Bug Out! Part 6: Motorhome Mayhem in the Rockies (6 page)

“We would have been, but we had all of our snipers watching things while the army was here,” Jerry said.

“How’s the patient?” Frank asked.

“The surgeon at the hospital seems to think he can save the eye, thank God,” Mary said. “That’s actually a pretty nice facility, but they’re short on doctors. I might be going there to help out after we get settled.”

“Let’s go out to the meadow and get the hole dug,” Gabe said. The three men walked out in that direction.

“I’d better go stash these radios,” Jerry said. “I’ll put them in my rig and then join you guys.”

“Maybe you should tear into them now and make sure there’s no bugs,” Frank said. “You’re more valuable doing that than joining in the grave digging detail.”

“Sure, I could do that,” he said. “I’ll see you guys in a while. It won’t take long.”

“Good,” Frank said. He pulled out his cellphone and called Jane.

“Hi, honey,” Jane said when she answered.

“Hi, sweetie. All clear. You can go back to the clubhouse if you want to.”

“I take it these folks seemed like good guys?”

“Yes, they’re good guys. I’ll fill you in later. Got some grave digging to get out of the way before it gets too late.”

“Alright, I’ll meet you in the clubhouse. Love you.”

“Love you too, sweetie.” Frank put the phone back in his pocket.

“Wish I had a woman,” Gabe said. “Mine passed a few years ago.”

“Well, there’s always Rosie. She’s looking for somebody all the time.” Frank laughed.

“Have you seen the way Jeb and her look at each other?”

Frank thought about that. “I think they just like to flirt with each other.”

“I think it’s more than that,” Gabe said.

The diesel motor in the backhoe fired up, sending off a plume of black smoke, and Jackson maneuvered it around, starting to dig a small hole. It was done before Gabe and Frank got there.

“That hole isn’t big enough,” Gabe said.

“This is for Private Jenkins,” Jeb said. “We ain’t gonna bury him in the same hole with that scum.”

“Oh, right. I agree,” Gabe said.

The men picked up Private Jenkins carefully, and put him in his grave. They all stood around, taking a last look at him, and removed their hats if they had them on.

“Goodbye, friend,” Jeb said. The others watched silently.

“After we get the radios checked out, I’m going to call the guy who was here and see if he can get word to this poor boy’s family,” Frank said. “I’d want to know if I was his father.”

“Radios?” Charlie asked.

“Yeah, we’ll tell you guys about it when we get back to the clubhouse. We have some things to talk about.”

Jackson looked over at Gabe. “You want to take over?”

“You look like you’re doing fine,” Gabe said. “I don’t mind just supervising.”

“Good, this is kinda fun.” He started on the large hole, while the other men finished stripping the bodies of their uniforms, and throwing them into the wagon.

“I should have realized that these people weren’t real army right away,” Jeb said. “Half of them have AK-47s instead of M-16s.”

“You probably weren’t close enough to pick that up,” Charlie said.

“How were things in town, Gabe?” Jeb asked.

“Felt pretty creepy to me. I think a lot of people have left. Traffic was too light.”

“Is the hospital fully staffed?” Kurt asked.

“They are a little short on doctors. I think you wife wants to help out there.”

“I’ll have to talk to her about that. Not so sure I want her making that drive all the time.”

“I know, I was thinking the same thing,” the Sheriff said. “I’d also hate for her to get followed back here.”

“Shoot, didn’t think about that,” Gabe said. “Hey Jackson, you’re pretty good with that thing.”

“It’s like riding a bicycle, I guess,” he shouted above the noise of the engine. He almost had the hole big enough. He was done in a moment, and then he shut off the engine and climbed out to help lift bodies.

It was then that they heard it. The faint sound of a scratchy voice over a speaker. It was coming from the wrecked helicopter.

“Quiet, everybody,” Jerry said,
listening to the scratchy radio sound coming out of the helicopter. He pulled out his smart phone and tapped the audio recorder app. “Stay here. I’m going to sneak up and record it.”

Frank nodded as the others watched Jerry scurry over to the wreckage. He stuck his phone inside and then stood back, trying to listen. It was hard to make out the words. Frank snuck up next to him and tried to listen too.

“It’s really hard to hear unless your head is right in there, and there’s bad fumes and heat,” Jerry whispered. “I set my phone in there with the audio recorder on. Hope it doesn’t get too hot. Almost burned my hand putting it in there.”

