Bug Out! Part 12: RV Alliance (22 page)

“When do we go back, Scotty?”

“I’ll sneak over there when it’s dark,” he said. “Just sit tight.”

“I’m getting hungry.”

“I know, Kerry. You’re going to have to be a big boy for me now.”

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll be a big boy.”

Scott scanned the area. He was just starting to relax when he saw two officers with a blood hound working their way down the driveway towards the first pasture. He started the engine. “They’re coming, Kerry. Put on your seat belt.”

“Okay,” Kerry said, eyes wide with fright. Scott drove the Jeep off the road, barely making it between the dense tree trunks and into another field.
The tracks. They’ll see the tracks.

“Hold on, Kerry. I’m gonna haul ass.” When he hit the new pasture, he gunned it, driving as fast as he could without losing control, kicking up dust, rocks hitting the dash plate underneath. Kerry held on for dear life. They made it to the next stand of trees, and into another pasture, speeding up again. Suddenly there was the rushing noise of water. A creek. Shallow.
Perfect.

“Can we get past that?” Kerry asked, terrified.

“We’re gonna use it,” Scott said, putting the Jeep into low four wheel drive and slipping cautiously into the running water. They drove along until the rocks got too big and slippery, then got off on the far side of the creek. They were in another large pasture, speeding up. There were hills coming, and Scott could just make out a fire road up ahead. There wasn’t as much cover by it as he would’ve liked, but he headed for it anyway, hitting it fast, kicking up dirt as he got into the switchbacks.

“Where does this go, Scotty? The mountains?”

“Maybe,” he said. The trees were getting thicker, but it didn’t feel like mountains to him, just hills. He wished he still had Cindy so she could look at a GPS app for him. They got to the crest of the hill and stopped. Scott got out and looked down in the valley below. Beautiful, with a stream running through the bottom, lush greenery extending away from it. He froze. Truck camper, small cab-over on a four wheel drive truck. Pop up style. Down in the valley below, nobody around.
Perfect.

“Look, it’s a camper,” Kerry said.

“Shssshhhh,” Scott said, finger to his lips. “Quiet. We’ll get out of sight and wait until dark.”

“Okay, Scotty,” Kerry whispered. They got back into the Jeep and headed down the road until they got to the next stand of trees. They stopped under them.

“Put your seat back and try to rest,” Scott whispered. “It’s gonna be a long night.”

***

Jeb woke up. He hurt all over, but he felt better than yesterday. Each day he woke, he felt stronger. He looked over at his Rosie, snoring softly, her body rising and falling. The iron door opened, startling her out of sleep.

“What that?” she asked.

The delicate looking man switched on the lights. Jeb squinted to see who it was. Another man came in, wearing a uniform he didn’t recognize. Somebody behind them shoved a third man into the cell. He was a large burley man in a tattered Sheriff’s uniform. He grunted as he fell to the ground. An Islamist appeared at the door.

Jeb looked at them and laughed. “Hey, inbreed, seen Saladin lately? Let’s talk over a ham sandwich.”

“Speak when spoken to only,” the delicate man commanded harshly.

“Kiss my ass,” Jeb said. The delicate man moved forward, and nodded to the man in the strange uniform. He slapped Jeb hard on the face. Jeb laughed and spit blood at him, hitting his camo trousers. “Oops, sorry. Was aiming for that sweet little blue beret of yours. Couldn’t quite make it.”

“I know uniform,” Rosie said. “It UN.” She spit on the ground in front of her.

“You’ll do a lot better if you learn to respect your superiors,” the delicate man said.

“Eurotrash,” Jeb said. “I should have known. The only problem is that most of Europe has already rejected you cretins. I saw it on TV before your inbreeds snatched us.”

“They will come around,” the delicate man said, stepping more into the light. Jeb’s eyes opened wider.

“I know who you are,” Jeb said. “Daan Mertins. Saw your kisser on video from Hilda’s RV Park.”

“Yes,” he said. “And how is Hilda?”

Jeb laughed. “Protected by people you can’t handle. Hell, she could probably kick your ass herself.”

The burly man snickered, sitting up.

“You. You shut up,” the Islamist barked.

“Stuff it,” the burly man said. “Try to slap me and see what happens.”

“What’d they grab you for? Make them eat some bacon?” Jeb asked, snickering.

“The UN nabbed me,” the man said. “Dick Branson. I suspect you’re Jeb.”

