Dark Days Rough Roads

by Matthew D. Mark

  They went out of their way to avoid some houses and ultimately ended up northeast of the airport, across the street. This was a great spot for watching the militia. It gave them a completely different viewing angle. They did the same thing as the night before and laid up for the night.

  He looked over into building 4 and indeed they had two small planes in there. Piper cubs, ancient, simple, parts everywhere, but still not running. Not sure what they could do with them, other than some aerial recon which would be nice. Maybe they could arm them somehow, he guessed. By the looks of it though, they had a long way to go. Haliday started thinking, damn, should have brought the 203. Well, it wasn’t really a 203, but rather a 37mm grenade launcher. Too many questions would arise with a true 40mm launcher. Not to mention the registration of it with the BATFE.

  Those planes wouldn’t be running for at least a couple of days. He looked around some more. He saw the same routine with the security again. Every hour on the hour a perimeter check. Looked like checks of the prison building, but that view was now somewhat blocked. Nothing really different yet. They actually kind of reminded him of the old football game that you plugged it in, and the men just vibrated across the field in random directions with no sense of purpose.

  At the HQ building he saw a few guys get into a four wheeler and head over to the prisoner building. The next view he had of them was when he spotted them at what he called building 12. They had a man with them. They took him inside and he didn’t see them for almost an hour. After that he watched them drag the guy from the doorway and back to the prisoner building. They must have beaten him something fierce. Haliday’s blood was boiling. He told Blake, “Mark down that they torture people.”

  He watched again as they took a woman inside the same building. He waited again and noted the time. It had barely been half an hour before they brought her out and dragged her back to the building. “Damn it,” he said. He had an idea who these people were. He was ready to go down there guns blazing. Evidently he had been speaking aloud and mumbling because Blake had poked his head out again.

  “Roger, do you think that’s who they thought we were?”

  “Yes I do, and I’m f’ing beyond pissed off right now. I’m half tempted to go down there but that would be the end of me for sure. I’ll get even with these pricks, mark my word. I’ll get even with these pricks.” Blake had put his head back under the blanket. “Blake, you only need to poke your head under when I tell you info to write down, you don’t have to stay under there all the time.”

  “It’s warmer this way.”

  “It’s that or you like dutch ovens.”

  “You’re a sick man, Mr. Haliday.”

  No one else was taken out and interrogated that he had seen. It was late in the night and they started to close up a lot of the buildings. They seemed to still be working around the motor pool though. They had some kind of project they wanted finished; he just didn’t know what. He hadn’t gotten a close enough look inside that building to see.

  He was watching this one when he saw a man walk out of one of the motor pool hangars. Haliday watched him and watched his motions. “Oh my god, you’ve got to be kidding me?” He told Blake to stop taking notes and look. Blake poked his head out of the blanket.

  “It’s a guy waving his arms like at the airports.”

  “No Blake, it’s a ground guide, watch.”

  They could hear the rumbling of the engine and soon it appeared. Blake said, “Holy shit.”

  “Ya, that’s what I say. I can’t believe it.” It looked like an M113, armored personnel carrier but slightly different. It had to be some kind of variation or prototype that made its way into civilian hands. He still couldn’t believe it.

  The ground guide walked it out to an empty area between the hangars and one of the runways. Once there the driver ran it around in circles, spun in place a few times, shot up and down along the runway, and then eased it back toward the motor pool hangar. Quite a crowd had gathered around and was cheering. They walked it back into the hangar.

  Blake looked at Haliday. “That’s pretty bad ass. I wish we had one.”

  “Oh ya, hell I wish we had several. Some Bradleys, a few M1s, hell, why stop there. Couple Cobras and Apaches, a Blackhawk or two,” he was rambling now. He stopped himself. He looked at Blake, “no problem at all Blake. It won’t do them a damn bit of good.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Let’s get going back to camp. I’ve seen enough and I’ll explain it on the way.”

