Bug Out! Part 5

RV Flight from Terror

Robert G Boren

Contents

Previously - From Bugout! Part 4

Chapter 1 – Militia Action

Chapter 2 – Cameras and Cables

Chapter 3 – Somber Reception

Chapter 4 – Get Outta Dodge

Chapter 5 – Blasting Through Utah

Chapter 6 – Road Action

Chapter 7 - Carnage at Camp

Chapter 8 – The Hunt Begins

Chapter 9 – Enemy Wave

Chapter 10 – Hacking the Enemy

Chapter 11 – Who is the Enemy?

Chapter 12 – Welcome to Colorado

Chapter 13 – Highway Shakedown

Chapter 14 – On the Road to Eagle

Chapter 15 – Climbing the Grade

Chapter 16 – Eagle's Nest

Chapter 17 – Raptors!

Copyright - About the Author

Previously - in Bug Out! Part 4

Frank, Jane, and the group attempt to make the RV Park in Utah safe. The U.S. Army joins them, putting a small force there to help. They become friends with General Walker and Major Hobbs, and work together to take it to the enemy. Meanwhile, more enemy fighters flood over the Canadian border, trying to link up with enemy forces from the south. There are more nuclear attacks around the world. The battle with Officer Simmons comes to a head, and the group defeats him and his band of traitors with courage and teamwork. Sleeper cells are activated all over the USA, and infiltrators cause problems in the ranks of our military. Finally, a bomb goes off in the U.S. Capitol building, on the day of a Joint Session of Congress.

Chapter 01 – Militia Action

“Are you telling me that we might have just lost both houses of Congress?” Jane asked the General.

“I sure hope not,” he said. “Turn the sound up. Let’s hear what they’re saying.”

Just then Lieutenant James ran into the clubhouse.

“General, Sir,” he panted. “Urgent message coming through. Major, they want you too.”

“Excuse us, folks,” General Walker said. He and Major Hobbs hurriedly left the room, heading towards the barn.

“I hope most of our legislators were out of there before this happened,” Jerry said.

“Seriously,” Charlie said.

They all gathered around the TV and listened. The announcer came on.

“As you can see, this important and historic building has been damaged beyond repair. It’s a miracle that there aren’t more government officials missing, especially after the Joint Session of Congress today. At this time, we are missing twenty two members from the House of Representatives, and four Senators. This country is extremely lucky tonight. It could have been much worse, had the blast happened just twenty minutes earlier.”

“Oh, thank God,” Jane said. She broke down crying, and Frank rushed to her side and held her.

The announcer continued.

“The President, Vice President, and key Senators have been moved to a secure location while this incident is being investigated. No one has taken credit for the attack so far. There is speculation that the explosives may have been inside the building for some time, but there is no confirmation on that. Surveillance video from the area has not shown anything being shot into the structure from the outside, so as of now it appears that the blast came from a location inside the structure.”

General Walker and Major Hobbs walked quickly back into the Clubhouse.

“We dodged a bullet today,” the General said. His face was grim. “Our sources are saying that this was probably militia. The Islamists may have had a hand in it, but since the government has finally started to profile people, it’s unlikely that Islamist fighters from the Middle East would have been able to get into that area.”

“Like I said earlier,” Jerry said. “Leakage to the east.”

“They have one person being questioned right now, who was seen hanging around the scene in surveillance video. He was involved in the Yuma incident, and got picked up on the way from Quartzsite to Flagstaff. He escaped shortly after capture.”

Frank and Jane looked at each other nervously.

“His name wasn’t Sean, was it?” Frank asked.

The General got a shocked look on his face.

“Yes, it was,” he said. “Can you take a look at a picture that we have? It’s back at the barn.”

“Of course,” Frank said. He looked at Jane, and she nodded. They got up and followed the General and the Major out the door, continuing to talk as they walked.

“How did you know Sean?” asked General Walker.

“We didn’t really know him,” Jane said.

“They were in the space next to us overnight in an RV Park in Quartzsite,” Frank said. “They had a 5th Wheel, and were having trouble backing it in. I went over and helped them. Then we had a couple of beers, and we chatted a little bit. Jane and I thought Sean was kind of a nutcase.”

“Why?” General Walker said.

“Well, he said he was working at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma as a civilian, and he had been hearing a lot of things.”

“What kind of things?”

“Some things that turned out to be true, and some Militia BS. This was the first place that we stopped after leaving California. We didn’t know much yet. Sean said there were Islamists from that new group in Iraq joining up with radicals in Venezuela, and that they were coming through Mexico to attack the USA. Of course that turned out to be true, but we didn’t know it at the time. We still thought things were bad in California because of the banking crisis and the state pension crisis.”

“Is that why you thought he was a nutcase?” General Walker asked.

“No, that part of his story seemed plausible to me, after some of the things we saw on the road, like M-1 Battle tanks going south. Sean went on to say that the U.S. Government was colluding with the enemy, because they wanted an excuse to impose country-wide martial law.”

“Did he tell you why the Government would want to do that?”

“Yeah, he said the Government thought that was the only way they were going to be able to impose strict rules to fight global warming.”

The General laughed. “Seriously?” he asked.

“I kid you not,” Frank said.

They got to the door of the barn and went in. The General walked them over to a hardened laptop sitting on a folding table, and pointed at the screen.

“That him?” he asked.

Frank and Jane looked, and nodded yes.

“What else can you tell me about this guy?”

“Well, before he told me all this BS I just mentioned, he took me off on the other side of their rig, where his wife couldn’t hear. I thought that was pretty strange. Then when we came back, Jane mentioned that the wife was pregnant. He didn’t mention that to me. Seemed like that should have been the first thing he mentioned.”

“What happened to the wife?” asked Jane, hoping the news wasn’t what she feared. “She was basically just a scared child. Very young. I felt sorry for her.”

“When Sean escaped, he tried to take her with him. She got shot and killed.”

“Oh, no,” Jane said, her voice catching, then in a whisper, “that poor girl.”

“But Sean got away?” asked Frank.

“Yes.”

“How?” Frank asked.

“Long story, and I can’t tell you parts of it,” General Walker said.

Frank nodded. “Okay, no problem.”

“Anything else you can tell me, Frank?”

“Yes, General. We left early the next morning. Sean took off a little before us. They got pretty far ahead of us on Route 60, and traffic was bumper to bumper by the time we got on. I don’t think we got above 30 miles per hour on that road. We couldn’t see Sean’s rig ahead of us. Then we made the transition to Route 71. That road goes to Flagstaff, and most of the people who were on Route 60 were on their way to Phoenix, so the traffic got a lot better for us. Once we were on Route 71, we got up to full speed and almost caught up to them. We could see them ahead of us.”

“Then what?”

“Then we saw two highway patrol cars and an Army Humvee barreling up behind us. They passed us on the left side of the road, and we saw them pull Sean’s rig over. We passed them and I kept an eye in my rear view mirror for as long as I could. The last thing I saw was the Army guys pointing M-16s into Sean’s truck.”

“That must have shook you two up,” the General said.

“Yes, it did,” Jane said. “We were afraid that we were going to be pulled over next since we’d talked to him. We turned off our cellphones at that point, just in case we were going to be tracked.”

“Don’t blame you there. You never saw them again after that?”

“Nope,” Frank said.

“Anything you can tell us about him?” asked Jane.

“Not a lot,” General Walker said. “We know that he had a hand in the incident at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma. He was one of the inside folks who allowed the enemy to take that facility over.”

“How’d you find that out?” asked Frank.

“Surveillance video,” he said, then lowering his voice, “you didn’t hear that from me.”

Frank and Jane nodded.

“So he’s connected to the Williams Militia?” asked Jane.

“We think so, although the Williams piece was pretty small. The part of the militia he came out of was much larger and more sophisticated.”

“We’re going to be looking over our shoulders all the time when we leave this area, aren’t we?” Frank asked.

“I’m afraid so,” General Walker said.

“You still think it’s better that we leave?” Jane asked.

“Yes. We’re going to be hitting these folks hard. It’ll be difficult for them to give you guys any thought. They are going to be fighting for their lives. That will hopefully make them too busy to be sending their valuable people after you in the near term. Later, there might be stragglers who want to come after you. We’ll try to clean them all up, but I’ve got to be honest. It’ll be difficult to know for sure if we got everybody. We don’t even know who all the members are.”

Frank looked over at Jane, her eyes wide with terror. He put his arm around her.

“Is the attack in DC today going to change anything for us?” Frank asked.

“Well, it’s going to delay me getting an answer about the 20 rigs outside of your core group, I suspect,” he said. “The folks at the Pentagon are going to have their hands full for at least a few days.”

“But we’re still going in the next three or four days?” asked Jane.

“Yes, things are already in progress,” he said. “I don’t need any more approvals to proceed. We do need to get the order for the motorhomes in quickly, though. No later than mid-morning tomorrow.”

“We can tell you what we would like right now,” Frank said. “We just want a straight across trade, and our rig is made by Forest River.”

“Lieutenant, you have that spreadsheet set up yet?” he asked.

“Yes sir.”

“Good, why don’t you take Frank and Jane’s info,” the General said.

Lieutenant James came over to the laptop and pulled up a spreadsheet. It had everyone’s names in the far left column. He moved the cursor over to their name.

“Current make and model?” he asked.

“Forest River Georgetown 328,” Frank said.

“Desired replacement?”

“The same make and model will do just fine, Lieutenant.”

The Lieutenant copied the info over.

“That was easy. We’re done,” he said.

“Thanks! Would you like me to spread the word to the others?”

“Sure, I’ll be here all night,” the Lieutenant said. He laughed.

“Need us for anything else, General Walker?”

“No, you can go back over to the clubhouse if you want to. The Major and I will probably be back over there later.”

“Okay, see you later,” Frank said. He took Jane’s hand and they walked back to the clubhouse.

“I can’t believe this stuff about Sean,” Jane said. “And his poor wife. It’s so awful.”

“Things could have been worse for us,” Frank said. “We might have hooked up with Sean if he didn’t get caught. Wonder if the Williams Militia guys knew him, or knew that we’d met him?”

“Didn’t we mention his capture to Hank?”

“I’m pretty sure we did. Probably to Dave too.”

“I wonder if Hank was part of the Williams Militia,” Jane asked, “he didn’t act like he knew Dave and his guys before they showed up to check out the Chief’s motor home.”

“Good question,” Frank said. “I’ll bet Earl or Jackson could tell us. I’d be shocked if he wasn’t, though. He was trying to keep us from leaving that place by the airstrip, remember?”

“Yes, and somebody shotgunned him as we were leaving,” Jane said.

They got back to the clubhouse. Jeb and Jerry walked up to them, with Earl, Jackson, and Charlie bringing up the rear.

“Everything alright?” Jeb asked.

“Yes,” Frank said. “We saw the picture of Sean. It’s the same guy we met at Quartzsite.”

“We hadn’t thought about that first day for a while,” Jane said. “Seems like so long ago now.”

“Earl, Jackson, do you guys remember a guy named Sean?” asked Frank. “He would have been from the Yuma branch of the militia.”

“No, can’t say that I do,” Earl said. “Jackson?”

“Nope, doesn’t ring a bell, but we weren’t high enough in the organization to be in meetings with other militias.”

“Remember somebody named Hank?” asked Jane. “He looked kinda like Santa Claus.”

“Oh, yeah, we knew Hank,” Earl said. “What a dope. He was their recruiter and propaganda guy. A real windbag.”

“We saw him get shot when we were leaving that place by the airstrip,” Jackson said. “Good riddance. He was one of the creeps that was pushing us to spy on you guys.”

“Wonder what happened to his wife,” Jane said.

“Oh, yeah, Linda,” Earl said. “She was actually a nice person. She didn’t like the militia stuff one bit, but she didn’t want to leave Hank. I hope she got away from those idiots.”

“Anything else on the news?” asked Frank.

“Naw, not really,” Charlie said. “They are just repeating the same stuff that you heard before you walked off with the General.”

There was a loud giggle from over by the cocktail cart. Everybody turned around.

“Rosie has a good buzz on,” Jerry said, cracking up. “I’m glad, she needed some relief. She sure is flirting with the Sheriff tonight.”

“Yeah, and he seems to be enjoying it, too,” Jane smiled.

“Rosie wanted me to drink another one of those Weng Weng things,” Earl said. “They hit you fast. I’m too nervous to get that plastered, though. I just have the feeling that there’s going to be more action coming.”

“I know, me too,” Jerry said. “I feel really uneasy. Wish we had those cameras up.”

“We’ll get them up tomorrow,” Frank said, “but we’ve got privates patrolling the park. We should be alright tonight.”

“Hopefully,” Jeb said.

“By the way, Lieutenant James needs your RV requests by mid-morning tomorrow. He’s over at the barn now with a spreadsheet. If you know what you want, you can go over and chat with him tonight.”

“You guys already put in your order, I suspect,” Charlie said.

“Yes, it was easy for us,” Jane said. “We just asked for a straight across trade….another Georgetown 328.”

“You like those short coaches, eh,” Jeb said. “It is a nice rig, though.”

“I know what I need to order,” Charlie said. “Hilda and I were looking at options earlier.” He walked over to where Hilda was chatting with Rosie and Jasmine, and got her attention. They walked off to the barn.

“Guess I could go do it now too,” Jeb said.

“Me too,” Jackson said. Earl nodded, and the three followed Charlie and Hilda out the door.

“How about you, Jerry,” Frank asked.

“Don’t know. I think I’d better go grab Jasmine and get on the web. They didn’t mention Tiffin, so we’ll have to choose something else.”

“Yeah, Tiffin makes good coaches. You’ll probably have to go with one of the higher end Winnebago’s to get close.”

“Maybe,” Jerry replied. “Tiffin’s coaches are a cut above. Maybe a Fleetwood Discovery would be close enough. Not sure I want a Winnebago…but we’ll see. I’ll let Jasmine have the final choice – the floor plan needs to serve the three of us.”

“Good luck,” Frank said. Jerry nodded and walked over to Jasmine.

Frank and Jane walked back over by the TV and watched for a few minutes.

“I was just thinking, Frank. What was the Joint Session about, anyway?”

“Good question,” Frank said. “War related, probably.”

Frank pulled out his phone and searched for it on the web.

“It was a closed session,” Frank said. “Interesting.”

“Any speculation?” asked Jane.

“Yes,” Frank said. He sat down, his eyes glued to the phone’s screen.

“Some sources are saying it was about Mexico…..you know, should we merge our two countries into one, or carry on the way it was before.”

“I could see that,” Jane said.

“But there are others speculating that it was about martial law,” Frank said. He frowned.

“Why don’t we go back to the coach and get on the laptop,” Jane said. “We should do some poking around, since we’re about to embark on a big move.”

“Sounds good,” Frank said. “Let’s go.”

They left the clubhouse with Lucy and headed back to their rig. Charlie and Hilda saw them, and walked over.

“You guys calling it a night?” asked Charlie.

“Yeah, we’re tired,” Jane said.

“And we’ve got to get up early in the morning to get that security system installed,” Frank added.

“True,” Charlie said. “I’d probably better do the same.”

“Goodnight,” Hilda said.

“Goodnight,” Jane replied. The two couples went their separate ways.

It was a dark moonless night, but the sky was clear and full of stars. There was a peacefulness in the way the light breeze flowed through the trees.

“It’s so beautiful here,” Frank said. He put his arm around Jane’s shoulder as they walked.

“Lucy sure knows which coach is home,” Jane said. She giggled as they watched her straining against the leash to get there. Frank unlocked the door and opened it, and Lucy bounded up the stairs. Frank and Jane followed her in. Mr. Wonderful was still sitting on the dash, looking out the windshield.

“Sorry, old boy, but I’ve got to bring down those blinds now,” Frank said. He got into the driver’s seat and pushed a button. The front shade came down slowly, and stopped when it rested on the dashboard. Then Frank pulled down the shade on the driver’s side window. He got up and did the same thing on the passenger side window. Mr. Wonderful gave him an annoyed look, and then jumped off the dash and sauntered into the back of the coach, looking for another open window.

Jane already had the laptop fired up, and was waiting for it to connect to the Wi-Fi.

“Want a beer?” asked Frank, as he opened the fridge.

“No thanks,” she said, staring at the screen. Frank pulled out an IPA and opened it. He sat down next to her, on the same side of the dinette, and stared at the screen as she started searching.

“Nothing more about the Joint Session that I can see,” Jane said, “but look at this article.”

Frank looked at the screen. The headline for the article read: “California’s Martial Law – is it coming to a state near you?”

As they started reading, both of their eyes grew wider.

“Robbie wanted to talk about this, but he was afraid to over his phone,” Frank said.

Chapter 02 – Cameras and Cables

Frank and Jane were at the Dinette, starting at the screen.

“Do you believe that?” Jane asked. “Sounds kind of nutcase-like to me.”

“Maybe it’s what Robbie was getting ready to tell us,” Frank said. “Let’s not worry about this until we can talk to him.”

“Agreed. We have enough to worry about. Let’s go to bed, Frank. I’m tired.”

Frank nodded. Jane logged off of the laptop and shut it down as Frank slid off of the Dinette bench and went into the bedroom. Jane followed him.

The next morning was bright and warm. Frank woke up, and saw that Jane was already up. He could smell coffee. He got dressed and walked out.

“Lucy need to go out?”

“No, honey, I took her out early,” Jane said. She was sitting at the dinette with a cup of coffee in front of her.

“Wow, I didn’t even hear you open the door,” Frank said. “I was out cold.”

“I woke up at 6:15 and couldn’t get back to sleep.”

“Nervous?”

“Yes,” Jane said. “We’re getting back on the road again. It’s a little scary. I was feeling at home here, between battles at least.”

Frank chuckled.

“This is the world we’re living in. A few gun battles are just part of life.”

Jane looked at him and shook her head.

“I know, huh?”

“Well, I’d better wolf down some breakfast. It’s going to be a long day,” Frank said. He got out the cereal and milk and a bowl. “Want some?”

“Sure, leave it out,” Jane said.

“I’m going to need the laptop today,” Frank said. “I’ve got some software to write.”

“Understand,” Jane said. “I’ll use the iPad if I need to get on line.”

“What are you planning on doing today?”

“I thought I’d start organizing stuff we need to take with us to the new coach. This is going to be difficult.”

“I know,” Frank said. “Hopefully we can hit a Walmart or something right after we take delivery. We aren’t going to be able to carry very much.”

“Well, we know that the weapons and electronics are going to have to go. That’s going to take a lot of the room right there.”

“I know. You’re good at this stuff. Use your best judgment,” Frank said as he finished the last couple bites of his cereal. He got up from the table with his bowl, and rinsed it out in the sink.

“You are going to take a cup of coffee, I hope?” Jane asked.

“Yes, but I’m going to use one of those paper cups,” Frank said.

“Good idea. Want to take Lucy?”

“That actually might be a good idea,” Frank said. “I’m going to take my handgun too, because we’re going to be in and out of the park all morning.”

Frank got his cup of coffee brewing, and then went back into the bedroom and got his holster and gun. He put them on, and then came out.

“Alright, I’m taking off,” Frank said. “C’mon, girl.” He picked up the leash, and Lucy pranced over, tail wagging.”

“Ahhhhh, our daughter is going to the office with daddy,” Jane said, laughing. “Give me a kiss, partner.”

Frank walked over and kissed her, then looked at her face for a second.

“Take care, sweetie,” he said. “Once we get to the point that I can focus on software, I’ll probably be back in here.”

Jane nodded, and Frank went out the door with Lucy ahead of him.

Jerry was coming out of his coach as Frank walked by.

“Ready to get started?” Jerry asked.

“Yep,” Frank said. “Let’s go to the clubhouse.”

“Sounds good. Saw Earl and Jackson head over there about five minutes ago.”

They walked together, looking around the park.

“I’m going to miss this place,” Jerry said.

“Me too. Did you and Jasmine pick out a coach yet?”

“Yes, we’re going with a Discovery,” Jerry said. “Jasmine’s going over to the barn in a little while to put the order in. You know what time the memorial service and the wedding are going to be?”

“Late afternoon, I think,” Frank said. “How does Rosie feel this morning?”

Jerry laughed.

“Good question. She’s not up yet.”

“Glad I didn’t drink that much.”

“Me too. There’s Charlie,” Jerry said, pointing. Charlie saw them walking up and waved.

They got to the clubhouse. Earl and Jackson were watching the large coffee pot sputter, cups in hand.

“That smells good,” Jerry said.

Frank looked on the table. The box of cameras and the spools of cable were all laid out, along with two cordless drills and screws and a couple of utility belts.

“Wow, this is great,” Frank said. “Hilda?”

“Yep, Jer had a lot of this kind of stuff in the shed. She was up early this morning puttering around.”

“She’s probably excited,” Frank said. “After all, this is her wedding day.”

Charlie got an embarrassed smile on his face.

“The Reverend is going to be here at about 4:00,” Charlie said. “Think we can get all of these installed by then?”

“Easy,” Earl said. “Let’s hit it.”

The men gathered up the equipment, cameras, and cable. They went out the door. Charlie and Earl and Jackson went to the far side of the park. Frank and Jerry went to the near side. Jeb joined them on the way.

“Need a hand?” he asked.

“Sure,” Frank said.

They got to the first location. Jerry pointed to it, then took a camera and one of the cordless drills. He had the utility belt on. He climbed up next to the location and fastened the camera, then adjusted it so that it pointed in the desired direction.

“Why don’t you man the cable?” Frank said, looking at Jeb. He handed him the reel. Jeb nodded.

The process was easier than Frank expected. The three men walked along, chatting as they put each camera in place.

“So, did you guys read that article on martial law in California?” Frank asked.

“No,” Jeb said. “What’s it say?”

“It might just be nutcase stuff…..you know how things are now,” Frank said.

“Well?” Jeb asked. “You going to tell us?”

“Some of the stuff in the article makes the situation in California look kinda permanent,” Frank said.

“Like what?” Jerry asked.

“The State legislature has a couple of bills before it that’re causing a lot of concern. The first started out as a bill to tax mileage instead of gasoline. I remember hearing about that before the crap hit the fan. You know…..better mileage, less gallons bought, less tax revenue. They had to fix that. Anyway, it morphed into a limit on how many miles you can drive, not just a tax.”

“What?” Jeb asked. “Horse shit.”

“What’s the other bill?” Jerry asked.

“They want to force everybody to have a transponder in their car in order to enforce the new mileage law,” Frank said.

“You know that newer cars have already have that tracking hardware installed, right?” Jerry asked. “Nobody in the government wants to admit they’re using it for anything.”

“Is that really true?” Jeb asked. “Always seemed like another nutcase scare story to me.”

“Oh, it’s true, alright,” Frank said. “The government’s portraying it as being a public safety capability, not a way to spy on people.”

“So how are the people in California reacting?” Jerry asked.

“Well, that’s the scariest part,” Frank said. “California is still under martial law, and a lot of the residents are getting really tired of it, since things have calmed down so much there. Some people went to Sacramento to protest the marital law, the mileage limitations, and the transponder devices. The army shut down the protests and threw everybody in jail. They haven’t been released yet. It’s been several days now.”

“Shit,” Jeb said.

“Can we find those devices in our vehicles?” Jerry asked.

“I have some ideas about that…I think so,” Frank said.

“Good, then when we get our new rigs, perhaps we ought to find them and rip them out,” Jerry said. Frank and Jeb nodded in agreement.

“This reminds me of what Sean said,” Frank said. “Martial law put in place for enforcement of global warming measures.”

“Ah, geez,” Jerry said. “I hope this is just a lot of nutcase bullshit. I’d really like to trust our government.”

“You and me both,” Frank said.

The three men continued to work until about 1:00, and got all of the cameras installed on their side of the park. It was starting to get hot outside, and they were tired and hungry. Frank already given water to Lucy a couple of times, and her little tongue was hanging out of her mouth.

“Let’s drop this stuff off at the clubhouse and grab a bite to eat,” Frank said.

“Yeah,” Jerry said. “We got what we needed to get done.”

The three walked back, and saw Charlie and Earl and Jackson walking towards the clubhouse. They met at the veranda.

“Well, how’d you do?” Charlie asked.

“Done with the cameras and the cables,” Jerry said. “You?”

“Same, we’re done. The hardest part was getting the cable back to the parking lot and blind cameras, but we got them strung just fine. There’s more soldiers in the back now, by the way.”

“Really?” Frank asked. “I didn’t see them come in.”

“I think they came in off of the back road,” Jackson said. “They’ve got a full up encampment back there now. I don’t think anybody is going to surprise us coming from that direction again.”

“Good, too bad we won’t be around to take advantage of that,” Frank said.

The men carried their left over supplies and the tools back into the clubhouse.

“Where should we install the DVR units?” Jerry asked.

“I’m thinking we put them in the shed where we found this stuff, on that big work bench,” Frank said. “I’ll move a wireless hub in there too. We have way more hubs than we need out in the park. I’ll grab one from the outskirts that nobody is close to.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Jerry said. “Why don’t you let me do that part of the setup, so you can get on the software?”

“That would be great,” Frank said. “I’ll go back to my rig to get started. Let me know if you need help with anything and I’ll come running. Otherwise I’ll see you guys at 4:00 in the clubhouse.”

The men nodded to Frank, and he left, with Lucy loping alongside of him. She was hot, tired, and hungry.

“Hey, honey,” Frank said as he entered the coach. The cool air felt good.

“Back here,” Jane said from the bedroom. She had some boxes and a couple of bags full of stuff sitting on the bed. She was loading up the two backpacks.

“Better save room in one of those backpacks for the laptop and iPad,” Frank said.

“Of course,” she said. “Hungry?”

“I could eat,” Frank said.

“Good, I made some tuna salad.”

“Excellent. I’m going to get the laptop going.” He stopped by the fridge and got himself a big glass of ice water from the dispenser. Lucy drank some water out of her dish, and then crawled into her bed. Frank chuckled as he watched her settle in. “Lucy’s done.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet she is,” Jane said. She walked out of the bedroom and opened the freezer. She pulled out a frozen loaf of bread, and put it on the counter.

“Nice to be in the air conditioning,” Frank said. “It’s getting a tad hot out there.”

“How did you guys do?”

“Good….all the cameras are installed and the cable is run.”

“Already? I’m impressed.”

“Jerry is going to hook up the DVR and get a wireless hub set up next to it, in the shed back by the barn.”

“What time do the festivities start?” Jane asked.

“The Funeral is at 4:00 in the clubhouse.”

“And the wedding afterwards. I’d hate to have my wedding right after the funeral of a friend.”

“I know, it must feel pretty weird, but you’ve got to do the best you can,” Frank said. The laptop was up now, and he loaded his C++ programming environment. “It’s times like this when I miss my desktop machine. This is going to take a while to compile.”

“You’ll manage,” Jane said. She slid a plate over to him that had a tuna sandwich on it.

“Mmmmmm, thanks.” He picked up the sandwich and took a bite. “Hear anything more about this martial law business?”

“No, not really. I tried to call Robbie several times. His phone rings, but it goes to voice mail.”

“He might be going through some of the Army induction stuff today,” Frank said.

“Hope it’s nothing more serious than that. I’m worried about him.”

“None of the guys heard anything about this stuff going on in California, but then none of them are from California.”

Jane sat down on the other side of the dinette with her sandwich and started eating. Mr. Wonderful sauntered over.

“No tuna for you,” she told him sternly. He stared back at her blankly. Then he meowed, and walked away.

Frank spent the next several hours working on his software, as Jane continued to go through things in the coach.

“Frank, it’s almost 4:00,” she said, breaking him out of the programming trance he was in. “We’ve got about ten minutes to change and get over there.”

“Alright, thanks, honey,” Frank said. He saved his work and shut down the laptop. They both got dressed.

“Maybe we should feed the animals,” Jane said.

“Sounds good,” she said.

They walked Lucy, then fed the critters.

“We need to take at least a few cans of pet food,” Frank said. “In case we can’t get to a store quick enough.”

“I packed some already,” Jane said. “What’re we going to do about a toad?”

“That’s a good question,” Frank said. “We should ask the General about that.”

“I’m ready,” Jane said, walking out. She looked beautiful in her dress. Frank took her in.

“Wow,” he said. “Aren’t you a dish.” She blushed and shook her head.

“Let’s go,” she said. They left the rig and headed towards the clubhouse. People were streaming in ahead of them.

The room was filling up fast. The Sheriff was there, with a few people from town who knew Chester, Charlie, and Hilda. The Reverend was already up at the podium. There were flowers on either side.

“I’ll bet the Sheriff brought those flowers in from town,” Jane said. “They look nice.”

Jerry came in with Jasmine and Rosie, all dressed nicely. They sat down on the bench next to Frank and Jane. Jackson and Earl came in and slid next to them. Charlie and Hilda were dressed for their wedding, and were sitting up on the front row with Jeb, the Sheriff, and the town people.

The Reverend cleared his throat and put his hands up.

“Let’s take our seats, Ladies and Gentlemen.”

People sat down, and a hush came over the room. Major Hobbs, Lieutenant James, and General Walker snuck into the back of the room and sat down.

“Thank you all for coming,” the Reverend said. “Today we are here to honor our fallen friend Chester Simpson. I see old friends and new friends out in the crowd……”

The Reverend went on for about ten minutes. Then he said the final prayers, thanked the crowd, and sat down.

Charlie and Hilda and Jeb got up and left the room. People murmured amongst themselves for about five minutes or so. Then the Sheriff got up and went to the front. He pulled a boom box out of the credenza and plugged it in. He pushed play, and the wedding march started playing.

A hush came over the room. The Reverend came back up to the podium. The office door in the front of the room opened and Charlie walked out. He slowly came over next to the podium. He looked at the back door. Jeb entered, with Hilda on his arm. The crowd stood and turned towards them as they walked slowly up to the front. When they got to the front, Jeb kissed Hilda on the cheek, and sat down. She turned towards Charlie, a smile on her face and tears in her eyes. The sheriff shut off the music, and the crowd sat down.

The Reverend started to speak.

“Good afternoon and welcome again. Charlie and Hilda are so glad to have you here on this beautiful day. Love is a miraculous gift, and a wedding is a celebration of that magic, and that is why we are here today. We are gathered together to be overjoyed for, and with, Charlie and Hilda, who are so wonderfully suited to one another that it is a pure delight to see. We are here to celebrate, witness, honor, dance, laugh, sing, eat, and be glad because these two people have found each other at this stage of their lives.”

A few of the women started to cry. The Reverend continued, asking Charlie the familiar, yet warm words of the Wedding Ceremony.

“I do,” Charlie said.

When asked, Hilda also agreed, luckily for Charlie, who was unconsciously holding his breath.

“Do you have the rings?”

Jeb got up and handed the rings to the Reverend, and sat back down. The Reverend handed one to Charlie and one to Hilda. They put the rings on each other, smiling like school children.

“Charlie and Hilda, by the power invested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.”

Charlie pulled Hilda to him and kissed her tenderly. The crowd stood and clapped. The couple turned around and faced them.

“I now present Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Ackerman,” the Reverend said.

The Sheriff hit the boom box again, and played the recessional music. Charlie and Hilda walked arm in arm to the back of the room, and out the door onto the veranda. People were clapping and laughing and hugging each other and crying.

Chapter 03 – Somber Reception

“Alright, let’s get this party going,” the Sheriff said after he shut off the recessional.

People were filing out to the veranda to congratulate Charlie and Hilda, who were still standing out there as the sun was setting. Then they came back into the clubhouse. Some of the towns people went back outside and picked up some trays of food from the van they came in. They got it set up on the table by the window. Jeb went into the kitchen and rolled the cocktail cart back out. Somebody brought in a case of champagne and got that set up with some ice and plastic glasses next to the food table.

“Maybe I bartend,” Rosie said. “Since we don’t have Chester…” She broke down and cried. Jasmine rushed over and hugged her.

General Walker and Major Hobbs walked out on the veranda as the crowd out there died down.

“Congratulations,” the General said.

“Yes, Congrats,” Major Hobbs said.

“Will you stick around for some food and drinks?” Hilda asked.

“For a few minutes,” General Walker said.

“Great!” Charlie said.

People lined up for food. Not too many people wanted to drink. Jeb opened up a couple bottles of champagne. Charlie and Hilda walked in, and people turned and clapped. They mingled with the crowd, and got themselves some champagne and some food.

Jane and Frank were sitting down at one of the tables, starting to eat. They watched the crowd.

“I don’t know whether to be happy or sad,” Jane said. “This is strange.”

“I know, I’ve got the same feeling,” Frank said.

“Hopefully it won’t go on too long.”

Jerry and Jasmine walked over to them with their food.

“Mind if we join you?” Jerry asked.

“Of course not,” Frank said. “Kind of a somber affair.”

“I know, this is strange,” Jasmine said. “Mom just started crying over there, when she remembered Chester tending bar at the Happy Hour. That seems like so long ago now.”

“Yes, it does,” Jane said.

“Everybody seems so uneasy,” Jerry said. “Are we doing the right thing by leaving?”

“I don’t know,” Frank said. “I think so. Time will tell.”

“Mom’s not happy about it. She thinks we should stand and fight,” Jasmine said.

“She doesn’t know how many there are,” Frank said. “If we could make a difference, I’d agree with her, but this is the army’s job, and they’ve got good folks stationed here. We’re just in the way at this point.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Jerry said. “I’m nervous, but I think I’d rather be on the road in the safe zone than hanging around here, even if we do have to worry about a few people trying to track us down. I think we can be pretty tough to find, if we put our minds to it.”

“I agree, but it’s still going to be hard to leave this place,” Frank said. “It was starting to feel like home here.”

Jeb walked over.

“Charlie and Hilda are leaving to have their wedding night,” Jeb said. “You guys sticking around?”

