Bug Out! Part 6: Motorhome Mayhem in the Rockies (10 page)

“Don’t shoot me,” Jeb said from outside. He stepped in, holding his bow. Charlie followed him with his rifle.

“Sorry I couldn’t get the fourth guy there,” Charlie said.

“We’d better check Simon. He might not be dead, so we’d better frisk him.” Frank said.

Jackson picked up one of the AK-47s that the Islamists had and pointed it at the prisoner’s head. “Move and I’ll make your head into a canoe.”

“Oh, brother,” Jane said, rolling her eyes.

“I’ve always wanted to say that,” Jackson grinned.

Charlie walked over to Hilda and hugged her.

Frank, Jeb and Earl were kneeling next to Simon. Earl pointed the shotgun at his head while Frank and Jeb carefully rolled him over. He was still breathing, the arrow lodged just right of his heart.

“Crap, bad placement,” Jeb said.

“It might be a good idea to keep this one alive,” Frank said. “He’s really high up in the militia.”

Frank frisked him, finding a pistol in the top of his boot, and a switchblade in his pocket. Then they lifted him up and carried him to one of the tables.

“Mary, could you take a look at this guy?”

“Sure,” she said, rushing over with her black bag. She took out some scissors and cut his shirt away, turning her head. “Phew, wonder when this guy’s last shower was?”

“Seriously,” Jeb said.

Frank went out on the Veranda and called Lucy. She came running up from under the decking.

“Found a good place to hide, did you, girl?” he asked, petting her. “At least you tried to warn us.”

“She alright?” Jane asked, walking out.

“Yeah.” They walked back in.

“Jeb, I need help getting this arrow out,” Mary said.

“Can we push it out his back? Then I can unscrew the arrow head.”

“Yes. It’s nicked his lung, but I don’t think it will damage him anymore to push it through.”

Frank walked up to Charlie. “Where are the rest of the guys?” he asked.

“Oh, they’ll be along in a little while,” Charlie said. “We saw the ambush. What a joke. The rest of the folks went past it looking for their supplies and vehicles. They don’t know how to cover their tracks. I’m sure they did what we planned to do. You heard it, and saw that flash. Way too big for just that dynamite.”

“How did you and Jeb end up back here?”

Charlie started to reply, but was cut off by gunfire in the distance.

The distant gunfire intensified.

“Should we go over there?” Frank asked.

“Yeah, they weren’t going to engage the enemy with small arms,” Jeb said. “The plan was to blow things up and get out of there. Let’s go.”

“Right, let’s go,” Charlie said.

“I’m going too,” Jane said. She looked at Frank, and he nodded.

“Let’s take my Jeep,” Jeb said. “She’s already unhooked.”

“We’re with you guys,” Jackson and Earl said.

“Good,” Charlie said. “Girls, keep guns on these two. Don’t trust either of them. Anything happens, just shoot them. Don’t hesitate.”

“I’ve got some zip ties in my rig,” Earl said. He ran out to his coach and was back in just a few seconds. He walked up to the Islamist and turned him around, putting the zip tie on his wrists, behind him. He did the same with Simon Orr, even though he wasn’t conscious.

“Be careful with him,” Mary said. “He’s not in good shape.”

“I know, but I don’t care spit for this jerk, and if he wakes up, he’s liable to hurt you. I won’t have that.”

Mary nodded.

“We have room to throw a mortar in the back?” Frank asked.

“Yeah, I think so,” Jeb said, “but hurry…..they’re in trouble.”

Frank took off running to the barn and came back with a mortar. Jane ran out to their coach and picked up Frank’s gun belt. Jackson and Earl fetched extra ammo out of their coaches. Hilda and Mary and Rosie watched them with terrified looks on their faces. Jeb ran off to his site, and was back with the Jeep in a few seconds.

“C’mon, folks, let’s saddle up,” Charlie yelled.

They all got in. Jane called Lucy and she ran over and bounded up into her lap, and they took off down the road.

“How did you figure out that the cretins came to the park?” asked Frank.

“These idiots made no attempt to cover their tracks at all,” Jeb said. “There were tracks at the beginning of the dirt road. I’m surprised we didn’t run into those idiots.”

“How did you know about the ambush?” Earl asked.

“Gabe gets the credit for that,” Jeb said. “He knows all the ridges, so he was watching. Didn’t take long…we had just gotten onto the dirt road when we saw it.”

“You must have seen it about the time that you and Charlie started back to the park.”

