Bug Out! Part 13: Finale

by Robert Boren

  Bug Out! Part 13

  Finale

  Robert G Boren

  Contents

  Previously - From Bugout! Part 12

  Chapter 1 – Nighty Night

  Chapter 2 – Montana Bound

  Chapter 3 – Derek and Duchess

  Chapter 4 – The Beast

  Chapter 5 – Bound for Boise

  Chapter 6 – Good Faith

  Chapter 7 - Grand Tour

  Chapter 8 – Old Friends and New

  Chapter 9 – Cheyenne

  Chapter 10 – Sangria Night

  Chapter 11 – War Games

  Chapter 12 – Cutting Torch

  Chapter 13 – Spies and Moles

  Chapter 14 – Reunions

  Chapter 15 – Stuck in the Muck

  Chapter 16 – The Long Dirt Road

  Chapter 17 – Air Horn

  Chapter 18 – Sacrifice

  Chapter 19 – Flying South

  Chapter 20 – Attention Shoppers!

  Chapter 21 – Seminole Target

  Chapter 22 – Scouting Parties

  Chapter 23 – Snack Bars

  Chapter 24 – Bunker Buster

  Chapter 25 – Machine Guns

  Chapter 26 – Fire Hoses

  Chapter 27 – Fire and Brimstone

  Chapter 28 – Finale

  Epilogue

  Copyright - About the Author

  Previously - in Bug Out! Part 12

  The EU was under attack by Globalists bent on world-wide domination. America could only watch from the sidelines as England, France, Germany, and other friends battled for their liberty. A WTO delegation escaped Europe with Daan Mertins, coming into the United States from the west coast.

  Scotty teamed with a battered wife and stayed one step ahead of Malcolm. He planned to escape to the northwest and wait for a better time to take his RV Park back.

  Jeb recovered from his surgeries and was ready to be released from the hospital. Jerry and Frank led a team to pick him up. A UN patrol tried to stop them on the way, which resulted in a fire fight. Frank’s team met Clint and his group, and they defeated the UN patrol but were pursued by a larger force.

  Daan Mertins snatched Jeb before Frank’s team could get to him. Daan offered to trade Jeb and Rosie for General Hogan, Frank, and George.

  Malcolm and Ted found Scotty’s hideout in Columbus, Ohio, but the FBI captured them there. They were taken into custody for the murder of Agent Keith, but released when Agent Williams realized they weren’t the killers. He joined Malcolm and Ted, both to find Scotty and to help with the war effort.

  Scotty stayed at an RV Park and got recognized by Sue, the owner. She notified Malcolm. He kidnapped a girl from the RV Park and tried to kill Sue, who fled. He found her hiding at a hotel in town and was almost through her door when the police arrived. Scotty escaped into the back country, with the police in hot pursuit.

  Clint’s group joined our friends at the Kansas RV Park. Suddenly a military drone appeared above them. It turned out to be friendly.

  The local police captured Scotty after a battle with an elderly couple left him wounded. He was fighting for his life in the hospital as Malcolm, Ted, and Agent Williams made their way there.

  Chapter 1 – Nighty Night

  The clubhouse was filling up. Since the drone was in place, everybody came, including those who were manning the rooftop posts. Clint’s group filtered in slowly, after getting their rigs plugged in. Terry and Charlie walked in with the last of them, looking tired.

  “Everybody has power and water,” Charlie said. Terry nodded. Trish rushed over to greet him as Charlie went into the kitchen for water. Hilda was in there with Mary working on the spaghetti.

  Jake walked up to Frank. “Should we feed the drone video to the big screen while we’re in here?”

  “Good idea,” Frank said. He swapped cables in the back of the PC as Jake switched the big flat screen on. The picture appeared. Several people approached and watched.

  General Hogan came in with his privates, followed by George and Heidi. Charlie joined them at the front of the room.

  “Looks like we have a pretty full house,” Frank said as he walked up.

  “We gonna have enough food?” Heidi asked.

  “Yeah, I think so,” Charlie said. “Here comes Clint.”

