Bug Out! Part 8: RV Park Terror

by Robert Boren

  “I’m great. That isn’t Hilda, is it?” he asked, smiling at her.

  “Yes, it’s me, Howie. Good to see you.”

  “I hope you brought Ger along,” he said.

  “He passed years ago,” she said.

  “Oh, that’s a damn shame,” Howard said. “So sorry to hear that.”

  “He died happy,” she said. “This is Charlie. We got hitched a while back.”

  “Don’t I know you?” Howard asked.

  “You might. I went on a lot of hunting trips with Ger. Maybe we were on one together at some point.”

  “This is my wife, Mary,” Kurt said.

  “Ah, nice to meet you,” Howard said.

  Mary smiled and nodded. “Nice to meet you, too.”

  “What’re you guys doing in this hell hole, anyway?” he asked. “There’s nothing interesting around here for miles and miles.”

  “We had to leave Colorado in a hurry,” Kurt said. “Things got bad quickly.”

  “Oh,” he said. “You around Denver? Lots of fighting going on there. The news isn’t good. Not enough army up there.”

  “No, we were outside of Eagle,” Hilda said. “Before that we were at my place in Utah, but it got overrun by the enemy right after we took off.”

  “What about your place, Kurt?”

  “We had to leave that too,” he said. “We’re hoping that Kansas will be safe, for a while at least.”

  “Sorry to hear about all this.”

  “Before we got with Hilda, we were at my place,” Charlie said.

  “Where was that?” Howard asked.

  “Near the Grand Canyon in Arizona.”

  “Oh,” Howard said, looking concerned. “That area is still hot. Controlled by the enemy.”

  “Does the RV Park here still exist?” Kurt asked.

  “You mean Chet’s old place?”

  “Yeah,” Kurt said. “I figure he passed, but we were hoping it’s still open.”

  Howard got a grim look on his face.

  “What?” Hilda asked.

  “Chet passed the place down to his son Scott,” Howard said quietly. “He hated running the place, and it was dying anyway…not much he could have done about that. All that kind of trade moved up closer to I-70 by the mid-60s. There were a bunch of long term old folks living there for quite a few years, but they started dying off. Then a bad element started moving in…cooking meth, doing other bad stuff. Scott was able to get them kicked out, and he also got the remaining old folks out of there too. Then he just locked the gate and walked away. He didn’t even try to unload the rigs that were left there.”

  “There’re rigs there?” Kurt asked.

  “Yeah, most of the old people who were there toward the end didn’t have next of kin… that cared, anyway. Those coaches are just sitting there rotting.”

  “Motorhomes?”

  “No, they’re mostly travel trailers. Maybe a fifth wheel or two.”

  “What happened to Scott?” Kurt asked.

  “That’s the saddest part of all. He got a good job back east. Real Estate investment on Wall Street. Made himself a fortune.”

  “That doesn’t sound sad,” Hilda said.

  “He was in New Jersey when the bomb went off. He didn’t make it…and his whole family went with him. Kids and all.”

  “Oh, no,” Kurt said. “I remember him. He was a nice boy.”

  “So what happened to the RV Park?” Charlie asked.

  “It’s still just sitting there, as far as I know. Scott didn’t have any next of kin. I think the local sheriff has to chase the druggies out of there every so often, but as far as I know, the place is still standing.”

  “Maybe we should drive out there and take a look,” Charlie said.

  “Yeah, might as well,” Howard said. “If you want to stay there for a while, I’ll call the sheriff and let him know who you are. As long as he knows you aren’t cooking meth, he’ll be fine with it. Heck, since so many of you folks ran RV Parks before, you could probably get the place up and running again. There’s a good spring out there, so at least you got water.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Charlie said. “Let’s go check it out.”

  “I’d make sure you do it during daylight, though,” Howard said. “You’ve only got a couple of hours left today. Why don’t you hang out here overnight, and then go check it out in the morning? I’ve got plenty of room back there, and you guys could use my showers and bathrooms. It’d be nice to have you around to catch up with.”

  “I think we’ll take you up on that,” Kurt said. “Thanks.”

