Bug Out! Part 7: Mile High Motorhomes (9 page)

“Kurt’s been gut shot. We’ve got to get him back to camp pronto! I’m gonna go get the jeep over here.”

Dobie nodded, looking around, trying to watch for other folks.

The Sheriff and Terry ran over, seeing Kurt lying next to the creek, holding himself. They dived down next to him.

“Stay calm, Kurt,” the Sheriff said. “Jeb’s bringing his jeep over here. We’ll get you back to Mary in a few minutes.”

Dobie ran up the side of the cliff and checked the guard. He was dead. He searched the truck. The keys were in it. He pulled them out of the ignition and put them in his pocket, and then searched the rest of the vehicle, finding a Ziploc bag with registration and other documents. He stuffed it into his back pocket and kept searching. Jeb had the jeep down next to Kurt when Dobie turned back around. He saw Terry and the Sheriff lift Kurt into the back. Then Jeb looked at him and shouted.

“Lay low here and watch until I get back. We need to check for tracks behind that truck, to make sure nobody else was with them.”

“Okay,” Dobie shouted back.

Jeb drove the jeep back out of the area and disappeared. Dobie tried to stay out of sight as best he could. Duchess trotted over to him and sat down against his legs, looking around, listening. There was an eerie quiet in the area now, and it made him nervous. He heard some rocks fall, and looked in that direction. It was Jackson and Earl, standing on the high ridge, looking around the area with binoculars. Dobie waved at them. They gave him the thumbs up sign. Must not be anybody else in the area, he thought to himself. He made a mental note of where the bodies fell. Two behind the small ridge above him. He looked up at it. Not too bad of a climb. Two more fell forward on the ridge, and down the side of the mountain a ways. That’s four. Then there was the kid here, and the guy below him that shot Kurt. Six total. That’s about right, he thought, looking back at the truck. Four in back, two in the cab.

The jeep came back down the road, Jeb driving it down to where they had picked up Kurt. Jerry, the Sheriff, and Terry were with him. He looked up and saw Jackson and Earl still sitting up on the ridge, keeping watch. He trotted down to the jeep as the men were getting out.

“Kurt?” he asked.

“Mary thinks he’s going to survive, but it’ll be a tough recovery. These guys are still using surplus hardball ammo. No expansion. He was lucky. A hunting round would have torn his guts apart.”

“Good,” Dobie said. “I made a mental inventory of where all the enemy fighters fell.”

“Yeah, we need to cut the chips out of those guys pronto,” Jerry said. “Might already be too late.”

“Got another lead box, eh,” Dobie said looking at Jerry holding it.

“Yeah, Gabe made one the other day. Good thinking,” he said.

“Jerry, let’s go see if anybody else came with our friends,” Jeb said. He nodded and they started up the hill to the road. Jerry had a backpack on. You could see the detonator plunger handle sticking out of one side.

“Want to help me operate?” Terry asked. “Mary showed us how.”

“Sure,” Dobie said. They went to each of the bodies, cutting out the chips and putting them into the box. The two on the far side of the ridge were difficult…Dobie couldn’t make it up there, so Terry took care of those. Duchess followed them around, her eyes and ears perked up the entire time.

“Fire in the hole!” shouted Jeb. Then there was an explosion, sending a dirt cloud flying into the air. Jeb and Jerry came walking around the curve. When they got to the truck, Jeb pulled out his bowie knife and cut all four tires. Then they joined Terry and Dobie at the jeep.

“Any other tracks?” Dobie asked.

“Nope,” Jeb said.

“Good.”

“How did you guys get followed?” Jerry asked.

“Good question. We had a hard time getting out of town. Did you see the bullet holes in the back of that bobtail?”

“No, didn’t have time,” Jerry said. “The signal generator wasn’t hit, I hope.”

“That was in the SUV with us,” Dobie said.

“What happened?” Jeb asked.

“We were on that street that borders I-70 when we saw a bunch of Islamists climbing down the side of the road bed. They saw the truck and tried to stop it. They probably wanted it for transport.”

“You didn’t see what vehicle they came in? Was it that truck?”

“Couldn’t see. They were on foot when we saw them…hey, just a sec. I’ve got the registration from the truck.” He pulled the plastic bag out of his back pocket and took out the registration card. “Crap, this belongs to Chet Robertson. I know him. I’ll bet those cretins car-jacked him after we got away. Hope they didn’t kill him.”

