Black Market Merchant

Lisa slid out from under the pipe she had just adjusted. "How about now?"

“That’s seems to have lined up correctly.” A stocky, half bald man called back from under the far end of the same pipe. “Let’s give it another try. Dan, go ahead and turn the dial.”

“Ok.” Dan replied turning the dial.

Lisa and the stocky man, Horace, slid out from under the pipe and were satisfied to hear the soft gurgle of water finally start flowing. They had been working on the water pump house since sunrise. Now that there were far more people living here boiling water on an open flame was going to take far too long.

Luckily, in the pump house they found water filters still sealed in their original packaging and this would insure that getting clean water would be possible. It was now only a matter of getting electricity running to the building and making sure the pipes were not compromised. The electrical lines running to the pump house had been broken long ago, but a simple line splicing fixed that issue. The piping, however, looked like someone had intentionally damaged it and if it weren’t for Horace, Lisa might not have been able to fix them properly.

“Now that’s what I love to hear!” Horace said happily patting the gurgling pipe. “It’s been years since I had last done any pluming work.”

“I am glad you told me that you were once a plumber too.” Lisa remarked. “I had been meaning to work on this project, but I don’t know much about plumbing. Besides, that pipe particularly need a professional to work on it. When I last came in here, I only saw that the paint was peeling off the pipes and a bit of rust. I totally missed the fact the main pipe was knocked out of place.”

Horace knelt back down to one knee and looked at the seal where the pipe met the pump and ran his finger around it observantly. “I hadn’t seen damage that bad before either. How or why, it happened, beats me. I think what we did to it will hold for now, at least until that, Mr. Sellers you said, comes back with the supplies you ordered.”

“Yes, he should be due back soon. Our agreed upon return date is not that far off.” Lisa answered. Lisa then looked over at Dan. “I’m also glad you and Kayla decided to stay here too.”

Dan smiled sheepishly as he brushed his messy ginger colored hair out from his face. “It is the least we could do. Besides neither of us have any family to get back to. We are both orphans.”

“Still. I am glad for the help.” Lisa replied patting him on the shoulder as she passed by to go out of the building. “Come on you guys, lets see if the water is running in the other buildings.”

“I am surprised so many of us stayed here.” Horace commented as they crossed across the parking lot towards the powerhouse building. “I’d have guessed that most of the women would have opted to leave after you mentioned taking on the Mad Dogs and possibly us having them to fight.”

“Hey, don’t underestimate us ladies.” Lisa replied nudging him playfully. “We can fight just as well, yet I must agree to some extent. A lot more stayed than I expected. Of the thirty men only four left with their wives and a few daughters. Then of the ninety-eight women, eighty of them chose to stay. Though the problem is figuring out what to have you all do in the meantime.”

Lisa then looked ahead at Bell explaining how to hold and shoot a gun to several ladies that were crowded around her. Bell had turned out to be quite the troublemaker before being caught by the Raiders. Bell was part of a private security detail that operated in Grand Junction before she was fired due to the company downsizing. She was captured by the Raiders when she was helping migrants on the highway travel eastward to Grand Junction.

“Though right now Bell and you two seem too able to help me out with the immediate issues.” Lisa continued.

“I hope they will be alright out there.” Dan said thoughtfully. “The desert is a harsh place with even harsher people. At least here you are giving us a fighting chance.”

“I think they will be alright.” Lisa replied. “After I told everyone what town we are in the people that left said their towns were only a few days away by foot. If they don’t run into trouble, the water I gave them should last.”

The trio then went inside that powerhouse building and found at least a dozen woman sitting around the room. One of the young lady’s name Yin, a spunky black haired twenty-year-old, jumped up from her plastic chair and came up to Lisa.

“Miss Lisa, what can we do? Bell is helping the ones that want to learn about guns, Zane is with the men and some other ladies on the other side of the river getting firewood, and Sadie, Eva, and Jenifer are with the rest collecting supplies from those storage units.”

“Hmm well, let me think for a moment.” Lisa replied placing her hands on her hips and looking around the room. “Ah, I know. Do you see those two piles of dismantled pieces of equipment by the door going to the dam tunnel and by the far end of the room?”

“I do.” Yin replied nodding vigorously.

“I was you and the others to take all of that stuff, from both piles, down into the tunnel and place it by generator seven.” Lisa then walked over to it and Yin followed closely. Lisa pointed at some of the parts “See those three particular parts? I want you all to be exceptionally careful with them. Not only are they very heavy, but if dropped they will undoubtedly break and hurt you all too. Then once that is done, I need you all to clean out that breakroom over there as best you can. We need to set up a place where we can all eat inside.”

“Alright we can do that!” Yin answered excitedly before waving to the other ladies in the room. “Come on guys. Let’s get to work.”

“Dan and Horace, lets get to the lockers and test out the water flow.” Lisa called out to the two men nearby.

They went into the locker rooms and turned on the showers, water fountain, and sinks. All three locations had water flow, but all the water coming out was rust brown and nasty smelling.

“What do you think the problem is?” Lisa asked agitatedly turning off a sink faucet.

“Well, I would suspect it’s the pipes.” Horace answered as he smelled his wet hand. “They are probably rusted inside, and the smell is likely from the water inside them going bad from stagnation. It’s not the pump’s fault with not filtering out the river water properly. We replaced the filter before coming here.”

