by Miles Maresh
Chapter Ten
Dave circled the plane over Wilcox. Arizona at daybreak. There was a small regional airport outside the town but the one runway was impassable with a wrecked plane lying in ruins over most of the tarmac. As he lowered the plane to look for an alternate landing spot several gunshots rang out. The plane sputtered and then died as apparently one shot hit the engine. Dave was a skilled pilot but there was no runway and the streets around Wilcox had stalled cars blocking too much of the roads. Regardless the plane was going down and Dave headed for farmland outside town where he hoped to land on a service road between fields. As an experienced crop duster he knew these roads were wide enough and firm enough to handle a plane landing. He had landed on service roads several times before, but never with a dead engine. He found several suitable fields but headed for one farther out of town. Whoever was shooting at them was sure to come along. They needed to prepare for a gun battle alongside the plane or pull out Mike’s motorcycle which they had thought prudent to bring along. Dave landed the plane as well as could be expected and managed to keep it on the service roadway.
As Mike and Dave jumped out with guns in their hands they could hear at least one working truck coming toward them from about 2 miles back. The plane had taxied to a stop along the downslope of a small rise. The two men took cover at the top of the rise and aimed at the approaching truck. Mike advised Dave to aim for the engine compartment. Mike was sure they could disable the truck and then escape on the motorcycle. The plane’s engine was smoking and would not be repaired without supplies and time. They waited until the truck got to within about 50 yards. There were multiple gunmen standing in the bed, they did not see Mike and Dave who were prone on the ground. They could see the plane, but Mike and Dave opened fire and the truck took shots in the radiator and one tire. At the speed it was going the truck veered off the road throwing most men in the back clear of the vehicle. Mike took out two of the gunmen in the back who had managed to hold on. The rest of the people in the back had been thrown from the bed and were lying on the ground. The driver and passenger in the cab were stunned and not moving. Mike and Dave quickly pulled the storage bin open and lowered the motorcycle to the ground. Mike loosely connected the front wheel tightening the bolt by hand. Both men grabbed their go bags, Mike carried his pistol and Dave the rifle on a strap around his back. Mike took off as fast as he dared go with a loosely connected wheel. After 10 miles without further pursuit evident, Mike stopped the bike to tighten the wheel. Dave was despondent. “How am I going to reach my family in California? I am in no condition to ride a motorcycle.” Mike thought about it and decided to offer his help. I have a couple of 4 wheel drive vehicles and a cabin in the mountains. After I move the family and some supplies to the mountains I will get you home. The cabin has room for your family too. If you want to join us” Dave said “I’ll think about it. There might be safe areas in California to go to. My neighborhood should be secure and I have another plane there” Mike doubted that the area would be secure and the plane would still be there, but he kept it to himself. He said aloud “The offer still stands. I feel terrible that we lost the plane and I will join you on the trip to California. I have several working vehicles that are not motorcycles.” Mike felt if his family was still around they would probably need assistance. Even though Bakersfield was not as congested as Los Angeles there were a lot of people who soon becoming desperate for food and water. Mike knew that Emily would be mad at him for taking off to California, but Mike felt guilty. From what he had seen from the air, society had become lawless as people ran out of food and water. Mike only hoped Dave’s family was all right. They were not preppers Like Mike was and he didn’t think they had a surplus of supplies.
From Wilcox, Mike took back roads to reach Highway 60. There were only a few small towns on the way. He was going to have to skirt around Mesa to reach Phoenix. The bike was maneuverable enough to take some alternate routes to escape the chaos of big cities and to avoid the inevitable traffic jams. To avoid Mesa, Mike turned toward Roosevelt Lake once he reached Superior. His intention was to round the Superstition Mountains to the East and then head toward Beeline highway on back roads and game trails. When the two men drew closer to the lake they started seeing more people. It made sense for people to stay near the water and especially a large lake that was once stocked with fish. From the look of most of the people the crowds were already dwindling the fish population significantly. The working motorcycle drew curious looks from most of the crowd but Mike kept his speed up and went past quickly. One burley man stood in front of the speeding bike and raised a gun in his hand. Mike had his Sig Sauer at the ready and did not hesitate to drop the man dead with one shot as the bike whipped around his body. No one else seemed willing to bother the two men.
