Dark Days Rough Roads

by Matthew D. Mark

  “Ya,” Blake said.

  “You ever notice how one side of the V is always longer than the other?”

  “Ya,” Blake said again.

  “You know why that is?”

  “No, I don’t,” Blake answered.

  Roger looked at him, “It’s because it has more geese in it.”

  Blake rolled his eyes and said, “It’s going to be a long night.”

  Rich called Roger over to the radio, “Go get ma’,” he said, “hurry up.” Roger went and got Bev and they both went over to the radio. Susan down in Texas had managed to find a ham and finally got through to them. They were doing fine she said, they caught up briefly and said they would keep in touch. This was great news. Now they need to find out about Greg in Missouri.

  Now the one thing Haliday had noted and now confirmed was that the lower part of Texas was more functional than the rest of the country, they even had power in some of the southernmost areas. He had heard the same about California, Arizona and New Mexico. That’s what really struck him as odd.

  The next few days were extremely uneventful. The prisoners, while under guard, had picked up the bodies and taken them away. The group cleaned up the area the best they could and replaced the glass in the windows with Plexiglas that Roger had stocked. Easier to cut and handle than glass was. They plugged all of the holes in the sides and roof of the cabin and checked for leaks. It was pretty much all back in order now.

  Haliday had extra shingles, putty, Plexiglas, screws, nails, insulation, wood boards, piping and all sorts of building materials to maintain the cabin. This was all kept in the storage building and pole barn. They would be able to fix practically anything that had broken or became damaged.

  Haliday accessed his underground Faraday cage. This thing was quite different. It was a beast as far as a Faraday cage was concerned. The effort put into it was extreme in nature. If it worked, great. If not, he had a big tub of modern antiques. He borrowed the back hoe from the neighbors. He felt odd using it, but he would pay whoever laid claim to their property if family ever happened to show up.

  He dug down and hit a piece of rotting plywood. It was marine grade and he had treated it practically six times sealing it up, but it was meant for indication of the cage and not protection. Once hitting it, he knew he would have to finish digging the cage out by hand. He turned the tractor off and jumped down. “Grab a shovel guys, let’s get going.”

  They cleared the dirt off and removed the piece of wood. Sitting there was a big metal box that had been buried five feet under the ground. The box itself was roughly 48X48X48 inches. It was actually constructed of a couple of boxes nested inside each other. Redundancy was the key to keeping the contents safe, Haliday thought. He had looked up info on cages and everyone had a different idea of what would work, so he went with his own.

  He built the first box with one eighth inch steel and lined it with rubber. The contents were placed inside and the top sealed with a rubber gasket and then metal tape. This was covered in rubber and then a copper shell applied to this. He was able to sweat the lid of the copper on in order to seal it entirely. Next was another thin metal skin and sealed again. They hoisted it out using the tractor and some slings.

  Haliday started the slow process of opening the cage. Once it was opened, everyone looked inside. You would have thought it was Christmas with all of the oohs and aahs. “Don’t get excited yet,” he said. “We might have boat anchors here.” He carefully pulled the contents out and the guys took it all inside.

  He walked inside and looked at the pile. Two 32” flat screen TV’s, two DVD players, two small surround sound set ups, a couple of portable radios, a couple of Ipads, two laptops and a massive computer tower filled with hard drives along with some other various electronics. He grabbed one of the laptops and walked over to an outlet.

  He plugged it in as everyone stood there and waited. A few lights blinked and then the tell tale Microsoft windows sound came on. Roger looked around, “Solitaire anyone?” he asked. They all cheered. They set most of it aside and got a TV set up downstairs along with one of the laptops on the desk. The large computer tower was loaded with files. E-books, dictionary, digital encyclopedia, music and over 5,000 movies.

  They would be ok for entertainment, this would help keep some of the normalcy of life flowing. That had been the reason behind having back ups for the TV and such, in case something broke before the country was back on the grid. They would limit the use of everything in order to avoid burning through it in a short period of time.

  Next on the to-do list was to complete an entire inventory of everything they had and to work out some menus in order to maximize the food stores. They were actually much better off than they thought. The small caches around the property were just a bonus. Farming and bartering would allow them to sustain themselves.

  Dawn called down to Roger; “Rob needs to speak to you.”

  “Ok, tell him I’ll be there in a second.” Roger went up the stairs and sat down by the radio. “Hey Rob, what’s going on?”

  “Roger, we had a problem today. We had the fuel truck from the airport come out with six armed guys. They went to one of the gas stations and took the gas. Well, they took a truck load. We didn’t have enough people to try and defend it.”

  “There’s more,” he said. “They dropped a bunch of flyers on the ground. They said they were going to be taking more gas and other supplies as form of payment for the vehicles and equipment we took from them. There was to be no interference or they would defend themselves. They also said they would consider anybody on the streets armed and hostile.”

  Roger replied, “Rob, that means they’ll shoot anyone for any reason. They say anything else?” Rob went on to say that they wanted their prisoners back, that they expected full cooperation at all times, and most importantly they would not be setting up any trade or distribution of food or supplies until spring. “Roger, not a lot of people can make it that long.” Roger told him that was because that’s what they wanted; to cull the population. For some reason Roger kept thinking about that.

