Bug Out! Part 3: Motorhome Madness (4 page)

“Have a seat, gentlemen,” the Sheriff said. “We’ll fill you in on what we know.”

“Where’s the other person involved?” asked Major Hobbs.

“He’s out in a deer blind behind the RV Park, keeping watch,” Jerry said. “That’s where all the action happened this morning.”

“Alright, we can talk to him later. Which of you were involved?”

Jeb, Jerry, the Sheriff, and Hilda raised their hands.

“What happened?” asked the Major.

“We were all sitting in here talking to the Sheriff about a death that happened last night,” Jerry said.

“Death?” asked the Major.

“Yes,” the Sheriff said. “A murder, we believe.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, and the person who died was our ham radio operator,” Jerry said. “More on that later, though. You want to hear about what happened this morning, correct?”

“Yes,” the Major said. “Please go on.”

“So anyway, we heard shots coming from the back of the park,” Jerry said. “Sheriff Brown ran out there to see what was going on. He came back in a few seconds, and asked about the deer blinds in the back.”

“Then my mom called on the cell phone,” Jasmine said. “She was out in our rig, and she could hear Jeb calling for help. We couldn’t hear it up here.”

“I see,” the Major said.

“Jerry and Frank went running back to the rear of the park, and they picked up their guns from their rigs on the way,” the Sheriff said. “I went out there too.”

“I take it Frank is the person who is back in the deer blind right now?” asked the Major.

“Yes,” Jerry said.

“I probably should take it from here, guys, since I was out there. I’m Jeb.”

“Alright,” the Major said, looking back at Jeb as he hobbled over. “Were you wounded?”

“Yep, traitorous creep shot me in the leg. Just a flesh wound, though.”

“He patched up just fine,” the Doctor said from the back of the room.

“You the doctor?” asked the Major.

“Yes. By the way, that bullet was definitely military hardball. Passed clean through, no expansion.”

“Interesting,” the Major said. “Go on, Jeb.”

“I spent the night up in the blind,” Jeb said. “So I wake up at about 8:30 or so this morning. I hear voices, and the sound of some men coming towards the blind. I stood up and grabbed my rifle. Then I heard the shot, and felt the bullet go into my leg. I fell over, and pulled the door of the blind shut while I was laying there. Then I got up with my rifle and fired at the guy that shot me. Nailed him right in the head with my .270. Before these guys knew what was going on, I had three more down, but that was the end of my ammo. My Remington bolt action doesn’t hold many rounds, and I wasn’t carrying any extra.”

“I see. So then you called for help, I take it?” asked the Major.

“Yep. Glad old Rosie heard me,” he said.

“Who’s Rosie?” asked the Major.

“That’s my mom,” Jasmine said.

“Good thing she’s not here. She’d be all over you, Major. She likes men in uniform,” Jerry said, laughing. Major Hobbs smiled.

“So the three of you went back behind the park with guns,” the Major said. “What happened next?”

“Frank had his dog with him,” Jerry said. “She’s a Jack Russell. We went through the back gate and called out to Jeb. Then he yelled to look out, and somebody started shooting at us from the forest. We all hit the dirt. The Jack Russell saw where the shooter was, and Frank could see where she was looking, so he aimed his rifle in that direction. He saw some movement, and fired. He killed that one. We inched forward, and asked Jeb if he saw any other bad guys. He said no, so we continued, but then the dog started to growl and looked over at some bushes. This time I saw a person in the bushes, so I fired at them with my M-1 Carbine. I hit him a couple of times, but he got up and started running.”

“Damn .30 Carbines are useless,” Jeb said.

“Yeah,” the Major said. “Did he get away?”

“No, Frank shot him with his Winchester,” Jerry said.

“Oh, 30-30?” asked the Major.

“No, he’s got a sweet little saddle gun in .44 Mag,” Jeb said.

“Well, that will do the job,” the Major said. “Any more?”

“Nope, that was it,” the Sheriff said. “We don’t know if there were others there that escaped, or if the entire party was just these six guys.”

“Where are the bodies?” asked the Major.

“Right where they fell back there.” the Sheriff said.

“Ok, anything else?” asked the Major.

“Yeah, three of them are Islamist fighters, and three of them are militia guys,” Jerry said.

The Major looked over at the Lieutenant.

