Matthew Mark - Dark Days Rough Roads

Throughout the evening they ate dinner and made some more preparations throughout the property. Roger went over the firearms with everyone. He made sure they all knew how they functioned and how to use the stripper clips and everything else. He walked outside to take a breather. He looked over at the neighbors. There she was. He waved. She flipped him off.

He responded, “I guess I’m not on your Christmas list this year huh?”

She yelled over at him. “You’re a bastard, you know that.”

“Well, you got to meet my father earlier. How can you say that?”

“You’re a son of a bitch.”

“You met my mom, too?”

“Oh, you’re a real funny man aren’t you? You think I don’t know what you’re doing over there?”

“I don’t care lady. I really don’t. You’re a sellout. You are a sellout to your family, to this community and to this country. You’re pathetic.”

She yelled again. “Well, just you wait smart-ass. In a couple of days, you’ll get yours.” Haliday walked away and went back inside.

Roger said, “I expect we’ll get hit tomorrow night or the night after. They’ll be stupid if they launch an offensive during the day. The bitch across the street said I’ll get mine in a couple days. So I figure tomorrow night or the night after. Everything is pretty much ready to go. Three people on security watch. One outside on patrol, one in the crow’s nest and one in the house listening to the ham.”

He walked over and called Rob. “Anything new going on over there?”

“Yes sir, they are loading up a deuce and getting some vehicles lined up. They keep checking everything and loading up some equipment and what looks like ammo cans. They have a guard on the convoy now, but doesn’t look like they are moving any time soon, not enough activity, maybe tomorrow.”

Roger said, “Ok, you guys ready?”

“We lost four guys who backed out, but everyone else is ready.”

“Ok, thanks again, Rob.”

Haliday looked around at everyone. Even though they had been through a hell of a lot the past week and a half, they were still very nervous. Even the kids knew something was coming. He could try and give them a pep talk, but decided to just let them be for now. No sense in reminding them of what is coming and what could happen.

He flipped the frequency over and called Mike.

“Hey, it’s Bill here.”

“Hi Bill, let me talk to Mike. I have a few things to tell him.”

“Ok, let me get him.”

“Roger, it’s Mike. What’s going on?”

Roger answered, “Listen, tomorrow night we expect a fight here at my place. If it comes down to it and these guys need to run, I’m sending them your way. I don’t really have a choice.”

“We have a couple of caches around and enough food to get everyone by for quite a while. I’ll have a contingency plan in place and then buy them time to get out if it gets to be that bad. I’ll have Kayla and the older folks grab the kids and get. Take care of them for me if it comes to that, ok?”

“Roger, listen you sound like you’ve given up.”

Roger said, “No, just making sure I have things covered. I’m going to get some rest. Talk to you in the morning.”

Haliday stood up and called everyone over. “Ok people, we’re going over the plans again.” He covered the plans and explained where everyone would be and what was expected of them. He covered the bug out if it came down to that. “I screwed up the endgame here. We might not be in this position if it went down differently. I think I could have done a few things differently. I’m sorry guys.”

Rich spoke up. “Listen Roger, you have nothing to be sorry about. This all came together because of you. We wouldn’t have made it this far without what you’ve done. There’s nothing to be sorry about. Whatever happened to the country happened, and whoever caused that, well it’s their fault, not yours. Those thugs would have made it here anyway in due time and you just reduced the amount of people who could have shown up. We’re all proud of you.” Roger ended the meeting.

Everyone took their turns pulling security. Some slept; some stayed up longer and kept going over the plans. Haliday just kept checking everything and trying to figure out what he could do that would be better. He came up with a few more ideas. He went out into the small storage building and did some work, He worked through the night. The rest he would finish later, he needed a rest.

He walked back into the house where everyone was getting ready to eat breakfast. “You hungry Dad?” Kayla asked.

“No sweetie, I’m going to take a nap for a couple of hours. Ok?” he said.

She said, “ok, we’ll wake you up if anything happens or we need you.” He wandered up the steps and lay down for a bit. He slept away for a couple of hours.

Kayla woke him up. “Dad, can you come downstairs?”

“Sure.” He went to move his legs but they were heavy. He had a cat and the mutant dog Max lying on them. “Ok, time to get up,” he said. They just rolled over and went back to sleep as he got up. Must be nice, he was thinking, just stay in bed all day. He walked downstairs and looked over at the table and smiled. “Damn, you guys didn’t have to.”

Mike and Linda were sitting there. “We couldn’t let you guys have all the fun now could we? We even brought a couple of friends.” He looked over at the common area and saw a young couple sitting there. “That’s Bill’s son Mark and his wife, Lisa.”

He walked over and shook their hands, “Nice to meet you, but you guys didn’t have to do this.”

“Mike thought we might come in handy. Lisa here married me after I proposed to her at Ft. Campbell. I did three years active duty and I am currently inactive reserve. Eleven Bravo sir.”

“It’s Roger, and I was an NCO. Drop the ‘sir’ stuff.”

Mark went on; “I did two tours in the sandbox. Lisa here was our unit admin clerk; still knows how to fire a rifle. We even brought our own. They even have a special feature, full auto. We can go if you want.”

“No, glad to have you here,” Roger replied.

Mark said, “Let’s see what you have?”

He went over the entire plan with everyone again. Mark offered a couple of ideas which made sense now that they had extra manpower. They went over the changes and then he walked everyone around the property.

“Listen, we expect this to go down tonight.”

“Ok, we’ll all be ready,” they answered.

Haliday had everyone double-checking everything, adding extra ammo to the stockpiles, placing thermoses of hot tea by them, canteens of water and hand warmers as well. They were also helping him set the rest up. Dawn and Diana moved the horses over to the other neighbor’s property. They were snow birds and were already down in Florida, so he didn’t think they would care. He staged the vehicles for quick departure.

He had Mark hold the range session and get everyone ready. He checked in now and then. He looked over at the neighbor who was standing there. He made contact first, showed her she was number one. He held that finger high. Randy called him in, “Hey Uncle Roger, come in here quick.” He jogged over to the house to see what Randy wanted.

“What’s going on Randy?”

“Rob is on the radio for you.”

“Ok, thanks,” he said. “Rob, what’s the word?”

Rob answered, “You’re getting hit tonight. These guys are finalizing the vehicle loads and gear, and double-checking everything. I guarantee they are moving out soon. As soon as they move out, I’ll be calling you. We are all in position here near the airport and ready to go ourselves. Good luck Roger.”

“Good luck to you too, Rob.”