Bug Out! Part 9: RV Ambush (14 page)

“Hi there,” Howard said, his heart beating harder. She was pretty, with blue eyes and pale skin framed by her straight black hair. She was trying to look sexy.

“Where you guys going?” she asked.

“East,” Howard said.

“Any chance I could catch a ride?” she asked.

“Now why would I want to take you anywhere?” Howard asked.

“I’d make it worth your while,” she said, smiling, looking hopeful.

“How old are you?”

“Old enough,” she said. “How old do you think I am?”

“Sixteen or seventeen,” Howard said, as he studied her.

“Don’t worry,” she said, smiling. “I ain’t jailbait. I’m nineteen.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Howard said. “Why would you want to go with us?”

“To get away from my bitch of a stepmother,” she said, her brow furrowed. “My dad passed, and I got left with her. I’ve had enough.”

Howard stood there, looking at her, gears turning in his head.

“Hey, Howard, c’mon. While we’re young,” Scotty said as he came out the door. He stopped in his tracks when he saw the girl. “Well, my my, who is this?”

“I don’t know,” Howard said. “She wants to escape her stepmother with us.”

“Really, now,” Scotty said. “That true, missy?”

“My name is Bree,” she said. She studied him, and he smiled back at her, turning on the charm.

“Forget it, Scotty,” Howard said. “Let’s take off.”

“Wait a minute,” he said. “We have room. Maybe we should help this poor girl out. What’s the harm?”

“You sure?” Howard asked, looking worried. “It’ll disrupt our plans.”

“We’ll just make her part of the plan,” Scotty said. “Where do you want to go, honey?”

“Away from here,” she said. “Where are you guys going?”

“East,” Scotty said. “We’ll try to make St. Louis today.”

“St. Louis, eh,” she said, smiling. “I could probably find work there.”

“Probably,” Scotty said. “C’mon, what do you say, Howie?”

Howard shook his head. “Fine, but let’s go.”

“You need to grab anything?” Scotty asked.

“Yeah, but it’s already in a bag, so it’ll just take a minute.”

“Okay, missy, go get it, and let’s blow this joint,” Scotty said.

She smiled broadly, and ran into the coach. There was yelling coming from inside. Then she bounded out of the door with a duffel bag, and ran over to Howard and Scotty.

“Everything alright?” Scotty asked.

“Not for her,” she said. “Most of daddy’s money is in a trust under my name.” She climbed into the coach, as a nasty looking, dried up old lady stomped over.

“You come out of there right now, Bree!”

“Screw you!” came from inside the coach.

“I don’t think the young lady wants to go with you,” Howard said politely. “Please leave.”

“Like hell I will,” the woman said, attempting to kick Howard in the groin on the way into their coach. Scotty pulled his pistol and stuck it into her face. She froze.

“Hey Bree, what do you want me to do with this bitch?” he shouted.

“Kill her, for all I care,” she spat.

Scotty hit her on the head with his pistol, knocking her out cold. Howard caught her before she hit the pavement.

“Dammit, Scotty, there’s probably surveillance cameras all over the place,” Howard whispered, looking around.

“Let’s drag her in the door,” Scotty said. The two men wrestled her up into the coach.

“Drive,” Scotty said.

“Wow, did you really kill her?” Bree said, her eyes on fire, a scary grin on her face.

“Not yet,” Scotty said. “We’ll drive her out of town a ways.”

“You’re not really going to kill her?” she asked. “Are you?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Wanna help?”

Bree got a look of terror on her face, but it melted into a sly grin.

“Can I do it?” she whispered. Her face was red, her eyes wide and dilated.

“Seriously?” Howard asked from the driver’s seat, as he was pulling out of the parking lot.

“C’mon, Howie, what happened to your fun-loving nature?”

Howard sighed, and continued to drive. “Okay, we’d better do it before she comes to. I don’t want blood all over my coach, either.”

“I know a good dirt road nearby,” Scotty said, looking up at Bree. He winked at her.

They drove down the highway a few miles, silently. Scotty watched Bree’s face. Her excitement was starting to turn into apprehension.
She just talks big
, he thought to himself.

“How far?” Howard asked. “Getting sparse out here already.”

“Another mile, then take a right. You’ll see a couple of mail boxes,” Scotty said.

