Dark Days Rough Roads (25 page)

Haliday
saw an access drive for the corn field next to him; he slowed and spun the KLR
into the field. This field had been cleaned of the ears of corn, but the farmer
hadn’t yet turned it under. The stalks were hitting him and hurt like hell. He
felt like he was getting whipped across his shoulders, thank goodness for the
hand guards and helmet.

The Jeep
had whipped in too. He heard a couple shots and hugged the bike as low as he
could. He didn’t know if these were warning shots or if these were meant for
him. All he did know was he didn’t care. He slammed on the brakes and cut
across the rows. It was bumpy as hell and the Jeep would be bouncing like
crazy. That would make it harder to target him.

He
whipped back around once more and headed back to the road. He cut through the
ditch and bounced up onto the pavement. The Jeep had a tougher time navigating
this and Haliday increased the distance between him and the Jeep. He needed
this distance. He would have to slow down a bit for a brief few seconds.

He slowed
a bit so he could handle the bike with enough control for one hand. He reached
down and opened a bag attached to the tank. He managed to open the Velcro top
of it exposing the contents. He took a handful and tossed it behind him. He did
it once more. Real 007 stuff here, he hoped.

The bag
had been filled with what he called star jacks. These resembled the kid’s
version of jacks however were made with large spikes that were sharpened to a
point on each end. No matter how they landed there would always be a spike
pointing upward. Most people called them Caltrops. He learned this trick during
the Detroit Newspaper Strike back in the early nineties. This was done to
flatten the tires of the replacement workers.

About three
dozen of them landed behind him. The Jeep didn’t have time to swerve and ran
over where they had landed. It just kept right on following him. Haliday cursed
to himself and gunned it again. He looked in his mirror but now saw the Jeep
slowing. He noticed one of the front tires going flat. He got at least one tire
and that was good enough.

The Jeep
came to a stop by the side of the road. The men inside had their own radio and
called in to some kind of headquarters. As far as they were concerned, they
were the new law around here and somebody just disrespected them. Their group
would not tolerate this behavior; they were dictatorial in nature.

He looked
around at himself and made sure he wasn’t hit. The only thing he noticed was a
small tear in his cargo pocket but that looked like it was from the cornfield.
He took a few more roads and got back on route. He was wondering who the hell
they were. He was trying to remember who might be in this area.

There was
no military or militia as far as he could remember. If they were militia, they
were different than the typical TV yahoos and kept themselves under the radar.
This could be a problem. If they had a sizable group, they could damper his own
group’s efforts. He made note to check this out; he didn’t need any big
headaches.

He came
up to the dirt road. He spotted the horse tracks and the ranger’s tracks as
well. He got off his bike and looked around. “That should do the trick,” he
said. He walked over to the side of the road and grabbed a bunch of smaller
branches and spread them out. He pulled out some paracord and tied them
together and then tied them to the back of his bike.

He keyed
his mic and told Dawn he was coming in. He got back on the bike and dragged the
branches down the road behind him. While it didn’t completely cover up the
tracks, it did do a good job and took away that fresh track look. He would do
the same on the way out to try and hide the cache site since they hadn’t needed
to dig it up.

He
reached the path and paused long enough to cut the branches loose. There was no
way he could drag those through this path. It wasn’t quite what he remembered.
No wonder they had trouble. The winter months played hell on the trees and tree
limbs had dropped, blocking the path a bit more than usual.

He came
up on the three of them standing there waiting. They were grouped together, but
at least had the brains to make sure they were ready to fire. He would have had
them spread out and hidden. It could have been a trap for them. Haliday turned
off the bike and dismounted. He walked over and gave Dawn a hug. He said hi to
Diana and Karen and said he was glad they were all safe.

“Let’s
see what you have here,” he said. He walked around the ranger and trailer and
then looked underneath. He got in the driver’s seat and tried to back it up. It
went about a foot backwards and that was it. He looked under it again and this
time saw that a tree root near the surface had broken and came up and wedged
itself between the axle and trailer.

He tried
going forward again and still no luck; it wasn’t going to break free. He tried
to pull it out but he couldn’t get the leverage to do this either. He laid down
on the ground and worked himself under the ranger a bit. “Dawn, can you hand me
a saw out of the toolbox.”

“You want
a pocket chain or regular saw?”

“Pocket
chain.”

Haliday
never thought one of these would come in handy. But this awkward position
proved its worth. He worked the saw back and forth for about five minutes until
the root gave way. He pulled the chunk loose and tossed it aside. “That should
do it,” he said. He started the ranger and it moved freely now.

Haliday
called them all over. He thought it might not be a bad idea to tell them what
happened. He explained the incident with the jeep as best as he could. “We’re
going to take a slightly different route back just in case they are still out
there. The horses will need to move as quickly as they can without exhausting
them.” The realization that this area was now changing too, had hit the three
of them like a ton of bricks. Haliday said, “Welcome to the new world
disorder.”

As soon
as they reached the dirt road, Haliday hooked up his branches. “Listen,” he
said, “I’m going down that way about a half mile and then I’ll double back and
catch up to you guys. I want to try to throw anyone off the track if I can.”
They took off and he did too. He doubled back quickly and caught up.

Haliday
heard a low guttural roar like that from a 155mm cannon and looked around. The
horses were spooked and reared a bit. There came another roar before Haliday
realized this was thunder. Well, the effort hiding the cache was going to go to
waste except now it’d be even better as the rain would wash the road clean of
the tracks much better than his dragging did.

