Dark Days Rough Roads dd-1

by Matthew D. Mark

  He kept looking for a place to pull off. He couldn’t continue driving for much longer and with the amount of time most likely left, the break would do him good. He looked over at Mike, who was hovering between sleep and consciousness. He asked him to look in the binder and see if there were any notes written in the margins regarding the area. Mike looked and said something about campground races.

  Ah yes, he thought. The year Earnhardt senior had taken a fatal right run during a race, Haliday and the family had become weekend rednecks. They started following NASCAR very consistently. Rather than haul their camper to the track itself, they went about half an hour further to enjoy a small out the way campground. After his divorce, Haliday and Kayla continued the tradition each year up until she left for college.

  He still knew the area very well. Since it was closed for the season, it might make a great place to stop for a while. He glanced down at the binder and got his bearings. He told Mike what the plan was. Mike offered to drive, but Haliday told him he needed to get out of the truck for a while and give his ribs some rest. “Besides,” he said, “the rest will do us all some good.”

  They passed farm after farm of crops that had been cleared weeks ago. Corn and soy beans were the top crops. Over in Hillsdale, not far off, there used to be a Pillsbury plant that had closed a few years back. It just reminded him of what he took for granted. Pop the can open, biscuits in the oven, enjoy. Nope, home made from now on and for who knows how long.

  He turned the lights off and approached the small dirt road that led to the campground. The main gate was about 200 yards off the main road. He told Mike to wait here for 20 minutes, then drive around the main gate and then the secondary gate and stop about 25 yards from the camp store. He told Kayla to come with him. They set off on foot toward the wood line.

  Mike waited and then did as he had been instructed to do. When he got there, he placed it in park and noticed there was smoke coming from the stovepipe in the roof of the little store. He noticed a regular house trailer was attached to it. He then waited. He was going to make sure he thanked Haliday for using them as bait.

  Just about five minutes later he heard a voice command them to exit the vehicle and put their hands up. Mike looked at Linda and they climbed out. A spotlight turned on and illuminated them. “Walk to the front of your truck and face the hood.” They complied. Max jumped down out of the truck and sat and watched the activity.

  A man in his mid to late forties approached them. “Don’t get any bright ideas and try anything stupid,” he told them. “What’s your business here?” Mike looked at Linda.

  Linda said, “We used to stay here, well, I did, years ago during the races. We are trying to get home and needed a place to stop. My ex husband thought this would be a good place.”

  The guy looked at her. “What do you mean your ex?” he asked “Where is he?”

  “I don’t honestly know exactly where he is, but I would assume he’s watching us right now.” The guy looked around and then looked back at them.

  “Well, I have a few guys out there myself. Not sure he could handle them.” Linda was thinking the opposite.

  Linda said, “Listen, we don’t want any trouble, we just wanted a place to stay for a bit while we rested. It’s been a rough few days and we are beat.”

  The guy said, “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

  “Are you the owner?” she asked

  “Close enough,” was the reply. Linda went on to explain a few things.

  “You still have the old Ms. Pacman in the arcade? Your boat rentals are actually across the main road by the dock. You keep a cinderblock on top of the dumpster to keep the raccoons out and a chain on it so the cinderblock doesn’t go missing. The pump out station has a sign that says ‘this here honey hole ain’t sweet, wash your hands before leaving’.”

  The guy said, “Ok, sounds legitimate, but what we have here is quite a pickle. I’ll tell you what, you call your ex-husband in and we’ll go from there.”

  Linda said, “Ok, but you call your guys in after that.”

  “Deal,” he said.

  Linda called out, “Roger, you hear that?” Roger appeared a couple minutes later. As he approached he watched a red dot dance across his body. He looked over and saw another dance off Mike.

  He walked up, looked at the guy and said, “Hey George, thought you’d be gone by now.” George recognized him; he had seen him for five years now every August. George took over running the campground from his dad who had retired. That explained him not knowing Linda.

  “Well, we were planning on it, but we still hadn’t finished the season. We extended it this year to host a Halloween weekend. Thought we would make a few extra bucks.”

  George whistled and two guys came walking up, one with a hand held spotlight. These were George’s two sons who helped him run the campground now then closed up each year before they all headed to Florida for the winter. Max walked over and inspected them then walked back to Haliday and looked at him as if to acknowledge his approval of the guys. “Want a dog?” Roger asked.

  Linda said, “Kayla will be mad─keep it up.”

  Haliday asked him if he knew what was going on. George told him that he listened to the campers enough to know some were preppers or survivalists or whatever they called themselves. He had taken some basic precautions himself. He figured it was serious when everything went dark. He had used the old tractor to go into town to confirm this. He said he went back as soon as possible and bought as much food as he could before people figured out there wouldn’t be any soon.

  George said, "I never figured you to be one of those folks."

  Haliday said, "What kind of folks do you mean?" George didn’t really say anything he just shrugged his shoulders. Haliday said, “Ready, I’m just ready.”

  George looked at Haliday; “Hey can I ask you a question Roger? She mentioned Kayla. Where’s your daughter? Is she at school?” George was shocked by the answer.

