Dark Days Rough Roads (30 page)

He went
over to his bike and opened a saddle bag. He reached in and pulled out a small
bag and walked around and tossed the contents on the ground. This was all done
to add to the illusion. Keep up the appearance of more than two guys doing
this. “Now it’s time to get the hell out of Dodge.”

They
followed the shoreline road along the east side of the thumb. Just past a
little town called White Rock they went into a wooded area. There hadn’t been
anyone up this far that they had seen and they were hoping most of the militia
was over by Oliver and checking out that area.

Haliday
was beyond tired. He’d eat and get some rest. “You hungry Blake?”

“Ya, I am
but I have um, uh, well Mr. Haliday, I have to uh, well, I can’t go and I need
to.”

“Oh the
poop pipe is plugged?”

“Uh, ya.”

Haliday
dug into his pack and tossed Blake some constipation medicine. “It’s the MRE’s.
Take that and you’ll be set to go, no pun intended. I’m going to take the first
rest break; you keep watch and wake me in two hours. Blake, hope everything
comes out ok.” Haliday cracked himself up.

Blake
woke up Haliday and they switched places. Haliday called the group on the
radio. “We’re doing ok and ready to get the hell out of here later on. We’re
going to stay here until we know you guys made it ok. Once you’re there we’ll
make our way over there as soon as we can. Move out at 0630, that’s when it
should be the safest for you guys. Get Diana and Dawn out earlier on the
horses, but tell them to be careful.”

Rich came
on, “Ok, we’ll keep you updated.”

“No,
don’t call unless you run into some serious trouble or when you make it there.
This is the point when we need to make sure it runs like clockwork. We have the
last little surprises to set and that will give you all the time you need to
get there. Anything else going on?”

“Well,
your ‘band of terrorists’ has really shaken them up. They don’t seem to have
the people to double up patrols, or don’t want to, and have been arguing about
using their camp sentries to assist in finding you. But they think it’s a trick
so you can invade their camp.

“As far
as we can tell, they are concentrating most of their efforts on their camp and
the northern areas where you’ve been busy. I think half are assigned to
security and the rest run the camp. It’s too hard to really tell what their
logistics are. They are pretty organized though.”

“That’s
good news for you guys. Tell everyone we’re fine. Wish you guys the best of
luck.” Haliday heated himself up an MRE and after he ate made sure he took some
fiber pills himself. Those things really do a number on you, that’s for sure. He
didn’t eat the cheese spread, that usually hit him for days. He tossed it back
in his saddle bag.

It was
0630 right on the nose. The first car caught fire and the flames overtook the
entire car. It was fully ablaze in about 10 minutes. Haliday was listening to
the militia freq. but didn’t hear any response yet. About another 10 minutes
went by when he heard a patrol call in that they saw smoke and were going to
check it out. It was about this time that the second fire started. The
conversion van went up a lot more quickly.

“Papa 2
to HQ we have two fires going on. We need help over here. These bastards are at
it again. They gotta be close. Send us help.”

“HQ to Papa
2, we have units on the way. We’re sending Papa 1 and Papa 4 to your location. Papa
3, we need you to head north and cover Papa 2’s area. We have the response
units moving into that area and the camp on alert.”

The whole
northeast portion of the thumb was crawling with militia now. When they reached
the conversion van, they heard more chatter.

“HQ we
think they have four or more guys running around here. We found all kinds of
MRE garbage on the ground. They might have stayed somewhere around here last
night. They must be close, everyone check the marinas and the parks.”

Blake was
up now and listening to the radio as well.

“We
heading out now?”

“No, we
have to stay in this area to make sure the group gets in safely. Just in case
we need to keep the militia in the area.” Haliday was listening to the ham some
more. These guys were seriously pissed off at them. The next transmission
almost made Haliday piss his pants.

“Papa 2
to HQ, those bastards wrote graffiti on a billboard.”

“What
does it say?”

“One says
‘wolverines’. Those smart-asses.”

“What do
you mean one?”

“There’s
another one too. Papa 4 saw it.”

“Well,
what’s it say?”

“It says
‘BAMM sucks dick’.”

“Tear
that shit down. You hear me. Tear me that shit down now! I will not have the
people of my community think I’m a dick sucker.”

Haliday
was almost in tears. This must be their commandant, oh fearless leader with a
Napoleon complex or something. But, those words he said, “his community?” This
guy was on a power trip and this early in the game that was dangerous. This guy
would get out of control and if someone didn’t put him in check, there was no
telling what would happen around here. It would affect Haliday’s group and the house.

Haliday
and Blake waited at their camp. The next transmission alarmed them.

“Papa 2
to HQ, we got 'em , we got 'em, we have their location. We found fresh tracks
and we are moving in on them.” Haliday looked at Blake and grabbed his rifle.
He dropped down prone behind his bike and pulled out some extra mags. Blake
dropped down too. He piled up his mags next to him.

“Papa 2
to HQ, we have Papa 1 and 4 with us along with response unit 1. We are moving
in slowly. We are about 100 yards out copy.”

“HQ to Papa
2 we copy. Proceed with caution. Repeat, proceed with caution. If possible keep
one alive for interrogation, you copy?”

“Papa 2
copies, we are now 75 yards out.” Haliday looked at Blake, he pointed to the
selector level to make sure he had it on fire. “We are now 50 yards out.”
Haliday and Blake scanned the woods for movement.

“Papa 2
to HQ, we have two in custody. We will be bringing them in to HQ.”

“HQ copies,
good job guys, any casualties?”

“That’s a
negative, we didn’t even have to fire, we overwhelmed them, shouted commands
and they just gave up. We have one motorcycle we will be bringing back and two
hostiles.

