Bug Out! Part 6: Motorhome Mayhem in the Rockies (15 page)

Jane handed it up, and he wrapped the connections.

“Okay, that’s it. Let’s go fire this sucker up and see if it’s working.”

Frank came off the ladder and put his tools back in the toolbox. They walked back into the clubhouse, and Frank went over to the cabinet. He switched on the power bar on the floor, and then switched on the Driver/DVR unit and the monitor. The screen came on after a few seconds, and was showing the self-check.

“Well, it found camera one,” Frank said, looking at the screen. Each camera followed, and all sixteen of them showed good. Then the view on the screen changed to a multi-section view – the first four cameras, then the next four, then the third four, then the fourth, and back again. Frank pushed the menu button on the front of the DVR control unit, and navigated to the recording menu. He set it to record from all sixteen cameras, and set the over-write for the minimum timespan…one day.

“Why not set it for a week?” Kurt asked.

“Quality will be too lousy,” Frank said.

Can you rig this up for iPads like you did at Hilda’s park?”

“No, we don’t have enough internet bandwidth here,” Frank said. “Some of these camera lenses are filthy. We’ll get better quality if we can clean them. Look how much better the interior ones look.”

“I can take my crew out there to do that later,” Charlie said.

Jeb walked in the door. “Sorry, have to use the restroom and get some coffee,” he said, “and besides, I’m pissed. You guys didn’t invite me to make S’mores. We had a nice fire going out there.”

“You really are one sick bastard, Jeb,” Charlie said, laughing. Hilda looked at the two of them laughing and just shook her head. Jane and Rosie joined them in the laughter.

The sound of the backhoe was approaching, as Jackson drove it back to the barn. Earl and Kurt came walking into the clubhouse.

“Well, that was gross,” Earl said. “Reminded me of when somebody pees in the campfire.”

“We tossed Simon Orr and pajama boy in there when the fire was still going,” Jackson said. “They didn’t have their chips anymore, but we didn’t want them stinking up the joint.”

“Oh, wow, you guys got the camera system working,” Earl said, walking over towards the cabinet. “That was quick.”

“It was easy,” Frank said. “Just had to replace a couple of feet of wire. Varmints chewed it. That reminds me, we need to staple that down to the wall.”

“And we need to clean camera lenses too,” Charlie said. “You guys up for that in a few minutes?”

“Sure,” Jackson said. Earl nodded in agreement.

Gabe walked in the door, carrying a lead box. It was about the size of a large cigar box, with a lid that fit on top tightly. He put a screw into the top for a handle.

“This good enough?” he asked.

“Yeah, looks good,” Frank said. “Is it still hot?”

“It’s still a little warm. Give it about ten minutes.”

“Frank got the camera system going again,” Kurt said. “Look.”

“Wow, that was quick,” he said. “Thanks!”

“No problem,” Frank said. “I’ve only got it recording for 24 hours before an overwrite. Figured we’d want better quality.”

“Sounds reasonable,” Gabe said. “After we get settled, we ought to talk about that moat idea.”

“Yeah,” Charlie said.

“Frank, I’ve got all of my stuff set up and plugged in,” Jerry said from the back of the room. “We can connect to this PC too.”

“Good,” Frank said, walking over. “Nice stuff.”

“Well, since we’re full-timing, I had to bring anything I really wanted to keep. Jasmine and I argued a little bit over this stuff.”

“Yeah, Jerry
is
kind of a pack rat,” she said, laughing. “I didn’t see any reason to bring this crap, but now I’m glad we did.”

“Well, if you find you’re missing something you need, there’s a good electronics store in Eagle,” Gabe said. “All the propeller heads go there.”

Jerry cracked up. “Haven’t heard that term for a while.”

“I better get back on the roof,” Jeb said. “I want to be up there watching when our friends arrive.”

“I’ll go with you,” the Sheriff said, picking up his rifle. “Terry, you coming?”

“Yeah, Uncle,” he said, picking up an AK-47. They walked out the door.

“How long do you think it will take to crack those things?” Gabe asked, looking at the equipment laid out.

“Well, at this point, I don’t know if I can crack them,” Frank said. “We’ll see.

“Here come the soldiers,
” Jeb shouted from the roof in the front of the RV Park.

Frank and Jerry got up and grabbed their weapons. They headed to the door, followed by Jane and Jasmine, also carrying their weapons. They got out onto the veranda and watched as the men walked up to the gate. Gabe trotted over and opened it.

