Bug Out! Part 10: RV Race to Battle

by Robert Boren

  “Later,” he said. “Let’s check the rest of the place. See all that chrome back there, reflecting? Looks like there are at least six more bikes.”

  “Is that a woman hanging on the wall by the front door?” the Deputy asked.

  “You got good eyes,” Sheriff Branson said. “Look out in the middle of the yard. Two more bikers laying there.”

  They walked over to them. One moaned.

  “Sheriff, this one’s still alive,” the Deputy shouted.

  “Call it in,” Sheriff Branson said, looking at the other biker. “This one’s toast. Half his head is gone. Look at all the dead guys on the driveway. This was a massacre.”

  “Seriously,” Deputy Lawrence said. He called for an ambulance, then knelt down next to the man. “Can you hear me?”

  The man looked up at him with heavy eyelids and smiled weakly. “Thank God,” he whispered.

  “The ambulance will be here in a minute,” Deputy Lawrence said. “What happened here?”

  “I don’t know,” he said softly. “We were just coming here for a party. Somebody pulled a motor home across the driveway and shot at us.”

  “Anything I can do for you while we’re waiting?”

  “Yeah, there’s a bottle of water in the saddle bag on my bike. Could you get it for me?”

  “Of course,” Deputy Lawrence said. He found it and handed it to him.

  “Thanks,” he said, taking a sip. “You go ahead on. I’ll be okay until the ambulance gets here.”

  The deputy trotted over to the driveway. Sheriff Branson was kneeling down next to one of the bodies.

  “Anybody alive over here?” Deputy Lawrence asked.

  “Nah,” he said. “Hunting rifles. They really tear a man up. That one over there gonna make it?”

  “I don’t know, maybe. He’s gut-shot, but he’s fairly alert.”

  “He say anything?”

  “Yeah, motor home pulled across the driveway and opened fire,” Deputy Lawrence said.

  “Probably was in that barn,” Sheriff Branson said. “Thought I saw tracks in there.”

  They walked up to the porch. The woman was hanging on the wall, blood around her neck and down her naked front. A biker was laying in front of her, dead from a headshot. Next to him was another dead biker with a butcher knife in his hand.

  “If that guy slit the woman’s throat, he was forced into it,” Sheriff Branson said. “And he got shot for his trouble.”

  “Yeah, looks like it,” Deputy Lawrence said. “I’ll go check the house.” He pulled his gun out of his holster.

  “I’ll be behind you,” Sheriff Branson said. “After I check behind the house.”

  “Okay,” the deputy said, as he walked through the living room. No sign of gunfire inside. The first floor was clean. He climbed the stairs to the landing. Two closed doors, on the left and right, and an open door straight ahead. He cautiously walked into the open door. A closet door was hanging open. He looked inside. Gun cleaning fluid smell. A few gun-related articles, but no firearms or ammo that he could see.

  “Deputy Lawrence, I’m in the house. You upstairs?”

  “Yeah,” he shouted. “I checked the downstairs. I think there’s a basement, though.”

  “Okay, I’m on it,” he shouted back.

  Deputy Lawrence went to the right door and slowly opened it. It was a messy bedroom, reeking of stale beer and whiskey. The bed was a mess. Nobody in there. He left that room, closing it behind him, and opened the left side door. Another bedroom, with several twin beds. It was cleaner than the first two, and the beds were neatly made. The windows were open. He thought about the kid in the barn right away. There was a small stack of comic books next to one of the beds, and a glass on the nightstand next to the other. It still had water in it. Somebody was living in this room.

  “Hey, deputy, check this out,” Sheriff Branson shouted from downstairs.

  “Be right there,” he shouted, leaving the room, closing the door behind him. He trotted down the stairs to the ground floor and rushed into the basement.

  “Torture room,” Sheriff Branson said. “Look, there’s blood on the floor beneath those cuffs. Fresh blood.”

  The siren of the ambulance sounded, coming up the drive.

  “I’ll go meet them,” Deputy Lawrence said, bolting up the stairs and out the front door.

