Bug Out! Part 5: RV Flight from Terror (21 page)

“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.

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.