The Last Layover (18 page)

“All that work you put into that truck is about to pay off big time,” said Evan.

“Yep, I wish I never needed it, but here we are, so I'm glad I did. Let's get a move on, this place just doesn't feel like home to me anymore. Let's eat dinner and get on the road.”

With that being said, they all went inside. While the women were in the kitchen preparing dinner, Evan and Jason sat in the living room with the boys to go over an atlas to try and come up with the best route to Newport.

“It looks like zigging and zagging all over the place is really the only way to get there without taking the interstate. There isn't a direct path,” said Evan while studying the Ohio section of the atlas.

“I know,” replied Jason. “I was also thinking that we need to find a staging point to park the Dodge and leave Sarah and the kids while we run into Newport to drop off Peggy and Judith. I don't think it would be smart to drag everyone into there.”

“I agree,” Evan said. “Although I recommend we take that precaution one step further and leave you with them to protect them. They have been through enough already, and now that you have made it home to them, you need to be there for them. I can escort Peggy and Judith into Newport and get back out to meet up with you, and then we can continue south to Tennessee together.”

“I can't let you go in there alone,” Jason said.

“Well, that's just how it's gonna be. We will make a rendezvous time and if I'm not back by then, you fire up the Dodge and head on south without me, If something happens to me, I want you at the Homefront helping to keep my family safe,” Evan said in a serious voice.

“Sounds reckless, yet prudent at the same time… so deal, I guess,” Jason said reluctantly.

After dinner they all loaded up their stuff and climbed into the vehicles. Jason walked over to Sarah's car and handed Evan a walkie-talkie. “The car has a CB radio mounted in it and so does the Dodge so we can communicate as a convoy. If, for some reason, we need to get off of the CB because we feel it's not secure, or if we get separated outside of our vehicles, use these.” Evan nodded in agreement as Jason looked inside the car and said, “You ladies ready?”

“Roger Roger!” Peggy said, followed by a laugh.

“Are you mocking me?” asked Jason with a serious look on his face.

“Absolutely,” she said.

“Okay then, as long as we got that straightened out,” he said with his crooked smile as he turned and hopped in the Dodge. With a nod, he fired it up and pulled away. Evan put the car into drive and off they went in trail.

Chapter 17: By the Land

It took a little over an hour to get clear of Zanesville. It was slow going. They encountered a few of the neighborhood watch style road blocks like the one they had dealt with earlier, but none of them held them up for long. Just on the outskirts of Zanesville, at least ten government helicopters flew overhead at tree top level in a tight formation. “I bet they are heading for Columbus,” Jason said over the CB.

“Were those state or federal?” asked Evan in response.

“Not sure, but if they are federal I can't see anything good coming of it, from what we have heard. Good thing we are moving on,” replied Jason.

Once they were clear of Zanesville, the rural back roads were uneventful and they were making good time. They had been traveling almost two hours and were now in the hilly to mountainous terrain of southeastern Ohio, when they came around a blind corner and nearly hit an SUV that was rolled over on its top, straddling the road and blocking both lanes. Evan slammed on his brakes, narrowly avoiding rear ending Jason's truck. Evan instinctively threw the car in reverse and began retreating backwards, and Jason did the same.

“What's wrong?” asked Judith. “Why aren't we stopping to see if anyone is hurt?”

“Didn't you see the bullet holes in the glass and the doors?” Evan replied. Just then, they heard gun shots off in the distance. Evan floored it and backed up as fast as he could until they went around a curve where they had terrain for natural cover. He pulled off against the side of the hill, grabbed his rifle, and jumped out of the car, taking cover while assessing the situation.

Jason backed around the corner in the Dodge with smoke billowing out of the hood. His family exited the truck and climbed in the back while he walked around, flipping down his hinged armor panels that were attached to the cargo rack around the truck's canopy. He then jogged over to Evan, cussing under his breath. “I don't think we should just turn around. They could have buddies behind us waiting for us to return and we need to check my truck out. I would feel much safer fixing my truck in a secured environment rather than waiting to be shot in the back while my head is under the hood. I don't want to keep running scared all day either. I'm sick of this shit,” Jason said in an agitated manor.

