Bug Out! Part 1: Escape in a Motorhome

by Robert Boren

  “What chance do we have against the Feds, anyway?” Linda asked.

  Hank laughed.

  “The Feds can’t win,” he said. “For one thing, there are 270 million guns in the hands of private citizens in this country, and that’s not counting the millions of guns that have been purchased before we had mandatory registration. But that’s not the only problem the Feds have. Half of their forces would desert before helping them take over. They obviously can’t count on local law enforcement either. Look at our friends burying their dead right now. The Feds think they can count on these folks to lend a hand. I doubt it.”

  “That’s a really good point,” Frank said. He looked at Jane. “Remember that CHP officer that talked to us at the check point? He said ‘Do you have any guns? Say no’ – remember?”

  “Yes, I remember,” Jane said. “You have to be careful drawing conclusions off of such a small sample size, though.”

  “True enough,” Hank said. “What check point?”

  “It was a ways past where our RV Storage lot was, on I-10.”

  “We saw a kid get shot there,” Jane said. “It was horrible.”

  “It was a gang member, but he couldn’t have been more than sixteen years old,” Frank said. “He was running away, shooting at the CHP officers. Two soldiers opened fire on him.”

  “Wow,” Linda said. “Glad we got out of California before things got that bad.”

  “Seriously,” Hank said.

  “I can’t tell how worried Dave and his friends are,” Frank said. “For all we know, they have guards posted at their campground.”

  “Possible,” Hank said. “I think we’d better go get our firearms into a place where we can get at them. Let’s go back to the coach for a while, Linda.”

  The two got up.

  “Thanks so much for the company,” Linda said. “We’ll talk to you later.”

  “Alright, sounds like a plan,” Frank said. He got up and shook hands with Hank.

  “Bye, now,” Jane said.

  Frank sat back down by Jane and watched them walk away. They could hear the shovels digging into the soft soil under the pine trees, about forty yards away. There was no conversation coming from there.

  “I think we should get our guns out into a place where we can get at them too,” Frank said. He got up and started towards the door of their coach.

  “Wait for me,” Jane said, and she rushed to follow him.

  They both climbed into the coach. Frank unhooked the front bunk and pulled it free, then unfolded it. He carefully removed the guns and the ammo, and put them in front of the couch. Then he closed up the front bunk again. Mr. Wonderful sauntered out to him and rubbed against his leg.

  “Well, look who’s here,” Frank said. He squatted down to pet the cats head.

  “He likes that,” Jane said. I’m surprised the gunshots didn’t spook him.”

  “Speaking of that, where’s Lucy?”

  “Good question. I’ll go check in the bedroom.”

  Lucy was sitting just inside the bedroom. She looked up at Jane as she walked back, and her tail began wagging. She nuzzled Jane’s leg as she sat down on the bed.

  “You alright, girl?” Jane asked. “Come on up.”

  Lucy jumped up onto the bed and got on Jane’s lap.

  “Oh oh, cleanup on aisle three,” Jane said.

  “What?” Frank asked, walking towards the bedroom.”

  “Our girl had an accident. Watch your step.”

  “Oh, poor thing,” Frank said. He went back to the kitchen sink and pulled several paper towels off of the roll. He cleaned up the mess. “It’s OK, girl.”

  “Frank, what are we going to do? And what about Robbie? We can’t even get to him to help him now. What if he gets into trouble?”

  “Let’s just take it slow and think carefully.” We might want to head up to Oregon and get Sarah. That’s liable to follow California.”

  “I know, I was thinking that,” Jane said. “We need to get a message off to her next time we get a chance.”

  Frank nodded, and then got up and went out into the salon. He picked up the shot gun and put it between the wall and the driver’s seat, with one of the boxes of shells. He leaned the rifle up in the hallway just before the bedroom, out of site from the front, but easy to get to. The ammo for that went into the pantry next to where it leaned. Then he carried the pistol into the bedroom and put it under his pillow.

