Dark Days Rough Roads

by Matthew D. Mark

  Everyone turned toward the road. Kayla raised her rifle up. Kevin came running with his as well. Randy already had his shotgun ready. Haliday dropped to one knee, raised his rifle up and watched through the scope. The dust pile was growing closer. “Take cover, everyone take cover.” Haliday watched as everyone scrambled. He peered through the scope and then stood up. “Open the gates, open the front gate.”

  Diana and Dawn ran over and opened up the gate. This beat up old green Datsun pickup truck turned into the drive. “Go get grandma and grandpa quick.” Kayla ran inside to get them. Roger walked over to the truck. Bev and Rich came out and headed toward the old truck. David came over as well. Bev hugged Alan and the family. They had made it here.

  “Damn brother, I never thought I’d see you guys again,” said Alan.

  Roger answered, “I’m glad you’re here.”

  “Me too. How is everything?” Alan asked.

  “Well, ugly ass truck or not, we need the extra trigger men. We have a world of hurt coming down on us any time. That’s what we’re getting ready for. Come on, get inside and rest, let’s catch up, I’ll explain it all,” Roger told him. “Randy, have everyone empty this truck out and get the gear inside. Put the truck in the pole barn.”

  Roger asked Alan, “Where did you find that green turd?”

  Alan told him the story. “Nancy traded her wedding ring for it. We went over to the auction yard. The owner was there with his son selling all kinds of parts from old cars. This was sitting there along with a few other older cars. I asked him how much he wanted for it. I offered him my Breitling watch, but he said no, He said he’d take Nancy’s ring in trade. She took it off and said ‘If it starts, it’s yours.’ Little starting fluid and it started right up.”

  “We went back to the house and grabbed what we could. I opened the safe and grabbed what was in there and then dug out my shotgun and .308. They didn’t find that.”

  “Who didn’t find it?” Roger asked.

  Alan continued, “The house was broken into and trashed. They even took the Harleys. They didn’t find the safe or guns though, only thing we had hidden the right way. I traded for some gas cans and gas and we drove straight here.”

  “How bad is it down there Alan?”

  “The place is out of control. People have realized the power isn’t coming on any time soon and the government isn’t coming to help any time soon either. There’s gangs trying to form, but people aren’t putting up with that and shooting them cold as they go around trying to loot and stuff. On the other hand I heard some areas are gang controlled, like the existing city of Detroit gangs.”

  Roger had to take the shot at the city; “Oh the city council is in session?” Alan laughed.

  “You’re here. You’re safe,. That’s what counts. We have a gang of our own we are dealing with. They call themselves a militia, but that’s not the case. They intend to run the area.” Haliday asked Sarah to get some coffee and snacks ready. She and Karen took care of this. Roger filled them in on what has been happening. “We have eyes on their compound, we have about an hour after we’re told they are moving out before they get here.”

  “What can I do to help?”

  “Tonight I’m holding a weapons handling crash course. Tomorrow it’s range time and we finish prepping the house and property. The kids will stay in the house ready to dump water on fires or run for ammo. If it gets too bad, they’ll be able to hit the basement with Mom, Dad, Karen and Elizabeth. Everyone else will have to fight. You’ll be in the crow’s nest with your rifle. You hunt a lot, so you’ll be hunting from up there.”

  Throughout the evening they ate dinner and made some more preparations throughout the property. Roger went over the firearms with everyone. He made sure they all knew how they functioned and how to use the stripper clips and everything else. He walked outside to take a breather. He looked over at the neighbors. There she was. He waved. She flipped him off.

  He responded, “I guess I’m not on your Christmas list this year huh?”

  She yelled over at him. “You’re a bastard, you know that.”

  “Well, you got to meet my father earlier. How can you say that?”

  “You’re a son of a bitch.”

  “You met my mom, too?”

  “Oh, you’re a real funny man aren’t you? You think I don’t know what you’re doing over there?”