“We have
one male and one female.” Haliday looked at Blake and Blake looked back at him.

“What the
hell are they talking about?” Haliday low crawled over to Blake.

“Listen,
they nabbed someone else and must think they are part of our group. I have no
idea who they are or where they were.

“I’m not
sure who it was or what they were doing, but they are in for a rude awakening.”

Blake
asked him what he thought would happen to them.

“I don’t
know. I really don’t. I’m sure they’ll be beaten and interrogated and after
that who knows. These guys are dumb enough to think whoever they caught are
part of our group. Hopefully they figure out the truth and let them go.”

This
wasn’t sitting that good with Haliday. These people were out there minding
their own business and got caught up in the trouble he created. They were
probably just trying to get the hell out of here or get to their own location.
They could have a cabin nearby, a boat, or who knows what. He was determined to
find out though.

“Blake, I
want you to head out and go meet the group at the house.” He looked at the
time. “It’s almost eight now and you should get there about the same time they
do. I have to go find out what’s going on with these guys and what they are
doing with the couple they grabbed. After that I’ll head there myself. You just
be careful and head straight there.”

“Mr.
Haliday, uh, I mean Roger, I’d rather stick it out with you. You might need
some help and I would rather do that than leave you out here alone. Isn’t that
the way it works, never leave a man behind.”

“Ya,
that’s it Blake, but I’d rather you get going and help out at the house.”

“Roger, I
can’t do that. I’d be starving in another couple of weeks or so if it wasn’t
for you. I’ll stay.”

“Good
enough, thank you Blake.”

Haliday
looked at him and said, “We need to get some more sleep.” They spent a little
more time camouflaging their area and setting up a couple booby trap
simulators. Blake laid down a piece of plastic and then a wool blanket folded
over. He laid out his sleeping bag on top of that and climbed in. Haliday
boiled some hot water and made hot cocoa. He flipped back and forth from his
freq. to the militia freq.

He
flipped back to his freq. and heard the call from Kayla. “Go ahead kiddo.”

“How you
guys doing?”

“We’re
fine, just resting, but we have some minor problems to handle.”

“Ok, well
we got here. We all made it just fine. We have the trucks and trailers parked
in the pole barn. The horses are in the stalls. We got into the house and
everything is ok. What do you want us to do?”

“Go ahead
and set up a security watch. The rest of you guys can take a break or whatever
you want to do. It’s very important you set a watch schedule and stick to it.
Today you guys need to empty those trailers and trucks out into the cache.
Don’t leave anything out there if you don’t have to.

“Make
sure the vehicles are immobilized as well. Keep them out of sight in the pole
barn. Make sure the pole barn is completely secured. The Jeep ok?”

“Ya, it’s
fine. Uncle David started it and ran it for a few minutes.”

“Ok,
great. Make sure that all gets done today.”

“You guys
coming in soon?”

“No, we
can’t.”

“Why,
what’s wrong?”

“It’s
hard to explain. We stirred up some crap and need to see it through. In a
nutshell a couple people got caught up in our crap and may end up taking the blame
for it. I need to see what they plan to do with them and Blake volunteered to
stay and help.”

“Can’t
you guys just leave them alone?”

“I wish
we could, but burning down some old stores and abandoned cars is different than
letting these people possibly die. I just can’t do that. I have to find out
what’s going on with these militia guys. All we’re going to do is head in and
take a peek. That’s all. I need you guys to set up two hams. One for us and one
on the militia freq. If you can, set up a third and scan it for traffic. Find
out what the hell the government is doing or if anyone else is in the area.”

“Ok, Dad,
call us with any more info.”

Haliday
woke up Blake and briefed him on what was going on with the group. He asked him
if he was sure he wanted to stay and Blake said yes. Haliday inventoried their
food and they had enough for two more days, three if they ate lightly. Water
wasn’t an issue, they had purification tabs and filter straws.

They each
took another turn sleeping. Haliday inventoried everything else now as well. He
wouldn’t be setting up any diversions now; he had used everything he had. He
didn’t expect this little problem to arise. He did a quick ammo check. That
might play an important role sooner or later.

They each
had 7 magazines for the rifles. Five 30 rounders and two 20 rounders. These
were full. In addition to that they had some bandoliers filled with stripper
clips. The 20 rounders made it easier for prone fighting positions. All in all
they had roughly 500 rounds each. He had about 100 for his .40 left. No way
could they launch an offensive with this. It would be suicide. He had to figure
out a plan. He had to figure out where their HQ was.

Bad Axe
was the biggest town in the Thumb and it made sense they would name themselves
after it, but they had to have another reason. There had to be another tie
somehow. He just had to figure out how. These guys would need a large area, one
that would support their operation, give them ample storage, enough land to
farm, water, central location now, where the hell were these guys staying?

They had
responded pretty damn quick last night. They definitely had a good layout of
the land. They also felt comfortable enough wherever they were to pull the
extra manpower out of their camp for the hunt. It’d be too risky to approach
the locals and ask. They might not even know and if they were afraid of these
guys they would definitely be talking to them.

He poured
over the map. He searched his memory. He kept picturing the vehicles and the
people, listening to their transmissions over and over again in his head. He
concentrated on the family near the tornado shelter and the two who had shown
up there. He got his answer. The Huron County Memorial Airport.

The guy
had been wearing wings and Haliday had thought the guy was reliving his
airborne days but he was actually sporting aviator wings. At the distance he
had seen him from, it was an acceptable mistake. If they had aircraft they
would have used it by now. This was probably something they didn’t count on,
losing electronics entirely. But being a pilot, he was proud to sport his
wings.