He listened in a bit more. “Papa 2 is out at Bravo 7.” He waved everyone off and motioned for them to sit. Kayla came by with her notebook. She was taking notes. After about 25 more minutes they had a pattern figured out. Papa was obviously a patrol number, and they noted each patrol had an area assigned to them. One was Alpha, two was Bravo, three was Charlie and four was Delta. That made sense.
What didn’t make sense was they could not possibly have numbered every house or building in the area. Rich said, “They have a neighborhood watch set up. They probably have people in key locations and they check in with those people. Intersections, ends of roads, wherever they have a vantage point.” Good catch Dad.
Haliday had to figure out two things. How did they convince these extra eyes to play along and what area were they in. Make that three things, what area were they trying to get too as well. He studied the map to see if he could figure out the areas. He noted everyone else getting anxious. “I learned this in the army folks. It’s called hurry up and wait.”
Haliday studied the map some more. He had lost himself in it when he heard Kayla say bingo.
“Bingo what Kayla?”
“Dad, you didn’t hear that?”
“All I heard was cantonment.” Damn, he got it. They wanted Papa 3 which was the Charlie sector to stay in their cantonment area. He had used cantonment areas, or rather districts, down at Ft. Stewart as an MP.
Haliday divided the map up in equal sections now. They were covering roughly 40X40 miles. The yahoos he ran across had gone out of their area and were cautioned to stay in their area today. These would be the Papa 3 units with Charlie sector. At night he figured the two units covered north and south. Someone had military training or read a lot of field manuals.
This posed another problem. The Bay City Minute Men most likely bordered the Bad Axe areas. If they had a mutual aid pact, that increased the odds of trouble. They would definitely have more firepower. Haliday was going to have to completely rethink this situation.
He called everyone over. “Time to change the plan. We are going to make a very short move to this location here. This will put us just inside the edge of their patrol area. We’ll set up camp and you’ll stay there tonight and through tomorrow as well. Early the next morning you’ll move out and head straight to the house.
“I’m going to head up over here and stir the pot. I’ll stir it enough to draw them away from you guys. Once you get there, you fortify the hell out of it. There’s instructions, diagrams, notes, everything you will need right there in the house. Kayla knows how to get to everything. I’ll work my way back and we’ll go from there.
“What if we’re spotted?” David asked.
“They have the patrols calling in the checks from their spotters, so I doubt they have a way of communicating. They’ll be too busy with me to do the normal checks. Like I said, I’ll buy you the time to get there. I do need a volunteer to go with me. Blake, it’s your bike and you know how to ride. It’s going to be you. Let’s move.”
In about two hours they reached the camp site. Haliday and Blake made their preparations while the rest of the group set up camp, placed the booby traps out and got settled in. They covered a few more informational items, wished each other luck and said their goodbyes. Haliday and Blake headed out.
Chapter 17
Haliday and Blake rode out and used a lot of the back roads. They avoided the main roads, even though they seemed to be clear. The reason behind this was that Haliday figured this was where most of the spotters were located, almost like border patrol outposts. The militia would know when their little border had been breached. It was this particular reason that Haliday laid out the plan the way he did.
They were as careful as they possibly could be while in area Charlie, the area they would settle into for the long haul. Once they reached the other sector, however, they made themselves plain as day. They made it a point to be seen by whom they suspected were most likely spotters. This was the beginning of the plan.
After another hour they stopped and pulled over into the woods. Haliday and Blake had the portable hams so they could keep in touch. Haliday told Blake to cut back through the woods, change over and come back through the area that they just came from. Blake cut through the woods, stopped, and made some quick changes.
Blake changed his outer jacket cover that Haliday had given him. He had a couple of these. They were just shells of various camo patterns and not full jackets. He also altered the looks of his bike. He took some black hundred mile an hour tape and made some large stripes on the yellow tank and fenders. He placed one across his helmet as well. He took off and headed to where they had originally stopped.
Haliday in the meantime had taken some black and brown tape and put squares on his bike to give it a quasi digital camo look. He simply took his helmet off and put on a boonie cap to go along with his own jacket change. The difference was good enough that most people would think it was someone else.
About half a mile before Blake reached the woods, he stopped right in the middle of the road in front of a small farmhouse on a corner lot by a small intersection. There was a lady standing there on the porch. Blake looked down the main road and raised his arm and gave a quick wave. Haliday came up behind him and they both took off. As far as the lady on the porch knew, there had been two pairs of bikes that went through. A multiplication of manpower through deception.
Next up, they caused a little trouble. They rode up close to a small town called Pigeon. Haliday scoped out a small gas station with only a few people near it. They rode up slowly and pulled in. A guy in his mid-twenties was standing there with a pistol stuffed in a thigh rig. Blake was facing this guy and Haliday made it a point to face the direction they came in from.
“You guys don’t look too familiar, how can I help you.” Blake looked around. Haliday looked around as well and then the ruse began. Haliday clicked his mic and said, “There are four bodies here, all armed. Hold your twenty.” The guy looked up the street and then back at Blake.
“Any chance we can buy some gas?”
“How much you need?”
Blake said, “We need to fill six bikes and six ‘two’ gallon cans.”
“Is that all?”
“For now, we might need to fill our trucks in a couple hours.”
“That’s going to be a problem for sure. Where you guys from anyway?”
Blake was good at this. “Just around,” he answered.
The moment was getting a little tense. Haliday clicked the mic again, “No, hold your twenty. Doesn’t look like they want to play nice with us.” Haliday glanced over at the guy who was standing there now. “Well? We get gas or not?”
The guy said, “No, we’re under orders not to sell it to anybody that doesn’t have a gas card.”
“Where do we get a gas card?”
“You can’t, the militia gave them out.”
“You mean the military gave them out?”
“No, the militia.”
Haliday looked at the guy. “So let me understand this. You guys are taking orders from a group of yahoos who think they run the country now? You guys have a say in that decision of how they would distribute what’s yours?” The guy didn’t answer. Haliday said, “Lets go, these people are suffering HUA.”
The guy asked Haliday what HUA meant.
“Head up ass.”
Haliday clicked his mic once more; “We’re coming back out. Have Dave in truck five fill up a couple gas cans for the bikes and meet us at…,” Haliday then stopped, looked at the guy, and said, “I’ll call you back with that info. Thanks for nothing partner. We’ll go find our gas elsewhere.” They high tailed it out of that area quickly.