Mike took dirt bike trails through the desert to reach Beeline highway. Once they got further north they had planned to skirt the McDowell Mountains until they could head to Mike’s house. About ¼ mile before he reached the turnoff Mike noticed a roadblock ahead. He pulled off the road and used his binoculars. The roadblock was using pickup trucks blocking the road. Some of the men working the roadblock were dressed as police officers, but not all of them. Even if he was sure it was a police roadblock, Mike was not going to attempt to go through it. Even police officers would want to confiscate working motorcycles and with the other people there Mike did not trust that it was a government sanctioned roadblock. Mike was not in the mood to give up his motorcycle and started looking for a route through the desert to avoid the situation. Unfortunately the men at the roadblock had already seen the two men. They jumped in one of the late model trucks and took off toward the motorcycle, rifles in hand. Mike and Dave turned the bike around and raced south away from their pursuers. Mike came to a narrow trail heading onto the Indian Reservation to the west of Beeline Highway the trail was rutted but passable for the motorcycle to slowly traverse. More importantly it was too narrow for the truck to follow with large rocks and cacti covering most of the landscape around the trail. As they went through the reservation Mike and Dave went through several small Indian settlements. Eventually they were notice and pulled over by the Reservation police. . They explained what happened to the officer but he was suspicious that they were looters. Mike knew reservation police officers were notoriously underpaid. He offered the police officers their remaining MREs about 2 cases. He also had 10 Krugerands in his go bag that the officer had noticed when he searched their possessions. Although he claimed he was looking for looted supplies his eyes lit up when he saw the gold. Mike offered him one krugerrand along with the rest of their MREs. The officer asked for two and Mike reluctantly agreed, He would have given the officer all ten if he had demanded it. The officer escorted their motorcycle to a dirt road heading north and flowed them out until they left the reservation. Ten minutes later they were skirting the mountains. Even the stores in this upscale area showed evidence of large scale looting. Mike couldn’t imagine what it was like in the more congested parts of the city. They reached Carefree Highway without incident. With no stores nearby, the highway was fairly deserted and Mike opened up the throttle on the motorcycle. He was less than an hour away from his North Phoenix home.
Chapter Eleven
Following Mike’s advice Emily moved the mustang from its space in the garage to the driveway. Rick showed up at the door with 4 other men all armed. Janet said through the door “We will loan you the car. Come back without guns and I will give you the keys.” One of the men yelled “just open the door bitch” Rick shushed him and said “take my gun and go back to my house” the man complied and Emily opened the door and handed Rick the keys. As she tried to close the door Rick put his foot in it and the other armed men came back from around the corner where they had been hiding. Rick said “Everyone in the neighborhood has decided to pool our resources. We will be keeping the food and water in a central location. We need to confiscate yours now.” With that he pushed the door open and the men stormed in. Trevor was
standing in the living room with a shotgun but Rick said. “Drop the gun. We have 4 guns trained on you. You shoot one of us and your entire family is dead.” Trevor put the gun on the floor and one of the men grabbed it. Rick said “We will confiscate your guns and ammunition as well. You haven’t shown you are able to handle them. Where is the rest of your family?” Emily had sent the girls to the shelter in the hidden basement. She said “They are away with friends.” “Who”? demanded Rick. “No one you know” Emily replied. The men went through the kitchen where the family only kept a limited amount of food. Rick came back cursing “Dammit, I know you have more than this. You look well fed and the rest of us are starving.” “We just ran out” replied Emily. She sarcastically added “I guess you can deliver to us some of the food you are doling out to the community.” “Tear the place apart.” Rick told his men. “They are hiding food in here somewhere along with the weapons we have not found.” Emily know they would have to dig through the foundation and 3 feet of earth to reach the first shelter but she did not want them to harm Trevor and hoped they would not resort to physical violence to try to force them to give up information. Rick did not tie Emily or Trevor up but had them sit down on a couch as he trained a gun on them and continued to demand that they tell her where the supplies were located. They continued to deny any knowledge of supplies and Emily wondered if they would believe her once they finished ransacking the house. At any rate Cheryl and Sydney were safe in the shelter but they could see what was happening on the monitors, The house had hidden cameras throughout and Emily hoped they would not try to come up to help. That would give away the shelter’s existence in an instant and put them in danger as well. Emily realized belatedly she should had left the keys to the mustang on the doorstep and hidden the whole family in the shelter. She had already disabled the other two vehicles and had taken the parts removed downstairs.
Sydney and Cheryl were told to go to the shelter by their mother after she put the mustang in front of the house. She believed that Rick would come by to get the keys. In case he tried anything else she wanted her daughters safely hidden. They were happy to go to the shelter. It was small but had power including an air conditioning system which was vital in the Arizona heat. The family had been sleeping in the shelter since the power went out. There were video monitors from the hidden cameras around the house and property so they could still see what was happening in the house. The sisters were watching as they saw Rick and his gang storm the house. When Rick held Trevor and their mother at gunpoint they feared for their safety. “We have to go up and help” said Cheryl. Sidney said “I don’t think we can. They will hear the shelter opening and would be waiting for us.” Just then they noticed two shadowy figures on another monitor from a camera outside the house. One of the men was stranger to them but the other was someone they knew well “That’s dad!” cried both girls happily.
Mike pulled the motorcycle up in front of his house. The door was ajar and the mustang was still in the driveway. He pulled the bike to the side of the house where it wouldn’t be seen and motioned for Dave to follow him. They crept up to windows. As Mike expected two men were ransacking the kitchen looking for food. Two other men were tearing apart Mike’s office. In the living room sat Rick Newhouse. An attorney who lived down the street. He didn’t think much of him as an attorney, but when he saw he had a gun pointed at his wife and son, Mike’s blood ran cold. “He’s a dead man” Mike whispered to Dave. “We need a plan” Dave countered quietly. There are 4 others and they are all armed.” Mike decided to try to take Rick down quietly first. He told Dave “We can sneak in the front door and go into the dining room. From there I can come in behind Rick and cut his throat.” Mike pulled out his knife to make his point. “How do I help” asked Dave. Mike said “Cover me with the rifle. If anyone comes into the living take them down. Can I count on you?” Dave looked down at his injured leg and then looked Mike in the eye as he said “I learned my lesson. I will do my best to help protect your family. I will not hesitate to shoot these assholes.” “Good enough” said Mike “let’s roll.”
