Bug Out! Part 7: Mile High Motorhomes

by Robert Boren

  “You’ll be back to her soon enough,” Jane said, “but I wouldn’t expect things to be much easier for a while. There’s some scary stuff coming.”

  “I know,” Terry said.

  “You like her a lot, don’t you?”

  “I’m in love with her already,” he said sheepishly. “I have to be careful not to scare her off, though.”

  “You men crack me up. You never can tell, can you?”

  “What?”

  “She’s head over heels for you. Can’t you tell by the way she looks at you?”

  “I know she likes me,” he said.

  “Call it what you want,” Jane said. “She’s your woman, if you want her. Trust me.”

  “I’ve only known her for a day.”

  “I know. It’s the situation. The times. The human survival instinct.”

  “How do you mean?” he asked.

  “Charlie marries Hilda. Look at Jeb and Rosie now. Jerry and Jasmine are trying to get pregnant.”

  “Really?” he whispered. “Wouldn’t this be a bad time to have a baby?”

  “Our drives are geared towards survival of the species, not convenience. I’ve even had the urge to have more children. Thank God I’m too old now.” She laughed.

  “What’s so funny?” Jasmine asked, walking towards them.

  “Oh, nothing,” she said. “Just talking to Terry about life and love during wartime.”

  “Trish is going to be on you like crazy when you get back,” Jasmine said, grinning. “Just wait and see. That was a nice kiss she gave you when we were leaving. Seen that kind of intensity before.”

  “When?” Terry asked.

  “At the army base, when wives are saying goodbye to their men.”

  “You too?” Terry said. “Jane was trying to tell me the same thing.”

  “He has no idea, does he?” Jasmine asked, looking at Jane with a sly smile. Then she looked back at Terry. “Oh, honey, I hope you want her as much as she wants you.”

  “Done,” Frank said, sticking his head out the door of the coach. “Everybody get your phones. Then I’ll expose the chips. You’re phones should vibrate…one long pulse followed by two short ones, and show you a readout for each one.”

  The group filed into the coach one at a time, picking up their phones. Jane came into the coach and grabbed the iPad. Jerry grabbed his Android tablet too. They all went outside, except for Jerry.

  “OK, hold onto your phones,” Frank said. Then he opened the box. Immediately everybody jolted as they’re phones started buzzing. All of the displays opened a new app that listed out a serial number, distance in feet, and the time for each of the chips in the box.

  “Where are you getting the serial numbers?” Jerry asked.

  “Each of the payloads has a wrapper which includes an unencrypted serial number,” Frank said. “Only the content inside the package is encrypted.”

  “Hey, the LTE signal generator is off,” Jerry said. “How is this working?”

  “For close range, it’s peer to peer,” Frank said, smiling. “The range is probably about half a mile, judging by the signal strength.”

  “Holy crap,” Jerry said, watching Frank put the top back on the lead box.

  “Now hit refresh, everybody. You shouldn’t get any new hits.”

  The group did that, and as Frank said, no more hits were shown, but if they scrolled backwards on their screens, they could still see the previous hits.

  “Alright, everybody, see the other new application? It’s called Long Range.”

  The people outside scrolled through their apps until they found it, and then nodded.

  “OK, go ahead and tap that one. It should try to bring up a GPS map.”

  “It can’t find the GPS map,” Jeb said.

  “That’s because there’s no cell coverage out here. Keep watching your screen.”

  Frank opened the lead box again. Jerry was next to him, watching his tablet. A group of small icons showed up in the middle of the screen.

  “You guys all have icons on your screen?” Frank asked.

  The group answered yes.

  “Good. When we’re in cell range, GPS will kick in, and we’ll get a map. Icons will show up where the chips are. The initial screen will show the location of the closest chips on the map, but you can also punch in a location, and it will go to that location and show you all of the chips that are there, by serial number.”

  “Wow,” Jerry said.

  “When you crack the encryption, it’ll show us where the leadership is, won’t it?” Jeb asked.