  “Hey, guys,” Clint said, walking up, smiling. “My folks are all here.”

  “Good,” General Hogan said. “I see we got the eye in the sky on the big screen. Perfect.”

  “Yeah, gives those of us on the roofs a little break,” George said. “How long do we have use of that?”

  “As long as we need,” General Hogan said. “Unless one of the bad guys in DC figures out how to pull the plug, and if they do, we’ll get another one in short order.”

  Hilda and Mary walked came in. “The food will be ready soon,” Hilda said. “Maybe we should hold the meeting first.”

  “Yeah,” Charlie said. “Hey, everybody, could I have your attention?”

  The room quieted to a dull murmur. People sat at the long tables.

  “Big group,” Hilda whispered.

  “Yeah, even bigger than we had at your park,” Charlie said.

  “Ready, Charlie?” General Hogan asked.

  Charlie nodded. “Ladies and Gentlemen, thanks for coming. I’m Charlie. Most of you know General Hogan already. Next to him are George and Heidi. Frank’s to my right with his wife Jane, and this is my wife Hilda. To my left is Clint, leader of the group from Grand Junction."

  There was applause from the floor. General Hogan came to the front.

  “Okay, everybody, here’s the situation as we know it right now. Some bad elements are thinking it’s a good time to lock sovereign nations into global governance, with the UN at the head, and the power residing in Brussels, Washington DC, Beijing, Tokyo, and Moscow.”

  “No friggin way,” Earl said. Murmurs of agreement rose around the room.

  “Agreed,” General Hogan said. “With very few exceptions, the peoples of the other nations want no part of this either. Europe is in turmoil due to this move, as is Japan. The largest group of resistors are in the United States, but there is significant resistance everywhere.”

  “Do they any chance of pulling this off?” Kurt asked.

  “In a fast world-wide sweep, no way,” General Hogan said. “Most of the US Armed Forces are against them, and many of the instigators in Washington DC have been arrested. The USA will not be joining their little one-world tyranny. They are making a last ditch attempt here, but it’s gonna fail, and they know it. They want to do major damage in the USA just to keep us from helping other countries such as Britain, Germany, Japan, and France. Those countries and others are fighting this tooth and nail.”

  “Was this the real reason for the original invasion of the US by Islamists?” Jane asked.

  “Not really,” General Hogan said. “Originally, that wannabe caliphate in the Middle East made a deal with North Korea, Venezuela, and American secessionist militias to take a crack at the Great Satan, to keep us busy while they worked on their own priorities.”

  “What exactly were their own priorities?” Kurt asked.

  “They varied,” General Hogan said. “The Islamists wanted a world-wide Sharia state. Venezuela wanted a free hand to impose its socialist form of government over Central and South America. North Korea wanted to make money selling weapons while ending the dominance of more moderate countries in Asia. The secessionist militias wanted to destroy the central government of the USA, and then cut up territory with the Islamists.”

  “Stupid plan,” George said. “All of these guys would have fought each other eventually.”

  “Right, and that’s
where the UN comes in,” General Hogan said. “Saladin came up with the idea of implanting chips into the Islamist fighters and the militia army, for command and control. He contracted Daan Mertins, whose software company specializes in that type of work. Daan gave them what they asked for, but took special interest in what they were doing.”

  “So he was never really part of the invasion of the US, other than providing the command and control technology?” Frank asked. “I assume his company was very well paid for the service.”

  “Yes, and up front, too,” General Hogan said. “Daan’s family helped to found and promote the EU, and is very active with the WTO and the Globalist movement. He saw a big opportunity here, because he was smart enough to know this group would never succeed completely.”

  “I figured,” Frank said. “He knew that a huge mess would be created. Never let a good crisis go to waste.”

  “Exactly,” George said. “That son of a bitch.”

  “This is a world-wide battle,” General Hogan said.

  “What can we do about it?” Charlie asked. “And how about Jeb and Rosie?”

  “I’m getting to that,” General Hogan said. “I just wanted all of you to know the big picture as we understand it now. Any questions before we go on?”