“Crap,” said the Major. “We had heard a couple of reports that they were working together, but didn’t believe it. Guess we have proof now. I’d like to take my men back there to investigate, and also to patrol the area to make sure nobody else is left. Could you call Frank and tell him we’re on our way? I’d rather not get hit with a .44 mag today.”

“I’ll call him,” Jane said. “I’m Frank’s wife.”

“Thank you,” he said. “Jerry, you’re welcome to come with us, and you too, Sheriff.”

“I’ll go if you need me,” Jeb said.

“No you won’t, hop along,” said the Doctor. “Keep off that leg as much as you can for the next couple of days.”

Jane got Frank on the phone.

“Frank?”

“Hi, honey,” he said. “Everything alright up there?”

“Yes, we’re fine. I’m not happy about you being out there by yourself.”

“I know, but somebody had to stay, and I’ve got a lot of ammo on my belt. What’s up?”

“The Army is here. Six men. They are coming back, with Jerry and the Sheriff. Just wanted to make sure you knew so you don’t shoot them.”

He laughed. “Alright, sounds good.”

“Ok, they’re leaving now. Love you,” she said.

“Love you too, sweetheart.”

Jane hung up and set down her cellphone.

“Okay, he knows you guys are coming,” she said.

“Thanks,” the Major said. “Lieutenant, got get the guys and we’ll get moving.”

“Roger that, sir,” he said, and he went out the door and had a brief chat with the men.

The Major, Jerry, and the Sheriff walked out the door and headed to the back of the park. The rest of the men caught up with them about half way back.

“Look sharp, men, and don’t shoot at the person in the deer blind. He’s a good guy,” the Major said. “We could have either Islamist fighters or militia men or both back here. Keep your eyes open.”

The men nodded.

“That the gate?” asked the Major.

“Yep,” Jerry said. Jerry opened it, and all of the men went through. They walked about fifty yards.

“Frank,” shouted Jerry.

“Yeah, Jerry, I see you guys.”

“Any sign of more cretins?” He shouted.

“Nope, quiet as a church back here, but we have some vultures circling. Look up.”

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Jerry said when he saw them. “That didn’t take long.

“You sure there’s no activity back here?” asked the Major.

“Who’s that?” asked Frank.

“It’s Major Hobbs, Frank,” Jerry said.

“Oh. Yes, Major, I’m pretty sure, because I have my eyes and ears up here.”

The Major gave Jerry and the Sheriff a quizzical look.

“He’s talking about that Jack Russell of his,” the Sheriff said. “That little sucker gave us a good warning earlier.”

“Oh, I get it,” said the Major.

“What now?” asked Jerry.

“How many people will that blind hold?” asked the Major.

“I think it ought to be able to hold four without any problem,” Jerry said.

“Alright. Lieutenant, you take the troops back a little further and look around. I’m going up into the blind with these guys.”

“Will do, Major,” he said. “Alright you guys, let’s go.”

“Frank, we’re coming up,” Jerry said.

“Come on up and have a drink,” Frank said. He laughed.

The Sheriff was first up the ladder, then the Major, and then Jerry.

“I can see why Jer used to brag about this thing,” the Sheriff said with a grin. This is nice. I take it that cabinet has the stash.”

“Who’s Jer?” asked the Major.

“He was Hilda’s husband,” the Sheriff said. “And an old friend of mine. He passed a few years ago.”

“Oh.”

“Take a look at this,” Frank said. He raised the top of the table, and showed off the booze and magazines.

“Dang, you weren’t kidding about a drink,” the Major said. He laughed.

“Hilda made Jer take all of the booze out of the house,” the Sheriff said. “So he made himself this little retreat. It’s not a bad deer blind, either, from what he said.”

“This looks like ¾ inch marine grade plywood,” the Major said. “Will take a decent sized bullet. A .50 cal would blow a hole through it, but it’s going to stop a lot of small arm fire.”

“Yep, and if it gets real bad, you might be able to hide behind one of the tree trunks,” Frank said. “That being said, this is no fort. Bad place to get trapped in. It’s a good lookout though.”

“Well, we need to talk, gentlemen,” the Major said.

“I figured,” Frank said. “I miss anything at the clubhouse?”

“Not a lot,” Jerry said.

“We had been hearing rumors that the Islamists and the militia were working together,” Major Hobbs said. “This is the first time we’ve seen proof.”

“How much trouble are they going to give the military?” asked Frank.

