Dark Days Rough Roads

by Matthew D. Mark

  Rob answered, “They don’t know what to think. Some believe them, but a bunch know what the militia is really doing. The rest are just kind of here. They don’t seem to care.”

  “Rob, I won’t lie to you. Here’s how everything went down.” Haliday told him exactly what happened, minus a few small details in order to avoid looking like cold-blooded killers. He wasn’t sure Rob would understand the justification to kill. “Now, Rob, if you are still ok, this is what we have planned.” He covered a few details and looked at Rob.

  Rob said, “That sounds fairly dangerous.”

  “Well Rob, it does, but with safety in numbers it’ll be ok.” Rob then thought for a moment and agreed.

  They would take the night off and use the whole day tomorrow to prepare. Right now they imagined the militia was running around again completely upset because they torched the house and the old school. These were areas they knew the militia was checking. They really just wanted to let them know they were still in the area.

  The radio was abuzz with the school and house burning. They didn’t quite send as many patrols as they thought they would, but that was ok. They heard a transmission on the radio. “Hey, is anybody there? Anybody out there?”

  The militia responded. “This is the Bad Axe Minute Men. You are on a frequency designated for militia operations. Cease your radio traffic and stay off this frequency.”

  “Hey man, listen, we need some help, there’s a bunch of guys on motorcycles who have been causing trouble around here. The police are long gone and we don’t know what to do.”

  The militia asked them, “Where are you guys located?”

  “We’re south of Sandusky; they just firebombed a store and then torched a car too. Can you guys help?”

  “That’s a negative. You are not located in our control district.”

  “Come on man, help us out.”

  “Negative, now please clear this frequency, try and contact the government on the civil defense frequency. Do not take the law into your own hands. Let the authorities for your area do it. Locate another frequency.” They went back to their own transmissions. Haliday expected them to change frequencies next shift change. He would have to remember to tell Mike “Good job.” The militia might now be thinking they were heading back south after causing trouble up north. The school and house and now the Sandusky area pointed that way.

  They discussed with Rob what he would have to do. After a couple more hours, they were done for the night. Rob offered to let them stay in the house, but they politely declined. They asked him to make sure his wife and boys didn’t leave the house and that they remain quiet. Rob assured them it would not be a problem. Rob was about to leave. “Hold on one second, Rob.”

  Haliday looked around the little room. There was a good amount of alcohol in boxes on shelves, evidently for the store. Haliday told Rob to keep this secret, maybe even put some in smaller containers to use as trade items down the road. Rob said he hadn’t thought of that. Haliday himself had purchased liquor and empty pint bottles for the same reason.

  Haliday went over to his bike. He pulled out four small sized mylar bags and handed them to Rob. “Boil eight cups of water, empty one packet in and let it simmer for about 20 to 25 minutes. You’ll have a complete meal for the four of you. It’s like a cross of red beans and rice and dirty rice.” He handed him a square of Datrex bars and a baggy full of Tang. “This will feed you guys for four full days and give you what you need. Save what you have in the house for now.” Rob protested, but Haliday wouldn’t hear it. Rob thanked them.

  After Rob left, Haliday told Blake that they would stay here the night and rotate sleep again. “Can’t be too sure we are in safe hands just yet. Peace offering or not, you never know. We’ll get to work on the toys and plans in the morning. Things will be busy soon enough.”

  Haliday woke up and looked outside. There was a heavy frost outside. If they didn’t get this done soon, it would become increasingly more difficult to move around and not leave tracks. Haliday peeked outside the windows. There weren’t any tracks around the building in the frost. No one had checked on them last night. Rob had stayed away like he promised.

  They were busy organizing their gear more efficiently when Rob came in. “You guys can fire up that wood burner if you want to.”

  “No thank you, two stove pipes from two different buildings might attract attention. We’ll be fine. You heading out Rob?”

  “Ya, I’m going to use the kid’s scooter to make my rounds.”