  “Are we under imminent danger of attack?” Clint asked.

  “Yes, but not in the way you think,” General Hogan said. “We will not get attacked in the normal sense. The enemy will try drawing us to them with Jeb and Rosie. They consider our group very dangerous, and they want to cut off the head of the snake.”

  “Meaning what?” Kurt asked.

  “They want to trade Jeb and Rosie for Frank, George, and me,” General Hogan said.

  “You guys are the head of the snake?” Jake asked. “Sucks to be you.” He chuckled, and a smattering of laughter erupted in the room.

  “You can all understand why they want Frank,” General Hogan said. “They want to neutralize his genius. They know their command and control is toast unless they can kill him or get him working for them.”

  “Like that’s gonna happen,” Frank said.

  “Don’t take that lightly,” General Hogan said. “You have kids, don’t you?”

  Frank’s face got grave, his brow furrowed. “Shit.” Jane looked up at him, horrified.

  “I can understand why they want you too, General, but why George?” Kurt asked.

  Jerry and Jasmine walked into the room, looking tired. They took seats as their friends looked at them, nodding and smiling.

  “CIA connections,” General Hogan replied. “General knowledge. George knows a little too much about Daan Mertins and his associates. Daan’s scared to death of him.”

  George chuckled. “Good,” he said. “If I were him I’d be a little scared of Jeb.”

  “Jeb has Rosie to worry about,” Jerry said, pulling Jasmine close. She had tears running down her cheeks.

  “They have somebody else,” General Hogan said. “Somebody they’ll wish they didn’t have.”

  “Who?” Jerry asked.

  “Dick Branson,” General Hogan said.

  George laughed out loud. “Ned Branson’s brother?”

  “Yeah,” General Hogan said. “Figured you knew them.”

  “How the hell did they get involved? Ned is still special forces, isn’t he?”

  “Yeah,” General Hogan said. “Dick retired. Went on to be a sheriff. His brother’s unit got their hands full with a good sized UN force. Dick went down there with some friends. Killed the whole lot of them.”

  “Didn’t hear about that on the news,” Kurt said.

  “Most of the media is controlled now, but not for long,” General Hogan said with a twinkle in his eye.

  “So did Dick get himself captured on purpose?” George asked.

  “No,” General Hogan said. “He was coming home from that battle and got nabbed. Ned has a pretty good idea where they are. He’s working it now. I may need some help from you on this one. Malcolm too, when he gets back here.”

  “Good,” George said.

  “You guys aren’t going to go in guns blazing and get my mom killed, are you?” Jasmine asked.

  “No,” General Hogan said. “We’ve got something else in mind. It involves giving them what they want, temporarily.”

  “No way,” Jane said, standing up. “What if they shoot all three of you the moment they take possession?”

  “We need to work out a good plan that prevents them from doing that,” General Hogan said. “But in all honesty, they don’t want to kill us. We’re too valuable to them. All three of us.”

  “If they’re under heavy guard, what can a still healing Jeb and a single special forces guy do?” Charlie asked.

  “Take advantage of an opportunity,” General Hogan said.

  ***

  Malcolm walked up to the hospital entrance with Ted, Officer Shockney, and Agent Williams. They checked in at the desk. Hospital Security met them, and they were taken to the fourth floor. There was a small secured ward there. Two officers sat on either side of the door.

  The Hospital Security officer used his key card to open the door. “Just let the men out here know when you’re done,” he said. The four men walked in.

  Scott was on the bed, shoulder and arm in a cast, tubes and cables running here and there, heart rate monitor beeping.

  “He’s still out, Malcolm,” Officer Shockney said. The beeping sped up.

  “No he’s not,” Malcolm said, smiling. “Are you, Scotty?”

  His eyes opened slightly, and he managed a wicked grin. “Well, as I live and breathe, a dirty cop,” he whispered. “Who are these other jerks?”

  “Officer Shockney of the Cameron PD, Agent Williams of the FBI, and Ted Crowley,” Malcolm said.