“Oh, we’ll take care of them, but we’re still fighting the Islamists over by Flagstaff, and trying to mop up around Phoenix. Tucson is pretty well locked down, and so is Yuma. The bigger problem is down in Mexico.”

“I had a feeling that was going to be the case,” Frank said. “Are we going to annex Mexico?”

“No, not exactly,” the Major said. “We have basically merged with Mexico. The majority of the people down there are for it now. It’s going to take a lot of time and resources to rid the area of Mexican Nationalist forces and the Islamists. The Islamists got stuck there when we shut down our borders and blew the shit out of Venezuela.”

“Don’t tell me, let me guess,” Jerry said. “The Islamists south of the border are allied with the Mexican Nationalists, and that’s working so good for them that they decided to try the same thing here.”

“That’s what it sounds like to me,” the Major said. “And of course we don’t have enough troops to cover everything. Luckily the Mexican army is with us down south, and they didn’t get hit with nukes, so their population is intact.”

“Can you tell us anything about the Canadian border?” asked Frank. “We’ve heard that there have been Islamists coming down through there.”

“Yes, I have intelligence saying the same thing,” the Major said. “Not a good situation. If it wasn’t for that, I’d advise you folks to move north. You still can, but I wouldn’t go above Wyoming at this point.”

“How are things back east?” asked Jerry.

“Better than out here, actually,” the Major said, “the problem is getting there. You don’t want to go through New Mexico, that’s for sure. And there is more than just the enemy to worry about.”

“You mean the scavengers I’ve heard about, I suspect,” said the Sheriff. “I’ve been trying to talk these folks into staying here because of them. And that was before we heard anything about Islamists coming down from Canada.”

“Well, depending on how powerful the enemy is in this area, that might be the best advice,” the Major said. “We need to find out if these folks here were a scouting party, or the sign of a major movement into this area. If it’s a major movement, you might have no choice but to hit the road.”

“If it was a scouting party looking for supplies and we killed all of them off, we might be alright,” the Sheriff said.

“We need to see if we can find their vehicle,” Jerry said. “There’s a place to park back by the highway. If there’s no vehicle there, we need to assume that some of them may have gotten away.”

“Exactly,” the Major said. “Want to show us where this parking area is?”

“Sure, no problem,” Jerry said.

“Want me to stay up here?” asked Frank.

“Sure, just don’t get trigger happy,” the Major said.

“You got it,” Frank replied.

“Let me radio the Lieutenant to let him know we’re going back there,” Major Hobbs said. He pulled out a small radio and called him. “Lieutenant, we’re coming down to take a look at a parking area by the highway. We want to see if there’s a car there or not.”

“Roger that,” he replied. “That will tell us if there were only six.”

“Got it, Hobbs out.”

The Sheriff, Jerry, and Major Hobbs all climbed down the ladder and headed carefully towards the parking area.

Meanwhile, back at the clubhouse, Hilda was serving up coffee and trying to keep people calm. Jasmine went back to her rig to get Rosie, and they slowly made their way in through the door.

“Good morning, all,” she said. “Mimosas?”

“Mom, I don’t think you should start drinking this early.”

“Why not?”

“What if we have to leave in a hurry?”

“Ok,” she said. “Guess I’ll have coffee.”

“I’ll go get you some, mom. Sit down here, I’m sure there’s some good conversation.” Jasmine went over to the coffee pot and filled two cups. She brought them over and handed one to Rosie.

“Thank you, daughter,” Rosie said.

“How are you today, Rosie?” asked Jane.

“I have slight hangover, but ok,” she said. “How you?”

“We’ll, I’d be better if we didn’t have problems behind the park,” Jane said.

“Frank okey doke?” she asked.

“So far. Jerry too. The army is back there now,” Jane said.

“I trust Jerry more than army,” Rosie said.

“Yes, Jerry and Frank did well today,” Jane said.

“And the Sheriff,” Hilda said, walking over. “I’m going to take a cup of coffee up to Charlie. And a bottle of water or two. It’s going to get hot up there later.”

“Where Charlie?” asked Rosie.

“He’s got lookout duty on top of the store,” Hilda said.

“Oh. He good man,” Rosie said.

“Yes, he is, Rosie,” Hilda said. “I’ll be back in a little while.”

Hilda went into the store and through the door into the store room. She climbed the steps up to the roof, and went out.

“Hi, sweetie, brought you some coffee,” Hilda said.