  “Ok, Blake, let me explain a few things about tracked vehicles. They can’t really operate continually on paved roads. It tears up the track pads on the tracks and sooner or later they fall off. They start to fall off and expose the tracks, making them more prone to damage. There’s a reason they get trucked everywhere, so unless they get a truck and trailer going, I don’t think they’ll be running around the area with that thing.”

  “What about cutting through all of the farms?”

  “They could do that, sure. But it’s a large area with a lot of varied terrain. Eventually their luck is going to run out and they’ll throw a track or something else. I just don’t think they have the parts to really utilize it the way they hope to, or to make repairs in the field if something goes wrong. Maybe they hope to use it to defend their compound and that’s it. That’s what I would do.

  “It has two firing ports on each side for rifles and whatever they wanted to use that upper turret for. Actually it’s not a turret, but really just a half armored turret. The gunner would still be exposed from the sides and the back. I doubt they have any light or heavy machine guns to mount. That would have cost them nearly as much as that track. At least I hope they don’t.

  “Either way, whatever they plan to use it for, if we take it out it’s a done deal. I’d rather worry more about them getting those planes in the air. Yet another thing to worry about. They can spot us easily if they can do that. We’d be restricted to moving at night, and at night only, and that still wouldn’t guarantee anything. Air power is supreme. I’d settle for a paraglider about now.”

  “You’re full of all kinds of good news, huh?”

  “No, it’s just better that we understand what we are up against. With education we can make educated decisions. Now let’s be quiet because we have to cross through the residential area here.” He heard some chatter on the radio and stopped to listen.

  “HQ this is Papa 2. We went by the Grindstone marina like they said. We found the boat and checked it out. It was exactly where they said it would be. We boarded it and searched it. We found food and weapons on board. Just a pistol and an AK47 with about 1,000 rounds total. The food looks like it’s about a couple of month’s worth. The boat does start and run, so we locked it down and seized it. The cradle it’s in can be lowered manually to put it in the water.”

  “Did you confiscate the food and equipment?”

  “Roger that, we loaded up everything worthwhile and will be bringing it back to HQ. They had some charts too, looks like they were heading somewhere offshore, maybe a cabin on one of the islands. We can check that out tomorrow when it’s daylight. See what they have out there.”

  “Good job guys, not sure if they are with the hostiles or not. We’ll keep pushing them for info, but at least we have a new toy.”

  Haliday was fuming now. “You see, Blake, I told you. I told you. I told you. These people were trying to get to their boat and get to their own camp and now these dick heads have beaten them, seized their food and firearms, and plan to do who knows what with them now. They are going to go to their cabin and take what’s left? I don’t think so.” What started as a reconnaissance mission and bug out ended up being much more for Haliday.

  As soon as they got back, they called in to talk to the group.

  “Everything is ok here. We had a patrol come by but they didn’t pull in. You still want us to shoot on sight?”

  “I do, but only if you are certain they did not call in a locati
on for the stop. If they didn’t, hide the vehicle, bury or burn the bodies, just get rid of them. We have a field operation to conduct in the morning so we won’t be coming in yet. I’ll call you guys later.”

  The sporadic radio calls were wearing on the group. They almost couldn’t handle the suspense. But, they did what they were told. David and Kevin were at the ready to respond if they needed to. Kayla wanted to be involved, but she knew more about the house than anyone else and would need to stay behind. Hopefully they would not have to respond. They hated listening in though, and never knowing what to expect.

  Chapter 20

  They went as far as they dared, and pulled over, and would wait until 0530. They filled the bikes’ tanks. They would need to get some more gas soon. They had about 100 miles of operating distance left now. They had about 15 miles to make it to the marina. 0530 rolled around and they took off.

  They turned in at the marina. Haliday looked around. It wasn’t a very big place, but he had to move quickly. He searched up and down near the boat hoists. There it was. A small cruiser, maybe 30 feet in length. Older, but looked like it was well cared for. The winterizing plastic had been ripped open. They left the ladder near by it too. This was the boat.