Dobie was still back by the creek
with Terry, Jeb, and Jerry.

“What should we do with the bodies?” Terry asked.

“Maybe we should bring them down on the sand here and burn them,” Jerry said.

“That’ll make a lot of smoke. Maybe we should bring the backhoe here,” Jeb said.

“I wouldn’t do that until we get an alternate way to work the drawbridge set up,” Jerry said.

“Oh, yeah, good point,” Jeb said. “We could load them into the back of the jeep, I suppose.”

“Maybe we should have taken that truck instead of knifing the tires,” Terry said.

“Yeah, maybe,” Jerry said.

“That reminds me, I’d better call Bob and let him know about Chet Robertson,” Dobie said. He pulled out his phone and dialed.

“Bob?”

“Yeah, Dobie. You guys made it out of town okay, I take it?”

“Yep, but we were followed by six cretins. We just killed all of them.”

“No, really?”

“Yeah,” Dobie said. “They were in Jack Robertson’s pickup.”

There was silence on the line for a moment.

“You there?” Dobie asked.

“Yeah, sorry. We found Jack by the side of the road, with his throat cut ear to ear.”

“Oh, no, I was afraid of that. Did the others show up in town yet?”

“Nope, Dobie. We’ve been looking for them.”

“Not good.”

“I know,” Bob said. “Gotta go, here comes the chief.”

“Okay, take care of yourself, Bob.”

“You do the same.”

Dobie put his phone back in his pocket.

“Who’s Bob?” Jeb asked.

“Old friend,” Dobie said. “He was working as a reserve police officer when we hit town. We saw him manning a barricade on an I-70 off-ramp.”

“Ah, so they’re having the same thoughts we are about this area,” Jeb said. “Good.”

“Back to the bodies,” Jerry said. “Doesn’t Gabe have an old beater truck back at camp?” Maybe we ought to go get it. No sense having these creeps bleed all over Jeb’s jeep.”

“Good idea,” Jeb said. “I’ll take the jeep back and bring the truck over here.”

“Okay, and we’ll drag all the bodies into a pile while we’re waiting for you,” Dobie said

Jeb nodded, walked over to his jeep, and drove away. The men started to round up the bodies. They got them all moved in about ten minutes. Jeb and Gabe rolled up in the truck and parked it by the pile. They got out and walked over.

“Looks like Jackson and Earl are still up there on the ridge,” Jerry said, nodding up at the ridge. “Think they see something?”

“If they saw somebody, he’d be dead by now,” Jeb said.

“I’m glad they’re still up there,” Terry said. “We’re only guessing that we got them all, you know. There could have been more than six people in that pickup truck. I counted eight men coming down the side of I-70.”

Dobie stopped in his tracks. “Bob said they didn’t find any more cretins back in town.”

Jerry and Jeb looked at each other.

“I reckon maybe we should go up by that truck and follow the tracks a little more carefully. We only checked for another vehicle.”

“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Jerry said. “Let’s go.”

“Want me to follow along with Duchess?” Dobie asked.

“Yeah, but hang back a little bit,” Jeb said.

“Alright,” Dobie said. “I’ll help with the bodies and be along in a few minutes.” He helped Gabe and Terry load the bodies in the back of the pickup truck.

“Should we go back now?” Gabe asked.

“Why don’t you two get out of sight and watch,” Dobie said. “If there’s more enemy around here, we can throw them on the pile too.”

“I’m going to get back into the trees with my rifle,” Terry said. “Good vantage point, especially if you guys flush the bad guys back down through here.”

“I’ll join you,” Gabe said. They wandered off towards the stand of trees as Dobie walked along the creek bed with Duchess.

Jeb and Jerry were up by the pickup truck, looking at footprints.

“Crap, Dobie did a lot of stomping around here,” Jeb said. “Tracks are all mashed around the truck.”

“Let’s go towards the ridge,” Jerry said. “That’s probably where they all went. It’s the only direction that gives them any cover.”

The two men walked carefully along the small trail that led up towards the ridge.

“This is a well-worn trail,” Jerry whispered.

“Mountain goats, probably,” Jeb said, his eyes starting at the dirt in front of him. “Looks like quite a few tracks to me. More than four, and that’s how many Dobie counted that were on the ridge.”

The hackles on the back of Jerry’s neck went up as they rounded a small curve.

“Hold it right there,” said a voice off to the right. Jeb and Jerry froze and looked over. There were two Islamist fighters holding AK-47s on them, crouching in the rocks. The one speaking didn’t look like an Islamist. He looked and sounded like militia.

