Hell's Children: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller by John L. Monk

clamped an adjustable wrench around the hexagonal handle and tugged hard, snapping something inside the keyhole and causing it to turn. Unsurprisingly, the bus didn’t start.
    “It was worth a try,” Jack said, smiling to show how much confidence he had in her.
    Lisa cast him a withering look, got down on her knees, and peered under the dash using Jack’s flashlight. A minute later, she popped off the housing for easier access. She traced wires for the next ten minutes, exposing them in places to test with a voltmeter.
    Jack had always been interested in electronics. He knew the general concepts, Ohms Law and all that, but had never done anything practical with it. Lisa, on the other hand, had built her own radio when she was Mandy’s age. Greg was just as smart, though less competitive, and he tended to follow Jack’s lead on what to do, like with the knife sharpening business. In every way, he and Greg were best friends. Despite that, Jack had always felt closer to Greg’s sister.
    “Be careful,” he said. “Much as you’d enjoy my resuscitation skills … well … actually, go ahead and shock yourself. I could use the practice.” He laughed loudly, broadcasting to the entire world that it was just a harmless joke.
    Lisa looked up and smiled at him, holding his gaze a fraction longer than could be considered harmless at all, causing his pulse to pound in his ears.
    Before embarrassing himself further, he nodded curtly and went outside to see if Pete needed help with anything important.
    Five minutes later, Lisa stomped out of the bus and swore.
    “What’s wrong?” Jack said, appearing by her side as if by magic.
    “The battery’s dead. Too dead. Doesn’t make any sense. It should have at least some charge, but the needle’s totally flat.”
    “Maybe there’s something wrong with the voltmeter,” he said.
    To find out, they went to car and tested it on the battery. It worked fine.
    “How about the one on the bus?” Pete said.
    They went to the back to find out, but the battery wasn’t there. After some searching, they found three batteries in a compartment on the side of the bus.
    “What the hell?” she said, looking at the glowing meter when she checked them. “There’s a charge.”
    For lack of options, they went back around to look at the engine. Lisa was pretty good with electronics, but she didn’t know anything about engines. Jack didn’t either.
    “What about that big red button?” Pete said.
    Sure enough, there was a big red button in the engine compartment. Lisa shrugged, pushed it, then went back to the front.
    “That did it!” she yelled. A minute later, they heard the unmistakable sound of the engine trying and failing to turn over.
    “Let’s start hauling,” Jack said.
    Together, he and Lisa hooked the four batteries to the ones in the bus in parallel using Mandy’s cables. Probably overkill, but it was a big bus with a big engine. The whole time, Pete stared at them from ten feet away, offering helpful comments like “be careful!” and “are you sure about this?” and “you’re gonna get electrocuted!”
    Lisa climbed up to try again. Like last time, they heard the engine turn. This time, it kept turning, and a few seconds later the bus sputtered to life.
    “I’m letting it run a while,” she said and clomped down the steps.
    After about ten minutes, they disconnected the batteries and put them back in the car.
    Pete crossed his arms defiantly. “I don’t know how to drive a bus.”
    “I told you, I got it,” Jack said. “When we’re ready to move out, we’ll put you in one car and Greg in another. Lisa, how much gas do we have?”
    “Tank’s nearly full.”
    Pete said, “You only learned to drive yesterday. You don’t know how to drive busses.”
    “So I’ll figure it out.”
    It took considerably longer to figure out than he wanted. The big problem was learning the air brake system, especially with Lisa offering random advice about all the little