  He looked around and found a place to hide the bikes. He prepped Blake as well as he could. He gave him a couple Snickers bars. “Eat them fast, you’ll need the sugar rush. If you can’t hang, just drop your weapon and hit the ground and lay there. Use the radio and tell the group what happened and what’s going on. Make sure you flip to the right freq. first. Just push that button right there.”

  “I’ll be here Mr. Haliday, don’t worry.” Haliday had his doubts. Kid just learned to shoot a few days ago and hadn’t pulled the trigger yet. Not even to practice. He just hoped the kid didn’t get himself killed. They found some hiding spots and Haliday briefed him on fields of fire.

  “You start firing as soon as you hear the first shot or if they are pointing a gun at me and ready to shoot. You make sure they are dead, you hear me. If they go down you put a bullet in their head. You hesitate you die.

  “One more thing Blake, see how I’m dressed?”

  “Yes.”

  “Remember that when you pull the trigger. They have the commie camo on.” Haliday heard the noise, the militia had brought one of the deuce and a halves. He bolted for his cover as quick as he could. The good thing about a deuce was you heard it long time before you saw it. His adrenaline was coursing through his veins.

  The deuce pulled in and paused. The driver looking at a piece of paper that must be a hand drawn map. He put the deuce in gear and pulled up close to the hoist. Two guys from the back jumped out and stood there as the deuce worked its way back and forth so they were backed in as close as they could get. It would make it easier to unload the boat when they got back. They had either taken the top off or didn’t have one. Didn’t matter but it allowed Haliday to count the number of militia.

  The driver and passenger got out. They walked around to the back as well. They had pistols strapped on but no rifles. The guys from the back had the standard AR’s this group has been carrying. One handheld ham, one ham mounted on the truck. Haliday knew who his first target would be if it came down to that.

  The group walked over to the boat and opened a lock and chain around a wheel gear and started cranking it to lower the boat into the water. It was in the water now and they started to take the plastic winterizing completely off. Haliday raised himself up slowly, aimed and called out “Halt or I shoot”. The two riflemen spun in his direction and started to raise their rifles. The driver reached down for his ham. Haliday fired once and the bullet shredded the guy’s hand and the radio.

  Haliday spun toward one of the riflemen and fired a quick burst into his chest before he dove back for cover. He heard a splash in the water. Blake hadn’t fired yet. Damn it, he froze, Haliday thought. Haliday heard the radio guy screaming in pain. He heard some pistol shots and heard rounds hitting around him. He was behind a metal dock box filled with rubber bumpers and ropes and saw holes appearing through the metal. He hit the ground as low as he could get.

  He looked under the dock box sideways because he only had about four inches of clearance. He fired at the feet of the only guy he could see. One round hit its mark and the guy dropped to his knees. Haliday could hear more rounds hit the dock box. He saw the knee of the guy and fired another round. He watched the guy’s knee cap explode out the side of his pants causing the man to fall prone. The guy was now firing randomly at Haliday.

  Haliday couldn’t get a good line of sight on the guy and kept his head low. The shots from the rifle were keeping him down and they were trying to hold their own cover. He tried to keep it near the bottom and edge where the metal was thicker. He heard the pistol shots, but didn’t hear the rounds strike the box, just items close by. The AR went silent and he could hear the guy moaning in pain. He heard him struggling with a magazine change.

  Next he heard the AR cycle through a couple more rounds and then stop. He grabbed a quick peek; the man had managed to sit up. He cleared his rifle and fired at Haliday again. His rifle stopped firing; it had jammed on him again. He was trying to clear it. Haliday couldn’t risk exposing himself for the shot yet. He looked around to see if he could crawl somewhere else, but he was stuck where he was.

  “It jammed on you, good for you, you f’ing prick.” Haliday grabbed a quick peek and jerked his head back up when he heard the AR fire. He heard more shots. “Damn, I gotta get this guy.” He peeked again, “Hell ya, way to go kid.” When Haliday grabbed his quick look the second time, he liked what he saw. The rifleman was laying there with his forehead missing and frontal lobe half gone. Welcome to the game, Blake.

