Dark Days Rough Roads dd-1

by Matthew D. Mark

  Rich told her no. “You need to stay with Elizabeth. It’ll take them a half hour─tops to get there and back. That’ll have to do.” He knew Erik would not be there, but couldn’t dash her hopes.

  * * *

  Haliday walked over to the Tahoe with Mike. Linda and Kayla were inside with George and his family finishing breakfast. They only had coffee and oatmeal with brown sugar, but it was nice to sit down and enjoy something hot and fresh. When they finished, they would change into regular clothes and go help Haliday and Mike.

  “What’s the plan Roger?”

  He told Mike that they were going to strip the magnetic light bar off and toss it in the back. Next they pulled the KLR off. Roger began peeling off the DHS decals on the bike. “Mike, go ahead and slowly start peeling them off the Tahoe. Go slowly and pull it back onto itself so that the vinyl doesn’t tear. Don’t leave pieces on the truck at all. I’ll help you when I’m done with these.”

  The Tahoe was stripped now and appeared to be just a plain old Tahoe except for the spotlight. Nothing he could do about that though. Haliday grabbed a bucket from George’s storage shed and filled it with water from a hand pump. He pulled out a stiff wire bristle brush and started washing the KLR down. The white paint started coming off and revealed plain OD green.

  Haliday had used a half dozen coats of washable paint and sprayed it on to get a good finish. He had then used a clear coat, which held the paint on until it was brushed off. The decals were last to go on. The bike was OD green originally, but he needed white for the DHS look. They loaded it back on the Tahoe. The truck was now ready to go.

  Kayla and Linda helped clean up and then went outside to help, but found them ready to go. “Watch this while we change.” They went back inside and changed. Haliday put on his Best Buy Camo, khaki pants and blue polo shirt. They then went back outside. George walked out as well.

  “Well, looks like you are ready to go; I wish you the best of luck,” he said.

  “You too George,” he told him.

  “Roger, any advice?”

  “I have a bunch, but not that much time. Here’s the Readers Digest version.

  “Store as much water as you can. Hide as much of your food as you can in case you get raided. Let them take what they want. No sense in shooting anyone if you don’t have to.” There was a contradiction, he thought. “If you do have to shoot, shoot to kill, don’t leave anyone alive. Hunt for food now, eat that first and save your stores for as long as you can. Beef up your security, add traps and stuff.

  “I would consider moving everyone into the main trailer there. Otherwise it’s easy to take you out one at a time. Safety in numbers. Privacy is out the door now anyway. Don’t go into town unless you absolutely have to. Bad decision either way, I mean if someone is dying that’s one thing, but otherwise stay away. No hospitals or clinics are open and if they are open they are full of disease.”

  “What about FEMA and other help agencies? Won’t they be coming?” George asked

  Haliday told him, “It’s been three days. I haven’t heard of any movement to help people at all. Ran into a small group of troops in Indiana that got orders the first day, but even they had been waiting and as far as I know they were still waiting now. I wouldn’t count on much yet George, especially from the government. Hell, we don’t even know what happened exactly.”

  That was the thing that really bothered him. Of all of the radio traffic on the ham he had listened to, he didn’t hear anything about the government other than that one original broadcast for troops to report. He hadn’t even heard that again. That was one of the reasons to go back to the civilian version of the Tahoe. Too many people would be looking for government help.

  “George, I can’t thank you enough for the hospitality. You have a 22 rifle?”

  “I sure do, keep it around for the small varmints.”

  Haliday walked to the Tahoe and returned with a brick of 22lr’s. “Here ya go,” he said, “save them for small game. Good hunting and good luck folks.” They climbed in and started to pull away. Haliday quickly stopped, got out, and George asked him what he forgot. A quick whistle and Max came running; he paused to give Haliday the evil eye before jumping into the truck. Then they left.

  He took the back roads like they used to do when heading to the track. They were able to avoid all of the traffic that way and he knew other than Hillsdale, there was nothing out there. Hillsdale itself was easy enough to get through, just a few lights and stop signs was all. They drove along and made it through with no problems.

