Bug Out! Part 12: RV Alliance (2 page)

“Do you guys still want my deputy and me to show up there?”

“I don’t think so,” Ted said. “We’re thinking the house is gonna be empty. I don’t see an assault happening.”

“Okay, but call me if you need me, okay?”

“Will do, Dick.” Ted put his phone back in his pocket.

“Well?” Malcolm asked.

“He’s been trying to call Agent Keith since last night. No luck.”

“Like I said, he’s dead.”

“Or captured.”

“He want to come out?”

“He offered, but I told him there was no need,” Ted said. “Besides, he might be useful where he is. Scott’s liable to show up at one of his old hangouts.”

“The site of that biker massacre is way too hot,” Malcolm said.

“I know, but he knows other people in the area,” Ted said. “One of them is interesting. Jason Beckler’s nephew, remember?”

“He’s not a player,” Malcolm said.

“Any port in the storm.”

***

“What a dump,” Scott said as he walked up to the house. Front yard of dead grass, surrounded by a short chain link fence. Scott opened the gate to walk in. It was broken. He carefully lifted it to get it closed behind him, and then walked up to the front door, checking his pistol one last time. It was in the waistband of his pants, in back. He could smell cooking. He knocked on the door.

“Just a sec,” Cindy said.

Scott heard footsteps, and then the sound of a safety chain and dead bolt opening.

“Come on in,” she said, standing aside, holding the door open. She had a frilly robe on, which barely contained her voluptuous body.

“What’s that I smell?” Scott asked.

“Spaghetti,” she said. “I thought we’d eat in tonight. That okay?”

Scott looked her up and down. “Yeah, that suits me fine,” he said. “You look inviting.”

She giggled. “It’s that obvious, huh? It’s been a while since anybody nice gave me a second look.”

“How do you know I’m nice?” Scott asked.

“You’re taking care of your retarded brother,” she said. “That’s nice. I saw how you are with him.” She approached him, snaking her arms around his neck. Her robe opened, and she spilled out. “Oops.”

“My, my,” Scott said, his hands on her now. They kissed passionately.

“The sauce is simmering,” she said. “Let’s go work up an appetite.”

She led him into the bedroom, and afterwards they lay next to each other, looking at the ceiling, sweating, still breathing hard.

“That was nice,” she said, getting up on one elbow to look at his face. “You like?”

“Oh, yeah,” Scott said. His mind was already working things out.
Eat, have her again, and finish it.

She bent down and kissed him, then got out of bed. “I’ll put the noodles to boiling.”

She threw on her robe and walked away. Scott stood up and got dressed, putting his pistol back into his waistband. He joined her after a few minutes.

“Hope you like lots of garlic,” she said.

“I do,” Scott said, watching her as he sat down at the kitchen table. She turned on a burner and put the big pot of water on, tossing in a little salt. Then she turned towards him.

“Hungry?” she asked, smiling. Her hair was disheveled and her robe crooked, but she looked better than she had at the storage yard. Maybe it was the lack of gum chewing.

“Yeah, I’m hungrier than you know,” he said, shooting her a flirty glance.

“Good,” she said, walking over to him, opening her robe and pulling his head to her naked chest. “I’ve missed this so much.”

“C’mon, you’re getting attention,” Scott said, pulling back from her a little. “Nice looking women like you always get attention.”

“This is a small town,” she said. “My ex has a lot of friends, and I took him to the cleaners in the divorce. I’ve got the scarlet X on me now, but it’s worse than that. He’s beaten up three men who have tried to date me. Sent one of them to the hospital.”

“He’s a real bad ass, eh,” Scott said. “Interesting. Think we might get a visit? Love to meet him.”

“Are you crazy? He’s a lot bigger than you.”

“The bigger they are, the harder they fall,” Scott said, chuckling. “I’ll bet he’d be really pissed if he knew that I took his woman
and
his motor home.”

Cindy got a wicked grin on her face. “You got that right. Maybe I ought to tell him that.”

The water came to a boil, and she broke handfuls of pasta noodles, pushing them into the water.

“Where’s the DMV?” Scott asked. “I need to go register the sale.”

“Don’t worry about that,” she said. “I already mailed the forms in. They’ll send you the registration and a tax bill.”

