DARK DAYS

ROUGH ROADS

2^nd edition

By Matthew D. Mark

My inspiration was born on December 4^th, 1992 at 7:48am. Without her this story would never exist. Since that moment in time she has been my inspiration for life and for everything that I do. This is for you Kayla.

Love Daddy

Acknowledgements:

In fiction there is always a small bit of truth. Without my life experiences and the people I know and love, I would not have been able to create this story. I do not claim to be anything more than a former soldier, a man who loves his country, a man who loves his family and friends and most importantly a father who loves his daughter.

My parents Richard and Beverly have taught me that nothing in life is easy. They taught me that life will deal you the hardest hand that it can. It was through watching their hardships and their struggles, and how they overcame them that they taught me life’s lessons and how you can survive anything with hard work, perseverance and love. I love you both.

Each and every family member has played a pivotal role in my life one way or another. We’ve shared the best of times and we have shared the worst but we have always been there together. My brothers and sister, thank you all. Families are the last great institution that America has, never fail them and protect them always.

My girlfriend has been by my side the past several years and has supported me through everything I have done. Without her I could not have completed this project. Just being by my side has meant a lot to me. Love you sweetheart.

I wish to thank my ex-wife Candy. She and I brought our daughter into the world. Thank you for giving me such a wonderful child. After you and Mike read the story, please don’t tear out the walls. Thank you for watching her while she’s at school.

To all of those who I served with, all of the stupid things we did and all of the brotherhood we have shared. I would not trade it for anything in the world. I am privileged to have served with all of you. If you judge a man by the company he has kept, then I am judged among the best that there is.

Michelle, thank you for the horse information and contributions you made by letting me include you and your family in the story. It helped a great deal and I appreciate your friendship, stay safe. Each and every person whom I have met touched my life in one aspect or another. I always take away something from everyone I meet. Of course I can’t forget my cat Romeo and Max the mutant dog.

My sincere thank you to Kathleen K., and Michelle K., for the second editing and to Lacey O’Connor for the cover design.

Preface:

An alarm clock wakes you up in the morning, your coffee is brewed in an electric coffee pot. You use a computer or television to check your morning news. Your smart phone contains your daily, weekly, or monthly schedule along with the contact information for everyone you know and it connects you to the world. You rely on an automobile to take you to work, to school, to the store or someplace else. This auto is more computer than it is car.

The food you eat and the products you use are brought in by truck and rail, rolling computers as well. It’s cargo is stocked and inventory is electronically controlled. You pay by cash or most likely using a plastic card with a magnetically encoded stripe on it connected to your bank. Almost everything you do daily is affected in one way or another by technology.

This technology is run by electricity. A single spark to start it all. But we have to ask ourselves, without that spark, without that technology, how would we live? How different would life be? Could we still thrive? More importantly, if it changed today or tomorrow, could we survive?

Mother natures coronal mass ejections, sun activity, nuclear weapons, electronic weaponry and more can take that spark away in an instant. Mostly man made, however, we must look at the changing world around us and wonder. Out of 7 billion people, how many does it take? It takes only one. Millions of lives can be changed by only one. Yes, one person with an agenda, a grudge or a hatred for a nation.

The premise of the event in this book as illustrated above is made simple. What we can not simplify offers just as much opportunity to bring a nation and its people to their knees. Financial collapse as seen in Greece, Russia, Romania, Bulgaria and more show how fragile economics are. We have spun out of control with our national debt and our own economy.

Each year as we stand in lines for flu shots the experts are trying to predict which strain will affect us most. Although the eradication of many of the World’s most devastating diseases has occurred, there still exists the samples that are easily propagated. Naturally evolving strains of disease evolve quicker than scientists can name them. Add biological warfare and nerve agents and it becomes incredibly concerning.

Natural disasters are frequent. People are still living in tents months after Hurricane Sandy. They lived in shacks or trailers for years after Katrina. Rising rivers, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, drought and snowstorms all affect our lives. From days, to months, and sometimes years. You must be able to survive. How many people can the government rescue at once? These disasters have shown us that it’s very few. These disasters can take the people away, who control that same spark.

A simple job loss and lack of income can affect you. The saying is “Stockpile beans and bullets.” If you look around, if you pay attention to world events and our own country and what has transpired in our short history, doesn’t it make sense to take some simple measures to protect you and your family? You’d be surprised how affordable it is to survive. I’d rather have it and not use it, instead of need it and not have it.

Chapter 1

The weather outside was nice and the temperature was around 70 degrees. The sky was partly cloudy and a nice bright sun poked through the clouds. It was not too hot or too chilly outside, and with this kind of weather Roger Haliday did not expect any problems when the helicopter landed. It would be another routine medflight, if indeed there was actually a routine flight for these guys.

Haliday had been out circling the hospital campus in the patrol vehicle when dispatch had called and told him an inbound medflight was due to arrive in 10 minutes. Haliday shot over to the helipad, where he unlocked the gate and took the cover off the 150 pound beast of a fire extinguisher they called “Purple K”, named after the aviation fuel fire suppression chemical inside of it. The extinguisher was based on two wheels and always stood guard just inside the helipad’s fence.

Not wanting to get wind whipped by the rotor blades, he retreated into the vehicle and awaited the arrival of the bird. Hearing the telltale thump thump thump of the main blades, he watched closely as he had dozens of times before. Across the way, a few cars had stopped on the nearby side street to watch.

He reached down and turned off the vehicle’s strobe lights and also the vehicle. They usually kept the strobes on until they spotted the aircraft, but then turned them off as soon as they suspected the pilot had the helipad located. There was no sense in blinding the pilot with blinking lights while he was landing.

It was always cool to watch this sleek aircraft seemingly just land for no reason in the middle of a neighborhood. This of course was not the case. Stroke victim, burn patient, car accident or what not, someone needed extreme care and quickly. Still, it always drew curious onlookers.

He looked over at a large house that backed up to the helipad. Some genius built six brand new houses right next to it. Backing up against a helipad and parking lot was not worth the money these people spent for the homes they lived in. Not to mention it was the border of Pontiac, which was a less than desirable area.

One time, a resident had called and complained about a medflight coming in at 0700 hrs one Sunday morning. Haliday said, “Hey genius, in case you didn’t know, emergency medical flights generally aren’t scheduled.” The man just called him a smart-ass and hung up on him. A few weeks later, karma played a role when the man was hosting a picnic when another helicopter landed. Haliday still laughs about the flying plates, cups and napkins, whenever he thinks about it.

He called in to dispatch and told them to mark the time and that the bird was almost on the ground. They always marked arrival and departure times in case the FAA audited their records, even though he figured they never would. There wasn’t a response from dispatch, which wasn’t unusual due to the fact that dispatch was usually tied up with more important things. These were mostly caused because the campus was in the middle of a small city outside of Detroit, but just as notorious as Detroit for being a crack hood.

Haliday had unscrewed the top on his bottle of pop and started to take a sip when he noticed the problem. As he tilted his head back to drink, he looked straight at the Eurocopter wobbling violently as it spun toward the ground. Haliday ducked down using the engine compartment of the truck as a shield just as the helo struck the ground and exploded, sending pieces in every direction. A small piece of the tail rotor shot through the windshield of the vehicle, causing chunks of glass to fill the interior of the Tahoe.

Haliday slowly lifted his head and saw a wall of flames and a pile of machinery. There would be nobody coming out of that wreckage alive. He grabbed the radio mic again and called for dispatch to call the fire department. Again there was no response, so he took it upon himself to use his cell phone. A quick push of the power button revealed there was nothing but a dark screen.

He ran over to the beast and charged the system while holding the hose. He dumped every ounce of extinguisher agent on the flames, but it was useless. Looking toward the people who stopped to watch the landing, he could see them trying the same exact thing with their cell phones. This is when he realized what had happened. Life had changed drastically in a matter of seconds.

As he walked past the folks, they asked him why he wasn’t helping and his response was very unsettling. He simply told them there was nothing he could do. Not for the people in the helicopter and not for them. They had no understanding of what he really meant and just looked at him with puzzlement.

Haliday continued to walk back toward the hospital in a very quiet neighborhood with no noise, but the slight dull roar of flames from the burning wreckage made the only sounds anyone could hear. There was no music, no cars, no hum from the electric lines, no noise from anything at all.

Haliday walked past the ER and saw staff running around like chickens with their heads cut off. It was almost as if they would be able to do something about what was going on. It would have been comical, if it wasn’t for the fact that they really had no clue what would be transpiring in just a matter of a few short hours.

As he approached the dispatch office, he ignored those who were asking him questions. The dispatch officer was standing at the open door as a handful of people were asking her questions. Questions she could not answer. “What happened, was it a power outage, would the generators come on, why didn’t they, how come the phones didn’t work?” and many more. She shrugged her shoulders and said, “I don’t know, I don’t have any answers myself.”

Haliday looked her in the eyes and said, “You need to leave.” She looked concerned, but not frightened. It was at this time, by telling her to leave, that he confirmed what she thought had happened. Thanks to Haliday, she was ready for the event. She grabbed her personal items and left the dispatch area. Haliday grabbed his personal items and left as well, passing by the people who could not believe the campus public safety officers were leaving them at a time like this.

Haliday walked into a bathroom. The bathroom was dark so he hit the surefire flashlight on his belt to light it up a bit and was slightly startled when he heard a voice, “Hey man, what’s going on in here? I came in to drop a deuce and the power went out. Everything ok out there?”

Haliday told him, “Don’t worry, everything will come out ok.”

The guy missed the joke. Haliday went back to doing his own thing. He commenced to quickly change from his uniform into regular old gray man camo. He put on jeans, a shirt and a ball cap. It would be stupid to look like any type of police officer, soldier or government agency robot. That would get you in deep trouble soon enough, so he decided long ago to just blend in. He knew elsewhere that the dispatcher either did the same thing or was doing the same thing.

Quickly stripping the gear off his duty belt and taking what he needed, Haliday then left the bathroom. He had his pack, which was dark maroon in color to blend in, and started toward an exit door located near the administrative hallway.

A voice called out and he walked down the darkened hall to talk to the public safety supervisor who had been helping set up the hospital’s incident command center in a small conference room. This was limited to a dry erase board and easel with paper.

The supervisor asked him where he was going. Haliday looked around in the room to see the admin staff with various managers and staff from other departments milling around. Haliday looked at the supervisor and said, “You have no idea what just happened and what’s going to happen around here.”

With a puzzled look the supervisor said, “What do you mean, it’s a power outage; we get them now and again.”

Haliday chuckled and said, “Not like this.” One of the managers heard the chuckle and took it upon herself to ask what was so funny.

She said, “This is no laughing matter; there will be a lot of inconvenienced people who will be upset.”

None of these people still had a clue. Haliday coughed loudly, in a very exaggerated manner, and asked for everyone’s attention. Most everyone stopped and looked at him.

“What you people fail to understand here is the fact that this is no regular power outage. This was an EMP, electromagnetic pulse from who knows where,” Haliday said.

Immediately, the maintenance director interrupted and said it was irresponsible to even mention an EMP, that it was simply a power outage. Haliday looked him in the eye and told him he could only hope. He briefly explained what an EMP was, and then commenced to explain how he knew this was what it was. The explanations were simple enough, but you would have thought he was trying to explain rocket science.

First off he explained the lack of power and the fact that none of the emergency lights came on. Next were the generators, which were sitting quietly. After that he explained the lack of land lines and the lack of cell phones, not having power let alone a signal. Even the basic of all types of items was dead. As soon as he explained the helicopter crash, which they hadn’t even heard about yet, their jaws dropped.

More people started coming in and also gathering in the hallway to either listen to or add to the confusion. They started complaining about the fact that this didn’t work, that didn’t work, the staff needs this, and the staff needs that, the maintenance crew isn’t fixing anything, etc. They had no idea how far up the creek they were without the proverbial paddle.

The CEO asked the maintenance director when they could get power back and everyone awaited the answer. He stood silent, then repeated the question, which had an answer nobody wanted to hear. The maintenance director simply said that he honestly believed it was now indeed an EMP and there would be no power any time in the near future. He said there was simply nothing that could be done and then he turned and walked away. People were still dumbfounded and did not know what to do, so they just sat there. One lady spoke up and said that things could not be that bad.

Haliday moved toward the front of the room and everyone focused on him. He looked around, saw the infectious control officer and asked her how long the rooms and patient equipment could last without being cleaned. She responded by saying that in some of the isolation rooms, it would have adverse effects within a day. Within two days, about a fourth of the hospital would have undesirable consequences, and by the end of the week it would be a pure hell hole filled with far too many infectious diseases to even start naming them right now. This did not even include waste handling, lack of water for toilets and sinks, and linen exchanges that would not happen.

He looked over at the housekeeping director and asked him how long before the trash cans were full, the outside dumpsters overflowing and the rodent control would lapse. “Two days. That’s all,” he said. Haliday said, “You could add that to the infectious disease issues and realize things would be getting far worse much faster than anyone could expect.”

The food services department piped in and said the spoiling of fresh food would start within days, the freezer would stay cold a few days and the fridge maybe two. Haliday informed him the food would be gone in a matter of 2-3 days tops anyway with this many people looking to eat and more people surely to show up thinking a hospital is a safe haven. There wouldn’t be any food deliveries each day like they normally had.

Haliday looked around once more and told them these were basic issues that people took for granted. “Look around,” he said. “Look how dependent we are on technology. IV pumps no longer working, pain med pumps not giving people morphine and other drugs, no blood pressure monitors, no pulse ox meters, no telemetry, no nothing.” Haliday continued, “What you now have is a lot of people who need to leave before a lot of people start a slow painful death.”

It wouldn’t be a good place to be and he started heading for the door and said, “I surely won’t be here more than the time it takes me to get my personal stuff out of my truck and leave myself. That brings up another point, good luck starting your cars and making it home.” Some of the people commuted 30 to 50 miles one way. He paused only briefly to look around at the folks who still didn’t get it, although a couple of them had excused themselves for one reason or another, most likely on their way out the door as well.

In the meantime, during this little meeting, all hell was breaking loose around the facility. The surgical center and outpatient procedures center were trying desperately to wrap things up and stabilize patients. Unfortunately for one, there was no hope. As soon as the equipment stopped, there was no suction for clearing the surgical sites, there were no blood pressure monitors to alert anyone of low blood pressure and old fashioned cuffs were a thing of the past due to mercury content. Most of the OR equipment was electronically controlled, so it had failed. It was a fast crash and thankfully the patient had not woken up from the anesthetic.

Up on one of the long-term care floors, they had six people on ventilators. The nurses and patient care associates were all trying to manually vent these patients, but were tiring very quickly. Screams for more staff to come and help fell on deaf ears. There were simply too many patients to care for in a situation like this. The staff was tiring out very quickly.

Too many patients needed care and too little staff was in the facility. Someone needed to triage now and make a determination of who would live and who they would have to let go. The grand idea of saving everyone was just that, a grand idea. If they knew what the next few days would be like, they would walk away now. It was a noble idea to try and wait things out, to help the patients, but it was a risk they shouldn’t take.

Some of the staff already started leaving. A few years back, they had had a massive power outage in the state and even with the emergency generators running and limited power, they left in droves to go home and take care of themselves. Roughly 30 percent had left then and almost the same amount refused to come into work.

Housekeeping, food service, maintenance, and other support staff. They were underpaid and would not care about working to keep the place running. Knowing it was a permanent problem they would care even less. These workers would impact how quickly the facility would fail.

Haliday stopped just before exiting the building as another guy was shaking a snack machine. He looked at Haliday and asked him if he knew how to get a refund. Haliday pulled out his knife, which had a window punch on the end, and pressed it against the glass. The glass shattered. Haliday reached in and grabbed a few candy bars, and told the guy to help himself.

Haliday walked out to his car and passed by a few others doing the same. The only difference was he was going out to get his pack and gear and they were sitting there trying to start their cars. He heard an engine start and looked in the direction of the noise where he saw an old Ford F100. As odd as it was to see a running vehicle; it didn’t surprise him.

As it slowly crawled through the parking lot passing a few cars dead in the aisles, the driver stopped just as Haliday put his pack on and loaded his rifle, readying himself for his walk home. The driver was an older guy in his late 60’s and he looked at Haliday and asked him where he was heading. Haliday said, “East.” Shockingly the driver told him he was heading that way and offered him a ride.

Haliday was not too sure about the proposal, but eyeing the passenger seat he saw a smaller bag and an empty pistol case for a pistol which he noted was strapped on the old guy’s thigh. Good company to be in. Haliday started to refuse and the old guy said, “Hey, I’m looking for a little security until I get out of this crack hood and you seem to be one of the only ones who knows what’s going on, so I’m taking a chance.”

“I saw a gal in uniform get in her car, change, then pull a bike out of the trunk with a pack and she took off before I could call to her. I’m thinking by your squared away looks you two were friends,” he said. Haliday smiled and nodded, then told the old guy he could stay with him about 20 miles due east and that was it. The old guy said that was fine with him. There was a different setting altogether in that direction.

The two pulled out onto the road, dodging cars here and there and drove a bit in silence as they passed by people standing in the road and on the sidewalks. There were actually a couple other cars running, older, but it was evident they were just old, not selected or prepped like this old Ford was. They talked a bit about just a little of this and that, no real subject and neither brought up the EMP or the future. After about 30 minutes, Haliday said he was ready to bail and the old guy stopped the truck in a clear area of the road as no one was nearby.

Haliday shook his hand, told him thank you and wished him the best of luck. The old guy said, “You’re quite welcome and I pray you keep safe.”

Haliday said, “Well sir, right now we all need to pray.” People started heading their way and Haliday told him he better get going and waved goodbye as he started off to the shoulder of the road and toward an access road. He heard the drum of the old Ford’s engine dwindle away. He laughed out loud, even spoke out loud, “Yep, we all need to pray.”

Chapter 2

He stepped down off the shoulder of the road, took a few more steps to cross over the ditch and the ground under his feet felt spongy. When he looked closer, he could see the soil was wet and since there had not been any rain in the past few days, he didn’t know why. He squatted down a bit to pick up a leaf, which was halfway in the muck, and grabbed it by the dry stem and took a quick sniff.

It was definitely water and not sewage, which he thought it might have been. At least that was a good sign. Sewage would bring disease real quick and he wasn’t sure how long the municipal waste system would last. He was still on well water and a septic field, so he didn’t pay much attention to that.

Slowly standing up he looked around and saw a younger guy working under the hood of his car like it was going to do him any good. Looking past the car, he saw a substation for the water system. Out here in the suburbs, he was really not far from the Detroit city limit, give or take 12 miles or so, and the water that was used was purchased from the city of Detroit. It was pumped throughout Lower Michigan with these little pump stations scattered around all over to help boost water pressure.

Toward the east side of the fence line, there was a large pipe coming out of the ground in a sweeping elbow which reminded him of the air intakes on old ships. This one, however, was dumping water into a retention pond which apparently had overflowed a while ago. Off toward the actual substation building, he spotted another guy who looked to be working on valves. The man was feverishly turning valves on this pipe, more valves on that pipe, and it looked like a losing battle. Haliday was interested in this and started heading that way.

The young kid working on his car looked up at Haliday and then turned white. The kid started to visibly tremble at the sight. Haliday had not realized it at the time, but at this particular moment looking at a guy with a .40 caliber strapped to his belt and carrying a rifle slung on his pack was just not normal in this area. Haliday said, “Take it easy kid, just moving on through to go check out that water plant.” The kid got inside his car and just watched as Haliday strode by. Coming up a little closer to the substation, he saw a sign warning trespassers of an electrical fence, so he stopped.

He just stood there a moment longer watching the worker turn valves, cussing as he did so. He started to wonder how the water was being pumped and doubted the extreme nature of the emergency, thinking the power loss was actually sporadic and not an entire regional or national loss. This was the reason he didn’t get too close to the fence.

The worker glanced up and saw him standing there. He too stopped dead and looked at Haliday. Again Haliday found himself telling another person not to worry. This time he got a response. “No offense partner, but you don’t look like you’re out hunting rabbit,” said the worker.

Haliday said, “I guess you’re right, but anyway, my name is Roger and I was just curious as to why the pump station has power when the rest of the area is out.”

The guy said, “We don’t have power.”

Confused a bit, Haliday asked how the water was being pumped. He got a one word answer to that question. “Gravity.”

Haliday said, “I don’t understand, how can that be? Could you put it in lay man’s terms for me? I’d appreciate it.” Haliday was always looking for this kind of information; you never know what you may need to do and how to do it.

The guy working the valves said, “It’s simple. The river downtown is a lot lower than the land out here in the burbs. The pumping stations are daisy chained together to pump the water up the elevation. The pumps stopped, the back flow valves were electromechanical and they failed along with some of the safety valves.

Therefore all of the water pumped into the burbs is now flowing back toward the main plant and coming out of the overflows into the retention ponds located nearby their substations.” The pond being past capacity was why the ditch was wet. The water had to go somewhere.

When he thought about it, it really made sense. Haliday asked one more question, “How much water is flowing back and what’s going to happen at the plant?”

The guy paused then said, “I don’t know, but the worst that could happen is that the main plant and downtown Detroit gets a few wet streets.”

“No big loss,” Haliday said. “As a matter of fact that place could use a bath. Not quite the infamous motor city with sprawling plants and bustling workers and shops it used to be,” Haliday added.

Haliday thanked the man for his time and started moving on again. He had a plan which required some very delicate adherence to time tables and he was about an hour behind. He had a goal to achieve and the quicker the better.

He was only about a mile and a half away from home at this point, and this early on he just took the sidewalks and streets. Very few people would be a threat this early on, but he was still very aware of what was going on around him. He was closer to home and cutting through a parking lot by the local supermarket when he noticed they had the doors propped open.

“Ahh, just a few steps out of my way,” he told himself and so he walked in. Eddie the store manager spotted him and told him they were closing up. Haliday nodded and told him “Ok,” then turned and walked out. Eddie shouted out, “Hey, are you going bear hunting or something, Roger?”

Haliday said, “Good luck Eddie,” and continued walking out, not saying another word.

On his way out he looked at the store front. Typical of a grocery store; it was all windows. He wondered how long these would last. Other than the single back set of double doors and the one roll up loading dock door, this was the only way in. Chances were when he got back this place would be stripped clean. He didn’t give it any thought; he had what he needed, but of course he always wanted more.

Hell, he would have been happy to walk out with a few bags of rice and beans. That thought made him chuckle. Beans, beans and more beans, he thought. Oh boy, the butt trumpet was going to be playing a continuous melody shortly. Simple things amuse simple minds, but that was not really the case here. He was an average guy. Things like that were just plain funny.

He thought about the market. That place would be an absolute nightmare. He didn’t buy into the whole 3-day food supply theory. He knew that once people realized it was their last chance, the place would be stripped in hours. Three days my ass, he thought. Not in this neighborhood.

On the other side of the strip mall at the end was his favorite pizza place. There were a few folks inside here too. It looked like all kids in their late teens. He waved at the kids who were cleaning up and getting ready to close the store. One waved him over. He told him he was in a hurry, and the kid said, “We have a couple pizzas nobody picked up, you want one?” There was no hesitation. He agreed, even offered to pay for it; but they told him not to bother. He thanked them, took the box and started to walk out. They asked him if he knew what happened and he said, “No idea.”

One kid said, “Well sir, based on your firearms, I’d say you have a very good idea.”

He felt a little badly about his answer. He looked at the kids and asked them how far away they lived. A couple miles away was the furthest any of them lived. He told them to listen carefully. He advised them to forget about cleaning the store, forget about locking it up, and forget about anything other than getting home as soon as they could.

That’s all he would tell them. Out of the three kids, two left immediately. The third who commented on his guns looked him square in the eyes and asked him just how bad it was. “It’s real bad, worse than you could ever imagine,” Haliday said. The kid grabbed the last three boxes of pizza and left in a hurry.

Haliday opened the box and took a slice out and started to eat it. It was room temperature, but he didn’t care too much; it was going to be the last pizza he ate in a long time. He walked out and headed straight for the sidewalk. He saw the last kid dart down one of the nearby side streets. Haliday figured most of them were from the neighborhood.

Haliday had almost reached the sidewalk when he looked across the street and saw the oil change shop. He made a mental note of it. Although sooner or later someone will take the drums and bottles of oil, they might overlook the waste oil tank. This could be filtered and used for a variety of purposes and even burned if necessary. He started back on his way home.

As he continued to walk along the sidewalk, more and more people started looking at him. How funny this must be. This 6 foot 2 inch tall, 250 pound guy with a gun strapped to his waist, a rifle slung on his backpack and walking along eating a pizza like it was just another stroll in the neighborhood.

Just 10 minutes later, he was almost home. It was a typical suburban neighborhood with half acre lots and the houses too close for comfort, but he did not have the resources to relocate like he wanted to thanks to the wonderful economic conditions. He had to make do with what he had and that was fine with him as long as his plans could hold.

If he could maintain a good level of security, he should be fine. He paused long enough to tuck the pistol away along with his good old rifle, which was an Armalite AR180 with a folding stock, somewhat similar to an AR15. He took his pack off, folded the stock and slung the rifle on his back and then put the pack back on.

He looked like just an average guy except for the backpack and of course the pizza box. He was not worried about his neighbors, who were out and about and talking to each other. He had maintained a great level of OPSEC, operational security, and seeing him with his backpack was a normal everyday event. He told them before it was his uniform and equipment from work and they never paid him any attention after that. They didn’t this time either.

He waved as he passed the folks. He said, “Hell of a power outage, huh?” He walked the last couple of hundred yards to his house. Approaching the door, there was an electronic cipher lock which he attempted to use out of habit. No luck of course; he dug into his pocket and fished out the key.

As soon as he opened the door and stepped in, he breathed a sigh of relief. In one sense, it was good to be home, in another it was bothersome. Bothersome because he would have to temporarily leave for a few days or more and wasn’t sure what he would come home to in that amount of time. He walked around the house and made sure all of the windows and doors were locked.

He peeked out into the attached garage at his baby and said, “I’ll be out there shortly.” “For goodness sake,” he said. “It’s a truck. Don’t talk to it. You have work to do and the quicker the better.” It was mid-October and the Michigan weather was so varied that even though today it was sunny and 70, tomorrow could be wet and 40. Fall was here and the impending winter would be harsh with all things considered.

The first thing he did was go over to the fuse box and turn off the main power. No sense in any lights or anything coming on by accident. Next he reached down by the floor and flipped a single switch. This completed the circuit from a small array of deep charge batteries which ran a small series of 12v outlets throughout the house. Another switch actually turned them on, but until he pulled the bulbs out of their protective wrappers he didn’t bother to try it.

He unwrapped the bag that he had bought from eBay and took out a bulb. It was supposed to be like a Faraday cage, but he thought it looked like a Mylar bag. Not even sure it would work, he screwed it into a lamp that was on the counter and went and hit the other switch. There was nothing, the light did not come on.

“Damn eBay,” he cursed. He looked it all over and noticed he hadn’t plugged the lamp in. One more try and there it was. It still worked. He turned it off, there was enough light still out and he could see in the house just fine. He wasn’t sure how long the batteries would last anyway, and he didn’t want to waste them. He had a simple outlet in each room and four in the garage. That was the important area of the house.

He stepped out into the garage, walked over to the back wall and removed a sheet. Under the sheet had been a stack of plywood sheets he had prepared. Next to the sheets of plywood was a large roll of adhesive laminate plastic that printers used on big signs.

Haliday grabbed the roll of plastic and snagged a utility knife off a nearby bench. The plastic was practically useless for anything other than protecting signs the printers made, but he had a different idea for it. He cut off large pieces, peeled the backing off and placed it on every window in the house.

This wouldn’t do much other than to keep the glass from getting everywhere in case it was broken. Simply less mess to clean up or worry about later on. It’d be nice not to get cut when it came time to clean that mess up. Might even be an insulating factor, but that wasn’t the reason—he was simply trying to avoid a mess.

Next was the plywood. Each piece had another one that went with it. On the back of each one was attached a section of fairly heavy wire mesh. Pieces were marked with numbers so he knew which windows they went to. He would put one piece in place, secure it, then put the other in place and not only secure it, but join the two together. He used large doors hinges and hinge pins to do this.

They were anchored very securely in place. It would stop most folks, but those who really wanted to get in could do so with the right tools. As each room was sealed up, he lit some candles to light the place. No way had he wanted folks to know he had any type of electricity, no matter how simple it may be.

He finished up the patio door leading to the deck and this left the front door and the garage door. Those would be last, as they required something a little different, not to mention he would still have to get the truck out. It was late evening now and he was anxious to get started very early in the morning, so he locked the front door and secured the garage door.

He had drilled several holes along the garage door rail and placed six padlocks, three on each side so the door would not roll up. The wheels would stop because of the padlocks. Before he left he would be able to secure it further but that had to wait. He spent the rest of the evening prepping his gear and loading the truck for the next day.

Chapter 3

Time was going fast and much faster than he thought. He looked over at the old wind up alarm clock he had kept for years. It was a small reminder of a family vacation home they had just across the border in Canada on Lake Erie. Only about an hour’s drive away, but it was still a totally different world over there. It was almost a different culture and in some aspects it was.

It was little streets scattered about the beaches along the lake and surrounded by farms. He wondered if they got hit by the EMP as well, but after a little thought figured they must since they were so close to the U.S. With all the farms and few major congregations of people, they should be better off than most. They would be able to avoid the mass gangs and riots. Haliday almost wished it was his destination, but that was not the case.

Haliday pulled out another Faraday baggie as he had come to call them and inside was an Alinco ham radio. He had talked to quite a few people and explained what his intentions were. He needed a radio powerful enough to adequately reach 300 linear miles. He wasn’t concerned with getting his technician’s license or anything like that. He was not concerned about anything but the fact that it would work and reach to the other radio he would have ready.

He carried it along with a single deep charge battery to the back of his lot. There he ducked behind his old shed, where he reached up and grabbed the end of an antenna he had set up in the trees a couple years prior. He did this under the guise of trimming the branches hanging over his fence. Since it was a simple wire antennae and nothing fancy, it blended perfectly. He tested it monthly and so far it held up just fine.

Looking around he could see candles flickering in the windows of the nearby homes. He even heard a generator which sounded like it was on its last leg. Haliday wasn’t surprised by this, a lot of old generators were probably able to run in an event like this, and if the owner was prepared, there was no telling what precautions he took to make sure it ran.

Of course, it would be drawing a lot of attention and wasn’t the smartest thing to be doing. Give it a few more days and it would be downright dangerous. People wanting power would seek him out. The noise was welcome though; it would help drown out the noise he would be making.

Seconds seemed like hours as he waited. The designated time was 9 pm. He clicked on the radio about 15 minutes before that and it came on with no problem. It made noise, but not what he wanted. He was tuned into an emergency frequency to make sure he received ok. He played with the antenna connection, but no luck. He started to panic a bit and was trying to think of what to do.

He grabbed the wire and yanked on it a bit. After a few good tugs he was able to get the signal. He cursed himself for not using a better antenna, because obviously now there was a short in it or more accurately a break in the wire. He held the radio as still as he could. There was no time to try and run a new wire, and that would surely attract the neighbor’s attention.

Haliday, when he purchased this gear, said screw the licensing, screw the government, screw the hams with their etiquette—this was serious business and he didn’t care who was going to say what. The time was very near and he keyed the mic. “Kaybear are you there?” He waited. This was the nickname they had given his daughter practically at birth. Kayla was her name, but he thought she was cuddly like a little stuffed teddy bear, so thus the nickname. This was his only child and everything in the world to him.

After graduating from high school she had relocated to a small town in Illinois where her mother lived so she could attend college there. Not a decision he liked, but he had to accept she was growing up and had choices to make by herself. He hadn’t been on the greatest terms with his ex, but they grew to understand and respect each other more than when they were married, so it worked out.

They were better friends now and she accepted the fact, along with her new husband, that Roger was a tad strange in his ideas of being ready for who knows what. He was sure she had a whole new respect for that opinion now. Right about now, her ridicule was mostly turning into admiration for his foresight.

There was no answer and his heart dropped. He keyed the mic once more and repeated himself. “Kaybear, are you there kiddo?” Again there was no answer. His eyes actually started to well with tears. They had gone over this time and time again and she knew what to do when the SHTF. Like any parent, he was scared and thinking the worst. Far too many scenarios ran across his mind.

He reached up and dabbed his eyes with his sleeve and went to key the mic one more time when he heard her voice. “Sorry Dad, I hate this thing; I told you that before.” Now his tears were streaming down his face, but this time with joy. He hadn’t felt this happy in a long time, and knowing his little girl was ok for now, he couldn’t be happier.

Haliday told her to hang on one second. He breathed deeply and said, “I love you kiddo and I’m glad you’re ok. How about your mom and Mike?” he asked. She replied that her mom was ok, but Mike hadn’t made it home from work yet. They were worried about him. Haliday said, “Give it time, it’s 15 miles from the house to work. It may take a bit to get home.”

He asked her how the trip from school to home was. Kayla replied like a typical teenager and just said fine. School was only about three miles away and she always kept her bike and get-home bag in the back of her car. She knew immediately what she had to do and did it. He couldn’t have been prouder.

Haliday asked her if she had any packages ready and the answer was yes. He had visited a few times and during the course of those visits he had made some small preparations there. Not much, but what he thought would be enough to get her through until he got there to retrieve her. Up to about a month’s worth actually. This was his planned trip.

First and foremost, after making sure he could lock his house down, he was going to get his daughter and bring her home. There was no way he could leave her there and at least not make an attempt. He would rather die trying than live and wonder what was going on. He couldn’t torture himself like that.

In place he had some typical prepper foods and water and even though it was Illinois, he had made sure she was equipped with pepper spray, a small stun gun, a knife and an AR15 he had built for her along with a small 9mm. While there on one visit, he had torn a hole in the drywall, placed the rifle along with the small 9mm in there, complete with some rounds and magazines, and then sealed it up—mudding, sanding and then painting the whole room so it all matched.

Helping her remodel her bedroom to her liking was the ruse they had pulled to hide the firearms and justify the work. No one was the wiser. Being ex-army, he had always had a love for guns and taught her how to handle them. She was a hell of a shot, in all reality. They would visit the range often so she could learn new techniques and practice.

He keyed the mic again and said he would be on at 4 am, and to make sure someone answered. Whether it was her, her mom or Mike he didn’t care. He would go over his plans then. Before she said ok, she said her mom wanted to talk to him. He knew what was coming so he told her he had a lot of work to do, and that he would talk to her either in the morning or when he got there.

They said their goodbyes and he disconnected the radio and headed back toward the house. He was looking around and no one had noticed him out there and that was just fine by him. He could still hear the generator running off in the distance. He said, “Ya, go ahead and waste all of your gas, idiot.” A couple hours a day to keep the fridge or freezer cold was plenty; maybe charge a few batteries, but non-stop was going to run the gas out and the noise would draw too many curious people.

As soon as he walked into the house, he went in the closet and grabbed two ‘five’ gallon buckets and a box and put them in the truck. He went back inside and grabbed another AR15 and a can each of magazines and ammo and placed them in there too. He had a feeling he would need these to give to his ex and her husband, Mike. He knew the questions were going to be what about them and could they go with him and Kayla.

He had thought about it, and there were some pros and cons, but right now the cons were outweighing any good that could come of it. The box and two buckets had enough staples inside to feed them for a couple months if they stretched it out, and the guns would help keep them safe. How safe he didn’t know, but this was the best he could do right now.

It was close to 10:00 pm and he was beat. He double checked the front door and garage door and then hit the sack. Haliday couldn’t even think for a moment; he was out like a light immediately. The alarm went off at 3:00 am and he slowly got up out of bed. He wandered into the kitchen and pulled out a small butane stove and boiled some water.

A cup of instant coffee, some instant grits and he used the rest of the water for more coffee, which he put in a thermos for the trip. He quickly boiled some more water and put it in another thermos to use later. He tossed the thermoses into the truck. He then went back into the bedroom to change.

After changing, he did a quick look around and double check. He grabbed the ham and ran back to the shed again. It was 4:00 am; he turned it on, had no issues with the connection this time, and he said good morning. His ex came on and said good morning. Haliday asked if everyone was ok and she said no, Mike was still gone. He asked where Kayla was and she said she was still sleeping.

He told her that he was heading out and would call back in two hours. He also told her they would talk when he got there. He told her to give Mike more time; he was probably playing it safe. At the moment, Mike was the least of his worries. She said ok and he turned the radio off and ran back to the house. It was time to get moving and he had a lot of ground to cover.

He stepped into the garage and placed the radio in the truck and quickly connected it to the antenna and power. He went over to the side of the garage and opened up a big oblong box that was sealed up and grabbed what was inside. This was quickly attached to the truck with magnets and then tested. It worked like a champ. It would prove to be very useful on the trip. He was banking on it to make a difference when he needed it. A few more minor details and he would be ready to go.

Next he slowly opened the garage door. He had oiled the wheels and chain very well and made sure they were as quiet as he could make them. He didn’t start the truck, but he placed it in neutral and pushed it out into the driveway. Thank goodness it was downhill and it rolled easily.

He didn’t want to alert anyone of his leaving the home and didn’t want to let anyone know what he had. He was taking a big risk with it as it was. He dropped it in park, left the door slightly ajar and stepped back in the garage. He slowly lowered the garage door and then placed the padlocks in place that would keep the door from rolling up.

The next step was to take some steel grid wall and set it up over the garage door as well. This was 2X2 inch square steel grid that stores used to hang merchandise on. He picked it up at one of the many liquidation sales that he attended for stores going out of business. This was locked in place and added that extra level.

He stepped back into the house and then placed four locks into hasps that he had to secure it. It was a metal exterior door and would be hard to get through. They’d have to work at it hard, but the windows would be easier if they were smart enough. He left through the front door and stood on the porch. He turned toward the closed door and there again were four more hasps on which he placed locks. These locks were the round style meant for storage units and harder to cut into.

That was it for now. He went over to the truck, raised the antenna mast and placed it in neutral and rolled it into the street. Looking around, he didn’t see any candles or lights and was fairly confident he was not seen. Now when he started the truck up, if anyone woke up or looked out, it would appear that the truck was simply driving down the street and they wouldn’t know where it came from.

It was a lot of work for something he expected he would only have in his possession for a couple days max, until it was discovered and taken away. Surely martial law had been declared if the government was still around. That was the 64,000 dollar question. He had taken extreme care in keeping it out of sight until now. Even in the garage it sat under a tarp.

He had no idea why there had been an EMP. The possibilities were endless. Nuclear war, EMP attack, coronal mass ejection, whatever, he didn’t care at the moment. He turned the key, the magical moment of truth and the truck started and he threw it in drive and took off down the road.

He didn’t want anyone to see it sitting in front of his house and now it appeared to be just a truck driving down the road. An official government vehicle at that, at least in all appearances that’s what it looked like. It was incredibly easy to pull it off as far as the looks were concerned. The mechanics of it were the hard part. That had taken some doing.

He had purchased a used Tahoe from an auction of government vehicles. It was white and had been a former border patrol truck. They had stripped the decals off from it, removed the light bars and interior equipment, and put it on the auction block. It was your typical government SUV and all Roger had to do was put it back together with a slightly different design in mind.

He waited until all of the mechanical work had been done first though. He’d be sitting in prison at the moment if he had been caught. With the right amount of money, it was surprising what you could buy. Doing what he had planned required a lot of under the radar purchases.

Staging it in a friend’s his pole barn they had taken out the engine and transmission and left it nothing but a roller. A new transmission was installed with another engine that was about as basic as you could get. Practically no electronics, linkage to shift, carbureted engine, and distributor cap and plugs. It was as EMP proof as you could get. No radio, no air conditioning, no heat, no engine sensors, no emission control─ nothing.

Anything with wires was shielded, grounded, shielded again, and the whole chassis was grounded inside the garage through a hole in the garage floor and a 12 foot grounding rod. He had been assured this would work the way he had it set up and luckily it did. Haliday’s buddy had helped build it out so it would run. He had no idea what else Haliday was adding to it however.

On the exterior he put back on the big blue stripe, the federal protective service lettering and the big blue police lettering under that. On the fenders the words “Homeland Security” were present along with the DHS seal. He even added “Supervisor” to the rear quarter panel. On top was the magnetic LED light bar. From a distance you couldn’t tell the difference and up close you couldn’t either, until you looked inside and saw the modifications.

The choice of grabbing the border patrol truck versus another government SUV was an easy decision for that very reason. The windows were tinted darker than normal due to the southwest climate and blazing sun. On the back hitch was mounted a motorcycle carrier and he used a KLR650 to tuck into the carrier and the bike was painted white with matching logos and lettering. He had to admit the bike was a stretch, a big stretch at that.

This might not be that easy to pull off, but 24-30 hours was all he needed. Taking this kind of risk was almost as stupid as it was brilliant. If he failed, he would surely be imprisoned or shot, but with the time table he was projecting, he was confident he could do it. The risk was worth it.

The idea came to him years ago. At the hospital, a distraught patient had been discharged. He had walked outside, climbed into an ambulance in the ambulance loading bay by the ER, and drove away with the lights and siren blaring. This guy had not only made it into Detroit, but actually crossed The Ambassador Bridge into Canada.

 Customs even opened the gates for him, thinking he was heading to the hospital with a patient. Now this was prior to 9/11 and times have changed, but Haliday’s route wouldn’t take him through any major cities for the most part or put him in those positions. That’s what he counted on during his travel─ avoiding big populations.

He was driving and thinking about how much of a fool he was for not thinking of another plan. He started doubting himself and the ability to make it. Here he was in this fake DHS Tahoe, black BDU’s and DHS patches bought from eBay for that matter; and about to drive 450 miles one way and then 450 back within an hour of getting there.

It was crazy, but then again if you knew Haliday, it was as sane as sane can get. One more stop to make which was on the way and then the journey would begin. Not quite the journey he was counting on. Things would take some very unexpected turns.

Chapter 4

Heading south, he passed by another hospital. This was actually much closer than the one he worked at, but opportunities here were very limited, so he had chosen the other. Dodging cars scattered on the streets was time consuming and he had underestimated travel time. Driving slower, he had time to check out this hospital.

Dawn was a little more than an hour away; so still being dark outside, the only thing he could make out was the occasional beam from a flashlight in the windows. He couldn’t believe people were still there. What could they possibly do? Delay the inevitable; for some it was the only thing that came to mind. Good little sheeple staying in their barnyard.

The worst part was that he saw people working their way to the hospital. Normally a safe haven of sorts, it was the last place he would go. Of course having worked at one for quite a few years, he knew what it would turn into. It had given him the opportunity to gain some valuable skills though.

Right out of high school, Haliday had pulled a stint of active duty in the army as an MP and then pulled some reserve duty. He had put in seven years at a small time police department with a whopping 178 homes on a private lake with people too rich for their own good. Everyone there was part time so he had picked up the job at the hospital for benefits and a steady check.

Even though he had attended a fair amount of decent schools in the service and taken a few courses here and there for the small police department, the hospital had given him the chance to excel more than the others. He worked his way into becoming the training officer and picked up certifications to teach.

TASER, chemical deterrent—which was just pepper spray—and management of aggressive behavior including pressure point control techniques were some of the courses. He was by no means a walking bad ass, and didn’t portray himself as anything other than a regular old schmuck. He simply learned to be a teacher and what better way to keep your skills honed?

That wasn’t the clincher though. Training all the new hires and making sure they had uniforms and equipment gave him the chance to purchase items under the radar. Of course he paid for them, but it was easier to have items shipped directly to the hospital under his name than to try and explain the personal purchases.

He even volunteered to take care of the vehicle maintenance. Ordering an LED light bar with red/blue lights, TASERS or pepper spray and other equipment to a home address would have raised red flags big time. He got what he wanted, no questions asked, no worrying about what popped up on the door step or who would inquire about it.

Haliday was mostly riding the center turn lanes with the occasional zigzag when he had to slam on the breaks. He had to start paying more attention; this was the real thing now. A couple had run into the street in front of him waving their arms for him to stop. “Oh great,” he said to himself.

He hit them with the spotlight and quickly got out of the vehicle and as they approached he ordered them to stop. He wasn’t taking any chances and had drawn the 40 and took a bead on the guy. He darted his eyes back and forth and swept the area for other movement. Why the hell didn’t I wait until daylight, he thought to himself.

The couple had stopped dead in their tracks at the command and could see his profile with the gun drawn on them. “Hey mister, we ain’t criminals, we just need help. You are supposed to help us, you’re the police.” Haliday had analyzed them from the very first second. Early thirties, both white, ragged jeans and t-shirts, light jackets, maybe not outstanding citizens, but not trouble either.

Haliday responded and said, “What’s going on, what is it folks need?”

“We could use a ride home. We’ve been walking all night since we left our friend’s house in Rochester Hills. We only live in Warren.” They’d walked about 12-15 miles, and had maybe 6 to go. Haliday said, “Sorry folks, I’ve got a job to do and playing taxi right now is not on the top of my list. Now please move aside.”

The couple got upset and the woman replied to him and said, “It’s not like there’s cars to pull over or anything. What could be so important?” Haliday was ready for just this type of smart-ass attitude. “Look folks, the side of the truck says federal protective service. If we don’t make sure we secure all of the social security buildings, veteran’s clinics and federal buildings and property, we could be in a world of hurt. Hell, we don’t even know what happened yet.”

“I’d like to explain the importance of securing the information in these buildings, but I gotta go.” He then holstered his pistol and waited a moment. The couple started to move away and all he heard was mumbling. He jumped back in the truck, killed the spotlight and took off again. His heart was beating a mile a minute and he could feel the adrenaline rush. Nice and slow concentrated breaths to bring his heartbeat down and respirations back to normal.

Haliday pulled off the main road onto a side street and he slowed down and killed the lights on the truck. He knew this area very well, since his parents had lived here since ‘89. He crept along slowly, making sure no cars were stalled in the street. He didn’t use the lights because he didn’t want to draw attention to his parents’ house.

When he was about three houses away, he pulled up along the curb and turned the truck off. Anyone spotting it may tie it to the house he was parked in front of. Just a little deception. Glancing around, he didn’t see candles, flashlights or anyone moving. He grabbed his rifle, jumped out, locked the truck and bolted for their front door.

Reaching the porch he stood to the side of the door and tapped lightly on the door and waited. If there were any shots coming through the door he would be off to the side. He tapped a little harder and waited. At 75 and 73 years old, they moved a little slow and their hearing was not what it used to be.

He remembered, as a teen in high school, talking to friends in the front yard of his childhood home about buying beer for a party that night. When he walked around the back there was his dad sitting on the back porch. He looked at Roger and said, “I think you’re staying home tonight.” Never figured out how he heard that.

A muffled voice came through the door. “Who’s out there?” Haliday said, “Mom it’s me, Roger.”

“I don’t know any Roger,” was the response. Haliday answered back again and said, “But you know Ruger, right?” This was a little code they worked out to make sure she knew it was him. It was her favorite new prep item.

He heard a series of locks being opened and the door swung open wide. He stepped inside and gave her a hug and asked how his dad was doing. She called out, “Hey Rich, Roger’s here.”

“Ok Bev, I’ll be there in a minute.” Bev asked him what he thought happened. “I have no idea mom, not a clue. All I can say is it’s definitely hit the fan.” His dad came out and he gave him a quick hug as well.

Haliday looked around and saw some candles burning in the kitchen and in the living room. It reminded him; he told them to make sure they didn’t run the generator more than two hours a day, to stop after the third day until they could feel out the atmosphere of the neighborhood, to keep the doors and windows locked and not to let anyone in. They had placed a few boards over the windows to stop intruders, but not as elaborate as he had done.

Next on the agenda was making sure they were locked and loaded. His dad had an old H&R .22 revolver he had gotten back during the riots in Detroit in 1967 and his mom had a Ruger LC9 and S&W 40. The Smith was a Y2K purchase, the Ruger was recent. They couldn’t handle a shotgun, so he worked them up a lightweight AR15. Everything was loaded and good to go. Plenty of magazines were at the ready. Enough lead down range and they should be able to hit what they pointed the guns at. Both knew how to fire what was in the house.

There was no time for a lot of chit chat; he told them he was heading out to get Kayla and would try to swing back by on his way home. He was located about 10 miles north of them, practically in a straight line, so it was convenient. He told them to turn their ham radio on at 8:00 am and listen. Not to talk, but listen and answer only if he asked a question or unless it was very important.

This would keep them updated on his progress and he on their current situation. Every two hours was the designated contact time and would help save on their batteries. His rig was powering his radio so he was not worried too much about leaving his on. Of course he would have to make sure he kept his truck battery charged; there wouldn’t be any AAA service calls.

Haliday explained that if any of the other kids showed up to make sure it was just them and their families. He couldn’t insist on this enough; it wasn’t a Holiday Inn he told them. They had sorted through her preps and calculated five months for the 14 people who may show up. Not really a lot in all reality. They had started in early ‘99 for Y2K and had rotated through, and then added what they needed. Over the past years they managed to add quite a bit.

One of his brothers actually worked at a survival store back then and sold everyone who came in the store on the idea. Unfortunately, these days he fell into line with the rest of the sheeple and dropped the whole idea. Just this past Father’s Day, he was saying that he thought having two weeks of basics was enough for most anything. Two weeks now would get you two weeks closer to starving around the holidays. Haliday was disappointed with that.

Haliday never talked to his brothers and sister about his readiness. Nothing but ridicule would ensue and he wouldn’t have any part of it. His mom was different and she would welcome the rest into the house to make the best of it. A niece and nephew were welcome as well. They’d come in handy for labor, security and whatever else needed to be done. The trade off was food supply. But strength in groups was one of the popular sayings in readiness. Hopefully whoever showed up would bring what they could.

A quick set of goodbyes and wishing everyone the best of luck and he was out the door. Heading back toward the truck, he had walked straight out to the street and then toward the truck with his rifle in a low ready position. It was fairly light outside now and he could see a couple people down the street come out of their house. They were surprised to see him there, so he kept up the act. A young boy with them came running up and said, “Mister, my dad wants to talk to you.” Haliday rolled his eyes, mumbled a bit and said, “Fine.”

He stood there and the guy was walking toward him. Oh ya, dress like the DHS, good idea genius, he thought to himself. He carefully watched the man approach. “Excuse me sir, what’s going on?”

“So far as we can tell, it’s a regional terrorist attack and we’ve tracked some people into this neighborhood, so I suggest you go home, lock your doors and wait it out. We’ll be sending more agents and support in a few days, so hold out as long as you can. In the meantime we are trying to hunt them down.”

He guessed the guy bought into the story. He hoped so; fewer people out in the chaos that was closing in fast enough. He got back in the truck and took off through the neighborhood. He passed an old lady who just waved as he drove by. She was putting an envelope in her mail box and raised the flag on the side of the mail box. He started laughing out loud. Oh boy, that’s going to be one for the story books. Lady, there isn’t enough postage to get that delivered right now. In a few days, she’d probably try to call the postmaster and complain about how it wasn’t picked up.

He pulled back onto the main road and was heading west. Over in a nearby strip mall there was a small Middle Eastern fruit market with a lot of goods under a tent outside. People were lining up already. Mostly older Middle Eastern folks, a few others as well and he could hear who he thought was the owner yelling at them all.

“Stand in line. I am taking only money. No credit cards. Do not buy it if you don’t have cash.” Haliday shook his head. Cash was about as good as toilet paper right now, but nobody knew it yet. How could they not? Nothing worked. Nothing. Did they think it was going to magically just come back on or something?

He looked at the 7-11 and it was closed. Haliday ran it down in his mind and laughed. He figured other than the frozen drinks, there was about a year’s worth of junk food. Candy bars, potato chips, gum, a few bags of jerky and some overpriced canned food. Too bad the owner didn’t have sense to hide it all.

He continued his trek westward. Same thing again and again, zigzagging through the streets and dodging cars and the odd person walking the streets or sidewalk. It was still early and he didn’t really expect to see many people out anyway. It was a Wednesday and even though they should be working, no one except a few would be going anywhere. He figured local markets or small shops like the fruit market where the owners lived close by may open, but nothing else. No power, no communications, no work.

He turned the ham on to see if he could hear any information about what went down. There seemed to be a lot of theories, but nothing official as far as he could tell. He reached over and grabbed a large binder and flipped it open. This was his map set for the route he was taking.

He had printed and laminated each sheet and made notes about possible areas to stop, areas to avoid, alternates to bypass trouble when—not if—he ran into it, water holes and more. As he progressed, he would flip to the next page and continue doing that until he got there. He put together another binder in reverse for the return trip. He had made the trip four times before to get all of the info logged.

Wading through the suburban sprawl was time consuming. It was still early enough and he hadn’t had any troubles other than the interested parties seeking info from “the police”. He still doubted this plan, but so far he was pulling off the scam. Reaching the more rural area just outside of the congested suburbs, he popped up onto a small state highway running East and West and was able to pick up some speed.

Even with the area littered with the cars he could maintain almost 45mph, but the 70mph limit would have been nicer. He looked down at the gas gauge and it was just under a quarter of a tank. He looked at his binder on the map and found what he wanted. He had a few spots picked out to stop at.

No doubt he would make it there, but he was not sure what to expect when he arrived. About 10 minutes later, he saw the sign. Ride Share 1 mile. It was essentially a parking lot where folks parked and car pooled in state-owned vans to go to work. With a lot of people around this area working 45 minutes to an hour away, it was cheaper to pay the weekly fee than to pay for gas, and pay for parking in the tight Downtown Lansing area. He wasn’t going there though; he would split off and head south long before going near the state capitol.

He pulled into the Ride Share lot and estimated about 45 to 50 cars in the lot. He staged the truck toward the center of the lot, angled toward the exit. He didn’t want to get caught in the lot or become blocked in and not be able to get the vehicle out. He hadn’t seen anyone here or nearby.

He had figured anyone near this lot had probably walked the couple miles to the little nearby town to seek help. He placed it in park and looked at the time. 8:10 am—real good—he was late. He hadn’t heard them broadcast, which meant they were listening to his instructions.

Keying the mic, he spit out a quick sentence. “Kaybear and Bobily (his mom’s nickname from her grandfather) all good on track and safe, reply one word.” He heard Kayla respond “yes,” and his mom respond “yes.” Next he said two words only. “Anything bad?” He received two “no’s” in response.

There would be no chatter. This would deter anyone listening from trying to piece together the plan or any other info. No designated route info given, no locations of anyone, no time schedules to figure out or anything like that. Haliday thought this was the safest way to go.

He climbed out of the driver’s seat and opened the rear passenger door. Off the floorboard he grabbed a small plastic bag and a six gallon gas can generally used for boating. He walked up to a pickup truck in the parking lot and placed the gas can close underneath. He kept looking around and still saw no signs of anyone. He unscrewed the top and set it aside. Out of the plastic bag he pulled out a strange looking contraption he made just for this purpose.

Haliday had taken one inch galvanized pipe and installed a ball valve faucet in the middle. He used that to attach the hose to. One end of the pipe was ground down at an angle and to a point. The other end was capped off. This was a quick and effective method to pierce the tanks.

Haliday placed the open end of the hose in the gas can and then placed the spike up against the gas tank of the pickup truck. Using a small five pound hand sledge a quick rap on the cap and it pierced the tank. He pulled out another plain spike and popped a hole in the pickup’s tank near the top of the tank. The air hole allowed the gas to flow smoothly after opening the ball valve and in about two minutes the gas can was full.

The height of the pickup’s tank and the low profile of the gas can let gravity do the work perfectly. He pulled the spike out and crammed a cork in the hole. He didn’t want gas spilling all over the place. He carried the gas can over to his truck, attached a nozzle and dumped it in. About six minutes total.

He had full gas cans stored in the back of the Tahoe and it should be enough to get him there, but he wanted to save those for the time when he might not have this luxury of draining someone else’s tank. Was it stealing? Absolutely. Did he care? No. He doubted they would be coming back for their vehicles and by the time they did the gas would most likely be bad anyway.

It was not like he was taking food from someone. That was his justification. He moved on and tapped another tank from an SUV. Same result, he would need two more to fill the Tahoe. He hadn’t changed the tank to a higher capacity because he didn’t want to modify anything under the body. He regretted this now.

One last tank left to drain. It had been about 20 minutes when he approached the last vehicle, a full size conversion van. He was about 20 feet away when the door popped open and a guy in his late thirties jumped out. Haliday dropped everything and drew down, ready to fire if he had to.

The guy didn’t seem phased a bit and instead yelled at him. “Who the hell are you? Wait a minute, you’re a damn Fed. What in the hell are you doing?” Haliday told him to take it easy and keep his hands visible. This guy looked a little rough around the edges and Haliday expected trouble.

“If I don’t, what are you going to do, shoot me? Haliday just looked at him. “Hey moron, I asked you what you were going to do about it?” Haliday’s response was monotone and to the point. “Yes sir, I’m going to shoot you. It’ll be twice in your chest and then once in the head. I’m just trying to decide if I’m going to place your body in your van or let the animals eat your carcass.” Haliday leveled the pistol at his chest, center mass.

“Damn man, relax, ok.” The guy raised his hands up slightly and asked, “What do you want me to do?” Haliday kept his bead on the guy and reached into his left cargo pocket and pulled out a pair of heavy duty zip ties. Flex cuffs were too expensive and these worked just as well. In the military, they used to keep them coiled up in the top of their BDU caps while on road duty. Not that they needed them that much, but it helped keep the caps in form during guard mount inspection.

 He tossed them over and told the guy to put one around his right wrist and cinch it down. He told him to loop the other one through and then loop it around his door handle. The guy started to complain and Haliday told him to knock it off, he was doing him a favor. After the guy had attached himself to the door handle, Haliday looked him over and everything looked fine.

He holstered the pistol and walked over to the guy to make sure they were tight. The guy turned toward Haliday, slipped his hand out of the cuff and reached out and grabbed him. Haliday arm locked the guy and bent his wrist downwards violently in a gooseneck, almost breaking it.

As the man yelled out in pain, Haliday put him on the ground and into a prone position where he wrenched his arm behind his back and pulled tight. The man continued to yell in pain and Haliday tightened his grip even more. He then drew his pistol and placed it on the man’s throat up against his jugular. “Keep it up idiot and your jugular and esophagus become pink slime.”

He told him to place his other arm behind his back and the guy complied. He looped another zip tie around his wrist and this time he cinched them down himself. Haliday helped him off the ground where he then took him and zip tied him back to the door handle. “Get stupid and you’ll lose more than a few IQ points. You’ll lose that grey matter you think is your brain.”

Haliday filled the gas can again, dumped it in his truck and put everything away. He walked back over to guy who started belly aching about how he was desperate and wanted to get home. “So am I,” Haliday said, “You’re lucky I didn’t shoot your sorry ass. The next guy might have to pay for your mistake because now I can’t take anymore chances being a nice guy.”

The guy asked him if he was going to leave him like that and Haliday said “Of course. Work the door handle hard enough and it’ll come off. Then go find yourself something to cut the zip ties off. By that time I’ll be far enough away and could give a rat’s ass about you.” Haliday climbed back in his Tahoe, started it and left. This was getting far too serious quicker than he thought it would.

Chapter 5

Back to a full tank now he was calculating mileage and it wasn’t looking very good. He was cruising along fairly quickly now though, and his mileage should increase. He was on a course heading south now in order to avoid Lansing. This would take him only six miles West of Ann Arbor, but since Ann Arbor was home to the U of M and loaded with college kids and their tree hugging, bleeding heart, liberal staffers, he wasn’t worried. They were probably still sitting around smoking dope or hugging each other while waiting for FEMA to come rescue them. Highly doubtful many of them were ready for this kind of situation.

Cruising at almost 70 he was glad to see this road was not as cluttered with broken-down vehicles. That meant fewer people to run into. This of course was most likely due to the fact that this was now rural farm land with small towns located between the bigger cities and most people relying on the interstates for travel. He remembered coming through the area year after year when he attended the NASCAR races at Michigan International Speedway. He was always looking for new campgrounds and local attractions to make the weekend more interesting.

Keeping a closer eye on the time it was close to 10 am. He had turned down the volume of the radio because of the same thing on every frequency. “What happened? What’s going on? Where can we get help? Anyone have power?” It got boring real quick. The occasional conspiracy theory arose, but he couldn’t stomach that. They needed to be taking care of business, not guessing what may have happened.

Time was close enough and he keyed the mic once again. “Kaybear and Bobily, on track, all safe, reply one word.” One yes came from Kayla and there was nothing but silence. Haliday repeated himself and said, “Bobily?” He almost laughed whenever he heard that nickname. Her grandfather was an immigrant and his English broken. He could not pronounce Beverly and it came out Bobily. It was that simple.

A third try, “Bobily?” His dad answered, “She’s in the bathroom.” Haliday just chuckled. Next was his mom’s voice. “Sorry, I was in the bathroom. Dad wasn’t sure he should answer.” Haliday was thinking that if anyone was listening, they were probably laughing about now.

“Anything bad happening?” he asked. His mom said “no,” Kayla said “yes.”

“SITREP?” He had briefed them all on some basic acronyms and jargon to make things easier. SITREP is situation report. Kayla answered quickly. “Mike is home, but beaten bad.” Haliday thought great, he knew it would be hard to just get in and go without assuring her that her mom and Mike would be ok. “I’ll check it out when I get in, I’m out.”

He was trying to think of how to handle that when he got there and couldn’t come up with a plan yet. To take his mind off from it, he figured he would scan the ham for traffic. He looked down at the radio and started changing frequencies when he heard a loud horn. He shot straight up and then swerved back into his lane. He had barely missed hitting an old tractor pulling a large flatbed cart behind it heading the opposite direction he was.

“Damn,” he said, "I didn’t expect that." It was later in the morning and he didn’t count on any moving vehicles for the most part. Of course he knew that some would still be running, but this old John Deere wasn’t what he expected. He looked in the rearview mirror and saw the flatbed had about a dozen people on it.

No idea what that was all about and he didn’t really care. He passed by an old motel and started to laugh again. The old B-rated horror movie Motel Hell crossed his mind. Maybe the farmer had a new crop he harvested. Then he stopped smiling and thought, man, that would not be good. He could hope people wouldn’t resort to that. That was just wrong in too many ways.

He knew when people got hungry they got desperate, and there were going to be a lot of desperate people in a matter of weeks. Eventually some were going to snap and cross the boundary. He didn’t want to think about it. He glanced at his binder, flipped the page again and noticed he was in Ohio now. Pretty soon he would start a westward course. It would still be pretty much the same terrain and land.

The next major obstacle was a small city named Bryan. Population was under 9,000 and its major business was Dum Dum suckers and candy canes, along with Etch A Sketch. There’s one that will make a comeback, he thought. Hey kids, can’t get that X-Box working, well don’t you worry, the old fashioned Etch A Sketch is back and it’s bad. About another five miles would put him smack dab outside of the downtown area.

He slowed down and brought the vehicle to a stop. After the Ride Share escapade, he wasn’t taking chances. He stepped out and grabbed a pair of binoculars out of the console. He eyeballed the road ahead and thought he saw a roadblock. He grabbed his thermos and poured a quick cup of coffee. He drank it and kept peering down the road. After finishing the coffee, he stepped over to the shoulder of the road and took a quick leak.

Finished with his business, he got back in the truck and slowly moved forward about 20 miles an hour. The closer he got the more it looked like a roadblock. Here we go again, he was thinking. He got a little closer and realized it was a train stopped on the tracks and not a roadblock. That was just fine with him; he would actually be running along a small county road parallel to this side of the tracks.

He was just about there when a couple figures popped up from on top of a box car and one of the box cars doors slid open, revealing two more people. He slammed on the brakes and turned the LED light bar on. One of the figures stood up straight and looked at him. Haliday quickly looked around.

He had his foot on the brake with the truck in reverse ready to gun it. He couldn’t hear what the guys were saying, but one kept motioning toward him as he talked with another guy. Haliday was sizing them up and noticed that some of them had on real tree camo and that one had that old gray tones urban camo.

First thought was some sort of militia, but then he noticed a patch on one guy’s shoulder that identified him as a police officer. Haliday started looking in all directions scanning for anyone coming up from behind him or from the sides. As he looked to his left, he saw a slight reflection now and again about 300 yards away.

Haliday was screwed at the moment. He knew these guys meant business and he knew someone had a rifle aimed at his head right now. He was assuming whomever it was probably was a good shot or he wouldn’t be out that far. That or he was a chicken shit. The guy with the patch ordered him out of the truck.

Haliday just sat there. Another shout to get out of the truck came once again. Still he didn’t move. He heard a round whiz by and the report of the rifle. The third command started with the guy yelling that he meant business and to get the hell out of the truck. It was time for Haliday to start responding.

Haliday put it in park and slowly opened the door. He closed the door so as not to expose the interior to the sniper hiding to his left. Standing outside of the vehicle and looking to the left he was now able to make out the man and he shook his head. A ghillie suit, he thought, you have to be kidding me.

Haliday was almost embarrassed that he didn’t spot it sooner, but then again his sitting position and angle didn’t really allow it. The cop approached and Haliday took a few steps forward himself before he was ordered to stop. He obeyed the command, but crossed his arms and canted his head to the right.

As soon as the cop got about 10 feet away, he told the cop to stop. The guy did, but looked at Haliday puzzled. Haliday saw he was about twenty-six to thirty years old tops, and he used a raised tone of voice and said, “What the hell are you doing firing on a federal officer?” He had to get the upper hand here.

“What’s your name officer?”

“Uh, um, I’m Williams sir.”

“Is this how you treat fellow law enforcement officers?”

Williams replied, “No sir, but you have to understand we ain’t ever been in a situation like this and our chief said he saw programs on TV about this kind of stuff…”

Haliday cut him off. “On TV, son?” Haliday was 46 and figured he was safe to go this route.

“Well, I mean he went to some seminars and stuff too.”

“Look son,” he said, “yes things are screwed up right now, yes it sucks, and we are all trying to figure out what the hell happened; but in the meantime there’s things that need to be done and I gotta make sure they get done quickly.”

One of the other guys started to walk toward them and Haliday told Williams to have him stop. Williams asked, “Why?”

Haliday responded, “I don’t know you from my ass and you could be some nut job playing cop getting ready to cap my ass and I’m not ready for that.” Williams actually apologized.

Williams assured him he was the real thing. Haliday said, “That’s fine, but if you don’t mind, I need to get over to the Social Security office and make sure it’s locked up and the safe inside is secure as well.” Williams offered to take him there and Haliday said, “No thank you, I think you need to stay here.”

Haliday looked past Williams and between the railroad cars and saw what looked like a side by side four wheeler. “You have running vehicles,” he asked?

“A bunch of ATV’s and about a dozen old cars,” Williams answered.

“How about gas?”

“Plenty of that.”

Haliday asked him how long the train was and Williams said, “About a half mile each way. We got lucky it died here. Makes a good roadblock.” One of the other guys shouted over and asked Williams to come back for a minute. He watched Williams walk up to the railcar and then he noticed him talking on a radio. That wasn’t a good sign.

Williams walked back over and told Haliday their chief wanted to talk to him. Williams asked if Roger could drive over to the station. Not good at all, definitely not good at all. Haliday had to think quickly. How the hell was he going to get out of this?

“I’ll tell you what I’ll do. Have someone meet me at the end of the train and then I’ll go check the Social Security office, and then they can take me over there.” Williams waved the guys off and said “Ok.” Haliday walked back to the truck, climbed in, and started the drive toward the end of the train.

He glanced between the cars and saw the four wheeler keeping up pace. He reached the end of the train. As he had driven along, he noticed most of the cars had been opened. This town or group of people knew enough to check for supplies and equipment. So if they were this organized, this heightened his fear quite a bit more. Close inspection would reveal his ruse for sure.

He crept over the tracks and stopped by the four wheeler. One of the guys in real tree camo was sitting there. This kid was young. Maybe he was eighteen years old tops. “You ready to go,” he asked Haliday?

“Not yet, I’m low on gas, can you spare that can in the back of that four wheeler?”

“Sure, I’ll just refill it back at the police station. You can fill up there too.”

Haliday walked over, grabbed the can and went and started dumping it in his tank. He was just about done when the kid walked over and commented on the KLR on the back. “Ya, they give us some pretty cool toys when we travel through BFE. What do you have there?” “Oh, it’s a rhino we were able to get running.”

The next comment started a shit storm. The kid looked at him and put his hand in his coat pocket and said, “Why do you have a government plate on the truck, but a Michigan plate on the bike?” The kid pulled his hand out of his pocket and Haliday saw the Glock. He dropped the gas can and grabbed the kid’s wrist before he could raise it.

The shot rang out and they began to struggle. Both went down to the ground. This kid was small and wiry, but strong. He had the kid pinned down and looked up to see two more guys running their way. Haliday brought his fist down hard and the kid went limp and fell to the ground.

Haliday jumped up and ran over to the Tahoe. He grabbed his AR180 and fired close to a full magazine at the guys running toward him. They ducked for cover under the train cars and tried to fire back, but the shots went wild as they tried to stay covered. He slid behind the wheel, started the truck and jammed it in gear, closing the door as he drove off.

He bounced over the tracks and floored it. The wheels were spinning like crazy as they tried to get a decent grip in the gravel along the rails. He finally made it to the asphalt and he gunned it some more. He kept looking back and saw the two guys had made it to the four wheeler. They picked the kid up and sat him down, where he was holding his face.

They jumped in the four wheeler and started off after him. Haliday started cussing to himself as he tried to control the Tahoe. The road wasn’t straight here and he was taking the turn a bit too fast, so he slowed enough to gain control. As soon as the road straightened up a bit, he floored it again. These guys were actually trying to catch him. He saw another hard turn up ahead and as soon as he reached it, he slammed on the brakes and jumped out with his rifle and dropped to his knee.

He saw the four wheeler just hitting the curve and he fired three shots at the passenger front tire. The four wheeler lurched down and tumbled over a couple times. Haliday didn’t see any bodies flying out, but he didn’t care anyway. He jumped back in and placed it in drive and floored it again. As far as he could tell, there was no one else following.

Chapter 6

Dawn, who was the dispatcher from the hospital, had left the parking lot where she had retrieved her get-home bag and mountain bike. She had gone through her CPL course and then had purchased a couple of pistols, which she always carried with her in her truck after following the concerns Haliday had expressed, and after reading a couple of books that were about various  TEOTWAWKI scenarios. The end of the world as we know it. She was an above-average shot and was taking tips from Haliday at the range on a monthly basis to try and hone her skills.

Just a few days earlier, they had tried a new outdoor range north of her, where she had commented about needing to get a rifle too. Haliday was unloading his 12 gauge and she asked to fire it. He loaded up one round and gave her a quick demo on how to fire it. She was a little miffed, almost like he was treating her like a little kid. He said shotguns were easy; one round is all you need to appreciate it.

She had held it to her shoulder, squeezed the trigger and practically fell backwards when it fired. Haliday burst out laughing and she simply called him an ass. At 5’7” and 135 pounds, she could have handled it ok; it was just the sheer surprise of the recoil and loud report that caught her off guard.

He pulled out a 22 and told her this was more her style. She said, “That looks cute.” Cute was not quite how Haliday referred to firearms. He gave her a run down on that one, loaded a magazine and let her fire away. She really liked that one. She told him she wanted to buy one and he said, “Next gun show.”

As she was riding toward her house, where she lived with her sister and mother, she rubbed the bruise on her shoulder as it started to ache a bit. She was cursing Haliday under her breath. She had ridden about five miles when she turned onto an access road that led to the county municipal complex, where she was greeted by a sheriff’s deputy who stopped her.

“Where are you going,” he asked? She responded that she was going to meet up with her mother in one of the parking lots so they could go home together. The deputy asked a few questions and was satisfied with her answers, and told her to be careful. He also told her to cover her pistol while on the grounds of the complex for safety’s sake. She pulled her windbreaker down over it and took off.

She rode into the parking lot where her mother was and there were a bunch of people that were standing around talking to each other. She spotted her mother and rode up to her. Her mom had been standing there talking to a friend. This friend looked at Dawn and said, “See, I told you guys to store food and stuff. I hope you have guns.” This lady looked like she was about 80 and showed Dawn a Glock and said, “I have mine.”

Dawn said, “Good for you. You go girl.” At this time, her mom started to change her shoes and she put on a pair of tennis shoes. A quick good-bye and they left. They had about eight miles to go before they made it to their house. Dawn slung her mom’s get-home bag over the bike frame and they walked along.

Dawn looked around at all of the people just standing around in the parking lots. Every once in a while, she spotted a deputy who looked to be standing guard. She asked her mom what everyone was talking about. Her mom said most people think it’s just a big power outage but a couple left. It looked like they were ready for this event too.

The deputies were telling everyone it would be ok, that they suspected it was just an industrial accident at one of the nearby electronics manufacturers that did defense work. If any of them would have taken a walk to the rooftop of the highest building there and looked around, they wouldn’t be saying that. They’d see trouble for miles.

This area was known as automation alley. Something they did must have caused a small interference with the electronics. That of course was just wishful thinking. Shockingly they had some old radios that worked that had been stored in a sub-basement long ago by the county’s emergency management department. They shrugged their shoulders and took off.

The walk was slow, but they moved along at a steady pace. They had to stop every mile for a quick break as Dawn’s mom wasn’t used to walking at all. She merely tolerated Dawn’s preparedness, but didn’t suspect it would amount to anything. She kept the gear in her car only at Dawn’s insistence.