The stepmother started to moan, and move slowly on the floor.

“Dammit, she coming to already?” Howard asked.

“Yeah, but don’t worry about it,” Scotty said. “Turn there.”

Howard saw the road and slowed down, turning in, hitting the rough surface, coach jumping and lurching.

“Slow down,” Scotty shouted. The step mother tried to get up, but Scotty kicked her in the head, and she dropped down, breathing hard, wide eyes afraid to look around.

“Maybe we shouldn’t do this,” Bree said, looking scared now. “I was only kidding.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll just scare her a little,” Scotty said, trying to calm her down. It didn’t help much.

“Here?” Howard shouted back as they approached a clearing with some trees.

“Yeah, pull around so we’re headed out,” Scotty said.

Howard made a wide turn, and then parked.

“Grab step mom, Howie,” Scotty said. “I don’t think she’s out now. Careful.”

Howard came back, opening the door and locking it back. Then he grabbed the stepmother by the under arms. She started kicking and screaming. Howard dragged her down the steps to the dirt, and then pulled her a few feet further. Bree hurried out the door too, looking terrified.

“Don’t hurt her too bad,” she said. “Really.”

Scotty came up behind Bree and pulled out his hunting knife. He slit her throat. She fell to the round and looked up at him, shocked and gurgling, drowning in her own blood. The stepmother screamed, and Howard twisted her neck, breaking it. She fell to the ground.

“Dammit, Scotty, did we really have to do this?”

“Make our marks,” he replied. “This was an added bonus. It’ll feed the narrative of our movement.”

“They’ll know we weren’t with them,” Howard said.

“So what? They’ll figure out this wasn’t planned. They’ll put two and two together when they find the motorhome at Wally World. You’re just upset because we didn’t get any play time.”

Howard shook his head, and the men put their markers on both victims. Then they pulled the bodies over under the row of trees.

“Still hungry?” Scotty asked.

“Yeah,” Howard said.

“Good, let’s eat before we take off, then.”

“Seriously? What if somebody comes?”

“Nobody can see us here, and nobody heard, either, because we didn’t have to shoot them,” Scotty said. “You need to lighten up a little bit, Howie. It’ll be days before they get found.”

Charlie and the Sheriff sat
in the shade of the awning on Kurt’s rig, drinking lemonade that Mary had just made for them. Kurt came down the steps of the coach and sat down next to the Sheriff, and Mary followed him out with a pitcher and a few glasses.

“I’m going to take this over to the girls,” she said. “It’s getting a little warm.”

“Thanks, honey,” Kurt said.

“Yeah, thanks, this is good,” Charlie said. The Sheriff raised his glass and nodded in agreement.

“George and Malcolm down in the dungeon?” Kurt asked.

“Yeah, saw them follow Jerry down there a little while ago,” the Sheriff said. He took a sip of the lemonade. “Damn, this tastes good.”

“You still apprehensive about them, Sheriff?” Charlie asked.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Obviously they’re on our side in the war. When the focus is on that, I’d say we’re better off having them here. I’ll get a little worried when the focus goes onto the dungeon.”

“If Scott is really dead, how can that be dangerous?” Kurt asked. “You heard what Howard said.”

“I was talking to Jerry this morning,” the Sheriff said. “He’s been doing some research on his own. Sounds to me like there’s a better than even chance that Scott is still around, and still active.”

“What do you think those two would do to put us in danger?” Charlie asked.

“Use us for bait, or set up a situation where our safety isn’t the highest priority,” the Sheriff said. “They’ve done it before.”

“You really think they’d put us in danger? After what we’ve been through with them?” Kurt asked.

“Well, maybe not, but we know something of their character. They pay no attention to the relative guilt of participants. That Sadie Evans thing is a good example. We studied that one during one of my Continuing Ed classes. They treat their operations like a war. Works well when it really is a war, as we’ve just seen. Works lousy when some of the people involved are less guilty than others. The person who only drove the getaway car may not deserve the death penalty.”

“I don’t know, Sheriff,” Kurt said. “I’m a pretty good judge of character. They seem more than alright to me. We would’ve lost Jeb if it wasn’t for Malcolm.”

