Stolen Liberty: Behind the Curtain

by Thomas A. Watson

  “You be careful, Uncle Robbie.”

  “Shoot. I feel sorry for anyone who gets in my way. If I have to bring the boys back here, there is going to be a reckoning.” Robbie headed to the truck with Jerome in tow. The street lamps illuminated the interior of the camper shell enough for Jerome to grab a simple black bag with his basic supplies for a week. The two men had discussed the necessities, and Jerome had followed Robbie’s lead when it came time to get his “go bag” together. ‘Just the essentials; food, water, ammo, extra socks, and hygiene products for the bag. Everything else just slows you down’.

  “I’ll check in with you when I stop for gas. I’m thinking three hours until then. The trip there and back puts me at about sunrise when I get here, barring any unforeseen problems. Getting everyone out of here is the goal. Everything else can wait until that happens, Jerome.”

  “I got you, Robbie. Don’t scratch my paint,” Jerome warned, shutting the camper shell and tossing Robbie the keys.

  Pressing the fob, Robbie unlocked the driver door and cranked the crew cab work truck over and let the engine idle while he took the time to set the power mirrors for himself. In the floorboard of the passenger side, Robbie had his own black backpack with his gear. The older truck lacked a GPS unit, which Robbie didn’t mind since he had multiple routes memorized. When he hit the residential street at the end of the block, Robbie took a left and ended up back on Cicero. The sickly yellow sodium vapor lamps lining the major thoroughfare cast deep shadows between the buildings. Robbie paused and looked north and south without seeing any tell-tale glints of flashing red and blue lights.

  “No roadblocks, at least not yet,” he said to himself. He turned right and headed south and away from the cracking gunfire picking up in the denser neighborhoods inside of the Chicago city limits. Glancing out the side window, Robbie spotted a Southwest flight coming into Midway. “The planes are still landing. Don’t know how much longer that is going to happen.”

  In the suburb of Alsip, Robbie skipped the entrance to the Tri-State Toll Road and headed further south. He didn’t want to get Jerome’s plates scanned this close to Kristi’s house, so he lost time by fighting the mistimed traffic lights. For him, a yellow light was a red. He knew the traffic cameras were all over the place and linked to a central system. At least, that’s what he thought. Cicero Avenue paralleled the toll road roughly, so Robbie knew when he reached 183th Street in Country Club Hills, he could turn left and start heading east. The heavily-wooded Wampum Lake Woods and Brownwell Woods forced Robbie to jog to the south and cut through a secluded residential neighborhood and around a private academy to hit a relatively unknown back road that turned into the Main Street of Glenwood. Robbie found Highway 30 and followed it to I-65.

  Feeling he had the time, Robbie pulled over and considered his options. Staying on the surface roads would almost double his driving time, but he could stay under the radar of the Feds. Since they had Kenosha sewn up, Robbie figured they would be beating down every door in Wisconsin looking for him and others like him. Since he’d crossed over into Indiana near Dyer, he jumped onto Interstate 65 and headed toward Indianapolis. He stopped only for fuel at the stations he had scoped out, where they didn’t have security cameras worth a flip and he could park the truck away from the cameras inside the store.

  He paid cash at each fuel stop, instead of leaving an electronic paper trail of breadcrumbs to the safety of the retreat. Jerome had a line of fuel cans in the bed of the truck, but Robbie opted to save them for the coming troubles he expected.

  Outside of Indianapolis, Robbie exited the interstate and pulled his rifle from the case in the back seat. He didn’t expect trouble in Indianapolis, but the radio stations had warned about widespread unrest in several major cities.

  He didn’t want to access the internet on his phone, but he suspected the loop around the city would have issues.

  Instead, he called Kristi’s home and got Jerome to look for him.

  Jerome answered after one ring. “Clark, your mom is still at work. Everything is good here, though.”

  “Uncle Jerome, can you look up traffic for me around Indianapolis? I want to avoid bad traffic,” Robbie asked and cursed the bad news.

  Jerome pulled up the information from the laptop. On any given day, the 865 and 465 loops around the north of Indianapolis suffered horrible congestion and accidents.