“Doesn’t look like that set of pajamas fits you very well, traitor,” Jeb said.

“Put those rifles down real slow,” he replied.

Jerry and Jeb looked at each other, and then set their rifles down in front of them. The militia man nodded to the Islamic fighter, who stood up to walk over.

“Keep your head down, you idiot,” the Militia man said. Then there was a rifle blast from up on the ridge, hitting the Islamist in the back of the head, splattering the militia man. Jeb and Jerry dived for their weapons as the militia man tried running down the mountain. Then there was growl.

“Duchess,” Jeb said, grinning. The militia man took off running towards the creek, with duchess right behind him, snarling and snapping.

“Dobie has his pistol out,” Jerry said. He and Jeb were trying to make it down the side of the hill after him.

“Hard shot for a pistol at that range,” Jeb said. The militia man hit the valley floor and sprinted towards the creek, when another rifle shot went off, hitting him square in the chest. He fell to the ground.

“Great shot, Terry,” shouted Gabe.

Jeb looked up on the high ridge. Jackson and Earl were standing up, jumping up and down, and clapping. “Those two guys saved our bacon again,” he said. They got to the valley floor and met Dobie.

“That’s a good dog you got there,” Jeb said. Duchess was sitting back down in front of Dobie, leaning against his shins.

“Yeah, but she’s not as sharp as Princess,” Dobie said, patting her on the top of the head. “Princess would have figured out those two were here on her own.”

“How come you didn’t bring her?” Jerry asked.

“She keeps Simon and Peabody focused,” Dobie said. “Lead dog.”

“Oh,” Jerry said.

“You see any tracks up there that would lead us to believe there’s more enemy fighters around?” asked Dobie.

“No,” Jeb said, “but I’d have Jackson and Earl hang around up there for a while longer just in case.”

Terry walked up.

“Nice shooting,” Jeb said.

“Thanks. I’ll go get the chip out of that cretin up there and drag him down.”

“Good,” Jerry said. “We’ll take care of the one down here.

The men met back on the valley floor, and loaded the last two bodies onto the pickup truck. Then Jeb and Gabe got into the cab.

“I’ll bring the jeep back in a minute,” Jeb said. The truck pulled away.

“Damn, Terry, I guess you aren’t locking up in a fight anymore,” Jerry said.

“He was a big help when we were trying to get out of town,” Gabe said. “We’ll have to make sure his lady friend hears all about this one too.”

“Now guys, don’t keep at her,” Terry said, a sheepish look on her face.

“Don’t worry,” Dobie said. “We’ll knock it off. I must admit it gives me some hope to see a young couple amongst us.”

“Yeah, it really does,” Jerry said.

“We aren’t a couple,” Terry said. “At least not yet. She does have a say in this, you know.”

“So do you, but I think I know what you want,” Gabe said, chuckling. Terry rolled his eyes and shook his head.

Jeb’s jeep rolled up to them, and they all got in. They drove forward past the gate, and Jeb stopped.

“What’s up?” Terry asked.

“Gabe asked me to lock up the gate on the way out.”

Jeb pulled the gate back across the road and locked it, then got back in and drove off towards the highway. They hit the pavement and accelerated, going around a few switchbacks, until they saw the three-lined creek along the left hand side of the road. You could see the razor wire shine as the sun hit it.

“This place is starting to look like an armed camp,” Dobie said. Jerry looked at him and snickered.

The jeep got to the driveway and drove in. The moat was about twenty yards in from the pavement. They slowly rode across the drawbridge. When they were across, Gabe rode up in the backhoe. He jumped out and hooked the heavy chain onto the back, and then got back in and pulled the drawbridge back. Then he unhooked, drove the backhoe over to the meadow where the other graves were, and started digging a new hole.

Jeb drove his jeep over next to his rig, and parked. Everybody got out, just in time to see the Sheriff driving the pickup truck over next to the hole that Gabe was digging.

“We should go help out,” Jerry said. The men walked over. It took them about twenty minutes to get the bodies buried. Then the Sheriff drove the pickup truck back over by the barn, and Gabe followed with his backhoe. They all met on the veranda of the clubhouse, and went in.

Jeb saw Mary talking with Rosie and Hilda. He hurried over. “How’s Kurt doing?” he asked.

“He’ll be alright,” Mary said. “He’s extremely lucky. That could have killed him.”