SurvivorZ: Grave Harbor

27

PAIGE

There was a time when the sight of a dead body hanging in the basement would have given Paige nightmares. Now, all she could think upon encountering the suicide was how convenient it was. Clearing out a new shelter in the dark could have proven disastrous. Finding the home's only occupant dangling by his neck was a gift in comparison. It also saved them the trouble of having to hunt down another zombody for their disguises later.

The smell was something else, though. Despite two showers and Patty washing their clothes, she still couldn't tell if the cadaverous stink was from the corpse or from them.

She tried to focus on other things besides the swinging zombie's stench and his monotonous groans and growls. The device Patty took from Jake's bag helped in that regard.

"Gotta admit," she muttered, "this is pretty sweet."

She adjusted the gooseneck lamp on her workbench for a better view of the machine Patty took from their overnight invaders. It was no wonder Donna hated to part with it. It was made up of components that couldn't have been easy to track down. Though the device itself served a very basic function, cobbling all the pieces together to build a replacement probably amounted to a considerable undertaking these days.

"You know what it does?" Patty looked up from her examination of the map she found in Jake's pack.

"I know it couldn't have been easy to put it together. As for what it does, well..." She waved Patty over for a closer look.

Patty hopped off her nearby stool and joined her. She peered over her shoulder at the exposed device.

"So, this here's the battery pack." Paige tapped the power supply with the end of her screwdriver. "It's rechargeable, connected to a solar panel on the outside of the case. Powering it on activates this timer switch with an adjustable countdown delay. Pretty basic stuff, really."

"Okayyy... So what's the countdown for?" Patty asked. "I mean, all I saw it doing was making this thingie on the back pop out."

"Yeah. See this?" Paige tapped the metal tube positioned at the base of the plunger arm. "That's called a solenoid. My brother and I had one in the remote controlled robot we were building in our garage. When the countdown stops, the device sends a current to it, charging an electromagnetic coil inside, which in turn moves this push rod against the spring-loaded arm, making the plunger fire."

She smiled at Patty. Her good cheer waned at the look of befuddlement on her friend's face.

"It makes the thingie pop out," she summarized dryly.

"Ah!" Patty exclaimed. "Why? What's it do that for?"

"I have absolutely no idea. I'm guessing it probably pushes something on a regular basis. The delay between strokes are too long to make it useful in any kind of engine." Paige contemplated it for a moment. "Maybe it's like Homer's bird."

"Say again?"

"You ever watch The Simpsons?"

"What? No..."

Paige eyed her. Patty shrugged. "Okay, maybe. On occasion."

"You remember the episode where Homer was working from home, and he nearly caused a meltdown when the perpetual motion Dippy Bird he set up at his keyboard tipped over?" Paige asked. "I think this thing is like that. Donna's people might be using it to keep pressing a button of some kind, over and over, every few seconds."

"What kind of button?"

"I'd say a fairly big one, judging by the size of the plunger."

Patty considered the device again. "Do you suppose something might explode, now that they don't have it pushing their button?"