“What should we do then?” Dan asked.

“Let’s turn on all the sinks and showers and let them run for a few hours.” Horace replied turning back on the sink Lisa had turned off. “Hopefully that will clear out most of the rust and smell. If the problem continues, then we shouldn’t drink the water. Washing off in it should be ok though.”

Once they turned back on all the sinks and showers, they decided to go back out to the parking lot and see how Bell was fairing. They hadn’t even come out of the powerhouse building when Eva came running up to them. She was breathing a bit labored, and it looked like she had come running here.

“What is wrong?” Lisa asked right away. “Where are the others from the storage units?”

“The others are fine and coming up the hill now.” Eva panted pointing towards the southern entrance. “I just got here ahead of them to tell you the gangsters came back to that unit. We left before they noticed us too. So, everything is alright.”

“I see. What are they doing?” Lisa asked. “Come on over to the dam with me as you explain so we can spy on them from there. Luckily the back of the storage units is visible from there.” Before they left for the dam, Lisa called out to Bell. “Bell, the others are coming towards the southern entrance. They spotted gangsters nearby and I need you to keep watch incase they show up around here.”

“You got it!” Bell called back. Then she and a few other armed ladies hurried towards the southern entrance.

Lisa, Eva, Horace, and Dan then headed for the dam. They crossed halfway before stopping and from here they could barely make out the small figures of the gangsters through the fence as they were moving about the unit. It looked like they had two horse drawn carts this time. The one closest to the unit was empty and they were loading it up with the boxes stored in the unit. The second one was covered up entirely and traveling away from the storage units towards the docks.

“That’s odd.” Lisa murmured aloud to herself. “They just got there and couldn’t have loaded the boxes out that fast. There’s got to be something else inside.”

Then looking ahead of where the second horse drawn cart was headed, Lisa spotted a mid-sized barge was docked not far from where she and the others had fished not long ago. Moments later the cart arrived at this barge and the gangsters revealed what was hidden under the cover. It was all the missing men from the factory!

“What are they doing with them?” Horace inhaled sharply. He then gripped the dam walls edge tightly as he strained to see them better. “They better not be sending them somewhere to be killed. The guards wouldn’t tell us where they were being taken too.”

“I don’t think they would go to the trouble of taking them on a barge out of town to kill them.” Lisa answered. “If they are taking them along with that unit’s cargo and considering that they bought them from the Raiders, I suspect they are going to be sold again. The question is where or why? Weren’t you and the other men the ones that tested positive to the serums?”

“We were the ones that tested positive to the serums. So, are we going to go save them now?” Dan replied.

“I’m not sure.” Lisa answered slowly. “In order to save them we would have to fight the gangsters and we can’t risk getting found out by them now. We should probably let them be.”

“But they are just as important to save as we were.” Horace blurted out. “How can you be so cold?”

“Its not that I’m being cold, but we just go you all free and if they found out I am responsible for your escape then they will attack us here.” Lisa replied. “Do you really want to put everyone at risk again? Think of the ladies that can’t fight. Do you want to gamble their lives too?”

“Er, I guess not.” Horace stammered. “It just doesn’t feel right.”

Just then Bell and two others that Lisa didn’t recognize came across the dam to join them. Bell seemed warry of them and had her rifle at the ready in her hands. However, the two, a man and a woman, didn’t seemed bothered by her actions and confidently approached.

“Lisa, these two say they know you.” Bell called out.

“Oh really?” Lisa remarked raising an eyebrow. Then speaking the duo, she asked, “How do you know of me?”

The man, a pale faced man of average height and build, spoke first. “I am Chandler, and this is my wife, Gloria. You seem to know our son, Tom, and my father. We were told by them that you lived here and might have a ‘job’ for us.”

“Oh, so you two must be Mr. and Mrs. Ulster.” Lisa said excitedly clapping her hands together. “Your timing couldn’t be any better! The very job I want you to do is unfolding right before us.”

“Please, just call me Chandler. The job is underway now?” Chandler asked.

“Yes indeed.” Lisa said pointing to the barge. “That boat will be carrying two items that I want. Firstly, they will have boxes going to Moab City’s Silver District. I want you to smuggle away as much as you can before the boxes get to their destination. The second is the boat is carrying men. I want you to free them if you can, but only after you discover where they are being taken too. If you can get them free, I will pay you double.”

“Hmm, we will see what we can do.” Chandler replied rubbing his chin. “We are not cheap though. Don’t you want to know how much we cost first?”

“Whatever the cost might be will be of no issue.” Lisa replied waving her hand in front of her. “If you can bring back those boxes your payment will be ensured.”

“What if we decided to keep the boxes for ourselves? They seem to be valuable to you.” Gloria spoke up softly.

Lisa smiled broadly. “Because this won’t be a one-time job with me if you are successful. Do the job well and I will hire you again. Look at this as a chance to get job security.”

“Hmm, very well. We will return as soon as the job is over.” Chandler replied giving a slight nod. “You seem to be just as my father described and I can respect his judgement.”

“That’s great to hear, I think.” Lisa answered with a slight laugh. “I wish you all luck and be safe.”