Bug Out! Part 5: RV Flight from Terror

by Robert Boren

  “Nothing more that I’ve heard,” Gabe said, “but the Feds are all over it, because of that base nearby.”

  “How far away is the blown bridge?” the Sheriff asked.

  “Oh, ‘bout 40 miles as the crow flies. Probably close to 60 miles to drive it,” Gabe said.

  “You see any changes around town in the past few days?” Jeb asked.

  “Can’t say,” Gabe said. “I rarely make it into town. Haven’t seen anything unusual out here, other than people checking out because of the jet noise.”

  “You had people staying here?” Frank asked.

  “Yeah, locals mainly,” Gabe said. “Everybody is nervous as hell in town. Lots of military traffic on I-70. Lots of Feds. Lots of strangers. Lots of scurrying around. Been that way for the last couple of weeks.”

  “Where’d they go,” Jane asked.

  “Didn’t ask,” Gabe said. “I’m guessing they tried to move further east. Kansas, maybe, or Oklahoma.”

  “Well that brings us to the discussion we need to have,” Charlie said. “Where do we go from here?”

  “We run more?” Rosie asked. “Running no good.”

  “I wouldn’t look at it that way, mom,” Jerry said. “We aren’t out of the fight, but we have to find a good base.”

  “Fight?” Gabe asked, laughing. “You guys? What is this, the Geritol squad?”

  “Oh, you don’t know the half of it,” Hilda said. “We’ve seen plenty of action, back at my park. It finally got overrun by the enemy. That’s why we’re here.”

  “We killed us quite a few cretins,” Jeb said.

  “What’s quite a few?” Gabe asked, definitely interested now.

  “Not sure,” Frank said. “Over twenty.”

  “So why didn’t you hold the park?” Gabe asked.

  “Several hundred Islamic fighters flooded into our area,” Jerry said. “It was more than we could handle.”

  “You fought your way past a force of that size?” Gabe asked.

  “No,” Frank said. “The army had a small number of troops there, and some drones in the air. They saw a large force of enemy fighters heading for Hilda’s park and told us to get out. We were only gone about twenty minutes before they arrived.”

  “What happened to the army guys,” Gabe asked.

  “Dead, except for a small handful,” Charlie said.

  Hilda started to cry, but fought it. “Let’s not go back to that,” she said. “I’m tired. What are we going to do now? Let’s figure it out and then get some sleep.”

  “Okay,” Frank said, “so we know that Leadville is probably out now. Maybe the person who blew that bridge was just a lone wolf sleeper, but there could be more to it. I’d say we probably shouldn’t count on that area being safe.”

  “Why don’t you just hang out here?” Gabe asked.

  “Well, that is a possibility,” Kurt said. “But we don’t want to be looking over our shoulder every second.”

  “That’s for sure,” Jeb said. “We just left that party.”

  “Frank had an idea,” Jane said. The group all looked over at him expectantly.

  “Well, just a thought,” Frank said. “We continue down I-70. Go into Kansas and then south through Oklahoma to Texas.”

  “Texas might not let you guys in,” Gabe said. “Been hearing stories about that.”

  “Where would you suggest, other than here?” Hilda asked.

  “Missouri would probably be my top choice,” Gabe said. “Or further east, but not too close to the east coast. Heard bad things.”

  “Bad things?” Jane asked.

  “Yeah, heavy handed government control, mostly,” Gabe said. “They say it’s to protect the cities against more nuclear attacks. I think they’re taking advantage of populations that they expect to go along with tighter control. They know that crap won’t play in the Mountain states or the Midwest or the Deep South.”

  “It’s pretty obvious to me that we aren’t going to come up with a final plan tonight,” Charlie said. “Too many variables to think through, and we’re all tired. I suggest we plan to stay here at least a couple of days, and work on the longer range plan after we’ve gotten some rest. What do you guys think?”

  “I’m for it,” Jane said. She looked up at Frank, and he nodded.

  “I guess I’m okay with that too,” Jerry said. “I’ve got a question, though. What happened to our army guys?”

  “Army guys?” Gabe asked.

  “Yeah, the survivors from the park in Utah joined up with us. They were on their way to some base outside of Denver.”

  The Sheriff stood up and walked over.

  “I was going to bring that up before we left this meeting,” the Sheriff said. “They decided to continue on when we got off of I-70 to come here.”

  “Bummer - no more escort, eh,” Earl said. “Nice while it lasted.”

  “Yes, it was,” the Sheriff said. “But they needed to rejoin the army.”

  “Okay, so anybody not in favor of sticking around here a couple of days to make plans?” Charlie asked. Another murmur floated through the room, but people were nodding their heads in agreement with Charlie.

  “We could do more research on this area in the morning,” Jane said. “Maybe it’s not a bad place to hang out for a while.”

  “Yeah, we should discuss it,” Jackson said. “Traveling may bring as much risk as sticking around here.”

  “True enough,” Charlie said. “Let’s reconvene here in the morning, after breakfast. Maybe about 10:00am?”