They stayed put for several minutes, until the scratchy voice stopped.

“How long with your phone record?” Frank whispered.

“A couple hours,” he said.

“Good, let’s leave it there and go finish up the bodies. If it comes back on we’ll catch it.”

They started walking back to the group.

“We can do everything except turn that backhoe on again,” Jerry said. “That makes a lot of noise. It’s possible that it’ll cover what we’re trying to record.”

“Can they tell our position by the radio or anything else in that chopper?” Charlie asked.

“I don’t think so, after that fire,” Jerry said. “The radio should be no problem, and any bugs in there would have melted.”

“Well, the radio still works,” Frank said.

“Yeah, but that’s a hardened military radio. Those things can take a lickin and keep on tickin,” he replied. “Bugs are cheap crap made out of low quality plastic. Hell, that fire was probably hot enough to melt the solder on one of those.”

“What’s up?” Jeb asked as they got to the hole.

Frank explained it to them. The men nodded and went over to the pile of bodies, carrying them over and dumping them in. It didn’t take long. After that, they just stood around the hole, waiting.

Charlie and the Sheriff went through their effects looking for things worth keeping. They carried some stuff over to the hole and tossed it in on top of the bodies.

“Anything worth keeping?” Gabe asked.

“There were guns, knives, some ammo, a few grenades, and a couple of compasses. Also a few key cards that may come in handy,” the Sheriff said. “The rest was crap. Pictures of family, playing cards, other assorted crap.”

“How long until we can run the backhoe?” Jackson asked

“What time is it?” Frank asked.

It’s just shy of 3:30,” Gabe said.

“Let’s give a little while longer,” Jerry said. “Just in case somebody comes back on. Then I’ll pull my phone out of there. Tomorrow morning I think I’d better disable that sucker.”

“Maybe we should keep it,” Charlie said. “Maybe we should try to imitate Major Donaldson. We don’t have to tell them anything.”

Earl cracked up. “Not a bad idea. Jackson’s pretty good at imitations.”

“Yeah, I am,” Jackson said. “Not sure I got a good enough listen to him, though. Things came apart pretty fast during that little pow wow.”

“If we’re going to try this, we may not want to wait too long,” Charlie said. “It’s already been a few hours.”

“Do you know how to run that kind of radio, Jerry?” asked Frank.

“Sure, but I didn’t see if the handset was intact or not. We might only be able to listen. Also, it might still be too hot to touch.”

“There are some gloves stashed under the seat on that backhoe,” Gabe said.

“Good. Let’s try, then,” Jerry said. “C’mon, but be quiet.” He picked up the gloves on the way over.

“What do you guys want me to say?” Jackson asked.

“Tell them that you had a hard landing three clicks northwest of Leadville,” Charlie said. “Tell him that most of the men didn’t make it, and the pilot is dead. Ask for instructions on how to walk out.”

“Okay,” Jackson said.

“Charlie, you’re pretty damn sharp,” Jerry said.

“Yeah, they may tell ‘the Major’ where the enemy is over there,” Frank said. He looked over at Charlie and nodded approval. Charlie nodded back, a slight smile on his face.

They got next to the chopper. Jerry turned back to the group and put his finger to his lips to quiet them down. Then he put his head into the window opening and looked at the radio. He came back out.

“Crap, the handset isn’t on the radio,” Jerry said. He looked back inside again. Charlie pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight app. He stuck it next to Jerry’s head, pointing in.

“That help?” he whispered.

“Yeah, there it is, see?” he whispered, pointing down next to a seat that was hanging onto the side wall with one bolt. “I can’t reach it from here, though.”

“I’ve got a grabber that can reach that. It’s in my rig,” Charlie said. “Be right back.” He trotted off towards his space. Jerry backed away from the hole.

Charlie was back in a couple of minutes with it.

“Wow, that thing is long,” Frank said.

“Wait till you drop something down around a big diesel, and you’ll want one of these,” Charlie whispered. He handed it to Jerry, who turned and went back to the window. “Flashlight?”

“Oh, yeah,” Charlie said. He rushed over there, turned on his phone light, and stuck it in the window.

“Got it,” Jerry said. He pulled it out.

“Broken?” Frank asked.

“No, the connector just came out. Headphone jack got pulled out too. That’s the only reason we can hear this thing. Lucky break.”

