Bug Out! Part 11: Motorhomes on the Dark Road

by Robert Boren

  “Well, I guess I am getting a little tired,” Howard said, standing. He stretched and yawned. “Lot of driving today.”

  “I figured,” Scott said. “I’m beat too, and I didn’t drive at all. Let’s go upstairs.”

  “Who am I sleeping with tonight?” Bailey asked.

  “Whoever you want to,” Scott said. “Or alone.”

  “After watching this, it won’t be alone.”

  ***

  “Route 50 should be down this road and to the left,” Hilda said, making the right turn onto the small street. “Side street. Dammit, it’s dark back here. Makes me nervous.”

  “I’ve got my eyes peeled,” Gabe said.

  “Me too,” Earl said. “Is that the on-ramp coming up?”

  “Yes,” Hilda said, eyes darting around in every direction as she drove. She made the left turn onto the highway and sped up, getting to 65 in short order, calming down.

  “That was a creepy road,” Gabe said.

  “This road isn’t much better,” Hilda said. “Where is everybody?”

  “Oh, we’ll see more people,” Earl said. “This is probably the only safe road through Colorado right now.”

  “You don’t think Denver is safe, now that the army has finally kicked the enemy out of there?” Hilda asked.

  “I still see all kinds of icons in the Denver area,” Gabe said. “I know the largest clump is captured, but I’ll bet there are still bad guys on the loose.”

  “Here comes somebody behind us,” Earl said.

  “Van?” Hilda asked, her voice wavering as she looked in the rear view mirror.

  “Nah, semi-truck,” Earl said. “There’s a sedan coming alongside them in the left lane, too. We aren’t alone.”

  Hilda’s phone rang, startling her. She rooted around in her purse, finally finding it by touch, and answered it.

  “Hilda?”

  “Hi, Charlie. You sound like you’re in a car.”

  “Yeah, we decided to head in your direction and meet up with you guys, just in case.”

  “I’m glad, actually,” Hilda said. “It’s creepy out here.”

  “Any sign of that van, sweetie?”

  “Not so far. There are other people on this road, but not enough to make me feel comfortable.”

  “Well, don’t you worry. We’ll be there soon. We’re in my SUV, and the army Humvee is with us.”

  “The privates are coming? Who’s watching the park?”

  “Everybody who’s left there. Dobie and Jackson are with me. There’s still plenty of people at the park.”

  “Good. Thanks honey.”

  “Don’t mention it. Talk to you soon.”

  Hilda put her phone back.

  “Who’s coming to meet us?” Earl asked.

  “Charlie, Jackson, and Dobie,” Hilda said. “Plus the privates, in the Humvee.”

  “Good,” Gabe said. “That’ll make things a little easier. Might even allow us to lay over tonight if we can’t finish the drive in one chunk.”

  “We’re going to lose cell service on and off,” Earl said. “We might want to contact them every ten or fifteen minutes, to keep track of where they are. Sometimes we can’t see the westbound lanes from this side.”

  “Good idea,” Gabe said. “I’ll do that. I’ve got the numbers.”

  “Me too,” Earl said. “In fact, I’m going to call Jackson right now.”

  Earl tapped the contact on his phone and put it to his ear.

  “Earl! How are you, man?”

  “Good, Jackson. Great to hear your voice.”

  “What’s up?”

  “We’re thinking we ought to make contact every ten or fifteen minutes, as long as we can. We’re going to run into spotty cell coverage, and we can’t always see the westbound lanes from here. We’re liable to pass each other by.”

  “Damn good idea, Earl. Let’s do that.”

  “Where are you guys now?”

  “We’re still in Kansas, but we’ll be getting to the border pretty soon.”

  “Maybe we can meet in Salida. That’s about half way between us.”

  “Okay, Earl, I’ll keep that in mind if we get disconnected.”

  “Sounds great.”

  “Later, Jackson.”

  “Yeah, later.”

  Earl put his phone back in his pocket and noted the time.

  “He good with it?” Gabe asked.

  “Yeah,” Earl said. “A few more lights coming behind us.”

