Bug Out! Part 5: RV Flight from Terror (17 page)

“It’s a hike, but they probably won’t be able to follow us back there.”

“Well, let’s talk about it when everybody is up. Time to go get the coffee started.”

Jeb smiled at him and nodded, then went back into his rig.

Frank opened the door of the coach, and Lucy ran up the steps. He followed her in and went to the fridge to get out the pet food. He filled the pet bowls, and then got started on the coffee.

Mr. Wonderful looked up at Frank and started his ‘feed me’ meows. Frank looked down at him and shook his head.

“Don’t worry, old boy, it’s coming,” he said. He put the bowls down by the front of the coach, and both animals scampered over.

The bedroom door slid open, and Jane walked out, yawning and rubbing her eyes.

“Good morning, beautiful,” Frank said. “Sleep well?”

“I slept like a log,” she said. “Was excited to get up, but then I realized that we don’t have power for the coffee maker.”

“No problema. I’ve got water heating for the French Press right now.”

“Mmmmmm…forgot that we brought that. We get a treat.”

“Yep,” Frank said. He pulled the French Press out of the top cupboard, and opened the freezer to get the coffee out.

“Lucy already been out?”

“Yeah, I took her when I first got up,” Frank said, as he scooped coffee into the French Press. “Talked to Jeb for a few minutes. He was the only other person up that I could see.”

“He slept well, I hope?”

“Said he did,” Frank said.

“We going to keep going today?”

“I think we should,” Frank said. “So does Jeb. He thinks we ought to be up in the Rockies a ways. He suggested Leadville.”

“Gets cold up there in the winter,” Jane said.

“Yes, I brought that up, but he seems to think we’ll be able to move elsewhere before the weather gets too bad.”

The tea kettle started to whistle. Frank grabbed a pot holder and picked it up. He carefully poured the boiling water into the French Press, and then stirred it with a long wooden spoon. After it was well mixed, he put the top on and set the timer on his phone.

“Ah, I can already smell that,” Jane said. “How long will the fridge run before we have to run the genny?”

“Good question,” Frank said. He walked back to the hallway and looked at the battery level. “It’s below half, so pretty soon. We need to avoid opening the fridge doors as much as possible.”

“Alright. I’m okay with Clif Bars and coffee for breakfast. We don’t have to open it for that.”

“Sounds good,” Frank said. His cellphone timer went off. He shut it off, and then walked over to the counter and slowly pushed down the plunger on the French Press. Then he poured two cups and handed one to Jane. She took a sip.

“Not bad,” she said.

Frank took a sip. “Not bad? This is great.”

“Alright, it’s great,” Jane said, laughing.

Somebody in another coach fired up their generator. Then another.

“Sounds like people are getting up,” Frank said. “I’m going to fire up our genny for a little while.”

“Good,” Jane said. She watched as Frank went up to the dashboard and pushed down the button. The generator sprung to life. “How we doing on gas, Frank?”

“It’s still between full and ¾,” Frank said.

“Wow, not bad,” Jane said. She got up and went into the pantry, pulling out a couple of bars. She tossed one to Frank and opened one for herself. They ate quickly.

“There’s about one more cup for each of us,” Frank said. “As soon as I’m ready for a refill, I’m going to take it outside and see if anybody is ready to plan the day.”

“I’ll get dressed, then,” Jane said. She got up and went into the bedroom. Frank poured his second cup, and refilled Jane’s cup too.

“Just filled your cup again, sweetie. If it’s not warm enough, you can put it in the microwave, since the genny is running.”

“Alright,” she said. “See you outside.”

Frank went down the steps into the cool morning air. The sun was already starting to burn the clouds away. Jeb was back outside, talking to Jerry and Charlie and the Sheriff.

“Morning, guys,” Frank said. They all nodded. “So what’s the plan?”

“Jeb is saying Leadville,” Charlie said. “I’m alright with that, but I think it might take more than one day to get there.”

“You may have a point,” Jeb said. “The worst part of the drive to Leadville is when you get off of I-70. We don’t want to take Route 24 after dark, that’s for sure. Why don’t we stop in Eagle? That gets us most of the way down I-70. Good place to gas up and stock up, too.”