“Yeah, the headphone is probably still stuck on the pilot’s head, wherever that is,” Frank said. “Can you reach in far enough to connect that handset?”

“Yeah,” Jerry said. He put on the gloves, reached in and plugged it back in, and then motioned for Jackson to come over.

“Ready?” Jackson asked.

“Yeah. Push the key in to talk, and release it to listen.”

Jackson cleared his throat, and said a few words, trying to get close to Donaldson’s voice.

“They ain’t gonna believe that,” Gabe whispered, shaking his head.

“They might. The quality of the audio on these radios suck,” Jerry said. “They probably won’t be able to tell.”

Jackson looked at everybody, and got a sheepish grin on his face.

“Here goes nothing,” he said, putting the mic to his mouth. He pushed in the key. “Mayday, mayday, mayday. Come in. Over.”

“Who is this? Over,” said the scratchy voice on the radio.

“This is Major Donaldson. Our chopper had a hard landing, and most of the team’s dead. Over.”

“Where are you? Over.”

“About three clicks northeast of Leadville. Requesting instructions. Over.”

“What happened to Private Jenkins? Over.”

“He survived, but I blew the fucker away. Over.”

“Pity. Can you walk out, or are you injured? Over.”

“I can walk. Over.”

“Good. We have a forward base in Twin Lakes, where Route 82 meets Route 91. You can’t miss it, but it’s too far to walk. You’ll need to steal a vehicle. Over.”

“If I can steal a vehicle, why don’t I just drive to home base? Over.”

“Negative. We’re on the move, after some of our scouts were discovered. Over.”

“What general area are you in? Over.”

“We are along route 330, northeast of Grand Junction, but we haven’t found a safe place to stop. Best if you hook up with the forward team in Twin Lakes until we get settled. Over.”

“Understand. Over.”

“Good. Talk to you soon. Over and Out.”

Charlie looked over at Jerry and Frank, a big grin on his face.

“Well, how did that go?” Jackson asked.

“Are you kidding? We just struck the mother lode,” Frank said. “Jerry, do you think you can get that radio out of there without damaging it?”

“Yeah, but the power supply might be a problem. It’s not the usual 12 volt stuff. Might actually be safer to leave it in this hulk, as long as the batteries are still good.”

“Guys, it’s not going to matter anyway,” Charlie said. “They think the major is leaving the radio behind on foot. If we call them again on this thing, they’ll know its BS.”

“Crap, Charlie’s right,” Frank said.

“I’ve got a suggestion,” Earl said. “Take the mic out of that thing. Don’t leave it here. That way nobody can get on there and make a call.”

“You think there still might be cretins about?” Jeb asked.

“You just never know, and it would be a shame to have that used to bring the enemy right back to us.”

“Well, in that case, we ought to just trash the radio,” Jerry said. “If we can’t use it again, why keep it?”

“Do it,” Charlie said.

“Alright, everybody stand back,” Jerry said. He pointed his AK-47 at the radio and fired several times, sending splintered plastic and glass bouncing around inside the hulk of the chopper.

“Good, now let’s get that backhoe going,” Gabe said.

“You got your phone, Jerry?” Frank asked.

“Yeah, I got it. We can listen to the audio later, although it’s probably not important, since they basically told us everything we could have hoped to hear about.”

“You guys don’t think that was a little too easy?” Jeb asked. “What if they know where this chopper is right now?”

“What are you thinking, Jeb?” Charlie asked.

“Nothing for sure, but I think these guys might be a little smarter than we’re giving them credit for.”

“You think they didn’t buy that it was Major Donaldson?” Jackson asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe. They were playing pretty fast and loose with locations over a radio where they weren’t sure who was listening. I think we’d better keep our eyes open. That’s all.”

“We’d better set up a watch,” Frank said. “I think Jeb might have a point.”

“Hey, guys, let’s get these bodies covered over,” Gabe said. “We’re burning daylight, and you don’t want these out overnight.”

“On it,” Jackson said. He fired up the backhoe and started pushing dirt into the hole.

“Let’s go back into the clubhouse and talk,” Charlie said.

“Yeah, and I want to take a listen to the audio recording,” Jerry said. “I’ll go by my rig and pick up my laptop. I can download the file and clean it up on there. We might have gotten some background conversation that will either prove or eliminate Jeb’s concerns.”