Bug Out! Part 10: RV Race to Battle (18 page)

***

Gabe woke up in the hospital bed and sat up quickly. Rosie was sitting in a big chair against the wall, looking out the window at the mid-afternoon sunlight. Hilda was still snoring softly.

“Oh, you up,” Rosie said. “Sleep good?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact,” Gabe said. “Had the news on?”

“Yes, I see the announcement about the apps,” she said. “At noon. More reports. Armed forces cleaning house on bad guys in ranks.”

“Good,” Gabe said. “Anything going on around here?”

“Not yet,” she said. “Denver fighting get worse. Citizens attack enemy, kill many. Air force bomb by Grand Canyon, too. Take out militia headquarters. Also bomb along Canada border.”

“How about Washington?” Gabe asked.

“Many arrest,” she said.

“Good morning,” Hilda said, climbing out of bed.

“No, good afternoon,” Gabe said, chuckling. “We slept right though. Was just getting blow by blow of the app release from Rosie.”

“Oh, we slept through that?” Hilda asked. “What time is it?”

“Almost three,” Gabe said. “Maybe we should head to the cafeteria.”

“Yes, then see Jeb,” Rosie said. “And Earl.”

“Okay,” Hilda said, slipping her shoes back on. “Wish we would have brought extra clothes.”

“It okay,” Rosie said. “When Earl ready, you take him back, leave me. I stay with Jeb, you come get later.”

“That’s fine by me,” Gabe said.

“We should chat with Jasmine before we decide to leave,” Hilda said. “We also need to watch conditions on the roads between here and Kansas. Remember that things are different now. May be better, but may be worse.”

The nurse walked in. “Oh, good, you’re up. Jeb’s been asking for Rosie. You want to go see him?”

“Yes, I go,” Rosie said, smiling. She got up. The nurse rolled over a wheel chair and got her in it.

“It’s still family only,” the nurse said. “I’m sorry. That’s the policy for ICU.”

“How about Earl?”

“You two can see him,” the nurse said. “He’s not in ICU. He’s in room 131 now.”

“Okay, thanks,” Gabe said. “Could you make sure Rosie gets something to eat?”

“Yes, of course,” the nurse said as she pushed her down the hall.

“Shall we go see Earl, or grab a bite first?” Hilda asked.

“I’m really hungry,” Gabe said. “Let’s grab a quick bite.”

They headed for the elevator and got in. Gabe pulled his phone out and looked at the apps.

“Anything?” Hilda asked.

“Nothing on the short range app,” he said.

“Good.”

“Wow, lots of movement on the long range app. Looks like a lot of icons fleeing to the west from Denver.”

“That’s great,” Hilda said. “How about the Grand Canyon area?”

“Just looking at that now,” Gabe said. “Very few icons left. Used to be hundreds.”

“Well, I heard Rosie say that they got bombed.”

“Yeah,” Gabe said. “Here’s the first floor.”

They walked out the doors and headed to the end of the main hallway, where the cafeteria doors hung open.

“I can smell the food from here,” Hilda said. “Guess I’m hungrier that I thought.”

“You and me both,” Gabe said. “Talked to Charlie yet this morning?”

“No. After we get our food, I’ll give him a call,” Hilda said.

They picked out some food and worked their way through the checkout. There were people here and there in the dining room, talking in hushed tones, looking up at the TV screens that were on the wall in a couple of spots.

“Good, they got news running,” Gabe said. He and Hilda sat down, turning where they could see the nearest TV.

There was video of Denver on the screen. Citizens along with police and state militia were in a huge fire fight with the enemy, aided by army attack helicopters.

“Wow!” Gabe said. “We’re really giving it to them.”

Suddenly there was a special alert flashing on the screen.

“Somebody turn that up,” one of the doctors in the cafeteria shouted. The cash register attendant ran out with two remotes and turned up the sound on both TVs.

“Oh, crap, what happened?” Gabe asked.

A hush came over the dining room.

The announcer came on, with a grim look on her face.

“Several nuclear devices have been detonated along the Mississippi River. None of these were large devices, leading authorities to speculate that they came from tactical nuclear artillery warheads which were stolen several months ago. Cities hit were Minneapolis/St. Paul, Cedar Rapids, St. Louis, and Memphis. The blasts weren’t large enough to completely destroy any of these cities, but they have made the Mississippi River temporarily unusable for transit and shipping. Casualties are in the millions.”

There were murmurs and gasps around the room. Gabe looked at Hilda, shocked and scared.