There was no way at her age she was riding a bike, she had told her. The pace was a very slow─ two miles an hour. After about five hours they headed into the entrance to Chrysler’s world headquarters where they met up with Dawn’s sister. She had ridden there herself from about five miles away and had been sitting there waiting.

This parking lot was much the same as the county complex. People were either standing around in bunches talking or sitting wherever they could find a seat and talking about what was going on. There were people who kept trying to turn their phones on every few minutes. The site was surreal. This complex sprawled over 500 acres and had over 10,000 employees.

There were thousands of them just standing around like cattle waiting for feeding time. The mentality of the majority of the people was shocking. Just who did they think was coming to help them and when did they think this would happen? Dawn, along with her mother and sister all wondered what they would start to do when it was completely dark outside.

She glanced toward the sky and thought about how clear the stars would be now. No bright haze from parking lots, billboards and buildings scattered across the country. It would be pure darkness, except for moonlight or starlight. “Time to get going,” she said. They got up and started their trek.

Only about four more miles or so and they should be able to make it home about midnight. All three had pistols, all three could at least point and pull the trigger and they felt safe. Walking along, they just had some small talk, took the occasional drink from their water bottles and nibbled on some granola bars to quell their hunger.

They were walking along the roadway, as there wasn’t any real way to reach their street easily and they didn’t want to cut through one of the metro parks next to their neighborhood. They had passed a couple of other folks heading the same way and didn’t say anything to them. One lady asked them if they had any water.

Dawn’s sister pulled out a small 8oz bottle and handed it to her. She also gave her a granola bar and then just turned away and continued walking without saying anything or even responding to the thank you she received. About a quarter of a mile up, they paused to rest again. It was quite dark out now. Very few stars were out tonight.

While taking a quick moment to stretch, a guy walked out from behind some bushes where he had been hiding. He had seen them coming and wanted a bike. He approached Dawn’s sister and grabbed at her bike and pushed her away. Dawn’s mom stepped over and said, “Stop that” and the guy pushed her hard, causing her to fall to the ground. He had a medium sized pocket knife and opened it, exposing the blade.

Dawn yelled at the guy, who turned to look at her and he saw nothing but muzzle flash. It had been a single shot clean through his heart. Dawn’s sister helped her mom up and they all stood there motionless. They didn’t know what to say. Dawn looked down at the motionless man and threw up all over him. She gagged a bit on her vomit and tried to spit it out, but just puked some more.

She walked a few feet away and opened her water bottle and rinsed her mouth out. She was still dry heaving a bit and they moved a bit further away from the body. Dawn said, “We need to go.”

Her sister looked at her and said, “You shot the guy to death.”

“Well,” she answered, “It was him or us, didn’t you see his knife? Let’s go,” she said again.

They started walking again and no one said anything. Dawn kept thinking they should have just let him take the bike. They didn’t know if he would use the knife or not. He had pushed them around though. But was that enough, she wondered. All she knew was her instinct at the moment led her to squeeze the trigger.

They kept walking the rest of the way, which was another mile and half home. They went inside and opened the garage and put their gear and bikes in the garage and then went into the house. They lit up some candles and went to work. They were tired from the walk, but they were also exhausted from the encounter they had just an hour ago.

They placed some large wooden dowels in the tracks of the windows and door wall, made sure everything was locked and closed the shades. They all just fell asleep right there in the living room. They would get up in the morning and finish what needed to be done then. None of the three really slept well that night.

Right around seven in the morning, Dawn jumped off the couch and ran to the front window and looked outside at the racket. Her neighbor across the street had an old Chevy Nova II that he used to take out on weekends and it used to really make her mad. His routine was to start it, gun it a couple dozen times, then leave it running for almost half an hour before he would leave. He had it straight piped for no reason other than the sound, so there were no mufflers to keep it quieted down.

On her weekends off, she preferred to sleep in, but was always woken up early by this. She watched for a few minutes and noticed the guy and his wife were loading up the old Chevy with suitcases and boxes. She remembered Haliday telling her that if they were going to bug out to have everything ready beforehand. If they had decided to take extra clothes, use good old army surplus laundry bags.

The reason behind the surplus laundry bags was that they were cloth, thus they were flexible and with the odd shapes of trunks, they could mashed into the tighter spaces to save room. The shapes of suitcases and boxes didn’t really make good use of trunk and cargo spaces. Too much wasted room in his opinion. She wasn’t about to tell the neighbor that though. Screw him. He probably didn’t have them anyway, but trash bags would work.

All those weekends waking up at six in the morning were for nothing. They looked like they were finished and he closed their garage door and got in the old Chevy. Halfway down the driveway it stalled out. He tried to start it again, but no luck. After a couple of minutes, he got out and opened the hood. He wiggled a few wires, checked some connections on the spark plugs, got back in and tried again, but no luck.

He got outside and was visibly upset and glanced toward Dawn, whom he saw standing in the window. She had the biggest smirk on her face and obviously he saw it. “Oh, is this amusing you?” he yelled. Dawn raised her hand, flipped him the bird and then went back into the living room.

That actually felt good, she was thinking to herself. She couldn’t recall ever giving anyone the bird and used to scowl at Haliday for doing so, which happened quite regularly because Haliday suffered some of the worst road rage you could imagine. On their trips to the ranges, inevitably someone driving along pissed him off. He was quick to salute anyone he thought was deserving enough. A quick toot on the horn made sure he had their attention.

When she walked back into the living room, her mother and sister were sitting there. They just stared at her a bit and she said, “What? They just looked at her some more and she glanced down to see what the problem was. She saw blood droplets all over her clothing and the previous night’s events rushed back to her.

She ran to the bathroom where she flipped up the toilet seat and threw up again. There wasn’t a whole lot to come up, but she still managed to empty her stomach. She grabbed a towel and wiped her face off. She knew this was a natural reaction. She knew it would haunt her for some time, until she learned how to handle it. Haliday relayed a story about what to expect.

Years ago in the mid-eighties when Haliday had been stationed down at Fort Stewart Georgia in the 24^th MP Co. he had been involved in his first shooting. There was a grunt that had gotten in trouble financially and decided he was going to get out of it by robbing the post credit union.

He walked in one morning with a nylon stocking over his head and a shotgun, along with his demand note. A cashier who spotted him as soon as he walked in had hit the silent alarm button, which went directly to the Provost Marshalls Office where they monitored all of the post’s alarms. Units were dispatched before the guy even made it to the counter.

The road patrol supervisor had been the first to arrive and started approaching the door to glance inside. He didn’t really know any better. He was a freshly promoted sergeant, E-5 and had little experience. His original MOS, or military occupational specialty, was communications.

He had just finished changing his MOS and graduated from the MP academy three months ago and two months before he had gotten his promotion. To top it all off, his English was hard to understand because he was from Puerto Rico. But, being the army, there was no rhyme or reason and here he was in a position he didn’t need to be in.

In the meantime two units showed up toward the back of the credit union and one more up front by the road patrol supervisor. The grunt inside saw the reflection of the blue lights and got scared. He started toward the front door and the road patrol supervisor literally lost it and took off running toward the back of the building.

The grunt exited the building and headed the same way. The unit up front hadn’t even gotten out of the car yet and was in awe at what was happening. The units in back were standing ready when the sergeant came running around the back yelling in Puerto Rican.

Haliday’s senior partner, who was also from Puerto Rico, was the only one who knew what was being said. He yelled, “watch out,” and motioned toward the side of the building. No sooner had the road patrol supervisor passed them by when the grunt came around the side as well.

The four MP’s at the back were yelling for him to stop. The grunt almost fell over trying to stop so quickly. “Drop it, drop it now!” It was in chorus from all four of them. The grunt shifted his stance and raised the shotgun. The sounds of the 1911’s, .45 caliber pistols firing was a deafening sound. The grunt was jerking violently around and then dropped to the ground in a large mass of flesh and blood.

Haliday and his partner approached the grunt’s body slowly after a quick magazine change and one MP from the other car stood watch while the fourth called it in to dispatch. Dispatch acknowledged and said they were sending an ambulance. Wouldn’t do any good for the grunt, but the road patrol supervisor could use it. He was standing there in shock.

This was his worst day as an MP and this would also be his last day as an MP. Looking down at the poor guy, they realized he never had a chance. Between the four of them, 32 shots of .45 had been fired. They only hit the guy 11 times, but with a .45 it was enough to turn him into hamburger. Haliday had never seen anything like that in his life.

He told Dawn the story and told her some of the emotions she could expect if she ever had to do this. There would be shame because you took a life, but you would justify it with the “It was them or us” thought process. There would be anger because the person made you do this and you didn’t want to. There would be sadness you could not associate with anything at all. Sleepless nights would occur at first, but you would eventually get past it. You would get physically sick and probably throw up. But after time, you would learn to live with it. You would never forget it, but you would learn to live with it.

Dawn snapped back from remembering this story, grabbed a trash bag out of the kitchen and went upstairs to her room, where she took the clothes off and put them in the trash bag. She put on fresh clothes and went downstairs, where she tossed the bag in the laundry room. She wasn’t sure if she should wash or burn them. She told her mom and sister to either go change and get ready for some breakfast or just head to the kitchen because they needed to get a lot done and get it done as soon as they could.

Everyone was sitting at the table now, they had boiled up some water and made some instant oatmeal and sat there eating. Her sister asked her what they had to do. Dawn went to the living room and grabbed her notebook. She had a list—she had lists for everything. She always wanted to know what to do and what she needed to have. She didn’t quite have everything they needed, but at least they were ahead of the curve.

She liked the name sheeple she had read and heard on occasion. The sheeple were going to be in big trouble. It was the sheeple she was preparing for. They were also going to be a big problem for those who had taken the time, energy and money, and had prepared for whatever event would change their lives forever.

“Time to get to work,” she said. “First things first.” She hated that saying. Wouldn’t first things always be first? Just like “It is what it is?” Another one she hated. She thought the degradation of the English language was a big part of why this country was turning out the way it was. She remembered stores and gas stations being closed on holidays. People attending church and not just on the holidays. TV being clean and fun.

Her favorite show was Leave it to Beaver. Haliday said he watched it as a kid and she remarked, "It’s good isn’t it?" He burst her bubble by saying he and his friends only watched it because of the pointy bras and boobs like June Cleaver used to have. That drove her nuts. Haliday drove her nuts. He always had something to say. The good old days, she thought.

She was trying to keep herself busy thinking of these things, but soon enough the work around the house would do that. She opened the garage door and grabbed some wood. Haliday had helped her make the window covers he used. They got busy putting these on the windows of the lower level. It took two of them and sometimes all three, especially with the door wall to the patio. The lower level was finished. They took a quick break, then readied themselves for more.

The upstairs windows were hard to get to. Only the two smaller bedrooms had an eave under them, with the rest being out of reach. They added a couple more dowels to keep them secured and then retrieved some fire extinguishers from the basement to place by each upper window. The two windows over the eave could be access points, so these they handled differently. Since they actually provided a very good line of sight for the front of the house, they used quarter inch thick Plexiglas, which was secured in a frame that had a couple boards across the middle for strength.

The eave itself would have a few surprises itself. Haliday had taken some two and a half inch nails and painted them black. He then took some heavy duty tar paper and pushed the nails up through them. The pieces of tar paper were trimmed down enough to slide up under the shingles and there were 60 of these ready to go. The eave was a mere 20 feet wide and only 4 feet deep, so there were plenty of foot and knee pokers. Haliday told her, “Kind of like punji sticks like they used in Vietnam.”

She went outside with a ladder from the garage and then put them in place and went back inside when she was done. She locked the garage door down along the rails but did not have grid wall like Haliday. Instead she had four 2X6 boards which when placed vertical spread across the garage door. They were connected at the top with five long screws into the door header.

The bottoms had taken a bit more finesse. There was a base plate attached for strength and then a large hole drilled through. This was attached to eye bolts they had secured in the concrete floor. If someone wanted to push through the door it wouldn’t be that easy. They would meet a good amount of resistance.

The windows and doors were now locked down and secured. They took another break and decided to go over the list that Dawn had made. She got up, walked over to a shelf and flipped on her ham. They had strung a wire antenna in the trees next to her house and ran it into the house next to the fireplace where the ham was plugged into a 12v source.

She only had a couple of outlets running on a few batteries. It was nothing like Haliday’s set up. She would wait a bit and then try to reach him. She was told to wait until 24 hours, enough time to get home, secure the place and take care of any little things. To travel twelve to fifteen miles in one day was more than acceptable the first couple of days of an event.

She looked down at the fireplace, which was natural gas. She saw the pilot flame flickering. That was great news. Haliday’s mom and dad had watched a video online about fuel sources and what to expect in SHTF scenarios. They had told him that natural gas was a constant source and would continue to provide fuel at a constant pressure unless it was turned off.

He did a little more research and had passed the information on. Here in Michigan, they had a lot of wells, and it was possible they could have natural gas flow for 4 to 6 weeks if not longer. Of course there were a lot of factors that could change that, but they would use it as long as they could.

She turned up the volume on the radio and listened. She double-checked the frequency list she had and it was set correctly. She waited. The voice was definitely his. “Kaybear and Bobily on track all safe, reply one word.” The replies came, “yes,” “yes,” and a “me, too.”

“Who is this?”

“It’s munch.” He called her munch, short for munchkin and she hated it. He was just like that big brother that made life hell.

“Anything bad going on,” he asked. There was silence. “Anything bad,” he asked again.

She said, “We are fine, but we had a problem.”

He responded, “Ok, then move on, get busy and worry about it later. With everyone here now I’ll revert to more normal talk on the ham, but refer to my instruction sheet on keeping security on the net tight.” Of course everyone except Dawn wondered what had happened.

Chapter 7

Rich and Bev Haliday had been going over things all day long they were also checking the radio every couple of hours to make sure they had things ready and secure. Bev had gotten serious about prepping again about six months ago. Although she had stock from her Y2K preps, she wanted to build upon that.

Over the years though, she kept a large amount of canned foods on hand and rotated through them constantly. She had also kept large supplies of toilet paper, paper towels, soap, deodorant and more on hand. You could go over there and shop in a pinch and be able to take home enough food or supplies to get you by until payday if you had too.

Rich just went along with the program. He was not into being ready like Bev, but he was a good supporter of the cause and helped when he could. He would run out to the store to catch the sales, hit the gas station to fill up gas cans and help stock and inventory things. They had sectioned off a small part of their basement and dedicated it to preps. His reward was a trip to the casino every couple of weeks, which he enjoyed a lot.

Often times, Haliday joined them for a little fun at the casino. There wouldn’t be any slot machines in the near future. Next to smoking, that was Rich’s only vice. He never really thought anything would happen, and now that it did, he found himself appreciating the readiness of the household.

They had continued to stock enough food and were fully prepared to take in some immediate family members if they were able to make it there. At last count was a dozen more mouths to feed and they calculated they had enough food for about five months or maybe seven if they were religious on portion control. There were even pudding packs they bought at a warehouse club when they found out they lasted almost two years.

These would be treats for the kids and Rich was fond of making sure these were sufficiently rotated. Bev had canned a couple hundred pounds of meats just in the three months before because she said she had that feeling. Rich kept telling her not to waste her feeling on the end of the world, instead tell him what the lottery numbers would be.

They were just checking on their water supply, which was not the best, when they heard a knock on the door. They had two 55 gallon drums ready and a couple cases of bottled water. They also had the hot water heater but would be saving that for bathing and cleaning the next couple days.

They knew it wouldn’t be hot, but warm enough to clean up with without having to boil any water. They both went upstairs. Haliday told them never to answer the door alone. Someone should always be at the ready, out of view, in case they needed to fire on an unwelcomed intruder.

Bev asked who it was and heard a reply. It was her granddaughter Sarah with her 3-year-old great-granddaughter Elizabeth. They went through a little word game so Bev knew it was safe to open the door. She opened the door and let them in. They gave each other a quick hug and closed the door.

Bev asked where her husband was and Sarah said he had not made it home, so this morning she packed up and they walked here. They had been walking all day, but mostly Sarah pulled Elizabeth in a little wagon. It had only taken them about four hours to make the 10 mile trip from their trailer park.

Sarah said she was worried about her husband Erik, but Bev told her Erik knew where the house was and should know to come here. That didn’t seem to satisfy Sarah though, because Erik had only been about 15 miles from home when everything went down, and he should have been there when she left.

Little did she know he was stuck in an elevator and didn’t know how to get out. He had been the only one in it when it stopped and he didn’t have any idea how to get the doors opened and he couldn’t reach the access hatch on the top of it.

* * *

Erik was moving some cleaning equipment from one floor to another in a very small three story office building that was under construction, when the elevator he was in suddenly stopped. As far as he knew, it was just a power failure. His phone was out in his car charging and when he had yelled for help, all he heard was another guy tell him the power was out, but he would try and get help. There had been only around 20 people in the building working on it and most of them had left. He sat there waiting and would shout for help every once in a while.

* * *

Sarah got settled and asked if she could rest for a bit. She and Elizabeth went into the guest bedroom and lay down on the bed to take a nap. Rich and Bev let her sleep because it was obvious she was up most of the night worrying, and the walk had taken all of the energy she had left. As she laid there trying to think about where her husband could be, she drifted off to sleep and wouldn’t wake up for another four hours.

Elizabeth slept for only two. When she got up, she chased the cats around the house and played with them. Then she asked if she could watch TV. Bev said it was broken. Elizabeth said it was broken at her house too. Bev gave her some paper and crayons and she drew pictures. Bev had made sure there were things around to occupy their time instead of just sitting around.

Rich came in from the garage, where he had been looking for something. “I found it Bev,” he said. “I’ll try it and see if it works.” He climbed down the stairs to the basement and went over to the sump pump. He dropped the end of a hose in the sump and pumped the handle of the water filter until water came out. He placed some in a plastic cup which he set aside.

Next he put a small float in the sump and then measured how far down it was and made a note of the time and depth. They were not too sure how much water would seep into the sump, but they knew it would have to be monitored so the basement did not flood.

He took the cup upstairs and placed it on the kitchen table. “Here you go Bev.” Bev walked over and looked at it and held it as though it was a lab sample of some sort. She handed it to Rich and said, “Try it.” Rich said, “I’m not trying it. I’m not going to be your guinea pig.” He was very insistent that he would not be trying it.

“Oh come on now,” she argued, “Roger said that filter would clean pee so it was good enough to drink.”

“Well let Roger drink it when he gets back,” he quipped. “I’ll use it for flushing the toilet, but I’m not drinking that stuff.” He paused; he wondered how long the toilets would be able to be flushed. The water was gone for sure, but he didn’t know how long it would be before the sewer system was shot.

Sitting around the kitchen table, Bev made a quick lunch. It was late in the afternoon, but they had been busy and had not eaten yet. She simply warmed up a big can of ravioli and pulled out some bread and butter. Bev, Rich and Elizabeth sat and ate lunch. They saved some for Sarah. When she got up, surely she would be hungry.

Elizabeth asked for dessert and Bev handed her a pudding. Rich acted like he was going to steal it from her and she squealed in protest. “How about you just give me a little bite?”

“Great-grandpa, you can lick the top,” she said. He laughed and said, “Ok, that’s a deal.” She handed him the foil lid and ran off with her treat.

Bev walked over to the radio and turned it on. The call was received and she was starting to feel better about the trip Roger was making. She figured that he would be the one who could get the job done as fast as possible and as safe as possible. Her only concern was how Linda, her ex daughter in-law, and her new husband would react to him taking Kayla out of there. Although she knew if it became an issue, he would be able to get something worked out.

Sarah had gotten up and walked into the kitchen and kissed Elizabeth. She sat down and Rich warmed up her ravioli and put the plate down in front of her. He buttered up a piece of bread and set it on a napkin, along with placing a glass of tea down next to her plate.

She slowly ate and they could see she was deep in thought still. She finally just said it aloud. “I hope Erik is ok, I’m praying nothing bad happened. I thought he would have been home or been here by now.”

Elizabeth said, “Mommy, where is Daddy?”

“On his way here,” she said. On his way here, she hoped.

* * *

Erik was still in the elevator and was literally going crazy right now. He had no idea how long he had been in there, had taken several short naps and was thirsty and hungry. His voice was weak from yelling for help. He urinated and defecated in a corner of the elevator.

What in the hell is going on out there, he thought. Why the hell hasn’t anyone rescued me? He had flipped the service cart on it’s side and tried to find a hatch in the ceiling and found it but it would not open. As time passed, he was thinking nuclear war, tornado, power outage or some other natural disaster, but wasn’t sure what it was that happened.

He paid attention to sports and had watched a lot of horror movies, but he too was really just a sheeple who didn’t mock the preparedness society, but saw it as a waste. He never got into doomsday movies. He didn’t really know what an EMP was and he sure as hell didn’t know the effect it was going to have on him.

The darkness of the car alone was really bearing heavy on his mind. He kept thinking he felt something touch him and he would jerk away. The slightest sounds were amplified and he would scream for help believing the noises were from rescuers. The air was stale and the odor was overwhelming from the urine and feces.

* * *

The evening was approaching and soon it would be time to light some candles. Sarah had stayed at the table and played a few games of dice with Rich and Bev. Elizabeth either ran around chasing the cats or played with a few toys kept around the house for the great-grandkids. They were waiting for six o’clock, which should be the next time that Roger checked in. In a normal world, he would have been there already, but that was taking highways and cutting through major cities, all of which would have been very dangerous.

Bev asked Rich to start the generator and run it for a couple hours. He went into the attached garage and opened the garage door a crack and started the generator. He wasn’t going to screw around with back fed circuits so he had a transfer switch installed and he switched it over. The door from the garage to the house was well sealed, but he still had a fan by the muffler to act as an exhaust to vent as much as he could to the outside. He stood there for a bit and smoked a cigarette. He went back inside and heard the ham radio crackling.

* * *

Erik had finally managed to get the handle off the floor buffer and was using it to pry open the doors of the elevator, but they wouldn’t budge. Next he started jabbing at the ceiling where he had found the hatch. He actually managed to get it to pop open. He got up on the service cart and tried to lift himself up.

It took him quite a few attempts, but he managed to get up on top of the car. He rested there; the task was too much for him and he needed a break. The one thing he noticed was the air seemed quite a bit better now with enough flow to help overcome the rankness he left on the elevator floor. Covering it with rags didn’t help keep the odor down much.

After resting, he lifted himself up and felt around on the door mechanism. He was on the third floor when he got on the elevator and was only halfway down to the second when it stopped. He tried to pry the doors open that led to the hallway and these too did not give very much. He would catch a glimpse of daylight when he did this. He wasn’t sure how long he had been in here. He thought it might have been only hours, but couldn’t tell for certain. All he knew was he was hungry, very thirsty and starting to get cold. He was going crazy in all literal senses.

* * *

Haliday had checked in and everything was going ok. He told them quickly of his encounter and said he might be delayed in checking in every couple of hours, so they should wait until 15 minutes past the hour before turning the ham off. He didn’t want anybody’s radio overheating. They were too valuable and the handhelds they had didn’t have the range for clear enough communication at that distance. This was going to have to work for now and he assured them he would be ok.

Rich liked playing dice games. He had put his time in for the “Big Three” in skilled trades and usually on breaks or during down time, they would either play dice, dominoes or some cards. This would amount to hours sometimes as he would program his machine and let it run its cycle. He occupied himself with this and crossword puzzles to keep busy. After a few more games, he excused himself to go turn off the generator and use the bathroom.

Sarah and Bev sat at the table alone. Bev told Sarah not to worry just yet, that there was a lot going on out there and things were not that easy to do these days. She reminded her that she was still waiting for her own children to make it in. She had six total, five boys and one girl and what a handful they were. One son and the daughter lived out of state. Another son had forsaken the family and the family had forsaken him for reasons they never really talked about. That left Roger, David and Alan in the state.

Bev had worked in a variety of jobs as waitress, packing boxes in a warehouse and ultimately put herself through school and became a substance abuse counselor. She had the ability to help people think through problems clearly and this experience came in handy right now with Sarah. She was able to keep her calm for now.

* * *

He got up one more time to see about prying the doors open. He was shouldering one of the doors when it started to slide open. He moved his feet to brace himself for leverage and stepped into the open hatch, causing him to tumble down into the car. He landed and snapped his leg just above the ankle.

There was no way possible he was going to get out of this by himself now. He sat there in pain and straightened his leg out a bit. His pant leg was damp and he knew he was bleeding. He grabbed the service cart and latched onto some rags which he tied around his leg.

All the while he was thinking about Sarah and Elizabeth and hoping they made it to her grandma’s house. He thought about how cute Elizabeth was during her ballet recitals and how good of a cook Sarah had become. He reminisced about all of the good times they had had over the years. He was tired now and drifted off to sleep with these thoughts on his mind. Erik would never wake up.

Chapter 8

Haliday had just checked in again with everyone and had pretty much figured out that everyone would be doing ok. With just about a day and a half after the country went dark, things would still be fairly civil. In another couple of days, the people would start to panic.

The realization that their food would be running out would hit. This is when things would start to go Wild West as he used to say. Rule of law would become rule of gun. He wanted to be as close to home as he could be at that point. He would prefer to be back in Michigan period.

He was well clear of Bryan and now into Indiana heading west just about 15 miles above Fort Wayne. He would start to head south and run through another small town called Warsaw. Hopefully there wouldn’t be any problems. He had noticed a lot of old tractors and ATV’s on the road, but very few cars.

What cars he did see you would expect to see in a museum or better yet, the Woodward Dream Cruise. Detroit’s only saving grace these days. One day dedicated to cruising Woodward Avenue with vintage autos. One thing he did not see yet was the sign of any military vehicles. Of course he was trying to avoid any installation of any kind. There would be far too much explaining to do if he got caught.

With dusk here, he flipped on the headlights and continued his trek. He was making pretty good time. A lot of the vehicles had been pushed out of the way, making travel easier. It was much different than up in the Detroit area. People up there had no respect for anything and just left cars where they were. Hell, they did that when one broke down in normal times. Civilization turned for the worse years ago and just kept turning as far as he was concerned.

Staying off the highways and sticking to smaller county roads he encountered very few people. When he did, he simply flipped the light bar on and honked the horn to clear them out of the way. He learned quickly that if he didn’t bother to slow down they got out of the way much faster. He heard plenty of shouts as he passed by but he didn’t listen. Most of them were yelling pig, useless feds and some more colorful choices. He kept the windows up and paid no attention. No distractions, he had had enough of them already and it wasn’t fun.

He had skipped through some frequencies on the ham and stopped at one in particular. This guy sounded like he was reading from a script. He was telling everyone in the armed services, National Guard, reserves, all branches, to make their way to their installations as soon as they could. He was telling all hams to pass the message along the best they could. Post messages in communities, word of mouth, any way they could. Was this guy crazy? How many of these guys were going to leave their families? There was no telling.

The distance he was covering now was great. He was pretty much in the middle of nowhere and didn’t see any houses or people close by so he pulled over and turned the lights off. He grabbed a small bag and one of the thermoses from the truck and walked around to the hood so he could keep watch.

He opened the thermos, opened a small bag of instant soup and dumped it in. He closed up the thermos and shook it violently to mix the soup. Cheddar broccoli, not his favorite but it would do. He opened the thermos and drank it down. It was just barely warm, but he hadn’t really had anything and needed to eat.

He grabbed a bottle of water and dumped a tube of powdered Tang in it. He drank this down quickly too. He had bought some plastic tubes used for making candy art at school carnivals and filled them with pre-measured amounts of Tang so it would be easier to mix. He grabbed another bottle of water and swished a little in the thermos and dumped it out. He stopped what he was doing. He looked toward the direction he was heading and heard a noise. Clop clop clop clop.

He went over to the passenger side door and opened it so he could grab his rifle. The door was left open and he took cover behind it. He watched as the figure came into view. It was a teen age girl riding along on a horse. She stopped and looked toward him. “You ok mister?”

He said, “Ya I’m fine, what are you doing out this late?”

“I’m going home; I was visiting my friends down the road.” He slid the rifle into the truck and walked around the front.

“Your truck die mister?”

“Not at all,” he said, “I stopped to grab a quick bite to eat and something to drink.” She asked him how it was possible his truck was running when most of the cars around here didn’t. Haliday was cursing himself under his breath and was thinking dressing as Charles Manson actually might have been a better idea. More risk of getting shot right away, but fewer stupid questions time after time.

“The government has a fleet of hardened vehicles in case of problems just like this. The EMP that went off would not affect the fleet and the vehicles could be used in the recovery of the nation,” he explained. “How far down the road do you live?” he asked. She said about another mile or so. He remembered a smaller farmhouse with a large barn.

“Well, you better get going, and let me give you some advice,” he replied. “You never want to get caught out here in the dark, and you never want to get caught out here alone. Times are different young lady. You have no idea of what type of people you’ll start to encounter out here.”

She said thank you and that it was time for her to get going. She started riding off and as she did so, he walked around to the road and watched her. Her right hand holstered a pistol of some sorts, but he couldn’t tell what kind. She had drawn it and kept it out of view before she got to him, but he could tell by her one-handed control of the horse and by her keeping her right hand down that she was hiding something. “Damn,” he said, “some of these people just might do ok.”

He looked around and heard the horse getting quieter. He reached in the truck and grabbed a roll of toilet paper and bottle of baby powder. He walked over to the ditch and took a squat. Before he pulled his pants back up, he used a little baby powder. The BDU’s were rubbing him raw and he needed a little comfort. “Ahhhhhh, big difference,” he told himself. He walked back to the truck and climbed in and took off.

He was making up some of the lost time, but was still short of his goal. He turned a flashlight on and looked down at his binder. He had made it through Warsaw ok and a few smaller towns as well. He was now about 150 miles out. His radio checks hadn’t revealed any problems or any new info. Things were going good right now. He looked down and noticed he needed gas soon. He would have to start looking for some soon.

It was close to midnight now. He had been driving for almost 18 hours total. Six and half hours, that was his record back in the days when they used to travel here to see Linda’s folks who lived there. They had since moved to Florida when they retired, but after the divorce she had moved back here where family was. They had no plans to move because Mike had just gotten settled in a new job.

Just past a little town called Monticello, he stopped by a big old Ford dually. Haliday figured it to be a diesel and so he went and checked the fender. He had turned his headlights off and turned the Tahoe off, so he used a red lensed flashlight to look at it. F350, no symbol other than that.

He walked around to the other side where he saw the same thing. “Are you kidding me?” he said. He checked to see if it was unlocked and no luck. He peered inside on the dashboard. There it was “unleaded fuel only.” He grabbed his gas can and gear and went to work to drain the tank. He hit a home run with this one; he was able to fill the Tahoe completely from this one truck.

He had about 20 miles until he hit his left-hand turn. From there it was south until he headed west again to Decatur. He made another check on the radio and told them he was about three hours out. He continued running through the small towns with the light bar on.

Only a couple times did he have a close encounter with hitting a stalled car or truck. He was in the home stretch now. Thank goodness it was nighttime. Everyone seemed to be hunkered down at home and asleep. It wasn’t until he was just a few miles away from where he wanted to be that he would run into more trouble.

It was 2:30 in the morning and he was looking forward to a few hours sleep. It wasn’t such a bad thing that he was rolling in at night. Haliday was in the home stretch, he stopped just two miles from where he needed to be and killed the lights immediately. He watched in disbelief.

He could not believe what he saw. It appeared that the whole intersection was ablaze. What in the hell is going on down there? He got out and tried to look with his binoculars but couldn’t make out anything specific through the smoke or the flames. He reached in and grabbed the ham.

“Kaybear are you there? Kaybear are you there kiddo? Kaybear talk to me.”

“Hey Roger, this is Mike, I’ve got them hiding in a closet. All hell is breaking loose around here. It’s bad. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Roger heard an occasional gunshot in the background.

“What the hell is happening Mike?”

“You ain’t gonna believe this,” he said.

“Damn it Mike, I need a SITREP.” There came no answer. “Mike, you copy?” he said. “Mike you copy?”

Mike replied, “Ok, I had to ask Kayla what a SITREP was, situation report right?”

“Yes Mike, now what the hell is going on?”

He was straining to see what was going on through the binoculars and kept hearing the occasional report of what sounded like an AR15 and a shotgun. “Mike, tell me what you know.”

Mike came back and said, “Damn, I think we need to get the hell out of here.”

“Bullshit,” Roger told him. “You don’t know what the hell you are walking into; you better sit put and try to figure this out. You put a gun in everybody’s hands right now; I don’t care if it’s a damn flintlock.” He hated that damn FOID Illinois residents had to have. You could barely look at ammo without a damn congressional inquiry.

His adrenaline was pumping strong and he was fighting the urge to storm down there. “Mike, you have any idea what’s going on?”

“Roger, this is all I know and I heard it from a neighbor. The jail unlocked when this all happened and a lot of prisoners took off. The deputies were able to contain some, but then one by one they started to leave. Pretty soon there were more prisoners than guards and they rushed them.

“A few of them that were waiting for transport to the state prison for murder convictions rallied a couple more guys together and they took off toward the strip mall. They ran across a police car stalled in the intersection and the gator that they used to patrol the parks with was on a trailer behind it.

“They managed to shoot the cop guarding it and take the shotgun and rifle and then they torched the vehicles. Now they’re just shooting blindly at anything. Some of the houses have been hit. They’ve been sitting around for a couple hours now drinking, smoking, and eating everything out of the party store.”

“How do you know this Mike,” he asked.

“My neighbor is a sheriff’s deputy at the jail. He took off before it got too bad.” Haliday looked at the side of the Tahoe, “Police”. Real good.

The ham lit up, Mike was trying to talk, Roger’s mom and dad were trying to talk, and Dawn was trying to talk. It was mass confusion. He managed to get a few words in. “Stop the racket and listen. What’s going on is out of my control right now. I can’t get the info I need if you’re all interrupting me. Now stop and leave me alone to talk to Mike. Mike, go get me your neighbor. You have to do this or it isn’t going to work.”

Mike returned a few minutes later and Roger took notes as he asked questions. There was only one way into this neighborhood and going through that intersection was it. The alternative was crossing a damn river and trying to walk in and out. This had to work, he kept telling himself.

He backed the Tahoe up slowly onto a side street so he was out of sight. He had installed a toggle switch so he could disrupt power to the brake lights for just such a circumstance. He looked around to see if anything else was going to be a problem. Seemed like a decent spot. He was looking at a nearby house that had a for sale sign in the yard. No blinds or anything on the windows, so he took a quick peek. It was empty. He backed into the driveway and started going over his notes.

He’d have to wait until dawn. If he did it now, there were far too many risks. He kept going over the map of the area. No other route to get in and out easily. It was the river and a walk, or the neighborhood and fences and houses to go over and cut through. Kayla only had a small bit of luggage, but even scaling it as far down as possible was still too risky. Taking her through the neighborhood here was far too risky too.

This had once been the premier housing for the area’s two biggest companies which processed corn and soy into many products we use today. As the companies grew bigger and the economy grew bigger as well, the execs moved into bigger homes. They had done this a few times until now they were spread out in the suburbs on large lots with mini-mansions. This area was now blue collar with the slums not too far away.

It was time to get ready. He keyed the mic on the ham and said “I’m going in now. You’ll have time, and this is what I want you to do.” He gave some simple instructions to Mike. He grabbed the gear he would need and locked up the Tahoe. He took the side streets as far as he could go.

He cut back out toward the street and looked around a bit. He spotted the perfect place. It was a large group of mail boxes with a bunch of trash cans next to it and the mouth of a cul-de-sac. He slid in behind the cans and placed a small foam mat down. He opened up the cans and pulled out a piece of cardboard and few other pieces of trash. Next he moved one of the cans aside slightly to create a small gap.

He unlatched his case and pulled out his rifle. He readied himself by covering himself with as much of the trash as he could. The sun would be rising behind him so there shouldn’t be any glare off his scope. He had made sure he kept this rifle zeroed and checked it each month. He had taken out a loan against his 401k to buy it from an older man who had bought too much gun for his ability. He loved this thing and never thought he would own something like it.

Haliday and a couple of other guys from his platoon had excelled in almost all of their duties and rated near perfect on IG inspection and were rewarded with a trip to Ft. Benning. They wanted the full-blown sniper school, but had to settle for a one week designated marksmanship course which still taught them loads more than they could have imagined. The skill set they learned was incredible and Haliday never lost it. Haliday reflected on that time and the times to follow during his active and reserve duty when he would rely on that skill set.

When he spotted the Remington M24 system on Migunowners.org, Michigan’s local gun forum, he called immediately. The price was only $3,000 and the guy said he had barely put 40 rounds through it. The Leupold made it a nice combination and it was a steal. Normally five grand, he couldn’t pass it up. He borrowed against his retirement fund and paid himself back. Well worth the cost. Not to mention he wouldn’t have to repay that loan any time soon.

The sun was coming up and he looked down the street. These guys were hanging around the burned out vehicles where they had dragged whatever would burn closer and tossed it into the trunk of the cruiser to keep a smaller fire going. There was trash littering the entire area.

They were still drinking and smoking and sitting around doing nothing but wandering around the intersection. Had to be better places for them to go, but then again they didn’t look like geniuses. Probably trying to stake out a claim or stock up on whatever they could steal from people passing by.

The sun was fully cresting the horizon now. He peered through the scope and watched as an old man pushing a shopping cart walked by. The dirt bags started in on him and started pushing him around and taunting him. Haliday couldn’t make out any of the conversation, but knew well enough that the old man was in over his head. One guy threw a quick jab into the old man’s stomach and the old man went down. They gathered around and they kicked him, then dumped beer and liquor all over him.

The old man was pleading for his life by the looks of it. They stopped and stood there for a moment. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bag which one of them grabbed and opened. He could hear the guy call out to another man. This guy came walking over and looked down at the old man and after talking to him a minute he kicked him. Evidently he was convinced the old man was hiding something more. He knelt down next to the old man and pulled out a knife, waving it at the petrified old guy.

Haliday sat there watching through the scope. He had made his adjustments long ago. The guy looked up and Haliday saw a typical piece of crap felon. The guy had a black Mohawk, tattoos all over his neck, a bushy mustache and goatee and looked exactly like the deputy said he would. Haliday already had his breathing under control, exhaled, felt his heart fall between beats and squeezed the trigger. Only 600 yards out and the round still reached the target before the report did. The old man on the ground went limp.

The old man had no idea what the hell happened, but knew better than to get up. The worst thing he had to endure right now was the blood and tissue that had peppered him as the ringleader’s head came apart. Almost instantaneously there came another report from the opposite side of the intersection somewhere down the street.

Haliday had instructed Mike not to take aim, but merely wanted the shot to be heard to confuse the band of prisoners. Mike had gotten beaten pretty good and with swollen eyes Haliday knew it would be a wasted shot, so there was no sense in him exposing himself.

This worked like a charm. The scum bags didn’t know which way to run for cover. They were hiding on both sides of the debris. A couple took off running down the Northern side street. Haliday took these guys to be the lightweights, most likely serving a year or less for crap like breaking and entering or assault, but nothing major.

The few guys still there were more hardcore. These were the felons waiting to go do some serious time in a state or federal pen or guys easily lured into a life of promised crime and ruling through fear. You always had guys who could not think for themselves and liked to be told what to do all the time.

As this group started looking around, Haliday just waited. Even with the sun over his back he wasn’t giving up his position just yet. No sooner had they looked the other way toward Mike’s direction when Haliday squeezed off another round. He had miscalculated his breathing and this one dropped a little low striking the next guy in the base of the neck.

With half of the man’s neck gone, the body just slumped down with a small spurt of blood from his jugular every couple seconds from a heart that just had a few beats left. Mike’s rifle report came just as quick. This time however he hit the frame of the gator. They all moved over to Haliday’s side of the wreckage.

They looked up and down the street trying to find Haliday. Another guy took the opportunity to take off and headed out at a full sprint. Of the two men left, one guy leveled a shotgun and dropped the deserter with a shot spread to his lower back. He tumbled forward and then squirmed on the ground.

The other man looked up the street again toward Haliday, and started shooting at what he thought might be a good hide. The AR wasn’t going to reach out at 600 yards accurately, but a wild shot would ruin the day just as easily. Haliday was not sure how many rounds they had at their disposal.

Haliday tried to count the number of rounds fired at him. A bullet hit the mailboxes and that was a bit too close for comfort. He just laid there waiting. The idiot with the shotgun was pumping round after round and firing it up the street as well. What the hell does he think he’s going to hit? Haliday, thought to himself. The shotgun was out of rounds real quick. He knew by the pause the gun was empty and when it didn’t fire again he knew it was out of ammo. One gun down one to go, Haliday thought.

Haliday darted his eyes left and right quickly and could see people peeking out their windows. Why don’t you morons just come on outside and watch the show, he said to himself. I could use the distraction. The AR was still blindly searching for him. Mike had fired a few more shots toward them and the guys spun toward Mike’s direction, but couldn’t spot him.

He was hiding behind some bushes and blended well, until Haliday saw Mike’s muzzle flash and watched the AR come up and take aim at Mike’s position and fire four quick shots. Haliday quickly readjusted himself and squeezed off one more shot. This one was dead center to the back of the head.

The AR dropped to the ground and Haliday took aim on it instantly and put his fourth and final round of the fight through the receiver, rendering the rifle useless. He sat and watched for about 15 minutes as the last guy sat there shaking. Mike had stopped firing and Haliday wasn’t sure he was still alive. He wouldn’t be going to check either. Whether Mike was alive or not would be answered soon enough.

Haliday scoped the area and didn’t see anything other than the last man sitting there, the guy with the shotgun blast squirming around on the ground and the old man who was now trying to get up. He was about to get up when he saw another man come out from behind the party store and approach the old man with a revolver in his hand. “Damn it,” Haliday said. He was readying the shot when he saw this guy reach down and extend a hand to the old man and helped him up.

Haliday controlled his breathing and heart rate again and kept careful aim. The old guy steadied himself on his shopping cart. The guy with the pistol then walked over to the prisoner sitting there shaking and pointed the pistol at him. Haliday watched through the scope as this man executed the guy with either little or no remorse.

He then watched him walk over to the squirming figure and did the same. He reached down and grabbed the bag the guy was holding. Turning back around; he helped the old man with the shopping cart get back to the sidewalk and gave him the bag back. That explained why his buddy shot him. No honor amongst thieves or something like that.

Haliday waited another 15 minutes or so, and then satisfied he was safe, he rose up and packed up his rifle and rolled up his mat. He looked down at the trash. He wasn’t about to pick it up. He looked toward a couple of the houses and at the people sneaking peeks between the curtains.

He looked at one guy and gave him a thumbs up sign; the guy returned it with a thumbs up. Haliday walked back toward the Tahoe. This had been an intense morning. Looking down at his watch, it had actually only been a total of about 10 minutes from the first shot until the last, if even that long.

Reaching the Tahoe, he opened it up, looked around and saw more people looking at him through half open doors and parted curtains. He threw his gear in, climbed behind the wheel, started the Tahoe, and turned the ham on. “You there Mike?” he said. Linda came on and said he was at the table having a drink. She asked Haliday if he was ok. Oh ya, absolutely run of the mill morning is what he wanted to say but he was too tired. He just said, “Yes, see you guys in a few minutes, have the garage door open.”

Five minutes later he was backing up into the garage. He walked inside, gave his daughter a huge hug and told her he loved her. She was in tears and he was too. He nodded toward Linda then wiped his face, walked over to Mike and said “Good job old man; can you spare one of those?” Mike poured him a couple fingers of Jack. Haliday drank it quickly and put the empty glass on the table.

Mike looked up at Haliday and was speechless. He hadn’t expected anything like what he had just seen. He finally told Haliday that when he saw that AR pointing at him he rolled over a few times and laid there and prayed he wouldn’t die. He had wanted to just run at that point. It was one thing to fire at guys to scare them, but another to actually kill them.

He asked Haliday how come it didn’t bother him. “Look Mike,” he said. “I don’t have time for it. Suffice to say that my daughter, hell you guys too, all needed me. I did what I had to, not for me, but for you guys.” Haliday looked at Linda and Mike and said, “I guess we have some business to talk about now.”

Chapter 9

Haliday’s parents had heard the exchange in the morning and waited it out while drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes, not knowing what was transpiring or sure they wanted to know. Dawn had listened in as well, but had a better idea of what had most likely taken place. All of them were glad they heard his voice and knew he was ok right now. They also decided to leave him alone until he called them.

Haliday was looking at Mike and said, “Wait a minute, before we talk, what the hell happened to you?” Mike told him they made everyone stay at the plant for almost four hours until they realized the power wasn’t coming on any time soon. They all started to leave and Mike cleaned out his locker. He started the walk home and was going well around the hood. He hadn’t gone far enough away from it.

He ran into a group of four punks that were shaking people down for drug money. Pickings were good with everyone walking to wherever they needed to go. He told them he didn’t have much and tossed whatever cash he did have down on the ground. One crack head said "What, we ain’t good enough for you to put it in our hands?"

“That’s all I have,” he told him, “no offense but I don’t want any trouble.”

The punks circled him and started making threats. Mike tried to push his way through thinking they were bluffing, but they weren’t. They jumped him quickly and started throwing punches. He dropped to the ground and they kicked at him. He managed to grab one’s leg and push him off balance, and then Mike got up.

They threw more punches and Mike had fought them off the best he could and he managed to get away and started to run. He ran through a hole in a fence into an old tire factory. He managed to hide himself and sat there while they searched for him. They would kill him if they found him.

"We’re going to kick your ass when we find you." they yelled. They searched for almost an hour, but didn’t find him. Mike stayed hidden for hours though before he would venture out. Once out, he got as far away as he could and finished the walk home. It was slow going; he was sore as hell and had bruises everywhere. His face was a mess and he had lost a couple teeth in the fight. Haliday looked at him. “Sucks to be you,” he said.

Getting back to business he put it as plain as he could. “I brought some food that will get you by for a little while.” He got up and walked around looking in their cupboards. They had quite a bit of food. Linda was a food hoarder of sorts, always stocking up on sales, but not prepping. “With all the corn around these parts and this, you should be able to make it until spring,” he told them.

“Whether you can find a FEMA camp or not before then, if they even exist, is up to you. I don’t trust them. I can leave you an AR and about 500 rounds. You have Mike’s bows and if you can hunt enough to help, that might work out ok. But game will become scarce very quickly with everyone hunting. Flat lands and cornfields won’t yield many animals.”

Kayla started to tear up. Mike and Linda just kind of hung their heads low. Haliday said if he had any way of supporting them he would take them back, but there was no way they could make it adding two more adults to the mix. Haliday walked over and opened the freezer and saw it stacked with meat.

He grabbed a package and read the label, it said venison. “Where did you bag this deer Mike?” Mike said he got it on his friend Bill’s farm. “In Michigan right?” Haliday remarked.

Mike said, “Yes; couple months ago when we were in to visit.”

Kayla said, “Dad, please, can’t they come with us? Mike and Mom helped get you here.” That was partly true, especially about half an hour ago.

Kayla was crying steadily now, “Dad please, can they stay with us?” Haliday sat down and motioned for her to come over to him.

“I don’t have room and food sweetie.” He looked at Mike and Linda who also were now in tears. “I’ll tell you what though. I’ll take them back to Michigan and get them to their friend Bill’s farm if they know for sure he’ll take them in.”

Mike said he was positive Bill would take them in. He offered many times before that they could come and stay if they ever wanted to return to Michigan. He was even more convinced he could use their help with the farm in this situation. They were sure of it and Haliday was convinced as well.

Linda gave him a quick hug and said thank you. Kayla gave him a bigger hug. Mike told him anything he needed him to do, let him know. “Good, because there is a lot to be done. Grab some paper and write this down.” Linda grabbed a notebook and took notes. Haliday left them very specific instructions on what to do. He told them what to pack, no more, no less, what to do with the food in the house and the rest of what he wanted them to grab.

Mike said, “We’ll put it all in the truck.”

Haliday said, “No, put it next to the truck. When I get up we are going to repack the load in the Tahoe.” Haliday went over to their ham and told Dawn and his folks he would be off the net for a few hours. “I’m going to go get some sleep. Wake me in three hours and we’ll finish getting ready.

“You have the list, get it all done and make sure someone stands guard. Don’t let anyone in, including your neighbor the deputy.” Haliday went into the living room and laid down on the couch. Just before he passed out, he was thinking it would be nice to have the extra guns on the trip home, but questioned if they would do what it might take if it came down to that.

“What the hell?” he said as he jumped up. Something was licking his hand as it dangled off the couch. Haliday looked down at the ground at this mutant dog. He couldn’t figure out if it was supposed be a Chihuahua, border collie, Pomeranian or what. Kayla said, “Good morning Dad.”

“Kayla, what the hell is that?” he asked.

“That’s Max.” Haliday thought great, by the time I get out of here that damn Tahoe is going to look like something out of the Beverly Hillbillies.

“Kayla, you expect to take him or can you leave him with the neighbors?”

Here came the argument. “Did you give Romeo to the neighbor?” Haliday thought about that a minute. Romeo was his Siamese cat that he had had for over 12 years and he was 16 years old now. He, however, could be left for days on end and could fend for himself. He had a two gallon watering dish and a gravity feeder that held enough food for a month. He’d be fine; he was there now doing fine.

“Ok,” Haliday said, “but if it comes down to it, Max is BBQ.” Kayla threw a shoe at it him for saying that.

Haliday grabbed a bottle of water, went into the bathroom, took care of business and then gave himself a quick wash down covering the vital areas. He walked out to the kitchen where everyone was sitting. Haliday was livid. “Who the hell is watching the place?” he yelled? No one said anything.

Linda said, “I thought since we were all up…” and Haliday interrupted her.

“Listen, let someone get in here and you have to go look for a gun. It’s over if that happens. We do as I say, and that’s final. Let’s go see what we have.”

Kayla grabbed her AR and said, “I got it covered,” and stood watch while they went over everything in the garage. Haliday told them to pull everything out of the truck, which they did and then they repacked it. He asked them if they had every ounce of jewelry and everything of value out of the house that was small and might be worth trading. They did. Linda had grabbed a couple of photo albums and Kayla grabbed a small box full of pictures.

Haliday told Mike to grab his two gas cans he had seen and then meet him outside. They drained the gas from their cars and filled the Tahoe and the gas cans. Haliday wedged the gas cans between the KLR and the Tahoe. Room was tight. “Last thing on the agenda, go put on black clothing. I don’t care what it is, but make sure it’s black, plain black, no bedazzled or sequined anything either.

“Look around, say goodbye to the house and what its meant to you and meet me by the truck.” They went and changed and they met him back in the garage. They had been crying again. It was like saying goodbye to your whole life. Taking very few possessions was hard, but leaving the security of their home was harder.

“Mike, you get the door. Linda get in the back seat. Kayla, you keep guard and I’ll pull the truck out.” There was a small yapping sound and Haliday looked down at Max and then at Kayla. “Knock it off, Dad; I know what you’re thinking.” He clenched his teeth. Max was loaded up, Mike opened the door and Haliday pulled the truck out of the garage. Kayla walked out behind it and then Mike closed the garage door.

Kayla was standing there with her rifle at low ready when they heard the neighbor. His name was Tom. He cut through the bushes and asked Mike what was going on. Haliday got out of the Tahoe and answered immediately. “We are leaving.”

Tom looked at him and replied, "I recognize you, you’re Kayla’s dad. What are you doing with this truck?"

“Mind your own business. We’re leaving.” Tom had his duty belt on over his jeans and put his hand on his pistol. Kayla raised her rifle and said, “Mr. Tom, not a good decision.”

Tom looked at them all. “You guys are breaking the law. You’re stealing government property.”

Haliday looked at him, drew his pistol out and aimed at Tom. Haliday was thoroughly pissed off now. “Kayla, get in the truck, Mike, head down the street about 100 yards and then someone get out and cover me.” He looked at Tom and told him to unbuckle his duty belt, drop it and then kick it over to him.

Tom said, “You won’t shoot me; I’m a sheriff’s deputy.”

“Look jackass. I spent the morning cleaning up the mess you and your fellow deputies left at the intersection down the street. Now if you really want to try my patience, please don’t.”

Mike said, “Tom, you’re going to want to do what he says, trust me on this.” Tom unbuckled his belt and let it drop before he kicked it over to Haliday. Mike got in the truck and drove it down the street just a ways.

Haliday bent down and picked the duty belt up. He pulled the pistol out and looked at it. He took about 15 steps backwards and turned his head quickly to see Kayla resting against the hood with her AR ready to go. Haliday jacked the slide back on the pistol but no round came out. He looked at Tom. “Tom,” he said, “are you that frigging stupid that you carry a pistol without one in the chamber?” Tom’s lips parted and Haliday interjected, “Don’t answer.

“Here’s the deal Tom, I’m going to walk back to the truck, and I’m getting in and leaving. I’m going to leave your pistol on the sidewalk about halfway there. As soon we leave, I suggest you go get it, put one in the chamber and keep it that way. Forget you’re a cop, take care of your wife and leave it at that. Put together as much food and water as you can and safeguard it like gold. Good luck.”

Haliday walked backwards for about 50 feet then unloaded the pistol and magazine. He turned and jogged back toward the truck. He dropped the pistol on the grass next to the sidewalk as he ran. He had noticed a few more neighbors outside looking around. One said, “Hey buddy, thank you for this morning. The party store owner was robbed and beaten, after that those hoodlums raped his wife. He’s the one who cleaned up the last two guys this morning.” That had explained a lot. Haliday simply nodded and jumped in the truck and they sped off.

Haliday grabbed the mic and told Dawn and his parents they were on the way back. He asked if they had heard anything. Bev said she heard the big cities were really becoming a mess with a lot of looting and small riots. She heard that the government was having a hard time responding anywhere because a lot of equipment was unusable. Haliday asked them if anyone else made it in and she told him no. Damn, he was certain that at least his brother David and David’s son Bobby would have made it there.

“Ok folks, here’s the situation, I have extra company for now and we are going to look at the best route back to avoid the issues that are arising. I can’t give you a time line and I can’t guarantee regular check ins. Just make sure you guys double-check your security and keep someone awake at all times. Take turns, three hour shifts will you give enough of a break in between watches so you can catch some sleep. Keep a pistol on you at all times too. I have a hell of a trip to make trying to get back. Hopefully I’ll see you guys soon.”

* * *

Dawn had everyone meet back in the kitchen. “Look,” she said, “it’s getting really bad out there right now and we need to make sure the house is secured. I’m not sure it’s safe to go out yet and there’s no telling how long we will have to stay here.” Dawn’s sister Diana asked her what Roger thought.

“Well,” she said, “he’s quite busy right now and said to stay put and run tight security. Everyone is going to have to take a turn watching the house.” Dawn’s mom Karen asked her how long. “Three hours at a time is good.” She didn’t seem to like that. “We don’t have a choice, get used to it. Let’s check the house.”

The three of them started to double-check the windows and doors when Dawn heard Roger on the ham. “Dawn, can you read me?” She answered yes. “Listen,” he said, “go to A2.” This was an alternative frequency set up just for them. He did this in case he needed to relay information that he didn’t want anyone else on their net to hear. He did this for his mom and dad’s house too. He had something to say he didn’t want Rich and Bev to hear.

“Roger I’m here,” Dawn said on the radio.

Haliday responded, “Look, my folks only have Sarah and her baby there. I’m not sure if they are going to be able to hold down the fort long. They are closer to the city than any of us and if the animals start taking to the streets and moving into the suburbs quicker than I thought, then there’s going to be some real problems there.

“You might have to alter your plans, so get things ready. If I call and tell you to get moving, then move out. You need to monitor the radio to keep in touch with what’s going on out there. There will be a lot of exaggeration and panic, but a lot of good info as well. Just pay attention to what happens close to you and give me a SITREP when I call.”

“Got it,” she said.

Dawn flipped back to the other frequency and so did Roger. Bev said, “You guys there?”

Roger said, “Yes, is there a problem?” he asked.

“What were you guys talking about?” she asked. Roger figured her curiosity would be killing her.

“Dawn sometimes doesn’t like to share information, she likes her privacy, and I was making sure she didn’t need to tell me anything.”

“Oh, because I changed frequency as well and didn’t hear anything.”

Roger said, “That’s right, that’s why I gave you guy’s different frequency lists. Security purposes,” he told her. Bev didn’t seem too happy with that.

Dawn and her sister went and finished double-checking the doors and windows while her mom kept watch. They went into the basement and came up with boards loaded with nails. The boards were 1X6’s with three inch nails hammered through. They set these by the windows and doors in case someone managed to get in. Anyone who did make it in would impale themselves. And while it might not stop them, it would surely slow them down.

Dawn went out into the garage and started the generator for a couple of hours. She had a custom muffler made and installed and it extended through the wall of the garage and vented the exhaust outside. They had always lost power 6 or 7 times a year minimum, and they got tired of restocking the refrigerator all the time.

Her neighbors were used to the noise, even though it was fairly quiet. She used this noise as a cover for her next check. She walked over to a 4X4 and tried to start it. It fired right up. Good, she thought. It was a Polaris with a front and back seat, complete with small trailer. Completely stock except the mods to make sure it ran and the tires.

She went back inside and told Diana they had to load up. She heard a knock on the door and everyone looked at each other. She ran upstairs and looked down at the porch where she saw her next door neighbor. She went downstairs to the door, but didn’t open it. “What do you want?” she asked. The neighbor said he heard her generator and asked if he could plug in an extension cord. Dawn said, "Remember the window your son broke playing catch with his friend that you never paid for? Go screw yourself.”

“You bitches,” he replied. He left mumbling under his breath as he walked away.

* * *

Bev was taking a nap and Elizabeth was just sitting there with Sarah. “I want to see Daddy,” she said.

Sarah told her, “Maybe later honey. Daddy might be busy and still trying to make sure he gets here.” Rich was listening in and asked Elizabeth if she wanted to play a game and she said yes. They were playing when she asked him if he thought her grandma had TV. Rich told her he didn’t know. “Can we call her?” she asked.

“Not right now, the phone is broken too.”

“Everything is broken,” she said, “it’s not fun.”

Rich was thinking about Susan, his only daughter, who had moved to Texas a couple years ago. He was wondering how they were doing. He thought of his son Greg in Missouri as well. That was the oldest of all the boys. Alan lived about an hour’s drive away with his family. His other son David lived about half an hour away with his grandson Bobby.

Rich and Bev expected all of their kids in the state to make it here, and Sarah with her husband and another couple nephews who lived here to make it in as well. Up until two weeks ago one the nephews had lived with them, but moved out for what he called “More freedom”. They didn’t know how hard it would be for them to travel without vehicles.

Sarah was just sitting there numb. It had been a full two days now and she was thinking the worst. She could understand maybe half of a day, even a full day, but not two. Her hopes had dwindled and she resigned herself that she could remain hopeful, but had to expect nothing. This was putting her into a state of depression. Bev had woken up and asked her to cook some dinner. Sarah obliged, and Bev thought, good, she would have to keep her busy to help her get through this. Rich and Bev knew enough to know Erik was gone.

There came a loud crashing sound from outside in the backyard. Rich and Bev both grabbed their pistols and Bev peeked out the window quickly. Over by the wood pile, she spotted two people. She had wanted to open the door and shoo them away because she thought they were stealing their wood. She wanted to tell them she would shoot them if they didn’t leave. Rich said, “Wait a minute Ma, that’s Kevin and Randy.” The two nephews ran toward the door and yelled to be let in.

Rich opened the patio door wall and the two stuffed their bags through the wood planks installed across the opening and then squeezed through themselves. They fell onto the floor of the dining room huffing and puffing, trying to catch their breath. Rich asked them what happened and they raised a finger signaling him to wait a minute. They rested a few minutes and caught their breath. Sarah ran over and asked if they were ok and they nodded yes.

Randy said, “They wanted to kill us.” Kevin said, “No, they just wanted your shotgun.” Randy had purchased a Mossberg 500. He made it all tacti-cool as a birthday present to himself one year. He had it for almost two years, but had never even fired it. He had just a few boxes of ammo for it, maybe 100 rounds total. It was a mix of everything from 00 buck to small game loads because he never really knew what to buy. He wasn’t really the outdoors type or gun nut. But, it was a mossy and it was cool.

Kevin said they were sitting around and decided the power wasn’t coming back on, so they left early this morning to come here. They had a fairly uneventful trip until almost the last half of a mile. They were passing by the grocery store and people were basically stripping it clean. Some guy spotted them and yelled at them to drop their gun. He called them punks and said he wanted it. He called a friend over and they walked toward Kevin and Randy. Kevin and Randy started running and the guy and his friend started chasing them.

They started cutting through the neighborhood and going over the fences and didn’t stop until they got here. Randy said when they went over the fence in the backyard, they forgot about the wood pile. They landed on it, sending it crashing down to the ground. They said they were scared and just ran for their lives. They had no idea what the guys would do to them. They just didn’t want any trouble and didn’t want to get shot with their own gun.

Randy said, "Grandma, you should have seen the grocery store. It was chaos. I think as soon as they opened this morning everyone was getting what they could. Money or not it became a riot and people were fighting each other for anything they could get their hands on. I don’t think anything’s left. They were knocking people down in the parking lot and taking other people’s stuff. People were hurt and bleeding all over the place. A lot of them were running with their arms full to the apartments across the street.”

He asked for some water. Rich said, “Hold on a minute, it’s downstairs.” He brought them up a pitcher filled from the sump pump. He had been getting about 15 gallons a day out of it, but was only filtering a few gallons. He used a rotary pump to drain the rest.

Haliday had installed a separate check valve on the sump pump’s discharge pipe and Rich attached the hose from the rotary pump to that. Now he had found himself some guinea pigs. They drank the whole pitcher down and didn’t complain. Rich guessed it was safe to drink, which was a good thing. Water would be plentiful as long as the ground water kept up at a decent level.

Sarah gave them a big hug, she was happy to see her brothers. Kevin asked where Eric was. The room fell silent. Sarah teared up and said, "I don’t know, I don’t think he’s going to make it here."

"Don’t worry sis," Randy said and hugged her some more. “There’s still hope.” Elizabeth who had been watching said, "I want hugs too." She ran over and got her share of hugs.

Having these two here would be a great help. It would make bringing things up from the basement a lot easier and pulling security easier as well. Bev went over to the ham and called Roger; she told him what had happened. Roger said, “Ok, you copy Dawn?” She replied yes. Roger said, “Ok everyone, keep up the good work, and talk to you later.” He was relieved there were more people at his folk’s house now. “Dawn,” he said, “A2 again.” She switched frequencies again and waited for Haliday.

Haliday came on the net and said, “Ok. I want you to hold tight right now. When I call you I want you to go ahead with the first plan you have in your notebook. Any questions?” Dawn asked if he had an ETA. Haliday said, “Hell Dawn, I’m not sure we’ll even make it. If we don’t get back in the next 24 hours, the rate this country is falling apart will make it impossible. It’s going to be hard. No doubt about that. Switch back and talk to you later.”

Haliday was just about to tell everyone he was going to check back in a couple hours when he looked down the road and noticed something different. “That wasn’t there when I came through earlier,” he said to himself. He brought the truck to a stop. Mike asked him what the problem was. Haliday handed him a pair of binoculars.

Mike looked down the road and said, “Oh shit.” There were four humvees sitting there with about eight men as far as he could tell.

Haliday said, “This could be real bad. Give me a hand Mike.” He got out of the truck, Mike followed and they walked around to the back. “Help me unload this thing.” They unloaded the KLR and Haliday opened the hatch and searched for some gear.

“They gotta be wondering what we’re up to right now Mike. Right now we’re not too far from Danville. I’m not sure, but my guess is it’s a National Guard unit, most likely the 38^th MP CO. Not sure what their mission is right now, but I’m about to find out. You keep that ham tuned in and you listen to me. If you hear me say ‘aww shit, you got us fellas,’ you get the hell out of here as fast as you can. I’ll try to buy you some time if I can, but don’t expect much. There’s maps in the binder, find an alternate route. Right now they have us spotted and if we outright take off, someone is going to follow.

“Here’s my plan, let’s hope it works,” and he told Mike what he was going to do. He put a helmet on, placed an AR15 instead of his old Armalite 180 into the sheath on the bike, buckled on an equipment belt with thigh holster and mag pouches and a tactical vest loaded with more gear, but more importantly a handheld ham. “I’m Gecko45,” he laughed. The notorious mall ninja known across the internet for his ability to save the shoppers and keep the peace while dressed like an entire swat team. He attached an earpiece and push-to-talk mic to his vest and the ham. He started the bike and rode toward the road block.

Haliday slowed the bike down as he approached the roadblock. He looked at the stenciling on the vehicles and the lights mounted under the windshield. “38^th MP CO.” He turned the bike off and one of the MP’s approached him. Haliday noticed this guy didn’t actually have a unit patch on his right shoulder, that meant no combat assignment. He quickly glanced around and there was about a fifty-fifty split. The two on the humvees’ guns were combat proven. A MK19, automatic grenade launcher and a M240 G/B machine gun. Both not weapons to mess with but only the 240 could reach the Tahoe.

The MP was an E3, PFC, private first class. He approached Haliday and asked him for ID. Haliday reached into a pocket on his vest and pulled out a black nylon ID holder. It was dirty, looked well used and the vinyl window was fogged over. The ID inside was visible, but it would be hard to identify any detail without taking it out because of the fogged over window. Haliday actually stitched the opening closed a bit to make it harder just in case. The PFC looked at it and handed it back to him. You can do wonders using a laser printer, and hobbyist sand paper can wear the clear vinyl down nicely to make it look worn.

Haliday said, “Private, who’s in charge here?”

The PFC said, “Specialist Benson is sir.”

“Haliday said, "I’m prior Army and was an NCO and worked for a living, please don’t call me sir." The PFC waved the specialist over.

“This here is DHS officer Haliday. What brings you around here Mr. Haliday?”

Haliday answered back, “What are you guys up to? You have a checkpoint out here close to nowhere? In my day we would have said we were getting the big green weenie.”

The PFC looked at the specialist and said, "He’s prior service." The specialist just looked him over.

Haliday said, “Easy guys,” reached in his pocket and pulled out a large decorative coin. One side had the department of army seal and the other side had the crossed pistols of the Military Police. He handed it to the specialist. The specialist looked it over and handed it back to Haliday. It was a challenge coin.

“Any other day Mr. Haliday and I’d be buying you a beer.”

“Call me Roger,” Haliday said.

“Ok Roger, but back to business, what brings you around these parts and who is down there in the truck?”

“That, Specialist, is my partner with a special couple of folks that Governor Anders asked us to bring back from the University of Illinois for some of his staff members. As you can guess, it’s rough traveling out there and I am not taking any chances of running into rogue groups or militias of any kind. If you’ve been listening to anything on the com net, you know why. I’m guessing that’s why you guys are out here correct? Unless by chance; I’m in the middle of a well-executed ambush.” Flattery can get you a lot he hoped. Throwing the governors name around helped too.

“We reported to the armory, but not many of us made it there,” Benson said. “We were told to wait for orders and haven’t gotten them yet. Well, the town manager asked us to help out until they could get a volunteer force together. We only have two groups out here and we secured the two county road entrances into the city. The rest is just farmlands. We have a few more guys making reliefs at the checkpoints. We’ll stay until we get orders or the town manager gets some guys together.”

Haliday said, “That’s a smart move for Mr. Watts.”

Benson looked at him. “You know Watts?”

“No, not personally, but since I’ve been assigned to Indiana the past couple of years, it’s been my job to get to know the leaders of cities where there’s assets like the Danville armory and his name is easy to remember, Watts as in electricity.”

“Makes sense to me,” Benson said. Another side note he made and used; he updated the info constantly.

Haliday asked if it was ok to move on and asked Benson if there was anything else he needed. “Just your name on the log sheet if you don’t mind,” he answered.

“Sure thing Specialist Benson.” He wrote his info down and handed the clipboard back to him.

“Anything else?”

“Sir, do you know what happened by chance?”

Haliday remarked, “I wish I knew. All I do know is an EMP or something took out most of everything. I’m surprised your vehicles are running. We don’t know who, we don’t know why, all we know is it’s FUBAR. I got my orders through the radio and was assigned to the governor’s contingency. I wish I knew. I honestly do.

“Can I expect the same thing going through the other side,” Haliday asked?

“I’ll call them and tell them you will be coming through.”

Haliday said, “Thank you. If you don’t mind, specialist, I’ll wait here for my partner to drive through, not that I don’t trust you, but better safe than sorry. I gotta get those people home.” The specialist ordered the humvees’ to open the roadway and Haliday called Mike and told him to bring the Tahoe through. “Quickly Mike, go 45 to 50 mph.”

Haliday started the bike and waited. The Tahoe came through and with the dark-tinted windows and speed, it was hard to discern who was inside. Just a few figures is all it looked like. Haliday took off behind the Tahoe. He waved goodbye and then sped ahead of the Tahoe. He signaled Mike to follow him. They slowed a bit and worked their way through town. They approached the second roadblock, and as soon as they started the approach, the humvees’ moved aside and waved them through.

They drove for about 15 minutes and then Haliday pulled over and stopped. Mike pulled over as well. Haliday got off the bike and took the gear off. He was sweating like crazy. Mike said, “You’re not that hot are you?”

“Mike, go in that toolbox and get me a Phillips head.” Mike just looked at him and then went and got the screwdriver. “You got a screw loose?” he quipped.

Haliday said, “Worse than that, I have two on tight.” He walked to the back of the bike and unscrewed the Michigan license plate. He told Mike to put it in the toolbox.

Mike said, “Wow, that was pure luck.”

“No, it was stupidity, it almost got me killed on the way here and I should have fixed it then. I can explain not having a plate on it, but too hard to explain why it’s a civilian plate.” He then grabbed some dirt and kept tossing it on the bare spot where the plate had been. Mike asked him how he got a government plate for the Tahoe. “Well Mike, recruiters are all over the place and all it took was a minute to unscrew it with an electric screwdriver. Right now there’s no LEIN machines or MDC’s to run plates, so I’m not worried about it showing up stolen. I kept it hidden until now.”

He told everyone to grab a drink of water and stretch. After about 15 minutes of checking for anything else he might have missed, they loaded up the bike. Max yapped and they let him out to pee. Everyone loaded back into the truck and they started off again. “Hey, Mike, flip that binder open. I can’t afford any more military checkpoints, time to change the route. I’m not sure I could do that again and get away with it.” They were just west of Indianapolis, a major city with plenty of problems.

Chapter 10

They would be coming up on a small town called Avon soon, but would head north just before they got there. This was still too close to Indy for comfort. They would work their way up to State Road 32, which was east of a small town called Gadsen and then move east from there. These small towns provided much more comfort than the big cities. Once back in the Detroit area, it would be a nightmare. So far everything was ok.

They made a quick stop and dumped the two cans of gas wedged between the KLR and Tahoe into the tank. That was only 10 gallons and they were just above a half of a tank right now. Getting more gas was a priority. Haliday figured Gadsen would be the ideal place to do so. Just about another half an hour and they’d be there. They’d break for lunch, grab some gas and get back on the road.

It was late afternoon and they were pulling into Gadsen, or at least what he thought was Gadsen. There was a sign and that was about it. Mike said, “What the hell is this?” Linda asked him what he meant. He said, “There isn’t anything here.”

Kayla said, “No kidding, is this what you mean by BFE Dad?”

Haliday said, “This is worse.” They just kept cruising through. Haliday spotted a sign up ahead for an airport. It was just a regional airport, but worth checking out. Next city was another 15 minutes down the road; he wanted to fuel up by then.

They pulled into an open gate and took a look around. Up by the main building there were a few BMWs, Mercedes, Lexus and other expensive cars. Maybe a couple dozen vehicles total. Then throughout the property, some service trucks, a couple tractors and of course a few planes. It was the Indy executive airport catering to the rich, who could afford private planes and the place to keep them. Midway down the runway was what was left of a small gulfstream scattered about. “Guess he picked a bad time to land,” Haliday said. Everyone just looked around; it was like a ghost town.

Haliday drove down between the hangars. There was an open hangar door and Haliday paused and looked inside. He drove the Tahoe into it and turned it around so it was facing the door. He went over to see if the door would close manually, and after disengaging a chain drive he was able to lower it. “Ok,” he said, “Mike and Kayla, you guys keep watch and I’ll make some food real quickly. Make sure you guys pay attention.”

 He pulled out a butane stove and can of butane. Within seconds it was lit and ready. He grabbed a pouch of dehydrated veggies and opened it up, dumping the contents into a small pan with some water. He let it sit there a few minutes to rehydrate a bit. Next he dumped in a pouch of powdered egg and mixed it thoroughly.

This started to cook up and he grabbed a vacuum-packed pouch of cooked bacon crumbles and opened it up. “Ah, bacon,” he said. “Gotta love bacon.” Next he tossed in some powdered cheese and just scrambled it all. He walked over to the truck and pulled out some flour tortillas he had grabbed off his counter at home to take on the trip. He whipped up some big breakfast burritos, and although it was late afternoon, they did the job just fine. Quite tasty too.

He had thrown some Gatorade mix in some bottles of water. Kayla didn’t want any. “You don’t have a choice,” he said, “you need the electrolytes to keep your system balanced.” She reluctantly drank it. So did everyone else. “Ok, this is for the road,” he said. He grabbed a thermos, heated up some more water and filled it with instant coffee. A small luxury right now, but since everyone was out in their own little world it might help them stay focused. He grabbed a chunk of beef jerky and tossed it to the dog. “Don’t get used to that mutt,” he said.