“Yes, we saw the tracks in the dirt when we stopped for a moment to get out the binoculars,” Charlie said. “The group went way behind the enemy, avoiding the canyon they wanted to channel us into.”

“I guess the explosions must have gotten their attention.”

“Probably,” Charlie said.

“Hey, look, headlights!” Jeb shouted. “Coming this way.”

“Lock and load, people,” Charlie said.

“Hold it, that’s Gabe’s Suburban,” Jeb said.

“Keep your weapons ready anyway. We don’t know who’s in the vehicle,” Earl said.

“They’re stopping,” Jeb said. “Gabe just got out and waved.”

“Yes!” Frank shouted. Jeb drove slowly up to them. By the time they got there, the rest of the team was out of the Suburban and walking towards them, big smiles on their faces.

“What was with the shooting?” Charlie asked.

“Those idiots,” Jerry said. “They knew how to get back to their burning vehicles by going back down into the canyon and following the creek bed. We saw them going down there, so we gave them a few minutes, and then took their old positions on the ridge. We creamed them.”

“How many were there?” Frank asked.

“Oh, about twenty five,” Kurt said, “give or take. I was a little disappointed, though.”

“Why?” Jane asked.

“Didn’t get to use my bow. Not even once.”

Jeb cracked up. “Don’t worry, I made up for it back at the park.”

“We’d better get back there,” Frank said. “The women are worried sick, and we also have those two prisoners there.”

“Prisoners, huh?” Jerry asked.

“Yeah, let’s get going,” Charlie said. They all got back in their vehicles and headed back to the park at a good clip. They parked right in front of the clubhouse. Kurt was the first through the door.

“Oh, thank God,” Mary said, rushing to him and hugging him.

The rest of them flooded through the door. Rosie grinned from ear to ear when she saw Jasmine and Jerry walking over to her, arm in arm. Charlie rushed over to Hilda and hugged her too.

“What happen?” Rosie asked. “You kill?”

“Yes, mom, we killed quite a few, and blew up their supplies and trucks,” Jasmine said.

“I’m glad that dynamite was still good,” Gabe said, laughing. “We still have a lot left, too, just in case.”

“We need to talk about that, people,” Charlie said, speaking loud enough to get everybody’s attention.”

“Charlie’s right,” Frank said. “Somebody on that team knew exactly where we were. We might have more visitors.”

“Well, I think we killed everybody in their attack squad,” the Sheriff said.

“Yes, but remember those tracks,” Jeb said. “The cretins that came here didn’t have to look around. They came right over. They knew exactly where the park was.”

A moan came from the table behind them. It was Simon Orr, waking up. Mary rushed over to him.

“Is that who I think it is?” Jerry asked.

“Yeah, it’s Simon Orr,” Frank said. “The other folks were all stupid Islamist cretins. He was the only one in the group with any brains.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Jeb said. “I see brains all over the room.”

The Sheriff cracked up. “Jeb, you’re one sick bastard.”

“Who the hell shot that arrow into me,” Simon said, trying to turn around to see who was in the room. “Untie me. Oh, God, that hurts.” He trembled with pain.

“Oh, stuff it, traitor,” Charlie said. “You’re lucky to be alive…and that’s something we could change in a hurry.”

“Oh, and by the way, I shot the arrow, traitor,” Jeb said. “Want another demonstration? Please say yes.”

“Should have figured. The famous Jeb,” he said, grimacing shaking. “Enjoy this while you can.”

“What are we going to do with these assholes?” Jerry asked. “We really don’t want to hold them….especially Simon Orr. He’ll be a magnet for the other cretins.”

“He’s about to go into shock,” Mary said. “I doubt he’ll last more than a day or two.”

“Hey, what about those radios that the army gave us?” Earl asked.

“Oh, shit, I forgot about those,” Jerry said. “They might have been trying to call us. I’ll go get one of them and bring it in here.” He ran out the door.

“I wouldn’t get too comfortable,” Simon said. “That ambush might not have worked, but you’ll have a lot of company soon.” The oozing blood was dripping off the table now, leaving a puddle on the floor.

Kurt laughed. “Oh, you mean those twenty five guys that you had on the ridges? They went to collect their virgins.”

“Son of a bitch,” Simon said. He winced as he tried to turn his head towards them, and sweat was beading up on his forehead.

