Bug Out! Part 6: Motorhome Mayhem in the Rockies (14 page)

“They just buzzed them again. Here they come, over us,” Jeb shouted, as the two jets flew over, gaining speed and altitude.

“They’re turning around again,” Jeb shouted. “Crap, they just fired missiles!”

“Oh no!” shouted Jane. Then there was an explosion in the distance.

“Direct hit!” Jeb shouted, cursing.

“They coming back, Jeb?” yelled Frank.

“No, they high-tailed it off to the east.”

“Maybe they’re going back to Denver,” Jane said.

“Yeah, probably.”

“Now I’m really confused,” Jerry said. “Those were our aircraft. Do the bad guys at his base know where we are? Did General Hogan just feed us a lot of lies?”

“Hell, how would I know,” Frank said. “It’ll be interesting if Simon really has a chip in him.”

“Frank, should we keep going?” yelled Gabe from the meadow.

“Pull out one of the bodies before you burn them. Let’s see if Mary can find a chip in it, too.”

“Good idea,” Jackson shouted back.

“Yeah, good idea, Frank,” Jerry said. “Trust but verify.”

“You sound like you’re leaning towards believing the General,” Jane said, turning to her husband.

“Maybe,” he replied.

“Those jets could come back here and mop us up, couldn’t they?” asked Jasmine.

“That possibility is in the back of my mind, for sure,” Frank said. “Not a lot we can do about it.”

“Attack choppers coming this way, from the North,” Jeb yelled. “They’re hovering by some trees, near the wreckage.”

“How far away is that?” Jane yelled.

“Several miles. Oh, jeez, here come the jets again.”

Then they heard the roar, but it was in the distance.

“They’re engaging the attack choppers,” Jeb yelled. “Oh! One chopper just exploded. The other one got a missile off and went down out of sight!”

“No way!” Frank yelled. Then they all heard a bigger explosion.

“Missile worked,” yelled Jeb. “Hit one of the jets. The other one just high-tailed it. The jet that got shot down fell in a populated area.”

“Probably why the other one high-tailed it,” Jerry said.

“The other chopper is back in the air again.”

“What’s with all the fireworks,” Mary asked, walking up with Kurt. “We couldn’t see anything.”

“Jeb saw it from the roof. Choppers versus jets.”

“Well, looks like the General wasn’t lying about the chips,” Mary said. She held up a plastic zip-lock bag that had a capsule in it.

“That’s it, eh,” Jerry said. “Hard to find?”

“No, it was placed at the normal location – in his right tricep.”

“We want to check one of the soldiers that we are digging up in the meadow. You mind?”

“Not at all,” she replied. “Would be good to check the General’s story out.”

“Thanks,” Frank said.

“Here, you take this,” she said, handing the bag to Frank. “Mark on the bag so we don’t get it mixed up with one from out in the hole.” She and Kurt walked out towards the meadow, where Jackson was working the backhoe.

Frank nodded. “Hey Jeb, you mind keeping watch up there for a little while?”

“I was planning on it,” he yelled back.

“Thanks,” Frank yelled back.

“Want to go in the clubhouse?” Jane asked.

“Yeah,” Frank said.

“I’ve got a magnifier and some test equipment in my rig,” Jerry said. “I’ll go get it.”

“Good idea, thanks,” Frank said, as he and Jane entered the clubhouse. Jasmine walked off with Jerry.

“What with commotion?” Rosie asked. “Where is Jeb?”

“He’s up on the roof of the front building, keeping watch,” Jane said. “Some jets blew up the chopper that the General came in, and then some other choppers came over to look at it. Jeb was watching all of this with his binoculars.”

“He keep watch now?”

“Yes, he’s still up there watching,” Jane said.

“Good,” Rosie said.

Charlie, the Sheriff, and Terry came in and walked to Frank.

“Can we trust this General?” asked Charlie. “That was quite a show out there.”

“Well, he wasn’t lying about the chip in Simon,” Frank said, holding up the bag.

“If he knew he was going to be attacked, he sent those boys off to their deaths on purpose,” the Sheriff said. “That bothers me.”

“That’s true,” Charlie said. ” But if he knew, it was a genius play. Fake your own death and disappear. Wish we could do that.”

“I hope the boys he sent off in that chopper were told about the risk,” Jane said.

“Shoot, something just dawned on me. What if those jets were the good guys?” Frank asked.