“That isn’t close enough to send fallout over our end of Kansas, is it?” Hilda asked.

“I doubt it,” Gabe said. “Having those shipping lanes down is going to impact the country more than most people think.”

“I can imagine,” Hilda said. “Why now? They have to know they’re done either way.”

“Well, we were pretty sure they were planning something, remember? This might have been in the works for a while.”

“Yes,” Hilda said. “Wonder where that one in Capitol Reef was going?”

“Who knows,” Gabe said. “I just hope they don’t have anymore.”

“Seriously,” Hilda said. “We know Saladin is out of action. They still have enough command and control left to pull off an attack like this without him. That’s not good.”

The two finished eating, quietly watching video of the devastation.

“Shall we go see Earl?” Gabe asked.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Hilda said. They left the dining room and walked down the hall.

“There,” Gabe said, pointing. “Rooms 100-150, see the sign?”

Hilda nodded, and followed the arrow, getting to Earl’s room in a couple of minutes.

“Here it is,” Hilda said. She knocked lightly on the door.

“Come on in,” Earl said. The two walked in.

“How you doing, Earl?” Gabe asked as they walked to his bedside. He had the TV on, watching the news reports.

“I feel fine,” Earl said. “They’re gonna let me out pretty soon. Probably within the hour.”

“That’s great!” Gabe said.

“Not liking the looks of that,” he said, nodding towards the TV screen on the wall.

“We were watching it in the Cafeteria,” Hilda said. “Horrible.”

“They were planning on another location for attacks,” Earl said. “Remember that one we took out at Capitol Reef?”

“Yep, we were just talking about that,” Gabe said.

“How’s Jeb doing?” Earl asked.

“He got through his first surgery,” Gabe said. “He’s got another one coming up soon, though.”

“Two surgeries? Doesn’t sound good.”

“One was to stop bleeding,” Hilda said. “The next one is to get bullet fragments out, and repair part of his spine. It’s risky. Rosie is up with him now.”

“I hope he pulls through,” Earl said. “Can’t imagine our group without him.”

“He’s tough,” Hilda said. “Always has been. If anybody can make it, he can.”

“What’s going to happen? You guys going to stick around until Jeb’s ready to go?”

“We’ll probably take you back as soon as you’re able to travel, and leave Rosie here with Jeb,” Gabe said. “That’s what she suggested a little while ago, anyway. Jeb might be in the hospital for a long time. Maybe a couple weeks or more.”

“Yeah,” Hilda said. “I want to…”

She stopped in mid-sentence, as she felt her short range phone app go off. Gabe jerked at the same time as it went off in his pocket.

“Oh, shit,” Gabe said. “I’m going to get the long guns and my pistol out of the car.”

“You got one for me?” Earl said. “I can shoot.”

“Yeah, definitely,” he said as he headed out the door in a run.

Gabe hit the parking lot
at a dead run, getting to his Suburban in a few seconds, panting. He opened the tail gate, and pulled two bolt-action rifles and his pistol out from under a tarp, looking around as he closed it. Then he saw them. A stream of ambulances and several military vehicles. He did a refresh on his app, and got buzzed again, seeing the proximity of the hits.

“Wounded bad guys,” he said, chuckling. He opened the tail gate again, put the rifles back under the tarp, and stuck his pistol inside his back waist band, under his shirt. He sent Hilda a text as he was walking up.

Hits are wounded bad guys being brought in. Expected this.

He walked back into the front door. There were three army officers at the information counter. Gabe overhead one of them mention Jeb.

“You guys looking for Jeb?” he asked, walking up. The large man turned towards, him, his red hair sweaty and sticking to his forehead as he stood there holding his helmet.

“Who are you?” the man asked.

“I’m Gabe,” he said. The soldier got a big smile on his face.

“Good, General Hogan asked me to find you and somebody named Hilda.”

“Well, you found us,” Gabe said.

The soldier pulled his phone out of his pocket and hit a contact.

“Yes, General, it’s Major Harrison. I’ve just made contact with Gabe.”

He handed the phone to Gabe. “He wants to talk with you.”

Gabe nodded and took the phone. “Hello?”

“Gabe, it’s General Hogan. How goes it?”

“Okay, but the short range app just gave me a scare,” Gabe said, chuckling.

“Yeah, I figured,” the General said. “Those men will guard Jeb and the enemy prisoners, so you don’t have to hang around. I’ve heard that Earl is just about ready to be released.”

“Yes, he is, General,” Gabe said. “Everything okay back there?”