“There’s an idea,” Jerry said. “Nice place. Haven for mountain bikers over the last few years. There are some good RV Parks there. If it wasn’t so close to I-70, it would be a good place to hang out for a while.”

“How soon should we get going?” Earl asked as he was walking up with Jackson. Kurt and Mary followed them over.

“Where are you thinking of going?” Kurt asked.

“Leadville, with a stopover in Eagle,” Frank said.

“Good plan. I think we ought to be out of here inside the hour,” Kurt said.

“If not sooner,” the Sheriff said. “The local authorities are liable to show up here any minute and start asking a lot of questions. The Sheriff in this town is aggressive, and he doesn’t like the Second Amendment. He’s gotten in trouble before for confiscating weapons.”

“How big’s the force?” Jeb asked.

“Tiny,” the Sheriff said. “About three people. This town is really small.”

“Oh, so we’ve got a little Hitler here, do we?” Earl said, sounding combative.

“Settle down, everybody,” Mary said. “The Sheriff is right. We need to get out of here before a confrontation starts. If we have to shoot our way out of here, we’ll become outlaws. We don’t want that.”

“Alright, then let’s get ready to go now,” Charlie said. “Spread the word. Jerry and Frank, might be a good idea to tell the Army guys that we’re leaving.”

Frank nodded, and looked over at Jerry. Jane came up to Frank.

“Should I get us ready to leave?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Frank said. “Shouldn’t take much. Just put things away and bungee the fridge. I’ll be back in a minute.”

Frank and Jerry started walking towards the privates. The Sheriff came alongside them.

“I think I should talk to them too,” the Sheriff said. “I know this Sheriff. I probably should be the lead coach, too. I can call this guy on his BS if he tries to make trouble.”

“I like that plan,” Frank said as they got to the Humvee. “Hey, guys, we’re getting ready to go.”

The privates looked at them and smiled.

“Good, we need to get out of here too,” Private Jenkins said. “We’ll give you about twenty minutes before we call the coroner. OK?”

“That would be great, thanks,” Jerry said, “and good luck to you. Thanks for saving our butts yesterday.”

“Don’t mention it,” he replied.

“Son, don’t tell the Sheriff here very much. He can be kind of a stinker,” the Sheriff said. “I know the guy. That’s why we’re hi-tailing it so early.”

“Understand, Sheriff,” Private Williams said. “He can’t mess with us as much as he might mess with you guys, though. We take orders from the army, not him. He could get in big trouble for messing with us.”

“True enough,” the Sheriff said. “Anyway, good luck to you, and thanks for the help.”

“Welcome,” Private Jenkins said. “Thank you guys.”

The three men hurried back to their rigs and got them fired up. Charlie had finished spreading the word with Jeb and Earl and Jackson.

“Guys, let’s put the Sheriff in the lead,” Frank said. “He knows this Sheriff, so if the guy decides to pull us over, he can deal with him.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” Charlie said. “Let’s get going.”

Everybody got into their rigs. The Sheriff pulled out and got to the road first, followed by Jerry and Jasmine, Earl, Jackson, and Jeb. The others were behind them.

“Let’s take the rear,” Frank said. “There’s two of us, and we can both shoot.”

Jane got a worried look on her face, but she nodded in agreement.

“Going to miss having the Army guys behind us,” she said.

“Hopefully the bad guys aren’t going to be in this state.”

“Why don’t I drive, then?” Jane asked. “That will free you up to man the guns.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

Jane got behind the wheel and fired up the coach. She shut down the genny, and drove off, following the last of the rigs.

“Eagle here we come,” Frank said.

They got out onto Route 139, and soon they saw the on-ramp for I-70. There was no traffic. The town appeared to be asleep. It was only about 7:30am.

“Good,” Frank said. “Wide open road ahead.”

They got on I-70 and sped up. The road was smooth and wide.

“Let’s turn on the radio,” Jane said.

“Here we go,” Frank said. They were just in time for the news report.