“I don’t know,” Frank said. “What do you think, sweetie?”

“I think I just want to go home and relax for the rest of the evening,” Jane said.

“Me too,” Jasmine said. “Will you take us home, Jerry?”

“How about your mom?”

“I’ll check with her. If she wants to stick around for a while, we could come get her later.”

“Judging by the rate that people are slipping out of here, I don’t think there’ll be people here for her to chat with anyway,” Jeb said. “This was a tough day.”

Jasmine got up and walked over to Rosie. They talked, and then Jasmine looked back over at Jerry and nodded.

“Good, she wants to go home,” Jerry said. He got up. “See you folks in the morning.”

“Let’s go home, Frank,” Jane said.

“I’m ready. I don’t even see Earl or Jackson around anymore.”

They got up, and worked their way to the door, saying goodbye to people as they went.

“Oh, wait,” Jane said. “Maybe we should carry all that food into the walk-in fridge.”

Frank looked back at the crowd.

“Okay, looks like there’s nobody waiting to have any.”

They carried the food trays into the kitchen and put them away. Jeb pushed the cocktail cart back into the kitchen too.

“I’ll just leave the champagne on the table,” Jeb said. “It’ll keep.”

Frank nodded, and looked over at Jane.

“Let’s go,” she said.

They got out into the cool evening air.

“I’m so glad to be out of there,” Jane said. “I hope this wasn’t as depressing for Charlie and Hilda as it was for me.”

“Me too,” Frank said.

They walked silently back to their coach. Lucy started barking when they got onto their site. Frank unlocked the door and held it open for Jane. Lucy rushed past her, jumping, tail wagging.

“Somebody wants to take a walk,” Jane said. “I’ll go too. It’s nice out here.” She reached for the leash, and came back out. hooking up Lucy as Frank locked the door back up.

“I know we’re getting another coach just like this one, but I am feeling so sad about leaving this one behind,” Jane said.

“Well, home is home, I guess,” Frank said. “This one has our smells, and our stuff, and our memories…and then there’s the big bullet hole in the driver’s side.”

“It’s one more thing you don’t have to fix.”

“True, but I’m dreading that new coach shakedown. I wonder how things are in the civilized world now? What happens when we find things that aren’t right? I wonder if there are working service centers.”

“I hope so,” Jane said. “If it’s as bad as this out there, we’re in deep trouble.”

“At least I can do some of our own fixes if needed,” Frank said. “I can help the other folks too, at least with the electrical stuff.”

“She done?” Jane asked. “You done, Lucy?”

“I think so. Let’s go back.”

They got to the door, and Frank unlocked it and opened it up. Lucy jumped in. Frank turned to Jane and pulled her close. They hugged by the door.

“We do have each other,” Frank said. “We’ll get through everything. It shouldn’t be as bad as the trip from California to here, either. We might even be able to relax a little bit. So don’t worry, honey.”

Jane nodded, and they got into the coach.

“I’m going to go get my nightgown on,” Jane said as she walked back to the bedroom.

“Can I watch?” Frank asked.

“Why don’t we just cuddle tonight,” Jane said. “Is that okay?”

“Of course,” Frank said. “I’ll be there in a few minutes. I want to catch some news.”

“Turn it on back here,” Jane said. “I don’t mind if the bedroom TV is on for a while.”

“Okay.” He came into the bedroom and shut the door behind him.

Frank woke up early. Jane was still next to him, snoring softly. He got dressed and snuck out of the bedroom, going right to his laptop. He turned it on and waited for it to go through its startup while he got himself a cup of coffee. Then fired up his programming environment and got back to work. The coding for the surveillance system was going quicker than he expected. He worked for about an hour before Lucy started begging him to take her out.

“Alright, girl, I got the message,” Frank said. The morning was beautiful. Sunshine and tweeting birds. Lucy pranced about, happy to be outside. People were just starting to wake up around the park. Frank caught a glimpse of a couple of privates patrolling on the back fence as he was heading back towards his coach. That sent a twinge through him. He liked having the army here, but he would be glad to be away from the tension of another battle coming any second. He took Lucy back into the coach and took off her leash.

“Good girl,” Frank said to her. Mr. Wonderful came over, tail in the air. He looked up at Frank and meowed. “Oh, you too, huh?” he said. He leaned down and petted him, and the cat started to purr loudly.

Frank fed them and got back to work on his software. He worked for another hour before Jane started moving around in the bedroom. He was just finishing it up when she came walking out.

“How’s it going?” she asked.

“I just got done,” Frank said. “It’s compiling now. Going to take a few minutes. I might have to fix an error or two, but it was simpler than I expected.”

“Good,” she said, as she got herself a cup of coffee.

“Pretty morning,” Frank said. “Ah, the compile is done already. No errors.”

“So what’s left?”

“Install it and test it,” Frank said. “Hilda had a PC in her office in the clubhouse. She told Jerry that he could take that into the tool shed and use it to serve up the video. I’m going to go over there in a few minutes and see if it’s set up yet. Shouldn’t take me very long to get this installed and tested. Then I can help you with the packing.”

“Great. Don’t forget to ask General Walker about the toads.”

“I won’t,” Frank said. “I’m going to go over there now, with the laptop.”

“Alright, good luck.” She went over to Frank and kissed his forehead as he was watching the laptop shut down. Then there was a soft knock on their door. Frank got up and looked out the window. It was Jerry. Frank opened the door and let him in.

“Good morning,” Jerry said. “I got the setup finished in the shed, so we’re ready for your software any time.”

“Great, I just finished it,” Frank said. “I’ll be ready to go as soon as the laptop shuts down.”

“Excellent,” Jerry said. “I’ll help you with the testing.”

“Good,” Frank said. He pulled the power cord for the laptop out of the wall. “Let’s go.”

“You don’t want another cup of coffee to take with you?” Jane asked.

“Don’t worry, there’s already coffee going in the clubhouse,” Jerry said.

The two men walked out the door and made their way over to the shed.

“Jasmine and I were thinking about something last night,” Jerry said.

“What’s that?”

“Our toad. Is Uncle Sam going to replace those too?”

Frank chuckled. “Yeah, we thought of that too. I’m going to ask the General about that the next time I see him.”

“Good,” Jerry said. “Hopefully they at least give us some kind of allowance for that. My toad is almost new.”

“Mine is still in its prime too,” Frank said. “It’s getting a little old, though. Probably isn’t worth more than about ten grand.”

“Don’t forget the tow bar and plate and auxiliary brakes,” Jerry said. “That set me back over two grand.”

“Yep,” Frank said. They got to the shed and entered.

“Well, there it is,” Jerry said. “I fastened everything down. Probably overkill, but we don’t need anybody walking off with parts of it. I wish we had an uninterruptable power supply.”

“Well, can’t have everything,” Frank said. “We’ll train the Major on how to work this, and how to re-start it if something goes wrong.”

Frank put his laptop on the work bench and fired it up.

“What’s the network name of that desktop?” Frank asked.

“Clubhouse_1”, Jerry said. “Password is the same.”

“I should have guessed. We’ll have to change that password,” Frank said, laughing. “That’s a pretty new desktop machine. Nice big monitor.”

“Yeah, ought to do a good job of showing the multi-camera view,” Jerry said. “Nice DVRs too. Hilda’s late husband did his homework. It may be a few years old, but this is a good system.”

“Wish it was wireless, but oh well.” Frank said. “Okay, I’m in. Uploading the software now. When it gets there, go ahead and pick it up and run it. It’ll have a shortcut on the desktop.”

“OK,” Jerry said.

“Should be ready now,” Frank said.

“Yes, there it is,” Jerry said. He double clicked on the shortcut, and the installation started.

“Hope there aren’t any bugs, but if there are, at least I’ve got the laptop here.”

“What’d you write it in?” Jerry asked.

“C++,” Frank said.

“Nice. It’s done. I’ll fire it up.”

The program started up and displayed a viewing window with a menu across the top, and some other tool buttons along the side. The picture from camera number one popped up on the screen. Resolution was good.

“Yes!!” Jerry said. “Beautiful.”

“See the button with the arrow going round on it? That’s the cycle button. Push that.”

Jerry clicked on it, and the program started to cycle through the cameras one at a time, in sequence.”

“This is great,” Jerry said. “Maybe you ought to sell this.”

“Naw, the new wireless surveillance systems on the market come with software that’s better than this.”

“Does it have multi-camera view?” Jerry asked.

“Yeah, just push the button that has the little grid on it.”

Jerry clicked on that, and all of the cameras displayed in a grid. It was a bit small, but watchable.

“Excellent,” Jerry said. “They could post a private in here to simply watch this screen.”

“That’s the idea,” Frank said. “I’ll see if I can log on with the laptop.”

Frank input the IP address of the PC into his browser window. He was asked for a password, and he put in Clubhouse_1. Then the view of the PC showed up on his laptop.

“There it is,” Frank said. “Here’s the limitation, though. It can only see what is live on the PC screen.”

“You could take control of the PC remotely and change that, though, couldn’t you?”

“Yes, we could, but then that would mess things up a little for the person here who’s monitoring the system.”

“Oh,” Jerry said. “Duh.”

“I could program a client to put on PCs that will allow us to change the view. I’ll do that, but it’s not going to work on the tablets. I’ll work on that in my spare time.”

Jerry laughed. “Well, I hope we have plenty of that now that we are getting out of the hot zone.”

“Should we change the password?” Jerry asked.

“Actually, there’s no need to if we hide the network,” Frank said. “Outsiders aren’t going to guess where this machine was.”

“True. We just need to tell the people in this group that need to be able to monitor the system.”

Frank nodded. He shut down his laptop.

“Let’s go see if the General and the Major are around,” Frank said.

“Sounds like a plan,” Jerry said.

They left the shed and walked over to the barn. Major Hobbs and General Walker were sitting in front of their laptop.

“Good morning, men,” Frank said as they walked up. Jerry looked at them and nodded.

“Good morning to you, Frank,” the Major said.

“Good morning,” General Walker said.

“We’ve got the surveillance system working,” Jerry said. “Thanks to our genius programmer here.”

“Excellent,” Major Hobbs said. “How do we access it?”

“One of two ways,” Frank said. “There’s a desktop machine with a big monitor in the shed. That’s the main place, and you can select the view in there, as well as go back and look at history on the DVRs.”

“How long does the history go back?” the General asked.

“About a week, then it overwrites,” Jerry said.

“Can we access it from other machines?”

“Yes,” Frank said. “I’ll show you.” He got in front of the army laptop and brought up a browser. He put the IP address into the window and then input the password. The multi-camera view came up.

“Wow, very nice,” the General said.

“Can you change the view?” the Major asked.

“Well, for right now you need to do that from the PC in the shed,” Frank said. “But I’ll write a client for PCs that will allow that. I’ll send it to you guys if I don’t get it done before we’re out of here.”

“What views can you get on the PC in the shed?” Major Hobbs asked.

“This one with all of the cameras in a grid, and it looks really good in there because of the nice big monitor that Hilda gave us. Also a cycle view that displays each camera, one after the other, in order, and a view where you can select by camera number.”

“And the DVR view, if you need to look back at history,” Jerry said.

“Excellent,” Major Hobbs said. “So we can put a private into the shed to monitor if we desire.”

“Yes, Major,” Frank said. “One thing you might want to think about is getting an uninterruptable power supply.”

“We can do that,” General Walker said. “Could I have you guys brief the Major and several of our privates on this thing?”

“Of course,” Frank said. “Whenever you’re ready.”

“Thanks very much,” Major Hobbs said.

“Any idea when we’re leaving yet?” asked Jerry.

“Yes, tomorrow morning,” General Walker said. “We’ll be bringing a Chinook chopper in to pick you guys up and take you to our base. You all ought to be able to get quite a bit of stuff into that – several boxes at least. Then we’ll send you off in a C-17 for the rest of the trip.”

“Still going to Oklahoma City?” Jerry asked.

“Yes, that’s still the plan. You’ll be taken to a base there. We’re trying to get all of the Motorhomes there before you arrive, but if that doesn’t happen, you can hang out there in the barracks for a few days.”

“One other thing, General,” Frank said. “All of us had toad vehicles. Are we going to get an allowance for those? And for the Tow Bar setup?”

“Yes,” Major Hobbs said. “I already mentioned that to the General.”

“Excellent,” Frank said. “Thanks so much.”

“Don’t mention it,” General Walker said. “You folks are doing us a big favor.”

“Did you ever find out about the rest of the group?” Jerry asked.

“Not yet,” General Walker said. “I think that’s going to be moot anyway, though. We‘ve already chatted with all of them. None of them really want to go. They’re hoping that they can just ride things out here.”

“Interesting,” Frank said. “I can’t say I’m all that surprised, though. It’s nice here.”

“What time do you want to hold the training session?” Jerry asked.

“How about right after lunch time?” Major Hobbs asked.

“Perfect,” Frank said. “We’ll be in the shed at 1:00.”

“Sounds great,” Major Hobbs said.

Frank and Jerry left, and walked back to their rigs, Frank carrying the laptop.

“Why didn’t they let us know they were talking to the others?” Jerry asked.

“Good question,” Frank said. “See you at 1:00.” Frank opened the door of the coach and stepped in.

“How did it go?” Jane asked. Frank updated her and, before she asked, confirmed they’d be getting an allowance for a toad.

It looks like we’re leaving in the morning. They are sending a Chinook over for us. He told us we can take quite a bit of stuff. They’ll transfer us into a C-17 after we get to base.”

“Good,” Jane said. Her phone rang. She looked at it, and got a puzzled look on her face. “I don’t recognize this number.”

“Answer it,” Frank said. She did.

“Hello?” Jane said.

“Mom?”

“Robbie, I’m glad you called.”

Chapter 04 – Get Outta Dodge

“I’m going to put you on speaker,” Jane said.

“Alright, Mom. I can only stay on for a minute.”

Jane looked at her phone, and pushed a button on the screen. She put it down on the counter in front of her.

“Can you still hear me?” Jane asked.

“Yeah, mom.”

“Good. Your father is right here too.”

“Hi, Robbie,” Frank said. “Where are you?”

“I’m on a pay phone in a hotel lobby. It’s really hard to find these things now.”

“What did you want to tell us?” Frank asked.

“The state government’s been corrupted. They’re doing bad things in California. Don’t come back here.”

“What are they doing?” Jane asked, fear starting to take hold of her.

“They’re tightening their grip on everything. You know about what they are doing with cars, right? Mileage restrictions, GPS Locators. That was the first thing that made me nervous.”

“Yes, we’ve been hearing a little bit about that. What else?”

“People who’ve been protesting about anything the state government wants to do have been disappearing. The state police have been confiscating weapons at the drop of a hat. In some areas, they’ve actually been looking up gun registration info and collecting guns for no reason at all.”

“Is the U.S. Army involved with this?” asked Frank.

“No, and that’s the strange thing, dad. It only appears to be the state government. That’s one of the reasons I joined the Army. It’s the only way to get out of here now.”

“Are you on your way to the base now?” Jane asked.

“Yes. I figured I’d better call you guys on the way.”

“So you still trust the U.S. Army?” Frank asked.

“Yes.”

“How about the federal government?” Jane asked.

“Yes and no,” Robbie said. “Remember when the President was saying that we needed a new kind of civilian security force?”

“Yes,” Frank said. “I thought they deep-sixed that idea.”

“Nope. They’re active here, and appear to be helping the state to lock things down. I’m hearing all kinds of strange things about them. Lots of theories. There were some stories showing up in the press about them, but all those reporters got locked up.”

“What’re you going to do?” Jane asked.

“Learn how to be a soldier, fight the enemy. If the U.S. Army turns, I’ll go AWOL and fight them. Along with a lot of other folks.”

“Why aren’t people resisting this nonsense in California?”

“Oh, they are. There’ve been rumors that the state government has actually lost control of certain parts of California. Inland, and in the Sierras. But the greater LA area and the Bay Area are all locked down. San Diego isn’t, but that’s only because the Armed Forces are in control of that area. It’s still the main staging area for the war in Mexico.”

“And I’ll bet you can’t enter San Diego anymore,” Frank said.

“You got it. I can’t believe what the state legislature is debating today.”

“What?” asked Frank.

“A law that makes it illegal to quit your job.”

Frank and Jane looked at each other.

“We’re about to be moved to another location by the U.S. Army, via airlift. Should we trust them?” asked Jane, hoping her son would say yes.

“I would say yes, for now. If the Feds are involved with the crap that’s going on in California, they probably aren’t going to pull anything nasty outside of this state until the enemy is put down. They need the people on their side. If the Feds are against what’s going on in California, then the U.S. Army is going to be in here shutting down this garbage eventually, and a whole lot of creeps are going to prison.”

“We aren’t getting this news,” Frank said.

“Uh oh, I gotta go,” Robbie said. “The bus is ready to take off.”

“Alright, love you Robbie,” Jane said, relieved and afraid at the same time.

“Me too,” Frank said. “Take care of yourself. Call us when you can.”

“Love you guys. Bye.” Robbie hung up.

Frank and Jane just looked at each other for a few moments.

“So what do we do now?” Jane asked.

“We need to tell the others about this. I think we probably should stick to the plan at this point. I trust General Walker. But we have to be honest with the rest of the group.”

“Are you going to bring it up to the General?”

“No. I think that would be a mistake at this point. We need to keep them thinking that we trust the government.”

“Alright,” Jane said. “Let’s have some lunch. Then you’ve got to get over to your training session.”

“I’m not very hungry. A Clif Bar would be enough, and another cup of coffee.”

“Eat one of the apples too. They won’t last much longer,” Jane said.

“You okay?”

“No, I’m scared out of my wits,” Jane said. “What if the Army flies us to their base and then just locks us up?”

“That thought’s crossed my mind,” Frank said. “If we aren’t allowed to have our guns with us when we get on that chopper, I’ll really get worried.”

Suddenly there was a loud explosion, coming from behind the park.

“Shit, that’s the tank,” Frank said. “Grab your weapon.”

Jane’s mouth dropped open. “Oh no!”

“Come on, pull yourself together!” Frank said sternly. “You proved yourself in town, remember? Get that M-16. I’ll get Lucy on the leash.”

Frank ran into the bedroom and put on his holster. Then he grabbed his Winchester. He ran out into the salon as Jane checked her weapon out. He hooked Lucy up on the leash and they jumped out of the coach. Mr. Wonderful tried to rush the door, but Jane grabbed him just in time, tossed him inside, and shut the door. They ran towards the barn, and were joined by Jerry and Jasmine, with Earl. Jackson, Jeb, and Charlie were ahead of them. Small arms fire started to erupt in the back, and the sound of mortars. Another blast came from the tank, and then a mortar shell landed inside the park and blew up. Instinctively they turned away from it. Luckily it hit in a place where there weren’t any coaches.

“General, where do you need us?” Charlie cried out as they made it to the barn door.

The general saw them, and told Major Hobbs that he’d be back in a second.

“Well, our plan is going to have to change, folks. Sorry.”

“What do we do?” asked Frank.

“Get into your motor homes and get the hell out of dodge. NOW!”

“Is that safe?” asked Jasmine.

“There are about forty thousand enemy troops on their way here right now. We’re going to get over run. You have about half an hour to get out of here. That noise in the back….that was just a scouting party. We can see the larger force coming via our drones.”

“Where should we go?”

“Get back on route 89. Take it to route 12, then to route 24. Then get on I-70, and try to make it into Colorado. You’ll probably be alright if you make it there. We still control the air, so I’ll tell headquarters to look out for a long line of motor homes, and protect you if possible.”

“What’re you guys going to do?”

“Evacuate,” General Walker said. “Regroup. Hit them.” He had a scared look on his face.

“Are we driving to our deaths?” Jasmine asked.

“Enough talk, folks,” General Walker said. “I’ve got to get back to work. Get the hell out of here as quickly as you can. If you stay here, you will be killed. No doubt about that.”

“Alright,” Jerry said. “C’mon, folks, let’s spread the word and get the heck out of here now!”

Everybody ran back to their coaches except for Frank. He ran over to the squad car, jumped in, and drove it into the middle of the RV spaces. He got on the loud speaker.

“Everybody, this is Frank. There is a large group of enemy fighters on their way here right now. We have to leave right away. Get back to route 89. Then go to 12, and then 24, and then I-70. We have about 15 minutes to get out of here.”

Frank ran from the squad car to his coach, and unhooked the electrical and water. He saw the rest of the group doing the same. He pulled out the black water valve to dump the tank.

“Jane, go ahead and start bringing in the slides,” Frank yelled.

“On it,” she replied, out of breath.

Frank got the tow bar out of the back compartment and put it on the back of the coach. Then he got into their toad and pulled it in back, ready to hook up.

“They’re all in, Frank,” Jane shouted. “Should I bring in the levelers?”

“Yeah, go for it. Start the engine first.”

The coach engine roared to life, and Frank saw the coach lurch and settle. He shut the black tank valve and pulled the grey tank valve out. He could hear the water flowing through the thick sewer hose. He pulled on rubber gloves from the back compartment. When the water stopped flowing from the grey tank, he shut that valve, pulled off the sewer hose, and stowed it. Then he shut all of the compartments on that side of the coach and locked them. He ran around to the other side, picked up the chairs and table, and threw them into the rear storage compartment.

“Shall I let her idle?” asked Jane.

“Yeah, all I have left to do is hook up the car. Bring in the awning.”

“Okay,” she said. Frank heard the motor for that spring to life. He jumped into the car and inched it forward, and then got out and hooked the car up to the tow bar. He put in the pins, put on the safety chain, and then hooked up the electrical. He pulled the auxiliary brake out of the rear storage compartment and got it set up. Then he locked up the rest of the compartments and ran into the coach.

“OK, let’s go,” Frank said as he got into the driver’s seat. He put on his sunglasses, pulled the parking brake, and got the coach into gear.

“Go!” Jane said. Frank drove out of the space and onto the access road. There was a small line up at the gate, but it was moving quickly. They ended up behind Jerry’s rig, driving down the road as the sound of gunfire got louder.

“Poor Hilda,” Jane said, her heart beating wildly from the adrenaline. “Can you imagine what she must be feeling right now?”

“I know, I was thinking the same thing,” Frank said. “Jeb’s behind us, and I see Charlie’s rig behind that.”

“Good. Hope everybody gets out alright. Good idea on the loudspeaker.”

“Well, it probably saved us five minutes,” Frank said. “The stinky slinky is going to be kind of a mess. I didn’t have time to rinse it out or flush the black tank. Did you turn on the water pump?”

“Oh, no I didn’t,” Jane said. She went into the back and did that, and then noticed that the bungee cords weren’t on the fridge doors yet. She put them on, and then got back up into her seat.”

“Good thing I went back there. Forgot the bungee cords.”

Lucy got out of her bed and looked up at Jane, crying.

“OK, girl, come on up,” she said. Lucy jumped up on her lap. “This poor dog is trembling.” She cuddled the small dog, calming her and herself down.

“She senses that we’re scared, and she doesn’t like that noise back there,” Frank said. “There’s route 89. I’m getting on. Looks like no traffic.” The motor home labored up the onramp.

“Yep. You remember where we are going, right?”

“Yes, to route 12, then to route 24, then to I-70.”

“Good, Jane said. “Think I can get on the security cameras with my phone?”

“Yes,” Frank said. “Or you could use my phone. I’ve already got it set up in the browser.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and gave it to her.

“I don’t want to look right now,” she said. “I’m glad we got out of there, and frankly I’m glad we didn’t have to get onto a chopper. That conversation we had with Robbie really got me scared.”

“I know, me too,” Frank said.

“Look, route 12 is coming up already,” Jane said. “Didn’t know we were so close.”

“Why don’t you pull up your GPS and see how twisty that road is,” Frank said.

“No problem,” Jane said. She picked up her phone and pulled up the map application.

“We’re going to go through a lot of pretty country, but you are going to get some switchbacks,” Jane said. “Doesn’t look too bad. Capitol Reef is right up where the 12 runs into the 24. Wonder why Hilda has that as part of her advertisement? Her park is really quite a ways away from there.”

“I was wondering that before,” Frank smiled, calming down now and focusing on the drive ahead.

The road started to tighten a little bit, and it slowed the group down.

“Why don’t you turn on the radio?” Frank asked.

“Good idea,” Jane said. She reached over and switched it on. The station they were using at the park was still close enough.

The announcer was speaking quickly. He sounded nervous.

“A large force of Islamists are massing in southern Utah now, and have been running through towns one after another. They are facing stiff resistance from towns people and local authorities, but the force is large enough that citizens are having to flee. So far no word from the Army about where this force came from, or how such a large force was able to surface and start an attack of this size. The Air Force has not yet gotten involved, but we are hearing reports that fighter-bombers are on the runway as we speak, getting ready to attack.”

“Wow, where’d these cretins come from?” Frank asked. “Sleepers? Wonder if a bunch of folks are missing from Dearborn?”

Jane shook her head. “C’mon, Frank.”

“Well, they came from somewhere. I know they didn’t all just come from there.”

“Maybe the policy of not getting between the citizens and protesters has backfired.”

“Maybe,” Frank said.

The announcer came back on.

“The Air Force has indeed started to fly sorties, and they are pounding enemy positions where they can. The Islamists appear to be moving around in civilian vehicles, so it’s difficult to see them unless they are engaged in a battle. That is problematic, because when they show themselves they are in the middle of populated areas.”

“Human shields,” Frank said. “Same shit they pull in their own countries.”

Just then they heard the roar of jets above them.

“Look at that!” Frank said, pointing high in the air in front of them. There was a large group of jet fighters and B-1 Bombers heading west.

“We’re going to lose a lot of civilians,” Jane said, feeling at once terrified and sad at the impending loss of life.

“Hopefully a lot of civilians will be in the fight against these guys,” Frank said. “Worked in California and parts of Arizona.”

“This is such a big force, though,” Jane said. “It’s going to be harder to overcome.”

The announcer came back on.

“C-17s are being used to bring troops back home from Mexico, but given the size of the enemy force, it’s not going to be fast enough with the small number of planes available. Meanwhile, in Arizona, another large force of Islamist fighters has begun an attack on Flagstaff.”

“Shit,” Frank said.

Jane’s phone rang. She looked at it.

“It’s Sarah,” she said. She reached over and turned off the radio.

“Sarah?”

“Mom, are you guys alright? We’re watching the news. It’s scary.” The panic in the young woman’s voice was infectious, unfortunately.

“We’re alright so far, but we’re on the run. The Army told us to leave the RV Park and drive east. We are heading for Colorado as quickly as we can.”

“Good. Oh God, I’m so scared, mom. There’ve been some incidents up here too, on the outskirts of town.”

“No.”

“Yes. A couple of people at a ranch about thirty miles outside of Boise were found beheaded. They had a bobtail truck and a couple of other vehicles. The Sheriff out there thinks that the Islamists needed those.”

“Makes sense. We just heard about the Islamists using civilian vehicles to hide themselves. It’s making it hard for the Air Force to take them out.”

“Steve says they’re building too fast. He’s taking me to the range to learn how to shoot today.”

“Good. I’m glad I know how to shoot. It helped me when we were in town a couple days ago.”

“I’d better go, Steve is calling me. Be careful, Mom. I love you. Tell Dad I love him.”

“Love you too, sweetheart. Will do. Try not to worry about us. You guys stay safe.”

“Alright.”

Jane put her phone back in her lap.

“Sarah?”

“Yep,” Jane said. “Would have put it on speaker, but it’s too loud up here.”

“Understand. She’s been watching the news, I’ll bet.”

“Yep. She also told me something disturbing about Boise.” She recounted Sarah’s conversation, adding, “And get this. They had a bobtail truck and some other vehicles, which are all gone now.”

“Hell, that’s probably how they are getting all of these civilian vehicles.”

“Good thing we got out of the RV Park in time, or they might have gotten about 25 motor homes.”

“Yeah, but we aren’t out of the woods yet,” Frank said.

“Tell me about it. I’m pretty scared.”

“I know, sweetie. What else did Sarah say?”

“Her new hubby is taking her to the range to teach her to shoot today. I’m very glad about that.”

“You and me both,” Frank said. “You should have told her that you saved me in town.”

Jane looked at him with an embarrassed smile.

“What?” Frank asked. “That’s something to be proud of, by the way.”

“I know,” Jane said.

“More jets coming. Listen.”

There was the roar, and another large group of military jets flew over them, heading west.

“I hope the General and the Major got away,” Jane said.

“Me too. I really liked those guys. Hopefully we can get on the security system tonight and see if it’s still up.”

“Jerry’s slowing down,” Jane said. “Better put on the brakes.”

Frank slowed down. Then his cellphone rang and Jane handed it to him.

“Frank here.”

“Frank, its Jerry. We have a problem. Jackson just had a blowout.”

Chapter 05 – Blasting Through Utah

“Should we pull over?” Frank asked.

“Yes, for at least a few minutes, to see what we can do. Earl is right behind Jackson, and I’m a couple of coaches behind him,” Jerry said.

“Pulling over,” Frank said. He put down his phone and pulled over to the side of the road. He put on his hazard blinkers, and could see everybody else behind him pulling over too.

“Hope there isn’t a lot of traffic coming behind us,” Jane said.

“There’s enough room to get through. I’m going to go out and see if there’s anything we can do.”

“Alright, I’ll stay here just in case we have to move this thing in a hurry.”

“Alright, sweetie,” Frank said. He opened the side door and got out. Jerry was already heading forward, and Frank jogged to catch up.

“There he is,” Jerry said, pointing. Jackson’s old Class C was on the side of the road, leaning to one side. The front driver’s side tire was blown out.

“You alright?” Frank asked when he saw Jackson.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Dammit. I was due for new tires before all this crap started, but by that time there wasn’t much I could do,” he said.

Earl ran around from the other side of the rig.

“Jackson, let’s get the stuff that you need loaded into my rig and get the hell out of here. We’re sitting ducks like this,” he yelled.

“You have room?” he asked.

“Of course, man. I’m in a forty foot rig by myself. My pusher ain’t even close to capacity.”

“Alright, I’ll get the essentials out of my rig,” Jackson said. He ran into the coach and started.

“Want some help?” asked Jerry.

“I’ll tell you what,” Jackson said. “Why don’t you guys get going? We’ll catch up. I don’t want the group to be sitting here for more than a few minutes.”

Jackson came running out with a big hefty bag full of clothes. He set it down.

“What about your rig?” Frank asked. Jackson just shook his head.

“I only paid five grand for it. It’s a 1980s rig. I’ll get another one eventually…..or I’ll come back to get this one. Don’t worry about it.”

“Really, folks, get back on the road. We’ll be along shortly,” Earl said.

“Alright,” Frank said. “Good luck. Call either of us if you get into trouble – you have our numbers.”

“Will do, thanks,” Jackson said.

Frank and Jerry went back to their coaches.

“What’s up?” asked Jane.

“Jackson is going to grab his essential stuff and throw it into Earl’s pusher. They told us to get going, and they would catch up.”

“You alright with that?” she asked.

“Yes, we need to keep the main part of the group moving,” Frank said. He got behind the wheel and fired up the engine.

“Good. Let’s go, then,” she said. Frank looked in his mirror, turned off the hazard blinkers, and slowly pulled out, following Jerry.

“Great, the rest of the coaches got the message,” Frank said. “They’re getting back on the road.”

“What about Jackson’s rig?”

“He isn’t too concerned about it. It’s an old Class C. He said he only paid about five grand for it.” Frank smiled.

“Well, five grand is five grand, and a lot of people aren’t working these days.”

“I know. He said he might come back for it. Pretty hard to change a tire on an RV without the right equipment, though.”

“Radio?” Jane asked. He nodded.

The station they were on was too far away now, so Jane pushed the seek button. She found one of the national affiliates after a few tries.

The announcer came on.

“At this hour, the large Islamist force is expanding and moving towards Panguitch. The Army is trying to move in there to stop them, but it’s going to be difficult due to the size and speed of the enemy force.”

“Shit, they’re really close to the RV Park,” Jane said. “Really close.”

“I know,” Frank said.

The announcer continued.

“In Arizona, the battle for Flagstaff continues, but the Islamist Army is having difficulty taking that city. It appears they might be attempting to flee to the north now. The Army is trying to cut them off before they can get into southern Utah and link up with the larger force there.”

“Well, that’s some good news,” Jane said.

“Good news for Flagstaff. Maybe not such good news for us, though, if they are fleeing to the north.”

“We should be far enough ahead of them.”

“Let’s hope so,” Frank said. “Now I’m more worried about Earl and Jackson. I hope they haul ass.”

“Yeah, me too. Hope nobody else has any coach problems.”

The Announcer came back on.

“Meanwhile, in other news, there are unconfirmed reports that militias are becoming active again in California. Reports are sketchy, but it appears that a large section of the Inland Empire and Southern Orange County are no longer controlled by the State government. This might be a reaction to the prolonged martial law that has been in effect there. We will provide more details as they become available.”

“Sounds like Robbie was right,” Frank said. “How far away are we from Route 24?”

“Don’t know, let me get the GPS app on my phone going.”

The Announcer continued.

“This just in from Canada. A huge cache of weapons and supplies were found, just over the border from Montana. Royal Canadian Mounted Police rushed into the area, and were met with an extremely large enemy force. The battle in that area is raging right now. Canada has requested help from the U.S. Government, but as of right now all of the US Armed Forces are busy trying to halt the attacks in Northern Arizona and Southwestern Utah. Canada is rushing forces in from both the West and the East, but it’s possible that they will be too late.”

“They should blow the weapons cache with air strikes if they’re losing that battle,” Frank said. Jane nodded, still looking at her phone.

“We’re about an hour away from Route 24, according to my GPS,” Jane said. “I wish we could go faster.”