“Yeah,” the General said. “I just sent George, Malcolm, Charlie, and the Sheriff down to question Saladin. Hopefully we’ll find out if there are any more tactical nukes out there.”

“That scumbag is still alive?” Gabe asked.

“He was this morning,” General Hogan said. “Haven’t checked for about an hour.”

“Well, it’s good you’re sending Charlie and the Sheriff down there. Those two guys do a fine
good cop, bad cop
routine.”

“So I’ve heard,” the General said. “Why don’t you give me back to Major Harrison?”

“Will do,” Gabe said. “See you soon.”

“Take care,” he said.

Gabe handed the phone back to the Major, and then turned to leave, heading over to Earl’s room.

“Everything okay?” Earl asked

“Yeah, I just talked to the army guys out there. They’re here to protect Jeb, but they also brought in some wounded enemy soldiers. Prisoners.”

“We should have just shot them on the field,” Earl said. “After what they did on old muddy.”

“We don’t want to be like them,” Hilda said. “We can’t ever be like them.”

Gabe was looking at his app. “I see what they’re doing. Look at the ranks on these guys. They’re all above level five.”

***

Howard was still driving the interstate, listening to the news. He saw the flash in his rear-view mirrors. It was silent in the bedroom now. The radio announcer came on with an emergency message. Kerry looked over, shocked and scared. Howard turned the radio down and smiled at him, trying to look confident, but inside his stomach was churning. Kerry got out of his seat and climbed back into the bunk above the cab.

Scott came out and stopped when he saw the look on Howard’s face.

“Sorry, man,” he said. “How’d you know?”

Howard gave him a quizzical look.

“You’ll get a piece of the next one, I promise.”

“Oh,” Howard said. “She’s dead, huh? What happened?”

“Wait, that’s not what you’re upset about?”

“No, man. Four more nukes went off, all along the Mississippi river. One of them was in St. Louis. We dodged that bullet by two days.”

“Holy shit, really?” Scott asked, looking white as a sheet.

“Yeah, really,” he said. “What happened back there?”

“We were play-choking the girl. She was more fragile than I thought. Broke her neck.”

“Oops,” Howard said. “How’d Bailey take it?”

“She got off on it,” Scott said. “She fell asleep back there. Doesn’t even mind the body.”

“What are we gonna do with it?”

“Pull off at the second off-ramp after Springfield, and we’ll dump her. Usual markings. Then it’ll be a quick shot to my place in Columbus.”

“Good, it’s only about four miles to Springfield now.”

“We’re making good time, Howie.”

“The bombs will alter our plans,” Howard said. “I can’t go back through St. Louis, that’s for sure.”

“Yep, we’ll have to think some,” Scott said. “What’s with Kerry?”

“He’s hiding in his bunk,” Howard said. “The flash and the news stories on the radio scared him. He was already nervous from the commotion you guys were making in the back. How was she, anyway?”

“Like I said, fragile. Not very entertaining. Had more fun watching Bailey than I did with her.”

“Well, it was an easy way for Bailey to get her toe in the water, I guess.”

“Scotty?” Kerry asked quietly from up in the bunk.

“Yeah, Kerry,” Scott said. “You okay?”

“I’m scared,” he said. “Are we gonna get bombed?”

“No, I don’t think so, Kerry,” Scott said. “We’ll be back at my place pretty soon. It’s safe there. We can hide in the basement if we need to.”

“How much longer?” Kerry asked.

“We have to make a stop to get rid of that girl from the dirt road.”

“Is she dead?” Kerry asked in a hushed tone.

“Yes, she is,” Scott said. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Was she a
dumb bitch
?” Kerry asked.

“Yeah,” Scott said.

“Oh,” Kerry said. “I’m hungry.”

“There’s plenty of food in the fridge and the pantry,” Howard said. “Help yourself, Kerry.”

“Okay,” he said as he climbed out of the bunk. He glanced into the bedroom as he stood in front of the pantry, then looked at Scott. “Bailey’s not dead, is she?”

“No, no, she’s fine, Kerry. She’s just asleep, that’s all.”

“Good,” Kerry said. “I like her.”

***

The privates opened the dungeon trap door, pulling it back against the floor. Malcolm, George, Charlie, and the Sheriff went down the stairs. The light was still on, and George noticed the drop light hanging on the bars of the cell. He turned it so it was pointed at the four of them and turned it on. Saladin’s eyes opened wide, and his raspy breathing stopped for a moment. He recognized George right away and tried to move back against the wall.