Bug Out! Part 4: Mortars and Motorhomes (15 page)

“I know, sweetie. I’m sorry about that,” he said.

They got to the clubhouse just as Earl and Jackson were walking up.

“Hey, guys,” Frank said, smiling at them. They both smiled and nodded. Inside were Charlie and Hilda, General Walker and Major Hobbs, Jerry and Jeb.

“Where’s Jasmine and Rosie?” Jane.

“They’ll be along in a few minutes. Rosie had to primp a little bit before meeting the General.” He grinned. Jane and Frank cracked up.

“Well, at least this will take her mind off of Chester for a little while,” Jane said.

They walked over to where the General and Major Hobbs were talking with Hilda and Charlie.

“Frank, how are you,” Major Hobbs said. “And Jane. I heard that you and Jasmine saved the day.”

“And Chester,” Jane said.

“So sorry to hear about what happened to him,” Major Hobbs said. “He was a good man.”

“Yes, he was,” Frank said. “You know he’s the person who told us about Charlie’s place, and that’s how we ended up here.”

“That’s right,” Charlie said. “I had a gun on you folks until I saw that Chester was with you.”

“You have an RV Park too?” asked General Walker.

“Yes, but it’s near the Grand Canyon,” he said. “I had to leave it.”

“Oh, I assumed that this place was yours and Hilda’s,” General Walker said.

“Well, it will be soon enough,” Hilda said, smiling. “We’re getting married.”

“Ah, great news,” General Walker said. “I was very impressed with Charlie while we were in town. Good man.”

“Yes he is,” Hilda said. Charlie looked embarrassed.

“Where new General?”

It was Rosie and Jasmine, walking through the door. Everybody turned and smiled at them as they walked up. The General gave Major Hobbs a quizzical look, and Hobbs cracked up.

“Rosie – she’s Jasmine’s mother, and she’s quite a card,” Major Hobbs said. “How much you want to bet she asks you if you’re married.”

“I don’t think I’ll take that bet, Major, judging by the faces in the crowd here.”

“Oh, handsome General,” Rosie said as she looked him over. “You married?”

Everybody cracked up.

“Yes, I am,” he said.

“Too bad,” she said.

“Not saying anything?” Frank asked Jasmine. She rolled her eyes.

“Did you ever see it do any good?” she said, smirking.

“How about Happy Hour?” Rosie asked.

“Well, I guess we could have some cocktails,” Hilda said. “I think we deserve it.”

“Oh, and congrats on engagement, Hilda. You got good man,” Rosie said.

“Thank you, dear,” Hilda said. “Charlie, want to help me get out the cocktail cart? I’m still not 100%.”

“Of course, lead the way,” Charlie said. They walked off towards the kitchen area.

“Well, you still available,” Rosie said to Jeb. He turned red.

“I don’t think I could handle you, Rosie.” He snickered. “Might be fun to try, though.”

“Alright, you two,” Jasmine said. Jerry was standing next to her cracking up.

“I don’t know, I couldn’t think of a better father in law to have than Jeb,” he said.

“Now you talkin’,” Rosie said.

“General, we have a question,” Frank said. “There are about twenty more rigs that came here with us. They haven’t been directly involved in the fighting, but they’ve been helping out in other ways. If they want to stay with us, can Uncle Sam accommodate that?”

“Major Hobbs told me about that. I’ve got a question in about that to folks at the Pentagon. Do you have any idea how many of them would like to go?”

“No, I really don’t,” Frank said. “Possibly none. There are some down sides to going beyond losing our rigs.”

“What do you see as the other downsides?” asked the General.

“I can take this one,” Jerry said. “I’m thinking that at least some of the enemy have already leaked out to the east.”

“Good assumption,” the General said.

“If they are in contact with the militia here, we are liable to have enemy folks coming after us, even if we are a couple of states to the east. We won’t have the infrastructure and support there that we have here.”

“That’s a valid concern,” the General said. “You have to weigh the risks of that against the risks of staying here.”

“We get to take all of our weapons with us, correct?” asked Jeb.

“Well, everything but the tank,” Major Hobbs said, laughing. Jeb cracked a smile.

“Who wants a drink?” asked Charlie, as he and Hilda rolled the cocktail cart over.

“Wow, this nice,” Rosie said. “You didn’t use before.”

“No, we just used the tables by the stage last time,” she said. “But it’s too much work to get all of that set up now.”

