Bug Out! Part 9: RV Ambush

by Robert Boren

  “Time to eat, Scotty,” Blake said. “Johnny said you need to keep your strength up.”

  “Is he coming back soon?” Scott asked.

  “Yeah, he said he’d be here before noon,” Kerry said.

  “It’s scary down here,” Blake said.

  “I’ll let you boys go in a minute. Did either of you see my cell phone?”

  The two looked blankly at each other, then back at him. They both shook their heads no.

  “Maybe I dropped it on the road, or in the barn. Would one of you go look for me?”

  “I will,” Blake said, getting up, looking ready to bolt for the stairs.

  “Good, Blake,” Scott said. “It might be in the barn. There’s a girl sleeping in there. Don’t wake her up. Don’t even go near her, okay?”

  “A girl?” Kerry asked.

  “Yeah,” Scott said. “A friend, but she’s feeling a little under the weather, so we need to leave her alone.”

  “Maybe Johnny can help her when he comes,” Blake said, as he climbed the stairs.

  “Yeah, maybe,” Scott said.

  “Are you feeling better, Scotty?” Kerry asked

  “Sure, I’m a lot better,” he said. “Thanks for helping me.”

  “You’re blood,” Kerry said, smiling. “Better eat something.”

  Scott propped himself up on his elbows and took a drink of water. Then he picked up a piece of toast off the tray and ate it.

  “This is good, thanks,” Scott said. “Does your mom ever come around here?”

  “No, never,” Kerry said, eyes wide. “You aren’t going to call her, are you?”

  “No,” Scott said. “Why doesn’t she come here?”

  “She says it’s evil here,” Kerry said, eyes still wide. “She says Uncle Chet and his friends did bad things here with her daddy.” He paused, looking around. “I don’t like to talk about this, Scotty.”

  “Why?”

  “It reminds me of the noises. When I was a little kid. And the smells.”

  “That was scary?” Scott asked.

  “Yeah,” Kerry said. “Did Uncle Chet hurt you?”

  “No, he was my dad,” Scott said. “He treated me well. I miss him.”

  “He told Blake and me that he was going to cut us up,” Kerry said, looking down.

  “Why would he do that, Kerry?”

  “We snuck down here one time, and caught him.”

  “Caught him doing what?”

  “He was hurting a girl,” Kerry said, eyes starting to tear up. “He was on top of her, and he hit her. She was crying.”

  “Oh,” Scott said. “Did he ever hurt you?”

  “No, he said he wouldn’t as long as we didn’t tell mom.”

  “Did you tell mom?” Scott asked.

  “Oh, no, we didn’t,” Kerry said, looking frightened again.

  “Don’t be scared,” Scott said. “Chet was only kidding, and he’s dead now. He can’t ever hurt you.”

  Suddenly there were footsteps above them, and Blake came running down the stairs with a big grin on his face. “Look, I found it,” he said, beaming.

  “Oh, great,” Scott said. He held out his hand, and Blake placed it there, then backed up. “I didn’t wake up the girl. She’s still asleep.”

  “Good, thank you for that, Blake,” Scott said.

  “Is that the dumb bitch that stabbed you?” he asked.

  “No, it was her friend,” Scott said. “She left in a big motorhome with my friend.”

  “Oh, a motorhome like Uncle Chet had?” Blake asked.

  “Yeah,” Scott said. “If you see a motorhome drive up to the house, you come get me right away, okay?” He looked at the two of them. They both looked worried.

  “She’s not coming back to hurt us, is she?” Blake asked.

  “No, no, don’t worry about that. My friend might come back, though.”

  “Okay, we’ll watch. Can we go upstairs?”

  “Sure, Blake, go ahead,” Scott said. “Thanks for the food and water.”

  The two smiled and nodded, then went back up the stairs.

  “Geez, how did those two get here?” Scotty said to himself, wondering if he had anybody else to worry about. He brought his phone up to his face. There was a text message waiting, from Howard. He opened it. Amanda. Death pictures. I still have him. He smiled, and ate some more.

