Bug Out! Part 5: RV Flight from Terror

by Robert Boren

  “Frank!” Jane shouted at him.

  He shook his head, eyes opening. Lucy jumped off his lap.

  “What? Where are we?”

  “We’re about five miles away from Rifle,” Jane said. “Thought I’d better wake you.”

  “Oh, really?” Frank said. “That was fast.”

  “You and the girl were asleep for a while. That’s good, in case we end up going all the way to Leadville today.”

  Frank pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked at it.

  “Wow, it’s not quite noon yet. Not bad. I got service now, too.”

  “Good, get on the map application and see how many miles to Eagle, and how many more to Leadville.”

  Frank focused on his phone for a few minutes, moving his fingers over the screen.

  “Looks like about 130 miles from Rifle to Eagle, and another 40 miles or so to Leadville, but we have a lot of grade on the way to Eagle, and a lot of switchbacks between Eagle and Leadville.”

  “How much time? That’s not so many miles.”

  “Well, that’s really hard to say,” Frank said. “We might be down around 40 miles an hour or less up some of the grades, and they go for miles. But then there are parts that we can go 65-70 with no problem. That last 40 miles is going to be 25-35, I suspect. Jeb would know.”

  “We should ask him.”

  “Here comes the off ramp,” Frank said.

  The stream of coaches made the turn off of I-70 and crept along the main street of Rifle like a giant snake. There was a large truck stop a block down, with only one semi-truck gassing up. The rest of the islands were open. They got filled with RVs several deep when the group arrived. Jane pulled in behind Jeb’s rig. Frank unbuckled and got up.

  “How is the gas, anyway?” Frank asked.

  “We’re still above half a tank,” Jane replied. “I’ll take the girl for a walk while you handle it.”

  “Sounds good.” Frank opened the door and waited for the steps to come out, then stepped out. He went around to the gas pumps and used his credit card to get started. The hose just barely reached. It was a good fast pump. Frank watched the dollars roll up and shook his head.

  “Highway robbery,” Jeb said, walking over. “The diesel is even worse than the gasoline.”

  “How’d you like that napalm run?”

  “If I wasn’t driving I would have drunk a toast,” Jeb said.

  “I was watching through my binoculars when it hit. Not a pretty sight.”

  “They asked for it, and they’ll get more.”

  Charlie and Jerry walked over.

  “You guys got the gas flowing?” Jeb asked. Both men nodded.

  “Jeb, how bad is Route 24? Is it drivable at night?” asked Jerry.

  “It’s dark and a little narrow, and some of the switchbacks are a little tight. There’s also a lot of grade….up then down. Mostly up, though. Why?”

  “After seeing those enemy troops so far into Colorado, I’m wondering if we really want to camp out right along I-70.”

  “Well, it wasn’t me that wanted to stop in Eagle,” Jeb said. “I’m good with going all the way. It may be dark before we get there, though. Something to think about.”

  Frank looked over and saw Jane coming back towards the coach with Lucy.

  “She done already?”

  “Sure is,” Jane said. “What’re we going to do?”

  “We were just talking about it.”

  The rest of the core group walked over…..the Sheriff, Kurt and Mary, Jackson, and Earl.

  “Got a little meeting going on?” the Sheriff said.

  “Well, kinda,” Jerry said. “We were talking about how far we should go tonight. Should we stop in Eagle, or should we go all the way to Leadville.”

  “I was thinking about that, too,” Kurt said. “Eagle is right on I-70. I didn’t like to see the enemy so far into Colorado and so close to the main road like that.”

  “Seriously,” Jerry said. “That’s why I’m bringing it up…but I don’t want us to bite off more than we can chew. Who knows how bad Route 24 would be to drive at night?”

  “You’ve heard what I said,” Jeb replied. “It sucks, but it’s doable. I’d be more worried about finding a good place to stop then I would getting over the road. It’ll probably be dark before we get into Leadville.”

  “You sure about that?” asked Earl. “It’s just a little after noon now. We aren’t talking that many miles. Under two hundred.”

