Bug Out! Part 3: Motorhome Madness

by Robert Boren

  “Where are the rest of the guys?” he shouted back.

  “Body disposal duty,” Jerry yelled.

  “Oh,” the Sheriff said. “Not a bad idea, it’s going to get smelly back here.”

  Frank and Jerry went to all four of the bodies, and picked up their guns, also emptied their pockets. Along with the weapons, they found ammo, rations, and assorted other stuff. They put it all in the knapsack that one of the Jihadists was wearing, and carried it back to the parking area, arriving there just as Charlie drove the truck back in.

  “Stripped those other bodies, huh?” Earl said, looking at the knapsack as he got out of the passenger side door.

  “Yeah,” Jerry said. He unlocked the back of the SUV and dumped it in. “Let’s go get those other bodies.”

  Jackson got out of the cab, and then Charlie. Everybody but Charlie went back to carry bodies up. They got them piled up in front of the truck, and hoisted them in. Then Charlie, Earl, and Jackson got back in the truck again, and took off.

  “Well, there’s a good job done,” Frank said. Jerry looked at him and nodded.

  “We have to get that schedule started for the blind back here,” he said.

  “I know, and we need to make sure we have reliable people back there.”

  “I wouldn’t be too hard on the kid, Frank. He wasn’t cut out for this kind of stuff.”

  “I know. We’re probably lucky that things happened like they did.”

  “I’m surprised you handle yourself so well.”

  “So am I,” Frank said. “I’ve always been a good shot, but I never killed anybody before.”

  “Well, back to the blinds. I’m thinking we ought to always have two people up there, not just one.”

  “Yeah, Jerry, I agree. Would have helped in both of our battles.”

  “What are your thoughts about sticking around?”

  “We need to find out what happened to the Major and his guys,” Frank said. “If they got killed back there, then I think we might want to get the heck out of here. I think it would take a pretty good force to take the Major out. Probably more of a force than we can handle.”

  “After we get this job done, maybe we ought to take a vehicle and go up north looking for them.”

  “Think so?”

  “Maybe,” Jerry said. “Let’s discuss it with the group when we get back.”

  “Look, here comes Charlie,” Frank said, pointing. The truck pulled over next to them, and Charlie motioned them over.

  “One of you guys want to follow me in that SUV? Hilda told me how to get back to the front gate.”

  “I’ll walk back through the forest and let the Sheriff know what’s going on,” Frank said. “I need to grab Lucy’s leash on the way through anyway.”

  “Alright, I’ll drive the SUV, then,” Jerry said. “Let’s go.” He jumped into the SUV and fired it up. He waited for the truck to get to the driveway, and then he backed out and drove after them. Frank went back into the woods, Lucy bouncing along just in front of him with her tail wagging.

  “Sheriff, I’m going back into the park,” Frank shouted.

  “Alright,” the Sheriff shouted back. “I’ll stay out here for a little while.”

  “You need a rifle?”

  “Naw, the Deputy has my rifle up here,” he replied.

  “OK, see you in a little while,” Frank said. He headed to the back gate, looking around carefully as he walked. He got to it, went through, and pulled Lucy’s leash off the fence. He bent down to put it on her, and then walked back to the front of the park. He arrived right as the truck and SUV were pulling through the gate. Hilda was down there to meet them.

  “Wow, that’s a lot of stuff,” Hilda said, looking in the SUV.

  “Yep, worth bringing in, that’s for sure,” Charlie said.

  “You got rid of all the bodies?”

  “Yes, they’re gone. Heard anything from the Major?”

  “Not a peep,” Hilda said. She got a concerned look on her face.

  “Where do you want us to park these?”

  Hilda thought about it for a moment.

  “Put them back behind the clubhouse, in front of the maintenance building,” she said. “That isn’t visible from outside of the park.”

  “Alright, be back in a minute. Jerry, follow me.”

  They drove the vehicles behind the clubhouse. Frank went into the store, followed by Hilda, and they went up the back steps to the roof. Jeb and Jane were sitting up there.