After the stove cooled and he wiped out the pan, they packed everything up. They were ready to get on the road. He asked anyone if they needed to use the bathroom before they went to look for gas. They took turns watching out while everyone went to go do their thing. Haliday peeked out the door and ducked back in real quickly. He told everyone to grab their guns and find cover. There were three guys coming down the road between the hangars. He told everyone to just hang tight. It dawned on him that he hadn’t given Linda a weapon. “Just stay low,” he said. They weren’t sure what to expect.

He heard them as they approached. It seemed that they were looking in every hangar as they went down the row. He could hear them forcing doors open and anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes later they would move to the next hangar. As far as he could tell, they had only one more before they got to theirs. Everyone just sat there. Haliday held his finger to his mouth to tell everyone to keep quiet. He placed his hand out and motioned for them to get down.

The door opened and one of the guys peeked in; he whistled and Haliday could hear the other guys come over and start talking to their friend. “God damn, how the hell did that get here?” one said.

“Hell if I know, but if it runs, it’s ours.” They walked into the hangar and started looking around. “You smell bacon?” he heard one say.

“Hell ya, someone has been in here hiding or something.” One of them walked over to the Tahoe and peeked inside. “Holy shit, we got a gold mine.” Linda shifted slightly and a small can on the ground near her feet fell over.

One of the men raised a rifle up and said, “Who’s there?” There wasn’t an answer. “I said who’s there, damn it.” Another one of the men took a pistol out and started looking around as well. Haliday tried to watch them through a reflection in the glass of the truck. He knew one had a rifle and one had a pistol, but he didn’t have any idea if the third one was armed and if so what he had. By the looks of this crew, it was a man in his late forties and two younger guys in their twenties. He was thinking father and sons.

The older man who had the rifle spoke up. “Listen, you’re gonna wanna show yourself and if ya ain’t alone you’re gonna wanna both come out.” Linda shifted a bit more and the can now rolled out from behind the toolbox she was hiding behind. “I see you, you better get up.” Linda panicked and stood up and put her hands in the air. “Don’t you move, who else you got in here lady?”

“Just my husband,” she said.

“He some kinda cop or something?”

“No, we just found the truck.”

“Awww bullshit, we saw what’s in there. We ain’t stupid, you tell him to come out now. We ain’t gonna hurt anyone.”

"How do I know that?" Linda asked.

One of the younger guys yelled out. “Listen bitch, you’ll know what we want you to, now do what the hell he said and tell that asshole husband of yours to get out here now before we change our mind.” Mike didn’t know what to do. He was behind a starting cart that had been left in the hangar.

Kayla was over at the far side of the hangar and was hiding behind another toolbox next to what looked like a larger Cessna of some type. She actually had the best cover. Haliday had ducked into the small office that was in the hangar. He could catch a peek now and then, but nothing to formulate a plan or see what was going on. He looked over toward the door that they had come in. There was a bag there. He thought about this for a minute. They were looting. They were going hangar to hangar and probably through every car and plane here taking anything they thought was valuable.

He was trying to think this one through. Why the hell hadn’t he gotten radios and head sets, he wondered. On the other hand, he had two passengers he didn’t count on either. How much gear could he afford or even carry? Wouldn’t do much good having just two sets, but then again, he told himself, that would have been two coordinated people. That would have been better than this cluster.

 He was trying to think this one through. “Damn it,” the older guy yelled, “get a move on bitch.” Max, who had just been laying there, stood up and started yapping now. “Damn mutt, shoot it,” the older man said.

One of the younger ones replied, “I ain’t shooting it, you shoot it.”

The older man said, “I’m watching this dumb bitch, shoot it or give your brother the gun.” That’s exactly what Haliday needed to know. The odds were better, but still not good.

Haliday was about ready to crawl over to the doorway when he heard the man say, “That’s it bitch I warned you.”

Mike stood up and said, “Wait, wait, don’t shoot.” Haliday bolted over to the doorway and started firing toward the group. They returned fire in his direction and he dove to the office floor. Linda dropped to the ground and lay there paralyzed. Mike ducked down and was trying to flip the safety off his rifle. He heard a few rounds strike nearby. He was afraid to get up again and get shot.

Haliday heard an AR fire; he didn’t know who it was. Rounds started flying everywhere. No one could get a good shot on anybody, good or bad. Haliday was laying there when the window above him shattered. He covered his neck as the glass fell. His hands were cut and bleeding. There was a lot of screaming going on at each other. Haliday popped up and aimed at the man with the rifle and fired then ducked down again. The guy dropped. More rounds came his way. Mike looked around the side of the starting cart and fired off almost a full magazine in their direction.

Kayla took aim at the older guy, who was still firing from the ground; he had been hit, but not mortally. She fired three shots toward him and the man stopped moving at that point. She didn’t have any more lines of sight and made sure she was covered as well as she could be. The toolbox in front of her rattled from the pistol fire from the kid who had been shooting it. Soon enough there was a click.

“Cease fire,” Haliday yelled, “cease fire.” There were a few minutes of silence. Haliday crawled over to the doorway and took a quick peek into the hangar. All he saw was haze from the gunpowder and the men now huddled up near the Tahoe. He got up and peeked around the corner again. It was now or never. He reeled around the door frame and aimed at the group. One of them was holding their dad in his arms. The other was laying there next to him holding his leg and chest.

Haliday had drawn down on them and approached them slowly. He kicked the rifle aside that they had been using. It was an older AK variant. He told Mike to come out and get the rifle and check it. “Pull the bolt handle back Mike,” he said. Mike came out, grabbed the rifle and checked the chamber, it was empty.

“Hold onto it.” He called out to Linda and Kayla, “You guys ok?”

Linda said, “Yes,” Kayla said “Yes.” Ok, come on out but be careful.”

Haliday was still looking at the men. The youngest was crying as he held his father. The other kid was no longer holding his leg and Haliday noticed his shirt was full of blood. The kid was foaming at the mouth with a frothy pink foam. He must have been hit in a lung. Haliday was about to walk up and check him when the kid flipped his arm around. Haliday squeezed off a round out of his .40 the same time the kid fired at Haliday’s chest. The kid had hidden a small snub nose. The kid didn’t have a chance to fire another round; the .40 struck him center mass.

Haliday stumbled backwards and fell to the ground. He laid there trying to get his legs to move and get his feet up under him. He wasn’t able to get up. Kayla ran over and started yelling, "Daddy, Daddy, are you ok?" Haliday couldn’t speak right now either. No words could come to his mouth. His breathing wasn’t normal. The younger kid looked over at him and said, “That’s what you get you bastard. You can rot in hell.” Mike whipped the kid with the AK stock, knocking the kid out.

Linda went over to Haliday and knelt down. Kayla was holding his hand crying. She noticed it was blood covered. Haliday spoke, but he managed only a few words. “I love you, kiddo.”

“I love you too, Daddy,” she said. Max came over from cowering under an oil can rack and sniffed at Haliday and whimpered. Haliday’s eyes blurred and then started to go black. He closed them and tried to take as deep a breath as he could and then exhaled. Kayla spoke to him, but there was no response.

Max walked around in a few circles and whimpered some more. Linda was shaking Haliday, but there was no movement. Mike had been keeping an eye on the kid who shot Haliday. He was now starting to come around. Kayla ran over to the Tahoe and grabbed a first aid kit. She ran back over to Haliday’s body. She knelt down next to his head. She opened the box and pulled a small capsule out and snapped it in the middle, then waved it under Haliday’s nose. Haliday opened his eyes and whipped his head to the side. The ammonia capsule did the trick.

Kayla asked him how he was doing. His breathing was still a little off. “Damn, I feel like someone dropped a brick wall on me. I’m pretty sure my ribs are broken.” Haliday had managed to catch the round from the .38 snubbed nose with his body armor. The impact had knocked the wind out of him and knocked him down. Kayla had thought he was hit because of the blood on his hands, but then noticed his shirt didn’t have any blood on it.

She remembered he still had his vest from when he worked as a police officer and used to tell her he would make contact with people because he had a little protection. It was only a level two vest, but would stop most handgun rounds. He sacrificed safety for comfort, a dumb thing to do. There was no doubt a level III would be better in this situation.

He looked at everyone and said, “From now on we make sure everyone is dead.” Linda asked him how they would do that. “With a head shot,” he replied. Mike, with an unsure tone of voice, asked him if he wanted him to shoot the last kid. Haliday looked over at the kid, who was staring at him. “No, just tie his ass up, and then come over here and help me get up.” Haliday laid there for a few minutes while they tied up their prisoner. The kid never said a word. Mike then came over and they all helped Haliday get on his feet.

Haliday took his shirt off and ripped open the Velcro side flaps holding the vest in place. He took it off wincing as he did this. He had a large welt growing on his right side. It would be a massive bruise soon. He pushed in and felt his ribs. “Might not be broken clean, but hairline fractured for sure,” he said. “A good 2 or 3 of them. This hurts like hell.”

He told Kayla to grab his bag. She brought it over and he dug out a t-shirt that was part cotton and lycra and changed his shirt. It was a size too small. He hoped the compression would help a bit. He called it his “Ahh-nuld” shirt. He’d put it on, tried his best Swarzenegger accent, and tried to look super buff. Kayla used to laugh at him and make him change it.

He kept it to help keep his “12 pack”, as he called it, from bouncing around during training. Next he wrapped it with an ace bandage. He looked at the vest and was amazed. Best investment he ever made at this point. He put the vest back on and then his shirt. The hole in the shirt would be hard to explain he thought.

Next he looked around and went over to the small office. Broken glass crunched under his feet. He opened a refrigerator that was inside complete with a couple bullet holes. Linda said, "You aren’t going to eat that stuff in there are you?"

“Nope,” he said. He held up some bottles of Fiji water, “Gotta love snobs and their quest for quality,” he said. “I’m going to wash my hands off.” He grabbed a couple of clean rags from one of those Box-O-Rags things and wiped his hands down. He asked Kayla to bring some antiseptic rinse over and she did.

As he wiped his hands with the rinse, he asked her how she was doing. She said, “I’m ok Dad.”

He said, “Come here sweetie.” She walked over and he hugged her. “It’s going to be ok,” he told her. “We had to do this, if we didn’t there’s no telling what might have happened.” Kayla teared up a little bit. Haliday had spent a lot of time with her training her in marksmanship and weapons handling, but never expected one day she would need it. She was a natural at it, just like her old man was.

They walked back over to the truck. It wasn’t a pretty sight at all. There were quite a few holes in the body and a couple in the side window glass. The kicker was a flat tire. A quick check of the KLR and it turned out to be ok, except for one hole in the front fender. Unfortunately the bike wouldn’t hold them all. He looked down at the ground trying to think this through. There was Max looking at him wagging his tail. “Max the mutant,” he said aloud.

“Hey, I heard that,” Kayla said.

Mike said, “I have an idea. I’ll take a quick look around at the vehicles here and see if I can find a match. If anything has the same bolt pattern and rim size, we can put one on.”

“The spare tire is full size and will work if it’s not flat,” Haliday said.

Mike said, “Ya, that might be fine, but then we’re out of a spare tire in case we get another flat. I’ll go look and see. You guys wait here.” Haliday thought that was a good idea.

“Hey Linda, grab a rifle and go with him. I’m going to have Kayla keep an eye on me while I rest a bit.” He laid down and did not get up until almost two hours later.

Linda was standing there watching him now. Kayla had laid down as soon as they got back, while Mike was working on the truck. Haliday got up still sore and moving a little slow. “How’s it going Mike?” he asked.

Mike looked up from the wheel and said, “Almost done.”

“I found a Chevy pickup around the back of the hangars; they must use it for plowing. I took the best two tires off it and put them on the back here. That’ll give us a matched pair in the back and we still keep our spare.”

“Thank you,” Haliday said. He looked around the hangar and saw Mike had dragged the bodies over to the side and covered them with a tarp. “Thank you again.”

Kayla got up now and stretched. The event took a toll on her. You can never fully prepare for this kind of thing. She walked over to the truck, reached in and grabbed the thermos with the coffee. “What are you doing with that?” Haliday asked her.

“What, I can’t have any?” she asked.

“Not unless you share,” he said.

She poured out four cups, one for each of them. They drank it down and looked around. It was now late evening and dark out. Haliday walked over to the kid sitting there tied up. The kid just looked up at him and told him to go to hell. “You’re going to pay for this,” he added.

Haliday said, “Look kid, we were just minding our own business trying to get home. Nothing here is stolen. You were walking through this place like it was your personal shopping mall. None of that stuff in that bag over there belongs to you. How do you explain that smart-ass? Not quite the exemplary citizen, are you?”

“Then you’re going to go pointing guns at people, then bitch and moan about getting shot at?” Haliday was getting angry now. Kayla walked up and touched his arm, “Dad, relax,” she said, “his gene pool is probably a little shallow.” She was a smart-ass like Haliday in this regard. He turned and walked away.

Kayla looked at the kid. He was her age, twenty maybe twenty one. “You can’t blame us,” she said, “you can only blame yourself. You caused this to happen. No one has the right to steal anything, regardless of what’s going on.”

“You clueless little bitch,” he said, “people out there are taking what they want, police can’t stop them, what’s the big deal anyway, they can afford it.”

Kayla looked at him. “If the lights came back on right now, how would you justify what you’ve done?” she asked.

The kid said, “Ask yourself the same question, bitch.”

“I did.” she answered, “I helped save my life and my family’s life.”

Haliday covered the holes in the back windows with some hundred mile an hour tape. Most people just called it duct tape, but in the army he came to know it as hundred mile an hour tape. Legend had it that during WWII, people said it was so strong it’d hold a Jeep together going a hundred miles an hour. He chuckled at that. Ya, try and find a Jeep that could do a hundred, he thought. He found a small whisk broom and they cleaned out what glass they could out of the Tahoe, but it was not a lot.

"What are we going to do with him?" Mike asked.

“We are going to walk him out to the gate, and we are going to cut him loose and drive away,” Haliday answered. “He can do whatever the hell he wants after that.” Mike reached down and he and Linda pulled the kid up. They opened the hangar door and Haliday slowly drove the truck out to the gate without the lights on then they walked the kid to that point. They cut the kid loose and everyone jumped in the truck.

As they were pulling away the kid just stood there. He started walking back toward the hangars. One of two things: he was either going to bury his father and brother or most likely he went back for the bag of loot they were stealing. Haliday couldn’t help but wonder what the hell people were thinking.

It was two and a half days, and they were pulling this stuff already. He got to thinking about what Kayla said to the kid. She got it, it was hard lesson, but she got it and did what had to be done. He felt bad; this is not a lesson he thought any kid should have to learn. Unfortunately in the new society, it would happen again and again across the country.

Haliday looked over at Mike as he drove along and said, “Take a breather, I’ll keep a look out for some gas.”

Mike said, “I did that already.” Haliday looked down and the tank was full. Mike added that he filled the two empty cans as well. Mike reclined the seat and took a nap.

Haliday did a quick calculation. Twenty six gallons in the tank, 10 in the cans wedged between the bike and tailgate, twenty five more in the back. With sixty one gallons total and about an average of maybe eight miles a gallon with this crude engine, they would have a range of almost 500 miles. They might be able to make it without having to stop for anything but rest breaks. That’s if things held out ok. That was a big if.

It was late and he looked down and turned the ham on. He spoke into the mic, “It’s Roger, anybody on the net?” He just waited. “Hey, it’s Roger, is anybody on the net?” While he waited, he popped open a small bottle and sucked down some Tylenol. He took four of them hoping to take the edge off the throbbing pain. He had some heavier meds, but hated taking that stuff. Besides that, he needed to be fully aware at the moment. Everyone else had fallen asleep. He really wanted to join them, but wanted to be back in Michigan more.

“Anybody out there?” he repeated. He heard a voice, “I am.”

“Who is ‘I am’?” he asked.

“It’s Karen, Dawn’s mom.”

“Oh, ok, must be your turn to watch the house.” He was tired and didn’t recognize the voice at first. She just said yes. “Where is Dawn, is she available?”

Karen told him they were sleeping. “Diana is next to pull security and then Dawn after that.”

“Ok, have Dawn call me when she gets up, anything going on over there?” She told him they heard the grocery stores were stripped and so were a lot of other stores where people were taking generators and all kinds of other supplies. “No real trouble yet,” she said.

He said, “Ok, take care, and talk to you later.”

“Bev, Rich, how about you guys, you there?” Kevin came on and said they too were all sleeping. “Ok, anything new on your end,” he asked.

“Hold on, grandma is here now.”

“Hi Roger, we haven’t heard from you in a long time, what’s going on, is everything ok, you almost home?” she wanted to know. Roger didn’t know where to begin. He didn’t want Karen, Dawn or Diana to hear. They were very new to this and might get panicky if they knew how bad it was. “Switch to A2,” he told her.

He waited and then she came on. “Are you there Roger?”

“Yes, I am Mom. Listen, I’m not going to repeat myself. We hit a major snag and it tied us up for hours. We weren’t sure we were getting out of it alive; I’ll explain it when I get there. Anyway, we are going to be a while longer. A few things have happened that are going to make it harder to get back so you might have to move a little quicker than expected.

“Is there anything major going on?” She told him other than a few people wandering around door to door asking to borrow food, there hasn’t been anything unusual. “Ok, well just tell people to go away if they come to the door. Make sure one of the kids tells them to go away too so they know there’s more people in the house. Switch back to the regular frequency.”

Haliday told them he would check in later. She asked him what had happened, he didn’t reply. Kayla woke up and asked where they were. He turned his light on and glanced at his binder and maps. They were making good time. They were well north if Indy and he was actually heading back toward Warsaw. His plans were to skirt it this time. If the Indiana National Guard was active though, then they would be here as well. Other than the small infantry unit there, he didn’t know what else they might have waiting. No more games with them, that’s for sure.

It took him a while, but he managed to skirt the city and was now close to the Michigan border. He was heading straight for Three Rivers, Michigan, but was going to avoid that like a plague. There were quite a few railroads that ran through it and he didn’t want to get tied up in that mess. With the train yards, stopped trains carrying people from Detroit to Chicago, and freight trains from just about anywhere, there would be a lot of people hanging around. Not the spot to be, that was for certain.

Chapter 11

It was Dawn’s turn to keep watch and she was doing a check around the first floor. Everything seemed to be ok and she walked over to the radio and called Roger. “Ya, go ahead,” he said.

“You wanted me to call you, didn’t you?” she asked him.

“Oh ya, uh, give me a second.” He had to adjust himself in the seat.

She could tell by his voice that something was wrong. He asked her what the SITREP was and she said, “So far ok, nobody is really out doing anything. Roger, you ok, what happened to you?”

“Long story, don’t worry about it, we’re all ok though. We are going to stop for a break, top off the tank and then move on.”

Dawn asked how far out he was. “Well, on a normal day about two hours or more, but with the route changes we have to make, probably 8 at best and 12 at the most. Especially with the travel being one shit storm after another. Have you seen any other cars or trucks, vehicles of any type out there?" he asked.

“We aren’t seeing too many.” She told him that there was an occasional older vehicle, a lot of ATV’s and some scooters and stuff like that.

“Any government troops or anything like that out there?”

“None that I’ve seen or heard.” That struck him as odd.

Haliday asked her if she was ready to go and she told him yes. “Ok,” he said. “No sense in taking chances, why don’t you make the first move in the morning.” Dawn said that was a good idea.

“I’ll let you know when we leave and when we get there.” she added.

“Ok,” he said, “stay put there until I get things organized and get everyone else on a time table. Talk to you later.”

Rich was listening in. “Anything we need to know?” he asked.

“No Dad, you have your plans, when the time comes I’ll have you guys go ahead with them.”

“Ok, talk to you later Roger,” he replied.

Dawn was double-checking everything in the garage. She went to disconnect the generator when she heard a noise outside. She stopped and listened for a minute to see if she could identify it. She was hoping it was one the neighborhood cats or a raccoon or something, but it sounded different somehow. As she listened she heard a hollow metallic clinking noise. She had no idea what it was. It wasn’t anything good, she thought.

Dawn ran into the living room to wake up her mom and sister. They got up groggily and Dawn told them someone was outside. They sat there trying to fully wake up. They said they didn’t hear anything. Karen then said, “Wait a minute, I hear it out front.” They were fully awake now.

At first it sounded like the wind blowing the tree branches against the siding but they weren’t sure. Diana and Dawn ran upstairs to see what was happening. They took a quick peek outside and saw the top of a ladder against the gutter. It had been the feet of the ladder she heard clinking around.

Diana and Dawn both looked at each other and backed away from the window. Dawn aimed her pistol toward the window. Diana saw the figure getting ready to climb on the roof and she turned on her flashlight. All they saw was the figure try to climb unto the roof, heard a man yell and then tumble down into the bushes below.

Diana thought it was actually amusing, but Dawn reminded her someone just tried to break in. They didn’t go near the window in case someone shot at them. The nails had done the job. They didn’t plan on sleeping tonight now, just planned on getting ready to go.

It was almost five in the morning now and almost 72 hours since the EMP hit. The weather had started to turn colder. That was what you got in Michigan. 70 degrees on one day and 40 the next day. This close to winter, there would be far fewer warm days and they would have to prepare for that. It was almost a blessing it happened now and not in the dead of winter. Traveling in snow would be very difficult.

Everything was packed and ready to go now. They triple checked everything and did a walk through of the house four times, making sure they had taken what they wanted. Karen stood there and cried. This had been their home since her divorce years ago and they had made it their kingdom. They had folk art, knickknacks and reminders of their Norwegian heritage and they hated to leave it. All three of them cried and couldn’t bring themselves to leave.

They went into the garage where the ATV was waiting. The sun would be rising and people would be getting up soon and they wanted to be out of here before it became apparent they were leaving. Diana opened the garage door and Dawn pulled the ATV out into the driveway and then backed up to connect the trailer to it.

Diana and Karen kept their eyes open for trouble. Dawn then pulled forward and they closed the garage door and put a few padlocks on it. With no one here, it was just a target eventually anyway; no sense in trying to make it Fort Knox.

Dawn made Diana walk out by the street and check that area out. Diana protested, but Dawn just looked at her and said go. She walked out, looked around and looked across the street. The guy with the old car that broke down had come outside and was watching them intensely. Karen climbed in the front seat next to Dawn and they pulled out toward the street. At the end of the driveway Diana jumped into the back seat and they slowly moved out into the road.

As they were pulling out Dawn looked at her neighbor and flipped him the finger again. He returned the salute promptly and all three of them noticed his hands had bandages on them. Diana said, “That prick tried to break in last night. We should have shot him. He’ll be breaking in as soon as we are gone.”

Karen said “Let him, nothing left but a drum full of water in the basement.” The rest was just memories that they had to take with them in place of the physical items.

As they travelled east a bit they only got a few strange looks, but they still maintained a vigil to keep themselves safe. They would have to snake through some neighborhoods to avoid the main roads and populated areas in order to end up about 18 miles north near Metamora. Here they would stay until they got word to move to the next point. There weren’t a lot of people where they were heading and it was harder to get to than where they had been. It was far more rural.

What a sight this thing was. This double seat ranger towing this small 5X8 single axle trailer loaded to the hilt with who knows what inside. Actually it was a large amount of food and water and their personal items, which was not much at all except for Diana’s. Diana had packed like it was the end of the world. In a sense it was, but there was a lot she wouldn’t need. Business attire wasn’t on this year’s post apocalyptic fashion runway.

The ranger was pretty much stock, except for the engine mods to make it run and the tires. The tires had been changed from their beefier off-road rubber to a set more suitable for pavement. They could always change them out if the need to remain off pavement was needed. The trailer was just a plain trailer with added locks. In a pinch they could sleep inside if they emptied it and were in a safe location. They were on their way; Dawn called Roger and told him.

About the same time over at Haliday’s parents, they were all sleeping. Randy was supposed to be up keeping watch, but he fell asleep. He was jolted awake by a pounding on the door. He went over and asked who it was. He heard a familiar voice, “It’s Uncle David, let us in.” Randy wasn’t sure what to do. He heard his uncle say “Hurry up Randy, Bobby is hurt.” He opened the door and David, who was carrying Bobby, rushed into the house.

“Go get grandma,” he said. Randy just stood there looking. “Go now.” Randy closed and locked the door and ran to get Bev. Bev came out into the living room to find Bobby lying on the ground bleeding from his head. David was trying to hold a t-shirt against his head and Bobby just screamed in pain. Bev told Randy to go into the basement and bring up the plastic container marked first aid. Rich and everyone else got up at this point after hearing the screaming.

Bev grabbed a blanket and put it under Bobby’s head. "What happened?" she asked. David was shaking. He was a big guy, not really in great shape, and the incident had taken a toll on him. He had halfway carried Bobby about a quarter of a mile as fast as he could. He was breathing heavy, he was frightened for his son, and what he was saying didn’t make sense. No one could really understand him at the moment, he was winded.

Bev moved the t-shirt and looked at Bobby’s head. Most people would have fainted, but after six kids and the accidents they had growing up, it was almost normal to her. “David, don’t worry, it’s not as bad as it looks, he’ll be ok.” She put the t-shirt back. Randy had come up from the basement with the large container. Bev looked at David and told him he would have to hold him still. She told Randy and Kevin to help him.

She went over to the sink and used a bottle of water to wash her hands. She took another bottle over to where Bobby was. “Put him on the coffee table,” she said. They put him on the coffee table and she pulled up a kitchen chair next to his head. She put on a pair of latex gloves. “Ok, hold him down.” She removed the t-shirt again and took a flap of skin the size of an orange peel and lifted it up and poured water over it rinsing the area well.

She placed it back and held it there. “Rich, go wash your hands and come back and put some gloves on.” Rich did as instructed and came over. “Hold this in place,” she said. He held the flap of skin down, but didn’t watch what was going on. Bev pulled out a suture kit and stitched the flap in place. “It’s not going to win awards, but it’ll have to do.” She covered it with a clean dressing. She dug out some antibiotics they had bought on the net. He’ll need to take these just in case of an infection. "Now what happened?" she said.

David had caught his breath and began to tell them how he had made it home and waited to see if his girlfriend would show up. Bobby had actually said she would go to grandma’s house because it was closer. It made sense, so they set out for the house. They had stopped in the evening behind an abandoned shop and took a nap and rested. When they woke up they started out again. They ran across a woman walking down the railroad tracks about a quarter mile away from here.

This woman looked like she had been through the ringer. She was maybe in her fifties, thin build, oversized clothes on, missing some teeth, ragged hair. When they encountered her, Bobby had said, “Look Dad, I think she’s a bum.” The woman had started walking up to him screaming and yelling about being called a bum and David told her to back off. He wasn’t armed and had no way to defend them. He tried to walk away, but she kept telling them, “You ain’t no better than me now, you gonna learn life’s hard knocks now.”

Bobby, being a typical 14-year-old kid, said “Shut up bum. You’re a bum and always will be.” He left David’s side and walked right up on her. David tried to call him back, but he didn’t listen. “Bum, bum, bum, bum,” he taunted. She swung her walking stick at him like a golf club and it glanced off his forehead at just the right angle, splitting it open. Being a facial wound, it bled like crazy. Bev thought how odd head wounds bleed like crazy, but aren’t that bad. David picked up rocks and starting throwing them at the woman and chased her away. He had grabbed Bobby then and rushed to the Halidays’.

* * *

Haliday had never been happier to see the Michigan border as he drove through. He felt better about being back in the state, but not about the current state of the situation. They were coming up on US12, aptly named Michigan Avenue. You could actually take this from downtown Detroit to downtown Chicago. No one really did this though, unless they wanted a sightseeing tour. Too many small towns and stops in between.

He kept looking for a place to pull off. He couldn’t continue driving for much longer and with the amount of time most likely left, the break would do him good. He looked over at Mike, who was hovering between sleep and consciousness. He asked him to look in the binder and see if there were any notes written in the margins regarding the area. Mike looked and said something about campground races.

Ah yes, he thought. The year Earnhardt senior had taken a fatal right run during a race, Haliday and the family had become weekend rednecks. They started following NASCAR very consistently. Rather than haul their camper to the track itself, they went about half an hour further to enjoy a small out the way campground. After his divorce, Haliday and Kayla continued the tradition each year up until she left for college.

He still knew the area very well. Since it was closed for the season, it might make a great place to stop for a while. He glanced down at the binder and got his bearings. He told Mike what the plan was. Mike offered to drive, but Haliday told him he needed to get out of the truck for a while and give his ribs some rest. “Besides,” he said, “the rest will do us all some good.”

They passed farm after farm of crops that had been cleared weeks ago. Corn and soy beans were the top crops. Over in Hillsdale, not far off, there used to be a Pillsbury plant that had closed a few years back. It just reminded him of what he took for granted. Pop the can open, biscuits in the oven, enjoy. Nope, home made from now on and for who knows how long.

He turned the lights off and approached the small dirt road that led to the campground. The main gate was about 200 yards off the main road. He told Mike to wait here for 20 minutes, then drive around the main gate and then the secondary gate and stop about 25 yards from the camp store. He told Kayla to come with him. They set off on foot toward the wood line.

Mike waited and then did as he had been instructed to do. When he got there, he placed it in park and noticed there was smoke coming from the stovepipe in the roof of the little store. He noticed a regular house trailer was attached to it. He then waited. He was going to make sure he thanked Haliday for using them as bait.

Just about five minutes later he heard a voice command them to exit the vehicle and put their hands up. Mike looked at Linda and they climbed out. A spotlight turned on and illuminated them. “Walk to the front of your truck and face the hood.” They complied. Max jumped down out of the truck and sat and watched the activity.

A man in his mid to late forties approached them. “Don’t get any bright ideas and try anything stupid,” he told them. “What’s your business here?” Mike looked at Linda.

Linda said, “We used to stay here, well, I did, years ago during the races. We are trying to get home and needed a place to stop. My ex husband thought this would be a good place.”

The guy looked at her. “What do you mean your ex?” he asked “Where is he?”

“I don’t honestly know exactly where he is, but I would assume he’s watching us right now.” The guy looked around and then looked back at them.

“Well, I have a few guys out there myself. Not sure he could handle them.” Linda was thinking the opposite.

Linda said, “Listen, we don’t want any trouble, we just wanted a place to stay for a bit while we rested. It’s been a rough few days and we are beat.”

The guy said, “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

“Are you the owner?” she asked

“Close enough,” was the reply. Linda went on to explain a few things.

“You still have the old Ms. Pacman in the arcade? Your boat rentals are actually across the main road by the dock. You keep a cinderblock on top of the dumpster to keep the raccoons out and a chain on it so the cinderblock doesn’t go missing. The pump out station has a sign that says ‘this here honey hole ain’t sweet, wash your hands before leaving’.”

The guy said, “Ok, sounds legitimate, but what we have here is quite a pickle. I’ll tell you what, you call your ex-husband in and we’ll go from there.”

Linda said, “Ok, but you call your guys in after that.”

“Deal,” he said.

Linda called out, “Roger, you hear that?” Roger appeared a couple minutes later. As he approached he watched a red dot dance across his body. He looked over and saw another dance off Mike.

He walked up, looked at the guy and said, “Hey George, thought you’d be gone by now.” George recognized him; he had seen him for five years now every August. George took over running the campground from his dad who had retired. That explained him not knowing Linda.

“Well, we were planning on it, but we still hadn’t finished the season. We extended it this year to host a Halloween weekend. Thought we would make a few extra bucks.”

George whistled and two guys came walking up, one with a hand held spotlight. These were George’s two sons who helped him run the campground now then closed up each year before they all headed to Florida for the winter. Max walked over and inspected them then walked back to Haliday and looked at him as if to acknowledge his approval of the guys. “Want a dog?” Roger asked.

Linda said, “Kayla will be mad─keep it up.”

Haliday asked him if he knew what was going on. George told him that he listened to the campers enough to know some were preppers or survivalists or whatever they called themselves. He had taken some basic precautions himself. He figured it was serious when everything went dark. He had used the old tractor to go into town to confirm this. He said he went back as soon as possible and bought as much food as he could before people figured out there wouldn’t be any soon.

George said, "I never figured you to be one of those folks."

Haliday said, "What kind of folks do you mean?" George didn’t really say anything he just shrugged his shoulders. Haliday said, “Ready, I’m just ready.”

George looked at Haliday; “Hey can I ask you a question Roger? She mentioned Kayla. Where’s your daughter? Is she at school?” George was shocked by the answer.

“No sir, she’s out there with a bead on you guys as we speak.”

George looked around. “You can call her in.” Haliday had noticed the two lasers and knowing he only had two sons he was comfortable calling Kayla in. Kayla came walking in.

“Dad, it’s cold out here,” she looked and said, “Hi Mr. George.”

“Hi sweetie,” he said. “Let’s all go inside.” They walked inside and it was warm and comfortable in there. Kayla stood by the wood stove to warm up a bit.

“George, you going to call in your third man or leave him out there?” George laughed, went to the porch of the store and blinked his flashlight a couple times.

"How did you know?" he said.

Haliday said he saw smoke from three of the rental cabins. “I figured someone was out there. Two cabins, one for each son, you in the main trailer and someone in the third cabin.”

“What about you Roger, any more surprises?”

“No sir. Thank you for letting us in George.”

The winter caretaker walked in and George asked him to let their wives know it was ok. He went and told them and they all returned from hiding somewhere. They talked a bit about what was going on and what had transpired, but Haliday didn’t share a lot of details about any of the gunplay. Last thing they would want to hear and they might not trust them then.

“How did you know we were here George, your alarm system working?”

“Oh, hell no. We used some fishing line and tied it across the driveway by the main road. When you tripped it, that pulled a stick out from under a can full of rocks. These rocks would fall on a couple of more empty cans to make even more noise.” They had made sure they ran it across some trees to use the bark to help keep the line from sagging too much. Crude, but it worked. George looked at the caretaker. “You mind?” he said. The caretaker said, “No problem,” and then went to reset the alarm.

The lasers and spotlights were unusual as well. After asking about them it seems this was a good time of year for spotlighting deer. Haliday didn’t care about that. He asked them if they were set for food and everything. He didn’t expect George to tell him much, but George actually filled him in on everything.

He had hit the local Sam’s club in town, where he often bought a lot of supplies for the campground. He had towed the trailer he normally used for fire wood delivery behind the tractor. They managed to get a couple hundred pounds of rice, about 12 cases each of canned fruit, canned vegetables and beans. Also some flour and other items.

They paid cash of course and he figured George kept most of the cash from the campground to hide from the IRS, so he had enough on hand. Plus he had what was left in the camp store. He told them at Sam’s it was for the last big party they were having. Not sure the people realized otherwise as it hadn’t even been 24 hours yet since it happened.

They’d make spring with no problems, so long as no one got to them here. Haliday said, “Hide it. Hide it all and not all in one place. Keep your guard up too. In the next few weeks they’ll remember who was buying what and they’ll want it. But, back to the business at hand. Can we rest for about six hours?”

“Sure thing,” George said. “We’ll keep guard for ya.”

Haliday said, “We’ll help you stay awake.” No sense in waking up dead, he thought. They slept in shifts, but they had let Haliday sleep the whole six hours.

Chapter 12

Dawn, Diana and Karen were making about 5mph and were a couple hours into the trip with only about an hour to go. They didn’t have to stop at all which was nice. They did get a lot of questions about what they had, where they were going and of course people asking for handouts. Diana was driving now with Karen in the passenger seat. Dawn would stand up in the back seat, rifle at the ready, whenever they were approached.

Haliday had shown her a dual 10/22 Gatling gun monstrosity as a joke and she had actually wanted one mounted on the roll bar. Haliday laughed it off, but she was thinking it might not have been a bad idea. 22lr’s were not quite battle tested, but then again, nobody likes to leak blood. Would have been like getting stung from a bee hive but only worse.

Dawn was listening in on the ham when she heard Roger call Bev’s house. "How’s everything going?" he had asked. Bev filled them in on David’s event. He pretty much thought as much. The city they lived in was north of Detroit and the auto industry was its primary job source. Over the years, it had become almost like a smaller Dearborn with a heavy Middle Eastern presence, but with a lot of Eastern European mix as well. It was quite a melting pot. Throw in the mass amounts of apartment complexes and it was outright dangerous right now.

Haliday said, “Ok, it’s time for you guys to get moving. You need to pack up everything and everyone and get going now. I want you to head over to my place. I’m about six hours out now and leaving here in an hour or less. When I get there’ll we’ll get things ready for the long haul.”

“What about Alan and his family, we’re still waiting for them.” Oh boy, he thought. This was going to be a delicate situation to handle.

“Ok ,” he said, “let me put it to you guys like this. So far, I’ve shot at about a dozen guys, I know I’ve dropped at least four, I’ve been shot at and hit, and Kayla has been shot at and had to shoot someone, Mike and Linda have been shot at and I don’t even know if they dropped anyone. Things are that screwed up. Everywhere we go it looks like we will be eating lead. This country is out of control and getting worse by the minute.

“You get out now or you don’t get out at all. Sit and wait for anyone else and you might as well start digging your graves. You will have to hope Alan and his family are doing what they need to do in order to make it right now. That’s the best you can do right now. I hope you guys understand. It’s about all of you right now, not just any one person or part of the family.”

Bev wasn’t happy one bit. In her eyes it would have been the whole family uniting and moving out. She and Rich talked a bit. Rich called Randy, Kevin, David and Sarah into the kitchen. He told them to get things packed up and ready to go. He handed them a list of instructions and told David to delegate the duties but make sure it all got done. They would do what they could to help.

Dawn, Diana and Karen just looked at the radio in awe. “Holy crap,” they all said. They had it made compared to what they had just heard, with the exception of Dawn’s little incident. They had more ambition now to get the hell out of there. They kept moving on. They were only a couple miles away from their destination now. It was totally different here and they were only 20 miles north of Haliday’s house.

In the garage over at the Halidays’ was another 5X8 trailer. This one was loaded similar to Dawn’s. They did the same thing, going through the house and triple-checking everything. Bev left a note on the top of the entertainment center. It was cryptic, but whoever was reading it would know what it meant if they were supposed to know. It gave them instructions on what to do and where to go.

David called Randy and Kevin over. “We are going to go out the back door, over to the corner of the yard and get the Cherokee from under the tarp. I’ll drive it around to the front and back it up to the garage door. Open the door when I get there. I’ll back up to the trailer and connect it. You guys have to stand guard.” They proceeded with their plan.

The Cherokee was an ’84 with about 120,000 miles on it. They had it reworked and kept it in good running order. They rarely drove it, just enough to keep it clean and running. The old Cherokees were almost bulletproof with the inline six cylinders, automatic tranny and lever activated 4X4. Small, but durable and dependable. Great for converting to a BOV.

* * *

Diana turned the ATV down the driveway. She looked around and saw the barn manager coming down toward them. Mandy, the barn manager, was a woman in her early forties, blonde, thin, attractive, but weathered from the outdoor lifestyle and the tattoos didn’t help much either.

She greeted them and assumed they were here for the horses. “I guess you guys are getting out of Dodge.”

“That’s the plan,” Diana said. “Maybe later tonight or early tomorrow, we’re not sure when.”

Mandy said, “It looks like you have a place to go.” Dawn said they had been invited to stay at a friend’s, but left it at that.

Dawn and Diana had two horses. One, a Quarter Horse mare named Trixie that was really just ridden for mere pleasure, and a Fjord they called Thor because he was a big solid brute. He was a beefy draft horse and well trained in a wide variety of riding styles, but more importantly able to pull a cart. They’d be using these horses.

They looked around the barn and pastures. The barn had about 18 horses total and they were all out in the pastures right now. They asked Mandy what her plans were. “Well,” she answered, “if I go anywhere I’ll take mine and cut the rest of them loose. They can wander and graze off the grasslands. I’ll throw all the hay out too. That’s the best I can do. Not that I have family nearby or a place to go.”

Dawn asked how much feed she had left. Jerry the barn owner had stocked them up with enough hay for the winter and grain for about 90 days. “What about you, Mandy?”

She said she had about six weeks of stock in the house or maybe a bit more. “I know how to hunt,” she added, “and maybe I’ll see about taking a deer or two to stock up. Freezer in the lodge should stay cold enough with no heat in there this winter.”

Dawn asked Diana and Karen to come with her and talk. When they returned they proposed a deal for Mandy. “You cut the horse rations in half and that will get them to spring, but you have to watch their hay as well. We’ll leave you with another supply of food good for about four months. Nothing special, just basics. Cut it back and you can make it to spring as well. The chickens in the back will help you out with eggs and the goat’s milk is good for you too.”

Mandy asked, "What happens in spring?"

“We can’t tell you. We don’t know. But we’ll check in on you then,” Dawn answered.

Mandy said, “What the hell, why not.” Dawn told her they were going to park by the little lodge house and would get with her before they left. She called Haliday and let him know they had arrived ok.

* * *

David had backed the old Cherokee up to the garage and they opened the garage door. He connected the trailer and pulled out of the garage. The neighbors had heard the Cherokee start and it drew a lot of curious onlookers. Quite a few started to gather around. A few started to ask them what they had and where they were going.

Rich, Bev, Sarah, Elizabeth and Bobby came out. They closed the garage door and locked it down. They started to get in but had to figure out the seating arrangements. Elizabeth, Sarah and Bobby were the smallest and had to ride in the very back cargo area. David and Rich up front, Bev, Randy and Kevin in the back seat.

As they were getting ready to leave a few people from the crowd starting getting closer, demanded to know what they had. David told everyone to get in. The crowd had grown to about 35 people now. They had seen the rare vehicle running around here and there, but with this one having a trailer, they figured it had something good in it.

They moved to block the driveway. Some lady yelled that they had to share if they had food. Bev said, “We’re not welfare, we’re not sharing anything.” Randy fired a round into the ground and pointed the shotgun at the crowd. Half ran away and the other half just moved aside. He jumped in and they took off. About 12 miles north to Roger’s house, but a day’s walk for these people.

Sarah asked if they could stop at her trailer to check for Erik. This would add about eight miles onto their trek. Rich said they needed to get to Roger’s house first and then he would send Randy and Kevin to the trailer to check it out. "Can I go too?" she asked.

Rich told her no. “You need to stay with Elizabeth. It’ll take them a half hour─tops to get there and back. That’ll have to do.” He knew Erik would not be there, but couldn’t dash her hopes.

* * *

Haliday walked over to the Tahoe with Mike. Linda and Kayla were inside with George and his family finishing breakfast. They only had coffee and oatmeal with brown sugar, but it was nice to sit down and enjoy something hot and fresh. When they finished, they would change into regular clothes and go help Haliday and Mike.

“What’s the plan Roger?”

He told Mike that they were going to strip the magnetic light bar off and toss it in the back. Next they pulled the KLR off. Roger began peeling off the DHS decals on the bike. “Mike, go ahead and slowly start peeling them off the Tahoe. Go slowly and pull it back onto itself so that the vinyl doesn’t tear. Don’t leave pieces on the truck at all. I’ll help you when I’m done with these.”

The Tahoe was stripped now and appeared to be just a plain old Tahoe except for the spotlight. Nothing he could do about that though. Haliday grabbed a bucket from George’s storage shed and filled it with water from a hand pump. He pulled out a stiff wire bristle brush and started washing the KLR down. The white paint started coming off and revealed plain OD green.

Haliday had used a half dozen coats of washable paint and sprayed it on to get a good finish. He had then used a clear coat, which held the paint on until it was brushed off. The decals were last to go on. The bike was OD green originally, but he needed white for the DHS look. They loaded it back on the Tahoe. The truck was now ready to go.

Kayla and Linda helped clean up and then went outside to help, but found them ready to go. “Watch this while we change.” They went back inside and changed. Haliday put on his Best Buy Camo, khaki pants and blue polo shirt. They then went back outside. George walked out as well.

“Well, looks like you are ready to go; I wish you the best of luck,” he said.

“You too George,” he told him.

“Roger, any advice?”

“I have a bunch, but not that much time. Here’s the Readers Digest version.

“Store as much water as you can. Hide as much of your food as you can in case you get raided. Let them take what they want. No sense in shooting anyone if you don’t have to.” There was a contradiction, he thought. “If you do have to shoot, shoot to kill, don’t leave anyone alive. Hunt for food now, eat that first and save your stores for as long as you can. Beef up your security, add traps and stuff.

“I would consider moving everyone into the main trailer there. Otherwise it’s easy to take you out one at a time. Safety in numbers. Privacy is out the door now anyway. Don’t go into town unless you absolutely have to. Bad decision either way, I mean if someone is dying that’s one thing, but otherwise stay away. No hospitals or clinics are open and if they are open they are full of disease.”

“What about FEMA and other help agencies? Won’t they be coming?” George asked

Haliday told him, “It’s been three days. I haven’t heard of any movement to help people at all. Ran into a small group of troops in Indiana that got orders the first day, but even they had been waiting and as far as I know they were still waiting now. I wouldn’t count on much yet George, especially from the government. Hell, we don’t even know what happened exactly.”

That was the thing that really bothered him. Of all of the radio traffic on the ham he had listened to, he didn’t hear anything about the government other than that one original broadcast for troops to report. He hadn’t even heard that again. That was one of the reasons to go back to the civilian version of the Tahoe. Too many people would be looking for government help.

“George, I can’t thank you enough for the hospitality. You have a 22 rifle?”

“I sure do, keep it around for the small varmints.”

Haliday walked to the Tahoe and returned with a brick of 22lr’s. “Here ya go,” he said, “save them for small game. Good hunting and good luck folks.” They climbed in and started to pull away. Haliday quickly stopped, got out, and George asked him what he forgot. A quick whistle and Max came running; he paused to give Haliday the evil eye before jumping into the truck. Then they left.

He took the back roads like they used to do when heading to the track. They were able to avoid all of the traffic that way and he knew other than Hillsdale, there was nothing out there. Hillsdale itself was easy enough to get through, just a few lights and stop signs was all. They drove along and made it through with no problems.

Since this was farm country, there were a lot of tractors on the road compared to by the cities. A lot of them loaded up with household goods, Haliday wondered where they were going. No telling what people were doing, hopefully they were banding together. Hopefully people were figuring out they needed each other to survive.

He popped back up onto US12 and looked down the road. This really didn’t seem too bad at all. He looked at Mike. “I’m going to run US12 down a ways and then head north. Ann Arbor is going to be in bad shape and we can’t get that close.” They made it over to 52 and headed north. Haliday kept glancing at the binder. He was close to where he needed to head east, but also had to skirt around a lot of populated areas.

Everything considered, he was doing quite well on the travel time. At this rate, it would be just about three hours tops. He started paying attention more closely to the homes in the areas he passed. He could tell who had fireplaces and who didn’t. Just how much firewood they had would be another question. These people were used to having fires once in a while for atmosphere or romantic settings and not for heat. The homes were not designed to be heated with the fireplaces around here; just not efficient enough.

He always liked the idea of a fireplace, but the practicality of a wood stove for heating was better. Unfortunately he never got around to putting one in. He bought one, but it sat uninstalled in his garage. The stove was one thing, but when he went to buy the hearth stone and wall board along with pipe and roof vent, it got expensive and he always put it off. Three years now actually.

He had gone as far as to even stack free wood when he got it. He had about three full cords which would have been enough for the winter. He was sure the neighbors would use it. Someone would use it for sure, but not him. It would disappear very quickly. Hungry people are one thing, but cold and hungry is another.

They pulled over so he could check the maps and come up with a route. He wanted to avoid Howell and started laying out the route. “Write this down Mike.” He spit out the instructions and Mike wrote them down. “You might have to call out the directions as we go, ok?” Mike said “Ok.” The ham went off.

“Roger, it’s David, we have a problem.”

Haliday said "Hey, nice to hear from you brother. Been a while. Actually, a couple of months." That was the conversation where David had said a couple weeks worth of supplies was plenty. Bet he thinks differently now, he thought. "What’s going on?" Haliday asked him. David went on to explain the situation.

“We got to your house without encountering any trouble. When we got there though, we noticed someone had worked a hole through one of the windows in back. It wasn’t a very big hole, though. We checked the door wall to the deck and sure enough it was open. We went inside to check it out. Everything is gone.” Haliday had to think about this a minute. “Damn,” he said.

“David, is my cat ok?”

David said, “Yes, he was under the covers on your bed. Looks like his food and water is still ok. Roger, aren’t you upset?”

“Yes I am, but what am I going to do about it right now?” he said. “Is everything gone?”

David said, “Yes, cupboards are empty, closets were searched, attic was checked. It looks like it’s all gone. Not sure what you had though. Safe in the bedroom was open and guns are all gone too.”

“I have those with me,” Haliday answered.

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.

Chapter 13

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.

He went in the garage and looked around. He spotted a five gallon can of gas that was almost full. He went and dumped it in the Tahoe. He went back in the garage and walked over to Alan and Nancy’s Harleys. He pulled the fuel line from the tanks and emptied them into the gas can and dumped that in the Tahoe as well. He got about an extra 10 gallons total, which was good enough.

He loaded everyone up and looked around. People were just standing there. To him it almost looked like the zombie apocalypse. These people looked that far out of it. Unshaven facial hair, unwashed hair, dirty clothes, dirty faces, blank stares and that look of despair. What the hell were they waiting for? These were upper middle class, who thought they were immune to disaster and probably counted on a government rescue. Wait until the lower class gets a hold of them. Wait until they turn on each other.

He was thinking about the note saying the kids made it home from school. Since Kayla was in college he hadn’t really thought about that. He wasn’t worried about the junior high or high school kids. What the hell did they do with the smaller elementary school kids? Did you turn loose a 5 or 6-year-old? Hell, a 7 or 8-year-old? That was scary to even think about. In some areas they needed buses to get home.

He guessed that they might have food for a while at the schools, but eventually that would run out. What about the staff? How long were they willing to stay and watch them if that was even the case. Would people be able to walk there, pick up their kids and make it home? With so many people relying on two family incomes to live, he wasn’t sure how many would have been close enough. He didn’t really want to think about it.

Mike said, “Hey, we going to get back on the road?”

“Oh ya, I was just thinking.”

“Thinking about what?”

“Nothing really.” There was no sense in sharing his concern with the rest of them; there was nothing they could do anyway. The thought of kids in school or abandoned haunted him a bit. It was time to get home now though. He pulled out of the neighborhood ready to get home.

“Listen Mike, what do you say we run the highways as far as we can go?” Mike asked if that was risky.

“Well, it’s the quickest way to get back home and there might be some issues, but look at it like this. We’ll be clear of Detroit, so we are avoiding that sewage dump. I figure we have an hour and a half using the highways or four if we use the county roads and smaller streets.

“I think it’s worth the risk. Too many little cities on the county roads, the gas mileage sucked, and the highways should be clear of people as they most likely found their way into the neighborhoods and I’m betting we only have to dodge cars. I’m tired, I’m sore, and I want the hell out of this damn truck.”

“Do it Dad,” Kayla said.

Linda said, “Whatever Mike thinks is good with me.”

And Mike said, “Ya, let’s do it.”

He knew the way home from here and he was ready to get there. He dreaded making this call. Everyone was still listening and waiting for the report when he came back on the air.

He had dumped the radio protocol long ago and as long as he didn’t reveal last names or locations, no one knew who they were, where they were, or what their plans were. Everyone else understood this as well, so he just clicked the mic and laid it all out there.

“You guys out there?” He got the two responses. “Ok listen. Alan’s house was empty. It appears Nancy was home and the kids made it home ok. They waited and then packed up and went to a friend’s house. No idea who, no idea where. There’s no sign of Alan, he might have made it home and then went there later, I don’t know.”

Bev asked him if he checked the area.

“No, not at all. I kept an eye out for his truck around the general area as we drove in, but we are getting back on the road now.”

“Can you just look around a bit more?” she asked.

“No.” He left it at. She didn’t argue the point either. She knew it would be a losing battle with Roger. Roger understood the endgame more than anyone else here. He was thinking about his brother in Missouri and sister in Texas, wondering how they were doing right now.

It was late afternoon now and would be dark in a couple more hours. On the highways there was the occasional vehicle, but not many. He did notice a couple people looking through cars and just figured them to be looters. He kept telling himself, just three lousy days. The zoo gates opened and the animals were set free.

After dodging the cars for about an hour he was heading north on one of the main roads called Telegraph and hung a right on Square Lake road. This would dump him onto I75 for about a mile where he would pick up 59 East back toward his house. He couldn’t help himself; the hospital was too close to pass up. He could hang a left, pass by, then within another five minutes jump on M59 directly.

He passed the hospital slowly. It was just a big dark building lurking there as dusk set in. In another 30 to 45 minutes, it would be totally dark. He looked at all the buildings on the property and it was clearly evident they had been ransacked a long time ago. He had no idea who was left in the building and he didn’t care. No doubt the residents of this place they called Ponticrack had done a thorough job taking what they wanted.

He popped up unto 59 and headed east. It was like déjà vu. He remembered all of the cars being here and the trip he made with the old man within just an hour of the event. He was passing by the little strip mall and saw that the grocery store had the windows broken out and just as he predicted, it was completely empty.

He pulled into the parking lot and slowly drove by. Definitely empty. He drove by the pizza joint and noticed it too was empty, nothing at all, not even the pop. He pulled out onto the road and started to head for home. Just another mile, that was it. They would be home, they would not be there long, but it was still home.

Kayla screamed out, “Stop Dad, stop!” He hit the brakes hard. Max had taken up residence on the center console and tumbled forward. He looked up at Haliday, who just smiled. They had a love-hate relationship, they loved to hate each other. What was it he missed? He started looking around.

“There,” Kayla said, pointing away from the Tahoe.

“What?”

“Over there Dad,” and she pointed out the window.

“Ok, I guess I’m blind, I’m not seeing it.”

“It’s Blake Dad, from school.”

“What school?”

“High school Dad, he played football.”

“Ok, it’s Blake. Let’s get home.”

“Wait Dad. Hey Blake, come here.” The kid came walking up slowly then a little quicker when he recognized her. Kayla jumped out causing Haliday to jump out too and draw his pistol in case of trouble. Kayla gave the kid a big hug.

“Dad, you know Blake.”

He looked at the kid and said, “Ya, thanks for the pizza.”

“No problem Mr. Haliday.”

“Why didn’t you say something the other day? I didn’t recognize you. Of course, whenever I saw you it was during the football games and you had a helmet on.” Kayla had been a cheerleader since 7^th grade and into her first year of college, After that she decided to work to help pay tuition. “It’s been a couple years since then too,” he added.

Kayla asked Blake how he was doing.

“Well, I went back to the pizza shop and took the flour and all of the canned pizza sauce and took it home. I used my mom’s garden cart for that. I only started at the pizzeria a couple weeks ago, so I didn’t have a lot of money but bought some stuff from the grocery store before it closed for good. I saw it get looted this morning, there was nothing left after only a couple hours.”

“How’s your mom?” Kayla asked.

Blake looked down at the ground. He lived with his mom who was widowed. He and Kayla were like brother and sister with Kayla having lived at home with Haliday, who was single as well. They had a connection based on that, but that was it. She had helped him get through Spanish in high school and he helped her with her math. Then there was student council and football and all that other stuff they both belonged to.

Blake just looked up at her but didn’t say anything. Haliday sensed something wrong. “Blake, is she sick or hurt? Does she need help? Take me there and I’ll see what I can do.”

“She’s not home,” he said.

“Does she work near here? Was she at work?”

“No,” he said. “She went on a cruise with my grandma. They would have been at sea when the power went out.” Oh shit, Haliday thought. Another thing to consider.

If the ship got hit they would just be floating around out there. He wondered what would happen. No bilge control pumps, no water desalination, no way to cook really and thousands of people on a small floating hell just drifting wherever the current would take them. He shuddered at the thought. Mike and Linda had gotten out of the truck at this point.

“Kayla, grab the Tahoe, back it into Blake’s driveway and wait for us there. Mike, you and Linda go with her. We’ll meet you there.” The driveway was only about 150 yards down. “I need the walk. I need to talk to Blake here as well.” They went to Blake’s and waited for them to get there.

“Blake, you have any family close by?”

“No sir.”

“Where’s the closest family you have?”

“My aunt is in Kentucky and my grandpa, who didn’t go on the cruise, is in Florida.”

“Any close family friends around here?”

“No sir.”

“What have you been doing the last few days?”

“Well sir, I boarded up the windows of the house and hid everything inside. That’s about it. I looked around in the garage for stuff I could use. I found some firewood for the fireplace, but not much. I was going out to look for some more for tonight because I ran out.”

Haliday and Blake reached Blake’s house at that point. “Kayla, take Linda to the house, get Randy and Kevin and bring them back here and I mean quickly. Bring the Cherokee. Bring flashlights too. It’s getting dark. Make sure they have firearms. Make sure the house is secured and everyone is on high alert. We got a lot of people watching us right now.”

“What are you going to do Dad?”

“We’re going to get Blake here packed up and bring him along.” Kayla started to cry a little bit.

Blake looked at him and said, “I don’t know what to say.”

“Well, for starters, you say thank you, secondly, that you will abide by the rules, and third that you will pull your weight around the homestead. Final item, she’s off limits,” he pointed to Kayla. “Now, just so you know, we aren’t staying around this area. We’ll be leaving in the morning. Is that a problem?”

“No Sir, not at all, and thank you.”

The group arrived and Haliday had them back up close to the door. Next they went inside and he had Blake show them where all the food was. They piled it into the living room. He helped Blake pack clothing and some personal things. Next he told Blake to grab anything of value like jewelry or coins or anything he could use to trade. He told Blake these would be his bartering items and no one else’s.

He walked the house with Blake and then the garage to see if there was anything else. In the garage was an older Yamaha 250. “Does it run Blake?”

“Ya, but I don’t have any gas in it.” Haliday told Randy to grab some. There were a couple jerry cans on the back of the Cherokee. He grabbed one and dumped a little in the bike. They’d be taking that too.

“What about firearms Blake?”

“I don’t have any.”

“You know how to use them?” He shook his head no. “Well, there’ll be a crash course tonight or tomorrow morning. You’ll be expected to use them if we need to, any problems with that?”

“No sir.”

“Ok, we’re heading over to my house now, anything else you need here?”

“Just one second please.” He ran into his bedroom and grabbed a handful of pictures out of his nightstand drawer and a small picture frame with a picture of his mom in it.

He grabbed a black marker and wrote on the wall, he didn’t want any notes blowing away or getting lost. Went with Kayla and her dad, be back, he looked at Mr. Haliday. “Spring, Blake, in spring.” Be back in spring, he wrote, I love you Mom. Blake’s eyes were glossy. Randy, Kevin and Mike had thrown everything into the Cherokee and Randy wheeled the Yamaha out front for Blake. Blake closed everything up in the house, and then made sure the bike started. They all went back to Haliday’s.

When they pulled in, they put the Yamaha and Tahoe in the garage. They pulled the Cherokee around back and locked it up tight and put a steering wheel lock on it. A good old fashioned “the club” came in handy now that alarms were useless. They double-checked everything and went inside.

There were lots of hugs, kisses and tears. It had been a hell of a trip. There were a lot of questions, but not a lot of answers right now. There’ll be plenty of time to talk soon enough. He had introduced Blake to everyone as well. “He’ll be treated like family,” he added. “Anyone have problems with that it’s too bad.

“Now, first off, we get security set for the night, and then we eat and sleep.” Haliday called Dawn and told her they were back. “Make sure you’re ready to move out in the morning.”

She said, “Glad you’re back safe. Talk to you in the morning.”

“See you guys soon,” he said. He hoped they would all make it.

Haliday went into his bedroom and into his bathroom. He took his shirts off and looked at his abdomen. The bruise was about the size of a basketball. Damn that had hurt. He left it unwrapped and powdered his skin then put a shirt on. After that he went back into the living room. He saw the kerosene heater there running and stood by it for a minute. Fall was here and winter was well on its way.

He just looked around. He went and checked the closets and cupboards. He shook his head from side to side. “Is it all gone?” Bev asked.

“No, not really, a drop in the bucket considering,” he answered back. “About two month’s worth of canned goods and dry goods.” Still it made him angry. He peeked in the garage, but didn’t comment.

He called for a meeting. Everyone gathered around. “Look,” he said, “this hasn’t gone as planned and it’s probably not going to be any easier. This is what we have to accomplish in the morning and through tomorrow night.” He laid out the objectives and asked if there were any questions. No one had any. He wandered off to his bed and crashed hard. Morning would be here soon, and then it was back on the road.

Chapter 14

Haliday got up and walked out into the living room. Everybody else was already up. He looked around and they all looked at him. He went back into the bedroom and put on some clothes. He was used to walking around either naked or in just his underwear, thank goodness he had his underwear on. He looked down at his cat, seemed like he had made a friend with the mutant dog. “Romeo, you’re a traitor,” he said. Bev’s cats could have cared less about the dog.

When he walked back out into the living room, he could see them cooking breakfast and could smell fresh coffee in the percolator. David said, “Nice bruise I saw there, how did that happen?”

Roger said, “Long story. Thank goodness for body armor.” Blake was at the griddle making pancakes. There was a pitcher of Tang too. This kid may be alright if he stays away from Kayla. Everyone ate and then enjoyed some coffee before getting to work.

He called Dawn, but Diana answered. “You guys ready to go,” he asked.

“Pretty much, I guess.”

“Well, get started as soon as you can. It’s going to take you guys a little bit longer to meet us at the first checkpoint. Do the same thing, use tight security. Is your mom able to drive the ranger ok?” She said she could with no problem. “Ok then, let me know as soon as you guys head out.”

Haliday asked David to get the Tahoe hooked up to his trailer. David couldn’t figure out why Haliday wanted it in front of Kayla’s bedroom window, but figured he was just tired when he had asked or maybe it was closer for loading. He had the biggest trailer out of the group. He had a 7X16 dual axle, with extra height and a ramp door. “Put it right at the walkway with the ramp on the cement. That will make it easier to load.”

David looked at him and told him there wasn’t much and they could have it loaded up in 10 minutes. “I don’t think so David. Just do me a favor and do it please.” David and Kevin went outside and got it hooked up and moved. They then backed the Cherokee up to the garage door, but didn’t open it or connect the other trailer yet. They just wanted it ready.

David said “Ok guys; get the stuff in the garage into the trailer.” “No, no, no,” Haliday interjected. “There’s a specific loading plan I have in mind. This way everything will fit.”

Bev said, “Roger, in case you forgot you don’t have much to load.”

“Ya, that’s what you think?” They all looked at him.

“Listen up, this is the drill. Linda, Kayla, you guys will stand guard on the trailer and in front of the house and door. One on each side, make sure you can see each other and up and down the street and around the sides of the house. Mom and Sarah you do the same thing, but in back.” He gave them each a plastic whistle he had bought at a novelty store for two bucks a dozen. “Whistle if ya need us.

“Dad, I want you up in the front of the trailer to direct the load. No heavy lifting, just observe and instruct. I don’t have an AED and we can’t deal with heart problems.” Rich had stents put in years back and had suffered a heart attack then. “The rest of you will form a bucket brigade, and I mean that literally.” David and Kevin came back in. He stationed them between the front door and just inside Kayla’s bedroom. Sarah’s daughter just stood and watched.

Haliday walked over to Kayla’s closet. It wasn’t big, it was just a typical wall closet that spanned the width of the wall and was about two feet deep. He knelt down off to one side, moved a bunch of various items and grabbed the edge of the carpet and pulled up hard. Under the carpet there was a small hatch about 24X32 inches. He had cut a small finger hole in it and managed to pull it up. He reached down and hit a switch and it lit up.

David was there in the room with him. “What the hell is all that going on down there?”

Roger just looked at him and smiled. “Well, put all your eggs in one basket and you’re screwed if you trip on your way to the market. I planned on possibly tripping, so I built this. It took time to do it without anyone knowing, but when it was done it worked like a charm.”

Haliday’s house sat on a Michigan basement. It was only a little more than six feet deep and looked more like a crawl space from the road. But it was all concrete floor and cinder block walls. In the back of the house was a large half door to access it. You opened that door and took a couple small steps down and you were there. The furnace, hot water heater, well pump, sump pump and water softener were down there.

When you looked around you saw a square basement. Cinder block walls, waterproofed, with one inch foam insulation glued to the walls. It was solid all the way around. You could peel off the foam and scrape the waterproofing, but you still had cinderblock. No big deal. Why the builder had never gone another two blocks to make it a full basement though, he never figured out. Haliday was the second owner and didn’t know why it was never done, except maybe the water table was too high.

Haliday’s house however had a unique shape. When you approached it there was an attached garage on the left that jutted out, Kayla’s bedroom on the right that jutted out, and the walkway to the porch which was in the middle. Kind of a “U” shape. There was no crawl space under the garage for obvious reasons, but there was under Kayla’s room.

He had started in her room by cutting in the hatch access and reinforcing the joists. Then he would bring cinder blocks and mortar through the garage and down the hatch where he sectioned off the area under her bedroom. After going in the main section and applying the waterproofing and insulation along with a few small touches, it looked completely natural.

The hatch being in the closet was in a space no one walked on so it would not have that flexing give that most floor hatches had. Being a typical high school girl, no one wanted to go near the closet anyway. Too much teenage girl stuff lying around. Haliday didn’t like going near it. He never cleaned it because it reminded him of Kayla, and he would glance in there when he was missing her.

With this being done, Haliday had a cache right at the house that was 10X12 and a bit over six foot deep. This was loaded with buckets upon buckets of food and cases of food and other supplies. He never stored water because he backed a small lake and would filter it or filter water from the sump. He was still on well and could power the well pump too.

He had gone with square buckets to save on space. Round buckets were cheaper, easier to get, but square really saved space and made a big difference. He did have some round ones too, but not too many. He jumped down into the crawl area. He looked around. Everything was still here. This was great news.

He climbed out and David asked if everything was ok. “Ya, I just need one of the kids down there lifting instead of me. I won’t be able to do it.” He switched places with Blake. “You’re going to earn your keep today, Blake.”

“I don’t mind Mr. Haliday.” He preferred being called Roger, but wasn’t going to let this kid get too comfortable too quickly.

“Start with the square ones Blake.” Blake started handing up bucket after bucket which made its way to the trailer. The first row was in, 48 of them fit. Labels read basmati rice, jasmine rice, par boiled rice, lentils, red beans, navy beans, split peas, black beans, barley, sugar, flour, and it went on and on.

They got four rows in before it became time for the round buckets; there were only two rows of round ones though. Next were cases of #10 cans and boxes of other supplies. Paper products too. Haliday grabbed his shirt and pulled it up on his head and started walking around with toilet paper. “I need TP for my bunghole. I need TP for my bunghole. I am Conrholio.” Nobody else got the Beavis and Butthead imitation though.

Haliday went into the spare bedroom he used as an office and walked over to the closet. It had a modular closet system in it. He yanked the pole down, grabbed a hold of the sides and pried them loose. Next he removed the back section and revealed some small shelves and more rifles and shotguns hanging in plastic bags coated I oil with desiccant packs in the bags. These were loaded up as well as some ammo that was in there.

After this was all loaded up, the stuff from the garage went in as well. There was barely enough room for Blake’s Yamaha, but they would make it fit. Roger told them to pull the Tahoe forward, load the bike up and close the trailer. They put Romeo and Max in a cage and put them in the trucks. They heard a whistle. Everyone grabbed a weapon and ran outside. There had been a crowd watching from nearby, but now they started getting really close.

“Randy, go around back and help. Kevin you watch out front. Blake get that garage door opened up and the rest of you get the drum of gas emptied into the vehicles and into any spare gas cans. Everyone stay calm, but on alert.” Haliday walked out toward the front to see what was going on.

He made a concerted effort to slap a magazine in his AR180 and jack a round in the chamber. This of course was for effect. He had unloaded it before he went out there just so he could put on a show and let them know he meant business. Besides, everyone else was locked and loaded already. “Get all of the vehicles hitched up and ready to roll,” he hollered.

As they were checking the vehicles and trailers to make sure they were ready to go, the crowd moved in closer yet. There were quite a few neighbors he recognized, but a lot of people he didn’t. They began demanding that they tell them what they had in the trailers. Haliday shouted out "it’s none of your concern." They kept yelling out that they wanted to know. Haliday slightly raised his rifle; he called the group from the back of the house to the front then and told them to watch the rear and sides from where they were.

“Go ahead and shoot us. You ain’t got the balls.” Haliday eyeballed the guy who said it and noticed he had a baseball cap on. River Bend Apartments was stitched on the front. Of course, half mile south he had 10 complexes of various sizes. He would take daily walks around the neighborhood all the time scoping out who lived where, who had what, who might be prepared or who might be problems. He figured the apartments would be all trouble.

“Look man, we’re leaving ok, no problems need to arise. We’re out of here in two minutes.”

The guy walked up a bit closer to the front of the crowd and said, “Bullshit; we ain’t letting you leave with that shit.” He turned around and took a shotgun from another guy in the crowd. He turned back around. “You look like you got plenty to share.”

Haliday said, “Look, that ain’t going to happen.” Haliday’s next door neighbor Phil was standing outside now watching. Haliday looked over at him and nodded. Phil nodded back. His kids walked out onto the porch and Haliday looked over at them. One of them was sucking on a pouch of peanut butter from an MRE. She was also holding a small doll. She didn’t grasp the lethality of the situation.

More and more people were demanding that they share. The guy from the apartment complex was the loudest. “We’re going to give you to the count of 10. After that we’re taking it, asshole.” Haliday quickly looked at his group. He then scanned the other group. Most were just standing around empty handed, a bunch had knives and a few had various guns visible.

Haliday noticed a neighbor across the street standing on his porch. He didn’t really know this neighbor, but had watched him closely over time and knew enough that he too was prepped for SHTF. He was surprised the guy hadn’t taken off himself. His son lived next door and he would catch them late at night unloading stuff into their small pole barn. The guy then went back inside. I don’t blame you, he thought, keep out of it. Remain unseen and unheard. Protect your own stash.

“You must be deaf or dumb you son of a bitch.”

Haliday was at his wit’s end. “Ok genius, this is what we are going to do.” He raised his rifle and leveled it at the man’s head. “We are leaving and that’s going to be good enough for everyone here. You understand?”

“Screw you ya bastard. There are more of us than you.”

“We’re all armed numb nuts. You aren’t. You’ll lose this one,” he told them.

Haliday whispered to David and Mike who then got in the vehicles and started them. He told Sarah to get in with Elizabeth and told Bev and Rich to get in as well. “Linda and Kayla, you guys walk up the street a ways. When they get down a few houses move the vehicles out. Watch your backs. Blake, close the garage and lock it. Then go with them and cover the rear.”

“I told you that ain’t gonna happen.” The group moved a bit closer. Haliday looked at Phil; Phil said, “You’re on your own man, nothing I can do.” Haliday knew Phil had a hunting rifle and plinker, but figured as much. Phil’s wife was standing next to him now. Thanks for the help neighbor. He heard the vehicles shift into drive. The crowd came closer yet, about 30 yards out now.

Haliday said, “Ok, I’ll tell you how it’s going to work.

“If you aren’t armed I suggest you step back now. The rest of you, well it’s going to be us against you if you want it that way. I’m going full auto, and so are these guys. You do not have enough firepower to win this. His rifle was full auto capable but he hadn’t finished modifying the others yet. “Now, I’m ready to kill. I already have and I will again. No doubt in my mind I can do it. I prefer not to though. You hear that?”

“If it’s food you want, my house was cleaned out. Phil there has it all. A good few months worth. He’s got five cases of MRE’s alone. Now he broke into my house while I was gone and stripped it clean of all the food.” He looked at Phil who had turned white as a ghost. He nodded at Phil again with a smirk on his face this time.

The group had separated a bit as some of the people backed off. The loud mouth said, “How you know that?”

“Well, the MRE peanut butter could be his, but I doubt it. He doesn’t know how to spell MRE. Now the doll his kid is holding is my daughter’s. It’s a one of a kind custom we had made for her at a doll show years ago.” Phil’s wife called him a bastard. “Look Heather, I’d beat feet away from the house.” She grabbed the kids and ran across the street away from the crowd.

Phil looked at Roger and pleaded. “Don’t do this Roger; I was just trying to keep my family fed. You can’t do this man.”

“Look Phil, your best bet is to walk away now. Let them take it when we leave.”

The loud mouth piped in, “How you know we’re going to let you leave? I keep telling you it ain’t gonna happen. Just more stuff for us.”

Roger said, “Look guys, you can live or you can listen to this loud mouth. My guess is you want to live. Take what’s in that house, split it up and move on. Don’t die like this man is going to.” Roger still had his rifle leveled at him.

“I’ve had enough!” the loud mouth yelled at him. 1, 2, and the number 3 came in the form of a three round burst. Roger quickly leveled it at the next guy and barked out orders.

“Keep your weapons down. Keep your weapons down. Go, go, go.” The vehicles moved out leaving Roger, Kevin and Randy standing there. “Kevin, you lead. Randy and I are walking backwards. One of the guys in the group brought his shotgun up quickly and fired at Randy, but luckily he missed. Randy returned fire with two rounds and Roger fired a few quick shots as well. The guy dropped to the ground in a heap.

Roger yelled out again, “Don’t do it. Don’t be brave.” He kept the rifle leveled at the group that was armed and now standing by themselves. There were five left. They started walking backwards, as they did the group of bystanders moved back as well. You could tell they didn’t want any more of the gunplay. “Like I said, the food is in that house. Help yourself, it was mine anyway.” Phil’s kids were crying. Phil was yelling at Roger.

