiles on their faces. Mark stepped up to it. He reached over to a large lever that looked like it came from Frankensteins castle and looked to me. “And they called me mad” and with a slightly crazy laugh pulled the lever down.

At first nothing happened. And then some wheels started to turn and one of the turbines started to move and then the other. A small read out by the lever started to flash numbers going up. I stepped closer and looked at them and then at mark.

“It works?” I said.

“No shit!” Mark said.

“What is this?” I pointed at the reader that said 2300 KW. I remember reading my power bill's and knew my house ran on about 1300 kilowatts a month. . “That only enough to run one small house two at the most?”

Mark looked at it. “Yea! I though that at first and then remembered we had crossed some wires on the reader. Thats not Kilowatts. It's mega watts.”

It took me a little to figure it out but when it dawned on me I just looked slack jawed at Mark.

He smiled. “and its only running at half capacity!” He turned to some of his guys. “lets shut it down and finish up!” he flipped the lever back up to shut it off and then waved me over to the front door so his guys could get back to work.

“How the hell did you do that?” I asked when we got to the door.

“It's been in my head for about ten years now.” he looked back at the machine. “I just never had the resources to build it.”

I just stood there and stared at the thing. It was ugly for sure, but it worked. And it put out a lot of electricity at that.

“We do have a problem though!” Mark brought me back to the real world.

“Whats that?” I asked.

“We can only hook up the parts of the ranch that have power already. We need more high grade wire.” he smiled at me. “Looks like your gonna have to go out again.

“Why Me?” I asked

Mark smiled “Your the supply guy remember. That makes you part of the scavengers as well.”

I looked at the Machine again and to my self I said “Crap!”