“Yeah, these switchbacks are getting tighter. It’s not safe to go above about 45 right now. Does the road straighten out up ahead?”

“Looks like it will get better after we get past Boulder. The Route 24 looks quite a bit better. It looks pretty straight all the way to I-70.”

“Good,” Frank said.

The radio started to sound scratchy.

“We are starting to lose the station, Frank. Want me to find another one?”

“Not on my account,” Frank said.

“Alright, then I’m shutting it off.” She reached over and turned it off. Lucy came over and looked up at her, wagging her tail. “Want to come up, girl?”

Lucy bounded up into Jane’s lap and turned about three times, trying to find the most comfortable position, finally settling in.

“She doesn’t like the switchbacks much,” Frank said.

“I’ll bet she likes them better than Mr. Wonderful does.”

“Yep.”

“Look at those rocks up there. Beautiful,” Frank said.

“Yes, I wish we were just on vacation. I’ll bet there are some nice places to camp around here.”

“Here comes more jets,” Frank said, pointing upwards.

“Good,” Jane said. “I hope they’re able to do some good.”

They drove along for a while in silence, just taking in the scenery. The switchbacks started to become scarcer, and Frank was able to speed up to about 55.

“Ah, there’s Boulder,” Jane said.

“What’s that pillar of black smoke over there, east of the town?” Frank asked.

“I don’t know,” Jane said, “but it doesn’t look good. I’m going to see if I can find a local radio station.” She pushed Lucy off of her lap and bent over towards the radio. She found a station quickly. The announcer on this station sounded like a country music disc jockey.

“The Sheriff has asked that all people stay indoors until further notice. We don’t know who started the fire at the city yard, but it appears that someone is attempting to steal the school bus and several maintenance trucks. Sheriff’s Deputies are in route. It’s possible that these are enemy fighters, so please stay in your homes for now. Exercise caution.”

Frank’s phone rang.

“Frank, Jerry here. Are you seeing this?”

“Yes, and we just turned on the local radio station. Enemy fighters are trying to steal vehicles from the city yard.”

“What’s the station number?”

Frank looked over at Jane, pointing at the radio.

“It’s 730,” Jane said. “Jerry?”

“Yep. Jerry, it’s 730. I hope we get past this before they start to take off. They’re liable to want to grab our motor homes.”

“Over my dead body,” Jerry said. “Talk to you later.”

“Good, the road is widening out,” Frank said. “Look, Jerry is speeding up.”

Soon they were cruising along at about 70. The big V-10 liked going at that speed…it smoothed out nicely.

The Announcer started again.

“We have word that there was a gun battle at the city yard, and two Deputies have been killed. Towsn people have rushed to the scene, and are now engaging the enemy. The citizens appear to be winning. It’s estimated that there are about 50 armed citizens in the fight now. It’s unknown how many enemy fighters there are in the area” He paused. “This just in. The enemy fighters are attempting to flee in the school bus, but they are being pursued by town people and the remaining deputies. The Sheriff has put up a road block on the access road to Route 12.”

“Yesss!” Frank shouted. Lucy looked over at him, her ears going back.

“If they get away in that school bus, I hope they don’t come this way,” Jane said.

“If they do, we’ll blow out their tires,” Frank said.

“They might do that to us before we get the chance, Frank.”

“Keep the radio on.”

The announcer got back on.

“The school bus attempted to break through the road block, but the driver lost control and crashed. The bus is on its side, burning. As fighters try to escape the fire, they are being shot by towns people.”

“Alright!” Frank said. “Don’t mess with us, assholes.”

“You know there could be others around here looking for vehicles, and we have exactly what they need,” Jane said. “We need to keep our speed up.”

“How we doing? How close are we to Route 24?”

“We’re getting close. Only about 15 minutes. Helps going this fast.”

“Good,” Frank said. “As I remember from the map that should take us east for a while before it juts up north.”

“Yes, that’s what I’m seeing. How we doing on gas?”

“Good,” Frank said. “Glad we topped this sucker off.”

“Want a soft drink?”

“Yeah, that’d be great, honey,” Frank said. “Maybe bring some bars up here too.”

“Will do,” Jane said. She got out of her chair and went into the back. There was a meow.

“Ah, Mr. Wonderful came out of hiding, eh,” Frank said.

“He’s sitting under the dinette table,” Jane said. “He doesn’t look happy.”

Frank laughed. “Hey, there’s a sign for route 24,” Frank said. “Two miles.”

Jane came back up and got in her seat. She opened up a soft drink and handed it to Frank. He took a big swig out of it, and put it in the cup holder.

“Ah, that tastes good,” Frank said.

She tore off the bar’s wrapper and handed it to him, then sipped from her own drink.

“Here we go, we’re on 24 now,” Frank said.

“Hopefully clear sailing.”

“Any more towns coming up?” Frank asked.

“Torrey is right behind us.”

“Really? Didn’t even see it.”

“It’s small. The next town is Caineville. It’s just on the other side of Capitol Reef.”

“Oh, so we finally get to see Capitol Reef, huh?”

“Looks like it, although I don’t know how much we’ll see from the road.”

“Any other towns coming up?” asked Frank

“After Caineville, the next town is Hanksville. It’s right where route 95 connects with 24. After that there’s really nothing until we get to I-70.” She laughed.

“What?”

“We do get to go through Goblin Valley. Hope it’s not dark by then.”

Frank chuckled.

“We lost the radio again,” Jane said. “Want me to try to find something else?”

“Give it a try. We might be a little too far away from anything now, though.”

Jane hit the seek button. It cycled all the way through the dial without finding anything strong enough to pull in.

“So much for that,” Jane said. She shut off the radio and sat back in her seat.

They settled in and silently watched the scenery for another stretch. Jane started to drift off to sleep.

Frank drank the last of his soft drink, setting the empty can back in the drink holder. His phone rang. The sound woke up Jane. Frank looked at the phone number. It was the Sheriff. He answered.

“Sheriff, how are you?” Frank said.

“Been better,” he said. “The good news is that I’ve got my nephew Terry in the motorhome with me and we’re on our way east on route 12. The bad news is that the town’s in bad shape.”

“Oh, no. Enemy fighters?”

“Yes. We put up a good fight, but there were too many of them. People scattered into the hills. The rednecks have been picking these jerks off with their sniper rifles, but they can’t win.”

“What happened at the RV Park?”

“I don’t know, Frank. Never got back there. Heard a lot of gunfire and artillery coming from that direction, though. I also heard that the General told you guys to skedaddle.”

“Yep, and not a minute too soon. You going to try to catch up to us?”

“Love to, if I don’t run into trouble. I saw Jackson’s Class C on the roadside. He Okay?”

“Yeah, he had a blowout. He transferred his stuff into Earl’s pusher. They should hopefully be catching up to us pretty soon.”

“I’ll keep an eye out for them. Heading to I-70?”

“Yep, that’s what General Walker suggested.”

“Good, don’t tell me exactly where you are.”

“Understand,” Frank said. “Hey, the Doc get away?”

“I don’t know. I hope so. They hit the Hospital. I was lucky to get Terry out of there in time.”

“Bastards,” Frank said.

“Well, I’d better get off the phone. Heading into the switchbacks.”

“Alright, Sheriff. Take care of yourself.”

“You too, Frank.”

Frank put his phone back in his pocket, and looked over at Jane.

“That was the Sheriff,” Frank said.

“So I gathered. He alright?”

“Yes, he’s on the road in his motorhome, heading this way. The town took a real beating.”

“What did he say about the Doc?”

“He doesn’t know what happened to him, but the hospital got hit pretty badly, from the sound of it.”

“He doesn’t know what happened at the RV Park, I suspect.”

“No, he didn’t get back over there before he had to leave.”

“He’s going to try to hook back up with us, I hope.”

“Yes,” Frank said, “and I’ll be damn glad to see him.”

“Me too. Want me to drive for a while?” asked Jane.

“I’m good for now. Maybe when we get onto I-70. We still have a lot of daylight left, at least. Feels later than 2:30.”

“Wonder if Earl and Jackson are catching up to us?”

“Good question,” Frank said. “The Sheriff saw Jackson’s Class C on the side of the road.”

“There’s Caineville,” Jane said, pointing ahead. There were a few buildings there. The sign said two miles.

“Must be a pretty small town,” Frank said. “I don’t even see a gas station.”

“Yeah, I’m only seeing one motel and a small store in town, but there are a couple of RV parks nearby. Hanksville is bigger…..we could gas up there if we need to.”

The caravan blew by Caineville and continued on desolate route 24.

“I should call Jerry and let him know I heard from the Sheriff,” Frank said, pulling his phone out of his pocket.

“Hey, Frank, what’s up?”

“I just heard from the Sheriff.”

“Good. How’s he doing? Is he still in town?”

“No, he had to split. He’s in his RV heading in the same direction as we are. I suspect we’ll see him tomorrow.”

“Excellent. I was getting kind of attached to that old fart.”

“You and me both.”

“I was just about to call you, Frank.”

“About what?”

“I got a call from Jackson. Earl needed some diesel, so they stopped in Boulder.”

“Uh oh, hope there aren’t still problems there.”

“He called me from the gas station, and it looked OK to him. I told him about what happened as we drove through there.”

“How long ago was that?”

“Ten minutes ago.”

“I hope they didn’t get carjacked there,” Frank said. “This worries me a little bit.”

“I know, me too. I told them to watch themselves. Those two are pretty good, though. It wouldn’t be easy to take them.”

“True. Maybe you ought to call them back in a bit and make sure they made it out of there alright.”

“I was thinking the same thing. I’ll give them about twenty minutes, though. Takes a while to fill a big diesel rig like that.”

“Okay.”

“How far do you think we’re going today?”

“Good question. Wonder if we can make it all the way into Colorado?”

“Maybe, if I-70 is in good shape. I don’t know much about this road we’re on. Hopefully there are no more slow parts.”

“Jane checked it out on her phone…she said it looks fairly straight all the way to I-70.”

“Then we may be in good shape. Some of us will probably have to stop in Hanksville to fuel up.”

“I know, I was thinking the same thing. Hope nobody was counting on fuel in Caineville.”

Jerry laughed.

“Yeah, the only thing you might be able to fuel up in that town is a mule.”

“Pretty much,” Frank said. “I’ll get off the line. Let me know if you have a problem raising Jackson and Earl.”

“Will do,” Jerry said. “Later.”

Frank put his phone back in his pocket.

“He heard from Jackson?” Jane asked.

“Yep. They were fueling up about ten minutes ago.”

“Not in Boulder, I hope.”

“’Fraid so,” Frank said. “I know, I’m worried about them too. You heard me ask Jerry to call me back.”

“Yes,” Jane said. “I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

“Me neither.”

They rode along quietly for a while. Lucy got out of her bed and looked up at Jane.

“Alright, girl, come on up.”

Lucy jumped up on Jane’s lap and sat down, looking up at her with her sad eyes.

“We are going to need to stop at Hanksville for at least a few minutes, even if we don’t need to fuel up. Miss Lucy is going to need a break.”

“I don’t see a problem with that. How much longer?”

“It’s getting close. My GPS says about fifteen more minutes.”

“Good,” Frank said. “We are still on three quarters of a tank, but it might not be a bad idea to top it off if the others are going to stop for a few minutes.”

Frank’s phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and answered it.

“Frank?”

“Yeah.”

“I can’t raise Jackson or Earl. Tried them both.”

“Oh, shit,” Frank said. He looked over at Jane.

Chapter 06 – Road Action

“You can’t raise either one of them?” Frank asked

“Nope,” Jerry said. “Tried both Earl and Jackson’s cell phones.”

“You need to stop in Hanksville?”

“Yeah, need to fuel up.”

“I’ll top off too, and we need to take the dog out. Let’s talk when we get there.”

“Alight, Frank. Talk to you then.”

Frank put his phone back into his pocket.

“They’re stopping for fuel, I take it?” Jane asked.

“Yes. You heard most of the conversation.”

“So what do we do?”

“I don’t know yet,” Frank said. “My gut tells me that we get over the border into Colorado, get a camp set up, and then bring the toad back here and look for them.”

“You sure that’s a good idea?”

“No, but we have to protect our own,” Frank said. “I think either one of them would do that for us.”

“Why don’t you try to get the Sheriff again when we get to Hanksville?” He might have seen something. He’s coming up the same way.”

“Good idea,” Frank said.

“I’ll turn on the radio and see if I can get a local station. It would be nice to know if things are going crazy in Hanksville.” She turned on the radio and hit the seek button.

“I’m going to call the Sheriff now. No reason to wait,” Frank said. He pulled his phone out again and dialed the number.

“Sheriff?”

“Hi, Frank, what’s up?”

“How are you doing?”

“Pretty good so far. Got past the switchbacks a few minutes ago. The road is damn near empty. I’m surprised. I thought there would be a lot of people trying to get the heck out of southern Utah.”

“Have you seen Earl’s pusher?”

“Nope, haven’t seen any other motor homes.”

“Shoot,” Frank said.

“What’s wrong?”

“They called Jerry when they were in Boulder getting fueled up. Jerry tried to call them a little later. He can’t raise either one of them.”

“Well, don’t worry yet. There are some parts of this drive where there’s no cell coverage, you know.”

“Any of that left between you and Hanksville?”

“Yeah, it’s going to be a little spotty.”

“Well, maybe that’s the problem,” Frank said. “I hope so.”

“You’re stopping in Hanksville?”

“Yeah. Some of us need to get fuel.”

“Good little town. There’s a big truck stop there that caters to RVs, and they have a good diner too. Been there many times on my way to Colorado. They have propane and a dump station, too.”

“That’s probably where we’ll end up. Jerry’s got a pusher, so he’s going to need diesel.”

“Yeah, Charlie too.”

“Well, we are almost on top of the town now,” Frank said. “I’d better get off.”

“Okay, see you later, Frank.”

Frank put his phone back in his pocket.

“He hasn’t seen them,” Frank said to Jane.

“I was afraid of that.”

“Did you notice any spots where you lost cell coverage between Boulder and here?”

“No, but I wasn’t on my phone for some long stretches…especially back in there where all the pretty rock formations were. And I slept for a while too, remember?”

“Oh, yeah,” Frank said. “The Sheriff said there were a few places that had no coverage. If that’s all this is, we’ll be able to contact them eventually.”

“There’s the off-ramp. Look at that big truck stop.”

“Yep, the Sheriff said there was a good one here.”

Frank put on his turn signal a little early, to make sure that the rigs behind him got the idea. He slowed, and got ready to get on the off ramp. Lucy got out of bed and started to get excited.

“She really needs to go,” Jane said.

“Not surprised, it’s been a while now. She’s been good.”

“Yes, she has,” Jane said.

The rig went down the ramp, and stopped at the light. Jerry was up ahead of him, his right turn blinker on. He made his turn, and pulled into the truck stop. Frank followed him in, and went over the gas RV lane, which was a few lanes over from where Jerry pulled in.

Frank got out of his seat and stretched, pushing on his lower back with his hand.

Jane opened the door and got out with Lucy. They made a bee-line for a grass section, watching out for other rigs coming in. Looks like the whole group has stopped, she thought to herself. There were RVs that she recognized all over the place. Some were just parked on the side, but many were pulled up next to a fuel pump. After he got the gas flowing into his rig, Frank walked over to where Jerry’s rig was. He was already talking to Charlie and Jeb.

“Hear anything from Earl or Jackson?” Frank asked.

“Not yet,” Jerry said. “But I’ll try them again in a few minutes.”

“I just talked to the Sheriff,” Frank said. “He’s past the switchbacks.”

“Good, that old codger got out of dodge too,” Jeb said. “He on his way to us?”

“Yep, he got his rig on the road. Things weren’t good in town. They got overrun.”

“Does he know what happened at the park?” Charlie asked.

“No, he didn’t get back there, but he said that he could hear artillery and small arms fire coming from that direction.”

“What happened in town?” Jeb asked.

“They hit the place full force. Knocked out the Hospital, too,” Frank said.

“Oh no,” Charlie said. “How about the Doc?”

“He didn’t know if the Doc made it out alive or not. He said some of the rednecks where still sniping at the enemy when he got out, but he didn’t think they were going to be able to do much with a force of that size.”

“Damn,” Jeb said.

“So what should we do if we can’t raise Earl or Jackson?” Charlie asked.

“We go back for them, of course,” Jeb said.

“I agree,” Jerry said.

“Me too,” Frank said. “But we probably should get our rigs settled somewhere, and then go back there in our toads.”

“If you want to make a stop before Colorado, I know a park in Green River that’s nice,” Charlie said. “I know the owner.”

“Kurt?” Jeb asked.

“Yep,” Charlie said, grinning.

“Is it safe there?” Jerry asked.

“I think so. It’s pretty flat there. It doesn’t have a lot of cover like Hilda’s place, but you can see people coming from a long way off.”

“Well, it looks pretty good here, and that’s even further north and east,” Jerry said. “And we’re all tired. Maybe we ought to take the chance.”

“Yeah, I agree with that,” Frank said.

“Maybe we ought to let Charlie lead us in there, then,” Jeb said.

“Be glad to,” Charlie said.

“Okay, let’s spread the word to the rest of the group,” Frank said.

The men looked at each other and nodded. Jasmine walked over with Hilda and Jane. Lucy bounded along behind Jane, enjoying the fresh air and the space.

“What’s up, boys?” Hilda asked

“Charlie suggested that we stop at a place he knows about in Green River.”

“Oh, that’s a great idea,” Hilda said. “That’s Kurt’s place. We go way back.”

Jane looked at Frank.

“Safe?” she asked.

“Sounds like it, sweetie.”

“Good, it’s been a long day,” Jane said. “I saw that town on the map. It’s up where Route 24 hits I-70.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Charlie said. “We’ve got to go that way to get to Colorado anyway.”

“How much further is it?” Jasmine asked.

“It’s about two hours away,” Charlie said. “Maybe less if we haul ass.”

“Well, then I say we get back on the road,” Jeb said. “We’re burning daylight.”

“My rig ought to be full by now,” Charlie said. “I’ll go get her ready to lead.”

The rest of the group had gathered by now, and were listening. Frank noticed, and turned towards them.

“Everybody, we are going to spend the night in Green River. It’s a couple of hour’s away, right up by I-70.”

“We’re with you,” said one man. The others murmured and nodded.

“Everybody fueled up that needs to be?” asked Jeb.

There were people nodding and saying yes.

“Good, then let’s blow this joint,” Jeb said.

They dispersed to their rigs. Soon they were back on route 24, following Charlie.

Jane was in the driver’s seat now.

“It always takes me a few minutes to get used to driving this monster,” she said. “But then it’s almost relaxing.”

“Well, you remember that line from the movie “Speed” – ‘It’s like driving a really big Pinto’.”

“That’s one way to put it,” Jane said, cracking up.

Frank’s phone rang. He pulled it out and looked at the screen.

“It’s Jerry,” Frank said. He answered it.

“Jerry, hear anything?”

“No, still can’t raise them.”

“Shoot.”

“I’ve tried a lot of times now, though. Nothing.”

Frank’s phone buzzed.

“Another call coming in, Jerry. It’s the Sheriff.”

“Good, take it. Call me back.” He hung up.

“Sheriff?”

“Yeah, Frank. I’ve got Earl and Jackson. They’re a little messed up.”

“What happened?”

“Earl’s coach was sitting on its side. The tires and most of one side were all shot up. There were three other vehicles crashed nearby. Dead Islamists.”

“Do Earl and Jackson need medical attention?”

“Probably. They’re both conscious. I think Earl has a concussion. Jackson’s got a pretty big gash on his right calf, but he can walk. He really needs stitches, but at least I was able to clean out the wound and bandage it up with my first aid kit.”

“Salvage anything from their rig?”

“Guns and ammo, grenades, clothes, some food, other odds and ends,” the Sheriff said. My nephew was a big help. I don’t think I could have climbed in and out of that thing.”

“Good. I’m so glad they survived.”

“Where you guys going?”

“We’re going to stop at an RV Park in Green River for the night. Charlie and Hilda know the owner.”

“Good. I know that place. I’m about three hours away.”

“Take care of yourself. Sounds like the road down there’s pretty dangerous.”

“I’ve got Terry in the back, watching out the rear window with one of the M-16s and some grenades. If anybody follows us, they’re going to have a real bad day.”

“I’d put Jackson in front with a gun too.”

“Good idea. I’ll talk to you later, Frank.”

“Thanks for letting me know, Sheriff.”

“Don’t mention it. See you soon.”

Frank shut off the call and looked over at Jane.

“I got it, Frank. Thank God they’re okay. Call Jerry.”

Frank dialed Jerry’s number.

“Frank?”

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“The Sheriff has Earl and Jackson in his rig. They are both alive, but a little worse for wear.

“Uh oh. What happened?”

“They ran into some action on the road. They won, but their rig is laying on its side, and they both need a little medical attention.”

“Islamists?”

“Yep, there were a few dead cretons scattered around the scene. The Sheriff said there were three vehicles.”

“Scumbags,” Jerry said. “Thanks for letting me know.”

“I’m not driving right now, so I’ll call Charlie and Jeb.”

“Great, thanks.” Jerry got off the line.

Frank looked over at Jane. His eyes were starting to tear up.

“They’re alright, Frank,” Jane said. “That’s all that matters.”

Frank wiped his eyes and dialed Charlie, accounting the news.

“Shit,” Charlie said. “Kurt’s married to the town doctor…we can get them checked out when they get to camp, hopefully.”

“Excellent,” Frank said. “I’ll call Jeb.”

“You do that. I’ll talk to you later. Thanks for letting me know.”

“No problem,” Frank said. He looked over at Jane.

“Charlie says his friend at the Park in Green River is married to the town doctor.”

“Good, that’ll help.”

Frank dialed Jeb, repeating the news.

“Great,” Jeb said. “Glad the Sheriff found them. Same bunch of creeps hit them?”

“Yep, more of our friends.”

“Which flavor?”

“Islamists. Earl and Jackson won, but their coach is sitting on its side back there, and they’re a little messed up.”

“Well, hope they took some of them out.”

“They did,” Frank said. “Talk to you later.”

“Maybe you should try to doze off for a little while?” Jane said.

“No, I think I ought to keep an eye out. If Earl got hit, who’s to say we don’t run into somebody here.”

“Thanks for making me feel at ease,” Jane said.

“Just trying to use my head,” Frank said. “I’m more worried about the Sheriff. Hope none of the bad guys got away. They might be telling their friends to get on the road and do something.”

“You think that’s likely?” Jane asked.

“Maybe.”

They settled down into the drive, silent for close to an hour. Jane looked into the rear view mirrors often. Lucy got on Frank’s lap after a while and settled in. The sun was starting to get lower in the sky.

“Soft drink?” Frank asked.

“Yes, that sounds good, honey,” Jane said.

Frank got up. Lucy jumped to the floor and went into her bed. He got to the back, and heard Mr. Wonderful meow. “Don’t worry, old boy, it won’t be too much longer,” Frank said as he opened the fridge, pulling out a couple of soft drinks.

“Bring some apples up here, will you?” Jane asked.

“Sure,” Frank said. He opened one of the bins in the fridge and pulled two of them out. Then he closed the fridge doors and put the bungee cord back on. He walked up to the front and sat back down.

“Mr. Wonderful doing okay back there?” Jane asked.

Frank opened a soft drink and gave it to her.

“Well, he meowed at me. Sounded kind of like a protest. He doesn’t look happy.”

“He’ll live,” Jane said. She took a big drink of her soft drink, and put it in the drink holder. Frank handed her an apple. She smiled at him and took a bite.

“Think we should listen to the radio?” Frank asked.

“You can try to find something, but we’re pretty far away from the nearest town. I’d be surprised if you get much of anything.”

Frank leaned over to the radio and switched it on, then hit the seek button. Nothing but a real scratchy country western music station.

“So much for that,” Frank said. He turned off the radio.

“Why don’t you check the GPS on my phone and see how much farther we have to go?”

Frank picked it up off of the dash. “No dice, no bars. We really are in deadsville.”

“I think we’re in in Goblin Valley,” Jane said, snickering. “Reminds me of a Twilight Zone episode.”

Frank laughed. He opened his soft drink, and took a big gulp. Then he set it in the drink holder and took a bite out of his apple. “These apples are right on the verge,” he said.

“Yeah, that’s why I’ve been telling you to eat them for the last few days. They’re still alright, though.”

“Barely.” They were silent for another stretch, watching the scenery go by, and the shadows get longer.

“There’s a sign for I-70,” Frank said, pointing.

“We must be getting close, then. Look, Charlie’s got his turn signal on. Next off ramp.”

Charlie made the turn off of route 24, followed by Jerry. Jane followed them down. Frank moved around so he could see backwards from the passenger side mirror, and saw the line of coaches following.

“Good, here before dark,” Frank said. “Perfect.”

The RV Park was down the road about five miles, and off to the left about three blocks. The town was a little larger than Frank expected, but this park was definitely on the outskirts. Charlie got into the staging lane in front of the park and pulled all the way forward. There was only room for about five rigs, but the road leading up to the driveway was long and empty, so all of the coaches in the group could pull up and wait. Charlie and Hilda got out of their car and went into the office. Jerry and Jasmine followed them.

“Let’s go,” Frank said. Jane shut off the engine, and they both got out the door, pushing Lucy back before they shut it. They walked to the office and went in the door.

“Ah, here’s Frank and Jane,” Charlie said, smiling. “Folks, this is Kurt. His wife’s still at the clinic. She’ll be along in a while.”

Kurt was a trim, fit looking man in his late sixties, with hair dyed back to the blonde of his youth. It looked a little comical on top of his craggy face. He had a warm smile.

“What’s your wife’s name?” Jane asked.

“Mary,” Kurt said. “Nice to meet you folks. Any friend of Charlie and Hilda’s……and all that.”

“You guys have room for twenty five rigs?” Frank asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Kurt said. “This hasn’t exactly been a sell-out season.”

“Running into any trouble here yet?” Jerry asked.

“Not so far, thank God,” Kurt said. “We have a good Sheriff’s department. Lots of ex-military folks on the force…and of course we also have a well-armed group of citizens here.”

“This town looks bigger than I expected,” Frank said.

“It’s because of I-70,” Kurt said. “This is the last decent sized town before you get to Colorado. This place is a zoo during ski season.”

“I could image,” Jane said. “You really haven’t had any enemy fighters here?”

“Not so far. They might be a little nervous about coming here, because the Army is using this stretch of I-70 a lot. It’s really well guarded. The only down side is a lot of chopper traffic. Gets a little noisy sometimes.”

“Sounds like we might have found a place we can stay for a few days,” Jeb said as he walked in the door.”

“Jeb, is that really you?” Kurt said with a big grin.

“Yeah, how are you, old man? Been a lot of years.”

“I’ll say. How come you never get north anymore?”

“Oh, you know,” Jeb said. “Lazy, I guess. Getting old.”

“Wait a minute, you guys know each other too?” Jerry said, laughing.

“Charlie’s pop and my dad were friends. They both started their RV Parks at about the same time. They sent a lot of customers to each other, and shared a lot of knowhow and such. I used to play with Charlie when they would get together, and Jeb was with him pretty often.”

“That reminds me,” Charlie said. He had a somber look on his face. “We lost Chester a few days ago.”

“No!” Kurt said. “How?”

“He died in a fight. He saved us,” Jerry said.

“God, I’m so sorry to hear that,” Kurt said. “When I saw your group coming in, I was hoping he might be with you. Mary is going to be really upset about this.”

“There is other news too, on a little happier note,” Hilda said.

“What’s that?” Kurt asked.

“Charlie and I got hitched.”

“You’re kidding,” Kurt said. “You didn’t learn your lesson when you two dated all those years ago?”

“Guess we didn’t,” Charlie said, grinning.

“Well, I’m happy for both of you. Tell your party to go ahead in. They can get settled and come back tomorrow morning to settle up. You guys are welcome to stay as long as you like.”

“Thanks, Kurt,” Charlie said. They all went back outside. Most of the group was standing out of the covered porch next to the office.

“The owner said we can all go in and find a spot. We can come back and settle up in the morning.”

“Does it sound like its safe here?” one woman asked.

“So far,” Jerry said. “Lots of Army activity here, and lots of air patrols.”

Everybody got into their coaches, ready to stream into the park.

Chapter 07 – Carnage at Camp

“Good,” Frank said. “We have just enough light left to get setup.”

“Are you going to put out all of the slides and unhook the toad?” Jane asked. “Maybe we should stay ready to go, just in case.”

“I’ll just hook up the electrical. That only takes a second.”

“I like that idea, Frank.”

“Better safe than sorry,” Frank said. He climbed into the driver’s seat and started the engine back up. The gate opened, and Charlie drove through, followed by Jerry. Frank got behind them.

“Wonder if they have pull-through sites?” Jane asked.

“I’ll look for one. That way we won’t have to back up.”

“Good,” Jane said. Lucy looked up at Jane, wagging her tail. “Oh, all right, come on up.”

“Look,” Frank said, “that row that Charlie and Jerry are pulling into are all pull through.”

“Perfect.”

Frank turned onto the row, and slowly pulled into the site next to Jerry and Jasmine’s rig. He pulled forward enough for the toad to be out of the roadway, and then shut off the engine. Jeb pulled his rig into the next spot.

“I think we better get Lucy out,” Jane said.

“Yes, let’s do that, and then we can chat with our friends.”

“Are you going to level out?” Jane asked as she got up.

“I can,” Frank said. “Maybe I should, just in case you decide to attack me tonight.” He grinned.

“Oh, that again?” she said. “Suit yourself. I’m not making any promises.” There was enough of a smile on her face to prompt Frank to turn on the leveling system.

“C’mon, Lucy,” Jane said. Lucy jumped up and down with excitement, as the coach lurched. It found level in just a few seconds.

“Wow, nice level site,” Frank said. He shut off the engine and pulled the keys out. “Why don’t you get started with Lucy while I hook up the electrical? I’ll catch up with you.”

“Alright. You don’t have to catch up if you’re too tired.”

“I want to take a short spin around the park,” Frank said. “You know…..look for alternate exits, see where things are.”

“Got it,” Jane said. She opened the coach door and waited for the steps to come out. Then she stepped out, behind Lucy. Frank followed her and went around to the back of the coach. He plugged in the electrical, and then met Jane and Lucy around by the entrance to the site.

“Done,” Frank said. He looked around. “Nice Park, but Charlie was right. No cover…it’s flat as a pool table.

“There’s a clubhouse over in the middle,” Jane said, pointing, “and a little store, and a pool next to it.”

The coaches in their group were still streaming in and parking. A couple who were setting up waved at Frank and Jane as they walked by.

“I’m hoping we see the Sheriff in about 45 minutes,” Frank said.

“You sure he knows which park we’re in?”

“Well, I suspect he knows Kurt, since he goes back so far with Hilda and Charlie. I could call him, though.”

“Why don’t you do that…just in case.”

Frank nodded, and pulled out his phone. He dialed the Sheriff and put the phone to his ear.

“Crap, no answer,” Frank said.

“Maybe he’s in a dead zone,” Jane said. “We know they’re out there.”

“I hope so,” Frank said. “Now I’m going to worry until he gets here.”

“Wonder if that’s Kurt’s wife?” Jane asked, pointing at the car driving in. “That’s a nice BMW.”

“Maybe these parks are a pretty good business,” Frank said.

“She is a doctor, you know,” Jane said. “And this isn’t a two-bit town, so I bet she pulls down some nice money.”

Looks like our friends are gathering next to Charlie’s coach. Maybe we should get back,” Frank said. Jane nodded, and they started walking in that direction, coaxing Lucy to hurry up.

“How are you guys?” Frank asked. The group turned towards them and smiled.

“I’m glad to have a little bit of rest,” Charlie said.

“Me too,” Hilda said, her arm around Charlie’s waist.

Jasmine came walking up with Rosie. She was carrying a folding chair. She opened it and Rosie sat down.

“Nice place,” Jasmine said, looking around. “You comfortable, Mom?”

“Yes, I fine, thanks,” she said. “Nice to see all.”

“Nice to see you too, beautiful,” Jeb said. Rosie grinned at him.

“I tried to call the Sheriff a few minutes ago. No answer,” Frank said.

“Uh oh,” Jerry said. “Hope he was just in a dead zone.”

“I wouldn’t start worrying too much yet,” Charlie said. “The last stretch before you hit this town is notorious for bad cell coverage. He’s probably right in the middle of that country now.”

“I hope you’re right,” Jeb said. “How long are we staying here?”

“Good question,” Jerry said. “I see none of us have moved out our slides or unhooked our toads.”

“After all that’s happened, I want to be able to get out of dodge fast,” Jeb said. The others nodded.

“Here come’s Kurt and his wife,” Charlie said, looking over.

Kurt was walking over arm and arm with his wife. She was a very attractive black woman, in her mid-50s.

“Hi, Mary,” Hilda said. She walked over and gave her a hug. “So nice to see you. How are the kids?”

“Both in school back east, thank God,” she said. “I can’t believe how things have been going over the past few weeks.”

“Hi, Mary,” Charlie said. “Everybody, this is Kurt’s wife Mary. Mary, this is Jerry and Jasmine, Rosie, and Frank and Jane. I’m sure you already know Jeb.”

“Sure, I know Jeb,” she said. “It’s so nice to meet all of you. Have you been traveling together for long?”

“Not really,” Jasmine said. “But we’ve gotten really close.”

“Yes, we’ve had some pretty crazy times,” Jerry said. Everybody nodded in agreement.

“You’ll have to tell us all about it,” Mary said. “We haven’t seen action here, except for all these damn helicopters buzzing around, waking us up.”

“I’m glad they’re here,” Kurt said.