  Sheriff Branson pulled his radio out. “Jackie?”

  “Yes, Sheriff,”

  “Get me the FBI.”

  ***

  Howard drove silently, Scott still sleeping in the passenger seat beside him. The bedroom door opened, and Kerry came out. He walked up to the front.

  “Where we going, Howard?” he asked.

  “Indiana,” Howard said, turning back to him and smiling. “You hungry?”

  “Yeah.”

  “There’s some pop tarts in the pantry. You like those?”

  “Yeah, Howard. Want one?”

  “Sure, that’d be great. Thanks, Kerry.”

  He went in the back, rummaged around in the pantry, and came back with two packs, handing one to Howard.

  “Is Scotty okay?”

  “Yeah, he’s just tired. Remember he got stabbed a couple days ago.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Kerry said. “I miss Blake.” He cried.

  “I know, Kerry. I miss him too.”

  Scott stirred and woke with a start, looking around, not remembering where he was. Then he looked over at Howard and calmed down.

  “How far are we?”

  “Several hundred miles,” Howard said. “You slept a while. How’s the wound?”

  “It feels okay,” Scott said. “I think Johnny did a good job of patching me up.”

  “Hey, Kerry, why don’t you go grab Scotty something to eat,” Howard asked.

  “You want pop tarts?” Kerry asked.

  “Sure, and bring up sodas for all of us, too. They’re in the door of the fridge.”

  “Okay, Scotty.” He scampered to the back.

  “How’s he taking things?” Scott asked.

  “He cried a little about Blake, but other than that, he seems okay.”

  “Good,” Scott said.

  “What are we gonna do with him when we’re hunting?” Howard asked.

  “I don’t know,” Scott said. “We might have to wait until we get back to Ohio to have any more fun.”

  “You don’t have anybody you can leave him with?”

  “Nope,” Scott said. “He’s the last of my relatives. I’m all he’s got.”

  “This is a problem,” Howard said.

  “I know, but don’t worry. I’m thinking on it.”

  Kerry was back up with the pop tarts and sodas.

  “What are we gonna do, Scotty?”

  “We’ll go to my house in Ohio,” Scott said. “You’ll get your own room there.”

  “What about mom?”

  “She died, Kerry. I’m sorry.”

  Kerry started to tear up, but then his face changed. He smiled. “She can’t hurt me anymore.”

  “No, she can’t,” Scott said.

  “You gonna put me back in the center?”

  “No, Kerry, if you don’t mind staying with me.”

  “Yes, I want to stay with you, Scotty,” he said. “I’ll be good.”

  “Sure, I know you will,” Scott said.

  Howard studied both of them, a worried look on his face.

  ***

  “So what’s the plan, George?” Heidi asked, as they rode along.

  “Get Saladin and his leadership team,” he said. “That’s job one.”

  “With the missiles,” she asked.

  “I didn’t think you were listening to that,” George said.

  “I was close enough to hear most of it,” she said. “You didn’t sound too confident about being able to get him that way.”

  “I’m not,” George said. “I think we can take out their base, but I’ll bet Saladin is already hiking out of there.”

  “
Think he knows enough to take out the chip?”

  “I don’t know,” George said. “I wouldn’t put it past him. He’s brilliant, you know.”

  “So I keep hearing,” Heidi said. “What’s the biggest danger? Honestly?”

  George sat silently for a moment, then looked over at her.

  “If we take that place, regardless of if Saladin gets taken or not, somebody might set off that nuclear device. We’ll be too close.”

  “Oh,” Heidi said. “Great.”

  “Yeah,” George said. “The trick is gonna be to take that out before they can use it.”

  “If we blow it up, won’t the device go off?”

  “No, they don’t work that way,” George said.

  “Well, that’s something, I guess,” she said.

  “They’re slowing up ahead,” George said. “Look, they’re turning onto that dirt road.”

  The Humvee was still in the lead, hitting the rutted dirt too quickly and slowing fast. Then Jeb followed, and Malcolm. George was right behind. They tightened up their caravan.

