Bug Out! Part 7: Mile High Motorhomes (12 page)

“Bad?” Gabe asked.

“Picture several hundred of these creeps running towards the front of the park.”

“They can’t get across the moat,” he said.

“True,” Jeb said, “but they can set up out there behind vehicles and slam us with mortars, RPGs, and small arms fire, and we can’t escape out the back.”

Terry and Trish ran over. “What’s happening?” Trish cried.

“It’s okay, sweetie,” Jake said, walking over and hugging her. “Action back home. Those jets are the good guys.”

“Maybe we should go get to work on those chips now, when it’s likely we can disappear without being noticed,” Frank said.

“I’m game,” Jerry said.

“Say the word,” Jeb said.

Frank looked down at Jane. She shook her head yes.

“What direction?” Jerry asked. “We want to avoid the town, right?”

“You want to get on Brush Creek Road and then get onto Hardscrabble Mountain Road, going southwest,” Gabe said. “You’ll be in the middle of nowhere back there, and you don’t have to go by any dangerous places to get there. I know a back way to get to Brush Creek…I’d better go with you guys.”

“Let’s saddle up, then,” Jeb said. “Who wants to ride shotgun with me? Need a couple more snipers.”

“I’ll go,” the Terry said.

“That’s probably good enough,” Jeb said. “We need to leave plenty of folks here to keep the home fires burning.”

“Who’s going in the motorhome?” Charlie asked.

“Frank, Jane, Jasmine, and I, all armed, of course,” Jerry said.

“We should take Lucy,” Frank said.

“Agreed,” Jerry said. “I’ll bring my rig over.”

“How about mom?” Jasmine asked.

“I stay in clubhouse,” Rosie said. “Don’t worry. I be fine. You go do good work.”

Jerry and Jasmine trotted over to their rig, while Frank went into the clubhouse to get the equipment together. Gabe ran into the office and got the larger lead box out of the safe. He put it on the table next to the equipment and nodded to Frank.

“Thanks, Gabe,” he said.

“I’d better call Jackson down here,” he said. “Need him to man the drawbridge.” He pulled out his phone as he walked back into his office.

“Should I grab some extra ammo?” Jane asked.

“Yeah, good idea,” Frank said.

“Alright, I’ll go get that along with some dog food, and I’ll get Mr. Wonderful set up for a stay by himself.”

“I think we’ll be home later tonight, or early tomorrow morning,” Frank said. “All we really have to do is excite the chips…I can capture the data I need from them with the laptop and then finish the rest of the work back here.”

“Will you have to go back out to test?”

“Probably not,” Frank said.

“Good. This is scary.”

“It should be okay, if the area Gabe is talking about is really safe.”

Jane nodded, and went out to the coach with Lucy in tow.

Jerry parked his rig in front of the clubhouse, pointed at the gate. Jackson walked over.

“Ah, down here to man the drawbridge,” Jerry said.

“Yeah, Gabe just called me.”

“You see anything going on in town from that ridge?”

“Smoke,” he said. “Those planes dropped quite a bit of ordinance, from what I could see. It’s a ways off, though, and there are a lot of hills between here and there. Not a great vantage point.”

Frank came out the door, carrying a box of equipment. He set it down by the door of the rig and went back in.

Gabe walked over to his SUV and got her ready to go.

“You aren’t just riding with me?” Jeb asked, as he pulled up in his jeep.

“No, I want to come back here after you’re settled,” he said. “Besides, I think it’s a good idea that somebody here knows where you guys are, just in case.”

“Didn’t think about that…good point,” Jeb said.

Jerry went into the clubhouse and helped Frank carry out the remaining equipment. Jane came back from the coach with Lucy, and got the laptop put into the backpack. She slipped the iPad in as well.

“Why’re you bringing that?” Jasmine asked.

“It’s an LTE model. Might be worth bringing.”

“Oh, alright,” she said.

“Nervous?” Jane asked.

“No, scared to death, actually.”

“We’ll be alright,” Jane said.

“You’re not nervous?”

“I’m nervous all the time, Jasmine. In this case, we might actually be safer where we’re going than we would be here.”

“That doesn’t help me…mom’s going to be here.”

“I know, sorry.” Jasmine nodded back to her. They picked up the remaining supplies and went out to the coach.

“That everything?” Jerry asked.

“I think so,” Frank said.