  “That would be fine, folks,” Gabe said. “My nephew and I will even get some coffee going….and some pancakes if you want.”

  “That would be nice of you, Gabe,” Hilda said. “I could help out if you’d like.”

  “I’ll never turn down help from you, sweetie,” Gabe said. “So nice to have you here.”

  “Okay, everybody, I think that’s it for tonight,” Charlie said. “Let’s try to rest up a little bit.”

  People started filtering out…leaving the core group alone with Gabe.

  “How many do you think are going to hang in there with us?” Charlie asked.

  “I think we’re going to see them start to peel away if they think it’s safe to do so,” Frank said. “Don’t blame them.”

  “Should we be setting up a watch?” Jeb asked.

  “I don’t think so,” the Sheriff said. “A few of us have dogs, so if anything starts up we’ll hear about it fast.”

  “I wouldn’t worry too much, folks,” Gabe said. “Other than the damn jet noise, this place has been pretty quiet. I know I have a vested interest here, but I would give this place some serious thought. The road isn’t safe. You might make it to somewhere better than here, but I think it’s risky.”

  “I agree…we should have some serious discussion about that,” Hilda said.

  “It is closer to the action,” Jeb said. “Easier for us to slip in and strike the enemy.”

  “Let’s not get into that now,” Frank said. “Too late, and that’ll keep me up all night.”

  “Good point,” Jeb said. “I’m going to bed, folks. See you in the morning.”

  With that, the group left the clubhouse.

  Frank and Jane walked slowly back to their rig. When they got within about 20 yards, Lucy started barking.

  “Ah, yes, our watchdog,” Frank said. “I’ll take her for a quick walk.”

  “I’ll go to,” Jane said, “if you don’t mind. Maybe we should have a quick bite to eat, too.”

  “Maybe we should eat first,” Frank said, laughing. “I forgot that we didn’t eat dinner yet. Wasn’t even hungry until now.”

  “Okay, how about some canned chili?”

  “Sounds perfect,” Frank said, as he unlocked the coach door. He pulled the door open and Lucy bounded out, tail wagging. “C’mon girl, let’s go inside.” The three of them entered the coach, and Frank shut the door and locked it.

  “Too bad there’s no Wi-Fi,” Jane said, a
s she pulled a sauce pan out of the cupboard.

  “I’ll check on the cell coverage,” Frank said. He watched Jane open a can of chili and pour it into the pan. She turned on the burner, but got no flame.

  “Shoot, forgot. I’ll go turn on the propane,” Frank said. He grabbed his flashlight and went outside to turn it on. It was quiet outside, and getting cold. After he turned the propane on, he scanned the park. It reminded him of Hilda’s park a little bit. Somewhat sheltered. Maybe defendable in the same way. It was more out of the way, he thought. He heard the coach door open.

  “It on, honey?” Jane asked.

  “Yeah, go ahead. I’ll be there in a minute.”

  “Okay,” she said. She shut the door and went back into the kitchen. Frank could see her working through the window. He turned back outward and looked around some more, his mind still racing.

  “I gotta calm down,” he said to himself as he went back into the coach.

  “You alright?” Jane asked.

  “Yeah, but I’m still pretty wound up. I could use a drink,” he said.

  “Well, I don’t see the harm in that,” Jane said. “I could use one too.”

  “Good, how about a beer?” he asked. Jane nodded yes.

  Frank opened the fridge and got out a couple of IPAs. He opened them and handed one to Jane as she stirred the chili.

  “Smells good,” Frank said.

  “Want onion?”

  “No, that will just repeat on me all night.”

  “Good, I was thinking the same thing,” Jane said. She took a big sip of her beer and then stirred the chili some more. Frank sat down at the dinette and drank about half of his beer in one gulp.

  “Wow, I guess you did need that beer,” Jane said, laughing.

  “I’m still too worked up,” Frank said. “I think all of this running around is getting to me. It’s been a long day.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked at it. “Well, I’ve got cellular, and LTE too, but I don’t know how fast it is.”

  Jane put chili in two bowls and carried them over to the dinette. She sat down and had another swig of beer. They both started eating.

  “If we were to stay here for a little while, do you think you could rig us up some internet?”

  “Maybe, if somebody has a satellite dish that I could play with. Wouldn’t surprise me if Jerry has a lot of the network stuff we’d need to make that happen. Of course we could get the toad unhitched and get into town for some equipment, too.”

  “Not a bad idea,” Jane said. “We are running low of a few other things too, you know. Like beer.”

  “Can’t have that,” Frank said, as he finished his bottle. “This chili tastes pretty good.”

  “Yeah, not bad for canned. Why don’t you have another beer?”

  “You mind?”

  “Not a bit,” she said.

  Frank got up and went to the fridge. “You want another one too?”

  “No, one will do the trick for me,” she replied. Frank nodded, opened his beer, and came back to the table.

  They finished their meal and sat back silently for a few minutes. Mr. Wonderful came over and jumped into Frank’s lap.

  “Hi, big boy,” Frank said. He petted the cat’s head and it bumped against his hand, purring loudly.

