Bug Out! Part 3: Motorhome Madness

by Robert Boren

  The Doc walked up.

  “Hilda is going to make it, but she needs to be in bed for at least a few days,” he said. “I got the bullet out, and the wound dressed. She lost a fair amount of blood, but the bullet didn’t do any serious damage. She’s a lucky gal.”

  “Thanks, Doc,” Chester said.

  “Does Charlie know?” Frank asked.

  “Yes, he was down here with her until we started cutting to get the bullet out. Then he went back up to be with Jeb on the roof. I’ll talk to him.”

  “Thanks, Doc,” Frank said.

  “You’re going to have a problem getting out of here, at least for a while, I’m afraid,” Major Hobbs said.

  “Road pretty bottled up, eh?” he asked.

  “Yes. When the privates get back from the chase, I’ll get a couple of those Humvees out there to drag the wreckage out of the way. We’ll also grab their supplies and bring them in here. More AK-47s and ammo to add to your arsenal. Maybe some grenades and mortars too.”

  “Yeah, those mortars come in handy,” Frank said.

  “We heard them going off back there. What happened?” Chester asked.

  “The enemy brought three troop transport trucks and a tank into the back parking area,” Frank said. We caught them flat footed with that mortar. Good thing, too, because they were getting the tank ready to start bombarding the park.”

  “Yeah, their strategy makes a lot of sense, actually,” Major Hobbs said. “Attack from the rear, and have forces up front to stop us from escaping. We were very lucky.”

  “How did you take the tank out?” asked Jane.

  “We didn’t take out the tank, but the men manning the tank were outside when the mortar fire hit them. That tank is in working order.”

  “Really?” asked Chester. “What kind?”

  “M-1 Battle tank,” Major Hobbs said. “I think you guys should man that thing back there in addition to watching from the blind.”

  “I know quite a bit about tanks,” Chester said. “Learned about them in the service. Nothing newer than M-60s, but I’ve kept up. Maybe I can help.”

  “Maybe,” Major Hobbs said. “That reminds me, how is Lieutenant James doing, Doc?”

  “He’s less injured than I thought. I was going to release him this afternoon, but got the call to come down here. If you can get me back into town, I’ll get him released and you can bring him back here.”

  “Excellent,” Major Hobbs said. “He’s an expert on the M-1 tanks. He can help get a bunch of your folks checked out on that thing.”

  “I did have one thought since we talked, Major,” Frank said. “I’m not so sure that it’s a good idea to bottle up that back parking area in such a way that we can’t get out there.”

  “Why? No way could you get any motor homes through to that parking lot.”

  “I know, but we could fix things so that we could get cars through there. Most of us have TOADs”

  “What’s a TOAD?” asked the Major.

  “It’s a vehicle that you tow behind your motor home,” Chester said.

  “Oh. Well, you may have a point there, Frank. I’ll leave that one up to you. If you are smart with that tank and have it manned all the time, nobody is getting through there.”

  One of the privates rushed in.

  “Major Hobbs, our men are back,” he said.”

  “Thanks, private,” the Major said. “Send them in.”

  The four men came in.

  “Well, anything?” he asked.

  “There were three of them walking away. We killed all of them, sir,” said one of the privates.

  “Private Finch, correct?”

  “Yes sir,” he replied.

  “Any evidence of other vehicles that might have gotten away?”

  “No sir, I’m almost sure of that,” he said.

  “How?”

  “They would have had to make a K-turn to get out of there, and there were no tire tracks on the sides of the road or the turnout there,” he said. “No way could they have pulled off a K-turn on the asphalt.”

  “Good job, Private Finch. Now we have another job to do. Let’s get a couple Humvees out there and pull those busted trucks out of the road.”

  “Yes, sir,” Private Finch said.

  “Oh, and collect all of the weapons and ammo and bring them in here. Same for any grenades, mortars, or RPGs.”

  “Will do, sir,” he said, and the four men turned and left.

  Charlie walked in, and came up to the doc.

  “How’s my girl?” he asked.