The men were tired, their uniforms dirty and torn and their backpacks tattered, but they were all smiles. They slowly walked to the veranda, Gabe alongside them chattering happily.

“Which one of you is Private Peterson?” asked Jerry.

A tall lanky man raised his hand and walked forward. He had light brown hair, and appeared to be in his mid-20s.

“You Jerry?” he asked, with a southern accent.

“Sure am,” Jerry said. “I’ll bet you guys are hungry and thirsty.”

“Yup,” he said. He turned to his companions, who were still walking up. He pointed to the young Hispanic soldier. “That’s Private Sanchez.”

“Good to meet you,” Frank said. He nodded back. He was shorter than Private Peterson, with a shy smile. He looked very athletic and strong.

“That’s Private Jennings,” Private Peterson said, pointing to a red-haired kid with freckles, who didn’t look much like a soldier. He smiled.

“Nice to meet you,” Jerry said.

“And finally, that’s Private Brown,” he said, pointing to the large black kid. He looked tired and worried, but he managed a smile.

“You look a lot like General Hogan,” Jerry said.

“He’s my dad,” Private Brown said. “All of these guys are my friends. Dad managed to cherry pick them out of where we were. We all grew up together.”

“I was wondering why you guys were all from different units,” Jerry said. “Was about to ask you.”

“You’ve been in the military?” asked Private Brown.

“Yep, it’s been a while, but I know what the markings mean,” Jerry said. “Come on in, and we’ll find you guys something to eat and drink.”

Everybody went into the clubhouse. Gabe and Hilda and Kurt went into the kitchen and started getting something ready.

“So what can you tell us?” Frank said. “Why this little charade?”

“My dad has been speaking out about martial law, and he’s influenced most of the commands that are outside of Washington, but the guys at the Pentagon were going to make him disappear. Luckily, he found out.”

“So he decided to high-tail it,” Jerry said. “What are you guys going to do now?”

“Get into our civilian clothes and blend into the woodwork. When it’s safe, we’ll re-join my dad.”

“You look pretty worried about him,” Jane said.

“He’s got bad people after him, but he’s smart, and he has good men with him. Especially that Lieutenant.”

“I’m not quite getting why he cherry picked you guys,” Jerry said.

“He knew we’d be targets,” Private Brown said. “All of us grew up together, and spent a lot of time with my Dad. He was our scout leader, for one thing, and our house was always the hangout. He’s like a second dad to my friends.” The other men nodded in agreement.

“You’re dad’s a patriot,” Frank said.

“Yes, he is,” Private Peterson said. “He’s a great man. He takes our constitution seriously.”

“Good, then I hope he’s able to pull off what he’s planning,” Charlie said. “Hope there’s more out there like him.”

“Wow, nice stuff over there,” Private Sanchez said, looking at the equipment in the corner of the room. “You guys are going to crack those implants, aren’t you?”

“Yes, that’s our hope, anyway,” Frank said.

“That’s why my dad decided to come here on the way out of Dodge,” Private Brown said. “He wanted to let you know about them. He heard you might be smart enough to figure them out.”

“Who did he hear that from?” Jerry asked.

“General Walker,” Private Peterson said. “He was my uncle.”

“Oh,” Jane said. “I’m so sorry.”

“I know, I miss him every day,” Private Peterson said, his eyes momentarily misty. “He was also a patriot, and General Hogan’s best friend.”

“Here’s some food,” Gabe said. He and Hilda and Kurt brought out bowls of chili, a pitcher of ice water, and four glasses.

“That smells great,” Private Brown said. “Thanks.” The men dug in.

“Let’s leave them in peace to enjoy their food,” Hilda said. The group walked away.

Charlie, Earl, and Jackson went out to the veranda with a handful of towels and some glass cleaner for the camera lenses. Gabe and Kurt sat down in a far corner of the room, starting to work out the moat idea. Jerry and Frank went back over by the PC, followed by Jasmine and Jane. Frank started looking at one of the capsules with the magnifier.

“This thing looks fairly normal,” Frank said, looking through the binocular eyepiece.

“That’s from the Islamist that was in the smokehouse?” Jane asked, looking at the bag.

“Yep, Frank said. “Before we open any of these, I want to look at them to see if there’s any difference at all on the outside.” He put the first one back in its bag, and then picked up the one from Simon Orr. He removed it from the bag and put it under the magnifier.

