Bug Out! Part 10: RV Race to Battle (22 page)

“Okay. I’m keeping the money you take in.”

“Consider it your salary. Thanks.”

“What about your employees, Howard?”

“Call them in. Names and numbers are in the drawer right under the cash register.”

“How do they get paid?”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ve got a service. They’re getting paid automatically.”

“How long?”

“A week too long, Sherry?”

“Yeah, but I don’t have a choice, do it?”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. Give me back to Scotty.”

Howard handed the phone back.

“Everything set?” Scott asked.

“Yeah. You owe me big time. And by the way, I don’t want to see you.”

“No problem, sweet cakes.”

There was silence on the line for a moment.

“You can’t call me that anymore.”

“I miss you, you know.”

“What about wifey? She with you too?”

“She really did get killed in the nuke attack. I just happened to be at an alternate location.”

“She never figured it out, did she?”

“No. Talk to you soon.”

“Hopefully not. Later.”

Scott put his phone back in his pocket.

“How do you know we can trust her, Scotty?”

“She doesn’t want to spend the rest of her days in the crossbar hotel.”

“Neither do I, Scotty.” The traffic slowed down. “Here comes rush hour.”

***

General Hogan came over to the bar in the lounge. Jake was tending. Jackson, Kurt, and Mary were there. Dobie walked over when the General sat down.

“You want a drink, General?” Jake asked, smiling.

“Yeah, give me three fingers of that Maker’s Mark you’re drinking there,” he said, smiling.

“This a sign that we’re over the worst of things?” Dobie asked as he sat next to the General.

“Too early to tell,” the General said, taking the first sip of his drink. “I’m worried about those high-ranking folks south of Big Bend.”

“Across the border?” Jake asked.

“Yeah,” the General said.

“There a force with them?”

“No, they’re by themselves,” he replied. “The girls are keeping an eye, using Frank’s long range detail app.”

“You think they have something to do with this small pox thing?” Dobie asked.

“Perhaps,” the General said. “Just got off the phone with the joint chiefs. So far none of the high-ranking folks in custody are talking.”

“Figures,” Jake said.

“You thinking about going down to investigate these two guys?” Dobie asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m going to chat with George about it.”

“Well, bring him down here, and we’ll set up a round for him,” Jake said.

“He’s having some much-needed down time with Heidi,” the General said. “It can wait for a little while.” He downed the rest of his drink.

“Another, General?” Jake asked.

“Just one more,” he said. “I need to keep a clear head.”

“Are we gonna win this thing, General?” Kurt asked.

“Yeah,” he said, taking a sip of the new drink. “We’ve got them on the run now, thanks to Frank’s apps and those lists of people.”

“Last I looked, Denver was looking good,” Dobie said. “There was a large group of icons huddled near Boulder.”

“Detention camp,” the General said. “Believe it or not, most of the Islamists are surrendering. The militia guys are a bigger problem. We had to kill most of the group hanging out near the Grand Canyon.”

“So where are the remaining battles?” Kurt asked.

“If you’re talking about big battles with a lot of men, only the bigger cities in Arizona and New Mexico, and those will be over fast. The operatives in the smaller towns have been exposed. They’re getting cleaned up by townspeople and local law enforcement.”

“Sucks to be them,” Dobie said.

“Yeah,” the General said, staring down at the bar for a moment. “We’ve completely shut down the flow of new troops and supplies through Canada. Mexico is where the action is, but we’re winning there now, too.”

“Who did that nuclear attack down there?”

“No comment,” the General said, smiling after a moment. “Hit the right spot. That was a last-ditch attempt at a new invasion. We burned them good.”

“You still look pretty worried,” Mary said. “Why?”

“Too many operatives left,” he said. “They can’t win a land battle. That’s over. What they can do is kill a lot of people in smaller actions. That’s what keeping me up at night. I’m afraid they’ll slip into the peaceful areas so they can hit soft targets. This is liable to go on for years.”

“We still have the apps,” Jackson said.

“Yeah,” Dobie said. “As long as the bad guys keep their chips implanted. If they aren’t in the heat of battle anymore, they might remove them and bide their time until they heal up.”

“Yeah, incubating sleeper cells,” Kurt said.