“What's your plan?” Evan asked.

“Peggy, you and Judith get in the back of the truck with Sarah and the boys. That steel will keep you safe. Evan, you climb up on the top of this hill and cover them from the high ground while providing me with suppressing fire if it comes to that. I'm gonna grab my Remy and try to get into a position where I can pick those guys up with my Nightforce scope. I have a general idea where they might be,” said Jason as he jogged back over to his truck to get his Remington.

“Sounds like a plan,” responded Evan.

Peggy and Judith climbed into the back of Jason's truck while Jason reached underneath the sleeping platform and pulled out his Remington 700. He also grabbed a bandoleer loaded with .300 Winchester Magnum rounds, gave Evan a pat on the shoulder, and took off into the woods. His plan was to double back for a bit and then head up to the high ground and follow the ridge line on the opposite side from the shooters, hoping to get a view of them through his high-powered Nightforce scope.

It took him about twenty minutes, creeping along the ridge, using the natural lines of the terrain as cover. Once he got into position, he glassed the area where he thought the shots came from. He didn't see anything at first, but from his experience as a hunter, he knew just to be still, calm, and patient and your prey will eventually make a mistake and present itself.

After approximately ten minutes of nothing, he saw a glint of light just to the right of where he was looking. It came from behind a tree on top of a ridge line on the opposite side of the road from his position. Figuring it was a reflection of the sun from a rifle optic or some binoculars, Jason focused on it, and then zoomed his powerful Nightforce scope in a bit more. He wasn't afraid of making the same mistake as they had giving their position away from a reflection. They had made the tactical error of setting up on a hill, that as they day progressed, put the sun out in front of them instead of at their backs. The sun was now at Jason's back giving him the advantage. Also, his Nightforce scope had a flash killer attached to it, hiding light reflections with a honeycomb-patterned louver. As he zoomed in and focused, he saw that it was, indeed, a rifle pointed towards the curve in the road where they were ambushed. Jason reached into his rifle scabbard and pulled out his suppressor. He threaded the sound suppressor on to the end of his rifle to try and help conceal his position as long as he could, thereby retaining the tactical advantage. He then took aim back on his target, timed his breath, and eased his trigger back until his rifle let loose its one hundred and eighty grain open tip boat tail projectile, screaming at his target at nearly three thousand feet per second, almost instantly hitting the assailant and knocking him back into the woods out of sight. Jason immediately scanned the surrounding area, hoping the impact would flush out any other targets. He saw movement to the left, cycled another round, and let it fly. This time he could clearly see his target fall to the ground and roll down the hill. It was a man dressed in hunting style camouflage with an AR-15. Once the man came to a stop, Jason saw him try and crawl a few feet and then just stop. He put another round in the man's back just to make sure he wasn't playing dead.

He continued his intense surveillance of the area for another ten minutes and didn't see any more movement. Confident that he had neutralized the threat, he slipped back over the back side of the ridge, tossed the rifle in the scabbard, threw it on his back, and then jogged through the woods back to the truck. He put his Remington back in the truck and grabbed his AR-15. He signaled for Evan to join him and they both snuck down to the ambush site to make sure it was all clear.

Once they got within visual range, they took cover and scanned the area with binoculars. They couldn't see any movement, so while Jason covered Evan, he slipped over to the overturned SUV to make sure it was clear inside. To his horror, he saw that there was a family with a small child inside, all dead. Off to the side of the road were some pieces of luggage that looked like they had been thoroughly rummaged through for anything of value. This enraged Evan. All he could think about was how that family's future was stolen from them for a few basic items.

He ran back towards Jason and they took cover behind some rocks on the side of the road, just at the apex of the curve. “There is an entire family dead in that thing. Those bastards look like they just picked them off while they were driving, came down and pillaged their truck, then went back up on the hill to wait for the next victims to happen by, which unluckily for them, was us. Let's check out your truck and get moving.”