  Frank had his laptop set up on the table next to the PC desk. He navigated to the link for the National Park system and got on. No problem; the access was still there. He navigated to the video system at Capitol Reef, and brought up the grid of cameras. It looked like they were still working. He heard Jane, Jasmine, and Jerry walking in, chatting. They lined up on the table, setting up their laptops.

  “Can you still get on the system?” Jane asked, scooting over closer to him.

  “Yep,” Frank said. “Look.” He turned his laptop towards her so she could see the screen.

  “Why didn’t they didn’t shut down the cameras?” Jasmine asked.

  “I know why,” Jerry said. “If they go dead, the Park Service might send a crew out there.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right,” Frank said, as he brought up the camera nearest to the hiding spot. “They are being careful, though. This camera in the back is pointed in a different direction now. It’s not covering that overhang. Somebody climbed up on the pole and turned it.”

  Jane and Jerry came over and looked. “Yep, you’re right,” Jane said.

  “How about the front gate?” Jerry asked. “I’m still seeing icons around there.”

  “Let’s see,” Frank said. He selected that camera. It was pointing at the gate and the road into the park. “Looks the same to me. Hey, here comes an SUV.”

  “Looks full,” Jerry said. “Look how low it’s riding.”

  They all watched as it rolled through the gate. Nobody else was around. Frank went on to the other cameras, checking them all.

  “A few of those cameras in the trail and camping area aren’t pointing where they were before,” Jerry said.

  “Yeah, that’s what it looks like to me, too,” Jasmine said.

  Frank rolled his chair over to the PC and looked at the close-in program. There were still icons on their way in, and still a cluster by the front gate. He zoomed in. They were in the storage building.

  “Remember that building that the tank came out of?” Frank asked. “That’s where the icons are. They’ve set up shop in there.”

  “Saladin in there?” Jerry asked.

  “No, he’s in the back, under that outcropping. There’s mostly low level Islamist types in the front, along with a couple of Militia guys, and one level four person.”

  “They’re checking people in, I suspect,” Jane said.

  You hear that?” Jerry asked.

  “What?” Frank asked, but then he heard it. A chopper, approaching. “General Hogan!”

  They all got up and hurried out to the porch. They could see it now, approaching quickly.

  “Chinook,” Jerry said. “Wonder who he’s got with him?”

  “He said he’d be bringing his kids,” Frank said. “Look, there’s Dobie rounding up the dogs.”

  They watched as Dobie called them all over and got their leashes on, Princess at his side. He walked them back by the trailers.

  “Looks like everybody’s heard it,” Jane said. All the members of the group were walking up to the clubhouse now, slowly, some carrying cups of coffee.

  The chopper set down on the large flat area in front of the clubhouse, sending a torrent of dust flying in every direction.

  “Too bad we don’t have grass there anymore,” Jasmine said, covering her eyes.

  “Seriously,” Jane said.

  The chopper engines shut down, the rotors slowly spinning to a stop. The back door opened.

  “Here he comes,” Frank said. “He’s limping.”

  “Yeah, he’s not looking so good, is he?” Jane asked. “They probably beat him up.”

&
nbsp; “Let’s go meet him,” Frank said. He walked off the porch, heading the chopper, with Jane by his side. Jerry and Jasmine followed, and then Charlie and Hilda. The rest of the people filed into the clubhouse.

  “Hi, General Hogan,” Frank said as he walked up and shook his hand.

  “Frank, great to see you,” he said. “Hello, Jane. You’re looking lovely.”

  “Thanks,” she said. “We were so worried about you. I’m glad you made it out okay.”

  “And this is Jerry and Jasmine,” the General said, smiling, shaking hands.

  “Good to see you again, sir,” Jerry said.

  “Likewise,” the General said. “Charlie and Hilda, right?”

  “You’ve got a good memory, General. Nice to see you,” Charlie said, shaking his hand. Let’s go into the clubhouse. There’s some coffee in there. We could rustle up a snack too, if you’re hungry.”