“Any difference?” Jerry asked.

“Not that I can see,” he said.

“Should you have all of the others in that lead box?” Jasmine asked.

“You know, you’re right,” Frank said. He put the Simon Orr chip back into the bag, grabbed one of the graveyard bags, and then picked up the three others and put them into the lead box.

“Wonder if they enemy can see these from very far off,” Jane said.

“I’m going to say yes,” Frank said, “but they might be passive, not active.”

“Passive?” she asked.

“Meaning that they would need to have at least an idea where they were. They would paint the area with a signal and look for replies from the chips, instead of just looking for signals from the chips.”

“Any difference with that one?” Jasmine asked.

“Nope,” Frank said. He put it into the bag and then into the lead box. He made sure that the lid was tight and pushed it to the middle of the table.

“Mary forgot to check the privates for chips,” Jerry said.

“Oh, yeah,” Jane said. “Looks like they’re almost done eating. I’ll go talk to her.” She got up and went over to Mary. Then they both walked up to the men and talked to them. The men stood up and removed their shirts. Mary checked them all, and then they put their shirts back on. Jane walked back over with Mary.

“Clean?” asked Jerry.

“Yes,” Mary said.

“Good,” Frank said, looking relieved. Mary walked back over to Hilda and Rosie.

Charlie trotted back into the clubhouse and walked quickly over to Jerry.

“I need your tracking expertise,” he said, out of breath.

“Uh oh, what did you find?” Jerry asked.

“A backpack full of grenades, along with some ammo and a few pistols. There were also some RPGs.”

“RPGs, huh,” Jerry said. “Single use or reloadable?”

“I don’t know. They all look loaded to me, and we didn’t find any other rockets with this stuff.”

“What do you want me to track?” Jerry asked.

“I want you to see if the tracks we see around this stuff are from Simon Orr’s group or somebody else.”

“Alright, let’s go,” Jerry said.

“I’m going too,” Jasmine said. “Maybe you can teach me how to track.”

“Not a bad idea. C’mon.” They left with Charlie.

Frank shot Jane a worried glance.

“What?” she whispered.

“I hope that stuff is from Simon Orr, and not from our guests,” Frank whispered back.

“You don’t think they’re bad guys, do you?”

“I hope not, but look at how many times we’ve been fooled before.”

They sat there looking at each other silently as Gabe walked over with Kurt.

“Find anything out?” Kurt asked.

“Only that they’re all the same kind of device,” Frank said. “At least on the exterior.”

“Lead box working out alright?” Gabe asked.

“Perfect,” Frank said. “You’re a handy guy.”

“For low tech stuff, yeah,” Gabe said.

“What’s next?” Kurt asked.

“I’ll try to figure out if these are actively transmitting, or if they need to be bombarded with something to light up,” Frank said. “Trial and error. We probably don’t have everything we need here to pull that off, so I suspect we’ll be going to that store in town to mingle with the ‘propeller heads’”, Frank said, chuckling.

“Well say the word, and I’ll take you there,” Gabe said.

Private Peterson walked up. “Gabe, do you have a place where we can get some shuteye? We want to get on the road tonight.”

“You’re leaving that soon?”

“Yeah, this is a place that the enemy may know about,” he said, “or the Army. It would be better for us and for you we took a powder.”

“Alright,” Gabe said. “Follow me. I’ve got a couple of rental trailers towards the back of the park that you can use.”

“Thanks, Gabe,” he said. The two walked over to the door, and were joined by the other three Privates.

“Did you guys want to tell me something when you walked over?” Frank asked Kurt.

“Yeah, we had some ideas about the moat and bridge,” Kurt said, “but I’ll wait until Gabe gets back here.”

Jerry and Charlie came back in.

“Well?” asked Frank.

“Definitely Simon Orr and his creeps,” Jerry said. “The shoe prints are right, compared to what I see over by the smokehouse.”

“You know what that means?” Kurt asked.

“Yeah, they didn’t know much about us. They thought they were going to have to make a full on assault.”

“Or they thought they were going to have to fight their way out of here after they did us in,” Jerry said. “Maybe they thought there was more army involvement.”

“What about the stuff?” Frank asked.

“The RPGs are el cheapo single use, but we should keep them. They won’t take out an M-1 tank, but they’d splatter a Humvee or a transport truck all over the place.”