Dark Days Rough Roads (24 page)

The night
was uneventful. They all laughed about camping. Years ago, camping was a motor
home in the parking lot of a hotel. That was as rough as it got. Now they’d
learn to appreciate nature. They fed and watered the horses and then they
whipped up some nine grain cereal using instant soy milk and made some Tang.
They took some vitamins and started to break down the camp.

The last
thing was the morning bathroom break. Karen didn’t mind the bucket, but Diana
had a fit. Dawn explained that there was no Four Seasons resort close by, so
that’s what she got. After a few minutes of potty dancing, she gave up. The
three of them then sat there looking at the bucket. What do we do with it, they
wondered. None of them wanted to touch it.

After a
few minutes Dawn said, “You dig the hole. I’ll pull the bag and dump it.” They
disposed of the mess and got ready to leave. Everything was taken down and they
called Haliday. “We’re on our way to meet up with you.”

Haliday
said, “Sorry, I should have told you guys to leave a day earlier, we’re already
here waiting. We’ll be here, call if you need us.”

They
started the ranger, climbed up on the horses and started back toward the road.
They were only about 50 feet from the camp site when Karen got the trailer
stuck. They tried for an hour and a half, but could not get it free. They
couldn’t leave it there so they called Haliday to let him know.

*****

Haliday
had told Dawn to head out and now they themselves were on the road after the
tense morning incident. He’d be seeing Dawn sooner than he thought; he just
didn’t know it yet. She would have a small problem he would have to deal with.

He looked
around. Nobody was saying anything. They were still in shock at the incident.
Not only did they shoot this guy, but Haliday had left Phil and his family in
quite a bind. Haliday didn’t care. They broke into his house, took what he
needed to survive and were ready to stand there and let him get killed as well.
Screw Phil, he thought. He didn’t expect them to be there in spring when he got
back.

Mike
said, “Hang a right at the next road.” Another mile and they would be at Bill
and Linda’s farm. Two Lindas. That would be weird, he could see it now, “Hey
Linda,” and both come running. Linda said they usually answered based on who
called them, so to him that made sense.

They
pulled up near the gate. Haliday noticed it was locked. He grabbed his
binoculars and looked toward the house. Smoke from the fireplace was visible;
he saw some cows out in the pasture and a couple horses as well. He couldn’t
see anyone though. He wasn’t about to go walking up to the door either.

“Well
Mike, it’s your friend. You feel safe walking up there?”

“I’m sure
we’ll be ok,” he said.

“We?
There’s no we, it’s you, I’m not taking the chance. You go. Here, use this.”
Haliday went and unscrewed the antenna for the stereo. Didn’t need it now
anyway. He tied a white rag around the end. “Wave this as you approach.” Mike
headed toward the door.

He got
about 50 feet from the house and the front door opened. “Hey Bill.”

“Hey,
Mike, are they with you?”

“Yes,
they are,” he said.

“Ok,
here’s the key.” He walked up and got it. “Please lock the gate behind you when
you come back up.”

“Thanks
Bill.” He walked down back to the trucks and opened the gate. They rode up to
the house.

Bill had
put on a percolator for coffee. He had this sitting on a wood stove near the
kitchen. They all exchanged hellos when they went in. “Where’s Linda at?”

“She’s
taking a nap. She was up early tending the chickens and livestock. I heard you
guys coming and kept a watch out. I thought it was you getting out of that
truck, so I didn’t bother to wake her. Hell of a mess we’re in huh?”

“That’s
for sure. The past few days have been pure hell Bill.”

“I can
see by that eye, did you win or lose?”

“I lost
that battle, too many of them, but I’m alive.” Bill asked who was up for
coffee. Everyone almost in unison accepted.

“Ok, I’ll
pour this one and then I’ll get another batch ready.” Linda woke up and came
out and greeted them. She had a concerned look on her face.

Haliday
said, “We’re not staying, just stopping by.” She looked a little relieved at
that.

She said,
“I’m sorry, was it that evident?”

“Don’t
worry, I don’t blame you. These days you have to count your blessings and your
beans. We understand completely. That brings me to the next question, Mike;
it’s your ball now.”

Mike
didn’t get a word out of his mouth. Bill and Linda said they could stay. “We
can put you in the middle bedroom and Kayla in the end bedroom.”

“Oh, I’ll
be going with my dad,” she said. “But thank you.”

“No
problem honey.”

Haliday
asked them what they have heard. “Anything going on or anything worth sharing?”

Bill said
he had talked to a neighbor who went into town. A few folks had set up a small
blockade and seemed to be trying to control everything in town. He wasn’t sure
if they meant to do good or meant to do harm, but he was avoiding town at all
costs. He said most around here are just staying put to ride it out.

“How are
the people around here set for food?”

“Well,
most have soy, corn or wheat and a lot have some cows and poultry but other
than that I don’t know. We can get through for a while, but it won’t be
gourmet.”

“How long
is that?” Haliday asked.

“I guess
we can make it until planting season with no problems. We usually stock up for
winter and we can slaughter a cow and that’ll give us a lot of meat. We should
be ok.”

“Water
going to be an issue?”

“Not at
all, we have an old hand pump and rain barrels.”

“You got
a tarp by chance?”

“I should
have one around somewhere why?”

“I’ll
tell you how to make a rain catch, that way no contaminants from the roof get
in it. Bird or goose crap mainly. It rains, you unfold and secure the tarp, and
it catches in the barrel.”

“Sounds
like a plan,” he said.

“Your
tractor running?”

“It is,
but we’re saving the fuel for it, we only got about 250 gallons of diesel for
it.”

“Ok, save
it then. Firewood and everything else?”

“Plenty
of that too.”

“How
about security?”