  “No sir, she’s out there with a bead on you guys as we speak.”

  George looked around. “You can call her in.” Haliday had noticed the two lasers and knowing he only had two sons he was comfortable calling Kayla in. Kayla came walking in.

  “Dad, it’s cold out here,” she looked and said, “Hi Mr. George.”

  “Hi sweetie,” he said. “Let’s all go inside.” They walked inside and it was warm and comfortable in there. Kayla stood by the wood stove to warm up a bit.

  “George, you going to call in your third man or leave him out there?” George laughed, went to the porch of the store and blinked his flashlight a couple times.

  "How did you know?" he said.

  Haliday said he saw smoke from three of the rental cabins. “I figured someone was out there. Two cabins, one for each son, you in the main trailer and someone in the third cabin.”

  “What about you Roger, any more surprises?”

  “No sir. Thank you for letting us in George.”

  The winter caretaker walked in and George asked him to let their wives know it was ok. He went and told them and they all returned from hiding somewhere. They talked a bit about what was going on and what had transpired, but Haliday didn’t share a lot of details about any of the gunplay. Last thing they would want to hear and they might not trust them then.

  “How did you know we were here George, your alarm system working?”

  “Oh, hell no. We used some fishing line and tied it across the driveway by the main road. When you tripped it, that pulled a stick out from under a can full of rocks. These rocks would fall on a couple of more empty cans to make even more noise.” They had made sure they ran it across some trees to use the bark to help keep the line from sagging too much. Crude, but it worked. George looked at the caretaker. “You mind?” he said. The caretaker said, “No problem,” and then went to reset the alarm.

  The lasers and spotlights were unusual as well. After asking about them it seems this was a good time of year for spotlig
hting deer. Haliday didn’t care about that. He asked them if they were set for food and everything. He didn’t expect George to tell him much, but George actually filled him in on everything.

  He had hit the local Sam’s club in town, where he often bought a lot of supplies for the campground. He had towed the trailer he normally used for fire wood delivery behind the tractor. They managed to get a couple hundred pounds of rice, about 12 cases each of canned fruit, canned vegetables and beans. Also some flour and other items.

  They paid cash of course and he figured George kept most of the cash from the campground to hide from the IRS, so he had enough on hand. Plus he had what was left in the camp store. He told them at Sam’s it was for the last big party they were having. Not sure the people realized otherwise as it hadn’t even been 24 hours yet since it happened.

  They’d make spring with no problems, so long as no one got to them here. Haliday said, “Hide it. Hide it all and not all in one place. Keep your guard up too. In the next few weeks they’ll remember who was buying what and they’ll want it. But, back to the business at hand. Can we rest for about six hours?”

  “Sure thing,” George said. “We’ll keep guard for ya.”

  Haliday said, “We’ll help you stay awake.” No sense in waking up dead, he thought. They slept in shifts, but they had let Haliday sleep the whole six hours.

  Chapter 12

  Dawn, Diana and Karen were making about 5mph and were a couple hours into the trip with only about an hour to go. They didn’t have to stop at all which was nice. They did get a lot of questions about what they had, where they were going and of course people asking for handouts. Diana was driving now with Karen in the passenger seat. Dawn would stand up in the back seat, rifle at the ready, whenever they were approached.

  Haliday had shown her a dual 10/22 Gatling gun monstrosity as a joke and she had actually wanted one mounted on the roll bar. Haliday laughed it off, but she was thinking it might not have been a bad idea. 22lr’s were not quite battle tested, but then again, nobody likes to leak blood. Would have been like getting stung from a bee hive but only worse.

  Dawn was listening in on the ham when she heard Roger call Bev’s house. "How’s everything going?" he had asked. Bev filled them in on David’s event. He pretty much thought as much. The city they lived in was north of Detroit and the auto industry was its primary job source. Over the years, it had become almost like a smaller Dearborn with a heavy Middle Eastern presence, but with a lot of Eastern European mix as well. It was quite a melting pot. Throw in the mass amounts of apartment complexes and it was outright dangerous right now.

  Haliday said, “Ok, it’s time for you guys to get moving. You need to pack up everything and everyone and get going now. I want you to head over to my place. I’m about six hours out now and leaving here in an hour or less. When I get there’ll we’ll get things ready for the long haul.”

  “What about Alan and his family, we’re still waiting for them.” Oh boy, he thought. This was going to be a delicate situation to handle.

  “Ok ,” he said, “let me put it to you guys like this. So far, I’ve shot at about a dozen guys, I know I’ve dropped at least four, I’ve been shot at and hit, and Kayla has been shot at and had to shoot someone, Mike and Linda have been shot at and I don’t even know if they dropped anyone. Things are that screwed up. Everywhere we go it looks like we will be eating lead. This country is out of control and getting worse by the minute.

  “You get out now or you don’t get out at all. Sit and wait for anyone else and you might as well start digging your graves. You will have to hope Alan and his family are doing what they need to do in order to make it right now. That’s the best you can do right now. I hope you guys understand. It’s about all of you right now, not just any one person or part of the family.”