  “I don’t care lady. I really don’t. You’re a sellout. You are a sellout to your family, to this community and to this country. You’re pathetic.”

  She yelled again. “Well, just you wait smart-ass. In a couple of days, you’ll get yours.” Haliday walked away and went back inside.

  Chapter 27

  Roger said, “I expect we’ll get hit tomorrow night or the night after. They’ll be stupid if they launch an offensive during the day. The bitch across the street said I’ll get mine in a couple days. So I figure tomorrow night or the night after. Everything is pretty much ready to go. Three people on security watch. One outside on patrol, one in the crow’s nest and one in the house listening to the ham.”

  He walked over and called Rob. “Anything new going on over there?”

  “Yes sir, they are loading up a deuce and getting some vehicles lined up. They keep checking everything and loading up some equipment and what looks like ammo cans. They have a guard on the convoy now, but doesn’t look like they are moving any time soon, not enough activity, maybe tomorrow.”

  Roger said, “Ok, you guys ready?”

  “We lost four guys who backed out, but everyone else is ready.”

  “Ok, thanks again, Rob.”

  Haliday looked around at everyone. Even though they had been through a hell of a lot the past week and a half, they were still very nervous. Even the kids knew something was coming. He could try and give them a pep talk, but decided to just let them be for now. No sense in reminding them of what is coming and what could happen.

  He flipped the frequency over and called Mike.

  “Hey, it’s Bill here.”

  “Hi Bill, let me talk to Mike. I have a few things to tell him.”

  “Ok, let me get him.”

  “Roger, it’s Mike. What’s going on?”

  Roger answered, “Listen, tomorrow night we expect a fight here at my place. If it comes down to it and these guys need to run, I’m sending them your way. I don’t really have a choice.”

  “We have a couple of caches around and enough food to get everyone by for quite a while. I’ll have a contingency plan in place and then buy them time to get out if it gets to be that bad. I’ll have Kayla and the older folks grab the kids and get. Take care of them for me if it comes to that, ok?”

  “Roger, listen you sound like you’ve given up.”

  Roger said, “No, just making sure I have things covered. I’m going to get some rest. Talk to you in the morning.”

  Haliday stood up and called everyone over. “Ok people, we’re going over the plans again.” He covered the plans and explained where everyone would be and what was expected of them. He covered the bug out if it came down to that. “I screwed up the endgame here. We might not be in this position if it went down differently. I think I could have done a few things differently. I’m sorry guys.”

  Rich spoke up. “Listen Roger, you have nothing to be sorry about. This all came together because of you. We wouldn’t have made it this far without what you’ve done. There’s nothing to be sorry about. Whatever happened to the country happened, and whoever caused that, well it’s their fault, not yours. Those thugs would have made it here anyway in due time and you just reduced the amount of people who could have shown up. We’re all proud of you.” Roger ended the meeting.

  Everyone took their turns pulling security. Some slept; some stayed up longer and kept going over the plans. Haliday just kept checking everything and trying to figure out what he could do that would be better. He came up with a few more ideas. He went out into the small storage building and did some work, He worked thro
ugh the night. The rest he would finish later, he needed a rest.

  He walked back into the house where everyone was getting ready to eat breakfast. “You hungry Dad?” Kayla asked.

  “No sweetie, I’m going to take a nap for a couple of hours. Ok?” he said.

  She said, “ok, we’ll wake you up if anything happens or we need you.” He wandered up the steps and lay down for a bit. He slept away for a couple of hours.

  Kayla woke him up. “Dad, can you come downstairs?”

  “Sure.” He went to move his legs but they were heavy. He had a cat and the mutant dog Max lying on them. “Ok, time to get up,” he said. They just rolled over and went back to sleep as he got up. Must be nice, he was thinking, just stay in bed all day. He walked downstairs and looked over at the table and smiled. “Damn, you guys didn’t have to.”

