Bug Out! Part 5: RV Flight from Terror (9 page)

“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.