Dark Days Rough Roads (28 page)

He found
an old bottle and poured a little gas inside with a piece of rag to make a
Molotov cocktail. He lit it, then grabbed a rock and tossed it through a
window. He tossed the flaming bottle in next. Blake and he started yelling and
fired a few shots from their rifles and also Haliday's .40. They got on the
bikes and took off. There were plenty of flashlights and candles glowing now.

 They
were heading down the road when they spotted a pair of headlights coming their
way and a spotlight sweeping the road. Haliday peeled off the tape from his
headlight and shot into the woods. Blake followed him. They got about 150 yards
in and killed the bikes, laid them down and took cover.

Haliday
grabbed a camo jacket shell and tossed it over his bike. Blake grabbed one and
did the same thing. Haliday liked this kid. He learned quickly. They threw some
small deadfall branches on them as well. There was not a lot of wooded area
here and they’d be easy to spot if they tried to make a run for it. Staying put
was the only option next to abandoning the bikes. They couldn’t afford to do
that.

The
vehicle that was approaching stopped about a mile down the road from the
burning store. It was moving slowly toward the store and sweeping its spotlight
into the fields and woods searching for them. They must have misjudged distance
because they did this for almost half a mile past the store. They weren’t sure
where they were hiding. With the spotlight, Haliday knew they weren’t using
NVG’s or any type of thermal unit.

As they
sat and waited, another vehicle came screaming by. It didn’t stop until it got
near the store. Haliday looked through his binoculars the best he could. Once
again he wished he had NVG’s. Looked like an older Jeep and older pickup. Four
guys were standing near them talking and waving toward Blake and Haliday’s
general area.

“Mr.
Haliday, I’m a little scared.”

“Look
Blake, just stay down, do not move or do anything. Listen to what I tell you.”
Two of the guys got back in the truck and then the truck made another sweep
down the road with the spotlight. Haliday covered the binoculars up and looked
at Blake. “Don’t worry kid, just put your head down and don’t think about it.
I’ll tell you what they’re doing and if you need to do anything if that helps.

“Ok
Blake, they are still spotlighting the road and whole area, if they had spotted
us they would be coming at us already. They are heading back toward the store.
The Jeep is taking off now. It’s heading in the direction of the second car
fire. The guys in the truck are still looking around. Looks like they plan to
stay a while because they just opened up a cooler and it looks like meal time.

“Blake,
carefully low crawl over to your bike and grab that wool blanket out of your
pack. Cover yourself up with it. We’re going to be here a while.” Haliday
followed suit and grabbed one out of his saddle bags. They laid there for a while
watching the guys stand by the burning store. Haliday asked him about football,
why he didn’t go to college, anything to help keep the kid calm. Haliday had
waited like this before, hours upon hours; it didn’t bother him.

Blake had
pretty much settled down and now it was almost 2:30 in the morning. The guys
got in their truck and took one last look around before they left. Blake said,
“can we go now.”

“Absolutely
not.” They still laid there. About half an hour later the truck drove back by.
“That’s why we waited Blake; they were still looking for us.” After another
hour they got up and shook off the cold. Haliday grabbed a map and hid under
the blanket with a red flashlight to read it.

He turned
the light off and flipped the blanket off. “That was something else, huh
Blake?”

“Oh ya,
ranks up there in my top 10 list of favorite things.”

“Get used
to it. It ain’t combat, but you are fighting for your life. Remember that. Any
time you feel giddy enough you can leave if you want to.”

“No way
Mr. Haliday. I just never thought I’d see stuff like this happen and I don’t
like those guys for some reason. I don’t trust them.”

“Tape
your headlight up again and let’s get going.” They worked their way to another
farm area. Haliday spotted a rundown barn with a “for sale” sign just off the
road. He could see a house. He walked up to the “for sale” sign and pulled a
piece of paper out of a plastic box on the side of the sign post.

He
grabbed his flashlight and blanket again and read the paper. “Fifty acres, good
for sugar beets, blah blah blah, old barn can be repaired, mobile home removed
from property, but foundation left in place. Good, abandoned.” They worked
their way to the barn, pushing the bikes just in case. They went inside and
except for a few rusted old hulks of farm implements, it was empty. “We’ll stay
here for a bit, Blake.

“Go ahead
and make yourself comfortable and grab a couple hours of sleep. I’ll wake you
up later and we’ll switch off.” He went and grabbed a granola bar and turned to
offer Blake one, but Blake was already out like a light with his sleeping bag
just draped over him. Haliday munched on the treat and took a look around the
barn and land. This wouldn’t have been a bad place to build, he thought.

He
changed the frequency and gave his group a quick hello. “Hey Uncle Roger, it’s
Randy.”

“Hey
Randy, everything ok with you guys there at the camp?”

“Well, we
could all use a drink.”

“Why,
what’s going on?”

“You guys
have definitely stirred the pot. There are a whole lot of people wanting to
skin you guys alive. They are super pissed off. It was quite intense to listen
to.”

“Well,
that’s our plan, you guys learn anything good?”

“Kayla
and Dawn took notes and then after it all settled down, grandma and grandpa
took notes too.”

“Ok, I’ll
call again in a few hours; we’re getting some rest right now. Tell everyone we
are ok and talk to you soon.”

Haliday
walked around a bit more then went over and woke Blake up. The sun was starting
to rise and Blake should be able to stay awake. Haliday doubted he would have
been able to take the first watch. “Before I crash, you want any coffee or
anything?”

“I’m a
little hungry.”

“Here,
start with this.” Haliday tossed him a Snickers bar. “After that go ahead and
crack open an MRE. Eat it all, Blake. You’ll need the calories and energy.”