  “Coffee sounds great,” General Hogan said.

  They started towards the clubhouse. Frank turned towards the privates and smiled. “Great to see you men,” he said.

  “Same here,” Private Brown said. “Thanks so much for helping us get my dad back.”

  “You’re welcome,” Frank said. “Glad things turned out alright.”

  They got inside, and Hilda led the General Hogan and the Privates to the kitchen for some coffee. Then she joined Charlie at the front of the room. Everybody was there, sitting at the rows of tables facing the stage.

  “How’s everybody doing?” Charlie asked.

  “Glad to see the General,” Jeb said, smiling.

  “Me too,” Kurt said. There was a murmur of agreement floating through the room.

  General Hogan and the Privates sat down at one of the long tables, facing the group. Then the General stood up and smiled at the crowd.

  “Good to see all of you,” he said. “I want to thank you for helping to free me.”

  “Ah, Frank did the work on that,” Earl said.

  “True, but your team kept him safe, and allowed the work to get done,” the General said. “You all had a part in this.”

  “I agree with that 100%,” Frank said. “All of us have our talents, and our contributions.”

  “This is a formidable team,” the General said. “And we’re going to have to call on you one more time.”

  “We know,” Jerry said. “Saladin.”

  “Yes, Saladin,” General Hogan said. He scanned the room, and then got a huge grin on his face. “George!”

  “Hi, General. How the hell are you?” he asked.

  “I’ve been better, old friend. You’ve thrown in with these folks. Good.”

  “Yeah, we have,” George said. “Good group of people. We’ve already seen action together, too.”

  “Yes, I was briefed about that ambush, and the incident at the bridge. Nice work. We’ll catch up later, I hope.”

  “Of course,” George said. “Oh, this is Heidi. You’ve probably heard of Malcolm Davis.”

  “Yes, fascinating stories,” General Hogan said. “Glad you’re here.”

  “Thank you, Sir,” Malcolm said. “Glad to be here.”

  “Okay, let’s get started,” Charlie said. “Where do we stand, and what do you need us to do?”

  “I’ll lay it out,” General Hogan said. “Things are still shifting a little, though.”

  “Understand,” Charlie said. “Go ahead.”

  “We know, thanks to Frank’s apps, that there’s a group of enemy fighters at Capitol Reef National Park,” the General said. “We also have the names file, and have put plans in place to nab all of the enemy operatives at the Pentagon, and in the Executive and Legislative branches of our government.”

  “Good, Sam Hinton gave you the file,” George said.

  “Yeah, but we’re afraid it’s only a partial list, after the incident with General Kincaid.”

  “We are going to have a complex timing issue,” Jeb said. “Right?”

  “Yes, Jeb, you hit the nail on the head,” General Hogan said. “We have a huge advantage at the moment, but it’s fragile.”

  “The enemy thinks we can’t see them anymore,” Kurt said, chuckling. “Right?”

  “Yep, from what we can tell, they think we’re in the dark,” General Hogan said. “It won’t take much to make them realize they’re in trouble, though. We’ve got a big event coming, too.”

  “The auto-release of the apps,” Earl said.

  “Precisely,” the General replied. “We need to load the bases before Frank hits the ball out of the park, folks. That’s what I want to plan. We have a team in DC that’s getting ready to nail the operatives there. We need a team here to hit Saladin, and we’ve got to be very careful about bringing in Army assets.”

  “General, there’s been some upgrades to the apps,” Frank said. “I don’t know if you’ve been told about all of them yet.”

  “I know you added the country codes and ranks,” he said. “I assume you’ve also added names by now.”

  “Yes, the names are added, and you’ll all get upgraded mobile apps as soon as we’re done talking. What’s turned out to be most important, in some ways, is the new long range close-in view program.”

  “What does that do?” the General asked.

  “It’s like the original long range app, but it has much greater resolution. We can zero in on buildings or even rooms with this app. There’s only one problem with it.”

  “What’s that?”