“You mean, what if they staged this whole thing?” Jane asked.

Shots rang out in the distance. The noise continued for a couple of minutes. Then there was silence, followed by an explosion. The men ran out onto the veranda. Jane followed, with Lucy on her tail.

“You see what happened?” Frank yelled to Jeb.

“Not all of it,” he yelled back. “The gunfire was from the area where the big chopper fell. Then somebody blew up the other attack chopper. I don’t know who won that firefight. We better be ready for company.”

Jerry came out of his coach, and trotted over to Frank and the others.

“Army Radio call just came in, from a Private Peterson,” he said, trying to catch his breath. “He was one of the guys who was supposed to be in the big chopper. They planned this whole thing to give the General enough time to escape. The men got the chopper going on autopilot and bailed out.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, and the jets were part of the ruse. The two choppers weren’t. They just took out everybody in that second chopper and blew it up. Those attack choppers came over to check for the General’s body, according to Private Peterson.”

“What are the troops doing now?” Frank asked.

“They’re also going to disappear into the woodwork for a while,” Jerry said. “They’d like to stay here for a couple of days. They’re hanging on the radio waiting for an answer on that.”

Frank thought about for a minute.

“I think that would be alright, if Mary can check them for implants first. What do you guys think?” he asked, looking at Charlie and the Sheriff.

“I’m good with it,” Charlie said. The Sheriff nodded in agreement.

“Good,” Jerry said. “I’ll tell them.” He trotted back to the coach.

Mary and Kurt walked up. They had several bags in their hands.

“Found chips, I see,” Frank said.

“Yep, same kind, same location,” she said, handing the bags to Frank. “We figured you might need some to take apart, so we yanked three of them out.”

“We have the men who were supposed to be in that chopper coming over. The condition we put on it is that you check them for implants.”

“They survived that crash?” Kurt asked.

“They bailed out. Left the chopper on autopilot. This was all a ruse to help the General get away.”

“Clever,” Mary said. “Yes, I can check them. These are easy to see. You think three is enough for testing with?”

“Should be,” Frank said. “I suppose you could yank the one out of the Islamist in the smokehouse.”

“Alright,” she said.

“By the way, did it look like that Islamist was dead before the grenade went off?”

“No,” Mary said. “They both still had their zip ties on.”

“Lying cretin,” the Sheriff said, laughing.

“Any reason not to burn the bodies out there?” Kurt asked.

“Not that I can see,” Frank said.

“Great, I’ll tell the boys to go ahead. They have them all uncovered already.” He turned and walked to the meadow as Mary walked back over to the smokehouse.

Jerry came back over. “The men agreed to the chip check….they’ll be here in about two hours,” he said.

“Why so long?” Charlie asked.

“The crash was several miles away, and it’s not an easy walk,” Jerry said.

“Oh,” he replied. “Didn’t think about that.”

“I’ll go get the equipment, Frank,” Jerry said. “I’m going to borrow Gabe’s wagon, though. It’s a lot to carry.” He headed off towards the barn.

“We can work on it in your rig if it’s easier,” Frank said.

“No, we don’t have internet out there, but we do have it in the clubhouse,” Jerry said as he was walking away.

“Good point,” Frank said. “Thanks.”

“No problem.”

“Hey, Jeb,” Frank yelled.

“Yeah.”

“There are going to be several privates approaching the park in a couple of hours. Don’t shoot them.”

“Who are they?”

“The men who were supposed to be in that chopper.”

“You know, I thought I saw somebody coming out of that chopper, but it was so low to the trees at that point that I couldn’t get a good look. This was all a setup, wasn’t it?”

“Yep,” Frank shouted.

“Good,” Jeb said. “I was thinking the General was a jerk, sending those boys up. Guess not.”

“Keep your eyes open,” Frank said. “We’re going back inside.”

“Will do.”

They went back into the clubhouse.

“So, those chips?” Rosie asked.

“Yep, these are them,” Frank said.

“Look like capsules,” she said.

“Yes, they do,” Jane said. “Looks like you can pull them apart like a capsule too.”

“Maybe,” Frank said. “I’d be surprised if they aren’t sealed with something, though. It doesn’t look like any moisture is in them. Hard to tell until we get them cleaned up, though.”

“Well I’ll be damned,” the Sheriff said, getting a close look into the bags.