“Yep, got to get their taxes,” Scott said. “Thanks. That will save me some time.”

“Don’t mention it,” she said. “Where are you guys going?”

“Kansas,” Scott said. “By way of northern Missouri.”

“Oh, you’re taking the bridge on Route 36,” she said. “Heard there’s a bit of a line-up going that direction.”

“Yeah, a lot of the crossings are still closed,” Scott said.

“Going to be around long enough to see me again?” she asked, rubbing up against him.

“You’d like that?” Scott asked.

“Are you kidding?” she asked. “Wish I could go with you guys.”

Scott considered that.
Get back in the game. Dump her along the way. Start the trail again.

“You’re considering it, aren’t you?” she said, watching him think.

“I don’t know when we’ll get back here,” he said.

Suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass outside. Cindy whirled around in a panic, rushing to the window.

“Crap, it’s my ex,” she said, a horrified look on her face. “He broke your windshield.” She looked Scott in the eye and froze. He was grinning like a kid in a candy store.

“Your ex did that to the wrong person,” Scott said.

“He’s coming up here. Go hide.”

Scott laughed and rushed into the bedroom. As soon as he got inside he checked his pistol. Full clip. He chuckled as he heard the door break in.

“Where is he?” a man shouted. “I know he’s here. I forced it out of Drew. Little pipsqueak.”

“Get out of here,” Cindy screamed. Scott heard a slap, and somebody falling on the floor. He opened the door and slipped out, watching as the man was getting ready to kick her on the floor.

“Ahem,” Scott said. “Looking for me, redneck?”

The man pivoted, running towards him until he saw the gun.

“Freeze, inbreed,” Scott said.

“Son of a bitch,” he said, staring him down. “I’m gonna take you apart.” Cindy whimpered on the floor behind him.

“No, you’re about to die, redneck,” Scott said, grinning. “You broke into your ex-wife’s house and beat her. You’re dead.”

He trembled, backing up. “You ain’t gonna do nothing.”

“How many beers did you need before you had the guts to come over here, redneck?”

“Screw you.”

“You know,” Scott said. “I don’t know what I enjoy being in more. Your wife or your motor home.”

“You son of a bitch,” he shouted, moving forward in a rage. Scott fired, hitting the man five times in the chest. Cindy screamed as he fell into an expanding pool of blood.

“Perhaps I ought to go,” Scott said. “Before the cops get here. Still want to go?”

“I have to now,” she said, a terrified look in her eyes.

“No, you don’t,” he said. “This is a legal killing, straight up. It’s even got a back story.”

“What?”

“This jerk weed kicked the crap out of Drew before he came over here, then broke down the door and hit you. You’re in the clear.”

“Wouldn’t you be too?” she asked.

“Nah, I’ve got a past you don’t know about. I need to leave.”

“Your car,” she said. “Can you drive it?”

“As far as I’m going, yeah,” he said. “I’ll park it in the storage yard, but I need to leave in the motor home tonight.”

“Okay, then I’ll stay and talk to the cops,” she said. “Thank you.”

“Believe me, the pleasure was mine.” He kissed her and ran out to his car, driving off as he heard the sirens approaching.

Frank and Jane were ready
to call it a night. They were shutting off their PCs when Jerry rushed in with Jasmine.

“Turn on the TV!” Jerry shouted.

“What’s going on?” Jane asked. “We in trouble again?”

“No, it’s Europe,” Jerry said.

Frank found the remote and turned the TV on, switching to CNN. There was video split into four sections on the screen. Brussels, Paris, Rome, and Amsterdam, buildings on fire.

“Uh oh,” Frank said. “The General was right.”

“Right about what?” Jerry asked.

“He heard a lot of bad chatter about Europe all of a sudden,” Frank said. He turned the sound up.

“Police and Home Guard facilities have been hit with coordinated attacks in twelve EU states. We have video from four of them on the screen. After the headquarters were taken over, Islamic radicals went on to murder any police or military personnel they could find. These actions were carried out by forces which total several hundred thousand between all the countries. Remaining countries not yet attacked have fortified their police and military facilities.”

“Well, at least there were no nukes,” Jasmine said.