  Mike and Linda were sitting there. “We couldn’t let you guys have all the fun now could we? We even brought a couple of friends.” He looked over at the common area and saw a young couple sitting there. “That’s Bill’s son Mark and his wife, Lisa.”

  He walked over and shook their hands, “Nice to meet you, but you guys didn’t have to do this.”

  “Mike thought we might come in handy. Lisa here married me after I proposed to her at Ft. Campbell. I did three years active duty and I am currently inactive reserve. Eleven Bravo sir.”

  “It’s Roger, and I was an NCO. Drop the ‘sir’ stuff.”

  Mark went on; “I did two tours in the sandbox. Lisa here was our unit admin clerk; still knows how to fire a rifle. We even brought our own. They even have a special feature, full auto. We can go if you want.”

  “No, glad to have you here,” Roger replied.

  Mark said, “Let’s see what you have?”

  He went over the entire plan with everyone again. Mark offered a couple of ideas which made sense now that they had extra manpower. They went over the changes and then he walked everyone around the property.

  “Listen, we expect this to go down tonight.”

  “Ok, we’ll all be ready,” they answered.

  Haliday had everyone double-checking everything, adding extra ammo to the stockpiles, placing thermoses of hot tea by them, canteens of water and hand warmers as well. They were also helping him set the rest up. Dawn and Diana moved the horses over to the other neighbor’s property. They were snow birds and were already down in Florida, so he didn’t think they would care. He staged the vehicles for quick departure.

  He had Mark hold the range session and get everyone ready. He checked in now and then. He looked over at the neighbor who was standing there. He made contact first, showed her she was number one. He held that finger high. Randy called him in, “Hey Uncle Roger, come in here quick.” He jogged over to the house to see what Randy wanted.

  “What’s going on Randy?”

  “Rob is on the radio for you.”

  “Ok, thanks,” he said. “Rob, what’s the word?”

  Rob answered, “You’re getting hit tonight. These guys are finalizing the vehicle loads and gear, and double-checking everything. I guarantee they are moving out soon. As soon as they move out, I’ll be calling you. We are all in position here near the airport and ready to go ourselves. Good luck Roger.”

  “Good luck to you too, Rob.”

  This was the calm before the storm. He walked around and hugged everyone and thanked them. Everyone was dressed and ready. They were finding themselves idle things to do in and out of the house. He sat there with his eyes closed and prayed a bit. The ham crackled and he listened. He ran outside and cranked an old fashioned air raid siren, which sent everyone running to their positions.

  He wasn’t worried about the neighbor calling it in. She already knew what was coming and he had Kevin sneak over there earlier. Kevin unplugged her whip antenna and connected some power leads to it he triggered a stun gun which popped a chip in her handheld. He then snipped the antenna to double up the effort. The militia relying on her to relay info for the attack was out of the question now.

  They had placed all the radios they could out there. If there was a need for retreat, a flag would be raised at the crow’s nest and it would be lit up. He’d also fire a couple of red flares up into the sky. Haliday took off for his position. Everyone’s blood was pumping and it would be less than an hour now. Anticipation coursed through their veins.

  “Rob, what do we have coming our way?”

  “Roger, you have one motorcycle, and no other ATV's of any sort at all, scratch that, you have two quads in the back of the deuce. There are also four people in the back of it. There are three pickup trucks, each has two people up front and two in the back. Two Jeeps and a Bronco with four people in each. Thirty-one people total.”

  “They all have AR’s; they look pretty standard except for a few oddballs here and there. Lights attached, lasers, scopes, magazines taped together, the works. It looks like a couple have some 308’s in the same configuration. One guy has some big bad ass rifle or something. It looks like a small cannon.”

  “The other night they loaded up all the ammo cans and a lot of other gear. Tonight they threw some packs and boxes in the trucks. A couple of guys look like they have night vision goggles. Those old ones you see in the movies, nothing new like you see them wearing today. The cases looked pretty old as well.”