  “It looks like Indie is a complete nightmare. The interstates into downtown and the loops all show red. When I click on the little icons for the alert, the information shows ‘ongoing incident’, like we don’t know what’s really up.”

  “I was afraid of that. Okay, expect me back later than anticipated. I don’t want to get stuck in that. Do you see any issues heading east out of the city?”

  “Nah, that looks clear, buddy. Just looking around the last few hours, I see traffic going red all over the place in the cities. You made it out of town right before the Mile Long Bridge went down. The news cut in and said a suspicious package had halted all operations on the toll road.”

  Feeling a hundred years old, Robbie rubbed at his face. “You know that’s bullshit, right?”

  “Oh, hell, yes. Hey, the kids are antsy for Kristi to get home. I fed them and told them to finish up packing. Anything special we going to need?” Jerome asked.

  Robbie thought about the mounds of camping gear the boys had bought the kids over the years. “Jerome, get clothes to fit your boys, in case we have to hoof it. Clark has some decent hiking boots that don’t fit any more in the basement storage. Get packs for you and the boys set up. Clark knows what to bring.”

  For a few seconds the phone was silent, then Jerome let out a low whistle, “Man, how far you thinking we need to hike?”

  “Worst case? We walk all the way to safety.”

  “Damn. Okay, let me get busy packing.” Jerome said goodbye and hung up. Robbie put the truck in drive and searched for the exit that would take him around Indianapolis.

  Robbie dropped off south of Lebanon and followed the smaller, but safer state highway east through the fields getting plowed for the spring planting or still fallow from the long winter. He cut south and ran down to Carmel before heading east and south until he found I-70, then picked up speed once again.

  Between Dayton and Columbus, Ohio, Robbie threaded his way southeast and into the hills close to the border with West Virginia. Sometime after midnight, he pulled up to the locked gate at the driveway up to the retreat and shifted the truck into park. He waited for a second before flashing his brights twice and then killing the lights.

  Shadow tapped his arm and scared the living hell out of him. Robbie jumped off the seat, hitting his head on the roof and let out a small yell before he calmed down.

  “Where the hell are they?!” Randy cried out, looking into the backseat. “Why do I see vacant seats, Blaster?” Charlie stepped out from the shadows near the passenger side of the truck.

  “Robbie, you had one job,” Charlie grumbled.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Retreat

  “What the hell, Blaster?” Aaron snapped as he unlocked the padlock and stepped out to open the unassuming aluminum gate. The boys didn’t want to draw attention to themselves by throwing up a hardened defense that could lead to more curious people showing up.

  Robbie, exhausted from the stress of the long drive, popped off at the man. “Hell, Cobra, I didn’t see you there. Why don’t you smile more, so we can see you in the dark?”

  “Hey, I’m not the one who screwed the pooch, hillbilly. Get your narrow ass up to the house so we can fix your screw up.” Aaron held the gate and waited. Randy and Charlie hopped into the truck with their weapons and full “battle rattle”.

  Cranking the truck, Robbie moved it onto the property and waited for Aaron to shut the gate behind them before climbing into the front passenger seat.

  Robbie didn’t question who would watch the gate. Cody had the entire property wired and set up on a network of cameras
with motion sensors. The whole shebang had a dedicated network, disconnected from the internet and with monitors in the clubhouse.

  “What was the situation on the roads?” Charlie asked from behind Robbie.

  “Rural interstates are still open, but I don’t know for how long. Jerome gave me an update four hours ago outside Indianapolis, and the cities are going into lockdown,” Robbie informed them.

  Leaning between the seats, Randy took in a sharp breath. “You didn’t use your phone, did you? They are probably tracking them. Shit! Give it here, we have to shut it down.” He reached his hand forward and patted at Robbie’s pockets on his jacket.

  Lifting his arm off the door rest, Robbie slapped at his hand with the claw. “Ease up, Shadow. I pulled the card and shut it off hours ago. It’s not my phone anyway, it’s Clark’s. Besides, the cell network got funky and I kept losing signal in areas where I normally have 4G.”

  “Do you think they are pulling the plug on wireless communications?” Charlie asked.

  “Let’s ask Cody. He is here, right?” Robbie asked as they pulled up to the clubhouse. Robbie backed up to the porch and shut off the truck. “We need to unload the gear back there and load up for an extraction.”