  “Better keep a hand on the barrel of the M107,” George said.

  “Okay,” Heidi said. “How come you didn’t bring the case?”

  “Didn’t want to take up the space,” he said. “This might not be the most important weapon I’m bringing this time.”

  “Why not?”

  “It can shoot through walls, but not rock,” he said. “The OICW is probably the best tool I have.”

  “How many rounds you have left for that?”

  “Fifty or so,” he said. “Enough.”

  “Will that damage the place?” Heidi asked.

  George chuckled. “Maybe, but who cares? I’m no environmentalist. If it’s between us getting clipped and scarring some rocks, guess which I choose.”

  Heidi looked over at him and chuckled.

  The caravan slowly picked its way along, the rocky vistas and red sand becoming more beautiful as the sun went below the hills. The lead vehicle stopped.

  “Looks like meeting time,” George said. “Let’s go.”

  They walked up to the lead vehicle and joined the gathering.

  “It looks like we can drive with our headlights on for the next twenty five miles,” Private Brown said.

  “How close does that get us?” asked Kurt.

  “About five miles,” Private Brown said. “After that, if there’s enough moon out, we might be able to get further. I say we keep going as far as we can. If we can get all the way, great. Otherwise we camp tonight.”

  “Anybody been watching the icons?”

  “Yeah, I’ve been on it,” Jerry said. “Still same placement, from what I can see.”

  “My dad…uh General Hogan has been monitoring the satellite feed with Frank, too,” Private Brown said. “There’s a road block bottling up the highway to the main gate now. He hasn’t seen any of them going there to challenge it yet.”

  “Any movement on the semi-truck?” George asked.

  “They have a lot of men around it,” Jerry said. “Was just talking to Frank about that. They see icons, and have a good satellite view.”

  “Once things get started, we should take that out,” George said. “Otherwise they might light it up.”

  “That would kill all of them,” Kurt said.

  “Yep, but you think that bothers them?” George said. “Suicide bombers.”

  “Yeah, I guess that’s a good point,” Kurt said.

  “General Hogan has already seen that danger,” Private Jennings said. “I’ll be branching off from the main group with one of the laser target designators to take it out. It’ll be the first explosion that happens.”

  “Good,” Heidi said.

  “Okay, let’s get going,” Private Brown said.

  The group got back in their vehicles and continued to snake along the dusty red trail.

  ***

  Frank was at the PC, with Jasmine and Jane sitting to his right at their laptops. General Hogan came into the clubhouse, looking concerned.

  “Uh oh, what happened?” Frank asked.

  “Some of your folks at the Pentagon jumped the gun. There was a gun battle there.”

  “Get all the bad guys?” Jane asked.

  “Yes, we did, but we don’t know if any of them were able to make a phone call. We’re trying to figure out if we should hit Capitol Hill and the White House right away, or wait and hope they didn’t get warned.”

  “What will happen if they got warned?” Jasmine asked.

  “Worst case, Saladin finds out, and removes his chip, along with the rest of the leadership team.”

  “We’ll know if they do that,” Frank said. “I still see Saladin, walking around in the same place he’s been.”

  “Hell,” Charlie said. “He could take that out and stick it on a dog. We can’t be sure because of that.”

  “True enough,” General Hogan said, chuckling. “Hate to use a five hundred thousand dollar missile to take out a hound.”

  “One thing you guys should keep in mind,” Mary said. “Cutting those out of dead flesh isn’t too hard. Cutting them out of a live person, unless you can put them under, is a different story. Sometimes you have to chase them.”

  “Chase them?” Jane asked.

  “Yeah, they’re in muscle tissue, but they can move out when you try to grab them. You have to fish around for them. Imagine how that feels if you aren’t under.”

  “Oh,” Jane said, shuddering. “Nasty.”

  “I’d still say that the leadership team might be able to get it done,” Charlie said. “Are a couple hundred thousand of them going to be able to do that right away? Unlikely.”

  Dobie walked in.