  “That’s correct,” Kurt said, “but remember that we are about to hit some big grades. We won’t be flying along at 70 when we hit those. In some stretches we’ll be lucky to hold 35.”

  “I’m not so sure it will be dark.” Frank said. “If we divide 200 miles by a reasonable average….say 50 miles per hour, we are only talking about 4 hours. Assuming we get back on the road at about 12:30, we would be there by 4:30 or so.”

  “That average speed is way too high,” Kurt said. “Too high even if we don’t include Route 24. The grade comes up really fast after this, and I know there are parts of Route 24 that are 35 miles per hour during mid-day. We are going to get a lot of shadow up there, too.”

  “Kurt’s right,” the Sheriff said. “That’s why I wanted to gas up here. We’re going to be cranking along in low gear for a long time. We’re going to burn gas like crazy.”

  “OK, I just plugged in 35 miles per hour, and I see your point,” Frank said. “It’s almost six hours, and when you take into account the shadow effect up in the mountains, we’re running into darkness.”

  “So what do we want to do?” the Sheriff asked.

  “Let’s do this,” Charlie said. “Let’s pull off at Eagle and re-assess. Maybe we’ll make better time than we are expecting, or maybe it’ll be worse. We can make a good decision then.”

  “I agree,” Jerry said.

  The rest of the people nodded in approval.

  Everybody went back to their rigs and finished fueling up. Soon they were driving back to I-70, in about the same order they were before. Frank was behind the wheel now. After they were on I-70 and rolling along well, Jane went into the back looking for something to eat. She came back with apples and clif bars for both of them.

  “The road is a little more crowded here,” Frank said. “I see traffic on the other side of the road, too.”

  “Nice view of the river over on this side.”

  Frank sat up higher in his seat and looked out the passenger side window.

  “Oh, yeah,” he said. “Looks bigger than I expected up here.”

  “Haven’t seen any boats on it, though. Maybe it’s not the recreational haven that it is down south.”

  “Or maybe everybody has more important things to do than play on the river these days,” Frank said.

  Jane just nodded.

  “I feel the grade already,” Frank said. “It’s going to get noisy pretty soon.”

  “I suspect,” she replied.

  “If you still have data service, it might be a good idea to check Leadville for RV Parks.”

  “I’ll give it a try.” Jane pulled her phone out of her purse and looked at it.

  “I’ve got 4G at least,” she said. She focused on her phone for a few minutes.

  “See anything interesting?” Frank asked.

  “There are a lot of RV Parks, that’s for sure. There are some nice lakes nearby, so this area is quite a recreation spot.”

  “I wonder if Hilda or Kurt know which ones are good.”

  “They probably know people who own parks there,” Jane said. “I’d be surprised if they don’t.”

  “Could be, but this is a ways from them. See if you can get a closer look at Route 24.”

  “Already on that. It doesn’t look that tight to me, Frank.”

  “Good,” he replied.

  “Shit.”

  “What?”

  “The elevation. Geez. Did you know that Leadville is over 10,000 feet? Hell, most of Route 24 is up around that, although
the beginning is in the 8000-9000 range. It that going to have an impact on the engine?”

  “Yeah, we’ll lose some power,” Frank said. “No doubt about that.”

  The RV’s V-10 engine roared as it downshifted. Frank gave it more gas to keep the speed up.

  “Grade starting?” Jane asked.

  “Oh, it’s been going up for a while now, but this V-10 has a lot of torque. We just hit the point where it’s got to downshift, though.”

  “Are we going to have trouble keeping up with the diesels?”

  “We would if they wanted to run away from us, but they’ll stay close. About half of our folks are in gas rigs.”

  “It’s leveling out for a while,” Frank said. “I can feel it.” The engine up shifted and the rpm went down.

  “Good,” Jane said. “Here comes the city of Silt. We’re making pretty good time.”

  “What’s the elevation there?”