The armed individuals watched Haliday, but moved toward Phil’s house. Roger and Randy kept moving backwards and they saw a few more people head to Phil’s house. They were about 75 yards away when they reached the trucks. Roger told everyone to get in. He stepped on the side step of the truck and held onto the window frame with one hand. He kept looking back at the mob that was now at Phil’s house. It was like ants on a piece of candy.

He heard a few shots as well, but didn’t see anyone firing at them. They were probably arguing about who gets what. He saw Phil standing there watching his house being raided from across the street. Phil’s wife and kids were in tears. He smacked on the roof when they hit the end of road and Mike stopped. He switched places with Mike behind the wheel of the Tahoe. He pulled up next to the Cherokee and saw terror on their faces. He said, “Follow me,” and they drove off.”

Only about two miles away, he pulled off into a large parking lot of a small fabrication shop. He signaled for everyone to get out. They all stood around and he walked up to Randy. He grabbed his shotgun from him.

“I had to shoot him Uncle Roger I had…”

Haliday put a finger to his mouth to shut him up. Haliday pumped the shotgun emptying the shells onto the ground. “Pick them up,” he said.

Randy picked them up and held them out. Haliday grabbed one and looked at it. “Number nine shot, you used number nine shot? You didn’t kill that guy; I doubt you even pissed him off with this crap at that distance. Go find your double aught and load it Dick Cheney. Smaller the number, the better for people,” Haliday said. Randy loaded his shotgun. “David, Kevin, Randy and Blake come here. Basic gun course now.” Thirty minutes later they were back on the road.

Chapter 15

Dawn, Diana and Karen were all set to go. They stopped by the main house to drop off a few things and the food for Mandy. They noticed a smoker going. She had taken care of that deer pretty quickly. If she wasn’t raped, beaten or killed, she might do pretty ok for herself.

In all reality this was not a bad place to be though. It was a good distance from a city of any size and since there weren’t a lot people around, there wouldn’t be much scavenging in this area. Just have to hide from roving bands of scum. They’d give her Haliday’s security speech.

“Thanks again,” Mandy said.

“Thank you,” they replied. They were horse people and glad the horses would have a fighting chance. “We’ll be back in spring or maybe sooner depending on how things progress after we find out what’s going on and when everything settles down. It’ll get worse before it gets better. People will be very hungry and desperate in the next few weeks.” They gave her the speech. Take care they told her.

Karen was driving the ranger and they had saddled up the horses to ride. They checked out their map. They were taking as many small roads as they could. This way the horses could use the shoulders of the road and stay off the pavement and they could avoid people. They had two legs of the trip to make. The first leg would take them to a preset cache with a few items and some gas if they needed it and a spot to rest. The next would take them to meet up with Haliday.

They were on their way and enjoying the slow pace. They were checking out the various farms as they passed them. You would almost think nothing had happened out here. They listened to the ham and couldn’t believe what they were hearing. Some of the rural areas were just like this, but then most urban areas, especially the largest cities, had basically crumbled overnight.

They were hearing stories of widespread looting. People had cleaned out all of the grocery stores within the first three days everywhere. They had heard of people rioting in places like Sam’s Club, Costco and other big box warehouse stores. People were taking everything though. Electronics, clothing, whatever they could get their hands on they took. Most of the stuff was useless, but they guessed people figured it would be an easy fix.

Police everywhere started giving up. The only thing they could even attempt to do was try to keep people from killing each other. Most had left heir jobs and were worrying about there own families and themselves. There were very few places where people banded together and took actions to secure their communities. Most of all, it was the small towns in rural areas that would be safer, where travel by foot was impossible due to the distances.

One guy up in Oregon was telling everyone to start hunting and gathering meat. He explained that hunting would be widespread. He went on to say that the animal population would be overhunted within a month. The animal population would be severely reduced and those left would be hard to find as they hid from hunters. Winter would make hunting very difficult. There were just no amenities to keep warm, move around easily, stay the night in camps, and bait the prey or anything.

It was still puzzling that they did not hear anything about any government movements or assistance to anyone anywhere. No one could figure that out. People said that a lot of the military bases seemed locked down, but they also said they did not see the amount of troops that they normally saw. Some commented that there had been a lot of desertion from all rank and files. Little to no equipment was moving and surely none of it was moving off the bases.

They couldn’t concern themselves with any of that. They would figure that out later. What they had to concern themselves with was getting where they needed to be and when they needed to be there. They had a great disadvantage right now, since there were only three of them and the pace they kept was that of which the horses moved. They almost wondered if maybe they should have left them.

They were coming close to their first stop. They hadn’t noticed anyone following them and they headed down a small dirt road. Haliday had scouted this area many times before with them. They knew it was not used more than maybe eight times a year. They couldn’t even figure out why. Maybe kids getting busy after a hot date. They came across an opening in the woods and they headed down that way.

Karen was having a hard time navigating the path. They had cut a few branches off some of the trees to make it more accessible, but had to leave enough so it did not look too obvious. They would be about a quarter mile away from the dirt road and well enough hidden to stay the night. They managed to reach the spot without too much more trouble.

They tied the horses up and got them some water and grain. They planned to leave the saddles on in case they had to bug out quickly, but that would not be the case. They commenced to get the camp set up for the night. They opened the trailer so they could pull out the gear they needed.

After pulling everything out they started to set up. The first thing they did was to string a few booby trap simulators up around the perimeter. This would alert them to anybody sneaking in. Haliday had Dawn buy these at one of the gun shows they had frequented. They just had to hope animals wouldn’t set them off, but they placed them two feet off the ground, so unless it was deer they were good to go.

They set up a nice little four season tent. It wasn’t big, but big enough for two to sleep comfortably with some gear close by. They tossed in a couple sleeping bags that were zero degree rated, so it would be warm enough. The temperature was only going to dip down to about 35, but they wanted to stay warm in order to stay nimble and quick.

They placed a light blanket over each horse. They pulled out a small camo net and covered the trailer. After some squabbling about who would pull guard duty first, they settled in for some food. They heated up some water on the small camp stove and made soup. They opened up a can of pears and split it.

Dawn looked around. She had to use the bathroom. She grabbed a bucket with a potty lid on top and biodegradable trash bag in it and hauled it over behind a tree. Haliday taught them to use the blue RV chemical in it to keep the odor down and help degrade the mess. She finished her squat as Haliday called it and headed back to camp. She hated his crudeness at times.

They made sure the camp stove was out, no food was left out, and hunkered down for the night. They figured on three hour shifts, which would give everyone six hours of sleep. Based on Haliday’s progress, they could nap a little longer if they needed to. They wouldn’t know until the morning though. They looked up at the stars. Without any lights, the stars were so bright now. There had been few places on earth you could experience total darkness.

The night was uneventful. They all laughed about camping. Years ago, camping was a motor home in the parking lot of a hotel. That was as rough as it got. Now they’d learn to appreciate nature. They fed and watered the horses and then they whipped up some nine grain cereal using instant soy milk and made some Tang. They took some vitamins and started to break down the camp.

The last thing was the morning bathroom break. Karen didn’t mind the bucket, but Diana had a fit. Dawn explained that there was no Four Seasons resort close by, so that’s what she got. After a few minutes of potty dancing, she gave up. The three of them then sat there looking at the bucket. What do we do with it, they wondered. None of them wanted to touch it.

After a few minutes Dawn said, “You dig the hole. I’ll pull the bag and dump it.” They disposed of the mess and got ready to leave. Everything was taken down and they called Haliday. “We’re on our way to meet up with you.”

Haliday said, “Sorry, I should have told you guys to leave a day earlier, we’re already here waiting. We’ll be here, call if you need us.”

They started the ranger, climbed up on the horses and started back toward the road. They were only about 50 feet from the camp site when Karen got the trailer stuck. They tried for an hour and a half, but could not get it free. They couldn’t leave it there so they called Haliday to let him know.

* * *

Haliday had told Dawn to head out and now they themselves were on the road after the tense morning incident. He’d be seeing Dawn sooner than he thought; he just didn’t know it yet. She would have a small problem he would have to deal with.

He looked around. Nobody was saying anything. They were still in shock at the incident. Not only did they shoot this guy, but Haliday had left Phil and his family in quite a bind. Haliday didn’t care. They broke into his house, took what he needed to survive and were ready to stand there and let him get killed as well. Screw Phil, he thought. He didn’t expect them to be there in spring when he got back.

Mike said, “Hang a right at the next road.” Another mile and they would be at Bill and Linda’s farm. Two Lindas. That would be weird, he could see it now, “Hey Linda,” and both come running. Linda said they usually answered based on who called them, so to him that made sense.

They pulled up near the gate. Haliday noticed it was locked. He grabbed his binoculars and looked toward the house. Smoke from the fireplace was visible; he saw some cows out in the pasture and a couple horses as well. He couldn’t see anyone though. He wasn’t about to go walking up to the door either.

“Well Mike, it’s your friend. You feel safe walking up there?”

“I’m sure we’ll be ok,” he said.

“We? There’s no we, it’s you, I’m not taking the chance. You go. Here, use this.” Haliday went and unscrewed the antenna for the stereo. Didn’t need it now anyway. He tied a white rag around the end. “Wave this as you approach.” Mike headed toward the door.

He got about 50 feet from the house and the front door opened. “Hey Bill.”

“Hey, Mike, are they with you?”

“Yes, they are,” he said.

“Ok, here’s the key.” He walked up and got it. “Please lock the gate behind you when you come back up.”

“Thanks Bill.” He walked down back to the trucks and opened the gate. They rode up to the house.

Bill had put on a percolator for coffee. He had this sitting on a wood stove near the kitchen. They all exchanged hellos when they went in. “Where’s Linda at?”

“She’s taking a nap. She was up early tending the chickens and livestock. I heard you guys coming and kept a watch out. I thought it was you getting out of that truck, so I didn’t bother to wake her. Hell of a mess we’re in huh?”

“That’s for sure. The past few days have been pure hell Bill.”

“I can see by that eye, did you win or lose?”

“I lost that battle, too many of them, but I’m alive.” Bill asked who was up for coffee. Everyone almost in unison accepted.

“Ok, I’ll pour this one and then I’ll get another batch ready.” Linda woke up and came out and greeted them. She had a concerned look on her face.

Haliday said, “We’re not staying, just stopping by.” She looked a little relieved at that.

She said, “I’m sorry, was it that evident?”

“Don’t worry, I don’t blame you. These days you have to count your blessings and your beans. We understand completely. That brings me to the next question, Mike; it’s your ball now.”

Mike didn’t get a word out of his mouth. Bill and Linda said they could stay. “We can put you in the middle bedroom and Kayla in the end bedroom.”

“Oh, I’ll be going with my dad,” she said. “But thank you.”

“No problem honey.”

Haliday asked them what they have heard. “Anything going on or anything worth sharing?”

Bill said he had talked to a neighbor who went into town. A few folks had set up a small blockade and seemed to be trying to control everything in town. He wasn’t sure if they meant to do good or meant to do harm, but he was avoiding town at all costs. He said most around here are just staying put to ride it out.

“How are the people around here set for food?”

“Well, most have soy, corn or wheat and a lot have some cows and poultry but other than that I don’t know. We can get through for a while, but it won’t be gourmet.”

“How long is that?” Haliday asked.

“I guess we can make it until planting season with no problems. We usually stock up for winter and we can slaughter a cow and that’ll give us a lot of meat. We should be ok.”

“Water going to be an issue?”

“Not at all, we have an old hand pump and rain barrels.”

“You got a tarp by chance?”

“I should have one around somewhere why?”

“I’ll tell you how to make a rain catch, that way no contaminants from the roof get in it. Bird or goose crap mainly. It rains, you unfold and secure the tarp, and it catches in the barrel.”

“Sounds like a plan,” he said.

“Your tractor running?”

“It is, but we’re saving the fuel for it, we only got about 250 gallons of diesel for it.”

“Ok, save it then. Firewood and everything else?”

“Plenty of that too.”

“How about security?”

“Well, now that we have two more, maybe we can get something set up. Hoping my son makes it here too.” Haliday spent the next two hours explaining how to secure the farm and house as much as possible.

“Last but not least, firepower?”

Bill smiled, “Oh, I got plenty of that.”

“Let me see what you have.” Bill led him to the den. He opened up a safe and exposed a fairly impressive collection. 30-06, couple 12 gauges, little Marlin 22, but most noticeable was the two AR15s and couple of 9mm pistols.

“Nice, you got ammo?”

“I have about 1,000 rounds of 5.56, 500 9mm, couple thousand 22lr, and about 200 each for the rest. Got bows too,” he added. “Mike bring his?”

“Yes, he did.”

They walked back into the kitchen. “Bill, you mind if we stay in the barn tonight?”

“I sure do, I’d prefer you to crash anywhere in here you guys can find a place.”

“We appreciate it.” It was close to dinner time now. Haliday said dinner was on him. “Before I cook though, can we park the vehicles in the barn?”

“Sure thing,” he said.

Haliday had everyone get what they needed for sleeping tonight, had them bring in the cats and dog and then he walked in with a bucket of groceries. He went over to the kitchen and began cooking. He cooked up a hell of a dinner. He made some chicken alfredo, some corn, even made some naan and for desert they had some bananas and honey. He mixed up a couple pitchers of Arnold Palmer. There wasn’t anything left when they got done.

They talked a bit longer before setting the watch schedule and heading to bed. Haliday went over a few more things with Mike and Bill. Bill, too, asked about the government. Haliday said, “Nothing from them at all. As far as I can tell they are nonexistent.” They headed off to bed. He checked with Dawn and heard they too were camping for the night. It looked like they were in the home stretch.

The morning sun arose and they all got ready to go. “Kayla, can you load up the cats.”

“Ok, I’ll grab them.”

“Take your mutant dog too.” She called Max; he came prancing by and stepped on Haliday’s toes as he passed by. Before he walked into the cage, he took the time to look back at Haliday. Kayla grabbed Romeo and stuffed him in there with Max. Haliday really hated that mutt about now.

Everyone said their goodbyes. Mike and Linda hugged Kayla and told her to be careful, listen to her dad and that they loved her. They were all relieved that right now everyone was safe. Everyone piled into the vehicles and Mike walked down and unlocked the gate. Haliday paused at the gate and called Mike over. “I have a gift for you.”

He handed him a handheld ham. “You can recharge it with the small solar panel I left back in the barn. Directions are on it; it’s easy. You can flip it on every hour on the hour and if we need you, we’ll call then, and we’ll listen for you as well. You know the protocol, no last names and no locations. I left a couple other things in there as well. We’re only going to be about 50 miles away, but these days that’s a lot. Good luck old man.”

Mike locked up the gate and then went into the barn. There were some buckets and boxes of food along with the little solar panel and frequency chart. He found a few notes on how to cook the food and what proportions to use. There was a lot of soup, rice, pasta, beans and some canned meats. This would help them get through the winter easily.

He looked around at some bales of hay which he moved aside and hid everything. He went in and told Bill and the two Lindas what they had. They were all more relieved. He would go hunt for a deer to start them off before they got to the cows. The longer they could keep those, the better. Same for the chickens.

Haliday’s group made it to the rendezvous point. He heard from Dawn and told her they would be waiting. They had two more places that could be trouble and they would need to go through together. He was making some instant coffee when the radio went off. “Roger, we’re stuck. The trailer is stuck and we can’t get it out. We’ve been trying for over an hour and a half.”

Haliday said, “Hold tight; I’ll be there in a bit.” He had the guys unload the KLR and he got ready to go and help. They were about 20 miles away and he would go it alone. Everyone else would stay here and wait. They were out of sight, out of mind, and as long as they stayed that way and kept quiet, they would be fine. He kicked over the bike, turned his radio on and put his earpiece in and rode off.

Haliday set out west to meet up with them and see what he could do. He should have asked them to be a bit more specific about how they got stuck, but then maybe someone would try to figure out their location. Who knew if there was anyone listening in on their frequency or not. He’ll see what’s going on when he gets there.

He was cruising down the road when he passed an older Jeep that suddenly pulled onto the road coming the opposite way. At his speed, it caught him by surprise. He glanced in the mirror of the bike and noticed it was turning around. As far as he could see it had a couple guys in it. He couldn’t tell their age because they had the top off and looked like they were bundled up a bit. It was one of the coldest days yet.

He hadn’t given the temperature much thought because he had slipped on some thermals under his pants and shirts because the ride on the bike would be cool anyway. He saw them coming up closer now. There didn’t seem to be any glass in the windshield which might be the reason they were bundled up. The closer they got the more detail he could see.

He slowed down and took a right hand turn. The Jeep followed. Two guys only, wearing camo of some type and both had balaclavas on. Now he wasn’t sure they were both male or not. Judging by their size, he was pretty sure they were. It was that or they were big women, but he doubted that. He was wondering what happened to the glass in the windshield.

The Jeep pulled up almost right on his rear fender now. He glanced back and saw the passenger waving to him to pull over. I don’t think so, Haliday thought. He throttled the KLR a bit more to put a bit more space between him and the Jeep. The Jeep started honking the horn and the passenger was waving again.

Haliday gunned it a bit more and as he increased speed so did the Jeep. He glanced back and saw the passenger holding what looked like an AR. He rested what looked like a bipod on the hood. That explained the missing glass, but why didn’t they just flip the windshield down, he thought. Maybe they had broken it doing that.

Haliday saw an access drive for the corn field next to him; he slowed and spun the KLR into the field. This field had been cleaned of the ears of corn, but the farmer hadn’t yet turned it under. The stalks were hitting him and hurt like hell. He felt like he was getting whipped across his shoulders, thank goodness for the hand guards and helmet.

The Jeep had whipped in too. He heard a couple shots and hugged the bike as low as he could. He didn’t know if these were warning shots or if these were meant for him. All he did know was he didn’t care. He slammed on the brakes and cut across the rows. It was bumpy as hell and the Jeep would be bouncing like crazy. That would make it harder to target him.

He whipped back around once more and headed back to the road. He cut through the ditch and bounced up onto the pavement. The Jeep had a tougher time navigating this and Haliday increased the distance between him and the Jeep. He needed this distance. He would have to slow down a bit for a brief few seconds.

He slowed a bit so he could handle the bike with enough control for one hand. He reached down and opened a bag attached to the tank. He managed to open the Velcro top of it exposing the contents. He took a handful and tossed it behind him. He did it once more. Real 007 stuff here, he hoped.

The bag had been filled with what he called star jacks. These resembled the kid’s version of jacks however were made with large spikes that were sharpened to a point on each end. No matter how they landed there would always be a spike pointing upward. Most people called them Caltrops. He learned this trick during the Detroit Newspaper Strike back in the early nineties. This was done to flatten the tires of the replacement workers.

About three dozen of them landed behind him. The Jeep didn’t have time to swerve and ran over where they had landed. It just kept right on following him. Haliday cursed to himself and gunned it again. He looked in his mirror but now saw the Jeep slowing. He noticed one of the front tires going flat. He got at least one tire and that was good enough.

The Jeep came to a stop by the side of the road. The men inside had their own radio and called in to some kind of headquarters. As far as they were concerned, they were the new law around here and somebody just disrespected them. Their group would not tolerate this behavior; they were dictatorial in nature.

He looked around at himself and made sure he wasn’t hit. The only thing he noticed was a small tear in his cargo pocket but that looked like it was from the cornfield. He took a few more roads and got back on route. He was wondering who the hell they were. He was trying to remember who might be in this area.

There was no military or militia as far as he could remember. If they were militia, they were different than the typical TV yahoos and kept themselves under the radar. This could be a problem. If they had a sizable group, they could damper his own group’s efforts. He made note to check this out; he didn’t need any big headaches.

He came up to the dirt road. He spotted the horse tracks and the ranger’s tracks as well. He got off his bike and looked around. “That should do the trick,” he said. He walked over to the side of the road and grabbed a bunch of smaller branches and spread them out. He pulled out some paracord and tied them together and then tied them to the back of his bike.

He keyed his mic and told Dawn he was coming in. He got back on the bike and dragged the branches down the road behind him. While it didn’t completely cover up the tracks, it did do a good job and took away that fresh track look. He would do the same on the way out to try and hide the cache site since they hadn’t needed to dig it up.

He reached the path and paused long enough to cut the branches loose. There was no way he could drag those through this path. It wasn’t quite what he remembered. No wonder they had trouble. The winter months played hell on the trees and tree limbs had dropped, blocking the path a bit more than usual.

He came up on the three of them standing there waiting. They were grouped together, but at least had the brains to make sure they were ready to fire. He would have had them spread out and hidden. It could have been a trap for them. Haliday turned off the bike and dismounted. He walked over and gave Dawn a hug. He said hi to Diana and Karen and said he was glad they were all safe.

“Let’s see what you have here,” he said. He walked around the ranger and trailer and then looked underneath. He got in the driver’s seat and tried to back it up. It went about a foot backwards and that was it. He looked under it again and this time saw that a tree root near the surface had broken and came up and wedged itself between the axle and trailer.

He tried going forward again and still no luck; it wasn’t going to break free. He tried to pull it out but he couldn’t get the leverage to do this either. He laid down on the ground and worked himself under the ranger a bit. “Dawn, can you hand me a saw out of the toolbox.”

“You want a pocket chain or regular saw?”

“Pocket chain.”

Haliday never thought one of these would come in handy. But this awkward position proved its worth. He worked the saw back and forth for about five minutes until the root gave way. He pulled the chunk loose and tossed it aside. “That should do it,” he said. He started the ranger and it moved freely now.

Haliday called them all over. He thought it might not be a bad idea to tell them what happened. He explained the incident with the jeep as best as he could. “We’re going to take a slightly different route back just in case they are still out there. The horses will need to move as quickly as they can without exhausting them.” The realization that this area was now changing too, had hit the three of them like a ton of bricks. Haliday said, “Welcome to the new world disorder.”

Chapter 16

As soon as they reached the dirt road, Haliday hooked up his branches. “Listen,” he said, “I’m going down that way about a half mile and then I’ll double back and catch up to you guys. I want to try to throw anyone off the track if I can.” They took off and he did too. He doubled back quickly and caught up.

Haliday heard a low guttural roar like that from a 155mm cannon and looked around. The horses were spooked and reared a bit. There came another roar before Haliday realized this was thunder. Well, the effort hiding the cache was going to go to waste except now it’d be even better as the rain would wash the road clean of the tracks much better than his dragging did.

He signaled them to stop. “You guys have rain gear?” They all nodded. “Ok, put it on, looks like we are going to get hammered.” He grabbed a set out of his saddle bags and put them on. Windy, cold, wet and exposed. This was getting to be all kinds of fun. People out and about would be heading home, but those still out in this weather would have a purpose. It was best to avoid those folks. Dark clouds starting moving in and the wind picked up.

Haliday called David and asked them how they were doing. David said they were just sitting around waiting for them to get there. “Well, with the weather change it’s going to be a while. Make sure everyone gets something to eat and keep some hot liquids on hand. Have everyone dress warmer. I have a feeling tonight is going to be rough.”

Haliday told David they would be staying there the night so to get things set up. “Kayla will help you. If you have any questions let me know. If by chance anyone strange makes it there, they are going to be a high level threat. Treat them as such. Do not take any chances. Nobody belongs there.” David asked him if he wanted him to set up a hide for someone with Haliday’s rifle.

Haliday told him, “No offense, but nobody is to touch that rifle.” He highly doubted anybody could explain mil-dot, MOA, windage, spin drift or anything else they would need to know in order to use it. They wouldn’t even know what rounds to use. He kept three basic loads for it for various conditions. They’d just load what they grabbed, not understanding the differences.

 “David, just set up for the night, set a solid watch roster and keep everyone warm and dry. Do not move out, do not send out anybody to recon the area or anything else.”

David answered, “Got it brother.” David went over to Kayla. “I need your help. Your dad says we are staying the night.” Kayla started barking out orders and got everyone moving.

Kayla was a smart girl and although at times she thought her dad was a little crazy, she made it a point to listen to him. Now she was doing what he would be doing right now. Kayla ordered the vehicles realigned. She had them parked so that they formed a small modern day circled wagon train.

The Tahoe and trailer were parked so that the trailer was almost at a ninety degree angle to it and opposite that were the Cherokee and its trailer. This formed a mutated square but left ample coverage for everything in the middle. They would set up a small 10X10 pop up tent in the middle with some side panels and cover everything with a camo net.

They weren’t worried about the aerial view, but didn’t want anyone seeing them from the side. Even though they chose an area with plenty of pine trees because the rest of the foliage was already down for the fall, they still didn’t want to be seen. The camo net was designed for this use in particular.

Haliday had taken numerous pictures and sent them out to a large format printing company in China and had “Nature Billboards” printed. He hated to use the Chinese company, but it was a tenth of the cost compared to the U.S. companies. He had done a few for different seasons to include spring, summer, fall and winter. They were designed to be hung on buildings and printed on a mesh so you could see through them when you were close enough, but people who saw them from a distance couldn’t. Custom camo nets.

They lit up a small propane heater. No fires and no smoke. They pulled out a butane stove and boiled up some water for coffee and hot cocoa. They would get lunch ready too, but Kayla already determined it was going to be soup. This was everyone’s first afternoon and night exposed to the elements. Best to stay warm.

Haliday was taking the lead and would shoot up a ways and scope out the intersections ahead of Dawn, Diane and Karen. Once they passed by, he would shoot up ahead again and check the area. This would keep them from having to do it themselves and save a little time. If he spotted any trouble, he could tell them and they could stop and he could try and draw the trouble away from them.

Kayla called him on the radio. “We got a problem, or to be more exact you have a problem.”

“What’s going on?”

“Well, I was flipping through the frequencies and it stopped on one which I listened to for a while. The signal was strong, so I figured it was close by. I wrote the frequency down. I’ll give it to you in a minute.

“Anyway, I assume it’s you they are looking for.” Haliday was trying to figure this out.

“Kayla, what exactly did you hear?”

“Ok, it was hard to decipher at first because the transmissions were kind of choppy and I came across it halfway into the conversation. But here’s the short story.

“Some group called the Bad Axe Minute Men had some patrols out. One of those patrols came across a guy on a motorcycle. They said they tried to stop the guy, but he ran. They are calling him a fugitive. They mentioned chasing him until he flattened two of their tires with spikes. I figured it was you.

“Now they put out an ‘APB’ to their other patrols and headquarters. Pretty much said to just shoot on sight. They said OD green motorcycle, one man, large build, khaki cargo pants, black jacket and full faced helmet. Sounds like you Dad. You really pissed someone off. I’m trying to listen in and gather some more intel. I’ll tell you what I hear.”

“Ok kiddo, thanks for the good news.”

Haliday slowed down and looked at Dawn, Diane and Karen and shrugged his shoulders. Nothing he could do now. They had heard the news too. He looked down at the map on top of the tank. Here we go again, time to change the route. He would head back south a bit. If they were indeed out of Bad Axe, then they were a good 30 miles out from the center of their operations. They were only about 15 miles from his own group’s destination.

Thirty miles is a long way out for a patrol, he thought. They were either very large or very dumb. He’d have to figure this out quickly. He was getting pelted with rain now. He signaled another stop and pulled over. He programmed his radio with the frequency Kayla had given him.

Dawn and Diana watered the horses real quickly and they put a cover on the ranger to help keep rain out. It was coming straight down, but the small top would provide a little relief. He refused to let them put the whole top on. There was no visibility with it on.

He checked the map once more. “Ok, here it is,” he told them. “This is the route, we are about eight miles away now and we have to push it. We can’t risk stopping around here for the night. They going to make it?” he nodded toward the horses.

“Ya, they’ll make it.”

“Ok good, let’s go.”

Diana asked him what would happen if one of those patrols found them.

“People would die. Who, I don’t know, but people would die.”

He grabbed some hundred mile an hour tape and covered all of the lights on the bike and ranger. He didn’t want anyone spotting the lights, it was late afternoon, the sky dark, rain coming down and they would easily see the lights. They got moving again.

He flipped the radio over to the frequency Kayla had given him and he listened for a while. He started taking mental notes on what he heard. There was actually quite a bit of chatter. He was glad Kayla was taking notes. This was going to be a big problem he had not expected.

He thought of contacting them to sort it out, but that was a stupid idea as well. They would know he definitely had their frequency and they would most likely change it. He needed as much intel on these guys as he could get. Five days and militias were out hunting already. Probably more like staking out their kingdoms.

After a couple more hours of slow moving, he called Kayla and told them they were coming in. They got themselves situated and went into the small tent to warm up. Bev gave them some coffee, hot cocoa and offered them some soup as well, which they gladly accepted. Kayla came in, “Ok Dad, here’s what we have.”

Kayla had taken meticulous notes on everything she heard. She started with manpower. “They have four patrols out in designated areas with an additional patrol that seems to be a quick response unit that can back up any of the other patrols. It sounds like that unit stays at or close to their headquarters. I would say two people per patrol.” That was 10 right there.

“They pulled a shift change at 1800hrs. When they did this though, they only had two patrols out and one for response for the night. They mentioned seeing each other in the morning, so it looks like 12 hours shifts. So that gives them another six people. I assume one at HQ to coordinate or answer the radio. We have a definite 18 people on security patrols.

“Now, they said something about camp watch and I couldn’t quite make that out, but it sounded like static posts to watch their HQ or their compound. Maybe a watchtower or who knows what. I didn’t catch this during the day, so not sure. But it’s safe to say they have at least 22 to 24 people and most likely more.

“I didn’t catch anything about where the HQ or compound was though, I didn’t expect to. I didn’t catch how many people were currently not on patrol or watch duty. No way to really calculate their total numbers because there was no telling if wives, girlfriends or kids were involved. I did hear some people in the background once in a while. Someone was giving out chores to be completed. If I had to guess Dad, you have 40 to 50 people total and that’s minimum.

“Now here’s where it gets interesting. They call in checks once in a while, but not sure what they are checking or who they are checking. They use code numbers for that. A21 checked and secured. B13 checked and secured, like that. Could be other family, could be caches, could be a lot of things.

“One more important detail is they act like it’s martial law. They are acting like they are the combination military and police for the area. They mentioned catching some looters and taking them somewhere, but I don’t know exactly where. I missed what they said. It might have been the police department. Either way, they think they control the whole area and it sounds like they just might be doing that.”

“How do you know they are the Bad Axe Minute Men?”

“I heard them call to another group in Bay City. Well, the other group didn’t answer. I think they forgot to change frequencies when transmitting. I heard them say Bad Axe Minute Men calling Bay City Minute Men, then it went dead. They must have changed frequencies then.”

“Good job sweetie. That helps tremendously. The unfortunate thing is we are on the edge of their patrol areas and then we’ll be within a good 10 to 15 miles away from their HQ when we move to the house. I don’t know exactly what they are trying to do, but if it’s run the Thumb Area we have problems. If they’ll leave us alone then that’s much better.”

“What about trying to strike a deal with them Dad.”

“I thought about that. I’m thinking we might make the next leg of the trip tomorrow and then go from there. I wish I knew more about these guys, but they kept a low profile and I had no idea they were out here. Not like I can do any research now.”

“Wait a minute Dad, call Mike. Mr. Bill might know something; he’s more of a local here.”

Haliday was impressed. He hadn’t thought of that. “Ok kiddo, go for it. Tell him to change frequencies though. If they are scanning frequencies I don’t want them to hear anything about us.”

Kayla got a hold of Mike and asked him how things were. Mike told her Bill and Linda’s son and daughter in-law made it in. That was good news. She asked if Mr. Bill was around and if she could talk to him. “He’s napping right now is it important?” Kayla said to go wake him; it was about the militia with a wanted poster out for Dad.

A few minutes later Bill came on the radio. Kayla asked him if he knew anything about the BAMM. There was a pause before Bill answered. “I actually know one of the guys who is a member. I assume that’s the group he belongs to. He tried to recruit me a while back. He mentioned Bad Axe but not the name BAMM specifically. He did not say much at all really. Just that he belonged to a group that would run the community if something major ever happened.”

“Do you know what their mission is?”

“If it’s the same group I’m thinking of, then they are out there to keep law and order. But here’s the catch. While they are not quite government friendly, they are not quite people friendly either. I don’t think they want people other than themselves enforcing any law and order or carrying firearms. The police might be a different story, but not sure.

“They might actually be a part of them, not many other cops in the area. Most were county sheriffs and a couple state troopers, that’s all. The sheriff up there is a real ass and he’s involved with them somehow. He has a real attitude and acts like his crap smells like roses.”

“Anything else?” Kayla asked.

“Ya, they don’t take too kindly to outsiders. People who don’t live here, and have not lived here for a while, they really don’t care for. I think they mean to take over the area and run it as their own small state. If that’s the case you guys might have issues depending on where you’re going.”

Kayla said, “Thank you sir.”

“No problem, take care, your mom says hugs and kisses,” Bill replied.

Kayla looked around. Everyone except Kevin and Blake, who were on watch, was sitting there listening in. “How’s this change things?” Bev asked.

“Well, we have a couple choices here. I’m not sure any of them will be acceptable to these people if they have that attitude. Here are the options we have so far.

“One, I can make arrangements to meet with them, see what they are up to, and if we can go about our business. They might see us as a threat and say no and then tighten their security and look for us to try to move in. They may even want payment or outright take what we want and kick us out. Could get ugly.”

“Two, we can try to sneak in, take hold on our land, and then let them approach us when they discover us. We can feel them out then, show them we are just there to mind our own business and see how that works out; but we could end up defending ourselves. The Michigan Alamo. Same results, it could be bad.”

“Third, we could hunker down somewhere, go on the hunt and try to shake up their ranks. But we’re talking about guerrilla warfare. We are talking about a long, drawn out campaign with some pretty good chances of losing some of the ranks here. I’m not really advising this. So far they just tried to kill me if that’s what it was, not really show they are a threat to all of us. I probably appeared to be a threat to them.”

“Fourth, I could go it alone, take out whomever I can for a while and see how that works out. There’s enough stuff here to get you through for quite some time. Then we could move onto our land. Or you could head back to Bill and Linda’s. The longer we wait to get there, the better the odds are they might find something and we lose it all. This would really piss them off.”

They all sat around talking about it for a while. Some different ideas were thrown out, but not much really made sense. It really came down to one thing. How could they get all their people to the house and stay there as long as possible with the least amount of trouble. That would be one hell of a trick.

They set up another 10X10 and joined the two together. They put the heater in the middle. It was still close quarters, but better than nothing. Everyone had their own little area and was warm. With any luck, it wouldn’t be like this much longer. They would be at the land and in the house.

There were fourteen of them in the group. Only twelve were able to pull watch. Elizabeth and Bobby were too young. Kayla had figured out a schedule. Two on at a time would be ok. Hour and a half shifts would help keep them awake, although the cool weather would do that too. They had set up some traps like Haliday instructed.

Haliday had them set up some booby trap simulators to alert the group if people got too close. Those were purchased from a surplus store. He also had them set up what he called trigger hooks. They were 3X3 foot square fish line nets with fish hooks scattered around them. These were placed face high. Once they snagged anything, any attempt to take them off snagged even more. Clothing, hair or skin. Man’s natural reaction to brush something away allowed them to work. The barbed hooks dug in deep.

It was an uneventful night; however a few of them did not sleep. They tossed and turned trying to figure out how to reach the house, what to expect the next couple days, what had happened the past few days, but mostly what was happening to family members. They didn’t have any idea what was happening to any of them. Being together tonight reminded them that there were those who were missing.

Morning came as usual. Everyone got up and started warming up around the heater. Bev put some pots of water on for oatmeal and coffee, hot cocoa for the kids. They packed up any non-essential items and ate breakfast when it was done. Haliday called a quick meeting. “Time to vote,” he said. The rumbling started immediately. No one wanted to decide. They deferred the decision to Haliday.

“Ok, this is what we are going to do,” he said. “Like it or not, since there was no decision, it’s my ball game. We are going to pack everything up. I’ll be on one bike and Blake on his. We’ll be riding along well in front of the ranger, with the horses behind it followed by the trucks. If we spot trouble we’ll hit the sides of the road and take cover. The rest of you will be expected to do the same.

The ranger will go left, horses will go right, Cherokee left as well and Tahoe to the right. That will even things out on both sides of the road. We’ll work out vehicle assignments. Do not bunch together, stay within earshot of each other and keep your eyes open to all sides and front and rear. If we have to fire, make sure you do not cross fire and do not fire up by us. You will have to watch my signals.” Haliday covered some brief hand signals.

“I’ve altered the route a bit, but it will take us two days if everything goes smoothly. Make sure the vehicles are gassed up. We’ll stop once for lunch and that’s all. When we stop for dinner, we’ll also make camp for the night. I’m not going to try to contact the militia at all. We are going to try to sneak in there.

“If we encounter a problem I’ll raise them on the radio and set something up as far as a meeting goes. I have a couple ideas of how to do that. In the meantime, let’s get ready to move out. Blake, get your bike and bring it here. We have a quick modification to make.” Blake rolled his bike over to where Haliday was.

Haliday took a long pipe that had an elbow on the end and held it up against the fork of Blake’s bike. He used a few heavy round clamps and secured it in place. Haliday walked over to his bike and slipped a similar pipe into a sleeve he already had attached to the fork, and used a big cotter pin to secure it in place.

“What’s that for?” Blake asked.

“It’s so we can keep our heads on. If these guys are looking for me on a bike, there’s no telling whether or not they set up any traps. The most common is a wire strung between trees or poles. It catches you at neck level and it’s all over. The pipe will catch the wire. I doubt it’ll snap the wire, but the pressure will knock the bike down and you with it. Much better alternative.

“Here’s a multi-tool.”

“What for?”

“To clip the wire Blake. Just in case, that’s all, got it? We don’t need wire getting caught in any wheels or anything.” Blake didn’t like this idea, but he was the most experienced rider next to Haliday. “Blake, get your head in the game, listen to me and you’ll do fine.”

Haliday was listening to the minute men frequency. “Papa 4 is out at Delta 13.”

“Almost sounds like cops.” He waited about 7-8 minutes before he heard them again.

“Papa 4 is back on patrol. Parties at Delta 13 said they haven’t seen anything unusual.” Haliday figured Kayla hit the nail on the head. These were locations of houses and they were checking them regularly.

He listened in a bit more. “Papa 2 is out at Bravo 7.” He waved everyone off and motioned for them to sit. Kayla came by with her notebook. She was taking notes. After about 25 more minutes they had a pattern figured out. Papa was obviously a patrol number, and they noted each patrol had an area assigned to them. One was Alpha, two was Bravo, three was Charlie and four was Delta. That made sense.

What didn’t make sense was they could not possibly have numbered every house or building in the area. Rich said, “They have a neighborhood watch set up. They probably have people in key locations and they check in with those people. Intersections, ends of roads, wherever they have a vantage point.” Good catch Dad.

Haliday had to figure out two things. How did they convince these extra eyes to play along and what area were they in. Make that three things, what area were they trying to get too as well. He studied the map to see if he could figure out the areas. He noted everyone else getting anxious. “I learned this in the army folks. It’s called hurry up and wait.”

Haliday studied the map some more. He had lost himself in it when he heard Kayla say bingo.

“Bingo what Kayla?”

“Dad, you didn’t hear that?”

“All I heard was cantonment.” Damn, he got it. They wanted Papa 3 which was the Charlie sector to stay in their cantonment area. He had used cantonment areas, or rather districts, down at Ft. Stewart as an MP.

Haliday divided the map up in equal sections now. They were covering roughly 40X40 miles. The yahoos he ran across had gone out of their area and were cautioned to stay in their area today. These would be the Papa 3 units with Charlie sector. At night he figured the two units covered north and south. Someone had military training or read a lot of field manuals.

This posed another problem. The Bay City Minute Men most likely bordered the Bad Axe areas. If they had a mutual aid pact, that increased the odds of trouble. They would definitely have more firepower. Haliday was going to have to completely rethink this situation.

 He called everyone over. “Time to change the plan. We are going to make a very short move to this location here. This will put us just inside the edge of their patrol area. We’ll set up camp and you’ll stay there tonight and through tomorrow as well. Early the next morning you’ll move out and head straight to the house.

“I’m going to head up over here and stir the pot. I’ll stir it enough to draw them away from you guys. Once you get there, you fortify the hell out of it. There’s instructions, diagrams, notes, everything you will need right there in the house. Kayla knows how to get to everything. I’ll work my way back and we’ll go from there.

“What if we’re spotted?” David asked.

“They have the patrols calling in the checks from their spotters, so I doubt they have a way of communicating. They’ll be too busy with me to do the normal checks. Like I said, I’ll buy you the time to get there. I do need a volunteer to go with me. Blake, it’s your bike and you know how to ride. It’s going to be you. Let’s move.”

In about two hours they reached the camp site. Haliday and Blake made their preparations while the rest of the group set up camp, placed the booby traps out and got settled in. They covered a few more informational items, wished each other luck and said their goodbyes. Haliday and Blake headed out.

Chapter 17

Haliday and Blake rode out and used a lot of the back roads. They avoided the main roads, even though they seemed to be clear. The reason behind this was that Haliday figured this was where most of the spotters were located, almost like border patrol outposts. The militia would know when their little border had been breached. It was this particular reason that Haliday laid out the plan the way he did.

They were as careful as they possibly could be while in area Charlie, the area they would settle into for the long haul. Once they reached the other sector, however, they made themselves plain as day. They made it a point to be seen by whom they suspected were most likely spotters. This was the beginning of the plan.

After another hour they stopped and pulled over into the woods. Haliday and Blake had the portable hams so they could keep in touch. Haliday told Blake to cut back through the woods, change over and come back through the area that they just came from. Blake cut through the woods, stopped, and made some quick changes.

Blake changed his outer jacket cover that Haliday had given him. He had a couple of these. They were just shells of various camo patterns and not full jackets. He also altered the looks of his bike. He took some black hundred mile an hour tape and made some large stripes on the yellow tank and fenders. He placed one across his helmet as well. He took off and headed to where they had originally stopped.

Haliday in the meantime had taken some black and brown tape and put squares on his bike to give it a quasi digital camo look. He simply took his helmet off and put on a boonie cap to go along with his own jacket change. The difference was good enough that most people would think it was someone else.

About half a mile before Blake reached the woods, he stopped right in the middle of the road in front of a small farmhouse on a corner lot by a small intersection. There was a lady standing there on the porch. Blake looked down the main road and raised his arm and gave a quick wave. Haliday came up behind him and they both took off. As far as the lady on the porch knew, there had been two pairs of bikes that went through. A multiplication of manpower through deception.

Next up, they caused a little trouble. They rode up close to a small town called Pigeon. Haliday scoped out a small gas station with only a few people near it. They rode up slowly and pulled in. A guy in his mid-twenties was standing there with a pistol stuffed in a thigh rig. Blake was facing this guy and Haliday made it a point to face the direction they came in from.

“You guys don’t look too familiar, how can I help you.” Blake looked around. Haliday looked around as well and then the ruse began. Haliday clicked his mic and said, “There are four bodies here, all armed. Hold your twenty.” The guy looked up the street and then back at Blake.

“Any chance we can buy some gas?”

“How much you need?”

Blake said, “We need to fill six bikes and six ‘two’ gallon cans.”

“Is that all?”

“For now, we might need to fill our trucks in a couple hours.”

“That’s going to be a problem for sure. Where you guys from anyway?”

Blake was good at this. “Just around,” he answered.

The moment was getting a little tense. Haliday clicked the mic again, “No, hold your twenty. Doesn’t look like they want to play nice with us.” Haliday glanced over at the guy who was standing there now. “Well? We get gas or not?”

The guy said, “No, we’re under orders not to sell it to anybody that doesn’t have a gas card.”

“Where do we get a gas card?”

“You can’t, the militia gave them out.”

“You mean the military gave them out?”

“No, the militia.”

Haliday looked at the guy. “So let me understand this. You guys are taking orders from a group of yahoos who think they run the country now? You guys have a say in that decision of how they would distribute what’s yours?” The guy didn’t answer. Haliday said, “Lets go, these people are suffering HUA.”

The guy asked Haliday what HUA meant.

“Head up ass.”

Haliday clicked his mic once more; “We’re coming back out. Have Dave in truck five fill up a couple gas cans for the bikes and meet us at…,” Haliday then stopped, looked at the guy, and said, “I’ll call you back with that info. Thanks for nothing partner. We’ll go find our gas elsewhere.” They high tailed it out of that area quickly.

Of course there hadn’t been any transmissions or any truck number five, but appearances counted here, not the facts. They found themselves a little place to hide. They sat it out for about two hours trying to listen to see what was going on. Haliday grinned when he heard the first message pertaining to them.

“Papa 1 is out at Alpha 10 with information. Stand by.” A few minutes passed. “Alpha 10 reports that there were at least four men on motorcycles who passed by a couple hours ago. They report there might have been more, but definitely saw four. We have a direction and will head out and see what other info we can find.”

About half an hour later came another transmission. “Papa 1 is out at Foxtrot Delta 3.” Haliday thought about that one, ok, fuel depot, these guys really wanted to play army. Good for them. Haliday openly laughed at the next transmission.

“Papa 1 to HQ we have reports that confirm six motorcycles and possible trucks in the area. Maybe up to five or more, but makes and models are unknown. There is an unknown number of hostiles. Seems they wanted gas and were denied. We understand the guys were some sort of wannabe Special Forces jerks with attitudes based on the way they acted.” Haliday got a kick out of this.

“Oh boy, these people are hilarious,” he said.

They pushed their bikes further into the woods and covered them up. Haliday broke out a small camp stove and some water. “Mac and cheese this evening, Blake, is that ok with you?”

“Sounds ok to me.”

“You want coffee or cocoa?”

“No, can I have something else?”

“Water, Kool-Aid, Arnold Palmer or Tang?”

“I’ll have some Kool-Aid.”

They finished their quick dinner and then checked in with the group. “Everything is going fine,” he said. “Tonight I want you to monitor the militia freq. and take notes. Do not worry about what you hear about us. I want you to concentrate on what they are doing. Have a couple people listen in to make sure you get as much info as possible.

“Ok Blake, you ready to go?”

“Yes sir.”

“Alright, then let’s get busy.” Haliday double-checked to make sure the lights on the bikes were taped off. He rigged up the headlights so that you could pull a strip of tape off and it would uncover the light in case they needed to see. The moon was fairly bright and provided enough light to see at the speeds they were moving. They moved slowly using back woods trails.

They were coming up on a small road and turned the bikes off. They walked up to a stalled car and punctured the tank and filled their smaller gas cans. They went back and filled the bikes. They went back and topped off the gas cans. Haliday let the gas flow out of the tank though instead of plugging it like he had the other tanks.

Haliday grabbed a cigarette out of a pack in his pocket; he didn’t smoke, just used them for projects. He grabbed a wooden match and poked it through the cigarette near the filter. He grabbed a paper clip and bent it into shape. He placed this down by the gas on the ground. Looked like a little cannon pointing toward the sky. The cigarette would burn down, ignite the match which was close enough to the gas, and that would set it all ablaze.

This would buy them time to get out of the area. They walked back into the woods and took off. They were well enough away from the area when the gas ignited and the car became engulfed in flames. This drew the attention of the nearby homes as they came out to look at what was burning. This would be reported if it wasn’t seen by a patrol.

They hit another spot about four miles away and further north. Haliday showed Blake how to do it. “We don’t need the gas, but we need the diversion,” Haliday said. Blake looked at the car.

“Oh man, Mr. Haliday, it’s a Camaro,” Blake said.

“What’s wrong with that, they don’t burn? Blake, the car is useless. If it makes you feel any better I’ll write the owner a check. Let’s move.”

Blake set the makeshift fuse and they took off again.

“Last but not least, the grand finale for the night. This third car is where it gets risky. This is what we’ll do.” He explained the plan to Blake and they got ready to go. “If we get separated, you meet me back here. Let’s go.”

They cut the engines on the bikes and rolled down a hill about an eighth of a mile. When they stopped by the car, Haliday went and punctured the tank. No gas, though. He walked over to another one and same result. This wasn’t going to work out that well. There were no other cars far enough away from the homes.

He looked around and saw an older store by itself with a dirt parking lot that looked empty. He checked it out and it appeared it had been empty for probably 10 years or more. The people in the Thumb Area had it made. Nice rural areas, but they still had that American dream—they’d open a business; it would fail and sit empty. Simply not enough people around to support it.

He found an old bottle and poured a little gas inside with a piece of rag to make a Molotov cocktail. He lit it, then grabbed a rock and tossed it through a window. He tossed the flaming bottle in next. Blake and he started yelling and fired a few shots from their rifles and also Haliday’s .40. They got on the bikes and took off. There were plenty of flashlights and candles glowing now.

 They were heading down the road when they spotted a pair of headlights coming their way and a spotlight sweeping the road. Haliday peeled off the tape from his headlight and shot into the woods. Blake followed him. They got about 150 yards in and killed the bikes, laid them down and took cover.

Haliday grabbed a camo jacket shell and tossed it over his bike. Blake grabbed one and did the same thing. Haliday liked this kid. He learned quickly. They threw some small deadfall branches on them as well. There was not a lot of wooded area here and they’d be easy to spot if they tried to make a run for it. Staying put was the only option next to abandoning the bikes. They couldn’t afford to do that.

The vehicle that was approaching stopped about a mile down the road from the burning store. It was moving slowly toward the store and sweeping its spotlight into the fields and woods searching for them. They must have misjudged distance because they did this for almost half a mile past the store. They weren’t sure where they were hiding. With the spotlight, Haliday knew they weren’t using NVG’s or any type of thermal unit.

As they sat and waited, another vehicle came screaming by. It didn’t stop until it got near the store. Haliday looked through his binoculars the best he could. Once again he wished he had NVG’s. Looked like an older Jeep and older pickup. Four guys were standing near them talking and waving toward Blake and Haliday’s general area.

“Mr. Haliday, I’m a little scared.”

“Look Blake, just stay down, do not move or do anything. Listen to what I tell you.” Two of the guys got back in the truck and then the truck made another sweep down the road with the spotlight. Haliday covered the binoculars up and looked at Blake. “Don’t worry kid, just put your head down and don’t think about it. I’ll tell you what they’re doing and if you need to do anything if that helps.

“Ok Blake, they are still spotlighting the road and whole area, if they had spotted us they would be coming at us already. They are heading back toward the store. The Jeep is taking off now. It’s heading in the direction of the second car fire. The guys in the truck are still looking around. Looks like they plan to stay a while because they just opened up a cooler and it looks like meal time.

“Blake, carefully low crawl over to your bike and grab that wool blanket out of your pack. Cover yourself up with it. We’re going to be here a while.” Haliday followed suit and grabbed one out of his saddle bags. They laid there for a while watching the guys stand by the burning store. Haliday asked him about football, why he didn’t go to college, anything to help keep the kid calm. Haliday had waited like this before, hours upon hours; it didn’t bother him.

Blake had pretty much settled down and now it was almost 2:30 in the morning. The guys got in their truck and took one last look around before they left. Blake said, “can we go now.”

“Absolutely not.” They still laid there. About half an hour later the truck drove back by. “That’s why we waited Blake; they were still looking for us.” After another hour they got up and shook off the cold. Haliday grabbed a map and hid under the blanket with a red flashlight to read it.

He turned the light off and flipped the blanket off. “That was something else, huh Blake?”

“Oh ya, ranks up there in my top 10 list of favorite things.”

“Get used to it. It ain’t combat, but you are fighting for your life. Remember that. Any time you feel giddy enough you can leave if you want to.”

“No way Mr. Haliday. I just never thought I’d see stuff like this happen and I don’t like those guys for some reason. I don’t trust them.”

“Tape your headlight up again and let’s get going.” They worked their way to another farm area. Haliday spotted a rundown barn with a “for sale” sign just off the road. He could see a house. He walked up to the “for sale” sign and pulled a piece of paper out of a plastic box on the side of the sign post.

He grabbed his flashlight and blanket again and read the paper. “Fifty acres, good for sugar beets, blah blah blah, old barn can be repaired, mobile home removed from property, but foundation left in place. Good, abandoned.” They worked their way to the barn, pushing the bikes just in case. They went inside and except for a few rusted old hulks of farm implements, it was empty. “We’ll stay here for a bit, Blake.

“Go ahead and make yourself comfortable and grab a couple hours of sleep. I’ll wake you up later and we’ll switch off.” He went and grabbed a granola bar and turned to offer Blake one, but Blake was already out like a light with his sleeping bag just draped over him. Haliday munched on the treat and took a look around the barn and land. This wouldn’t have been a bad place to build, he thought.

He changed the frequency and gave his group a quick hello. “Hey Uncle Roger, it’s Randy.”

“Hey Randy, everything ok with you guys there at the camp?”

“Well, we could all use a drink.”

“Why, what’s going on?”

“You guys have definitely stirred the pot. There are a whole lot of people wanting to skin you guys alive. They are super pissed off. It was quite intense to listen to.”

“Well, that’s our plan, you guys learn anything good?”

“Kayla and Dawn took notes and then after it all settled down, grandma and grandpa took notes too.”

“Ok, I’ll call again in a few hours; we’re getting some rest right now. Tell everyone we are ok and talk to you soon.”

Haliday walked around a bit more then went over and woke Blake up. The sun was starting to rise and Blake should be able to stay awake. Haliday doubted he would have been able to take the first watch. “Before I crash, you want any coffee or anything?”

“I’m a little hungry.”

“Here, start with this.” Haliday tossed him a Snickers bar. “After that go ahead and crack open an MRE. Eat it all, Blake. You’ll need the calories and energy.”

Haliday dropped his sleeping bag to the ground, unzipped it, and climbed in. He wanted to zip it up, but also didn’t want to get stuck in it if something happened. He looked over at Blake struggling with the MRE. Blake glanced over and saw him watching. “Blake, the directions are on the side. Use the red lensed flashlight.” The kid would need a couple more hours of sleep before they moved out so he was aware of what was going on.

Blake nudged him awake. Haliday opened his eyes and Blake was telling him to be quiet. Haliday slowly got out of his bag. “What’s going on?” Blake whispered to him that someone else was here already. “What the hell, where are they?” He walked over to a window and Blake pointed them out.

About 50 feet from where the concrete pad of the mobile home had been was a door sticking up in the air. There was a man and a woman standing there talking. They had walked their bikes right by it when they came in last night. It was an old tornado shelter and it looked like it had been used last night. Haliday looked around and the bikes and gear were all there. At least they hadn’t been discovered yet.

He motioned for Blake to check his weapon and make sure it was ready to go. He checked his own as well. He signaled Blake to go to the other end of the barn. He found a hole in the side of the barn and watched them for a few minutes. They were just standing there talking. A third figure appeared out of the shelter.

This was a young child, maybe 8 or 9 years old. It looked like a boy, but with some of the hair styles kids wear these days he didn’t make judgment just yet. The kid turned around, definitely a boy. The parents stretched a bit and the kid kicked around a rock.

He came close to the barn a couple of times, which made them nervous.

For a minute, he eyeballed the barn and started walking toward the door. “Timmy, don’t go in there, it’s dangerous,” the mother called out. He turned around and walked back toward her. “We need to get moving again, we have a long way to go.” They went down into the shelter and the father came out with a bike. He went down again and came back out with another one. One more trip and they now had three bikes.

He went down once again and brought up a small two wheeled cart like those you tow behind bikes with your dog in it. They retrieved some packs and things, then started getting everything loaded up. “Looks like they just stayed for the night.” They were about to pedal away when they heard a vehicle coming down the road.

The truck pulled in and right up to the family. A man and woman climbed out and walked up to them. Looked like they were wearing some kind of Russian camo pattern. The man spoke first. “Who are you guys?”

“We’re members of the Bad Axe Minute Men. Who are you?”

“My name is Steven and this is my wife Jill and son Tim.”

The Minute Man spoke, “You guys from the area?”

“Yes we are. We’re from Port Austin.”

The woman walked around the three of them and looked down the steps of the shelter. “Anyone else down there?”

“No, we were just staying the night and getting ready to leave.”

The woman went down into the shelter and re-emerged. “No one else down there.” She went and stood back next to the other guy. Haliday was shocked at how much risk they took.

“What about the barn,” she said.

“We looked in it last night, but it’s empty. We chose the tornado shelter because it had the old cots down there. There was too much rusty stuff to get hurt on in there and my son is curious.”

“Where you guys heading?”

“Imlay City to my parents house. We left yesterday and stopped here for the night. We hope to make it there some time in the next couple days before it gets much colder.”

The guy walked around and looked at their bikes and packs. “You have any weapons?” he asked.

The guy said, “No.”

“Mind if I check?”

“Yes I do. You’re not a cop. You don’t have the right.”

“Look bud, times are different. This area is under control of the Bad Axe Minute Men now. What we say goes. We have a no weapons policy for travelers.”

“You don’t have any right to search us.”

The woman walked up and grabbed the guy’s pack; he struggled but then got hit by the other man. The wife yelled at him to stop it and the little boy was crying and yelled for them to stop. The minute man laid one more punch in the guy’s face and knocked him down. Haliday was fighting the urge to fire. Blake just had this WTF look on his face, but Haliday signaled him to stay down.

The minute man picked up the bags and dumped everything out. He picked up a small pistol. “No guns, huh?” He kicked the guy while he was down. “You answer with the truth when asked a question. We’ll be keeping this. You’re damn lucky we ain’t taking your food too. Now get the hell out of here.” They were about to get in the truck when they heard a noise by the barn and stopped.

Everyone looked over at the barn. Haliday was ready. A big raccoon went scurrying out from one of the windows, down the side of the barn and across the field. The minute men lowered their rifles and got back in their truck. They told the family to get going. They took off down the road. Haliday heard them call the check in on the radio. That was a close one.

Blake said, “Let’s go see if they need help.”

Haliday said, “No, we can’t. If they get stopped again and they are afraid, they’ll rat us out in a heartbeat. They have two days tops to get to Imlay City, maybe three if they move slow, but they’ll make it. You go hit the sack for a little bit more and I’ll keep watch again, it’ll be a while before its safe to go.”

He watched the family gather themselves and head out. What the hell kind of militia was this? These guys should be helping these people not beating them and disarming them, especially when they are out on the road. That was total BS in his mind but he had to stay focused on his own group. Were these guys rogue from their own group. He kept wondering about them. He should have shot them and given the truck to the family, but that would have opened up a whole different can of worms.

After the family left and was well on their way, Haliday called his group. “Hey listen, if you are approached by a group of militia, or members of the militia be careful. They seem to have designated a Russian camo as their uniform which looks like the old U.S. woodland BDU pattern, only with finer detail and the colors are not as contrasting. Shoot the bastards on sight. Don’t mess around with them.” He relayed to them the story of the family.

He woke Blake up. “You feeling better?” he asked.

“Ya, I’ll be ready to go.”

“Good, now tonight is going to be tense as well. I’m going to cover a few more basics on the rifle with you. We can’t live fire or we’ll attract attention, but you’ll do fine.” He spent about an hour covering a few marksmanship skills and safety points with him.

“This is Roger, you there Kaybear?”

“Ya Dad, I’ve been waiting.”

“Ok, let me know what the latest news is.”

“Ok, you ready?”

“I’m going on memory Kayla; I don’t have the resources for notes.”

“Ahhhh, alrighty then. How’s Blake?”

“Kayla, he’s fine. If you want him to stay that way, spit it out.” It’s starting already, he thought.

“Ok, they talked on the net about contacting the Bay City group and how Bay City themselves had big trouble and could not send help. It sounds like they are running the four patrols and now two response unit’s 24 hours a day now. I did notice they seemed to be concentrating on the northern areas a bit more. That’s the plan right?”

“Yes it is kiddo. Anything else?”

“Oh ya, lots more.

“They have been talking about people traveling and how they have been disarming them. They even mentioned seizing a truck. Sounds like their own version of martial law. They also said they were posting signs: looters would be shot on sight. They set out signs for curfew as well. No one is to be out from dusk until dawn. Now for information on you.

“They think there are six motorcycles and about a half dozen trucks. They said your manpower would be at least 24 to 30 or more. They figure you guys to be operating in the northern sector somewhere. Sounds like they are going to concentrate patrols there. They are trying to find your base camp. One last thing Dad, they’ll shoot you first before they try to stop and ask you questions. Be careful, love you, Dad.”

“Love you too, kiddo.”

“Roger, you want us to stay on schedule?” It was David now.

“Yes I do. Promptly. You’ll have to get the horses moving quickly. If it becomes an issue they are going to have to leave them. Be firm about it. You might want to give them an hour head start actually. You only have about 12 miles to go. Get them there, ok brother?”

“Ok, be safe.”

“You too.”

Chapter 18

Haliday and Blake were getting ready to go. It was noon and they wanted to be in place by dusk. They wanted these guys to be tired and pissed off. If they started around 1800hrs that would put the fresh shift on duty. The others would not be in bed yet. Chances are they would all want to play cowboy and show up for the festivities. When morning came, around half would still be tired from the night before and the other half ready to go home.

They took off and followed a small river toward Oliver Township. They barely crept along to avoid overly loud engine noises. Haliday remembered people always talking about what vehicle you should have for this. What you should have for that, and it drove him nuts. Pretty much anything running was a gem these days. What really drove him crazy were the guys who swore by two strokes. Way too loud─ way too easy to find.

It seemed like it took forever. Once they reached a secure location, they got off the bikes. They dug into a couple MRE’s before they got going again. They would be walking for the next couple of miles. They camouflaged the bikes and took some mental notes of the area.

Haliday pulled out some small reflectors and pushed them up high onto some trees. With any luck the moon would catch them and make it easier to find the bikes in a hurry. He explained this to Blake. If anything happens to me, get the hell out of here. By now he had studied the maps and would know where to go.

Haliday set to work on the distractions. He pulled out four small wind-up clocks and wound them up. He set the times on each so they were all set to the same time. He had ripped off the plastic face covers and attached some metal connectors to the minute and hour hands. These would set off a small igniter which would then light a piece of fuse.

He packed these into some small containers with gun powder in it that would create a small explosion. Next to these he would place a few bags of various chemicals mixed together, liquid drain cleaner, diesel and Styrofoam pellets which would ignite and stick to surrounding objects. He read this on the internet. These he would place next to some old abandoned buildings or vehicles. He placed another igniter system nearby to ignite the gel. The explosion, mostly just noise, and the accompanying fire would make a great distraction. The gel was to make sure the fire spread rapidly throughout the area.

These would go off about 15 minutes apart and should draw quite a crowd. They waited until it was nice and dark out. The clouds were covering the moonlight as they passed through the sky now, so Haliday told Blake how important it was to remember where the bikes were. It would, however, help provide better cover for them. They were well camouflaged; Rambo face paint included.

They took off for their destination. First up was a small sugar beet storage plant. They approached from the side and didn’t see anyone. They went up to a small maintenance shed which they found unlocked. It looked like it hadn’t been used in quite a while. He placed the box on the work bench. They left and followed some train tracks down to a golf course.

Here he found the storage barn for the golf carts. They were all gone. So were the charging stations and parts for them. Someone had these and his guess was confiscation by the militia. He set up the device and they moved on. They were close to the center of town now and he looked for another target. Haliday heard a vehicle approach and they ducked behind an old trailer. The vehicle passed by, but Haliday couldn’t see inside well enough to make out who it was.

They waited a few minutes and then they came across a few cars and old tow truck parked in an auto shop. Blake placed a device on the back of the tow truck. He said, “One left, Mr. Haliday.”

“Call me Roger, ok Blake.”

“Um, ok Roger.” It sounded odd. They looked down the street, too many candles glowing in windows, which meant too many people down there.

Haliday looked around. Blake said “look,” and pointed across the street. There outside another repair garage were six golf carts. Haliday said, “Go over there and put it on one of the carts.” Blake looked around and then darted across the street. He had just placed the box on the back of one of the carts when another vehicle approached. Blake ducked down low.

The vehicle pulled into the lot. They swept the area with a spotlight. Haliday got his rifle ready. Someone jumped out from the vehicle. It looked like an old Blazer. Haliday was praying Blake was well hidden. The guy who jumped out walked up to the door and peered inside. He then walked back to the Blazer and climbed in. They sat there for a minute.

Haliday kept watch, but reached down and hit a button on his ham and changed frequencies. All he heard was the end of a sentence. “It’s all secured at this time.” He changed the frequency back. The Blazer pulled out of the lot and took off. Haliday told Blake to wait a few minutes.

“You expect them to come back?”

“No, I want the aroma to clear out from you crapping your pants.”

Blake waited just a couple minutes, then bolted back across the street. “No, I didn’t crap my pants, almost, but I didn’t.”

“Let’s get the hell out of here now.” They worked their way back toward the river. Once they got there, they started the trek back to the bikes. It was almost nine now. They took another half an hour to make it back to the bikes.

They were about 50 yards away when they saw a flashlight. They dropped down low immediately. The light came nearer and nearer and they heard voices.

“We’re going to be in trouble.”

“No we’re not, only if they catch us.”

“It’s way past curfew and plus Mom will be mad.”

“We had to go, she won’t mind.” They went back and forth.

“They aren’t the police anyway. I don’t know who put them in charge.”

“Well they are in charge and whether we like it or not that’s how it is. If they catch us with food they’ll shoot us.”

“We didn’t steal it, we left a note. It’s our aunt’s house and they aren’t home. I don’t think they would care.” The kids were maybe 14 or 15, and sounded like brothers. They walked right by Blake and Haliday, but didn’t see them.

After about another 15 minutes they got up and finished heading back to the bikes. Blake asked if he thought they would really shoot those kids. “I don’t doubt it a bit. I hope they make it home. They have about 20 minutes before the fireworks start.” They sat down and waited. They heard a decent explosion. Now it had started.

They got up and secured their gear and got on the bikes. They pushed them to the river bank and waited again. The second device exploded and they started the bikes and headed along the river toward town. They put the bikes down and watched the activity. They saw two vehicles near the fires and a third coming down the road.

The third device detonated and now it looked like the Keystone Kops were in action. These guys didn’t know what to do. They were running around their vehicles and talking into their radios. Haliday couldn’t make sense of what they were saying. Everyone was trying to talk at once.

They were pointing in every direction and barking orders at each other. The fourth device detonated and two vehicles shot toward there. A fourth truck showed up and went down to the garage where the golf carts were. They tried to use fire extinguishers, but that didn’t help. The ham was blaring away.

“These pricks blew up the repair garage. The golf carts are all on fire. We can’t put them out. We saw some of them head north. We’re going to send a couple patrols after them.” Haliday was amused. Who the hell saw what, he thought, but then again the moonlight, flames and the dark night made for some great optical illusions. If they thought they saw something, more power to them.

All of a sudden everyone ran away from the repair shop. In just a matter of about two more minutes, there was a big explosion and flames were everywhere. One of their trucks had caught fire from this explosion as well. Blake and Haliday just looked at each other and wondered what the hell happened. Blake hadn’t noticed the 100 gallon portable tank sitting there.

“Those sons of bitches blew up a fuel tank. Damn near blew up all of our trucks too. Looks like Jim’s Blazer is toast. We need to find these sons of bitches now. I’ll be damned if they think they’re going to run around in my region and pull this terrorist shit on us. Don’t let me find out people are helping them or I’ll shoot them too.”

Haliday looked at Blake; they hit the road and took off. Coincidentally they were heading to Port Austin, where the family from the tornado shelter was from. Haliday had a few fond memories of this area. He had taken Kayla camping there a couple times as a small girl, old fashioned tent, hotdogs, sitting around the fire eating smores.

Another time David, Rich and one of David’s friends and he had chartered a fishing boat and spent the day catching lake trout. The water had been rough, but they insisted on going out and had a great day on the lake. Those were good times. Life was simple then, he thought, and before he knew it they were there.

They pulled in behind a large billboard. Haliday climbed up to the platform which actually wasn’t very high and pulled out a roll of hundred mile an hour tape. He wished he had spray paint for this but it was never really on his list of preps except for some basic colors of rustoleum to keep at the house. It took him about 15 minutes, but he finished it and it would have to do.

After climbing down he looked at Blake, “You get the next one.”

“That hard of a climb, old man?” Haliday figured it was time to shake him up a bit and keep him focused.

“No, too easy of a target up there.” Blake’s smirk disappeared instantly. They went down the road about half a mile. Haliday found a stalled out car. Old Chevy station wagon. He was surprised it was still on the road, so he didn’t feel bad about what he was going to do.

Haliday opened the fuel door. He dropped a model rocket engine down inside about six inches. The igniter was attached to one of his last two alarm clocks, complete with nine volt battery. The alarm would hit, the rocket would shoot down into the tank and another nice little fire would occur. They took off and found another billboard. Blake grabbed the tape and asked Haliday what he wanted him to put up there.

Haliday chuckled. He was thinking of Red Dawn. “Put ‘Wolverines’ up there,” he said. “That ought to make their day.”

“Ok,” Blake said; he climbed up and went to work. As soon as he was done, they moved a little ways down the road and found another stalled out vehicle. This one was a conversion van. This thing would burn like a champ with all that plywood and upholstery inside. He opened one of the back doors to make sure the flames reached inside. Haliday rigged this one up too.

He went over to his bike and opened a saddle bag. He reached in and pulled out a small bag and walked around and tossed the contents on the ground. This was all done to add to the illusion. Keep up the appearance of more than two guys doing this. “Now it’s time to get the hell out of Dodge.”

They followed the shoreline road along the east side of the thumb. Just past a little town called White Rock they went into a wooded area. There hadn’t been anyone up this far that they had seen and they were hoping most of the militia was over by Oliver and checking out that area.

Haliday was beyond tired. He’d eat and get some rest. “You hungry Blake?”

“Ya, I am but I have um, uh, well Mr. Haliday, I have to uh, well, I can’t go and I need to.”

“Oh the poop pipe is plugged?”

“Uh, ya.”

Haliday dug into his pack and tossed Blake some constipation medicine. “It’s the MRE’s. Take that and you’ll be set to go, no pun intended. I’m going to take the first rest break; you keep watch and wake me in two hours. Blake, hope everything comes out ok.” Haliday cracked himself up.

Blake woke up Haliday and they switched places. Haliday called the group on the radio. “We’re doing ok and ready to get the hell out of here later on. We’re going to stay here until we know you guys made it ok. Once you’re there we’ll make our way over there as soon as we can. Move out at 0630, that’s when it should be the safest for you guys. Get Diana and Dawn out earlier on the horses, but tell them to be careful.”

Rich came on, “Ok, we’ll keep you updated.”

“No, don’t call unless you run into some serious trouble or when you make it there. This is the point when we need to make sure it runs like clockwork. We have the last little surprises to set and that will give you all the time you need to get there. Anything else going on?”

“Well, your ‘band of terrorists’ has really shaken them up. They don’t seem to have the people to double up patrols, or don’t want to, and have been arguing about using their camp sentries to assist in finding you. But they think it’s a trick so you can invade their camp.

“As far as we can tell, they are concentrating most of their efforts on their camp and the northern areas where you’ve been busy. I think half are assigned to security and the rest run the camp. It’s too hard to really tell what their logistics are. They are pretty organized though.”

“That’s good news for you guys. Tell everyone we’re fine. Wish you guys the best of luck.” Haliday heated himself up an MRE and after he ate made sure he took some fiber pills himself. Those things really do a number on you, that’s for sure. He didn’t eat the cheese spread, that usually hit him for days. He tossed it back in his saddle bag.

It was 0630 right on the nose. The first car caught fire and the flames overtook the entire car. It was fully ablaze in about 10 minutes. Haliday was listening to the militia freq. but didn’t hear any response yet. About another 10 minutes went by when he heard a patrol call in that they saw smoke and were going to check it out. It was about this time that the second fire started. The conversion van went up a lot more quickly.

“Papa 2 to HQ we have two fires going on. We need help over here. These bastards are at it again. They gotta be close. Send us help.”

“HQ to Papa 2, we have units on the way. We’re sending Papa 1 and Papa 4 to your location. Papa 3, we need you to head north and cover Papa 2’s area. We have the response units moving into that area and the camp on alert.”

The whole northeast portion of the thumb was crawling with militia now. When they reached the conversion van, they heard more chatter.

“HQ we think they have four or more guys running around here. We found all kinds of MRE garbage on the ground. They might have stayed somewhere around here last night. They must be close, everyone check the marinas and the parks.”

Blake was up now and listening to the radio as well.

“We heading out now?”

“No, we have to stay in this area to make sure the group gets in safely. Just in case we need to keep the militia in the area.” Haliday was listening to the ham some more. These guys were seriously pissed off at them. The next transmission almost made Haliday piss his pants.

“Papa 2 to HQ, those bastards wrote graffiti on a billboard.”

“What does it say?”

“One says ‘wolverines’. Those smart-asses.”

“What do you mean one?”

“There’s another one too. Papa 4 saw it.”

“Well, what’s it say?”

“It says ‘BAMM sucks dick’.”

“Tear that shit down. You hear me. Tear me that shit down now! I will not have the people of my community think I’m a dick sucker.”

Haliday was almost in tears. This must be their commandant, oh fearless leader with a Napoleon complex or something. But, those words he said, “his community?” This guy was on a power trip and this early in the game that was dangerous. This guy would get out of control and if someone didn’t put him in check, there was no telling what would happen around here. It would affect Haliday’s group and the house.

Haliday and Blake waited at their camp. The next transmission alarmed them.

“Papa 2 to HQ, we got ’em , we got ’em, we have their location. We found fresh tracks and we are moving in on them.” Haliday looked at Blake and grabbed his rifle. He dropped down prone behind his bike and pulled out some extra mags. Blake dropped down too. He piled up his mags next to him.

