“SITREP?” He had briefed them all on some basic acronyms and jargon to make things easier. SITREP is situation report. Kayla answered quickly. “Mike is home, but beaten bad.” Haliday thought great, he knew it would be hard to just get in and go without assuring her that her mom and Mike would be ok. “I’ll check it out when I get in, I’m out.”
He was trying to think of how to handle that when he got there and couldn’t come up with a plan yet. To take his mind off from it, he figured he would scan the ham for traffic. He looked down at the radio and started changing frequencies when he heard a loud horn. He shot straight up and then swerved back into his lane. He had barely missed hitting an old tractor pulling a large flatbed cart behind it heading the opposite direction he was.
“Damn,” he said, "I didn’t expect that." It was later in the morning and he didn’t count on any moving vehicles for the most part. Of course he knew that some would still be running, but this old John Deere wasn’t what he expected. He looked in the rearview mirror and saw the flatbed had about a dozen people on it.
No idea what that was all about and he didn’t really care. He passed by an old motel and started to laugh again. The old B-rated horror movie Motel Hell crossed his mind. Maybe the farmer had a new crop he harvested. Then he stopped smiling and thought, man, that would not be good. He could hope people wouldn’t resort to that. That was just wrong in too many ways.
He knew when people got hungry they got desperate, and there were going to be a lot of desperate people in a matter of weeks. Eventually some were going to snap and cross the boundary. He didn’t want to think about it. He glanced at his binder, flipped the page again and noticed he was in Ohio now. Pretty soon he would start a westward course. It would still be pretty much the same terrain and land.
The next major obstacle was a small city named Bryan. Population was under 9,000 and its major business was Dum Dum suckers and candy canes, along with Etch A Sketch. There’s one that will make a comeback, he thought. Hey kids, can’t get that X-Box working, well don’t you worry, the old fashioned Etch A Sketch is back and it’s bad. About another five miles would put him smack dab outside of the downtown area.
He slowed down and brought the vehicle to a stop. After the Ride Share escapade, he wasn’t taking chances. He stepped out and grabbed a pair of binoculars out of the console. He eyeballed the road ahead and thought he saw a roadblock. He grabbed his thermos and poured a quick cup of coffee. He drank it and kept peering down the road. After finishing the coffee, he stepped over to the shoulder of the road and took a quick leak.
Finished with his business, he got back in the truck and slowly moved forward about 20 miles an hour. The closer he got the more it looked like a roadblock. Here we go again, he was thinking. He got a little closer and realized it was a train stopped on the tracks and not a roadblock. That was just fine with him; he would actually be running along a small county road parallel to this side of the tracks.
He was just about there when a couple figures popped up from on top of a box car and one of the box cars doors slid open, revealing two more people. He slammed on the brakes and turned the LED light bar on. One of the figures stood up straight and looked at him. Haliday quickly looked around.
He had his foot on the brake with the truck in reverse ready to gun it. He couldn’t hear what the guys were saying, but one kept motioning toward him as he talked with another guy. Haliday was sizing them up and noticed that some of them had on real tree camo and that one had that old gray tones urban camo.
First thought was some sort of militia, but then he noticed a patch on one guy’s shoulder that identified him as a police officer. Haliday started looking in all directions scanning for anyone coming up from behind him or from the sides. As he looked to his left, he saw a slight reflection now and again about 300 yards away.
Haliday was screwed at the moment. He knew these guys meant business and he knew someone had a rifle aimed at his head right now. He was assuming whomever it was probably was a good shot or he wouldn’t be out that far. That or he was a chicken shit. The guy with the patch ordered him out of the truck.
Haliday just sat there. Another shout to get out of the truck came once again. Still he didn’t move. He heard a round whiz by and the report of the rifle. The third command started with the guy yelling that he meant business and to get the hell out of the truck. It was time for Haliday to start responding.
Haliday put it in park and slowly opened the door. He closed the door so as not to expose the interior to the sniper hiding to his left. Standing outside of the vehicle and looking to the left he was now able to make out the man and he shook his head. A ghillie suit, he thought, you have to be kidding me.
Haliday was almost embarrassed that he didn’t spot it sooner, but then again his sitting position and angle didn’t really allow it. The cop approached and Haliday took a few steps forward himself before he was ordered to stop. He obeyed the command, but crossed his arms and canted his head to the right.
As soon as the cop got about 10 feet away, he told the cop to stop. The guy did, but looked at Haliday puzzled. Haliday saw he was about twenty-six to thirty years old tops, and he used a raised tone of voice and said, “What the hell are you doing firing on a federal officer?” He had to get the upper hand here.
“What’s your name officer?”
“Uh, um, I’m Williams sir.”
“Is this how you treat fellow law enforcement officers?”
Williams replied, “No sir, but you have to understand we ain’t ever been in a situation like this and our chief said he saw programs on TV about this kind of stuff…”
Haliday cut him off. “On TV, son?” Haliday was 46 and figured he was safe to go this route.
“Well, I mean he went to some seminars and stuff too.”
“Look son,” he said, “yes things are screwed up right now, yes it sucks, and we are all trying to figure out what the hell happened; but in the meantime there’s things that need to be done and I gotta make sure they get done quickly.”
One of the other guys started to walk toward them and Haliday told Williams to have him stop. Williams asked, “Why?”
Haliday responded, “I don’t know you from my ass and you could be some nut job playing cop getting ready to cap my ass and I’m not ready for that.” Williams actually apologized.
Williams assured him he was the real thing. Haliday said, “That’s fine, but if you don’t mind, I need to get over to the Social Security office and make sure it’s locked up and the safe inside is secure as well.” Williams offered to take him there and Haliday said, “No thank you, I think you need to stay here.”
Haliday looked past Williams and between the railroad cars and saw what looked like a side by side four wheeler. “You have running vehicles,” he asked?
“A bunch of ATV’s and about a dozen old cars,” Williams answered.
“How about gas?”
“Plenty of that.”
Haliday asked him how long the train was and Williams said, “About a half mile each way. We got lucky it died here. Makes a good roadblock.” One of the other guys shouted over and asked Williams to come back for a minute. He watched Williams walk up to the railcar and then he noticed him talking on a radio. That wasn’t a good sign.
Williams walked back over and told Haliday their chief wanted to talk to him. Williams asked if Roger could drive over to the station. Not good at all, definitely not good at all. Haliday had to think quickly. How the hell was he going to get out of this?
“I’ll tell you what I’ll do. Have someone meet me at the end of the train and then I’ll go check the Social Security office, and then they can take me over there.” Williams waved the guys off and said “Ok.” Haliday walked back to the truck, climbed in, and started the drive toward the end of the train.