Dark Days Rough Roads (20 page)

Haliday
was ticked off now that he thought about it. “Hey, David, anything else
missing?”

“Wait a
minute I’ll go check.” Haliday forgot he was running back and forth to the
truck to use the radio. David came back and said, “No, just looks like your
food. That’s all. Everything else was turned over and searched.”

Haliday
responded, “Ok, get the garage opened and get the trailer inside. Go get my
trailer from the back of the yard and put it in the front yard backed up by
Kayla’s window and then put the Cherokee in the garage too. Wait for us there.
Couple more hours I’m thinking.”

Haliday
said, “Keep a watch out Mike, I’m going to dump those cans of gas in, I’m
running low.” They threw 20 gallons in and left it at that. Haliday figured it
was enough to get back. What he forgot to ask David was if the gas in the
garage was gone. No sense in worrying about that either though, if it’s gone
it’s gone. They got back on the road. Haliday looked at the map. They would
actually be passing by the hospital. How different it was only 72 hours ago.

Randy and
Kevin loaded up the shotgun and took a pistol as well. They headed off to check
Sarah’s trailer. Elizabeth gave them a hug and asked them to bring back her
daddy. The trailer park was only four miles away and they took off to check it
out. When they got there, they found the door wide open and windows broken.

They
walked inside and then immediately left. The whole place had been stripped.
Literally stripped. There wasn’t any food left, dishes were scattered and
broken all over the floor, the furniture was gone, clothes were tossed all over
the place, even the TV and DVD player were gone, along with the stereo. That
hadn’t taken long at all.

On the way
to the Cherokee they noticed a lot of people were watching them. This made them
really nervous. They noticed that a few of them started walking their way, so
they hurried up and got back in the vehicle and took off quickly. They weren’t
going to hang around and answer questions or risk losing the Cherokee.

As they
left the trailer park, they passed by a group of people who were sitting
outside drinking beer. Randy noticed the couch they were on had been Sarah’s.
There was no shame. Those guys didn’t care. In another couple of days they
would. Once food was gone, they would change their behavior drastically.

They
arrived back at Roger’s and parked the Cherokee in the garage. When they walked
inside, Elizabeth ran up to them. “No daddy?” she asked. Sarah went up to her
and told her daddy was probably very busy trying to help people and might not
be home for a long time. This was her way of finally giving in to his fate.

Rich had
turned on the 12V light system Roger had installed. They straightened up the house
a little. Next they worked out a watch schedule. It would require two people on
guard at all times. With the break in and all of Roger’s food preps gone, they
took no chances. They expected the looters to return.

Bev
called Roger on the radio. “I have a big favor to ask.”

“Go ahead
Mom.”

“Is there
any way you can stop by and check on Alan and the family?” Alan had a wife
Nancy and two children. A boy Matthew, 12 years old and a girl of 9 named
Theresa. Haliday looked at the binder. It would take him about 25 miles out of
his way. Away from the direction he was heading.

“You guys
going to be able to keep the house secure until I get there?”

“We
should be able to.”

“Ok, I’ll
drive by the house, but that’s it. I’m not searching the state. I’ll call when
I get out of there.” Haliday slammed the mic down. Oh sure, why not a city tour
looking for family and friends. Nobody took this preparedness serious! But now
of course it was his job to save them and the world.

Dawn
called him next. “What do you want us to do?”

“How safe
is it there?”

“Well,
there’s not much going on.”

He
thought about it a minute. Most of the property outside of the small town was
large 25 to 50 acre lots. The populated areas were very small. “Go ahead and
stay there for now if you can.”

“Ok, got
it.”

*****

Rich
found a piece of wood in the garage and he had David screw it over the hole in
the window. This would seal the house back up. While he was out there, he
noticed a couple shelves that had some candles, matches, propane bottles,
butane bottles and few other items as well. He was surprised these weren’t
gone.

He looked
around and saw a camp stove and lantern. The garage apparently was left alone.
He walked over to a drum sitting there. He opened the bung on it, closed it
right back up. It was filled with gas. A smaller 15 gallon container was filled
with kerosene. The generator was chained down to the floor.

Haliday
had cut a large square of concrete out and dug out the hole. He then laid fresh
concrete with a massive eye bolt in it. He had staggered spacers and washers so
there was no pulling it out. He figured the block of cement itself weighed
about 500 pounds, so it wasn’t going anywhere easily. The chain was reminiscent
of something on a ship’s anchor. Big and heavy, lock included. It would take an
immense amount of work to cut through it.

Over in a
corner was a kerosene heater. Rich had David grab it and they also grabbed a
smaller can of kerosene that was next to it. David took it inside and got the
heater going. It was going to be cold this evening and with Haliday’s detour,
they didn’t know when to expect him to be here and wanted to stay warm and
ready in case anything happened.

They
gathered everything they could find that they thought Haliday would want to
take with him. They piled it all behind the trailer in the garage. This would
make it easier to load when he got here. They walked through the house, but
didn’t find anything else they thought they could use.

*****

Dawn,
Diana and Karen moved the ranger and trailer behind the barn so it wasn’t
visible. They locked the steering wheel down and Haliday had shown them how to
disconnect the wires to the spark plugs. They also placed a wheel lock on the
trailer and double-checked the doors to make sure they were locked. They couldn’t
afford to lose anything now.

They
walked over to the little lodge house that was there. It was really just a
large one roomed building about 15X20. Had a fireplace, TV, bathroom and queen
size bed in one corner, and a small kitchen area with large refrigerator. This
was used for barn parties or for guests who stayed the night. They pulled out
some books and read, waiting to hear from Haliday while taking turns on guard
duty.