  “It’s only in the 5400 foot range. I think we’ll have quite a bit of run room at higher speeds,” Jane said. “It doesn’t start going over 6000 feet until we get past Glenwood Springs, and that’s a ways away. Glad we’re going to reassess in Eagle.”

  “How far is Glenwood Springs?”

  “Less than an hour, from what I can tell.”

  They rode along silently for a while, and were able to keep their speed up most of the time. As they approached Glenwood Springs, the V-10 started to labor, and the transmission downshifted again. They slowed to below 50 after a short period of time, but were able to hold that speed for a while. The cockpit was noisy. Lucy begged Jane to come on her lap.

  “C’mon girl,” Jane said. “We’re just grinding away now, aren’t we?”

  “Yep, been out of overdrive for a while now. I just saw a sign for Glenwood Springs. You were right….it was just under an hour.”

  They rode past the town. It was set in a deep valley with steep mountains on either side.

  “What a pretty town,” Jane said. “Just gorgeous.”

  “Sure is,” Frank replied. “I’d like to come back through here and stay a while if things calm down.”

  “Me too.”

  “More traffic,” Frank said. “Looks like locals to me.”

  “Yep.”

  The V-10 started to labor again as they climbed out of the valley.

  “Here it starts,” Frank said. Soon they were only going about 40, and the engine had downshifted a couple of times.

  “How’s it doing?” Jane had to almost shout to be heard.

  “The old V-10s are made for this,” Frank shouted, “but I’m having a hard time holding it at 40. If it gets steeper we’ll be down around 35.”

  “Are we burning too much gas?”

  “We’re doing alright. The needle has just barely moved off of full. We just aren’t talking that many miles here.”

  They leveled out again, and the engine was able to upshift. They crept back up to 50 miles per hour. Jane started to doze off. Frank watched the scenery and ran through all of what was coming at them inside his head. The possible dark drive into an unknown RV Park. The elevation. The local authorities...were there more like that character back in Loma?

  It was cooling down. Frank reached up to the dashboard and turned off the air conditioner. There was still plenty of daylight left, but the shadows were starting to get a little longer.

  The grade was starting to rise again, and there was a big tunnel coming, blasted out of the rock years ago, and looking like it built in the 1930s. The coaches ahead started to slow down slightly, and Frank saw headlights being turned on. Then he was in the tunnel himself, switching on the headlights. The noise was different, and it woke up Jane with a start.

  “Where are we?” she asked, looking frightened for a moment.

  “We’re okay, sweetie. Just a tunnel. We’re heading into another big grade, though.”

  They came out of the tunnel and were immediately onto a grade, the engine downshifting and the motor racing.

  Jane picked up her phone and took a look. “No service.”

  “I’m not surprised, with all of these mountain walls around us.”

  The engine downshifted again, and it got too noisy to talk. They rode along silently, each in their own head. Lucy came over and whined at Jane, then jumped up before being invited. Jane just smiled and petted her.

  “It’s alright, girl.”

  “She doesn’t like the noise,” Frank shouted. “I’m surprised she doesn’t go in the back.”

  “I’m not. She wants to be with her humans.”

  “We’re slowing down again,” Frank said. “I’m having a hard time keeping it above 35 miles per hour.”

  “We aren’t going to overheat or anything, are we?”

  “No, this engine was built to take this. Don’t worry.”

  They continued to slow down. Frank had his foot all the way down on the petal. He pushed the Tow-Haul button, but it didn’t seem to make any difference. They were already in a low gear.

  Mr. Wonderful sauntered up to the front and looked at both Frank and Jane. He saw Lucy’s head pop up, got an annoyed look on his face, and turned around.

  “I hope this levels out soon,” Frank shouted. Jane just nodded at him, not wanting to yell.

  They were silent for another stretch. Jane looked sleepy again, but she didn’t doze. She watched. Frank was getting tired, his hands sweaty on the wheel, his ankle getting sore from holding down the accelerator pedal. This was no place for cruise control, he thought to himself.