“They’ll still have the scars,” Mary said. “But you’re right. When they’re past the heat of battle, it’s more likely that small numbers of them can get the chips removed and heal up.”

“Maybe we’re being too negative here, folks,” Jake said. “They know they’ll never take us over. Lots of them may remove their chips just so they can leave the country.”

“There are discussions going on at the highest levels about that,” General Hogan said. “Mass transit routes like airlines, trains, and passenger ships won’t be easy for them to use. They’ll be screened for scars before they can board. That will restrict movement pretty well.”

“They can slip through the borders by car or on foot,” Dobie said.

“Yep,” the General said. “I’ve been pushing for us to bring most of the troops home from Mexico to round these people up during the small window we have, but I’m getting resistance.”

“Why?” Mary asked.

“Certain people in the government want to clean up Mexico and then continue on with the prior efforts to annex them.”

“Why would we want to do that?” Kurt asked.

“Buffer zone, with lots of natural resources,” the General said. “Also good time to do it, while much of the Mexican population is in favor.”

“Yeah, well you know that won’t last for long,” Mary said.

“I think I’m beginning to see why you’re worried, general,” Dobie said.

“Go on,” the General said.

“We’re going into uncharted territory now, and it’ll make life very much different in this country,” Dobie said. “More like the countries in the Middle East. We’re going to have repressed minorities who want to overthrow the society, and it’ll be difficult to get rid of them.”

“How can that be if we’ve got the enemy defeated, Dobie?” Kurt asked.

“We’re about to annex another country. Many of the citizens on both sides are for it right now, but not all. We’ll have to deal with the actions of nationalists from south of the border, and they play by different rules than US citizens have since about the 1880s.”

“1880s?” Kurt asked.

“Yeah, after the main aftermath of the Civil War,” Dobie said. “We became a more stable society after that, and stayed that way even when times got tough. The other issue is the Islamist faction. They’re in our midst in bigger numbers than ever before. The ratio will be higher than we had in Paris or London before the war. They’ll disappear into the woodwork and concentrate on hiding their past. We’ll have thousands of ticking time bombs to deal with eventually. The world is changing for us, and it’s not going to be pleasant.”

“You’re too smart to be a dog trainer, my friend,” General Hogan said.

Gabe was driving the Suburban
on the interstate. Hilda sat in the front passenger seat, and Earl was sleeping in the back, sprawled out as comfortably as he could get himself.

“You keep looking in the rear view mirror,” Hilda said. “See something?”

“There’s been a van following us for about 40 miles now,” he said nervously. “I can’t wait to get off this interstate.”

“How much longer do we have to stay on I-70?” Hilda asked.

“About two hours. I’ll get on Route 50 as soon as we hit Grand Junction, and head towards Pueblo. We should be able to come up to Route 94 from there, and scoot into Kansas like we did originally.”

“Should I call Charlie?” Hilda asked.

“Not yet, but why don’t you check the app. I haven’t for a while.”

Hilda nodded and reached down to grab her phone from out of her purse. She held it close to her face as she ran her fingers over the touch screen.

“No cell coverage,” she said. “Checking the short range app.”

“They’re hanging back quite a ways. They might be too far for the short range app.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Hilda said. “I heard it was good for half a mile.”

“I think that’s only under the best conditions,” Gabe said.

“Still nothing,” she said. “I’ll check again when we get to the next town. How far are we from Green River?”

“About an hour if we don’t run into any traffic.”

“We gonna stop at a motel someplace, or drive all the way through?”

“I’m nervous as hell,” Gabe said. “Think I’d rather drive right through if you don’t mind taking over for a while.”

“I’m okay as long as I don’t have to drive switchbacks in the dark.”

“That’ll be the main problem,” Gabe said. “Tell you what. I’ll get off at the next ramp, and we’ll change up. Plenty of long flat road for a while. That van will go past the off-ramp. If we see them again, we’ll know their intentions.”

“What if they follow us off the road?”

“Then we get out the rifles,” Gabe said. “And wake up Earl.”

Hilda nodded. “Look, it’s coming up. I see a truck stop there, too.”

Gabe drove down the off-ramp, and onto the truck stop lot. “We could use gas anyway.”