Mandy
came up and knocked on the door. She asked if they would be here for a while
and they said it looked that way. She told them she was going to get an early
start on hunting. She had seen a few deer earlier in the morning while out for
a ride and was going to see about getting one. She had a bolt action 30-30 with
her and held it like she knew how to use it.

Dawn
asked her if she hunted a lot.

“I was
born and raised in Kentucky. My dad and older brothers included me in
everything they did. I was pretty much a tom boy. I moved up here chasing a
boyfriend which didn’t work out, so I took the job here running the barn.” It
wasn’t great pay, but the free use of the house and utilities made it
worthwhile. She earned extra money giving lessons to newer riders.

She went
and saddled up her horse and took off. The three of them just looked at each
other. Yuck, deer. They were all vegetarians to one extent or another. Karen
snuck in meat once in a while at work on lunch. Dawn did the same thing, but no
beef at all, and Diana was a straight up vegan. Haliday loved offering her
jerky when they would all go to the range for practice. He loved torturing
people like that.

It hadn’t
even been an hour and they heard a single rifle shot. About an hour after that
Mandy came back in dragging a buck behind the horse on a canvas deer drag bag.
She paused by the lodge house and asked if they would want any steak or
anything, but they declined. She told them she would be over by the house
processing it. She would be making a lot of jerky with this one. They were
impressed in a sense, even though she was currently making herself
bambi-kabobs.

*****

David was
checking Bobby’s bandage. He explained to him that what he had done was wrong.
Not only was it wrong at any time, but in the days to come it would get him
killed and almost did. Bobby asked what the big deal was. David explained that
WROL the country was a changed place.

“WROL?”

David
told him, “Without Rule of Law. It was the Wild West now. It was respect or
expect.”

“Expect
what?”

“Expect
to get killed.”

 Bobby
just said, “Fine Dad.” The look on his face acknowledged the lesson had sunk
in.

It was
getting to be late afternoon now. Randy went out in the garage and tried
listening to the radio, but inside the garage the reception was poor. He asked
if he could open the garage door and Bev said, “No, use this, and go out on the
back deck.” She handed him a handheld with whip antenna.

“Uncle
Roger?”

“Go
ahead,” Haliday said.

Randy
asked him, “Anything going on, are you almost here?”

“Negative,
we are getting ready to pull into Uncle Alan’s neighborhood. We’ll call you
back in a bit when we find out what’s going on. Let grandma know.”

“Ok, I’ll
tell her. Good luck.”

Dawn,
Diana and Karen gathered around to listen. Rich, Bev and David joined Randy on
the deck. They all lit up a cigarette. They didn’t smoke in the house, Roger
didn’t allow it. They knew he would sniff it out in a second. They were allowed
to smoke in the garage, but after eying the drum of gas they decided not to.
Everyone was listening for the report to come in.

*****

Haliday
had re-routed himself to his brother’s house. These were large 3,000 square
foot homes on postage stamp size lots. There was literally about 20 feet of
space between homes. The only benefit was a large communal common area in the
back of the homes. They all looked the same with the exception of different
trim color once in a while.

He was
getting ready to pull in and hesitated. Toward the entrance it looked like a
roadblock, but upon closer inspection it was a stalled car. He checked out the
exit side and it was clear, so he drove down that side. Just a few scattered
cars here and there. About halfway there, he noticed Nancy’s Durango stalled
out about three houses down from their own house. That was good news; she was
close to home when it hit.

Haliday
didn’t see Alan’s truck anywhere nearby. Alan worked for a construction company
as an estimator and salesman and his job took him everywhere across the
tri-county area. That was going to suck, no telling where he had been at the
time. None of them bought into the preparedness realm, so he knew they didn’t
have GHB’s or anything. Not even a pistol that he could remember.

They got
a lot of looks as they drove up. Haliday backed into the driveway. He would get
used to doing this for tactical reasons. He did it in the military and they did
it at work, it saved time from trying to back out of areas or parking spaces so
you could get out quicker, or respond quicker without the hassle of ground
guides or watching your mirrors constantly. Too many blind spots that way too.
Took too much valuable time to back up.

“Kayla
and Linda, you guys cover the Tahoe. Keep everyone away. Fire two quick shots
if you need us, or if you need to take action, keep firing and we’ll be there
ASAP.” Haliday and Mike walked around the house and noted it was all locked up.
A neighbor came out of the house next door and asked them what they were doing.

“I’m
looking for my brother Alan.” The neighbor only slightly recognized him, but
more so he saw the family resemblance.

“Have you
seen him?”

“No, haven’t
seen anybody, but I just got home last night. Haven’t seen anybody around here
since then.”

“Thank
you,” Haliday said. “I’m going to go in and check it out.” They walked around
to garage and he tried the handle, but it was locked. It seemed the whole house
was locked up. He went to the Tahoe and grabbed a pry bar. He used it to force
the garage door open.

Once
inside he called out to see if anyone answered. There was no answer at all. He
started to do a search of the house and started by the kitchen. He walked in
and looked around. He spotted some paper on the table under a glass. He picked
it up and read it. He didn’t know what to make of it.

Waited
for the kids to walk home from school. Then we waited as long as we could.
Packed up what we had and went to Ken and Barb’s. We’ll stay there as long as
we can. Hope you make it there. We love you.

He
assumed Nancy and the kids were here and left the note for Alan.

Haliday
was glad the kids got home ok and they went to stay with someone, but he had no
idea where that might be. He looked around for an address book, but figured
there wasn’t one. She most likely kept it all in her phone and on her computer
like everyone else these days. Nothing he could do here. If it had been close
he would have picked them up, but he had no idea where they were.