Bug Out! Part 7: Mile High Motorhomes (10 page)

Jerry walked over to Frank, who was sitting in front of the PC. He had a programming screen up.

“What’s cooking, Frank?”

“I’m doing a little setup work, that’s all,” Frank said. “An application that will read the chips, provided we figure out how to pick up their signal and translate their payload.”

“Java, eh,” he said, looking at the screen. “You making phone apps?”

“Yeah, I’m planning on doing an iPhone app and an Android app, eventually.”

“Good idea,” Jerry said. “Got the signal generator?”

“Yeah, it’s right over there,” Frank said, pointing.

“Great,” he said, looking at it. “That’s a good one. I heard that the back of Jake’s truck got shot up a little.”

“Sure did, but he didn’t lose much, luckily. He was pretty shook up when he saw how close the bullets got to the rear tires.”

“Maybe I’ll go out and help him,” Jerry said. “Unless you need me here.”

“I’m good, go ahead,” Frank said.

Jerry walked out the door and headed for the cinder-block rental units that Gabe had in the middle of the park. Terry was walking in that direction already, and met up with him. Dobie was already there, helping Jake dig through things.

“Hey, Jake,” Jerry said. “Gonna unload everything?”

Jake smiled as he saw him walking up. “Naw, most of it is going to stay right here, in case we have to beat a hasty retreat.”

“Good idea,” he said. “How much got damaged?”

“Very little equipment,” he said. “Our clothes took a beating, though, and some of Trish’s books.”

“Where is Trish?” Terry asked.

“She went over by the pool to sit on a lounge chair for a while. She’s pretty worked up…not in a very good mood, either.”

“You need to introduce the dogs to Trish and Jake, Dobie?” Jerry asked.

“They already know each other,” Dobie said. “Princess loves Trish. She was all over her when they got here, apparently.”

“Sure was,” Jake said. “I think we need to lay off of her.”

“Trish?” Jerry asked.

“Yeah. We need to let her settle down a little…and we need to quit pushing these two kids together.” He looked at Terry and smiled. “Not that it’s your fault, Terry.”

“I want to go talk to her,” he said.

“Do so at your own risk,” Jake said, chuckling. “Like I said, she’s not in a great mood.”

“I’ll chance it,” he said, and turned to walk towards the pool. She was sitting on a lounger, back towards him, her hair shining gold and reddish in the sun.

“Hey,’ he said.

She jerked, as if startled, and turned towards him.

“Hey. The oldsters send you over here?”

“No, they warned me that you were in a bad mood,” he said, walking over and sitting down on the lounger next to her.

“They’re right,” she said, looking down. “I suppose you want to hear me compliment you on your brave actions today.” She looked him in the eye, squinting because of the sun, her nose and brow furrowed.

“No,” Terry said. “C’mon. They mean well. Don’t take it too seriously.”

“My stuff got shot up,” she said. She was trembling.

“You’re pretty shook up,” Terry said to her. She got up and paced back and forth next to the swimming pool.

“They could have killed all of us,” she said. Her eyes were getting glassy. She looked at Terry like a scared child. He got up and pulled her into his arms. She pushed back.

“I’m not yours,” she said.

“I know. It’s okay,” Terry said softly, and pulled her back to him, hugging her tightly. She broke down and sobbed in his arms, laying her head against his chest, hugging him back. They stayed in their embrace for several minutes.

“I’m sorry,” she said, pulling away from him. She sat back down, looking calmer. He sat down next to her.

“Your dad didn’t know how upset you were, did he?”

“No,” she said, looking down. “I hid it. That’s why I came over here.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t want him to feel bad,” she said. “He’s a good dad. He’s just overwhelmed, and he never was that good with the emotional stuff.”

“What about your mom?”

“She’s gone,” Trish said, still looking down.

“They don’t get along? Divorced?”

“No, I mean she’s
dead
. She died several years ago. Cancer”

“Oh,” Terry said. “I’m sorry.”

“Dad’s been pretty good considering,” she said. “Now that I’m older, I see how much help he needs…how lost he is. I worry about him a lot.”

“Did you leave friends behind in town?”

“You mean boyfriends?” she asked, looking him in the eye.

“No, that’s not what I meant,” Terry said. “You don’t need to be that way. I’m not thinking that you’re my automatic girlfriend just because we happen to be thrown together.
Really
.”