  “Good luck, let us know how it goes.”

  After Rob left, they got busy working on their little toys. If it hadn’t been for eBay and all the chinamarts online, he wouldn’t have acquired the stuff he needed in bulk. The little alarm clocks were a steal. He bought them by the dozen for about two bucks a clock. They were perfect little timers. They only needed a few of these this time around.

  Haliday pulled out the homemade chart of the airport and studied it. He was looking it over and made some more notes. He looked at the map as well. “Time for a quick break.” He called the group.

  Bev answered. “We’re all ok, everyone is busy getting ready. We should be all set, how about you guys?”

  “Ya, same here,” said Roger. “Anything more on the patrols?”

  “Hold on a minute,” she said.

  Kevin came on the radio now. “Uncle Roger, I went out to get some firewood to load up in the rack. While I was out there, one of the trucks pulled up on the road. They sat there for a few minutes and then yelled over to me. I asked them what they wanted and they said they wanted the form. I told them we didn’t have any form for them─it wasn’t any of their business─and to just leave us alone. They talked back and forth to each other a few minutes and then left.

  “A couple hours later they came back and had another truck with them. They called out on a bullhorn, but we didn’t answer. One of the guys started coming up to the house. Uncle David and Dawn went outside and told him to leave. He put another letter in the mailbox and told us we had 72 hours to fill it out or they would come onto the property and see for themselves. They wouldn’t be nice about it next time. They stopped at the neighbor’s house too.”

  “Well, in 72 hours the game will hopefully change. Talk to you guys later.” Haliday looked out the window and saw a quad coming down the tree line. The quad was only going about five miles an hour and the rider was looking into the woods as he rode along. He passed the pole barn without stopping. Haliday went to the other side and watched the guy continue along. These guys were persistent, that’s for sure.

  It was late afternoon when they heard Rob on the scooter. Haliday watched him pull up. It looked comical, almost like a clown in a parade. Seeing this big guy on this little scooter. Rob went into his house, then came out about 15 minutes later and came into the pole barn. “Ok, I have some help. I talked to only the guys I could trust and they talked to a few family members as well. We have about 30 people.”

  “That’s great news. That’s more than I expected.” Rob said they could double that if they used the older kids. He said he left it up to the others to decide.

  Haliday said, “That’s your decision. The risk is there, but in a sense it’s not. I can’t put you or your family in any danger. You are volunteers and if that’s what you decide then I’m with you. Everyone understands the ground rules right?”

  Rob said, “Yes.”

  “Any other news?”

  “A little bit. They have a couple motorcycles now and a few quads. Some of the militia are using them to check the woods and property lines. If you are using those areas, you might be in trouble.”

  Roger said, “Ya, I saw one pass by earlier. That won’t be a problem, they won’t find anything, we covered our tracks enough.

  “Rob, go inside and spend the evening with your family. We’ll be fine out here. I’ll talk to you again in the morning.”

  “Goodnight Roger. Goodnight Blake. Again, I can’t thank you guys enough.�
�

  “Rob, thank us if this works, and don’t downplay your role. It’s just as dangerous and just as important. Tomorrow night is the big night.” They parted ways for the evening. Haliday noted that the patrol quad drove by twice more during the night.

  It was past dinner time when Blake and Haliday ate. They whipped up a package of chili and ate dinner. They turned the radio on and listened. Just a few more minutes to wait, then it was time. “This is the St. Clair Tridents trying to raise the Bad Axe Minute Men, over.” There was no response. “St. Clair Tridents calling the Bad Axe Minute men, over.”

  BAMM responded. “Who are you?”

  “This is Colonel David Howe from the St. Clair Tridents.”

  “We never heard of you.”

  “Well, we never heard of you either until this morning. Let’s cut to the chase. I don’t care if you know me or not, but all we are looking for is some info. We had a citizen give us this frequency after they said they called for help and you answered.”