  “I see them,” Hilda said. “None of them look like the van.”

  “Good,” Gabe said.

  “You think it was a good idea sending seven men after us?” Hilda said. “What if the park gets hit?”

  “We’ve still got a lot of people there,” Earl said. “Kurt, Terry, Frank, Jerry, and the Sheriff.”

  “Don’t forget George and Malcolm,” Gabe said.

  “Heidi, Jane, and Jasmine, too,” Hilda said. “All of them have proved themselves. I guess we’re all right.”

  “More semi-trucks,” Earl said. “Lots of commerce on this road.”

  “Well, like you said, it’s the only good way to avoid Denver,” Gabe said.

  “Oh, no, look,” Hilda said, a tremor in her voice. “The van. Coming quickly.”

  “Crap,” Earl said. “Looks like them alright. Gabe, call Jackson, while I get the rifle ready.”

  “Think they’d try anything with all this other traffic around?” Hilda asked.

  “Are we really sure it’s them?” Gabe asked. “They sold a million of those old Ford vans.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket.

  “It’s hanging back now, about the same distance as it was before,” Hilda said. “This isn’t good.”

  “Son of a bitch, I got no bars,” Gabe said.

  Chapter 3 – Open Road

  Charlie was behind the wheel of the SUV. Jackson was in the passenger seat, and Dobie was in the back seat, petting Duchess, who was sitting up in the back, scanning the road in all directions.

  “Here comes the border,” Charlie said.

  “Already?” Dobie asked.

  “I’ve been doing about 90,” Charlie said, chuckling. “Needed to blow the carbon out of this thing anyway.”

  “Welcome to Colorado,” Jackson said as they flew by the border marker.

  “Uh oh,” Charlie said.

  “What?” Dobie asked.

  “Something missing over on the right.”

  “Crap, there’s no eastbound roadblock,” Jackson said. “Wonder when that came down?”

  “Probably when the bulk of the enemy in Denver got captured or killed,” Dobie said.

  “I should call home,” Jackson said.

  “Yeah, you do that,” Charlie said. Jackson pulled his phone out of his pocket and tapped a contact.

  “Frank?”

  “Yeah, this Jackson?”

  “Yeah. We saw something you guys need to know about. Might want to talk to the general about it.”

  “What’s that?”

  “The roadblock on the eastbound side of route 40 is gone.”

  “Shit, really?”

  “Yep.”

  “Okay, I’ll go chat with him.”

  “Thanks, Frank.” Jackson took his phone away from his ear.

  “He sound surprised?” Charlie asked.

  “Surprised and worried,” Jackson said. “He’s gonna talk to General Hogan.”

  “I’ll try Earl again,” Jackson said. He tapped his contact and held the phone to his ear for a few moments. “Earl, we just passed the border. Be advised that there is no longer a border stop on the eastbound side of route 40. Talk to you soon.”

  “That sounded like a message,” Charlie said.

  “They’re in a dark zone,” Jackson said. “Went straight to voice mail.”

  “How come you didn’t leave the time?” he asked.

  “I know why,” Dobie said. “When Earl gets the message, he’ll get the timestamp info.”

  “Ah, th
at’s right,” Charlie said. “Chalk that up to being the old guy.”

  “Looks pretty flat and straight ahead,” Jackson said.

  “Yeah, I’ll keep it up at 90 as long as I can,” Charlie said, eyes bearing down on the road.

  ***

  Frank put his phone in his pocket, a concerned expression on his face.

  “What?” Jerry asked. “Trouble on the road already?”

  “Yeah, the roadblock on eastbound 40 is gone,” Frank said. “Let’s go chat with the general.”

  “He’s in the lounge, I think,” Jerry said. Jane and Jasmine looked at each other, worried.

  “You two want to come?” Jerry asked.

  “I think I’d rather keep scanning,” Jane said.

  “Me too,” Jasmine said.

  “Okay, be back in a few minutes,” Frank said. He and Jerry went into the kitchen and down through the trap door.

  General Hogan was sitting on the couch, reading.

  “Hey, general,” Frank said. He looked up from his book. “What are you reading?”