  “Maybe you should wear that pistol,” Jane said.

  “I haven’t dug the holster out of the back compartment yet,” Frank said. “And it’s too bulky to wear anyway.”

  “Where’s the ammo?”

  “It’s the same kind as the Winchester lever gun uses - .44 mag.

  “Crap, you brought the big pistol? Why’d you bring one that I can’t shoot?”

  “I had a lot of ammo for that. We’ve got about four hundred rounds. Most of it is out next to the tools in the right storage compartment. If you need to shoot, either the Winchester or the shotgun would be better anyway. You never practiced much with pistols.”

  “Alright, makes sense. Now I wish we would have brought more of the guns.”

  “I didn’t think we’d get these out of California.”

  Jane nodded. “Hungry?”

  “I could eat a little something, but a Clif Bar would be enough for now.”

  “Alright. We should eat some of the bananas too. They were a few days old when we left.”

  “Good.” Frank went out and sat in the dinette, watching Dave and his men out the window. He saw them carry an old woman’s body out and drop it into a hole.

  Jane sat down next to Frank and handed him a banana and a bar. Then she looked out the window.

  “Looks like they are getting close to done.”

  “Yep,” Frank said. “I’m going to go sit outside when they are finished and try to get their attention for a moment. I want to ask them if it’s safe to be here.”

  “OK, I’ll go out there with you.”

  They finished their snacks in silence. They were both exhausted.

  “We’d better get out there, looks like they are done,” Jane said. Frank nodded, and they both got up and went to the door. They went out, and closed the screen, leaving Lucy inside. She wagged her tail, but whined a little.

  “Here they come,” Jane said as she sat down. Frank walked out to meet them.

  “Can I ask you guys a few questions?”

  Dave smiled at him and they stopped.

  “Of course,” he said.

  “Is it safe to be here?”

  “It’s not safe to be anywhere,” Dave said. “We are going to make it a little safer here though. We are going to drive the Chief’s rig back up 4th Street a ways, and then off on a long dirt road to the right.”

  “That’s going to make us safer?”

  “Yep, because when I get there, I’m going to turn on all of the chief’s electronics, and then I’m going to place a call to the police station. I know those creeps are monitoring that.”

  Frank grinned. “Good idea.”

  “You folks know to keep your phones off, right?” asked Ken.

  “Yes, the only time we turned them on was when we went to Starbucks earlier today. I doubt they are looking for us, though. We don’t know anything.”

  “We don’t know for sure what they’re doing at this point,” Dave said. “I’ve heard some people saying that the Feds are looking into anybody they can that has a cellular or GPS hit away from their home address.”

  “Geez,” Frank said.

  “I still think we ought to set up a booby trap in the Chief’s RV,” Ken said.

  “Love to do that, son,” Dave said, “but they would figure out who did it, and then they would be hunting us big time. Besides, we might take out somebody who is really on our side. I don’t want to take that risk.”

  “Simmons is out looking for us now, I suspect,” Lewis said. “Luckily that idiot can’t find his ass with both ha
nds.”

  “Who’s Simmons?” Frank asked.

  “Officer Simmons. One of two officers that decided to stay on the job after the Chief told us what was going on. He’s a real Nazi. Was kicked out of two metro departments for bad conduct.”

  “This isn’t that far from town,” Frank said. “Why can’t he find you?”

  “He’s only been here a few months, and he hates camping. He doesn’t know about this place. But if he does figure out where we are, he won’t be around long enough to tell anybody.”

  “So you guys are going to stick around here for now?”

  “Yes, but if I were you folks, I wouldn’t,” Dave said.

  “Understand. We were planning to go north another state or two.”

  “I’d make it three,” Lewis said. “We best be going, Dave, if we are going to get the Chief’s rig out of here tonight.”

  Dave nodded, and the three men continued back to their camp.

  Frank walked back over to the chairs and sat down next to Jane.

  “Well?” she asked.