  “Yeah, thanks, Howard,” Hilda said.

  They walked out of the store and around to their rigs.

  “I can’t believe our luck,” Charlie said quietly.

  “Well, don’t count your chickens yet,” Kurt said. “The place might be really trashed.”

  “True, but like Howard said, we’ve all got experience. We could get it fixed up in no time, I suspect. Hell, we even have a backhoe with us.”

  When they got into the back parking lot, they saw the whole group, sitting in their folding chairs. A few of the rigs had their awnings out, and everybody was chatting and laughing and enjoying what was left of the day.

  “There’s our family,” Hilda said. Charlie put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close as they joined them.

  Chapter 3 – Ruins

  “What’d you find out?” Frank asked, as Kurt and Mary walked up with Charlie and Hilda.

  “It was my old friend Howard,” Kurt said. “Nice to see him. He said we could stay here, and use his bathrooms and showers.”

  “Excellent,” Jackson said.

  “What about that RV Park?” Jerry asked.

  “Long story…but bottom line, it’s just sitting out there empty, except for a few abandoned trailers and 5th wheels. The son just locked the gates and walked away. Then he got killed in the New York harbor bombing.”

  “Oh no,” Jane said.

  “We takin a ride out there?” Jeb asked.

  “In the morning, if that’s alright.” Kurt replied.

  “Wonder if I can pull one of the trailers with my SUV?” Gabe asked.

  “Maybe,” Charlie said. “I’m pretty sure they’ll at least need new tires, though, if they’ve been sitting out there for years. They might need a lot of other types of work, too. Apparently there’ve been lowlifes out there cooking meth a few times over the years.”

  “Yuk,” Jasmine said.

  “When we go tomorrow, we go armed,” Jeb said. “Just in case.”

  “Yeah, I agree, Jeb,” Kurt said.

  “You aren’t going,” Mary said. “You don’t need to be running around in no gun battle. At least not yet.”

  “I know, sweetie, I’ll let the able bodied folks take this one on,” he said, looking at her and smiling.

  “Your friend have any cold beer in his store?” Jeb asked.

  “Probably,” Kurt said. “I’m sure he’d appreciate the trade. If any of you need supplies, it’d be a good place to buy them.”

  “Okay, I think we ought to commence relaxing a little bit,” Charlie said, smiling.

  “You right,” Rosie said. “Who’s got mobile bar?”

  “I’m sure we could set something up from my rig,” Jeb said. “I don’t think I have all the ingredients for Weng-Wengs, though.”

  “You get beer,” Rosie said. “Also buy cookies.”

  Jeb smiled at her. “Anything you want, sweetie, but I’m going to get my jeep unhitched before I start drinking. I want to take it along tomorrow.”

  Jake walked over to Gabe and Dobie.

  “This sound’s promising,” Jake said.

  “Yeah, it does,” Dobie said. “I can remove the kennels on my truck…could probably use it to tow a 5th wheel, if I can get the hitch hardware.”

  “Hell, my bobtail has a trailer hitch on it,” Jake replied. “You know these things are gonna be trashed, though, right?”

&nb
sp; “Probably,” Dobie said. “Hopefully we can get them nice enough inside to be able to live in them for a while, though. Wonder if Howard has propane?”

  “There’s a sign for it out front,” Gabe said. “I’m also wondering if the park has generators. See that diesel truck over there? I’ll bet this guy delivers.”

  “Probably,” Dobie said. He pulled his iPhone out of his pocket and started messing with it.

  “What are you doing?” Jake asked.

  “Just checking to see what’s going on back on highway 94.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Gabe said. “I hope the General whacks those creeps good.”

  “I’m still seeing the icons. They haven’t moved for a while,” Dobie said, his brow furrowing.

  “I wouldn’t worry,” Jake said.

  “Wouldn’t we be seeing the icons disappear if these guys are dead?” he asked.

  “Think about it,” Gabe said. “If they defeat them and then burn the bodies or remove the chips, isn’t the enemy going to figure out that we’re onto them?”

  “You don’t think they already know?” Dobie said.

