He glanced between the cars and saw the four wheeler keeping up pace. He reached the end of the train. As he had driven along, he noticed most of the cars had been opened. This town or group of people knew enough to check for supplies and equipment. So if they were this organized, this heightened his fear quite a bit more. Close inspection would reveal his ruse for sure.
He crept over the tracks and stopped by the four wheeler. One of the guys in real tree camo was sitting there. This kid was young. Maybe he was eighteen years old tops. “You ready to go,” he asked Haliday?
“Not yet, I’m low on gas, can you spare that can in the back of that four wheeler?”
“Sure, I’ll just refill it back at the police station. You can fill up there too.”
Haliday walked over, grabbed the can and went and started dumping it in his tank. He was just about done when the kid walked over and commented on the KLR on the back. “Ya, they give us some pretty cool toys when we travel through BFE. What do you have there?” “Oh, it’s a rhino we were able to get running.”
The next comment started a shit storm. The kid looked at him and put his hand in his coat pocket and said, “Why do you have a government plate on the truck, but a Michigan plate on the bike?” The kid pulled his hand out of his pocket and Haliday saw the Glock. He dropped the gas can and grabbed the kid’s wrist before he could raise it.
The shot rang out and they began to struggle. Both went down to the ground. This kid was small and wiry, but strong. He had the kid pinned down and looked up to see two more guys running their way. Haliday brought his fist down hard and the kid went limp and fell to the ground.
Haliday jumped up and ran over to the Tahoe. He grabbed his AR180 and fired close to a full magazine at the guys running toward him. They ducked for cover under the train cars and tried to fire back, but the shots went wild as they tried to stay covered. He slid behind the wheel, started the truck and jammed it in gear, closing the door as he drove off.
He bounced over the tracks and floored it. The wheels were spinning like crazy as they tried to get a decent grip in the gravel along the rails. He finally made it to the asphalt and he gunned it some more. He kept looking back and saw the two guys had made it to the four wheeler. They picked the kid up and sat him down, where he was holding his face.
They jumped in the four wheeler and started off after him. Haliday started cussing to himself as he tried to control the Tahoe. The road wasn’t straight here and he was taking the turn a bit too fast, so he slowed enough to gain control. As soon as the road straightened up a bit, he floored it again. These guys were actually trying to catch him. He saw another hard turn up ahead and as soon as he reached it, he slammed on the brakes and jumped out with his rifle and dropped to his knee.
He saw the four wheeler just hitting the curve and he fired three shots at the passenger front tire. The four wheeler lurched down and tumbled over a couple times. Haliday didn’t see any bodies flying out, but he didn’t care anyway. He jumped back in and placed it in drive and floored it again. As far as he could tell, there was no one else following.
Chapter 6
Dawn, who was the dispatcher from the hospital, had left the parking lot where she had retrieved her get-home bag and mountain bike. She had gone through her CPL course and then had purchased a couple of pistols, which she always carried with her in her truck after following the concerns Haliday had expressed, and after reading a couple of books that were about various TEOTWAWKI scenarios. The end of the world as we know it. She was an above-average shot and was taking tips from Haliday at the range on a monthly basis to try and hone her skills.
Just a few days earlier, they had tried a new outdoor range north of her, where she had commented about needing to get a rifle too. Haliday was unloading his 12 gauge and she asked to fire it. He loaded up one round and gave her a quick demo on how to fire it. She was a little miffed, almost like he was treating her like a little kid. He said shotguns were easy; one round is all you need to appreciate it.
She had held it to her shoulder, squeezed the trigger and practically fell backwards when it fired. Haliday burst out laughing and she simply called him an ass. At 5’7” and 135 pounds, she could have handled it ok; it was just the sheer surprise of the recoil and loud report that caught her off guard.
He pulled out a 22 and told her this was more her style. She said, “That looks cute.” Cute was not quite how Haliday referred to firearms. He gave her a run down on that one, loaded a magazine and let her fire away. She really liked that one. She told him she wanted to buy one and he said, “Next gun show.”
As she was riding toward her house, where she lived with her sister and mother, she rubbed the bruise on her shoulder as it started to ache a bit. She was cursing Haliday under her breath. She had ridden about five miles when she turned onto an access road that led to the county municipal complex, where she was greeted by a sheriff’s deputy who stopped her.
“Where are you going,” he asked? She responded that she was going to meet up with her mother in one of the parking lots so they could go home together. The deputy asked a few questions and was satisfied with her answers, and told her to be careful. He also told her to cover her pistol while on the grounds of the complex for safety’s sake. She pulled her windbreaker down over it and took off.
She rode into the parking lot where her mother was and there were a bunch of people that were standing around talking to each other. She spotted her mother and rode up to her. Her mom had been standing there talking to a friend. This friend looked at Dawn and said, “See, I told you guys to store food and stuff. I hope you have guns.” This lady looked like she was about 80 and showed Dawn a Glock and said, “I have mine.”
Dawn said, “Good for you. You go girl.” At this time, her mom started to change her shoes and she put on a pair of tennis shoes. A quick good-bye and they left. They had about eight miles to go before they made it to their house. Dawn slung her mom’s get-home bag over the bike frame and they walked along.
Dawn looked around at all of the people just standing around in the parking lots. Every once in a while, she spotted a deputy who looked to be standing guard. She asked her mom what everyone was talking about. Her mom said most people think it’s just a big power outage but a couple left. It looked like they were ready for this event too.
The deputies were telling everyone it would be ok, that they suspected it was just an industrial accident at one of the nearby electronics manufacturers that did defense work. If any of them would have taken a walk to the rooftop of the highest building there and looked around, they wouldn’t be saying that. They’d see trouble for miles.
This area was known as automation alley. Something they did must have caused a small interference with the electronics. That of course was just wishful thinking. Shockingly they had some old radios that worked that had been stored in a sub-basement long ago by the county’s emergency management department. They shrugged their shoulders and took off.
The walk was slow, but they moved along at a steady pace. They had to stop every mile for a quick break as Dawn’s mom wasn’t used to walking at all. She merely tolerated Dawn’s preparedness, but didn’t suspect it would amount to anything. She kept the gear in her car only at Dawn’s insistence.
There was no way at her age she was riding a bike, she had told her. The pace was a very slow─ two miles an hour. After about five hours they headed into the entrance to Chrysler’s world headquarters where they met up with Dawn’s sister. She had ridden there herself from about five miles away and had been sitting there waiting.