“How would you know that?” Jeb asked.

“I know Ted Crowley, and he knows Malcolm Davis.”

“Oh,” Jeb said.

“Have your reunion later,” Daan said. “We will negotiate a trade for you people. If you cooperate, you might live through this.”

Jeb laughed. “Oh, really, Eurotrash. Just who do you expect to get for us?”

“Frank, George, and General Hogan.”

Jeb laughed so hard he rolled over on his side. “I’ll kill myself before I let you cretins take any of them.”

“Me too,” Rosie said. “I live long life. I spit on UN. I won’t cooperate.”

“I suggest you cretins go attack them,” Jeb said, still laughing. “Then you can join Saladin and Simon Orr and the rest of the traitors in hell.”

“Go ahead and enjoy,” Daan said. “We’ll leave you alone. I think the insults will cost you your meals for the next day.”

With that, the three men left, slamming the iron door behind them.

“It’s an honor to meet you,” Branson said.

“Likewise,” Jeb said. “This is Rosie. What’d they grab you for? You look like a sheriff.”

“I am,” he said. “The UN started throwing their weight around in my brother’s county. Western Colorado. I went to help. We had a battle. Killed a whole bunch of blue helmets. I got captured on the way back to Missouri.”

“They really think they can win here?” Jeb asked. “There’s no friggin way.”

“They’re getting help from some Federal agencies,” Branson said. “It’s a big mess. We’ve got a lot of fighting left to do.”

“I wasn’t kidding about this trade they want to do,” Jeb said. “I’ll kill myself first.”

“Me too,” Rosie said.

“I’d rather kill them,” Branson said, a sly smile on his face.

“I understand why they want Frank and General Hogan,” Jeb said. “Wonder why they want George. He killed a lot of them at Capitol Reef, but so did the rest of us.”

“I met him once, and Ted told me a little about him,” Branson said. “He’s ex-special forces and ex-CIA. He’s got friends in extremely high places. He’s dangerous to them.”

“He’s dangerous to anybody,” Jeb said, laughing. “Very impressive. Never forget when he lit up that M107.”

“How strong you now, Jeb?” Rosie asked.

“Hell, they’ve let me sleep for two days, on and off. I’m still real sore, but I feel pretty good.”

“What happened to you?” Branson asked.

“Gut shot in the Capitol Reef battle,” he said. “Had the last surgery about two weeks ago.”

“Wow,” Branson said.

“How about you?” Jeb asked. “You look kinda busted up. Rosie’s a nurse.”

“Yes, I nurse,” Rosie said.

“I’m fit as a fiddle,” Branson said. “My clothes are a little messed up. Happened when I killed two of those UN jerks with my bare hands.”

Clint had his rig almost set up.
He ran out the slides, then came out in front and surveyed the four rows of coaches. Family and friends.
No, all family.
His eyes welled up with tears as he looked at them.

“Pa!” Jason shouted, trotting up, his two brothers and Louis following behind.

“Yeah,” Clint said, smiling. “You guys got the trailer hooked up?”

“Yeah,” Jason said as he got next to him. “We just met Jackson and Earl. We met Terry earlier too. And Kurt, and the Sheriff.”

“Remember these folks aren’t celebrities,” Clint said. “They’re freedom fighters just like we are. Don’t do too much hero worship.”

“I want to meet Jeb,” Louis said. “We’ve got to spring him.”

“I’m sure that’ll be the first order of business,” Clint said. “That, and staying alive, of course.”

“Think the UN is gonna follow us back here?” John asked. Angus came up beside him to listen, a worried look on his face.

“They might have already,” Clint said. “Look up there.” He pointed upward.

“Crap, that’s a drone,” Jason said. “We about to get attacked?”

“Maybe, so stay sharp. Stay armed all the time.”

“Okay, Pa,” Jason said.

“Go see if anybody needs help with setup, and then we’ll go to the clubhouse. We’re gonna get dinner.”

“Good, I’m hungry,” Angus said.

***

Frank and Jane sat with Jerry and Jasmine in the clubhouse, sipping coffee and resting up before the meeting. General Hogan came in.

“Looks like they all got situated,” he said, grinning. “That’s almost forty seasoned fighters.”

“Yeah, now I feel like I’m in the Alamo and David Crockett’s group just showed up,” Jerry said, a goofy smile on his face.