“Papa 2 to HQ, we have Papa 1 and 4 with us along with response unit 1. We are moving in slowly. We are about 100 yards out copy.”

“HQ to Papa 2 we copy. Proceed with caution. Repeat, proceed with caution. If possible keep one alive for interrogation, you copy?”

“Papa 2 copies, we are now 75 yards out.” Haliday looked at Blake, he pointed to the selector level to make sure he had it on fire. “We are now 50 yards out.” Haliday and Blake scanned the woods for movement.

“Papa 2 to HQ, we have two in custody. We will be bringing them in to HQ.”

“HQ copies, good job guys, any casualties?”

“That’s a negative, we didn’t even have to fire, we overwhelmed them, shouted commands and they just gave up. We have one motorcycle we will be bringing back and two hostiles.

“We have one male and one female.” Haliday looked at Blake and Blake looked back at him.

“What the hell are they talking about?” Haliday low crawled over to Blake.

“Listen, they nabbed someone else and must think they are part of our group. I have no idea who they are or where they were.

“I’m not sure who it was or what they were doing, but they are in for a rude awakening.”

Blake asked him what he thought would happen to them.

“I don’t know. I really don’t. I’m sure they’ll be beaten and interrogated and after that who knows. These guys are dumb enough to think whoever they caught are part of our group. Hopefully they figure out the truth and let them go.”

This wasn’t sitting that good with Haliday. These people were out there minding their own business and got caught up in the trouble he created. They were probably just trying to get the hell out of here or get to their own location. They could have a cabin nearby, a boat, or who knows what. He was determined to find out though.

“Blake, I want you to head out and go meet the group at the house.” He looked at the time. “It’s almost eight now and you should get there about the same time they do. I have to go find out what’s going on with these guys and what they are doing with the couple they grabbed. After that I’ll head there myself. You just be careful and head straight there.”

“Mr. Haliday, uh, I mean Roger, I’d rather stick it out with you. You might need some help and I would rather do that than leave you out here alone. Isn’t that the way it works, never leave a man behind.”

“Ya, that’s it Blake, but I’d rather you get going and help out at the house.”

“Roger, I can’t do that. I’d be starving in another couple of weeks or so if it wasn’t for you. I’ll stay.”

“Good enough, thank you Blake.”

Haliday looked at him and said, “We need to get some more sleep.” They spent a little more time camouflaging their area and setting up a couple booby trap simulators. Blake laid down a piece of plastic and then a wool blanket folded over. He laid out his sleeping bag on top of that and climbed in. Haliday boiled some hot water and made hot cocoa. He flipped back and forth from his freq. to the militia freq.

He flipped back to his freq. and heard the call from Kayla. “Go ahead kiddo.”

“How you guys doing?”

“We’re fine, just resting, but we have some minor problems to handle.”

“Ok, well we got here. We all made it just fine. We have the trucks and trailers parked in the pole barn. The horses are in the stalls. We got into the house and everything is ok. What do you want us to do?”

“Go ahead and set up a security watch. The rest of you guys can take a break or whatever you want to do. It’s very important you set a watch schedule and stick to it. Today you guys need to empty those trailers and trucks out into the cache. Don’t leave anything out there if you don’t have to.

“Make sure the vehicles are immobilized as well. Keep them out of sight in the pole barn. Make sure the pole barn is completely secured. The Jeep ok?”

“Ya, it’s fine. Uncle David started it and ran it for a few minutes.”

“Ok, great. Make sure that all gets done today.”

“You guys coming in soon?”

“No, we can’t.”

“Why, what’s wrong?”

“It’s hard to explain. We stirred up some crap and need to see it through. In a nutshell a couple people got caught up in our crap and may end up taking the blame for it. I need to see what they plan to do with them and Blake volunteered to stay and help.”

“Can’t you guys just leave them alone?”

“I wish we could, but burning down some old stores and abandoned cars is different than letting these people possibly die. I just can’t do that. I have to find out what’s going on with these militia guys. All we’re going to do is head in and take a peek. That’s all. I need you guys to set up two hams. One for us and one on the militia freq. If you can, set up a third and scan it for traffic. Find out what the hell the government is doing or if anyone else is in the area.”

“Ok, Dad, call us with any more info.”

Haliday woke up Blake and briefed him on what was going on with the group. He asked him if he was sure he wanted to stay and Blake said yes. Haliday inventoried their food and they had enough for two more days, three if they ate lightly. Water wasn’t an issue, they had purification tabs and filter straws.

They each took another turn sleeping. Haliday inventoried everything else now as well. He wouldn’t be setting up any diversions now; he had used everything he had. He didn’t expect this little problem to arise. He did a quick ammo check. That might play an important role sooner or later.

They each had 7 magazines for the rifles. Five 30 rounders and two 20 rounders. These were full. In addition to that they had some bandoliers filled with stripper clips. The 20 rounders made it easier for prone fighting positions. All in all they had roughly 500 rounds each. He had about 100 for his .40 left. No way could they launch an offensive with this. It would be suicide. He had to figure out a plan. He had to figure out where their HQ was.

Bad Axe was the biggest town in the Thumb and it made sense they would name themselves after it, but they had to have another reason. There had to be another tie somehow. He just had to figure out how. These guys would need a large area, one that would support their operation, give them ample storage, enough land to farm, water, central location now, where the hell were these guys staying?

They had responded pretty damn quick last night. They definitely had a good layout of the land. They also felt comfortable enough wherever they were to pull the extra manpower out of their camp for the hunt. It’d be too risky to approach the locals and ask. They might not even know and if they were afraid of these guys they would definitely be talking to them.

He poured over the map. He searched his memory. He kept picturing the vehicles and the people, listening to their transmissions over and over again in his head. He concentrated on the family near the tornado shelter and the two who had shown up there. He got his answer. The Huron County Memorial Airport.

The guy had been wearing wings and Haliday had thought the guy was reliving his airborne days but he was actually sporting aviator wings. At the distance he had seen him from, it was an acceptable mistake. If they had aircraft they would have used it by now. This was probably something they didn’t count on, losing electronics entirely. But being a pilot, he was proud to sport his wings.

“Oh man, you’ve got to be kidding me,” he said aloud. Blake asked him what he was talking about. Haliday laid it all out there for him.

“So that makes it real hard huh?”

“Well, based on my last airport experience and I’m not talking about being groped by the TSA, I don’t want anything to do with it.”

“What are we going to do then?”

“Think about it carefully, that’s what.

“Blake, these railroad tracks will take us right through what I think is their HQ. The airport on the right and this land on the left with the big pond is probably theirs. The airport gives them a huge advantage on three sides as far as visibility, it’s all open. The front can be covered easily enough with manpower, especially if they are using the main building as their admin area.

“What I propose we do is take these tracks up as far as we can. We head into the woods to the east of the airport and then walk up as far as we can go. We’ll listen in to their traffic and watch for a while and take some notes. See what we can learn. We might have to stay a couple days. After that, we play it by ear. No rescues, no diversions, just recon.

“I’m going to call the group and let them know what’s going on. I want them to get a couple guys together and keep them on alert in case we need some help. It wouldn’t hurt to have some extra firepower in case it gets hairy and we need help getting out. If that happens we’ll shoot straight for the house and say our prayers along the way.”

Haliday and Blake took off. All of the radio traffic they had heard recently pointed to the militia patrols still concentrating on the northern areas. They used this advantage to creep up into position. They settled into the wooded area directly east of the airport. They covered up the bikes, grabbed their gear and started the short hike toward the airport.

Chapter 19

They were close to the perimeter, but still hidden in the woods. Haliday and Blake laid down their wool blankets on the cold ground. They concentrated on concealing themselves. This might have been a good time for a ghillie suit, he was thinking. But how much could he actually carry on the bikes. Blake’s didn’t have saddle bags. He had to use some extra canvas packs that Haliday had extra and with the rest of the gear it was tight. That was the main reason he left his M24 at camp.

He did take his spotting scope and would be using this. He had Blake cover himself up with a smaller blanket and use his flashlight to take notes. Haliday’s maps had aerial photos and he used this as a guide to jot down a rough sketch of the area and number the buildings. Blake and Haliday were ready.

“Ok Blake, I definitely see activity. I think this is the place.” He slowly worked the scope around. “Building one, definitely their HQ. They have stalled cars in place around the entire front and the sides of it for protection. Concertina wire inside the fence too. Looks like they also have some fighting positions fortified in a few locations amidst the cars. Everyone seems to be going in and out of this building.

“It looks like they pushed the planes out of the hangars and are using buildings 2 and 3 as some sort of motor pool. I can see the door open on one and see some vehicles inside, but the other one just has a vehicle parked in front of it.” They heard a small vehicle and Haliday covered the scope and ducked down again.

The vehicle was running along the fence line and spotlighting it as they drove along. The closer they got the more Haliday could make out. It was another side by side four wheeler of some sort with two people in it. One was driving and one was spotlighting the perimeter and both were wearing the same Russian camo and they were armed. They continued on with their check. “Blake, it’s 2200hrs; write that check down.”

Haliday waited and listened. As soon as the four wheeler stopped by the admin building, the occupants went inside. They weren’t calling in these checks so they must be telling them when they go inside that everything is ok. He was wondering what they would do if they came across a problem. Probably best not to find out.

He scanned the other buildings as well. “Blake, building four has activity, but I can’t tell what. I can only see the back of it. Looks like they are taking parts into it, but I’m not sure what kind. They might be trying to get a plane working. The other two buildings look big enough for their motor pool. I doubt they need a third. We’ll have to keep checking on this one.”

2300 hours rolled around and the four wheeler made another circuit around the fence line only this time they went the opposite direction. Midnight would reveal their pattern. Hopefully it’s not every hour on the hour and just alternating direction. Security 101, do not create a pattern. Change it up every time. Same with the time, you do not do it on the hour, half hour, etc; you had to make it seem random. Someone must have OCD or something.

Haliday waited and then scoped the area once again. He saw the hangar door of the third building open. “Yep, definitely part of their motor pool. They have a couple deuce and a halves in there.”

“Deuce what?” Blake asked.

“Big trucks. Blake, think of Good Morning Vietnam when they were all sitting around in the trucks waiting to move out.”

“I didn’t see that movie, but I understand now.”

“They have something else in the back, but I can’t quite see it.”

He saw a few guys leave building four and turn the lights off. “How did I miss that?” Haliday said. He looked around and found it. “Ok, got it, Building six looks like it’s a power house or generator building. I can see the exhaust. They must have power to the whole complex, but selective on what they are running. I wonder how much fuel they have. No telling though. It looks like an underground fuel tank.”

He eyeballed the rest of the buildings over the next hour. Nothing he could really see going on. Midnight came along and the security check was just like the first. “Unbelievable,” he said, “they are too routine for their own good. They have half of it right, but then make some dumb mistakes. They make it too easy for someone to plan something.”

He heard a loud truck in the area. He watched the entrance closely and saw an old army surplus fuel truck pull in. Two guys were at the main gate checking vehicles that were entering and exiting. He watched the fuel truck as it pulled up near the generator building. “Looks like they are siphoning fuel from the gas stations and then filling these tanks.”

After the truck emptied its load it went and parked near the motor pool. Shortly afterwards the whole complex went almost dark. They had either turned the generator off or killed most of the power to everything except what was critical. Maybe just the admin building was still powered up.

“You need to stretch or anything Blake?”

“No, I’m ok for a bit.”

“Ok, rotate your ankles, stiffen your legs then bend your knees, rock from side to side to keep your blood flowing and legs warm. Do not let them fall asleep. If you have to get up and run you’ll be in a world of hurt. If you need to go to the bathroom, then get up and go, don’t get plugged up again or risk an infection from not wizzing.”

Other than the security patrols of the compound nothing else really happened all night. He did notice a lot of checks around building seven though. He didn’t pick up on this earlier. Maybe it was due to the activity during the day and none at night. Might be that he simply noticed the flashlight more in the dark.

Right around 0530 the activity started to pick up. There were people coming out of what he called buildings 8 and 9. These looked like they may be the housing for the complex. Probably had sleeping quarters set up in there. Easier to keep everyone warm that way without heating too many buildings.

He waited until the 0600 patrol made its round and then called Mike as he continued to watch. “Hey Mike, put Bill on for me will you please.”

“Ok, here he is.”

“Roger it’s Bill, how can I help you?”

“What can you tell me about the Bad Axe airport?”

“The memorial airport?”

“Whatever they call it. What do you know?”

“It’s very small, mostly all private planes, smaller stuff, and a couple helicopters I think.”

“What about the buildings. What about the main building?”

“Oh, it’s their offices. Actually when you go in there it’s pretty nice, they have a small little snack bar, you can rent out a large conference room too. Nice big lobby, that’s all I know.”

“Ok, that helps, thanks.”

“What’s going on there?”

“It’s the militia HQ now.”

“My buddy is a pilot, the one who wanted to recruit me. So are a couple of his friends.”

“Is he a big guy, black hair, mustache, attitude?”

“No, my buddy is a smaller gray haired guy.” Haliday was trying to figure out who the leader of this group was.

During the conversation he noticed that the patrols had changed shifts. The day shift headed out and within 10 minutes the night crew came in. After putting their vehicles away, they went into the HQ. People continued to filter out of 8 and 9 and head to the HQ. Haliday figured they used the snack bar to cook and the conference room to eat and hold meetings.

“You ready to go Blake?”

“I sure am.”

They were about to get up when Blake said, “Look Roger.” Roger looked and saw three people heading toward building seven pushing a cart. Two were heavily armed. They opened a couple locks on the door and pushed the cart inside and took what looked to be a partially empty one out. It was chow time for their captives. This is where they were holding them; whoever they may be that is. No telling how many of them there were either. Enough to need a cart for their food.

This small group went back to the HQ. “Ok Blake, we need rest, let’s go get some.” They packed up, messed up their area to hide their presence of being there and went back to where the bikes were. A quick meal and radio call, then some rest. They’d make sure they got some decent sleep over the next eight hours. Haliday was analyzing the info he just acquired as he laid there.

“You sleeping yet Roger?”

“No, what’s up?”

“Why are you so worried about these people and what they are doing?”

“You mean the militia?”

“Ya, them.”

“Well Blake, here’s the way I see it. Here in this country we have our constitution. Now it’s been crapped on time and time again the past few years, more so than any other time period. Slowly but surely, its meaning is being eroded and the Supreme Court is trying to rewrite it from the bench.

“The country is in a position now where we need to make sure we live up to the meaning of the document in its purest form. We are practically back to that period in time when it was written. Oh, we have modern housing, some conveniences and such to an extent, but the next few years will be very different than they were a week ago, but very similar to a couple hundred years ago.

“Within the Bill of Rights are some very basic rights we can’t take for granted. The right to bear arms, the right to freedom of speech, the protection from unlawful search and seizure, no cruel or unusual punishment and the right to a fair trial. You follow me so far?”

“Yes sir, I do.”

“Ok, good. Now here is what I see now.

“This group has declared this area to be theirs. They are taking what they want, when they want and from whom they want. Not for the good of the people, but for their own good. I don’t see them sharing anything with anyone. You think they paid for anything they brought in there? I doubt they paid for that tanker full of fuel. I doubt they paid for this airport or anything else they have acquired most recently.

“A traditional militia is about their own community but they also support those around them. They may not take them under their wing or into their shelters, but they certainly don’t steal from anybody or pull the BS they are pulling here. They really don’t make sense to me. To me they are an enemy.

“They took that family’s gun at the tornado shelter. He had a right to bear arms and carry that gun, more so today than ever. They have people down there being held prisoner for who knows what reasons. You think they had the right to due process? You think they are getting trials? Who knows how they are even being treated. Especially the ones caught while they were looking for us. They are forcing their will upon the people around here and I would say they’re doing it with fear and with force.

“I don’t see these guys as a typical militia. I see them as nothing but a bunch of hoodlums who have strayed far from their original goal, if they even had one. I see a force of people no better than a lot of war criminals or Third World warlords. Years ago I took an oath. In that oath it stated enemies both foreign AND domestic. These are enemies, Blake, I know that now.

“Blake, I’m not in the service now, but I will maintain and uphold that oath. I will not stand by and let these people hinder the freedoms of other Americans for their own personal gain. I don’t know what I can do, but I have to do something. Sooner or later I will have to show my hand. I hope it’s good enough to win. I want to get on with life as much as the next guy, but when they come knocking on our door what do we do then? And is it too late at that point?”

“I hear ya, Mr. Haliday. I had that same feeling. I just don’t have the experience you do.”

“You don’t have to, Blake. You just have to have the will power to want to help and to want to make a difference. That’s all. I’m glad you’re here. Now, we have some more recon to do, so let’s get that rest. I’ll call the group and check in. Let them know we are ok.”

The sleep was very welcomed. Both had become very tired and the past few days had taken a toll on them. After tonight they would head to the house and get all the rest they needed. One last night of recon would give him enough info on the compound. He still didn’t know what he would do with it though.

They moved out heading to a new area.

“Why not the spot we used last night?” Blake asked.

“It was a great spot, but there are a couple things to consider. You visit enough times and you leave telltale signs that you were there. You start to alter the soil, and the vegetation, and it makes it easier to find. Secondly, we need another vantage point so we can see what else is going on in there.”

They went out of their way to avoid some houses and ultimately ended up northeast of the airport, across the street. This was a great spot for watching the militia. It gave them a completely different viewing angle. They did the same thing as the night before and laid up for the night.

He looked over into building 4 and indeed they had two small planes in there. Piper cubs, ancient, simple, parts everywhere, but still not running. Not sure what they could do with them, other than some aerial recon which would be nice. Maybe they could arm them somehow, he guessed. By the looks of it though, they had a long way to go. Haliday started thinking, damn, should have brought the 203. Well, it wasn’t really a 203, but rather a 37mm grenade launcher. Too many questions would arise with a true 40mm launcher. Not to mention the registration of it with the BATFE.

Those planes wouldn’t be running for at least a couple of days. He looked around some more. He saw the same routine with the security again. Every hour on the hour a perimeter check. Looked like checks of the prison building, but that view was now somewhat blocked. Nothing really different yet. They actually kind of reminded him of the old football game that you plugged it in, and the men just vibrated across the field in random directions with no sense of purpose.

At the HQ building he saw a few guys get into a four wheeler and head over to the prisoner building. The next view he had of them was when he spotted them at what he called building 12. They had a man with them. They took him inside and he didn’t see them for almost an hour. After that he watched them drag the guy from the doorway and back to the prisoner building. They must have beaten him something fierce. Haliday’s blood was boiling. He told Blake, “Mark down that they torture people.”

He watched again as they took a woman inside the same building. He waited again and noted the time. It had barely been half an hour before they brought her out and dragged her back to the building. “Damn it,” he said. He had an idea who these people were. He was ready to go down there guns blazing. Evidently he had been speaking aloud and mumbling because Blake had poked his head out again.

“Roger, do you think that’s who they thought we were?”

“Yes I do, and I’m f’ing beyond pissed off right now. I’m half tempted to go down there but that would be the end of me for sure. I’ll get even with these pricks, mark my word. I’ll get even with these pricks.” Blake had put his head back under the blanket. “Blake, you only need to poke your head under when I tell you info to write down, you don’t have to stay under there all the time.”

“It’s warmer this way.”

“It’s that or you like dutch ovens.”

“You’re a sick man, Mr. Haliday.”

No one else was taken out and interrogated that he had seen. It was late in the night and they started to close up a lot of the buildings. They seemed to still be working around the motor pool though. They had some kind of project they wanted finished; he just didn’t know what. He hadn’t gotten a close enough look inside that building to see.

He was watching this one when he saw a man walk out of one of the motor pool hangars. Haliday watched him and watched his motions. “Oh my god, you’ve got to be kidding me?” He told Blake to stop taking notes and look. Blake poked his head out of the blanket.

“It’s a guy waving his arms like at the airports.”

“No Blake, it’s a ground guide, watch.”

They could hear the rumbling of the engine and soon it appeared. Blake said, “Holy shit.”

“Ya, that’s what I say. I can’t believe it.” It looked like an M113, armored personnel carrier but slightly different. It had to be some kind of variation or prototype that made its way into civilian hands. He still couldn’t believe it.

The ground guide walked it out to an empty area between the hangars and one of the runways. Once there the driver ran it around in circles, spun in place a few times, shot up and down along the runway, and then eased it back toward the motor pool hangar. Quite a crowd had gathered around and was cheering. They walked it back into the hangar.

Blake looked at Haliday. “That’s pretty bad ass. I wish we had one.”

“Oh ya, hell I wish we had several. Some Bradleys, a few M1s, hell, why stop there. Couple Cobras and Apaches, a Blackhawk or two,” he was rambling now. He stopped himself. He looked at Blake, “no problem at all Blake. It won’t do them a damn bit of good.”

“Why is that?”

“Let’s get going back to camp. I’ve seen enough and I’ll explain it on the way.”

“Ok, Blake, let me explain a few things about tracked vehicles. They can’t really operate continually on paved roads. It tears up the track pads on the tracks and sooner or later they fall off. They start to fall off and expose the tracks, making them more prone to damage. There’s a reason they get trucked everywhere, so unless they get a truck and trailer going, I don’t think they’ll be running around the area with that thing.”

“What about cutting through all of the farms?”

“They could do that, sure. But it’s a large area with a lot of varied terrain. Eventually their luck is going to run out and they’ll throw a track or something else. I just don’t think they have the parts to really utilize it the way they hope to, or to make repairs in the field if something goes wrong. Maybe they hope to use it to defend their compound and that’s it. That’s what I would do.

“It has two firing ports on each side for rifles and whatever they wanted to use that upper turret for. Actually it’s not a turret, but really just a half armored turret. The gunner would still be exposed from the sides and the back. I doubt they have any light or heavy machine guns to mount. That would have cost them nearly as much as that track. At least I hope they don’t.

“Either way, whatever they plan to use it for, if we take it out it’s a done deal. I’d rather worry more about them getting those planes in the air. Yet another thing to worry about. They can spot us easily if they can do that. We’d be restricted to moving at night, and at night only, and that still wouldn’t guarantee anything. Air power is supreme. I’d settle for a paraglider about now.”

“You’re full of all kinds of good news, huh?”

“No, it’s just better that we understand what we are up against. With education we can make educated decisions. Now let’s be quiet because we have to cross through the residential area here.” He heard some chatter on the radio and stopped to listen.

“HQ this is Papa 2. We went by the Grindstone marina like they said. We found the boat and checked it out. It was exactly where they said it would be. We boarded it and searched it. We found food and weapons on board. Just a pistol and an AK47 with about 1,000 rounds total. The food looks like it’s about a couple of month’s worth. The boat does start and run, so we locked it down and seized it. The cradle it’s in can be lowered manually to put it in the water.”

“Did you confiscate the food and equipment?”

“Roger that, we loaded up everything worthwhile and will be bringing it back to HQ. They had some charts too, looks like they were heading somewhere offshore, maybe a cabin on one of the islands. We can check that out tomorrow when it’s daylight. See what they have out there.”

“Good job guys, not sure if they are with the hostiles or not. We’ll keep pushing them for info, but at least we have a new toy.”

Haliday was fuming now. “You see, Blake, I told you. I told you. I told you. These people were trying to get to their boat and get to their own camp and now these dick heads have beaten them, seized their food and firearms, and plan to do who knows what with them now. They are going to go to their cabin and take what’s left? I don’t think so.” What started as a reconnaissance mission and bug out ended up being much more for Haliday.

As soon as they got back, they called in to talk to the group.

“Everything is ok here. We had a patrol come by but they didn’t pull in. You still want us to shoot on sight?”

“I do, but only if you are certain they did not call in a location for the stop. If they didn’t, hide the vehicle, bury or burn the bodies, just get rid of them. We have a field operation to conduct in the morning so we won’t be coming in yet. I’ll call you guys later.”

The sporadic radio calls were wearing on the group. They almost couldn’t handle the suspense. But, they did what they were told. David and Kevin were at the ready to respond if they needed to. Kayla wanted to be involved, but she knew more about the house than anyone else and would need to stay behind. Hopefully they would not have to respond. They hated listening in though, and never knowing what to expect.

Chapter 20

They went as far as they dared, and pulled over, and would wait until 0530. They filled the bikes’ tanks. They would need to get some more gas soon. They had about 100 miles of operating distance left now. They had about 15 miles to make it to the marina. 0530 rolled around and they took off.

They turned in at the marina. Haliday looked around. It wasn’t a very big place, but he had to move quickly. He searched up and down near the boat hoists. There it was. A small cruiser, maybe 30 feet in length. Older, but looked like it was well cared for. The winterizing plastic had been ripped open. They left the ladder near by it too. This was the boat.

He looked around and found a place to hide the bikes. He prepped Blake as well as he could. He gave him a couple Snickers bars. “Eat them fast, you’ll need the sugar rush. If you can’t hang, just drop your weapon and hit the ground and lay there. Use the radio and tell the group what happened and what’s going on. Make sure you flip to the right freq. first. Just push that button right there.”

“I’ll be here Mr. Haliday, don’t worry.” Haliday had his doubts. Kid just learned to shoot a few days ago and hadn’t pulled the trigger yet. Not even to practice. He just hoped the kid didn’t get himself killed. They found some hiding spots and Haliday briefed him on fields of fire.

“You start firing as soon as you hear the first shot or if they are pointing a gun at me and ready to shoot. You make sure they are dead, you hear me. If they go down you put a bullet in their head. You hesitate you die.

“One more thing Blake, see how I’m dressed?”

“Yes.”

“Remember that when you pull the trigger. They have the commie camo on.” Haliday heard the noise, the militia had brought one of the deuce and a halves. He bolted for his cover as quick as he could. The good thing about a deuce was you heard it long time before you saw it. His adrenaline was coursing through his veins.

The deuce pulled in and paused. The driver looking at a piece of paper that must be a hand drawn map. He put the deuce in gear and pulled up close to the hoist. Two guys from the back jumped out and stood there as the deuce worked its way back and forth so they were backed in as close as they could get. It would make it easier to unload the boat when they got back. They had either taken the top off or didn’t have one. Didn’t matter but it allowed Haliday to count the number of militia.

The driver and passenger got out. They walked around to the back as well. They had pistols strapped on but no rifles. The guys from the back had the standard AR’s this group has been carrying. One handheld ham, one ham mounted on the truck. Haliday knew who his first target would be if it came down to that.

The group walked over to the boat and opened a lock and chain around a wheel gear and started cranking it to lower the boat into the water. It was in the water now and they started to take the plastic winterizing completely off. Haliday raised himself up slowly, aimed and called out “Halt or I shoot”. The two riflemen spun in his direction and started to raise their rifles. The driver reached down for his ham. Haliday fired once and the bullet shredded the guy’s hand and the radio.

Haliday spun toward one of the riflemen and fired a quick burst into his chest before he dove back for cover. He heard a splash in the water. Blake hadn’t fired yet. Damn it, he froze, Haliday thought. Haliday heard the radio guy screaming in pain. He heard some pistol shots and heard rounds hitting around him. He was behind a metal dock box filled with rubber bumpers and ropes and saw holes appearing through the metal. He hit the ground as low as he could get.

He looked under the dock box sideways because he only had about four inches of clearance. He fired at the feet of the only guy he could see. One round hit its mark and the guy dropped to his knees. Haliday could hear more rounds hit the dock box. He saw the knee of the guy and fired another round. He watched the guy’s knee cap explode out the side of his pants causing the man to fall prone. The guy was now firing randomly at Haliday.

Haliday couldn’t get a good line of sight on the guy and kept his head low. The shots from the rifle were keeping him down and they were trying to hold their own cover. He tried to keep it near the bottom and edge where the metal was thicker. He heard the pistol shots, but didn’t hear the rounds strike the box, just items close by. The AR went silent and he could hear the guy moaning in pain. He heard him struggling with a magazine change.

Next he heard the AR cycle through a couple more rounds and then stop. He grabbed a quick peek; the man had managed to sit up. He cleared his rifle and fired at Haliday again. His rifle stopped firing; it had jammed on him again. He was trying to clear it. Haliday couldn’t risk exposing himself for the shot yet. He looked around to see if he could crawl somewhere else, but he was stuck where he was.

“It jammed on you, good for you, you f’ing prick.” Haliday grabbed a quick peek and jerked his head back up when he heard the AR fire. He heard more shots. “Damn, I gotta get this guy.” He peeked again, “Hell ya, way to go kid.” When Haliday grabbed his quick look the second time, he liked what he saw. The rifleman was laying there with his forehead missing and frontal lobe half gone. Welcome to the game, Blake.

Blake yelled over at Haliday, “I can’t see them; I can’t see where they are. I can’t really see the other two.” They had two men left, both with pistols. One only had one hand but that was all he needed. Haliday grabbed another quick peek. Both of these guys were ducking down now at the back of the boat. All Haliday could see was the slightest profile of one, his ass and his back. Haliday fired another burst causing the man to fall backwards into the water.

“Rick, help me. I can’t move my legs., Help me Rick.” Haliday could hear the guy splashing around in the water. He heard Blake firing on them but couldn’t see any hits. “Rick man, help me. It’s cold. Come on man, I need your help. You gotta help me, Rick.”

“Hold on man, I’m coming for you. Hang on Gary.” Haliday was watching the back of the boat. He saw an arm extend toward the water and heard Blake fire.

The guy pulled his arm back in and was screaming. “Rick, I can’t stay in here. It’s cold. It’s cold Rick. I need help. I’m hit bad.” The sounds of the splashing became less and less.

“I’m sorry, Gary, I’m sorry. I can’t get to you.”

“Rick, it’s cold in here. Get me out.” Gary reached out once more and the boards on the dock shredded from rifle fire as he pulled it back. The sounds from the water had almost stopped now.

“You sons of bitches, I’ll kill you all. You guys ain’t got the right to come up here and do this. You hear me, you sons of bitches.” The splashes from the water had stopped now. “Gary, you still there? Gary, come on man, tell me you’re still there.” There was no answer. “God damn you sons of bitches, God damn you, what gives you the right to come up here. Who the hell do you think you are?”

Haliday actually answered him back. “I’ll tell you. I was born and raised in this state. This state is part of this country. I worked my ass off and paid taxes like everyone else. I bought my land up here just like the rest of you, with my own damn money. I have every right to be here, you self-righteous prick. What gives you guys the right to rule this place?”

“There ain’t any law now, asshole. It’s survival of the fittest now. If we don’t control the people around here, they’re gonna drag us down too. We are the law around here now. It’s up to us to decide who can help us rebuild our community. It’s our choice, you hear me you f’ing bastard. It’s our choice.”

Haliday responded, “And what choice do the people have?”

“If they don’t like it, they can leave if they want.”

“And you take their food, their weapons and you beat and torture them?” Haliday was up and moving toward the dock now. Rifle slung on his back, pistol drawn. “Answer me asshole. I said answer me.” The guy behind the boat stood up and looked at Haliday. Haliday kept walking toward him.

The man said, “You don’t understand survival dickhead. It’s all about surviving.” Haliday saw blood dripping from both his hands. This was the radio operator.

“Maybe I don’t understand survival according the definition you and the other assholes in your group think it means, but I do understand freedom.” The man fumbled to get his pistol reloaded. As the man started raising his pistol Haliday pointed his .40 at him and fired twice into the mans chest and once into his head. The man fell backwards unto the dock.

Haliday turned around and saw Blake standing there with his rifle pointed at the man’s body. Haliday walked past him, “He’s dead Blake, trust me. Darwin there, Mr. survival of the fittest is no longer fit.” He patted him on the shoulder and said “Come on, let’s go. We have work to do. We aren’t out of the woods yet.”

Haliday walked over to the deuce. He climbed up in the cab and started looking around. He picked up a small book and flipped through it. Frequencies and codes were all written down along with what looked like a duty roster assigned to the people based on the day of the week. He tucked it in his jacket. Two rifles were cradled inside.

“Blake, go crank that wheel and get that boat out of the water a couple of feet just to keep it out of the ice when the lake freezes. I don’t know if those folks will ever get here, but if they do at least the boat should be ok.” He saw a few bullet holes in the hull, but everything was above the water level. If they did get here, then they could deal with it.

Haliday was still looking through the cab. They had some basics in here, just a couple days’ worth of MRE’s, water and ammo. Nothing else he could see of value. He was thinking about whether or not to take the deuce. Spoils of war or theft? Could be looked upon either way. He would think about this one. He got out of the cab and walked around to the back. There was a box up there that was locked.

He climbed up into the back of the truck. He yelled over to Blake, “Check those two bodies for keys. If they don’t have any, see if you can reach the bodies in the water and check them. If not, don’t worry about it.” Blake started to check the bodies. Haliday went to stand up when he heard the first shot. He practically felt the heat of the round.

He dropped down in the back of the deuce. He hadn’t heard the Jeep pull in, but saw it as he dropped. He looked around and saw the bed was up armored, but he didn’t know to what extent. He saw the sides of the bed slightly bubble when rounds hit. He was laying there unable to move. The side rails barely covered him. He heard shouts from the Jeep.

“Put your hands up. Put your hands up and stay where you are.” Haliday wasn’t going to do it. No way in hell was he going out this easy. “Put your hands up and stand up now.” Haliday laid there longer.

“Go screw your cousins you redneck bastards.”

There came a ripple of gunfire along the bed of the truck. He heard a loud hiss; they had gotten one of the tires. They seemed to care less about their own deuce.

“Gary, Rick, you guys ok? John, Andy, where you guys at? Can you hear us?”

Haliday answered. “I think they’re hiding somewhere dick sucking just like you guys are known for. I saw the billboard that said so.” That brought about a hellacious lead storm. Haliday was covering his ears; they were ringing like mad from all of the noise. He had a splitting headache now. The foam earplug wasn’t working that well in the one ear; he had the earpiece for the radio in the other.

He keyed his radio. He whispered, “Blake, you out there.”

“Ya, I’m hiding behind one of the boats.”

“Can you see them?”

“Not really, as soon as I heard them fire I hid behind one of the boats on the racks. I didn’t hear them drive up.”

“Can you find some better cover?”

“Not really, not without being seen.”

“Look around again and see, maybe a quick run for a few feet or something.”

“Look, you need to raise your hands and then get up. We are not going to warn you again.”

“You guys have an arrest warrant?”

“We don’t need one smart-ass. We’re operating under the authority of the Bad Axe Minute Men.”

“Is that a division of the 4H or something? Never heard of them. You guys hold goat milking contests and stuff?”

“I’ve had enough of this asshole.” One of the guys opened fire and emptied his magazine at the deuce.

“Hey, I want to really thank you for providing me with some great cover here. Your buddies could have used something like this about 10 minutes ago.”

“That’s it, you prick.” The guy reloaded his rifle and started toward the deuce.

He got about 10 steps away from the Jeep when Blake opened up on him. He tumbled forward and as he lay there his body bounced around on the gravel as Blake emptied the whole thirty round magazine into him. The other guy fired at Blake’s position then stopped. Magazine change or something.

“Looks like we have us a little problem here Mr. Minute man. You are now outgunned.” Haliday whispered again, “Blake are you all right?”

“Ya, I ran behind another boat when you pissed the guy off earlier. This one gave me a better view and I thought it would be safer. It has two engines, and I’m kind of protected by it. I can’t see the other guy though. He’s hiding on the other side of the Jeep.”

“Ok look, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to give him the option to get the hell out of here. If he takes it, let him go.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes I am, chances are they called this in and have more help coming. We gotta get the hell out of here.”

“Ok, if you say so. Sounds a little crazy to me but that seems to be your style.”

“Look, we want to make a deal. We can let you go if you leave now. We’ll leave the truck here along with anything else that’s yours. You probably have about five minutes or less before our group comes riding in to help us out. You got that? You leave now and we won’t have a problem,” Haliday said. Haliday was now listening to the militia freq.

“We won’t be there for about 10 minutes or so, you copy.”

“Ya, I copy, I’m gonna get the hell out of here and meet up with you guys. Maybe we can ambush them when they come out.”

“Ok, any idea on the rest of the guys?”

“No idea, but Ron is down for sure. I think the rest are too. I’m getting the hell out of here.

“Ok, I’m leaving. I’m getting in the Jeep and taking off.” The guy got in the Jeep, started it and backed up then headed toward the entrance which was about 150 yards away. Haliday got down from the truck and started running through the woods. He had some gravel parking area and woods to run through.

He had sprinted about 40 yards through the trees and came out behind the Jeep. The Jeep was moving down the road now at about 50 mph. Haliday emptied a clip into the back and quick changed magazines and emptied another one at it. The Jeep swerved side to side then ran into the ditch, came back up onto the pavement, and rolled a few times. The driver had been ejected and the Jeep rolled right over him.

Haliday ran back through the woods shouting at Blake, “get your bike, get moving, don’t worry about taking anything.” Haliday got on his bike and rode up next to the deuce. He put a couple of rounds into the other tires to flatten them. He shifted into gear and met Blake at the entrance.

As they pulled out of the exit, they heard the vehicles coming down the road. They were barely less than a half mile away. Haliday took off with Blake behind him. The approaching vehicles were coming up fast. One stopped momentarily by the rolled Jeep and another took the shoulder of the road to go around it. They kept heading straight after them.

They had a little more than half a mile before they reached the road they needed. One of the vehicles pursuing them turned into the marina and the other kept up pursuit. Haliday couldn’t make out anything on the ham; his earpiece had fallen out. He was just hell-bent on getting out of there.

They reached the little river which was more like a creek in spots and started riding in the water and on the bank. The vehicle following only made it in about 100 feet before it got stuck. The occupants jumped out and fired. It was hard to zero in on them due to the twisting of the waterway.

They rode on for almost six more miles, cutting through multiple farms and across multiple roads. They found a spot to stop. If they continued, it would practically take them right to the militia compound. They wouldn’t be very welcome there, that was for sure. Haliday sat there for a brief moment. He tried to listen on the ham, but it was silent.

“Blake, call the group and tell them to use the hams to start searching the frequencies. Tell them they need to find out what these guys are talking about. Here’s the book. Tell them to start with these. If those don’t work tell them to do it the old fashioned way and have the ham scan for them.” All hell had broken loose now. They were in the center of the fury.

Chapter 21

Haliday got up to go to the bathroom. A voice came from the woods. “Don’t you guys move or so help me I’ll put a bullet in both of you.”

Haliday looked at the guy. Mid-forties, medium build, brown hair, dressed in real tree camo. Basically your average guy off the street around these parts. Haliday looked over at Blake, “Don’t move, just stay still, and do what he says.”

“I plan to, trust me.”

The man asked, “Who are you guys?”

Haliday answered, “I can explain that, you mind lowering that rifle first?”

“Yes I do, it’s staying right here.”

“Ok, we have some land just south of Cass City. We were just out and about checking out the area. Seeing what else is going on around here.”

The guy looked at them, “You expect me to believe that crap while you hide in the woods?”

Roger said, “I guess not, may I ask who you are, sir?”

“That’s not important right now; you want to answer my question?”

Roger figured, why not. “Sir, I don’t think you would believe me.” Haliday was going to carefully word his answers and statements to try and figure this guy out.

“Go ahead and try me out,” the man said.

Haliday replied, “If I don’t answer, what do you intend to do then.”

There was a long pause. “I have a few ideas, probably shoot you two so don’t worry.”

Haliday asked him, “Why don’t you take us back to your camp and we’ll talk there?”

Here came the response that set Haliday at ease a bit. “I don’t know you or what you’re up to, but I sure ain’t taking you back to my house.”

Next question from Haliday was, “What about your boss, the one that runs things?”

The next answer came, “I’ll tell you the same thing I tell her—I wear the pants in the family, now enough bullshit.”

“Ok, listen. We came out here to go to our cabin and get away from the city. It’s pure madness down there. We figured we might be safe up here. We went into town looking for food and gas and ran into some trouble with your cohorts,” Haliday told him.

“What cohorts would those be?”

“Your militia members.”

“I ain’t a part of those assholes.”

Haliday looked past the guy when he heard a noise and then a voice. “Hey Dad, everything ok?” Two boys walked up.

“Stay back sons, these guys might be trouble.”

Haliday looked at the boys and spoke. “You guys save some of that food you got from your aunt’s house?”

The father spoke, “How did you know about that?”

Haliday went on to explain the encounter the other night. The guy looked at them. “Why were you guys hiding?”

“Like I said it’s hard to explain.”

“You the guys that have been causing the militia problems around here?”

Haliday wasn’t sure how to answer. “Look, all we want to do is get the hell out of here and get home.”

“You avoiding the answers for a reason?”

“Look, I’m taking a guess here. You were out hunting, and we happened upon this area here and you watched us come in. You got us cold. These are your boys here and you want to protect them and your family, right? Let me ask you a question, has the militia done anything for you and your family? I mean, are they taking care of you guys or are you fending for yourselves?”

“We’re on our own, I guess,” was the answer.

“Then isn’t it a good thing someone is pissing in their Wheaties?”

The guy lowered his rifle and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m sorry man, I have the feeling I should be thanking you guys instead of pointing a rifle at you. It’s been hell around here. A lot has happened and a lot of it because of those militia. They didn’t waste any time when the power went out. No one really saw it coming. Even the sheriff is one of them.”

“You mind if we sit and talk?” Haliday asked.

“I’ll tell you what; my house is a few hundred yards that way. The blue vinyl sided one over there. We can go there if you want.”

Haliday replied, “No offense but that’s not a good idea. If we’re seen, you end up in deep trouble and no telling what they would do to you. Give me a few minutes and I’ll heat up some coffee.” Haliday put some water on to boil. He made some coffee in a canteen cup and handed it to the man. He made another with hot cocoa in it and gave it to the boys to share.

“Tell Blake and me what you know.”

The man relayed his story. “Ok, the power went out and at first everyone thought it was just the power. I was working down the street at the general store my brother and I own. After a couple hours, I locked up and walked home. In the morning when everything was still out, I figured it was bad. I went down to the store.

“When I got there I saw a guy standing outside the door with a rifle dressed in camo. I asked him who he was and he told me he was militia. I asked him to move and he told me no. He told me the store was being appropriated by the Bad Axe Minute Men. I asked him to produce some legal documents and he told me to leave. I told him I would contact the police and he told me the sheriff was a minute man and had given his ok on everything.

“They wouldn’t let me in my own store. When I looked up and down the street I saw quite a few of them standing by some of the stores and the gas station. Not every store though. Just stores that sold food. I went back home and told my wife. I took one of my rifles and went back. When I got there they had a couple extra guys walking around the area so I hid my rifle. They had taped up some kind of flyer on the windows.

“I read the flyer; it said the area was under control of the minute men, and they had confiscated merchandise for the good of the community. They had old army trucks and they were emptying the stores. The big supermarkets they chained up and had guarded. It ain’t a big town. Not many stores, but they got them all anyway.

“They said they would be posting information in town and on certain buildings. The flyers were all printed. Not sure if they can print or what. But it was really odd. I felt like it was some kind of movie or something. I couldn’t believe it. They said no one could walk around or travel with firearms. Curfew was dusk until dawn. Few more rules; looters would be dealt with and all that stuff.

“I guess they got some looters and they keep them at the airport with all of the stuff they took. They have it locked up in hangars is what we were told. They have tanks and everything.”

Haliday interrupted him, “I’ll fill you in later on what they do and do not have, please go on.”

The man continued, “They caught people on the roads leaving and going to stay with family. If they had guns they took them. Sometimes they beat the people too. People around here are pretty frightened of them, but they keep telling us it’s for our own good. Then you guys showed up. Man, they have it out for you guys.”

Blake said, “Oh ya, wait until you hear the latest from them.”

The guy continued, “They call you guy’s terrorists.”

“They put out a flyer yesterday. They said in one more week they would open the trade store up. It said you would have to trade jewelry, coins, or valuables for food or gas. I don’t know how they can do that. It’s not right. It was our stuff to begin with. My store could have fed us for a long time until the government help came in.”

Haliday rolled his eyes at that statement. Why do people insist the government will always rescue them, he thought.

“Listen,” Haliday said, “these guys are not legitimate according to constitutional law. Even the damn sheriff is wrong. They are rogue thugs in my eyes. You people need to band together and take back what is yours. Otherwise you guys are going to die. You have anything at all from the store? Anything stored anywhere else?”

“Not really. I mean I have some stuff in my pole barn, but not any food. It’s all toilet paper, paper towels, things like that which are bulky. I stored them here to save space at the store.”

“Keep it all, you can trade it for what you need. You’d be surprised how valuable a roll of toilet paper will be. Speaking of, now that we’ve made acquaintances, I really have to go squirt.” He left for a minute then returned. “Now, back to business, where’s your brother?”

“They go to Arizona for a couple months each winter,” was the response.

It was Haliday’s turn to talk a bit. “Now let me tell you what they have and what they are all about.” He told the guy everything he knew about them. The guy was awestruck over what Haliday told him. “They will be searching for us with a vengeance. We killed six of them this morning. Somebody’s brother, son, husband, father, whatever. But they got what they deserved. They got what they were giving out. But we can’t do it all. We just want to get back to our own family as well.”

The man asked them, “Where are you guys going to go?”

“We are going to go find a place to camp until it’s safe for us to move out. We are going to connect with our family and try and wait it out until we can go home. Not sure when that will be. Hopefully soon.”

“Do you guys have food and stuff?”

Haliday lied when he answered. Ya, we have about two cases of MRE’s, a few more days’ worth of food for us, so we can hang out up here for about one week before we’re hunting with you guys.”

The guy thanked them for the coffee and cocoa. Haliday told him again, “This is still your country, your state and your home. These guys don’t have the right to do what they are doing. Should be enough of you out there to make a difference. Before they summarily start executing people, I’d get an alliance together and do something.”

“Can you guys help?”

“We did enough; it’s not our fight anymore. There’s nothing here for us now, we’re just fighting to live now, just like you. I’ll try to check back before we head back to the burbs. I wish you guys luck.” Roger and Blake took off and headed straight south. Haliday told Blake they had to start being more careful to avoid encounters like that again.

They went straight south hoping the militia would stick to the north where they were causing all of the trouble. They found a large patch of woodland near a small city named Freidberger. Blake said, “Friedburger.” Haliday thought that sounded good about now. Even though he had given up red meat except for a few times a year, a nice juicy burger with bacon and cheese on it sounded real good right now.

“This is Roger, checking in.”

“Roger, it’s Dad. We found the new frequency for the militia. It’s the fifth one you gave us.”

“Hold on Dad.” Roger had Blake tune in to the militia. “Okay go ahead.”

“You guys are in deep trouble. They are on the hunt for you big time. They know you guys are staying in the spots of woods. It’s not safe anymore. Did you guys really do what they’ve been saying?”

“Dad, I have no idea. We haven’t heard their claims. They could be full of it. We’re going to find another place to hide. I’ll call you guys later.”

“Wait a minute Roger, something else. Some guys from the militia snooped around a bit, checked out the place with binoculars. They know someone is here, smoke from the fireplace I guess. They left a letter in the mailbox with yellow caution tape tied around it to get our attention. We went and got it when it was safe.

“It states who they are and what their mission is. It says that all people in the district they control must abide by the mandates they have in place. It’s a whole list of crap, curfew, travel, all that garbage you said it was. They have a form they want filled out and put back in the mailbox.”

Roger asked, “What’s the form for? What info do they want?”

Rich responded. “They want to know the names, ages and sex of everyone staying here. They want to know if we have running vehicles, what kind, how much food and water we have and what kind of guns and ammunition are here. It asks about generators, fire wood…”

“Stop Dad, I’ve heard enough. When do they want the form back?”

Rich said, “It’s written down that they will pick it up the day after tomorrow.”

Roger thought for a moment, then spoke, “Ok, listen up. It’s not that safe outside right now. I’m not sure if they do or not, but assume you have someone watching you. It might be the militia or might be someone else close by that they have watching you. They are probably taking notes on your every move. Do not answer any questions, do not talk to anyone, understand?”

Rich said, “Yes, anything else?”

Roger told him, “Ya, as hard as it’s going to be, you need to add a third person to the security watch.”

He looked over at Blake, who was shaking his head.

“Not good,” he said.

Haliday dialed in his radio to the same frequency. “Keep listening Blake.” Haliday pulled out his maps. “Gotta find some place to hide.” He kept looking around and referencing his notes. “Let’s see, ok, got it, this is the best chance we have right now.

“Let’s go Blake. Time to go to school, the old Freidberger school to be exact. This place is very old, very unoccupied. No one has probably been there for years. It’s as rundown as you can get and we can hide there for now. It was left to rot out and crumble with no money to restore it. We just need to get out of the woods if that’s where they’re looking for us.”

They would wait it out until it was dark outside. Then they would make the move to the old schoolhouse. In the meantime they ate. Their food was getting very low. They each had an MRE left. Haliday had a couple bags of soup mix and a few other small items. They could get through the night and tomorrow, after that they were going to start to get hungry. He wished he would have taken a .22lr so he could hunt a squirrel or rabbit, but he hadn’t counted on being out this long at all.

They sat there and listened to the radio. These guys had pretty much pulled out all of the stops. Haliday figured that they had about 12 vehicles on the road and looking for them. If their area was roughly 35X50 miles, that was 1,750 square miles. That was one big area to cover. The only problem was that only about 10 percent was wooded. The rest was flat barren land for the crops. They had to have extra eyes out there as well. They were probably giving food to the people in exchange for them watching the area.

They were definitely pissed for sure. They wanted them badly. They didn’t have any idea who they were looking for, other than guys on bikes. Even though the description of the bikes varied, they would be gunning for anyone found on one. They had gotten into quite the pickle here. It was only 1800hrs, but already completely dark out.

“Blake, I hate to say this, but we only have about a mile to go if that and I think it’s going to be in our best interest to push the bikes.” Blake wasn’t happy about that but he agreed. They pushed the bikes along through the woods and across an open field. Haliday worked his way up to the road. He looked around and then worked his way back to Blake.

“We have a little problem Blake, someone must have bought the land, the school is still there but so is a house. I’m going to go back and check out the house.” He ripped out some long weeds and covered up Blake and the bikes. “Wait here, don’t move at all.” He went back and watched the house for a while. It looked empty. He crossed the road and got a better look. The garage door was slightly open and he peeked inside. Nothing in there.

He went inside the garage and walked up to the door. He collapsed the stock on his AR and got ready to enter. He noticed the door here had been opened as well. He felt along the jamb and sure enough it had been forced open. He turned his flashlight on and placed his thumb on the activation switch ready to light it up. He slowly opened the door and went inside.

This was a small mudroom. You came in from the field, took your boots and stuff off here before entering the main house. He entered the main house and listened. He didn’t hear anything at all. He activated his flashlight and swept it around quickly. He had been in the funnel of death. When you stand in the doorway you were at the small end of a funnel. Anyone in the room could concentrate fire to that point easily. It made you feel uneasy.

This place had been ransacked. Blake called on the radio, and it was hard to hear him, “We have company.” Haliday flipped the light off and ducked into a closet, but left the door half open just like it was. He heard the vehicle pull in. A couple of car doors opened and closed. He noticed the flashlight shine through the windows.

He heard the doors to the house open and saw the light bouncing around off the walls. He heard the voices talking. “Looks like this place hasn’t been touched since the last time we checked it. Call it in.”

“Let’s check the schoolhouse first.”

“Forget it, It’ll probably fall on us.” The men left and Haliday just stood there. He heard the vehicle start and then leave.

“Papa 4 bravo we checked Delta 30 and both were empty. Doesn’t look like anyone has been in there since it was last looted. We’re heading out to Delta 31.” It was just a matter of about three minutes when he heard them again. “Papa 4 bravo we’re out at Delta 31.” He waited. This must be the house next door. Just about an eighth of a mile away. Same routine for the next half hour. They were moving along this main road checking it along the way.

He switched frequencies again. “Blake you there?” There wasn’t any answer. “Blake you out there?” No answer. Haliday went outside and made his way over to where Blake was. “Why didn’t you answer me?”

“My radio went dead. I forgot to change the battery.” Haliday only had two batteries for each radio; he put them on a small charger connected to his bike.

He had connected a small inverter to the battery of his bike and the charger to that. It did a good job, but the past two days had been so busy the batteries were almost shot and needed a good charging. They hadn’t really had the time for that. He called the group and told them they would be off radio for a while. “We’ll check in every two hours for a minute and that’s it. We have to charge the batteries.”

He swapped the batteries around and both radios were working for now. He turned them off. “We can’t listen in Blake. We need to save the batteries for when we need them. Without starting the bike I can’t charge them. Now let’s get over there and get some sleep.” They rolled the bikes over the road and put them behind the schoolhouse. They covered them up carefully to hide them, but still made the place look untouched. A few handfuls of dirt and garbage helped with that. They went inside, found a decent hiding place and got some rest.

Chapter 22

It was early in the morning and they were hungry, so they ate their last MRE. Both of them had gotten quite a bit of rest. Haliday was still fairly sore from the bruise on his abdomen from the airport shooting, not to mention pushing the bike around. He popped open a bottle of Tylenol and popped a couple in his mouth. Blake asked for a couple and he handed him the bottle.

Blake took the cotton out and looked at Haliday; “I didn’t think they put cotton in these anymore.”

“They don’t, I do it so the bottle doesn’t rattle,” Haliday said. “Just in case I have it on me, it’s not rattling around. Same with water, your canteen should be full or empty so it doesn’t slosh around. No noise at all if possible. We haven’t quite adhered to that discipline, but we need to start before we get too lax.

“How are you holding up Blake?”

“I’m doing ok.”

“You sure?”

“Ya. I mean, I got sick while you were sleeping. I was thinking about the shootings and everything.”

“Normal response Blake, here’s some gum.”

“That’ll help my stomach?”

“No, it’ll help your breath. Take two or three sticks. Please.” They both laughed a bit.

Blake flipped the radio on and called the group. Kayla answered, “Hey Blake, you guys all right?”

“Ya, we’re fine. I mean everything considered and all I guess. Your dad wants to know what’s going on there.”

“Ok, we had four patrols drive by last night. One actually sat on the road for almost half an hour. They were watching everything related to the house. We only burned candles and didn’t use the generator at all. We’ve only had my uncle David and Dawn go outside so they would be the only ones seen in case they were watching from somewhere. This way they don’t know how many people are here.”

“Hey, tell my dad we heard from my uncle Alan and his family. They are all ok and at a friend’s house right now. They can’t make it here any time soon, but they are all ok. They have a radio in the neighborhood that the guy has been letting people use. He said they are going to be good for a few weeks or so.”

“Your dad heard you Kayla, he’s listening in too.

“Here he is now.”

Roger got on the radio, “That was good news, kiddo, anybody else?” He was wondering about his sister and her family in Texas and brother and his family in Missouri.

“No, that’s it.” He had given them the frequency, but who knows if they still had it or were able to get to a radio.

“Kayla, how’s the group holding up?”

She answered, “Everyone is ok. Bobby is ok, and his head looks good. Sarah is just really quiet, kind of in her own world and everyone else is ok. We have been eating limited rations since we are not real active, but everyone is making sure they get a good balance of protein, carbs and vitamins.”

“Anything on the militia?” he asked next.

“Well, they still don’t know how many of you there really are, but they are changing the estimate to about four guys on bikes. They don’t believe the trucks are moving with you at all. They pretty much think they are hidden and camped out or do not exist. They still think the plan is to raid their camp with all of the stuff you guys are doing.”

“Ok, listen; this is what I want you guys to do kiddo. Forget about that form. Don’t bother doing anything with it at all. They might try to come up to the house. Remember; be ready to shoot the bastards at all times. I’m pretty sure they know people are there, just not how many yet. I don’t want to risk bringing the bikes in yet, that would draw a shit storm for sure. But, we need a care package.”

Blake looked over at Haliday. “A care package?”

“Ya, Blake, we have to avoid drawing any attention to the group right now. We have to give it a few days to settle down if we can. But, we’ll need a few more things in order to make it. Food for one, few more toys too. Kayla, write this down, then I’ll tell you guys when and where meet us. Couple of you will have to leave the house for about an hour or so.”

Haliday gave her a complete list of resupply items. He would be swapping out his AR for one with a 37mm launcher attached to it. He’d also be picking up his M24 Remmy. Some more rounds, food of course, and a couple of other things along with some fresh under clothing. They’d make the exchange and then get back to business.

It would be easier to just head in and try and hold the fort, but with the plane or planes bound to take flight eventually, the tracked vehicle and the way they were running the area like they owned it all, he couldn’t let things happen like that. They would have to even out the odds a bit more. Not just for them, but this community as well.

If they got a tighter grip on the whole community even more than they had now, this whole area would be a wasteland. They had too much invested in their house and land to have to move. If they did try and move again who knows what would happen. It was just getting worse out there day by day. Haliday wondered how he got tied up in this mess.

As they were sitting there they heard a vehicle pull in by the house and stop. They heard a couple of voices. Militia again. They waited and listened. Same old cursory check but this one didn’t last long. He heard one guy say it was a waste checking a house located right off the road. “Better safe than sorry,” the other man replied. They checked quickly and then drove off.

After about 15 minutes Haliday looked at his watch, called the group and asked them if they were ready. The Cherokee from the group was heading out. They would wait about another 15 minutes and then leave themselves. It was a long wait. They dug the bikes out and headed to the meeting place.

As they pulled up, they saw the Cherokee off to the side of the road. They saw Kayla and David out there pacing back and forth. The signal was that if there was a trap, they would just be standing still next to the car. They pulled up by the Cherokee and got off the bikes. A quick round of hugs and some frantic hand off of the resupply equipment. They didn’t want to be seen. This spot was blocked by trees and no one could see them unless they were on the road and close by.

Last but not least, fresh batteries for the radios, three for each of them. David handed them each a cup of hot coffee. Blake looked at it and said “What the hell, I’ll drink it, not a coffee fan though.”

Kayla said, “I added sugar and French vanilla creamer to yours, Blake, so it tastes better.”

Haliday said, “Gee, thanks for looking out for me.”

Kayla said, “Dad, I made yours the same way.”

David brought over a couple of five gallon gas cans and topped off their tanks and cans. Roger asked, “You hearing anything about troops or feds.”

“Nothing Dad, people are complaining about being left out to dry. They say they see activity at bases, but not much and nothing off base.”

“Ok, thank you sweetie. Keep listening for anything important. Here’s a list of what to do and when to do it.” Another quick hug and it was goodbye.

They all took off. David and Kayla went back to the house and Haliday and Blake down the road and into a small farm by some round hay bales. Haliday wished he had the map memorized. He actually did, except for the areas where they could easily hide. It was mid-morning and they needed a place to go study the map and come up with some plans. “Screw it,” he said, “this is today’s plan.”

They headed out and went east back to the old school. They hid the bikes and walked inside. Haliday took a bunch of rags and soaked them with a little gas. He laid a bunch of debris around the area as well. Blake went into the house and did the same thing. Both used the cigarette ignition with paper clip, lit them and left. So much for the house and old schoolhouse. It was another screw you to the Militia.

Next up was a visit to a familiar face. They went back to try and connect with the guy who had been out hunting. Haliday stayed out in the woods while Blake snuck out to the street and just walked up the guy’s house. He had changed real quickly, and had on blue jean pants and a grey hoodie pulled up. Normal kid off the street. He walked up and knocked on the door.

The guy came to the door and said, “Can I help you?”

Blake lowered his hoodie and said, “It’s me from the woods; I need to talk to you.” The guy opened the door right away and let Blake in.

“What’s going on?” the guy asked. “We need some help. We can help you guys, but we need some help too.”

The guy said, “Sure, no problem. Where’s your dad?”

“Oh, he’s not my dad; he’s my friend’s dad. He’s out in the wood line.”

“Well, ok, but go tell him I’ll open the back door of the pole barn, you can hide your bikes there. Then we can talk.”

Blake said, “Ok, wait until seven though so it’s dark.” Blake went back to meet Haliday.

Seven came around and they pushed the bikes through the dirt field and into the back of the pole barn. Haliday went back out and fluffed up the foliage and dragged the rows of the field they used to bring the bikes in. He walked back into the pole barn. “My name is Rob, we weren’t formally introduced.”

“I’m Roger and that’s Blake, can you turn the flashlight off please?”

“Oh sure, sorry,” Rob said.

Haliday asked, “Anywhere in here we can turn on a light and not be seen from the outside?”

Rob said, “I have a small room I keep things locked up in over in the corner. Let’s go over there.” They made their way over there and went inside. Haliday turned on a small led lamp with red lights.

“Rob, thank you very much. Listen, I’m not going to beat around the bush, we can help you, but we are doing so because it will help us too. You game?”

“Yes I am. Let’s hear what you have.”

Roger said, “First things first. What’s the latest you’ve heard?”

Rob pretty much told him what Haliday already knew, but with a different twist. The militia made them out to be terrorists killing people in cold blood for no reason at all. They were going to come in and take over the community, robbing people, raping women and stuff like that. Haliday chuckled at that and asked, “What do the other people think?”

Rob answered, “They don’t know what to think. Some believe them, but a bunch know what the militia is really doing. The rest are just kind of here. They don’t seem to care.”

“Rob, I won’t lie to you. Here’s how everything went down.” Haliday told him exactly what happened, minus a few small details in order to avoid looking like cold-blooded killers. He wasn’t sure Rob would understand the justification to kill. “Now, Rob, if you are still ok, this is what we have planned.” He covered a few details and looked at Rob.

Rob said, “That sounds fairly dangerous.”

“Well Rob, it does, but with safety in numbers it’ll be ok.” Rob then thought for a moment and agreed.

They would take the night off and use the whole day tomorrow to prepare. Right now they imagined the militia was running around again completely upset because they torched the house and the old school. These were areas they knew the militia was checking. They really just wanted to let them know they were still in the area.

The radio was abuzz with the school and house burning. They didn’t quite send as many patrols as they thought they would, but that was ok. They heard a transmission on the radio. “Hey, is anybody there? Anybody out there?”

The militia responded. “This is the Bad Axe Minute Men. You are on a frequency designated for militia operations. Cease your radio traffic and stay off this frequency.”

“Hey man, listen, we need some help, there’s a bunch of guys on motorcycles who have been causing trouble around here. The police are long gone and we don’t know what to do.”

The militia asked them, “Where are you guys located?”

“We’re south of Sandusky; they just firebombed a store and then torched a car too. Can you guys help?”

“That’s a negative. You are not located in our control district.”

“Come on man, help us out.”

“Negative, now please clear this frequency, try and contact the government on the civil defense frequency. Do not take the law into your own hands. Let the authorities for your area do it. Locate another frequency.” They went back to their own transmissions. Haliday expected them to change frequencies next shift change. He would have to remember to tell Mike “Good job.” The militia might now be thinking they were heading back south after causing trouble up north. The school and house and now the Sandusky area pointed that way.

They discussed with Rob what he would have to do. After a couple more hours, they were done for the night. Rob offered to let them stay in the house, but they politely declined. They asked him to make sure his wife and boys didn’t leave the house and that they remain quiet. Rob assured them it would not be a problem. Rob was about to leave. “Hold on one second, Rob.”

Haliday looked around the little room. There was a good amount of alcohol in boxes on shelves, evidently for the store. Haliday told Rob to keep this secret, maybe even put some in smaller containers to use as trade items down the road. Rob said he hadn’t thought of that. Haliday himself had purchased liquor and empty pint bottles for the same reason.

Haliday went over to his bike. He pulled out four small sized mylar bags and handed them to Rob. “Boil eight cups of water, empty one packet in and let it simmer for about 20 to 25 minutes. You’ll have a complete meal for the four of you. It’s like a cross of red beans and rice and dirty rice.” He handed him a square of Datrex bars and a baggy full of Tang. “This will feed you guys for four full days and give you what you need. Save what you have in the house for now.” Rob protested, but Haliday wouldn’t hear it. Rob thanked them.

After Rob left, Haliday told Blake that they would stay here the night and rotate sleep again. “Can’t be too sure we are in safe hands just yet. Peace offering or not, you never know. We’ll get to work on the toys and plans in the morning. Things will be busy soon enough.”

Haliday woke up and looked outside. There was a heavy frost outside. If they didn’t get this done soon, it would become increasingly more difficult to move around and not leave tracks. Haliday peeked outside the windows. There weren’t any tracks around the building in the frost. No one had checked on them last night. Rob had stayed away like he promised.

They were busy organizing their gear more efficiently when Rob came in. “You guys can fire up that wood burner if you want to.”

“No thank you, two stove pipes from two different buildings might attract attention. We’ll be fine. You heading out Rob?”

“Ya, I’m going to use the kid’s scooter to make my rounds.”

“Good luck, let us know how it goes.”

After Rob left, they got busy working on their little toys. If it hadn’t been for eBay and all the chinamarts online, he wouldn’t have acquired the stuff he needed in bulk. The little alarm clocks were a steal. He bought them by the dozen for about two bucks a clock. They were perfect little timers. They only needed a few of these this time around.

Haliday pulled out the homemade chart of the airport and studied it. He was looking it over and made some more notes. He looked at the map as well. “Time for a quick break.” He called the group.

Bev answered. “We’re all ok, everyone is busy getting ready. We should be all set, how about you guys?”

“Ya, same here,” said Roger. “Anything more on the patrols?”

“Hold on a minute,” she said.

Kevin came on the radio now. “Uncle Roger, I went out to get some firewood to load up in the rack. While I was out there, one of the trucks pulled up on the road. They sat there for a few minutes and then yelled over to me. I asked them what they wanted and they said they wanted the form. I told them we didn’t have any form for them─it wasn’t any of their business─and to just leave us alone. They talked back and forth to each other a few minutes and then left.

“A couple hours later they came back and had another truck with them. They called out on a bullhorn, but we didn’t answer. One of the guys started coming up to the house. Uncle David and Dawn went outside and told him to leave. He put another letter in the mailbox and told us we had 72 hours to fill it out or they would come onto the property and see for themselves. They wouldn’t be nice about it next time. They stopped at the neighbor’s house too.”

“Well, in 72 hours the game will hopefully change. Talk to you guys later.” Haliday looked out the window and saw a quad coming down the tree line. The quad was only going about five miles an hour and the rider was looking into the woods as he rode along. He passed the pole barn without stopping. Haliday went to the other side and watched the guy continue along. These guys were persistent, that’s for sure.

It was late afternoon when they heard Rob on the scooter. Haliday watched him pull up. It looked comical, almost like a clown in a parade. Seeing this big guy on this little scooter. Rob went into his house, then came out about 15 minutes later and came into the pole barn. “Ok, I have some help. I talked to only the guys I could trust and they talked to a few family members as well. We have about 30 people.”

“That’s great news. That’s more than I expected.” Rob said they could double that if they used the older kids. He said he left it up to the others to decide.

Haliday said, “That’s your decision. The risk is there, but in a sense it’s not. I can’t put you or your family in any danger. You are volunteers and if that’s what you decide then I’m with you. Everyone understands the ground rules right?”

Rob said, “Yes.”

“Any other news?”

“A little bit. They have a couple motorcycles now and a few quads. Some of the militia are using them to check the woods and property lines. If you are using those areas, you might be in trouble.”

Roger said, “Ya, I saw one pass by earlier. That won’t be a problem, they won’t find anything, we covered our tracks enough.

“Rob, go inside and spend the evening with your family. We’ll be fine out here. I’ll talk to you again in the morning.”

“Goodnight Roger. Goodnight Blake. Again, I can’t thank you guys enough.”

“Rob, thank us if this works, and don’t downplay your role. It’s just as dangerous and just as important. Tomorrow night is the big night.” They parted ways for the evening. Haliday noted that the patrol quad drove by twice more during the night.

It was past dinner time when Blake and Haliday ate. They whipped up a package of chili and ate dinner. They turned the radio on and listened. Just a few more minutes to wait, then it was time. “This is the St. Clair Tridents trying to raise the Bad Axe Minute Men, over.” There was no response. “St. Clair Tridents calling the Bad Axe Minute men, over.”

BAMM responded. “Who are you?”

“This is Colonel David Howe from the St. Clair Tridents.”

“We never heard of you.”

“Well, we never heard of you either until this morning. Let’s cut to the chase. I don’t care if you know me or not, but all we are looking for is some info. We had a citizen give us this frequency after they said they called for help and you answered.”

“Go ahead, what do you want?” the minute man asked.

Howe continued. “We had some problems last night and this evening. We have some kind of gang causing problems. Lighting fires and shooting at people to scare them. We had a few trucks come through yesterday afternoon, but we lost track of them. The worst part though is they have some motorcycles causing troubles. You guys have any information on them at all?”

“No we don’t. We haven’t had any problems at all up here except for some local people looting. But the police are handling it. If we have any other information, we’ll call you on this frequency. We monitor it, but that’s all. We wish you luck.” Haliday shook his head. These guys are some cool players. Protecting their little country, lying through their teeth, they really are something else. Tomorrow night they’d be put to the test.

Haliday called the group before they settled in for the night. “Make sure you guys go over everything again and again. I can’t tell you guys enough how important it is. There are going to be a lot of people depending on us, but what you have to consider before anything else is your safety and the safety of everyone around you. Ok, we’re getting some sleep. Talk to you in the morning.”

Chapter 23

This morning was a busy one. Rob had taken the scooter and made his rounds to make sure everyone was going to be ready. Haliday and Blake double-checked everything and loaded up the bikes to get ready. Rich, Bev, David, Dawn, and Randy got the Cherokee and Tahoe ready. They too were packed and ready. Kayla helped them go over everything and then made sure the house was ready. She would be staying with Sarah, Kevin, Bobby, Karen, Diana, and Elizabeth at the house.

Rich was driving the Cherokee and David the Tahoe. They headed out and northwest toward the western shoreline of the Thumb. They had with them quite a few little packages. Their main area of operation was going to be the Caseville area and along that shoreline. As they approached the area, they would stop on occasion. Timed surprises to help keep the militia on edge.

It was early afternoon and over at the airport, a crowd started to gather near the front gate. The militia warned them to leave and they did. They went about a quarter of a mile down to a feed store. They lit up a couple of burn barrels and stood around. The crowd increased in size, drawing the attention of the militia. They had a patrol drive by about every 10 minutes.

* * *

Over in the Caseville area, the two vehicles pulled into the parking lot of a small grocery store. A militia patrol pulled in behind them. They got out and approached the vehicles with their weapons at the ready. A few minutes later another patrol pulled in to assist them. They ordered the group out of the vehicles.

David and Dawn got out first. Randy got out of the Cherokee and walked over to the driver’s door. He opened it and Rich got out. Rich leaned up against the fender playing the feeble old man. Randy went and opened Bev’s door and helped her get out. He pulled out a small stool and she sat down. The militia approached them.

“Who are you people?” David explained that it was his wife and son, and his parents. They lived in Warren and came up here to bug out.

“Where are you planning on going exactly?”

“We have a small cabin on Rose Island. That’s where we are heading to.”

“You guys have ID?” Rich walked over slowly and gave him his drivers license. The address was in Warren.

The man from the militia looked over at Randy and the rest. “You guys have ID?” Dawn said no, David pulled his out.

The guy said, “This says Roseville.”

David spoke, “Ya, my parents live in Warren. We live in Roseville and Randy lives in St. Clair Shores. We all made it to my parents’ house where we stayed until it started getting bad with riots and looters. Look at my truck, they were shooting at everything just to shoot, it’s loaded with bullet holes. We decided to head to the cabin.”

Over by the airport the crowd had grown to almost 50 people. They started walking back toward the airport’s main gate. When they got there, the militia doubled up the manpower at the gate and told them to go away. Rob demanded that he talk to the militia’s leader. The crowd called the militia Nazis, criminals, thugs, crooks and a few other choice words. There were men, women and older teenagers.

Back in the parking lot the militia told David and his group that they were the authority for the Thumb Region. They insisted on searching the vehicles. David and the group protested, but the militia convinced them by raising their rifles. The militia pulled everything out of the vehicles. They just tossed it all on the ground.

Sleeping bags, camp stove fuel, clothing, food and some odds and ends. One of the militia opened up a blanket and laid it on the ground. He placed a small .22 rifle on it along with a couple of Mosin Nagants and an older 12 gauge shotgun. Another guy put down two ammo cans filled with various ammo for the guns and opened it.

“I see boxes of 9mm. You guys have any pistols on you?”

David said, “Yes, I have a 9mm under my coat.” They told him to raise his hands which he did. One of the guys went and took the gun from him and then patted him down. He told everyone else to stand up as well. They completed the search and didn’t find anything else.

“Here’s a list of rules of the area. I suggest you go to your cabin and stay there. Check in once in a while in case we have information for you. We post bulletins regularly. You damn vacationers think you can just come up here and do whatever you want and it makes me sick. If I had it my way, we’d be shooting all of you useless assholes.

“We’re keeping the guns, that’s our law. You might want to think seriously about how long you plan on staying. Spring would be a great time to move the hell back to wherever you guys came from.” A third patrol had approached and watched the activity. David saw them talking on the radio. They heard him say that they didn’t find any truck tracks at the marina, just the bike tracks. They got another call and then they left. The other two patrols stayed behind, but David could tell they were getting anxious about something.

* * *

Haliday and Blake started to head toward the airport. They were following the path they previously had taken. Haliday would be taking a different path and he split off from Blake. Blake continued on for about half a mile. He stopped and waited. As he was sitting there the patrols quad came up along the wood line. Blake took off to try and avoid the quad.

The quad was following Blake as he tried to lose him. The quad was catching up to Blake slowly. Blake tried to get into the woods, but he couldn’t find an opening. He looked back and the quad was even closer. He laid on the throttle, but the bike became unstable and bounced around too much, so he slowed down.