  “Dogs on patrol?” Charlie asked.

  “Yeah, and we’re ready to test the Wi-Fi and the cameras. Should we feed it to the TV?”

  “Got enough wire for that?” Frank asked.

  “We’re talking Jake here, remember?” Dobie said, laughing.

  “Well, go for it,” Charlie said. “You gonna have to take down our internet?”

  “No, we can use that hub that’s out in the barn to connect it.”

  “Good,” Frank said. “Don’t want to be in the dark right now.”

  There was a drilling sound coming from the stage area, where the TV was. Everybody turned around, just in time to see a drill come through the floor.

  “Ah, he ran it through the basement, eh?” Charlie asked. “Good idea.”

  “He put a monitor down there too,” Dobie said. “Just in case we need to hunker down.”

  “Hey, Dobie, plug in the HDMI cable, will ya?” Jake yelled from below.

  “On it,” he shouted, rushing over. He plugged the cable into the back of the TV, then turned it on. He navigated to HDMI 2. The screen displayed six separate cameras.

  “Wow, excellent,” General Hogan said, looking at it as he walked over.

  Jake came through the trap door in the kitchen and walked over, grinning.

  “Teamwork,” he said. “User name for the Wi-Fi is kansas, and password is cretins.”

  “How’d you get those cameras strung so fast?” Charlie asked. “We did that at Hilda’s place, and it was a big job.”

  “I’ll say,” Hilda added.

  “These are wireless cameras,” Jake said. “That’s why I had to set up the Wi-Fi at the same time.”

  “It’s secure, I hope,” General Hogan said.

  “Yeah,” Jake said. “Frank set the network up correctly, and I just piggy-backed on that, and added wireless security. It won’t be easy to crack.”

  “How come picture black and white?” Rosie asked, staring at the screen.

  “Those are night vision capable,” Jake said. “Have to give something up, I guess.”

  A call came in on the General’s phone. He went off into the corner and talked for a few seconds, then walked back over.

  “They took out the bad guys in the White House and Capitol Hill, also some state capito
ls,” he said. “They shut down the enemy’s satellite access too. Hope our guys are ready to attack tonight. If not, we’ve probably lost our element of surprise.”

  Chapter 7 – Air Strikes

  Jerry’s phone rang. He looked over at Jeb and answered it.

  “Jerry here.”

  “Jerry, it’s Frank. Somebody started the attacks on the enemy agents in Washington DC early.”

  “They get them all?”

  “Yeah, but we don’t know if they called anybody. The enemy’s satellite access has already been turned off.”

  “So if we don’t strike fast, no surprise?”

  “Yep, that’s the message I wanted to get to you. I’ve got to call the other cars, too. General Hogan is calling the Humvee.”

  “Okay, thanks for the info.”

  “Take care of yourselves.”

  “Will do, Frank.”

  Jerry put his phone back in his pocket.

  “That didn’t sound good,” the Sheriff said.

  “It’s not all bad news. The good guys took out all the enemy agents in DC and shut off the enemy satellite access.”

  “Already?” Jeb asked.

  “Yeah, that’s the problem. We might not have the element of surprise anymore.”

  “If we ever did have it,” the Sheriff said.

  “So what now?” Terry asked.

  “I think we’d better consider risking a drive to the site tonight, without lights. We’d better whack them fast.”

  “I assume the other vehicles are being told the same thing,” Jeb said.

  “Yeah,” Jerry said.

  “How much further until we get to the lights out zone?” the Sheriff asked.

  “It’s coming up pretty fast,” Jeb said. “Another four miles or so.”

  “We have some moonlight, at least,” Jerry said. “Maybe enough.”

  Jeb turned off the lights. “Yeah, I could drive in this,” he said, turning the lights back on.

  Jerry looked at his phone app, getting a terrified look on his face. “Icons are gone.”

  “How many?” Terry asked.

  “All of them, from what I can see,” he said.

  “That means they tried their reset again,” the Sheriff said. “That’s better news than just having a few of them in Capitol Reef turn off.”