by Robert Boren
“It looks like that blind was a man cave for Hilda’s departed husband,” she said.
Jeb started to crack up. “Oh, really? Do tell.”
“There’s a chest in the middle of the floor….there’s several bottles of whiskey and some girly magazines in there.”
Jeb laughed out loud.
“That sounds like old Jer. I really miss that old coot.”
“Do you think Hilda knows about it?”
“The girly magazines? Probably not. Maybe the booze. I’d have to ask Charlie.”
“Yeah, we were going to ask him about this before we say anything to Hilda,” Frank said.
“Probably a good idea,” Jeb said. “Charlie knew those two better than anybody.”
“Why don’t we get back?” Jane asked. “I think we’re done here.”
“Okay, but I do want to do one more thing first. Let’s see where the kids are coming in from.” Frank said.
“Oh, yeah, forgot about that,” Jane said. They walked out of the outcropping and down to the stream. You could see a path beaten down along the water. The stream got smaller as they made their way up from the water fall.
“It’s so pretty here,” Jane said.
The path ended at a thin spot in the creek that had several flat topped rocks in the water, and you could see the trail picking up on the other side. They walked over the rocks to the far bank. About twenty yards from the creek was a large clearing. There were tire tracks on it.
“Well, this is where they park,” Jeb said.
“Looks like it,” Frank said.
They continued on towards the dirt road that led from the clearing. It was as pretty as the creek was, with trees lining both sides. There was a two lane blacktop about fifty yards out.
“There’s the road. Wonder which one it is?” Frank asked.
Jane pulled out her iPhone and brought up the map application. It found GPS right away.
“Red Rock road,” Jane said. “I’ll bet Hilda knows where this goes.”
“Probably,” Jeb said. “I vaguely remember that road, but I didn’t know about this clearing. I think the road runs between the little town and some ranches.”
“Well, at least we know about one of the back ways into the park,” Frank said. “Let’s go back and talk to the others.”
Jane and Jeb nodded, and they started back. It was a little warmer now, and the shade of the trees was a nice break in between the stretches of hot sunshine. Birds were chirping, and a gentle breeze was just starting to come up.
“What time is it, anyway?” asked Jeb.
“Almost 1:00,” Jane said after looking at her phone.
They could see the back fence now. Charlie came walking out to the gate to meet them.
“Hi, folks, how’d it go?”
“We checked out the caves and the stream, and found where the kids are getting in, off of Red Rock road,” Frank said.
“Yeah, and we found fresh beer cans in one of the caves. Looks like they were there last night,” Jane said.
“Well, I think that’s good news,” Charlie said. “We got the fence buttoned back up.”
“Good,” Frank said.
“How about the blinds?”
“Jerry and I fixed the one closest to the front of the park,” Jeb said.
“Where is Jerry?” asked Charlie.
“His wife called and asked him to come back to the rig as soon as we were done, so he hi-tailed it. I went over to the stream and ran into these two.”
“What about the other blind?” Charlie asked.
“It’s in tip top shape,” Frank said. “I had to drive a couple of nails in to keep the ladder from wobbling, but it’s bolted at the top, so it wasn’t really dangerous before I did that.”
“How well did you know Hilda’s husband?” asked Jane.
“Jer? He was a good friend. A really funny guy. I miss him a lot,” Charlie said. “Why?”
“He had this blind set up like a little man cave, complete with whiskey and girly magazines.”
Charlie laughed.
“Yep, that’s Jer,” he said. “He did have a little bit of a drinking problem. Hilda used to get mad at him for getting drunk and getting too sentimental. She finally made him get all of his booze out of the house.”
“Well, that explains it. Does Hilda know about this stuff, or should we keep our mouths shut?” asked Jane.
“Well, she may not know about this particular stash, but I’m sure she wouldn’t be surprised,” Charlie said. “Why don’t you let me break it to her?”
“Alright, sounds good,” Jane said.
“That blind could be pretty useful,” Frank said. “A person could spend a lot of time up there on watch with no problem, and they would have a commanding view of the area in back of the property. You really can’t see the RV Park from the blind, though.”
“Probably why Jer picked that one for his man cave,” Jeb said, laughing.
“There’s also a kerosene heater up there, and some fuel,” Frank said.
“Well, depending on what Chester finds out from Arthur, we might want to station somebody back there. I hope not, though,” Charlie said. “Might as well get back. I’ll lock this gate back up for now.” He closed and locked the gate, and then the four of them started walking in towards the clubhouse.
“I think we should drop off the guns and the dog,” Frank said. “Jane and I will be at the clubhouse in a few minutes.”
“Okay,” Charlie said.
“I’d better go dump off my pistol too,” Jeb said. He headed off to his rig.
Frank and Jane got to their door in a couple of minutes, and Frank unlocked it. Cool air rolled out.
“Ah, it will be nice in here,” Jane said as she followed Lucy up the steps. Frank followed, and shut the door behind him.
“Well, what do you think? Can we keep good enough track of this place to be safe here for a while?” asked Jane.
“From scavengers and kids, yes,” Frank said. “From the enemy, not a chance. We need to find out what is going on down south. Hopefully the guy with the ham radio can give us some info.”