“Kurt said you may need my help with somebody who’s coming,” Mary said.

“Yes, a couple of our people got wounded on the road,” Frank said. “We expect them to show up sometime in the next half hour or so.”

“Anybody I know?” Mary asked.

“The man driving the rig is the Sheriff of Hilda’s town,” Jerry said.

“Sheriff Brown?” Mary asked.

“Yes,” Charlie said. “Know him?”

“Of course,” she said. “He used to be a ski fanatic until he got too old. He stayed here every season, on his way up to Colorado. He’s quite a flirt, that one.”

“That’s for sure,” Frank said. “He was in the hospital last week, and he flirted with the nurses a lot, according to the Doc.”

“Which Doc?” Mary asked.

“You know, I don’t know anything but his first name…George,” Frank said.

“His name is George Zenker,” Hilda said.

“Oh, yeah, I know him well,” Mary said. “Did he get out of town? The hospital was destroyed, according to the reports on the radio. Lots of people were killed.”

“We don’t know,” Frank said. “The Sheriff said the town got overrun. He told us about the hospital. He didn’t know what happened to the Doc.”

“Oh, no,” Mary said. “I hope he made it. He’s a good man.”

“Yes, he is,” Hilda said.

“What’re your plans?” Kurt asked.

“We don’t know for sure yet,” Charlie said. “The military folks at Hilda’s park told us to get as far east as Colorado, at least.”

“Why? Things aren’t bad here.” Mary said.

“There are a lot of enemy fighters in southwestern Utah, and they’re giving our military and the citizens a real run for their money,” Jeb said.

“What’s a lot?” asked Kurt.

Jeb looked at the others.

“We were sworn to secrecy, but you two are friends. Can you keep a secret?” Jeb asked.

“Yes, of course,” Mary said.

“About two hundred thousand,” Jeb said. Mary got a horrified look on her face, and she looked at Kurt. “Maybe it’s a good time to go visit the kids.”

“Don’t be too hasty,” Kurt said. “The town needs both of us here.”

“That’s a lot of enemy fighters,” Mary said. “More than we can handle here.”

“They’re still quite a ways south,” Charlie said. “We just drove the whole way through. The furthest out that we saw problems was in Boulder.”

“Okay, Charlie, then tell me why you guys haven’t put out your slides and unhooked your toads,” Mary asked.

“We’re all a little shell shocked,” Jasmine said. “We’ve had a rough time down south. A real rough time. We just barely got out of Hilda’s park in time.”

“How come we aren’t hearing those kind of numbers for the enemy on the media?” asked Mary, looking from one of the new visitors to the other.

“Maybe the authorities don’t want people to panic,” Charlie said. “Although I must admit that I don’t trust what we’re being told lately. Not one bit. The official word has been all over the place.”

“I still want to know how the hell all of those cretins got here,” Jerry said.

“I think a lot of them have been here for a long time,” Jeb said. “Sleepers, just waiting.”

“I agree with that,” Frank said. “The enemies have coordinated this well. They have us all tied up in Mexico. We ought to be bringing all of our troop’s home from South Korea and the Middle East and Europe. Yesterday.”

“Damn straight,” Jeb said.

Everybody was silent for a few moments.

“Maybe I should try the Sheriff again,” Frank said. He pulled out his phone and hit the number. He waited silently for a few seconds. “Nothing, damn it.”

“We haven’t had our rig out in a few months,” Mary said. “Maybe I’ll just go get her loaded up, in case we need to be out of here in a hurry.”

Kurt looked down at the ground silently, making his decision.

“I’m trying to think up a reason why we shouldn’t be ready to get out of here, but I can’t. You’ve got me convinced. Let’s go. I’ll get the batteries charged up, and help you load.”

“See you guys later,” Charlie said. “You’re welcome to join our little band of old reprobates if you’d like.”

“How could we walk away from an offer like that,” Kurt said, laughing.

“Hopefully it won’t come to that,” Mary said, as they were walking away.

“Wow,” Jerry said. “That was intense.”

“I know exactly how they feel,” Hilda said, her eyes welling up with tears. “Have any of you had a chance to get onto the security system back at my park? Maybe we can see something.”

“Frank and I could mess with that in a little while,” Jerry said. “I need a bite to eat first, though.”

“Me too,” Frank said. “What do you think, honey? Should we retire to our rig for a little while?”

“Yes, let’s do that,” Jane said. She tugged on Lucy’s leash, causing her to stand up slowly.

“Lucy looks as nervous as hell,” Jeb said. He looked around, squinting his eyes.

“It’s probably just the discussion we were having,” Frank said. “She gets nervous when people get upset.”

“Well, the hackles on the back of my neck are standing up, and I don’t think it’s the conversation,” Jeb said. “I’m going to climb on top of my rig with the binoculars and have a look around.” He turned and walked back over to his rig.

“Now I’m getting nervous,” Jane said.

“Me too,” said Jasmine. “Let’s go in the coach and eat something too, Jerry.”

“You people scaredy cat,” Rosie said. She shook her head as Jerry helped her up. “We run again?”

“No, Mom,” Jasmine said. She looked at the group and mouthed ‘sorry’.

Frank and Jane climbed into their coach.

“What sounds good?” Jane asked.

“Anything that we can just zap and eat. I’m feeling nervous too. I think I might join Jeb on the roof afterwards, for a few minutes.”

“Let’s put the guns where we can get at them in a hurry,” Jane said. Frank nodded. He went into the back and put on his holster, and checked his Winchester. When he walked out, Jane was looking at her M-16.

“I’ve got to watch the ammo for this, since we can’t get anymore,” Jane said. “I’ve still got about 180 rounds, though. I might have to switch over to one of the AK-47s eventually. We did get the ammo for that, didn’t we?”

“Yeah, I’ve got some of it in our side storage compartment, along with three of the guns. Most of it was in Earl’s rig, though.”

“Not good,” Jane said.

“The Sheriff said that they pulled all of that out of Earl’s coach, along with some grenades.”

“Good, assuming the Sheriff makes it here. Who ended up with the mortars?”

“I saw Jeb loading two of those into his rig, and I think Jerry has at least one as well.”

“Good,” Jane said. She walked over to the fridge and pulled the freezer open. “There are some Hot Pockets in here, want a couple?”

“Sounds good…quick and easy,” Frank said. “I’m going to set up the laptop.”

“Know what the Wi-Fi code is?” Jane asked.

“No, not yet.”

“Maybe Charlie knows, since he’s been around here a lot.”

Frank pulled his phone out of his pocket and called Charlie.

“Hi, Frank, hear something about the Sheriff?”

“No, Charlie, sorry. I was wondering if you knew what the Wi-Fi code was.”

“It’s an easy one…‘greenriverrv’...all one word, lower case.”

“Excellent, thanks.”

“Are you going to try to connect to Hilda’s security system?”

“Yes,” Frank said. “In a little while.”

“Good. If it’s on, make sure you check all of the cameras before we let the women look at it. I’m a little worried about what we’re gonna see.”

“Roger that,” Frank said. “Talk to you later.”

“Bye.”

Frank put his phone in his pocket.

“Got it?” Jane asked.

“Yep, it’s greenriverrv, lower case, all one word.”

“I could have guessed that one,” Jane said, laughing.

“I know. They aren’t close to the city, so it doesn’t matter if people can figure it out.”

“Guess not. Here’s your dinner,” she said. She slid a plate in front of Frank. “Want a soft drink?”

“I’d rather have a beer, but I better not.”

“Yeah, you’d better not,” Jane said. She pulled out a soft drink and handed it to him, then joined him at the dinette with her Hot Pockets. “We aren’t safe here at all, are we?”

Frank finished chewing his first bite, then washed it down with a gulp of soda.

“I don’t know, sweetie. It was a good idea to stay ready to leave.”

“How about that Rosie,” Jane said, grinning. “She wants us to take it to the bad guys.”

“She didn’t grow up in the US. She doesn’t understand the mindset of folks here. We haven’t had major battles on our soil since the Civil War. Most countries can’t say that, including the one she’s from.”

“Maybe she sees things better than we do,” Jane said. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but maybe we ought to be thinking more about the country and less about ourselves.”

“I’m all for putting ourselves into the fight, as long as we have a chance…and we will get into the fight again, I suspect. Even if we make it further east. You know there’s a good chance that there are other large enemy forces hidden around the country.”

“That thought’s crossed my mind,” she said.

Frank took another bite of his dinner, and turned on the laptop.

“I wouldn’t spend too much time messing with that,” Jane said. “That chapter is over. We aren’t going back that direction.”

“I know,” Frank said. “I’m mainly just curious, and I think we owe it to Hilda to take a look.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Jane said.

Frank typed on the keyboard. “We’re in.” He typed some more.

“Is the system still up?” Jane asked.

“It appears to be,” Frank said. The view from the first camera displayed on the screen. It was the back view, by the blind. Frank got a grim look on his face. He cycled through the cameras.

“What are you seeing?” Jane asked.

“The tank in the back is blown up, and there are bodies everywhere,” Frank said.

“Theirs or ours?” Jane asked.

“Both, from what I can tell. It’s a little dark.” He continued to cycle through the pictures. Every view showed some kind of carnage. Then he got to the view of the front gate, and stopped. He looked closely at the screen, and then shut down the computer.

“What?” Jane asked. Frank had tears in his eyes.

“You don’t want to know,” Frank said.

“Don’t treat me that way, dammit. What did you see?”

“There are heads on spikes by the front gate. They moved the camera to give a better view. They knew somebody would be looking.” Frank closed the lid on the laptop.

“Oh, no. Did you recognize anybody?”

“Yes,” Frank said.

“Who?”

“The General. Major Hobbs. The Doc.”

Jane started crying.

“Oh, my God,” she said between sobs. “I thought they were going to get out of there.”

“They probably couldn’t. They killed a lot of the bad guys. I saw more Islamists littering the ground than our boys. I’m going to go out and tell the others. Don’t look at it. Trust me.”

“I’m going with you,” Jane said. “I don’t want to be by myself.”

They got up and headed for the door. Lucy got up and wagged her tail, but she was turning her head to the side as she watched them crying. She knew something was wrong, and she was trying to understand.

“We should take her,” Frank said. “She’s our eyes and ears.”

Jane nodded and put her on the leash. They went outside. Jerry was just walking over.

“You want to check out the park?” Jerry asked.

“No,” Frank said. “I just did. It’s not something we should be showing the others…especially the women.”

“Bad, huh?” Jerry asked. “I was afraid of that. A lot of damage? A lot of bodies?”

“It’s way beyond that. There were heads on spikes. Our friend’s heads. The bastards focused the camera right onto it. They knew somebody would be looking.”

“Oh shit,” Jerry said.

“Hey, guys, here comes the Sheriff,” Jeb shouted from up on his roof.

Frank and Jerry looked up, and Charlie ran over from his coach.

“Uh oh, he’s seen some action,” Jeb said, following the coach with his binoculars. “The side of his rig is all shot up, and his engine is smoking. He’s going through the gate now. We’d better get over there.”

Chapter 08 – The Hunt Begins

Jeb climbed off the roof of his rig as quickly as he could, and ducked into it to grab his hunting rifle. Then he jogged over to the front gate with Frank and Jane, followed by Jerry and Jasmine. Charlie and Hilda came running out of their rig and followed too. Lucy was barking and looking around.

“Does Lucy see something?” Jeb asked, trying to scan the area as they ran.

“Don’t know,” Frank said. “She might just be nervous because we’re nervous.”

The Sheriff’s rig pulled to a stop just inside the gate, and lurched as the engine shut off. Kurt and Mary were running over. Jeb got to the door of the rig first and pulled it open. The Sheriff was at the door, holding his left hand, which was covered in blood.

“Sheriff, you alright?” Jeb said.

“My hand’s a little messed up, and I’m pissed,” he said. He climbed out. He saw Mary coming over and smiled. “Mary! Boy are you a sight for sore eyes.”

“Let me look at that hand,” she said, with a concerned look on her face.

Terry came out of the coach, helping Jackson. Earl followed them. They were all holding weapons.

“I think Jackson’s in worse shape than I am,” the Sheriff said. “My hand isn’t bad…..flesh wound between my thumb and forefinger. I don’t think I lost any bone.”

“Okay, let’s all get into the clubhouse where it’s light,” Mary said. The Deputy and Jackson hobbled over, with the Sheriff and Mary beside them, and Earl bringing up the rear, looking around warily with his gun in his hand. The others got behind them and followed.

“I’m glad to see you guys,” Jeb said. “What happened out there?”

“Let’s wait until we get inside,” Kurt said. Jeb nodded. Mary got to the door first, and reached in for the light switch. The room lit up brightly. It was a nice rustic room with pine paneling all the way around, and rows of benches. The kitchen was on one end and a large stage was on the other. Everybody sat down. Mary walked over to Jackson.

“Lay down on this table, while I go get my bag,” she said to Jackson. She rushed out of the room, heading towards the residence next door.

“I’ll get some coffee going,” Kurt said. He went into the kitchen.

“Honey, I’m going to go get Mom,” Jasmine said to Jerry. “I don’t want her out there by herself.”

“I’ll go with you,” Jerry said. “We need to have our guns with us, too.” Jasmine nodded.

Frank, Jane, Charlie, and Hilda gathered around the Sheriff.

“Where’d you get hit?” asked Charlie.

“Way too close to here,” the Sheriff said. “It was in Goblin Valley.”

“Oh, shit,” Jeb said. “Any of them survive?”

“Not that I could see,” he said. “Earl and Terry saved our butts. There was only one vehicle….a pickup truck. They tried to force us off the road.”

“Did you run them off the road?” Frank asked. The Sheriff nodded at Earl.

“I lobbed a grenade into the back of the pickup,” Earl said, grinning. “They tried to grab it and throw it out, but it went off. Blew the gas tank. Nobody survived. I’m pretty sure of that.”

“I’m glad you got your head together before that attack happened,” the Sheriff said. “I was worried about you.”

“Oh, I just bumped my noggin,” Earl said. “I’ve still got a little bit of a headache, but I’m alright…and by the way, a lot of the credit belongs to Terry.”

The Deputy grinned at Earl and nodded.

“Yeah, Terry earned his wings with this one,” the Sheriff said. “I’m proud of you, boy.”

“Thanks, uncle,” Terry said. “I’m not so scared anymore.”

“A taste of action helps with that,” Jeb said. “So Earl, who hit you guys when you lost your rig?”

“Four trucks full of morons,” he said. “We knocked out three of them, but then I lost control of my rig. Dammit.”

“One truck got away, huh,” Jeb said. “The one that attacked the Sheriff’s rig?”

“I’m pretty sure it was,” Earl said.

“Well maybe that’s good,” Frank said. “Maybe they were only up this far chasing you guys. Maybe there isn’t a larger force up here.”

“That truck had a radio antenna on it,” the Sheriff said. “I’m not so sure we’re safe here for very long. All they have to do is ask towns people where the RV Park is.”

Mary came back into the room with a large black back and a large plastic first aid box.

“You might want to take a look at Earl, too,” Jane said. “He had a concussion, according to the Sheriff. He seems alright now, but we should be sure.”

“Come here, Earl,” Mary said. He walked over. She pulled out a small flashlight. “Let’s see your eyes.”

Earl sat down and she held each of his eyes open and looked closely.

“Looks like you are alright. I’ll bet you have a headache.”

“A little,” he said.

“How long ago did this happen?”

“It’s been several hours now.”

“Do you have a wound on your head?”

“Just a little goose egg in the back.” Mary felt it.

“Not too bad. Okay, don’t go to sleep too early,” she said. “We’ll keep an eye on you.”

“I’m too wound up to go to sleep anytime soon,” Earl said.

Mary smiled at him. “Alright, what’s up with your other friend, Sheriff?”

“Jackson,” the Sheriff said. “He’s got a gash on his leg. It quit bleeding at least.”

“Let’s have a look,” she said. Jackson struggled to get his pants off as she walked over

“I can just cut those off,” Mary said.

“No way, I had to leave a lot of my clothes in my rig when I got the blowout. Can’t afford to lose anything else now.”

“Okay, Jackson,” Mary said. She got close and looked. “This isn’t too bad. You’re lucky. How did it happen?”

“When Earl’s rig went sideways, we got tossed around a little. I hit something sharp.”

“Well, you boys are lucky,” she said. “This is going to sting a little bit.” She had a squeeze bottle of alcohol in her hand. She held open the wound and squirted, cleaning it out. Jackson grimaced.

“How does it look?” Earl asked.

“He doesn’t even need stitches. I can close this up with some butterflies.”

“Good,” Jackson said.

“You need help?” Rosie asked as Jerry helped her through the door. “I nurse.”

“Yes, as a matter of fact. Why don’t you close up Jackson’s wound with these butterflies while I take a look at the Sheriff’s hand?”

“I do,” Rosie said. Jerry pulled out the bench next to the table that Jackson was laying on, and she sat down and got to work.

“This is a bullet wound, isn’t it?” Mary asked. He nodded.

“Went clean through. I think it missed the bone.”

“Yes, it did, barely. This has got to hurt,” she said.

“It does,” he said. “But just looking at you makes me feel better. It’s been too long.” He grinned.

“Hey, no flirting with my woman, you old lecher,” Kurt said, walking in from the kitchen. He laughed. “I’m so glad you made it, old friend.”

“You and me both,” the Sheriff said. “Sorry for the mess.”

“How bad is your rig?” Kurt asked.

“I don’t know yet,” the Sheriff said. “I can live with the bullet holes, but something was making the engine smoke quite a bit.”

“Was it still running alright?” Charlie asked.

“Yeah, actually, it felt normal all the way here. Terry told me about the smoke. I couldn’t see it in the mirrors.”

“We’ll take a look at her,” Jeb said. “Don’t worry about it.”

“One of your slides might not work, on the driver’s side,” Jerry said. “That’s where most of the bullet holes are.”

“I don’t care too much about that, as long as it’s road worthy. I don’t think we’re going to want to stick around here for long, and we’re already down two coaches.”

“Who lost coaches?” asked Kurt.

“Jackson had a blowout shortly before we got into Capitol Reef, and Earl’s rig was attacked. It’s laying on its side way back by Boulder.”

“Oh,” Kurt said. “There are a couple of extra rigs here, and both of them run. If we need to leave, let’s take them.”

“You have extra rigs?” the Sheriff asked.

“Yeah, I picked them up cheap. I rent them out. They’ve both been gone through recently, in prep for this non-event of a season.” He laughed. “I even put new tires on them.”

Mary finished cleaning out the Sheriff’s wound, and wrapped it with a bandage.

“We’re going to have to keep an eye on this,” she said. “Same with Jackson’s leg.”

“Thanks so much for helping us,” the Sheriff said.

“Yes, seriously,” Jackson said. “You’re a life saver.”

“Glad to do it,” Mary said. She put her supplies back into her bag. “Nice job on the leg. Your name is Rosie, right?”

“Yes, thank you,” Rosie said, smiling. “I nurse in Philippines for many year.”

“Excellent. We’ll make a good team,” Mary said.

“What now?” Jerry asked.

“Did you get a look at Hilda’s park?” Charlie asked. Hilda came over close to him.

“Yes, I’m afraid I did,” Frank said.

“Oh no, what did you see?” Hilda asked.

“There was a nasty battle there. I think the buildings are alright, but our army friends are dead. The General and Major Hobbs…and the Doc too.”

“No,” Charlie said. He looked over at Hilda and she started to cry.

“George is dead?” Mary asked. “That’s awful.”

“How do you know?” Jeb asked. “You got that good a look at their bodies?”

Frank got closer to Jeb so he could speak quietly.

“Those creeps put their heads on spikes out by the front gate, and then focused a camera right on them. They knew we’d be looking.”

Jeb’s face turned red. “I’m going to take out as many of these jerks as I can. Jane didn’t see that, I hope.”

“No, I saw it and shut down the PC before she could look,” Frank said.

Jerry walked over and listened.

“What else did you see?” Jeb asked.

“Carnage everywhere. Lots of dead Islamists and dead soldiers too. The tank is blown apart back by the blinds. Bodies everywhere.”

“We got out just in time, didn’t we?” Earl asked as he walked up.

“You heard what I said too?” Frank asked.

“Yeah, I’ve got good ears,” he said. “Those sick bastards.”

“We need to get back in this fight, men,” Jeb said.

“I agree,” Jerry said, “but we need to do that from a safe base, and I don’t think this is it.”

“So what are you suggesting?” Jeb asked.

“I’m suggesting that we continue to go east. Get into Colorado, and find a good base of operations. Then we go back in and create havoc.”

“What kind of havoc?” Frank asked.

“Blow up their supplies,” Jerry said. “Blow up their vehicles. Kill as many as we can. Capture weapons. Rinse and Repeat.”

“You guys could also hack their systems, I suspect,” Earl said, looking at Frank. He nodded.

“Hey, any chance you can access that DVR at the park?” Jeb asked. “We might be able to identify the mongrels who led the attack and beheaded our friends. Maybe then we can go hunting.”

“You know, that’s a damn good idea,” Jerry said. “What do you think, Frank”?

“We can certainly try,” Frank said. “The place looked deserted to me when I was cycling through the cameras earlier. If they didn’t shut down that part of the system, we should be able to go back through the video.”

“That won’t guarantee that we’ll be able to tell who we need to kill, though,” Earl said.

“I know,” Jerry said, “but it’s worth a shot at least.”

“What are you men getting ready to do?” Jane asked as she walked up with Jasmine.

“We’re going to see if we can get on the DVR at the park and see who killed our friends.”

“Why?” Jasmine asked.

“So we can hunt them down,” Jeb said.

“Seriously?” Jasmine asked.

“I don’t know,” Jane said. “Maybe that’s the right thing to do. Maybe Rosie’s right.”

“Maybe it’ll get our men killed,” Jasmine said.

“I’m not staying behind anymore,” Jane said, defiance, like steel, in her voice. “I’m going to participate. Frank and I already had that discussion. If anything happens to him, I don’t want to be here anyway, and I think we’ve proven our worth in battle, don’t you think?”

Jasmine was silent for moment. Jerry got next to her and put his arm around her. She pulled him close and sobbed quietly, her head leaning on his chest.

“We aren’t going to do anything stupid,” Frank said. “We’ll only act if we have a good chance of pulling off our objective.”

“Hey, what are you guys talking about?” asked Jackson.

The group moved over towards him, just as Kurt walked back over.

“There’s coffee in the big pot, over in the kitchen there.”

“That sounds excellent,” Earl said.

“Could you grab me a cup, Earl?” asked Jackson. “I need to stay off of this leg for a little while.”

“Of course,” he said. He got up and walked over to the kitchen.

“Want some?” Jane asked Frank.

“Sure, I don’t see us going to bed very early tonight,” he said. Jane followed Earl over to the kitchen.

“I think I’ll pass for now,” Jeb said. “I’m wound up enough as it is. I still have those hackles on the back of my neck. I don’t think we’re in the safest place.”

“Hackles?” Kurt asked. “I don’t like the sound of that. Been around when you got the hackles before.”

“Yeah, I usually get this kind of feeling before something happens. Get it hunting a lot, but also in battles.”

Earl and Jane came back over, both carrying two cups of coffee. Jackson sat up and Earl handed him a cup. He took a sip.

“Mmmmm,” he said. “The only beverage I like better than beer.”

“Here, honey,” Jane said, handing a cup to Frank. He smiled at her and took a sip.

“Alright, bring us up to speed,” Kurt said. “I saw you guys talking over there.”

“Yes, I want to hear too,” Mary said, as she walked over with Charlie, Hilda, the Sheriff, and the Deputy.

“Me three,” Rosie said.

“Alright, here’s what we are thinking of doing for the next few hours,” Frank said. “Jerry and I are going to see if we can access the DVR at Hilda’s park and see what went down, and who the main perps were.”

“Why?” Mary asked.

“So we can hunt them down and kill them,” Jeb said.

“Oh, that’s foolishness,” Hilda said.

“No it not,” Rosie said. “Now you talking. Army can’t stop bad guys alone. Need help from citizen fighters.”

“Actually, we could put together a pretty capable force,” Charlie said.

“How,” Kurt asked.

“Frank’s basically a genius with computer networks,” Jerry said, “and both Jasmine and I know a lot too. We can track these guys…follow their movements. See where their supplies are. Then we can either hit them ourselves, or help the authorities to go after them.”

“You guys aren’t going to do much against two hundred thousand enemy fighters,” Mary said.

“Oh, I beg to differ,” Jeb said. “Most of these folks are stupid. We’ve gone up against them enough to know that. We can’t kill all of them, but we can do things like take out key personnel and blow up their supplies.”

“Yeah, supplies are getting scarce,” Jackson said. “I’m sure that’s why they were after us on the road. All of the Williams Militia folks that were after us are dead now.”

“Any sign of any militia folks in the road engagements?” Frank asked.

“Nope, it was all Islamic fighters and some of those cretins from Venezuela, from what I saw,” Earl said.

“I like what I’m hearing,” the Sheriff said. “Count me in.”

“Me too,” the Deputy said.

“I think you’d better count us in as well,” Kurt said, looking over at Mary. She shook her head, but had a resigned look on her face.

“I don’t like this one bit, but I think you guys are going to need a medic,” she said. “You’d better not get yourself killed, Kurt. I don’t think I could take that.”

“Okay, so the short term plan is to look at DVR recordings, if we can access them,” Charlie said. “That won’t take the whole team. What can the rest of us do while you are busy with that?”

“We need to find out how safe it is to be here,” Frank said. “You guys can help with that. I will too, after I’ve got the DVR setup going. I don’t need to be involved watching all the video, just getting it set up.”

“Would it help to have more horsepower for your hacking activities?” Kurt asked. “We’ve got a new desktop machine over in the corner there. You’re welcome to use it.” He pointed over in the corner of the room.

“That would be helpful, and it’ll free up my laptop to display the DVR footage.” Frank said.

“Who knows how to work on diesels other than me?” Charlie asked.

“I do,” Jeb said.

“Me too,” Earl said.

“Good, then we can take a look at the Sheriff’s rig,” Charlie said.

“I’ve got a set of flood lights if you want to do it tonight,” Kurt said.

“Good,” Charlie said. “I think we want to be ready to fly the coop at a moment’s notice.”

“Yes,” Kurt said. “I’ll go get those two rental coaches on the charger, and make sure they’re ready to go. Then Mary and I’ll continue getting our rig ready to go.”

“You make it sound like you already know it’s not safe here,” Mary said.

“I know Jeb,” Kurt told her. “If he’s got hackles on the back of his neck, I pay attention.”

“Hey, Sheriff, were you guys able to get all of those guns and the mortars out of Earl’s rig?” asked Jerry.

“Yep, and a few thousand rounds of ammo too,” the Sheriff said. “You can thank Terry for that. It took a lot of climbing around in the wreckage of Earl’s coach.”

“Excellent,” Jerry said. Then he looked at Mary and Kurt. “How are you two with firearms?”

Jeb started laughing. “Hell, Kurt is as good with a long gun as I am, and better with a bow.”

“You’re thinking I should bring my bow?” Kurt said.

“That damn bow of Jeb’s saved our butts in town a few days ago,” Frank said. “He ambushed the ambushers with that thing before they knew what was going on.”

“Figures,” Kurt said. “I’m a little rusty, but I’ve still got all my stuff. I’ll pack it. Never used it on humans.”

“Alright, everybody, let’s get to work,” Charlie said.

Chapter 09 – Enemy Wave

“Need anything from the coach, honey?” Frank asked.

“Why, you going over there?” Jane asked.

“Yes, I need to get the laptop and bring it over here.”

“I’ll go with you. We need to feed Lucy and Mr. Wonderful.”

“Don’t go eating anything back there,” Mary called to them. “I broke out a few trays of lasagna that we had in the deep freeze. They’re in the oven now…be done in an hour or so.”

“Sounds great,” Jane said.

“We’ll be back in a few minutes,” Frank said as they left with Lucy.

The night was cool and clear as they walked.

“What do you think?” Jane asked.

“I think we’re getting organized in the right way. You?”

“Same. I was hoping we could stay here for a day or two. At this point, I feel like we’ll be lucky if we’re here long enough to get some sleep tonight. I’m tired.”

“I was, but the coffee is helping. You should have some.”

“I don’t know, Frank. I might not be able to sleep when it’s time if I drink any of that. Eating dinner will help though. I’ll get a second wind.”

They got to their coach. Frank unlocked the door and held it open. Mr. Wonderful stood by the door and started his ‘feed me’ meow.

“Don’t worry, old boy, you’ll get fed in a second,” Frank said.

“I’ll feed them while you pack up the laptop. I take it you’re going to try to get the DVR up?”

“Exactly,” Frank said.

“Well, you’ll be busy and I won’t have much to do,” Jane said.

“You can help with trying to find out what’s going on around this area. Bring the iPad and start checking around. Maybe that’ll tell us if we can stick around here or not. Look for things like break-ins where guns have been stolen, assaults on the roads, people disappearing.”

“OK, I can do that,” she said. “Just shove the iPad into the backpack with the laptop.”

“Will do.”

“Alright, come and get it,” Jane said as she put the dog and cat bowls down on the floor. They both attacked their food like they hadn’t eaten for weeks.

Frank had everything packed.

“Should we take Lucy back over with us?” he asked.

“Yes, I think so,” Jane said. “She’ll curl up in the clubhouse and sleep when she needs to. If anything happens, she’s going to know it’s coming before we will.”

“Alright. C’mon, girl, time to go back.”

They got ready to leave their coach. Frank had the backpack over one shoulder as he came down the steps. After Jane came out with Lucy he closed the door and locked it.

“It’s cooler here,” Jane said. “I’m surprised. Thought it would be warmer.”

“Why?” Frank asked.

“It’s more like desert terrain.” She looked up at the sky as they walked. “Wow, look at those stars. What a gorgeous canopy.”

“It’s pretty here alright. We should try to take a few moments to enjoy where we are. I know we can’t really relax, but it’s still beautiful.”

“I know. I liked that forest we were in at Williams. Too bad we had to leave so soon.”

“Yes, that was a shame,” Frank said.

They were back at the clubhouse in a few moments. Frank held the door open for Jane. She went through with Lucy. The smell of lasagna had filled the room. It was a comfortable smell.

“Jerry, where should I set up the laptop?” Frank said.

“How about over close to the desktop? Then once you hand it off, you’ll be close if we need help.”

“Sounds good.” He walked over in that direction, and Jerry joined him.

“Hey, wait, give me the iPad,” Jane said, rushing over to Frank. He stopped and put the backpack down on the table next to him. He unzipped the main compartment, reached in, and pulled the iPad out.

“Here you go.” He handed it to her.

“Thanks, sweetie. ‘greenvalleyrv, right?”

“That’s it.” Frank turned back and walked over to where Jerry was. A table had been moved over closer to the desk that had the PC on it.

“Mary, got any extension cords?” Jerry asked.

“Look under the desk that the PC is on. There’s a power strip there…..it’s got a long cord. You can probably get it pulled out far enough to plug in that laptop.”

“Excellent, thanks.”

Kurt walked into the clubhouse and joined Mary.

“The rental coaches are on the chargers, but they won’t need much. I had them ready to rent. Double checked the gasoline and propane. Full up. Same with the fresh water tanks.”

“Who’s going to drive them?” asked Mary.

“Earl and Jackson would be my guess, since they’re the two that lost their rigs…assuming that there isn’t anything seriously wrong with the Sheriff’s rig.”

Charlie and Earl walked through the door together, followed by the Sheriff, Jeb, and the Deputy. They were laughing.

“Jeb, you are one sick character,” Charlie said. “Where do you hear jokes like that?”

Jeb shrugged his shoulders, feigning innocence. Kurt walked over.

“How’s the Sheriff’s rig?” he asked.

“Nothing serious,” Charlie said. “He took a bullet in a big hose that is part of the smog equipment. It’s not high pressure, so we fixed it with duct tape. That’ll hold for quite a while.”

“He was lucky,” Jeb said. “There were several bullet holes in the engine compartment, but the only one that hit any part of the engine was that one. Could have been a lot worse.”

“How about the slide?” Jerry asked as he walked over.

“No problem, the damn thing still works,” the Sheriff said. “If it gets too cold I’ll probably have to plug up some holes, though.”

“You’ll want to do that as soon as possible anyway,” Jeb said. “You don’t need water getting in there. You’ll delaminate.”

“What else do you guys need us to do?” Earl asked.

“Frank brought his laptop up here, and he’s trying to get connected to the DVR. You guys can help us to review the footage, if we can access it.”

“I want to be in on that too,” Hilda said, walking up. She put her arms around Charlie and kissed him. “Sounds like you guys fixed the Sheriff’s rig.”

“Yes, it’s in good shape. You sure you want to look at that footage?” It’s going to be tough.”

“Yes, I do,” Hilda said.

“Alright, I’m not going to try to stop you,” Charlie said.

“Looks like Jackson’s getting an earful from Rosie,” Earl said.

Jeb started cracking up. “Good, then I get a break.”

“Don’t count on it,” Jerry said. “Where did Jasmine go?”

“She was helping me in the kitchen,” Hilda said. “We made some salad to go with the lasagna.”

“Oh,” Jerry said. “Good. Hopefully that took her mind off of things for a little while.”

Frank stood up and looked at Jerry. Jerry gave him a thumbs up sign and a questioning look. Frank shook his head yes.

“Frank’s in. Let’s go check it out.” They went over and gathered around behind Frank.

“Alright, everything appears to be working. This is going to be slow going, though. We have so many cameras. You can fast forward through things with six cameras at a time in the multi-view, but then you’ll have to go back and start at the beginning with the next 6 cameras. It’s going to take a while. The view is too small if you go with more than six cameras.”