“Roger Roger,” responded Jason as they pulled back from their position to the truck. They popped the hood on his Dodge and saw that the smoke was an oil mist from a hole blasted in the valve cover of the big diesel six cylinder.

“Thankfully, they were using .5.56 ARs. By the time that little 55 grain bullet ripped through your hood and impacted the valve cover, there wasn't enough of anything left to keep going. The smoke must have just been oil mist blowing out of the hole and then cooking off on the hot turbo. Looks like one grazed the block over there, but other than that we can patch this up and get going. Got any more of that speed tape?” Evan asked Jason.

“Sure do,” Jason said as he jogged to the back of his truck, then returned with a shiny new roll of metal tape.

 Evan cleaned off the valve cover the best he could with some Gun Scrubber that Jason also had brought along, which is basically just a very clean degreaser similar to brake cleaner. They wiped it dry and then put multiple layers of the speed tape over the hole weaved in every direction. “That should do it,” he said, handing the tape and cleaner back to Jason. They checked and topped off his engine oil, fired the truck up, checked the integrity of the tape, and got on the road again.

They crept around the overturned SUV in their vehicles off to the side of the road, dropping slightly off of the shoulder to get around. Once clear, Jason put the hammer down and with a dark cloud of diesel smoke bellowing out of his exhaust, he pulled away with Evan in trail. The rest of the day fell into the darkness and was mostly uneventful. They passed some people walking on the side off the road at times, but no one showed them any aggression, just lots of desperate souls on the move.

At about midnight, they passed a man, a woman, and two small children walking on the side of the road, pulling wheeled suitcases along behind them. Jason slowed his truck and came to a stop, Evan slowing along behind him. The family was startled and ran off into the woods to avoid them. By this point, most people had learned that a mistrust of others was a healthy way to go about your day. Jason got out and walked to the back of his truck and reached in and pulled out a bag containing some venison jerky, granola bars, and a few bottles of water. He sat it down on the edge of the road and yelled off into the trees. “It's okay. No one here is going to hurt you. There is food and water in this bag for your kids. After we drive away, please come and get it.”

He then walked back to his truck, got in, and they drove away. He looked into his rear view mirror, hoping to catch a glimpse of them retrieving the food, but it was too dark. He just said a silent prayer that God would bring them back to the road, for them to find the food for their children. Jason couldn't imagine the hopeless feeling of being a parent in such a desperate situation.

At around 3am they were nearing the town of Cherry Grove. The emptiness of the rural roads were long behind them as they began to get into more and more densely populated areas. Jason pulled off into a burned down gas station parking lot and Evan pulled up alongside. Evan got out and met Jason at the front of the truck. They pulled out the atlas and began to look it over.

“Well, we are almost there, and the way I see it, I'm going to have to get on I-275 at some point. Without getting further north towards Cincinnati, I'm gonna have to cross the river at the I-275 bridge crossing. If what Ed told us about the Kentucky National Guard having the border secured is correct, that could be a good thing. I'll show them my badge and play it off like I am a regular Federal Air Marshal and tell them I have to get to the airport where I've been ordered to report. Hopefully that will work. Considering the fact that we can also expect a heavy Kentucky National Guard presence, I'm gonna leave my AR here and just take the SIG since it's backed up by my credentials,” Evan said.

“How many rounds do you have left?” asked Jason.

“I've got nearly two full mags.”

“Here,” Jason said, handing Evan his remaining one-and-a-half mags of .40. “I've got a truck full of guns here, if that is all you are gonna have, then take as much as you can.”

Evan took the magazines and placed them in his cargo pocket and said, “Well, looking at where we are, there is a tract of sparsely inhabited land down on Eight Mile Road just on the south side of I-275 here.” Evan pointed at the map. “You and your family find a place to lie low there and keep your CB on. Get a good night's sleep and if you don't see me by sundown tomorrow night, just head on down to Tennessee without me.”

“Take care of Peggy and Judith,” Jason said as he gave both of the women a hug. Peggy and Judith said their goodbyes to Sarah and the boys and then got in the car and drove away with Evan off into the distance, not knowing if they would ever see the Jones family again.