This would keep them updated on his progress and he on their current situation. Every two hours was the designated contact time and would help save on their batteries. His rig was powering his radio so he was not worried too much about leaving his on. Of course he would have to make sure he kept his truck battery charged; there wouldn’t be any AAA service calls.
Haliday explained that if any of the other kids showed up to make sure it was just them and their families. He couldn’t insist on this enough; it wasn’t a Holiday Inn he told them. They had sorted through her preps and calculated five months for the 14 people who may show up. Not really a lot in all reality. They had started in early ‘99 for Y2K and had rotated through, and then added what they needed. Over the past years they managed to add quite a bit.
One of his brothers actually worked at a survival store back then and sold everyone who came in the store on the idea. Unfortunately, these days he fell into line with the rest of the sheeple and dropped the whole idea. Just this past Father’s Day, he was saying that he thought having two weeks of basics was enough for most anything. Two weeks now would get you two weeks closer to starving around the holidays. Haliday was disappointed with that.
Haliday never talked to his brothers and sister about his readiness. Nothing but ridicule would ensue and he wouldn’t have any part of it. His mom was different and she would welcome the rest into the house to make the best of it. A niece and nephew were welcome as well. They’d come in handy for labor, security and whatever else needed to be done. The trade off was food supply. But strength in groups was one of the popular sayings in readiness. Hopefully whoever showed up would bring what they could.
A quick set of goodbyes and wishing everyone the best of luck and he was out the door. Heading back toward the truck, he had walked straight out to the street and then toward the truck with his rifle in a low ready position. It was fairly light outside now and he could see a couple people down the street come out of their house. They were surprised to see him there, so he kept up the act. A young boy with them came running up and said, “Mister, my dad wants to talk to you.” Haliday rolled his eyes, mumbled a bit and said, “Fine.”
He stood there and the guy was walking toward him. Oh ya, dress like the DHS, good idea genius, he thought to himself. He carefully watched the man approach. “Excuse me sir, what’s going on?”
“So far as we can tell, it’s a regional terrorist attack and we’ve tracked some people into this neighborhood, so I suggest you go home, lock your doors and wait it out. We’ll be sending more agents and support in a few days, so hold out as long as you can. In the meantime we are trying to hunt them down.”
He guessed the guy bought into the story. He hoped so; fewer people out in the chaos that was closing in fast enough. He got back in the truck and took off through the neighborhood. He passed an old lady who just waved as he drove by. She was putting an envelope in her mail box and raised the flag on the side of the mail box. He started laughing out loud. Oh boy, that’s going to be one for the story books. Lady, there isn’t enough postage to get that delivered right now. In a few days, she’d probably try to call the postmaster and complain about how it wasn’t picked up.
He pulled back onto the main road and was heading west. Over in a nearby strip mall there was a small Middle Eastern fruit market with a lot of goods under a tent outside. People were lining up already. Mostly older Middle Eastern folks, a few others as well and he could hear who he thought was the owner yelling at them all.
“Stand in line. I am taking only money. No credit cards. Do not buy it if you don’t have cash.” Haliday shook his head. Cash was about as good as toilet paper right now, but nobody knew it yet. How could they not? Nothing worked. Nothing. Did they think it was going to magically just come back on or something?
He looked at the 7-11 and it was closed. Haliday ran it down in his mind and laughed. He figured other than the frozen drinks, there was about a year’s worth of junk food. Candy bars, potato chips, gum, a few bags of jerky and some overpriced canned food. Too bad the owner didn’t have sense to hide it all.
He continued his trek westward. Same thing again and again, zigzagging through the streets and dodging cars and the odd person walking the streets or sidewalk. It was still early and he didn’t really expect to see many people out anyway. It was a Wednesday and even though they should be working, no one except a few would be going anywhere. He figured local markets or small shops like the fruit market where the owners lived close by may open, but nothing else. No power, no communications, no work.
He turned the ham on to see if he could hear any information about what went down. There seemed to be a lot of theories, but nothing official as far as he could tell. He reached over and grabbed a large binder and flipped it open. This was his map set for the route he was taking.
He had printed and laminated each sheet and made notes about possible areas to stop, areas to avoid, alternates to bypass trouble when—not if—he ran into it, water holes and more. As he progressed, he would flip to the next page and continue doing that until he got there. He put together another binder in reverse for the return trip. He had made the trip four times before to get all of the info logged.
Wading through the suburban sprawl was time consuming. It was still early enough and he hadn’t had any troubles other than the interested parties seeking info from “the police”. He still doubted this plan, but so far he was pulling off the scam. Reaching the more rural area just outside of the congested suburbs, he popped up onto a small state highway running East and West and was able to pick up some speed.
Even with the area littered with the cars he could maintain almost 45mph, but the 70mph limit would have been nicer. He looked down at the gas gauge and it was just under a quarter of a tank. He looked at his binder on the map and found what he wanted. He had a few spots picked out to stop at.
No doubt he would make it there, but he was not sure what to expect when he arrived. About 10 minutes later, he saw the sign. Ride Share 1 mile. It was essentially a parking lot where folks parked and car pooled in state-owned vans to go to work. With a lot of people around this area working 45 minutes to an hour away, it was cheaper to pay the weekly fee than to pay for gas, and pay for parking in the tight Downtown Lansing area. He wasn’t going there though; he would split off and head south long before going near the state capitol.
He pulled into the Ride Share lot and estimated about 45 to 50 cars in the lot. He staged the truck toward the center of the lot, angled toward the exit. He didn’t want to get caught in the lot or become blocked in and not be able to get the vehicle out. He hadn’t seen anyone here or nearby.
He had figured anyone near this lot had probably walked the couple miles to the little nearby town to seek help. He placed it in park and looked at the time. 8:10 am—real good—he was late. He hadn’t heard them broadcast, which meant they were listening to his instructions.
Keying the mic, he spit out a quick sentence. “Kaybear and Bobily (his mom’s nickname from her grandfather) all good on track and safe, reply one word.” He heard Kayla respond “yes,” and his mom respond “yes.” Next he said two words only. “Anything bad?” He received two “no’s” in response.
There would be no chatter. This would deter anyone listening from trying to piece together the plan or any other info. No designated route info given, no locations of anyone, no time schedules to figure out or anything like that. Haliday thought this was the safest way to go.
He climbed out of the driver’s seat and opened the rear passenger door. Off the floorboard he grabbed a small plastic bag and a six gallon gas can generally used for boating. He walked up to a pickup truck in the parking lot and placed the gas can close underneath. He kept looking around and still saw no signs of anyone. He unscrewed the top and set it aside. Out of the plastic bag he pulled out a strange looking contraption he made just for this purpose.