Matthew Mark - Dark Days Rough Roads

“HQ to Papa 2 we copy. Proceed with caution. Repeat, proceed with caution. If possible keep one alive for interrogation, you copy?”

“Papa 2 copies, we are now 75 yards out.” Haliday looked at Blake, he pointed to the selector level to make sure he had it on fire. “We are now 50 yards out.” Haliday and Blake scanned the woods for movement.

“Papa 2 to HQ, we have two in custody. We will be bringing them in to HQ.”

“HQ copies, good job guys, any casualties?”

“That’s a negative, we didn’t even have to fire, we overwhelmed them, shouted commands and they just gave up. We have one motorcycle we will be bringing back and two hostiles.

“We have one male and one female.” Haliday looked at Blake and Blake looked back at him.

“What the hell are they talking about?” Haliday low crawled over to Blake.

“Listen, they nabbed someone else and must think they are part of our group. I have no idea who they are or where they were.

“I’m not sure who it was or what they were doing, but they are in for a rude awakening.”

Blake asked him what he thought would happen to them.

“I don’t know. I really don’t. I’m sure they’ll be beaten and interrogated and after that who knows. These guys are dumb enough to think whoever they caught are part of our group. Hopefully they figure out the truth and let them go.”

This wasn’t sitting that good with Haliday. These people were out there minding their own business and got caught up in the trouble he created. They were probably just trying to get the hell out of here or get to their own location. They could have a cabin nearby, a boat, or who knows what. He was determined to find out though.

“Blake, I want you to head out and go meet the group at the house.” He looked at the time. “It’s almost eight now and you should get there about the same time they do. I have to go find out what’s going on with these guys and what they are doing with the couple they grabbed. After that I’ll head there myself. You just be careful and head straight there.”

“Mr. Haliday, uh, I mean Roger, I’d rather stick it out with you. You might need some help and I would rather do that than leave you out here alone. Isn’t that the way it works, never leave a man behind.”

“Ya, that’s it Blake, but I’d rather you get going and help out at the house.”

“Roger, I can’t do that. I’d be starving in another couple of weeks or so if it wasn’t for you. I’ll stay.”

“Good enough, thank you Blake.”

Haliday looked at him and said, “We need to get some more sleep.” They spent a little more time camouflaging their area and setting up a couple booby trap simulators. Blake laid down a piece of plastic and then a wool blanket folded over. He laid out his sleeping bag on top of that and climbed in. Haliday boiled some hot water and made hot cocoa. He flipped back and forth from his freq. to the militia freq.

He flipped back to his freq. and heard the call from Kayla. “Go ahead kiddo.”

“How you guys doing?”

“We’re fine, just resting, but we have some minor problems to handle.”

“Ok, well we got here. We all made it just fine. We have the trucks and trailers parked in the pole barn. The horses are in the stalls. We got into the house and everything is ok. What do you want us to do?”

“Go ahead and set up a security watch. The rest of you guys can take a break or whatever you want to do. It’s very important you set a watch schedule and stick to it. Today you guys need to empty those trailers and trucks out into the cache. Don’t leave anything out there if you don’t have to.

“Make sure the vehicles are immobilized as well. Keep them out of sight in the pole barn. Make sure the pole barn is completely secured. The Jeep ok?”

“Ya, it’s fine. Uncle David started it and ran it for a few minutes.”

“Ok, great. Make sure that all gets done today.”

“You guys coming in soon?”

“No, we can’t.”

“Why, what’s wrong?”

“It’s hard to explain. We stirred up some crap and need to see it through. In a nutshell a couple people got caught up in our crap and may end up taking the blame for it. I need to see what they plan to do with them and Blake volunteered to stay and help.”

“Can’t you guys just leave them alone?”

“I wish we could, but burning down some old stores and abandoned cars is different than letting these people possibly die. I just can’t do that. I have to find out what’s going on with these militia guys. All we’re going to do is head in and take a peek. That’s all. I need you guys to set up two hams. One for us and one on the militia freq. If you can, set up a third and scan it for traffic. Find out what the hell the government is doing or if anyone else is in the area.”

“Ok, Dad, call us with any more info.”

Haliday woke up Blake and briefed him on what was going on with the group. He asked him if he was sure he wanted to stay and Blake said yes. Haliday inventoried their food and they had enough for two more days, three if they ate lightly. Water wasn’t an issue, they had purification tabs and filter straws.

They each took another turn sleeping. Haliday inventoried everything else now as well. He wouldn’t be setting up any diversions now; he had used everything he had. He didn’t expect this little problem to arise. He did a quick ammo check. That might play an important role sooner or later.

They each had 7 magazines for the rifles. Five 30 rounders and two 20 rounders. These were full. In addition to that they had some bandoliers filled with stripper clips. The 20 rounders made it easier for prone fighting positions. All in all they had roughly 500 rounds each. He had about 100 for his .40 left. No way could they launch an offensive with this. It would be suicide. He had to figure out a plan. He had to figure out where their HQ was.

Bad Axe was the biggest town in the Thumb and it made sense they would name themselves after it, but they had to have another reason. There had to be another tie somehow. He just had to figure out how. These guys would need a large area, one that would support their operation, give them ample storage, enough land to farm, water, central location now, where the hell were these guys staying?

They had responded pretty damn quick last night. They definitely had a good layout of the land. They also felt comfortable enough wherever they were to pull the extra manpower out of their camp for the hunt. It’d be too risky to approach the locals and ask. They might not even know and if they were afraid of these guys they would definitely be talking to them.

He poured over the map. He searched his memory. He kept picturing the vehicles and the people, listening to their transmissions over and over again in his head. He concentrated on the family near the tornado shelter and the two who had shown up there. He got his answer. The Huron County Memorial Airport.

The guy had been wearing wings and Haliday had thought the guy was reliving his airborne days but he was actually sporting aviator wings. At the distance he had seen him from, it was an acceptable mistake. If they had aircraft they would have used it by now. This was probably something they didn’t count on, losing electronics entirely. But being a pilot, he was proud to sport his wings.

“Oh man, you’ve got to be kidding me,” he said aloud. Blake asked him what he was talking about. Haliday laid it all out there for him.

“So that makes it real hard huh?”

“Well, based on my last airport experience and I’m not talking about being groped by the TSA, I don’t want anything to do with it.”

“What are we going to do then?”

“Think about it carefully, that’s what.