Bug Out! Part 6: Motorhome Mayhem in the Rockies

by Robert Boren

  “Good,” Jerry said. “Shall we go back on Hilda’s system, then?”

  “I don’t see why not. I’ll just download everything from the DVR.”

  “Okay,” Jerry said. “I need more coffee.”

  They walked back into the clubhouse. Jane walked over to Frank.

  “Why did you guys take off so fast?” she asked. “I saw you yank the network cable out of the back of that PC.”

  “I was afraid that our IP address was getting sniffed from the PC at Hilda’s park.”

  “Uh oh. They could tell our location by that, couldn’t they?”

  “Well, not in this case. We just talked to Gabe. He has satellite internet service. The IP addresses won’t denote the ground location. You’d have to get that data from the service provider, and I know how they’re handling security of PID.”

  “What’s PID?”

  “Personally Identifiable Data,” Frank said. “Stuff like home address, credit card numbers, phone numbers, birthdates, Social Security numbers, and so on. There are strict rules on protection of this kind of data due to identity theft.”

  “Oh…this is the satellite service that your company developed, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, and I had a hand in securing their systems before that division was spun off. We should be fine.”

  “Good,” she said. “More coffee?”

  “Yeah, I was going to go over and get a cup after I start the download. Meet you in the kitchen?”

  “Sure,” she said.

  Frank went to the PC and plugged the network cable back in, then went back to Hilda’s security system. He got to the console and started the download. Then he locked the screen and walked over to the kitchen.

  They heard the crack of a shot outside. Everybody’s heads snapped around to the front of the building.

  “Everybody get down!” Frank yelled. He grabbed his Winchester and went to the door. Jerry joined him with his AK-47. They opened the door a crack and peered out. There were two militia men on the street side of the moat, holding guns on Gabe, Jackson, Earl, and Charlie.

  “Wonder where Jeb and Kurt are?” Jerry whispered.

  “Getting into position, probably,” Frank whispered back. Then there was a loud rifle shot, and one of the militia men flew backwards, hitting the ground dead. The other militia man looked at his friend in horror, and then was hit in the side of the head, blowing blood and brains all over the road.

  “Their truck is taking off,” Gabe shouted. He jumped on the backhoe and pushed the bridge over, then moved it off to the side. He jumped out and ran towards his Suburban, with Earl and Jackson following. They grabbed their guns on the way. The Suburban took off down the road, tires squealing. Charlie stayed behind, hunting rifle now in his hands, scanning the area.

  “C’mon, let’s go,” Jerry said.

  “Where?” Jane asked.

  “After them, of course,” Jerry said. Frank and Jerry ran out the door just as Kurt was pulling up in his Jeep. Jeb was in the passenger seat. Frank and Jerry jumped in.

  “Jane, you and Jasmine get your guns, and keep an eye out,” Frank yelled. She nodded back to him, and the women got their weapons and ran out to the front of the park, taking up positions behind the backhoe as the Jeep tore out across the bridge.

  “Step on it,” Jeb yelled. They could still see Gabe’s suburban in the distance. As they got closer they could see the battered primer gray pickup truck in front.

  “Who did they shoot?” Frank asked.

  “Nobody,” Jeb said. “Idiots. They couldn’t get Gabe’s attention with all the noise so they fired a shot in the air. Stupid.”

  Gabe was catching up fast. He got right behind and bumped the pickup. It swerved, and a man in the passenger side stuck a pistol out the side window and fired wildly, not even aiming. Kurt’s Jeep was right behind the Suburban. He tooted his horn. Gabe moved over a little, and Kurt flew past them, getting behind the truck. Jeb got up, leaning on the front windshield of the Jeep, rifle aimed at the truck. He fired, hitting the passenger’s head, splattering the inside of the cab. They could hear the driver screaming. Jeb fired again, hitting the driver. The truck veered off the road, hitting the soft dirt and doing a cartwheel, then rolling twice and landing on its side. Kurt and Gabe pulled over and the men jumped out. They ran over to the truck, engine dieseling now, smoke starting to flow out from under the hood. Frank looked inside.