“Hey, you guys need any other equipment?” Jake asked, walking over. Trish and Terry were behind him.

“I think we’re good,” Jerry said. “The last thing we needed was that signal generator.”

“Okay,” Jake said. “You guys take care of yourselves.”

“Will do,” Jerry said.

“I’d better go get with Jeb,” Terry said. He looked at Trish. She was on the verge of tears. “I’ll be back, don’t worry.”

“Oh, I’m going to worry,” she said. “The whole time.” She put her arms around him and pulled him close.

“In front of everybody?” he whispered.

“I don’t care,” she said. She kissed him on the mouth, sending a lightning bolt through Terry. He looked at her when they broke the kiss.

“Wow,” he said. His heart hammered in his chest.

“Just come back to me, okay?” she said. “Better get going.”

He gave her one last squeeze, kissed her forehead, and walked over towards Jeb’s jeep.

“You guys ready?” shouted Gabe.

“Wait a minute,” Dobie shouted, trotting over to the SUV. He opened the back door and let Duchess in. Then he climbed into the passenger seat.

“You going too, eh,” Gabe said, smiling. “Good, I was hoping.”

“Wouldn’t miss it. Let’s blow this joint.”

Gabe chuckled as they watched Jackson push the bridge into place. Then Gabe put the SUV into gear and they drove across, turning left on the highway this time instead of right. Jeb followed in the jeep. Then the big diesel pusher drove up behind and got ready to cross the bridge.

“You sure this bridge is going to be strong enough?” Jasmine asked, sitting in the passenger seat, gripping the arm rests hard.

“We’ll find out in a minute.” He drove slowly over it. There was creaking, but it held.

“Damn, glad we’re over that,” Frank said, from the couch along the driver’s side wall. Jane was sitting next to Frank, with Lucy on her lap.

The big coach picked up speed as it followed the SUV and jeep down the highway. They drove about five miles. Then Gabe turned onto a very small road on the right. Jeb followed him.

“I wouldn’t have even seen that road,” Jerry said. He made a wide swing onto it. There was a canopy of trees over the road. It was asphalt, but not in good repair. Nature was reclaiming it.

“I hope there aren’t any low branches,” Jasmine said.

“Well, keep your eyes open. I have the chainsaw in the storage compartment.”

“You carry a chain saw with you?” Jane asked, laughing. “Weapon of last resort?”

Jerry cracked up, and Jasmine with him. Frank sat silently, deep in thought.

Back at the RV Park, Jackson got the bridge pulled back from the moat, and then drove the back hoe to the barn. He stopped by the clubhouse.

“You going back up on the ridge?” Charlie asked. “I could relieve you, if you’d like.”

“You don’t want to climb up there,” Jackson said. “It’s a little hairy. I’m going to grab us a couple bottles of water. We’ll be fine until it gets close to nightfall. We’ll come down then.”

Hilda walked in through the back door with Mary.

“How’s Kurt?” Jackson asked.

“He wishes he was out there with Jeb,” Mary said, laughing. “He’s doing pretty well, though. I’m amazed, to be honest.”

“Well, I’d better get back up there,” Jackson said. He left the clubhouse, walked over to the hill, and started up to the ridge. It was a tough climb, but Jackson felt safer up there, having that commanding view. He could sit and talk all day with Earl, too.

“Everything alright down there?” Earl asked.

“Yeah. Sounds like Kurt’s going to recover. He’s not happy that he doesn’t get to go on the road trip.”

“This has been a hell of a day,” Earl said, taking a swig out of the water bottle that Jackson handed him.

“Charlie said he’d relieve us,” Jackson said.

“We don’t want him climbing up here. I think he could make it, but why risk it?”

“Yeah, that’s kinda what I told him. We’ll go down when it gets dark.”

“I actually like it up here,” Earl said. “It’s so pretty, for one thing. All these mountains around us. Hell of a vista.”

Jackson nodded in agreement. “You think Frank is as smart as everybody’s saying?”

“Yeah, I do. Did you play around with the camera system he rigged up for Hilda’s park?”

“No, never got the chance while we were there, and then I just didn’t want to look at the carnage,” Jackson said.

“It was unreal. I saw it work on iPads and laptops, and it worked really well on my android tablet too. He did that programming in less than a day.”

“There are toolkits that do a lot of the heaving lifting for that,” Jackson said. “I’ve done a little programming myself. Just Visual Basic, but it’s not as scary as most people think, once you get into it.”