  Roger sat there in disbelief. He couldn’t grasp what he was hearing. The militia had at least 25 dead and maybe 12 injured, of which half of those were likely to die. This was almost half of their forces and yet they continued to hang on and keep up their BS. Roger spoke aloud; “You’d think they were sitting on Fort Knox or something.”

  Dawn said, “No, you’d need a bigger army for that.”

  “Hey Rob, do me a favor.”

  “What’s that,” Rob asked.

  Roger told him to put a lot more intel on the militia compound. “I want a complete count of everything and everyone. There has to be something else going on that we don’t know about and we might need to figure it out pretty quickly.” Roger said goodnight and looked over his notes.

  Dawn asked him what was wrong. “I think you found the problem,” he said.

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “Their numbers are growing. I kept thinking I was screwing up the people count that I had, but that’s not it. Unless they have rabbits in there and they are spitting out full grown humans, then people are getting into that compound somehow. Somehow or at some time, more people showed up.”

  He sat back in his chair and mumbled. “Meeting time!” he yelled. Everyone gathered around him. “I’m getting a little tired of this stuff,” he said. “I’m going to go meet with Rob and his crew tomorrow morning. I think the militia has been growing their numbers over the past week. I would venture to say they had people show up from out of town and they expect more.”

  Mark looked at him and spoke. “That would explain why they still have the attitude. They are trying to hold on as long as they can until their entire group comes in. There’s no telling how many are on the way or how soon.”

  “My point exactly,” said Roger. Everyone looked around at each other. They wanted to ask but knew the answer. The fight wasn’t over.

  Roger s
at for a minute more. He looked at Mark and asked him if he would join him to go meet with Rob and Brad in the morning. Mark slowly nodded, “I think I better. If you’re thinking about what I’m thinking about then ya, I better go too.”

  “Ok, it’s settled.” Roger called Rob and set up the meeting. They would have to take that compound and disband the militia before any more of them arrived or they would have to leave the area themselves and that wasn’t an option.

  They arrived for the meeting just outside of town. Rob, Brad and two more guys met them there. They sat down to talk about the militia and Haliday mentioned what he thought was happening. Brad looked at Roger. “I think you’re right. I’ve seen a couple of cars the past few days in town that I don’t really remember being there. Plug wires were missing, so not sure if they run or not, but one had Ohio plates on it.”

  Brad finished speaking. “They must have come in, parked and then snuck in. No one had really been watching the whole compound until last night. We just watched the main gates and admin building. This poses a big problem for us.”

  Rob shook his head. “We’re in deep, real deep.”

  “And you don’t have a paddle,” Roger added. “However, this is what we are going to do. Take notes.”

  Haliday and Mark spent eight hours covering everything they would need to gather as far as equipment went and what the plan was. They got a good count of how many people they had to work with and what types of firearms. They wrapped up the meeting and set the assault plan in motion. They would play it by ear as to when it would begin because everyone had preparations to make. Haliday and Mark went home and explained it to the group. Only Haliday and Mark would be involved, everyone else would be staying put.

  Chapter 33

  Rob had his people keep a closer eye out on the compound. They noticed that same night that there was indeed another group of people who snuck into the compound. It looked like it was two adults and a younger child around 12 years old. Brad and a few others had taken it upon themselves to check and mark the vehicles in the area so they knew which ones had been there and which ones were new.

  Haliday told them to use chalk and mark the inside of a tire so it wasn’t obvious. They could double up by placing a small stone just under a tire. If the first number in the license plate was an even number it went under the drivers front tire, if it was odd it went under the passenger front tire.

  They had remembered the newer vehicles that popped up and checked them out. With the help of the auto parts store, they were able to get two of the three running and confiscated them. They would use them for now and then return them if they could convince the owners to leave.

  The next 48 hours were spent on preparing for the assault. Brad had brought out groups of people who were given a crash course on tactics they would need to employ during the assault. Some basics on cover, fire, escape and evade. Not nearly enough training, but more than any of them had ever had.

  The exception was that Brad was able to find five veterans and three police officers in the group to help them out and take on roles as squad leaders. One of the police officers whose name was Chuck had formal SRT training and picked a few guys to help with building entry. There would be two teams for building entry.

  After the initial assault, Mark would take over the main assault group while Haliday and Chuck split off with the two entry teams to do the building checks. Once they cleared the buildings another guy was assigned to lock them down. It was as simple as locking the door and then breaking a key off in the tumblers. They had a locksmith who could open them later.

  They had found some more tractors to use and took them over to the metal fabrication shops in the area for armoring. They would armor the driver’s front and the buckets or dozer blades. These were only going to be used for the assault. Just enough to get some guys in and breach one side of the compound. The south end was fairly accessible, but most of the people and buildings were all at the north side of the airport.

  They went through again and picked out the best hunters they could find. Each was assigned an area of the compound to cover. They were also each assigned spotters to watch in the area for any surprises or attacks from the rear. They had no idea who might try to sneak up behind them or even if they would.

