Arks of America

by D A Carey

  “Yeah, although all those lights make us much easier to be seen too. Light can be seen from a long way off in the dark. We’re especially visible when we get further out in the country where we don’t have buildings to block the light. We need to be moving in darkness with very little light and noise. Vince’s men were telling me that doing this to the vehicles will make them hard to see unless people are up close or at the right angle. Andy said it was like the Brits did during World War II.”

  “Well anything that keeps us safe is good by me. Be careful you don’t rear end the car in front of you because you can’t see it,” Ellie cautioned.

  << Vince >>

  By this time, everyone in the warehouse was up and preparing for the day’s trek. They would begin by traveling through the early morning darkness and then half the day or more. Vince made his rounds talking to each person. He looked them in the eye as he spoke to let them understand he was there if they needed him. His presence and demeanor calmed people. Vince strongly believed the most valuable thing you could give someone was your undivided attention, even if only for a few moments. Vince made sure to push each person to eat even though many said they were too nervous. He even got a smile out of Carol as she ate a bite of food.

  When they were ready to leave, Vince gathered them around.

  “We’re going to try and hit it hard today. I don’t want anyone going so fast that we’re foolhardy or make mistakes. We need to get to Kentucky safely. Along the way, I have a friend that will shelter and feed us in French Lick, Indiana. It’s a little out of our way. However, I know for sure it’s safe, and we can get cleaned up there and have hot food. It’s going to be a long, hard day.

  “It took us a couple of days heading north. It might be worse now. I was willing to take risks coming up with only Andy, Dwight, and me that I won’t with the girls along.”

  Andy feigned indignance. “Hey, boss that hurts.”

  Vince grinned. “Besides, even though I don’t think we’re being followed, I can’t be sure. I have a weird feeling about this so I want to go fast and get to safety.”

  “Boss, if you want me to stay back,” Dwight offered, “you can be sure your back trail will be clean.”

  “I don’t doubt it, Dwight. If the bad guys got away or took another route, you couldn’t follow them on foot, though. I don’t want to rob the civilians of the vehicle and support you and Andy provide. We’ll move fast and make it hard on anyone who might be following.”

  “It’s not that we don’t trust you on this. It’s that I’m curious why. What if we can’t make it?” Liz asked. She didn’t mean to be challenging; she just got this way when she was nervous.

  “I know what we came through coming north. We have a safe place with supplies in French Lick, and we need that safe home base. If we can’t make it, then we’ll find another place like this,” Vince answered patiently, “I’ll find a way to keep you safe. However, I would prefer to get to our forward operating base as fast as possible.”

  “Forward what?” Liz asked.

  When Vince laughed, Liz noticed how his face changed completely and the worry lines melted away. “I’m sorry, I get so into the mission I slip right into military lingo. A forward operating base is what we call our safe location or supply area that is as far into enemy territory as makes sense. It’s the right distance between the charter town in Kentucky and Chicago so that we can safely support it from Kentucky and it us on the mission in return. When I say it out loud like that, it sounds a little overdramatic. I don’t think Gus and his family would appreciate their home and business being referred to as a forward operating base in enemy territory.”

  “Gotcha,” Liz said, and it was her turn to smile.

  Vince turned serious. “I plan to head us back much the way we came, moving as fast as circumstances will allow,” Vince said. “After that, we’ll cut over to Madison and across the river to home, or at least your new home for now.”

  Liz and several others in the group murmured assent. The men nodded, and Ellie put her hand in Malcolm’s. They had a plan, and it was time to get moving.

  After checking to make sure the vehicle changes were complete and everything was loaded, Vince and the men got all the cars lined up at the garage door ready to go.

  “I’ll be running ahead and sending back info and route changes,” Vince said. “If a vehicle breaks down, we need to quickly move stuff to the next vehicle and leave it behind. We don’t even stop to change a tire,” Vince announced to the security men. “I want the civilian vehicles to stay in the middle. I need you two,” he pointed to Andy and Dwight, “to take the rear position. You have to stay close to them. I know we generally keep more spacing, but I want your firepower close if it’s needed. I don’t think we have to worry a lot about IEDs, claymores, grenades, or shoulder-fired missiles like you might have overseas, so bunching up should be okay.”

  “Roger that,” Andy said. “I’ve got the wheel. Dwight will be riding shotgun.”

  “My plan is to move out a mile or two ahead of you all. I may not always be in sight. Malcolm, I need you and Ellie in the first vehicle behind me,” Vince instructed.

  “Okay,” Malcolm said. It was clear there was some confusion in his voice. Ellie was standing close by, very intent on the conversation.

  “Malcolm, because I’m ranging ahead, I need someone I trust behind me keeping this convoy on the route. I can’t spare Andy and Dwight from the drag position, so you’re it.” Vince had a way of using a man’s name and making him feel critical. That made men rise to the occasion more often than not.

  “Gotcha,” Malcolm answered. “But how will I know where to go if I lose sight of you?”

  “You will lose sight of me a lot, because I’ll be moving out a mile or more ahead. I may choose to check out some side roads and ambush spots. It’s even possible that I could fall behind. You have the map we gave you with the route marked. When I talk on the walkie talkies, I’ll relay only some very simple and vague instructions if a change is needed.”