“Anything change on the live camera view? Jerry asked.

“Not that I can see. The place looks deserted.”

“Well, we’d better get at it, then,” Jeb said.

“When you guys see any faces of fighters that look like leadership folks, let me know. I’ll do a screen capture and try some facial recognition. Also, be on the lookout for the Lieutenant and the Sergeant. They’re heads weren’t on spikes. Maybe they got away. It would be good to know.”

“I hope they didn’t get captured,” Jerry said. “They could provide a lot of info on us.”

“That’s one of the reasons why I’m bringing it up,” Frank said.

“How does it work?” Jeb asked.

“Select six cameras with the check boxes by each. Then just hit play, and make sure that the time bar at the bottom is pulled all the way to the left. That’s the beginning of the recording. Then you use those buttons at the bottom for play, pause, stop, fast forward, and reverse. Watch me.”

Frank selected the first six cameras with the check boxes, then hit play. The screen display broke into six windows. He clicked on fast forward, and the picture moved forward quickly. There was a flash on the camera pointed at the front gate….camera number one.

“There, see that?” He asked. He hit pause, and then hit the reverse button. “After you hit pause and you hit the reverse button, it will go back slowly. Click it twice and it will go back quickly. It’s a little crude, but it should get us what we need.”

“You came up with all of this stuff yourself?” Jeb asked.

“Naw, there are toolkits that have a lot of this functionality included. I just selected what I needed.”

“A nice piece of work putting it together though,” Jerry said. “Let’s get to work.”

Jeb, Jerry, and Earl gathered around and started going through video. Frank got onto the PC.

“Kurt set up a user ID for you,” Mary said. “Name and password are Frank.”

“Excellent, thanks,” Frank said. He changed user to that name and logged on. Then he started hacking his way into anything he could about Southwestern Utah.

“Hey, Frank, can we get the time on this video?” Jerry asked.

“Oh, yeah, forgot about that. Time and date are available. I’ve got them hidden, but you can bring them up. It will take a little bit of screen real estate, though. Just go to the View menu and toggle date/time back on.”

Jerry did that, and the time and date came up at the bottom of each camera display.

“Holy crap, that explosion at the front gate happened less than half an hour after we left,” Jerry said. “No wonder the General couldn’t get his folks out of there.”

“Seriously?” Hilda asked.

Frank stopped what he was doing and rolled his computer chair over to take a look.

“What caused the explosion?” Frank asked.

“Good question,” Jerry said. “I didn’t see any people around. It looks like somebody fired an RPG or something like that from a ways away.”

“Wish we had sound,” Jeb said.

“Wow, look at all those fighters,” Earl said. The front camera showed several hundred jihadists running through the open gate. They filled the front part of the park.

“They took over the barn before our guys even saw them coming. Look. They captured the General and the Major and the Doc right away.”

“See the way everybody jerked around towards the back of the park?” Jeb said. “They just heard something big.”

“Yeah, look at that large group running back there,” Jerry said. “Can you imagine what this would have been like if we had been caught there?”

“Pause that,” Jeb said. “Look at camera number four. There’s the Lieutenant. He’s going over the fence with about ten privates.”

“Hope the enemy hadn’t gotten to the security monitors yet. They would have had a hard time missing that. Frank, isn’t that the camera behind the store?”

“I think so,” Frank said. “I have the diagrams in the coach that showed which cameras went where. Should have brought them. I’ll go get them in later.”

“I’ll put some notes in my phone on what we saw on which camera.” Jerry said. He pulled out his phone and focused on it.

“Looks to me like they got away clean,” Jeb said. I’ve been watching, and nobody has followed them. But look at all of those jerkweeds flowing in from the front of the park. Has to be 500 men.”

“Who’s that guy?” Jerry asked, pointing to the camera at the barn. “The guy talking to the General and the Major?”

“Looks like a miniature Bin Laden, don’t he?” Jeb said. “He’s wearing pajamas to a battle. Hey spinach chin, I’m going to shove a shiv up your ass.”

Jerry and Earl cracked up. Frank just shook his head.

“Wow, look at that big flash out front!” Jeb said. “A bunch of the cretins are running out there.”

“I bet the Lieutenant and his men blew something up,” Jerry said.

“I’ll bet so,” Earl said. “Look at that guy there that just ran up to spinach chin. He’s telling him something, and he’s excited. Now they’re leaving.”

“Probably heading out to the front to look at what got blown up,” Jeb said.

“Get a good picture of that jerk’s face yet?” Frank asked.

“We’re about to,” Jerry said. “He’s on his way past the camera that we put on the well house. THERE!”

“Hit pause, and then change the view to that camera only,” Frank said. Jerry paused it, and Frank rolled up close to the laptop. He clicked forward and backwards in the video until he got the best shot possible. “Smile, you’re on Candid Camera, asshole.”

“You can capture at that quality?” Jeb asked.

“Sure,” Frank said. He went into the Tools menu and clicked capture. He was prompted for a location. He selected a folder, gave the file a name, and then clicked OK. The image saved, and he closed that part of the program. “If you see any more good shots of this guy or anybody else that looks important, pause it and capture. Think you can remember how I did that, Jerry?”

“Hell, yes,” Jerry said. “Piece of cake. You need a USB drive to move it?”

“No, I’ll use the network to get to that folder from the PC. No brainer.”

Frank pulled out his phone, and punched in numbers.

“Who you calling?” Jerry asked. Frank put up his hand to stop the question.

“Rami?” He asked.

“Frank, is that you? How are you? How’s retirement?”

“Long story. I’m in Utah fighting the Islamists.”

“No way,” he said. “What’s up? Why are you calling me?”

“You still at work?”

“Of course,” he said.

“Things haven’t changed there, I guess,” Frank said, laughing. “Don’t you ever see your family?”

“Oh, you know,” he said.

“I need a big favor, Rami.”

“What?”

“I’m going to be accessing the company system to run some facial ID software, and to launch into some of the Government servers. I still have access, but I need you to look the other way. Will you do that?”

“That’s illegal, Frank,” he said, sounding concerned. Then he laughed. “Just kidding. You going to use it to get these asshats?”

“That’s the plan. They’ve overrun the army in this area. I want to provide some help.”

“Go for it, dude,” Rami said. “I’ll block for you…and I’ll make sure the evidence gets cleaned up, too.”

“Thanks, Rami, I really appreciate this.”

“After all you’ve done for me? Don’t mention it. Take care of yourself, Frank.”

“Yes, you too. I’m hearing bad things about California.”

“Yeah, you don’t want to come back here. Trust me.”

“Alright, talk to you later.”

Frank hung up the phone.

“Who was that?” Jerry asked.

“That was the man who took over my job after I retired. I was his mentor.”

“So he’s going to let you onto the company networks?” Jerry asked.

“Oh, I already have access, but activity like I’m about to do coming from the outside would get flagged right away. He can disable that for my user ID.”

“Ah, nice to have friends,” Jerry said.

“Hey, here’s another guy we might be interested in,” Jeb said. “Talking to Spinach Chin there.”

“Well, that answers one question I had,” Earl said. “The militia is still with these creeps. I recognize this guy.”

“Really?” Jeb asked. “From the Williams Militia?”

“Yes. He wasn’t a member, but he was good friends with Lewis and Ken. He would be in town every once in a while, and come to BBQs and such. He’s a scary guy. Always sizing everybody up. He made me nervous.”

“He have a name?” Frank asked.

“Philip something,” he said. Then he stood up and turned back towards Jackson. “Hey, Jackson, remember that character named Philip that used to show up to the Militia events with Lewis and Ken?”

“Oh yeah, that guy,” Jackson said.

“Remember his last name?”

“Yeah, it was Carlson,” Jackson said, “and don’t call him Phil!” He laughed.

“Forgot about that,” Earl said. “This guy didn’t want to be called Phil. He would always correct you and say Philip. What a pompous ass this guy was.”

“Well, he just made the kill list,” Jeb said. He looked at the screen as Jerry did the capture. “It’ll be a pleasure smearing your ass all over the road, you dickwad.”

Frank rolled his chair back in front of the PC and connected to the laptop over the network. He copied both of the capture jpg files over to his ‘My Pictures’ folder there, and then logged onto the company network. He spent a few minutes moving around. Charlie came up behind him and was watching. An FBI warning came up on the screen.

“Whoa,” Charlie said. “You supposed to be in there?”

“No, but the security department of my company has access, and I can still get in through that if I’m careful,” Frank said. He went to the facial recognition program and uploaded the picture of Spinach Chin. Then he clicked the process button. A wait icon displayed on the screen as it did the search.

“No more action in the front six cameras for a while,” Jerry said. “I’ll start fast forwarding again.” The video sped up. People showed up walking around every once in a while. After a while a couple of the enemy soldiers pulled up in front of the barn in the maintenance cart. Three more came out of the barn, carrying things.

“Oh no,” Hilda said. She put her arm in front of her eyes. “Those are heads.”

“You don’t need to see that, honey,” Charlie said.

“I’ll go into the kitchen,” she said. “Maybe I can help Jasmine with the food.” She walked away.

“I figured she wouldn’t want to see much of that,” Charlie said. “I hope it doesn’t stick with her much.”

“Bingo,” Frank said. “There he is. This guy is wanted in a lot of countries. They think he was one of the core team behind that subway bombing in London back in the mid-2000s.”

“What’s his name?” Jeb asked.

“Some middle east name I’m not going to try to pronounce. He’s from Saudi Arabia originally, but he’s wanted there, of course. Goes by a shorter nick name.”

“What’s that?”

“Saladin,” Frank said. “That kind of rings a bell.”

“It should,” Jerry said. “Remember the Crusades?”

“That’s right,” Earl said. “He was some kind of general or something like that.”

“Sultan,” Jerry said. “He was the one who took Jerusalem back from the Europeans, and then got into the big fight with King Richard the first.”

“Oh, Richard the Lion Hearted?” Frank asked.

“Yep, that’s the one,” Earl said.

“We’re done with the front cameras. Let’s go to the ones back by the blind,” Jerry said. He went to the selection page and clicked the check boxes. The six displays showed on the screen.

“When did all of those new soldiers show up?” Jeb said as he watched the screen.

“Good question,” Jerry said.

“We saw them back there when we were putting up cameras,” Earl said. “Remember, Charlie?”

“Yes, I do,” Charlie said.

“Us too,” Frank said. “I don’t remember seeing them come in from the front. I remember talking about that with Jerry.”

“Son of a bitch, look at this!” Jerry said.

“What?” Frank said.

“Some of the soldiers are shooting at other soldiers. That guy there just shot the Sergeant.”

“No way,” Jeb said. “Get a capture on that guy.”

Chapter 10 – Hacking the Enemy

Frank looked over Jerry’s shoulder as he went through the video sequence, trying to get a good frame to capture on the shooter. The private on the screen had a wicked grin on his face, his gun beaded on the Sergeant.

“You know,” Jerry said. “This guy looks awful old for a private,” Jerry said. “and that’s no regulation haircut, either.”

“Was just thinking that,” Jeb said. “Dollars to donuts he’s going to end up being a militia traitor.”

“There, that’s about the best frame we have,” Jerry said. He did the capture. Frank went back to the PC and pulled it over. Then submitted it to the facial recognition program. He rolled his chair back over next to Jerry and Jeb.

“How many of the privates do you see turning on the good guys?” Frank asked.

“Looks like more than half of them to me,” Jeb said. “This really pisses me off.”

“Wow, look at that,” Jerry said, pointing to a flash on the screen. It was the tank exploding.

“What the hell did they hit that with?” Earl asked.

“Don’t know,” Jerry said. “Couldn’t see it. Let me go through the video again more slowly.”

He backed up, and then went forward frame by frame.

“Look, there it is,” Jeb said. “That looks like a cannon shot or an RPG or something.”

“I don’t think an RPG can make an M-1 blow like that,” Jerry said.

“Let it run forward a ways,” Charlie said.

“Look, there’s another M-1 Tank,” Jerry said.

“Look at all of those trucks rolling in behind it,” Charlie said. “How did they get all of that stuff down the road without the drone picking it up?”

“This looks like regular army equipment to me,” Jerry said. “We need to see if a base got overrun.”

“Seriously,” Jeb said. “If that happened, they’re going to have a lot of heavy weaponry and supplies. Ammo too.”

“Well well well,” Frank said. “Guess who this phony private is with?”

“Who?” asked Charlie.

“The militia that took out the Yuma base…and one of his known associates is my old buddy Sean.”

“The guy who was picked up in DC after the Capitol bombing?” Earl asked.

“Yep, that’s the guy.”

“What’s his name?”

“Simon Orr,” Frank said.

“Are you boys at a good stopping point?” Mary said as she walked over. “The food is ready.”

All the men looked over at her and nodded. They got up and walked over to the long table that had trays of lasagna and salad lined up. Other people in the group were coming into the clubhouse to get food. Most of them looked shell shocked and tired.

Jane walked over and got next to Frank in line. “Making progress?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact. We know the names of three of the leaders.”

“Very good,” she said. “I’m not seeing any evidence that the bad guys are up this far. Things are bad in Boulder now, though. They overran that town. It was a big battle, but the bad guys have new equipment. Tanks and other U.S. Army stuff.”

“Yeah, we figured. Our M-1 was taken out by another M-1 back at the park. It’s on the video.”

“How bad is the video?” she asked.

“Bad. Lots of men getting killed. Hilda was watching until the part where heads were being carried out to her maintenance truck. They used that to move them to the front gate.”

“She was crying when she came into the kitchen. She wouldn’t talk about it.”

“Probably just as well,” Frank said. “So the enemy is still in Boulder. Anything on which way they are going?”

“I haven’t seen any evidence yet that they’ve gone north of Boulder with a large force. Most people are saying they’re getting ready to go back into Arizona again. If they can take Arizona and New Mexico, they’ll be able to control that long stretch of border.”

“That would be bad. Maybe it’s good for us at the moment, though. It may buy us some time.”

They got up to the food and filled up paper plates. Then they walked over to the far tables by the computers and sat down. Jerry and Jasmine walked over to them with their plates.

“Mind if we join you guys?” Jasmine asked.

“Please, sit,” Jane said. “How about Rosie?”

“We got her a plate,” Jasmine said. “She’s sitting over by Jackson with Mary and Kurt.”

“Okay to talk shop?” Jerry asked.

“Fine by me,” Frank said. Jasmine and Jane nodded.

“So we have three rather large targets. Philip Carlson, Simon Orr, and this character that calls himself Saladin.”

“I like Spinach Chin better, but go on,” Frank said with a sly grin.

“What’s next?” Jerry asked.

“We need to start investigating these folks. Look for things they weren’t careful about hiding,” Frank said.

“I can help you there,” Jasmine said. “I know how to gather facts on people via social media. You’d be amazed at what kind of info you can get from that.”

“I was actually thinking in that direction,” Frank said. “But I’m no expert. If you are, that would be excellent.”

“What kinds of info can you get?” Jane asked.

“Let’s see…..account names, aliases, associates, locations, phone numbers, and other things,” Jasmine said.

“If you can get account names, I can probably hack into them,” Frank said, “so you go ahead. Meanwhile I’ll find out everything that the State and Federal agencies know about these guys. I’m also going to do some poking around about the army. How did we get all of these phony reinforcements at the park, for instance.”

“What are we going to do when we find out this info?” Jane asked. “Turn it over to the army?”

“That wouldn’t be advisable,” Jerry said. “They’ve been compromised. We don’t know who’s good and who’s not.”

“You aren’t suggesting that we go after these guys ourselves?” Jane asked.

“Actually, we probably stand a better chance of taking out the leaders than anybody else,” Jerry said.

Jasmine laughed. “You’re a bunch of old guys. They wouldn’t let any of you into the army at this point….not even you, Jerry, and you’re the youngest next to Jackson.”

“That means they won’t be expecting a problem from us,” Frank said. “Older people tend to be invisible to the young.”

Jasmine thought to herself for a few minutes. “Alright, I get what you’re saying. There’s something else we can do if we don’t think we can work with the authorities.”

“What’s that?” Jerry asked.

“We use their social media against them, both to trip them up and to alert the general public.”

“I like where you’re going with this,” Frank said.

“Me too, but I’m still a little apprehensive about going after these guys ourselves,” Jane said. “Yes, we would blend in and appear not to be a threat, but aren’t we going against hardened forces here? You really think they’re going to let us waltz in and take out their leadership?”

Jerry chuckled.

“I’d rather go against their twenty-something true believers than Jeb. Or the Sheriff. Or Frank, for that matter. How many of those bastards did you take out again, Frank?”

Frank just looked at him and smiled. “I think we had a lot of luck on our side.”

“I wouldn’t call the action in town luck,” Jerry said. “We bested them.”

“True, and a lot of that credit goes to Jane and Jasmine,” Frank said, “but we were going against a nutcase then. Not battle hardened enemy troops. We lost somebody, too, remember? I say we concentrate on gathering the info first. When we have that, we’ll figure out what to do with it. After we’ve got what we need, we can do a lot to shut down their communications, too.”

“Yes, that’s the first step,” Jasmine said.

“Good,” Frank said. “Jane, we need you to make a judgment on this place. If we can get away with sticking around here for a few days, it would be helpful. See if you can figure out what direction the cretins are moving.”

“Will do,” she said.

“I would ask Kurt and Mary if there are alternate locations fairly close by that we could move to in a hurry if we get into trouble,” Jerry said.

“Good advice,” Jane said. “I’ll do that too.”

Jeb walked up, picking at his teeth with a toothpick.

“I’m ready when you guys are,” he said.

Frank picked up his plate and Jane’s and took them over to the trash can. Jerry did the same.

“I’m going to go get the laptop out of my rig so Jasmine can get started,” Jerry said.

“Sounds like a plan,” Frank said. “If you have a power strip you might want to bring it along. I think the one under the PC desk is full up now.”

“Roger that,” Jerry said as he walked away. Jasmine rushed over and joined him as he went out the door. They walked out arm in arm.

“I’m going to take Lucy for a quick turn around the park,” Jane said. “You want to come along?”

“Sure,” Frank said. He turned back to Jeb. “I’ll be back in a few minutes. Go ahead and start running through video again. It’s all set up.” Jeb nodded as Frank and Jane walked over to where Lucy was sleeping.

“C’mon, girl, let’s go for a walk,” Jane said. They got her on the leash and went outside. Jane shivered. “Should have brought my sweater. It’s getting cold out here.”

“Sure is,” Frank said.

They walked along silently for a few minutes. Then Jane turned over to him.

“There isn’t anywhere safe now, is there?”

“I don’t think I’d go that far, sweetie,” Frank said.

“We allowed these creeps to infiltrate our army, and who knows what else.”

“I know, but the fight isn’t over yet. Not by a long shot.”

“And what if we win? Is our government going to take advantage and enslave us, like they appear to be doing in California?”

“That possibility has been on my mind for a while,” Frank said. “I wouldn’t worry about it too much. People are getting upset about that bullshit in California….even on the coast. Rami isn’t happy, and he’s the kind of guy who never complains about anything.”

“You talked to Rami?” she asked.

“Yes, I called him. I needed to use my account at work to get onto some outside servers….like the FBI facial recognition server. He’s blocking for me, so I don’t get locked out.”

“How is he?”

“Still working way too late,” Frank said. “He told me that we shouldn’t come back to California.”

“Wonder if the resistance is getting any traction yet?”

“Well, I’d love to know, but I’m not going to spend time looking into it right now,” Frank said. “We have some enemies to kill.”

“You really think we are going to be able to do anything against these folks?”

“Yes, I do,” Frank said. “Knowledge is more important than numbers when you’re targeting leadership folks like these. We’ll get at least some of them.”

“Won’t they just be replaced with others?”

“Of course, but it will cause big problems for them, and of course then we’ll target whoever takes over. This is going to be a long row to hoe.”

“I don’t want to spend the rest of my life fighting,” Jane said.

“Neither do I, but this is what we’ve been dealt, I’m afraid. If we can help get things back to normal for our kids and grandkids, I’ll die a happy man.”

Jane put her arm around his waist and got closer to him.

“I know,” she said. “That’s one of the things I love about you, but I don’t want to lose you.”

“I don’t want to lose you either, sweetie. We’ll just have to look out for each other as best we can. We have good friends. I’d give my life for any of them, and I think they’d do the same.”

“I know, me too,” she said.

“You done, Lucy?” Frank asked. She turned her head towards him and wagged her tail.

“Guess that’s a yes,” Jane said. “Let’s get back.”

They walked back over to the clubhouse and went in. Jasmine and Jerry were back with their laptop, and were in the process of setting it up on another table.

Frank walked up behind Jeb and Charlie and Earl, who were watching the rest of the video from the back cameras. “See anything else?”

“Just killing,” Jeb said, shaking his head. “These guys weren’t too interested in taking prisoners.”

“Hell, they didn’t even take a general prisoner,” Jerry said, walking over. “How stupid is that?”

“Really stupid, and they’ll regret it,” Frank said.

“Hey, look at that,” Earl said. “They’re leaving. See them pulling the trucks out of there?”

The rest of the men looked at the screen.

“Yeah, there goes the tank, too,” Jeb said. “They’re getting out of dodge fast. Wonder where they’re going in such a hurry?”

“Good question,” Frank said. “Really good question…and why did they send such a large force there in the first place?”

“I’ll bet they knew that the General was there,” Jerry said. “After all, he was the CO of the whole area.”

“Right, forgot about that,” Frank said “but again, why the hell didn’t they take him prisoner? He should have been worth more to them alive than dead.”

“Well, that all depends,” Earl said. “Can we tell what kind of traffic is hitting the camera that shows the heads on spikes?”

“Shit, another good question,” Frank said, “and yes, I can tell. Give me a minute.”

Frank went over to the PC and sat down. He started searching around.

Jasmine walked up behind him.

“Frank, can you shoot me the names of the bad guys so I can get started?”

“Sure, I’ll put them in an email and send them to you. I’ll need to cut and paste the name of the Islamist. It’s long. His nickname is Saladin.”

Jasmine laughed. “Saladin, huh. He’s got a crusades fixation.”

“Most of those idiots do,” Frank said.

She gave him the email address, then noticed his screen. “What’re you doing there?” she asked.

“Checking traffic on that camera that shows our friend’s heads on spikes,” Frank said.

“Oh,” she said. “Actually, that’s a good clue for me. Send me anything you find out about how that has been put out there, especially if it’s viral.”

“Will do,” Frank said. Some results came up on the screen. “Wow.”

“Don’t tell me, let me guess. Viral?” asked Earl.

“Way viral, but not to our system. Look, they captured video and put it on YouTube with captions in English and Arabic,” Frank said. “It’s getting hits from all around the world. Millions. I’ll bet there’s stuff on the US Media about this.”

“If there isn’t, it’s being censored,” Jerry said.

“This is disgusting,” Hilda said. She came up behind Charley and put her hand on his shoulder.

Frank wrote the email for Jasmine. He did some cut and paste and some typing, and then sent the message.

“OK, Jasmine, the info is on its way,” he said.

“Thanks.” She walked back over to her laptop, just as Jane hurried over.

“Guess what?” Jane asked.

“I’m too tired to guess,” Frank said. “What?”

“Ever hear of a supply depot called Tooele?”

“I have,” Jerry said, standing up. “They hit that place? You know its north of here.”

“Yes, they hit it. Killed everybody manning the place. They got in, stole trucks and tanks and gobs of small arms stuff, and split before any reinforcements could arrive from Salt Lake City. The reports I’m seeing say the enemy force came down from Canada, through Montana and into Wyoming, then down into northern Utah. After hitting the supply depot, they blasted their way down I-15 to link up with southern enemy forces. Guess where?”

“Right in my backyard,” Hilda said, sighing.

“You got it,” Jane said. “The reports I’m reading say that the force is headed into Arizona to go against the army there. Everybody thinks they want to take Arizona and then open the southern border back up.”

“Which means we can probably stick around here for a few days,” Charlie said.

“Probably,” Jane said. “From what I’m seeing, they have a lot bigger fish to fry than us.”

“Take a look and see if any other action happened shortly after they hit the park,” Frank said. “They left the park in a rush……almost in a panic.”

“’Kay, will do,” she said. She sat down and got back to her iPad.

“Hey, look at this!” Jeb said. “The Lieutenant and his men survived. Look. They’re collecting weapons and loading them into that Humvee.”

“How long after the attack is that?”

“Just over an hour,” Jerry said. “Look, they’ve got a truck too. Good, they’re getting a lot of equipment picked up that the enemy left when they took off so fast.”

“There’s another Humvee,” Jeb said. “They must be pulling them out of the barn.”

Earl started cracking up. He pointed to the screen.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Jeb said. “That private is getting the booze out of the blind.”

“Wonder if he’s getting the magazines too?” Jerry said, laughing.

“Men”, Hilda said. She smiled. Charlie kissed her forehead.

“There they go. Two Humvees and a truck,” Earl said. “I hope they got away clean.”

“Me too,” Charlie said. “Wish they were here with us.”

“Hey, this Philip Carlson character is a real idiot,” Jasmine said. “You should see all the info I’m getting. He’s bragging about all kinds of stuff, and leaving a big fat trail.”

“Anything on the other guys?”

“Haven’t finished the initial search on Simon Orr yet,” she said. “He appears to be a lot smarter than Philip. He at least tries to cover his tracks. The one that’s the most interesting is Saladin, though.”

“Why,” Frank asked.

“His online persona is being managed. By professionals.”

“Really?” Jerry asked.

“Yeah, really,” she said. “Just like a politician or executive.”

“Does that make him harder to track?” Earl asked.

“For most people, yes,” Jasmine said. “But for me, no. He’s going to be easy. I worked in this business. I know this stuff like the back of my hand. It will take a little time, though. Lots of layers to bust through, and you can’t do it fast.”

“Good, then I’d concentrate on him. He’s probably our most important target,” Jeb said.

Frank’s phone rang. At the same time, Lucy ran over and started to growl, looking at the door. Jane saw that and rushed over, picking up her M-16 on the way. Everybody froze and started looking around, hands on weapons. Frank pulled his phone out of his pocket and answered it.

“Hello?”

“Frank, it’s Lieutenant James. I’ve got a couple Humvees and a truck right outside your gate. Can you guys let me in?”

“Hell yes, just a second,” he said. Then he took the phone away from his ear and looked for Kurt. He saw him over by the entrance to the kitchen. “Kurt, we have friends at the gate. Army friends from Hilda’s park. Can you let them in, please?”

“Will do,” he said, and he hurried out the door.

“Kurt is coming to open the gate. It’s great to hear from you.”

“Glad to be here, let me tell you. Is there a Doctor around?”

“Yes, there’s one in the clubhouse now.”

“Good, I’ve got a couple of wounded men,” he said.

Chapter 11 – Who is the Enemy?

Frank and Jerry ran towards the door, followed by Hilda, Jane, Earl, and Jeb. Kurt was at the gate talking with the person in the driver’s seat of the first Humvee. He pointed over to a spot close to the clubhouse. The Humvee slowly drove over where Kurt pointed, followed by the second Humvee and the military truck. Kurt secured the gate again.

Lieutenant James got out of the passenger side of the first Humvee. He looked over at Frank and Jerry approaching, and smiled.

“Boy am I glad to see you guys,” he said.

“You alright?” Frank asked.

“Yes, I came out of this one without a scratch, but I’ve got two privates that need some attention. In the clubhouse?”

“Yeah,” Jerry said. Mary was walking up.

“Hi, I’m Mary. I’m the doctor. You have wounded?”

“Yes, ma’am,” the Lieutenant said. “I’m Lieutenant James. We were at Hilda’s park with your guests.”

“I figured that was the case,” Mary said, smiling warmly. “Bring your men into the Clubhouse. We still have some food left if you’re hungry, and we can whip up more.”

“Thanks,” he said. Men were piling out of the truck and the other Humvee. Four of the men came over in pairs, with stretchers.

“In the clubhouse, sir?” one of the privates asked.

“Yes,” he replied. They went back to the truck, and several other men helped them get the wounded loaded up. Then they hurried them into the clubhouse, and put them on tables next to each other. Mary walked up and looked at the first man. She got a grim look on her face. Then she looked at the other one. Jasmine helped Rosie over.

“I help,” Rosie said.

“Good,” Mary said. “Stay with them while I go talk with the Lieutenant.” Rosie nodded. Jasmine stayed to help her mother.

“Lieutenant,” Mary said.

“Yes,” he replied. “How bad?”

“The one on the table closest to the window isn’t going to make it,” Mary said. “I’m so sorry. I might be able to save the other one.”

The Lieutenant nodded, and Mary rushed back over and started working.

“We saw you guys escape over the side fence on the park video,” Jeb said. “Did you blow something up in front of the park after that?”

“Sure did,” he said. “We hit one of their trucks. It was full of ammo, too. The explosion took out a couple other vehicles next to it. That’s why we have wounded. Private Stennis was too close, and got hit in the head with a big piece of shrapnel. Private Henry took one in the torso.”

“How did you guys find us?” Frank asked.

“Well, I was in the barn when the General told you guys which route to take. We’ve driven past more than one RV Park. Luckily we could see your rigs from outside this one.”

“Yeah, this place doesn’t provide much cover, but I’m glad you found us,” Jerry said. “You know that a bunch of soldiers turned against you back by the blinds, right?”

The Lieutenant got a shocked look on his face.

“No, I didn’t. We were out on a patrol when the first wave of enemy fighters blasted through the front gate. We knew there were way too many, so we escaped behind the store. Then we found their vehicles, killed their sentries, and blew the supply truck. Right after that we heard a whole bunch of men coming down the highway on foot, so we climbed up onto the hillside and watched them go by. There must have been four or five hundred men going down that road. We looked around trying to re-link up with the Major and the General and our other guys, but we couldn’t find them. When it was quiet for a while we came back in through the parking area in the back. Everybody we found back there was dead. Their guys and our guys.”

“We looked at a lot of video,” Jeb said. “We know who the leaders were in that attack.”

“Excellent,” the Lieutenant smiled. “We could relay that to General Walker.”

Jerry and Frank looked at each other. Jeb just looked down silently.

“You don’t know, do you?” Frank asked.

“What?” the Lieutenant asked, looking concerned.

“General Walker and Major Hobbs are dead. So is the doctor that patched you up,” he said. “You didn’t go back to the front of the park?”

“No, we figured we’d better gather up weapons and ammo and get the hell out of there,” the Lieutenant said. “What happened to them?”

“The bastards took them in the barn right after they blasted through the gate,” Frank said. “They beheaded them and put their heads on spikes out in front.”

“Oh, no,” Lieutenant said quietly, the pain evident on his face. “Oh no.”

“We have video of men in private uniforms killing your sergeant and the other men you had back by the blind,” Jeb said.

“Really?”

“One of the phony privates was a person named Simon Orr,” Frank said.

The Lieutenant got a shocked look on his face.

“That guy was in custody,” the Lieutenant said. “We captured him in a battle down in southern Arizona. He was involved with the Yuma attack.”

“Yes, we figured out that part,” Frank said.

“How?”

“We did screen captures of faces from the DVR video and put them up onto the FBI’s facial recognition engine.”

“Did you ID anybody else?” asked the Lieutenant.

“Yes, a man named Philip Carlson, and an Islamist leader who calls himself Saladin,” Frank said.

“Shit, we were trying to track those guys down,” the Lieutenant said. “That Saladin character is the commander of the forces that are coming down from the north. Carlson isn’t that important anymore, though.”

“We figured,” Jeb said.

“He was the liaison that helped join the southern Islamists with the militia, and now he’s attempting to do the same with the northern Islamists, but since Simon Orr is free, I’m surprised he’s still around.”

“How is it that you didn’t hear about any of this?” Jerry asked.

“Somebody took the radios out of the Humvees we took,” the Lieutenant said. “All I had was my cellphone, and I couldn’t raise anybody at the base on that.”

“Those aren’t your original Humvees?” Jerry asked, immediately concerned.

“No, ours were in the barn, and we didn’t go back there. These ones were good, but the radios were pulled out. The keys were in them, which is unusual.”

Jerry looked at Frank and Jeb.

“Did you check those vehicles for bugs?” Jerry asked.

The Lieutenant got a scared look on his face.

“That looks like a no,” Jeb said.

“C’mon, let’s go check them out,” Jerry said. “Now.”

“I’ll get ready to fight,” Jeb said. “If they’re bugged, we’ll have company. Soon. I’ll tell Kurt.”

Jerry, Frank, and Earl ran out to the army vehicles. The Lieutenant was following them, but Mary got his attention.

“I’m sorry, Lieutenant. The first man died, and the second one is in much worse shape than I thought. He’s not going to last through the night.”

The Lieutenant plopped down on a bench next to him, looking completely shell shocked. Mary looked at him, and turned to get her bag when Kurt came up behind her. He spoke quietly.

“Honey, the vehicles that the Army guys were in might have been bugged. We might need to leave right away.”

“Oh, no,” Mary said. Jane overheard their conversation and looked up from her iPad.

“Did I hear you right?” she asked.

“Yes, Jane,” Kurt said. “Jerry and Frank are out there looking at the vehicles now.”

“Lucy!” Jane said. The dog came running over, tail wagging. Jane pulled her close and petted her. “Keep your ears open, girl.”

Jeb and Earl ran out to Jeb’s rig with their rifles and climbed on the roof. They scanned the area looking for anyone approaching. They could see Jerry and Frank going over the Army vehicles carefully.

“Son of a gun,” Jerry said, climbing out from under the first Humvee. “Here’s one. They didn’t take much time to hide it.”

“What kind?” Frank said as he continued to look.

“GPS locator/transmitter. El Cheapo. You want me to disconnect it?”

