Dark Days Rough Roads (18 page)

He kept
looking for a place to pull off. He couldn’t continue driving for much longer
and with the amount of time most likely left, the break would do him good. He
looked over at Mike, who was hovering between sleep and consciousness. He asked
him to look in the binder and see if there were any notes written in the
margins regarding the area. Mike looked and said something about campground
races.

Ah yes,
he thought. The year Earnhardt senior had taken a fatal right run during a
race, Haliday and the family had become weekend rednecks. They started
following NASCAR very consistently. Rather than haul their camper to the track
itself, they went about half an hour further to enjoy a small out the way
campground. After his divorce, Haliday and Kayla continued the tradition each
year up until she left for college.

He still
knew the area very well. Since it was closed for the season, it might make a
great place to stop for a while. He glanced down at the binder and got his
bearings. He told Mike what the plan was. Mike offered to drive, but Haliday
told him he needed to get out of the truck for a while and give his ribs some
rest. “Besides,” he said, “the rest will do us all some good.”

They
passed farm after farm of crops that had been cleared weeks ago. Corn and soy
beans were the top crops. Over in Hillsdale, not far off, there used to be a
Pillsbury plant that had closed a few years back. It just reminded him of what
he took for granted. Pop the can open, biscuits in the oven, enjoy. Nope, home made
from now on and for who knows how long.

He turned
the lights off and approached the small dirt road that led to the campground.
The main gate was about 200 yards off the main road. He told Mike to wait here
for 20 minutes, then drive around the main gate and then the secondary gate and
stop about 25 yards from the camp store. He told Kayla to come with him. They
set off on foot toward the wood line.

Mike
waited and then did as he had been instructed to do. When he got there, he
placed it in park and noticed there was smoke coming from the stovepipe in the
roof of the little store. He noticed a regular house trailer was attached to
it. He then waited. He was going to make sure he thanked Haliday for using them
as bait.

Just
about five minutes later he heard a voice command them to exit the vehicle and
put their hands up. Mike looked at Linda and they climbed out. A spotlight
turned on and illuminated them. “Walk to the front of your truck and face the
hood.” They complied. Max jumped down out of the truck and sat and watched the
activity.

A man in
his mid to late forties approached them. “Don’t get any bright ideas and try
anything stupid,” he told them. “What’s your business here?” Mike looked at
Linda.

Linda
said, “We used to stay here, well, I did, years ago during the races. We are
trying to get home and needed a place to stop. My ex husband thought this would
be a good place.”

The guy
looked at her. “What do you mean your ex?” he asked “Where is he?”

“I don’t
honestly know exactly where he is, but I would assume he’s watching us right
now.” The guy looked around and then looked back at them.

“Well, I
have a few guys out there myself. Not sure he could handle them.” Linda was
thinking the opposite.

Linda
said, “Listen, we don’t want any trouble, we just wanted a place to stay for a
bit while we rested. It’s been a rough few days and we are beat.”

The guy
said, “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

“Are you
the owner?” she asked

“Close
enough,” was the reply. Linda went on to explain a few things.

“You
still have the old Ms. Pacman in the arcade? Your boat rentals are actually
across the main road by the dock. You keep a cinderblock on top of the dumpster
to keep the raccoons out and a chain on it so the cinderblock doesn’t go
missing. The pump out station has a sign that says ‘this here honey hole ain’t
sweet, wash your hands before leaving’.”

The guy
said, “Ok, sounds legitimate, but what we have here is quite a pickle. I’ll
tell you what, you call your ex-husband in and we’ll go from there.”

Linda
said, “Ok, but you call your guys in after that.”

“Deal,”
he said.

Linda
called out, “Roger, you hear that?” Roger appeared a couple minutes later. As
he approached he watched a red dot dance across his body. He looked over and
saw another dance off Mike.

He walked
up, looked at the guy and said, “Hey George, thought you’d be gone by now.”
George recognized him; he had seen him for five years now every August. George
took over running the campground from his dad who had retired. That explained
him not knowing Linda.

“Well, we
were planning on it, but we still hadn’t finished the season. We extended it this
year to host a Halloween weekend. Thought we would make a few extra bucks.”

George
whistled and two guys came walking up, one with a hand held spotlight. These
were George’s two sons who helped him run the campground now then closed up
each year before they all headed to Florida for the winter. Max walked over and
inspected them then walked back to Haliday and looked at him as if to
acknowledge his approval of the guys. “Want a dog?” Roger asked.

Linda
said, “Kayla will be mad─keep it up.”

Haliday
asked him if he knew what was going on. George told him that he listened to the
campers enough to know some were preppers or survivalists or whatever they
called themselves. He had taken some basic precautions himself. He figured it was
serious when everything went dark. He had used the old tractor to go into town
to confirm this. He said he went back as soon as possible and bought as much
food as he could before people figured out there wouldn’t be any soon.

George
said, "I never figured you to be one of those folks."

Haliday
said, "What kind of folks do you mean?" George didn’t really say
anything he just shrugged his shoulders. Haliday said, “Ready, I’m just ready.”

George
looked at Haliday; “Hey can I ask you a question Roger? She mentioned Kayla. Where’s
your daughter? Is she at school?” George was shocked by the answer.

“No sir,
she’s out there with a bead on you guys as we speak.”

George
looked around. “You can call her in.” Haliday had noticed the two lasers and
knowing he only had two sons he was comfortable calling Kayla in. Kayla came
walking in.

“Dad,
it’s cold out here,” she looked and said, “Hi Mr. George.”

“Hi
sweetie,” he said. “Let’s all go inside.” They walked inside and it was warm
and comfortable in there. Kayla stood by the wood stove to warm up a bit.