  “Yes, assuming that the information is in the payload of the file, in a way we can understand,” Frank said. “Even if it isn’t, though, we still have another possibility. I might be able to hack into the enemy computer system and match serial numbers with people.”

  “This is really impressive,” Terry said. “Think we can go home tonight?”

  “Good question,” Jeb said. “Hey Frank, should we saddle up and go back home?”

  “I don’t see why not,” Frank said.

  “We’ll have to follow this road all the way down to the highway in order to turn the coach around, so this’ll be a little bit longer drive than you’re all thinking,” Jerry said.

  “I’ll be in front of you in the jeep,” Jeb said. “I’ll turn on my big hunting lights. We’ll make it.”

  “Alright, let’s go,” Jerry said. “Pile in, folks.”

  Chapter 12 – Icons Galore

  Jerry fired up his big diesel pusher as Frank, Jane, and Jasmine stowed all of the equipment. Jeb fired up his jeep. He turned on the hunting lights…they were connected to the roll bar. They made the road in front of them almost as bright as daylight.

  “Wow, look at that,” Frank said. “We’ll be able to see just fine.”

  “He’s pulling away,” Jerry said. “You guys all ready?”

  “Yeah, let’s go,” Jasmine said. She got into the passenger seat. “I’ll watch for low branches and what not.”

  “Good, you’ve got the best eyes here,” Jerry said.

  They moved along slowly. Each time there was a big dip, they knew ahead of time, because the lights of Jeb’s jeep would bounce all over the place. Most of the road was covered with worn out asphalt, but there were a few stretches that were dirt.

  “Here comes the creek,” Jasmine said, pointing.

  “Good, no water in there,” Jerry said.

  The jeep rolled slowly through, pulled up a little ways, and turned around to shine the lights on it.

  “Good idea,” Jerry muttered. He felt the front tires go down into the rocky rut. He held his breath and pushed down on the accelerator. The behemoth pushed through until the rear tires settled into the rut. Then he gave it more power again, and the rear tires moved through the rocks, making the coach creak. They got back on level ground, and then the jeep did a K-turn and started moving again. The rest of the small road was flatter, with less tree cover. They were at the highway in about ten minutes.

  “Time to turn around,” Jasmine said.

  Jerry looked both ways on the highway. No headlights in sight, coming from either direction. He made a left turn onto the road, then backed up, and turned back onto the road, following Jeb. They made better time going this direction, since they knew where the problems were. They slowed down again at the creek, but got through okay. The cover got thicker along the side of the road, and Jasmine strained her eyes to catch any branches that might be too low.

  “Thank God, there’s the highway,” Jasmine said when she saw Jeb pull onto it. He stopped and waited for the coach to join him on the blacktop, and then he sped up. Soon they were cruising along at about sixty.

  “As soon as we get into cell range, I’m going to call Gabe,” Frank said.

  “We should use the long range app on the iPad, too,” Jane said.

  “Good idea.”

  They drove along for about twenty minutes. Frank checked his phone.

  “I’ve got
bars!” He dialed Gabe’s number.

  “Frank! Everything alright?” Gabe asked.

  “Yeah, we’re on our way back now. We’re probably about half an hour out.”

  “Good, I’ll be so glad to see you guys.”

  “Did you have action earlier? We heard some mortar fire and some small arms fire too.”

  “Sure did. Some cretins decided to try to attack us from the other side of the road, down towards the turnoff into that back canyon area. We whacked ‘em good.”

  “How did you see them in time?”

  “Dobie’s dogs. They were walking around growling.”

  “Anybody get hurt?”

  “Yeah, the bad guys.” He chuckled.

  “Frank!” Jane cried. She held the iPad up in front of his face. It had the long range display, and there were icons for enemy chips just the other side of the park.

  “Gabe, you’re about to get hit. We see enemy chips just past your park, in that back canyon area.”

  Gabe started to crack up. “How many?”

  Frank looked at the iPad screen more closely. “Thirteen.”