  The road finally started to level off, and the engine upshifted, but they were still in a low gear. Frank saw more traffic.

  “Gypsum coming up,” Frank said, pointing at the sign. “Five miles.”

  “Good. That’s only about 15 or 20 miles from Eagle,” Jane said.

  “Look, elevation is at 6316 according to that sign.”

  “So what was it, in the mid-5000 range when we left Rifle?”

  “Something like that. We’ve gone up almost 1000 feet.”

  “We’ll be up over 6500 feet before we get to Eagle,” Jane said.

  “Oh joy.”

  “I’ve got service again,” Jane said, looking at her phone.

  “Maybe we should turn on the radio for a few minutes before we’re back into the noisy climb.”

  “Sure, I’ll switch it on,” Jane said. She reached over, switched it on, and hit the seek button. “It’s just about 4:00, so maybe they’ll have a spot of news coming up.”

  A good strong station came on. It was playing country music, but then an announcer came on.

  “The 4:00 news is coming up right after this word from our sponsor.”

  A goofy commercial about a local car dealership came on. Cartoon music. Way over the top.

  “I can almost see the clown cars rolling around and around the big top,” Frank said, cracking up.

  Jane laughed.

  “In local news, road crews said it will take several days to open the damaged section of Route 24. Authorities are still investigating how the main southbound tunnel got damaged. This will cause major problems for people living in the area.”

  “Isn’t that the road we were going to take?” asked Jane.

  “Sure is,” Frank said.

  Chapter 16 – Eagle’s Nest

  “Great, no way to get to Leadville for a few days,” Jane said. “Now what?”

  “Why don’t you see what there are in the way of RV Parks near Eagle that aren’t right next to I-70?”

  “Okay, good idea,” Jane said, “but I’d better get on it quick, before we lose service again.”

  “I’ll call Charlie and see if he or Hilda know anybody who owns a park near there.”

  Frank pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed.

  “Charlie?”

  “Yeah, Frank, what’s up?”

  “We just heard some local news……Route 24 is shut down, maybe for a few days.”

  “Uh oh. What now?”

 
“Jane’s on the web seeing if there’s any parks near Eagle that aren’t right on top of I-70, but I got to wondering. Maybe you or Hilda know somebody that owns a park in Eagle, or nearby?”

  “I don’t know of any offhand, but I’ll ask Hilda, and I’ll call Kurt too. He might know of something.”

  “Alright, thanks. Talk to you later.”

  “No problem, Frank.”

  Frank looked over at Jane.

  “Well?” she asked.

  “Charlie doesn’t know, but he’ll check with Hilda and Kurt and get back with me. You seeing anything?”

  “Yes, there are some parks that aren’t right on I-70. Some are up in the foothills a ways.”

  “Good, then at least we know we can hide out for a few days if we need to.”

  The V-10 started to labor, and downshifted, engine racing.

  “Here comes another grade,” Frank said. His phone rang again, so he pulled it out of his pocket and looked at it.

  “Charlie?” asked Jane

  “Nope, the Sheriff,” he replied.

  “Hey, Sheriff,” Frank shouted.

  “Hi, Frank. I just heard that Route 24 is stopped up.”

  “Yeah, we heard a news story a few minutes ago. Maybe you have better info. What have you heard?”

  “Somebody blew up one of the bridges.”

  “No, really?”

  “Really. When I heard the news report I called the state exchange and got ahold of the Highway Patrol in the area.”

  “Islamists or militia? Or both?”

  “They don’t know.”

  “Has there been enemy incursions up here before?”

  “No, not at all so far, Frank.”

  “Well, this sucks. Dammit. Wonder where they’re coming from?”

  “The people I talked to with the Highway Patrol are thinking it’s probably New Mexico.”

  “Ah, from the south, huh?” Frank asked.

  “I didn’t get a warm fuzzy feeling that these folks really know. They’ve had less experience with the enemy than we have.”

  “Might not even be a large force, of course. Could be a lone wolf attack. You know…sleeper, just to keep us guessing.”