  “Hemingway,” he said. “What’s up?”

  “We just heard from Jackson. The roadblock on the east bound side of route 40 is gone.”

  “Already? Shit. Knew it was coming, but there’s still a lot of stragglers.”

  “You think it’s too early?” Jerry asked.

  “Yeah,” he said. “We might want to have somebody watching the cameras and monitoring the audio dishes, just in case.”

  “Maybe we ought to put folks on duty,” Jerry said.

  “On the roofs?” Frank asked.

  “Yeah,” Jerry said. “Think it’s too late to call a meeting?”

  “In this case, no,” Frank said. “We’re stretched a little too thin.”

  “Okay, let’s do it, then. In the clubhouse?” General Hogan asked.

  “Yeah,” Frank said. “Let’s go round people up. Hopefully they aren’t asleep yet.”

  Jerry and Frank went up the stairs to the barn trap door, and into the coach section, knocking on doors and telling people about the meeting. People started arriving in the clubhouse before they got back.

  Jane and Jasmine turned as they heard people coming in.

  “What’s going on?” Jane asked.

  “Jerry and Frank just called a meeting,” Mary said, looking sleepy as she walked in with Kurt.

  General Hogan appeared in the door of the kitchen. “Wow, that was fast.”

  “Yeah, we’re used to this,” Kurt said, chuckling. “Something wrong on the road?”

  “The roadblock is gone on route 40,” General Hogan said. “We figured we’d better plan some strategy, and start watching.”

  “No, really?” Mary asked.

  “Afraid so,” he replied.

  The Sheriff, Terry, Trish, and Jake came in as a group, followed by Malcolm, George, and Heidi. Jerry and Frank came in last.

  “Looks like everybody’s here,” Kurt said.

  “Smaller group than I’m used to,” the Sheriff said, looking around, his brow furrowed. “Hope we didn’t set ourselves up for disaster by letting so many people take off at once.”

  “We’ve still got considerable capability,” General Hogan said.

  Frank went to the front of the room. “Okay, you already know what happened. Jackson called and let me know that the eastbound roadblock on route 40 is gone. That means anybody could just roll into Kansas now.”

  “We also know that the enemy has been traveling in shielded vans,” Jerry said. “They came in one when they attempted to attack the hospital that Jeb and Rosie are at.”

  Trish looked up at Terry, terror in her eyes. He petted her head. “Don’t worry, sweetie,” he said.

  “We need to brainstorm this,” Malcolm said. “Otherwise we’ll get into a tizzy. It might not be as bad as we think.”

  “That’s true,” George said. “Remember, they can’t hide a large number of fighters from us. At least not a large enough number to take this place.”

  “Ideas?” Jerry asked.

  “Man that 50 cal up on the roof of the barn,” Kurt said. “Any van or group of vans coming down the road is gonna have a bad day.”

  “Yeah, and put snipers with hunting rifles on the lower roofs to clean up the mess,” Terry said.

  “I think that’s prudent,” General Hogan said.

  “You know, they could shield the back of a semi,” Kurt said. “They could fit 40 to 50 men in a rig that size.”

  Jane got a worried look on her face. “Could we handle that many enemy fighters?”

  “If we see them far enough out, yes,” George said. “One thing to remember. There’s no reason for a vehicle like that to be on any of the roads we can see from the roof of the barn. It will make the attack decision easy. We see it coming, we take it out. I suggest we have mortars ready too, just in case. It’ll be harder to shoot into the back of a truck that’s shielded with lead.”

  “What if we spiked all the incoming roads?” Jake asked. “I know how.”

  “Too much flat dirt on either side,” the Sheriff said. “That would’ve worked well at Gabe’s place though.”

  “How many different routes are there to the park?” General Hogan asked.

  “On that,” Jane said, bringing up Google Earth on her laptop.

  “You’re thinking we should follow them out to the source road and put a sentry or two there for early warning?” asked Kurt.

  “Yeah,” General Hogan said. “If there’s ten ways to come in here, we can’t do it, though.”