  “Sounds like I missed some fireworks,” Jeb said, grinning.

  “Yep, that was as hairy as the first battle,” Frank said.

  “I’d say worse,” Jerry said as he walked up onto the roof. “An old redneck got the drop on Charlie and me. If Earl wouldn’t have taken him out, we might not be alive right now.”

  “Now don’t go getting Hilda upset,” Charlie said as he got on the roof to join them.

  “Too late,” Hilda said. “What happened back there? Don’t sugar coat it.”

  “Well, the Deputy lost his nerve when these cretins showed up,” Frank said. “When we got back there, one of the Islamists was on his way up the ladder to get into the blind.”

  “Yeah, until you blasted him,” Jerry said. Jane walked over to Frank and gave him a hug. She was trembling.

  “I’m OK, sweetie,” Frank said, looking down at her and petting her head. “Anyway, we shot the guy on the ladder, and then some other guys opened fire on us. We shot three more guys in the forest during that fire fight. Then Charlie and Jerry snuck over to the parking area to disable the vehicle so survivors would be able to get away. That’s where the redneck got the drop on them. He had them covered, and was about to shoot them when Earl blasted him with his 30-06. There was another guy with him, and Charlie grabbed the redneck’s gun and shot him with it. That’s pretty much it.”

  “The rest of the time we spent getting the bodies from both of those fights out of there,” Jerry said, “and taking their truck and SUV. The SUV is chock full of supplies. That’s probably the main reason they came back, although they had also picked up the bodies of the first six and moved them over next to the pickup truck.”

  “So we’ve taken out twelve of these guys now,” Jeb said. “They’re gonna be pissed, and they know where we are. We’d better get ready.”

  Earl and Jackson came up onto the roof.

  “What’s going on?” Earl asked.

  “I just told these folks what happened back there,” Frank said. “Have a seat.”

  “So how are we going to protect ourselves against these dudes?” Jackson asked as he and Earl sat. “We’ve been pretty damn lucky so far.”

  “I agree, we’ve been real lucky,” Jerry said. “Frank and I were talking back there. We think it would be a good idea to have the blind manned with two people instead of just one.”

  “Why?” asked Jeb.

  “It will be harder for anybody to get the drop on us that way,” Frank said.

  “Alright, that makes sense,” Jeb said. “Do we have enough qualified folks to do that?”

  “Probably,” Charlie said. “I wouldn’t put two of our top people in there at a time, though. One top person and a second person that isn’t quite so experienced ought to do it.”

  “For the next 24 hours, I’d make it two top people,” Jerry said. “I agree with Charlie after that. If we are going to get hit again, I suspect it will be sooner rather than later.”

  “Hey, look,” Jeb said. “Here comes the Humvee. The Major is driving.”

  Chapter 7 – Ambush!

  The Humvee drove up to the front of the park. Hilda ran down the stairs and over to the gate to meet them and let them in. She looked inside. It was just the Major, one of the privates, and somebody laying down in the back.

  “Hi,” the Major said. “Hilda, right?”

  “Yes, Major. Do you have wounded?”

  “My Lieutenant. Is there a doctor nearby?”

  “Yes, I can get one here in
just a few minutes. I’ll go call him. You can pull over by the clubhouse. We have a stretcher in there.”

  “Thanks so much,” he said, and he drove forward and parked. He got out as Frank, Jerry, and Charlie came running over.

  “You alright, Major Hobbs?” asked Frank.

  “No, I’m not alright. We took a real beating back there,” he said.

  “How badly is the Lieutenant wounded?”

  “Looks like he’ll recover, but he’s lost a fair amount of blood. I’ll need to get an airlift set up to get him out of here. Is there a field large enough here to put down a chopper?”

  “You’re best bet is probably that front parking lot,” Hilda said as she walked back over. “Doc is on his way, and he’ll bring the ambulance and paramedics too, just in case. Anybody else need medical attention?”

  The Major shook his head no, and so did the private, who was getting out of the passenger seat.

  “What happened?” Jerry asked.