He
signaled them to stop. “You guys have rain gear?” They all nodded. “Ok, put it
on, looks like we are going to get hammered.” He grabbed a set out of his
saddle bags and put them on. Windy, cold, wet and exposed. This was getting to
be all kinds of fun. People out and about would be heading home, but those
still out in this weather would have a purpose. It was best to avoid those
folks. Dark clouds starting moving in and the wind picked up.

Haliday
called David and asked them how they were doing. David said they were just
sitting around waiting for them to get there. “Well, with the weather change
it’s going to be a while. Make sure everyone gets something to eat and keep
some hot liquids on hand. Have everyone dress warmer. I have a feeling tonight
is going to be rough.”

Haliday
told David they would be staying there the night so to get things set up. “Kayla
will help you. If you have any questions let me know. If by chance anyone
strange makes it there, they are going to be a high level threat. Treat them as
such. Do not take any chances. Nobody belongs there.” David asked him if he wanted
him to set up a hide for someone with Haliday’s rifle.

Haliday
told him, “No offense, but nobody is to touch that rifle.” He highly doubted
anybody could explain mil-dot, MOA, windage, spin drift or anything else they
would need to know in order to use it. They wouldn’t even know what rounds to
use. He kept three basic loads for it for various conditions. They’d just load
what they grabbed, not understanding the differences.

 “David,
just set up for the night, set a solid watch roster and keep everyone warm and
dry. Do not move out, do not send out anybody to recon the area or anything
else.”

David
answered, “Got it brother.” David went over to Kayla. “I need your help. Your
dad says we are staying the night.” Kayla started barking out orders and got everyone
moving.

Kayla was
a smart girl and although at times she thought her dad was a little crazy, she
made it a point to listen to him. Now she was doing what he would be doing
right now. Kayla ordered the vehicles realigned. She had them parked so that they
formed a small modern day circled wagon train.

The Tahoe
and trailer were parked so that the trailer was almost at a ninety degree angle
to it and opposite that were the Cherokee and its trailer. This formed a
mutated square but left ample coverage for everything in the middle. They would
set up a small 10X10 pop up tent in the middle with some side panels and cover
everything with a camo net.

They
weren’t worried about the aerial view, but didn’t want anyone seeing them from
the side. Even though they chose an area with plenty of pine trees because the
rest of the foliage was already down for the fall, they still didn’t want to be
seen. The camo net was designed for this use in particular.

Haliday
had taken numerous pictures and sent them out to a large format printing
company in China and had “Nature Billboards” printed. He hated to use the
Chinese company, but it was a tenth of the cost compared to the U.S. companies. He had done a few for different seasons to include spring, summer, fall and
winter. They were designed to be hung on buildings and printed on a mesh so you
could see through them when you were close enough, but people who saw them from
a distance couldn’t. Custom camo nets.

They lit
up a small propane heater. No fires and no smoke. They pulled out a butane
stove and boiled up some water for coffee and hot cocoa. They would get lunch
ready too, but Kayla already determined it was going to be soup. This was
everyone’s first afternoon and night exposed to the elements. Best to stay
warm.

Haliday
was taking the lead and would shoot up a ways and scope out the intersections
ahead of Dawn, Diane and Karen. Once they passed by, he would shoot up ahead
again and check the area. This would keep them from having to do it themselves
and save a little time. If he spotted any trouble, he could tell them and they
could stop and he could try and draw the trouble away from them.

Kayla
called him on the radio. “We got a problem, or to be more exact you have a
problem.”

“What’s
going on?”

“Well, I
was flipping through the frequencies and it stopped on one which I listened to
for a while. The signal was strong, so I figured it was close by. I wrote the
frequency down. I’ll give it to you in a minute.

“Anyway,
I assume it’s you they are looking for.” Haliday was trying to figure this out.

“Kayla,
what exactly did you hear?”

“Ok, it
was hard to decipher at first because the transmissions were kind of choppy and
I came across it halfway into the conversation. But here’s the short story.

“Some
group called the Bad Axe Minute Men had some patrols out. One of those patrols
came across a guy on a motorcycle. They said they tried to stop the guy, but he
ran. They are calling him a fugitive. They mentioned chasing him until he
flattened two of their tires with spikes. I figured it was you.

“Now they
put out an ‘APB’ to their other patrols and headquarters. Pretty much said to
just shoot on sight. They said OD green motorcycle, one man, large build, khaki
cargo pants, black jacket and full faced helmet. Sounds like you Dad. You
really pissed someone off. I’m trying to listen in and gather some more intel.
I’ll tell you what I hear.”

“Ok
kiddo, thanks for the good news.”

Haliday
slowed down and looked at Dawn, Diane and Karen and shrugged his shoulders.
Nothing he could do now. They had heard the news too. He looked down at the map
on top of the tank. Here we go again, time to change the route. He would head
back south a bit. If they were indeed out of Bad Axe, then they were a good 30
miles out from the center of their operations. They were only about 15 miles
from his own group’s destination.

Thirty
miles is a long way out for a patrol, he thought. They were either very large
or very dumb. He’d have to figure this out quickly. He was getting pelted with
rain now. He signaled another stop and pulled over. He programmed his radio
with the frequency Kayla had given him.

Dawn and
Diana watered the horses real quickly and they put a cover on the ranger to
help keep rain out. It was coming straight down, but the small top would
provide a little relief. He refused to let them put the whole top on. There was
no visibility with it on.

He
checked the map once more. “Ok, here it is,” he told them. “This is the route,
we are about eight miles away now and we have to push it. We can’t risk
stopping around here for the night. They going to make it?” he nodded toward
the horses.