Matthew Mark - Dark Days Rough Roads

The ranger will go left, horses will go right, Cherokee left as well and Tahoe to the right. That will even things out on both sides of the road. We’ll work out vehicle assignments. Do not bunch together, stay within earshot of each other and keep your eyes open to all sides and front and rear. If we have to fire, make sure you do not cross fire and do not fire up by us. You will have to watch my signals.” Haliday covered some brief hand signals.

“I’ve altered the route a bit, but it will take us two days if everything goes smoothly. Make sure the vehicles are gassed up. We’ll stop once for lunch and that’s all. When we stop for dinner, we’ll also make camp for the night. I’m not going to try to contact the militia at all. We are going to try to sneak in there.

“If we encounter a problem I’ll raise them on the radio and set something up as far as a meeting goes. I have a couple ideas of how to do that. In the meantime, let’s get ready to move out. Blake, get your bike and bring it here. We have a quick modification to make.” Blake rolled his bike over to where Haliday was.

Haliday took a long pipe that had an elbow on the end and held it up against the fork of Blake’s bike. He used a few heavy round clamps and secured it in place. Haliday walked over to his bike and slipped a similar pipe into a sleeve he already had attached to the fork, and used a big cotter pin to secure it in place.

“What’s that for?” Blake asked.

“It’s so we can keep our heads on. If these guys are looking for me on a bike, there’s no telling whether or not they set up any traps. The most common is a wire strung between trees or poles. It catches you at neck level and it’s all over. The pipe will catch the wire. I doubt it’ll snap the wire, but the pressure will knock the bike down and you with it. Much better alternative.

“Here’s a multi-tool.”

“What for?”

“To clip the wire Blake. Just in case, that’s all, got it? We don’t need wire getting caught in any wheels or anything.” Blake didn’t like this idea, but he was the most experienced rider next to Haliday. “Blake, get your head in the game, listen to me and you’ll do fine.”

Haliday was listening to the minute men frequency. “Papa 4 is out at Delta 13.”

“Almost sounds like cops.” He waited about 7-8 minutes before he heard them again.

“Papa 4 is back on patrol. Parties at Delta 13 said they haven’t seen anything unusual.” Haliday figured Kayla hit the nail on the head. These were locations of houses and they were checking them regularly.

He listened in a bit more. “Papa 2 is out at Bravo 7.” He waved everyone off and motioned for them to sit. Kayla came by with her notebook. She was taking notes. After about 25 more minutes they had a pattern figured out. Papa was obviously a patrol number, and they noted each patrol had an area assigned to them. One was Alpha, two was Bravo, three was Charlie and four was Delta. That made sense.

What didn’t make sense was they could not possibly have numbered every house or building in the area. Rich said, “They have a neighborhood watch set up. They probably have people in key locations and they check in with those people. Intersections, ends of roads, wherever they have a vantage point.” Good catch Dad.

Haliday had to figure out two things. How did they convince these extra eyes to play along and what area were they in. Make that three things, what area were they trying to get too as well. He studied the map to see if he could figure out the areas. He noted everyone else getting anxious. “I learned this in the army folks. It’s called hurry up and wait.”

Haliday studied the map some more. He had lost himself in it when he heard Kayla say bingo.

“Bingo what Kayla?”

“Dad, you didn’t hear that?”

“All I heard was cantonment.” Damn, he got it. They wanted Papa 3 which was the Charlie sector to stay in their cantonment area. He had used cantonment areas, or rather districts, down at Ft. Stewart as an MP.

Haliday divided the map up in equal sections now. They were covering roughly 40X40 miles. The yahoos he ran across had gone out of their area and were cautioned to stay in their area today. These would be the Papa 3 units with Charlie sector. At night he figured the two units covered north and south. Someone had military training or read a lot of field manuals.

This posed another problem. The Bay City Minute Men most likely bordered the Bad Axe areas. If they had a mutual aid pact, that increased the odds of trouble. They would definitely have more firepower. Haliday was going to have to completely rethink this situation.

He called everyone over. “Time to change the plan. We are going to make a very short move to this location here. This will put us just inside the edge of their patrol area. We’ll set up camp and you’ll stay there tonight and through tomorrow as well. Early the next morning you’ll move out and head straight to the house.

“I’m going to head up over here and stir the pot. I’ll stir it enough to draw them away from you guys. Once you get there, you fortify the hell out of it. There’s instructions, diagrams, notes, everything you will need right there in the house. Kayla knows how to get to everything. I’ll work my way back and we’ll go from there.

“What if we’re spotted?” David asked.

“They have the patrols calling in the checks from their spotters, so I doubt they have a way of communicating. They’ll be too busy with me to do the normal checks. Like I said, I’ll buy you the time to get there. I do need a volunteer to go with me. Blake, it’s your bike and you know how to ride. It’s going to be you. Let’s move.”

In about two hours they reached the camp site. Haliday and Blake made their preparations while the rest of the group set up camp, placed the booby traps out and got settled in. They covered a few more informational items, wished each other luck and said their goodbyes. Haliday and Blake headed out.

Haliday and Blake rode out and used a lot of the back roads. They avoided the main roads, even though they seemed to be clear. The reason behind this was that Haliday figured this was where most of the spotters were located, almost like border patrol outposts. The militia would know when their little border had been breached. It was this particular reason that Haliday laid out the plan the way he did.

They were as careful as they possibly could be while in area Charlie, the area they would settle into for the long haul. Once they reached the other sector, however, they made themselves plain as day. They made it a point to be seen by whom they suspected were most likely spotters. This was the beginning of the plan.

After another hour they stopped and pulled over into the woods. Haliday and Blake had the portable hams so they could keep in touch. Haliday told Blake to cut back through the woods, change over and come back through the area that they just came from. Blake cut through the woods, stopped, and made some quick changes.

Blake changed his outer jacket cover that Haliday had given him. He had a couple of these. They were just shells of various camo patterns and not full jackets. He also altered the looks of his bike. He took some black hundred mile an hour tape and made some large stripes on the yellow tank and fenders. He placed one across his helmet as well. He took off and headed to where they had originally stopped.

Haliday in the meantime had taken some black and brown tape and put squares on his bike to give it a quasi digital camo look. He simply took his helmet off and put on a boonie cap to go along with his own jacket change. The difference was good enough that most people would think it was someone else.