  The boys piled out and Robbie opened the tailgate and camper shell door with Jerome’s keys.

  “Jesus, Blaster. What the hell did you bring?” Randy gasped when he shifted Robbie’s pack to the side and saw what looked like plumbing supplies.

  Undeterred, Robbie pulled the pack further out of the way and set it aside with another large black gym bag and a square Pelican case. “I had some good quality pipe I didn’t want to leave behind, as well as some chemicals we may need.”

  “Classic Blaster. You brought your damn explosives factory down here. Don’t you have enough in your storage buildings already?” Aaron chuckled and started pulling pipe from the truck. Aaron’s wife, Liz, came out of the clubhouse.

  “It’s almost two in the damn morning. What the hell are you boys up to now?” She stood in an ankle-length robe and rubbed at her puffy eyes.

  “Sorry, Liz. I got caught up in traffic,” Robbie smiled at Aaron’s better half.

  “Why don’t you wait until morning to unload? You are going to wake everyone up,” Liz complained. Aaron had gone and married a practical woman who shared his love of horses and nature, but she did not like missing out on her beauty sleep. The boys liked to give Aaron a hard time, but they all liked Liz.

  Randy pulled another pipe and Charlie helped stack the thick tubing under the porch and out of the elements. “It doesn’t matter if it gets a little rain on it,” Robbie smirked as he dragged a pipe cutter from the bed.

  “Heck, Blaster. I already brought one of those,” Randy shook his head.

  Cocking an eyebrow up, Robbie laughed, “Two is one, right?” Randy shrugged and took the contraption from Robbie and carried it around the clubhouse to stack it with the rest of the tools.

  Cody came out and saw the activity and counted heads. “What happened?”

  “We gotta go back. Somebody forgot to do his damn job,” Aaron pointed at Robbie. “And for the record, we all agreed that since he lived the closest, it was the logical decision.”

  “Get off my ass, Cobra. I can’t extract them alone. Kristi got called into work before the shit got bad and they put her hospital on lockdown,” Robbie complained. “They were locking nurses up that didn’t report for work.”

  “Well, that explains Kristi. What about the kids?” Cody asked as he pitched in to unload the truck. Pulling out a five-gallon bucket and reading the label, Cody whistled. “Should you be carrying this much chemical around with you?”

  Only answering with a grin, Robbie pulled another pail from the bed of the truck. “Just don’t mix it with this. But about the kids, Babyface. You wanted me to risk getting them engaged in a felony stop alone? Jerome is a fighter, but not a trained trigger man.”

  “No, that was the right call,” Cody sighed, turning back to the truck. Cody saw the line of fuel cans in the bed along with other five-gallon buckets of chemicals, and his mouth fell open. “Dear Lord. Are those full?”

  “Yes, they are. The gas tank on this beast is not big enough to get here without topping it off. That’s my emergency reserve. We are going to need it to get back.”

  Mumbling to himself, Cody shook his head and carried two of the buckets away. “Put those in my shed, would you?” Robbie called out.

  Freezing in his tracks, Cody looked back. “I’m putting them as far away from each other as I can. You are insane, you know?”

  Walking around the truck, Randy caught Cody and checked the buckets. “Jesus, Blaster. What the hell?” He shook his head and came back to help with the last of the bags and Rubbermaid totes. “Did Jerome know what he had back here?”

  Feeling rather cheerful despite the circumstances, Robbie giggled, “Nope. He did ask why the hell I brought cleaning supplies, fertilizers, mothballs and hair care products in such large quantities. Yeah, he had no clue.”

  “You have a sickness, Blaster,” Randy chuckled and helped his friend carry his gear into the clubhouse. Everyone knew, when Blaster giggled, it was going to be a bad day for someone. Exciting, colorful, and energetic, but a bad day was coming for someone.

  “Where are Mom and Pop? I was mostly afraid I’d wake them up.” Robbie scanned the big open room and saw a striking woman stand up from a recliner in the theater section and rub at her eyes.

  Charlie went to her and leaned close to speak with her.

  “Who’s that?” Robbie asked Randy in a low voice.