“He got onto that FBI facial recognition system too,” Earl said. “In about ten minutes.”

“Alright, you’ve got a point.”

“You worried? You don’t trust him?” Earl asked.

“No, it’s not that at all. He was one of the people who recognized that we weren’t bad guys after we fessed up about the spying thing. After all we’ve been through, I’d fight for that man anyplace, anytime.”

“Then what is it?”

“This place,” Jackson said, looking far out into the vista. “It’s a death trap. You know that, right?”

“Yeah, I know, and so do Frank and Jerry. I’m glad that they decided to go do their thing this afternoon. We’ve got no future trying to hold this place. The only hope we have is to take it to the enemy, and I think what Frank is doing will allow us to do that. It’s going to come down to a race against time.”

“Do you think we’ll survive here until they get back?”

“Yeah, we’ll be alright, thanks to all the craziness going on in Eagle at the moment,” Earl said.

“You don’t think it’ll force a retreat that will put them right in our laps?”

“Don’t get flighty on me, Jackson,” Earl said, laughing. “If the pajama boys are running for their lives, you really think they are going to stop here? This place is more of a death trap for them that it is for us. Think about it. It’s like a bowl down there. Imagine what it would be like if one of those B-1s dropped a bunch of napalm? It’d act just like a kiln.”

They both cracked up.

“I’m glad we’re up here,” Jackson said. “It may not be safer than down there, but it feels safer.”

“Yeah,” Earl said.

They sat silently for a while.

Down below, Jake and Trish were getting their rooms set up.

“You’re pretty worried, aren’t you, honey?” he asked, leaning on her bedroom door, watching her put stuff away.

“I’ll be alright, dad,” she said, turning to him.

“So will he…trust me on that. I’m sorry I teased you about him.”

“It’s okay. Things have felt so out of control, ever since all my friends left town, and we moved into the store. At first Terry seemed like one more thing I was being pushed towards without having any choice.”

“I know, and I didn’t help. I’ll be more careful.”

“He listens,” she said, starting to tear up. “You know how hard that is to find?”

“Don’t fall for him too fast,” Jake said. “He probably feels the same way as you do about the world now. Out of control. Spend time with him, and go slow. Learn what he’s like.”

“I know, that’s what I was doing for most of the afternoon.”

“Good,” Jake said.

“Thanks for moving us out here, daddy,” she said, walking over to him and hugging him. “You got us out just in time.”

“It wasn’t me…it was Dobie and Gabe. Thank God they needed something from me.”

“I know that, but you could have dug in your heels and stayed at the store. I know how much you love that place.”

“You’re way more important to me than that store, and it wasn’t safe for you there. Young girls have a big target on their backs. That’s the real reason we left the house, you know.”

“I know, daddy.”

“You need anything else from the truck?”

“No, I got everything I need out of it,” she said.

“Alright, I’m going to drive it back by the barn, so it’s not visible from the front of the park.”

She nodded, and Jake started to walk out.

“Daddy,” she said.

“What, honey?”

“You’re a good dad.”

“Not really, but I try my best,” he said, as he walked to the truck, climbing into the cab.

Trish smiled and shook her head. “The best ones don’t know how rare they are,” she said to herself.

Back on the road…

“Is that dirt road I see up ahead?” Jasmine asked.

“Sure looks like it,” Jerry said. “I hope this old fart isn’t going to take us on a road like we blew up back in the canyon. I don’t know how that bobtail made it through there, and it’s lighter and smaller than this motorhome is.”

“It was pretty bad, huh?” Frank asked.

“Yeah, I think he dug that damn road out himself with his backhoe. It was barely wide enough for one vehicle, and there were no retaining walls or anything. It was easy to blow up.”

“You don’t think he’d lead us through something like that, do you?” Jasmine asked.

“Hope not,” Jerry said. “I don’t see any switchbacks ahead, so we probably won’t run into anything like that. Creeks are all small now, too, so we don’t stand that much of a chance of getting stuck crossing one.”

“Low branch up there, Jerry,” Jasmine said. “Better let me out when we get to it so I can watch.”

He nodded. “Look, Gabe and Jeb are stopping. They see the branch too, I’ll bet.”

Jerry pulled to a stop right before they got to it. The low branch was about three inches thick. He and Jasmine got out of the coach and walked over to talk to Gabe and Jeb.