He spotted an opening in the woods and shot toward it. Just after he entered the woods, he hit a patch of leaves and dumped the bike down sideways and slid. He got up and started running down the path with the quad behind him. The quad gunned it and blasted into the woods.

The rider’s arms were whipped backward and the pressure on his chest tore him from the quad. He landed on his back and rolled around in pain. Haliday had wrapped a piece of small coated wire cable around one tree and anchored it. Then he had fed the end through an eye bolt on another tree. As soon as Blake had laid down the bike, Haliday pulled the cable and wrapped the end around the eyebolt for strength. It knocked the rider of the quad off.

Haliday walked up and stepped on the man’s arm as Blake ran up. He pointed his .40 at him. “You guys don’t learn do you? Still out here playing army and trying to run your own little country?” The guy just looked up at him. He had to be only 18 or 19 years old. Haliday bent down, flipped him over, and applied some flex cuffs.

He searched the kid and pulled off a pistol, a couple of magazines and a knife. “Blake, gather all the rest of his gear, that rifle and everything. Take the quad and run it back to where we came from. I’ll be right there after I finish with this kid.” Blake did as he was told. He put everything in the pole barn and threw an old tarp over it. Haliday swung by and picked him and took him back to his bike.

The kid was sitting up against a tree and was tied to it. He wouldn’t be going anywhere at all. This kid was probably patrolling the wood line and east side of the airport where they would need to be. He looked at the kid. “I’m going to let you sit here and then have someone come get you later. Find Jesus while we’re gone. Find Allah for all I care. But get right with your Maker.”

“You aren’t going to shoot him?”

“No, he can stand trial with the rest of them or they can do whatever they want with him, but I’m not going to do it. I should, but he didn’t fire on us or try, at least not yet. Rules of engagement in a sense, a twisted sense though. I did talk to him for a few minutes though.

“The kid basically told me to screw off. He told me they were the new government in the area and they applied new laws to the area. That’s about all he said. Kept repeating it over and over along with saying how we were going to get what we had coming to us. Not a very smart kid either. No understanding of what the law really is.

“Let’s go, we’ve got to be in place very soon.” They made their way back to the northeast corner of the airport where they had been before. It was completely dark out now. They got busy getting ready. This would be more interesting than just watching what was going on.

The crowd at the airport gate had grown to almost 80 people now. They were still demanding to talk to the militia leader. They were still calling them names and such. Someone dragged over a barrel and lit a fire in it. The militia had called in half of their patrol units and everyone in the airport compound was on alert and ready.

* * *

David and everyone had started packing up their gear slowly. They tried talking to the militia, but the responses were short and rude. Randy came from the Tahoe, “Hey Uncle David, the Tahoe has a flat. Can you help me change it?”

“Ya, give me a minute. Mom, Dad, you guys wait in the Cherokee where it’s warm. Dawn, pull it up next to the Tahoe so we can change the tire. I need the jack and lug wrench out of the Cherokee.”

“Randy, can you get under there and get that spare loose?” Randy laid down and worked on the tire. Off in the distance, they heard a series of small explosions. Randy sat up. The militia sent one of the trucks down the street to check it out.

One of the two remaining guys yelled at Randy, “Get the damn tire changed already.” Randy got back under and worked on getting the tire down.

Rich got out of the Cherokee. The militia man asked him, “Where you going?”

“I have to pee. Can’t I go pee?” Rich answered.

The guy told him, “No, you can hold it.”

Rich looked at him, “I can’t hold it. I’m 75 years old.”

“Piss your pants then, old man,” the guy replied. “We ain’t letting you piss all over the place.”

Dawn got out now. “Let the man go the bathroom for God’s sake.”

“Shut up bitch.”

“Don’t call me a bitch.”

The guy lowered his rifle and flipped her off. “Screw you bitch.”

Dawn said, “All he wants to do is go to the bathroom, ok? What if I take a bucket out for him?”

“I don’t give a shit. Like I said, let him piss his pants. Should have put on some Depends, old man.”

Dawn called him an asshole. The guy by their truck called him, “Hey, we got a big problem, we have to go.”

“Rich, as soon as they leave you can go.” The militia man walked up and slapped Dawn.

Rich bent down a bit and said, “Don’t hurt us.” Dawn cowered down and covered her head.

“You start to listen to us from now on you stupid bitch.”

“Leave me alone you bastard.” The other militia man started walking toward them. The guy called Dawn a bitch again and raised his hand to hit her again.

David squeezed the trigger five times, hitting the man three times. Randy fired his shotgun once at the second man, pumped it and then fired again. David walked up and checked the guy; he wasn’t dead, but just lying there. He kicked away his rifle and grabbed his pistol from his belt. Randy yelled over that the second guy was dead. “Uncle Roger was right. Buckshot is good stuff.”

They grabbed all of the gear that they could and tossed it into the vehicles. Randy grabbed a can of compressed air and filled the Tahoe’s tire. He walked over to the militia vehicle and using a knife flattened all four tires. They took whatever was in the truck and put it in their own. They took off as soon as they could. They left the injured man just lying there.

The second truck came speeding down the road and saw them pulling away. They tore into the parking lot to check it out. They had had no idea that David had hidden a rifle and a shotgun up under the truck. The flat tire and Rich’s bathroom plea had been a diversion. Of course, Dawn hadn’t expected to get slapped.

The militia grabbed some first aid supplies and tended to their friend. Once they got him bandaged quickly, they put him in the back of the truck. They grabbed the other man’s body and placed it in the back of the truck as well. They sped off heading toward their compound.

David and company made a few turns, waited, and then headed back to the house. This was all that was expected of them. They made it back and put everything away. They turned the radio on and listened. Everything was boiling over right now and it was chaos at the militia compound.

They had forced the group aside and opened the gate for the patrol truck to enter with the injured man. They rushed him into the admin building, where a nurse from the militia was working on him. At this same time, the crowd outside was yelling that they wanted to talk to the militia leader. They were not leaving until that happened.

One of the militia came out and asked them what they wanted. Rob told him, “We want our food and stuff back. You guys don’t have the right to keep it. You didn’t have the right to take it.” The man from the militia told him to take it easy, disperse the crowd, and then he would get the commander and they could talk.

“What do you mean get the commander, who the hell are you? I know you from somewhere. You work at the sheriff’s office. Is he in charge?”

“The sheriff is the commander. We are under rule of militia law now.” The crowd was yelling at them loudly now. More of the militia came around by the gate. They now had a few guys patrolling up and down the fence line continuously.

Someone ran inside and spoke to the commander. The commander came out and walked behind a barrier. “What do you people want?”

Rob replied, “We want what’s ours. What you took from us, what you stole from the community. That’s what we want.”

The commander responded, “You got it all wrong.”

“Then explain it to us,” yelled Rob.

“We are under militia law now. Everything was commandeered for the good of the community. You’ll be able to buy food and supplies in a couple of days.”

Rob yelled again, “Why the hell should we buy what belonged to us in the first place?”

The commander tried to explain. “Things are different and we need to maintain order. That’s why we are in charge.”

Some in the crowd hollered out, “Who the hell put you in charge?” The commander didn’t answer.

“I was the sheriff and now I am the commander of the militia. We are doing what is best for us. If you listen to us and follow our law you will be fine. Now disperse and go home and wait for notice.”

A woman asked him, “You mean what’s best for you or what’s best for all of us?”

Someone in the crowd threw some rocks at the militia. The commander ordered them to leave. The crowd threw some more rocks. Two members of the militia approached the gate with what looked like flame throwers, but they were not flame throwers. They sprayed the crowd with pepper spray from these tanks.

Some of the crowd started running away. A lot of the people were, coughing and tears and snot were running down their faces. The commander ordered them to disperse once again. They crossed the street but were still yelling. People continued to throw rocks, bottles, or whatever they could find. Someone threw a Molotov cocktail.

The militia fired toward the crowd to scare them. One man went down and others helped him up. He had been hit in the leg by accident. The crowd started running away now through the houses across the street and down back toward the feed store. The militia fired only sporadically.

Blake fired first. The round arced over toward the crowd and exploded in the air, lighting up the scene. It was a simple fireworks cartridge from the 37mm. The militia had been caught off guard. Everyone looked up. Haliday squeezed the trigger on his M24 and dropped the commander. The shot tore through his upper shoulder near his neck. They grabbed him and rushed him into the command center.

The militia didn’t know whether or not to fire on the crowd. Some of the crowd ran and some lay down on the ground. Haliday placed his next shot into the open hangar where they were working on the planes. He fired a shot into what looked like a small fuel caddy and it started to leak. He fired just one more shot into it.

He handed the rifle to Blake and told him to put it away. Blake stuffed it in the case and used some bungee cords to secure it to Haliday’s bike. He wrapped a couple quick pieces of hundred mile and hour tape on it. This rifle was too important to lose. Blake grabbed his AR and fired at the compound and kept an eye out for patrols.

The militia sent a couple guys to the fence line closest to Haliday and Blake. They fired a few shots at them. Haliday and Blake returned fire. Blake emptied a magazine and loaded another into the rifle. Haliday crawled over to a tree and rose up behind it. He aimed the 37mm and launched a flare toward the hangar.

The flare fell short. Haliday loaded another one and fired again at the hangar. This one hit the tarmac in front of the hangar and bounced in. Someone came running out. Haliday watched as a group of guys ran toward the motor pool hangar. Haliday loaded one more cartridge into the launcher and fired it toward the hangar. Blake continued to fire at the men near the fence line; he had gone through three magazines and just loaded his fourth.

The fireworks cartridge landed near the open door of the hangar and exploded sending colorful sparks everywhere. One landed in the puddle of fuel and sent up a wall flames. A couple guys grabbed some small extinguishers and tried to put it out. The flames grew in size. Haliday was disappointed there was no explosion. “A little 4^th of July celebration for ya Wright brothers. Fly this.”

“Ok Blake, cover me while I get into the woods.” Haliday crawled about 30 yards into the woods. He took up position and told Blake to low crawl in while he used suppressing fire to cover him. He went through three magazines himself. “Go get ready, Blake.” Blake went a little deeper into the woods. Haliday continued to fire although he wasn’t hitting anything other than the four wheeler. A Jeep came out of the compound and pulled up close to the intersection. They fired blindly into the woods.

 Haliday and Blake had a path between the two wooded areas that they were going to use. They crawled their way back there. The Jeep moved up slowly and started heading down the path. Haliday and Blake fired at them. The Jeep backed off. Haliday heard the guys shouting out instructions. “I think it’s a trap,” said one of the guys, “just hold on, it’s coming.”

Back at the airport one of the militia had managed to wheel a large extinguisher to the hangar where she released the chemical into the hangar and on the two piper cubs. Her efforts paid off, the flames were put out. The condition of the planes was unknown, but hopefully they wouldn’t fly any time soon.

The motor pool hangar door opened and the M113 rolled out. It went out the main gate and made its way toward the wooded area where Haliday and Blake were. The Jeep had backed out of the woods and the guys got out and jumped in the back of the track. They raised the back door ramp and started heading toward Blake and Haliday.

The militia had five people in the track. Two were actually women. Haliday had actually done a good job of ruffling their ranks over the past few days. He hoped that using the women meant that their ranks were not numbered as high as he originally thought. The option was very angry wives out for payback. Still, they had enough to accomplish what they wanted to in the area. His count would later prove to be wrong.

With the promise of food and shelter they would be able to recruit some additional people as well. They had to have been promising the gas station owners something. Why else would they be restricting the gas? Who knew what else they were promising people or would promise them. With the country in the crapper and people getting cold, tired and hungry they’d jump on board in a minute to protect themselves and family.

The store/barter idea would have allowed the militia to selectively recruit people, preferably singles or couples with no kids. As they came in to trade for food and supplies, they could screen everyone. In actuality, it wasn’t a bad idea. That plan may have been disrupted. If they started recruiting, they would win this game.

The track turned its lights on. It moved forward slowly but effortlessly at a walking pace. The path here was wide enough to drive a truck through and fairly level. Just some bushes and undergrowth in most spots. The issue was the trees on both sides. Lot of places for people to hide, but the gun ports on each side provided cover and a sense of safety.

The upper turret was manned with one guy and what looked like a .308 of some sorts. Most likely it was an AR configuration. The track was accompanied by two people bringing up the rear. They were determined to find these guys and even the score. They searched the area thoroughly as they moved along.

The track reached a pinch point in the path where the trees narrowed. This narrow point left barely a few inches on each side of the track. The driver was checking his alignment and let it creep forward. As it crept through the trees two booby trap simulators went off, which startled everyone.

The guys in the rear dove for cover and the guy in the turret ducked down as the driver stopped. They were braced and ready to take fire. The guys in the rear scanned the area and did not see anyone. The turret gunner stood back up, but kept nice and low behind the armored cover.

Overhead there came some light popping sounds. They looked up and didn’t see anything, but felt the fluid dropping all over the track. The gunner and the driver felt themselves getting wet. The driver tried to scramble to get out of the driver’s compartment and knocked the gunner down. The floor had become slippery. In a matter of moments, flares hit the track and ignited it.

The track burst into flames. The driver and gunner were flailing around inside screaming as the flames engulfed them. The people inside the back of the track were trying to get out and couldn’t locate the hatch control. Everything started to ignite inside the track with everyone moving around and spreading the fuel and flames.

The gunner climbed up out of the turret hatch and over the side of the track where he fell to the ground. The driver was rolling around the floor of the track trying to smother the flames, but it was fruitless as there was gas burning on the floor as well. One more person made it through the gunner’s hatch. The driver, a man and a woman didn’t make it out of the track. The flames had licked higher and burst the rest of the balloons that had not popped, dumping more gas on everyone.

Haliday had strung up some balloons filled with air and gas over this area. They were tied up in small bunches with fish hooks taped to the strings supporting them. A couple jerks on the fishing line caused them to burst. The gas dropped and then had he used a flare from the 37mm to ignite it. The rest was the brutal nature of fire and it took its course.

The track had been abandoned now and was completely engulfed in flames. A truck came flying up and two militia tried to help their friends. Three had succumbed to the flames and two were badly burned. Only the two outside the track had avoided the inferno. The militia grabbed the injured and retreated, leaving the track to burn.

Chapter 24

Back near the airport, another alarm had sounded. Every person in the militia group was responding and taking up defensive positions. There was sporadic gunfire as they fired into the woods and surrounding buildings. No one knew what they were firing at. Shadows, light dancing off windows, or just their imaginations.

There were vehicles heading in all directions around the entire perimeter. People were then getting out and either lying prone and watching their area or taking cover behind their vehicles. It was a mix of adults and teens. They all had the same Russian camo on too.

The crowd had cleared out and was completely out of sight. More than half had gone home. About a dozen of the remaining members stayed behind by the feed store with Rob. In about 15 minutes Haliday and Blake came up from the other direction on their bikes. They ditched them inside a truck well at the feed store.

Haliday walked up to Rob. “How’d you make out?”

“One guy got hit in the leg and old man Burton got shot in the back while he was running away. He didn’t make it. He owned the Burton tire shop. He didn’t have any family, but we’ll get him taken care of.”

Haliday said, “It ain’t over yet. I guarantee these guys are going to try and remain in charge. That or they are going to come after you.”

They heard a vehicle coming down the street and watched as the truck pulled up to the main gate of the airport. After it entered, the gate stayed open but four people stood there with rifles ready and sweeping the area. Another vehicle came up less than five minutes later. This continued for about another 30 minutes as all of their patrols had made it back to the HQ.

Haliday pulled out his binoculars and looked over at the compound. “Rob, these guys are bunkering down. There isn’t going to be any chance of getting in there any time soon. Blake, take some notes.” Blake went and grabbed the notebook out of the saddle bag and came back.

“I count five quads, four ‘four’ wheelers, three motorcycles, I see 15 trucks or Jeeps, about eight golf carts, the two deuce and halves. They must have fixed the tires on the one. I count over 60 people total. I’ll assume if they have any younger kids other than the teens, they are shielded inside somewhere. I have no idea how many prisoners they have if they are even still alive. Hell, I don’t know how many others may be inside. They hid their numbers rather well. More recon is what I should have done, this sucks. I’m not sure what the hell they have total.

“That means they had a good at least a good 60 to start with if you subtract the 10, or was it 11 or 12 we killed?”

Rob looked at him. “You guys took out that many?”

Roger continued, “I don’t really know. Oh, that reminds me. About a half mile north along your wood line is going to be a kid tied up. He’s hurt pretty badly, most likely broken ribs and bruised. You guys do what you want with him. There’s a quad and some toys in your pole barn. Keep those. You might need them.”

Haliday called the group, who was waiting with anticipation. They filled him in on the activity they encountered and he told them he would let them know what was going on when they got back. They would be coming in very soon. He told Rob about the militia vehicle. “You might want to see if you can go get it. It’ll help you as well. He gave Rob a couple of frequencies. Use the kid’s ham, you can run it off the quad.”

Rob said, “I can’t thank you enough for all of this.” A few of the other guys were there as well and thanked them. They were all huddling around the burn barrel.

“If I could give you guy’s any advice, this is what I would do.”

Roger was just about to give them a little advice when one of the other men pointed and said, “I think we have company.”

A four wheeler from the compound was pulling out and headed their way. It had a large white flag waving from it. They stopped out in the street just a short ways from the feed store. They yelled out, “We want to talk to whoever is in charge.”

Haliday and Blake both stepped back and took aim. Haliday was scanning the area, he had that feeling. “Step back Rob.” Rob stepped back too.

There were three of them out there. “Can we speak to who’s in charge?” someone yelled.

One of Rob’s friends said, “Hell, I’ll go.”

Haliday said, “No, don’t go out there,” but the guy did anyway. “Rob, who is that guy?”

“His name is Jim, he always wants to be in charge and run things. If it’s our fantasy football league or anything else not important, we just let him. He’s kind of like Mr. Haney from Green Acres, always has a money-making scam going on, the next big business, that sort of thing.”

Haliday looked around and backed up some more. “Back up guys, back up.” Most backed up, but a few just stood there. A couple of guys went over by the dumpster and grabbed some rifles they had hidden. Haliday had specifically told them not to bring weapons to this rally. Jim talked to them for a bit, then returned.

“Hey Rob, one of them is Ernie, you know, the deputy.”

“Ya, I know him, he always hassles my boys about the scooter.”

“Well listen here, they wanted to know who the leader was and I told them I was it. Told them I designated you to talk for us when we were at the gate. They want to make a truce. They said if we disband, they won’t do anything to us.”

“Bullshit,” Rob said. “I don’t trust them.”

Jim spoke again; “They also wanted to know who these two were.” He pointed at Haliday and Blake. “I told them they were my cousin and nephew from the suburbs.”

Haliday spoke next. “Listen Jim, I’m not sure you fully understand what’s happening here.”

Jim pointed at Roger. “Hey, you ain’t from around here, I know these people.”

Roger replied, “Oh you do, So you knew what they were prepping for and everything?”

“Well, no, but they are mostly good people,” Jim said.

“Look Jim, I’m telling you this is bad shit going down.”

Jim wouldn’t listen to reality. He told Roger, “You don’t know that. I think it’s a good deal. We might be able to get something else out of it too.”

Another guy piped in. “Jim, I think this guy is legit. I mean he’s gotta be Special Forces or something, look at the shit he’s pulled.”

“No, I’m not, nor would I portray myself to be. I’m just a guy who took advantage of all the training I ever could. Practiced and honed those skills, read everything I could. Knowledge is key. Operators are a different breed, I know a few. I wish we had some right about now. I’m just a dirty fighter.”

Haliday spoke to the group. “Look, these guys are just buying time. They will come after everyone here. They won’t stop. I guarantee they will not give up that food and supply stockpile without a fight. You all heard the stories of what they’re doing.”

Jim spoke, “Oh bullshit, I got this handled.” Jim walked back out to meet them. A couple more people told him not to. Haliday looked around; he motioned for Blake and Rob to back up a bit more.

Jim said, “Ernie, they don’t trust you. But I think we can cut a deal here. Look, we’ll all go home, but we gotta have something that shows good faith. Why don’t you give us all some food to get by until we work out a deal on issuing the supplies.” Ernie told him the supplies would be sold or traded, not just given out.

“Look Ernie. I have to agree with these guys, you can’t take this stuff and then sell it back to us, that ain’t right. Now if that’s going to be your final offer, then we can’t accept that, you understand right?”

Ernie said, “I understand, but you don’t Jim. That’s not the way it works now. We don’t bargain with terrorists either.”

“Ernie, we’re not terrorists, just people from the community like you. You guys are acting like the terrorists here.”

Ernie walked away for a minute and talked on his radio. He came back. “Jim, the only deal is you guys go home and don’t pull stunts like this again. You’re the leader right?”

“I sure am, but we can’t take that offer.”

Haliday saw Ernie shift positions and Haliday yelled, “Everyone down!”

Jim never stood a chance as a bullet ripped through his chest. Haliday and everyone else took cover. Haliday tried to fire at the group, but too many of the guys ran between him and the four wheeler. A couple of the guys fired at the militia group and the militia fired back. Another man spun around and dropped his weapon as a round pierced his shoulder.

Haliday started yelling, “Get back. Get back!” The militia had lured some of these guys out into the street and into the direct line of fire for their own sniper. Ernie had merely confirmed the order and then set up Jim for the shot. Jim had confirmed he was the leader and they figured an eye for an eye was in order, even though their commander was just injured.

The militia ducked down behind their four wheeler. They would raise their rifles and fire some shots toward the crowd. Once in a while they hit another man in the back who was trying to run. Haliday finally had a clear field of fire and started firing back at the militia group. The rest of Rob’s friends who had been supporting Rob had managed to all get clear of the sniper.

Haliday counted three armed men plus Blake and himself. They hadn’t hit any of the militia yet. There were quite a few rounds fired from the militia, but only one or two men fired back in response. Two had bolt action hunting rifles and one had a Ruger Mini-14. “Save your ammo,” Haliday yelled.

He crawled over to Blake; Rob was lying next to him. “Rob, take my rifle. I’m going to signal to Blake when I want you guys to fire.” Haliday crawled over to his bike in the truck well. He grabbed his M24 and went around to the back of the building. He climbed a metal ladder that was attached to the building and hoisted himself up on the roof.

He moved slowly toward the peak of the roof. It was a metal roof and it was cold. He reached the peak and loaded his rifle. He quickly scanned the compound. “Where are you damn it.” Haliday couldn’t find him. He searched some more and up on the roof of the admin building he spotted a bunch of sand bags.

He looked over at the gate and saw them opening it. One of the deuces pulled out slowly. They had armored this thing up with plate steel on one side and on the cab area, but he couldn’t see any gun ports or anything. The deuce pulled up behind the four wheeler and nudged it a bit. The militia got alongside of the deuce, which started to back up slowly.

It was about halfway back to the airport now. Haliday watched. Damn good idea. Just roll up, use it as a shield and roll back home. He told Blake to hold fire. One of the guys ran out toward the four wheeler and jumped in. He started to drive it toward the feed store when he was hit by the militia fire. It just rolled over toward the feed store. The man had been hit just below the base of the neck between his shoulders.

“Fire, Blake, fire.” Everyone started firing toward the deuce. Haliday aimed at the center of the sandbags and fired a round. He fired again and still nothing. He fired two more shots and nothing. He looked through the scope. All he saw was the side of a shoe and a white Nike swoosh. He aimed at the swoosh and fired one last round. He scrambled down the roof and to the ladder.

He climbed down wondering whether or not he hit the guy. He didn’t know it, but the first four shots were wasted. The fifth shot was the only one that hit its mark. Whoever it was that was up there sniping them would only need to buy one shoe from now on. The whole lower half of his foot had exploded inside of his shoe. Haliday was surprised the guy didn’t have boots on. Seeing the swoosh was pure luck.

Haliday called Blake and everyone over. He told one guy to watch the main street and another to watch the back street. “How many Rob?”

Rob said, “Two dead and three wounded.”

“You get the guy?”

“I have no idea. Rob, you think you can get that four wheeler?”

“Are you crazy?” Rob asked.

“Rob, it’s out of the kill zone for that sniper now. The rest of us will lay down suppressing fire toward the deuce, the admin building and the rooftop where the sniper was. You guys need that thing. You really do.”

Rob looked at him questionably. “You sure it’ll be ok?”

“You want me to lie to you Rob?”

“Roger, please do.”

“It’ll be fine Rob. We got ya covered.

“Everyone make sure you’re loaded up. You three fire on the barricades by the admin building. Blake, you fire on the deuce. I’ll fire on the rooftop where the sniper is. Go on three. One, two, three.” Rob ran over and pushed the guy out of four wheeler while everyone laid down suppressing fire. He got it started and drove it back to the feed store. There was some return fire, but not much. It was only a short 40 foot drive to safety.

Rob was shaking like crazy. “I never did anything like that before. But like you said, it worked out ok.”

“Good thing too,” Haliday said, “I was starting to doubt myself.” Rob just looked at him. “I’m kidding, Rob. Calculated risks Rob, we take calculated risks. Now you guys have yourselves a four wheeler.”

He walked over to the machine and looked around. He opened the little glove box. “A gas card too. You get every gas can you guys have and you get them filled as soon as you can. Fill anything that will hold gas. Oh, from now on make sure you take firearms with you. Travel in pairs at a minimum.”

He opened up a case and there was an AR inside. He handed it to Rob, “Give this to someone who’s gonna use it.”

“What about me,” Rob asked.

“You have one at your house, remember?”

“Oh ya, the quad too.”

“Keep this; give the quad to someone else.” He looked down at a metal box mounted in the back.

He opened it up. It was loaded with 5.56 rounds. There had to be about 2,000 rounds there on stripper clips with some magazines and loaders. Haliday said, “It looks like a lot, but it’s not. Blake and I are going to reload our magazines and you can keep the rest. Again, there’s a several hundred back at your house, Rob.” Haliday and Blake reloaded their magazines.

Everyone was standing around now. They started to ask a bunch of questions. Haliday stopped them all. “You guys know a doctor around here?”

They all kind of looked at each other. One guy spoke up, “Ya, my neighbor, but I don’t speak to him, why?”

“You have three wounded that need attention. Get them loaded in this four wheeler and take them there. He won’t like it, but he’ll help, it’s in their genetic make up. Then hook back up with Rob.”

They got the injured guys loaded up and the four wheeler took off. Rob said, “What if the patrols get them?”

“They are all in the compound right now, Rob. I don’t think they are coming back out any time soon. Too many injured and dead to worry about, and we just handed them their asses. We took hits too, but we hit hard with those planes and that track.

“Is there a place we can go talk?”

One of the guys spoke up. “We can go to my tooling shop just down the street.”

“Ok, let’s go.” They left the burn barrel going and went down to the tooling shop. The barrel might lead the militia to believe they were still near the feed store. As they walked by the feed store, Haliday looked the place over. “We’ll grab our bikes and meet you there.”

The guy unlocked the door; Haliday posted someone near the door to keep an eye out. “Before we start, what’s in the bins and everything over there at the feed store?”

“Oh, it’s corn, wheat and soy. Same with the trucks in the lot.”

“Damn, that’s a lot of food. I’m surprised they didn’t take it.”

“Well, they tried, but no way to move it in bulk. They were trying to find a truck to tow the trailers.”

Haliday was surprised they hadn’t posted a guard there. “I thought it was a feed store,” he said.

Rob said, “No, it’s an elevator co-op, too.”

“Hold on before we continue.” Haliday called the group.

Kevin came on the radio. “We’re all fine. Uncle Roger, are you guys ok? We got worried. We heard them say they took out the leader and thought it was you. Dawn and Grandma are basket cases. Well, they were. Now that they heard your voice, they are ok, I guess.”

“Ya, we’re fine. I’m going to cover a few things with these people here. I have to get them organized so they can handle the militia themselves now. Give them some ideas and plans. We’ll be there soon.”

“Ya, you keep saying that.”

“Ok, ok, we’ll be there when we get there.”

Haliday gathered the guys around. “This shop have any welding tools?”

Andy the shop owner answered. “Ya, we have plenty of tanks and torches. It’ll be old school, but we can manage.”

“You have sheet metal at all?”

“Nothing more than ¼ inch.”

“What about the other shops in the area, there’s a bunch of them I noticed.”

“I’m sure we have quite a bit if we put it together,” the shop owner said.

Roger looked at him, “That’s good to know.

“Anyway, you guys have seen first hand how the militia here is operating right? So you all know first hand along with the rest that those people are not here for the good of the community. You need to spread the word.”

“How do we do that?” someone asked.

“Word of mouth, use markers and write on their bulletins, whatever you can think of,” Rob told him.

“Use the ham, search for others, pass the word about who they are and what they are about. Let them know you do not recognize their authority. Make sure they understand that. Make sure you tell them you are now in charge.” Rob looked concerned. “Not like your pal Jim did, I mean the community is in charge.”

“I told you guys already you need to be teamed up when you are out. I also told you that you need to be armed. That means everyone who can fire a weapon. Power in numbers. Carry as much ammo as you can. Avoid firefights, shoot and run to get the hell out of there. You get out of there as fast as possible. They’ll win a straight up firefight.”

“The gas stations are important. You need to lock them all down and let them know what’s going on. That gas is a precious commodity. You might want to think about treating as much of it as you can. Any stabilizer you can find you should use. Don’t let them get that either. If you place a car over the tank access and take the wheels off, it’s hard to move it that way.”

“Save any canned food for last. Eat what’s fresh first. Use that grain. Hit up the library and check for cookbooks. Same with auto repair manuals, electrical repair, hell, anything you think you might need. Conserve your wood, burn it for warmth, not comfort. There’s a difference. Only burn enough to keep the edge off the cold. Use clothing and blankets to keep warm.”

“Think about teaming up in households. It’ll help save wood and the safety factor is worth it alone. Make sure the houses are secured; keep doors locked, windows secured, all that good stuff. I can’t tell you enough how important it is. Remember safety and security at all times and in all locations.”

“If you guys plan to hunt, try to keep it reasonable. I mean, don’t hunt to eat meat every day. You can overhunt. If you all go out and hunt everything in sight, within a few weeks it’ll be impossible to find game. Ration control is your friend. You’ll be surprised at how little you need to eat. Keep a balance of protein and carbs though. Think about crops next year. That’s all you guys do around here is farm and fish, right?”

 “I could go on and on, but it would take weeks. What I will do is teach you some of the tricks I used here and some new ones as well. You have to think guerilla warfare. If you can’t work it out with them and you go on the offensive, you need to go primal on them. You’ve seen how well it works.”

Haliday walked out to his bike and brought in a star jack. “These are also known as caltrops. I’ll leave this one with you. If you are being followed by bad guys, you toss a few dozen of these behind you and they’ll flatten tires. Make as many as you can. Keep them on every vehicle you use.

“Everyone here knows what stop sticks are, right? The cops use them. Well, here’s a poor mans version. You take plate steel and cut it in strips. The longer the better. Six inches wide. Use a torch and cut some very sharp V’s into the middle. Three inches on each side. Bend those up and sharpen the edges and point. Hide them under leaves, loose dirt, lay them down as needed, you get the idea.”

“Don’t try to up armor your vehicles, the weight will kill them. But you can double up this plate steel and make some firing portals. If you build a plate that’s 30 inches wide and 18 inches tall, with a slot cut in it, when you are laying down prone behind it, it’ll provide cover. Except from snipers who take the high ground. But they can’t be moved easily because of the weight, so be careful how you use them.”

“You can take some peppers, grind them down, mix in some boiling water and let it cool. Add oil along with a touch of gas and use it in balloons, squirt guns, water extinguishers or whatever will spray and spread it. Improvised pepper spray. The stores around here might have some they usually sold for key chains.”

“Bug spray and flammables can make some nice little flame throwers. Light it with a match or lighter and spray away. If you feel giddy enough you can tape a candle to the can and light it. Just move slowly so the flame doesn’t go out. You guys have to think outside of the box here on everything. I’ll try to make contact and give you more ideas.”

Rob walked over to him. He extended his hand. “I don’t who the hell you are, but thank you very much. I hope I speak for everyone here.” Everyone was thanking them. “Any parting words of wisdom?”

“Bury your dead, and honor them with the freedom the constitution gives us.”

They peered outside. They walked over to their bikes and climbed on. A quick wave good-bye and they were on their way. The streets were all empty. No one was out. They barely noticed any candles burning anywhere as they rode along. About 45 minutes later they called on the radio. “Open the doors. Stand by. We’re home.”

They put the bikes in the pole barn and walked by the horses’ stalls. He paused to say hello, they knew him well. They locked up the pole barn with the help of Kevin and went to the house. They walked in and were greeted with hugs from everyone. Even Blake who had found a new family. Lots of tears of joy streamed down the faces.

Haliday walked over to Blake. He gave him a handshake and a quick shoulder hug. “Damn good job kid, I’m proud of you.” Roger looked around. “No offense anyone, but we’ll have plenty of time for stories in the morning. I’m going to bed. Blake, there’s a bunk up there for you too.” Blake opted to stay downstairs for a while. Haliday went upstairs and passed out. He slept for 12 hours straight.

Chapter 25

When he woke up, he felt the ground and looked around half expecting to be in the woods. He swung his feet off the bed and went to stand up and hit his head on the ceiling. He would have to get used to this. The bunk area of the house was basically a big loft that skirted the perimeter of the house. He looked down and saw Max and Romeo looking at him. “What’s going on furballs?”

He walked down the spiral steps into the common area of the house. “I need coffee.” Dawn brought him a cup, which was unusual. She hated the stuff; even the smell was disgusting to her. He took a long sip. “Oh man, nice hot coffee and nice warm house.”

She looked at him. “You stink.”

He raised an armpit and whiffed, “Just a little sweet aroma to this hunk of man candy,” That’s all he said.

“Oh boy. Ok,” she said, “coffee then shower.”

He sat at the large table and looked around. He never really expected to use this place for what they built it for. It was really just a cabin they built and used occasionally in the summers to get out of the city and away from the crap that enveloped it. This was close enough to take a long drive into the cities for shopping and entertainment, but far enough away to avoid crowds of people.

The cabin was built according to his plans which he had had a small firm draw up. Had to submit plans to the county for approval or he wouldn’t have bothered. Of course they had no idea of the modifications he would make during the entire construction process. Lack of inspectors and the distances they travelled made it easy. They would come out and inspect prior to any particular phase, and then after it was done. They never showed up unannounced.

The land was roughly 60 acres, just less than half backed up to a large creek and woods. Plenty of water and enough wooded land for hunting. The rest was all flat land for crops. He leased the farming rights to a farmer who planted crops and harvested them. This helped to pay the taxes and to build the new cabin. During the year they built the cabin, they didn’t let anyone plant on it.

There was nothing wrong with the old house except it was just not suitable. They tore this down and left a pole barn and another smaller outbuilding. They built the cabin to the specs they outlined and did a lot of the work themselves. They used a wide variety of different contractors for other parts. The locals just figured he was cheap and looking to save a buck. Security was the reason. No single one contractor knew too much about the place. The locals would know very little about the place.

Four large shipping containers of building materials had been brought in. They sat there during the construction process and disappeared during the process. First up was a new foundation. The foundation would accommodate the cabin which was only 30X40. A complete extra deep basement was put under the cabin. Each window was ported to be used as a firing position if needed. Armored with quarter inch around the small windows.

On two sides of the foundation he had put down one of the containers. The cinderblock walls had been constructed so that he could use a concrete saw and cut access into them after the final inspection was made. He had steel framework hidden in the walls for door jambs. The containers had been reinforced with I-beam steel inside and only buried a foot under the ground. They had been completely rubberized outside for waterproofing. He then built the doors to mate up properly.

The cabin itself was extremely open as far as the floor plan went. Toward the back was a large bathroom and toiletry closet on one side, and a large laundry room and linen storage on the other. In front of that was a large kitchen area and massive dining table with bench seats on one side and chairs around the other sides. In between was a spiral staircase with a good old fashioned firemen pole next to it.

For the bathroom, outside of the cabin he had a rain catch for a large 250 gallon water tank that was elevated, and it supplied water strictly for the toilet. The tank was black to attract sunlight and he used small solar powered bubblers to prevent freezing in the winter time.

The front of the cabin was completely open as well. They had chairs, couches and coffee tables spread around for seating and there was a fireplace. There hadn’t been any sense in wasting the space on bedrooms. If they had to, they could use the basement to create space for privacy.

When you looked up at the second floor, it was almost completely open. With the cabin being 30 by 40 and an “A” frame style roof, the sides had high pitches. You could walk around the entire upstairs close to the opening, which was railed off for safety. The opening was almost 10 by 30. This loft space had bunks galore spread out with under-bed storage and small dressers. There were thin panel walls between bunk areas and curtains toward the fronts. It looked like a large hunting lodge.

The storage containers provided space for storage of all of the food and supplies. The basement was left open as a recreation area. Pool table, dart board, card table, bubble hockey, couch and chairs, small library and games. They even had a space for a TV and entertainment system if it worked. He wouldn’t know yet. It was buried underground in a Faraday cage along with a few other items, with a grounding rod pounded deep into the ground.

Everything they would need was here. They would be able to farm the land, hunt if the game population wasn’t decimated and not far from the lake’s shores to put a small boat in and do some fishing. They had plenty of firewood stored already and access to as much as they needed. It had been a labor of love and now a labor of sustaining their lives.

They had compiled enough food stores to sustain 20 people for two and a half years on normal diets. They could ration and extend this if they needed to. This didn’t include any farming, hunting or fishing or what they brought with them. That would all be extra. They had the other two containers buried as well. One served as a hidden cache and the other as a storage unit for gas, kerosene, diesel and whatever else they put in there.

The cabin was built using eight inch logs and they up-armored the bottom 30 inches inside with 3/16^th inch steel plate. It would stop all 5.56 rounds and most 7.62. The areas around the windows were even more heavily armored to provide more protection as a gun port. This was all covered with wood paneling. The doors were all steel. There were only two of them. He hadn’t had the money to put ballistic glass in.

The doors to the pole barn and outbuilding had all been re-enforced to keep them as secure as possible. Tools, the trucks and trailers and an old tractor were all kept out there with the two horse stalls. They would move the trailers out shortly to make more space. Around the property he had a few more upgrades to help keep them safe.

The shower felt good. The water wasn’t hot, but was warm enough. He had plumbed a coil around the wood burner that ran the course of the hot water pipes normally supplied by the hot water heater, which no longer worked. The coil worked just fine and made it easier to boil water. The cabin was on a well pump and septic system which operated ok, too.

 Kayla had worked up a watch schedule which was posted on a big dry erase board near the kitchen. Same with chores, wood retrieval, cleaning, laundry, cooking and whatever else needed to be done. Haliday walked out after getting dressed. “Can I have more coffee please?” Bev put the percolator on.

Haliday walked over to the desk with the radio. He checked in with Mike and Linda. “How you guys doing?”

“We’re doing fine, Rambo.”

That struck a bad chord with Haliday. “Not in the mood, Mike. Just doing what I hope any other American would do, that which was necessary to keep order in a place that didn’t have any. You guys going to be set for a while?” he asked Mike.

“Ya, we’ll be fine, sorry. I got a deer and we plan to use that up first.”

“Ok, talk to you later,” Roger said.

Haliday changed the frequency and called Rob. There wasn’t any answer. He would call back later. He looked down at a note. “Oh ya, Alan.” He called on the frequency that Kayla had written down. There came an answer. It was typical of a ham operator. Call sign and everything. Haliday apologized for not knowing the proper protocol and such.

The man said, “No problem, I understand.”

“If you have a chance, and Alan Haliday asks, can you get him on for me?”

“Sure, I’ll leave a note up for him. I put a message board up for folks.”

“Hey, my name is Roger by the way; can I ask a few questions?”

“Yes sir, how can I help you?”

“You hear anything about the military or feds doing anything?”

“I only hear what you’ve heard. They are locked down on the bases, they have had a lot of deserters and they don’t plan on doing anything.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just like I said, they don’t plan on doing anything any time soon. That’s the rumor.”

While it didn’t surprise him he still thought it was odd. “What’s going on around you?”

“Detroit.”

Roger asked, “What do you mean, Detroit?”

The guy said, “The city itself is pretty much a wasteland and the suburbs have become like Detroit itself. Looters, robberies, people shooting each other, it’s really bad. You can’t leave your house and you have to be careful. Hearing that some gangs are on the move. People aren’t putting up with a lot though.”

“I appreciate the info. Mind if I add you to my friends list or whatever it’s called.”

The man laughed, “Ya, go ahead. I’m Adam by the way.”

“Thank you again Adam, it’s been a pleasure. I’ll be talking to you again soon.” He sat back and tried Rob again. Still no answer at all. He flipped to the militia freq. This was interesting indeed.

It sounded like they were just attacked by Al Qaida themselves. “This is the Bad Axe Minute Men. Last night we were provoked by a group of terrorists. These terrorists have turned members of our community against us. They attacked us when we were openly attempting a cease-fire.”

“Bullshit,” Haliday mumbled under his breath, along with some more choice words. Our community? Oh, that was good. These guys are playing the psychological warfare game quite well. He couldn’t wait to hear what else they were saying. These guys are playing the victim role really well.

He heard a familiar voice. “These are all lies people. We united to save our community. The militia stole food, fuel and supplies from us. They want to sell it back to us while they keep what they want for themselves. The murdered Jim Simmons last night in cold blood, he was unarmed.” Haliday smiled; a propaganda war. The sad thing was this could lead to a civil war here within this little part of the state.

“We had a kid who belonged to them. When we contacted them to turn him over, they set up an ambush and killed the two guys who were taking him back to their compound.” Haliday was taken aback at this. He wished he would have told them how to handle the turnover. How the hell did that happen, he wondered.

The bantering would go on back and forth every so often. Haliday flipped over to Rob’s frequency. “Rob, you there?”

“Ya, I’m here. They shot two more guys.”

“I heard. Sorry to hear that. You didn’t offer to trade the kid for supplies did you?”

“No, we told them it was a straight up return. We just wanted him out of our hair. The guys were walking him down the street toward their compound and they came out from the bushes and shot them.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Listen, you guys need to get busy with what we talked about. You get everyone you can on board. You’ll get those who will be on your side, those who will join you if they think you are winning, and those who will care less. You’ll also have some against you. I know it’s only been a little more than half a day, but time is important.

“Rob, listen up. Someone needs to move into that feed store or co-op, whatever you call it. You need to make sure that remains in your control. Fortify the hell out of it. Don’t let those guys get it. See if the guy with the tooling shop can build some boxes to cover the pintles on those trailers so they can’t be towed away. I’ll check in on you late this evening, but you call if anything major goes down. I suspect they’re still licking their wounds.”

In another couple of hours, it would be getting dark again. He needed to get out and check a few things. He went into the pole barn and got into the ranger. He and Kevin took a quick ride around the property boundary. It was simple fencing in most places. He drove toward the west property line and checked the woods. He scribbled some notes on some paper.

He followed the property line around and kept making notes. When he got up to the front of the lot he looked across the street at the neighbors. He had noticed the curtains pulled aside in one of the windows. He looked around some more not to make it obvious, but he made a mental note. Someone was watching them.

They drove back up to the pole barn. Haliday checked the vehicles real quickly. He walked over and looked at his old Jeep. He jumped in and started it up, just like Kayla said, ran like a champ. He looked up and saw Dawn and Diana bringing the horses in for the night. They put some hay in the stalls for them. Each fall they had a round bale delivered just as a prep. They rotated it out each year.

Haliday checked the small aluminum boat hanging over the Jeep. That should be fine, oars were EMP proof. He walked over to an old outboard motor from the 70’s. It was a simple engine, it too should work ok and if not, no big deal. Last but not least, the tractor. If it didn’t work, the horses would. They secured everything and went back to the house.

He could smell the cooking. “What are we having for dinner?”

Sarah said, “Burritos.” Karen and Bev were sitting there making tortillas and Sarah was making the beans and the beef.

“Sounds good to me.” He raised his voice slightly. “Everyone else please gather around, we have some things we need to do in the next couple of days, and we may have a problem.”

Everyone gathered around sitting at the table or standing nearby. “We need to get the concertina wire put in place. We also need to put out the foot spikes.” These were much like the stop sticks he had described, only they were just a couple inches wide and had slivers from the edge cut and bent upwards, then sharpened. These had barbs cut into them to tear flesh as they were pulled out. These were easier to hide in tall grass and bury under loose dirt. You’d spot them in the daylight, but not at night.

“We also need to make sure we clean out the holes and have them ready to go.” Near the front of the house by the corners he had built some decorative plantings. Small curved landscape walls, but when you took the grass off and removed the cover there was a concrete culvert pipe sunk into the ground.

These were just like the ones he had remembered using multiple times in basic training at the rifle range. Pea gravel on the bottom and sand bags in each to adjust the height of the shooter. These would let two gunners provide much needed coverage to the front of the house and the sides as well. He had installed planters around the whole area made of double rows of landscape bricks stacked 2 and 3 high in places. A few spots of fieldstone built up and holding garden sculptures.

The holes near the back of the house need to be cleaned out and ready as well. These appeared to be old tractor tires used as sand boxes. Those four holes would provide coverage for all four sides of the house. He continued on with a few other tasks to up the security and make it a more formidable structure to defend.

At the top of the house was a large decorative square with a weather vane on top. This was actually a 6X6 fortified hide. One man with a rifle was protected by two rows of wooden beams with 3/16 inch sheet metal sandwiched between them. The roof was sloped, but under the shingles was some ¼ inch. Might not be perfect, but it would work. He called it the crow’s nest.

He looked at everyone. “The militia might have a spotter across the road. You guys didn’t notice?”

“No, not really. Just thought it was a nosy neighbor.”

“That’s what I thought, too.” Nobody gave it much thought but he had. He told them what he thought.

“After watching them peek out through the window, I was turning around when I spotted a whip antenna on the chimney. Not sure how long it’s been there. But with the extra patrols around here it makes sense now. With you guys staying put inside, I don’t blame anyone for missing it; hell, I almost did myself. I’m not sure they heard or saw the bikes come in last night.”

“I’m going to go over there tomorrow with a couple of you and we’ll introduce ourselves. See what they are up to. Plant a little propaganda ourselves. However, we need to prepare for a fight just in case. I would say we have three or four days before that happens. It might not. I might be grasping at straws. But, I doubt it. If they know where to find me, they will come on strong.”

Everyone just kind of looked at each other. Rich asked him, “Are you sure?”

“Ya Dad, I’m sure.” Dinner was served up soon afterwards, but not a lot of people were really hungry. Almost half was put away for later. Normally this would have all been gone. They were good at guessing how much to make so nothing went to waste.

Haliday walked over and grabbed a glass and tossed some ice in it. The idea of not having gas for the generator one day, or a cold fridge really ticked him off. He had a solar array and battery bank, but that would push it even if operating nothing but the fridge and a few lights. He poured himself a couple fingers of Jack Daniels, sat at the desk and listened to the radio and took more notes. He told Mike what was going on, he checked in with Rob, but didn’t say anything to him.

Rob told him he had recruited a few more families. Once word spread, they knew who to believe. There were still doubters, and there were still those believing the militia, but the tide was turning. Not bad for a day’s work. Rob told him they got the truck from the parking lot and put tires on it. He also said they managed to round up some quads and a couple of bikes. They were working on a couple other vehicles, but not sure.

The kicker was Brady’s hunting center. Brady had taken everything and locked it up tight. He had steel bars over his windows and no one was getting in there. His house was attached to the back of the store. He was willing to fork over anything he had which would be of use.

Bows, crossbows, a lot of bolt action rifles but he also had close to 12 semi-autos, AR and AK variants. Years ago he had bought a couple dozen SKS’s and still had almost twenty. They weren’t big sellers in the area. To round it off he had about a dozen shotguns and plenty of ammunition for everything. “Rob, you need to make him your best friend. Talk to you tomorrow.”

 Haliday pulled his shift on watch that evening. It was 0200hrs and he stepped outside for a minute. It was colder outside tonight. He had his balaclava folded up into a watch cap configuration and pulled it down. He had told Diana that he’d be back in a few minutes. He walked over to the small outbuilding, which was really just an old hand-built shed maybe 10X12. He checked it out and the single door was secure.

He started to walk over by the pole barn and paused. He bent down to tie his shoe and mumbled aloud. “Damn shoe string, had to break on me now, huh?” He rose to his feet and walked back to the house and went inside. He told Diana they had a guest outside. Whoever it was had tried to hide behind the pole barn. He noticed their cloud of breath in the cold air. He used the shoe string excuse to go back in the house.

He went over to the laundry room and walked inside. Next to the window was a homemade periscope. He had found plans online, but he didn’t like them so he had made his own. He took a six inch PVC pipe and used it. He notched out the top and bottom and then played with mirror angles until he got them set at 45 degrees and glued them in place with gorilla glue. He used it to look out through the window. The person was by the pole barn.

He saw a single figure, small in stature. He wasn’t professional, nor was he very careful about his movements. He watched them try and peek in the pole barn windows, but he had to strain to reach them. He moved off toward the woods. Haliday went to another window and glanced out. Diana asked him if he wanted her to sound the alarm. “No, that’s ok. It’s just one person. The neighbor across the street. I just watched him go back over there.”

He walked over to the radio and flipped frequencies. There it was. He sat there and listened and this is what he had heard: “I couldn’t stay long. Someone came outside but he didn’t see me, I thoughthe would be coming back so I left. I’m sure it’s the people you are looking for. I think I saw some vehicles but I’m sure I saw the motorcycles too.” It was a woman’s voice.

“Ok.” said a man, “Can you try and confirm then let us know.”

“Ok, I’ll go back tonight.”

“Thank you,” the man said.

Haliday wanted to go across the street and slit her throat, but knew better. They needed a little more time to prepare. In the morning he’d go over there and pump her for information. He knew she was married, but couldn’t remember if she was happily married or not. Might have to play spouse against spouse. 0300hrs came and they woke their reliefs and briefed them. “Wake me at 0800hrs,” he said. “I want an early breakfast and a trip across the street.”

Chapter 26

After breakfast, Roger put on some jeans, and a polo shirt, and grabbed a regular winter jacket. He took Rich and Kayla with him across the street. Psyops—family was always a good bet in order to humanize a situation. Just the nice neighbors coming over to say hello. He still took his .40 and Kayla and Rich had 9mm’s. They walked up and knocked on the door. He did a quick survey of the property. He kept a hand in his pocket of his jacket with his finger on the trigger guard.

None of their vehicles that he saw seemed to be running. Firewood stacked up in the back, but that was normal out here. Pretty plain and nothing really stood out at all. The only thing was some tire tracks in the driveway that looked within a couple days old and the antenna on the chimney. They walked up on the porch and knocked.

A man came to the door. “Can I help you?”

“Hi, my name is Roger, this is my dad Rich and my daughter Kayla. We have the place across the street.”

“What is it I can help you with Roger?”

“We just wanted to introduce ourselves. We never really met; just waved across the fields once in a while. We’re here for a while and I wanted you to know it was just us.”

The man’s wife came to the door. She looked tired and was dressed, but looked like she slept in her clothes. “Who you talking to honey?” she asked.

“Oh, the folks from across the street,” he said.

She looked them up and down and just said one word. “Hi.”

“Hello ma’am, nice to meet you.” She just stood there. Roger repeated the introductions. There was an awkward pause and they were about to just say goodbye and leave.

“Where you guys from? How long you staying? Who else do you have up here?” It was three quick questions. Haliday knew it was her that had been out there last night.

He answered her questions, but fairly generically in nature. “The suburbs. A few weeks until things settle down in the city, I suppose. Couple others with us.” He answered the questions curtly.

“You have a lot of people over there,” she said.

“Well, my family is all. They want to be safe, too.”

“Ya, I guess family being safe is important,” she said.

Roger’s turn to ask some questions. “Is it just you two here? Don’t you have a daughter?”

“She’s at her boyfriend’s for a while,” she said.

Roger played coy, “Oh, ok, just remembered seeing her around before. Well, anyway, we’re going to get going, nice meeting you. We’re across the street and if you need anything let us know.”

“You too. We’re fine.” Her answers were just as quick and almost rude. She walked away.

The guy looked at Roger and shrugged his shoulders. He then opened the door some more and extended his hand. “I’m sorry, I’m Lance,” he shook everyone’s hands. “Take it easy,” he said,

“See ya around, Lance.”

They walked back to the house. “That was weird, Dad.”

“I agree with Kayla, Roger, that lady is a little bit off.”

“I would expect so.”

“Why is that?”

“When the husband opened the door to shake hands, there was a picture on the end table.”

“Of what, or of whom?”

“Her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend.”

“So what’s that mean?”

“They were standing next to a quad, wearing Russian camo. I believe I met him the other night.”

As soon as they walked into the house he called another meeting. “The lady across the street is watching our every move. I don’t know what the husband is all about,. I don’t think he cares. I’m not sure he even knows what’s really going on. But she is definitely buying into the BS the militia offers because Blakey boy here tried to kill her daughter’s boyfriend the other night.”

Blake said, “huh?”

“Ya, the kid on the quad,” Roger said.

He sat down at the radio and called Rob. “Rob, has there been any movement from the militia?”

“No, none at all that we’ve seen. They haven’t left the airport at all.”

“Rob, can we meet?”

“Sure, when and where.”

“Your house, I’m on my way. Don’t panic I’m bringing friends.” Haliday called Blake, Randy and Dawn over, “get your gear together, firearms only. Dress warm too. Grab me a welfare bucket, meet me in the pole barn.” He left a list of chores for the rest of them.

They met him in the pole barn. He went over to his Jeep and started it up. This was a 1982 CJ7 with soft top. He had redone the tub on it and fixed the rust. Instead of going with a lift kit, he actually lowered it an inch. He added 200 pounds of skid plating underneath for added weight. This was to lower the center of gravity and help prevent rollovers in fast or tight turns.

Everything else on it worked normally. He added roll cage protection and hand holds. The rear seat was a special touch. It could flip over and face backwards. This vehicle was painted flat black. Everything on it, bumpers, rims, everything. He didn’t have the top and didn’t care to worry about that. Canvas was useless for anything but wind and water protection. He folded the windshield down.

They pulled out onto the road and headed south. He went east at the next road and then north at the next one after that. He did this for the neighbor’s sake. They were at Rob’s in 35 minutes. They pulled in and he angled the Jeep for a quick easy escape. He didn’t expect this to be the case. He walked up to Rob. They shook hands and went into his pole barn where he had set up an office.

Randy stood guard with one of Rob’s sons. The kid was 16 actually, his younger brother was 15. Randy called the younger son over. He pulled the bucket out of the Jeep.

“Go put this in your house. Do not tell anyone about it.”

“Is it going to blow up?” the kid asked.

Randy looked at him funny. The kid had a point. “No, it’s not. It’s for you guys after we leave, but do not tell anyone but your mom and dad.”

In a bid to keep Rob on his side, he had brought him a welfare bucket. He didn’t like the idea, but it was a needed evil. Feed the animals and they won’t go away is what he always said. He needed a couple of pets right now and Rob was footing the bill nicely. He almost felt badly, but after what he did for these guys, it was no big deal. He actually needed Rob more than he let on.

Rob had the wood burner going. It was nice and warm. He had a map of the area up as well. “Nice map Rob, where’d ya get it.”

“My store. I used to sell them to the tourists. Want to buy one?” Roger flipped him off. “Nice to see you too.” Rob said.

“Well, we’re here on business.” He looked at a guy next to Rob. “I don’t think we met. I’m Roger.”

“Everyone calls me Brad?”

“Brad?”

“Ya, it’s Bradley Brady.”

“Ahhhh, the hunting shop owner.”

“Yes, sir. I’m helping Rob out with planning and everything.”

“You have any info on the militia? Anything at all?”

“We have a couple guys watching them at the compound. Writing down everything they do, how many people we think they have, vehicles, the same thing you did basically. The most accurate info we have is a body count. They have 31 adult males, 25 adult females, 10 male teenagers, 12 female teenagers, around eight younger boys and maybe five younger girls. Give or take a few people I think.”

“Damn, 78-80 fight capable people? That sucks, I underestimated their troop strength. One of them is my neighbor’s daughter; the girlfriend of the kid you guys cut loose.” Rob looked down at the table. “Sorry, sore subject, huh?”

“Ya, we should have hung that kid.”

“We had that talk, Rob. Rules of engagement, the law, but it’s a thin line here and hard to interpret. Any more people signed up with you?”

“We have a good 60 we can count on.”

“Not enough though. Not yet.”

“I promised my wife the boys wouldn’t leave the house, though.”

“Fair enough Rob, keep making your rounds and recruiting. Spread the word.”

“What about the prisoners?”

Rob looked at him. “What do you mean?”

“Oh ya, the people in the building next to their barracks or housing units or whatever the hell they call them. We haven’t seen anyone go in there at all. I’ll double-check but I’m pretty certain.”

“Rob, they have prisoners in there. If no one is going in there they are either dead or they aren’t feeding them.”

Rob asked him what they wanted them to do about them.

“Nothing right now. They’ll have to wait it out until you guys get in there.”

“What do you mean ‘get in there?’”

“Rob, you guys will have to go in there.”

Rob said, “We don’t have the people for that, they are just too many.”

Roger looked at him squarely, “You can take half. That’s all you’ll have to do. The other half are going to come gunning for me. So, let’s lay down the plan. It’ll have to be activated at a moment’s notice. You will have to be ready at all times.”

Rob and Brad both looked at him. Brad said, “You’re kidding right?”

Roger said, “No, not at all. Listen, you guys have the advantage.”

Rob asked him, “How the hell do we have the advantage? You’re defending your house; we have to attack an airport.”

Roger spoke calmly and almost condescending. “Exactly my point guys. We are pinned down and you guys have the whole town to run away to. Not to mention, you have that same town to use to your advantage.”

“I just don’t know about this,” said Rob.

Roger leaned back in his chair. “Hell guys, what do you want me to say here? You want me to tell you that this is all going to be hugs and bunnies? We invite them out for smores and hot cocoa? It isn’t going to work that way. Rob, you have to know after watching them gun down Jim that they are going to do whatever they want.”

“That propaganda they are spitting out is a ruse to buy them some time. They are buying themselves time so that they can counterattack. That means me and my group, and you guys too. Don’t think for a minute that they are going to let you all walk away like it was a bad family reunion and they’ll see you next year hoping things changed. They can’t have you guys out there rebelling against them. You want 10 of them knocking on your door?”

“Roger is right Rob, we need to get this handled now before winter sets in or we ain’t gonna make it.” Finally, Roger thought, someone is getting it. “We have about 5 to 6 weeks before it’s too cold to really move around, and plus we have to think about food and water.”

Roger told him, “That’s my point exactly, and they know that too. They’ll let you wait and they’ll let you waste away while you’re waiting.”

Roger stood up and stretched. They had been there for almost four hours. But they covered a lot of information and it was time to go. He had to get back and make sure things were getting done at the house. They all shook hands and wished each other luck. Roger and his group went back to the house and Rob and Brad started making their rounds and getting their plans in order.

When they got back to the house, they saw that everyone was working. He noticed that someone was in the crow’s nest. Looked like it was Kayla. Next to him, she was the best shot out of the group. Ahhhh, best to get that done quickly too, he thought. He would be setting up a small range and conducting some rapid courses on marksmanship, fields of fire and such.

Kevin walked over. “Uncle Roger, the wicked witch of the south came out by the road. She leaned up against her fence and sat there and watched us while she drank coffee. She had to have been out here for a good three hours total. What we would do, though, is block areas with the ranger and smaller utility trailer.” No sooner had he finished telling him that when Roger thought he noticed her standing in the window.

“She knows we’re on to her.”

The grass was long and hid the foot spikes quite well. They had placed them strategically around each of the firing positions. They used them in areas around the wood line as well, anywhere there was a path. The group knew if they ran to the woods not to use the paths. They also knew once they got out of the firing positions, there was a specific route to take. These were meant for close proximity deterrents though.

The concertina wire was unrolled. They placed it around the entryways and windows of all the buildings. The firing positions had been cleared out and prepped as well. Ammo loads were placed in each one. Each position had a person assigned to it and a chart for firing and, more importantly, a final protective fire. If everyone fired at their designated final protective line, in theory the area could not be breached.

It was possible that they could actually get everyone inside and fight from inside if it came down to that. It was not optimal to do that at first and was only considered a last resort. That was why the concertina was placed around the window areas and entryways. Keep people in the line of sight and within firing reach.

Kayla came down from the crow’s nest. “How did it go Dad?”

“As well as it could have gone. I just hope they come through on their end if it comes down to that.”

“You mean ‘when’ Dad, when.”

“Ya, ‘when.’ Kayla, we need to get four ‘five’ gallon buckets of water in the crow’s nest. We can dump them on the roof in case of fire. I also want small buckets of water spread out in the house as well as the fire extinguishers.”

Everyone turned toward the road. Kayla raised her rifle up. Kevin came running with his as well. Randy already had his shotgun ready. Haliday dropped to one knee, raised his rifle up and watched through the scope. The dust pile was growing closer. “Take cover, everyone take cover.” Haliday watched as everyone scrambled. He peered through the scope and then stood up. “Open the gates, open the front gate.”

Diana and Dawn ran over and opened up the gate. This beat up old green Datsun pickup truck turned into the drive. “Go get grandma and grandpa quick.” Kayla ran inside to get them. Roger walked over to the truck. Bev and Rich came out and headed toward the old truck. David came over as well. Bev hugged Alan and the family. They had made it here.

“Damn brother, I never thought I’d see you guys again,” said Alan.

Roger answered, “I’m glad you’re here.”

“Me too. How is everything?” Alan asked.

“Well, ugly ass truck or not, we need the extra trigger men. We have a world of hurt coming down on us any time. That’s what we’re getting ready for. Come on, get inside and rest, let’s catch up, I’ll explain it all,” Roger told him. “Randy, have everyone empty this truck out and get the gear inside. Put the truck in the pole barn.”

Roger asked Alan, “Where did you find that green turd?”

Alan told him the story. “Nancy traded her wedding ring for it. We went over to the auction yard. The owner was there with his son selling all kinds of parts from old cars. This was sitting there along with a few other older cars. I asked him how much he wanted for it. I offered him my Breitling watch, but he said no, He said he’d take Nancy’s ring in trade. She took it off and said ‘If it starts, it’s yours.’ Little starting fluid and it started right up.”

“We went back to the house and grabbed what we could. I opened the safe and grabbed what was in there and then dug out my shotgun and .308. They didn’t find that.”

“Who didn’t find it?” Roger asked.

Alan continued, “The house was broken into and trashed. They even took the Harleys. They didn’t find the safe or guns though, only thing we had hidden the right way. I traded for some gas cans and gas and we drove straight here.”

“How bad is it down there Alan?”

“The place is out of control. People have realized the power isn’t coming on any time soon and the government isn’t coming to help any time soon either. There’s gangs trying to form, but people aren’t putting up with that and shooting them cold as they go around trying to loot and stuff. On the other hand I heard some areas are gang controlled, like the existing city of Detroit gangs.”

Roger had to take the shot at the city; “Oh the city council is in session?” Alan laughed.

“You’re here. You’re safe,. That’s what counts. We have a gang of our own we are dealing with. They call themselves a militia, but that’s not the case. They intend to run the area.” Haliday asked Sarah to get some coffee and snacks ready. She and Karen took care of this. Roger filled them in on what has been happening. “We have eyes on their compound, we have about an hour after we’re told they are moving out before they get here.”

“What can I do to help?”

“Tonight I’m holding a weapons handling crash course. Tomorrow it’s range time and we finish prepping the house and property. The kids will stay in the house ready to dump water on fires or run for ammo. If it gets too bad, they’ll be able to hit the basement with Mom, Dad, Karen and Elizabeth. Everyone else will have to fight. You’ll be in the crow’s nest with your rifle. You hunt a lot, so you’ll be hunting from up there.”

Throughout the evening they ate dinner and made some more preparations throughout the property. Roger went over the firearms with everyone. He made sure they all knew how they functioned and how to use the stripper clips and everything else. He walked outside to take a breather. He looked over at the neighbors. There she was. He waved. She flipped him off.

He responded, “I guess I’m not on your Christmas list this year huh?”

She yelled over at him. “You’re a bastard, you know that.”

“Well, you got to meet my father earlier. How can you say that?”

“You’re a son of a bitch.”

“You met my mom, too?”

“Oh, you’re a real funny man aren’t you? You think I don’t know what you’re doing over there?”

“I don’t care lady. I really don’t. You’re a sellout. You are a sellout to your family, to this community and to this country. You’re pathetic.”

She yelled again. “Well, just you wait smart-ass. In a couple of days, you’ll get yours.” Haliday walked away and went back inside.

Chapter 27

Roger said, “I expect we’ll get hit tomorrow night or the night after. They’ll be stupid if they launch an offensive during the day. The bitch across the street said I’ll get mine in a couple days. So I figure tomorrow night or the night after. Everything is pretty much ready to go. Three people on security watch. One outside on patrol, one in the crow’s nest and one in the house listening to the ham.”

He walked over and called Rob. “Anything new going on over there?”

“Yes sir, they are loading up a deuce and getting some vehicles lined up. They keep checking everything and loading up some equipment and what looks like ammo cans. They have a guard on the convoy now, but doesn’t look like they are moving any time soon, not enough activity, maybe tomorrow.”

Roger said, “Ok, you guys ready?”

“We lost four guys who backed out, but everyone else is ready.”

“Ok, thanks again, Rob.”

Haliday looked around at everyone. Even though they had been through a hell of a lot the past week and a half, they were still very nervous. Even the kids knew something was coming. He could try and give them a pep talk, but decided to just let them be for now. No sense in reminding them of what is coming and what could happen.

He flipped the frequency over and called Mike.

“Hey, it’s Bill here.”

“Hi Bill, let me talk to Mike. I have a few things to tell him.”

“Ok, let me get him.”

“Roger, it’s Mike. What’s going on?”

Roger answered, “Listen, tomorrow night we expect a fight here at my place. If it comes down to it and these guys need to run, I’m sending them your way. I don’t really have a choice.”

“We have a couple of caches around and enough food to get everyone by for quite a while. I’ll have a contingency plan in place and then buy them time to get out if it gets to be that bad. I’ll have Kayla and the older folks grab the kids and get. Take care of them for me if it comes to that, ok?”

“Roger, listen you sound like you’ve given up.”

Roger said, “No, just making sure I have things covered. I’m going to get some rest. Talk to you in the morning.”

Haliday stood up and called everyone over. “Ok people, we’re going over the plans again.” He covered the plans and explained where everyone would be and what was expected of them. He covered the bug out if it came down to that. “I screwed up the endgame here. We might not be in this position if it went down differently. I think I could have done a few things differently. I’m sorry guys.”

Rich spoke up. “Listen Roger, you have nothing to be sorry about. This all came together because of you. We wouldn’t have made it this far without what you’ve done. There’s nothing to be sorry about. Whatever happened to the country happened, and whoever caused that, well it’s their fault, not yours. Those thugs would have made it here anyway in due time and you just reduced the amount of people who could have shown up. We’re all proud of you.” Roger ended the meeting.

Everyone took their turns pulling security. Some slept; some stayed up longer and kept going over the plans. Haliday just kept checking everything and trying to figure out what he could do that would be better. He came up with a few more ideas. He went out into the small storage building and did some work, He worked through the night. The rest he would finish later, he needed a rest.

He walked back into the house where everyone was getting ready to eat breakfast. “You hungry Dad?” Kayla asked.

“No sweetie, I’m going to take a nap for a couple of hours. Ok?” he said.

She said, “ok, we’ll wake you up if anything happens or we need you.” He wandered up the steps and lay down for a bit. He slept away for a couple of hours.

Kayla woke him up. “Dad, can you come downstairs?”

“Sure.” He went to move his legs but they were heavy. He had a cat and the mutant dog Max lying on them. “Ok, time to get up,” he said. They just rolled over and went back to sleep as he got up. Must be nice, he was thinking, just stay in bed all day. He walked downstairs and looked over at the table and smiled. “Damn, you guys didn’t have to.”

Mike and Linda were sitting there. “We couldn’t let you guys have all the fun now could we? We even brought a couple of friends.” He looked over at the common area and saw a young couple sitting there. “That’s Bill’s son Mark and his wife, Lisa.”

He walked over and shook their hands, “Nice to meet you, but you guys didn’t have to do this.”

“Mike thought we might come in handy. Lisa here married me after I proposed to her at Ft. Campbell. I did three years active duty and I am currently inactive reserve. Eleven Bravo sir.”

“It’s Roger, and I was an NCO. Drop the ‘sir’ stuff.”

Mark went on; “I did two tours in the sandbox. Lisa here was our unit admin clerk; still knows how to fire a rifle. We even brought our own. They even have a special feature, full auto. We can go if you want.”

“No, glad to have you here,” Roger replied.

Mark said, “Let’s see what you have?”

He went over the entire plan with everyone again. Mark offered a couple of ideas which made sense now that they had extra manpower. They went over the changes and then he walked everyone around the property.

“Listen, we expect this to go down tonight.”

“Ok, we’ll all be ready,” they answered.

Haliday had everyone double-checking everything, adding extra ammo to the stockpiles, placing thermoses of hot tea by them, canteens of water and hand warmers as well. They were also helping him set the rest up. Dawn and Diana moved the horses over to the other neighbor’s property. They were snow birds and were already down in Florida, so he didn’t think they would care. He staged the vehicles for quick departure.

He had Mark hold the range session and get everyone ready. He checked in now and then. He looked over at the neighbor who was standing there. He made contact first, showed her she was number one. He held that finger high. Randy called him in, “Hey Uncle Roger, come in here quick.” He jogged over to the house to see what Randy wanted.

“What’s going on Randy?”

“Rob is on the radio for you.”

“Ok, thanks,” he said. “Rob, what’s the word?”

Rob answered, “You’re getting hit tonight. These guys are finalizing the vehicle loads and gear, and double-checking everything. I guarantee they are moving out soon. As soon as they move out, I’ll be calling you. We are all in position here near the airport and ready to go ourselves. Good luck Roger.”

“Good luck to you too, Rob.”

This was the calm before the storm. He walked around and hugged everyone and thanked them. Everyone was dressed and ready. They were finding themselves idle things to do in and out of the house. He sat there with his eyes closed and prayed a bit. The ham crackled and he listened. He ran outside and cranked an old fashioned air raid siren, which sent everyone running to their positions.

He wasn’t worried about the neighbor calling it in. She already knew what was coming and he had Kevin sneak over there earlier. Kevin unplugged her whip antenna and connected some power leads to it he triggered a stun gun which popped a chip in her handheld. He then snipped the antenna to double up the effort. The militia relying on her to relay info for the attack was out of the question now.

They had placed all the radios they could out there. If there was a need for retreat, a flag would be raised at the crow’s nest and it would be lit up. He’d also fire a couple of red flares up into the sky. Haliday took off for his position. Everyone’s blood was pumping and it would be less than an hour now. Anticipation coursed through their veins.

“Rob, what do we have coming our way?”

“Roger, you have one motorcycle, and no other ATV’s of any sort at all, scratch that, you have two quads in the back of the deuce. There are also four people in the back of it. There are three pickup trucks, each has two people up front and two in the back. Two Jeeps and a Bronco with four people in each. Thirty-one people total.”

“They all have AR’s; they look pretty standard except for a few oddballs here and there. Lights attached, lasers, scopes, magazines taped together, the works. It looks like a couple have some 308’s in the same configuration. One guy has some big bad ass rifle or something. It looks like a small cannon.”

“The other night they loaded up all the ammo cans and a lot of other gear. Tonight they threw some packs and boxes in the trucks. A couple of guys look like they have night vision goggles. Those old ones you see in the movies, nothing new like you see them wearing today. The cases looked pretty old as well.”

“Wonderful news there Rob, I expected about half. Any idea of the make up of their ranks, as far as males and females?”

Rob gave him a quick rundown of what he thought there was. “Looked like 24 men, and 7 women. A couple of them were teenagers.” Haliday figured these were the neighbor’s daughter and her boyfriend. They were most likely familiar with the area since she lived across the street. Plus he couldn’t forget two fighters across the street as well if both were in on it, but he was thinking she was the only one.

“How about you guys Rob?”

“Oh, we’re ready. We just need to know when to start.”

“I figure about 45 minutes or so,” he said.

“Rob, this is the only chance you have. You guys do what it takes. You won’t have another chance like this again. I hope to be talking to you very soon.”

“You too, Roger.” Mark and everyone else was listening and heard the news.

The militia slowly made their way toward Haliday’s. They knew Haliday was expecting them, but they also knew the layout of his land, the buildings on it and the intel on who was there. They also enjoyed a 2 to 1 advantage for troop strength with Haliday having some older folks in the group and also having to worry about younger children.

The convoy moved along slowly expecting ambush or traps. They would pause at intersections and blind spots to check the areas out thoroughly before they resumed speed. Haliday had hoped the bike would be up front and he had gone and set up a catch wire for it. The deuce led the convoy with an anti-decap bar on the front. It snapped the wire easily.

The next wire was simpler. It pulled out a piece of cardboard between a clothes pin and made a connection which ignited a rocket engine fuse. The fuse burned in a couple of seconds and sent up a hailstorm of fireworks. It was fully dark now, and Haliday spotted them through his spotting scope he had set up. The militia convoy was now about two miles out. They pulled over and dismounted their vehicles. They put up some ramps on the deuce and off-loaded the quads.

