Chapter Forty-Five - Toaster

Maple stared up at her Big Sister from the seat she’d found in the corner of the bunker. It was far enough from everything else that she was left more or less alone. It was nice to be quiet sometimes.

“Okay, girls,” Big Sister said. “Sam and I will be heading out. In a minute or two, Alea Iacta will be coming around to pick you up and bab-- I mean... watch over you. You’ll probably be heading back to the train. So please behave and try to stay out of trouble. If you do... then I’ll pick up something nice to eat on the way back.”

“Burgers!” Teddy cheered.

“Burgers! Burgers!” Trinity joined in. Soon, Teddy and all of Trinity were dancing in a circle in the middle of the room, singing about burgers. Or just singing the word burger over and over again.

Maple sat back and hoped her sisters didn’t notice her not joining in on the dance. She’d never had a burger before, and now she wasn’t sure she wanted to. Would it make her dance like that? It was embarrassing!

“Don’t worry,” Athena murmured as she came to stand next to Maple. “Big Sis will tell the idiots off soon enough.”

Maple nodded. Athena was probably right. From what Maple could tell, Athena was one of her smartest sisters. And she was quiet too. Or at least quieter.

“Alright, alright,” Big Sister said. “Enough with the chanting. It’s actually kind of creepy. You’ll get your burgers--” she paused to let the cheering die down--”If you behave.”

Big Sister and minion Sam left shortly afterwards. For some reason that Maple couldn’t understand, Big Sister had a sweater on with some cloth stuffed under it and Sam had put some make up on her face which made her look a little weird.

After they left, Maple’s other sisters milled around the bunker for a bit. Trinity ran all over the place all at once to see what she could find, and Teddy went to one of the bunk rooms for a nap.

Maple hesitated, hands gripping onto each other because she didn’t know what else to do with them.

“Hey,” Athena said. “Want to walk around? Just check things out?”

Maple glanced up and met Athena’s big eyes for just a moment. “Okay,” she said.

Athena grinned and grabbed Maple’s hand. Maple was dragged across the bunker, and got to explore every room. It was nice. She wanted to explore too, but doing it all on her own, while in a place that wasn’t home felt a little strange.

Eventually the door to the stairwell leading down clunked open and a man stumbled through. He was about as old as Big Sister. A tall boy with lanky features and a bit of patchy stubble on his cheeks and jaw. “Hey girls,” he said. “Sorry for being late. I left, forgot to bring a flashlight, then tripped over something in the tunnels.” He raised a light. “Turns out someone lost theirs though, so it wasn’t a big deal. Anyway, the Boss said I had to babysit and... wait, are there more of you?”

He stared right at Maple, who froze up at the sudden attention. Her tail flap-flapped against the back of her legs with nervous energy. “Hi?”

“Where is she finding all of these preteen disasters?” the boy muttered.

“Don’t be mean, Alea Iacta,” Athena said. “This is my sister Maple, and I like her more than I like you. If you hurt her feelings I’ll make your brain melt out of your nose.”

“What does brain taste like?” Trinity asked.

“Bet his doesn’t taste all that smart,” Teddy added.

Maple blushed. Her sisters were coming to her defence. It made her tummy feel warm and fuzzy.

Alea Iacta backed off. “Alright, alright. And here I thought I was lucky. Come on, let’s head back over to the train. I bet you bunch are hungry.”

“How’d you know?” Trinity asked.

“Because you’re children, and children are always hungry. Come on, I’ve got a few family-sized bags of chips on the train.”

“Do you have candy?” Athena asked.

Alea Iacta shook his head. “No, sorry?”

“Good,” Athena said. “Big Sis told us to run from anyone that offered us free candy.”

Maple’s other sisters nodded. She made note of that fact. She had a lot of catching up to do. Speaking of which... she jogged to catch up to her sisters who filed after the strange boy and out of the bunker.

They entered a big, dark tunnel. Maple felt like maybe she should have been worried, but in reality she felt rather comfortable in the tunnel. It was underground, it was made of thick walls and dirt. It felt safe and right to be down there.

Eventually, after a long walk that was only lit up by the few flashlights Trinity had on her, they made it to a big train that was just sitting in the middle of the tunnel.

Everyone filed to the rear, then climbed aboard the rearmost train car. Maple took a while to climb in, her eyes were wide and she was taking everything in. There was so much stuff! It was clear that Alea Iacta had been living in the train car for a while. Some bunks had been folded up, and a TV was set against one wall with a video game console under it. “Found this in the trash,” Alea Iacta said. “Only have a few games for it, but they all work. Any of you know how to play?”

Trinity and Teddy fought over the second controller, then Athena swooped in and stole it. They arranged a schedule of sorts to see who would play while another Trinity ran to the front to get the goods. When that Trinity returned, arms full with three whole family-sized chip bags, she stopped by Maple. “Hey, did you want to play too?”

“Um, no, I can just watch, “Maple said.

Trinity tilted her head to the side, her little ears wiggling. “Well, if you want something to do, there’s a toaster in the kitchen that don’t work good.”

Maple cheered up. She could do something about that. “Oh, okay!”

It took a bit to build up the bravery to leave her sisters, but eventually she made her way to the front of the train and stopped by a small kitchen area. There were a few appliances around, including a toaster that was unplugged.

Maple picked it up and turned it this way and that. The wire was frayed near the base, and after popping the side open, she noticed that one of the elements wasn’t plugged in properly. Had the weld holding it in place snapped with the change in temperature?

She looked around for tools and found a few odds and ends in some of the cupboards. Then she ended up near the front of the train, where there was a big table she could work on. It was perfect!

She started to scrounge for parts. The coffee machine had an element. And there was a clock in one of the bedrooms. That could come in handy. She found some springs in one of the mattresses, big bouncy ones. Yes, those were nice.

Maple smiled and hummed a happy tune to herself as she fixed the toaster.

The heating elements from the coffee maker weren’t enough. She needed more oomph. Maybe... Yes, the lights were incandescent.

But then, where would the toaster get power? She found some batteries, big D-cell ones, but they weren’t enough, even when loaded in in-sequence. Having to plug it into the wall was too much.

Fortunately, there was a generator at the back of the train. But her sisters were using that... no, she needed something else.

In the end, she found some copper and started wrapping it around the batteries, then she found a hand-crank which had a handy handle on it.

Maple was floating along in a happy haze as she fixed the toaster.

Then Big Sister returned. “I’m back!” she said over the sound of people exploding in the game the others were playing.

Maple blinked, snapping back to the moment.

On the table was the toaster, as well as a dozen other appliances she’d taken apart.

She could barely hear her sisters cheering as what she’d done dawned on her.

The toaster now had a hand-crank on the side that would charge a solenoid with just a few spins. That, in turn, would feed the rail-gun barrel set next to the bread-toasting elements. There wasn’t a trigger, but the little clamp that had been on the front of the toaster was there. The digital clock now worked as a timer to tell the person using the toaster how long they had before the toast fired.

How quickly would the toast move? Mach one? Two?

“Maple?” Big sister asked as she entered the room.

Maple grabbed the toaster and tried to hide it, but it was longer than she was tall.

Her eyes watered. “Big... big sister. I’m sorry. I made a mistake,” she said.

***