“I make Weng Weng for anybody who wants,” Rosie said. She got next to the cart.

“Beware of those things, gentlemen,” Frank said to the Major and General. “They will peel paint off a barn.”

“We aren’t going to be drinking,” General Walker said. “Too much enemy activity.”

“Well, I’ll have something,” Jeb said. “Just whiskey, though.” He picked up a short glass off of the tray, used the tongs to put a couple of ice cubes in, and then filled the glass with Jack Daniels. He swirled the glass and backed away, taking a sip. “Oh, yeah.”

“There is one thing we would like you guys to do before you leave,” Major Hobbs said.

“The security cameras?” asked Frank.

“You got it.”

“No problem,” Frank said. “We can probably finish all of the installations tomorrow. It might take me another day to get the software set up.”

“We won’t be able to get you out of here for at least four days anyway,” General Walker said.

“Where are you proposing we get dropped off?” asked Charlie.

“We were going to suggest a place outside of Oklahoma City,” he said.

“Okla-by God-homa,” Jeb said, raising his glass. Everybody looked over at him. “Used to work with an old Okie named DC Winters. That’s what he called it. He came west during the dust bowl.”

“Of course you guys don’t have to stay there…..you have most of the Midwest and South to choose from.”

“I think we will need to keep moving,” Jerry said. “Just in case the bad guys are still looking for us.”

“I would advise that,” Major Hobbs said. “And keep your eyes open at all times.”

“This doesn’t sound very safe,” Jane said.

“Well, again, like I said, you have to weigh the safety of that versus the safety of staying here,” General Walker said. “As of right now, I believe it’s a lot safer to leave.”

“How about the replacement rigs?” asked Charlie. “Anything more about them?”

“Yes, actually,” the General said. “Apparently we’ve been supplying a lot of these to people who we’ve been relocating. We have contracts with several of the large manufacturers. They will get as close to the model that you have now as they can.”

“What manufacturers?” asked Jerry.

“Fleetwood, Forest River, Thor, and Winnebago,” he said. “If you had an expensive one, you can trade it across, but the deal is a little different than I thought. If you take the basic model, which is an entry level Thor, you can use it until this is over, then give it back and get your old rig back.”

“Assuming your old rig is still in one piece,” Jeb said.

“Yes, but you will be compensated if it’s not. If you want a match to a more expensive coach, Uncle Sam will keep your rig, and probably re-deploy it to somebody else eventually. We might even use it here, if Central Command feels that they want to put a lot more troops in here.”

Hilda got a worried look on her face.

“I am going to get my park back when this is over, correct?” she asked.

“Oh, yes, of course,” General Walker said. “And we’d take good care of it. If it gets damaged, we’ll fix it.”

Jane looked at Frank and smiled.

“We should be able to get another Georgetown 328. I know Forest River is still making them,” she said.

“Yes, that suits me fine,” Frank said. “Not looking forward to the new rig shakedown, though.”

“Here, Jackson,” Rosie said, handing a Weng Weng to him. He took a sip and his eyes lit up.

“Damn, this is tasty, and it goes down easy too,” he said.

“Did you watch her mix that, Jackson?” asked Jerry, laughing.

“No, why?”

“Its way stronger than it tastes,” he said. “Think Zombie, or Long Island Iced Tea.”

“Oh,” he said sheepishly.

“Be man, you can handle,” Rosie said. She grinned.

“Now mom, don’t try to get everybody plastered,” Jasmine said.

“They big boys now,” she said. Then she smirked, and took a big slug of her own Weng Weng.

“She’s certainly the life of the party, isn’t she,” General Walker said, grinning.

“You don’t know the half of it,” Jerry said.

The door opened. Everybody turned and saw the Sheriff hobble in slowly. Lucy barked, and wagged her tail. When the Sheriff got close, she jumped up and sniffed his leg. The Sheriff bent down and petted her head.

“Hi, everybody,” he said. “What’s cookin?”

“Sheriff, so glad to see you up and around,” Frank said.

“Want drink?” Rosie said.

“Sure, but no Weng Weng. I learned my lesson with those,” he said. “You’ll take advantage of me.” He chuckled.

“We heard you were giving those nurses a run for their money,” Jane said.

“Oh, yeah, I love to flirt with nurses,” the Sheriff said with a grin. “Too bad I didn’t need any sponge baths.”