  Bev wasn’t happy one bit. In her eyes it would have been the whole family uniting and moving out. She and Rich talked a bit. Rich called Randy, Kevin, David and Sarah into the kitchen. He told them to get things packed up and ready to go. He handed them a list of instructions and told David to delegate the duties but make sure it all got done. They would do what they could to help.

  Dawn, Diana and Karen just looked at the radio in awe. “Holy crap,” they all said. They had it made compared to what they had just heard, with the exception of Dawn’s little incident. They had more ambition now to get the hell out of there. They kept moving on. They were only a couple miles away from their destination now. It was totally different here and they were only 20 miles north of Haliday’s house.

  In the garage over at the Halidays’ was another 5X8 trailer. This one was loaded similar to Dawn’s. They did the same thing, going through the house and triple-checking everything. Bev left a note on the top of the entertainment center. It was cryptic, but whoever was reading it would know what it meant if they were supposed to know. It gave them instructions on what to do and where to go.

  David called Randy and Kevin over. “We are going to go out the back door, over to the corner of the yard and get the Cherokee from under the tarp. I’ll drive it around to the front and back it up to the garage door. Open the door when I get there. I’ll back up to the trailer and connect it. You guys have to stand guard.” They proceeded with their plan.

  The Cherokee was an ’84 with about 120,000 miles on it. They had it reworked and kept it in good running order. They rarely drove it, just enough to keep it clean and running. The old Cherokees were almost bulletproof with the inline six cylinders, automatic tranny and lever activated 4X4. Small, but durable and dependable. Great for converting to a BOV.

  * * *

  Diana turned the ATV down the driveway. She looked around and saw the barn manager coming down toward them. Mandy, the barn manager, was a woman in her early forties, blonde, thin, attractive, but weathered from the outdoor lifestyle and the tattoos didn’t help much either.

  She greeted them and assumed they were here for the horses. “I guess you guys are getting out of Dodge.”

  “That’s the plan,” Diana said. “Maybe later tonight or early tomorrow, we’re not sure when.”

  Mandy said, “It looks like you have a place to go.” Dawn said they had been invited to stay at a friend’s, but left it at that.

  Dawn and Diana had two horses. One, a Quarter Horse mare named Trixie that was really just ridden for mere pleasure, and a Fjord they called Thor because he was a big solid brute. He was a beefy draft horse and well trained in a wide variety of riding styles, but more importantly able to pull a cart. They’d be using these horses.

  They looked around the barn and pastures. The barn had about 18 horses total and they were all out in the pastures right now. They asked Mandy what her plans were. “Well,” she answered, “if I go anywhere I’ll take mine and cut the rest of them loose. They can wander and graze off the grasslands. I’ll throw all the hay out too. That’s the best I can do. Not that I have family nearby or a place to go.”

  Dawn asked how much feed she had left. Jerry the barn owner had stocked them up with enough hay for the winter and grain for about 90 days. “What about you, Mandy?”

  She said she had about six weeks of stock in the house or maybe a bit more. “I know how to hunt,” she added, “and maybe I’ll see about taking a deer or two to stock up. Freezer in the lodge should stay cold enough with no heat in there this winter.”

  Dawn asked Diana and Karen to come with her and talk. When they returned they proposed a deal for Mandy. “You cut the horse rations in half and that will get them to spring, but you have to watch their hay as well. We’ll leave you with another supply of food good for about four months. Nothing special, just basics. Cut it back and you can make it to spring as well. The chickens in the back will help you out with eggs and the goat’s milk is good for you too.”

  Mandy asked, "What happens in spring?"

  “We can’t tell you. We don’t know. But we’ll check in on you then,” Dawn answered.

  Mandy said, “What the hell,
why not.” Dawn told her they were going to park by the little lodge house and would get with her before they left. She called Haliday and let him know they had arrived ok.

  * * *

  David had backed the old Cherokee up to the garage and they opened the garage door. He connected the trailer and pulled out of the garage. The neighbors had heard the Cherokee start and it drew a lot of curious onlookers. Quite a few started to gather around. A few started to ask them what they had and where they were going.

  Rich, Bev, Sarah, Elizabeth and Bobby came out. They closed the garage door and locked it down. They started to get in but had to figure out the seating arrangements. Elizabeth, Sarah and Bobby were the smallest and had to ride in the very back cargo area. David and Rich up front, Bev, Randy and Kevin in the back seat.

  As they were getting ready to leave a few people from the crowd starting getting closer, demanded to know what they had. David told everyone to get in. The crowd had grown to about 35 people now. They had seen the rare vehicle running around here and there, but with this one having a trailer, they figured it had something good in it.

  They moved to block the driveway. Some lady yelled that they had to share if they had food. Bev said, “We’re not welfare, we’re not sharing anything.” Randy fired a round into the ground and pointed the shotgun at the crowd. Half ran away and the other half just moved aside. He jumped in and they took off. About 12 miles north to Roger’s house, but a day’s walk for these people.

  Sarah asked if they could stop at her trailer to check for Erik. This would add about eight miles onto their trek. Rich said they needed to get to Roger’s house first and then he would send Randy and Kevin to the trailer to check it out. "Can I go too?" she asked.