  “She’s still doing well, but she needs bed rest for a few days,” the doc said. “Anybody here know anything about nursing? The dressings will need to be changed.”

  “I nurse,” Rosie said. “In Philippines.”

  “Good,” the doc said. “Let’s go over there and talk, and I’ll show you what you need to do.”

  “OK,” she said, and they walked over. “You have girlfriend?” The doc looked at her and laughed.

  “Mom!” Jasmine said. Everybody else cracked up.

  “What’s the plan, guys?” asked Charlie.

  “You missed out on that conversation we had earlier,” Frank said. “When you guys were scouting the back for the cameras. Major Darcy and Major Hobbs told us what the situation is.”

  “Go on,” Charlie said.

  “The army has two problems right now. They are heavily tied up fighting inside Mexico, to stop the flow of Islamists and radicals from South America, and to re-take that country. It’s going well, but it’s left us thin up here. That’s problem number one.”

  “What’s problem number two?”

  “You saw it today. The army has been infiltrated with a lot of recent immigrants who aren’t really immigrants. They are plants from the South American radical groups. They’ve been doing just what we saw happen here today. They are very difficult to detect.”

  “That’s not good.”

  “There are actually three problems,” Major Hobbs said as he walked back over to them. “The other big problem is a very large movement of Islamist forces over the border from Canada.”

  “Yeah, I was getting to that,” Frank said.

  “So we are being attacked from the great white north and there is not enough army to handle them.”

  “Exactly. You know what that means?”

  “Yes,” Charlie said. “It means the citizens are in this fight too.”

  “Exactly,” Frank said. Major Hobbs nodded in agreement.

  “So we need to do more than just defend this place and try to stay alive,” Charlie said. “We’ve got to take it to the enemy.”

  “Yes, that is the situation we are in now, I’m afraid,” Major Hobbs said. “From what I’ve seen of you guys, you are up to the challenge. But let’s be realistic. Some of you are going to get killed.”

  “Yes, that is what I’m afraid of,” Jane said.

  “Me too,” Jasmine said.

  “You two grow up,” Rosie said, hobbling over. “You live here in US of A and never have to fight for freedom. You don’t know what like to live in other places. You support your men. You fight. America worth this.” She stared at the two of them as if they were both their daughters.

  “Rosie is right,” Major Hobbs said. “We could lose this country. Lord knows some of our leadership has done their best to make that happen, just by being lazy, stupid, and corrupt.”

  Suddenly they heard a metallic screeching sound out front. Everybody except Major Hobbs looked concerned.

  “They are towing those trucks out of the roadway,” the Major said. “I’d better go out and take a look at how they are doing.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Frank said.

  “I’m going back on the roof to keep watch with Jeb, just in case,” Charlie said. He headed for the store.

  “Where are you dragging those hulks? In the front parking lot?” Frank asked.

  “No, we don’t need anything out there for bad guys to hide behind. W
e’re going to put them in the turnouts along the bend of the road. That will make it hard for those guys to escape, should they come down that road again.”

  There was a pile of AK-47s, grenades, ammo, and three mortars with boxes of shells sitting next to the gate.

  “Nice haul,” Major Hobbs said. “Before we leave I’ll make sure several of your folks know how to operate those mortars.”

  “Wonder if we’ll get hit again today?” asked Frank.

  “I doubt it, but this isn’t over.”

  Frank’s cell phone rang. The two men looked at each other and smiled. Frank pulled it out of his pocket and saw it was the Sheriff.

  “Frank?”

  “Sheriff, how’s it going back there?”

  “No more problems. The cell towers are back up. They just called me a few minutes ago and let me know.”

  “Wow that was quick.”

  “Just cut wires, apparently. They didn’t bust up the tower or anything like that.”

  “How are you and the Deputy holding up there?”

  “Fine. I think the army is wrapping things up down below. They got the tank moved to the back of the parking area, pointing outward. If anybody tries coming down that driveway, they won’t have a good day.”