  “Wonderful news there Rob, I expected about half. Any idea of the make up of their ranks, as far as males and females?”

  Rob gave him a quick rundown of what he thought there was. “Looked like 24 men, and 7 women. A couple of them were teenagers.” Haliday figured these were the neighbor’s daughter and her boyfriend. They were most likely familiar with the area since she lived across the street. Plus he couldn’t forget two fighters across the street as well if both were in on it, but he was thinking she was the only one.

  “How about you guys Rob?”

  “Oh, we’re ready. We just need to know when to start.”

  “I figure about 45 minutes or so,” he said.

  “Rob, this is the only chance you have. You guys do what it takes. You won’t have another chance like this again. I hope to be talking to you very soon.”

  “You too, Roger.” Mark and everyone else was listening and heard the news.

  The militia slowly made their way toward Haliday’s. They knew Haliday was expecting them, but they also knew the layout of his land, the buildings on it and the intel on who was there. They also enjoyed a 2 to 1 advantage for troop strength with Haliday having some older folks in the group and also having to worry about younger children.

  The convoy moved along slowly expecting ambush or traps. They would pause at intersections and blind spots to check the areas out thoroughly before they resumed speed. Haliday had hoped the bike would be up front and he had gone and set up a catch wire for it. The deuce led the convoy with an anti-decap bar on the front. It snapped the wire easily.

  The next wire was simpler. It pulled out a piece of cardboard between a clothes pin and made a connection which ignited a rocket engine fuse. The fuse burned in a couple of seconds and sent up a hailstorm of fireworks. It was fully dark now, and Haliday spotted them through his spotting scope he had set up. The militia convoy was now about two miles out. They pulled over and dismounted their vehicles. They put up some ramps on the deuce and off-loaded the quads.

  Everyone rallied around the deuce now and they went over the plans for their offensive. They realized with the fireworks warning that their attack was expected. The bike and quads moved out first and crept along. They were making sure they did not get caught up in any more wire strung across the roads. The headed off into the woods. The rest of the vehicles split up and went in different directions. The goal was to surround the house and test the defenses for weak points.

  The militia man leading the attack spoke. He spit out the usual crap about safety, watching out for your fellow man and all that garbage, but he also told them something else that put things in more perspective as to what
they planned and what they were all about. If Haliday heard this, it would have made a lot more sense.

  The man said, “We are about to try and stop these people from ruining our plans to make this area a better place to live. They want to ruin our chance to let nature weed out those who are weak. Those who can not contribute to our society. Those who will bring us down. We need to make sure we can conquer anyone who will stop us from prospering.” It was almost like a miniature Bilderberg conspiracy.

  They moved in slowly. These guys had made some major mistakes, but this time they were going about it like true professionals. They were moving in slowly, they were spread out, and they had communications amongst everyone, they weren’t taking stupid chances, and they simply had it together so far.

  Even if Haliday’s group wanted to leave right now, there was not a single road they could have taken without running into some of the militia. There wasn’t a single side of the house that wasn’t covered by at least five people. There was a fair amount of open land around the property, except for the west side which was heavily wooded and a little too close for comfort. He always wanted to cut it back some, but never did.

  The militia carefully moved in closer in some more and then took cover. Haliday’s group was lying in wait. Their breathing was rapid. Their heartbeats were quick. The adrenaline was flowing. The temperature was around 40, but most of them were sweating. They waited and waited some more. The militia was making them sweat it out.

  Out in the tree line, a strobe light started to flash. Haliday called Rob, he didn’t waste a lot of breath on words of wisdom or anything, he simply told him “Start your offensive.” The strobe light flashed about 45 times a minute. It was a small strobe head about the size of a quarter mounted in small 1X2 inch housing running off a small 12 volt tractor battery.

  This was anchored to a tree about 10 feet off the ground. These were normally mounted in fog light areas, back up lights on police cars, car grilles or almost anywhere. They were pure white light and worked well. Each flash was like a small flash of lightning.