  “Jeez, these look like a couple of kids,” he said. Jerry peered in too. Jeb came running over with a bucket that Kurt had in the back of his Jeep. He took out his bowie knife and stabbed the gas tank, using the stream to fill the bucket with gasoline. Then he carried it to the cab.

  “Stand back, guys,” he said. Frank and Jerry moved back, and Jeb poured the gas all over the militia men and the cab. Then he pulled out a match, lit it, and tossed it into the cab, which exploded with flames.

  “That’ll teach ‘em,” Kurt said.

  “Son of a bitch….forgot the marshmallows again,” Jeb said.

  “Let’s get away from this thing before that gas tank blows,” shouted Jerry. The men all jogged over to their vehicles. They were just getting back onto the road when the truck exploded, lifting off the ground a few inches and coming back down, totally engulfed in flames.

  “That smoke is going to show up for miles,” Frank said.

  “Was thinking the same thing,” Kurt said. “Hope it doesn’t bring the wrong kind of people around.”

  “I suggest we don’t burn the two back at the park,” Jerry said. “Let’s have Mary take the chips out, and we’ll add them to the collection. Then we won’t attract attention to where we live.”

  “Good idea,” Jeb said. They were back to the park within a few minutes, and drove over the bridge. Gabe was right behind them. They parked, and all of the men got out, gathering by the backhoe, where Jasmine and Jane were standing.

  “Where’s Charlie?” Earl asked.

  “He got on the roof again, with the Sheriff and Terry,” Jane said. “You get the bad guys?”

  “Yeah, that’s what that smoke over there is,” Jerry said.

  “Good,” Jasmine said. “Mind if we go back to the clubhouse?”

  “I don’t see why not,” Frank said. “Thanks for covering the place.”

  Jane and Jasmine nodded and walked back to the clubhouse, Lucy prancing along behind them.

  “Let’s drag those bodies over here and get the bridge pulled away from the moat,” Gabe said.

  The men leaped into action, running over to the bodies and pulling them over next to the backhoe. Then Gabe fired it up and pulled the bridge back.

  “We gonna burn these guys too?” he asked, climbing off of the backhoe.

  “No, let’s have Mary take out the chips, and we’ll put them into the lead box with the others,” Frank said.

  “Okay,” Gabe said. Kurt trotted over to the clubhouse, and came back with Mary and the black bag. She knelt next to the first body.

  “Why don’t you guys watch me do this?” she said, putting on a fresh pair of gloves. “Then you’ll be able to do it too. Might be a better idea than burning the bodies. I can see the smoke from your previous handiwork over there, which means a lot of other folks can see it too.”

  “We might find a good use for these chips, too, you know,” Jerry said. “Think about it. If we break their code, we might be able to use these to our advantage.”

  “Damn good point,” Kurt said.

  “Okay, boys, these are in the triceps,” Mary said. “It’s always been the right arm so far. Look for this scar.” She pointed at it with her scalpel.

  “That looks easy enough,” Jeb said.

  “They aren’t very deep,” she said, as she cut around the scar. Then she held back a flap of skin and reached in, pulling out the capsule. “There, that’s all there is to it.”

  She did the same with the other body, and then she and Kurt walked back into the clubhouse with them, followed by Gabe. The rest of the men
dragged the bodies over to the meadow and checked their pockets.

  “Hey, look,” Jeb said. “This one has an employee ID, from the Eagle County Regional Airport. He’s a local.”

  “Shit,” Frank said. “That isn’t good. We probably have locals here who know where we are. This guy might have told all kinds of people.”

  “And it doesn’t give me a warm fuzzy feeling that this guy had special access to an airport,” Jerry said.

  “Seriously. Wonder if we should tell somebody?” Jackson asked.

  “Like who?” Jeb asked. “How do we know who’s a good guy and who’s a bad guy?”

  “I think we keep our mouths shut until Frank here figures out how to read these chips,” Earl said. “That’d be one hell of a good BS detector.”

  “I’ll go get the backhoe and dig a quick hole for our friends,” Jackson said, trotting back over. He drove the backhoe over and dug out a hole. The men picked up the bodies and threw them in like trash, and then Jackson covered up the hole.

