The Infected by Gregg Cocking

complex. When the phone clicked and the engaged tone alternated with the howling dog, I had my answer.
     
    Now what the fuck was that? A call from Lil’s phone at four in the morning? Weird... And here’s the thing – she can’t get signal from the game reserve. So that must mean that she or whoever dialled my number is in cellular range, which means that the phone is at least in Hoedspruit (a small town which is your first stop when you make your way from the game reserve back to ‘civilisation’). But if it was her, why didn’t she speak? Was it just her way of saying hi and letting me know that she is okay? I guess that you are probably wondering whether I called back? I didn’t. What if it was her saying ‘hi’ the only way she could without letting the infected know that she was there by talking? And what if I called and gave her away and alerted them to her presence? But now you are probably thinking, then why didn’t she just sms her. And I can’t answer you there… to be honest, it didn’t even cross my mind.
     
    Enough of that, I’m getting emotional again. Let’s get onto how it can be that I am online when there is no power.
     
    The simple answer is solar power. The long answer is, well, long.
     
    I used a 12V DC-DC converter designed to run a laptop off a car's lighter socket (it was in the box for the Macbook that I stole/borrowed). Then through some research that I came across in an old copy of Popular Mechanics on sustainable energy, I found out that 12V is a major standard, and the majority of solar panels and off-the-shelf solutions are designed either to charge 12V lead-acid batteries, or for a 12V system, which means once a laptop looks like a lead-acid battery, it will work with most solar panels as-is, no DIY electronics required. All very confusing, but this meant that all I needed was solar panels... but more of that later. Solar power voltage is hugely variable (clouds passing over sun, angle in sky, etc., etc.,), so I let the DC-DC converter deal with that. I have permanently mounted the panels to my balcony wall – it gets sun about 80% of the day. What is a bonus is that if I connect my phone to the laptop via USB, it charges! Brilliant! The charge doesn’t last long on the laptop then, but once fully charged the phone should last me a couple of days.
     
    Okay, so how did I manage to hook all of this up then? Well, remember Flat 31? The guy with all the electrical stuff? Barry? Well, after lying around for a day feeling sorry for myself, I suddenly realised that I had to do something, either I would die of boredom, or, worse, die of being killed by the infected. So I planned another raid.
     
    The next day at midday I did my checks and saw that the coast was clear. I made my way down to Barry’s place wielding a big empty bag, my nail gun for protection and my screwdriver to gain entry. Once in and having caught my breath back from the 100m dash (seriously, if the streets weren’t filled with people out to kill me, I may have considered starting to run just to try and get some semblance of fitness back), I went straight for the cupboards which I had first rummaged through a week or so ago. Anything that looked like it could be plugged into anything was squeezed into the bag – I even removed all the cabling from his Xbox, TV, DVD player and VCR (who still has a VCR anyways?), just in case. I then went through to his room and to his computer for something that I had noticed, probably subconsciously without really noticing it when I was there last – a UPS (an uninterrupted power supply for those of you who don’t know). That would surely come in handy.
     
    I scoured the place once more in case I had missed anything and headed back to my spot to unpack. Then I was out again with the empty bag. Further into the complex. Further away from the safety of my place.
     
    I remembered seeing a couple of people who had those solar powered lights in their gardens – you know the