“Is that the best thing, or should we have a couple of privates drive this thing away?” Frank asked.

“If they’ve been monitoring, they know the vehicles are sitting at an RV park right now. They’re on their way already,” Jerry said. “So it doesn’t matter. We need to leave. Quickly.”

“Frank,” Jeb said, as loud as he could without shouting. “Pickup truck heading this way. Four guys in the back. They are going slow, trying to find us. Get Kurt and the Sheriff out here with their rifles.”

“Will do.” He ran for the clubhouse as Jerry checked the other Humvee.

“Hey Sheriff, Kurt,” Frank said. “Enemy coming down the road in a pickup. Grab your rifles and go get with Jeb. Everybody else, start packing up the computers and stuff. We need to get ready to leave fast.”

“Why?” asked Mary. The Lieutenant snapped out of his shell-shocked state, got up, and turned towards Frank.

“There was a bug in one of the Humvees,” Frank said. “The enemy knows where we are.”

“Alright, you heard the man,” Charlie said, getting up. Jane ran over to their laptop and shut it down. She put it in the backpack, and then stuffed in the iPad. Jasmine did the same with their laptop.

“What about the wounded soldiers?” Charlie asked.

“They’re both dead,” Mary said. “The second one just passed a couple of minutes ago.”

“Jackson, you good enough to walk now?” Charlie asked.

“Yeah, I can make it,” he said. “Got a spare rifle nearby?”

“Here,” Charlie said, handing him one of the AK-47s. Charlie grabbed his hunting rifle and headed out the door.

Frank picked up his Winchester and ran out the door too. He went back to where Jerry was.

“More bugs?” he asked.

“No, I think the one in the lead Humvee was the only one.”

“Good. Might as well yank that thing. We’ve been made anyway, and we might need this vehicle.”

“Will do,” Jerry said. He slid underneath the front of the vehicle, and then came back out with the bug in his hand. There was a barrel over by the side of the Clubhouse. Jerry walked over and opened it. “Rainwater, perfect,” he said.

“Don’t throw it in yet,” Charlie said. “It doesn’t look like these idiots see us. We shouldn’t tip them off.” Then there was several rifle shots. Jeb, Earl, and the Sheriff all fired at once. “Never mind.”

The truck rolled into a ditch alongside the road, the driver’s head smeared all over the inside of the windshield. It was about two hundred yards down the road. Then there were several more shots…..Kurt and Charlie were shooting at two of the men who jumped out of the back of the truck and were running for cover. They got both of them. The light in the cab turned on as the man in the passenger seat tried to get out the door. Kurt nailed him and he flew off to the side. There were still two men in the back, aiming their AK-47s at the park. It was too dark to see anything other than the lights of the clubhouse, so they fired in that direction. Glass broke, and there were screams from inside the clubhouse. Jeb and Earl opened up, killing both of the shooters before they could jump out of the truck. Then there was silence.

Frank and Jerry ran into the clubhouse.

“Anybody get hit?” Frank shouted.

“Yes, the private sitting by the window,” Mary said, crying. The Lieutenant and several other privates were huddled around him.

“He’s dead,” the Lieutenant said. “We’d better get out of here now. Did you take the bugs out?”

“Yes,” Jerry said.

“I’m so sorry about this, everybody,” the Lieutenant said.

Frank and Jerry just nodded back at him.

“Alright, everybody, let’s load up and be out of here in five minutes,” Frank shouted. Jane came over to Frank with the backpack.

“All packed,” she said. “Let’s get out of here.”

“We’re packed, too,” Jasmine said. “Jerry, could you go help Mom while I carry this out to the rig?”

“Yeah, I’m on it,” Jerry said. He went over to Rosie. She was already heading to the door.

Earl, Kurt, and the Sheriff came running in to see what had happened inside. They looked down at the bloody private on the floor.

“Jackson, you alright to drive?” Kurt asked.

“Sure,” he said.

“Good,” Kurt said. “C’mon guys, let’s go get you in those two rental rigs.” Earl and Jackson followed Kurt out the door. Kurt ducked his head back in. “Mary, grab whatever you want from here and meet me at our rig. Be ready to go.”

“Will do,” she said. She gathered up her medical stuff and threw it in the bag. Then she went into the kitchen with a backpack and filled it up with first aid stuff and dry foods. She went out the door after that and headed towards their rig.

“What’s the plan, Frank?” asked the Lieutenant.

“Get on I-70 and head for Colorado, like the General suggested,” Frank said. “You guys going to follow us?”

“If you don’t mind,” he said. “We’ll get behind you and watch the rear.”

“Good, make sure all your men are ready to fight. We’ll be lucky if they only sent one truck full of pajama boys after us.”

The stream of RVs heading towards I-70 was starting as Kurt pulled up next to the clubhouse. He jumped out and checked inside. It was empty. He ran in, pulled the plugs on the desktop machine, and ran back to his coach with the CPU and keyboard and mouse. Then he ran back in and grabbed the monitor and modem and a few other odds and ends. He stowed all of it in one of the storage compartments under his rig, and then turned off the lights in the clubhouse and locked the door. He got back into his rig and drove towards the driveway. He looked over and smiled at Mary. She forced a smile, but her eyes were glassy and she looked terrified.

Frank and Jane got back into their rig. Frank got into the driver’s seat and fired up the engine as Jane stowed the backpack and unhooked Lucy. They fell into line right behind Jeb’s rig. Charlie and Hilda were in front of him. Kurt fell in behind Frank and Jane’s rig. They were followed by Jackson and Earl in the rental rigs, then Jerry and Jasmine. There were a few more coaches behind that, and then the two Humvees and the military truck got behind the lineup.

“Well, so much for a good night’s sleep,” Jane said to Frank as she buckled her seatbelt. “You alright to be driving again?”

“Yes, thankfully I drank all of that coffee,” he said. “How are you holding up?”

“I’m alright,” she said. “I’m glad you guys thought to look for bugs. That was not a second too soon.”

“Seriously,” Frank said.

“So, is that Lieutenant stupid, or is he on the other side?”

“I don’t know,” Frank said, shaking his head. “He should have thought about checking for bugs, though. Sounds like those Humvees were placed on a silver platter.”

“I know,” Jane said. She pointed ahead. “There’s I-70. That’s a big road. I hope we don’t run into any problems on there.”

“I’m glad the Lieutenant is behind us. That ought to make it difficult to do a clean road assault.”

“Let’s hope so,” Jane said.

“Hey, were you ever able to figure out why the enemy left the RV Park in such a hurry?”

“As a matter of fact, yes,” she said. “I was just about to show you when you and Jerry ran out to check for the bugs.

“Well?”

“They went to the regional headquarters and overran it,” Jane said. “That’s why the Lieutenant couldn’t raise anybody.”

“Shit,” Frank said. “I’d better call him about that. We don’t need him giving those folks our position.”

“Good idea,” Jane said.

Frank pulled his phone out of the pocket, went to recent calls, and hit the call button for the Lieutenant’s number.

“Lieutenant?”

“Yeah, Frank.”

“We have some info for you. Jane was just getting ready to tell me when we were so rudely interrupted.”

“What is it?”

“The guys who hit the park left from there and overran your base. That’s why you couldn’t get them on the phone.”

“No, really?”

“Yeah, really. I asked Jane to try to figure out why the enemy left the RV Park in such a rush. We saw it on the video. They got out of there fast. Really fast.”

“The location of that base was a secret. The privates didn’t even know the coordinates. They got somebody to talk.”

“It appears so. Anyway, I just wanted to make sure you knew in case they try to get location data out of you.”

“Understand. Thanks. What happened to the bug?”

“Jerry dropped it in a barrel of rain water that was sitting next to the clubhouse.”

“Good…..although I suspect that the guys in the truck probably radioed their position before we took them out.”

“Probably. Keep an eye out back there.”

“Will do. Talk to you later, Frank.”

Frank put his phone on the dash.

“How did he take it?” Jane asked.

“He sounded surprised,” Frank said.

“Do you trust him?”

“I don’t know, Jane, like I said. In some ways I wish we would have just stayed on I-70, but then we might not have the Sheriff and Deputy, and we wouldn’t have Kurt and Mary either.”

“Do you think Kurt and Mary would have been alright if we hadn’t stopped there?”

“Maybe,” Frank said. “Maybe not. Who knows? If the enemy has a decent intelligence detail, they might have figured out that Hilda and Charlie both know Kurt and Mary. They might have been jumped before they knew what was coming.”

“True,” Jane said.

“How many miles is it to the Colorado border?” Frank asked.

“Jane pulled her phone out of her purse and looked at it. “It’s only about eighty miles.”

“That’s not too bad,” Frank said. “Should be there in about an hour and a half.”

Frank’s phone rang. He looked at it. It was Jerry. He picked it up.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“What do you think about the Lieutenant?”

“Jane and I were just talking about that. I’m not sure.”

“Seems awful stupid for a Lieutenant, Frank.”

“Did Jasmine tell you about the base? Jane just told me.”

“Yes, it was overrun. That might have been the real reason why they hit the park. They didn’t know any other way to find out where the main base was.”

“We’ll have to watch ourselves, Jerry.”

“Right. Jeb and Charlie are both leery as well….I just talked to both of them.”

Frank’s phone beeped.

“Jerry, I’ll call you back. The Lieutenant’s trying to call me.”

“Alright, Frank, talk to you later.”

Frank switched over to the Lieutenant’s call.

“Frank here.”

“Frank, we have company. Coming up behind us.”

“What is it?”

“Several pickup trucks. Looks like there are men in the backs of all of them.”

“Nothing heavier than that?”

“Nope, Frank. Just wanted to let you know. If they get any closer I’m going to have the privates in the truck open up on them.”

“Might want to do that either way. We don’t really want them to know where we are going.”

“Shit, gotta go,” the Lieutenant said. The line went dead, and then were was the pop of gunfire behind them.

Jane looked at Frank.

“We’ve got somebody coming up behind us,” he said. “The Lieutenant is taking them on now. Several truckloads.”

“Military trucks?”

“No, just pickup trucks. Call Jerry. I think I’d better have both hands on the wheel.” He tossed his phone over to Jane. She picked it up and hit recent calls, then re-dialed Jerry as the gunfire continued behind them.

“Jerry, we are getting attacked from behind.”

“Yeah, we hear it.”

Chapter 12 – Welcome to Colorado

The gunfire behind the line of the RVs intensified. Then there was the sound of squealing tires. Frank looked in his rear view mirror and saw a Humvee rolling off of the road, headlights dancing around. Then it rolled and caught fire, lighting the dirt around it in a hideous glow. A moment later he saw headlights coming up the left lane. It was a pickup truck trying to come up beside the motor homes.

“Crap,” Frank shouted. “I just saw a Humvee eat it, and now one of the pickup trucks is trying to get along side of us. Get the shotgun.”

“Will do,” Jane said, and she unbuckled and ran back into the bedroom. She was back with the gun in a second. Instead of getting back into her seat, she got on the couch and opened the side window. She pointed the shotgun out the window and waited. Then there was a loud explosion.

“Scratch one truckload of cretins,” Frank shouted, looking at the rear view mirror.

“What happened?”

“They got up next to the Sheriff’s rig. I’m guessing that the Deputy tossed one of those hand grenades into the truck. It’s burning by the side of the road now. Nobody got out of that one alive.”

“Good,” Jane shouted.

More gun fire started coming from the back of the line.

“That sounds like M-16s to me,” Frank said. “Several of them.”

“Hope they did a better job this time than they did on that first pickup.”

“Whoa, they did,” Frank shouted. “I just saw another truck cartwheel off the road. Bodies were flying away from it. Some of them might have survived that time, though. Too dark to tell.”

More gunfire started up.

“See anything?” Jane asked.

“Nope, not yet,” Frank said. “Wonder which Humvee we lost?”

“Good question, but judging from the amount of M-16 fire we heard, we still have that truck.”

“I can still see the truck every few seconds,” Frank said. “It’s wide, and whoever is driving it isn’t keeping it straight in the lane very well.”

“Maybe he’s trying to make it harder for the enemy to shoot his guys in the back.”

“Maybe. Wow, listen to that.”

The gunfire was picking up. Frank saw a pickup truck drive off the road, trying to get away from the fire. Then he saw the Humvee slow down and follow the truck, guns blazing. The truck tried to speed up, but hit something and rolled several times. The Humvee pulled over next to it. Four soldiers jumped out and fired about a hundred rounds into the smoking hulk. The gas tank blew, spewing fire all over the place and lighting the side of the roadway with an eerie glow. The soldiers backed up a little and watched it burn.

“What happened?” Jane shouted.

“The last pickup truck tried to get away, and the Humvee took off after them along the side of the road. The truck rolled, and our guys just finished them off. They just got back into their Humvee now, and are heading back onto the road.”

“Great. Think that was all of them?”

“Well, the Lieutenant said there were several. I saw three crash and burn.”

“It’s quiet now, maybe you ought to call him,” Jane said as she got back into her seat, shotgun in her hand.

“Good idea,” Frank said. He looked at his phone, picked the number, and hit dial. He frowned.

“No answer?” Jane asked.

“Nope. Wonder if that was his Humvee that got nailed?”

“Good question. It didn’t sound like the men in the truck opened up the first time, did it? And how did that pickup truck get up ahead of them?”

“I was wondering the same thing.”

Frank’s phone rang. He answered it.

“It’s Jerry, Frank. Hear from the Lieutenant?”

“No. Just tried to call him. No answer.”

“You saw that one of the Humvees didn’t make it, right?”

“Sure did, and I counted three trucks that ate it. Looked like a grenade got thrown from the Sheriff’s rig into one of them.”

“Yeah, I saw that. The Deputy strikes again. Way to go Terry!”

“Should we stop?” Frank asked.

“No, I think we should keep going. Nobody survived in that Humvee crash that I could see. We don’t care about the rest of the cretins, and I didn’t see any coaches get hit.”

“Alright, let’s keep on moving, then. I’ll keep trying the Lieutenant.”

“Roger that, talk to you later.”

Frank put his phone back in his pocket.

“Well, you heard most of that,” Frank said.

“Yes. We’re going to keep going. Good.”

“I’ll try the Lieutenant again in a little while, but if he’s still okay he would have seen my call in his history. I have a feeling something happened to him.”

They drove along for another hour or so, with little conversation. It took a long time for Frank’s heartbeat to slow down to normal. Lucy came over to the front of the passenger seat and whined at Jane.

“C’mon, girl,” Jane said, patting her lap. She leaned the shotgun against the dash next to her side window.

“You alright, Frank?”

“Yeah, I’ve calmed down pretty well. I’m not tired at all now, though. Still pretty wound up.”

“Adrenaline,” she said, petting Lucy. “The girl is trembling. I’m surprised she didn’t want to get up earlier.”

“She’ll settle down once she’s sat on you for a few minutes. That dog amazes me.”

“Wonder where Mr. Wonderful ended up?”

“He’s probably hiding under the bed,” Frank said, laughing. “But nothing bothers him for very long, either.”

“After the girl has settled down, I need to take a look at RV Parks in Colorado.”

“Yeah,” Frank said. “We might have to boondock for a night or two. Actually might not be a bad idea to do that anyway. We might have enemy folks looking for large groups of RVs showing up in western Colorado.”

“Could be. Wonder if Kurt or Charlie or Hilda know of any good boondocking places around here?”

“Good question,” Frank said. “I’ll call Charlie when we get closer to the state line.”

“It shouldn’t be that long. We’ve been on the road for over an hour now.”

They drove along for a little while longer, looking out into the inky blackness in front of them. Frank was finally starting to feel the weariness. Lucy was asleep on Jane’s lap now, but Jane looked wide awake, and was scanning the area around the road with a worried look. She reached for her phone after a while and looked at it.

“There’s no service,” she said. “Pretty deserted out here.”

“I’m not surprised there’s no service. Can’t believe how dark it is.”

“It’s been over an hour and a half now. We should be seeing the state line any minute.”

Suddenly one of the coaches at the front of the line sounded their horn three times. The next one followed suit, and then another.

“There it is!” Frank said. He honked his horn three times too.

“Thank God,” Jane said. She looked down at her phone. “Still no service, but there are a few decent sized towns coming up. Loma, Fruitia, and Grand Junction. We should get coverage near those.”

“Good, keep an eye on your phone, then.”

They continued on for a while. Lucy woke up and jumped off of Jane’s lap. She walked over to her water dish and had a drink.

Frank’s phone rang.

“Well, guess we have service now,” Frank said. He answered it.

“Hey, Jerry”

“Hi, Frank. Finally got service. Nothing back there.”

“Seriously. We were thinking about boondocking tonight, to stay off the radar. What do you think?”

“Good idea. Maybe Charlie or Kurt or the Sheriff know of a good place around here.”

“That’s what I was thinking. I’ll call Charlie.”

“OK, talk to you later, Frank.”

“Bye.” Frank hit Charlie’s number.

“Charlie?”

“Hi, Frank. How you guys holding up?”

“We’re good. Hope you are doing alright. Wondering about boondocking places around here. Know any?”

“Yes, there are places all over around here, and I like your idea. I suspect that the bad guys will be watching for us to hit an RV park.”

“That’s what we were thinking.”

“Let me wake Hilda, she knows this area better than I do. Hold on.”

Frank could hear Charlie waking Hilda. Jane looked over at him.

“He’s waking up Hilda, because she knows the area better.”

“Frank?” Charlie said.

“Yeah.”

“Get off at Loma and go north on route 139 for about three miles. There’s a nice spot there.”

“Excellent,” Frank said. “We need to get somebody to the front of the line to lead us there. I don’t know the person up there right now.”

“I can do that,” Charlie said. “Need to blow the carbon out of this thing anyway. Talk to you later.”

Frank could see Charlie’s left blinker go on, and his coach pulled out into the left lane. He sped up, passing the coaches in front of him, and got in the front.

“Charlie’s going to lead us there?”

“Yep,” Frank said. “Hilda knows of a good place coming up. We’re getting off at Loma, and heading a few miles north on route 139.”

“Good. I’m finally getting tired.”

“You and me both.”

They drove along for another half hour, and then saw signs for Loma. Charlie’s coach took the off-ramp onto route 139. The other coaches followed.

“Small town,” Jane said. “Not much here.”

“Lots of farm plots on either side, though. Why don’t you get your phone GPS going so we have an idea of where we are?”

Jane nodded and picked up her phone.

“I’ll bet we’re going to the Highline area. There’s a lake there, and lots of camping. Both boondocking and non-boondocking.”

“Good. Hope its close. I’m about done.”

“I could imagine, sweetie. It’s been a long day,” Jane said

“For both of us.”

“Look, Charlie is turning left on that road up there.”

Charlie’s coach made the turn onto a small road and slowed way down. The other coaches followed. Frank turned onto it, following Jeb.

“Dirt,” Frank said. “Or maybe gravel.”

The coach creaked on the uneven surface. They crept along. Frank could see the other coaches following them on the road. Everybody was off of route 139 now, including the Humvee and the army truck. They were on the dirt road for about fifteen minutes when Charlie slowed down.

“We must be getting close,” Jane said. “We’re slowing down.”

“Look off to the right,” Frank said. “Looks like a huge flat area with trees. Right before that sign for the lake.”

“That’s it alright, there goes Charlie.”

Charlie’s coach drove slowly to the back of the flat spot, did a K-turn, and backed in. The next coach followed suit, and the next one.

“This looks perfect,” Frank said. “It’s pretty level, too.”

When it was Frank’s turn he made the K-turn and backed in next to Jeb. He turned off the engine, undid his seat belt, and stood up, stretching and yawning.

“My butt hurts,” he said.

“You aren’t going to level out?”

“I want to talk to a few folks first. I keep thinking about other enemy folks who might have followed us at a distance.”

“Thanks for that warm thought,” Jane said. “I’ll get Lucy outside. I’m sure she’s more than ready.”

Jane got up and put the leash on Lucy. Frank opened the door, and the steps extended. They stepped out together and Frank shut the door. Charlie and Hilda were already out, talking to people. Jerry and Jasmine had just walked out, and Jeb was getting out too.

“Well, that was a wild trip,” Jeb said.

“That’s for sure,” Jane said. Frank nodded and smiled. Charlie walked over with Hilda, followed by Jerry and Jasmine.

“Everybody alright?” Charlie asked.

The group nodded.

“Good place,” Frank said. He looked around. There were coaches lined up in rows on both sides of the big clearing, all backed in. Between the two rows was enough open space to drive through. The Army truck and the Humvee were parked at the far end by the road. The privates were leaned up against the truck talking, holding their weapons, and looking around.

“Wonder if the Lieutenant made it?” Jeb asked.

“We were wondering the same thing,” Frank said.

Jackson hobbled over, followed by Earl and Kurt and Mary.

“How’s the leg?” Jane asked Jackson.

“Was starting to get a charlie horse,” Jackson said, chuckling. “Glad we stopped.”

The Sheriff and the Deputy walked over.

“Nice job with the grenade,” Jerry said, nodding to the men.

“That was Terry,” the Sheriff said. “I want to know how those bastards got past the army guys. Seemed like it was on purpose to me.”

“I haven’t been able to reach the Lieutenant since the fighting started,” Frank said. “We’d better go talk to those privates.”

“Agreed,” Jerry said, “but maybe just a few of us.”

“I nominate Jerry and Frank,” Jeb said.

Everybody nodded in approval. Frank and Jerry looked at each other and walked over.

“Hey, guys, what happened to Lieutenant James?” Frank asked.

A couple of the privates looked at each other. Then one of them spoke.

“I shot him. His body is in the passenger seat of that Humvee.”

“He turned, didn’t he?” Jerry asked.

The two privates nodded. One of them started crying. He looked like he was only about 18 years old.

“Do you have any wounded?”

“We have two dead in the back of the truck, and we lost one Humvee with six guys in it,” the first Private said. “Other than the Lieutenant, the rest of us are alright. I’m Private Williams, by the way.”

“What happened?” Jerry asked.

“Lieutenant James told the guys in the truck not to fire on the enemy. Then he turned around and pretended to fire at them, but he took out the driver of the other Humvee instead.”

“Oh, shit,” Frank said. “Then what?”

“I shot him,” the other Private said. “I’m Private Jenkins. I was sitting in the back, and saw what was happening. He knew the enemy was coming, and he knew about the bug too. Traitor.”

“We were wondering how anybody that made it to Lieutenant could be so stupid,” Jerry said, shaking his head.

“I was starting to wonder, too, when he wouldn’t let us go to the front of the RV Park,” Private Jenkins said. “There was nobody there. We could have gotten a bunch of our stuff. He didn’t want us to see what happened to the General and Major Hobbs.”

“So what now?” Jerry asked.

“We need to get back to an army base, but it’s going to be difficult. There are phony Army outfits all over the place now. We’re liable to get shot if we approach a base.”

“Yeah, that is a problem,” Frank said. “You guys are welcome to stick with us until a good time comes to rejoin.”

“Thanks, but I don’t want to hang around you guys for long. Maybe overnight. We might draw some bad folks. I’m thinking we ought to head to Denver.”

“How many of you are left?”

“Only five,” Private Jenkins said.

“We need to get rid of the bodies,” Private Williams said.

“Well, I’d say pull them out of your vehicles, and we’ll ask Hilda if she knows anybody around here. Maybe there’s a coroner that could pick them up, and the local authorities might be able to help you guys re-connect with the army.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Private Jenkins said.

“Let’s wait on that until morning, though,” Jerry said. “When we’re ready to leave. I don’t think we want to be hung up with local authorities this close to the border.”

“I agree,” Frank said. “You guys alright with that?”

The two privates looked at each other.

“Yes, I think we should sleep for a while, but we’ll rotate a guard to make sure nobody comes up this road.”

“That would be great, thanks. Need any food? A place to sleep?”

“No, we’re good. We have rations, and we have our sleeping gear.”

“Alright, then we’ll leave you guys alone. Get some rest.”

They nodded as Frank and Jerry walked back to the group.

“Well?” asked Jeb when they got back over to the group.

“They fragged the Lieutenant. He was with the enemy,” Jerry said.

“I’m not surprised one bit,” Charlie said. “What are they going to do?”

“We suggested that they call the coroner tomorrow morning and have the bodies picked up. There’s a couple dead privates that were in the back of the truck, and Lieutenant James is in the passenger side of the Humvee.”

“Really? He wasn’t in the Humvee that crashed?” asked Earl.

“No, he caused the other Humvee to crash, actually,” Frank said. “Those kids just want to get back with the army at this point. They’re nervous, though, because there are so many phony US soldiers around now. They’re afraid they might get shot trying to get onto a base.”

“Can’t blame them there,” Jeb said.

“They’re going to rotate a guard by the access road tonight,” Jerry said. “We asked them not to contact the local authorities until we get out of here tomorrow morning. We don’t need a local Sheriff holding us up.”

“Good advice,” the Sheriff said. “I’ve heard about the local Sheriff here. He’s kind of a jerk.”

“I think we all ought to get to sleep, and decide what to do next in the morning,” Jasmine said.

“I agree,” Mary said. “We’re all done for today.”

The group started to head back to their coaches when Rosie stuck her head out of the coach.

“Hey, turn on radio,” she shouted.

“What is it, mom?” asked Jasmine as she approached.

“Bad guys take over Flagstaff. Kill many people.”

“Dammit!” Jeb exclaimed.

“What do we do now?” Jane asked. She was trembling.

“Keep going east until we find a good place to hole up,” Frank said.

“And then start going after these creeps,” Jackson said.

“Here here,” Jeb said. “I’ve had about enough of these cretins.”

Jane looked up at Frank. He was so mad his red face could be seen in the dark.

“I’m with you,” Jane said. “But let’s get some sleep, honey.”

Frank nodded. Everybody slowly went back to their coaches.

Chapter 13 – Highway Shakedown

Frank and Jane followed Lucy up into their coach. Frank shut the door behind them.

“You going to level and put out slides?” Jane asked.

“No, I think we ought to be ready to fly the coop right away,” Frank said.

“Okay, I can live with that, as long as you don’t mind climbing over me to get into bed.”

“Want me to get one of the radios going?”

“Just bring the portable into bed with us, Frank. We need some sleep. It’s late.”

“Let’s just forget it,” Frank said. “It’ll just keep us awake.”

Frank locked the door and brought down the front blinds. Then he followed Jane back into the bedroom, and shut the door. They both fell asleep quickly.

The next morning was overcast and dreary. Frank woke up and carefully climbed over Jane to get out of bed. He threw on some clothes, and then went out into the salon. Lucy and Mr. Wonderful were both waiting by the door.

“Let’s get you out, girl,” Frank said. “Then I’ll feed the both of you.”

He pulled his phone off the charger and looked at the time. It was just after 6:00am.

“Shoot, no coffee unless I fire up the generator,” Frank said. Then he remembered that they’d brought the french press and some coarse ground coffee for an occasional treat. “I’ll get that going when we get back,” he said, looking at Lucy, who tilted her head, anxious to get outside.

Lucy bounded down the steps in front of Frank. The clearing was quiet. He didn’t see anybody up and around yet, except for a couple of Army privates who were leaning up against the Humvee. Lucy did her business quickly, but then wanted to explore a little bit, so Frank let her. The area was pretty……a mixture of desert and trees and grasses. He could hear water fowl in the distance. The lake must be nearby, he thought to himself. He heard a coach door open as he was walking back to his rig. It was Jeb.

“Morning,” Jeb said as he walked down.

“Good morning to you, Jeb,” Frank said. “Sleep alright?”

“Yeah, I was out right after my head hit the pillow. You?”

“Same. Going to miss the power this morning. Don’t want to turn on the genny just yet.”

“Yeah, I’ve got my percolator on the stove,” Jeb said.

“I’m going to fire up the French press. You listen to the radio any before you hit the sack?”

“Naw, what’s the use? It would have just kept me awake longer.”

“That’s what we decided, too. You want to keep moving today?”

“Yeah,” Jeb said. “We should at least get into the foothills somewhere. A place where it takes some narrow switchbacks to get to. We could have tanks rolling at us along I-70 if we stay here.”

“That’ll take us into country with really harsh winters, won’t it?”

“Yes, that’s true,” Jeb said. “We have a few months before that becomes a problem, though. Maybe that will be enough time for the heat to die down a little bit.”

“Have any places in mind?”

“Yeah, Leadville,” Jeb said. “Smallish town. Off the beaten path a little ways.”

“Johnnie Brown’s Leadville?” Frank asked. “You know, ‘The Unsinkable Molly Brown’?”

“Who’s that?” Jeb asked.

“She was a Titanic survivor, among other things. Her husband made his fortune mining in Leadville. There was a musical and a movie about them.”

“Oh. Don’t pay attention to musicals,” Jeb said.

Frank laughed. “I used to be in them when I was younger. Was taken by the story back when I was about 16. Always wanted to go to Leadville to see what it was like.”

“Well, it’s a rustic place. I’ve spent time there before. There’s a few good RV parks there too, but their season ends in the latter part of fall.”

“How is it for getting back and forth to the battle zone?” Frank asked.

“It’s a hike, but they probably won’t be able to follow us back there.”

“Well, let’s talk about it when everybody is up. Time to go get the coffee started.”

Jeb smiled at him and nodded, then went back into his rig.

Frank opened the door of the coach, and Lucy ran up the steps. He followed her in and went to the fridge to get out the pet food. He filled the pet bowls, and then got started on the coffee.

Mr. Wonderful looked up at Frank and started his ‘feed me’ meows. Frank looked down at him and shook his head.

“Don’t worry, old boy, it’s coming,” he said. He put the bowls down by the front of the coach, and both animals scampered over.

The bedroom door slid open, and Jane walked out, yawning and rubbing her eyes.

“Good morning, beautiful,” Frank said. “Sleep well?”

“I slept like a log,” she said. “Was excited to get up, but then I realized that we don’t have power for the coffee maker.”

“No problema. I’ve got water heating for the French Press right now.”

“Mmmmmm…forgot that we brought that. We get a treat.”

“Yep,” Frank said. He pulled the French Press out of the top cupboard, and opened the freezer to get the coffee out.

“Lucy already been out?”

“Yeah, I took her when I first got up,” Frank said, as he scooped coffee into the French Press. “Talked to Jeb for a few minutes. He was the only other person up that I could see.”

“He slept well, I hope?”

“Said he did,” Frank said.

“We going to keep going today?”

“I think we should,” Frank said. “So does Jeb. He thinks we ought to be up in the Rockies a ways. He suggested Leadville.”

“Gets cold up there in the winter,” Jane said.

“Yes, I brought that up, but he seems to think we’ll be able to move elsewhere before the weather gets too bad.”

The tea kettle started to whistle. Frank grabbed a pot holder and picked it up. He carefully poured the boiling water into the French Press, and then stirred it with a long wooden spoon. After it was well mixed, he put the top on and set the timer on his phone.

“Ah, I can already smell that,” Jane said. “How long will the fridge run before we have to run the genny?”

“Good question,” Frank said. He walked back to the hallway and looked at the battery level. “It’s below half, so pretty soon. We need to avoid opening the fridge doors as much as possible.”

“Alright. I’m okay with Clif Bars and coffee for breakfast. We don’t have to open it for that.”

“Sounds good,” Frank said. His cellphone timer went off. He shut it off, and then walked over to the counter and slowly pushed down the plunger on the French Press. Then he poured two cups and handed one to Jane. She took a sip.

“Not bad,” she said.

Frank took a sip. “Not bad? This is great.”

“Alright, it’s great,” Jane said, laughing.

Somebody in another coach fired up their generator. Then another.

“Sounds like people are getting up,” Frank said. “I’m going to fire up our genny for a little while.”

“Good,” Jane said. She watched as Frank went up to the dashboard and pushed down the button. The generator sprung to life. “How we doing on gas, Frank?”

“It’s still between full and ¾,” Frank said.

“Wow, not bad,” Jane said. She got up and went into the pantry, pulling out a couple of bars. She tossed one to Frank and opened one for herself. They ate quickly.

“There’s about one more cup for each of us,” Frank said. “As soon as I’m ready for a refill, I’m going to take it outside and see if anybody is ready to plan the day.”

“I’ll get dressed, then,” Jane said. She got up and went into the bedroom. Frank poured his second cup, and refilled Jane’s cup too.

“Just filled your cup again, sweetie. If it’s not warm enough, you can put it in the microwave, since the genny is running.”

“Alright,” she said. “See you outside.”

Frank went down the steps into the cool morning air. The sun was already starting to burn the clouds away. Jeb was back outside, talking to Jerry and Charlie and the Sheriff.

“Morning, guys,” Frank said. They all nodded. “So what’s the plan?”

“Jeb is saying Leadville,” Charlie said. “I’m alright with that, but I think it might take more than one day to get there.”

“You may have a point,” Jeb said. “The worst part of the drive to Leadville is when you get off of I-70. We don’t want to take Route 24 after dark, that’s for sure. Why don’t we stop in Eagle? That gets us most of the way down I-70. Good place to gas up and stock up, too.”

“There’s an idea,” Jerry said. “Nice place. Haven for mountain bikers over the last few years. There are some good RV Parks there. If it wasn’t so close to I-70, it would be a good place to hang out for a while.”

“How soon should we get going?” Earl asked as he was walking up with Jackson. Kurt and Mary followed them over.

“Where are you thinking of going?” Kurt asked.

“Leadville, with a stopover in Eagle,” Frank said.

“Good plan. I think we ought to be out of here inside the hour,” Kurt said.

“If not sooner,” the Sheriff said. “The local authorities are liable to show up here any minute and start asking a lot of questions. The Sheriff in this town is aggressive, and he doesn’t like the Second Amendment. He’s gotten in trouble before for confiscating weapons.”

“How big’s the force?” Jeb asked.

