Free Lamp Black: Second Edition, Disaster, Preparedness, Survival, Awakening (The Gatekeeper Book 2) by Kenneth Cary

shop because someone accidentally pulled the cord free from the generator, so he purposely anchored it firmly to the side of the shop’s wall.
    He was certain two cords would reach the house, but he wasn’t sure they would reach the well pump in the garage, so he grabbed an extra cord and secured two ends together with zip-ties. Like paracord, zip-ties had a hundred useful purposes, and John had a variety of different lengths and thicknesses, everything from the small and narrow three-inch long zip-ties, to the wide, heavy, twelve-inch long ties. He grabbed a handful of the six-inch long zip-ties from his workbench and stuffed them into his pocket under the coveralls. To finish the connection, John wrapped the extension cord connection with a generous portion of duct tape.
    John had several more extension cords in the garage, so if he needed more he wouldn’t have to return to the shop, but he wouldneed to return to refill the generator, so he also grabbed his spool of 550 cord. Before plugging the extension cord into the generator, John secured a single strand of 550 cord to the four-by-four leg of the work bench, the leg closest to the shop door, and then zip-tied it to the extension cord. Both cords would now serve as a guide line, if and when he needed one. As soon as John plugged the cord into the generator, he put his mask and goggles on, hefted the loop of extension cord onto his shoulder, opened the shop door, and stepped back out into the ash.
    Ash immediately began to accumulate on his goggles. He had forgotten to clean them, and realized that there was a very light breeze in the air. Again he wondered what the weather patterns would be like with the ash; how long it would take for things to return to normal, but he couldn’t worry about it now. He wiped his goggles with a gloved hand and headed toward the house, uncoiling the extension and 550 cord as he walked. His earlier trail was easy enough to find, but it was barely visible through the goggles. The beam of the flashlight reflected off the suspended ash, acting against him to blur his vision, so he reached up and turned it off.
    John made his way back to the side door of the house, and was glad to see that no light escaped through the heavy curtain that covered the window. He knocked the first code and waited. A few seconds later a reply knock was heard. John counted the set amount of seconds and answered with the correct reply knock. Jenna peeked out from behind the window, saw John, and immediately opened the door for him. The lantern on the mudroom bench was the second best welcome he received. Jenna, holding a shotgun at low ready, was the first.
    “Yuuu woot afumm beaeb?”
    “What?” Jenna asked, with a confused grin.
    John lowered the breathing mask and raised his goggles. “I said . . . you look awesome, babe.”
    “You’re just saying that because I’m holding one of your shotguns,” replied Jenna, playfully.
    “You’re right, but you’d look awesome standing there holding a rotten watermelon, too,” replied John, in defense of his innocent appraisal.
    “Will you please come in and shut the door . . . you’re letting ash in.”
    “Actually, I’m just here to drop off this cord. But now that I think about it, I should probably run it in through one of the back windows.”
    “An upstairs window?” asked Jenna.
    “Hmm . . . you’re right. Do you think we can close the back door over the cord?” asked John.
    “I think that would be a better option than a window,” she said.
    “OK, then lock up and I’ll run the cord to the back door. I also have some Christmas lights I want to bring in and string up for interior lighting.”
    “Christmas lights?” asked Jenna, with raised eyebrows.
    “Yeah, they’re LED, which means they’re bright and won’t draw a lot of power. I want to run them through the house so we don’t have to carry lanterns around with us everywhere we go. That means I’ve got to make another trip to the