“Don’t worry, this ain’t gonna be our last stand,” the general said. “I just heard back from Sam Hinton. That drone up there is for us. Here’s the IP address. You can access the video from there.” He handed Frank a slip of paper with the address on it.

“Who put it up there?” Frank asked. “Our military?”

“Yeah. The military is very upset with DC and the UN right now,” General Hogan said. “Most of them, anyway.”

“Only most?” Jerry asked.

“We let a lot of recent immigrants into the service over the past few years,” he said. “Most of them are good, but not all, as we’ve seen.”

“How about our command and control?” Frank asked.

“Spotty, but we still have a lot of good people in place.”

“So what’s up with the drone?” Jane asked.

“The UN made a deal with one of the corrupt leaders to get it in the air,” General Hogan said, smiling. “Some good officers hijacked it, and switched the path for video feeds with a loop.”

“They’re going to figure that out pretty quick, aren’t they?” Frank said as he went to the address on the PC.

“Oh, I bet the UN leadership already suspects something,” the General said. “No matter, they can’t access this now, and that means they’ll have to send people here to see anything. I’m sure it was difficult for them to sneak in assets to cut our communications, and now we’ll see them coming.”

“Wow, look at this video,” Frank said, rolling his chair away from the screen. “We can even steer the camera angle. Be easier if we had a joy stick, but the cursor keys work.”

“We should have somebody watching this all the time,” General Hogan said. “Paying special attention to our communication lines.”

“Yeah,” Jerry said.

“These friends of yours have any idea what the UN is planning?” Jasmine asked.

“Yes, they know what they’re planning,” General Hogan said. “Link up with the Islamists and take the southwest back.”

“The UN have enough men to do that?” Jerry asked.

“Re-take the southwest?” General asked. “Maybe, since we’re still a little thin, and they’ve got command and control all messed up in our military. They won’t hold it for long, and the Islamists left aren’t the best. Then there’s the wild card the Islamists have tried to warn the UN about. Rumor has it the UN ain’t listening.”

“That would be the citizens, I bet,” Frank said.

“You got it,” General Hogan said. “They’ve got one other real bad problem, thanks to you.”

“They can’t use the chips for command and control anymore,” Frank said.

“Right,” General Hogan said. “They’re a burden to them now, except during the heat of battle, and even then it’s a mixed bag for them.”

“What kind of command and control can the UN provide?” Jerry asked.

“Better, but they just got here, and they think we’re like Europeans,” General Hogan said. “They got a surprise coming.”

“They got any air power?” Jerry asked.

“They’ve got choppers, transport planes, and a few obsolete fighters,” General Hogan said.

“How about our air force?” Jerry asked.

General Hogan chuckled. “They think they can count on them. Who do you think did the switcheroo with the drone?”

“Let’s not get too happy yet,” Jasmine said. “We know they’ve got Jeb and my mom, and they’ll try to use them.”

“That’s true,” General Hogan said. “We have a big fight coming, and we could lose it if we aren’t careful. We need to shut them down in the southwest before they can consolidate and go on the attack. If they get that area locked up, they’ll bring a lot of forces in through the southern border.”

“I thought Mexico was locked down,” Jane said.

“Most of it is, but there are parts of northwestern Mexico that are still the Wild West,” General Hogan said. “We think they’re planning to bring forces into the Gulf of California and across the border into southern Arizona.”

“Won’t we see it and bomb the hell out of them?” Jane asked.

“They don’t think so,” General Hogan said, a twinkle in his eye. “One thing to remember, though. Air power alone won’t stop them, and we have the command and control problems preventing us from coordinating large scale attacks.”

“So what do we do?” Frank asked. “Hit them in Carlsbad Caverns?”

“Probably,” General Hogan said. “I have another tactic in mind. I need to discuss it with George.”

“Take out some bad leadership?” Jerry asked.

“I’d rather not talk about it yet,” General Hogan said.

***

There was an old couple in the camper below. Scott watched as they returned from the creek with a stringer full of trout, which they cooked on a Coleman Stove. Now they were inside, the dim lights glowing in the windows. It was finally dark. Kerry slept for a while. Scott didn’t. There were the sounds of helicopters in the distance, getting close once, about an hour ago. The old couple noticed, moving to the clearing to look up into the sky. Scotty expected the cops to rush in and take them, but they never came. He kept his eyes open. Kerry woke up and looked at him.

“What are we doing now, Scotty?” he asked.