  “It takes a lot of computing power, so I can’t put it on phones or other mobile devices. It runs best on a PC or a higher end lap top.”

  “Interesting capability,” the General said. “We can probably find a use for that.”

  “We already have,” Jerry said. “How do you think we found out what building you were in?”

  “Oh, really?” the General asked.

  “That’s what I was trying to tell you, dad,” Private Brown said. “I probably didn’t explain it very well.”

  “I get it now,” the General said. “Sorry, son. I assume, Frank, that you’ve already used this thing to zero in on Capitol Reef?”

  “Yes, General. In fact, it’s on the screen right now, if you’d like to step over here and take a look.”

  “Why, yes,” the General said, getting up and following Frank over the PC. Frank sat down in front of it, and the General stood behind him, looking at the screen.

  “The highest concentration of icons is in the back area of the park, under this huge outcropping of rock, and the surrounding ravines,” Frank said. He toggled on the names. “Look, there’s Saladin.”

  “Well I’ll be damned,” he said.

  Frank moved to the front gate. “There’s a new concentration, in this warehouse building behind the front office,” he said.

  “There’s also a tank in that building,” Jerry said.

  “You can’t tell that with this app, can you?” the General asked.

  “No, we got onto the video camera system a while back, and were watching when it appeared. Remember that ambush that they tried to set up? We saw the enemy get chased in here by some of your guys, and the tank opened up on them. Not a pretty sight.”

  “Oh, yeah. I remember,” the General said grimly. “You still have access to the cameras?”

  “Yeah, but they moved a few of them, so they’re no longer pointing in an advantageous direction.” Frank zoomed out further. “Look at this.”

  “Is that more people coming in?” the General asked, with a grin on his face.

  “Sure is,” Frank said. “They’re getting ready for a meeting or something.”

  “Well, this confirms one thing,” the General said, chuckling. “We were right. They think we can’t see them anymore.”

  Howard was driving down the dirt road, towards the barn. Nobody was around. He pulled his class C inside, doing a K-turn to get it pointed back towards the doors. He shut down the engine and rushed out, looking for Scott. He wasn’t there. The girl’s body was, though. It was
already starting to smell a little ripe. He looked closely at the straw covered floor, and could see where Scott crawled towards the wall. Then he saw a few drops of blood, long the wall leading to the doors, and around the outside. He got out of here. He’s probably still alive. Howard followed the trail. It led out to the gravel road that continued past the barn.

  “Tire tracks,” he said, looking down. “Fresh.” Then he noticed the old farm house, with its wrap-around porch. It was down the road about a hundred yards. The house looked deserted, so Howard approached, squinting to focus in. The door suddenly pushed open, and a young man stepped out onto the porch, scanning the area. Howard tried to get behind something, but he wasn’t fast enough; they made eye contact, and then the young man went back in the door. A second later he was back out, with another young man who looked just like him. Twins?

  Chapter 17 – The End of the Beginning

  “You really think this movement of enemy fighters to Capitol Reef means they think we can’t see them anymore?” Earl asked.

  “I do,” the General said. “They probably think we’ll crack it again, though. This rapid influx of fighters smacks of panic to me. They want to accomplish something before they’re exposed again. I can feel it.”

  “We gonna hit ‘em?” Gabe asked.

  “That’s going to be my suggestion, but you guys are going to need some help,” he replied.

  “Perhaps we can do something similar to what we did to that away team,” Jeb said. “Set up an ambush, and slaughter them. They aren’t too bright.”

  “Sometimes yes, sometimes no. We’ve got to assume that they are watching for that,” General Hogan said. “Judging by how many of them have infiltrated the Pentagon and other parts of the government, they might have access to all kinds of capability.”

  “Let’s brainstorm this, step by step,” Frank said. “We know where the leadership is hiding. We can place them within yards. We can also see where the men protecting them are.

  “Yes,” the General said.

  “Let’s eliminate the obvious things first. We know we can’t drive in the front gate. They’re watching, and they’ve got men and a tank in place,” Frank said.