  “They might, since the General was burning the bodies early on,” Gabe said, “but then again, burning the bodies does take care of the smell, and in the field it’s easier than trying to bury them. Cooking the corpses might not look as suspicious as you think to the enemy.”

  “Gross,” Trish said, walking up with Terry.

  “Hi, sweetie,” Jake said. “You need some money for the store?”

  “No, dad, we’re good, thanks,” she said. “You mind if I spend the night in the Sheriff’s rig again?”

  “Of course not,” he replied. “You don’t have to ask me, you know. You’re too old to have to worry about that anymore.”

  “I know,” she said. “It just makes things feel a little more normal.”

  “I know what you mean,” Terry said. “It’s a little weird being the only people here below their mid-30s.”

  “Mid 30s?” Dobie said, cracking up. “Most of the people here are at least in their 50s.”

  “Jackson’s 35. I think Earl is about 40,” Gabe said. “The rest are codgers like us, though.” He snickered. “I guess that would bother me a tad too, if I were you two.”

  “It doesn’t bother me,” Terry said.

  “Maybe not at the moment,” Jake said. “Hopefully you two can fix up one of those trailers for yourselves.”

  “Dad!” Trish said. She looked embarrassed.

  “Oh, settle down, honey,” Jake said. “I’m still a minister, you know. I could marry you two if you need that to be happy.”

  Dobie and Gabe looked at each other and cracked up. “Told you,” Gabe said.

  “What?” Jake asked.

  “Oh, some of us figured you might be one of those mail-order ministers,” Gabe said. “Lots of folks who tended towards the hippies went down that road in the 60s and 70s.”

  “You’re not a real minister, dad,” Trish said. Terry stood next to her with a sheepish grin, not sure what to say.

  “Sure I am,” Jake said. “I’ve got the papers to prove it, too. I made sure they made it into the truck, just in case.”

  Trish rolled her eyes. “C’mon, Terry, let’s take a walk. He’s going to keep teasing me.”

  Terry shot a glance over to Jake and smiled. Then he shrugged his shoulders as they walked off. Trish didn’t notice.

  “You know he’s just pulling your chain,” Terry said, grabbing her hand as they walked along. “He’s really a charming guy.”

  “I know, but he likes to embarrass me too much. It gets old.”

  “So he’s always done that?”

  “Pretty much,” she said. “Especially after mom died. He feels awkward, being a single dad for a girl. I think all the joking around makes him feel more comfortable. He’s always afraid of doing something wrong, so he makes a joke out of everything.”

  “What was your mom like?”

  “She was the responsible one,” Trish said. “She kept everything together. When they met, they were both hippies. They even went to Woodstock.”

  “No, really?”

  “Yeah,” Trish said. “Somewhere along the line, she grew up. Dad only kinda grew up. When she died, he was so lost.”

  “Oh,” Terry said. “How old were you when your mom passed?”

  “Thirteen,” she said. “What about your parents?”

  “They both died, but not until I was about nineteen.”

  “Both of them?”

  “Yeah, they were on vacation in Mexico, and took one of those helicopter tours. They crashed.”

  “Oh, no. I’m so sorry,” she said, looking into his eyes.

  “It was horrible,” Terry said. “My uncle was there for me, though. He still is.”

  “I can see how close you two are,” Trish said. “We don’t know that much about each other, do we?”

  “Not yet,” Terry said. “Maybe it would be good to have our own place.”

  She looked at him and smirked. “Really, now. Why?”

  “All the reasons you’re thinking,” he said, smiling. “I know what you’re getting at, but that part is up to you, and I won’t push. I want to talk to you for hours and hours, when nobody else is around.”

  “Oh,” she said. “We’ll see, then. No promises.”

  “What’s over there?” Terry asked, pointing by the tanker truck they were approaching. He led her over there and got her behind it, out of view of the others. Then he got her into his arms and kissed her gently. She backed away slightly, his arms still around her waist.

  “Tricky, aren’t you,” she said, with a shy smile, looking into his eyes.

  “I’ve been waiting for this all day,” Terry said. He went in for another kiss, and she melted into him.