  “Forget it, guys,” Jane said. “We could have enemy fighters coming in from too many directions unless some of the roads are still bottled up. They could come in via I-70, route 40, route 50, or route 96. Even way south on route 160 is a possibility. All they have to do is get to that north-south road, route 27, which they all run into.”

  “They have to come through Sharon Springs to get here,” Kurt said.

  “Yeah, but there’s a lot traffic around there,” the Sheriff said.

  “There’s still only one way to get on the roads to us, though,” Kurt said. “It’s the same road we came on, back behind Howard’s truck stop. It’s a pinch point.”

  “You know the roads pretty well, don’t you, Kurt?” Malcolm asked.

  “Yeah, I used to visit Chet every so often,” he said, brow furrowing. “Why?”

  “Perhaps you and I ought to take cruise over there and watch the pinch point,” Malcolm said.

  “That would take two of our best snipers off line,” General Hogan said.

  “You’ll still have enough, and we could come up from behind if anything happens here,” Malcolm said. “We’ll hear it. Nothing like a little cross-fire.”

  “If Kurt goes, I’m going too,” Mary said.

  “Can you shoot?” Malcolm asked.

  “No,” she said.

  “Honey, think about this for a minute,” Kurt said. “We’re liable to have wounded people coming in. What are we gonna do if we lose you?”

  “Why does it have to be you?” she asked.

  “Because I know the town, and the roads,” Kurt said. “If Charlie was here, he could probably get by, too. Maybe even Hilda. They’re both gone.”

  “Alright, alright,” Mary said. “Don’t you dare get killed.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine,” he said.

  “What else?” Jerry said.

  “What do we already have set up?” General Hogan asked.

  “Well, the M107 is already on the roof of the barn,” George said. “With ammo, ready to go. We need somebody not afraid of heights to be up there with me, and a couple good hunting rifles.”

  “I can join you up there,” Terry said. He glanced down at Trish. She nodded slowly back at him, worried but resigned.

  “So can I,” Heidi said. “I even know how to fire the beast, remember?” George looked at her, and pulled her close, smiling.

  “We set up the lower roofs already,” Kurt said. “D
id it when the Capitol Reef attack was happening. All we have to do is send men up there with rifles. We could be ready in less than two minutes.”

  “The mortars are set up too,” Jake said. “I helped with that, and got training on them from Jackson.”

  “Okay, then I suggest that we have somebody on the roof of the barn starting now,” General Hogan said.

  “Everybody agree?” Frank asked.

  Nobody objected.

  “All right, let’s go,” Jerry said.

  ***

  Hilda was still driving, the road getting darker, switchbacks just starting up. They were off the wider part of the road now.

  “You okay?” Gabe asked. “Want me to take over?”

  “We can’t stop now,” she said, looking in her rear-view mirror.

  “It’s still hanging back,” Earl said. “You think they’re wanting to follow us back?”

  “Why would they?” Gabe asked. “They already know where the RV Park is. I think they’ll make a move before that.”

  “What’s the next town?” Hilda asked.

  “Should be Cimarron,” Gabe said. “We’ll get cell coverage back there, I suspect.”

  Earl was looking at his phone. “I got a voice mail somewhere along the line. Coverage must be in and out.” He pushed the play button and put the phone to his ear. His expression changed, a worried look washing over him.

  “Uh oh, what?” Gabe asked.

  “Charlie’s SUV just passed into Colorado a little while ago,” Earl said. “The roadblock on eastbound 40 is gone.”

  “Son of a bitch,” Gabe said. “I hope the guys at home are getting ready.”

  “Me too,” Hilda said. “Starting to get a little more curvy now. I can’t see the van most of the time.”

  “Don’t go too fast,” Gabe said. “Some of these curves are gonna be tight, and this isn’t a sports car.”

  “I know,” Hilda said. “Maybe if it’s safe to stop in Cimarron we can switch.”

  “Okay with me,” Gabe said.

  “We’re getting closer now,” Earl said. “I’ve got bars. Looking at GPS now.”

  “Here’s a straight section,” Gabe said. He turned to look behind them. The van showed up, but it took longer than he expected.