“You guys stopping?” Earl asked.

“Just stopping for some gas,” Hilda said. “And I’ll spell Gabe for a while. We’ll try to go all the way home without taking an overnighter.”

“Sounds good.”

Gabe got out and pumped the gas while Hilda and Earl went into the store. His eyes darted around, looking for that van to show up. He was calming down when he saw Earl and Hilda walking back. Hilda had a tray with three coffee cups on it, and Earl was holding a white paper bag. He was still limping a bit.

“Got some coffee,” Hilda said. “I got you decaf in case you want to snooze for a while.”

“Thanks, probably a good idea,” Gabe said. “I’ll have to wind down a little to catch any shut-eye.”

“You look spooked,” Earl said. “We in trouble?”

“You didn’t say anything, eh?” Gabe asked, looking at Hilda.

“No,” she said.

“Well, it’s probably nothing,” Gabe said, “but there was a van behind us for quite a while, at about the distance you’d expect if you were being followed.”

“Oh,” Earl said. “You got two rifles, right?”

“Yeah, I threw both the .270s in the back. They’re under the tarp.”

“Either one have a scope on it?”

“Yeah, one does, but it’s been a while since I checked her out at the range. Might be a little off.”

“I think I’ll pull that up front, just in case,” Earl said. “If you see them and I’m asleep, wake me up right away.”

“Okay, Earl,” Hilda said.

They got back in the car, Hilda behind the wheel. Earl reached back and pulled both rifles into the back seat area, putting them on the floor in front of him as they headed back to I-70.

“Sorry, I’m probably just being paranoid,” Gabe said, sitting sideways in the seat, looking back at Earl as he sipped his coffee.

“Well, if we see that van again, we’ll know.”

“What should we do if we see it?” Hilda asked.

“Wait for them to make a move,” Earl said. “But when they do, act strongly and decisively.”

“As in shoot at them?” Gabe asked.

“Yeah,” Earl said. “I’ve got both the rifles up here. I’ll hand you one if anything happens.”

“Alright,” Gabe said. “What’s in the bag?”

“Donuts,” Hilda said. “Help yourself.”

He opened the bag, and pulled out a frosted donut, taking a bite. “A little stale.”

“Yeah, that truck stop is a little ways off the beaten path,” Hilda said. “They had some bananas, but they were too old. Wonder if they’re getting shipments often enough.”

“Probably not,” Earl said. “Remember what Utah was like. It’s going to take a while to get better.”

“My town is looking better, at least,” Hilda said. “And the hospital. Looks like it’s pretty much back to normal.”

“You guys never told me what you found at your park,” Earl said.

“It wasn’t as bad as I expected, after watching that video,” Gabe said. “Bet my place is in worse shape, thanks to that damn tank they had parked on the other side of the bridge we blew.”

“Wish we had time to go check it out,” Earl said.

“It’s hard,” Hilda said. “I had a nightmare about that scaffolding last night.”

“Scaffolding?” Earl asked.

“Yeah, with the spikes that they put the heads on. It was pretty nasty,” Gabe said.

“The bodies were all gone, though, weren’t they?” asked Earl.

“Yeah, somebody took the bodies away. The old blind has seen better days,” Hilda said.

Earl chuckled. “Wish we would’ve taken a bunch of pictures of that before it got ruined. It was great.”

“Guys, look behind us,” Hilda said in a hushed tone. “The van.”

***

“Real nice neighborhood, Scotty,” Howard said, chuckling, as they drove through the old streets by the University in Columbus, Ohio.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Scott said. “The University is a nice source of
guests
. The neighborhood is a little sketchy at night, but not like Baltimore or Philly.”

“I love the old houses,” Bailey said, watching out the windshield.

“This rig gonna fit on your property, Scotty?”

“Sure,” he said. “There’s an alley in the back, with a big sliding gate. You can back right in.”

“Good,” Howard said. How much further on Summit Avenue?”

“You’re going to jog to the left on Hudson, then get in the right lane for the quick turn onto Indianola. Then turn left on Tular, and take the first right. There’s an alley half way down the block. It’s skinny, so be careful with this beast. It’s the fifth house on the right side.”

“Okay, Scotty,” Howard said. “There’s Hudson now.”