  Blake yelled over at Haliday, “I can’t see them; I can’t see where they are. I can’t really see the other two.” They had two men left, both with pistols. One only had one hand but that was all he needed. Haliday grabbed another quick peek. Both of these guys were ducking down now at the back of the boat. All Haliday could see was the slightest profile of one, his ass and his back. Haliday fired another burst causing the man to fall backwards into the water.

  “Rick, help me. I can’t move my legs., Help me Rick.” Haliday could hear the guy splashing around in the water. He heard Blake firing on them but couldn’t see any hits. “Rick man, help me. It’s cold. Come on man, I need your help. You gotta help me, Rick.”

  “Hold on man, I’m coming for you. Hang on Gary.” Haliday was watching the back of the boat. He saw an arm extend toward the water and heard Blake fire.

  The guy pulled his arm back in and was screaming. “Rick, I can’t stay in here. It’s cold. It’s cold Rick. I need help. I’m hit bad.” The sounds of the splashing became less and less.

  “I’m sorry, Gary, I’m sorry. I can’t get to you.”

  “Rick, it’s cold in here. Get me out.” Gary reached out once more and the boards on the dock shredded from rifle fire as he pulled it back. The sounds from the water had almost stopped now.

  “You sons of bitches, I’ll kill you all. You guys ain’t got the right to come up here and do this. You hear me, you sons of bitches.” The splashes from the water had stopped now. “Gary, you still there? Gary, come on man, tell me you’re still there.” There was no answer. “God damn you sons of bitches, God damn you, what gives you the right to come up here. Who the hell do you think you are?”

  Haliday actually answered him back. “I’ll tell you. I was born and raised in this state. This state is part of this country. I worked my ass off and paid taxes like everyone else. I bought my land up here just like the rest of you, with my own damn money. I have every right to be here, you self-righteous prick. What gives you guys the right to rule this place?”

  “There ain't any law now, asshole. It’s survival of the fittest now. If we don’t control the people around here, they’re gonna drag us down too. We are the law around here now. It’s up to us to decide who can help us rebuild our community. It�
��s our choice, you hear me you f’ing bastard. It’s our choice.”

  Haliday responded, “And what choice do the people have?”

  “If they don’t like it, they can leave if they want.”

  “And you take their food, their weapons and you beat and torture them?” Haliday was up and moving toward the dock now. Rifle slung on his back, pistol drawn. “Answer me asshole. I said answer me.” The guy behind the boat stood up and looked at Haliday. Haliday kept walking toward him.

  The man said, “You don’t understand survival dickhead. It’s all about surviving.” Haliday saw blood dripping from both his hands. This was the radio operator.

  “Maybe I don’t understand survival according the definition you and the other assholes in your group think it means, but I do understand freedom.” The man fumbled to get his pistol reloaded. As the man started raising his pistol Haliday pointed his .40 at him and fired twice into the mans chest and once into his head. The man fell backwards unto the dock.

  Haliday turned around and saw Blake standing there with his rifle pointed at the man’s body. Haliday walked past him, “He’s dead Blake, trust me. Darwin there, Mr. survival of the fittest is no longer fit.” He patted him on the shoulder and said “Come on, let’s go. We have work to do. We aren’t out of the woods yet.”

  Haliday walked over to the deuce. He climbed up in the cab and started looking around. He picked up a small book and flipped through it. Frequencies and codes were all written down along with what looked like a duty roster assigned to the people based on the day of the week. He tucked it in his jacket. Two rifles were cradled inside.

  “Blake, go crank that wheel and get that boat out of the water a couple of feet just to keep it out of the ice when the lake freezes. I don’t know if those folks will ever get here, but if they do at least the boat should be ok.” He saw a few bullet holes in the hull, but everything was above the water level. If they did get here, then they could deal with it.