“Hopefully,” Jane said. “Wonder if Jerry’s wife is going to show up?”
“Good question,” Frank said. “I wonder how Hilda is going to take the news of what was in that blind.”
“I’m really glad that Charlie offered to bring that up.”
“Ready to go?” Frank asked.
“Sure, let’s go.”
They left their coach and headed for the clubhouse.
“Remind me to call Sarah later. I want to find out if she’s still coming or not,” Jane said as they were walking.
“I was wondering about that too. I hope they called off the evacuation before she got too far. Portland is probably safer than being on the road.”
“Exactly what I was thinking,” Jane said. They got to the door of the clubhouse. Charlie saw them from the far side of the room, and motioned for them to come over. He was leaning against the cabinet in the front, next to Hilda and Chester.
“So, you found Jer’s stash, eh,” Hilda said. She cracked up. “I told him he could only drink up there. That way, he’d have to sober up before he could come down. He was kind of a sloppy drunk, bless his heart. I got tired of being around it.”
“Do you want me to do anything with that stuff? Bring it down here?” asked Frank.
“Girly magazines, no,” she said an embarrassed smile. “I don’t know about the rest. I suppose you could bring the booze down here, but I don’t really see any reason to. I’ve got plenty here in the clubhouse.”
“Maybe we should leave it if we have to post somebody up there,” Chester said.
“As long as it’s somebody who isn’t going to drink a bunch of it and pass out on the job,” Charlie said. They all cracked up.
“You could bring those girly magazines down to me,” Chester said with a grin.
They all started laughing. Chester’s face turned red.
<
br /> “Hey, Chester, did you get any info from the ham radio guy?” asked Frank.
“Arthur,” Chester said. “He hasn’t been able to raise anybody down there yet. He did talk to somebody in Tucson. We kicked their butts down there, but it was a bloody mess.”
“Well, maybe they can move the troops from Tucson up to Phoenix,” Charlie said.
“That’s what they were telling Arthur they were going to do.”
“Hey, look, here comes Jerry,” Jeb said. “Looks like he has his women with him this time.”
Frank and Jane looked around. Jerry was walking slowly with an old Asian woman, who had a big smile on her face. Jerry was holding her upper arm to keep her steady. On her other arm was a younger attractive Asian woman. She looked to be about ten years younger than Jerry.
Jane got close to Frank and whispered.
“Mail order?”
Frank laughed.
They approached slowly. Jerry had a big grin on his face.
“Hi, folks,” he said. “This is Rosie and Jasmine. Girls, this is Charlie, Chester, Hilda, Jeb, Frank, and Jane.”
Jasmine got a shy smile on her face and said hello. Rosie was more outgoing. She beamed.
“Hi, so nice to meet you all,” she said, in heavy Philippine accent. “When happy hour?”
Everybody cracked up.
“Oh, I think we can rustle up some drinks after the meeting,” Hilda said, grinning. “Why don’t we get the business part of this over with? Looks like most everybody is here.”
Charlie stood up in front.
“Can I have everybody’s attention, please?”
A hush settled over the room. People found seats.
“We finished a survey of the fence, the cave area, and the woods behind the property. We think it's fairly secure, but we do have an incident to bring up.”
There was murmuring amongst the crowd.
“We had somebody attempt to cut through the chain link fencing in the back of the park last night. We think they got spooked when Frank shined a flashlight back there.”
More murmuring.
“Are we safe here?” asked a woman near the front.
“We believe that we are, at least for now,” Hilda said. “We have evidence that the attempt was made by some local kids. Fresh beer cans were found down in the caves by the stream. This isn’t new. Teenagers like to drink back there. Every once in a while they will try to get into the park looking for ice chests that have beer in them.”
“What are we going to do about it,” asked another person.
“I have flood lights installed in the back. I'll start turning them on at night. That should keep the kids away,” she said. “I use them for nights when I know there is going to be activity back there, like after high school football games and dances.”
Charlie took the floor again.
“We’ve checked out the deer blinds that are in the trees back there, and made some repairs. If it appears that we're going to have trouble, we could post sentries out in those. They have a good view of the area. We'll be able to see people coming into the area behind the park from those blinds.”
“How do we know if we will need to?” asked the woman up front.
“Well, hopefully we'll get some news from Arthur about what's going on in Arizona. We have gotten some good news. The US Army has defeated the enemy in Tucson. There've been reports that troops are now being moved up to the Phoenix area to take care of the rest of the enemy there, and act as a staging point to clean up the Islamist army coming from west Texas.”
“Yep,” Chester said. “There are reports on both the cable news outlets and local news stations that a battle is raging in Phoenix right now, and the enemy is running low on supplies.”
“Therein lies our main concern,” Charlie said. “We might have raiding parties coming north into Utah looking for supplies and ammo. We believe those are the only people we would need to worry about.”
“What about Flagstaff?” asked somebody in the back of the room.
“The city has been locked down, but apparently no attack has come yet,” Chester said. “There's still some fighting going on to the south and east of Flagstaff, but it’s slowing down. We think they aren’t getting supplies anymore. The Texans have sealed up their southern border, and the US Army has sealed up the southern Arizona border.”