  “Dave suggested that we not stick around here very long. He says go two or three states to the north.”

  “What are they going to do?”

  “Stay and fight.”

  “Oh.” Jane had a worried look on her face. “You are OK with going, right?”

  “I want to see if we can get to our daughter,” Frank said. “That’s north.”

  “What else did they say?”

  “They said to leave cellphones off, because rumor has it that the Feds are matching cellular and GPS hits to people’s home addresses. If you aren’t at home, you might get a visit.”

  “Glad we have kept ours off. What else?”

  “They are going to drive the Chief’s rig back down 4th street, and then off in another direction, down a really long dirt road. Then they are going to turn on the Chief’s cellphone and make a call with it to the police station.”

  Jane got a smirk on her face.

  “Wild goose chase, eh,” she said.

  “Yep. And if we get stopped by an Officer Simmons when we are around here, don’t trust him.”

  “Why?”

  “He is good with what the Feds asked the department to do, and he has a very questionable past.”

  “Wonderful,” Jane said. Then she heard something. A helicopter, sounding too low, coming towards them.

  “Crap,” Frank said, when he saw the chopper coming closer. “That isn’t one of ours. It is Russian made. Let’s get into the trees fast.”

  They both got up. Jane opened the door and grabbed Lucy, and they ran for the trees.

  Chapter 8 - Air Assault

  Frank and Jane cowered under the trees, watching the helicopter as it took a long slow look at their area. Hank and Linda came running over, crouching. They stood up when they got under the trees.

  “That looks like a Russian chopper,” Frank said.

  “You’re right, that’s a Mil Mi-24 variant, one of their export models.”

  “You know something about these?” asked Frank.

  “Yeah, part of my training back in my Air National Guard days.”

  “Any chance it belongs to Venezuela?”

  Hank looked over at Frank, and nodded yes.

  “Hey, there’s another one!” Jane said, pointing.

  Hank looked up, and got a shocked look on his face.

  “What the heck. That’s an Apache. It’s one of ours. Why doesn’t he attack?”

  “Looks to me like they are working together, looking for something,” Frank said.

  “Yes, it does,” Hank said. “This is a little disturbing.”

  “Maybe they are looking for the Chief’s coach,” Linda said.

  “It might be too far under the trees to see,” Frank said.

  “Oh, crap, see the way the Mi-24 is angling? It’s getting ready to fire,” Hank said.

  Fire shot out of the front of the gun, and then there was a loud explosion, over about two clearings. Smoke billowed up.

  “Maybe we’d better get further into the woods,” Jane said.

  “Yes, I think you’re right,” Hank said. They started back in when they heard the sound of a jet. Suddenly both helicopters exploded, pieces flying in every direction. Hank ran out into the clearing just in time to see an F-16 fly over and climb, turning around to go back towards the east.

  “Yahooooo!” shouted Hank.

  The others ran out to join him, watching the debris fall.

  “Who was that?” Frank asked.

  “Texas Air National Guard, baby!” he replied. “I’d know that insignia anywhere.”

  “Texans shooting down an Apache?” Jane asked. “Does that seem right to you?”

  “Let’s think this through,” Frank said. “Two possibilities. The Apache could have been captured by the enemy in this border war, or elements of the Federal Government are working with the enemy, making the border war a false flag attack.”

  “I’d say your second scenario is more likely,” Hank said. “Those choppers knew that there were possible resistance fighters in these woods. Foreign enemies of the US wouldn’t have that information, and more importantly, they wouldn’t care. These woods have no strategic value. Either does this piss-ant road to nowhere.”

  “True,” Frank said. “If they were just the enemy, they would have gone up north a few miles and blown up I-40, since that is a good way to get military supplies from the interior of the country to the battle zone.”

  “Exactly,” Hank replied.

  “Listen to yourselves,” Jane said. “Seriously? You really think the US Government would team up with foreign fighters to start up a civil war?”