Everyone rallied around the deuce now and they went over the plans for their offensive. They realized with the fireworks warning that their attack was expected. The bike and quads moved out first and crept along. They were making sure they did not get caught up in any more wire strung across the roads. The headed off into the woods. The rest of the vehicles split up and went in different directions. The goal was to surround the house and test the defenses for weak points.

The militia man leading the attack spoke. He spit out the usual crap about safety, watching out for your fellow man and all that garbage, but he also told them something else that put things in more perspective as to what they planned and what they were all about. If Haliday heard this, it would have made a lot more sense.

The man said, “We are about to try and stop these people from ruining our plans to make this area a better place to live. They want to ruin our chance to let nature weed out those who are weak. Those who can not contribute to our society. Those who will bring us down. We need to make sure we can conquer anyone who will stop us from prospering.” It was almost like a miniature Bilderberg conspiracy.

They moved in slowly. These guys had made some major mistakes, but this time they were going about it like true professionals. They were moving in slowly, they were spread out, and they had communications amongst everyone, they weren’t taking stupid chances, and they simply had it together so far.

Even if Haliday’s group wanted to leave right now, there was not a single road they could have taken without running into some of the militia. There wasn’t a single side of the house that wasn’t covered by at least five people. There was a fair amount of open land around the property, except for the west side which was heavily wooded and a little too close for comfort. He always wanted to cut it back some, but never did.

The militia carefully moved in closer in some more and then took cover. Haliday’s group was lying in wait. Their breathing was rapid. Their heartbeats were quick. The adrenaline was flowing. The temperature was around 40, but most of them were sweating. They waited and waited some more. The militia was making them sweat it out.

Out in the tree line, a strobe light started to flash. Haliday called Rob, he didn’t waste a lot of breath on words of wisdom or anything, he simply told him “Start your offensive.” The strobe light flashed about 45 times a minute. It was a small strobe head about the size of a quarter mounted in small 1X2 inch housing running off a small 12 volt tractor battery.

This was anchored to a tree about 10 feet off the ground. These were normally mounted in fog light areas, back up lights on police cars, car grilles or almost anywhere. They were pure white light and worked well. Each flash was like a small flash of lightning.

The tree bark splintered followed by the rifle’s report. The bark splintered yet again and then the report. The third shot hit the battery and exploded it. The strobe light fell to the ground with no power. The militia sniper had taken it out. It was hard to hone in on due to the flashing light, but eventually he got it. He was happy, there would be no more light to blind the militias’ night vision goggles, he thought.

The tree line started to blink randomly. These were all angled away from the house to avoid interfering with the sight of Haliday’s group. Pretty soon there were almost 20 of these blinking around the perimeter of the property. If one was taken out they would know where at least one militia member would be, or at least the general area. Hopefully this interfered with the night vision entirely.

A white flare erupted and sailed into the air. Haliday’s group spotted movement, but only shadows on the ground. They were able to locate a couple of the vehicles, but these were too far away to accurately see what was going on. The flare drifted slowly to the ground. A couple of the strobe lights went out.

The militia sniper was surveying the area. His original thought was to take out the blinking lights, but there were simply too many of them. He would expose his position, which he did not want to do. When the flare went off, he spotted Alan up in the crow’s nest. He made his calculations and hugged the Barrett close. He heard the rustling behind him and reached for his pistol. Haliday had come out of his hide. He would have chosen this spot for his own hide; he counted on this man doing the same. He was only 15 feet away from the sniper.

The sniper rolled over in an attempt to protect himself and fire. Haliday had leapt forward and came down on his upper arm with one knee and accidently knocked the Barrett over with his other. He grabbed at the pistol and managed to move the slide back about a quarter of an inch. It didn’t fire. Haliday increased his grip and snapped the pistol around toward the man, nearly tearing his trigger finger off.

The man reached up and grabbed Haliday’s throat and tried to choke him. One of the first things Haliday taught people in his self-defense classes was how to avoid being choked. If you can stop yourself from breathing, you can stop the choking. Haliday did this with an exaggerated cough and stopped breathing. He managed to free the pistol from the man’s grip and tossed it aside.

The man let go of Haliday’s throat and punched Haliday in the side of the rib cage. The area was tender and the previously broken ribs had not yet mended. Haliday gasped for air. He had given Kayla his vest so he had no protection. There came another punch and Haliday went over. The man rolled and went to choke him again. Haliday pulled him in close in a bear hug and then brought his right arm up, quickly sinking his knife into the base of the man’s neck, severing his spine. Haliday blacked out for a brief minute. He opened his eyes to the sound of gunfire.

Chapter 28

The security at the airport was heavier than normal. Rob had spread the word and they did what they could to coordinate the strike. The hunters within the group had taken up residence on the rooftops of the neighboring buildings as far away as they dared to go depending on their skill. Some of them found other places to hide. Haliday had also warned them about the sniper on the roof.

Down toward the south end of the airport, one townsman crawled up to the fence. He had previously spotted the end of a fence section and he started clipping the wire that held it to the pole. He had finished clipping by the pole, then started working along the top. He spotted a militia quad heading his way. The militia rider fired awkwardly with one hand toward the man as the man ran back to the tree line.

Once he reached the tree line, he grabbed his rifle and fired toward the quad. The rider skidded to a stop and jumped off. He leaned over the seat and fired a couple of bursts. Before he knew it the rider was facing the return fire from two shotguns and an SKS. He was using the quad as a shield. Two of the tires went flat and the gas tank was ruptured.

The guy by the quad reached up and tried to start it, but didn’t have any luck. He called for help on his radio. He aimed his rifle over the seat and would fire a few bursts in the direction of the woods. He looked back toward the compound and saw a side by side four wheeler coming up. One guy was standing in the back and firing. He had rigged up a harness to keep himself steady.

The militia man heard his partners yelling at him, “Get in. Get in.” He jumped up and ran over to the four wheeler and jumped in; it took off before he actually landed in the seat. The man in the back spun around as it left and laid down some more suppressing fire. The four wheeler shot toward the other side of the compound to get away from the townsmen and their fire.

They were passing a small wooded area when a blaze of rounds opened up from their left. The man in the back went down and dangled from his harness as the driver swerved to avoid the gunfire. The driver took a hit to the arm and floored it. The passenger they picked up was able to avoid getting hit. The four wheeler made its way quickly back toward the admin building.

The militia men cut the harness and lowered the man down. He was already dead. He had been hit four times total. One shot pierced a lung, one his spleen and another his stomach, with the final round severing his femoral artery. He had passed out and then bled out all within two minutes. The driver had a shattered forearm. He was taken inside and his friend was taken to an empty hangar, where they had set up a morgue of sorts until they could bury the men from the marina and the track fire.

Two townsmen ran back out to finish cutting the fence open. They had started to snip the wires again when another shot rang out. One man fell backwards and the other one grabbed his arms and started to pull him back toward the woods. Another shot rang out and the man was hit again. The militia sniper had made it up to his rooftop and went to work. The man was already dead when his friend dragged him into the woods.

The sniper had them scared. After Haliday had blown the guy’s foot off they went on the roof and fortified the position with more sandbags. Nobody could really see him now and they didn’t quite have the range to effectively reach him anyway. The man up there now wasn’t one of the two snipers the militia originally had, but he had been training to become their third. He was still a damn good shot.

Across from the main gate there was a small car repair shop. To the west of that were a couple of small houses and a clump of trees by the road. Rob and a couple of other guys had rigged up a huge redneck style slingshot behind the trees using rubber tubing. They filled a bunch of quart jars with gas and shot them toward the front gate and then sent over some flaming bottles.

The militia had set up two “U” shaped sand bag emplacements on each side of the gate. As soon as the gas started to hit they ran toward the row of cars behind them to use the defensive positions they had set up there. The sand bags were burning and causing the walls to falter as sand fell out of them.

The two guys had about 50 feet to make it to the row of cars. They had both run for fear of catching fire and burning like the people in the track had done. From the darkened window of the repair shop came an unnoticeable twang of a bow. The arrow hit one man right in the back and he stumbled forward, fell and crawled toward safety.

His partner just left him there to make it back on his own. The sniper looked around. He had concentrated on trying to find the guys firing the Molotov cocktails and without a muzzle flash he didn’t know where the shot came from. He assumed it was a suppressed weapon. It was too dark for him to see the arrow in his friends back.

The man hit by the arrow made it toward the row of cars and crawled behind them. The sniper continued to scan the area, but could not find the gunman. The fires were still burning and had turned the emplacements into piles of sand. The plastic type surplus sand bags weren’t such a good deal after all. The militia would be foolish to try and use these barricades again.

The archer inside the auto shop pulled out an arrow. The arrow had a card board tube on the shaft which was filled with black powder and finishing nails. He had taken care to balance it as much as possible and glued it to the shaft. The fuse was taken off some fireworks he had lying around. He drew back and another man lit the fuse. He released the arrow and sent it over the cars. They heard the arrow explode but it sounded like more of an M80 than a bomb.

This gave away their position and they headed toward the back of the shop. The sniper put a couple rounds through the front windows just for the sake of doing so. The arrow was not effective enough to do any damage. Just a few small nicks from the nails. They had hoped it would have a more profound effect than it did. No such luck. It was a wasted effort. They felt stupid for trying it instead of just using regular arrows and firing from the dark window.

Rob took a plastic ball that his wife had used in the washer for fabric softener and he packed this with BB’s and gun powder. The hole was sealed with wax with a fuse attached. They lit this and used the slingshot to launch it toward the building. It landed just behind the cars out front and exploded sending BB’s everywhere. This was far more effective. The two front windows of the building shattered and one of the militia got hit in the face, losing an eye and embedding another BB in his chin. People always looked too long at objects thrown at them instead of taking cover and this guy found that out the hard way.

The lower windows had been covered with wood, but a smaller upper window shattered. Not much building damage, but at least they had made a statement. The townsmen concentrated coverage toward the front of the building. The main problem was the sniper on the roof. They couldn’t really advance while this guy was up there. They would have to figure out how to get him down.

A woman came out of the back door of the admin building with two men. The men fired wildly toward the street providing cover fire as she ran toward the motor pool. She had her rifle slung on her back and keys in her hand. From a distance of 150 yards away and from another small building across the street came another shot dropping one of the men.

The round struck him at the base of his nose. His AR fired as he fell. Blood trickled out of his ears and nose as he lay motionless on the ground. The remaining man fired toward the building on full auto, burning through magazines. The sniper looked, but didn’t see anything; he had a lot of ground to try and cover. They were calling the attack in to their patrol group at Haliday’s, who were engaged in their own assault. Both groups were on their own.

The townsmen were slow and methodical in their fire. They didn’t want to waste the ammo they had and didn’t want to give away their positions to the militia. The wide open spaces around the airport made it hard to get close. They were also playing it as safe as they could. They knew this was serious, but didn’t know how serious it really was. They heard a truck start in the motor pool.

* * *

Haliday shook it off and rolled over. He looked over toward the house. From within the property and the surrounding area he watched occasional patches of muzzle flashes. He was quickly trying to get a fix on where most of the action was taking place. It was sporadic; there was no sustained attack on any one part of the property.

He checked the militia man and found his radio. He unplugged the man’s earpiece and listened for a few seconds. It was all static and he could hardly make anything out. During the struggle, the antenna had been broken near its base and the reception was poor at best. He kept it close regardless. Anything he heard would be better than nothing.

He looked over at the Barrett, grabbed it and set it back up on the bi-pod. He looked through the scope for a target. Off in the woods he spotted one of the quads. He took aim and readied himself for the shot. He squeezed the trigger and watched the round. Aw crap, he said. He missed it, he was mad at himself. He had wanted to check the zero on the scope and the quad was the only readily visible target.

He looked at the scope; it had to be off just a bit. He had knocked it pretty good with his knee and it was just enough to take it off zero. The rifle set up this guy had was probably 12-15 grand when he purchased it and he couldn’t believe how the scope reacted to the hit it took. He didn’t have time to play with it. What was maybe a sixteenth of an inch on the scope base could equate to a couple of feet at 700-800 yards where the round would impact.

He couldn’t afford to use it. He needed accuracy and reliability, the system that he knew well. He ran about 20 feet away and brushed aside a pile of leaves and some loose branches and pulled out his M24. He ran back to the Barrett’s location and set up his own rifle. He scanned the area for another target.

Over by the woods, they would need the most help. He listened on his radio, but didn’t hear much traffic. The militia was still probing right now. They would advance or fire and then watch where the return fire came from. He kept scanning the area because someone would have to show themselves eventually.

A little more than half of the strobes were still working. He concentrated near the darker spots. He caught a glimpse of muzzle flash and started working on finding the person behind the gun. He’d have killed for a night vision scope. The illuminated reticle on his at night was only good for making sure you were centered over your target, but that was only if you could clearly see your target.

Alan wasn’t having any luck either. He was staying low and using one of Roger’s homemade periscopes to try and find some movement. Once he was able to locate someone, he would then try and fire on them. To just sit there exposed while he hunted for a shot was asking for more trouble than he wanted.

Alan looked down the street and spotted movement along the ditch. It was about 250 yards out. He took a deep breath and lifted his rifle into position using the notch as his protection and the wall as his bipod. The figure started to cross over from one side of the road to the other. He fired the round and ducked back down.

The round dropped more than he expected and entered the woman’s left shoulder. The round caught her off guard and she dropped to the asphalt and started to work her way to the ditch. Another militia member ran over and provided suppressing fire toward the crow’s nest. Haliday changed his own angle of aim.

The lady was toward the edge of the asphalt near the gravel shoulder of the road. The man continued to cover her by firing three and four round bursts. The muzzle flashes lit him up perfectly. Haliday fired and the round went through the man’s left chest area and came out through his right rear shoulder blade, hitting his aorta as well.

The woman sat up slightly and called toward the downed man. She crawled back over to him to check his injuries. Once she realized he was dead, she tried to crawl back toward the ditch. Alan watched this and popped back up put another round into her, hitting her leg. The woman now laid there. She had been hit twice and was calling on her radio for help.

Haliday just heard the crackle of the radio and a word or two. Road and help was all he could make out. He called Alan on the radio. “Be careful, but keep an eye on that woman. They might be coming to get her. You let me know if you see anything. We might be able to coordinate something.”

“Ok, Roger, what about the woods though?”

“I’ll watch those for right now.”

Roger called Mark next. “Mark, we have them moving in closer over in the wood line. You over there at all?”

“Ya, I have a spot next to Lisa and Kayla, who are in the fighting positions. We can’t really see anyone yet. They are holding off at quite a distance. All we’re getting are probing shots. I only have half our guys over here firing back to help keep up a level of surprise.”

Haliday heard a light thump followed by four more. He looked over at the street and saw smoke rising around the woman. The militia used their launchers and put smoke down on the road to attempt retrieval. They had a Jeep speeding in toward the location of the wounded woman.

The crow’s nest started to take more suppressing fire and Alan dropped down to the loft floor. He ran over to the middle of the cabin. Earlier he had removed a Velcro cover and piece of insulation. This revealed a one foot by one foot tin roof vent that he raised up. He would be able to avoid the shots at the crow’s nest, but still help fire along this side of the house to help out. He picked up an AR resting there.

Out past the woman, two rifles had started the barrage in order to provide cover for this Jeep. It was coming in completely dark, not a single light on. Mike was over on this side of the house and he launched a flare into the sky above the road. The smoke was illuminated and looked eerie. The Jeep laid on the brakes momentarily, then it continued on. NVG’s, Haliday thought, the flare ruined it. The driver had to stop and take them off.

The suppressing fire continued. They fired between the crow’s nest and Mike’s fighting position. Mike couldn’t get his head up to take any shots. Suddenly the wood line on the other side of the house erupted in gunfire. Mark ordered them all to return fire. Shots were being fired from both Haliday’s group and the militia regularly now.

Across from the neighbor’s house came even more fire. Kevin, Dawn and Diana returned fire striking the house and surrounding landscaping. Kevin swept the shrubs and trees from side to side anywhere from six inches to a foot off the ground. Dawn swept the areas from 2 to 3 feet off the ground and Diana sprayed the house and took aim at areas she saw muzzle flashes.

Haliday was ready to go and sought out the targets. He had taken over the hide after the militia sniper had fired in order to utilize it against the aggressors. None of them really knew what happened and with all the action they thought their own man was still over there covering their movement. Haliday put an occasional shot into a safe zone for just that effect.

* * *

The woman reached the motor pool area and ran inside. She opened the door and started the deuce that they had armored the side of. She moved it out and her first stop was by the downed militia member who had given her cover. The other militia man ducked beside the deuce and it inched its way toward the admin building as he dragged the downed man over there.

He laid the body along the side of the admin building. A few more people came out of the admin center. They climbed up into the back of the deuce and hunkered down low behind the plate metal. The deuce headed off toward the other buildings. It would pause and someone would get down and into a defensive position.

The positions the militia had set up had included sand bag emplacements, some short metal walls angled at 45 degree angles and placed near the corner of buildings and some cinder blocks that had been stacked two deep and filled with sand. They used whatever was found at the airport prior to the EMP strike.

The deuce made another trip and loaded up some more people. The townspeople could only take an occasional pot shot, but didn’t hit anyone. The group here at the airport was definitely the safest. The townspeople would have to regroup and figure out another plan of attack. The deuce delivered more militia to their positions.

They had twenty people dedicated to fighting positions around the buildings. The sniper on the roof would help extend their reach. The outlying areas of the airport they would have to leave alone for now. It was all open space and runway, so there were no buildings or supplies to defend. The rest of the militia was there to respond where needed and to help coordinate.

Rob was talking with Brad. They had to get this under control much faster. Right now it was simply a standstill with both sides waiting for the other to make a move. Rob asked Brad what he thought. “We’re screwed with that man on top of that admin building. We have to flush him out somehow. The distance we’re at is killing us.”

One of Rob’s group had positioned himself up on the feed store’s roof where he had seen Haliday fire from a couple of days earlier. He took aim at the militia sniper’s position and fired a shot. The shot dropped far too low. The man’s rifle was underpowered. He raised his rifle to adjust the aiming point and fired again to try and flush the man out.

The militia sniper was aware of this position and dialed in his scope. He had invested in an ATN gen three scope and looking at the man on the feed store roof was not a problem at all. He fired his round and struck the man on the feed store roof in the top of the shoulder. The round travelled through his upper body cavity. The man tumbled down off the roof and fell to the pavement.

Brad asked Rob who the best shot was. Rob told him it was Tom. The guy had a knack for hunting. Go get him. Rob jumped in the four wheeler and went and got Tom. When he got back, Brad pointed to the map. He said, “Tom, you think you can climb a tree over in this clump here and get the bastard on the roof of their HQ?”

Tom looked over the map and looked at the scale. “It’ll be hard. I won’t lie, but I might be able to do it.”

Brad looked at Rob, “Can we get him there?”

Rob said, “Sure, give us about 20 minutes.”

“Ok, you get there, and then get Tom up in that tree.” He told Tom to wait for the signal.

“What is the signal going to be?” he responded.

“It’s going to be like the Fourth of July. When the fireworks start, you try and get that guy.”

“Rob, after you take Tom there, go around and get these guys ready. Tell them to launch on my signal. I’ll pop a flare, and once they start, it’s Toms ball game. Anyone else who can get a shot in should take it.” Rob and Tom got back on the four wheeler. Rob drove down a ways and cut back up through the same path Haliday used to ambush the track.

They came across the track and both Rob and Tom just looked at it. It gave them shivers to think about the people sitting in that thing burning. The stench of burnt rotting flesh was pungent. The militia had not been able to get the bodies out of the track. They both looked at each other then looked up toward the trees in panic, but nothing was there.

Rob had to back up the four wheeler and find another route. The track blocked the path and he couldn’t get past the trees in the woods. They hurried up, and they were cutting it close. They had to make sure Brad didn’t start early. Rob skirted the woods and passed along a brick and block company. Those would have been useful to build some blockades, he thought.

He turned the lights off on the four wheeler and they crossed the road. They parked and got out and headed toward the clump of trees. As they passed the house, Rob saw people looking out the windows. He told them to get in the basement. The people just watched. Rob told Tom, “Some people think this is a game, and they just want to watch. Like it’s a giant Xbox or Playstation.”

Rob gave Tom a boost and he started climbing the tree. He kept looking over at the roof, half expecting to get hit. He climbed as high as he could get and braced himself. He could barely make out the militia sniper. He watched and waited for movement. This was not going to be easy.

The militia was talking back and forth as they tried to identify where the aggressors were. The flare went off and arced over the airport building then came down without incident. In a matter of minutes, several large fireworks started going. Michigan had just come around to allowing the good stuff to be sold, and as with any state that sells them, they were abundant in tourist traps.

As the fireworks were dancing in the sky several more flares were launched toward the buildings and mainly toward the admin building. Numerous fire work tubes were aimed at the buildings as well. The militia almost laughed at the attack; however, the admin building was getting pelted consistently. One lucky shot made it into the militia snipers position and he moved to avoid it.

Tom took this opportunity along with two more townspeople and started firing. Fifteen shots had been fired rapidly toward the sniper. He laid up on the roof as blood ran down from the rooftop. The militia positions returned fire toward the riflemen but were taking hits themselves from almost 30 different people. The sniper threat had been removed but at the cost of one more of Rob’s group dead and two injured.

Tom scrambled down the tree amidst the fire. He fell the last seven feet and came down on his ankle, snapping it. Two townspeople assigned to regular posts here provided enough fire so Rob could get Tom out of there. He took Tom back to the four wheeler and drove him over to the tooling shop they had started to use as their meeting area. They had a nurse there and she would do what she could. They were not able to convince any doctors to get involved yet.

Rob went back and met with Brad again. With the sniper gone now, they would make some moves to get closer. They thought of every possible contingency. Getting into the compound would be vital to eliminating as many of the militia as they could. Rob wondered how Haliday was doing.

Chapter 29

The Jeep stopped about 10 feet from the woman. Two guys jumped out and ran over to her. They each grabbed a side of her and got her to her feet and were taking her to the Jeep. She couldn’t move well and they struggled moving her. She was insisting they take the man’s body with them. The man down turned out to be her husband.

The driver of the Jeep was yelling at them to hurry. They had to get out of there quickly. The smoke was practically gone. He put it in reverse and continued to yell at them to rush. As he waited for them he fired his own rifle into the house and at the landscaping areas around it. He was panicking; this rescue was taking far too long.

The driver was firing only toward the house now thinking people were at the windows. Blake, Mike and Kevin were returning fire along with Alan, who was firing from the second floor portal. There were Three more militia groups firing at the house from this side. The Jeep driver stopped firing and popped a can of smoke and tossed it in front of him hoping this would help continue to blind them.

Alan was taking aim into the center of the smoke when a round came in grazing his cheek and splintered the wood next to him causing bits of wood to fly. He backed away and put the rifle down. He grabbed a pouch from his pocket and tore it open and held it to the massive gash which had gone almost gone completely through his cheek.

He called downstairs for help. Bev came up the steps with a bag. She took the quick clot off his cheek and squeezed the gash together. She placed a few butterfly band aids over it and then taped another bandage over it. Right now this was going to be the best that he was going to get.

Haliday fired, striking the Jeeps’ driver in the back of his head. The round penetrated the windshield as well. The driver fell limp and the Jeep slowly rolled in reverse as the militia members were trying to get the woman into the side of the Jeep. They dropped down and crawled toward the vehicle in the ditch. They weren’t sure where the round came from.

The woman started to crawl that way as well, but was having a hard time. She was pleading for help. There wasn’t going to be any. The men who attempted her rescue were concerned with getting out of the area and getting to a safer location, so they let her lie there. They actually considered whether or not to try to get in the Jeep.

Across the street by an empty house Kayla saw some movement and called it out. Mark, David and Lisa along with Kayla kept an eye out over there. The angle was difficult for Kayla and she was trying to keep an eye on the woods. She yelled over to Mark and told him they needed help on the west side wood line.

Mark called Alan, who went over to the other side of the house and opened that portal. His cheek was still stinging like crazy. He eyed the woods and looked for the militia. They had really started shooting down the strobes now. Only a couple of them had NVG’s but even that gave them an advantage. The depth perception and detail lacked severely because they were early generation one NVG’s so they were mostly for movement or observation.

Mark called out more movement by the empty house Kayla had pointed out and confirmed it was militia. He fired single shots in that direction. Lisa and David waited as he did this. As soon as they saw the first flash they opened up on that location. They each fired around 15 rounds. Around 15 feet away from that area, another militia member returned fire, emptying a full clip toward them. There were at least two militia members by this house.

The woods to the west was getting fairly full with militia members as they shifted people to this area. This was the most vulnerable side of the house. Kayla, Linda and Nancy had their work cut out for them. It was very dark and they couldn’t make out anybody. They saw an occasional muzzle flash, but nothing in the same spot twice. Alan couldn’t find anyone either. He called Roger and told him the problem.

Karen had Elizabeth and Theresa down in the basement of the house along with the cats and mutant dog. Her job was strictly to keep them as safe as possible. She had a pistol and five magazines with her. If they called on her, she could respond if she needed to. She was also ready to usher them to a vehicle in case of a bug out situation..

Rich had Matthew and Bobby ready to douse any fires in the house. Bev was ready with first aid supplies for whoever could make it back to the house. Trying to use the house as their sole cover wasn’t exactly tactically sound, but it had been set up for a strong defense. They did have a few more tricks ready though. When the time came, they could use them.

The Jeep from the rescue had stalled out, and was now just sitting there in reverse in the ditch. The militia men decided to make their way toward their sniper. They called him so he could cover their retreat. Haliday heard the static and picked out a few words, hide, cover and retreat. He clicked the transmit button, but didn’t speak. All the militia men heard back was crackling.

They headed out at a crawl toward Haliday. Haliday could not see them well, but knew they were heading his way. He shot over their heads and toward a safe zone. He fired almost 10 rounds providing “cover” for them. Randy, Sarah and Blake had returned fire toward him. Haliday called, “Mike, tell them to stop. It’s me. I’m not firing at them.” Mike called over to Blake and told him to pass the word. They couldn’t quite reach him but he didn’t care. Now that they stopped, it really appeared that he was safely covering the militia.

They understood now, but they didn’t know any better when they had fired. They now focused on other militia firing toward them. The two men from the Jeep kept up their retreat. The men were about 150 yards away from Roger now. They just kept coming. Haliday watched them carefully. Come and get your cheese you rats, he was thinking.

Lisa called over to Mark about the two people by the empty house, “I think they’re coming over the road.” Mark was scanning back and forth. Lisa told Mark, “By the ditch. By the ditch.” One of the militia got up and sprinted toward the ditch. He dove down into it under a hail of gunfire. He raised his rifle and fired while the other person ran to the ditch as well.

There was one more militia at this house now who moved in to that location and who helped provide cover. He started to fire and the woods on the west side lit up at the same time. The two militia men were able to make it across the street into the ditch during the diversion. They were now closer to the house and a mere 100 feet from Lisa and Mark. The two militia lay in the ditch waiting to make their move.

* * *

Rob looked over at Brad. “Brad, we need to get into this compound. We need to get through that fence.”

Brad said, “I agree, but it’s not like we can just plow our way in there.”

“Actually we can,” said Rob, “over by the brick and block company is an old front loader, let’s go see if it runs.” They took off to check it out.

The militia had them outgunned as far as type of rifle, but neither had an edge. The townspeople would fire a shot or two from their rifles and the militia response was usually 2 or 3 rounds or a short burst if they had a full auto rifle. Few more than half had converted their rifles to full auto. For a group that was breaking many laws, it was surprising they didn’t all have full autos.

Word had spread that the sniper had been taken out and some of the guys now sought higher ground. A few used tree stands, but had them on the back sides of the trees in order to use the tree as cover. A couple hit the closer rooftops in hopes of being able to get a better line of sight.

A few of the guys got bored and they commenced to shoot out every piece of glass they could on the admin building, regardless of the windows being boarded up. The upper windows weren’t boarded up and they shot these out as well. Heat rises and they would either get colder or use more of their energy heating the place.

Rob and Brad made it to the brick company. They climbed up on the old front loader and climbed up in the cab. They searched for a key but couldn’t find it. Rob went over to the office and tried the door, but it was locked. He went around and tried the back door, but it too was locked. Brad said, “Now what?” Rob picked up a brick and broke the window out of the back door. They went inside to look for the key.

Hanging on a wall by the shop door was a bunch of keys. Rob looked at the tags and found one that said loader. He grabbed it and they went back outside to the front loader. He climbed back up into the cab and put the key in the ignition and turned the switch. The engine cranked, but very slowly.

Brad called up to him and told him the batteries must be low. They went back into the shop and looked around. They couldn’t find any jumper cables or anything. Brad grabbed a fire ax and walked over to a piece of conduit and chopped at it. He followed it along the base of the wall about 10 feet and then swung again. He had Rob hold the pipe and he pulled the wire out. Homemade jumper cables.

They connected them to the battery of the four wheeler and then the batteries on the front loader. Rob climbed up into the cab once again and tried. The motor turned over, but still didn’t start. Brad revved the engine on the four wheeler and Rob tried to start it. The engine finally caught and a plume of black smoke came out of the muffler. Brad gave Rob a thumbs up and then took the wires off the batteries.

Over toward the southwest corner of the airport, one of the militia called for a status check. He was told everyone was in position defending the compound. He asked how the other group was doing and he was told that they didn’t know yet. The only information they had exchanged so far was that they were engaged in firefights.

This was a younger man in his early twenties. His parents had volunteered to go on the assault mission and he was asked to stay. Now he was wondering if he should have gone on the mission too. He started to get antsy and moved back and forth. It had been a few hours now and his mind wandered. The HQ asked if anyone needed any ammo. One guy asked for something to drink and HQ told them critical runs only would be made.

Brad and Rob didn’t know if the fuel gauge worked or not so they found a can and transferred some diesel from the large 500 gallon fuel tank to the loader. When they had it filled, Rob went over and picked up a pallet of bricks. The company had taken the bucket off and had been using large pallet forks. Brad placed a loose board on top of the forks behind the pallet of bricks.

Rob headed for the south end of the airport. When they got toward the fence line he paused and Brad ducked over to the woods, where two more guys were waiting. He asked them if they were ok with taking a ride and entering the compound. Both agreed and they all ran back toward the loader. Rob plowed over the fence where it was hanging low from being clipped. He got as close as he could.

The militia was firing on the loader. Rob knew that as soon as he put the pallet of bricks down he would have to take off. Brad jumped up next to the cab and he lowered the pallet and backed off. The two guys behind the pallet and Brad all fired as Rob retreated. A few rounds hit the cab but no one got hit. The two guys that stayed with the bricks started hollowing out a small area of the pallet. They piled up the ones they removed and placed them on the sides of the pallet to widen their protection.

Rob and Brad went to the brick company and picked up another pallet of bricks. Rob told Brad to meet him near the west side of the airport with the four wheeler. Rob drove the bricks through the gap in the fence again and headed toward the west fence. As soon as he dropped the load he drove toward the west fence line. Even with cover fire, the loader was taking hits. It started to slow down and Rob headed straight for the west fence.

The loader stalled out as he rammed through one of the poles and barely made it across the fence. It had overheated and shut down. The cooling system was toasted. They had two men inside the perimeter, two positions of cover and two breaches of the fence now. They would need to get more people in. If they could control at least the south side, they could start chipping away at them more heavily.

At the southwest corner was the younger militia guy. He had helped provide fire toward Rob. The breaches got him to thinking some more. This was serious and they had run into some real opposition. He kept wondering about his parents. He asked the HQ to call for an update. He was told no, there was too much going on. He was thinking something was wrong. Fifteen minutes later, he called for ammunition and told them he was low and used a lot during the last breach.

Rob had made it to Brad and they met up with a few guys in the woods who had taken out the gunner earlier. They sat there and watched the deuce come creeping up. The deuce stopped by the guy who had called in for ammo. Rob and the guys watched closely. The deuc’es armored side was facing them. They spread out and tried to get a better look.

The guy was arguing with the driver, he wanted to go back to the admin building and was told that he could not. He pushed his way past the driver and told the driver to stay there in his place. The driver reached out and grabbed him trying to tell him he had to stay. The guy pushed him off and he stumbled from behind the deuce where he was met with multiple rounds.

The guy watched the driver die and he panicked himself. He got behind the wheel of the deuce and tried to take off. He wasn’t used to the clutch and it was hard for him. The townspeople opened up on the back of the deuce. The guy jammed it in gear and took off. He drove right over to the admin building and climbed out. He took several rounds from Rob’s men across the street. In his haste he left the area between the deuce and the admin building wide open and that’s where he was. Rob’s group had now started taking a toll, but not fast enough.

Rob called Haliday. Haliday told him he was busy, he needed a few minutes. He would have to call him back. He told him to hold on for a few minutes if possible. Rob let it go at that, he knew Haliday was deep in a fight. Haliday waited where he was. Just a few more moments was all he needed. Just a few more moments.

Haliday was watching carefully. He heard the militia’s radio crackle again. He just laid there and watched. The two approaching men stopped and dropped. Haliday knew it was their sniper they were calling and the lack of an answer a second time clued them in to a problem. They were at a loss as to what to do. They thought they were moving toward safety.

Before they had time to run Roger fired the first round into the militia man striking the man through his left eye. His patrol cap came off along with some bits of brain matter. The second man rolled over a couple of times and then fired at Haliday. Haliday fired rapidly with the remaining four rounds in his rifle.

He struck the militia man’s rifle in the upper receiver, rendering it useless and managed to hit the man in the ass as well, but it was not bad enough to render the man neutral. The man was struggling with something that Haliday couldn’t see. Haliday wasn’t going to wait; his location and deception had been discovered.

Haliday drew his pistol and initiated slow sustained fire as he rose up and then moved for cover deeper into the woods. Haliday heard shots and ducked down. He crawled over to where he had set his AR. He slung his M24 on his back and grabbed the AR. He heard rounds striking the trees around him. He called for help and tried to explain his location so he wasn’t hit by friendly fire.

Kayla, Linda, Alan and Nancy were trying to cover the woods. It was dark and the militia was well protected by the trees and lack of light. The militia had the advantage here. They were using this advantage to keep the women in their fighting positions. The militia in the woods, over at the neighbors’ and the other house across the street all started to fire at once.

Kevin, Diana and Dawn returned fire as best they could. Dirt was flying all around them and they kept having to duck debris as the militia fire searched them out. The neighbor had pretty much filled the militia in on everything they needed to know. Kevin was convinced she used to walk the property when Haliday wasn’t up here. Who knows what she actually knew.

The people in the woods crept closer yet. Alan was searching for a target frantically. He didn’t want to fire until he had acquired a target in order to avoid them being able to pinpoint his location. Kayla, Linda and Nancy would fire three round bursts and duck. They were starting to lose ground.

The militia member by the empty neighbor’s house continued to fire. All of a sudden two cans of smoke were tossed toward David, Lisa and Mark. Alan swung his rifle that direction. It was dark and the smoke clouded the area heavily. He scanned back and forth over a distance almost 50 yards wide.

Kevin yelled over to Diana to hit the west corner of the house. He told Dawn to do the same thing. As soon as they saw a muzzle flash, they each burned through their magazines. The man hiding behind the corner of the house was shredded. With almost 70 rounds striking within a 7X7 foot area and piercing the vinyl siding and insulation, it was almost like a Claymore had gone off. He was struck almost eight times by 5.56 armor piercing rounds.

Randy, Sarah, Mike and Blake fired toward the activity in the woods near Haliday. Haliday started crawling like crazy to get deeper into the woods. The militia man firing on him now had more than just Haliday to worry about. Haliday was managing to use that edge and gained some more ground. He rolled over and popped a smoke grenade in the 37mm and fired it toward him. He popped one more and fired it behind him.

Inside the house they could hear the stray rounds hitting the cabin. Rich had everyone hiding low so the armored lower half would keep them safe. He sent Bobby and Matthew downstairs to stay and told them to send Karen up. He called Bev over. “The woods are a big problem. We need to see about helping them out.”

One of the side windows had been broken out. He grabbed a broom and knocked the glass out. He tossed a folded wool blanket over the broken glass on the floor. Karen came up the stairs, “What do you need me to do?”

“You and Bev go open that window. You’ll have to fire into the woods. I’ll use this window.”

Alan caught movement toward his left. The first man appeared through the smoke with the second man appearing about 25 feet to the right of the first one. These guys were heading straight for Mark and Lisa’s positions. They were within 50 feet and rushing as fast as they could and firing blindly.

Alan opened up on the second man who was actually closer to him. Mark fired on him as well and then spun to fire at the first man who was almost on top of Lisa’s position. Lisa had been reloading her rifle and couldn’t aim it in time. David had raised himself to one knee so he could fire on the man.

The man continued forward and he stepped on one of the foot traps. The three inch spike pierced his heel and went deep inside his ankle. He tried to shake the spike strip off and he stumbled and started to trip. The rubber sole of his boot kept it in place. David hit him once and the guy half fell into Lisa’s hole. His momentum had overcome his ability to stop and control his fire as well. She couldn’t get out and felt the man struggling. Now he was struggling to free himself from the hole.

Haliday called Mike and told him to fire into the smoke only. Randy, Sarah, Blake and Mike did as they were told. The militia man hugged the ground and took cover. Haliday crawled another 20 feet and then shot up and ran into the woods. He angled himself and headed northwest. He stopped for a moment to catch his breath. That was very close, he thought.

Haliday had a problem now. He was literally behind enemy lines. He took a moment to gather his wits. He surveyed the scene from his location. He saw the firefight between the woods and the house. He had no idea if anyone had gotten injured or killed or what the count was on the militia side either. He had about a second to make a decision.

As David had fired on the man, the last militia member by the empty house fired toward David. David was partially in the haze of the dissipating smoke now and the militia member saw this. David took a hit to his thigh. He laid down prone and dragged himself back to his landscape wall for cover.

Mark fired on the struggling man in Lisa’s hole and the man went limp. “Lisa, are you ok?” Lisa answered back that she was ok. “I’ll try to help you,” he said.

“No, don’t move. I think they got David. You might get hit too. I’ll be ok, I can handle this.” The dead man was about 210 pounds and halfway in her hole. She struggled. but was able to get his body out of the hole.

The militia on the south side of the property was still firing, but not as heavily as before. David was wrapping a bandage around his thigh. He tied it snuggly. He couldn’t crawl back to the house; he would expose himself doing so. He would ride it out and provide as much support as he could.

Kevin, Diana and Dawn kept them at bay. It was now pretty much a stalemate on this end. The east was so wide open that the militia didn’t dare try to use it. Early on, they learned that lesson with their casualties and the Jeep. The north side was still a problem, but the biggest problem was the woods on the west side of the house.

Mark, Kayla, Alan and Nancy needed help. Mark called in to Alan. “Alan, can you get up into the crow’s nest?”

Alan said “Ya, I’ll let you know when I get up there. You want me to use the .308?”

“No,” Mark said, “Take the AR and as much ammo as you can.”

“Ok, I’m on my way.” Alan made his way to the crow’s nest.

Haliday made his decision. He would try to get to the west to help. He started slowly working his way there. He called Mark and told him his plan. Mark told him it would work with only the right execution.

“Listen, Mark,” he said, “it’s going to be your call, on your command. I won’t be close enough to tell when it’s time.”

“I’ll have Randy, Sarah and Blake cover the north. Maybe Mike can get over there.”

“Rob, this is Roger.”

“Go ahead, Roger.”

“Look Rob, we’re deep in this. We have casualties on both sides and we are getting ready to get hammered with a big offensive. How you guys doing?”

“It’s a stalemate over here Roger, any suggestions?”

“Ya, when they get done here and return, ambush them. Make sure they don’t make it back into the compound. I gotta go. I gotta go.”

Chapter 30

Roger heard an increase in the rate of fire. The west woods were heavy with militia. He called into the house. “You guys ready in there?”

Rich said, “Ya, just tell us when.”

“No, Mark has to do it. I’m in the woods and can’t see what’s happening well enough. Mark is going to make the call and everyone needs to move when he says go. You guys give it everything you have, you hear me?”

“Roger, we got it, we’re ready if it comes to that.”

Roger continued making his way toward the heavy fighting. He was now northwest of his property. He moved in as close as he could and checked out all the gear he would need. He took his mags and made sure they were all loaded. He took out all of his 37mm rounds and checked to see what he had. He placed the rounds he would use in his left cargo pocket of his pants and dumped the rest.

He laid his M24 down and covered it up with some leaves and branches. He piled everything else up by another tree and loosely covered it up. It was more obvious than the rifle, but that’s what he wanted. He would prefer this was found instead of his rifle. He had to lighten his load as much as he could. He would take only what was immediately needed for this part of the assault.

Over by the south side of the house, the militia was firing only randomly. The north side was pretty much the same. Mike had Dawn, Diana and Kevin lay down some cover fire and he jumped from position to position until he made it over to David. David was laying there looking south toward the area where the man who shot him had been.

“You ok, David?”

David said, “Not really. This thing hurts like hell. I think the bleeding has stopped though.”

“David, you stay down. I’ll stay here and help out.”

“Sounds good,” David said. The two of them waited.

Mark called on the radio. “Hang tight everyone. Conserve your ammo if you can. You’ll need it. Keep your heads low. This is going to get dicey.”

Haliday was thinking through the fight step by step. They had done a hell of a job fending off the militia. He knew they took some heavy fire, but his group was fairly well concealed and had great cover. A rush would end that though. They almost succeeded and David got hit, and Lisa almost got it too. They were almost overrun. One last chance to even this thing out.

Alan was up in the crow’s nest working like mad. He had everything he needed laid out and was fixing a little issue with the main component of their next defense for when the militia rush on the west side came. He grabbed the wires and twisted them together and then double checked them. It was ready to go now.

The militia on the north started first. They fired at the house, the crow’s nest and the previous positions where they knew Randy, Sarah and Blake were located. The shots came roughly one every two seconds. The south side started up next. These guys were doing the same thing. It was almost methodical, a slow rhythm of shots.

Diana stepped down from a sand bag she was using to adjust her height. She went to step back up and was near the rear of the hole when she did. As she did, she was struck in her right upper shoulder area, which she accidentally exposed. Diana dropped her rifle. She tried to pick it up and her right arm wasn’t strong enough. She grabbed it with her left and rested it in position. She would have to fire as best she could.

The west side started up, but far more rapidly and sporadically. The majority of the militia was located over in this area now. The militia moved a little closer and the rate of fire tripled from this side. In a matter of about 30 seconds the north and south tripled their rates of fire and the west increased yet again. It was a full on assault coming in on them now.

The entire compound was under heavy fire now. Mark saw movement very close and called everyone. “Now, now, now!” Alan grabbed a metal spoon and slowly dragged it across a wooden board with terminals on the top. The terminals were connected to a large 12 volt battery wired to Haliday’s favorite rocket engine igniters. Throughout the west side of the woods, the trees lit up brightly.

The flares were originally parachute flares and were stripped down, altered and set in the trees. Burn time was about 45-55 seconds. Haliday had installed two sets of them and these couldn’t be shot and extinguished. Ten locations spaced along the wood line. They would constantly burn bright white until they burned out. This was the last of the tricks Haliday had in his bag.

As soon as Haliday heard Mark tell Alan to ignite the flares he started launching his 37mm rounds. These were CS tear gas shells and would cause some serious discomfort to people running for cover and trying to save themselves. He had seven and he launched all seven of them in about 30 seconds. He took off toward the west wood area to see if he could now help repel the militia.

The militia stopped in their tracks. They were not only completely illuminated now, but they could not see the house or fighting positions very well. They had no sooner started to back off or take cover when the tear gas shells started to land around them. They started a hasty retreat to get out of the light and out of the tear gas.

Everyone in Haliday’s group on this side of the house lit them up. Alan up in the crow’s nest started to fire down into the woods. He kept his eyes on the first flare that went off. As soon as this one burned out he would ignite the second set. This was going to give them about a minute and a half or more of light to even out the odds.

Inside the house, Rich fired a 12 gauge shotgun full of double aught buck into the retreating militia line. He pumped seven rounds as fast as he could moving from left to right. He dropped down and started reloading the shotgun to fire again. Over by the other window Bev and Karen were firing 22lr’s but had plenty of magazines and kept the rounds flying. They started at opposite ends and worked toward the middle and then back again. The group on the ground could hear the shots flying over their heads and they were firing as well.

Lisa, Mark, Kayla and Linda all kept firing at the militia. If they saw someone dive to the ground or behind a tree they would concentrate their aim on that location. The first flare sputtered out and Alan dropped down and started the second set. Everyone else continued the heavy sustained fire.

When the militia had moved forward they didn’t expect the flares and barrage of gunfire. As they retreated from this they incurred the heaviest losses yet. They had eight members here that had been advancing. Out of the eight, only three had escaped unharmed. Two were injured and three3 were dead. This devastated their ranks.

One man had stopped to aim at a flare that he thought he could shoot and put out. A couple of shots and it didn’t go out, however Mark had put a couple of five rounds bursts in that direction and this was the first casualty. Another member had moved laterally not knowing more flares were being ignited and Rich had hit him with the shotgun twice.

Off toward the other side, Karen and Bev had gotten lucky with the 22lr’s and hit a woman in the back of her neck as she retreated. She laid there paralyzed, unable to do anything. One of the other members reached down to grab her and Alan had fired his bursts into him. The carnage in such a short period of time was horrific.

The rest of the injured suffered arm, leg and torso hits, but were able to continue out of the area. The tear gas had them coughing with tears and snot running down their faces. They either didn’t don masks or plainly didn’t have any. As the flares all died out so did the firing from the militia. The militia were now just trying to get the hell out of there and handle their injured and dead. During this, however, the south end of the property and north end had their own battles they had endured.

The militia assault on the west side of the house had actually placed all of the militia into action. On the south side, David, Mike, Kevin, Diana and Dawn were firing on one militia member still by the empty neighbor’s house and also across the street at the nosy neighbors. There was militia located there as well. Diana was having a real hard time and had to stop. Her arm was too weak now and she could not load the rifle anymore. She had a pistol and saved it in case of any closer activity.

The shots went back and forth between them and the militia, but there was no rush, no forward movement toward the Haliday house, just sustaining fire to keep everyone pinned down. The dirt and shrubs around them were torn to pieces now. If it hadn’t been for the fighting positions set up to provide cover and take the inbound rounds, it would have been far worse than it was.

On the north end, Randy, Sarah and Blake only had a couple of people to contend with. They were firing at a sustained rate to keep the militia in place. There was no advancement being made and neither side was hitting anything with accuracy. This only lasted a couple of minutes. The man Haliday hit in the ass had made his way to his friend’s location. The militia fire was constant enough to keep everyone in place so they could not help out on the west.

Haliday’s group at the south side thought they had seen someone sneaking up to the road and the ditches. They fired over to that location, but couldn’t tell if anyone was there or not. They too were only being fired on in order to keep them busy. It was just a ruse to keep everyone away from the west, but it worked. The firing died down almost to a complete stop. Everyone was now waiting. They were not sure what to expect. They prepared themselves for another rush.

Almost on cue, the militia started firing methodically again around the entire perimeter. It sounded much different though, Mark listened to their firing and thought it was a ploy and called Haliday. Mark explained his thoughts to Haliday, “What do you think Roger?”

“I’m with you, Mark,” he answered. “Pass the word, very light fire to let them know we are still dug in here. We’ll let them do it.”

They both knew now that the militia was firing to keep them in check while they pulled out of the area. They wouldn’t pursue the militia. They didn’t have the troop strength to leave the house guarded and track down the escaping militia. They wanted to, but had to maintain their positions at the house.

The militia was still firing, but only received a few shots in return. They used this time to gather their wounded and retreat. They were leaving their dead where they had fallen. Nobody knew this though. Had Mark or Roger known, they would have continued to assault the group. This went against everything they had ever learned and that had been ingrained in them during their time in the military.

Haliday had not been able to get in the fight and do anything. It had happened so quickly he didn’t have time to get there. Now he had moved in closer and watched as the militia continued the retreat. He didn’t engage for one reason. He was far outnumbered and still behind their lines. He would wait it out and that’s exactly what he did. He called everyone and told them to cease fire unless they were being attacked. The militia was out of effective range now.

The group sat there at the ready. It was a surreal scene. Light smoke drifted in some areas, muted light from clouds and a small sliver of moon, dark bodies moving in the night dragging people away. A group of very unique people were scattered about the property waiting for another fight.

Almost an hour passed after the last round had been fired. Haliday sat there still. He had not heard any of the vehicles move out yet. He was worried they might launch an assault on one single location and he knew if they did it would be costly. He closed his eyes and he prayed. He heard an engine start. The damn deuce and a half. He heard another engine start as well. He warned the group, “If they come in vehicles, get the hell out of there.” That wouldn’t be the case though, they wouldn’t have to.

The engine noises got quiet as the vehicles were leaving the area. Haliday called Rob on the radio. Rob answered, “Roger, you ok man?”

“Rob, we took some serious shit with the fan on high and I have to tell you this. This damn family and these friends of ours put up a hell of a fight. We all made it through, some injuries but I’m not sure how bad yet.”

“Look, Roger, I can probably get a nurse to you guys if you can hold on six hours or so.”

“That would be great,” Roger answered back. “Look Rob, these guys are now heading back. I can’t tell you how many or what shape they are in. I can tell you this much. If they are stopped from reaching that damn airport, then that would be the best thing for everyone.”

“What do you suggest, Roger?”

“You fight dirty Rob, dirtier than you have been. They have to come through that main gate. There are only two ways to get to it. From the east or from the west. You need to put as much of your firepower on those areas as you can. Put them on the roofs, put them in the windows, put them wherever you can.”

“Make sure they have cover and make sure they hit them hard and fast. No heroes. No storming the convoy. Don’t use anyone as bait, don’t do anything stupid. Brad will help you. Once you get these guys taken care of, the compound can be dealt with at another time. Once they realize they are on their own, things will change. You have about 30 to 45 minutes tops. Good luck, we’ll be thinking about you.”

“Ok, thanks Roger.”

Haliday waited a bit more. He listened intently for any signs of movement. He called in for a situation report from everyone. Everyone was able to either call in, or get word to someone with a radio who passed it on to Roger. The news was incredible. Haliday sat down against a tree, his eyes welled up. They had beaten the odds and did so without losing a single life in his group.

He made his way back to pick up his M24 and the rest of the gear he had left behind. He called the group and told them he would be using the edge of the woods to reach the house. He reached the west side and called them and told them he was coming out of the woods and to hold their fire. He jogged in and made it to Mark’s position.

He lay down next to Mark. “Mark, can you get the injured into the house? See about getting them stabilized and I’ll take over your position for you.”

Mark said, “Roger, I’m good out here, get your people inside and taken care of.”

“Mark, listen, you’re a part of this family now, too. No way in hell could this have worked without your help. Do me a favor, get our injured in there for me.”

“You got it, sir.”

“It ain’t sir. It’s Roger.”

Mark called Alan, “You keep your eyes peeled 360 degrees. Let us know if you see anything.” Mark told Blake to meet him over by Diana’s hole. They met up with Diana, pulled her up out of the hole, and she moaned in pain. They ran her over to the house. Rich was keeping an eye out on the woods and Karen and Bev tended to Diana.

Mark and Blake ran out and helped David up; they got him over to the house as well. Mark asked Alan how he was doing and Alan said he was fine for now. Roger crawled over to Kayla, “How you doing kiddo?”

“Holy shit Dad. I mean what the hell just happened here?”

He patted her on her back, “You did good kiddo. You did good. What happened was you fought for your life and ours.”

He crawled over to Lisa next. “You doing alright?” he asked. She responded, but he didn’t understand her. Lisa’s words were scrambled.

She said, “I guess so, I feel dizzy a dizzy a little dizzy, but might just hungry be.”

“Nothing to eat in that hole?” he asked.

“I forgot that, I guess I do, I think maybe, I can eat it.” She didn’t really make any sense. He put his hand on her shoulder to ask her again if she was ok. He pulled his hand back and it was wet with blood.

“Mark, get your ass over here,” Roger said. Mark came running with Blake. “She’s hit or something. Get her in the house.” Mark lifted up Lisa and quickly ran to the house. He ran inside and yelled for some help. Roger told Blake to get down and stay here. Blake asked if he could move the body of the militia man.

“Ya, go ahead,” Roger said.

Blake went to grab the body and yanked his hand back. “Damn, I cut my finger,” he said.

Roger said, “Don’t move Blake.”

Haliday grabbed his flashlight and took a chance and turned it on. “Damn it,” he said. He reached over and grabbed the foot trap that was still stuck in the dead mans body. He tossed it toward the front of the hole. “You gonna live Blake?” he asked.

Blake said, “Ya, just a small cut.”

“Grab your first aid kit and clean it out now. Put a band aid on it. I’ll be right back.”

Haliday ran into the house. They had Lisa on the floor and on her stomach. Haliday dropped down and pulled out his knife. Get her jacket off. After they took her jacket off, Haliday cut her shirt open. He looked at Mark, “No offense man,” he cut her bra away and they all looked at the wound. Haliday barked out some orders.

When the man half fell into her fighting position, the spike strip caught her in the back. She thought it was just him falling on her. After she got him out of the hole, she thought the pain was just a torn muscle or something. One of the spikes had caught her on her shoulder blade and hit a vein.

Bev and Karen put some gloves on; they grabbed a large syringe and irrigated the gash. They opened a sponge with antiseptic agent on it and scrubbed the whole area. Bev used some quickclot on it and waited. The blood stopped oozing out. She put a bandage on it and taped it up. Haliday said, “Put her by the wood burner and cover her up.”

He looked at Mark, “I’m sorry man, I didn’t know.”

“I didn’t either. I don’t think she knew herself,” Mark said. “She’s supposed to eat every few hours too. I think we just got caught up in everything.”

“Mark, you stay in here, I got the outside covered.” Mark started to follow Haliday outside. Haliday turned around; “Get the hell back in there.”

“Roger, she’s in good hands, we might still have problems.”

He looked at Mark again, “Get in there. You come out before I tell you to and I’ll shoot you my damn self.” Mark went back in the house and over by Lisa.

Chapter 31

Haliday did a check of everyone. They were all sitting tight and waiting. No one knew what to expect or if they should expect anything. Haliday made sure he talked to them individually as people, keeping things as personal as possible. He had to make sure they hung on to their humanity. They’d fight their own demons over time, but he knew how to help them with that. Start now and it would help in the long run.

“Hey Blake, just think, two weeks ago you were asking people if they wanted fries with their order.”

Blake’s response was quick; “You mean pick up or delivery?”

Haliday thought, good, he has that contact with the past. “Of course I did Blake, get used to my screwing with you on a regular basis, pizza boy.”

“Hey Kayla?”

“Ya Dad?”

“You mind running out to Starbucks for me?”

“Oh, you’re a riot Dad, but I am craving some coffee.”

Roger spoke to everyone, “Go ahead and bust open those thermoses. Crack open the hand warmers too. I’ll see if I can’t order up some hot food, but stay alert. Weapons checks too and let me know if you need ammo.”

Mark was sitting next to Lisa holding her hand. She was very weak, but doing fairly well. The past couple of days they had had little food, expended a lot of energy travelling, and the stress from the assault and everything else combined with the injury had worn her down. She looked up at him. “I’m fine honey, I love you.”

“I love you too,” he said.

She said, “Go help the others. I’ll be fine.”

Mark called out to Haliday. “Anything going on out there?”

Haliday told him, “No, just some cold hungry troops.”

Mark said, “Lisa is doing great. She wanted me to help out. You mind?”

Roger thought about it a second. “Sure, come on out. I’ll see about getting these guys some hot drinks and food.”

“I have an idea as well,” Mark replied. Mark went and put a stack of wool blankets over by the wood burner.

Mark went outside and relieved Roger who went inside to check on everyone inside. He walked over to David who was being worked on by Rich and Bev. Bev had managed to flush his wound and get everything cleaned out. She even managed to get the bullet out which had stuck in his bone.

She packed it and bandaged it. Haliday was thinking he might need to pay that doctor a visit or at least get the nurse over here as soon as he could. He had pain killers and antibiotics and some other meds stashed for occasions like this, but he had limited medical knowledge. He had taken some first responder training and that was it.

Karen had put some water on to boil so she could make some hot coffee and cocoa for everyone and she had started a big pot of stew. She left the meat out so that Dawn, Diana and she could have some as well. Haliday could hear Diana telling her to make sure she left it meatless; she was actually a full blown vegan. They’d add the meat afterwards. Freeze dried beef cooked up fast.

He walked over to Diana. “How bad is it?” he asked.

Karen walked over and said, “It went through and broke her collar bone. We got it cleaned up and she’ll be fine.”

Haliday reached into his cargo pocket and fished around. He pulled his hand out and offered it to Diana. “You’re an ass,” she said. He chuckled, took a big bite of jerky and then blew his breath in her face. “You’re disgusting,” she offered.

He grabbed a milk crate and put the pot of stew inside. He stuffed some rolls and plastic spoons and bowls on the side. He carried it outside along with an empty one and made his rounds dishing out the meal and a couple of words of encouragement and thanks. He collected the thermoses and took drink orders. After his rounds, he went back inside and set to filling the orders.

He filled half the thermoses with coffee and half with hot cocoa. He grabbed an armful of the blankets which were nice and toasty now and delivered them outside. After making sure everyone was good to go, he went back over to Mark. “What do you think, Mark?”

“It’s your call, Roger. We have about two hours until dawn.”

Roger told him they would be waiting it out until then. He did have a little thing he needed to take care of. He went in the house and changed out his gear load. It was light, just a very few items he would need, and he would only be gone no more than 30 minutes he hoped. Rich asked him, “Where you going Roger?”

“I’m going to pay the neighbor a visit.”

After he walked back outside, he touched base with Mark. Mark looked at him, “Where you going?”

“I’m going across the street for some tea and biscuits. I’ll be back very soon. Take charge here and make sure they don’t shoot me on my way back in.”

Mark promised, “Won’t happen.” Haliday took off and made his way across the street.

He went around to the back and made his way to the porch. He stopped and listened. He didn’t really hear anything. He pulled out a small telescoping mirror and raised it up and glanced through the window. He didn’t see anything, just a couple small candles glowing. He slowly reached up and twisted the handle of the door and it opened.

He entered the house and moved at a snails pace, his .40 ready. He was in the large kitchen and slowly went down the hall, checking the rooms as he went. He found one closed and made a note of it. He made it to the front of the house and stopped by the living room. He saw two figures, one in a chair, and one on the couch lying down.

The woman was on the couch and Lance was sitting in his chair. He had a bottle of whiskey by him. Haliday looked over at the woman, who was motionless. He watched Lance for a couple of minutes. Finally Haliday spoke. “Lance, what happened?”

Lance didn’t turn around. He just spoke, “She’s dead.”

“Who’s dead, Lance?”

He pointed to the couch.

“Is that your daughter, Lance?”

“No, that’s my wife. I shot her.” He said it with no emotion at all.

“Lance, you don’t look like you’re tied up in this crap. I mean, it looks like you’ve been here in that chair all night.” Lance didn’t speak. Haliday moved a bit closer with his pistol still aimed at the back of Lance’s head. He spotted the picture in Lance’s hand. It was his daughter’s graduation picture. On the table in front of Lance was an opened bottle of pills.

Haliday moved over to the couch and dropped one hand down and confirmed the lady was dead. On the floor in front of Lance he saw a pistol laying there. He also saw an empty pill bottle on the floor. Lance looked at him. “She did it Roger, I told her to mind her business, to tell Nicole to get the hell out of that cult or whatever the hell it is. She wouldn’t listen. Neither of them would. I begged them both. My wife thought it was a good idea, broaden Nicole’s horizons. I didn’t think they would go this far.”

“Lance, where’s your daughter?”

“She’s in the bedroom. I put her to sleep in there.” Lance picked up the bottle of pills from the coffee table and emptied them into his mouth and washed them down with whiskey. He drank quite a few more swigs after that. “Roger, can you do me a favor?”

“What’s that, Lance?”

“Bury my daughter for me. She deserves it. She didn’t know any better. She was young, in love and caught up in a fantasy. They left her out there laying on the ground. My wife almost didn’t seem to care.”

“I don’t care about my wife, or even me, but you’re a father. You understand. She always liked the tree house I built her. That would be nice over there. I’m sorry Roger, I really am.”

Roger walked up, “I promise Lance, I’ll do that for you.” Haliday slowly retreated keeping his guard up. He heard the whiskey bottle drop and shatter. He continued on. He checked the closed room on his way out.

He passed through the kitchen and looked at the table closely. There were hand drawn maps of his property and everything surrounding it. He reached down and grabbed them all. This lady had been spying on them since he bought the place. She had the aerial photos and drawings of the place before the cabin even went up. The pile was a good two inches thick.

He looked at the notes and had figured just as much. She had started from the moment the group set foot on the property. She had the days and times written down and everything that happened, everything they did. She had it marked when he and Blake had returned as well. Every move they made. It was like a journal though: I saw, I noticed, I think. Poor Lance was mere labor around here it seemed like. Never knew what was coming.

He walked back toward his house slowly and solemnly. Nothing he could have done would have prevented this. She had his number from the beginning and even if he would have shot her on day one, the militia knew everything already. He would return tomorrow and bury them as promised. He reached the house. “What happened over there?” Bev asked. “What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything. It was done already,” he said.

* * *

The militia convoy was on its way back. Rob and Brad had everyone in position. The plan was put together rather quickly, but since they had learned from Haliday that conventional fighting was not an option and guerilla warfare was the only option, that’s what they decided to do.

As word had spread over the past couple of days about the militia getting whittled away, the townspeople managed to get a few more people to join the cause. This was their fight and their fight for their own survival. Nobody would be riding in like the cavalry and saving the day. Any chance they would have of surviving started with this fight and those involved in the community had to do it.

The militia convoy was coming through the small town now. They were tired, worn, had taken severe losses and wanted to get back to the airport. Thirty one people had left the compound and nine were now dead and six injured. Three of the injured would most likely die within the next couple of days. This didn’t include the observer, who had been Haliday’s neighbor.

In order to take the wounded back, they had left behind two of the quads. The Jeep was left in the ditch as well. They were certain Haliday’s group would certainly take them as their own. The Jeep was the biggest loss as far as the vehicles were concerned. The guy who owned it had about 50 grand worth of work done to it. Lift kit, run flat tire system, radio, extra roll bars, snorkel kit and more. Haliday had seen it and said it looked like a JC Whitney catalog exploded.

The convoy was getting ready to make a right hand turn down a small street full of houses that would lead them to the main gate of the airport. The lead vehicle made the turn and got about 200 feet down the road when four people on each side of the road pushed some vehicles down the driveways of the houses where they had been waiting.

The vehicles rolled down the drives and met in the street blocking the access. The militia vehicle had hit the brakes as soon as they saw them move. The convoy only had about 50 feet between the vehicles and three more had made the turn. They were all trying to back up now. The man on the lone motorcycle went across the lawns and made a run for the airport’s main gate and made it.

The militia called the airport for help but were told negative. They couldn’t put any more members in danger right now. The vehicles started to split up. They moved in different directions. They could cut through the surrounding neighborhood and eventually get to the airport provided they didn’t run into too many problems.

One of the pickup trucks that had not made the right hand turn shot straight ahead instead. Only 150 feet down the road, they ran over two of the stop sticks the townspeople had made and the tires went flat immediately. The truck tried to keep moving but the shredded tires and rims on the road made it hard.

They stopped the truck and both occupants jumped out. They started running south. The airport was about a quarter of a mile away and they would try to get there on foot. They crossed through some yards and then into an open area with homes on both sides, and continued moving. They were hesitant and sensed an ambush.

No sooner had they turned to look for cover when eight of the townspeople started firing on them. The townspeople had unleashed a volley of over 100 shots fired. The men had never stood a chance as the rounds hit them and they fell lifeless to the ground. The townspeople moved in and took the weapons and ammo from the men.

The deuce had been second in line. After it had backed up, it moved forward again quickly and rammed the two vehicles. It barely made it through them and it continued toward the gate. All of their injured were in the back. The driver did not hesitate; he just kept right on going. If the vehicles used to block the road hadn’t been in neutral, it would have been a different story.

He made it through the gate and to the back of the admin building where more members helped unload the injured. One of the townspeople on top of the roof was going to fire but after seeing the wounded people he just let them be. He couldn’t find it in himself to shoot any of them. He would seek out another target.

The last vehicle in line had seen all of the activity and locked up their brakes and hit reverse. The vehicle was going almost 45 miles an hour backwards. A few people tossed some of the caltrops into the road. One of the rear tires blew out and the vehicle careened backwards into a party store. People moved toward the store and then took cover. The militia inside the vehicle got out and took cover behind the vehicle inside the store.

One of the men ran to the back door and tried to open it. It had been padlocked from the outside from one of their own group during the seizure of all the supplies in town. He went back and told the woman with him that the only way out was through the front of the store. They didn’t know whether to fight or surrender.

One man yelled to them. “Who are you guys? What are your names?” The militia couple did not answer. They didn’t know if it would do them any good. They thought if they could get out of there and no one knew who they were, they could deny being involved. They talked about it for a few minutes and made their decision.

“Listen out there,” they said. “We want to surrender. We’ll come out and surrender, please don’t shoot.” Brad was with this group. He didn’t honestly know what to do. He called Rob and asked him about taking prisoners. Rob had no idea either.

Rob called him back, “Hey Brad, take them down the street to the police department and lock them up. Take all their gear though.”

Brad yelled in to the store. “Come on out, hands raised, no weapons or we’ll shoot.” The couple came out slowly with their hands in the air. Brad made them lay down on the ground and a couple of others searched the couple. Brad was looking at them. “I know you guys. Jerry, what the hell are you guys doing?” Jerry just looked at him. Brad asked him again but still no answer.

“Jerry, I can’t believe you got involved in all of this. Then you went and attacked that guy and his family. How could you do that?” Jerry and his wife just laid there. “Get them up and let’s go,” Brad said. “Put their asses in the police department and in the jail.” They walked them down to the police department which was empty. They placed them in a cell with the blankets they had in their truck and locked it.

Brad walked over to Jerry. “Man, I thought I knew you, Jerry. I had no idea you could do this.”

“Do what?” Jerry asked, “Try and survive. Try to live through this shit?”

“No,” said Brad, “turn on your community, steal from them, kill innocent people.”

“Don’t pretend you would do anything different Brad.”

“I did Jerry, I’m doing what’s right,” he said. Brad walked away and called Rob.

Rob told Brad that two vehicles were still out there. He wasn’t sure how many people were in them. A Jeep and a Bronco. Everyone was looking out for them. Rob thought the ambush was going to end it all, but the lack of training and the speed at which they had to prepare had made it hard to control the inbound militia convoy.

Rob called a few guys together and they met at the police station. Brad was there as well. Let’s set up shop here. I don’t think the police will be back any time soon. We can watch the prisoners then too. Let’s see about getting a duty roster together and see about heating the place somehow. Brad said he would handle it. Rob went back to help try in tracking down the remaining two vehicles.

When Rob had returned another man came up to him. “Hey Rob, we found the Bronco. It was empty, and it had two flats. Looks like whoever was in it made a run for it.” Rob told him to let the guys watching the airport know to be on alert in case the people tried to sneak in there. No telling what they would try in order to get back into the compound.

As morning was approaching nothing else had happened. They never found the Jeep or the people inside. Everyone was tired and Rob and Brad sat down and wrote down some notes. They would post four people here around the clock for now. Everyone would take turns. He went through the militia gear they had captured and distributed it. They would be getting the vehicles repaired and use those as well. Rob called Haliday on the radio.

“Roger, how did you make out over there?”

“Hi Rob, we did all right. We have some injured, nothing major, but we’ll need that nurse or preferably a doctor if you have one. I’m surprised we didn’t lose anyone. We came close, that’s for sure. Our neighbor across the road is no longer with us. Weird circumstances, I’ll have to tell you about it later. How about you guys?”

“We lost a couple, some injuries here too, but that was expected. We have a couple of prisoners but we aren’t going to turn them over, not sure what we’re going to do with them. We injured a few and killed a few, but they managed to get into the compound for the most part. We picked up some vehicles and guns too. I’ll give you a call later today. I have a bunch of questions for ya.”

“Ok, Rob, talk to you later.” Haliday had a feeling that it wasn’t over yet.

Chapter 32

Haliday walked over to Mark. “Mark, I want you to go in the house and get some sleep for a few hours. One of us will have to be up at all times for a little while here. I don’t expect any trouble any time soon, but we can’t stop now. We need to see it through until we know for sure we’re good to go.” Mark went inside and went to sleep next to Lisa.

After a few hours of sleep, Mark got up and grabbed some coffee. He checked on everyone in the house before he went outside. Haliday was still out there keeping an eye on things and making the rounds. Mark approached him. “What do you think, Roger?”

“Let’s pull everyone off except for the security detail. One in the crow’s nest and two outside. Everyone else needs sleep, rotate them through.”

Mark took over and Haliday went in to get some sleep. Mark started getting everyone inside and everything in order. He extended his patrol to cover as much of the surrounding area as he dared. He was amazed at what he saw. The militia bodies left in place, blood sprayed all over the place. It wasn’t that he had never experienced this before, it was the fact that it was here on U.S. soil, Americans against Americans.

Haliday woke up, grabbed his gear, grabbed a coffee and went outside. Mark was standing there. “Good thing it’s quiet,” Mark said.

“Ya, that’s for sure,” Roger replied. “You take a look around at all Mark?”

Mark said, “I sure did, let’s take a ride, I’ll show you.” They climbed into the ranger and took off. An hour later they pulled up by the house. Haliday was sickened much like Mark was and for the same reason.

They walked back in the house. Breakfast was being cooked. It smelled good. Scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes, oatmeal and hash browns. Orange juice, coffee, tea, cocoa and it was a hell of a meal. There was plenty to go around and everyone ate more than they had in weeks. It was well deserved. Dinner would be a feast as well.

“Ok everyone,” Roger said. “I need three volunteers. Kevin, Randy, Blake, let’s go” said Roger. “Everyone grab your gear, everyone in the ranger.” They all went across the street to the neighbors. Haliday cleared the house and then went and cleared the barn. There was an older Kubota in there. He went over and luckily it started. He drove it out and over to the back of the yard. There was the tree with the tree house. Dull faded pink paint peeling off.

“You guys go grab all of the bigger rocks that you can. Load them in the back of the ranger, keep bringing them until I say stop. You’ll find plenty along the creek bed.” They took off and Haliday used the small back hoe and dug a large square pit about four feet deep. While he was digging the rock pile had grown large enough and he told them to stop.

Next he went to the house. You guys grab the two in the living room, I’ll grab the other. He looked through the closets and grabbed a bunch of sheets and blankets. Wrap them up in these he said. He went into the bedroom. The young girl was lying there, tucked in bed like she was sleeping. Haliday wrapped her blankets around her and took her outside. “You need a hand, Uncle Roger?”

Roger answered, “No, I got this. I promised him.”

He placed them all into the pit with the daughter in the middle, they were all wrapped up. He covered them up with dirt and tamped it down gently. They used the rocks and formed a crude large cross formation over the grave. Haliday wasn’t overly religious, but he looked down at the grave and spoke.

“Lord, we have forgiven them for their sins and we ask that you forgive them for their sins and take them into your kingdom. They were lost, but we pray in the end that they found you in their hearts and souls. May they rest in peace. Amen.” He couldn’t leave without at least a few simple words.

Next they dragged out the couch, chair and mattress and set them on fire. No sense in having it sit there and become a contaminant. They walked out and he locked the house behind them. They went back to their own house and everyone showered up. “Get some more rest guys and thank you.”

Haliday walked over to the radio and spoke to Rob, “Anything new over at the compound Rob?”

Rob told him that there wasn’t anything going on that anyone could really see. “Just some normal activity and some security patrols. They had placed some emplacements around the back of the buildings instead of trying to secure the south part of the complex. That was about it. I did see them take food to the prisoners too. I tried to call the militia, but they did not answer.”

“We do have a nurse and a doctor who are going to come by to see you guys shortly. I can bring them if you give me an address.”

Roger answered, “I’d rather meet you guys close by than give my address over the air.” They set up a time and a spot to meet. It would just be about an hour so Haliday got ready. He took Mark and Randy in case there might be problems.

They met at an intersection close by and then went to Haliday’s. The doctor and nurse got busy checking everyone out. Mark and Roger sat with Rob, who had brought Brad along as well. They talked briefly about what had transpired, but not too much in detail. Haliday said they went through and grabbed the equipment and firearms off the militia’s dead.

“What did you do with the bodies?” Brad asked him.

“Brad, I didn’t do anything yet. But I’ll tell what we are going to do. You are going to get your prisoners, and one of the pickups. Bring them back here and make them pick up each body. You guys know where the sheriff lived by chance?” Brad said he had the address at his shop on some of the FFL paperwork.

Roger looked at him. “Make those people bury their dead. Use the sheriff’s front yard. That’s going to send a hell of a message to those people. Any idea on whether or not he made it?” Neither Brad or Rob knew. “Well, either way it’ll be a reminder for them. The sooner the better. I’ll have the guys wrap them in plastic, try and keep the animals from dining on them.”

Brad and Rob exchanged glances a few times. Roger noticed this. “What gives guys? What do you have on your mind?”

Rob spoke, “Roger, we are at a crossroads here and don’t know what direction to take. We need some help trying to figure this out. We need some suggestions.”