  “What if I miss it or don’t know what you mean?” Malcolm asked, worried.

  “If you don’t understand or think you’ve missed what I’m talking about, don’t hesitate to say something short into the walkie talkie like ‘say again’ or ‘transmission garbled.’ I’ll know you need more information and give it to you another way.”

  “I suppose I’ll know when I hear it. Will Andy and Dwight be listening in too?” Malcolm asked.

  “Yes, they’ll be listening, and they’ll signal if they think you’re going the wrong way.”

  “That’s good,” Malcolm said, clearly relieved.

  “Listen for me to say things like ‘two blocks straight’ or ‘left on M for Madison.’ I don’t want to give instructions that someone else listening in could understand without some thought, so you won’t hear me say ‘go three miles on Highway 50 and turn left on Wisconsin Street.’ That’s too easy for someone to figure out quickly. By being cryptic and moving fast, we should be long gone before someone figures it out.”

  “Okay,” Malcolm said, nodding and with understanding.

  “One more thing,” Vince said. “I won’t give you much instruction when we decide to stop for a rest. I’ll just catch up to you and flash my lights for you to follow. I don’t want people knowing where we stop. That’s when we’re most vulnerable.”

  “Got it.”

  Vince turned to head to his truck when Dwight stopped him. “Boss, what say we all start at channel two on the walkies and every time you give an instruction, we move up a channel? These go up to eleven, so when we hit eleven we go back to two and start over.”

  Vince nodded. “I like it, but what happens if someone misses a channel hop and misses an instruction?”

  “Easy.” Dwight grinned. “When we hear your instruction, Malcolm will respond by holding the push to talk button twice. I’ll hold it three times and when that happens we all go up a channel. If someone doesn’t respond we go back a chan
nel, say the word ‘hop’ and try again.”

  Vince turned to Malcolm. “Are you good with this? We can take any part out or change it to make you comfortable. The cargo you have is the sole reason we’re here. Ellie, the same goes for you too. Anything you want changed, now is the time to say so.”

  “I’m good,” Malcolm said. “Besides, Andy and Dwight will be behind us, always in sight.”

  “Same for me,” Ellie said.

  << Malik >>

  The group exited the warehouse after taking shelter for the night, unaware they were being watched by a scar-faced man hidden near the burned-out rubble of the Dollar General store. He and his lieutenant had kept a long way back from the group as they came out of Chicago. He wanted to attack but didn’t want to take any more chances. Malik would do this on his terms. During the trek south, he lost the group several times and found them again.

  Late last night, they lost them again yet were confident they had gone to ground in one of the warehouses. It would be suicide to go close to the buildings searching for them. He was sure that some of those men had military training.

  It was dumb luck that he couldn’t sleep and was scanning the buildings in the area while pacing and hoping for a break. Malik had never been able to sleep long or soundly since spending time in that institution as a kid. The screaming and yelling would stick in his mind for the rest of his life. His brother had gotten him out, and life was good until the men he was hunting killed Raheem.

  The remnants of the gang had been looting and were sleeping it off at a small home near a car dealership a block away. His lieutenant stood next to him after being woken from a drunken reverie with the toe of Malik’s boot.

  “Should I get some of the others ready?” he asked. “We could run them down and take them out then head back to our home turf.”

  “No, let’s follow them. When we get a chance, we can take the women and kill the men easy and slow.” Malik sneered evilly. “The women will wish for that fate. They will pay for what they did to my brother.”

  << Levi >>

  Levi sat in the front seat of the red four-door Ford pickup with Greg. He was amazed at how calm Greg was. The rest of the country was shaking itself apart, and Greg acted like he was out for a Sunday drive, making jokes and laughing at them. He did lament the fact that some of his favorite restaurants were now closed. Cami piped into to say that for a thin man Greg loved eating. He loved all the various country roadside diners. Cami proclaimed that Greg was personally known at many of the country diners in a three-county radius. He could make friends anywhere.

  “We’ll work our way north on Highway 55,” Greg announced. “Shelbyville is still a mess, so we’ll go around it. I know some of the police in Shelbyville and most are trying to get things set right. Right now, it’s more than they can handle.”

  Skipping around Shelbyville would take them through Simpsonville, Kentucky, where Greg’s farm was. Because it was late in the day, he suggested they spend the night there and get an early start to Carrollton in the morning. Then they would take some back roads to pick up Highway 55 again north of Shelbyville, taking them through Eminence and New Castle, Kentucky. Levi expressed some concern about going through those towns. Greg was confident it would be fine. Aside from knowing most everyone, Greg was certain those towns were full of good, solid people.

  Each town had a few families or areas that produced most of the crime. Before the current crisis the police, community, and legal system had their hands tied as to how to handle those people. With how things were going, those were the families that needed to hunker down, not the good people like in the big cities. No one would be investigating a police shooting or a citizen self-defense case too vigorously right now. The criminals in the country towns were aware of that, and the ones that weren’t wouldn’t matter much if the country didn’t right itself before much longer.