“Tiny,” the Sheriff said. “About three people. This town is really small.”

“Oh, so we’ve got a little Hitler here, do we?” Earl said, sounding combative.

“Settle down, everybody,” Mary said. “The Sheriff is right. We need to get out of here before a confrontation starts. If we have to shoot our way out of here, we’ll become outlaws. We don’t want that.”

“Alright, then let’s get ready to go now,” Charlie said. “Spread the word. Jerry and Frank, might be a good idea to tell the Army guys that we’re leaving.”

Frank nodded, and looked over at Jerry. Jane came up to Frank.

“Should I get us ready to leave?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Frank said. “Shouldn’t take much. Just put things away and bungee the fridge. I’ll be back in a minute.”

Frank and Jerry started walking towards the privates. The Sheriff came alongside them.

“I think I should talk to them too,” the Sheriff said. “I know this Sheriff. I probably should be the lead coach, too. I can call this guy on his BS if he tries to make trouble.”

“I like that plan,” Frank said as they got to the Humvee. “Hey, guys, we’re getting ready to go.”

The privates looked at them and smiled.

“Good, we need to get out of here too,” Private Jenkins said. “We’ll give you about twenty minutes before we call the coroner. OK?”

“That would be great, thanks,” Jerry said, “and good luck to you. Thanks for saving our butts yesterday.”

“Don’t mention it,” he replied.

“Son, don’t tell the Sheriff here very much. He can be kind of a stinker,” the Sheriff said. “I know the guy. That’s why we’re hi-tailing it so early.”

“Understand, Sheriff,” Private Williams said. “He can’t mess with us as much as he might mess with you guys, though. We take orders from the army, not him. He could get in big trouble for messing with us.”

“True enough,” the Sheriff said. “Anyway, good luck to you, and thanks for the help.”

“Welcome,” Private Jenkins said. “Thank you guys.”

The three men hurried back to their rigs and got them fired up. Charlie had finished spreading the word with Jeb and Earl and Jackson.

“Guys, let’s put the Sheriff in the lead,” Frank said. “He knows this Sheriff, so if the guy decides to pull us over, he can deal with him.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” Charlie said. “Let’s get going.”

Everybody got into their rigs. The Sheriff pulled out and got to the road first, followed by Jerry and Jasmine, Earl, Jackson, and Jeb. The others were behind them.

“Let’s take the rear,” Frank said. “There’s two of us, and we can both shoot.”

Jane got a worried look on her face, but she nodded in agreement.

“Going to miss having the Army guys behind us,” she said.

“Hopefully the bad guys aren’t going to be in this state.”

“Why don’t I drive, then?” Jane asked. “That will free you up to man the guns.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

Jane got behind the wheel and fired up the coach. She shut down the genny, and drove off, following the last of the rigs.

“Eagle here we come,” Frank said.

They got out onto Route 139, and soon they saw the on-ramp for I-70. There was no traffic. The town appeared to be asleep. It was only about 7:30am.

“Good,” Frank said. “Wide open road ahead.”

They got on I-70 and sped up. The road was smooth and wide.

“Let’s turn on the radio,” Jane said.

“Here we go,” Frank said. They were just in time for the news report.

“The tide turned overnight in Flagstaff. The US Army was defeated yesterday right outside of town, and the Islamists rushed in. They were met with thousands of armed citizens and local police. This halted the advance of the enemy. The largest part of the force was trapped in the middle of town when reinforcements from the Army arrived with tanks and other heavy weapons. The largest part of the enemy force was defeated. Reports are that survivors ran for their lives, only to be shot by more armed citizens. The smaller core of the enemy force did escape town, however. While small in number, this part of the force included both Islamist fighters and militia members. It’s widely believed that the Islamist leader known as Saladin was among the group that escaped. They are heading towards the militia stronghold by the Grand Canyon now. The U.S. Government is considering using bombs to attack them. A fierce argument is going on over this in Washington DC now, with environmentalists trying to veto any kind of heavy weapons use in this sensitive area.”

“Oh, brother,” Frank said, with irritation. “Don’t use explosives. Hit them with napalm or Willie Pete. That won’t blow up any rocks.”

“Yeah, I don’t get this. It’s almost as if the Government doesn’t want to end this nonsense.”

“Well, that wasn’t all of the enemy force, either,” Frank said. “I’d be surprised if anywhere near the whole two hundred thousand enemy fighters were killed off in Flagstaff. The largest part of the force is somewhere else.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Jane said.

The radio announcer continued.

“In other news, there have been more uprisings in California. All of the inland empire area in Southern California is now free of martial law, and the rebels are making headway in both Riverside and Orange Counties as well. The biggest surprise is Los Angeles County, where the northern section has started armed conflict with state agencies trying to enforce the lockdown. There is a similar situation going on in Central California, with Fresno and other large towns in the area now free of martial law enforcement. The rebels are heading up towards Modesto and Stockton now, prompting the state government in Sacramento to start evacuations of key personnel to the San Francisco area. The California state government has appealed to the military in the San Diego area for assistance, but the Commanding Officer has refused, saying there is no grounds to continue with martial law in California.”

“Wow,” Jane said. “This experience has taught me something important.”

“What’s that?”

“Once freedom has become an institution, it’s almost impossible to turn it around,” Jane said. “Our tradition of liberty is going to save us.”

“Yes, it is,” Frank said, “and look what the citizens of this country were able to do against the enemy. They routed them in California, and now they are doing the same thing in Arizona. I’m so proud of that.” Frank looked over at Jane, his eyes glassy.

“I know, it chokes me up too,” Jane said.

“Is that a siren that I hear?” Frank asked. The sound got louder and louder. Jane looked in her rear view mirror.

“Shit,” she said. “Two squad cars heading up in the left lane.”

“Don’t stop unless the group stops,” Frank said.

“I won’t,” she said. Just then the first squad car flew past them, heading up to the front coach. The other squad car got behind Frank and Jane’s rig and stayed there. Then the rigs up ahead were starting to slow down. Soon they were all stopped. Frank looked in his rear-view mirror and saw an officer walking up along the passenger side. Frank looked over at Jane.

“He’s coming up along my side,” Frank said. He reached down and took the safety off the shotgun.

The officer tapped on Frank’s side window. He slid it open.

“Good morning, officer,” Frank said. “What’s the problem?”

“Where are you people headed?” the officer asked.

“We’re on our way to Eagle to camp out for a while,” Frank said.

“Where are you coming from?” he asked.

“Utah,” Frank said.

“Why did you leave there?” he asked.

“The enemy was getting too close. They overran the RV Park that we were at shortly after we left. We got out just in time.”

The officer took off his sunglasses. He strained to see who else was in the coach. Lucy growled.

“Quiet, girl,” Jane said.

“Anybody in the coach other than you two?” the officer asked.

“Just our dog and cat,” Frank said.

The officer pushed the button on his radio, which was on his upper chest.

“Sheriff, the people back here are just normal folks. We should let them be on their way. Now.”

“Negatory,” the scratchy voice over the radio said. The tone of voice was caustic. “We need to check them for weapons.”

Chapter 14 – On the Road to Eagle

“Negatory?” the Deputy replied. “Please. You aren’t in the military, we aren’t under martial law, and there’s no probable cause to search these folks. Period.”

He looked at Frank, shook his head, and mouthed ‘no way’ to him.

The scratchy voice came back over the chest radio.

“I can have your job for this, Jeremy.”

“You fire me and I’ll report this whole thing, along with the other incidents, and I’ll go to the local papers too. Then try to get re-elected, you idiot. I’ll just walk away from this incident. Have fun harassing these people by yourself.”

Some foul language came roaring over the radio. The Deputy laughed.

“I’m not doing this crap anymore, Sheriff. This isn’t Mexico. We don’t shake down citizens. Never again.”

Just then the Humvee and the military transport truck came rolling up and stopped next to the rig. Private Jenkins jumped out and walked over to the Deputy, carrying his M-16.

“What seems to be the problem here, Deputy?”

“No problem. We’re going to let these good people go, aren’t we, Sheriff?”

“No,” the scratchy voice said.

“Well, I was just camped with these folks and I know them. We’ve fought the enemy together. They are going to be moving along. Now. They aren’t a problem.”

“Hear that, Sheriff?”

More cussing came over the radio.

“We’ll go talk to that guy right now,” Private Jenkins said to the Deputy. “What’s his beef, anyway?”

“He says it’s his duty to stop people and confiscate guns before they bring them into Colorado. It’s total BS. He keeps the guns and sells them.”

“I see. Well, I’ll just go up there and have a little talk with him.”

The private jumped back into the passenger side of the Humvee. It took off at a fast pace to the front of the line of coaches, screeching to a stop right behind the Sheriff’s cruiser.

“This is going to be fun,” the Deputy said.

There was a short argument coming over the radio speaker. Shouting. It was hard to hear what the words were. Then there were some calm words from Private Jenkins.

“I’ll put it to you this way, Sheriff. I’m telling you that these are good people, and you have no reason to hold them. I know what you are trying to pull, and we aren’t going to allow this treasonous behavior. Stand down now, or you will be shot.”

“Whoa,” Jane said. “Would he really do that?”

Frank just looked over at her and smiled.

“Looks like that did the trick, folks,” the Deputy said. “The coaches are starting to pull out.”

“You should report this fool,” Frank said.

“I’m going to. I’ve had enough. I think I’m going to go re-join the army. This jerk weed has me on my last nerve. It’s not worth it.”

“Okay, Deputy. Thanks, and good luck to you.”

“Take care of yourselves,” the Deputy said. He tipped his hat as Jane started the engine and drove forward.

Franks phone rang after they had gone a couple of miles. He looked at his phone. It was the Sheriff.

“Hi, Sheriff.”

“Can you believe that guy? He did this because of an argument we got into at a conference last year.”

“What was the argument over?”

“Gun rights. This guy is a real Nazi on the subject. He thinks the Second Amendment is only for militias.”

Frank laughed. “Yeah, well they’ve got their militias. Maybe he’d rather deal with them.”

The Sheriff cracked up.

“That Deputy was a nice kid,” Frank said. “He told me that this Sheriff has been confiscating weapons and then selling them.”

“Well that makes him just another common criminal, now, doesn’t it?”

“The Deputy said he was about ready to quit and go re-join the army.”

“Good,” the Sheriff said. “Hopefully we’ll have clear sailing all the way to Eagle.”

“Did Private Jenkins say what they were going to do?”

“Yeah. They made contact with a base outside of Colorado Springs. They’re heading that direction. They’ll be with us all the way down I-70, so if you see anybody nasty coming up behind you, give me a call and I’ll let them know.”

“Excellent,” Frank said. “Talk to you later.”

“Bye.” The Sheriff hung up, and Frank put his phone back in his pocket.

“Well, that was interesting.” He recounted the conversation to her.

They rolled along silently for a while, watching the scenery go by. Lucy decided to get up on Frank’s lap. She sat up facing forward and watched out the windshield.

“Wish we had some coffee,” Jane said.

“Hmmmmm. We could turn on the generator and fire up the coffee maker, I suppose.”

“We can do that when we’re driving?” Jane asked.

“Sure. Wonder if the coffee maker will fit in the sink? That way if we hit a bump it won’t go flying. I’ll go check it out.”

Frank pushed on Lucy to get her to jump down, and then went into the kitchen and pulled the Keurig machine out of the lower cabinet. He lifted it to the sink.

“Fits, just barely,” Frank said. “Fire up the generator.”

Jane pushed the button until light came on.

“OK, you should have power.”

Frank poured some water in the machine and plugged it in.

“It’s heating,” Frank said. He sat down on the dinette bench and waited for the water to heat up. Mr. Wonderful sauntered over and jumped up on his lap.

“Hey, guess who’s here?” Frank said. “I guess he’s getting used to being on the road.”

“Really?” Jane said. “He’s the perfect cat.”

Frank saw the brew light come on. He got up. Mr. Wonderful hit the floor, and looked back at him, annoyed. Frank loaded a coffee pod into the machine and put Jane’s cup into place, then pushed the button. The machine sputtered and a dark stream of coffee started to flow.

“Smell that?” Frank asked.

“Not yet,” she said. “I’ll bet it smells good.”

“Here it is,” Frank said, walking up and putting her coffee into the cup holder. She picked it up and took a sip.

“Ah, that’s heavenly.”

Frank went back into the kitchen and made himself a cup. When it was done, he unplugged the machine and came back up to the front. Jane turned off the generator.

“Nobody behind us?” Frank asked.

“There have been a few cars back there, but they’ve all gotten off the road quickly. Locals, I suspect.”

“I’m surprised more people aren’t on the road trying to get away.”

“I’m not,” Jane said. “I don’t think the roads are safe. I’ll be glad when we’re at a good campground.”

“Me too. We’ll probably be hitting some tough grades before too long.”

“I figured. We should have enough gas to get to Eagle though,” Jane said. “Glad we topped it off.”

“I bet somebody in the group will have to stop for fuel before then. If so, I’ll top her off again.”

“It’s getting pretty sparse out here. We’re a ways past Grand Junction now. No more good sized towns for a while, as I remember from looking at the map.”

“Palisade is coming up,” Frank said. “Not huge, but not tiny. From there we are going to be going alongside the Colorado River.”

“Really, this far north?” Jane asked.

“Of course,” Frank said, laughing. “That’s why they call it the Colorado River.”

“Duh,” Jane said. “Sorry, I just always think of that as purely southwest, and we’re into the mountain zone now.”

“True, most of the recreation is in the southwest,” Frank said. He pulled out his phone and looked at his map application. “We’ll be next to the river until right before we get to Eagle. It goes off to the north of I-70 after that.”

“Can you tell when the elevation starts climbing?”

Frank looked at his phone and moved the map around with his fingers.

“It’ll be a while. Looks like we’re in the 4600-4800 range until we get past New Castle. Then it starts to jump into the 6000s. Glenwood Springs is way up there….like 6700.”

“Wow. I may let you drive when we start going up.”

“Sure, no problem,” Frank said.

“What’s Eagle?”

“Looks like 6800-6900. Hilly terrain. Lots of hillside homes, from what I can see here.”

“Well, Jerry said it was popular for mountain bikes. That’s probably why.”

Frank nodded and drank the last sip of his coffee.

The two were silent for a while, enjoying the scenic beauty of the area.

Frank’s phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket.

“Jerry, what’s up?”

“You been listening to the radio?”

“Nope, haven’t had it on at all.”

“About 80 thousand enemy fighters just hit Phoenix. It’s looking like Flagstaff was a diversion. They hit after the army sent reinforcements up there.”

“Shit,” Frank said. “I’ll turn on the radio.”

“Talk to you later, Frank.” Frank put his phone back in his pocket.

Frank reached over, switched on the radio, and hit the seek button. He found a news station that was reporting on the crisis. The announcer sounded excited and frightened.

“The army is scrambling to move forces south to Phoenix, but several overpasses on I-17 have been blown up by the enemy. The people of Phoenix are starting to resist the enemy, but the force is extremely large, and they have tanks and other heavy weapons. Apache helicopters are being brought in to blow up the tanks, but they are taking a lot of fire from the ground, so it’s a dangerous operation.”

“The only good thing about this is that they’re further south,” Jane said.

“True, but if they’re successful there, they’ll spread out in all directions, or worse, open the border back up. I think the Government is going to have to start using its airpower. A lot of innocent people are going to be in harm’s way when they do that.”

The announcer continued.

“Flagstaff has been locked down. Officials say it was never the main target, but a diversion. Many are calling on the Army to move forces from the border and the Tucson area to help, but the Government will not do that, fearing that the border would then be overrun and we would be flooded with many more enemy fighters. There is more help coming, though. A group of large transport ships are heading to San Diego, carrying most of the force that was in South Korea. This is roughly 28 thousand men, still much smaller than the enemy force in Arizona. Arrival time for the first two transport ships is this afternoon. The San Diego base is already getting transport trucks and busses ready to go….both civilian and military.”

“You know what I don’t get, Frank?

“What?”

“Why don’t they pull the troops off the border, wait for the cretins to start to come in, and then carpet bomb them? The Air Force doesn’t seem to be very busy at this point, and they could really hammer them out in the desert without hitting any civilians.”

“That’s a really good question,” Frank said. “Last time I read about it, there were about 200 thousand US troops along the southern border.”

The announcer continued.

“Meanwhile, in other news, the situation in California is heating up. Even people in the coastal regions are beginning to resist the martial law imposed by the California state government. The President has appealed to the people for calm, but he has not ordered the state to rescind martial law. This has inflamed the situation even more. The anger is spreading to other states as well. There was a massive demonstration in Seattle against martial law, after the Governor suggested that martial law should be the norm in any states bordering the conflict. Similar statements have been made in Idaho and Oregon, and the result has been demonstrations, although none of them are as large as what was seen in Seattle this morning. A member of the Texas State Legislature from Austin made such a comment last week. He had to go into hiding, after his office was flooded with death threats.”

“Go Texas!” Frank said enthusiastically.

“Why won’t the feds stop this garbage in California?” Jane asked. “It doesn’t make sense.”

“I have an idea why, but I’ll keep my mouth shut,” Frank said. Then his phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and put it up to his ear. Jane reached over and shut off the radio.

“Hi, Sheriff, what’s up?”

“I’m going to need to gas up before we get to the big grade. Was thinking about the town of Rifle. It’s about an hour away.”

“Alright, sounds like a plan.”

“Will you call Jerry and Jeb? I’ll call Kurt and he can call Jackson and Earl. I think the rest of the folks will get the message.”

“Sure, no problem,” he said. Frank made the calls to Jerry and Jeb. He chuckled as he got off the line with Jeb. He turned to Jane.

“They’re good with it too.”

“So I gathered,” Jane said. “What’s that Jeb was saying about the town?”

“This is that town that made the news a few years ago because they have a strong open carry law, and they require somebody in all places of business to be armed too.”

“Oh, yeah, I remember that. Thought it was kind of a cheesy story.”

“We’ll be able to see it first hand,” Frank said. “Ought to be interesting.”

Jane looked at him with a grin. “So, you going to strap on your hog leg, partner?”

Frank laughed.

“I don’t know,” Frank said. “I feel kind of dumb wearing a hog leg in that old west holster. I’ll probably get laughed at.”

“How about another cup of coffee?” Jane asked.

“Not a bad idea. Fire up the genny.” Frank grabbed her cup and his and unbuckled his seatbelt.

Jane reached over and pushed the generator button on the dash until it fired up, as Frank went to kitchen counter. Mr. Wonderful saw him again and rubbed against his legs.

“Wonder why Mr. Wonderful doesn’t just come up front and sit on my lap?” Frank asked.

“Maybe he gets car sick when he can see the road.”

“Maybe.” He brought a cup of coffee to Jane after a couple of minutes, and then went back to get his own.

“Should I try to carry him up there?”

“With a cup of coffee?” Jane asked. “No, don’t do that. If he gets scared you’ll spill.”

“True.” Frank pulled the plug on the coffee maker and picked up his cup. He got back into his seat. Jane shut down the generator.

“This is the only way to travel,” Jane said.

“I’ll say,” Frank said. “Hey, look up there! Way over to your left, by those mountains. Choppers. About 6 or 7 of them.”

“I see them, but just barely. You’ve got good eyes.”

“Wonder what they’re up to?” Frank asked. “They’re heading somewhere in a hurry.”

Frank’s phone rang. He fished it out of his pocket. It was Jerry.

“You seeing this?” Jerry asked.

“Just barely. They’re a ways away.”

“I broke out the binoculars. There’s a large group of ground troops over there. The choppers are heading right towards them.”

“Our troops or theirs?”

“Well, unless ours started wearing their pajamas, I’d say it was theirs,” Jerry said.

“What?” Jane asked.

“Just a sec, Jerry,” Frank said. He brought the phone down from his ear. “Enemy troops…on the ground over there. The choppers are heading for them.”

“Oh, no,” Jane said. “So they are up here.”

Frank put the phone back to his ear.

“You think they’re close enough to get to the road before we pass by?” he asked.

“Nah, they’re on foot,” Jerry said. “Stupid. What are they doing out in the open like that?”

“Good question.”

Just then one of the choppers exploded. The others banked away from it.

“Son of a bitch,” Jerry said. “They fired something at the choppers from the ground. RPG or something.”

“The choppers are turning back around,” Frank said, as he looked at Jane. Her eyes were wide with terror, but she focused on her driving, her jaw set in grim determination.

“I’m getting off the phone, Frank,” Jerry said. “Talk to you later.”

Frank put his phone back in his pocket, got up, and went into the bedroom. He came back out with his binoculars, and sat back down. He buckled in and put them to his eyes.

Three of the choppers fired missiles. They hit the ground, exploding in the midst of the troops, causing them to scatter.

“Yeah!” shouted Frank. “Look at them run!”

Another of the choppers exploded. Frank could see a person down on one knee, holding some kind of a weapon, pointed up at the sky. One of the remaining choppers got ready to fire, but then it stopped, and all of them banked off and headed for the hills.

“They’re running away,” Jane said.

Chapter 15 – Climbing the Grade

“I think I know why those choppers are running,” Frank said. “Listen.”

There was the approaching roar of a jet fighter.

“Yes, I hear it,” Jane said.

Suddenly a curtain of flames descended onto the ground, covering the force of Islamic fighters. Frank took the binoculars away from his eyes, a grim look on his face.

“Bad?” Jane asked.

“I wish I hadn’t seen that,” Frank said. “Not a good way to go.”

“I thought they outlawed napalm.”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they did it,” Frank said.

“I know, me too,” Jane said. “But we’re still human beings. I don’t like to see stuff like that.”

“Well, just remember our friend’s heads on spikes back at Hilda’s park to keep your perspective. They would have loved to do the same thing to us.”

“I know,” Jane said. Frank’s phone rang.

“Hey, Jerry,” Frank said.

“That was something else. Looked like almost a thousand men.”

“Yeah, I was looking at them through the binos when it hit. Not a pretty sight.”

“I know, Jasmine was watching when it happened. She’s a little shook up.”

“Of course she is. Me too, but I’m glad they got wiped out.”

“Yes, Frank, so am I, believe me. I was wondering….do you think we ought to go all the way to Leadville tonight? Maybe it’s not safe to spend the night along I-70.”

“That thought is starting to creep into my mind too. Let’s chat about it when we get to Rifle.”

“Sounds good. Talk to you later.”

Frank put his phone back in his pocket.

“What’s up?” Jane asked.

“Jerry’s thinking that maybe we ought to try to make it all the way to Leadville tonight, instead of hanging out right next to I-70.”

“Because there were so many enemy fighters this far into Colorado?”

“Exactly. I think he might have something there. We’ll talk about it when we stop for gas in Rifle.”

“Jeb made a comment about Route 24 being tough at night,” Jane said. “Wonder how tough?”

“I’ll see if I can get a decent look at it on my phone…although it’s getting pretty sparse out here now. Might not have service at the moment.”

“Maybe the place we gas up will have a coffee shop nearby. We could take an iPad in there.”

“Or we could just ask Jeb about it,” Frank said. “He’s been on that road…shoot, no data service. Surprised I was able to talk to Jerry.”

The two were quiet for a while. The midday sun started to heat up the coach, and Jane flipped on the air conditioner. Lucy jumped back up on Franks lap and settled in for a nap. Frank dozed off too. He was out for over an hour.

“Frank!” Jane shouted at him.

He shook his head, eyes opening. Lucy jumped off his lap.

“What? Where are we?”

“We’re about five miles away from Rifle,” Jane said. “Thought I’d better wake you.”

“Oh, really?” Frank said. “That was fast.”

“You and the girl were asleep for a while. That’s good, in case we end up going all the way to Leadville today.”

Frank pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked at it.

“Wow, it’s not quite noon yet. Not bad. I got service now, too.”

“Good, get on the map application and see how many miles to Eagle, and how many more to Leadville.”

Frank focused on his phone for a few minutes, moving his fingers over the screen.

“Looks like about 130 miles from Rifle to Eagle, and another 40 miles or so to Leadville, but we have a lot of grade on the way to Eagle, and a lot of switchbacks between Eagle and Leadville.”

“How much time? That’s not so many miles.”

“Well, that’s really hard to say,” Frank said. “We might be down around 40 miles an hour or less up some of the grades, and they go for miles. But then there are parts that we can go 65-70 with no problem. That last 40 miles is going to be 25-35, I suspect. Jeb would know.”

“We should ask him.”

“Here comes the off ramp,” Frank said.

The stream of coaches made the turn off of I-70 and crept along the main street of Rifle like a giant snake. There was a large truck stop a block down, with only one semi-truck gassing up. The rest of the islands were open. They got filled with RVs several deep when the group arrived. Jane pulled in behind Jeb’s rig. Frank unbuckled and got up.

“How is the gas, anyway?” Frank asked.

“We’re still above half a tank,” Jane replied. “I’ll take the girl for a walk while you handle it.”

“Sounds good.” Frank opened the door and waited for the steps to come out, then stepped out. He went around to the gas pumps and used his credit card to get started. The hose just barely reached. It was a good fast pump. Frank watched the dollars roll up and shook his head.

“Highway robbery,” Jeb said, walking over. “The diesel is even worse than the gasoline.”

“How’d you like that napalm run?”

“If I wasn’t driving I would have drunk a toast,” Jeb said.

“I was watching through my binoculars when it hit. Not a pretty sight.”

“They asked for it, and they’ll get more.”

Charlie and Jerry walked over.

“You guys got the gas flowing?” Jeb asked. Both men nodded.

“Jeb, how bad is Route 24? Is it drivable at night?” asked Jerry.

“It’s dark and a little narrow, and some of the switchbacks are a little tight. There’s also a lot of grade….up then down. Mostly up, though. Why?”

“After seeing those enemy troops so far into Colorado, I’m wondering if we really want to camp out right along I-70.”

“Well, it wasn’t me that wanted to stop in Eagle,” Jeb said. “I’m good with going all the way. It may be dark before we get there, though. Something to think about.”

Frank looked over and saw Jane coming back towards the coach with Lucy.

“She done already?”

“Sure is,” Jane said. “What’re we going to do?”

“We were just talking about it.”

The rest of the core group walked over…..the Sheriff, Kurt and Mary, Jackson, and Earl.

“Got a little meeting going on?” the Sheriff said.

“Well, kinda,” Jerry said. “We were talking about how far we should go tonight. Should we stop in Eagle, or should we go all the way to Leadville.”

“I was thinking about that, too,” Kurt said. “Eagle is right on I-70. I didn’t like to see the enemy so far into Colorado and so close to the main road like that.”

“Seriously,” Jerry said. “That’s why I’m bringing it up…but I don’t want us to bite off more than we can chew. Who knows how bad Route 24 would be to drive at night?”

“You’ve heard what I said,” Jeb replied. “It sucks, but it’s doable. I’d be more worried about finding a good place to stop then I would getting over the road. It’ll probably be dark before we get into Leadville.”

“You sure about that?” asked Earl. “It’s just a little after noon now. We aren’t talking that many miles. Under two hundred.”

“That’s correct,” Kurt said, “but remember that we are about to hit some big grades. We won’t be flying along at 70 when we hit those. In some stretches we’ll be lucky to hold 35.”

“I’m not so sure it will be dark.” Frank said. “If we divide 200 miles by a reasonable average….say 50 miles per hour, we are only talking about 4 hours. Assuming we get back on the road at about 12:30, we would be there by 4:30 or so.”

“That average speed is way too high,” Kurt said. “Too high even if we don’t include Route 24. The grade comes up really fast after this, and I know there are parts of Route 24 that are 35 miles per hour during mid-day. We are going to get a lot of shadow up there, too.”

“Kurt’s right,” the Sheriff said. “That’s why I wanted to gas up here. We’re going to be cranking along in low gear for a long time. We’re going to burn gas like crazy.”

“OK, I just plugged in 35 miles per hour, and I see your point,” Frank said. “It’s almost six hours, and when you take into account the shadow effect up in the mountains, we’re running into darkness.”

“So what do we want to do?” the Sheriff asked.

“Let’s do this,” Charlie said. “Let’s pull off at Eagle and re-assess. Maybe we’ll make better time than we are expecting, or maybe it’ll be worse. We can make a good decision then.”

“I agree,” Jerry said.

The rest of the people nodded in approval.

Everybody went back to their rigs and finished fueling up. Soon they were driving back to I-70, in about the same order they were before. Frank was behind the wheel now. After they were on I-70 and rolling along well, Jane went into the back looking for something to eat. She came back with apples and clif bars for both of them.

“The road is a little more crowded here,” Frank said. “I see traffic on the other side of the road, too.”

“Nice view of the river over on this side.”

Frank sat up higher in his seat and looked out the passenger side window.

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “Looks bigger than I expected up here.”

“Haven’t seen any boats on it, though. Maybe it’s not the recreational haven that it is down south.”

“Or maybe everybody has more important things to do than play on the river these days,” Frank said.

Jane just nodded.

“I feel the grade already,” Frank said. “It’s going to get noisy pretty soon.”

“I suspect,” she replied.

“If you still have data service, it might be a good idea to check Leadville for RV Parks.”

“I’ll give it a try.” Jane pulled her phone out of her purse and looked at it.

“I’ve got 4G at least,” she said. She focused on her phone for a few minutes.

“See anything interesting?” Frank asked.

“There are a lot of RV Parks, that’s for sure. There are some nice lakes nearby, so this area is quite a recreation spot.”

“I wonder if Hilda or Kurt know which ones are good.”

“They probably know people who own parks there,” Jane said. “I’d be surprised if they don’t.”

“Could be, but this is a ways from them. See if you can get a closer look at Route 24.”

“Already on that. It doesn’t look that tight to me, Frank.”

“Good,” he replied.

“Shit.”

“What?”

“The elevation. Geez. Did you know that Leadville is over 10,000 feet? Hell, most of Route 24 is up around that, although the beginning is in the 8000-9000 range. It that going to have an impact on the engine?”

“Yeah, we’ll lose some power,” Frank said. “No doubt about that.”

The RV’s V-10 engine roared as it downshifted. Frank gave it more gas to keep the speed up.

“Grade starting?” Jane asked.

“Oh, it’s been going up for a while now, but this V-10 has a lot of torque. We just hit the point where it’s got to downshift, though.”

“Are we going to have trouble keeping up with the diesels?”

“We would if they wanted to run away from us, but they’ll stay close. About half of our folks are in gas rigs.”

“It’s leveling out for a while,” Frank said. “I can feel it.” The engine up shifted and the rpm went down.

“Good,” Jane said. “Here comes the city of Silt. We’re making pretty good time.”

“What’s the elevation there?”

“It’s only in the 5400 foot range. I think we’ll have quite a bit of run room at higher speeds,” Jane said. “It doesn’t start going over 6000 feet until we get past Glenwood Springs, and that’s a ways away. Glad we’re going to reassess in Eagle.”

“How far is Glenwood Springs?”

“Less than an hour, from what I can tell.”

They rode along silently for a while, and were able to keep their speed up most of the time. As they approached Glenwood Springs, the V-10 started to labor, and the transmission downshifted again. They slowed to below 50 after a short period of time, but were able to hold that speed for a while. The cockpit was noisy. Lucy begged Jane to come on her lap.

“C’mon girl,” Jane said. “We’re just grinding away now, aren’t we?”

“Yep, been out of overdrive for a while now. I just saw a sign for Glenwood Springs. You were right….it was just under an hour.”

They rode past the town. It was set in a deep valley with steep mountains on either side.

“What a pretty town,” Jane said. “Just gorgeous.”

“Sure is,” Frank replied. “I’d like to come back through here and stay a while if things calm down.”

“Me too.”

“More traffic,” Frank said. “Looks like locals to me.”

“Yep.”

The V-10 started to labor again as they climbed out of the valley.

“Here it starts,” Frank said. Soon they were only going about 40, and the engine had downshifted a couple of times.

“How’s it doing?” Jane had to almost shout to be heard.

“The old V-10s are made for this,” Frank shouted, “but I’m having a hard time holding it at 40. If it gets steeper we’ll be down around 35.”

“Are we burning too much gas?”

“We’re doing alright. The needle has just barely moved off of full. We just aren’t talking that many miles here.”

They leveled out again, and the engine was able to upshift. They crept back up to 50 miles per hour. Jane started to doze off. Frank watched the scenery and ran through all of what was coming at them inside his head. The possible dark drive into an unknown RV Park. The elevation. The local authorities...were there more like that character back in Loma?

It was cooling down. Frank reached up to the dashboard and turned off the air conditioner. There was still plenty of daylight left, but the shadows were starting to get a little longer.

The grade was starting to rise again, and there was a big tunnel coming, blasted out of the rock years ago, and looking like it built in the 1930s. The coaches ahead started to slow down slightly, and Frank saw headlights being turned on. Then he was in the tunnel himself, switching on the headlights. The noise was different, and it woke up Jane with a start.

“Where are we?” she asked, looking frightened for a moment.

“We’re okay, sweetie. Just a tunnel. We’re heading into another big grade, though.”

They came out of the tunnel and were immediately onto a grade, the engine downshifting and the motor racing.

Jane picked up her phone and took a look. “No service.”

“I’m not surprised, with all of these mountain walls around us.”

The engine downshifted again, and it got too noisy to talk. They rode along silently, each in their own head. Lucy came over and whined at Jane, then jumped up before being invited. Jane just smiled and petted her.

“It’s alright, girl.”

“She doesn’t like the noise,” Frank shouted. “I’m surprised she doesn’t go in the back.”

“I’m not. She wants to be with her humans.”

“We’re slowing down again,” Frank said. “I’m having a hard time keeping it above 35 miles per hour.”

“We aren’t going to overheat or anything, are we?”

“No, this engine was built to take this. Don’t worry.”