“I give if you want,” Rosie said. “I nurse.”

Everybody in the room cracked up, and Jasmine rolled her eyes again, then shook her head.

“Seriously, folks, I just wanted to thank you for saving me. You didn’t have to do that.”

“Oh yes we did, you old coot,” Jeb said. “You’d have done the same for any of us.”

“Yes, I would,” he said. “And thanks for saving my nephew, too. He’s the last family I have left.”

“We are going to be moved out of here, Sheriff,” Charlie said. “Maybe you could come with us. You’ve probably got a target on your back too.”

“I figured, that’s why I wanted to get over here. To make sure I thanked all of you,” he said. His eyes started to mist up. “I can’t leave, though. I’m the only law enforcement that we have in the town. I don’t even have any deputies to hand it off to.”

“Sheriff, I was going to offer the same deal to you,” General Walker said. “You are probably being used as a propaganda target too. Your town would be safer if you and your deputy hit the road.”

“We could use you, Sheriff,” Charlie said. “It might get rough out there.”

“But what about the town?” he asked.

“Don’t worry about that, Sheriff,” General Walker said. “We’ll be bringing more folks in here. We could always station a detachment in your Sheriff’s station and have them patrolling.”

“Can they be nice?” the Sheriff asked. “This is a town full of civilians…mostly older folks but also a bunch of rednecks who live on the outskirts. Those rednecks can be independent and stubborn as hell. I don’t want to see them getting shot by some private.”

“We’d put good people in there, Sheriff,” Major Hobbs said. “But I understand how you feel. Think it over. We’ve got a good three days before we need a decision.”

“Fair enough,” the Sheriff said. “I’ve got to talk it over with my nephew as well. I also need to find out when he’s coming out of the hospital. I doubt he’ll be out in four days. He got pretty messed up.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll airlift him out when the time comes,” General Walker said. “Do you have an RV?”

“Yes, I’ve got a nice Monaco Camelot sitting in my backyard.”

“Well, we could give you an approximate replacement, new, from a handful of manufacturers, but you’d need to bring your rig in here and park it, so Uncle Sam can take it over.”

“Oh, you guys aren’t driving out of here?”

“No, way too dangerous,” General Walker said. “The plan right now is to airlift you with as much as you can carry to a location right outside of Oklahoma City. You’ll pick up your new rigs there, and then be free to go where you want to.”

“Alright, makes sense,” the Sheriff said. “I’ll think on it. Is there going to be a memorial for Chester?”

“Yes, we are going to have that here, tomorrow afternoon,” Hilda said. “The Reverend will be here. The body won’t be brought over, though…..he wanted to be cremated, so the mortuary in town is taking care of that.”

“Alright, I’ll be here of course.”

“And you have to stay after the wake,” Hilda said. “There’s going to be a wedding.”

“Really?” Who’s getting hitched?”

“Charlie and I,” Hilda said. The Sheriff’s face lit up.

“She finally hog tied you, did she?” the Sheriff said to Charlie. “I saw that coming.”

“Yes, she’s got me hog tied alright, but I’m glad,” Charlie said. The two men shook hands, and then hugged.

“I know you’ll take good care of her,” Sheriff said. “And I know she’ll take good care of you.”

Frank looked over at Jerry and Charlie, and nodded at them to join him over in the corner. They followed him away from the main group.

“Want to get going early on the security system tomorrow morning?” asked Frank.

“Suits me, Frank,” Charlie said.

“Me too,” Jerry said.

“Good. I’m hoping we can get the physical installation done by the end of the day tomorrow. I’ll work the software too, but I probably won’t get it done until the following day. It’s a fairly complex job.”

“Any chance you can set this up so Hilda can monitor her park remotely when we’re gone?”

“Of course,” Frank said. “It’s going to be on the internet. Security is the thing that’s going to take the longest. We don’t want the enemy being able to hack in and use the cameras against us. Once I’ve got that set up, we’ll all be able to access the whole system from wherever we are.”

“That’s great news,” Charlie said.

“Hey!” shouted Earl. He had his iPHONE in his hand, and was looking at the screen. “Turn on the TV. Something bad has just happened in D.C.”

“Uh oh,” Hilda said. She picked up the remote and switched the TV on. There was an image of the smoking wreckage of the U.S. Capitol building.

“Oh, no!” General Walker said. “There was a joint session of Congress going on today. All of our legislators were there.”