Dark Days Rough Roads (22 page)

There
were lots of hugs, kisses and tears. It had been a hell of a trip. There were a
lot of questions, but not a lot of answers right now. There’ll be plenty of
time to talk soon enough. He had introduced Blake to everyone as well. “He’ll
be treated like family,” he added. “Anyone have problems with that it’s too
bad.

“Now,
first off, we get security set for the night, and then we eat and sleep.” Haliday
called Dawn and told her they were back. “Make sure you’re ready to move out in
the morning.”

She said,
“Glad you’re back safe. Talk to you in the morning.”

“See you
guys soon,” he said. He hoped they would all make it.

Haliday
went into his bedroom and into his bathroom. He took his shirts off and looked
at his abdomen. The bruise was about the size of a basketball. Damn that had
hurt. He left it unwrapped and powdered his skin then put a shirt on. After
that he went back into the living room. He saw the kerosene heater there
running and stood by it for a minute. Fall was here and winter was well on its
way.

He just
looked around. He went and checked the closets and cupboards. He shook his head
from side to side. “Is it all gone?” Bev asked.

“No, not
really, a drop in the bucket considering,” he answered back. “About two month’s
worth of canned goods and dry goods.” Still it made him angry. He peeked in the
garage, but didn’t comment.

He called
for a meeting. Everyone gathered around. “Look,” he said, “this hasn’t gone as
planned and it’s probably not going to be any easier. This is what we have to
accomplish in the morning and through tomorrow night.” He laid out the
objectives and asked if there were any questions. No one had any. He wandered
off to his bed and crashed hard. Morning would be here soon, and then it was
back on the road.

Haliday
got up and walked out into the living room. Everybody else was already up. He
looked around and they all looked at him. He went back into the bedroom and put
on some clothes. He was used to walking around either naked or in just his
underwear, thank goodness he had his underwear on. He looked down at his cat,
seemed like he had made a friend with the mutant dog. “Romeo, you’re a
traitor,” he said. Bev’s cats could have cared less about the dog.

When he
walked back out into the living room, he could see them cooking breakfast and
could smell fresh coffee in the percolator. David said, “Nice bruise I saw
there, how did that happen?”

Roger
said, “Long story. Thank goodness for body armor.” Blake was at the griddle
making pancakes. There was a pitcher of Tang too. This kid may be alright if he
stays away from Kayla. Everyone ate and then enjoyed some coffee before getting
to work.

He called
Dawn, but Diana answered. “You guys ready to go,” he asked.

“Pretty
much, I guess.”

“Well,
get started as soon as you can. It’s going to take you guys a little bit longer
to meet us at the first checkpoint. Do the same thing, use tight security. Is your
mom able to drive the ranger ok?” She said she could with no problem. “Ok then,
let me know as soon as you guys head out.”

Haliday
asked David to get the Tahoe hooked up to his trailer. David couldn’t figure
out why Haliday wanted it in front of Kayla’s bedroom window, but figured he
was just tired when he had asked or maybe it was closer for loading. He had the
biggest trailer out of the group. He had a 7X16 dual axle, with extra height
and a ramp door. “Put it right at the walkway with the ramp on the cement. That
will make it easier to load.”

David
looked at him and told him there wasn’t much and they could have it loaded up
in 10 minutes. “I don’t think so David. Just do me a favor and do it please.”
David and Kevin went outside and got it hooked up and moved. They then backed
the Cherokee up to the garage door, but didn’t open it or connect the other
trailer yet. They just wanted it ready.

David
said “Ok guys; get the stuff in the garage into the trailer.” “No, no, no,”
Haliday interjected. “There’s a specific loading plan I have in mind. This way
everything will fit.”

Bev said,
“Roger, in case you forgot you don’t have much to load.”

“Ya,
that’s what you think?” They all looked at him.

“Listen
up, this is the drill. Linda, Kayla, you guys will stand guard on the trailer
and in front of the house and door. One on each side, make sure you can see
each other and up and down the street and around the sides of the house. Mom
and Sarah you do the same thing, but in back.” He gave them each a plastic
whistle he had bought at a novelty store for two bucks a dozen. “Whistle if ya
need us.

“Dad, I
want you up in the front of the trailer to direct the load. No heavy lifting,
just observe and instruct. I don’t have an AED and we can’t deal with heart
problems.” Rich had stents put in years back and had suffered a heart attack
then. “The rest of you will form a bucket brigade, and I mean that literally.”
David and Kevin came back in. He stationed them between the front door and just
inside Kayla’s bedroom. Sarah’s daughter just stood and watched.

Haliday
walked over to Kayla’s closet. It wasn’t big, it was just a typical wall closet
that spanned the width of the wall and was about two feet deep. He knelt down
off to one side, moved a bunch of various items and grabbed the edge of the
carpet and pulled up hard. Under the carpet there was a small hatch about 24X32
inches. He had cut a small finger hole in it and managed to pull it up. He
reached down and hit a switch and it lit up.

David was
there in the room with him. “What the hell is all that going on down there?”

Roger
just looked at him and smiled. “Well, put all your eggs in one basket and
you’re screwed if you trip on your way to the market. I planned on possibly
tripping, so I built this. It took time to do it without anyone knowing, but when
it was done it worked like a charm.”

Haliday’s
house sat on a Michigan basement. It was only a little more than six feet deep
and looked more like a crawl space from the road. But it was all concrete floor
and cinder block walls. In the back of the house was a large half door to
access it. You opened that door and took a couple small steps down and you were
there. The furnace, hot water heater, well pump, sump pump and water softener
were down there.

