Bug Out! Part 8: RV Park Terror

by Robert Boren

  “I’m thinking that park upgrades have become lower priority, since we found that damn dungeon,” Jeb said. “Shame. I wanted to stick around for a while.”

  “Maybe we can get the authorities to keep their mouths shut.”

  “I’ll bet they’d agree to try,” Jeb said, “but think about it. Most of the victims were locals. Their families will have to be told, and they aren’t gonna care about us. They’ll blab to the media.”

  “Shit, you’re right,” Kurt said. “Dammit.”

  As the two approached the lake, several ducks got spooked and took off. The lake was bigger than it looked from the park. It was big enough to put fishing boats on.

  “Well, there’s another possibility,” Jeb said. “Love me some ducks. I’ll bet they’re easy pickins.”

  “When’s duck season around here?” Kurt asked.

  “Don’t know, it probably starts around mid-October.”

  “Shoot, we’ll probably be out of here by then,” Kurt said. “How about deer season?”

  “Well, I’ve been playing a little fast and loose with the dates on that lately,” Jeb said, laughing. “We’re probably good right now for bow hunting, and it matters more here, since we’re back in a civilized area. I wasn’t so worried about poaching in a war zone.”

  “We’re supposed to have tags, though, right?”

  “Yeah, we might want to go into town and take care of that,” Jeb said.

  “Whoa,” Kurt said. “See that fish jump?”

  “Yeah. Walleye, maybe?”

  “Don’t know,” Kurt said. “Should be bass around here.”

  “Hope so,” Jeb said. He saw something on the ground, and squatted to take a closer look. Then he turned back towards Kurt and grinned.

  “Deer tracks?” Kurt asked.

  “Yeah,” Jeb said, standing back up. Then he saw something else, and walked over to the right, looking at the ground. “Droppings. This is a watering hole.”

  “There’s no cover,” Kurt said. “Maybe we need to make ourselves a blind.”

  “Maybe,” Jeb said. “Why don’t we go get the fishing gear?”

  “Fine by me,” Kurt said. They turned and walked back to the park.

  Gabe, Terry, Dobie, and Jake were standing between their trailers, talking.

  “How you feeling, Jake?” Gabe asked, snickering.

  “My head’s pounding,” he said sheepishly. “Thanks a lot for bringing it up.”

  The men laughed.

  “So, what should we take into town?” Dobie asked.

  “Well, let’s see. We need 14 trailer tires, and a fifth wheel hitch for your truck,” Gabe said. “I think we need two vehicles.”

  “How about my bobtail and your Suburban?” Jake asked. “If Terry doesn’t mind driving it, that is. I’m still a little under the weather.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Gabe said. “We know what all we need?”

  “Think so,” Terry said. “Wonder if the trailer lights work?”

  “Good question,” Gabe said.

  “Well, I’ve got gobs of wire and quite a few light bulbs,” Jake said. “Why don’t you guys look at your connectors? I know I don’t have those trailer connectors.”

  “Good idea,” Dobie said. “I’m going to need the tow vehicle side of the wiring for my truck, too.”

  The men took off and did their checks.

  Trish came out when Terry was looking at their trailer.

  “Getting ready to go to town, honey?”

  “Yeah,” Terry said, smiling at her. “Rather stick around here with you, though.”

  She gave him an embarrassed smile. “Yeah, I bet you would.” She smiled. “What’re you doing?”

  “Oh, just checking the wire harness and connector for the trailer lights, so we know if we need to buy them.”

  “Oh,” she said. “Makes sense. How long do you think you guys will be?”

  “Don’t know,” Terry said. “Hopefully not too long. Maybe a couple hours.”

  “Okay,” she said. She came out and gave him a hug and kiss. “I’m so glad we got married, honey.”

  “I know, me too,” Terry said.

  Terry walked back over to the others, who were finishing up. Terry and Jake started over to the bobtail, and the rest of the men piled into the Suburban. Then they were off.

  Jane and Jasmine were back in the barn, on the laptop, searching for similar murders in the New Jersey area.