  “I’ll tell you in a few minutes, after the doctor gets here. Did you guys see any more action? We thought we heard gunfire coming from this direction.”

  “Yes, six more fighters came to the back,” Charlie said. “They were attempting to pick up that SUV and get the bodies of their dead. We killed all of them.”

  “Good,” he said. “Look like the same folks?”

  “Yep, a mixture of Islamist fighters and militia men,” Frank said.

  Earl and Jackson walked over, with Jane and Lucy.

  “What’s up?” asked Earl. Jane went over next to Frank.

  “The Lieutenant is wounded,” Hilda said. “The doc is on his way over here.”

  Just then the doctor’s car pulled in through the front gate, followed by the paramedic’s vehicle. Hilda went over to greet them, and pointed to the Humvee. They drove over there. The paramedics jumped out of their vehicle, and brought out a gurney. The doctor got out of his car and rushed over.

  “Who’s injured?” he asked.

  “Lieutenant James,” the Major said. “He’s in the back of the Humvee.”

  The doctor nodded at the two paramedics, and they brought the gurney around behind the Humvee. The Private opened the doors, and the paramedics carefully put the Lieutenant on it.

  “Take him inside the clubhouse and I’ll have a look,” the doctor said.

  The paramedics pushed the gurney inside, and the doctor followed it. Jasmine and Rosie were still in the clubhouse, with Chester and a couple other people.

  “Turn some more lights on in here, would you, Hilda?” the doctor said.

  “Sure thing.” She hit the switch and the lights came on.

  “What wrong with him?” asked Rosie.

  “Shoulder wound,” the doctor said after he pulled back the bloody shirt. “Not life threatening, but he’s lost some blood. We’ll need to get him to a hospital. How long has he been unconscious?”

  “Not that long,” the Major said. “Probably about half an hour.”

  “Alright. We have a small hospital in town….the boys could have him there in about ten minutes.”

  “Great,” the Major said. “I figured we’d need to do an airlift. Go ahead and take him there.”

  The doctor nodded to the paramedics, and they rolled the gurney out to their vehicle and loaded him in. Then they took off.

  The major wrote a phone number on a piece of paper and handed it to the doctor.

  “Here’s my number, give me a call and let me know how he is after you’ve patched him up.”

  “Will do,” the doctor said, and then he rushed back out to his car and jumped in. He followed the paramedic’s vehicle down the road to town. Hilda went out and got the gate closed up again. Then she came back into the clubhouse.

  “You two hungry?” asked Hilda.

  “Yes,” the Major said. The private nodded yes too.

  “Alright, let me whip something up for you,” she said, as she walked towards the clubhouse kitchen.

  “What’s been happening here?” asked the Major.

  “Remember the murder we were investigating?” asked Frank.

  “Yes, the old man with the short wave radio,” he said.

  “We figured out who did that. It was the woman that was in his rig with him the night before. Cynthia.”

  “Really? How did you figure that out?”

  “She disappeared, and on the way out she broke into Jerry’s rig and stole that short wave radio,” Frank said. “Then we found out that she was the lover of the militia leader.

  “Which militia leader?”

  “Franklin J. Hornady,” Earl said.

  “Franklin?” asked Chester. He laughed.

  “Oh, that guy,” the Major said. “He’s been in custody for a couple days now. He lost control of the Williams Militia, and the new leader tried to kill him. He surrendered to us for his own protection.”

  “No, really?” asked Jackson.

  “Really,” the Major said. “He’s quite a blowhard, that guy.”

  “I don’t think Franklin ever had control of that Militia in the first place,” Chester said.

  “Who’s the leader now?” asked Jerry.

  “We aren’t sure,” the Major said. “I don’t think the Williams Militia is the core of this group, though. It’s too big and sophisticated now, and they have an alliance with the Islamists. The little Williams Militia never could have put that together themselves. Very strange. We don’t know where these other folks are coming from.”

  “So you aren’t sure who’s the leader is, but it sounds like you have an idea,” Jerry said. “Who do you think?”

