Dark Days Rough Roads (19 page)

David
called Randy and Kevin over. “We are going to go out the back door, over to the
corner of the yard and get the Cherokee from under the tarp. I’ll drive it
around to the front and back it up to the garage door. Open the door when I get
there. I’ll back up to the trailer and connect it. You guys have to stand
guard.” They proceeded with their plan.

The
Cherokee was an ’84 with about 120,000 miles on it. They had it reworked and
kept it in good running order. They rarely drove it, just enough to keep it
clean and running. The old Cherokees were almost bulletproof with the inline
six cylinders, automatic tranny and lever activated 4X4. Small, but durable and
dependable. Great for converting to a BOV.

*****

Diana
turned the ATV down the driveway. She looked around and saw the barn manager
coming down toward them. Mandy, the barn manager, was a woman in her early
forties, blonde, thin, attractive, but weathered from the outdoor lifestyle and
the tattoos didn’t help much either.

She
greeted them and assumed they were here for the horses. “I guess you guys are
getting out of Dodge.”

“That’s
the plan,” Diana said. “Maybe later tonight or early tomorrow, we’re not sure
when.”

Mandy
said, “It looks like you have a place to go.” Dawn said they had been invited
to stay at a friend’s, but left it at that.

Dawn and
Diana had two horses. One, a Quarter Horse mare named Trixie that was really
just ridden for mere pleasure, and a Fjord they called Thor because he was a big
solid brute. He was a beefy draft horse and well trained in a wide variety of
riding styles, but more importantly able to pull a cart. They’d be using these
horses.

They
looked around the barn and pastures. The barn had about 18 horses total and
they were all out in the pastures right now. They asked Mandy what her plans
were. “Well,” she answered, “if I go anywhere I’ll take mine and cut the rest
of them loose. They can wander and graze off the grasslands. I’ll throw all the
hay out too. That’s the best I can do. Not that I have family nearby or a place
to go.”

Dawn
asked how much feed she had left. Jerry the barn owner had stocked them up with
enough hay for the winter and grain for about 90 days. “What about you, Mandy?”

She said
she had about six weeks of stock in the house or maybe a bit more. “I know how
to hunt,” she added, “and maybe I’ll see about taking a deer or two to stock
up. Freezer in the lodge should stay cold enough with no heat in there this
winter.”

Dawn
asked Diana and Karen to come with her and talk. When they returned they
proposed a deal for Mandy. “You cut the horse rations in half and that will get
them to spring, but you have to watch their hay as well. We’ll leave you with
another supply of food good for about four months. Nothing special, just
basics. Cut it back and you can make it to spring as well. The chickens in the
back will help you out with eggs and the goat’s milk is good for you too.”

Mandy
asked, "What happens in spring?"

“We can’t
tell you. We don’t know. But we’ll check in on you then,” Dawn answered.

Mandy
said, “What the hell, why not.” Dawn told her they were going to park by the
little lodge house and would get with her before they left. She called Haliday
and let him know they had arrived ok.

*****

David had
backed the old Cherokee up to the garage and they opened the garage door. He
connected the trailer and pulled out of the garage. The neighbors had heard the
Cherokee start and it drew a lot of curious onlookers. Quite a few started to
gather around. A few started to ask them what they had and where they were
going.

Rich,
Bev, Sarah, Elizabeth and Bobby came out. They closed the garage door and
locked it down. They started to get in but had to figure out the seating
arrangements. Elizabeth, Sarah and Bobby were the smallest and had to ride in
the very back cargo area. David and Rich up front, Bev, Randy and Kevin in the
back seat.

As they
were getting ready to leave a few people from the crowd starting getting closer,
demanded to know what they had. David told everyone to get in. The crowd had
grown to about 35 people now. They had seen the rare vehicle running around
here and there, but with this one having a trailer, they figured it had
something good in it.

They
moved to block the driveway. Some lady yelled that they had to share if they
had food. Bev said, “We’re not welfare, we’re not sharing anything.” Randy
fired a round into the ground and pointed the shotgun at the crowd. Half ran
away and the other half just moved aside. He jumped in and they took off. About
12 miles north to Roger’s house, but a day’s walk for these people.

Sarah
asked if they could stop at her trailer to check for Erik. This would add about
eight miles onto their trek. Rich said they needed to get to Roger’s house
first and then he would send Randy and Kevin to the trailer to check it out.
"Can I go too?" she asked.

Rich told
her no. “You need to stay with Elizabeth. It’ll take them a half hour─tops
to get there and back. That’ll have to do.” He knew Erik would not be there,
but couldn’t dash her hopes.

*****

Haliday
walked over to the Tahoe with Mike. Linda and Kayla were inside with George and
his family finishing breakfast. They only had coffee and oatmeal with brown
sugar, but it was nice to sit down and enjoy something hot and fresh. When they
finished, they would change into regular clothes and go help Haliday and Mike.

“What’s
the plan Roger?”

He told
Mike that they were going to strip the magnetic light bar off and toss it in
the back. Next they pulled the KLR off. Roger began peeling off the DHS decals
on the bike. “Mike, go ahead and slowly start peeling them off the Tahoe. Go
slowly and pull it back onto itself so that the vinyl doesn’t tear. Don’t leave
pieces on the truck at all. I’ll help you when I’m done with these.”

The Tahoe
was stripped now and appeared to be just a plain old Tahoe except for the
spotlight. Nothing he could do about that though. Haliday grabbed a bucket from
George’s storage shed and filled it with water from a hand pump. He pulled out
a stiff wire bristle brush and started washing the KLR down. The white paint
started coming off and revealed plain OD green.