  “There’s so much going on in this area,” Jane said. “Too many murders. It’s not like around here.”

  “I had a feeling it was going to be more difficult,” Jasmine said. “Look for un-solved, and then maybe we can filter out the gang stuff somehow.”

  Jane nodded, and got back to work. Jerry walked over, carrying a laptop case and some other stuff.

  “Hi, girls,” he said.

  “What’s that?” Jasmine asked.

  “I figured I’d plug a network hub into that line, and we can have more than one PC plugged in here,” Jerry said, smiling.

  “I should’ve thought of that,” Jasmine said.

  “Hold up for a minute, Jane,” Jerry said. She got out of the way, while he unplugged the network cable from her laptop and plugged it into the hub. Then he plugged two cables into it, and plugged one back into Jane’s laptop. “There, try that out.”

  Jane got back on. “Looks good, Jerry. Thanks!”

  “No problem,” he said. He pulled Jasmine’s laptop out of the case and put it on the work bench, while Jasmine took the power supply out and got it plugged in. Soon that laptop was connected and ready to go.

  “Thanks, sweetie,” Jasmine said. “This’ll help a lot. What are you going to do now?”

  “Help Frank,” he said. “He’ll need me to help him test in a little while.”

  “He’ll be done that fast?” Jane asked. “He told me that the job was going to take a few days.”

  “It will, but it’s modular, so I can help with testing one module while Frank works on the next. That’ll speed things up a little bit, at least.”

  “Oh,” Jasmine said. “Good.”

  He walked back out outside, just in time to see Jeb and Kurt picking up their fishing gear.

  “Going over to that little lake?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” Jeb said. “Might be a little late in the day now, but we thought we’d try. Want to join us?”

  “Not now, Frank’s going to need me in a little while. Love to fish for a while, though. Maybe later.”

  “Alright, Jerry, have fun,” Jeb said. Kurt nodded and they walked off.

  In the clubhouse, Frank was making good progress. He got the initial part of the program working on the PC, and then tried it out. He was able to zero in on the icons within a few feet. All of the icons at the base were in one building. Jerry walked in just as he was doing that.

  “You got the first module done?” Jerry asked.

  “Close,” he replied. “Look, they’re in that building right there.”

  “How many of them?”

  “All of them, Jerry,” Frank said.

  “Good. Want me to test?”

  “I had a better idea. Why don’t you try to find out if the base is still open? It would be helpful to know if the bad guys took the whole thing over.”

  “I can do that,” Jerry said. “I’ll have to go get the other laptop out of our rig, but I can plug it into the hub I just put out in the barn for the girls.”

  “There you go,” Frank said.

  “Talk to you later, Frank,” he said as he walked away.

  Jerry got his other laptop out of the rig, and picked up an extra network cable. Then he went into the barn with it.

  “Hey, honey, going to join us?” Jasmine asked.

  “Yeah, if you don’t mind,” he said, putting the laptop down on the workbench next to where Jasmine was sitting. He pulled another stool over, and got the laptop connected and running.

  “Testing Frank’s modules out here?” Jane a
sked.

  “No, he’s testing those himself. He got the first module up and running in test mode, and was able to pinpoint the bad guys at the base to one building, as we suspected. Looks like a warehouse building, and it’s way on the east side of the base.”

  “So what does he want you to do?” Jasmine asked.

  “Try to figure out if the whole base has been taken over, or just that building,” Jerry said. “Makes sense. How’re you two coming?”

  “It’s tough,” Jane said. “Lots of mayhem goes on in the New York/New Jersey area.”

  “I was afraid of that,” Jerry said.

  “I’m trying a different strategy,” Jasmine said. “I’m looking for anywhere there were suspected serial killings from five years ago to now. I’m seeing evidence of somebody moving slowly from Kansas to Jersey. Looks like abductions, torture, killing, dismembering. Timing looks right, too.”

  “They have any idea who?” asked Jerry.

  “Oh, everybody and his brother had an idea,” she replied. “I even saw one person bring up the Nighthawk Road killer.”

  “Only one?” Jane asked.