  “Charlie picked up a stray. I think she is some kind of legal beagle like Book. He hasn’t said much about her except her name is Joan, but I think there is some chemistry there,” Randy smiled at the two whispering. “I’m wondering if that’s the one he spoke of, but he’s not giving the intel on the situation.”

  Watching Charlie talk to the hottie made Robbie smile. “Good for him. He got himself a gal that he doesn’t have to worry about me stealing away from him with my wicked charm.” Walking into the living room, Robbie set the gym bag down and unzipped it before he started removing items and laying them out on the floor.

  “What? A girl you aren’t going to sniff around and try to mount the first time you see her? I’m shocked, Blaster.” Walking off, Randy dragged an almost identical bag from beside the door and started assembling his own gear.

  “She’s got pointy elbows. I like my ladies with extra cushion for comfort,” Robbie quipped while he added tape to a magazine to keep it from rattling in the chest rig. Randy had a similar setup. For that matter, they had the same gear, but individualized the pouches for their own preferences.

  The door opened and Cody came in with Aaron. Cody had his own bag, but Aaron did not.

  “You are staying here to watch out for your family and hold the fort, right?” Robbie asked Aaron.

  With a pained expression, Aaron shrugged, “The truck is only so big, and I’m not in shape for an extraction. I think I’m needed here to watch over the place.”

  “I was going to suggest that, Cobra, but I didn’t want to offend you.” Randy popped the lens covers on his optic off his AR and checked for dirt or smudges.

  Moving over, Aaron sat in a chair and helped Cody get his gear sorted out. “I want to come, but with Liz here and now Joan, we need a trigger puller to keep up security.”

  Charlie walked over with Joan standing very close to him. “And for that, I’m grateful, Aaron. Joan is a quick study, so put her to work. Will Liz be okay manning the security monitors in here?”

  Hearing her name, Liz walked over from where Andre and Eli, her two sons, slept on the floor in their sleeping bags. Even though everyone had cabins, everyone wanted to be close as their world crumbled. “Don’t walk on eggshells, Charlie. Yes, I’m fine watching the monitors. As soon as Aaron breaks out the rest of our guns, I’m also going to help with security. I have my own babies to worry about.” />
  “Why aren’t the boys in your cabin? Wouldn’t they be more comfortable there in their beds?” Robbie asked.

  “I wanted them all close to you boys. They are fine ‘camping out’ in here. They sleep like the dead most times, so don’t you worry about waking them.” Liz looked at the three men loading magazines and packing their assault packs. “How long do you expect to be gone?”

  Letting out a sigh, Randy paused and looked at Robbie. Not about to answer, Robbie shrugged and looked at Charlie. The room went quiet until Cody broke the silence at last. “This could be fourteen hours, or it could end up being weeks.” He glanced at Robbie.

  “Yeah, he’s right. I have several escape routes mapped out and ready to act on, but I can’t be sure.” Lifting his claw, Robbie pointed to a laptop bag in his duffel. “Cody, check my laptop and pop in the thumb drive I have in the pocket of the carry case. It has all of my routes programmed in.”

  “Once we get into the city, how are we going to extract?” Cody asked.

  “That’s a good question. I hope you all have boots that are broken in, because we might have to walk it out. Been a while since we humped combat loads any distance,” Robbie looked at Randy. With a grin, Randy looked at his prosthetic foot.

  “Shit, son. I can drag myself on my belly that far if I have to. Can you and your stubby legs keep up?” Randy retorted.

  Squaring his shoulders back, Robbie stood up in mock anger. “They are not stumpy, Shadow. I’m just big boned!” Liz slapped him lightly on the arm.

  “Don’t wake the boys!” she hissed.

  “I thought you said they were heavy sleepers!” Robbie complained.

  Giving a long sigh, Liz rolled her eyes. “Not so heavy that they could sleep through a damn earthquake! Keep your voices down.”

  “Well, shoot, Liz. I guess we have one more silencer in the group,” Robbie said and reached into his bag and pulled out a thick metal tube and locked it into place at the end of his rifle barrel. “Now I’m going to be real quiet for y'all.” Randy and Cody followed suit and did a weapon’s check.