  “Yeah, those are the chips from the cretins. We figured it might be a good idea to spread them around in that canyon, and use it as a kill zone.”

  “What?” Jane asked.

  “It’s okay, honey. Those are chips from the battle earlier. They spread them around in the canyon area as a trap.”

  “Sure that’s a good idea?” Jane asked.

  “Actually, it’s not a bad idea, if you want to pick off some enemy scouts,” Frank said. He put the phone back to his ear.

  “Gabe?”

  “Yeah, I’m still here. How did you see those chips, anyway?”

  “I’ll show you when we get back.”

  “Alright, call me when you are about five minutes out, and I’ll get the backhoe ready to go.”

  “Great, thanks, Gabe. Talk to you soon.”

  Frank put his phone in his pocket.

  “Everybody okay back home, I take it?” Jerry asked.

  “Yeah, but they did have action today. They won. Didn’t get anybody hurt, either.”

  “Excellent. Wait ‘til they see what we’re going to give them.”

  “Seriously.”

  “Let’s see that iPad,” Frank said.

  “LTE is a little slow here, I’m afraid,” Jane said. She handed it to him as he slid onto the dinette bench next to her.

  “Let’s expand this map and see where the cretins are,” Frank said. He used his fingers to wipe the map, zooming out to see more territory. The screen changed slowly, taking a while to re-draw itself. “I see what you mean about the speed. It’ll be better at camp.”

  “Good,” Jane said. “Can we run this on the PC in the clubhouse?”

  “Long range, yeah. Close range peer to peer…no.”

  “There it is. Look at Eagle!” she said, looking at all of the icons. There was so many that they just looked like a blob on the screen.

  “Crap, there’s several thousand enemy fighters there,” Frank said. He zoomed out again. “Let’s see what the situation on the road to Denver is like.” They waited for the screen to redraw again.

  “Wow, look at that,” Jane said. “Big presence in every town along I-70, and look at that blob in west Denver!”

  “This is worse than I expected,” Frank said. He moved the map down further south, and over towards the border with Kansas.

  “Why are you looking there?” he asked.

  “I want to see if we have a good escape route,” Frank said. “With that many enemy fighters around our area, and I-70 in the state it’s in, we need to look for the best way out of dodge.”

  “You don’t think we’ll be able to stay in Gabe’s place, do you?” Jane asked.

  “The enemy knows who we are, and they know where we are. Those folks that showed up today were assigned to come there. No way was that random. They’ll be back, probably with more troops.”

  Jane got a sick look on her face. “This is going to be a bumpy ride, isn’t it?”

  “I’m afraid so,” Frank said. “Look, there’s a good clean getaway path all the way to Kansas here, and I’m not seeing cretins anywhere around that area,”

  “How long is it going to take to break that encryption?”

  “A while,” Frank said. “I might be able to do better by hacking their system, though. If I can get in, matching the serial number to the name might be a lot faster.”

  “Assuming they have that data available.”

  “Yeah,” Frank said. “If I was them I wouldn’t, but they’re operating on an assumption that nobody’s going to be able to figure the chips out. They’re way too confident about that. It’s really pretty stupid on their part, when you think about it.”

  “Why did they go down this road, anyway?”

  “They’ve got apps just like this, I’m sure, and they’re using it for command and control, as well as infiltration. It allows just a few commanders to run the whole show, right down to details like taking out supply depots and small bases. They might even have something similar to our peer to peer app, so their soldiers can figure out who’s on their side, on the ground in battle. Think about how powerful that is.”

  “True. It’s really powerful…unless the other side can use it against them.”

  “Yep,” Frank said. “I’ve put a time limit on how long I muck around with step two. I wrote a program to mass-distribute the apps in two weeks, so even if something happens to us, the cat will be very much out of the bag. It’s running on a company server right now. We have enough armed citizens to win this war if they have that kind of info.”

  “Won’t the enemy just remove the chips?”

