Down: The Fall

Chapter Ten: The Tinkerer

Two days after the event:

   The farmer worked intently on the piece of metal in his hands. He held it against the grind stone wearing away the metal of the pocketknife blade. The electric motor of the rotary tool whined as he ground down the bottom of the blade. The farmer was making a handle on the blade. He was creating a weapon, a makeshift machete. There weren't any tools for him to forge with. All his smithing equipment was out in the barn by his old stone forge in the back. It was a bit to large for him to handle now anyways.

  When he'd woken up yesterday evening he was quit shocked to find the dead carcass of a very large rat laying in front of him. It seems Tiger had brought him a gift. Unbeknowest to the cat ,it had been a good gift, a warning for the farmer. Life wasn't what it had been and who knew if it would ever be back to normal. New dangers were lurking around every corner now.

  He had fashioned a very crude spear out of a pencil. He had over sharpened it in a pencil sharpener. Then began the search for a safe place to sleep for the night.

  The farmer had spent the night in a decorative bird cage his wife had on an end table by the couch. Tiger had stood or rather layed guard outside the ornamental cage door. The farmer had still barely slept a wink.

  As soon as he'd woken up this morning he began working on a long list of things. He'd compiled a schedule for the day during his long, fearful, and restless night.

The first thing he'd done that morning was go to the guestroom. There the farmer pulled an old toy erector set out of the toy box his wife had kept for when his nephues used to visit. He had pulled out the metal pieces and tools and fasteners. He then made the long journey with a toy skateboard to the houses back laundry room.There he had a small lawnmower battery and some odd end parts in a cardboard box. He loaded them slowly by dragging, pushing, and leveraging everything. Everything was harder than it seemed it should be. After he was done with this first project though maybe things would simplify more.

  After carting it all back he stripped the ladder of a toy firetruck.  He used a broken piece of hacksaw blade to cut it all.

  He then set to work combining them all. After four hours he twisted the last bolt on what looked like a mix between  a fire engine and a crane.He'd made a small vehicle capable of lifting the heavy objects he couldnt and capable of giving him a way up to higher surfaces.

  He'd taken a remote control dump truck and first off cut a hole in the roof. The remote control was fixed in there with zip ties so he could steer from the bed. Then he had taken peices of erector set, pullies, and small metal cord, assembling them to make a crane arm. This was locked onto the hood with more erector set. Then he'd made a retracrable ladder out of pieces from the fire truck and erector set. This was attached to the tailend of the truck. The battery was lifted, by hand cranking the crane attachment, into the bed. Finally he'd constructed a loading rack over top the battery for carrying things.

   Electric motors he'd stripped from other toys and small appliances were used to control and run the crane, ladder, and even the truck it's self. He'd then wired it all into the battery which already had a full charge.

  After constructing this monstrosity the farmer set about the rest of his list. He started with filling up the bathtub with water. Then he used the truck to reach the kitchen counters were he kept his battery charger for all the house hold batteries. He began charging all the double a and triple a batteries. Then came the task of charging the d and c batteries.

  With that done he wheeled the truck to his work bench in the back laundry room. All the while Tiger continuously guarded him following along side the truck. Now he lay ploped on the work bench lazzily watching the farmer work away at his new toy.