  “Well, bringing foreigners in for a situation like this is not unusual,” Hank said. “The confederacy tried to do exactly that with England during our first civil war.”

  “First civil war,” Linda said. She was on the verge of tears. Hank saw that, and pulled her close.

  Frank saw movement out of the corner of his eye. It was Dave, Ken, and Lewis, trotting over to them.

  “You folks alright?” asked Dave, out of breath.

  “Yes, we are all good,” Frank said. “Just a little shook up. You?”

  “They hit our decoy campground. These people are stupid,” Lewis said.

  “Decoy campground?” asked Frank.

  “Yeah,” Ken said. “These guys laughed at me when I got the idea. We took off with the police department’s paddy wagon. I parked it way back there, and I set a bunch of pup tents around it, in the open. It’s in a clearing about 500 yards that way.” He pointed.

  Hank cracked up. “Seriously?”

  Dave got an embarrassed smile on his face, and nodded.

  “I didn’t think it would work,” he said. “Never underestimate the kids.”

  “I’d better get going with the Chief’s rig,” Lewis said. He went over to the coach and opened the door. “Ken, you’re going to follow me in your jeep, right?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be behind you. Wish we had more pup tents.”

  Lewis shook his head with a grin, and closed the coach door. Then the engine fired up, and the coach slowly lumbered towards the dirt road.

  “I’d best be going,” Ken said.

  “Be careful,” Dave said. “If you hear any aircraft, get under the trees fast.”

  “Gotcha, boss,” Ken said.

  “Don’t call me boss,” Dave said. Ken nodded and waved as he trotted back to their camp.

  “We were lucky,” Dave said. “If they would have come earlier in the day, they would have seen reflections of our rigs under those trees.”

  “I’m sure they saw our rigs,” Hank said.

  “They didn’t match the description that Officer Simmons provided, I would imagine. Luckily there are a lot of folks camped around here.”

  “They are coming back, aren’t they?” asked Linda.

  “Almost certainly,” Dave said. “The Texicans will be back too. I have a connection
there. I tipped them off to keep an eye out, but I probably didn’t need to. They have a good view of the whole southwest. They probably saw those choppers coming this way from Yuma, or even Southern California.”

  “So Texas is fighting the Federal Government?” asked Jane.

  “Among other states,” Dave said. “The Feds think they have Arizona under control.” He got a sly grin on his face.

  “This is crazy,” Jane said. “Why isn’t there coverage of this on the media?”

  Dave just looked at her, as if she was telling him she just saw a unicorn.

  “I knew something was wrong before we left San Diego,” Hank said. “Like I was telling these folks, I started to see a lot of immigrants that didn’t look Hispanic to me. They were speaking in Arabic.”

  “So you guys got out of California?” asked Dave. “You’re lucky.”

  “We left San Diego about a week ago,” Linda said.

  “You have family there?” asked Dave.

  “No,” Linda replied. “But Frank and Jane have a son where they are from.”

  “Where is that?”

  “Redondo Beach,” Frank said. “Up the coast about two hours from San Diego.”

  “I know where that is. Nice area,” Dave said. “Your son is probably safer in Redondo Beach than he would be in San Diego. San Diego is a Fed staging point now, but there are a lot of rednecks in the area between San Diego and the LA. Believe it or not, the gangs in the LA area are now openly fighting the military, side by side with middle class white folks.”

  “You’re kidding,” Jane said. “The gang activity is what forced us out of there.”

  “Yup, they were having a real free for all before they realized what the Feds were up to.”

  Linda looked like she was about to double over. She was trembling.

  “Are you having a panic attack, honey?” asked Hank.

  She nodded, and Hank walked her back over to their RV.

  “It’s going to get worse before it gets better,” Dave said. “Commerce is shutting down in a lot of areas, especially in California. Most people don’t realize how much of our food comes from there.”

  “How are you getting all this news?” asked Jane.

  “Other police organizations,” Dave said. “And the internet.”