  Back with the group, Jeb walked up with a case of cold beer from the store. He put it on a folding table next to his rig. “Who want’s beer?” he asked. Some of the people in the group came over.

  “You aren’t drinking?” Jane asked Frank, as he was walking towards the door of their rig.

  “I want to check the laptop,” he said as he climbed the steps. “The battery is probably about done…we might need to run the generator for a while.”

  “Oh,” she said, “I’ll come with you. She got up, took hold of Lucy’s leash, and led her inside.

  The group partied for a little while, but everybody was tired, and they were done just after the sun went down. A quiet settled over the parking lot, and lights in coaches started going out.

  Frank woke up to the sound of one of the big rigs starting up and leaving the parking lot. He looked at his phone. Only 6:30. He was wide awake, and decided to get up. Jane was still sleeping, but she was starting to stir. He tried to be quiet as he walked out of the bedroom. Lucy was ready to go, so he put on her leash and took her outside. He saw Dobie out by the edge of the fence, walking all four dogs. He waved, and Frank waved back, but he went in the opposite direction. He wasn’t ready to talk yet. He wanted to think. The encryption algorithm was slow going on the laptop. Not enough power, especially when it was on battery. It was beginning to dawn on him that it might take years to crack it, at the rate the program was going. He needed to try hacking into the enemy computers, but now they were going to a park that almost certainly didn’t have an internet connection. There were a couple of non-core folks who had satellite internet…at least it looked like it due to the kind of dishes they had, but they were all gone now. What to do? Maybe there was something left of a system at this RV Park that he could fix. He was going to have to do something. Time was running out…the auto publish for the apps was coming up. He had just under two weeks.

  Charlie got out of his coach, and saw Frank. He walked over.

  “Morning, Frank,” he said.

  “Morning to you, Charlie. What time are you guys going to the RV Park?”

  “In about an hour,” he said. “Why, you interested in tagging along?”

  “
Yeah, if there’s room.”

  “You’ll have to bring your sidearm,” he said. “We should have room, though. We’re taking both Gabe’s SUV and Jeb’s jeep.”

  “Good, I’ll be ready,” he said.

  “Why do you want to go?”

  “I want to see if there is any remnant of an internet system there,” Frank said. “My encryption algorithm isn’t cutting it, I’m afraid. We’re going to run out of time. I need to do some hacking.”

  “Oh,” he said. “Yeah, that makes sense. Jake brought a lot of stuff, so maybe you could put something together. Isn’t Jasmine good with that kind of stuff?”

  “Yeah, so is Jerry,” Frank said. “Worth a try.”

  “Good, be out by Gabe’s Suburban in an hour, and we’ll saddle up.”

  “Thanks,” Frank said. “Guess I’d better go eat breakfast and get some coffee in me.”

  “There’s hot coffee in the store, you know, and some breakfast stuff too.”

  “Ah, good idea,” he said. “I’ll take Lucy back to the coach and then go on over.”

  “Okay, Frank, see you in a little while.”

  Frank took Lucy back to the coach. Jane was just getting up. Mr. Wonderful sauntered over, rubbing against his leg. “I’ll feed you in a minute, big boy.”

  “Hi, Honey,” she said, rubbing her eyes. “Want to run the genny for the coffee maker, or should we fire up the French Press again?”

  “Neither,” Frank said. “I’m going to go get a cup at the store, and maybe something to eat. You up for it?”

  “Sounds like you have plans.”

  “I’m going to go with Charlie and the guys, out to the RV Park.”

  “Oh. How come?”

  “I want to see if there’s any chance we can get some internet access going out there,” he said.

  “Are you coming back here after the store?”

  “Yeah, we aren’t leaving for an hour.”

  “Good,” she said. “Pick me up a coffee too? And maybe a Danish?”

  “Sure, honey,” Frank said. “Be back in a few minutes. Can you feed the critters?”

  “I’ll take care of it,” she said.

  Frank left the coach and went to the store. The old white haired man was at the counter.

  “You must be Howard,” he said. “I’m Frank.”