“The tide turned overnight in Flagstaff. The US Army was defeated yesterday right outside of town, and the Islamists rushed in. They were met with thousands of armed citizens and local police. This halted the advance of the enemy. The largest part of the force was trapped in the middle of town when reinforcements from the Army arrived with tanks and other heavy weapons. The largest part of the enemy force was defeated. Reports are that survivors ran for their lives, only to be shot by more armed citizens. The smaller core of the enemy force did escape town, however. While small in number, this part of the force included both Islamist fighters and militia members. It’s widely believed that the Islamist leader known as Saladin was among the group that escaped. They are heading towards the militia stronghold by the Grand Canyon now. The U.S. Government is considering using bombs to attack them. A fierce argument is going on over this in Washington DC now, with environmentalists trying to veto any kind of heavy weapons use in this sensitive area.”

“Oh, brother,” Frank said, with irritation. “Don’t use explosives. Hit them with napalm or Willie Pete. That won’t blow up any rocks.”

“Yeah, I don’t get this. It’s almost as if the Government doesn’t want to end this nonsense.”

“Well, that wasn’t all of the enemy force, either,” Frank said. “I’d be surprised if anywhere near the whole two hundred thousand enemy fighters were killed off in Flagstaff. The largest part of the force is somewhere else.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Jane said.

The radio announcer continued.

“In other news, there have been more uprisings in California. All of the inland empire area in Southern California is now free of martial law, and the rebels are making headway in both Riverside and Orange Counties as well. The biggest surprise is Los Angeles County, where the northern section has started armed conflict with state agencies trying to enforce the lockdown. There is a similar situation going on in Central California, with Fresno and other large towns in the area now free of martial law enforcement. The rebels are heading up towards Modesto and Stockton now, prompting the state government in Sacramento to start evacuations of key personnel to the San Francisco area. The California state government has appealed to the military in the San Diego area for assistance, but the Commanding Officer has refused, saying there is no grounds to continue with martial law in California.”

“Wow,” Jane said. “This experience has taught me something important.”

“What’s that?”

“Once freedom has become an institution, it’s almost impossible to turn it around,” Jane said. “Our tradition of liberty is going to save us.”

“Yes, it is,” Frank said, “and look what the citizens of this country were able to do against the enemy. They routed them in California, and now they are doing the same thing in Arizona. I’m so proud of that.” Frank looked over at Jane, his eyes glassy.

“I know, it chokes me up too,” Jane said.

“Is that a siren that I hear?” Frank asked. The sound got louder and louder. Jane looked in her rear view mirror.

“Shit,” she said. “Two squad cars heading up in the left lane.”

“Don’t stop unless the group stops,” Frank said.

“I won’t,” she said. Just then the first squad car flew past them, heading up to the front coach. The other squad car got behind Frank and Jane’s rig and stayed there. Then the rigs up ahead were starting to slow down. Soon they were all stopped. Frank looked in his rear-view mirror and saw an officer walking up along the passenger side. Frank looked over at Jane.

“He’s coming up along my side,” Frank said. He reached down and took the safety off the shotgun.

The officer tapped on Frank’s side window. He slid it open.

“Good morning, officer,” Frank said. “What’s the problem?”

“Where are you people headed?” the officer asked.

“We’re on our way to Eagle to camp out for a while,” Frank said.

“Where are you coming from?” he asked.

“Utah,” Frank said.

“Why did you leave there?” he asked.

“The enemy was getting too close. They overran the RV Park that we were at shortly after we left. We got out just in time.”

The officer took off his sunglasses. He strained to see who else was in the coach. Lucy growled.

“Quiet, girl,” Jane said.

“Anybody in the coach other than you two?” the officer asked.

“Just our dog and cat,” Frank said.

The officer pushed the button on his radio, which was on his upper chest.

“Sheriff, the people back here are just normal folks. We should let them be on their way. Now.”

“Negatory,” the scratchy voice over the radio said. The tone of voice was caustic. “We need to check them for weapons.”

“Negatory?” the Deputy replied.
“Please. You aren’t in the military, we aren’t under martial law, and there’s no probable cause to search these folks. Period.”

He looked at Frank, shook his head, and mouthed ‘no way’ to him.

The scratchy voice came back over the chest radio.

“I can have your job for this, Jeremy.”

“You fire me and I’ll report this whole thing, along with the other incidents, and I’ll go to the local papers too. Then try to get re-elected, you idiot. I’ll just walk away from this incident. Have fun harassing these people by yourself.”