  “He’s in love,” Jane said, laughing. Lucy trotted over and looked up, starting to whine. “Uh oh, looks like somebody is jealous.”

  Frank laughed. “Same old story.”

  “What were you doing out there earlier?” Jane asked.

  “Trying to get a longer look at our surroundings. Trying to picture in my mind how we could defend it if we chose to stay here for a while.”

  “What do you think?”

  “It’s too dark to see well enough tonight, but tomorrow I think we ought to take a walk around and look.”

  “You think we might be able to stick around here?” Jane asked.

  “I really don’t know, sweetie. It would be nice, at least for a while. We could use a breather.”

  “What about Missouri?”

  “That scares me a tad. I keep thinking about nuclear attacks. It would be easy to float one down the big river, right into St. Louis. That would ruin our whole day.”

  “Do you believe what Gabe was saying about Texas?”

  “It wouldn’t shock me,” Frank said. “They’re all about protecting their own, and I don’t blame them.”

  “You don’t think their state government is going to pull that same garbage that’s going on in California?”

  Frank laughed. “Oh yeah, like that would work. Texans would probably shoot all of them and then just secede and start over.”

  “Well, it might not be the Texas of 50 years ago anymore, you know. Lots of blue-state folks moved there when jobs got tight.”

  “True, but remember that a lot of folks who left the blue states were trying to get to a red state on purpose. Not everybody from California is a blue-stater. There were a lot of fed-up people there before the crap hit the fan. ”

  “True enough. Ready to take the girl out?”

  “Sure,” Frank said. Let’s go.”

  Frank hooked Lucy up to her leash and they left the coach. The chill in the air was a lot more pronounced now. Lucy scampered around but seemed to be in a hurry to get her business done. A coyote howled in the distance, and crickets chirped. The sky was a million stars.

  “I could stay here for a while,” Jane said.

  “Me too, as long as it’s safe. Maybe it will work out for a while.”

  They walked down several blocks of coaches. Somewhere along the line Jane had grabbed Frank’s hand. Their fingers intertwined. Frank felt the warmth of being next to her, but in the back of his mind he was worried. About losing her. About getting killed and leaving her alone. About her being killed…no, that can’t happen. I couldn’t live with that. Frank drove himself into despair and then remember his country, and all that he had come to love about it during his long life. It would not be destroyed. It can’t be destroyed. Not when people like him still had breath in their lungs.

  “You okay, honey?” Jane asked.

  She reads me like a book, he thought to himself.

  “I’m alright. So much on my mind. So many decisions.”

  “Let’s just leave it for tomorrow,” she said. “I think the girl’s done, sweetie. Let’s get her home and go to bed. I need you to hold me for a while.”

  “Nothing would be better than that,” Frank said. They headed back towards their coach, getting there quickly. Frank shut the door behind them after they climbed in. He gave Lucy a treat. She picked it up, tail wagging, and scampered off into her bed. Frank went into the bedroom and got undressed. Jane picked up something from the bedroom, and then went into the bathroom.

  “Go ahead and close the bedroom door when you come in, sweetie,” Frank said. “I’m not going back out there.” He laid down and thought about turning on the TV, but decided against it. He heard the bathroom door open. Jane came wearing one of her more sheer nightgowns. She looked so good to Frank. She slid the bedroom door shut.

  “Want to hit the light?” Frank asked.

  “Not yet,” she said. Then she let her nightgown drop off of her.

  “Oh,” Frank said, looking at her. “You are so beautiful.”

  “Let me take your mind off of everything,” she whispered, as she climbed across the bed towards him.

  Bug Out! Part 6 is available now in the Kindle Store!

  Copyright

  Bugout! Part 5 copyright © 2015 by Robert G Boren. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any format without permission in writing from the copyright holder.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Thanks to Laura Thomas for her fine editing!


  About the Author

  Robert G Boren is a writer from the South Bay section of Southern California. He writes Short Stories, Novels, and Serialized Fiction. Most of his work is about people from the South Bay.

  Other Books by Robert Boren

  Never A Loose End - The Franklin and Davis Files Book One

  Serial Killers. Maniac Ex-cops. CIA Assassins. White Slavers. Strippers.

  In "Never A Loose End", they all come together, racing towards their frightening destiny.

  This is the story that started it all for George Franklin and Malcolm Davis. Some of you know them from the later episodes of the Bug Out! series, set seven years later. This is the story of how they met, and the battle that forged them into a formidable team.

  George and Malcolm are both targets, marked for death, but why?

  A clan of Serial Killers is active again, after hiding for years. What has brought them out?

  Follow George and Malcolm as they dash through the Southwest in their Motorhomes.

  Murder, gun battles, bombings, and general mayhem reign in "Never A Loose End"

  Who will survive? Will the hunted be brought down, or will they become the hunters instead?

  Find out in "Never A Loose End - The Franklin and Davis Files Book One"

  Note: This full length novel carries a hard R rating, unlike the PG-13 Bug-Out! series. "Never A Loose End" contains graphic violence and sex. Discretion is advised.