  “Wonderful,” he said, the grin still on his face. “Foiled your plan, didn’t I? Now you don’t get to murder me.”

  Malcolm chuckled. “Don’t count your chickens, Nighthawk.”

  Scott’s grin widened, the wickedness changing to pride. “Yeah,” he said.

  “We found your locker,” Malcolm said. “Can’t wait for movie time. Who is it? Black Dahlia?”

  “Yes, and so much more,” Scott said. “Dear old dad got to take part in some ground-breaking incidents.”

  Officer Shockney shook his head. “I’m not going to listen to this. Mind if I take off?”

  “No problem,” Agent Williams said.

  “Okay, see you guys later. It’s been a pleasure. Hopefully we’ll all get notified of this creep’s demise sooner rather than later.” He left the room. Malcolm, Ted, and Agent Williams all grinned at each other.

  “What were you planning to do, Scotty?” Malcolm asked. “You could have escaped into the woodwork, somewhere far away, and lived for a long while before I put you down.”

  “You? Put me down?” Scott asked, his breath laboring.

  “You heard me,” Malcolm said. “What were you planning?”

  “At first I just wanted my RV Park back,” he said, then paused, trying to catch his breath. “Then I heard you and the spook were involved. That made things a whole lot more interesting, but the park was always my main focus.”

  “Oh, yeah, that dungeon was quite a treat,” Malcolm said. “All those nice movies. They were Sherry’s undoing, by the way.”

  “What happened to her?”

  “We were going to let her go. At least for a while. That was before we saw her true nature on the video tapes. Quite a performance.”

  “She dead?” Scott asked.

  “I splattered her all over the inside of her SUV with my shotgun,” Ted said. “She was still active. I’ll bet she told you she was out of it, never to return.”

  “Real cute what you guys pulled at that farmhouse with the bikers,” Agent Williams said.

  “I’ll bet you want revenge for Agent Keith,” Scott said, wheezing.

  Agent Williams snickered. “Are you kidding? You did the bureau a favor. Most of us knew i
t, too.”

  “Nice move buying the Torso Murderer’s house,” Malcolm said. “That place was a jewel.”

  Scott started to tear up.

  “There there,” Ted said sarcastically. “I know, it’s sad, isn’t it?”

  “Screw you,” he said.

  “So let me see if I understand,” Malcolm said. “We have Rupert Smith, Torso Killer. He was buddies with Chet, your daddy, and the elder Beckler. Howard was your dad’s apprentice, and Sherry was what? Your girlfriend?”

  “For a while,” Scott said.

  “Then there was Earl Wilson and Jason Beckler. I’ll bet you grew up with those two nut cases, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah,” Scott said. “You ought to be writing this down.”

  “Don’t worry, I’m recording it,” Ted said.

  “Can’t use that in court,” Scott said.

  “This is purely for historical purposes,” Ted said. “Who else can you tell us about?”

  “This is being taped before I was arrested or had my rights read to me,” Scott said as loud as he could.

  Malcolm cracked up. “I haven’t asked you about any of the murders you committed.”

  “No, actually that’s not true,” Agent Williams said. “We briefly discussed Agent Keith.”

  “Yeah, but he didn’t admit to doing him,” Malcolm said. “At least not directly.”

  “Details, details,” Ted said. “Anyway, back to the story. Who else do you know?”

  Scott sighed. He tried to speak, but broke into a cough.

  “Cat got your tongue?” Malcolm asked.

  “Red Dagger and Sadie,” he croaked.

  “That was trash I took out long ago,” Malcolm said. “How about people who are still kicking?”

  “Screw you,” he said, gasping for breath.

  “I think I got everything I needed,” Agent Williams said. “You two?”

  “Yeah, I don’t think we’re getting anything else out of this jerk,” Ted said.

  “Bye bye,” Malcolm said.

  Ted and Malcolm left the room and chatted with the two officers for a few moments. Then they walked down the hallway, out of sight. Agent Williams stayed behind, staring at Scott, keeping eye contact as he fished around in his pocket. He pulled out a syringe.