Haliday
had used a half dozen coats of washable paint and sprayed it on to get a good
finish. He had then used a clear coat, which held the paint on until it was
brushed off. The decals were last to go on. The bike was OD green originally,
but he needed white for the DHS look. They loaded it back on the Tahoe. The
truck was now ready to go.

Kayla and
Linda helped clean up and then went outside to help, but found them ready to
go. “Watch this while we change.” They went back inside and changed. Haliday
put on his Best Buy Camo, khaki pants and blue polo shirt. They then went back
outside. George walked out as well.

“Well,
looks like you are ready to go; I wish you the best of luck,” he said.

“You too
George,” he told him.

“Roger,
any advice?”

“I have a
bunch, but not that much time. Here’s the Readers Digest version.

“Store as
much water as you can. Hide as much of your food as you can in case you get
raided. Let them take what they want. No sense in shooting anyone if you don’t
have to.” There was a contradiction, he thought. “If you do have to shoot,
shoot to kill, don’t leave anyone alive. Hunt for food now, eat that first and
save your stores for as long as you can. Beef up your security, add traps and
stuff.

“I would
consider moving everyone into the main trailer there. Otherwise it’s easy to
take you out one at a time. Safety in numbers. Privacy is out the door now
anyway. Don’t go into town unless you absolutely have to. Bad decision either
way, I mean if someone is dying that’s one thing, but otherwise stay away. No
hospitals or clinics are open and if they are open they are full of disease.”

“What
about FEMA and other help agencies? Won’t they be coming?” George asked

Haliday
told him, “It’s been three days. I haven’t heard of any movement to help people
at all. Ran into a small group of troops in Indiana that got orders the first
day, but even they had been waiting and as far as I know they were still
waiting now. I wouldn’t count on much yet George, especially from the
government. Hell, we don’t even know what happened exactly.”

That was
the thing that really bothered him. Of all of the radio traffic on the ham he
had listened to, he didn’t hear anything about the government other than that
one original broadcast for troops to report. He hadn’t even heard that again.
That was one of the reasons to go back to the civilian version of the Tahoe.
Too many people would be looking for government help.

“George,
I can’t thank you enough for the hospitality. You have a 22 rifle?”

“I sure
do, keep it around for the small varmints.”

Haliday
walked to the Tahoe and returned with a brick of 22lr’s. “Here ya go,” he said,
“save them for small game. Good hunting and good luck folks.” They climbed in
and started to pull away. Haliday quickly stopped, got out, and George asked
him what he forgot. A quick whistle and Max came running; he paused to give
Haliday the evil eye before jumping into the truck. Then they left.

He took
the back roads like they used to do when heading to the track. They were able
to avoid all of the traffic that way and he knew other than Hillsdale, there
was nothing out there. Hillsdale itself was easy enough to get through, just a
few lights and stop signs was all. They drove along and made it through with no
problems.

Since
this was farm country, there were a lot of tractors on the road compared to by
the cities. A lot of them loaded up with household goods, Haliday wondered
where they were going. No telling what people were doing, hopefully they were
banding together. Hopefully people were figuring out they needed each other to
survive.

He popped
back up onto US12 and looked down the road. This really didn’t seem too bad at
all. He looked at Mike. “I’m going to run US12 down a ways and then head north.
Ann Arbor is going to be in bad shape and we can’t get that close.” They made
it over to 52 and headed north. Haliday kept glancing at the binder. He was
close to where he needed to head east, but also had to skirt around a lot of
populated areas.

Everything
considered, he was doing quite well on the travel time. At this rate, it would
be just about three hours tops. He started paying attention more closely to the
homes in the areas he passed. He could tell who had fireplaces and who didn’t.
Just how much firewood they had would be another question. These people were
used to having fires once in a while for atmosphere or romantic settings and
not for heat. The homes were not designed to be heated with the fireplaces
around here; just not efficient enough.

He always
liked the idea of a fireplace, but the practicality of a wood stove for heating
was better. Unfortunately he never got around to putting one in. He bought one,
but it sat uninstalled in his garage. The stove was one thing, but when he went
to buy the hearth stone and wall board along with pipe and roof vent, it got
expensive and he always put it off. Three years now actually.

He had
gone as far as to even stack free wood when he got it. He had about three full
cords which would have been enough for the winter. He was sure the neighbors
would use it. Someone would use it for sure, but not him. It would disappear
very quickly. Hungry people are one thing, but cold and hungry is another.

They
pulled over so he could check the maps and come up with a route. He wanted to
avoid Howell and started laying out the route. “Write this down Mike.” He spit
out the instructions and Mike wrote them down. “You might have to call out the
directions as we go, ok?” Mike said “Ok.” The ham went off.

“Roger,
it’s David, we have a problem.”

Haliday
said "Hey, nice to hear from you brother. Been a while. Actually, a couple
of months." That was the conversation where David had said a couple weeks
worth of supplies was plenty. Bet he thinks differently now, he thought.
"What’s going on?" Haliday asked him. David went on to explain the
situation.

“We got
to your house without encountering any trouble. When we got there though, we
noticed someone had worked a hole through one of the windows in back. It wasn’t
a very big hole, though. We checked the door wall to the deck and sure enough
it was open. We went inside to check it out. Everything is gone.” Haliday had
to think about this a minute. “Damn,” he said.

“David,
is my cat ok?”

David
said, “Yes, he was under the covers on your bed. Looks like his food and water
is still ok. Roger, aren’t you upset?”

“Yes I
am, but what am I going to do about it right now?” he said. “Is everything
gone?”

David
said, “Yes, cupboards are empty, closets were searched, attic was checked. It
looks like it’s all gone. Not sure what you had though. Safe in the bedroom was
open and guns are all gone too.”

“I have
those with me,” Haliday answered.