Bug Out (7 page)

CHAPTER 14

Dukes wrote down the notes as fast as the voice was speaking the code.  He would have to spend time decoding the transmission later, but he knew that this one would be important.  This was a transmission from one of his trusted sources outside of San Diego.  He was a brother Marine, having served with Dukes during Desert Storm; and he was one of the few people that Dukes trusted with intel.

“What was that one about?” June heard the word, ‘over,’ and knew that she could ask the question.

“I don’t know, but it’s detailed.”  His notes filled up an entire piece of paper.

Over the last few days, a network of short-wave HAM radio hounds had been accumulating and passing information all around the country.  This particular message was the first direct communication with anyone from the West Coast.  The transmission had originating from southern California and was full of as much fear and confusion as the ones Dukes had been hearing from out of the mid-west or the northeast.  It might even be full of as much fear as Dukes had been broadcasting the last few days.

He started working out the code while sitting at the dinning table.  It was a double code, drawing from two different military sources.  He had used the same code during Desert Storm and then the military retired it.  But, that didn’t mean that the former military people couldn’t use it.

“Son of a…” Dukes whispered.

“What is it?” Penny asked.  She had been helpful to her father, taking over the manning of the radio when he needed sleep.  She knew the same code, thanks to her father, and was looking over his shoulder as he deciphered.

“Wow!” she said, running the encryption faster in her head than her father could on paper.

“What does it say?  You’re a lot faster.”

She sat down slowly, reading the entire time.  “It says that the shipping docks and neighborhoods around the docks in San Francisco were gassed, and that freighter ships are unloading tanks and troops at the ship yards.”

“Gassed?”

“Yeah,” she read further down the page.  “Sarin gas.” She looked horrified.  “That’s illegal, right?”

“So is launching a nuclear bomb.   Apparently killing an entire city by gas is nothing once you’ve nuked a city!”

She kept reading.  “There are multiple reports that the L.A. ports were also gassed and that the Naval shipyard, base and Marine station at San Diego are under bombardment.”

“I got this one about 10 minutes ago, he handed her his transposed notes from another source.  This guy’s is in San Antonio.  It says that the ports in Corpus Christi and Galveston were attacked last night the same way.”

“What about Mobile and New Orleans?” June asked, after listening to the worried volley of information.

“I haven’t heard, but, now that you say that…and with those helos flying around,” his voice trailed off without finishing the sentence.

“What are you thinking?” June pressed.

He wrote a few things down before facing his wife and daughter.  He thought he had it figured out.

“I think the reason I haven’t heard anything from my friends in Mobile or New Orleans area is that ‘they’ are already there.  Those cities have been the bases of operation for the drones, the helicopters and what ever else.  I bet, they gassed the place just like they did the ones on the West Coast!”

“But why would they attack our ports that way?  What do they want?  Where’s our military?” Penny asked with a true sense of worry.

Dukes had been asking the same questions.  He found it frightening that he had not heard an ‘official’ government broadcast or seen any resistance in the air to the drones or the rogue helicopters.  What had happened to the might of the United States military?

He had heard of a few National Guard commanders with short-waves asking for support from any military personnel along the Mississippi...no particular rally locations were given; it was just a plea for help.  These radio broadcasts usually lasted a few seconds.  Dukes figured that they didn’t want to give their true positions away by leaving a breadcrumb trail of radio signals…something that he knew he was doing himself.

The working theory about why there was not an overwhelming show of US military force was that the EMP and the nukes so disrupted travel that the home based troops couldn’t get back to their bases to rally. 

Also, once the power went down and the cities burned, chaos erupted around America.  Local police forces were overwhelmed with the response and inability to travel.  It seemed that most soldiers were more interested in helping their families than organizing to fight.  America had turned into a free for all, with the most prepared and the most heavily armed dominating.

“Dukes, this is Ian.  Over,” the two-way radio crackled with new life. 