  “If I were a betting man, I’d say that weirdo they call Officer Simmons, and one of the Islamist leaders.”

  Jane looked like she was going to faint. Frank steadied her. Jasmine came over and leaned against Jerry.

  “You guys know who that is, I take it. Maybe we talked about him when I was here before?” asked the Major.

  “Yeah, Frank here shot him on the way out of Williams,” Chester said.

  “Maybe you told me about that, too,” the Major said. “Sorry, I’m still a little rattled.”

  “What happened to you guys up the road?” asked Frank.

  The Major looked down and collected his thoughts.

  “We took off on that road heading north. It was almost completely deserted out there. We passed a couple of ranches, but that was about it. Real rugged terrain on both sides of the road. Then we see a Honda CRV off to the side of the road, with its hood open.”

  “Uh Oh,” Charlie said. “What color?”

  “Red,” he said. “Why?”

  “Sounds like Cynthia’s car.”

  “Oh no,” Hilda said.

  “Anyway, I asked my men to get out to see if we could render any assistance. I stayed in the Humvee, trying to get the command post on the radio. The Lieutenant and the privates all got out and walked over. There was nobody around the car. Then we started taking small arms fire from the ridges. I looked around, and realized that we had driven right into a perfect spot for an ambush. Narrow road, with high ridges on either side. No place to hide.”

  “Crap,” Jerry said.

  “Three of the privates got killed right away. The Lieutenant jumped for cover, but got hit in the shoulder. Private Jones here got over to him, and we all started to return fire.”

  “The Lieutenant was still in action then?” asked Frank.

  “Yes. He didn’t seem that badly wounded at that point. We were able to nail two guys on the right ridge and one on the left. Then a person on the right ridge stood up and got ready to throw a grenade. The Private shot him before he could throw it, and it went off in his hand. He must have had others on his person or close by, because we heard a few others go off.”

  “So they did have the grenades,” Jerry said. “We were wondering if those were from you or them.”

  “Oh, we have some, but it’s hard to throw them up a cliff.”

  “Where are the bodies of
the three privates?” asked Charlie.

  “Back on the road. We pulled them over to the side. We were getting ready to load them in the Humvee when the Lieutenant passed out. We loaded him in the back and hi-tailed it here.”

  “Do you think you got all of the enemy back there?” asked Frank.

  “No way to tell. Private Jones climbed up on the right ridge. It was a mess after the grenade went off. Everybody up there was dead, but there was no way to tell if others escaped.”

  “You didn’t get up to the left ridge?”

  “No, we were going to do that next, but then the Lieutenant passed out.”

  “You say that you don’t think the Williams Militia is a big part of this group now?” asked Earl.

  “That’s what we are hearing. In fact, that’s what Franklin J. Hornady told us. I tend to believe him on that, but not much else.”

  “I was in that group, Major,” Earl said. “It’s bothered me that I didn’t recognize any of the militia men we killed. We’ve nailed seven of them so far, back by the blinds. I got a good look at all of the bodies, because we loaded them up into a pickup this morning and dumped them down a canyon. I didn’t know any of them, I’m sure of that. Didn’t recognize the vehicles either.”

  “I was wondering why you didn’t mention that you recognized anybody,” Jerry said.

  “Why did you dump the bodies?” asked the Major.

  “They were going to stink up the back end of the park,” Charlie said.

  “Oh,” said the Major. “Stupid question. Sorry. I assume you stripped the bodies of whatever they were carrying.”

  “Of course,” Charlie said. “Remember that SUV back there?”

  “Yeah,” the Major said.

  “It was full of supplies in the back. We have it over behind the clubhouse if you want to take a look.”

  “Later,” Hilda said, as she carried out two plates of food. She put one in front of the Major and one in front of the Private. “Want a beer with these?”

  “Water would be better,” the Major said. “We need to keep a clear head. We weren’t that far back on the road when we were ambushed. I’d say no more than five miles. There are bad guys around here. We need to be sharp.”

  “Any chance of getting more troops out here?” asked Charlie.