“So I heard,” the Sheriff said. “Like I said, in warfare, these guys are good to have around.”

“Still not getting the apprehension, I guess,” Kurt said.

“I understand it,” Charlie said. “In a civil society, the police aren’t also the judge, jury, and executioner.”

“These guys aren’t the police,” Kurt said.

“Malcolm
was
the police during the Red Dagger event,” the Sheriff said. “He should’ve been prosecuted for that. The department finally got enough pressure to make it tough for him to stay on the force, but there are detectives out there still using this guy, and looking the other way when he goes too far.”

“So what do you want to do?” Kurt asked. “Kick them out?”

“No, it’s too late for that,” the Sheriff said. “Just keep your eyes open, and remember what we’re fighting to preserve. Our laws mean something, as does the Bill of Rights. Question them when you think it’s warranted. Keep at least a thin layer between them and our inner circle.”

Malcolm and George were still down in the dungeon. There was so much to look through. Heidi left the room after seeing the personal effects of the victims. Jerry finally left, too. He could only take the feeling he got down there for so long. That left Malcolm and George alone. They’d just finished looking through all of the drawers in the workbench area, and Malcolm took pictures of all of the bulletin boards with his phone, focusing in on certain pictures in particular.

“Any of this surprise you?” George asked.

“The fact that it still exists, and was found by somebody who’ll let us look at it - that surprises me. Can you imagine what would happen to all of this evidence if
Barney and Friends
got down here un-supervised?”

“I was talking about the evidence itself. Obviously we’re lucky that some friends found it, and we got to it before the local PD got here.”

“You think they’re our friends, George?” Malcolm asked.

“As a matter of fact,
yes, I do
,” George said. “It’s not okay to play around with their safety.
I mean it
.”

“I know, I know,” Malcolm said.

“So why the comment?”

“Oh, nothing, I just noticed the way that the Sheriff looked at us,” Malcolm said. “It’ll be okay, really. I think we have a significant partnership with these folks, at least until this war is over. I can tell how much you want to get involved.”

“It shows, huh?”

“Yeah, and I’m feeling it too,” Malcolm said. “I may play a little fast and loose with the rules, but bottom line, I love this country. If there’s anything I can do to keep it from going down the tubes, I’m right there with you.”

“Good,” George said.

“These folks are going to need our protection, you know,” Malcolm said.

“Why?”

“The son is still alive. He’s been active since that nuke attack. I’ve seen his markers on more than one victim since then. I’ll lay you ten to one he knows that his place has been compromised, and I’ll bet that he’s going to react.”

“How could you know all of that?” George asked.

“Mostly a hunch, but I’ve learned to trust them over the years.”

“He’d be crazy to try to take these folks,” George said.

“Look at the environment we have now,” Malcolm said. “Perfect for these creeps to operate in. There’s way too much wartime mayhem going on for the authorities to spend time chasing them around, and they know it. We need to keep an eye out for reports of possible new victims.”

George was silent for a few minutes, thinking. Then he glanced over at the embalming table, and saw it had cabinets under it. “Hey, look, more storage. Wonder what’s in there?”

The two of them walked over. George opened the first cabinet.

“Holy crap, look at all of these VHS tapes,” he said, pulling out the box. “And these super eight film reels.”

Malcolm’s eyes focused on them, and he got an intense look on his face. “Wonder if there’s a projector and a VCR around here?”

“Let’s keep looking,” George said.

Howard and Scotty were traveling towards St. Louis. The miles rolled by easily. Both men had been silent for a while. Scotty was watching Howard’s expression, trying to gauge how far back into the life he’d gotten so far. Howard looked over and caught him watching.

“What?” Howard said.

“You thinking about that girl?”

“Bree?” Howard said. “Yeah. We didn’t even get a chance to strip her. Maybe you shouldn’t have slit her gullet so fast.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll get another plaything soon enough.”

“We won’t get enough time with the next one either,” Howard said.

Scotty started laughing.

“What’s so damn funny, Scotty?”

“I’m sitting here trying to figure out if the old lifestyle has taken hold in you again, and you’re more into it than I am.”

Howard got a grin on his face. “Alright, you found me out, jerk weed. This is what years of repression does to a man.”

“Why’d you stop after I left?” Scotty asked.