Dukes had the two-way on constant scan mode to pick up any messages on any channel. Dukes jumped up from the dinning table.  Ian had missed his last check in and Dukes was starting to fear the worst…especially now that he knew that Ian’s daughter was safe with Birmingham Bob.

“Ian, Dukes.  Code word?”

“States,” he said, sounding tired.

“How are you?  Over.” Dukes asked.  Both June and Penny gathered around the radio to listen.

“We’ve been better,” letting his plural statement speak for he and Mary.  “Over.”

“A lot has happened since we last spoke.  I have news, but do you want to report in?  Over.”

“Affirmative.  I have first hand of a rocket attack on a dam from enemy birds.  My comrade and I escaped, again.  We are approximately half way to my target and have picked up five extra toon mates.  Over.”

Dukes looked at Penny and June.  He didn’t know exactly what that meant.

“Can you clarify, over?”

“Scouts.  Troop 280 out of B’ham,” Ian said, using as much code as he could get away with.  He knew that other people were listening to his broadcast, and didn’t know if they were friend or foe.  So, he thought it was always in his best interest to assume that everyone was out to use the info from the broadcast to kill an American…so, he spoke in code, and bolstered the credentials a little.

“Scouts?  Over.”

“Highly trained mountaineers that are S & R certified and well led.  Over.”  Ian smiled at the boys around the small campfire as the sun came up.  They seemed to think this spy stuff was pretty cool.  Ian hated the fact that he was eventually going to have to tell most of them that their parents were dead.

“Breaking in.  This is Birmingham Bob.  Sorry Dukes.  Over.”

Dukes thought nothing of the intrusion on his call and signaled for Bob to continue.  “Bob, this is Dukes.  What’s up?  Over?”

“We were listening to your report from Mr. Ian in the field and his band of ‘Scouts.’  Ian, did you say Troop 280?  Over.”

Ian looked up at the boys around the ring of fire.  They had grown quiet with the addition of the third voice on the radio.  “Bob, this is Ian, that’s affirmative, sir, Troop 280.  Over”

“Is Adam Tiller with the group?  Over.”  Bob asked.  A warble breached his voice.

Adam stood up across the fire ring from Ian at the sound of his name.  The firelight painted him with colors of auburn and yellow light.

“Affirmative, Bob.  Over.”  Ian looked across the fire at the youth, and smiled.

“That’s my Dad,” Adam said.

Ian held the radio up to the boy to take.

“Dad,” he said.  “Dad, is that you?”

“Adam?  Are you okay, son?  Over.”

Mary wiped a tear from her eye as she listened to the reunion.

Ian leaned towards her.  “At least some good came from this shitty day!”

She leaned back.  “Like we lived again, and oh by the way, saved a bunch of Boy Scouts…not a bad day!”

Ian smiled and so did Mary as they listened to Adam speak with his father and mother on the radio. 

“Alright, lets coordinate that.  Over” Bob said, ending the conversation with his son.

Adam handed the radio back to Ian. 

“Thank you, sir.  He wants to talk to you now.”

“Bob, this Ian.  Over.”

“Ian, this is Bob.  Thank you for rescuing the boys. Now, I have something for you.”

Mary noticed that Bob didn’t say ‘over.’ She shrugged at Ian.

“Dad?” Grace’s voice came across the radio.

Ian’s mouth opened at the sound of his daughter’s voice.  “Grace!  Grace! Is that you?  Over”

“Yes Dad, it’s me.  I’m okay.  Anna is with me.  We’re at Bob’s”

Ian tried to push down the grapefruit sized lump in his throat.  He fought to keep his composure at the sound of his daughter’s voice.

“I’m so glad you’re okay.  How did you get there?  Is your Mom with you?  Over,” he fired off two questions at once.  A tear formed at his eyes.

There was a pause on the transmission.

“Dad, it’s a long story.  I’ll tell you later.  And, no, she’s still at home. We have been in a bunker over night and this is the first two-way call we’ve made or heard.  She can hear me on the two-way; we talked briefly yesterday.  Over.”

“But, do you know if she’s okay?  I mean, the last time you talked to her, she was okay, right?  Over.”