  “Given enough time, they might, but if they do, it takes their advantage away. There’s something I’ve done that will keep them from disappearing too fast, though. They’ll still be in trouble for while if they try it.”

  “What?”

  “I’ve got an app running right now which is taking a snapshot of the continental US with all of the chip hits. It’s running every fifteen minutes, on the work servers, saving to jpg files. It’s copying them to several other places, too.”

  “Oh, so if they remove the chips, we’ll still know where they were, and how they were moving around. You’ve had all of this stuff in your mind for a while, haven’t you?”

  “Yep. This is going to be the enemy’s undoing. They have no idea. They’re in trouble even if they kill all of us.”

  “We’re about five minutes out,” Frank,” Jerry said.

  “Good,” he said, pulling his phone out of his pocket. He dialed and put the phone to his ear. “Gabe, we’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  “Okay, I’ll get ready. Thanks, Frank.”

  Frank put his phone back in his pocket. He looked over at Jane. She was staring at him.

  “What?” he asked.

  “You’re always full of surprises,” she said, putting her hand on his shoulder.

  He gave her an embarrassed grin. “Let’s keep an eye on that iPad display, just in case.” He zoomed back in to their immediate area.

  “Any other hits?” Jane asked.

  “Nope, just the thirteen.”

  “Jeb’s pulling up to the bridge,” Jerry said. “We’re almost there, folks.”

  In the jeep, Jeb and Terry looked around warily as Gabe pushed the bridge back into place with the backhoe. Terry was looking at his iPhone, a terrified look on his face.

  “We’re going to have to go back into that canyon and fight,” he said. “I see thirteen hits back there on Frank’s app.”

  “Shit,” Jeb said. They drove across the bridge and pulled off to the side as Jerry’s rig went slowly across the bridge. Gabe moved the bridge back again, and pulled the backhoe next to the jeep.

  “I’m so glad to see you guys,” Gabe said. He jumped out and shook hands with both of them.

  “We’re in trouble,” Terry said. “I’m picking up e
nemy back there in the canyon.”

  Gabe started laughing. “Frank didn’t get you guys on the phone, I take it?”

  “No, why?” Jeb asked.

  “How many hits you showing?” Gabe asked.

  “Thirteen,” Terry said.

  “Those are the chips from the battle this afternoon. We spread them back in the canyon to use as a trap.”

  Terry got a relieved look on his face. Jeb started cracking up. He saw Frank and Jane walking up with Lucy, both with equipment in their hands. “Hey, thanks a lot for not telling us the thirteen chips back there didn’t have live enemy attached to them.”

  “Oh, shoot, sorry, I forgot that you guys would see that,” Frank said.

  Jeb drove his jeep back over next to his rig, and came back into the clubhouse as Terry brought another armload of equipment from Jerry’s rig. The Sheriff walked over to Terry and gave him a hug.

  “I’m so glad to see you, Terry!” he said.

  “Me too, uncle,” he said, patting his back.

  “We could have used you earlier.”

  “Yeah, we heard the mortar fire and some small arms fire too. What happened?”

  “Fourteen cretins were setting up across the road, down by the turnoff to the canyon area. They were going to start shelling us with mortars.”

  “Fourteen?” How come we only see thirteen chips?”

  “One of them burned up after we hit him with Willie Pete,” the Sheriff said. “It killed some of the others, too, but they weren’t burned bad enough to ruin the chips.”

  “How’d Trish take this?”

  “She looked scared out of her wits last time I saw her,” he said. “She’s back at her place. You might want to go see her.”

  “Yeah,” Terry said. He put down his stuff and started walking back towards the rental unit. It was dark back there. Then he saw her come around the corner, about forty yards away. She started running toward him, and he started running too. They slammed into an embrace, both of them breathing hard. She sobbed against his chest.

  “Don’t ever leave me again,” she said. “I thought I was going to be dead before you got back.” Then she looked up and kissed him passionately. After that they held each other for several minutes, just enjoying the closeness.