Matthew Mark - Dark Days Rough Roads

Kayla was a smart girl and although at times she thought her dad was a little crazy, she made it a point to listen to him. Now she was doing what he would be doing right now. Kayla ordered the vehicles realigned. She had them parked so that they formed a small modern day circled wagon train.

The Tahoe and trailer were parked so that the trailer was almost at a ninety degree angle to it and opposite that were the Cherokee and its trailer. This formed a mutated square but left ample coverage for everything in the middle. They would set up a small 10X10 pop up tent in the middle with some side panels and cover everything with a camo net.

They weren’t worried about the aerial view, but didn’t want anyone seeing them from the side. Even though they chose an area with plenty of pine trees because the rest of the foliage was already down for the fall, they still didn’t want to be seen. The camo net was designed for this use in particular.

Haliday had taken numerous pictures and sent them out to a large format printing company in China and had “Nature Billboards” printed. He hated to use the Chinese company, but it was a tenth of the cost compared to the U.S. companies. He had done a few for different seasons to include spring, summer, fall and winter. They were designed to be hung on buildings and printed on a mesh so you could see through them when you were close enough, but people who saw them from a distance couldn’t. Custom camo nets.

They lit up a small propane heater. No fires and no smoke. They pulled out a butane stove and boiled up some water for coffee and hot cocoa. They would get lunch ready too, but Kayla already determined it was going to be soup. This was everyone’s first afternoon and night exposed to the elements. Best to stay warm.

Haliday was taking the lead and would shoot up a ways and scope out the intersections ahead of Dawn, Diane and Karen. Once they passed by, he would shoot up ahead again and check the area. This would keep them from having to do it themselves and save a little time. If he spotted any trouble, he could tell them and they could stop and he could try and draw the trouble away from them.

Kayla called him on the radio. “We got a problem, or to be more exact you have a problem.”

“What’s going on?”

“Well, I was flipping through the frequencies and it stopped on one which I listened to for a while. The signal was strong, so I figured it was close by. I wrote the frequency down. I’ll give it to you in a minute.

“Anyway, I assume it’s you they are looking for.” Haliday was trying to figure this out.

“Kayla, what exactly did you hear?”

“Ok, it was hard to decipher at first because the transmissions were kind of choppy and I came across it halfway into the conversation. But here’s the short story.

“Some group called the Bad Axe Minute Men had some patrols out. One of those patrols came across a guy on a motorcycle. They said they tried to stop the guy, but he ran. They are calling him a fugitive. They mentioned chasing him until he flattened two of their tires with spikes. I figured it was you.

“Now they put out an ‘APB’ to their other patrols and headquarters. Pretty much said to just shoot on sight. They said OD green motorcycle, one man, large build, khaki cargo pants, black jacket and full faced helmet. Sounds like you Dad. You really pissed someone off. I’m trying to listen in and gather some more intel. I’ll tell you what I hear.”

“Ok kiddo, thanks for the good news.”

Haliday slowed down and looked at Dawn, Diane and Karen and shrugged his shoulders. Nothing he could do now. They had heard the news too. He looked down at the map on top of the tank. Here we go again, time to change the route. He would head back south a bit. If they were indeed out of Bad Axe, then they were a good 30 miles out from the center of their operations. They were only about 15 miles from his own group’s destination.

Thirty miles is a long way out for a patrol, he thought. They were either very large or very dumb. He’d have to figure this out quickly. He was getting pelted with rain now. He signaled another stop and pulled over. He programmed his radio with the frequency Kayla had given him.

Dawn and Diana watered the horses real quickly and they put a cover on the ranger to help keep rain out. It was coming straight down, but the small top would provide a little relief. He refused to let them put the whole top on. There was no visibility with it on.

He checked the map once more. “Ok, here it is,” he told them. “This is the route, we are about eight miles away now and we have to push it. We can’t risk stopping around here for the night. They going to make it?” he nodded toward the horses.

“Ya, they’ll make it.”

“Ok good, let’s go.”

Diana asked him what would happen if one of those patrols found them.

“People would die. Who, I don’t know, but people would die.”

He grabbed some hundred mile an hour tape and covered all of the lights on the bike and ranger. He didn’t want anyone spotting the lights, it was late afternoon, the sky dark, rain coming down and they would easily see the lights. They got moving again.

He flipped the radio over to the frequency Kayla had given him and he listened for a while. He started taking mental notes on what he heard. There was actually quite a bit of chatter. He was glad Kayla was taking notes. This was going to be a big problem he had not expected.

He thought of contacting them to sort it out, but that was a stupid idea as well. They would know he definitely had their frequency and they would most likely change it. He needed as much intel on these guys as he could get. Five days and militias were out hunting already. Probably more like staking out their kingdoms.

After a couple more hours of slow moving, he called Kayla and told them they were coming in. They got themselves situated and went into the small tent to warm up. Bev gave them some coffee, hot cocoa and offered them some soup as well, which they gladly accepted. Kayla came in, “Ok Dad, here’s what we have.”

Kayla had taken meticulous notes on everything she heard. She started with manpower. “They have four patrols out in designated areas with an additional patrol that seems to be a quick response unit that can back up any of the other patrols. It sounds like that unit stays at or close to their headquarters. I would say two people per patrol.” That was 10 right there.

“They pulled a shift change at 1800hrs. When they did this though, they only had two patrols out and one for response for the night. They mentioned seeing each other in the morning, so it looks like 12 hours shifts. So that gives them another six people. I assume one at HQ to coordinate or answer the radio. We have a definite 18 people on security patrols.

“Now, they said something about camp watch and I couldn’t quite make that out, but it sounded like static posts to watch their HQ or their compound. Maybe a watchtower or who knows what. I didn’t catch this during the day, so not sure. But it’s safe to say they have at least 22 to 24 people and most likely more.

“I didn’t catch anything about where the HQ or compound was though, I didn’t expect to. I didn’t catch how many people were currently not on patrol or watch duty. No way to really calculate their total numbers because there was no telling if wives, girlfriends or kids were involved. I did hear some people in the background once in a while. Someone was giving out chores to be completed. If I had to guess Dad, you have 40 to 50 people total and that’s minimum.

“Now here’s where it gets interesting. They call in checks once in a while, but not sure what they are checking or who they are checking. They use code numbers for that. A21 checked and secured. B13 checked and secured, like that. Could be other family, could be caches, could be a lot of things.