Mike and Dave entered the house through the front door. Because the door was ajar they only had to open it a bit more and did so silently. They quietly crept into the dining room. Mike positioned Dave so he could cover the entrance from the kitchen to the living room. Mike crawled into the living room where Rick sat on a couch facing Emily and Trevor. Realizing he could not slit Rick’s throat from his position, Mike pulled out his Sig Sauer pistol. He swung the gun like a hammer and impacted the side of Rick’s head. He keeled over, unconscious or maybe dead, Mike couldn’t care less. Emily and Mike were startled by Mike’s sudden appearance but had the sense of mind to not say anything. Other than the dull sound of the gun hitting Ricks head there was no noise to alert his crew. The two men in the kitchen were making such a racket they did not hear anything at all. Mike motioned for his wife and son to follow him into the dining room. He whispered “This is Dave, he’s with us.” Mike then gave Trevor his Sig Sauer and pulled open a hidden gun cabinet. In the cabinet were rifles, pistols and flash grenades. Mike positioned Emily and Trevor outside the office where men could still be heard rooting through closets and cabinets. Mike covered the kitchen exit from the living room while Dave had a flash grenade ready at the dining room door to the kitchen. From Mike’s position both Dave and his family could see him. On a visible count of three they threw flash grenades into the kitchen and office simultaneously. The two men from the kitchen came streaming through the living room. Temporarily blinded and stunned they were quickly apprehended, disarmed and zip tied by Mike and Dave. The men from the office were not as lucky. They too were stunned but the first one came out with his gun firing wildly. Emily and Trevor had taken prone positions on the floor after tossing the grenade. The shots from the home invader went over their heads. Emily and Trevor did as Mike and trained them. They each hit the body mass of the first man to exit with 2 shots. They would have followed with more shots but the second man seeing his partner fall dropped his gun and came out with his hands up.
Rick came to after a few minutes he had a hell of a headache but thought he would be all right. That is until he realized he was zip tied along with 3 of his friends. Across from looking angry and aiming a weapon at them was Michael Hoff. Rick tried to bluff “Mike! It’s good to see you we were just trying to keep your family safe while you were away.” Mike countered “By holding them at gunpoint? I should shoot you dead like your friend.” Rick looked down the hallway to see his neighbor riddled with bullets and obviously dead. Rick pleaded “Please don’t kill me. I have a family. I was only trying to provide for them.” Emily said “If we release them they’re only going to come back with more men and guns. I don’t want to kill them. They all have families, but these men tried to harm our family.” Mike said “We will release all but Rick. The rest of you are to leave the neighborhood with your families. Rick will be detained for trial.” Mike had no intention of taking Rick to trial. There was no low enforcement around and no court system in place. Killing Rick now seemed unusually harsh. Mike had killed several men on his trip home but it was always a kill or be killed scenario. Even though Rick had been holding his family at gunpoint, Mike did not believe he would have actually shot them in cold blood. He decided he would keep Rick so the other men would know not to return. In a few days the group would relocate to the cabin in the mountains. Mike would decide what to do with Rick then probably arranging for him to be released once the family was gone. Mike bound and gagged Rick then pushed him into an empty storage shed in the back yard.
Chapter Twelve
After securing Rick in a backyard storage shed Mike reacquainted himself with his family. He retrieved his girls and showed Dave his basement shelters with the vast amount of supplies they contained. Mike said he wanted to move his family to the cabin before he went with Dave to California. Dave did not want to wait and asked if he could use the mustang to make the trip by himself. Mike agreed. He had been
planning to give the mustang to the neighborhood before the invaders came in and ransacked his house but it might be better for Mike to reach his family as early as possible. He didn’t have much hope of getting the mustang back but if it would get Dave closer to home he owed him that much. The mustang would not be as mobile as Mike’s truck or even his motorcycle but it would be fast as long as Dave was able to avoid crowds. With Mike’s help Dave mapped out a route to his house in Bakersfield that could be accessed staying away from population centers along the way. With any luck he could be back with his family before the group even left for the cabin. With what he had seen with the breakdown of society on the trip from Texas, Dave now realized his home may not be secure. He hoped it was but if neighbors in Mike’s nice community were turning on each other Dave did not know what the situation would be like at his home. e now thought he might want his family to join Mike’s family in the mountains. Mike gave Dave supplies for his trip including guns and ammunition. He also gave him a detailed map to their mountain cabin and a Satellite phone. Mike encouraged Dave to call him if he encountered trouble. Additionally because the cabin was impossible to see from roads Dave needed to call if and when he arrived so he could be brought in.