  Since this was farm country, there were a lot of tractors on the road compared to by the cities. A lot of them loaded up with household goods, Haliday wondered where they were going. No telling what people were doing, hopefully they were banding together. Hopefully people were figuring out they needed each other to survive.

  He popped back up onto US12 and looked down the road. This really didn’t seem too bad at all. He looked at Mike. “I’m going to run US12 down a ways and then head north. Ann Arbor is going to be in bad shape and we can’t get that close.” They made it over to 52 and headed north. Haliday kept glancing at the binder. He was close to where he needed to head east, but also had to skirt around a lot of populated areas.

  Everything considered, he was doing quite well on the travel time. At this rate, it would be just about three hours tops. He started paying attention more closely to the homes in the areas he passed. He could tell who had fireplaces and who didn’t. Just how much firewood they had would be another question. These people were used to having fires once in a while for atmosphere or romantic settings and not for heat. The homes were not designed to be heated with the fireplaces around here; just not efficient enough.

  He always liked the idea of a fireplace, but the practicality of a wood stove for heating was better. Unfortunately he never got around to putting one in. He bought one, but it sat uninstalled in his garage. The stove was one thing, but when he went to buy the hearth stone and wall board along with pipe and roof vent, it got expensive and he always put it off. Three years now actually.

  He had gone as far as to even stack free wood when he got it. He had about three full cords which would have been enough for the winter. He was sure the neighbors would use it. Someone would use it for sure, but not him. It would disappear very quickly. Hungry people are one thing, but cold and hungry is another.

  They pulled over so he could check the maps and come up with a route. He wanted to avoid Howell and started laying out the route. “Write this down Mike.” He spit out the instructions and Mike wrote them down. “You might have to call out the directions as we go, ok?” Mike said “Ok.” The ham went off.

  “Roger, it’s David, we have a problem.”

  Haliday said "Hey, nice to hear from you brother. Been a while. Actually, a couple of months." That was the conversation where David had said a couple weeks worth of supplies was plenty. Bet he thinks differently now, he thought. "What’s going on?" Haliday asked him. David went on to explain the situation.

  “We got to your house without encountering any trouble. When we got there though, we noticed someone had worked a hole through one of the windows in back. It wasn’t a very big hole, though. We checked the door wall to the deck and sure enough it was open. We went inside to check it out. Everything is gone.” Haliday had to think about this a minute. “Damn,” he said.

  “David, is my cat ok?”

  David said, “Yes, he was under the covers on your bed. Looks like his food and water is still ok. Roger, aren’t you upset?”

  “Yes I am, but what am I going to do about it right now?” he said. “Is everything gone?”

  David said, “Yes, cupboards are empty, closets were searched, attic was checked. It looks like it’s all gone. Not sure what you had though. Safe in the bedroom was open and guns are all gone too.”

  “I have those with me,” Haliday answered.

  Haliday was ticked off now that he thought about it. “Hey, David, anythi
ng else missing?”

  “Wait a minute I’ll go check.” Haliday forgot he was running back and forth to the truck to use the radio. David came back and said, “No, just looks like your food. That’s all. Everything else was turned over and searched.”

  Haliday responded, “Ok, get the garage opened and get the trailer inside. Go get my trailer from the back of the yard and put it in the front yard backed up by Kayla’s window and then put the Cherokee in the garage too. Wait for us there. Couple more hours I’m thinking.”

  Haliday said, “Keep a watch out Mike, I’m going to dump those cans of gas in, I’m running low.” They threw 20 gallons in and left it at that. Haliday figured it was enough to get back. What he forgot to ask David was if the gas in the garage was gone. No sense in worrying about that either though, if it’s gone it’s gone. They got back on the road. Haliday looked at the map. They would actually be passing by the hospital. How different it was only 72 hours ago.

