He came up to the dirt road. He spotted the horse tracks and the ranger’s tracks as well. He got off his bike and looked around. “That should do the trick,” he said. He walked over to the side of the road and grabbed a bunch of smaller branches and spread them out. He pulled out some paracord and tied them together and then tied them to the back of his bike.
He keyed his mic and told Dawn he was coming in. He got back on the bike and dragged the branches down the road behind him. While it didn’t completely cover up the tracks, it did do a good job and took away that fresh track look. He would do the same on the way out to try and hide the cache site since they hadn’t needed to dig it up.
He reached the path and paused long enough to cut the branches loose. There was no way he could drag those through this path. It wasn’t quite what he remembered. No wonder they had trouble. The winter months played hell on the trees and tree limbs had dropped, blocking the path a bit more than usual.
He came up on the three of them standing there waiting. They were grouped together, but at least had the brains to make sure they were ready to fire. He would have had them spread out and hidden. It could have been a trap for them. Haliday turned off the bike and dismounted. He walked over and gave Dawn a hug. He said hi to Diana and Karen and said he was glad they were all safe.
“Let’s see what you have here,” he said. He walked around the ranger and trailer and then looked underneath. He got in the driver’s seat and tried to back it up. It went about a foot backwards and that was it. He looked under it again and this time saw that a tree root near the surface had broken and came up and wedged itself between the axle and trailer.
He tried going forward again and still no luck; it wasn’t going to break free. He tried to pull it out but he couldn’t get the leverage to do this either. He laid down on the ground and worked himself under the ranger a bit. “Dawn, can you hand me a saw out of the toolbox.”
“You want a pocket chain or regular saw?”
“Pocket chain.”
Haliday never thought one of these would come in handy. But this awkward position proved its worth. He worked the saw back and forth for about five minutes until the root gave way. He pulled the chunk loose and tossed it aside. “That should do it,” he said. He started the ranger and it moved freely now.
Haliday called them all over. He thought it might not be a bad idea to tell them what happened. He explained the incident with the jeep as best as he could. “We’re going to take a slightly different route back just in case they are still out there. The horses will need to move as quickly as they can without exhausting them.” The realization that this area was now changing too, had hit the three of them like a ton of bricks. Haliday said, “Welcome to the new world disorder.”
Chapter 16
As soon as they reached the dirt road, Haliday hooked up his branches. “Listen,” he said, “I’m going down that way about a half mile and then I’ll double back and catch up to you guys. I want to try to throw anyone off the track if I can.” They took off and he did too. He doubled back quickly and caught up.
Haliday heard a low guttural roar like that from a 155mm cannon and looked around. The horses were spooked and reared a bit. There came another roar before Haliday realized this was thunder. Well, the effort hiding the cache was going to go to waste except now it’d be even better as the rain would wash the road clean of the tracks much better than his dragging did.
He signaled them to stop. “You guys have rain gear?” They all nodded. “Ok, put it on, looks like we are going to get hammered.” He grabbed a set out of his saddle bags and put them on. Windy, cold, wet and exposed. This was getting to be all kinds of fun. People out and about would be heading home, but those still out in this weather would have a purpose. It was best to avoid those folks. Dark clouds starting moving in and the wind picked up.
Haliday called David and asked them how they were doing. David said they were just sitting around waiting for them to get there. “Well, with the weather change it’s going to be a while. Make sure everyone gets something to eat and keep some hot liquids on hand. Have everyone dress warmer. I have a feeling tonight is going to be rough.”
Haliday told David they would be staying there the night so to get things set up. “Kayla will help you. If you have any questions let me know. If by chance anyone strange makes it there, they are going to be a high level threat. Treat them as such. Do not take any chances. Nobody belongs there.” David asked him if he wanted him to set up a hide for someone with Haliday’s rifle.
Haliday told him, “No offense, but nobody is to touch that rifle.” He highly doubted anybody could explain mil-dot, MOA, windage, spin drift or anything else they would need to know in order to use it. They wouldn’t even know what rounds to use. He kept three basic loads for it for various conditions. They’d just load what they grabbed, not understanding the differences.
“David, just set up for the night, set a solid watch roster and keep everyone warm and dry. Do not move out, do not send out anybody to recon the area or anything else.”
David answered, “Got it brother.” David went over to Kayla. “I need your help. Your dad says we are staying the night.” Kayla started barking out orders and got everyone moving.
Kayla was a smart girl and although at times she thought her dad was a little crazy, she made it a point to listen to him. Now she was doing what he would be doing right now. Kayla ordered the vehicles realigned. She had them parked so that they formed a small modern day circled wagon train.
The Tahoe and trailer were parked so that the trailer was almost at a ninety degree angle to it and opposite that were the Cherokee and its trailer. This formed a mutated square but left ample coverage for everything in the middle. They would set up a small 10X10 pop up tent in the middle with some side panels and cover everything with a camo net.
They weren’t worried about the aerial view, but didn’t want anyone seeing them from the side. Even though they chose an area with plenty of pine trees because the rest of the foliage was already down for the fall, they still didn’t want to be seen. The camo net was designed for this use in particular.
Haliday had taken numerous pictures and sent them out to a large format printing company in China and had “Nature Billboards” printed. He hated to use the Chinese company, but it was a tenth of the cost compared to the U.S. companies. He had done a few for different seasons to include spring, summer, fall and winter. They were designed to be hung on buildings and printed on a mesh so you could see through them when you were close enough, but people who saw them from a distance couldn’t. Custom camo nets.
They lit up a small propane heater. No fires and no smoke. They pulled out a butane stove and boiled up some water for coffee and hot cocoa. They would get lunch ready too, but Kayla already determined it was going to be soup. This was everyone’s first afternoon and night exposed to the elements. Best to stay warm.
Haliday was taking the lead and would shoot up a ways and scope out the intersections ahead of Dawn, Diane and Karen. Once they passed by, he would shoot up ahead again and check the area. This would keep them from having to do it themselves and save a little time. If he spotted any trouble, he could tell them and they could stop and he could try and draw the trouble away from them.
Kayla called him on the radio. “We got a problem, or to be more exact you have a problem.”
“What’s going on?”
“Well, I was flipping through the frequencies and it stopped on one which I listened to for a while. The signal was strong, so I figured it was close by. I wrote the frequency down. I’ll give it to you in a minute.