  “Good. Did they block off the driveway with those trucks yet?”

  “No, Jerry told them to hold up on that. He thinks we should have an escape route out of here.”

  “Great minds think alike,” Frank said. “I was going to suggest that too.”

  “They tracked one guy…..it was a wounded fighter that had tried to walk away. He bled out…..was dead before Jerry and the private found him. Doesn’t sound like anybody else escaped.”

  “Good. We were damn lucky,” Frank said. “We weren’t so lucky up here.”

  “What happened?”

  “The other Major got killed, by plants in his own force. It happened right as some bad guys were trying to get more troop transport trucks up to the front of the park. It was a coordinated effort.”

  “Sorry to hear that. I’ll bet Charlie and Jeb stopped those trucks.”

  “Good guess. We got a good haul of supplies. More AK-47s and ammo, some mortars, and some other stuff.”

  “Good. I’m going to get off now, need to make some more calls into town. I’ll get back to you.”

  “Alright, thanks, Sheriff.”

  Frank hung up the phone and put it in his pocket.

  “Who fixed the cell tower?” asked Major Hobbs.

  “Somebody in town. Apparently all the bad guys did was cut a few wires. They didn’t knock the whole tower down.”

  “Good. Wonder if there is anybody in town that could guard it?”

  “Don’t know. I’ll mention that to the Sheriff the next time I talk to him. He might already be on that. He said he had to call some people in town.”

  “How big is that town, anyway?”

  “You know, I have no idea,” Frank said. “I haven’t been there myself yet. The Doc would know. Why?”

  “I’m just wondering why they would bother messing with an RV park when there is a nice town nearby, that’s all.”

  “Well, I used to think it was because of spooky dude,” Frank said.

  “Who’s spooky dude?”

  “Officer Simmons,” Frank said. “I don’t know what to think now, though. It doesn’t appear that the militia and the Islamists are still working together.”

  “Oh, yeah, I remember now. You shot that guy on the way out of Williams.”

  “What do you know about him?” Frank asked.

  “Not much more than rumors. That idiot Franklin P. whatever said that he was the main reason he lost control of the Williams militia, but I don’t trust what that guy says.”

  There was more metallic screeching, and the last of the trucks was now out of the road. The privates got into the Humvees and drove back through the gate.

  “All done, sir,” one of the Privates said as he walked up.

  “Good. Could you guys move the booty into the clubhouse, please? Stack it on one of the tables, and then find out who knows the most about how the mortars operate. We’ll need to train some of these civilians on them.”

  “Yes sir,” he said, and he turned and walked over to the other privates. They got to work hauling things into the clubhouse.”

  “How much longer are you guys going to stick around?” Frank asked. They were walking back towards the clubhouse.

  “I don’t know. I’ll have to get in touch with the CO and tell him what happened here. That’s next on my list of things to do. It’s not going to be fun. Darcy and the CO went way back.”

  One of the privates came running up.

  “Major, somebody is trying to get you on the radio,” he said.

  “Thanks, private.” He ran over to his Humvee and answered.

  Frank continued on to the clubhouse, but the Major caught him at the door.

  “That was the CO. He said a CIA guy is coming over right now to talk with us. He ought to be here any minute.”

  “Alright, maybe he’s got some helpful info,” Frank said.

  “Hell, those folks don’t give info, they take info,” the Major said. He laughed. They both heard a car coming. It was an Arizona State Police car. It drove through the gate and over to where they were standing.

  “Major Hobbs?”

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Your CO just called you about me, correct?”

  “Yes, CIA, right?”

  “Yes. We need to talk.” He got out of the car, and Frank finally got a good look at his face. It was Officer Simmons.

  To be continued in Bug Out Part 4. Available Now!

  Copyright

  Bugout! Part 3 copyright © 2014 by Robert G Boren. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any format without permission in writing from the copyright holder.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  About the Author

  Robert G Boren is a writer from the South Bay section of Southern California. He writes Short Stories, Novels, and Serialized Fiction. Most of his work is about people from the South Bay.