  “After that we’ll bypass another town called Campbellsburg and head straight into Carrollton,” Greg said

  “Why bypass Campbellsburg if Eminence and New Castle are okay to go through?”

  “Well, it’s probably fine too, although they have some rougher banditos.” Greg snorted, and it was hard to tell whether he was teasing or not. “My friend Jim with the Shelbyville police told me Eminence and New Castle are stable. The local police and some citizens have seen to that. Campbellsburg had a bit more crime before, and I don’t have much information on that town. I know you need to get to Carrollton safe and sound, and I do want to keep Cami safe, so we’ll work around Campbellsburg. Besides, the road I want to take kind of naturally bypasses most of Campbellsburg anyway. After that, we can come up on Carrollton from the side that your charter town is on and not even have to go through Carrollton itself.”

  Levi nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

  Then Greg got that mischievous glint in his eye again. “Besides, Vince would never forgive me if I brought his big ol’ soldier to Carrollton all scratched up.” Greg cracked up at his own joke.

  Levi sat back to watch the scenery. This was beautiful country. If you didn’t know the whole country was in disarray, you could never tell by what he was seeing. They passed other vehicles occasionally and people on tractors working the fields every once in a while.

  Levi tried to imagine Vince’s mission and where he would be now. When they arrived in Carrollton, he would have to decide if he should wait for word from Vince or if he could be more help going to Vince’s forward operating base in French Lick. He wanted to help but was too experienced a campaigner to go rushing off with little information.

  Unexpected

  “He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.”

  - Sun Tzu

  << Vince >>

  This was always the hardest part of a mission for Vince. He wanted to be the one to deal with trouble whenever it popped up, although he couldn’t be all places at once. During the planning stage, he always did everything he could to ensure he had all the bases covered. Experience and the old axiom that no plan survived the first engagement with the enemy taught him to be cautious and watch for risks. Despite all the preparation in the world, you could never be sure where the trouble might come from.

  When the group hit open road south of Peotone, Vince picked up the phone and called Gus Lancaster at the junkyard.

  “Hello?”

  “Wow, I’m surprised I got through to you on the first call,” Vince said.

  “Have these things been hard to use?” Gus asked.

  “Yeah, haven’t you tried using the one we gave you?”

  “Nah, most everyone I care about is here. I keep it charged with the fold-out solar thing you gave me. This is the first call I’ve gotten.”

  “Well, it’s been hard to get calls through. We don’t know why.”

  “Maybe it’s because you’re calling people at 3:30 in the morning,” Gus said gruffly.

  “You’re right, I’m sorry about that, Gus. That’s the second time I’ve been called out for being so caught up in the mission I forget I’m a civilian at home. I should have waited to call.”

  “Well, you got me now. What can I do ya for?”

  “I wanted you to know my plan is to make it to your place tonight. If I need to be coming in fast, don’t shoot us. We have four vehicles.”

  “We’ve got you covered. Keep in touch if you need some help close to here. We can’t go too far, though. I won’t leave this place and my family undefended.”

  “Roger that.”

  ***

  Sometime after sunrise, Vince came upon a roadblock and approached it cautiously. It was manned by local farm folk. He radioed back to the convoy to hold position while he checked it out.

  Although the people were friendly, they still didn’t want strangers coming through their area. They didn’t allow Vince to get close and didn’t want to talk much. He recognized they were just wary of strangers and tricks and only wanted to protect their community. They had probably already experienced some ba
d things and heard of more. After some haggling, one of the men on the roadblock came out and, with a map, suggesting an alternate route.

  While they were talking, Vince couldn’t shake the feeling they were being watched. He’d had that feeling since they left Chicago, and it was much stronger now than it had been this morning. He wanted to chalk it up to the probability that this community likely placed some hidden shooters in an overwatch position protecting their people on blockade duty. At the same time, Vince had learned to trust his intuition. It saved his life on more than one occasion. He didn’t have time to scout too far for threats. They needed to keep moving.

  From the man who came out to talk, Vince learned they were a farming community and had remained relatively intact during the chaos. They had a good supply of farm goods, feed, corn, and livestock. There was also a HAM operator in the community, and he got their call sign. He shared with him some basics about the Carrollton community and offered to have the HAM operator there reach out to them. Although this place was further than the Carrollton charter town needed for trading, you never knew what you might need or who might need you. It was always good to keep in touch with other communities trying to do things the right way.

  It would require a bit of backtracking to go around their community, adding about two hours to their trip. It couldn’t be helped. These people were only trying to defend their community, and it wouldn’t be right to try and bust through only to save a couple hours’ time.

  The meeting was observed from a distance as well. Some of the gang that was left were tired of chasing this group and wanted to get this over and get back to their turf. They argued with Malik that they needed to attack the group or this community or something. They wanted women, guns, liquor, and food. What they found in Peotone wasn’t enough. They were worried some of the other gangs in Chicago were getting fat while they were out in the country chasing these people. The world was a free for all now, and Chicago had all they needed. That wasn’t what Malik wanted, though, and they feared him, so they followed his lead. He was as ruthless as his brother but crazy on a whole other level.