“We can see all of that stuff on the TV channels right now,” Jerry said. “That’s not the info we need, though. We need to know if there are enemy forces moving past Flagstaff to the northwest, where we just came from.”
“Nobody knows that more than I do,” Charlie said. “I have an RV Park there that I’m concerned about. The problem is that there aren't any big population centers there, so the news outlets aren’t focusing on it right now. They are focusing on Tucson, Phoenix, and Flagstaff. That’s why we need Arthur to continue trying to find somebody down in that area on his ham radio.”
“I take it the phone coverage down there is still messed up,” Frank asked.
“Yes, I still can’t get through to any of my friends down there, and it worries me, Frank,” Charlie said.
“Look, here comes Arthur,” said Chester, pointing to the door.
Chapter 8 – Security
A hush came over the clubhouse as Arthur slowly walked in. He approached Chester in the front of the room.
“Arthur, do you have any news?” Chester asked.
“Yeah, are the Islamists getting close to Tusayan?” asked Jeb.
“Islamists, no,” Arthur said. “They are just about done. Where the army hasn’t killed them off, the local people are doing the job. Convert or die doesn’t work so well with the rednecks that live outside of Phoenix and Flagstaff.” He laughed.
“So why aren’t we seeing that on the news broadcasts?” asked Jerry.
“They're covering the Army operations pretty well,” he replied. “From what I’m hearing the military battles in Phoenix and outside of Flagstaff are being covered accurately. The Geneva Convention is being followed, prisoners are taken when possible. Not so much with the citizens. They're pissed.”
“Really,” Charlie said. “What’s happening?”
“Some of the citizens are executing people they capture. Burning down mosques. Killing Islamist protesters. In some cases they are even going after moderate Muslims. Not all of these rednecks are bad, but there is an element that wants to completely destroy all vestiges of Islam in this country. They also want their states to secede from the Union.”
“I think we know something about those folks,” Frank said. “Little wannabe warlords.”
“Ah yes, and that brings me to Tusayan,” Arthur said. “There is a militia there. It’s small, but it’s a bad one. They've been forcing local populations to either join them or pay tribute.”
“Tribute?” asked Charlie.
“Supplies, weapons, vehicles, and so on,” Arthur said. “They also demand to stay at people’s homes, and have been demanding sexual favors from the women.”
“So where are they?” asked Frank. “How far is their reach?”
“They are hanging out mainly between Williams and the Grand Canyon. They aren’t very mobile.”
“Should we be worried about these guys?” asked Jane.
“Possibly, if the Army doesn’t do something about them. Right now they aren’t growing, but they haven’t gone away, and they may start growing eventually. I doubt they come up here, but if they do, it will probably be to find some people they are hunting.”
“Uh oh,” Frank said.
“Yeah, uh oh,” said Chester. “I’m afraid I know who these folks are.”
“They keep talking about finding the people who killed the ‘Martyrs of Williams’, whoever that is,” Arthur said.
Frank’s blood ran cold. Jane looked at him and could see it.
“They're probably looking for us,” Jane said. “We killed those militia folks from Williams on our way to Tusayan.”
“I had a f
eeling that was the case, given how many people here were in the Williams area when the shit hit the fan,” Arthur said. “Chester wouldn’t come clean.”
Chester looked at him and shrugged his shoulders.
“You weren’t in Williams?” asked Jane.
“No, I was in Tusayan when you guys arrived at Charlie’s place,” Arthur said.
“Is this militia facing any resistance down there?” Frank asked.
“Well, most of the more capable people from the area who would resist are gone. Some of them are here with us, apparently,” Arthur said. “They do have a fly in the ointment, though.”
“What would that be?” asked Charlie.
“A shadowy person called Officer Simmons.”
“Oh, shit,” Frank said.
“I wouldn’t worry too much about him,” Arthur said. “He appears to be on our side at the moment.”
“I shot him when we left Williams,” Frank said. “It was back when we believed what the ‘Martyrs of Williams’ were trying to sell us.”
“I still wouldn’t worry too much about him. In fact, I don’t think we should worry too much about the militia either. They talk a big game, but they're a long way from here, and things aren’t going that well for them. They don’t have the resources to travel up here with any kind of strength. I doubt they could take us on and win. Hell, sounds like you guys killed the best of them. They just prey on the weak now.”
“Do you know anything more about Officer Simmons?” asked Chester.
“No, not really. He works like a thief in the night. He sneaks in, kills a few people in that militia, destroys some supplies, and then disappears. He doesn’t appear to be bothering anybody else.”
“You know that guy was supporting the Islamist Army, don’t you?” Frank asked.
“From what I’ve heard, this guy has been hard to read since the trouble started,” Arthur said. “For all we know, he might have been helping the Feds when you ran into him.”
“Then why would he try to hold us up in Williams when the Islamists were coming?”
“Several of the leaders of the Williams Militia were there,” Arthur said. “Why not let one enemy take out the other? He had no way to tell if you personally were part of the militia or not.”
Frank felt dizzy. His brain was spinning. He snapped himself out of it, and looked out into the crowd.