When you
looked around you saw a square basement. Cinder block walls, waterproofed, with
one inch foam insulation glued to the walls. It was solid all the way around.
You could peel off the foam and scrape the waterproofing, but you still had
cinderblock. No big deal. Why the builder had never gone another two blocks to
make it a full basement though, he never figured out. Haliday was the second
owner and didn’t know why it was never done, except maybe the water table was
too high.

Haliday’s
house however had a unique shape. When you approached it there was an attached
garage on the left that jutted out, Kayla’s bedroom on the right that jutted
out, and the walkway to the porch which was in the middle. Kind of a “U” shape.
There was no crawl space under the garage for obvious reasons, but there was
under Kayla’s room.

He had
started in her room by cutting in the hatch access and reinforcing the joists.
Then he would bring cinder blocks and mortar through the garage and down the
hatch where he sectioned off the area under her bedroom. After going in the
main section and applying the waterproofing and insulation along with a few
small touches, it looked completely natural.

The hatch
being in the closet was in a space no one walked on so it would not have that
flexing give that most floor hatches had. Being a typical high school girl, no
one wanted to go near the closet anyway. Too much teenage girl stuff lying
around. Haliday didn’t like going near it. He never cleaned it because it
reminded him of Kayla, and he would glance in there when he was missing her.

With this
being done, Haliday had a cache right at the house that was 10X12 and a bit
over six foot deep. This was loaded with buckets upon buckets of food and cases
of food and other supplies. He never stored water because he backed a small lake
and would filter it or filter water from the sump. He was still on well and
could power the well pump too.

He had
gone with square buckets to save on space. Round buckets were cheaper, easier
to get, but square really saved space and made a big difference. He did have
some round ones too, but not too many. He jumped down into the crawl area. He
looked around. Everything was still here. This was great news.

He
climbed out and David asked if everything was ok. “Ya, I just need one of the
kids down there lifting instead of me. I won’t be able to do it.” He switched
places with Blake. “You’re going to earn your keep today, Blake.”

“I don’t
mind Mr. Haliday.” He preferred being called Roger, but wasn’t going to let
this kid get too comfortable too quickly.

“Start
with the square ones Blake.” Blake started handing up bucket after bucket which
made its way to the trailer. The first row was in, 48 of them fit. Labels read
basmati rice, jasmine rice, par boiled rice, lentils, red beans, navy beans,
split peas, black beans, barley, sugar, flour, and it went on and on.

They got
four rows in before it became time for the round buckets; there were only two
rows of round ones though. Next were cases of #10 cans and boxes of other
supplies. Paper products too. Haliday grabbed his shirt and pulled it up on his
head and started walking around with toilet paper. “I need TP for my bunghole.
I need TP for my bunghole. I am Conrholio.” Nobody else got the
Beavis and
Butthead
imitation though.

Haliday
went into the spare bedroom he used as an office and walked over to the closet.
It had a modular closet system in it. He yanked the pole down, grabbed a hold
of the sides and pried them loose. Next he removed the back section and
revealed some small shelves and more rifles and shotguns hanging in plastic
bags coated I oil with desiccant packs in the bags. These were loaded up as
well as some ammo that was in there.

After
this was all loaded up, the stuff from the garage went in as well. There was
barely enough room for Blake’s Yamaha, but they would make it fit. Roger told
them to pull the Tahoe forward, load the bike up and close the trailer. They
put Romeo and Max in a cage and put them in the trucks. They heard a whistle.
Everyone grabbed a weapon and ran outside. There had been a crowd watching from
nearby, but now they started getting really close.

“Randy,
go around back and help. Kevin you watch out front. Blake get that garage door
opened up and the rest of you get the drum of gas emptied into the vehicles and
into any spare gas cans. Everyone stay calm, but on alert.” Haliday walked out toward
the front to see what was going on.

He made a
concerted effort to slap a magazine in his AR180 and jack a round in the
chamber. This of course was for effect. He had unloaded it before he went out
there just so he could put on a show and let them know he meant business.
Besides, everyone else was locked and loaded already. “Get all of the vehicles
hitched up and ready to roll,” he hollered.

As they
were checking the vehicles and trailers to make sure they were ready to go, the
crowd moved in closer yet. There were quite a few neighbors he recognized, but
a lot of people he didn’t. They began demanding that they tell them what they
had in the trailers. Haliday shouted out "it’s none of your concern."
They kept yelling out that they wanted to know. Haliday slightly raised his
rifle; he called the group from the back of the house to the front then and
told them to watch the rear and sides from where they were.

“Go ahead
and shoot us. You ain’t got the balls.” Haliday eyeballed the guy who said it
and noticed he had a baseball cap on. River Bend Apartments was stitched on the
front. Of course, half mile south he had 10 complexes of various sizes. He
would take daily walks around the neighborhood all the time scoping out who
lived where, who had what, who might be prepared or who might be problems. He
figured the apartments would be all trouble.

“Look
man, we’re leaving ok, no problems need to arise. We’re out of here in two
minutes.”

The guy
walked up a bit closer to the front of the crowd and said, “Bullshit; we ain’t
letting you leave with that shit.” He turned around and took a shotgun from
another guy in the crowd. He turned back around. “You look like you got plenty
to share.”

Haliday
said, “Look, that ain’t going to happen.” Haliday’s next door neighbor Phil was
standing outside now watching. Haliday looked over at him and nodded. Phil
nodded back. His kids walked out onto the porch and Haliday looked over at
them. One of them was sucking on a pouch of peanut butter from an MRE. She was
also holding a small doll. She didn’t grasp the lethality of the situation.

More and
more people were demanding that they share. The guy from the apartment complex
was the loudest. “We’re going to give you to the count of 10. After that we’re
taking it, asshole.” Haliday quickly looked at his group. He then scanned the
other group. Most were just standing around empty handed, a bunch had knives
and a few had various guns visible.