Matthew Mark - Dark Days Rough Roads

As they were pulling away the kid just stood there. He started walking back toward the hangars. One of two things: he was either going to bury his father and brother or most likely he went back for the bag of loot they were stealing. Haliday couldn’t help but wonder what the hell people were thinking.

It was two and a half days, and they were pulling this stuff already. He got to thinking about what Kayla said to the kid. She got it, it was hard lesson, but she got it and did what had to be done. He felt bad; this is not a lesson he thought any kid should have to learn. Unfortunately in the new society, it would happen again and again across the country.

Haliday looked over at Mike as he drove along and said, “Take a breather, I’ll keep a look out for some gas.”

Mike said, “I did that already.” Haliday looked down and the tank was full. Mike added that he filled the two empty cans as well. Mike reclined the seat and took a nap.

Haliday did a quick calculation. Twenty six gallons in the tank, 10 in the cans wedged between the bike and tailgate, twenty five more in the back. With sixty one gallons total and about an average of maybe eight miles a gallon with this crude engine, they would have a range of almost 500 miles. They might be able to make it without having to stop for anything but rest breaks. That’s if things held out ok. That was a big if.

It was late and he looked down and turned the ham on. He spoke into the mic, “It’s Roger, anybody on the net?” He just waited. “Hey, it’s Roger, is anybody on the net?” While he waited, he popped open a small bottle and sucked down some Tylenol. He took four of them hoping to take the edge off the throbbing pain. He had some heavier meds, but hated taking that stuff. Besides that, he needed to be fully aware at the moment. Everyone else had fallen asleep. He really wanted to join them, but wanted to be back in Michigan more.

“Anybody out there?” he repeated. He heard a voice, “I am.”

“Who is ‘I am’?” he asked.

“It’s Karen, Dawn’s mom.”

“Oh, ok, must be your turn to watch the house.” He was tired and didn’t recognize the voice at first. She just said yes. “Where is Dawn, is she available?”

Karen told him they were sleeping. “Diana is next to pull security and then Dawn after that.”

“Ok, have Dawn call me when she gets up, anything going on over there?” She told him they heard the grocery stores were stripped and so were a lot of other stores where people were taking generators and all kinds of other supplies. “No real trouble yet,” she said.

He said, “Ok, take care, and talk to you later.”

“Bev, Rich, how about you guys, you there?” Kevin came on and said they too were all sleeping. “Ok, anything new on your end,” he asked.

“Hold on, grandma is here now.”

“Hi Roger, we haven’t heard from you in a long time, what’s going on, is everything ok, you almost home?” she wanted to know. Roger didn’t know where to begin. He didn’t want Karen, Dawn or Diana to hear. They were very new to this and might get panicky if they knew how bad it was. “Switch to A2,” he told her.

He waited and then she came on. “Are you there Roger?”

“Yes, I am Mom. Listen, I’m not going to repeat myself. We hit a major snag and it tied us up for hours. We weren’t sure we were getting out of it alive; I’ll explain it when I get there. Anyway, we are going to be a while longer. A few things have happened that are going to make it harder to get back so you might have to move a little quicker than expected.

“Is there anything major going on?” She told him other than a few people wandering around door to door asking to borrow food, there hasn’t been anything unusual. “Ok, well just tell people to go away if they come to the door. Make sure one of the kids tells them to go away too so they know there’s more people in the house. Switch back to the regular frequency.”

Haliday told them he would check in later. She asked him what had happened, he didn’t reply. Kayla woke up and asked where they were. He turned his light on and glanced at his binder and maps. They were making good time. They were well north if Indy and he was actually heading back toward Warsaw. His plans were to skirt it this time. If the Indiana National Guard was active though, then they would be here as well. Other than the small infantry unit there, he didn’t know what else they might have waiting. No more games with them, that’s for sure.

It took him a while, but he managed to skirt the city and was now close to the Michigan border. He was heading straight for Three Rivers, Michigan, but was going to avoid that like a plague. There were quite a few railroads that ran through it and he didn’t want to get tied up in that mess. With the train yards, stopped trains carrying people from Detroit to Chicago, and freight trains from just about anywhere, there would be a lot of people hanging around. Not the spot to be, that was for certain.

It was Dawn’s turn to keep watch and she was doing a check around the first floor. Everything seemed to be ok and she walked over to the radio and called Roger. “Ya, go ahead,” he said.

“You wanted me to call you, didn’t you?” she asked him.

“Oh ya, uh, give me a second.” He had to adjust himself in the seat.

She could tell by his voice that something was wrong. He asked her what the SITREP was and she said, “So far ok, nobody is really out doing anything. Roger, you ok, what happened to you?”

“Long story, don’t worry about it, we’re all ok though. We are going to stop for a break, top off the tank and then move on.”

Dawn asked how far out he was. “Well, on a normal day about two hours or more, but with the route changes we have to make, probably 8 at best and 12 at the most. Especially with the travel being one shit storm after another. Have you seen any other cars or trucks, vehicles of any type out there?" he asked.

“We aren’t seeing too many.” She told him that there was an occasional older vehicle, a lot of ATV’s and some scooters and stuff like that.

“Any government troops or anything like that out there?”

“None that I’ve seen or heard.” That struck him as odd.

Haliday asked her if she was ready to go and she told him yes. “Ok,” he said. “No sense in taking chances, why don’t you make the first move in the morning.” Dawn said that was a good idea.

“I’ll let you know when we leave and when we get there.” she added.

“Ok,” he said, “stay put there until I get things organized and get everyone else on a time table. Talk to you later.”

Rich was listening in. “Anything we need to know?” he asked.

“No Dad, you have your plans, when the time comes I’ll have you guys go ahead with them.”

“Ok, talk to you later Roger,” he replied.

Dawn was double-checking everything in the garage. She went to disconnect the generator when she heard a noise outside. She stopped and listened for a minute to see if she could identify it. She was hoping it was one the neighborhood cats or a raccoon or something, but it sounded different somehow. As she listened she heard a hollow metallic clinking noise. She had no idea what it was. It wasn’t anything good, she thought.

Dawn ran into the living room to wake up her mom and sister. They got up groggily and Dawn told them someone was outside. They sat there trying to fully wake up. They said they didn’t hear anything. Karen then said, “Wait a minute, I hear it out front.” They were fully awake now.

At first it sounded like the wind blowing the tree branches against the siding but they weren’t sure. Diana and Dawn ran upstairs to see what was happening. They took a quick peek outside and saw the top of a ladder against the gutter. It had been the feet of the ladder she heard clinking around.