  Chapter 13

  Randy and Kevin loaded up the shotgun and took a pistol as well. They headed off to check Sarah’s trailer. Elizabeth gave them a hug and asked them to bring back her daddy. The trailer park was only four miles away and they took off to check it out. When they got there, they found the door wide open and windows broken.

  They walked inside and then immediately left. The whole place had been stripped. Literally stripped. There wasn’t any food left, dishes were scattered and broken all over the floor, the furniture was gone, clothes were tossed all over the place, even the TV and DVD player were gone, along with the stereo. That hadn’t taken long at all.

  On the way to the Cherokee they noticed a lot of people were watching them. This made them really nervous. They noticed that a few of them started walking their way, so they hurried up and got back in the vehicle and took off quickly. They weren’t going to hang around and answer questions or risk losing the Cherokee.

  As they left the trailer park, they passed by a group of people who were sitting outside drinking beer. Randy noticed the couch they were on had been Sarah’s. There was no shame. Those guys didn’t care. In another couple of days they would. Once food was gone, they would change their behavior drastically.

  They arrived back at Roger’s and parked the Cherokee in the garage. When they walked inside, Elizabeth ran up to them. “No daddy?” she asked. Sarah went up to her and told her daddy was probably very busy trying to help people and might not be home for a long time. This was her way of finally giving in to his fate.

  Rich had turned on the 12V light system Roger had installed. They straightened up the house a little. Next they worked out a watch schedule. It would require two people on guard at all times. With the break in and all of Roger’s food preps gone, they took no chances. They expected the looters to return.

  Bev called Roger on the radio. “I have a big favor to ask.”

  “Go ahead Mom.”

  “Is there any way you can stop by and check on Alan and the family?” Alan had a wife Nancy and two children. A boy Matthew, 12 years old and a girl of 9 named Theresa. Haliday looked at the binder. It would take him about 25 miles out of his way. Away from the direction he was heading.

  “You guys going to be able to keep the house secure until I get there?”

  “We should be able to.”

  “Ok, I’ll drive by the house, but that’s it. I’m not searching the state. I’ll call when I get out of there.” Haliday slammed the mic down. Oh sure, why not a city tour looking for family and friends. Nobody took this preparedness serious! But now of course it was his job to save them and the world.

  Dawn called him next. “What do you want us to do?”

  “How safe is it there?”

  “Well, there’s not much going on.”

  He thought about it a minute. Most of the property outside of the small town was large 25 to 50 acre lots. The populated areas were very small. “Go ahead and stay there for now if you can.”

  “Ok, got it.”

  * * *

  Rich found a piece of wood in the garage and he had David screw it over the hole in the window. This would seal the house back up. While he was out there, he noticed a couple shelves that had some candles, matches, propane bottles, butane bottles and few other items as well. He was surprised these weren’t gone.

  He looked around and saw a camp stove and lantern. The garage apparently was left alone. He walked over to a drum sitting there. He opened the bung on it, closed it right back up. It was filled with gas. A smaller 15 gallon container was filled with kerosene. The generator was chained down to the floor.

  Haliday had cut a large square of concrete out and dug out the hole. He then laid fresh concrete with a massive eye bolt in it. He had staggered spacers and washers so there was no pulling it out. He figured the block of cement itself weighed about 500 pounds, so it wasn’t going anywhere easily. The chain was reminiscent of something on a ship’s anchor. Big and heavy, lock included. It would take an immense amount of work to cut through it.

  Over in a corner was a kerosene heater. Rich had David grab it and they also grabbed a smaller can of kerosene that was next to it. David took it inside and got the heater going. It was going to be cold this evening and with Haliday’s detour, they didn’t know when to expect him to be here and wanted to stay warm and ready in case anything happened.

  They gathered everything they could find that they thought Haliday would want to take with him. They piled it all behind the trailer in the garage. This would make it easier to load when he got here. They walked through the house, but didn’t find anything else they thought they could use.