“George,
you going to call in your third man or leave him out there?” George laughed,
went to the porch of the store and blinked his flashlight a couple times.

"How
did you know?" he said.

Haliday
said he saw smoke from three of the rental cabins. “I figured someone was out
there. Two cabins, one for each son, you in the main trailer and someone in the
third cabin.”

“What
about you Roger, any more surprises?”

“No sir.
Thank you for letting us in George.”

The winter
caretaker walked in and George asked him to let their wives know it was ok. He
went and told them and they all returned from hiding somewhere. They talked a
bit about what was going on and what had transpired, but Haliday didn’t share a
lot of details about any of the gunplay. Last thing they would want to hear and
they might not trust them then.

“How did
you know we were here George, your alarm system working?”

“Oh, hell
no. We used some fishing line and tied it across the driveway by the main road.
When you tripped it, that pulled a stick out from under a can full of rocks.
These rocks would fall on a couple of more empty cans to make even more noise.”
They had made sure they ran it across some trees to use the bark to help keep
the line from sagging too much. Crude, but it worked. George looked at the
caretaker. “You mind?” he said. The caretaker said, “No problem,” and then went
to reset the alarm.

The
lasers and spotlights were unusual as well. After asking about them it seems
this was a good time of year for spotlighting deer. Haliday didn’t care about
that. He asked them if they were set for food and everything. He didn’t expect
George to tell him much, but George actually filled him in on everything.

He had
hit the local Sam's club in town, where he often bought a lot of supplies for
the campground. He had towed the trailer he normally used for fire wood
delivery behind the tractor. They managed to get a couple hundred pounds of
rice, about 12 cases each of canned fruit, canned vegetables and beans. Also some
flour and other items.

They paid
cash of course and he figured George kept most of the cash from the campground
to hide from the IRS, so he had enough on hand. Plus he had what was left in
the camp store. He told them at Sam’s it was for the last big party they were
having. Not sure the people realized otherwise as it hadn’t even been 24 hours
yet since it happened.

They’d
make spring with no problems, so long as no one got to them here. Haliday said,
“Hide it. Hide it all and not all in one place. Keep your guard up too. In the
next few weeks they’ll remember who was buying what and they’ll want it. But,
back to the business at hand. Can we rest for about six hours?”

“Sure
thing,” George said. “We’ll keep guard for ya.”

Haliday
said, “We’ll help you stay awake.” No sense in waking up dead, he thought. They
slept in shifts, but they had let Haliday sleep the whole six hours.

Dawn,
Diana and Karen were making about 5mph and were a couple hours into the trip
with only about an hour to go. They didn’t have to stop at all which was nice.
They did get a lot of questions about what they had, where they were going and
of course people asking for handouts. Diana was driving now with Karen in the
passenger seat. Dawn would stand up in the back seat, rifle at the ready,
whenever they were approached.

Haliday
had shown her a dual 10/22 Gatling gun monstrosity as a joke and she had
actually wanted one mounted on the roll bar. Haliday laughed it off, but she
was thinking it might not have been a bad idea. 22lr’s were not quite battle
tested, but then again, nobody likes to leak blood. Would have been like
getting stung from a bee hive but only worse.

Dawn was
listening in on the ham when she heard Roger call Bev’s house. "How’s
everything going?" he had asked. Bev filled them in on David’s event. He
pretty much thought as much. The city they lived in was north of Detroit and the auto industry was its primary job source. Over the years, it had become
almost like a smaller Dearborn with a heavy Middle Eastern presence, but with a
lot of Eastern European mix as well. It was quite a melting pot. Throw in the
mass amounts of apartment complexes and it was outright dangerous right now.

Haliday
said, “Ok, it’s time for you guys to get moving. You need to pack up everything
and everyone and get going now. I want you to head over to my place. I’m about six
hours out now and leaving here in an hour or less. When I get there’ll we’ll
get things ready for the long haul.”

“What
about Alan and his family, we’re still waiting for them.” Oh boy, he thought.
This was going to be a delicate situation to handle.

“Ok ,” he
said, “let me put it to you guys like this. So far, I’ve shot at about a dozen
guys, I know I’ve dropped at least four, I’ve been shot at and hit, and Kayla
has been shot at and had to shoot someone, Mike and Linda have been shot at and
I don’t even know if they dropped anyone. Things are that screwed up.
Everywhere we go it looks like we will be eating lead. This country is out of
control and getting worse by the minute.

“You get
out now or you don’t get out at all. Sit and wait for anyone else and you might
as well start digging your graves. You will have to hope Alan and his family are
doing what they need to do in order to make it right now. That’s the best you
can do right now. I hope you guys understand. It’s about all of you right now,
not just any one person or part of the family.”

Bev
wasn’t happy one bit. In her eyes it would have been the whole family uniting
and moving out. She and Rich talked a bit. Rich called Randy, Kevin, David and
Sarah into the kitchen. He told them to get things packed up and ready to go.
He handed them a list of instructions and told David to delegate the duties but
make sure it all got done. They would do what they could to help.

Dawn,
Diana and Karen just looked at the radio in awe. “Holy crap,” they all said.
They had it made compared to what they had just heard, with the exception of
Dawn’s little incident. They had more ambition now to get the hell out of
there. They kept moving on. They were only a couple miles away from their
destination now. It was totally different here and they were only 20 miles
north of Haliday’s house.

In the
garage over at the Halidays’ was another 5X8 trailer. This one was loaded
similar to Dawn’s. They did the same thing, going through the house and
triple-checking everything. Bev left a note on the top of the entertainment
center. It was cryptic, but whoever was reading it would know what it meant if
they were supposed to know. It gave them instructions on what to do and where
to go.