“Yeah, she was.  But, Dad, something has changed.  She told me she was changing the plan.  Dad, she’s coming to find me.  Over.”

CHAPTER 15

Leah Burrows enjoyed her last cup of tea on her back deck while watching the sunrise.  She was saying goodbye to the things in her life that used to matter.

She and Ian had built this house, doing a lot of the work themselves.  But, she knew that it was more important to get to Grace, and hopefully Ian, if she went to find them.

Leah and Amy had heard a conversation on the short-wave radio between Dukes and Birmingham Bob that Ian was alive and that Grace was with Bob.  She had been lucky to talk to her daughter briefly the day before, but Grace had been pulled into a bunker at Bob’s and she had not heard from her since. 

That is, until she took her last sip of tea.  Leah’s two-way radio had been on scan.  She would pick up pieces of conversations and then the radio would scan to the next channel, looking for an active broadcast.  She had almost dismissed the scanning as background white noise, that is until she heard Grace’s voice and that she said the word, ‘Dad.’

Leah waited for the conversation between Grace and Ian to finish.  She couldn’t hear Ian’s side of the transmission since he was so much further away, but she could hear all of Grace’s side.

“Tardis Blue, this is Momma B, over,” she said, keying the microphone.

“Momma B!  Thank God!  This is Tardis Blue, I just talked to Dad!  Over,” the excitement in Grace’s voice brought tears to Leah’s eyes.

“I heard your side of the conversation, Tardis Blue, but he is too far for me to receive his transmission.  Over.”

“Are you still changing the plan?  Are you still coming to get me?  Over,” Grace asked, she needed clarification as to what to do next.

“Tardis Blue, that is affirmative.  Over.”  Leah had the Rover packed and just needed to know where to go to find her daughter.

“Momma B, hold.  Bull’s-Eye can hear me and wants to talk with Bob, and then have me relay a message to you.  Over.”  She used the code name for her father.

Leah smiled that her husband was now involved.  “Affirmative.  Over.”  She had no idea what he could orchestrate for her or how he could help.  She didn’t even know how he got to where he was physically.  She had been amazed at his ability to do things, and secretly felt that if anyone could survive what was happening, it would be her husband.

Grace keyed her radio.  “Momma B, Bull’s-Eye wants to know if you are being threated by Freakers?  Over.”

Leah had not expected that question, but it was her husband way caring for her the only way he could.  “Tardis Blue, affirmative.  Had to eliminated three yesterday.  Over,” she said, sadness rung in her voice.

Grace thought about what her mother had just said.  She had shot people as well. 
This new world sucks!
  Grace relayed the message to her father and waited on a response.

“He agrees that you should change the plan, Momma B.  He’s changing course to meet us here, at Bob’s.  He thinks you should come here, too.  He also says that you should not use the Rover, it will make you a target.  Over,” she said, not believing that her parents were deviating from what they had prepared for all of these years.  She also couldn’t believe that her father was advising that her mother go out alone.

“Tardis Blue, tell Bob I just need to know where to go.  Over.”  She never flinched at the idea of going out alone and without the Rover.  Even though she could make it, the roads were most likely blocked and an operating car would draw attention to herself.  She could move quickly on foot and would take Daisy for extra protection.  She agreed with her husband.

“Momma B. do you remember my first barn,” Grace spoke code that only she and her mother would know.  The reference was to the first barn where Grace took horseback riding lessons; it was about 10 miles from their house and over 30 miles away from Birmingham.

“Affirmative, over.”

“Bob’s oldest son, Joshua will meet you there at noon tomorrow to take you the next rest of the way.  Over.”

There was a pause while Grace knew that her mother was formulating a response.  Grace knew what her mother’s next question would be, and she also knew how she was going to answer the question.  Finally, she knew that both of her parents could hear her…and they would not agree with what she was about to say.

“Tardis Blue, how will I know Joshua?  Over.”

“Momma B, you will know Joshua because I’m going with him.”