They continued to slow down. Frank had his foot all the way down on the petal. He pushed the Tow-Haul button, but it didn’t seem to make any difference. They were already in a low gear.

Mr. Wonderful sauntered up to the front and looked at both Frank and Jane. He saw Lucy’s head pop up, got an annoyed look on his face, and turned around.

“I hope this levels out soon,” Frank shouted. Jane just nodded at him, not wanting to yell.

They were silent for another stretch. Jane looked sleepy again, but she didn’t doze. She watched. Frank was getting tired, his hands sweaty on the wheel, his ankle getting sore from holding down the accelerator pedal. This was no place for cruise control, he thought to himself.

The road finally started to level off, and the engine upshifted, but they were still in a low gear. Frank saw more traffic.

“Gypsum coming up,” Frank said, pointing at the sign. “Five miles.”

“Good. That’s only about 15 or 20 miles from Eagle,” Jane said.

“Look, elevation is at 6316 according to that sign.”

“So what was it, in the mid-5000 range when we left Rifle?”

“Something like that. We’ve gone up almost 1000 feet.”

“We’ll be up over 6500 feet before we get to Eagle,” Jane said.

“Oh joy.”

“I’ve got service again,” Jane said, looking at her phone.

“Maybe we should turn on the radio for a few minutes before we’re back into the noisy climb.”

“Sure, I’ll switch it on,” Jane said. She reached over, switched it on, and hit the seek button. “It’s just about 4:00, so maybe they’ll have a spot of news coming up.”

A good strong station came on. It was playing country music, but then an announcer came on.

“The 4:00 news is coming up right after this word from our sponsor.”

A goofy commercial about a local car dealership came on. Cartoon music. Way over the top.

“I can almost see the clown cars rolling around and around the big top,” Frank said, cracking up.

Jane laughed.

“In local news, road crews said it will take several days to open the damaged section of Route 24. Authorities are still investigating how the main southbound tunnel got damaged. This will cause major problems for people living in the area.”

“Isn’t that the road we were going to take?” asked Jane.

“Sure is,” Frank said.

Chapter 16 – Eagle’s Nest

“Great, no way to get to Leadville for a few days,” Jane said. “Now what?”

“Why don’t you see what there are in the way of RV Parks near Eagle that aren’t right next to I-70?”

“Okay, good idea,” Jane said, “but I’d better get on it quick, before we lose service again.”

“I’ll call Charlie and see if he or Hilda know anybody who owns a park near there.”

Frank pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed.

“Charlie?”

“Yeah, Frank, what’s up?”

“We just heard some local news……Route 24 is shut down, maybe for a few days.”

“Uh oh. What now?”

“Jane’s on the web seeing if there’s any parks near Eagle that aren’t right on top of I-70, but I got to wondering. Maybe you or Hilda know somebody that owns a park in Eagle, or nearby?”

“I don’t know of any offhand, but I’ll ask Hilda, and I’ll call Kurt too. He might know of something.”

“Alright, thanks. Talk to you later.”

“No problem, Frank.”

Frank looked over at Jane.

“Well?” she asked.

“Charlie doesn’t know, but he’ll check with Hilda and Kurt and get back with me. You seeing anything?”

“Yes, there are some parks that aren’t right on I-70. Some are up in the foothills a ways.”

“Good, then at least we know we can hide out for a few days if we need to.”

The V-10 started to labor, and downshifted, engine racing.

“Here comes another grade,” Frank said. His phone rang again, so he pulled it out of his pocket and looked at it.

“Charlie?” asked Jane

“Nope, the Sheriff,” he replied.

“Hey, Sheriff,” Frank shouted.

“Hi, Frank. I just heard that Route 24 is stopped up.”

“Yeah, we heard a news story a few minutes ago. Maybe you have better info. What have you heard?”

“Somebody blew up one of the bridges.”

“No, really?”

“Really. When I heard the news report I called the state exchange and got ahold of the Highway Patrol in the area.”

“Islamists or militia? Or both?”

“They don’t know.”

“Has there been enemy incursions up here before?”

“No, not at all so far, Frank.”

“Well, this sucks. Dammit. Wonder where they’re coming from?”

“The people I talked to with the Highway Patrol are thinking it’s probably New Mexico.”

“Ah, from the south, huh?” Frank asked.

“I didn’t get a warm fuzzy feeling that these folks really know. They’ve had less experience with the enemy than we have.”

“Might not even be a large force, of course. Could be a lone wolf attack. You know…sleeper, just to keep us guessing.”

“Could be. Still want to talk in Eagle?”

“Yeah, I think that’s our best bet at this point. Jane’s been trying to scope out RV Parks around there. Looks like some of them are up in the foothills, away from I-70. Maybe one of those would work for at least a few days.”

“Wonder if Kurt or Hilda know anybody up here?”

“Way ahead of you there.” He repeated his conversation with Charlie.

Frank got off the phone just as the engine downshifted again. The big V-10 was really screaming now. He looked over at Jane. She was watching him, waiting for a comment.

“You want to talk now?” Frank shouted.

“Let’s wait until we level off again,” Jane yelled back.

Frank nodded. The road ahead looked like a huge climb. He kept an eye on the engine and transmission temp gauges, and the RPM. He was tired, but his mind was racing at a breakneck pace.

After about ten minutes the road leveled out. The engine RPM dropped as the transmission downshifted. He looked over at Jane again as it got quiet.

“Good enough?” Frank asked.

“Finally. I didn’t like the look on your face back there. What happened?”

“That was the Sheriff. He heard the news story about Route 24. Then he called up the state exchange and got ahold of somebody in the Highway Patrol.”

“Uh oh,” Jane said. “I’m not going to like this.”

“Somebody blew up one of the bridges.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah, shit,” Frank said. “They don’t know who did it yet. They haven’t had any enemy activity up here yet. The Sheriff doesn’t think they know what to do.”

“I heard you mention lone wolf…that could actually be what we have here. There might not be a big force.”

“Want to take that chance?” Frank asked.

Jane sat silently for a few moments. Frank could see her eyes start to get glassy.

“What are you thinking, Frank?”

“If it’s a lone wolf, it could be a sleeper who’s been here all along. If it’s a larger force, they might have snuck up from New Mexico. Lots of wilderness down there.”

Jane looked at her phone, and started moving her finger around on its face.

“Checking out possible routes, aren’t ya?”

“This isn’t good at all, Frank. They could have taken I-25 north, and split off to the northwest on Route 24 from there. Nice clear shot.”

“Well, if that’s what they did, it may tell us one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“They’re probably on the wrong side of that blown bridge, so they may not be heading up to I-70.”

“I don’t think we can count on that, Frank.”

“We can’t count on anything at this point.”

“So what do we do?”

“We’re still going to meet up in Eagle to talk. I suggest we have a few possibilities for parks we can overnight in. Maybe we can hammer out a quick plan while we’re there.”

“You have an idea, don’t you? I can see it on your face.”

“Well, yeah, a thought has crossed my mind.”

“Out with it, sweetie.”

“We stay on I-70, get into Kansas, and then go south to Texas.”

“That’s worth at least considering. We know the folks in Texas aren’t afraid to take these creeps on.”

“Yeah, I think we’d fit right in,” Frank laughed. “Even though we’re from the left coast.”

The engine downshifted and raced.

“Here we go again,” Jane shouted. “Maybe there’s a diesel pusher in our future.”

The grade got steep quickly, causing another downshift. The V-10 engine screamed. Frank struggled to keep it at 40, then at 35, then at 30.

The shadows were getting longer, the sky darker. Frank and Jane sat silently, thinking and watching. Lucy was back to beg Jane for a seat on her lap. Jane let her come up, and then petted her as she nervously looked around. Frank reached for his water bottle and had a drink. He felt like the coach was just creeping along. Then they came to a bridge. The first thought that crossed Frank’s mind was the blown bridge on Route 24. He scanned the area looking for any evidence of trouble. Jane looked over at him. She was still petting Lucy with one hand, but the other one was squeezing the inside armrest.

They got across the bridge with no problem, but it seemed to go on forever. Then the road started to level off, and the engine upshifted and quieted down. Their speed climbed back up to about 60 miles per hour.

“That wasn’t fun,” Jane said.

“Yeah, a white knuckle ride for sure. Wonder when Charlie is going to call back?” Just at that moment, Frank’s phone rang. He looked over at Jane and cracked a smile. He pulled it out of his pocket and answered it.

“Frank?”

“Hi, Charlie. Find anything out?”

“Both Hilda and Kurt know a family who owns an RV Park up in the hills. It’s way off the beaten path.”

“Excellent,” Frank said.

“It’s a little on the primitive side compared to what we’ve been used to, though.”

“Does it have hookups?”

“It has 50 amp electrical and water, but here’s only a central dump station. No Wi-Fi.”

“We’re just talking about staying a day or two at the most anyway,” Frank said. “At least we can plan our next move there. Where’s it at?”

“South of I-70, down on Brush Creek Road. It’s in the boonies. Long way in, and there are a couple of stretches of gravel road.”

“Good. We still meeting in Eagle, or are we going straight there?”

“I think we ought to just go straight there so we don’t attacked a lot of attention hanging around town. We can gas up on the way out.”

“Alright, why don’t you call the Sheriff with the info so he can lead us there? I’ll call Jerry and Jeb.”

“Sure, Frank. Kurt’s already been on the horn with Jackson and Earl.”

“Alright, talk to you later. I’d better get to it before another grade.”

“Yeah, that’s why I didn’t call you earlier. Knew that gasser of yours was going to be loud going up those hills back there. Talk to you later.”

Frank looked over at Jane.

“I need to make a couple of calls before it gets loud. Kurt and Hilda know a good place, and it’s in the boonies.”

“Okay, go ahead.”

Frank dialed Jerry.

“Hi, Frank, what’s up?”

“When we get to Eagle, we’re going to an RV Park that Kurt and Hilda know about. It’s in the boonies, far away from I-70.”

“Decided against getting all the way to Leadville, I take it?”

“Somebody blew a bridge on Route 24.”

“Son of a bitch,” Jerry said.

“I’ll tell you about it later. I need to make another call before we get to the next grade.”

“Alright, no problem. Thanks.”

Frank dialed Jeb.

“Jeb?”

“Hi, Frank. What’s going on?”

“We’re going to stop at an RV Park that Kurt and Hilda know about, outside of Eagle.”

“Hopefully it’s a ways into the back country.”

“It is. We can’t get to Leadville. Somebody blew a bridge on Route 24.”

“Uh oh,” Jeb said. “There be cretins about, I ‘spect.”

“Sure seems like it. We’ll talk when we get there.”

Frank slipped his phone back into his pocket.

“So tell me about this place,” Jane said.

“Sounds a little more rustic than what we’re used to. Kurt and Hilda both know the family that owns it.”

“How rustic? Does it have electrical?”

“It has 50 amp electrical and water. Central dump station. No Wi-Fi.”

“Well, if we’re lucky the cellular data service will reach out there.”

“Hopefully, but it might not. We’re going to be in the boonies.”

The engine started to labor again. Frank gave Jane a sheepish look and pushed down harder on the accelerator to keep the speed up. It downshifted and got louder.

“Talk to you later, Frank,” Jane shouted with a grin. Frank shrugged his shoulders and laughed.

They grinded along, going slower and slower as the road got steeper. It was nearly dusk. Frank saw a sign for Eagle coming up quickly. He looked at the clock on the dashboard. It was almost 6:30. Another hour of daylight at best, given the hills.

The road leveled out just as the Eagle off ramp sign came into view. The engine slowed, and Frank saw the coaches ahead of him turning on their right turn signals.

“Good, we’re here,” Jane said. “I’m tired. How long is the drive after we get off I-70?

“I don’t know, sweetie. It may be a while. Charlie said parts of it are gravel.”

“Hope we get over it before it’s completely dark.”

“Me too.”

The first of the coaches was rolling down the off-ramp, followed by another, then another…..a long line. The caravan made a right turn, and went down a small, rather industrial looking road.

“Good, we don’t have to roll through the center of town,” Frank said. “We’ll attract less attention this way.”

“Yes, that’s a good thing.”

They drove through newer industrial blocks, with their cement walls and nicely planted parking lots. It was past working time, so the parking lots were mostly empty. As they got back further, the industrial buildings got fewer and further between. Then there were feed stores, and ski supply shops, and tractor dealers, and then hardly anything. The grade started to increase, but the coaches were only going about 30 miles per hour, so it wasn’t a big strain.

“I think I see some of the gravel ahead,” Jane said.

“I see it. I’m going to hang back a little farther behind Jeb. We don’t need a cracked windshield.”

“No, we don’t.”

The coach settled as they hit the gravel, the noise of the scraggly surface coming up from beneath them. After a few seconds they were back on pavement.

“Why the little stretch of gravel, I wonder?” asked Jane.

“I’ll bet that floods every spring, and it’s easier to dump new gravel than to repave every year.”

Jane nodded. They were able to pick up a little speed again on the pavement. The road started to curve, but there weren’t tight switchbacks. They weren’t climbing the foothills….they were driving down the center of a deep valley. There were farms with livestock on either side of the road. They could see lights coming from the houses. It was almost dark.

“Here’s another patch of gravel,” Frank said as the coach sunk lightly into it. “There, you can see where the water flows. Look to the sides.”

“Oh, I see.”

They were back on the pavement quickly, and sped up again. There were no farms now, only wide meadows on either side, with tree covered hills bounding them.

“There it is,” Frank said. “The Sheriff just pulled in.” The sign came into view – ‘Eagle’s Nest RV Park.’

The lineup came to a halt. Kurt jumped out of his coach. He went to Charlie’s coach and helped Hilda out, and they both walked up the driveway. After a couple of minutes, the line started moving, and they drove in. There was an older gentleman and a younger man at the gate waving the coaches in. When Frank got up to them, he opened his window.

“Just pick which ever space you want,” the man said. “I’m Gabe. Kurt and Hilda and I go back a ways.”

“Thanks, Gabe. I’m Frank. We’ll talk, I’m sure.” He smiled and drove on. Jeb was still in front of him. He pulled into the fourth site in the next to last row, and Frank pulled in next to him.

Frank shut off the engine, and stood up. He stretched, holding his back, which was sore again from the long drive. Jane got up too. She hooked Lucy up to her leash as Frank opened the door and waited for the steps to come out. Then the three of them went out of the coach and onto the gravel. Frank looked around the coach to make sure he was out of the road. The toad was all the way on the site, barely. The air was cool and crisp and clear, the sun almost down.

“Lucy’s done,” Jane said.

“Good. We’re parked pretty well….I’ll hook up the power. I won’t bother with the water yet.” He walked around to the rear driver’s side and got the coach electrical hooked up.

Jeb and Jerry came walking up.

“Charlie just told us that we could meet in the clubhouse,” Jerry said. “Ten minutes.”

“We’ll be there,” Frank said.

They fed the animals, deciding to leave Lucy in the coach, then walked over to the clubhouse, which was spilling light into the end of the dusk.

The log clubhouse had a covered veranda all the way around it, with big double doors in the middle and large picture windows. There was a massive stone chimney on one end of the building. Frank and Jane walked through the door. The room was rustic, with large log beams on the pitched ceiling. The stone fireplace looked even bigger on the inside of the room than it did on the outside. There were rows of tables and benches in the center of the room. The kitchen area was towards the back, and had a large pass through window for serving food.

“Welcome,” said Gabe, as he saw Frank and Jane walking in. Kurt and Mary were standing next to him. Charlie and Hilda walked up too.

“Thanks, Gabe. This is my wife, Jane.”

“Hello, nice to meet you,” Jane said. Gabe smiled and nodded.

“So, how do you guys know each other?” Frank asked.

“RV Park Owner’s Association, mainly,” Gabe said. He was a thin man in his 70s, with a bald head, black plastic glasses, and a scraggly beard. He had warm eyes and a warm smile to go with it.

“Gabe was good friends with Jer,” Hilda said. “They used to go hunting together every year.”

“I met Kurt at about the same time,” Gabe said. “We used to organize some fun outings with the Association. I miss those days.”

“You don’t have the Association anymore?” Jane asked.

“Naw, most of the people who kept it going got too old. Guess I could have tried to keep it up, but I’m no spring chicken myself.”

Suddenly there was a loud roar outside. Then another. Then another.

“What’s that?” asked Kurt. Jane gave Frank a worried look.

Chapter 17 – Raptors!

There was another loud roar over the park. Frank and Jane and the rest of the group who were in the log clubhouse froze.

“Dammit,” Gabe said. “Not more of this.”

“What is it?” Kurt asked again.

“Jet fighters from the Air Force base,” he replied.

“How far away is that?” Frank asked.

“Oh, ‘bout 20 miles or so. Lately they’ve been flying over here several times a day. Usually not this late, though. They’ve chased most of the business I had left out of here.”

“Our planes, right?” Jane asked.

“Of course,” Jerry said. “Remember what the Major told us. We pretty much own the skies.”

“If we are this close to a large base, wouldn’t that make this whole area a target?” Jasmine asked.

Gabe chuckled. “I wouldn’t worry about that. This whole area is crawling with Feds now. I think they’re going to set up a staging area next to the town.”

The roar came back again. Frank ran out to the veranda and looked up at the sky. Jane followed him.

“That’s some of our newest stuff,” Frank said, pointing. Jane got next to him and put her arm around his waist while she looked. Jerry and Jasmine joined them.

“Wow, F-22s,” Jerry shouted as another one flew over. “Bitchin’ planes.”

“I’d better go out to the coach and check on mom,” Jasmine said. “She’s probably fit to be tied.”

“I’ll go with you,” Jerry said. They stepped off the veranda and hurried over to their coach.

“It’s going to be hard to sleep here,” Jane said.

“I’m so damn tired that I’ll probably sleep right through this,” Frank said. “Besides, this is a good thing. They’re sending our best off to pound the enemy.”

“As long as we don’t have enemy back here trying to blow them up on the runway,” Jane said. There was another loud roar. She looked up. “Those ones are bigger.”

“B-1Bombers,” Frank said. “They’re going to give somebody a really bad evening.”

“You’re into these things, aren’t you?”

“You know that,” Frank said. “I’ve seen lots of B-1 bombers, at a couple of the company’s plants. Never saw an F-22 in person before, though. Very impressive.”

Jeb and Charlie walked out.

“What kind?” Charlie asked.

“F-22s!” Frank said.

“Wow,” Charlie said. “Those last two were louder.”

“Yeah, couple of B-1s went over last time.”

“Let’s go back in and get this meeting over with, honey,” Jane said. “I’m tired, and if this keeps up it’s going to be a long night.”

Frank nodded, and all of them walked back in.

“Let’s talk, everybody,” Charlie said.

A murmur floated through the group, and people started to sit down at the nearest row of benches. Just then Jerry and Jasmine came back in with Rosie. She had a big grin on her face.

“Ahh, gang all here,” she said. “Same old, same old. Good evening.”

“Hi, beautiful,” Jeb said. Rosie fanned her face with her hand, as if she’d just gotten too hot, and then chuckled.

Everybody was there. The larger group were milling about, starting to take seats. Jane and Frank sat down. Jerry, Jasmine, and Rosie sat down next to them. Jeb sat down next to Rosie and put his arm around her shoulder. She snuggled up to him and smiled. Jackson and Earl came over and joined Kurt and Mary. The Sheriff and Terry sat down on the end. Charlie was standing next to where Hilda was sitting. Frank decided to stand up too once everybody else was sitting.

“For those of you who don’t know why we stopped here,” Frank said. “The road to our original destination is shut down.”

More murmurs from the crowd. Gabe walked over and sat down too.

“Any more news on who blew up that bridge?” Jackson asked, looking at Gabe.

“Nothing more that I’ve heard,” Gabe said, “but the Feds are all over it, because of that base nearby.”

“How far away is the blown bridge?” the Sheriff asked.

“Oh, ‘bout 40 miles as the crow flies. Probably close to 60 miles to drive it,” Gabe said.

“You see any changes around town in the past few days?” Jeb asked.

“Can’t say,” Gabe said. “I rarely make it into town. Haven’t seen anything unusual out here, other than people checking out because of the jet noise.”

“You had people staying here?” Frank asked.

“Yeah, locals mainly,” Gabe said. “Everybody is nervous as hell in town. Lots of military traffic on I-70. Lots of Feds. Lots of strangers. Lots of scurrying around. Been that way for the last couple of weeks.”

“Where’d they go,” Jane asked.

“Didn’t ask,” Gabe said. “I’m guessing they tried to move further east. Kansas, maybe, or Oklahoma.”

“Well that brings us to the discussion we need to have,” Charlie said. “Where do we go from here?”

“We run more?” Rosie asked. “Running no good.”

“I wouldn’t look at it that way, mom,” Jerry said. “We aren’t out of the fight, but we have to find a good base.”

“Fight?” Gabe asked, laughing. “You guys? What is this, the Geritol squad?”

“Oh, you don’t know the half of it,” Hilda said. “We’ve seen plenty of action, back at my park. It finally got overrun by the enemy. That’s why we’re here.”

“We killed us quite a few cretins,” Jeb said.

“What’s quite a few?” Gabe asked, definitely interested now.

“Not sure,” Frank said. “Over twenty.”

“So why didn’t you hold the park?” Gabe asked.

“Several hundred Islamic fighters flooded into our area,” Jerry said. “It was more than we could handle.”

“You fought your way past a force of that size?” Gabe asked.

“No,” Frank said. “The army had a small number of troops there, and some drones in the air. They saw a large force of enemy fighters heading for Hilda’s park and told us to get out. We were only gone about twenty minutes before they arrived.”

“What happened to the army guys,” Gabe asked.

“Dead, except for a small handful,” Charlie said.

Hilda started to cry, but fought it. “Let’s not go back to that,” she said. “I’m tired. What are we going to do now? Let’s figure it out and then get some sleep.”

“Okay,” Frank said, “so we know that Leadville is probably out now. Maybe the person who blew that bridge was just a lone wolf sleeper, but there could be more to it. I’d say we probably shouldn’t count on that area being safe.”

“Why don’t you just hang out here?” Gabe asked.

“Well, that is a possibility,” Kurt said. “But we don’t want to be looking over our shoulder every second.”

“That’s for sure,” Jeb said. “We just left that party.”

“Frank had an idea,” Jane said. The group all looked over at him expectantly.

“Well, just a thought,” Frank said. “We continue down I-70. Go into Kansas and then south through Oklahoma to Texas.”

“Texas might not let you guys in,” Gabe said. “Been hearing stories about that.”

“Where would you suggest, other than here?” Hilda asked.

“Missouri would probably be my top choice,” Gabe said. “Or further east, but not too close to the east coast. Heard bad things.”

“Bad things?” Jane asked.

“Yeah, heavy handed government control, mostly,” Gabe said. “They say it’s to protect the cities against more nuclear attacks. I think they’re taking advantage of populations that they expect to go along with tighter control. They know that crap won’t play in the Mountain states or the Midwest or the Deep South.”

“It’s pretty obvious to me that we aren’t going to come up with a final plan tonight,” Charlie said. “Too many variables to think through, and we’re all tired. I suggest we plan to stay here at least a couple of days, and work on the longer range plan after we’ve gotten some rest. What do you guys think?”

“I’m for it,” Jane said. She looked up at Frank, and he nodded.

“I guess I’m okay with that too,” Jerry said. “I’ve got a question, though. What happened to our army guys?”

“Army guys?” Gabe asked.

“Yeah, the survivors from the park in Utah joined up with us. They were on their way to some base outside of Denver.”

The Sheriff stood up and walked over.

“I was going to bring that up before we left this meeting,” the Sheriff said. “They decided to continue on when we got off of I-70 to come here.”

“Bummer - no more escort, eh,” Earl said. “Nice while it lasted.”

“Yes, it was,” the Sheriff said. “But they needed to rejoin the army.”

“Okay, so anybody not in favor of sticking around here a couple of days to make plans?” Charlie asked. Another murmur floated through the room, but people were nodding their heads in agreement with Charlie.

“We could do more research on this area in the morning,” Jane said. “Maybe it’s not a bad place to hang out for a while.”

“Yeah, we should discuss it,” Jackson said. “Traveling may bring as much risk as sticking around here.”

“True enough,” Charlie said. “Let’s reconvene here in the morning, after breakfast. Maybe about 10:00am?”

“That would be fine, folks,” Gabe said. “My nephew and I will even get some coffee going….and some pancakes if you want.”

“That would be nice of you, Gabe,” Hilda said. “I could help out if you’d like.”

“I’ll never turn down help from you, sweetie,” Gabe said. “So nice to have you here.”

“Okay, everybody, I think that’s it for tonight,” Charlie said. “Let’s try to rest up a little bit.”

People started filtering out…leaving the core group alone with Gabe.

“How many do you think are going to hang in there with us?” Charlie asked.

“I think we’re going to see them start to peel away if they think it’s safe to do so,” Frank said. “Don’t blame them.”

“Should we be setting up a watch?” Jeb asked.

“I don’t think so,” the Sheriff said. “A few of us have dogs, so if anything starts up we’ll hear about it fast.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much, folks,” Gabe said. “Other than the damn jet noise, this place has been pretty quiet. I know I have a vested interest here, but I would give this place some serious thought. The road isn’t safe. You might make it to somewhere better than here, but I think it’s risky.”

“I agree…we should have some serious discussion about that,” Hilda said.

“It is closer to the action,” Jeb said. “Easier for us to slip in and strike the enemy.”

“Let’s not get into that now,” Frank said. “Too late, and that’ll keep me up all night.”

“Good point,” Jeb said. “I’m going to bed, folks. See you in the morning.”

With that, the group left the clubhouse.

Frank and Jane walked slowly back to their rig. When they got within about 20 yards, Lucy started barking.

“Ah, yes, our watchdog,” Frank said. “I’ll take her for a quick walk.”

“I’ll go to,” Jane said, “if you don’t mind. Maybe we should have a quick bite to eat, too.”

“Maybe we should eat first,” Frank said, laughing. “I forgot that we didn’t eat dinner yet. Wasn’t even hungry until now.”

“Okay, how about some canned chili?”

“Sounds perfect,” Frank said, as he unlocked the coach door. He pulled the door open and Lucy bounded out, tail wagging. “C’mon girl, let’s go inside.” The three of them entered the coach, and Frank shut the door and locked it.

“Too bad there’s no Wi-Fi,” Jane said, as she pulled a sauce pan out of the cupboard.

“I’ll check on the cell coverage,” Frank said. He watched Jane open a can of chili and pour it into the pan. She turned on the burner, but got no flame.

“Shoot, forgot. I’ll go turn on the propane,” Frank said. He grabbed his flashlight and went outside to turn it on. It was quiet outside, and getting cold. After he turned the propane on, he scanned the park. It reminded him of Hilda’s park a little bit. Somewhat sheltered. Maybe defendable in the same way. It was more out of the way, he thought. He heard the coach door open.

“It on, honey?” Jane asked.

“Yeah, go ahead. I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Okay,” she said. She shut the door and went back into the kitchen. Frank could see her working through the window. He turned back outward and looked around some more, his mind still racing.

“I gotta calm down,” he said to himself as he went back into the coach.

“You alright?” Jane asked.

“Yeah, but I’m still pretty wound up. I could use a drink,” he said.

“Well, I don’t see the harm in that,” Jane said. “I could use one too.”

“Good, how about a beer?” he asked. Jane nodded yes.

Frank opened the fridge and got out a couple of IPAs. He opened them and handed one to Jane as she stirred the chili.

“Smells good,” Frank said.

“Want onion?”

“No, that will just repeat on me all night.”

“Good, I was thinking the same thing,” Jane said. She took a big sip of her beer and then stirred the chili some more. Frank sat down at the dinette and drank about half of his beer in one gulp.

“Wow, I guess you did need that beer,” Jane said, laughing.

“I’m still too worked up,” Frank said. “I think all of this running around is getting to me. It’s been a long day.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked at it. “Well, I’ve got cellular, and LTE too, but I don’t know how fast it is.”

Jane put chili in two bowls and carried them over to the dinette. She sat down and had another swig of beer. They both started eating.

“If we were to stay here for a little while, do you think you could rig us up some internet?”

“Maybe, if somebody has a satellite dish that I could play with. Wouldn’t surprise me if Jerry has a lot of the network stuff we’d need to make that happen. Of course we could get the toad unhitched and get into town for some equipment, too.”

“Not a bad idea,” Jane said. “We are running low of a few other things too, you know. Like beer.”

“Can’t have that,” Frank said, as he finished his bottle. “This chili tastes pretty good.”

“Yeah, not bad for canned. Why don’t you have another beer?”

“You mind?”

“Not a bit,” she said.

Frank got up and went to the fridge. “You want another one too?”

“No, one will do the trick for me,” she replied. Frank nodded, opened his beer, and came back to the table.

They finished their meal and sat back silently for a few minutes. Mr. Wonderful came over and jumped into Frank’s lap.

“Hi, big boy,” Frank said. He petted the cat’s head and it bumped against his hand, purring loudly.

“He’s in love,” Jane said, laughing. Lucy trotted over and looked up, starting to whine. “Uh oh, looks like somebody is jealous.”

Frank laughed. “Same old story.”

“What were you doing out there earlier?” Jane asked.

“Trying to get a longer look at our surroundings. Trying to picture in my mind how we could defend it if we chose to stay here for a while.”

“What do you think?”

“It’s too dark to see well enough tonight, but tomorrow I think we ought to take a walk around and look.”

“You think we might be able to stick around here?” Jane asked.

“I really don’t know, sweetie. It would be nice, at least for a while. We could use a breather.”

“What about Missouri?”

“That scares me a tad. I keep thinking about nuclear attacks. It would be easy to float one down the big river, right into St. Louis. That would ruin our whole day.”

“Do you believe what Gabe was saying about Texas?”

“It wouldn’t shock me,” Frank said. “They’re all about protecting their own, and I don’t blame them.”

“You don’t think their state government is going to pull that same garbage that’s going on in California?”

Frank laughed. “Oh yeah, like that would work. Texans would probably shoot all of them and then just secede and start over.”

“Well, it might not be the Texas of 50 years ago anymore, you know. Lots of blue-state folks moved there when jobs got tight.”

“True, but remember that a lot of folks who left the blue states were trying to get to a red state on purpose. Not everybody from California is a blue-stater. There were a lot of fed-up people there before the crap hit the fan. ”

“True enough. Ready to take the girl out?”

“Sure,” Frank said. Let’s go.”

Frank hooked Lucy up to her leash and they left the coach. The chill in the air was a lot more pronounced now. Lucy scampered around but seemed to be in a hurry to get her business done. A coyote howled in the distance, and crickets chirped. The sky was a million stars.

“I could stay here for a while,” Jane said.

“Me too, as long as it’s safe. Maybe it will work out for a while.”

They walked down several blocks of coaches. Somewhere along the line Jane had grabbed Frank’s hand. Their fingers intertwined. Frank felt the warmth of being next to her, but in the back of his mind he was worried. About losing her. About getting killed and leaving her alone. About her being killed…no, that can’t happen. I couldn’t live with that. Frank drove himself into despair and then remember his country, and all that he had come to love about it during his long life. It would not be destroyed. It can’t be destroyed. Not when people like him still had breath in their lungs.

“You okay, honey?” Jane asked.

She reads me like a book, he thought to himself.

“I’m alright. So much on my mind. So many decisions.”

“Let’s just leave it for tomorrow,” she said. “I think the girl’s done, sweetie. Let’s get her home and go to bed. I need you to hold me for a while.”

“Nothing would be better than that,” Frank said. They headed back towards their coach, getting there quickly. Frank shut the door behind them after they climbed in. He gave Lucy a treat. She picked it up, tail wagging, and scampered off into her bed. Frank went into the bedroom and got undressed. Jane picked up something from the bedroom, and then went into the bathroom.

“Go ahead and close the bedroom door when you come in, sweetie,” Frank said. “I’m not going back out there.” He laid down and thought about turning on the TV, but decided against it. He heard the bathroom door open. Jane came wearing one of her more sheer nightgowns. She looked so good to Frank. She slid the bedroom door shut.

“Want to hit the light?” Frank asked.

“Not yet,” she said. Then she let her nightgown drop off of her.

“Oh,” Frank said, looking at her. “You are so beautiful.”

“Let me take your mind off of everything,” she whispered, as she climbed across the bed towards him.

Bug Out! Part 6 is available now in the Kindle Store!

Copyright

Bugout! Part 5 copyright © 2015 by Robert G Boren. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any format without permission in writing from the copyright holder.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Thanks to Laura Thomas for her fine editing!

About the Author

Robert G Boren is a writer from the South Bay section of Southern California. He writes Short Stories, Novels, and Serialized Fiction. Most of his work is about people from the South Bay.

Other Books by Robert Boren

Never A Loose End - The Franklin and Davis Files Book One

Serial Killers. Maniac Ex-cops. CIA Assassins. White Slavers. Strippers.

In "Never A Loose End", they all come together, racing towards their frightening destiny.

This is the story that started it all for George Franklin and Malcolm Davis. Some of you know them from the later episodes of the Bug Out! series, set seven years later. This is the story of how they met, and the battle that forged them into a formidable team.

George and Malcolm are both targets, marked for death, but why?

A clan of Serial Killers is active again, after hiding for years. What has brought them out?

Follow George and Malcolm as they dash through the Southwest in their Motorhomes.

Murder, gun battles, bombings, and general mayhem reign in "Never A Loose End"

Who will survive? Will the hunted be brought down, or will they become the hunters instead?

Find out in "Never A Loose End - The Franklin and Davis Files Book One"

Note: This full length novel carries a hard R rating, unlike the PG-13 Bug-Out! series. "Never A Loose End" contains graphic violence and sex. Discretion is advised.