“Sorry,” she said. “I know I can be a real bitch sometimes.”

“Look at the world we’re living in now. We’re both lucky we haven’t gone off the deep end. I almost did, in the beginning. I almost got us in a lot of trouble once. I came out of it.”

“What happened?”

“I was supposed to be guarding the back of an RV Park we were at in southern Utah. I got scared when the enemy showed up. I kinda shut down. I almost got a few people killed.”

“Well, you’re obviously past that now.”

“My uncle,” Terry said, tears forming around his eyes. “After it happened, we talked and talked and talked. Some people think he’s not too bright. They’re wrong. He brought me back from the edge.”

“Which one is he?” she asked.

“The one dressed in the Sheriff’s uniform.”

“Oh. He’s nice.”

“Yes, he is. This is a nice group of people overall. We’ve been through some crazy stuff together, and it just keeps driving us closer together.”

“Is it safe here?” she asked, looking intensely at him.

“I don’t know for sure. We’ve done a lot to this place.”

“The enemy was right around the corner, though.”

“They followed us here,” Terry said. “They high jacked some poor guy’s pickup truck and followed us after we got away from them in town.”

“Oh,”

“Trish! You still back there?” shouted Jake. He was looking towards them.

“Yeah, Dad, I’m fine,” she yelled back. “I’ll be back over there in a little while.”

“Okay, honey, no rush,” he shouted.

“You want me to go?” Terry said.

“Could you stay with me for a while?” she asked.

“If it doesn’t bother you, I’d like that.”

“Sorry I was tough on you,” she said.

Terry looked at her pretty face and smiled. His heart was starting to beat faster. He put his arm around her shoulder, and she leaned over against him. They sat silently together for a while.

Back at the clubhouse, Frank continued to work on his program. Jane walked over and sat down next to him.

“You can already work on this part?” she asked. “I thought it was the final piece.”

“It is,” Frank said. “I’ll have to make some adjustments later, but I can get the basic structure up and running. It’ll save a lot of time on the back end.”

“When’re you guys taking the motorhome out to run your tests?”

“Soon, now that we have the equipment.”

“I’m glad,” she said.

“Really? I thought you were scared of that idea.”

“I don’t feel safe here anymore.”

“Because of what happened today?”

“Yeah,” Jane said. “Our friends were in exactly the right place at exactly the right time to run into those Islamist fighters. Seems way too tidy to me.”

“Tidy?”

“Yeah. Think about it. They just happened to be on that road and saw these guys, during a one-off trip into town.”

“You’re thinking that the enemy was watching for us, and knew we were sending somebody into town?”

“No. If they knew that much, they’d have already gotten here, I suspect. I think that there are a whole lot of those folks arriving in this area. I think they’re massing here to get staged for the attack on Denver, but since there’s so many of them around, it’s only a matter of time before they pay us a visit.”

“Oh. I hope you’re wrong.”

“Me too.”

Suddenly there was a rifle shot. Then another. It sounded a little ways away. Frank and Jane jumped out of their chairs, and joined the others in the room at the windows, guns in hand. Jerry ran in the door.

“Just got a call from Earl,” he shouted. “They just shot a small drone out of the air.”

“Crap,” Jeb said. “We’d better get ready again.”

Jeb, the Sheriff, and Charlie
ran outside with their rifles. Frank followed, with Jane and Lucy right behind him.

Terry ran over from the pool area, with Trish beside him. “What happened?” he shouted.

“Earl and Jackson just took out a small drone,” Jerry shouted. “Whoever is flying that sucker is close by. Does Trish know how to shoot?”

Terry looked at her, and she nodded yes back at him, as Gabe, Dobie, and Jake ran over, guns in hand.

“I’ll get you an AK,” Terry said, running over to the Sheriff’s rig. He pulled one out, checked it, and showed it to her. “Ever fired one of these?”

“No, just hunting rifles,” she said, panting from the run.

“It’s easy,” he said, showing her how to load and fire. “Try it…hit that tree over there.”

Trish pointed the weapon at the tree and pulled the trigger. Several shots went off, and the gun jumped around in her hand. She missed the tree completely. She gave Terry a scared look.

“Try it again. Hold on tight, and squeeze the trigger. Don’t just hold it down…try to let only a couple of bullets go.”