  “Yeah, and from what I’ve seen so far, most of the other experts think this guy’s a crackpot.”

  “Whoa! Hey, Jasmine,” Jane said, leaning back a little ways from her laptop screen, as if she expected it to slap her.

  “What?”

  “I got an e-mail,” she said, fear written across her face.

  “From who?” she asked.

  “Malcolm Davis.”

  Chapter 15 – Truck Fire

  “Open it,” Jerry said, coming around to look over Jane’s shoulder. Jasmine moved over closer too.

  “You sure?” Jane asked.

  “Yes,” Jasmine said. “It won’t hurt to read it.”

  Jane opened the e-mail.

  Dear Fellow RVers,

  My partner and I are very interested in the Nighthawk Road Killer. I have alarms set to go off when somebody does a large number of searches on that case. The alarm went off a couple of days ago because of your searches. We are especially interested because you are in the area where the killer was active for many years. We believe there is a good chance that the person who committed many of these murders is still active in another area, closer to the eastern seaboard. We are on our way to Kansas in our RVs to do a survey of the area. We would very much like to meet with you and your group on this matter. Would this be acceptable to you? Please reply. Thank You.

  Best regards,

  Malcolm Davis, Davis and Franklin Investigations

  “Wow,” Jerry said.

  “How did they get my e-mail address?” Jane asked.

  “Probably wasn’t hard, if he can get to the search requests,” Jasmine said. “What now?”

  “Looks like we need another meeting,” Jerry said. “Don’t respond to the e-mail yet.”

  “Don’t worry about that,” Jane said, looking very scared. “How dangerous is this guy?”

  “I wouldn’t worry too much yet,” Jerry said. “They aren’t after us. They’re after the serial killer.”

  “Wonder what makes them think he’s still alive?” Jane asked.

  “I can see evidence of somebody doing a string of these type of killings, on the way east,” Jasmine said. “I’m just an amateur, but Malcolm? He’s a pro. He’s probably got this guy pegged within a 50-mile radius.”

  “I’ll bet he doesn’t know his name, though,” Jerry said, grinning. “We shouldn’t reveal anything to these guys until they get here.”

  “Why?” Jasmine asked.

  “Because we’ve got a tactical problem,” Jerry said. “We’ve got high level enemy leaders in our crosshairs, plus a General who may have been captured. Don’t you think two experienced people like these guys might be good to have with us? Remember, George is a Special Forces guy, and Malcolm is no slouch himself. They might come in handy.”

  “You think they’d want to help us?” Jane asked.

  “I’d bet money on it,” Jerry said.

  “You might have something there,” Jasmine said. “We’ll have to wait a little while to meet with the group, though. We’ve got several people in town buying trailer stuff right now.”

  “That’s right,” Jane said.

  “We don’t have to respond to the e-mail right this second,” Jerry said. “Just go back to what you were doing. I won’t tell Frank yet either. Let’s keep him focused until our friends get back from town.”

  “Agreed,” Jane said.

  On I-80, George, Heidi, and Malcolm were making good time, blasting through Nevada.

  “How far is Salt Lake City?” George asked. Heidi was in the passenger seat. She looked at her iPhone.

  “About two hours.”

  “I think we should pull over for gas when we see a good place,” George said. “We’re going to stop again in Salt Lake City to top up before the Rockies, but a short break would be good for Malcolm.”

  “Want me to call and let him know we need to gas up?”

  “Yeah, please,” George said.

  Heidi dialed Malcolm.

  “What’s up, sugar plum?”

  Heidi giggled. “Oh, brother. Listen, George wants to get gas at the next place we see.”

  “Good, I could use a break too,” he said. “I’ll keep my eyes open for the next truck stop.”

  “Thanks, Malcolm. Talk to you soon.”

  “Bye.”

  “Okay, George, he’s ready to stop too. He’ll look for a place.”

  “Good,” George said. “Maybe you could drive for a while after that.”

  “Love to,” she said.

  She continued to look at her phone.

  “See anything?” George asked.

  “You know, there’s really not much here. I didn’t know that Utah was so desolate.”