“Ok, I’ll give you a few, Mark here can offer some as well.”

They spoke for about two hours and wrapped up when the doctor and nurse finished. Haliday walked them out to their vehicle. The doctor filled them in on what was going on and told them he left directions with the folks in the house. Randy and Kevin came walking up with two of Haliday’s welfare buckets. He handed one to the nurse and one to the doctor. Roger said, “Here’s payment. I can’t thank you guys enough.”

“With that being said, this is why I keep telling you guys that you need to get into that compound. You need those supplies for everyone. You all need to work together. Now you guys get going. Keep me up to speed and I’ll be talking to you later. Don’t forget about the bodies. The sooner the better.”

Rob said, “They’ll come get them before it gets too dark out.”

“No, wait until morning.”

Dawn went and brought the horses back. She found them in the neighbor’s barn, which was a cinderblock built barn, but it looked like they hadn’t had horses in quite some time. Seems they didn’t want anything to do with the battle. Romeo and Max were still afraid to come upstairs. The kids were kept in the house; they didn’t need to see any of the bodies. The day was about over now.

Dinner was cooking and Haliday went back over to the radio. He started writing down some more notes on what he heard. He even asked for other frequencies so he could gather more information. Any frequency he was on he would listen for specific information or he would ask a few questions. He had quite a note pile going on now. Still no word on any government activity.

They sat down for dinner and enjoyed the meal. They had some meatloaf that Bev had canned, canned corn, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn bread muffins and pudding for dessert. Haliday even told a few corny jokes to lighten the mood. “Blake, you ever look in the sky and see a flock of geese in their ‘V’ formation?”

“Ya,” Blake said.

“You ever notice how one side of the V is always longer than the other?”

“Ya,” Blake said again.

“You know why that is?”

“No, I don’t,” Blake answered.

Roger looked at him, “It’s because it has more geese in it.”

Blake rolled his eyes and said, “It’s going to be a long night.”

Rich called Roger over to the radio, “Go get ma’,” he said, “hurry up.” Roger went and got Bev and they both went over to the radio. Susan down in Texas had managed to find a ham and finally got through to them. They were doing fine she said, they caught up briefly and said they would keep in touch. This was great news. Now they need to find out about Greg in Missouri.

Now the one thing Haliday had noted and now confirmed was that the lower part of Texas was more functional than the rest of the country, they even had power in some of the southernmost areas. He had heard the same about California, Arizona and New Mexico. That’s what really struck him as odd.

The next few days were extremely uneventful. The prisoners, while under guard, had picked up the bodies and taken them away. The group cleaned up the area the best they could and replaced the glass in the windows with Plexiglas that Roger had stocked. Easier to cut and handle than glass was. They plugged all of the holes in the sides and roof of the cabin and checked for leaks. It was pretty much all back in order now.

Haliday had extra shingles, putty, Plexiglas, screws, nails, insulation, wood boards, piping and all sorts of building materials to maintain the cabin. This was all kept in the storage building and pole barn. They would be able to fix practically anything that had broken or became damaged.

Haliday accessed his underground Faraday cage. This thing was quite different. It was a beast as far as a Faraday cage was concerned. The effort put into it was extreme in nature. If it worked, great. If not, he had a big tub of modern antiques. He borrowed the back hoe from the neighbors. He felt odd using it, but he would pay whoever laid claim to their property if family ever happened to show up.

He dug down and hit a piece of rotting plywood. It was marine grade and he had treated it practically six times sealing it up, but it was meant for indication of the cage and not protection. Once hitting it, he knew he would have to finish digging the cage out by hand. He turned the tractor off and jumped down. “Grab a shovel guys, let’s get going.”

They cleared the dirt off and removed the piece of wood. Sitting there was a big metal box that had been buried five feet under the ground. The box itself was roughly 48X48X48 inches. It was actually constructed of a couple of boxes nested inside each other. Redundancy was the key to keeping the contents safe, Haliday thought. He had looked up info on cages and everyone had a different idea of what would work, so he went with his own.

He built the first box with one eighth inch steel and lined it with rubber. The contents were placed inside and the top sealed with a rubber gasket and then metal tape. This was covered in rubber and then a copper shell applied to this. He was able to sweat the lid of the copper on in order to seal it entirely. Next was another thin metal skin and sealed again. They hoisted it out using the tractor and some slings.

Haliday started the slow process of opening the cage. Once it was opened, everyone looked inside. You would have thought it was Christmas with all of the oohs and aahs. “Don’t get excited yet,” he said. “We might have boat anchors here.” He carefully pulled the contents out and the guys took it all inside.

He walked inside and looked at the pile. Two 32” flat screen TV’s, two DVD players, two small surround sound set ups, a couple of portable radios, a couple of Ipads, two laptops and a massive computer tower filled with hard drives along with some other various electronics. He grabbed one of the laptops and walked over to an outlet.

He plugged it in as everyone stood there and waited. A few lights blinked and then the tell tale Microsoft windows sound came on. Roger looked around, “Solitaire anyone?” he asked. They all cheered. They set most of it aside and got a TV set up downstairs along with one of the laptops on the desk. The large computer tower was loaded with files. E-books, dictionary, digital encyclopedia, music and over 5,000 movies.

They would be ok for entertainment, this would help keep some of the normalcy of life flowing. That had been the reason behind having back ups for the TV and such, in case something broke before the country was back on the grid. They would limit the use of everything in order to avoid burning through it in a short period of time.

Next on the to-do list was to complete an entire inventory of everything they had and to work out some menus in order to maximize the food stores. They were actually much better off than they thought. The small caches around the property were just a bonus. Farming and bartering would allow them to sustain themselves.

Dawn called down to Roger; “Rob needs to speak to you.”

“Ok, tell him I’ll be there in a second.” Roger went up the stairs and sat down by the radio. “Hey Rob, what’s going on?”

“Roger, we had a problem today. We had the fuel truck from the airport come out with six armed guys. They went to one of the gas stations and took the gas. Well, they took a truck load. We didn’t have enough people to try and defend it.”

“There’s more,” he said. “They dropped a bunch of flyers on the ground. They said they were going to be taking more gas and other supplies as form of payment for the vehicles and equipment we took from them. There was to be no interference or they would defend themselves. They also said they would consider anybody on the streets armed and hostile.”

Roger replied, “Rob, that means they’ll shoot anyone for any reason. They say anything else?” Rob went on to say that they wanted their prisoners back, that they expected full cooperation at all times, and most importantly they would not be setting up any trade or distribution of food or supplies until spring. “Roger, not a lot of people can make it that long.” Roger told him that was because that’s what they wanted; to cull the population. For some reason Roger kept thinking about that.

Roger sat there in disbelief. He couldn’t grasp what he was hearing. The militia had at least 25 dead and maybe 12 injured, of which half of those were likely to die. This was almost half of their forces and yet they continued to hang on and keep up their BS. Roger spoke aloud; “You’d think they were sitting on Fort Knox or something.”

Dawn said, “No, you’d need a bigger army for that.”

“Hey Rob, do me a favor.”

“What’s that,” Rob asked.

Roger told him to put a lot more intel on the militia compound. “I want a complete count of everything and everyone. There has to be something else going on that we don’t know about and we might need to figure it out pretty quickly.” Roger said goodnight and looked over his notes.

Dawn asked him what was wrong. “I think you found the problem,” he said.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Their numbers are growing. I kept thinking I was screwing up the people count that I had, but that’s not it. Unless they have rabbits in there and they are spitting out full grown humans, then people are getting into that compound somehow. Somehow or at some time, more people showed up.”

He sat back in his chair and mumbled. “Meeting time!” he yelled. Everyone gathered around him. “I’m getting a little tired of this stuff,” he said. “I’m going to go meet with Rob and his crew tomorrow morning. I think the militia has been growing their numbers over the past week. I would venture to say they had people show up from out of town and they expect more.”

Mark looked at him and spoke. “That would explain why they still have the attitude. They are trying to hold on as long as they can until their entire group comes in. There’s no telling how many are on the way or how soon.”

“My point exactly,” said Roger. Everyone looked around at each other. They wanted to ask but knew the answer. The fight wasn’t over.

Roger sat for a minute more. He looked at Mark and asked him if he would join him to go meet with Rob and Brad in the morning. Mark slowly nodded, “I think I better. If you’re thinking about what I’m thinking about then ya, I better go too.”

“Ok, it’s settled.” Roger called Rob and set up the meeting. They would have to take that compound and disband the militia before any more of them arrived or they would have to leave the area themselves and that wasn’t an option.

They arrived for the meeting just outside of town. Rob, Brad and two more guys met them there. They sat down to talk about the militia and Haliday mentioned what he thought was happening. Brad looked at Roger. “I think you’re right. I’ve seen a couple of cars the past few days in town that I don’t really remember being there. Plug wires were missing, so not sure if they run or not, but one had Ohio plates on it.”

Brad finished speaking. “They must have come in, parked and then snuck in. No one had really been watching the whole compound until last night. We just watched the main gates and admin building. This poses a big problem for us.”

Rob shook his head. “We’re in deep, real deep.”

“And you don’t have a paddle,” Roger added. “However, this is what we are going to do. Take notes.”

Haliday and Mark spent eight hours covering everything they would need to gather as far as equipment went and what the plan was. They got a good count of how many people they had to work with and what types of firearms. They wrapped up the meeting and set the assault plan in motion. They would play it by ear as to when it would begin because everyone had preparations to make. Haliday and Mark went home and explained it to the group. Only Haliday and Mark would be involved, everyone else would be staying put.

Chapter 33

Rob had his people keep a closer eye out on the compound. They noticed that same night that there was indeed another group of people who snuck into the compound. It looked like it was two adults and a younger child around 12 years old. Brad and a few others had taken it upon themselves to check and mark the vehicles in the area so they knew which ones had been there and which ones were new.

Haliday told them to use chalk and mark the inside of a tire so it wasn’t obvious. They could double up by placing a small stone just under a tire. If the first number in the license plate was an even number it went under the drivers front tire, if it was odd it went under the passenger front tire.

They had remembered the newer vehicles that popped up and checked them out. With the help of the auto parts store, they were able to get two of the three running and confiscated them. They would use them for now and then return them if they could convince the owners to leave.

The next 48 hours were spent on preparing for the assault. Brad had brought out groups of people who were given a crash course on tactics they would need to employ during the assault. Some basics on cover, fire, escape and evade. Not nearly enough training, but more than any of them had ever had.

The exception was that Brad was able to find five veterans and three police officers in the group to help them out and take on roles as squad leaders. One of the police officers whose name was Chuck had formal SRT training and picked a few guys to help with building entry. There would be two teams for building entry.

After the initial assault, Mark would take over the main assault group while Haliday and Chuck split off with the two entry teams to do the building checks. Once they cleared the buildings another guy was assigned to lock them down. It was as simple as locking the door and then breaking a key off in the tumblers. They had a locksmith who could open them later.

They had found some more tractors to use and took them over to the metal fabrication shops in the area for armoring. They would armor the driver’s front and the buckets or dozer blades. These were only going to be used for the assault. Just enough to get some guys in and breach one side of the compound. The south end was fairly accessible, but most of the people and buildings were all at the north side of the airport.

They went through again and picked out the best hunters they could find. Each was assigned an area of the compound to cover. They were also each assigned spotters to watch in the area for any surprises or attacks from the rear. They had no idea who might try to sneak up behind them or even if they would.

Brad had a stock full of tannerite targets. He asked Roger what they could do with them. “Easy,” Roger said. “You lay a piece of scotch tape down, a line of heavy finishing nails on the tape and wrap it around the can of tannerite. Use the giant slingshot and launch them into the compound. The hunters will have a target full of flechettes to fire on.”

“The militia won’t want to touch them or come close after a few go off. Try and launch a bunch simultaneously and have the guys shoot them simultaneously as well. That will be a huge psychological kick in the pants. After word gets out when one lands near someone they’ll want to leave.”

Brad looked at him, “You’re a sick man.”

“Guerilla warfare Brad, that’s all it is. The days of taking twenty paces and dueling with pistols ended a while ago,” he replied.

They wrangled up as many tires as they could. They placed them around the outside of the compound in stacks. The militia laughed at them. Those things wouldn’t stop a .22 round was what they were thinking. What they didn’t know was that these would be lit on fire to create a smoke screen to help block some of their activities and to smoke out the militia as much as possible.

Haliday had them gather up bricks from the brickyard and use those to reinforce some of their fighting positions around the compound. He also had them place a good number of spike strips along the roads so any vehicles making a run for it would get flat tires. They would let people go, but would have to make their point so the militia would know it was over and they would be expected to disband completely.

Roger made sure that the guys that would be entering the compound and buildings had mirrors to use, these were simple contraptions made of compact mirrors from the cosmetic counter of the drug store, shortened broom sticks and duct tape. Simple, effective and cheap. Easily tossed aside or thrown away with no bother of how much they had cost.

Haliday covered clothing with the guys. “Make sure you do not wear any camo. We can not have anyone getting hit by friendly fire. You have all seen that they wear the Russian camo and know what it looks like. Wear plain black or regular clothes. Make sure they are loose enough to give when you move, but tight enough so they do not get caught on stuff. Your shoes are important as well. Boots with ankle support are the best option, avoid tennis shoes.”

“Everybody gather around me,” Haliday said. “I’m going to cover the rules of engagement. No children are to be fired upon unless they are actively firing on you. Anyone else that is armed and engaged is fair game. If they drop their weapons and surrender, you zip tie them behind their backs. We shoot to neutralize the threat.”

“What’s that mean?” he heard someone yell.

“Kill,” Roger answered back.

He made a quick count of the people involved. There were almost 120 of them total. These people were starting to get hungry and that meant they were ready to fight. They were starting to realize real quickly now what was happening and what their future held. It wasn’t just them; it was their families as well.

He called everyone close in. “I have a little speech to give here people. I hope it doesn’t change your minds about anything. People are going to die. That is a cold hard fact you all need to come to grips with. The fight is being taken to them because if you don’t, they will become stronger and you will become weaker.”

“There are no ‘ifs,’ ‘ands’ or ‘buts’ in this. It’s a matter of getting it done and getting it done the right way, right now. As corny as it sounds, and as often used as it is in the movies, look around you. This is the reason you are fighting. This is who depends on you. This is who you must depend on. With that being said, Depends might not be a bad option; some of you will shit your pants.” He got quite a few chuckles at that, even though it was probably true.

“Any questions before we leave?” There weren’t any. Just a lot of thank you’s, good lucks and prayers. Haliday shook Rob’s hand and Brad’s hand. “I’ll see you all in the morning.” Haliday and Mark headed back to the house. They walked in and the mood was somber. “I’m not going over it all again ok. It’s gotta be done, plain and simple.”

Morning came and Mark and Haliday were ready to go. When they went downstairs everyone was there waiting for them. A lot of hugs and kisses. Kayla walked up and gave Mark a hug. She went over to Roger and gave him a big hug with tears in her eyes. “You better be coming home. You promise me that Dad.”

“I can’t promise you that sweetheart. What I can promise you is that I will do everything I can to make it happen. I want you to know how proud of you I am. I could never have asked for a better daughter who has grown into a fantastic young woman. You can accomplish anything you want in life kiddo. Never give up. Take care of the family here. You’re the boss for now.”

Haliday and Mark got into the Jeep and took off. They didn’t say a word to one another on the way there. They just went over the assault plans in their heads. They arrived at the police station. Everyone else started to arrive as well. Haliday pulled out a big pot and a bunch of Styrofoam bowls. One of the folks took charge and started doling out oatmeal with bananas that Haliday had brought.

He also had made some coffee at the police station and handed out some granola bars along with pitchers of Tang. It was a meager meal, but still hit the spot. He put a few bags of chocolate candy on the tables for some more sugar. Haliday talked with Rob a bit. “You guys are getting one hell of a bill for my consultancy fee here.” Rob asked him if he took cash. “Oh, now you have jokes, huh, Rob?”

Haliday and Mark had their radios with them and they had brought two extra handhelds for Rob and Brad. They had five mobile units from the vehicles they had acquired and they placed one at each corner of the perimeter of the compound. From there they should be able to coordinate the assault.

Everyone had made it in and Haliday did another quick count. They had gained about 10 more members. The doctor approached and introduced another doctor and three nurses. They had gathered as many medical supplies as they could, and had an area prepared for medical treatment in the conference room of the police station. Anyone wounded they planned to put in an office next to the police station for now.

“Move them out Rob.” Haliday and Mark went and got ready as well. Haliday had his faithful old Armalite AR180 with him. He chose it over a short barreled AR15 because of the folding stock and usefulness in close quarters. Chuck had his own entry weapon of choice which was an MP5. After the initial assault, they would meet up with their teams and start the building clearing.

Everyone had gotten into position. The daytime assault was a big risk, but they took it because it would help level the field. No night vision goggles, or night vision scopes, plain sight, easy to discern friendly from foe, and the daytime conditions would allow the hunters with their scoped rifles to maximize their ability.

The militia compound was ready for the attack. As soon as they had seen the attack mounting, they had sounded their alarm and everyone was in position. They sat there and waited. Haliday’s group sat there and waited. He called them on the ham. “We are going to give you the opportunity to surrender.”

The response came quickly. “Negative. Disband and go home.”

Roger called them again and explained it all to them. “Listen, this is how it is. You can surrender and we can go from there. If not it’s going to be ugly for both sides. You have women and children in there who don’t deserve this. It’s the best option for everyone involved, so let’s work this out.”

A one word response came. “Negative.”

Haliday mumbled to himself. “What was that song from that stupid movie Small Soldiers. Some Spice Girls song; wish I had that right now.” I’ll tell you want what, what I really really want. “Oh great,” he said, “I’m going to die with that stupid song in my head.”

Mark looked at him, “What’s wrong?”

“You don’t want to know,” he replied.

One more try. Haliday said, “Listen. A lot has happened, a lot will happen and we don’t need to go down that road. Anyone who wants to give up and go home can do so now. We’ll give you one hour to decide. After that we may take action. Don’t be stupid. Listen to us. Come on guys. No one wants to die today.”

All he heard was “Screw you.”

“Ok,” he said, “One hour. Time has started.”

Haliday had told everyone to expect what came next. The militia started firing on the group’s positions in order to try and gain an edge during the assault. They fired a lot of rounds into the barricades, toward the tree line and everywhere else. The group didn’t fire a single shot back. Not a single person even got hit as they maintained cover.

Haliday had what he wanted, the proof that the militia would not make a deal and firing first meant just that. They gave them a chance and they refused it. Haliday had a few guys fire a couple of rounds toward the compound, but not at anyone in particular. This drew another barrage of fire from the militia. He clicked the radio. “Forty-five minutes left.”

Time was counting down; the militia was persistent in not giving up. Haliday gave them one last warning. “You have five minutes left. Last chance to get out now for anyone wanting to leave to get out now. Come on out with your hands empty, no questions asked and we will take care of you and get you to safety.” He waited the five minutes and switched the channel to his own. “Game on folks. Good luck. Godspeed. Fire when you have a target.”

Haliday had made sure they didn’t have a sniper on the roof of the admin building. This would have been the first man to go. They learned their lesson the hard way by taking hits on that position. He searched the property with his spotting scope and had everyone else looking as well. They had to make sure they didn’t have one hidden. Haliday was convinced no one in the compound had higher ground.

Haliday loaded an armor piercing round into the Barrett he had liberated and fired on his first target. This was the lock on the door of the building that held prisoners. He saw that they had another lock and hasp on the door and he fired on that one too. He waited patiently, but no one came out. They would check this building out as soon as they could. There was some return fire from the militia, but nothing to worry about. They couldn’t reach his position.

From over on the north end of the compound came 30 shots from four different men. These were all concentrated on the militia’s prized deuce, or actually its tires. They flattened as many as they could, rendering the up-armored pig useless. All they had to rely on now was the regular complement of vehicles that they had.

The militia took aim and returned fire. They fired almost 200 rounds toward the men in a matter of seconds. As far as firepower was concerned, they had the advantage over the townspeople. They didn’t have the amount of concealment, however, so many of the rounds were wasted with only an occasional hit.

Haliday took aim at target number three. He hated to do it, but he had to. He zeroed in on the front tire of their fuel truck and flattened it. He shifted his aim slightly and flattened the other front tire. Both the fuel truck and deuce were now out of commission. He started to hear some sporadic gunfire from all sides of the airport.

As he searched out some more targets he gave the order to start the tires on fire. They had some small balloons of gas placed in them and the guys tossed some road flares into them. The thick black smoke started to fill the air in those areas as the tires burned. Nobody was sure how long they would burn but anything helped at this point.

One of the guys throwing the flares took a round to the shoulder. This was only the first of many casualties to come. The men around him fired into the compound and allowed him the chance to get to safety so he could be treated. They had one man and a woman nurse dedicated to picking up the injured with a four wheeler. They’d be busy today.

Haliday scanned the south end of the compound. The stacks of bricks they were able to get in place were still there. The front loader was still sitting where it had stalled out. Haliday called Rob. “Rob, get some people over to the west breach and see if you can get that front loader started. Get some people into those brick emplacements.” Rob told him that the front loader stalled out.

Roger asked him what happened. Rob told him it had overheated. “Well, try it anyway. If it didn’t seize it may start. You can use it to at least get some guys into those positions.” Rob made the arrangements and got everyone in place. He gave a command and the whole south end started popping as five guys ran to the loader. The militia positions were quiet as they held their heads down.

The group made it to the loader and sure enough it started. The guys just jumped on and the guy driving it went straight to the brick emplacements where he dropped off two guys at each one. He turned around and headed back toward the west breach and almost made it before the engine seized up. The radiator had taken hits the last time and it had stalled out, but this time it was dead for sure with the seized engine. The driver jumped down and used it as cover.

Haliday moved to another position so he could fire past the emplacements without worrying about the guys being in a crossfire. He told the men with the hunting rifles to try and take shots at the militia positions. They needed to take out 3 of the 5 positions that could cover the south end if they expected to get the building entry teams in there and continue to take some of the compound.

Haliday moved over toward the west breach area himself now and took a look. He looked over at Rob. “Grab your binoculars and look at that position on the west corner of that building. We need to take out that one and the ones on each side of it. Tell them that’s what the plan is.” Rob sent a couple of runners out to the town’s snipers and word spread. He used some hand signals and eventually got the point across to the guys behind the bricks and front loader.

Over toward the north side of the compound, Mark and Brad got the men ready. They used some probing fire to see where the militia’s strong points were. Mark told Brad to go launch some cans at the admin building. These had been pulled out of the hunting shop and were merely cans of gel fuel. They had close to a hundred of them. They partially unscrewed the lids and launched them all toward the admin building. Almost half had hit the building and quite a few landed on the roof. The tops popped off and the gel ran every where.

One of the townspeople tried to launch a flare onto the roof, but couldn’t get the distance he needed with the giant sling shot. After a couple of failed attempts, he resorted to attempting to use some fireworks, but couldn’t get the angle. He risked moving in closer and was met with a few rounds into his chest. Mark had told them to abandon the attempt if it didn’t work with the flares, but the guy must have insisted. They had to leave him lay where he was.

Haliday was concentrating on the center militia position. He saw the muzzle of the rifle above the sand bags. He took aim and fired a shot. It was off, but close enough to let the guy know he was being watched. He saw the muzzle shift. Haliday gave it one more shot and fired into the sand bags, but still had no luck. Haliday moved backwards and into the trees where he looked around.

There was a man up in a tree stand with his rifle pointed toward the compound. Roger asked him, “Hey, you can’t see these guys at all?”

The man said, “Not enough to get a good center mass shot.” Roger asked him what he could see. The guy told him that once in a while he could see the top half of a head.

“Take the damn shot,” Roger told him. “Forget that center mass bullshit.”

The man steadied his rifle and kept aim at the militia position. Haliday was crouched down low and looked at his watch. After almost five minutes, he was about to climb the tree himself when he heard the shot. He looked up and jumped to the side just in time as the man threw up. The guy had taken a perfect shot from ear to ear, cutting a channel through the militia member’s head.

Haliday yelled up to him, “It’s them or you. Get the hell out if you can’t hang or get ready to do it again.”

The man said he’d be ok. Roger asked him if there was anyone else in the position there and the guy told him no, it looked like just one guy.

“What about the ones to the left and right?” Roger asked.

“Looks like two in each.”

“Ok, keep your rifle on them, take the kill shots. You’re doing good.” he told the man.

Roger moved back toward the west breach area. Chuck was still there. “What do you think, Roger?”

“Chuck, I think we need to get our asses in there as soon as possible. The center position has been taken out, and we need to get the ones on the sides of it. Let’s try and work on the one to the right first.”

“How are we going to do that?” Chuck asked.

“Give me a minute to think about it, Chuck.”

Haliday thought for a few minutes. He called Rob over, “Look, this is what we’re going to do. We have to concentrate fire on the southeast side. A light rate of fire. We need these guys to shift in their positions. At the same time, I need the east side to have some men move in a little closer, not try and rush the east side, just make a few good attempts to get in closer.” Rob said he would get it taken care of. “You wait for my signal Rob; I’m going to have Mark pop a few rounds of smoke over there.”

Rob headed over to the east side in the four wheeler and told the guys what they were going to do. The men who volunteered got ready, while over on the west side Haliday told the town’s snipers what to do. Haliday himself climbed up into a tree and got ready as well. He could hardly see the guys behind their fighting positions; admittedly it was harder than he thought.

He took aim on the inside of the fighting position and keyed his mic. “Mark, do it now.” Mark launched four rounds of smoke toward the east perimeter and Rob had some of the guys fire into the east side positions as four of the guys made short advances through the woods to get closer. The advancing men just concentrated on getting closer and they fired just a few rounds from the SKS’s they had.

Rob was helping them suppress the militia on this side. He spotted the militia shift in their positions to provide more return fire toward the advancing townspeople. One of the militia was able to fire toward the advancing men and struck one in the abdomen. This man went down and crawled behind a tree. Rob and the rest of his men opened up.

Haliday was aiming at the sandbag and saw the color change in his scope. He fired the round and watched it penetrate the man’s back square between his shoulders. The man went forward and Haliday could only see his arm and hand on his rifle. Haliday fired another shot and the man’s hand came off at the wrist. Haliday knew the guy was dead from the first round, but with Haliday himself going in soon, he was just making sure.

The men firing with Haliday managed to wound two and kill one more. Out of the three positions, they still had one fully capable militia, two injured and two dead. Going into the compound directly from the south was their best option. Chuck came over and Haliday explained the change in plans and they moved the two building entry teams to the south.

Back up toward the main gate, Mark ordered them to launch a dozen of the tannerite cans. They made a last minute change and used fluorescent green highlighters to paint the tape so they could be spotted more easily. A few didn’t make it over the line of cars the militia was using, but that worked out in Mark’s favor.

Mark had one of the guys fire at one. The can exploded in front of the cars and they could hear the nails peppering the sheet metal. The militia just looked at each other. One more exploded and the nails flew everywhere. The militia looked around and saw a few of these lying on the ground behind them. They didn’t know what to do with them.

Mark had the guys pepper the whole north side of the compound and around the admin building with the remaining tannerite cans they had. Haliday’s and Chuck’s teams each had five of their own that they would use. These were turning out to be nice little devices. Haliday was surprised he hadn’t thought of it before.

Mark had them blow a few more tannerite cans and the word had thoroughly spread throughout the militia what these things were about. They all kept a very close eye on them. A few of the militia had taken their jackets off and tossed them, trying to cover the cans up. One guy managed to cover up the one by him and then he shot it himself. Kind of like the redneck who says, ‘Hey y’all, watch this.’ Fortunately the jacket contained the nails, although it was fairly well shredded.

Haliday was ready to move in. He was behind the wheel of his Jeep and he had four other men with him. One in the passenger seat, one on each nerf bar and one in the back seat. He had Rob behind the wheel of the four wheeler and the rest of Chuck’s entry team barely hanging on so they could exit quickly. Haliday had secured the Barrett and was ready with his pistol and AR180.

Each team was four men. Two with shotguns, two with AR’s and everyone had pistols with them as well. Haliday was the only one carrying a Smith. The rest had Glocks. He never liked Glocks;, something about a pistol that was dishwasher safe didn’t appeal to him. That and the fact that once on the range at the police station years ago, he watched a hot reload blow the top of the grip off one. The guy ended up with 25 stitches. He had seven magazines for his, so he didn’t worry too much about interchanging mags.

The plan was not as suicidal as it sounded. They had the two injured and one full bodied man to deal with. With any luck they would already be neutralized before they got there. Haliday clicked his mic, “Ok everyone, we are a go.” Haliday and Rob had about 450 yards to go and left one behind the other.

As they approached the southern buildings, they criss-crossed paths a couple of times and would widen and narrow their space between them to try and randomize their approach and throw off the target acquisition anyone might have on them. The groups on the east and west side started firing into the militia positions while the snipers looked for targets.

One of the injured militia raised himself up to take aim on the approaching vehicles. He went down before he could pull the trigger on them. The other militia positions on the east and west sides didn’t have enough cover to help out. To shift fire and help out would mean exposing themselves and possibly be overrun themselves. They continued their fight to the east and west.

Of the three positions they needed to neutralize, the center one was empty. The one to the east only had one injured man left and this was where Rob was heading. The one Haliday was near was the one to worry about. They still had that one guy in there with his injured partner. Haliday kept a steady pace as he approached it.

The west tree line positions opened up with everything they had. As the Jeep came to a stop, the men on the nerf bars hit the ground running and fired into the position as the other two exited the Jeep. The return fire dropped one of the men with a hit to the chest and one to the man’s leg. The other three advancing men fired into the position with 10 rounds of buck shot and a full 30 round magazine.

The guy was hit multiple times and the advancing men heard screams from the other man who had been injured and was now lying down on the ground with his hands in the air pleading to not be shot. One of the advancing members rolled the guy over and placed handcuffs on him and left him there. Haliday moved the Jeep toward the building as they rushed toward the last of the three positions.

Rob’s four wheeler approached and before it came to a stop the militia member came up firing. Chuck, who was next to Rob, fired back along with the other two. One of the men in the back fell off the four wheeler and tumbled along the ground dead. A sniper from the east side had to fire three shots, but hit the injured militia member, ending his life.

The militia group on the east fired up into the trees when they spotted this man and hit him. The man had only been hit in the leg, but lost his footing on the reversed tree stand and fell to the ground breaking his arm and some ribs. He laid there unable to move and the militia finished him off as he laid there trying to get behind the tree.

Mark’s area was much harder to assault. With most of the buildings and fortifications in place on the north side, it was hard for them to find suitable targets. Mark ordered a cease fire unless the snipers could definitely get a shot in. They couldn’t afford to waste any more ammunition on just trying to suppress fire.

He called over to Brad. “We need to see about getting these people moving and exposed. See if they can fire into any of the tannerite cans and let’s see what happens. If we can’t get to them, it’s a waste of our effort.” Brad and Mark both passed the word along. A few of the guys started to take some shots on the tannerite cans, hoping to hit them.

One of the cans near one of the militia’s northeast positions exploded, sending its nails flying. The two people in the fighting position were hit causing multiple cuts on their backs and the backs of their necks. Two nails embedded themselves in one of the men’s neck. He reached around and tried to remove them, but his jacket was in the way.

The other man moved over quickly to help him out. Mark saw this and waited. When the man went back to his side of the fighting position, Mark fired and struck the man in the left arm and shoulder. The militia called in for aid and this is when they discovered the situation was worse than it actually was. They were on their own with what they had with them.

The deuce couldn’t provide cover for delivery or extraction. The militia would have to stand their ground the best they could until the opportunity arose when someone could get more supplies to them. They had plenty of rounds, just no food or first aid capability for those who needed intensive medical treatment.

Mark called a cease-fire again. He told everyone to save their rounds and not to fire on the tannerite anymore until they could plan a new strategy. Mark called Haliday. “Roger, how’s it going down there?”

Haliday responded. “We are in the perimeter. We have most of the south side now. I need you to get some guys down here to help take out the other two positions.”

Mark and Brad gathered a few guys together and went around to the south side of the airport. Once there, he assigned four guys to move forward to the brick emplacements and then work there way forward to take over the militia emplacements that had been seized. They would have to alter the positions to make them more effective, but right now they would serve them well enough.

Mark would then concentrate on helping Rob and the rest of the guys take the other positions out of service. With Haliday and Chuck’s entry teams clearing the three most southern buildings, they would use these to help continue moving the assault closer to the admin and motor pool buildings. In between these buildings and the ones Haliday would take were the food and supply storage buildings.

Over by the northeast corner of the compound, some of the townspeople started to take fire from behind them. They scrambled for cover. They were now practically caught in a cross fire. The militia had a couple of members heading toward the airport to join them.

They had stopped to wait out the assault and then come help if they were called in. One of these militia vehicles had come up directly from the east and was now in a position to help out. The people in this vehicle had found an area to hide. They were now engaging the townspeople in the fire fight.

Chapter 34

Haliday adjusted the entry teams. He now had two teams with only three guys each. Chuck’s and his. They decided to go with two shotguns and an AR in order to prevent over penetrating the buildings. The first building they went to enter was a large hangar building furthest south. One of the guys went up to the back door and used the shotgun to blow through the lock.

Once the man blew the lock he swung the door open and he tossed a tannerite can inside which Haliday then fired on. The can exploded, but instead of nails they had used the small airsoft beads. Basically homemade stun grenades. They didn’t want to damage what might be inside. Both teams entered the building and conducted the building sweep. This building was completely filled with food. They noticed Walmart tags on most of the items.

The next building was very small. This one they could not reach yet because there was no back door. It was the building the militia had used for interrogating people. Haliday went to the back window and pulled out his mirror and took a peek. He waved Chuck over. Chuck took the mirror and looked in the window as well. There were a couple of chairs and a table, but there was also more.

They had built a rack to suspend people from. They would use this to keep the person’s hands tied over their heads and their feet barely touching the ground. There was blood on one of the chairs and on the floor. The worst part was a man still hanging from one side of the rack. It looked like he had been dead for a few days already.

Chuck looked at Roger, “I know that guy.”

“Who is it Chuck?”

Chuck looked pissed. “That’s the chief of police. He went missing the second day of the outage. No one knew what the hell happened to him. We all thought maybe he bugged out. He and the sheriff never got along. I guess we know now what happened to him. Seems like the chief wasn’t going to put up with any BS and they decided he was a liability.”

Roger keyed his mic and told everyone what they had found. This re-ignited the rage that the people had for the militia. They went back into the first building and made their way over to the west side of it. They went out and Haliday’s team provided cover while Chuck’s team made it to the back of another building. This was going to be the last easy building to clear.

Mark had heard the shots being fired over at the north east corner and knew something was wrong. He called and confirmed that there was a problem. “Ok, Brad,” he said, “We need to get over there and see what’s going on.” He called on the radio and told everyone to keep checking their rear. Roger and Brad took off. Rob stayed to make sure everyone got up to the emplacements.

Roger got one team at a time moved up toward the three buildings. They got all three manned without any problems. They spent a few minutes arranging them to make it a bit safer. The next piece of the puzzle would be to get the other two positions emptied out. They had a couple of parlor tricks left to do this. He called a couple more guys up to his position. They came up and each brought a couple of large plastic toolboxes with them.

Over the next 30 minutes they made two more trips with more supplies and ammo. They were almost ready to make the assault on the two positions. They had to wait for Chuck to enter the other building and clear it first. Chuck was there at the back. They blew the door, tossed in and then blew the tannerite can. As soon as they entered the building more shots were fired.

Roger and his team got down low. They waited until the firing stopped. Haliday ran over to the building and crouched down low. He yelled into the door. “Chuck, what’s the status?” he asked.

Chuck’s voice came back, “We’re clear. We have one wounded and we took out one militia.” Haliday entered the building. Inside was a woman lying there dead and Chuck’s man who was hit in the hip.

Haliday walked over to him and checked him out. Chuck had put a pressure bandage on his hip. “How bad?” Haliday asked. Chuck said he would be ok, but wouldn’t be able to move. “We can’t get him out of here for at least another hour,” Roger said. He looked at the guy; “Can you make it until then?”

“Ya, sure, it just hurts.”

Haliday grabbed a bottle out of his pocket and handed him a vicodin. “Take this. It’ll help.”

Haliday told Chuck he was heading back to the other building to get ready. Once he got there, they looked out and saw the target. Haliday asked the guys if they were ready and both nodded. They would be launching a small assault from two buildings, his and the one Chuck was in. Haliday clicked his mic. “We go on my word. Everyone ready, three, two, one, go.”

Mark and Brad had gone slow and came up across the street from the brickyard. They saw a truck over in the yard. “I wonder if that’s their truck?” he said.

Brad said, “Yep, that’s where we got the tractor and it wasn’t there before.” Mark and Brad checked the woods around the brickyard. They spotted some movement and kept their eyes on it.

Mark told Brad he was going to low crawl up into a better position. Brad kept watch as Mark moved forward. Mark was about 25 yards closer to the people now and he watched too. He heard some shots fired from the compound area and saw these people fire back. They weren’t wearing the Russian camo and he wasn’t sure who they were. He was wondering if they were good guys or bad.

He motioned for Brad to crawl up. Brad moved up slowly, very slowly. Mark could tell he wasn’t used to this. He looked over at Brad and pointed the people out. Brad looked at them and then back at Mark and shook his head no. These were definitely not part of Rob’s group. He told Brad he was moving over to line himself up better.

While he was moving the pair fired once again toward the compound. He heard the guy say he got one. “Good job, sweetie,” he heard.

This was a couple, he thought. He moved back toward Brad. “It’s a man and a woman, I’m going to go further east and come through the brickyard. You come along to a point and then provide me some cover. We can’t get them from here. I need to take a clean shot and can’t get one right now.”

They moved east and then found a place to cross. “You stay here. Brad. I’ll cross over and check it out. I’ll signal you when I want you to cross. Mark crossed over into the brickyard and made his way toward the couple. He peeked around a pallet of bricks and spotted two small children hunkered down behind them. He looked across at Brad and signaled him to back off a bit.

Over toward the main gate, some of the guys took pot shots at the militia positions. They were not able to effectively do anything. They tried to light the gel fuel. They tried bows and arrows and aiming high hoping the arrows would drop on the guys, but nothing was working. One of the guys took a shot at a vehicle and ruptured the gas tank. Everyone else just looked at each other.

They started shooting the vehicles themselves and were trying to puncture as many of the fuel tanks as they could. The militia pushed the vehicles in place but did not empty the tanks out. Gas was now flowing along the entire line of vehicles that the militia relied on for protection and cover at the front of the admin building.

Once a couple of tanks were punctured and the militia caught on to what was happening they fired toward the townspeople. They unleashed over 1,000 rounds to try and stop them. The militia had hit a man and woman who were injured and another man was killed. The people lit some fireworks and aimed them toward the vehicle barricade. Finally one struck gas and within minutes they all started to burn.

After about 10 minutes, the line of cars was so engulfed in flames you could hardly see through all of the smoke. The militia was able to pull back toward some secondary defensive positions rather safely. Only one man sustained a hit while making the moves, and it was just an injury that left him bleeding, but still able to fight. The townspeople took the opportunity to gather up any of their own wounded and get them to safety.

Haliday’s team popped the door open at the same time Chuck’s team did. The team members with the AR’s laid down prone while the men with shotguns took different stances. One kneeled and one stood, both using the thin hangar wall along the door jambs as cover. They instantly started firing toward their assigned militia positions.

The folks on the east and west sides fired as well. Haliday watched one man take off toward the center of the building complex and tried to lead his fire on him. Before he could fire on him though the concrete next to him shattered causing him to roll for cover. The two men with him continued to fire and eliminated the threat that fired on Haliday. The militia member running made it to another position, but this one was out of their view.

Chuck’s team didn’t have such good luck. As soon as they opened to fire, they took hits immediately. Chuck fired away, but one of the guys had his shotgun jam on him, and as he tried to eject the shell he was hit twice and went down. Chuck continued to fire as the other man pulled the injured guy out of the way. He returned to help Chuck. The snipers still didn’t have any shots on this militia position and couldn’t help Chuck’s team.

Rob had everyone moved up into the southern positions and now had a couple of guys in the buildings waiting. He went over to see if he could help Chuck. Chuck told him the guys were dug in pretty deep and wasn’t sure if they would be able to get them out of that position. They all backed up and waited. They called Haliday for direction. Haliday told them to send a couple to his location and he would come over and see what was going on.

Mark took another look around the area. He couldn’t spot anyone else so he made his move. He shouldered his AR and pulled out his pistol. He sprang around the corner of the bricks and took aim at the two kid, he put his finger to his mouth. He spoke quietly and told them to raise their hands up which they did.

Mark then had them lay down and he zip tied their hands together. The kids were maybe 10 or 11 years old, a boy and girl. Mark was shocked at this. “Here kids, you hide here behind the bricks while we go play army.” It was appalling in every sense. He didn’t like what he did next. He stood them up then called out to their parents.

The parents froze. All they heard was “Drop your weapons and approach your children with your hands raised high.” They had no idea who had their kids or what the person would do. The husband suggested he sneak over across the street and try and come up behind them. The wife protested. The little girl cried out, “Mommy I’m scared. One of the bad men has us.” Mark’s blood boiled at this.

Haliday walked in and looked down at the man from Chuck’s team who had gotten hit. The man was losing blood and would need help fast. Haliday grabbed his mirror and took a quick glance. No sooner had he put it in the doorway when the militia fired. The shots were too close for comfort and one came through the thin steel just above his head.

Haliday looked over at Rob. “Listen, get a few more guys up here. Have them take over here in the building. In the meantime Chuck and I will take our teams and enter that big ass building they are using to keep all the food and supplies in. If we can get to the west end, we can take them out.” Rob signaled for a couple more guys to come over and he said he would stay as well.

Chuck and Haliday got their teams together. They needed Rob to draw the fire and as soon as they started, they bolted for the door. They got the door open and entered it quickly without any tannerite can. They all kept low. They looked around. There were stacks upon stacks of food piled in here.

Over at the main gate, not only had the smoke and fire given the militia a chance to retreat, it also gave a few people the chance to move forward close to the line of cars. Four people had rushed forward and then laid down waiting for the flames to subside. This was as close as anyone had managed to get to the admin building.

Mark was waiting for the kids parents to approach. He heard the woman say, “Don’t hurt them. I’m on my way.”

Mark yelled out, “Both of you. I said both of you.” There was a pause and she said her husband was injured. Mark couldn’t believe these people were playing games with their kids. “Listen lady, I have two guys in the woods. If he ain’t injured he will be. You wanna keep playing games?”

He heard the man, “Ok, we’re both coming out, don’t shoot.”

Mark waited and both of them came walking out hands held high. Mark called out, “Brad, come on in, but tell your brother to keep his sights on these two.” Brad came out slowly with his rifle raised. Mark ordered them to the ground with their hands behind their backs. Brad approached and zip tied them.

The zip ties came in handy. They were cable ties from an electric supply shop, but Haliday had made sure everyone took plenty with them. He told them to tuck them in their boots, their ball caps, waist bands, wherever they felt comfortable putting them. This was the exact reason why.

Haliday and Chuck made it to the west end of the hangar; no one was in there. He looked at the wall and there weren’t any doors or windows. Up toward the top, he spotted two large air vents. Up against the wall was a rolling ladder. He slowly moved it over about 10 feet and climbed up. He pulled out his Leatherman and used it to pry open one of the louvers.

He looked down. This was going to be the perfect angle for the one position, unfortunately the next position down the line would have clear shots and the lack of protection would be sure death for whomever was up here. He looked at the other vent. Two shooters could do it, just have to figure out how to get someone up there.

Haliday kept looking around for something to use. “Anybody have any ideas on a platform for a second shooter?” he asked. “We have to be able to get down quickly too.” Everyone was looking around. Most of the hangar space had been cleared for the food storage. There wasn’t a whole lot they could use.

Brad and Mark searched the couple and the kids thoroughly. Mark walked them over to their vehicle and opened it up. He looked around a bit and grabbed some rope. He tied them up to a pallet of bricks. He walked back over and grabbed a couple of blankets and tossed them over the kids. It was time to head back to the compound and help.

Mark called in and told them about the four prisoners. He then made his way back to the compound with Brad. He went over the situation as it currently stood. They had made some good ground, but needed more. Once they fully secured the south end they could close the noose a little more.

Haliday looked at everyone. “It’s not that high. Grab some pallets, quickly. Take the stuff off of them if you have to. We need five or six.” The first three were ready and Haliday stood them on edge and formed a triangle. He laid one on top to form a platform. They piled up two more and he moved the stairs over and got up on the platform. “You guys keep it steady, “ Haliday said.

He pried the louvers of this vent open as far as he could. “This will work,” he said, “someone else get up here quick. You guys keep this steady.” Chuck was on the stairs and they were both ready. Haliday clicked his mic, “Now Rob.” Rob and a couple others fired out the door and Haliday and Chuck fired on their targets. After emptying a complete magazine, Haliday scrambled and got down. Chuck followed not even a second later.

Sure enough the walls around the vents opened up with a few holes. One second longer for either of them and they would have been hit. They immediately cleared the west wall of the hangar building as it took a few more rounds. Haliday called over to Rob, “How’d we do?” Rob said he would check. He wasn’t sure.

Rob got down low and took a quick peek. It looked like the position was neutralized. “Wait a second,” Rob said. There came another volley of fire. A man in the position Haliday fired into ran toward the buildings into another position as others laid down cover fire. Rob came back on. “Looks like the two guys close to us are dead and the other position was vacated, but someone left in it is either dead or injured.”

Mark and Brad were studying the north end now. Still the same problem. They got a few people closer, but not enough. The only thing they could do would be to keep more people from going in and to keep the militia from coming out. Rob called Haliday and told him the situation. Haliday acknowledged and told him to get some guys over on the south end to get the casualties out.

Mark sent the four wheeler with their makeshift medic team over there, along with two more guys. He settled down and continued to watch the area. Brad threw out some different ideas, but nothing made sense. “We wait it out,” said Mark. Mark reached in his pocket and pulled out a small bag of jerky and gave Brad a piece and chewed on one himself.

Rob sent two guys over to the militia position. As soon as they got there the first man into the position was shot with a pistol four times. The second of Rob’s guys fired his rifle into the militia man who had been laying there waiting. The man yelled over to Rob and told him it was secure now, but they lost Kenny. Rob sent one more guy over to the position.

The four wheeler made it in and they evacuated the wounded and the dead using the two four wheelers. The injured were taken next door to the police station and the dead were placed next door to that for the time being. The medical staff got busy working on everyone.

The group had managed to take full control of the south end of the airport and some key buildings. They also controlled the main gate entrance now as far as anyone being able to get in that way. The next push would be even harder. Haliday went into one of the buildings and came back out with a case of water. He opened a bottle and drank it down. Most of the other guys did the same.

He had a few cases of water taken out and a bunch of granola bars and snacks. It had been a long time already, almost six hours. They started around 0800 and they only had about four hours of daylight left now. Haliday sat down and cracked open a fruit roll up.

During the lull in activity Mark had a couple of people get the prisoners and take them to the jail. They had rigged up a wood stove courtesy of the tractor supply store and it was nice and warm in there. Mark asked Haliday for more food and Haliday agreed. They loaded up a bunch and took it over to the police station as well.

Haliday was drinking some more water when he stopped and dropped the bottle. He held his hand up and listened. He called Mark on the radio. “We have a deuce inbound. It sounds like it’s coming from the south.” Haliday started shouting out orders. Everyone started running in different directions. “Mark, get over here quick. Everyone, heads up, inbound bad guys from the south.”

The deuce was barreling down the road. Everything was quiet and as he was standing there he heard the shifting of the engine. He was kneeling down behind one of the militia emplacements they had taken when he saw it approach. It was a small three vehicle convoy. The deuce along with a pickup and an older van.

The three vehicles entered the south fence line breach and spread out. Haliday had militia north in the buildings and south. He called Mark. “Mark, where you at buddy, any idea what’s going on.”

Mark told him to wait a minute as he was checking them out. Mark called him, “Ok, I have the info. We have problems.”

Mark gave him the rundown of what was going on. “The deuce is in the middle and the other vehicles are left and right of it about 20 yards and it looks like a makeshift spearhead formation. The vehicles look like the drivers are armored up. They make the approach with any foot troops and you’re screwed.”

“The deuce has an upper turret. The pickup truck has an armored portal on the back of it as well. I count six people in the van, two in the pickup and eight in the deuce. All Russian camo and all carrying AR’s except for the deuce and pickup turrets. They have 7.62’s for sure. Roger, they have a ton of ammo with them. The deuce has armor on the sides of the bed. Maybe 36 inches tall.”

Haliday said, “That’s wonderful. The guys in the woods can’t take shots until they get closer and once that happens they are close enough to run us out. We’re going to lose the ground we have taken and a lot more lives. Mark, coordinate what you can. Do what you can. Let me know. Make sure the north holds their positions and keeps them busy.”

Haliday told them that anybody on the east and west that could take shots at these guys should do it. “Go for the tires, go for the gunners and concentrate on the rest after that.” The snipers had to hit the gunners and drivers. They had to stop the vehicles.

Mark came on the radio again. “Roger, they are finalizing their plans and gear.” Haliday looked at his watch. It had been about 40 minutes from the time he heard the deuce until now. They were toward the end of the runway and had about ¾ of a mile to reach them.

The vehicles started moving slowly forward. The deuce was leading with the others about 35 feet behind and off to the sides. The pickup had a driver and two gunners in it. The deuce had a driver, gunner and four men in the back. The van just had a driver and one man who had slid the side door open. The other five men moved on foot. Mark called and told everyone they were moving

The pace was slow and the suspense was getting on everyone’s nerves. The guys in the tree line started to take some shots at the vehicles but they were still a little too far away. The militia accompanying the vehicles was keeping a sharp lookout to the sides and behind them. The anticipation was growing.

They were much closer now and the tree line on both sides erupted with fire. The first vehicle to take a hit was on one of the back tires of the deuce, but that was like a scratch and didn’t phase it. The deuce paused and one of the guys on foot dropped the tailgate and the rest climbed in the back. They continued to move toward Haliday.

The gunners in the deuce lit up the tree line where they spotted a sniper. The man was hit and started to fall out of the tree, but just dangled from his tree stand harness. He was wounded and trying to free himself as he continued to take fire from the militia. After just a few more moments he went limp after sustaining more hits.

The man who had been using the front loader as cover was in a bind, he was exposed no matter where he went. He looked around for a way to get to safety rather than stay in place and stay safe. He made a run for another position, but the pickup truck gunner took aim and hit the man twice. The man tumbled forward and fell. The gunner put another round into him.

The men in the tree line fired again and hit the van’s front tire. The tire deflated and the rim dug into the grass and dirt slowing it down. The rear tires started to spin as they lost traction trying to propel the vehicle forward. The van only made it another 25 feet before it wouldn’t move anymore. It was now stuck where it was. The militia men inside readied themselves to make a run for it.

The deuce paused so the men from the van could get in. The driver leapt out and ran for the deuce and the man at the side door of the van jumped down. His feet had barely hit the ground when Mark fired half of a magazine into the guy. The militia returned fire on Mark, who was lying prone behind one of the metal portals the shop had built. He could hear the rounds strike the plate and the woods around him.

Mark called out some instructions so they would keep him covered. He would have to wait it out for a little bit before he would be able to get to a safer position. The assault from the front and now the rear caught them off guard and they were reforming their plans to adjust for the increase in militia members fighting them.

The deuce and pickup started to move forward again. The pickup now moved in a bit closer to the deuce so they could cover each other’s vehicle. This was an amateur move and could put the militia in greater danger. Concentrating troops in a small area like this could make it easier to take out more at once.

They could gun it and rush Haliday’s positions and then all jump out near the emplacements, but that was suicide. Mark was waiting, but he was still pinned down and we stayed still because it was his only option. He still had to wait for a better opportunity before he could move out. He called Haliday and told him.

Haliday was only able to grab a quick peek once in a while. The gunners were a threat and were keeping Haliday and his men down low and unable to fire back. The pickup and deuce made it to about 200 yards away from Haliday and slowed again. Haliday literally didn’t know what to do. He had to think quickly.

They could try and bail over to the buildings and fight inside but that wasn’t any better. They would simply be pinned inside with no way out. Haliday was ticked off that they didn’t have a better grip on their own rear position, especially since this was how they got in themselves. He heard a voice on the radio.

“We’re coming up from the rear, ‘you copy?’ we have two bikes and the Jeep. Do not fire on us.” Haliday told everyone on the radio to pass the word. Do not fire on the vehicles behind the trucks, they are good guys. Concentrate your fire on the sides. The tree line lit up again on the militia and the militia fired back.

Straight up behind them roared two motorcycles and the Jeep. Blake was on his bike and Alan on the KLR. They both went for the cover of the van and took up their positions and fired toward the advancing militia from the rear. The first two people to go down were the two guys in the back of the pickup truck.

The driver didn’t know where the rounds had come from. He gunned it and took off for one of the emplacements. His goal now was to get out of the open and into the emplacements occupied by Haliday’s group. They didn’t want to remain targeted any longer. The truck bounced violently across the open field as it increased speed.

He plowed into the emplacement crushing one of the men underneath the pickup and the sand bags. The other man had jumped out of the way. The driver got out and fired on the man. Rob was one position over and saw what happened. Rob fired and dropped the man and then got back down. They were taking heavy fire from the deuce now.

One of the militia in the deuce looked back and his eyes widened with horror. There was this Jeep right behind them with two guys at the roll bar firing into the back of the deuce. The Jeep was only 50 yards behind them. Mike was driving and Kevin and Randy had AR’s blazing away. They went through three magazines each in a matter of about a minute.

 Mike hit the brakes and swung left, then stopped. They now had Alan and Blake by the van and Mike, Randy and Kevin by the Jeep, and both groups were behind the militia deuce. The fire was concentrated on the deuce. The deuce slowed and the driver gunned the engine trying to get it to move faster. The two front tires and a couple of the rear tires were flat.

One of the men jumped down and raised the tailgate up. They wanted to protect the men in the back from more fire and they were basically like fish in a barrel. Blake took aim as the man was climbing up and hit the man three times in the back. One of the guys in the back of the deuce had tried to help lift the guy in and one of the snipers took him out with a head shot. The man just hung over the tailgate of the deuce with the other man lying on the ground.

Mark got up and headed along the east side and stopped. He popped some tear gas into the 37mm launcher and put three rounds close to the deuce. The men inside were scrambling to put on gas masks. Mark fired into the tank of the deuce multiple times and watched the fuel drain out. He was about to launch a flare when he saw a couple of white flags waving.

He called Haliday on the radio. “I punctured the tank after I fired some tear gas over there, I was about to launch some flares when I saw two white flags. They want to surrender. What do you think?”

Haliday said, “Let them.” Haliday called out a ceasefire. It took about 15 minutes but eventually all of the firing stopped.

Haliday called over to Mike. “How far away from them are you?” he asked.

Mike said, “About 50 or 60 yards. What do you want me to do?”

Haliday asked him, “Can you hear them. Can you talk to them?”

“Hold on,” Mike said, “I’ll check.” Mike yelled over to the deuce. “Can you hear me?”

Someone answered back, “Ya, we can hear you. We want to surrender.”

Mike told Haliday and asked him what to do next. Haliday told him to repeat what he was saying. Mike did just that. “You are fully surrounded with snipers and gunmen. Do as you are told and no harm will come to you. If you fire we will fire back on everyone. Do you understand?” The reply was yes.

Mike continued. “Driver, get out first and walk to the rear of the truck. Keep your hands held high.” The driver got out and did as he was told. “Gunner, you’re next.” The gunner complied as well. “Now open the tailgate of the truck.” The driver and gunner opened the tailgate. Inside was a mix of dead, wounded, and men who had given up on the fight.

Haliday told Mark, Blake, Alan, Randy and Kevin to keep their weapons trained on them. Mike spoke again. “One by one exit the back of the truck. You must remove everyone including the dead and injured. We want you 50 feet from the back of the truck.” The militia carried out the orders.

Haliday and Chuck moved in from behind slowly with rifles ready. They approached the deuce and checked the cab with a mirror, then moved toward the back and checked the bed, which was empty except for some weapons and gear. Haliday took over from here. “I want all of you not injured to move forward 10 yards and stop.”

The men moved forward and Haliday called Blake and Mike over. Haliday told them to check the dead and injured for any weapons of any type. “Take everything off them.” After they did this, they tossed everything in the back of the deuce. Haliday told the other men to spread out 10 feet, lay down, cross their legs, and place their hands on the backs of their heads.

Each one was searched and all of their gear was removed from them. Haliday had them all bound up. He called and asked if any of the nurses or doctors was available. One of the doctors came by and had another man with him. “Who’s that?” Haliday asked.

The doctor answered, “He’s from the fire department. He’s a paramedic.”

Haliday told them both thank you. “Can you take a look and let me know how the rest are?”

“Sure thing,” they said. They did a quick triage of the men.

Sixteen militia members had assaulted them. Five were still alive, seven were dead and four wounded. The doctor said that of the wounded, two more would die within hours. The other two were taken to the makeshift hospital under guard. Haliday asked the militia who was in charge. One of the men said he was.

Haliday walked over to him, “It’s time to end this thing now. You have women and children in there. You have women and children waiting for you guys out there, and many of them are not going to see their family members alive again. If we continue, it’s going to be a lot more. You ready to help end this?”

The man looked around at his fellow militia, the dead on the ground and the two dying men. “Yes, let’s end it.”

Chapter 35

Haliday called Blake over to him. Blake walked up and they stepped aside. Haliday looked at him, “Who’s idea was that?”

Blake hesitated a bit. “Well, we heard how things were going and we got our stuff ready, we headed this way and hung out about halfway between here and the house. When I heard you call in the deuce I told them we needed to go now and we all headed this way.”

Haliday said, “Good job kid. You saved a lot of lives here. That made all the difference.”

They walked over to the militia men and Haliday called a few guys in to transport the prisoners. He looked over the leader and said, “Pick one more man to negotiate and then call in to the compound and tell them to send out two people. They’ll be safe, and if it doesn’t work out I’ll return them.” He cut the man’s hands loose and looked around. “Brad, you stay with me.” He then called in and spoke to the HQ.

Haliday listened to the conversation. “You guys in there don’t understand. These people just handed us our asses. We have 5 out 16 of us left, you hear that? Five of us. Our wives and kids aren’t coming anywhere near this place. Hell, if they are smart they left already. You understand what’s happening out here? Do you guys understand what will happen in there?”

The man continued, “Listen, they control the south end of the compound and that includes the food. You can’t get anyone in or out of the main gate because they have that under their control as well. It’s just a matter of time before they continue to march forward and then push everyone into the HQ building, where they’ll probably burn it down. Negotiating a ceasefire is the best we can get.”

The HQ replied to him. “They can bring their group in and we can talk in here.” Haliday looked at the guy and shook his head no.

The man spoke, “Listen, you’re safer out here and they ain’t buying that come inside BS.”

“All right, we’re coming out, give us about five minutes.” Haliday put everyone on high alert and they watched as two guys made their way out of the admin building.

They walked up and looked Haliday up and down. Haliday looked at them and said, “You guys want a date or what? I don’t have time for bullshit here. You guys have caused me enough grief to last a lifetime.” Rob looked at them. He knew one of the guys, but wasn’t sure about the other. Haliday said, “This is Brad, Chuck and Rob; they will negotiate along with me.”

One man looked at him; “You’re an outsider. What gives you the right?”

Haliday answered, “Listen shithead. I’m not going to explain it. If you’d rather we continue to reduce your ranks, we can end the conversation now and go right back at it. Now you can talk nice or you can go in there and explain to everyone why they are going to die. So this is what will happen.”

Haliday continued, “First, each and every one of you will surrender. You will all be placed into custody until these guys here decide who to try and who to release. They will hold the trials in a public venue with an impartial jury. The sentences they give out will be final. No appeals. There were some serious crimes committed here. That’s not negotiable.”

“Second, any and all food here will remain in the townspeoples custody and that will be distributed according to how they see fit. There is a community here and everyone will come together and share resources. You guys will be included. You will not be leaving with what you think is yours; too many people paid the price for it already. That’s not negotiable.”

“Third, your firearms will be seized along with all ammunition. Your homes will be searched.. These firearms will not be returned until they see fit to return them to you. This prevents you guys from banding together and playing warlords again. That’s not negotiable.”

“Fourth, you guys are responsible for any women and children from your group who are now left on their own. You’ll take them in and you’ll take care of them. I don’t mean servitude, I mean as part of your family. We will be checking on them. That’s not negotiable.”

“Fifth, you will provide burial for each and every person that has died here. You will dig their graves, you will bury them with respect and it will be done with the utmost dignity. You will do so at the sheriff’s house. That’s not negotiable. You have any questions?”

“I do,” one of the militia said as he moved forward a bit. “What exactly do we get to negotiate?”

Haliday smiled at him. “Your life. That’s what you get to negotiate. You take the terms and live or you roll the dice and see what comes out of it that way. You look smart enough to understand that. I’ll give you guys a few minutes to talk.”

Haliday and his group backed off a bit. There was some arguing going on for a minute, then three of the militia members walked over. “Ok, we accept.”

Haliday pointed over at the fourth man. “What about him, is he going to be trouble?”

One answered, “No he shouldn’t be.”

Haliday said, “Ok, he stays then.” He pointed; “You and you go back in and tell them what’s happening. Call me when you’re ready. We’ll walk you through the process.”

Haliday moved away and talked to Chuck, Brad and Rob. “You guys good with that I assume?”

Rob said, “Ya, how do we try them though.”

Chuck spoke up, “I’ll help with that.”

“That’s good,” Haliday said. “You’ll also need to set up some form of government rule to keep things civil.” The radio crackled. “They’re ready,” Haliday said.

Haliday started with the fighting positions. He would empty one and bring the people in. He emptied the second and then had Rob’s guys move into the first. Eventually all of the positions were manned by Rob’s group. He had the people come out of the admin building two at a time and bring the injured with them.

Everyone was outside now and disarmed. Haliday had them all bound and ready for transport. He’d be sending them to the county jail just down from the police department and would use locks and chains on the cells. They would be the community’s problem now. An hour later they were all in cells.

Haliday walked over to the building where they had kept the prisoners. They entered it and found almost a dozen people inside. They were all still alive, but some were badly beaten and they were hungry and thirsty. They tended to these people and moved them to safety. Haliday asked them who was captured in the woods with the motorcycle and a couple raised their hands. “You guys can leave when you want, we’ll get you to your boat when you’re ready.”

They went through each of the buildings and made sure each was empty and that they had all of the firearms and ammunition gathered up. This was all placed in the admin building. They made sure nothing that could be used as a weapon was left in the buildings at all, especially in the buildings used for housing.

Haliday rounded up all of his people and they stood around and talked for a bit. He told Rob to make sure the people in the jail got food and water and had blankets so they would be warm enough. “Get their work detail busy and get the bodies handled right away. Use the chain gang format.”

Rob looked at Roger, “Why the sheriff’s house?”

Roger told him that if the sheriff ever saw freedom again, he would need a reminder every day.

“Rob, keep this area under heavy security at all times, and move everything to a secure location as soon as you can.” Haliday looked around. What a hell of a couple weeks this had been. “Rob, good luck, we’ll be in touch.” They shook hands and parted ways. Haliday and Mark took the rest of the guys and they all headed home.

They arrived back at the house. They all passed on dinner and opted for showers and fresh clothes instead. Afterwards they settled for soup. They were sitting around in silence. Kayla had security set up for the night. It would be Rich, Bev, Karen, Sarah, Dawn, Diana, David and herself taking turns tonight. They let the guys sleep through the night.

Chapter 36

It had been three days since the last assault on the airport. Roger sat at the table drinking his coffee and eating his breakfast burrito. Both Max, the mutant dog and Romeo, the cat, were eyeing his plate. “I don’t think so, animals,” he said. Romeo had his own food and Max was given scraps and leftovers to eat. The byproduct of that, however, was mutant dog farts which Max seemed to enjoy sharing with Roger.

Blake was sitting next to him, and Alan was across the table with Kevin. Mark was sitting in a chair next to Lisa who was doing much better now. In a couple more days, she would be ok and as long as Haliday was certain no infection or issues would arise, he would let them head back with Mike and Linda to Mark’s parents’ farm. They all reflected on the past couple of weeks.

Kayla walked over and sat down as well. “Hey Dad,” she said, “how much more of this we gonna have to deal with?”

He looked at her, “I hope none, but we still don’t know what the hell is going on in this country. I’d really like to know what the hell the government is doing about this, and what the hell even happened. I think the immediate threat is over for now. I don’t suspect we’ll get a lot of activity during the winter. Not too sure many plow trucks are working these days, so it’ll be hard to get around.”

He continued on with his thoughts. “We’ll have to get a good grip on the inventory of everything we have. One thing in particular will be to hide as much of the food as possible now that people think we are loaded down with stocks of everything. That will be easy enough though. We’ll cover the doorways downstairs with the paneling covers to hide them again. We can move some to the other caches, and set up some more alarms out there.” This would all be done within the next week.

For the most part everyone was in rather good shape as far as health or injuries went. David was a little worse off. He would heal up ok, but the leg injury would definitely leave him with a limp and the cold winter days would remind him of the injury. The loss of the leg would have been much worse, so he was lucky. Both he and his son Bobby would have the battle scars to go along with their stories. Haliday teased Bobby saying it was Bobby’s lobotomy scar.

Diana was the one who would get mad at him. Her arm was sticking out in a makeshift brace so her collar bone would heal. She had about six weeks of being in the contraption, according to the doctor. Roger would walk up and try to hang some of his laundry on it to dry. Everyone but she thought it was funny. Once he taped a piece of jerky on it and she couldn’t reach it to take it off. Since she’s a vegan it drove her nuts.

Alan’s face had become infected, but the doctor got it cleaned out and he changed the antibiotics. The doctor had cut a little tissue away in the process, which was enough to leave a reminder every day when he shaved. Alan thought they would nickname him Scarface but they called him Gash instead. He insisted on Scarface once, but Roger pointed toward Alan’s pants and said in his best Al Pacino voice, “Is that, your little friend?” He emphasized ‘little’ and Alan never mentioned it again as they all had broken into laughter.

Alan’s wife Nancy would set Elizabeth, Bobby, Matthew and Teresa down and home school them a little bit each day. No one had any idea if or when school would ever be back in session. They could not afford to have the kids not learn the basics and whatever else they could teach them. They would all have chores to do in order to help out.

After a couple of days, Mike, Linda, Mark and Lisa were packed and ready to go. Roger made sure they had ammo and sent a couple of welfare buckets along with them even though Mark insisted they had brought some of their own and had enough at his dad’s, not to mention what Haliday previously left. Roger told them if they needed to that they could come back, bring his parents and they would co-op the house across the street or here at the cabin. Gas would be at a premium and traveling back and forth would be hard, even if it was only about 20 miles.

Karen, Rich, and Bev settled into routines playing solitaire, puzzle books, reading and doing their share around the cabin. They seemed the least affected by the change so far. They’d miss their Kindles and casino trips and online games, but that was something they hadn’t had all their lives and could do without. The kids were the ones who would be suffering technological withdrawals.

Dawn was overseeing the horses and their care. When Diana was healed, she would help too. They did a lot of reading all of the time as it was, so they would pop on the computer and read or play games. The vegan and vegetarian cooking they were used to would help the group out when meat became scarce, and would it extend their current stores.

Sarah took charge of cooking and kitchen duties. Everyone helped and took turns assisting her. Sarah had long been resigned to the fate of Erik, but didn’t mention it at all. Elizabeth was told he was still out helping people and she was content with that. Eventually they would plan on placing a marker by an empty grave to put him to rest in their hearts.

Kevin and Randy used the ham to keep in touch with their parents and their other brother in Texas. It was still puzzling that they had electricity, but as time went on things were made clearer as to why that was. They kept busy playing video games, chopping wood and getting more familiar with the toys Roger had around. They were also learning new tactics just in case they were needed.

Blake and Kayla always joined Kevin and Randy to keep their skills updated and fresh. Surprisingly, they were still maintaining nothing but a friendship, which was fine with Roger. He wasn’t ready for any crib lizards to be crawling around. This was quite a mix of people here, but they all worked together rather well too.

Roger had called Rob to see how everything was going. He asked them about the prisoners and what had happened with the trials. Rob started with the sheriff who was the militia commander. He was still in fairly bad shape and they put him under house arrest. When they went to check on him the next day, they found him hanging from a rope inside his garage with a note that just said, ‘I’m sorry.’ He would have been hung anyway.

Chuck had taken over as the chief law enforcement official for the area. He had made sure each and every one of the prisoners was tried. Most were assigned to hard labor on chain gangs performing burials, clearing the roads of cars, chopping wood, and anything they needed done. If they didn’t work one day, they didn’t eat. The children and a few of the wives were released.

Some were allowed to leave the area. Presumably they met with the ones who were waiting for their husbands who had launched the last attack on the south end of the airport. Five people were hung for their involvement with the militia, the torture of the police chief and the other prisoners. It was later found out that several citizens were summarily executed for almost no reason by the militia men.

Brad and a few of the veterans in the area were put in charge of forming a regional defense coalition group. Haliday made it clear to them to avoid using the term militia at all costs. They had quite a complement of equipment with what they had seized, and had already. As word spread they were able to bolster their ranks. Haliday and Mark would be helping them with training.

Rob asked Haliday how they had been so fortunate as to take out the militia like they did. Haliday told him it was one thing to put on a uniform and call yourself something and it was another thing to gather the people, to educate them, to train them, to keep up their skill sets and that this was proof of that explanation. “Rob,” he said, “you can want in one hand and crap in the other and I can tell you which one will fill up first. You have to not only want it, but do what it takes to make it happen as well.”

Rob was heading up the interim governing body and he would see to it that some proper elections were held and people put in place to help transition the area into the new rule. Rob would end up doing a great job getting that in place and getting the area to work together through the crisis. He was their best bet.

A couple of weeks later Haliday was at the ham again. He had made quite a few contacts across the entire U.S. The urban areas were in full crisis now. Just about everyone was beyond hungry. They were now starving. People were pulling out all the stops and doing what they needed to survive. Looting became scavenging, self-defense bordered murdered. It was utter chaos.

He took notes on all of it. His map was just unbelievable to look at. Alaska and Hawaii were fully untouched. Most of California was operational along the coast, as was Oregon and Washington State. The southern border, like he discovered earlier, was intact. The lower third of Florida was intermittent with functionality. It was almost as if those areas had been untouched in order to preserve the border control of the country.

A lot of Canada was fine with the exception of the southern parts of the country bordering the U.S. The U.S. east coast was devastated though as well. It was a weird puzzle to try and figure out. He had heard most of the navy had been fully recalled and had taken station off the coasts. Most of the military overseas remained there however. The U.S. was the only country really hit and nobody could explain it. No country or terror group claimed responsibility.

Still, there was no major military movement from the bases, and no federal mobilization of FEMA, DHS or any other agency. There was actually very little from the government in the form of communications. Haliday went over his notes again. He made some radio calls across the U.S. and got some more answers. He heard information from some other countries as well. He started piecing more together.

It all made more sense now. He had heard bits and pieces, but it was clearer now. He never thought this would have happened. He called the group together for a meeting. This is what he said. “We all know the SHTF. I think I know who took the dump and I think I know who turned the fan on high. There’s a lot of manure being spread around. I don’t think spring is going to be bright and cheerful.

“It seems we have a civil war here in the U.S. Not north versus south, but large groups comprised of the military, the government and some other group calling themselves the Constitution Restoration Army. Right now with all of the propaganda, we don’t know who is with whom, or who is good or bad. Not sure which of them popped the nukes or EMP’s over our own country to cripple us, but we’ll find out eventually. We have a lot of work to do people. I have a feeling we aren’t out of the woods yet.”

Afterword:

Although this is a work of fiction, it is meant to demonstrate how easily the world we live in can be impacted by those events which we can not control. This is not to show you what will happen, but instead it is meant to show you what can happen. The trigger event depicted here has become far too real of a threat in today’s technological age. There also exists, however, far too many events that could occur with the same basic ending result.

The actions of the characters in this story may seem far reaching to most. What we need to ask ourselves before judging these actions is a simple question. What will you do to ensure the safety, security and survival of you and your family? When mass disasters occur it is true that the best in people will shine through. It is unfortunate, however that others will use the opportunity to show their worst.

Religious faiths around the globe teach preparedness to one extent or another. From a few simple days to a year or more. The government suggests food, water, shelter and first aid supplies for a minimum of three days for each person in a household; pets included. Disasters of all magnitudes can happen within seconds. Are you ready?

About the author:

Matthew D. Mark was born and raised in Michigan, is a U.S. Army veteran, former police officer and has worked in private security. He has instructed in self defense, chemical deterrent and force continuum. He enjoys his family, outdoor activities and firearms as his main hobbies.

Watch for the sequel, Dark Days Troubled Times

Copyright

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, businesses, organizations and events contained in this work are all a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Dark Days Rough Roads

Copyright © 2013 by Matthew D. Mark

Library of Congress Control Number applied for, Library of Congress Copyright registration completed.

All rights reserved.

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ISBN Info:

Hard Cover: 978-0-9890045-2-7

Soft Cover 2nd Edition: 978-0-9890045-4-1

E-Book: 978-0-9890045-0-3