  * * *

  Dawn, Diana and Karen moved the ranger and trailer behind the barn so it wasn’t visible. They locked the steering wheel down and Haliday had shown them how to disconnect the wires to the spark plugs. They also placed a wheel lock on the trailer and double-checked the doors to make sure they were locked. They couldn’t afford to lose anything now.

  They walked over to the little lodge house that was there. It was really just a large one roomed building about 15X20. Had a fireplace, TV, bathroom and queen size bed in one corner, and a small kitchen area with large refrigerator. This was used for barn parties or for guests who stayed the night. They pulled out some books and read, waiting to hear from Haliday while taking turns on guard duty.

  Mandy came up and knocked on the door. She asked if they would be here for a while and they said it looked that way. She told them she was going to get an early start on hunting. She had seen a few deer earlier in the morning while out for a ride and was going to see about getting one. She had a bolt action 30-30 with her and held it like she knew how to use it.

  Dawn asked her if she hunted a lot.

  “I was born and raised in Kentucky. My dad and older brothers included me in everything they did. I was pretty much a tom boy. I moved up here chasing a boyfriend which didn’t work out, so I took the job here running the barn.” It wasn’t great pay, but the free use of the house and utilities made it worthwhile. She earned extra money giving lessons to newer riders.

  She went and saddled up her horse and took off. The three of them just looked at each other. Yuck, deer. They were all vegetarians to one extent or another. Karen snuck in meat once in a while at work on lunch. Dawn did the same thing, but no beef at all, and Diana was a straight up vegan. Haliday loved offering her jerky when they would all go to the range for practice. He loved torturing people like that.

  It hadn’t even been an hour and they heard a single rifle shot. About an hour after that Mandy came back in dragging a buck behind the horse on a canvas deer drag bag. She paused by the lodge house and asked if they would want any steak or anything, but they declined. She told them she would be over by the house processing it. She would be making a lot of jerky with this one. They were impressed in a sense, even though she was currently making herself bambi-kabobs.

  * * *

  David was checking Bobby’s bandage. He explained to him that what he h
ad done was wrong. Not only was it wrong at any time, but in the days to come it would get him killed and almost did. Bobby asked what the big deal was. David explained that WROL the country was a changed place.

  “WROL?”

  David told him, “Without Rule of Law. It was the Wild West now. It was respect or expect.”

  “Expect what?”

  “Expect to get killed.”

  Bobby just said, “Fine Dad.” The look on his face acknowledged the lesson had sunk in.

  It was getting to be late afternoon now. Randy went out in the garage and tried listening to the radio, but inside the garage the reception was poor. He asked if he could open the garage door and Bev said, “No, use this, and go out on the back deck.” She handed him a handheld with whip antenna.

  “Uncle Roger?”

  “Go ahead,” Haliday said.

  Randy asked him, “Anything going on, are you almost here?”

  “Negative, we are getting ready to pull into Uncle Alan’s neighborhood. We’ll call you back in a bit when we find out what’s going on. Let grandma know.”

  “Ok, I’ll tell her. Good luck.”

  Dawn, Diana and Karen gathered around to listen. Rich, Bev and David joined Randy on the deck. They all lit up a cigarette. They didn’t smoke in the house, Roger didn’t allow it. They knew he would sniff it out in a second. They were allowed to smoke in the garage, but after eying the drum of gas they decided not to. Everyone was listening for the report to come in.

  * * *

  Haliday had re-routed himself to his brother’s house. These were large 3,000 square foot homes on postage stamp size lots. There was literally about 20 feet of space between homes. The only benefit was a large communal common area in the back of the homes. They all looked the same with the exception of different trim color once in a while.

  He was getting ready to pull in and hesitated. Toward the entrance it looked like a roadblock, but upon closer inspection it was a stalled car. He checked out the exit side and it was clear, so he drove down that side. Just a few scattered cars here and there. About halfway there, he noticed Nancy’s Durango stalled out about three houses down from their own house. That was good news; she was close to home when it hit.