  “I think I’m going to drive this thing back to the barn for now,” Jackson said. “If we get more visitors and they shoot it up, we’ll be in some trouble.”

  “Good idea,” Jeb said. The men walked slowly back to the clubhouse.

  “You know, that stupid moat was helpful today,” Earl said. “I thought it was kind of a joke, but it kept the cretins from driving their truck in here.”

  “I know, I was thinking the same thing,” Jerry said. “Gabe’s a crazy old fart, but he’s got some good ideas.”

  “What’s left to be done on it?” asked Frank.

  Earl cracked up. “The spikes.”

  “Spikes?” Jerry asked.

  “Yeah, Gabe’s got a ton of rebar. He’s going to cut up a bunch of six-foot pieces and sharpen them on both ends with his grinder. Then we’re going to stick them all over the bottom of the moat, before we fill it with water. He’s also got some razor wire…..he wants to put that along the trees on the street side of the creek.”

  “Well, that’ll keep the enemy out, but it’ll also keep us in,” Jeb said.

  “That’s why we need to protect that backhoe,” Jerry said. “I think we ought to rig up a better way to move that bridge back and forth, though. I’ve got some ideas. I’ll talk to Gabe about them.”

  They made it to the veranda and walked through the door. Gabe had the lead box in his hands.

  “We just tossed these two loose into the box,” he said. “If we have all of them in plastic bags, it’ll get too full.”

  “I see no problem with that,” Frank said.

  “Good,” he replied. “You need these now, or should I put them back in the safe?”

  “They can go back in the safe,” Frank said. “Maybe tomorrow we could make the supply run.”

  “Sure. I’d do it today, but the electronics store isn’t open on Sundays.”

  “I figured,” Frank said.

  He walked back to the office, and Frank went over to the PC to check the download. It was almost complete. Then it was over to the kitchen to get that cup of coffee. Jeb and Jerry were in there talking to Kurt.

  “Smells good,” Frank said, drawing himself a cup out of the large pot’s spigot.

  “Download done yet?” Jerry asked.

  “Close,” he replied. “It’ll be about done by the time I walk back over there.”

  “Should we make a backup?”

  “I don’t know why we should bother,” Frank said. “I just wanted to check out that guy I was talking about.”

  “Can you crash the hard drive on that PC from here?” asked Jeb.

  Frank thought about it for a minute. “I can wipe and reformat it from here. Not a bad idea, either. We won’t be able to get on again, but any IP trace data will be toast...it would also take away the propaganda value.”

  “Let’s do it,” Jerry said.

  “Okay,” Frank said, chuckling. “If they’re really watching, this ought to piss them off good.”

  The men walked over to the PC. Frank unlocked the screen and saw that the download was complete.

  “Perfect,” he said. He was about to exit the console when Jerry spoke up.

  “Hey, Frank, let’s take one last look before you crash it.”

  “Okay,” he replied. He selected the camera view, and the grid showed up and started to cycle through.

  “Oh, crap, look!” Jeb said. “It’s Phil!” The men looked on the screen and saw Philip walking through the front gate with a group of militia men and Islamic fighters following him.

  The camera program continued to cycle through, and they could see the enemies walking towards the workshop where the PC and DVR were set up.

  “Crash that sucker!” Jerry said. Frank nodded and dumped the camera program, then got to a prompt and typed in the commands to reformat with wipe. He kicked it off.

  “Can they stop that?” Jeb asked. “They’ve got to be walking into the workshop right about now.”

  “Nope,” Frank said. “Not a damn thing they can do.”

  “Good,” he replied. “Wish we would’ve had time to put up a nice message for them.”

  “Oh well,” Jerry said. “This is a message in itself.”

  Jeb laughed. “So it is.”

  “Can we open the video now?” Kurt asked.

  “I need to run a scan on it first, just in case,” Frank said. “Better safe than sorry. It’ll take a few minutes…big files.” He started that process running.

  “We need to talk about the incident this morning,” Jerry said. “That makes me nervous. I’d have felt better if this was a scout from the militia base back in Arizona or over in New Mexico. This wasn’t a scouting party. They knew who we were.”