Frank pulled out a pen and wrote ‘Simon’ on the first bag. Then he wrote Grave 1, Grave 2, and Grave 3 on the others. Mary walked back in about that time with the one from the Islamist in the smokehouse. She handed it to Frank, and he wrote ‘smokehouse’ on that bag.

“We need to guard these with our lives,” Frank said. “If we can figure out how to use them, the enemy will be done.”

“Pew, what that smell?” Rosie asked.

“They must have the fire going,” Charlie said. “Bodies.”

“Remind me of home,” Rosie said, shaking her head. “Bad.”

Kurt walked into the clubhouse with Gabe.

“How big are those things?” Gabe asked, walking up.

“Not huge, but we’d like to be able to leave them in the bags,” Frank said.

“Alright, I’ll go get to work on the lead box,” he said. “It won’t take long.”

“Thanks, Gabe,” Frank said.

“You alright, honey?” Kurt asked as he walked up to Mary. “That was grisly stuff.”

“Like I said, I’ve seen worse,” she said, putting her arm around his waist.

Jerry came in through the door with Jasmine. “Can somebody give me a hand with this stuff?”

“Yeah,” the Sheriff said. He walked over to the door with Charlie. Frank followed.

The wagon was in front of the steps. The men gathered around it and picked it up gently, taking it up the stairs. They set it down on the veranda, and then Jerry pulled it through the door and into the clubhouse.

“Let’s put the stuff over on that table by the PC,” Frank said. “There’s some power outlets close by.”

Jerry nodded and pulled the wagon over to that side of the room. Jasmine followed.

“Shoot, before I dive into this, maybe we ought to change out the wire for those security cameras,” Frank said. “Forgot about that.”

“I’ll go to the workshop where Gabe is and get the wire,” Jerry said. “I saw a couple of spools over there.”

“Good,” Frank said. “The ladder is still in the back of the building. I’ll move it over and get a closer look.”

“I’ll go to,” Jane said. They went out to the veranda and then back to the corner of the building where the cables came out.

“Gives me the creeps being back here,” Jane said.

“Yeah, I keep expecting the cretins to walk up to us with guns,” Frank said. He walked over to the far side of the building and picked up the ladder. It was a heavy old wood model, well used. He had to be careful to avoid getting a splinter. He put it against the wall under the wires and climbed up.

“How does it look?” Jane asked.

“I’ll have to replace about a foot of wire,” Frank said.

“You need to turn off the power?”

“The system is shut down, so they aren’t hot,” Frank said. “I hope the wires are different colors, though.”

“Here comes Kurt with the wire,” she said.

“Could you do me a huge favor?” Frank asked.

“Sure, what?” she asked.

“Go out to the coach and get my grey plastic toolkit. It’s in the rear storage compartment. I’ve got wire strippers and crimpers and some crimp connectors out there.”

“Sure, be right back, honey,” Jane said, as she walked away.

“This enough wire?” Kurt asked, putting the spool down. “The spool is only about half full, but Gabe’s got another full one in the shop.”

“I only need about a foot for this section,” Frank said, climbing off of the ladder. “Don’t know what we’re going to find in the trees over by the creek, though.”

Jane was back with the toolkit.

“Thanks, honey,” Frank said as he opened it. He took out the wire cutters, and climbed up the ladder to cut out the bad wires. He climbed back down in a second with the bad section.

“Damn, those little buggers went to town on this, didn’t they,” Kurt said, chuckling.

“Yep, they just love plastic. Look, red and blue wires. Perfect.”

“Looks like that wire came off of this spool,” Kurt said, holding out the end with the same colored insulation.

“Pull me out about two feed of that,” Frank said. “Maybe with a little more slack we can staple this onto the wall, so it’s not hanging loose. The critters tend to leave wires alone if they’re tied down against a building.”

Kurt rolled off about two feet and held it for Frank. He cut the cable with his wire cutters, and then stripped back enough insulation on both sides to get to the wires.

“This will do nicely,” he said, stripping the wires on both ends. Then he grabbed crimp connectors and put one on each of the four ends, crimping them on hard.

“That going to be waterproof?” Jane asked.

“No, I’ll have to wrap it with some of that black electrical tape when we’ve got it crimped together,” Frank said, climbing back up the ladder with the section and his crimping tool. He assembled and crimped the new section in place. “Hand me that roll of black tape, sweetie.”