“Do you know what their mission is?”
“If it’s the same group I’m thinking of, then they are out there to keep law and order. But here’s the catch. While they are not quite government friendly, they are not quite people friendly either. I don’t think they want people other than themselves enforcing any law and order or carrying firearms. The police might be a different story, but not sure.
“They might actually be a part of them, not many other cops in the area. Most were county sheriffs and a couple state troopers, that’s all. The sheriff up there is a real ass and he’s involved with them somehow. He has a real attitude and acts like his crap smells like roses.”
“Anything else?” Kayla asked.
“Ya, they don’t take too kindly to outsiders. People who don’t live here, and have not lived here for a while, they really don’t care for. I think they mean to take over the area and run it as their own small state. If that’s the case you guys might have issues depending on where you’re going.”
Kayla said, “Thank you sir.”
“No problem, take care, your mom says hugs and kisses,” Bill replied.
Kayla looked around. Everyone except Kevin and Blake, who were on watch, was sitting there listening in. “How’s this change things?” Bev asked.
“Well, we have a couple choices here. I’m not sure any of them will be acceptable to these people if they have that attitude. Here are the options we have so far.
“One, I can make arrangements to meet with them, see what they are up to, and if we can go about our business. They might see us as a threat and say no and then tighten their security and look for us to try to move in. They may even want payment or outright take what we want and kick us out. Could get ugly.”
“Two, we can try to sneak in, take hold on our land, and then let them approach us when they discover us. We can feel them out then, show them we are just there to mind our own business and see how that works out; but we could end up defending ourselves. The Michigan Alamo. Same results, it could be bad.”
“Third, we could hunker down somewhere, go on the hunt and try to shake up their ranks. But we’re talking about guerrilla warfare. We are talking about a long, drawn out campaign with some pretty good chances of losing some of the ranks here. I’m not really advising this. So far they just tried to kill me if that’s what it was, not really show they are a threat to all of us. I probably appeared to be a threat to them.”
“Fourth, I could go it alone, take out whomever I can for a while and see how that works out. There’s enough stuff here to get you through for quite some time. Then we could move onto our land. Or you could head back to Bill and Linda’s. The longer we wait to get there, the better the odds are they might find something and we lose it all. This would really piss them off.”
They all sat around talking about it for a while. Some different ideas were thrown out, but not much really made sense. It really came down to one thing. How could they get all their people to the house and stay there as long as possible with the least amount of trouble. That would be one hell of a trick.
They set up another 10X10 and joined the two together. They put the heater in the middle. It was still close quarters, but better than nothing. Everyone had their own little area and was warm. With any luck, it wouldn’t be like this much longer. They would be at the land and in the house.
There were fourteen of them in the group. Only twelve were able to pull watch. Elizabeth and Bobby were too young. Kayla had figured out a schedule. Two on at a time would be ok. Hour and a half shifts would help keep them awake, although the cool weather would do that too. They had set up some traps like Haliday instructed.
Haliday had them set up some booby trap simulators to alert the group if people got too close. Those were purchased from a surplus store. He also had them set up what he called trigger hooks. They were 3X3 foot square fish line nets with fish hooks scattered around them. These were placed face high. Once they snagged anything, any attempt to take them off snagged even more. Clothing, hair or skin. Man’s natural reaction to brush something away allowed them to work. The barbed hooks dug in deep.
It was an uneventful night; however a few of them did not sleep. They tossed and turned trying to figure out how to reach the house, what to expect the next couple days, what had happened the past few days, but mostly what was happening to family members. They didn’t have any idea what was happening to any of them. Being together tonight reminded them that there were those who were missing.
Morning came as usual. Everyone got up and started warming up around the heater. Bev put some pots of water on for oatmeal and coffee, hot cocoa for the kids. They packed up any non-essential items and ate breakfast when it was done. Haliday called a quick meeting. “Time to vote,” he said. The rumbling started immediately. No one wanted to decide. They deferred the decision to Haliday.
“Ok, this is what we are going to do,” he said. “Like it or not, since there was no decision, it’s my ball game. We are going to pack everything up. I’ll be on one bike and Blake on his. We’ll be riding along well in front of the ranger, with the horses behind it followed by the trucks. If we spot trouble we’ll hit the sides of the road and take cover. The rest of you will be expected to do the same.
The ranger will go left, horses will go right, Cherokee left as well and Tahoe to the right. That will even things out on both sides of the road. We’ll work out vehicle assignments. Do not bunch together, stay within earshot of each other and keep your eyes open to all sides and front and rear. If we have to fire, make sure you do not cross fire and do not fire up by us. You will have to watch my signals.” Haliday covered some brief hand signals.
“I’ve altered the route a bit, but it will take us two days if everything goes smoothly. Make sure the vehicles are gassed up. We’ll stop once for lunch and that’s all. When we stop for dinner, we’ll also make camp for the night. I’m not going to try to contact the militia at all. We are going to try to sneak in there.
“If we encounter a problem I’ll raise them on the radio and set something up as far as a meeting goes. I have a couple ideas of how to do that. In the meantime, let’s get ready to move out. Blake, get your bike and bring it here. We have a quick modification to make.” Blake rolled his bike over to where Haliday was.
Haliday took a long pipe that had an elbow on the end and held it up against the fork of Blake’s bike. He used a few heavy round clamps and secured it in place. Haliday walked over to his bike and slipped a similar pipe into a sleeve he already had attached to the fork, and used a big cotter pin to secure it in place.
“What’s that for?” Blake asked.
“It’s so we can keep our heads on. If these guys are looking for me on a bike, there’s no telling whether or not they set up any traps. The most common is a wire strung between trees or poles. It catches you at neck level and it’s all over. The pipe will catch the wire. I doubt it’ll snap the wire, but the pressure will knock the bike down and you with it. Much better alternative.
“Here’s a multi-tool.”
“What for?”
“To clip the wire Blake. Just in case, that’s all, got it? We don’t need wire getting caught in any wheels or anything.” Blake didn’t like this idea, but he was the most experienced rider next to Haliday. “Blake, get your head in the game, listen to me and you’ll do fine.”
Haliday was listening to the minute men frequency. “Papa 4 is out at Delta 13.”
“Almost sounds like cops.” He waited about 7-8 minutes before he heard them again.
“Papa 4 is back on patrol. Parties at Delta 13 said they haven’t seen anything unusual.” Haliday figured Kayla hit the nail on the head. These were locations of houses and they were checking them regularly.