  Brad had a stock full of tannerite targets. He asked Roger what they could do with them. “Easy,” Roger said. “You lay a piece of scotch tape down, a line of heavy finishing nails on the tape and wrap it around the can of tannerite. Use the giant slingshot and launch them into the compound. The hunters will have a target full of flechettes to fire on.”

  “The militia won’t want to touch them or come close after a few go off. Try and launch a bunch simultaneously and have the guys shoot them simultaneously as well. That will be a huge psychological kick in the pants. After word gets out when one lands near someone they’ll want to leave.”

  Brad looked at him, “You’re a sick man.”

  “Guerilla warfare Brad, that’s all it is. The days of taking twenty paces and dueling with pistols ended a while ago,” he replied.

  They wrangled up as many tires as they could. They placed them around the outside of the compound in stacks. The militia laughed at them. Those things wouldn’t stop a .22 round was what they were thinking. What they didn’t know was that these would be lit on fire to create a smoke screen to help block some of their activities and to smoke out the militia as much as possible.

  Haliday had them gather up bricks from the brickyard and use those to reinforce some of their fighting positions around the compound. He also had them place a good number of spike strips along the roads so any vehicles making a run for it would get flat tires. They would let people go, but would have to make their point so the militia would know it was over and they would be expected to disband completely.

  Roger made sure that the guys that would be entering the compound and buildings had mirrors to use, these were simple contraptions made of compact mirrors from the cosmetic counter of the drug store, shortened broom sticks and duct tape. Simple, effective and cheap. Easily tossed aside or thrown away with no bother of how much they had cost.

  Haliday covered clothing with the guys. “Make sure you do not wear any camo. We can not have anyone getting hit by friendly fire. You have all seen that they wear the Russian camo and know what it looks like. Wear plain black or regular clothes. Make sure they are loose enough to give when you move, but tight enough so they do not get caught on stuff. Your shoes are important as well. Boots with ankle support are the best option, avoid tennis shoes.”

  “Everybody gather around me,” Haliday said. “I’m going to cover the rules of engagement. No children are to be fired upon unless they are actively firing on you. Anyone else that is armed and engaged is fair game. If they drop their weapons and surrender, you zip tie them behind their backs. We shoot to neutralize the threat.”

  “What’s that mean?” he heard someone yell.

  “Kill,” Roger answered back.

  He made a quick count of the people involved. There were almost 120 of them total. These people were starting to get hungry and that meant they were ready to fight. They were starting to realize real quickly now what was happening and what their future held. It wasn’t just them; it was their families as well.

  He called everyone close in. “I have a little speech to give here people. I hope it doesn’t change your minds about anything. People are going to die. That is a cold hard fact you all need to come to grips with. The fight is being taken to them because if you don’t, they will become stronger and you will become weaker.”

  “There are no ‘ifs,’ ‘ands’ or ‘buts’ in this. It’s a matter of getting it done and getting it done the right way, right now. As corny as it sounds, and as often used as it is in the movies, look around you. This is the reason you are fighting. This is who depends on you. This is who you must depend on. With that being said, Depends might not be a bad option; some of you will shit your pants.” He got quite a few c
huckles at that, even though it was probably true.

  “Any questions before we leave?” There weren’t any. Just a lot of thank you's, good lucks and prayers. Haliday shook Rob’s hand and Brad’s hand. “I’ll see you all in the morning.” Haliday and Mark headed back to the house. They walked in and the mood was somber. “I’m not going over it all again ok. It’s gotta be done, plain and simple.”

  Morning came and Mark and Haliday were ready to go. When they went downstairs everyone was there waiting for them. A lot of hugs and kisses. Kayla walked up and gave Mark a hug. She went over to Roger and gave him a big hug with tears in her eyes. “You better be coming home. You promise me that Dad.”

  “I can’t promise you that sweetheart. What I can promise you is that I will do everything I can to make it happen. I want you to know how proud of you I am. I could never have asked for a better daughter who has grown into a fantastic young woman. You can accomplish anything you want in life kiddo. Never give up. Take care of the family here. You’re the boss for now.”

  Haliday and Mark got into the Jeep and took off. They didn’t say a word to one another on the way there. They just went over the assault plans in their heads. They arrived at the police station. Everyone else started to arrive as well. Haliday pulled out a big pot and a bunch of Styrofoam bowls. One of the folks took charge and started doling out oatmeal with bananas that Haliday had brought.

  He also had made some coffee at the police station and handed out some granola bars along with pitchers of Tang. It was a meager meal, but still hit the spot. He put a few bags of chocolate candy on the tables for some more sugar. Haliday talked with Rob a bit. “You guys are getting one hell of a bill for my consultancy fee here.” Rob asked him if he took cash. “Oh, now you have jokes, huh, Rob?”

  Haliday and Mark had their radios with them and they had brought two extra handhelds for Rob and Brad. They had five mobile units from the vehicles they had acquired and they placed one at each corner of the perimeter of the compound. From there they should be able to coordinate the assault.