Rise of an Empire

Chapter 5 - An Easier Life

A couple months have passed by pretty quick with the building of Frank’s home, shop, a clinic for Emily to work out of, and a shed for food and supplies. The gathering house had been finished, and things were starting to look up.

“Alright Kevin, during the summer months there’s not much to do in the fields. Just have to go through every once and awhile and check up on the crops.” Anthony said. “So when does the real work come in?” Kevin asked. “The hard work doesn’t come in until the time for the harvest. It’s difficult gathering it up and moving it.” Anthony answered. Just as Kevin was going to speak a voice come from behind them, “We can help with that.” Anthony spun around and was ready to attack the unknown voice. The two men threw their hands up saying “Whoa, hold on a minute there buddy, didn’t mean to scare you!” “We don’t mean you any harm, just thought we’d check things out and say hi.” The taller of the two said. “Okay, hi.” Anthony replied with a smirk. Anthony continued on “So what do you mean you can help?” “We can design something to make harvesting a bit easier.” They answered. “Alright, but what’s the catch, what strings are attached?” Anthony asked. “You help us, we’ll help you. Put a roof over our heads and food in our bellies, that’s it.” They said. “You guys got names?” Anthony asked. “Yep, I’m Edward Cane, and this here is Norton Sheets. We’re a couple engineers, graduated out of Ohio State, Class of 2009.” They replied. Anthony came back “Hum, maybe you guys could give a helping hand. Come on, I’ll introduce you to the guy in charge.”

“James! James!! I swear he’s deaf sometimes.” Anthony shouted ahead with no response. “So this James cat, he’s the head honcho of you little village?” Edward asked. Anthony replied “Yes he is. James, this is Edward Cane and Norton Sheets. Gentlemen, this is James Freely.” “How’s it going? What can we do for you?” I asked as I shook their hands. “Please, you can call me Nort and him, just plain Ed. Well, we would like some food and a place to sleep, and in return, we can help make living in this time a bit easier.” Ed replied. “How do you plan to do that, make everything a bit easier?” I asked. They then explained how they were engineers and gave a full rundown of all their accomplishments and past jobs held. “Alright, you guys got yourself a deal.” I told them, and then turned to Anthony “Get these two set up in the gathering house and show them around a bit.” “Right this way gentleman, I’ll be taking you on a tour of our little place.” Anthony told the engineers.

It was decided that Ed and Nort would share a two bedroom house, and in return they would build a device that could help with the harvest. But in order for this device to work they were going to need horses, and horses weren’t exactly an abundant resource. Ed and Anthony set out on a little trip to the southwest in a search for horses that would last a little under a week. Henry and Nort got together to build a stable for our new horses if we were lucky enough to find a few.

“Henry, this getting up in the morning and hauling buckets of water back and forth between the river and village is going to get old.” Nort said. “Hey, how do you think we feel? We’ve been doing it for months now.” Henry replied. “How far would you say the river is from here?” Nort asked. “I want to say roughly about three hundred or four hundred yards.” Henry answered. “And what about the bank; how strong do you think it is?” Nort returned. “It’s pretty strong. It’s made up of mostly stone and rock.” Henry replied. Nort explained “We could build something that could pump the water for us and move it through pipes to the village. But we’d have to find a pump that could be run by a water driven wheel.” “What do you mean water driven wheel?” Henry asked. “It’s basically a big wooden wheel with paddles on it. When it’s set into moving water vertically, the moving water moves the paddles down stream, thus creating rotation at the center of the wheel.” Nort explained. “Alright I think I know what you’re talking about. And we would just have to connect a shaft from the wheel to the pump we find, run pipes and we be set.” Henry said. “Exactly. We’d have to build a building to support the weight of the wheel and the pump. Also do what we can to keep the pump safe from the elements.” Nort explained. “We’ll wait on Ed and Anthony to get back before we actually start anything. Let’s go explain what we just talked about to James and see what he says.” Henry told him.

Henry and Nort explained the idea they had to bring water to the village a bit easier and I gave them the okay to start working on the plans for it. Once Ed gets back he’s going to look over what they have and add any insight that he may have. “Hey Nort, I’ve got a question. With this new idea to move the water, is there any way that you could possible do indoor plumbing? I just figured I’d ask.” I said to Nort. “It’s possible, but we’d have to have a much larger pump than we planned on.” Nort explained. Henry butted in “What if instead of having the pump moving the water to the village, how about we build a water tower as well. The pump would have to move the water up into the tower but gravity would pull the water to the village. It would make the pumps job a lot easier.” “Yeah that’s a great idea. That would certainly do the job. Of course it will take a bit longer to complete, but it’s worth it. We’ll get right to work on it.” Nort replied.

A few days had past and Nort and Henry had come up with a working set of plans. But there was still no sign of Ed and Anthony; it’s been two days past when they’re supposed to be back. Everyone has been getting worried about the two and wondering if their still okay. If their not back in the next thirty six hours, Henry and I are going to look for them.

“Nort, give me a hand getting this beam up.” I asked. We started early on the stable; it’s about halfway done, just have to put up the support beams and a roof. It’s large enough to handle six horses with a decent size storage room. “I’d say we have this thing done by the end of next week.” Nort said to me. “Be a lot quicker than that if the other two were here. I still want to know what the hell those two are up too and if they’re alright.” I replied.

“James! They’re back!” I heard Brian yell from outside. I ran outside, and seen them just outside the village with five horses. But I only seen Ed, I didn’t see Anthony. One of the horses was hauling what looked like a cart of some sort; I just hoped to god that it wasn’t carrying Anthony’s body. Brian, Nort, Henry, my father, and I rushed out to meet them. Once we reached them, I felt shock and relief come over me all at once. Anthony was in the cart but very much alive. “Shit! Watch those damn bumps Ed!” Anthony exclaimed. Ed apologized. Anthony’s shirt was soaked in blood on the left side but didn’t look like there was any fresh blood. “What happened?” I asked. “Some stupid kids with a shotgun. We were heading our way back on a trail through some woods when we run into these kids. They took a few shots at us, missed with most of them. They managed to kill the sixth horse we had. They must’ve run out of rounds or something, ‘cause after they shot the horse they run off. One of the rounds hit a tree and a few of the BBs bounced off and landed in my side.” Anthony explained. “Get over to the clinic and get it bandaged up properly.” I told him. “Get these horses to the stable, rested and fed.” I instructed Ed and Brian.