Haliday
dropped his sleeping bag to the ground, unzipped it, and climbed in. He wanted
to zip it up, but also didn’t want to get stuck in it if something happened. He
looked over at Blake struggling with the MRE. Blake glanced over and saw him
watching. “Blake, the directions are on the side. Use the red lensed
flashlight.” The kid would need a couple more hours of sleep before they moved
out so he was aware of what was going on.

Blake
nudged him awake. Haliday opened his eyes and Blake was telling him to be
quiet. Haliday slowly got out of his bag. “What’s going on?” Blake whispered to
him that someone else was here already. “What the hell, where are they?” He
walked over to a window and Blake pointed them out.

About 50
feet from where the concrete pad of the mobile home had been was a door
sticking up in the air. There was a man and a woman standing there talking.
They had walked their bikes right by it when they came in last night. It was an
old tornado shelter and it looked like it had been used last night. Haliday
looked around and the bikes and gear were all there. At least they hadn’t been
discovered yet.

He
motioned for Blake to check his weapon and make sure it was ready to go. He
checked his own as well. He signaled Blake to go to the other end of the barn.
He found a hole in the side of the barn and watched them for a few minutes.
They were just standing there talking. A third figure appeared out of the
shelter.

This was
a young child, maybe 8 or 9 years old. It looked like a boy, but with some of
the hair styles kids wear these days he didn’t make judgment just yet. The kid
turned around, definitely a boy. The parents stretched a bit and the kid kicked
around a rock.

He came
close to the barn a couple of times, which made them nervous.

For a
minute, he eyeballed the barn and started walking toward the door. “Timmy,
don’t go in there, it’s dangerous,” the mother called out. He turned around and
walked back toward her. “We need to get moving again, we have a long way to go.”
They went down into the shelter and the father came out with a bike. He went
down again and came back out with another one. One more trip and they now had
three bikes.

He went
down once again and brought up a small two wheeled cart like those you tow behind
bikes with your dog in it. They retrieved some packs and things, then started
getting everything loaded up. “Looks like they just stayed for the night.” They
were about to pedal away when they heard a vehicle coming down the road.

The truck
pulled in and right up to the family. A man and woman climbed out and walked up
to them. Looked like they were wearing some kind of Russian camo pattern. The
man spoke first. “Who are you guys?”

“We’re
members of the Bad Axe Minute Men. Who are you?”

“My name
is Steven and this is my wife Jill and son Tim.”

The Minute
Man spoke, “You guys from the area?”

“Yes we
are. We’re from Port Austin.”

The woman
walked around the three of them and looked down the steps of the shelter.
“Anyone else down there?”

“No, we were
just staying the night and getting ready to leave.”

The woman
went down into the shelter and re-emerged. “No one else down there.” She went
and stood back next to the other guy. Haliday was shocked at how much risk they
took.

“What
about the barn,” she said.

“We
looked in it last night, but it’s empty. We chose the tornado shelter because
it had the old cots down there. There was too much rusty stuff to get hurt on
in there and my son is curious.”

“Where
you guys heading?”

“Imlay City to my parents house. We left yesterday and stopped here for the night. We hope
to make it there some time in the next couple days before it gets much colder.”

The guy
walked around and looked at their bikes and packs. “You have any weapons?” he
asked.

The guy
said, “No.”

“Mind if
I check?”

“Yes I do.
You’re not a cop. You don’t have the right.”

“Look
bud, times are different. This area is under control of the Bad Axe Minute Men
now. What we say goes. We have a no weapons policy for travelers.”

“You
don’t have any right to search us.”

The woman
walked up and grabbed the guy’s pack; he struggled but then got hit by the
other man. The wife yelled at him to stop it and the little boy was crying and
yelled for them to stop. The minute man laid one more punch in the guy’s face
and knocked him down. Haliday was fighting the urge to fire. Blake just had
this WTF look on his face, but Haliday signaled him to stay down.

The
minute man picked up the bags and dumped everything out. He picked up a small
pistol. “No guns, huh?” He kicked the guy while he was down. “You answer with
the truth when asked a question. We’ll be keeping this. You’re damn lucky we
ain’t taking your food too. Now get the hell out of here.” They were about to
get in the truck when they heard a noise by the barn and stopped.

Everyone
looked over at the barn. Haliday was ready. A big raccoon went scurrying out
from one of the windows, down the side of the barn and across the field. The
minute men lowered their rifles and got back in their truck. They told the family
to get going. They took off down the road. Haliday heard them call the check in
on the radio. That was a close one.

Blake
said, “Let’s go see if they need help.”

Haliday
said, “No, we can’t. If they get stopped again and they are afraid, they’ll rat
us out in a heartbeat. They have two days tops to get to Imlay City, maybe three if they move slow, but they’ll make it. You go hit the sack for a little bit
more and I’ll keep watch again, it’ll be a while before its safe to go.”

He
watched the family gather themselves and head out. What the hell kind of
militia was this? These guys should be helping these people not beating them
and disarming them, especially when they are out on the road. That was total BS
in his mind but he had to stay focused on his own group. Were these guys rogue
from their own group. He kept wondering about them. He should have shot them
and given the truck to the family, but that would have opened up a whole
different can of worms.

After the
family left and was well on their way, Haliday called his group. “Hey listen,
if you are approached by a group of militia, or members of the militia be
careful. They seem to have designated a Russian camo as their uniform which
looks like the old U.S. woodland BDU pattern, only with finer detail and the
colors are not as contrasting. Shoot the bastards on sight. Don’t mess around
with them.” He relayed to them the story of the family.

He woke
Blake up. “You feeling better?” he asked.