“Yeah,” the Sheriff said, “after we blew up their supplies and vehicles, they tried to get back to them the only way they knew how.down the river bed in the bottom of the canyon. We just took over their ambush positions and let them have it. The folks you’ve teamed up with aren’t that bright, Simon.”

“Tell me about it,” he sighed, getting sleepy now, trying to keep awake, trying to ignore the pain.

“Maybe Phil ain’t so bright either,” Jackson said, laughing. “Oh, sorry,
Philip
.”

“Laugh it up,” Simon said. “You’ve still got a giant target on your back.”

“How the hell did you guys find us, anyway?” Charlie asked.

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Simon replied.

“Well, now,” Jeb said. “I think we might have to mishandle this prisoner a little bit to get that information.”

“You won’t torture me,” Simon said. “You don’t have the guts.” Sweat was dripping down into his eyes now, causing him to squint, and his breathing was getting more shallow.

Jeb laughed. “I don’t care one bit about you, traitor. I wasn’t trying to wound you with that arrow. It’s about an inch from your heart, jerkweed. You’re lucky I was having a bad night. I’m rarely off by that much.”

Jerry rushed back into the clubhouse with the radio. “They
were
trying to call us. They saw these bastards coming,” Jerry said.

“Any more around?” Frank asked.

“Don’t know. We’ll need to call them back.”

“They’ve got more surprises coming,” Simon wheezed.

“Can I kill this guy yet?” Earl asked. “Please?”

“Maybe we ought to see if the army wants him,” Jane said. “We don’t really want to keep him here, do we?”

“I’d rather kill him than give them back to the army,” Jeb said. “Remember what happened with Officer Simmons?”

“We need to chat with the Lieutenant,” Charlie said.

“Agreed,” Frank said. “Jerry, want to see if he’s interested in having a pow wow?”

“Yeah, I’ll call him. Maybe we shouldn’t discuss anything in front of the sub-humans here, though.”

“You make a good point,” Charlie said. “Gabe, you don’t have a good place to lock these guys up, do you?”

“Well, as a matter of fact, yes, I have a great place. Might be a little smelly in there.”

“What is it?”

“Smokehouse,” he said. “Cinder block, with ventilation windows on the top. Metal roof. It’s also got big eyelet hooks to hang deer.”

“Perfect,” Charlie said. “Let’s go get it ready for our new guests.”

Gabe nodded, chuckling. He pulled a big flashlight out of the cabinet by the kitchen door. They both walked out onto the veranda and down the access road, past the barn. The smokehouse was about forty yards behind the barn, against the loose rock hillside.

“It’s a ways back here,” Charlie said.

“Yeah, don’t want smoke flowing to the clubhouse or over by the picnic area. I haven’t used this thing much, actually. Too hard to keep the smoke from going towards the camp sites.”

“Yes, I could see that.” They walked over and Gabe shined the flashlight on the door. He pulled his keys out of his pocket and unlocked the large padlock on the hasp. Then he removed it and pulled the heavy door open. It was lined with steel on the inside.

“Damn, is this a smokehouse or a kiln?” Charlie said, looking at the door and the heavy walls and the roof.

“Well, for now, it’s a jail,” Gabe said, cracking up.

There were vents under the roof eaves in several places. The middle of the floor held a pit, with a channel that ran outside to a slit in the wall, that was about two feet wide by four inches tall.

“What’s that for?” asked Charlie, pointing at the opening.

“I put that there so I could push more wood into the fire without opening the door. Didn’t work very well.”

“It will work well for pushing food and water to our guests, though.”

“I’ve got a chemical toilet…I could rig it up and put the drain pipe through there. It would still leave enough room to push their bread and water to them,” Gabe said, laughing.

“Good idea,” Charlie said.

“Give me a hand, it’s in the barn,” he said. They walked over to the barn. The toilet sat in the corner. It was a compact unit with a small tank underneath it. It sat about three feet tall. There was a port to hook up a hose on the back, with a pull valve. The men got on either side and carried it to the smokehouse, setting it inside, close to the opening. Gabe went back to the barn, and brought back a hose and a gallon bottle of blue toilet sanitizer. He hooked the hose up, closed the value, and ran it out through the hole. Then he poured about a quarter of the bottle of sanitizer into the toilet and stepped on the pedal to open the toilet and run the fluid into the tank.

“Nice little unit,” Charlie said.

“Yeah, you just pump the handle a couple of times to bring up some fluid, and then use the pedal when you’re done. Works pretty well until the fluid gets too dirty. Not a good long term solution, but for a few days it will work.”