  “Go ahead, what do you want?” the minute man asked.

  Howe continued. “We had some problems last night and this evening. We have some kind of gang causing problems. Lighting fires and shooting at people to scare them. We had a few trucks come through yesterday afternoon, but we lost track of them. The worst part though is they have some motorcycles causing troubles. You guys have any information on them at all?”

  “No we don’t. We haven’t had any problems at all up here except for some local people looting. But the police are handling it. If we have any other information, we’ll call you on this frequency. We monitor it, but that’s all. We wish you luck.” Haliday shook his head. These guys are some cool players. Protecting their little country, lying through their teeth, they really are something else. Tomorrow night they’d be put to the test.

  Haliday called the group before they settled in for the night. “Make sure you guys go over everything again and again. I can’t tell you guys enough how important it is. There are going to be a lot of people depending on us, but what you have to consider before anything else is your safety and the safety of everyone around you. Ok, we’re getting some sleep. Talk to you in the morning.”

  Chapter 23

  This morning was a busy one. Rob had taken the scooter and made his rounds to make sure everyone was going to be ready. Haliday and Blake double-checked everything and loaded up the bikes to get ready. Rich, Bev, David, Dawn, and Randy got the Cherokee and Tahoe ready. They too were packed and ready. Kayla helped them go over everything and then made sure the house was ready. She would be staying with Sarah, Kevin, Bobby, Karen, Diana, and Elizabeth at the house.

  Rich was driving the Cherokee and David the Tahoe. They headed out and northwest toward the western shoreline of the Thumb. They had with them quite a few little packages. Their main area of operation was going to be the Caseville area and along that shoreline. As they approached the area, they would stop on occasion. Timed surprises to help keep the militia on edge.

  It was early afternoon and over at the airport, a crowd started to gather near the front gate. The militia warned them to leave and they did. They went about a quarter of a mile down to a feed store. They lit up a couple of burn barrels and stood around. The crowd increased in size, drawing the attention of the militia. They had a patrol drive by about every 10 minutes.

  *****

  Over in the Caseville area, the two vehicles pulled into the parking lot of a small grocery store. A militia patrol pulled in behind them. They got out and approached the vehicles with their weapons at the ready. A few minutes later another patrol pulled in to assist them. They ordered the group out of the vehicles.

  David and Dawn got out first. Randy got out of the Cherokee and walked over to the driver’s door. He opened it and Rich got out. Rich leaned up against the fender playing the feeble old man. Randy went and opened Bev’s door and helped her get out. He pulled out a small stool and she sat down. The militia approached them.

  “Who are you people?” David explained that it was his wife and son, and his parents. They lived in Warren and came up here to bug out.

  “Where are you planning on going exactly?”

  “We have a small cabin on Rose Island. That’s where we are heading to.”

  “You guys have ID?” Rich walked over slowly and gave him his drivers license. The address was in Warren.

  The man from the militia looked over at Randy and the rest. “You guys have ID?” Dawn said no, David pulled his out.

  The guy said, “This says Roseville.”

  David spoke, “Ya, my parents live in Warren. We live in Roseville and Randy lives in St. Clair Shores. We all made it to my parents’ house where we stayed until it started getting bad with riots and looters. Look at my truck, they were shooting at everything just to shoot, it’s loaded with bullet holes. We decided to head to the cabin.”

  Over by the airport the crowd had grown to almost 50 people. They started walking back toward the airport’s main gate. When they got there, the militia doubled up the manpower at the gate and told them to go away. Rob demanded that he talk to the militia’s leader. The crowd called the militia Nazis, criminals, thugs, crooks and a few other choice words. There were men, women and older teenagers.

  Back in the parking lot the militia told David and his group that they were the authority for the Thumb Region. They insisted on searching the vehicles. David and the group protested, but the militia convinced them by raising their rifles. The militia pulled everything out of the vehicles. They just tossed it all on the ground.