  “Yep, the northern part is kind of a wasteland,” George said.

  “The only place I see coming up that might have some services is Bonneville.”

  “Really? Always wanted to see that. Too bad we don’t have time to stick around for a few hours.”

  “Maybe on the way home,” Heidi said. “We’re only about fifteen minutes from there.”

  “Good,” George said.

  They sat silently for a while, taking in the scenery.

  “Could you imagine coming through this country in a covered wagon?” Heidi asked. “That must have been pretty wild.”

  “The Oregon Trail is north of us a ways, goes through southern Idaho as I remember.”

  Heidi looked it up on her iPhone. “Yep, you’re right, but we’ll be almost right on it when we’re in Wyoming and Nebraska.”

  “Wonder if we’ll see markers?” George said.

  “Probably. I wonder how many artifacts are still sitting along that trail?”

  “Where people can get to it easily, it’s probably been picked over pretty good,” George said. “It’d be fun to take the Jeep back a ways and look around.”

  “Around 400,000 people made the trip,” Heidi said. “So you know there’s lots of artifacts there. I’ll bet they’re protected, though.”

  “Probably,” George said. “Look, a sign for Bonneville. It’s coming up in a few miles.”

  “Good,” Heidi said.

  The two watched as more cars started to appear on the road. Then Malcolm turned on his right turn blinker and started to slow down.

  “Oh, the town is called Wendover,” George said. He followed Malcolm off of the interstate. There was a truck stop nearby, and they both pulled in to fuel up. George got the fuel flowing into his rig, and then walked over to Malcolm, while Heidi went over to the store to get coffee.

  “How you holding up, Malcolm?” George asked.

  “I’m good,” he replied,” but I needed a break.”

  “We should stop again in Salt Lake City,” George said.

  “I know. Maybe that’s where we’ll take a lunch break. It’s right before we start heading up into the Rockies
.”

  “Yeah,” George said. “That’s why I’m going to have Heidi drive for a while. I know she’s not going to want to deal with that, so I’ll rest up for it.”

  “Here she comes,” Malcolm said. Heidi was carrying a paper tray with three coffees, and a bag sitting in the middle.

  “Hope you wanted coffee, Malcolm,” she said, pulling one of the cups out of the hole in the paper tray and handing it to him. “You take it black, right?”

  “Yes,” Malcolm said, smiling. “Thanks so much.”

  “Want a donut?” she asked. She held the tray up towards him so he could look inside the bag.

  “Ah, police food,” he said, chuckling. “Sure, I’ll have one.” He took one out of the bag, and grabbed one of the napkins.

  “We’re going to stop for a little longer in Salt Lake City,” George said. “Maybe have some lunch before we start the big climb.”

  “Good, that makes sense,” Heidi said.

  The gas pump shut off with a clunk. “There’s ours,” George said. He took out the nozzle and put it back on the pump.

  “Mine’s almost done too,” Malcolm said. “Want me to stay in the lead?”

  “Yeah,” George said.

  “Okay,” Malcolm said. His pump stopped with a clunk, and he got finished, as George and Heidi started towards the door of their rig.

  “See you two in Salt Lake,” Malcolm said.

  “Drive safe,” Heidi said. She felt kind of dumb after saying that. George saw it and chuckled as they climbed in the door.

  Malcolm drove off the lot. Heidi fired up the Tiffin and started rolling up behind him. George noticed two pickup trucks, both with redneck looking young men in the back. They were watching.

  “Uh oh,” he said. “We’re going to have company. Follow Malcolm. I’m going to bring one of the guns up here.” He unbuckled and got out of his seat.

  “Shit,” Heidi said. “Should we call Malcolm?”

  “I’m going to, as soon as I get back up here.”

  “I see them in the mirror. They’re behind us,” Heidi said, her voice trembling. She drove back onto the interstate, and the two trucks followed.

  George grabbed an assault rifle from the bedroom closet, and came back up. He noticed that one of the pickup trucks was passing them on the left, heading towards Malcolm at high speed. The other one was hanging back, but he could see them. He pulled out his phone and hit Malcolm’s contact icon.