  “It’s possible that he’s from here but hasn’t been around since the war started, you know,” Frank said.

  “How can we find out?” Jeb asked.

  “Here’s a thought,” Jerry said. “Maybe we ought to have somebody call the airport and ask for him tomorrow, when we’re in town.”

  “I like it,” Frank said. “Let’s do that.”

  “Looks like the scan is done,” Jerry said.

  “Yeah, let’s see what we have,” Frank said.

  “Can you start with the most recent?” Jeb said. “Maybe we can see more of our buddy Phil.”

  “Sure, I can go day by day.” Frank opened the folder. It contained a bunch of zip files, one for each day. He clicked on the file with the most recent date. That brought up a list of files by camera number. He clicked on the first file. The men gasped as they looked at the screen.

  “Oh, shit,” Jerry said.

  The men’s reaction got the attention of Jane and Jasmine, and they hurried over to look.

  “Oh no!” Jane said.

  Chapter 16 – The Lone Ranger’s Car

  The group was huddled around the front of the PC monitor, shocked looks on their faces. There was an Islamic flag in the middle of the screen, and around it were very high res pictures of Frank, Jane, Jerry, Jasmine, Jeb, Charlie, Hilda, Kurt, Mary, the Sheriff, Jackson, and Earl. The bottom of the screen had the words “Enemies of the People” in ornate text. They all looked like candid shots.

  “Son of a bitch, those were taken at my park!” Kurt said. “Look at the building behind Mary.”

  “Probably Lieutenant James,” Jeb said. “That son of a bitch.”

  “They were from a ways off,” Frank added. “Look at the angles. Remember the topography there. It was flat and open for a long way around the park. These shots would have been easy with a good SLR and telephoto lens, mounted on a tripod.”

  “True,” Mary said. “We had a lot of open ground around our park.”

  “It could be worse,” Jane said. “The pictures could have been from here.”

  “They know where we are,” Jerry said. “Those four militia guys didn’t just stumble on us today. Glad we killed all of them, but I’d be shocked if there aren’t others who knew where they were going.”

&
nbsp; “We have to assume that, anyway,” Kurt said.

  “Glad you crashed that PC, Frank,” Jackson said.

  “They still have the data from the cameras,” Frank said. “I couldn’t erase the contents of the DVR. They could put a new hard drive in that PC and be broadcasting again in no time.”

  “I’ll bet this is out on YouTube or other places already, anyway. They left this on Hilda’s system so we’d see it,” Jerry said.

  “Yeah, you’re probably right,” Jeb added. “We need to take it to these guys somehow. If we just sit here passively, they’ll eventually get lucky.”

  “We’re really in a race against time,” Jerry said. “We need to keep Frank working on the chips. If he can crack that, these guys will be in deep yogurt.”

  “Not much I can do until we can get the equipment, and now we know there are folks all over the place who know what we look like,” Frank said

  “There weren’t pictures of Gabe or the Deputy,” Jerry said. “We can make a shopping list and send them.”

  “Yep, that’s right,” Gabe said.

  “I don’t think we’re going to get a massive attack here, either,” Earl said. “There isn’t an easy way to get a lot of people here without attracting a lot of attention, and the army took the enemy out at that base by Eagle, so they don’t have a good staging point.”

  “I still want to know if this guy with the airport ID was a local, or if he was part of one of the groups in Arizona or southern Utah,” Jerry said. “If he’s a local, that means there’s sleepers here.”

  “The guys we took out today weren’t too bright,” Jeb said, “and by the way, that could have been all of them, too. If it wasn’t, we’ll probably get hit again sooner rather than later.”

  “Well, I’m too antsy to sit around here talking,” Gabe said. “Let’s go get the spikes in that moat, and the razor wire in the trees. We can get most of that done before nightfall if we hurry.”

  “Agreed,” Jerry said.

  “What can we do to help?” Jane asked.

  “Come on into the barn,” Gabe said. “I’ll show you girls how to run the grinders. I’ve got two. We need to sharpen spikes.”