“Well,
now that we have two more, maybe we can get something set up. Hoping my son
makes it here too.” Haliday spent the next two hours explaining how to secure
the farm and house as much as possible.

“Last but
not least, firepower?”

Bill
smiled, “Oh, I got plenty of that.”

“Let me
see what you have.” Bill led him to the den. He opened up a safe and exposed a
fairly impressive collection. 30-06, couple 12 gauges, little Marlin 22, but
most noticeable was the two AR15s and couple of 9mm pistols.

“Nice,
you got ammo?”

“I have
about 1,000 rounds of 5.56, 500 9mm, couple thousand 22lr, and about 200 each
for the rest. Got bows too,” he added. “Mike bring his?”

“Yes, he
did.”

They
walked back into the kitchen. “Bill, you mind if we stay in the barn tonight?”

“I sure
do, I’d prefer you to crash anywhere in here you guys can find a place.”

“We
appreciate it.” It was close to dinner time now. Haliday said dinner was on
him. “Before I cook though, can we park the vehicles in the barn?”

“Sure
thing,” he said.

Haliday
had everyone get what they needed for sleeping tonight, had them bring in the
cats and dog and then he walked in with a bucket of groceries. He went over to
the kitchen and began cooking. He cooked up a hell of a dinner. He made some
chicken alfredo, some corn, even made some naan and for desert they had some
bananas and honey. He mixed up a couple pitchers of Arnold Palmer. There wasn’t
anything left when they got done.

They
talked a bit longer before setting the watch schedule and heading to bed.
Haliday went over a few more things with Mike and Bill. Bill, too, asked about
the government. Haliday said, “Nothing from them at all. As far as I can tell they
are nonexistent.” They headed off to bed. He checked with Dawn and heard they
too were camping for the night. It looked like they were in the home stretch.

The
morning sun arose and they all got ready to go. “Kayla, can you load up the
cats.”

“Ok, I’ll
grab them.”

“Take
your mutant dog too.” She called Max; he came prancing by and stepped on
Haliday’s toes as he passed by. Before he walked into the cage, he took the
time to look back at Haliday. Kayla grabbed Romeo and stuffed him in there with
Max. Haliday really hated that mutt about now.

Everyone
said their goodbyes. Mike and Linda hugged Kayla and told her to be careful,
listen to her dad and that they loved her. They were all relieved that right
now everyone was safe. Everyone piled into the vehicles and Mike walked down
and unlocked the gate. Haliday paused at the gate and called Mike over. “I have
a gift for you.”

He handed
him a handheld ham. “You can recharge it with the small solar panel I left back
in the barn. Directions are on it; it’s easy. You can flip it on every hour on
the hour and if we need you, we’ll call then, and we’ll listen for you as well.
You know the protocol, no last names and no locations. I left a couple other
things in there as well. We’re only going to be about 50 miles away, but these
days that’s a lot. Good luck old man.”

Mike
locked up the gate and then went into the barn. There were some buckets and
boxes of food along with the little solar panel and frequency chart. He found a
few notes on how to cook the food and what proportions to use. There was a lot
of soup, rice, pasta, beans and some canned meats. This would help them get
through the winter easily.

He looked
around at some bales of hay which he moved aside and hid everything. He went in
and told Bill and the two Lindas what they had. They were all more relieved. He
would go hunt for a deer to start them off before they got to the cows. The
longer they could keep those, the better. Same for the chickens.

Haliday’s
group made it to the rendezvous point. He heard from Dawn and told her they
would be waiting. They had two more places that could be trouble and they would
need to go through together. He was making some instant coffee when the radio
went off. “Roger, we’re stuck. The trailer is stuck and we can’t get it out.
We’ve been trying for over an hour and a half.”

Haliday
said, “Hold tight; I’ll be there in a bit.” He had the guys unload the KLR and
he got ready to go and help. They were about 20 miles away and he would go it
alone. Everyone else would stay here and wait. They were out of sight, out of
mind, and as long as they stayed that way and kept quiet, they would be fine.
He kicked over the bike, turned his radio on and put his earpiece in and rode
off.

Haliday
set out west to meet up with them and see what he could do. He should have
asked them to be a bit more specific about how they got stuck, but then maybe
someone would try to figure out their location. Who knew if there was anyone
listening in on their frequency or not. He’ll see what’s going on when he gets
there.

He was
cruising down the road when he passed an older Jeep that suddenly pulled onto
the road coming the opposite way. At his speed, it caught him by surprise. He
glanced in the mirror of the bike and noticed it was turning around. As far as
he could see it had a couple guys in it. He couldn’t tell their age because
they had the top off and looked like they were bundled up a bit. It was one of
the coldest days yet.

He hadn’t
given the temperature much thought because he had slipped on some thermals
under his pants and shirts because the ride on the bike would be cool anyway.
He saw them coming up closer now. There didn’t seem to be any glass in the
windshield which might be the reason they were bundled up. The closer they got
the more detail he could see.

He slowed
down and took a right hand turn. The Jeep followed. Two guys only, wearing camo
of some type and both had balaclavas on. Now he wasn’t sure they were both male
or not. Judging by their size, he was pretty sure they were. It was that or
they were big women, but he doubted that. He was wondering what happened to the
glass in the windshield.

The Jeep
pulled up almost right on his rear fender now. He glanced back and saw the
passenger waving to him to pull over. I don’t think so, Haliday thought. He
throttled the KLR a bit more to put a bit more space between him and the Jeep.
The Jeep started honking the horn and the passenger was waving again.

Haliday
gunned it a bit more and as he increased speed so did the Jeep. He glanced back
and saw the passenger holding what looked like an AR. He rested what looked
like a bipod on the hood. That explained the missing glass, but why didn’t they
just flip the windshield down, he thought. Maybe they had broken it doing that.