Matthew Mark - Dark Days Rough Roads

“Roger I’m here,” Dawn said on the radio.

Haliday responded, “Look, my folks only have Sarah and her baby there. I’m not sure if they are going to be able to hold down the fort long. They are closer to the city than any of us and if the animals start taking to the streets and moving into the suburbs quicker than I thought, then there’s going to be some real problems there.

“You might have to alter your plans, so get things ready. If I call and tell you to get moving, then move out. You need to monitor the radio to keep in touch with what’s going on out there. There will be a lot of exaggeration and panic, but a lot of good info as well. Just pay attention to what happens close to you and give me a SITREP when I call.”

“Got it,” she said.

Dawn flipped back to the other frequency and so did Roger. Bev said, “You guys there?”

Roger said, “Yes, is there a problem?” he asked.

“What were you guys talking about?” she asked. Roger figured her curiosity would be killing her.

“Dawn sometimes doesn’t like to share information, she likes her privacy, and I was making sure she didn’t need to tell me anything.”

“Oh, because I changed frequency as well and didn’t hear anything.”

Roger said, “That’s right, that’s why I gave you guy’s different frequency lists. Security purposes,” he told her. Bev didn’t seem too happy with that.

Dawn and her sister went and finished double-checking the doors and windows while her mom kept watch. They went into the basement and came up with boards loaded with nails. The boards were 1X6’s with three inch nails hammered through. They set these by the windows and doors in case someone managed to get in. Anyone who did make it in would impale themselves. And while it might not stop them, it would surely slow them down.

Dawn went out into the garage and started the generator for a couple of hours. She had a custom muffler made and installed and it extended through the wall of the garage and vented the exhaust outside. They had always lost power 6 or 7 times a year minimum, and they got tired of restocking the refrigerator all the time.

Her neighbors were used to the noise, even though it was fairly quiet. She used this noise as a cover for her next check. She walked over to a 4X4 and tried to start it. It fired right up. Good, she thought. It was a Polaris with a front and back seat, complete with small trailer. Completely stock except the mods to make sure it ran and the tires.

She went back inside and told Diana they had to load up. She heard a knock on the door and everyone looked at each other. She ran upstairs and looked down at the porch where she saw her next door neighbor. She went downstairs to the door, but didn’t open it. “What do you want?” she asked. The neighbor said he heard her generator and asked if he could plug in an extension cord. Dawn said, "Remember the window your son broke playing catch with his friend that you never paid for? Go screw yourself.”

“You bitches,” he replied. He left mumbling under his breath as he walked away.

Bev was taking a nap and Elizabeth was just sitting there with Sarah. “I want to see Daddy,” she said.

Sarah told her, “Maybe later honey. Daddy might be busy and still trying to make sure he gets here.” Rich was listening in and asked Elizabeth if she wanted to play a game and she said yes. They were playing when she asked him if he thought her grandma had TV. Rich told her he didn’t know. “Can we call her?” she asked.

“Not right now, the phone is broken too.”

“Everything is broken,” she said, “it’s not fun.”

Rich was thinking about Susan, his only daughter, who had moved to Texas a couple years ago. He was wondering how they were doing. He thought of his son Greg in Missouri as well. That was the oldest of all the boys. Alan lived about an hour’s drive away with his family. His other son David lived about half an hour away with his grandson Bobby.

Rich and Bev expected all of their kids in the state to make it here, and Sarah with her husband and another couple nephews who lived here to make it in as well. Up until two weeks ago one the nephews had lived with them, but moved out for what he called “More freedom”. They didn’t know how hard it would be for them to travel without vehicles.

Sarah was just sitting there numb. It had been a full two days now and she was thinking the worst. She could understand maybe half of a day, even a full day, but not two. Her hopes had dwindled and she resigned herself that she could remain hopeful, but had to expect nothing. This was putting her into a state of depression. Bev had woken up and asked her to cook some dinner. Sarah obliged, and Bev thought, good, she would have to keep her busy to help her get through this. Rich and Bev knew enough to know Erik was gone.

There came a loud crashing sound from outside in the backyard. Rich and Bev both grabbed their pistols and Bev peeked out the window quickly. Over by the wood pile, she spotted two people. She had wanted to open the door and shoo them away because she thought they were stealing their wood. She wanted to tell them she would shoot them if they didn’t leave. Rich said, “Wait a minute Ma, that’s Kevin and Randy.” The two nephews ran toward the door and yelled to be let in.

Rich opened the patio door wall and the two stuffed their bags through the wood planks installed across the opening and then squeezed through themselves. They fell onto the floor of the dining room huffing and puffing, trying to catch their breath. Rich asked them what happened and they raised a finger signaling him to wait a minute. They rested a few minutes and caught their breath. Sarah ran over and asked if they were ok and they nodded yes.

Randy said, “They wanted to kill us.” Kevin said, “No, they just wanted your shotgun.” Randy had purchased a Mossberg 500. He made it all tacti-cool as a birthday present to himself one year. He had it for almost two years, but had never even fired it. He had just a few boxes of ammo for it, maybe 100 rounds total. It was a mix of everything from 00 buck to small game loads because he never really knew what to buy. He wasn’t really the outdoors type or gun nut. But, it was a mossy and it was cool.

Kevin said they were sitting around and decided the power wasn’t coming back on, so they left early this morning to come here. They had a fairly uneventful trip until almost the last half of a mile. They were passing by the grocery store and people were basically stripping it clean. Some guy spotted them and yelled at them to drop their gun. He called them punks and said he wanted it. He called a friend over and they walked toward Kevin and Randy. Kevin and Randy started running and the guy and his friend started chasing them.

They started cutting through the neighborhood and going over the fences and didn’t stop until they got here. Randy said when they went over the fence in the backyard, they forgot about the wood pile. They landed on it, sending it crashing down to the ground. They said they were scared and just ran for their lives. They had no idea what the guys would do to them. They just didn’t want any trouble and didn’t want to get shot with their own gun.

Randy said, "Grandma, you should have seen the grocery store. It was chaos. I think as soon as they opened this morning everyone was getting what they could. Money or not it became a riot and people were fighting each other for anything they could get their hands on. I don’t think anything’s left. They were knocking people down in the parking lot and taking other people’s stuff. People were hurt and bleeding all over the place. A lot of them were running with their arms full to the apartments across the street.”