  Sleeping bags, camp stove fuel, clothing, food and some odds and ends. One of the militia opened up a blanket and laid it on the ground. He placed a small .22 rifle on it along with a couple of Mosin Nagants and an older 12 gauge shotgun. Another guy put down two ammo cans filled with various ammo for the guns and opened it.

  “I see boxes of 9mm. You guys have any pistols on you?”

  David said, “Yes, I have a 9mm under my coat.” They told him to raise his hands which he did. One of the guys went and took the gun from him and then patted him down. He told everyone else to stand up as well. They completed the search and didn’t find anything else.

  “Here’s a list of rules of the area. I suggest you go to your cabin and stay there. Check in once in a while in case we have information for you. We post bulletins regularly. You damn vacationers think you can just come up here and do whatever you want and it makes me sick. If I had it my way, we’d be shooting all of you useless assholes.

  “We’re keeping the guns, that’s our law. You might want to think seriously about how long you plan on staying. Spring would be a great time to move the hell back to wherever you guys came from.” A third patrol had approached and watched the activity. David saw them talking on the radio. They heard him say that they didn’t find any truck tracks at the marina, just the bike tracks. They got another call and then they left. The other two patrols stayed behind, but David could tell they were getting anxious about something.

  *****

  Haliday and Blake started to head toward the airport. They were following the path they previously had taken. Haliday would be taking a different path and he split off from Blake. Blake continued on for about half a mile. He stopped and waited. As he was sitting there the patrols quad came up along the wood line. Blake took off to try and avoid the quad.

  The quad was following Blake as he tried to lose him. The quad was catching up to Blake slowly. Blake tried to get into the woods, but he couldn’t find an opening. He looked back and the quad was even closer. He laid on the throttle, but the bike became unstable and bounced around too much, so he slowed down.

  He spotted an opening in the woods and shot toward it. Just after he entered the woods, he hit a patch of leaves and dumped the bike down sideways and slid. He got up and started running down the path with the quad behind him. The quad gunned it and blasted into the woods.

  The rider’s arms were whipped backward and the pressure on
his chest tore him from the quad. He landed on his back and rolled around in pain. Haliday had wrapped a piece of small coated wire cable around one tree and anchored it. Then he had fed the end through an eye bolt on another tree. As soon as Blake had laid down the bike, Haliday pulled the cable and wrapped the end around the eyebolt for strength. It knocked the rider of the quad off.

  Haliday walked up and stepped on the man’s arm as Blake ran up. He pointed his .40 at him. “You guys don’t learn do you? Still out here playing army and trying to run your own little country?” The guy just looked up at him. He had to be only 18 or 19 years old. Haliday bent down, flipped him over, and applied some flex cuffs.

  He searched the kid and pulled off a pistol, a couple of magazines and a knife. “Blake, gather all the rest of his gear, that rifle and everything. Take the quad and run it back to where we came from. I’ll be right there after I finish with this kid.” Blake did as he was told. He put everything in the pole barn and threw an old tarp over it. Haliday swung by and picked him and took him back to his bike.

  The kid was sitting up against a tree and was tied to it. He wouldn’t be going anywhere at all. This kid was probably patrolling the wood line and east side of the airport where they would need to be. He looked at the kid. “I’m going to let you sit here and then have someone come get you later. Find Jesus while we’re gone. Find Allah for all I care. But get right with your Maker.”

  “You aren’t going to shoot him?”

  “No, he can stand trial with the rest of them or they can do whatever they want with him, but I’m not going to do it. I should, but he didn’t fire on us or try, at least not yet. Rules of engagement in a sense, a twisted sense though. I did talk to him for a few minutes though.

  “The kid basically told me to screw off. He told me they were the new government in the area and they applied new laws to the area. That’s about all he said. Kept repeating it over and over along with saying how we were going to get what we had coming to us. Not a very smart kid either. No understanding of what the law really is.