She took a deep breath and tried again, sending wood splinters flying. She smiled at Terry.

“Perfect,” he said. “You’re a natural. Let’s find a good spot.”

Jerry ran to his coach, and got his drone and controller. Then he climbed up the side of the mountain as quickly as he could, joining Earl and Jackson.

“You guys see anybody?” he asked, panting from the climb.

“No, not yet,” Jackson said. “How close would you have to be to fly that?” He pointed down at the wreckage.

“That’s a really crappy drone,” Jerry said. “It has lousy range. Whoever flew that sucker is really close by. This drone is quite a bit better. I’ll fly it over the ridge.”

“Won’t they shoot it down?” Earl asked.

“Well, if they do, we’ll know where they are,” Jerry replied. “Why don’t you get on the horn and ask the Sheriff to get out one of the mortars?”

“Good idea,” Earl said. He pulled out his phone.

“Sheriff?”

“Yeah, Earl, what’s up?”

“Jerry was thinking we should get out one of the mortars.”

“Ahh, so if he can find the cretins with his drone, we can give them a surprise. Good idea. I’ll go get one, and Terry and I’ll get it set up.”

“Good, thanks,” Earl said. He put his phone back in his pocket and nodded to Jerry as he released the drone. It flew down into the valley and over to the next ridge, which was shorter than the ridge they were standing on.

“See anything?” Jackson asked, trying to look over Jerry’s shoulder.

“No, not yet,” Jerry said. “I don’t think they’re behind this ridge.”

“Go over behind where you guys blew the road,” Earl said. “You can’t see it from here. That’s why we didn’t shoot the pajama boys by their truck earlier.”

Jerry nodded and flew the drone over there. There was a pickup truck on the far side of the blown part of the road. “There they are. Looks like another six assholes. They see the drone now. I’m backing it up.”

“Think we can hit it with the mortar?”

“Yeah,” Jerry said. “Even if we don’t directly hit them, if we can hit that mountainside, it will bring down that stretch of road their truck is sitting on. We couldn’t believe how unstable it is there. I’m surprised we got the bobtail through.”

Earl got back on his phone to the Sheriff.

“You got the mortar set up, Sheriff?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. I’m going to guess they’re about six hundred yards back. We saw them sitting on the road, on the other side of the blown up part. If you can hit them or the side of the hill above them, they’re definitely gonna have a bad day.”

“Got it, 600 yards it is.”

The noise of the mortar round leaving the barrel sounded. A couple seconds later, there was a big explosion. Dust and rocks flew into the air.

“Bring that drone back over,” Earl said.

Jerry nodded and flew back over. “The truck’s still there, but we just took out their escape route. Have him bring it in about 50 yards.”

“Sheriff, bring it in about 50 yards,” Earl said.

“Got it,” the Sheriff replied. He adjusted the distance, and let another round drop into the barrel. It flew out with a pop, and the blast came a couple of seconds later.

“Wow, that probably got them,” Jackson shouted.

“I’ll get the drone back over there,” Jerry said. He flew it back in. “The truck’s gone.”

“Did they get away?” Earl asked.

Jerry laughed. “No, the part of the road they were sitting on is gone too. I’ll go down closer and look for survivors.”

Suddenly there was a rifle shot. Jerry caught a glimpse of three men, hiding behind what was left of the truck. He moved the drone away again.

“Bring the mortar in about twenty yards, and move it slightly to the left,” Jerry said. Then he paused. “Hey, we got any Willie Pete left?”

Earl brought the phone up to his ear. “A little to the left, and in another twenty yards. We got any Willie Pete left?”

“Yeah,” the Sheriff said, after making the adjustments. “You sure?”

“You sure?” Earl asked Jerry.

“You want to go in and fight them close up?” he asked. Earl shook his head no.

“Yeah, give them the Willie Pete,” Earl said. “Otherwise we’ve got to go in there and fight them.”

“How many left?” the Sheriff asked.

“Three that we can see.”

“Crap. Okay. Give me a minute. It’s in the back storage compartment of my rig.”

“He’s getting it,” Earl said.

Jerry moved the drone back over them, and somebody fired at it again. He moved it back. Then they heard the mortar tube spit out the round. A second later there was a bright flash.

“Wow,” Jackson said. “That stuff is crazy.”