“Countries successfully attacked were Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and Greece. Attempts were made in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, and Finland, but were put down by local authorities. In London, the police center was overrun, but an angry mob led by soccer hooligans from nearby pubs secured weapons and dispatched the radicals in that facility. Angry mobs have now gone into the Muslim areas of London and are killing everyone they see wearing traditional Muslim garments. London police are powerless to stop the carnage at this hour.”

Why wasn’t this on the internet?” Jane asked.

“This just happened,” Jasmine said. “It’s probably on there now.”

Frank already had his PC back up. “Yep, it’s all over the web now. Geez.”

George, Heidi, and General Hogan rushed in.

“Good, you guys have the TV on,” the General said. “This happened sooner than I expected.”

“Did the WTO team get away?” Frank asked.

“Yeah,” General Hogan said. “They’re already in San Diego.”

“Those bastards set this in motion,” George said.

“Looks like,” General Hogan said.

“What are we gonna do?” Heidi asked.

George looked over at General Hogan. They both smiled.

“What?” Jerry asked.

“They don’t know we’re on to them, and we’re going to keep it that way, until they show up at Carlsbad Caverns,” General Hogan said. “Then we’ll fry the lot of them.”

“Yeah, cut off the head of the snake,” George said, grinning. “Sure you can keep the bad element in our government from finding out?”

“Yeah,” General Hogan said. “We’ll need to take them out too, and it’s going to be hard. The operatives left don’t have chips in them.”

“Look,” Jerry said, pointing to the screen. “Russian tanks rolling into Finland.”

“They gonna take over?” Frank asked.

“No, they’re probably there at Finland’s request,” General Hogan said. “Most people don’t understand how close the relationship is between Finland and Russia. Russia better watch themselves, though. They’re liable to get attacked too.”

“Where are these large Islamist forces coming from?” Jerry asked. “We wiped out most of the radicals in the Middle East.”

“The latest estimate we have on Muslims in Europe is about 40 million,” General Hogan said. “That’s up from 18 Million ten years ago.”

“Wow,” Frank said. “Combine that with the falling birthrates of Europeans, and you’ve got a real problem.”

“Most Muslims are moderate, though, right?” Jane asked.

“Let’s say that 90% of them are moderates who don’t want to take over the countries they’ve moved to,” Frank said. “That means you’ve got around four million radicals. Several hundred thousand able-bodied Islamic fighters from that number isn’t much of a stretch. Remember that their population runs much younger than native Europeans at this point.”

“Yes, it really is a numbers game,” General Hogan said. “There weren’t anywhere near those numbers in the USA, so they weren’t able to field a large enough force locally. They had to import.”

“How many do we have here?” Jerry asked.

“Before the war started, about eight million,” General Hogan said. “So assuming 90% are moderate, you’re talking about 800,000 radicals, which leaves you with a much smaller number of able-bodied Islamic fighters.”

“That’s still a lot,” Jerry said.

“Yes, it was more than enough for a good beachhead, and they used it to help get the foreign invaders placed,” the General said.

“So I take it we watch and wait,” Frank said. “We’ll have to figure out a way to track the WTO.”

“I’ve got operatives on that now,” General Hogan said.

“It’ll be interesting to see what our government does,” George said. “There will be pressure to move US troops over there to shore up NATO.”

“Yeah,” General Hogan said. “That’s what I’m afraid of. Troops from Mexico going straight over there, instead of here. We aren’t out of the woods in this country yet.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Jane said.

***

Scott drove up to the storage yard gate and input the code. The gate rattled open, and he drove in quickly, parking next to the motor home. He could see the glow of the iPad through the bunk window as he walked to the coach.

“You back already?” Kerry asked.

“Yeah, and we’ve got to leave tonight.”

“Was she a dumb bitch?” Kerry asked.

“No, actually she was nice,” Scott said, as he got into the driver’s seat and started the engine. He pulled out of his parking place and jumped out, moving the station wagon there, and removing the guns he had under the seat. He bounded back into the RV and drove towards the gate. Kerry climbed into the passenger seat as Scott input the code to open the gate. A person stood outside gate, blocking the driveway. He slammed on the brakes.

“Is that the lady you bought this from?” Kerry asked.

“Yeah,” Scott said. He watched as she ran over to the driver’s side window.

“Can I go with you guys?” she asked.