Of course there hadn’t been any transmissions or any truck number five, but appearances counted here, not the facts. They found themselves a little place to hide. They sat it out for about two hours trying to listen to see what was going on. Haliday grinned when he heard the first message pertaining to them.
“Papa 1 is out at Alpha 10 with information. Stand by.” A few minutes passed. “Alpha 10 reports that there were at least four men on motorcycles who passed by a couple hours ago. They report there might have been more, but definitely saw four. We have a direction and will head out and see what other info we can find.”
About half an hour later came another transmission. “Papa 1 is out at Foxtrot Delta 3.” Haliday thought about that one, ok, fuel depot, these guys really wanted to play army. Good for them. Haliday openly laughed at the next transmission.
“Papa 1 to HQ we have reports that confirm six motorcycles and possible trucks in the area. Maybe up to five or more, but makes and models are unknown. There is an unknown number of hostiles. Seems they wanted gas and were denied. We understand the guys were some sort of wannabe Special Forces jerks with attitudes based on the way they acted.” Haliday got a kick out of this.
“Oh boy, these people are hilarious,” he said.
They pushed their bikes further into the woods and covered them up. Haliday broke out a small camp stove and some water. “Mac and cheese this evening, Blake, is that ok with you?”
“Sounds ok to me.”
“You want coffee or cocoa?”
“No, can I have something else?”
“Water, Kool-Aid, Arnold Palmer or Tang?”
“I’ll have some Kool-Aid.”
They finished their quick dinner and then checked in with the group. “Everything is going fine,” he said. “Tonight I want you to monitor the militia freq. and take notes. Do not worry about what you hear about us. I want you to concentrate on what they are doing. Have a couple people listen in to make sure you get as much info as possible.
“Ok Blake, you ready to go?”
“Yes sir.”
“Alright, then let’s get busy.” Haliday double-checked to make sure the lights on the bikes were taped off. He rigged up the headlights so that you could pull a strip of tape off and it would uncover the light in case they needed to see. The moon was fairly bright and provided enough light to see at the speeds they were moving. They moved slowly using back woods trails.
They were coming up on a small road and turned the bikes off. They walked up to a stalled car and punctured the tank and filled their smaller gas cans. They went back and filled the bikes. They went back and topped off the gas cans. Haliday let the gas flow out of the tank though instead of plugging it like he had the other tanks.
Haliday grabbed a cigarette out of a pack in his pocket; he didn’t smoke, just used them for projects. He grabbed a wooden match and poked it through the cigarette near the filter. He grabbed a paper clip and bent it into shape. He placed this down by the gas on the ground. Looked like a little cannon pointing toward the sky. The cigarette would burn down, ignite the match which was close enough to the gas, and that would set it all ablaze.
This would buy them time to get out of the area. They walked back into the woods and took off. They were well enough away from the area when the gas ignited and the car became engulfed in flames. This drew the attention of the nearby homes as they came out to look at what was burning. This would be reported if it wasn’t seen by a patrol.
They hit another spot about four miles away and further north. Haliday showed Blake how to do it. “We don’t need the gas, but we need the diversion,” Haliday said. Blake looked at the car.
“Oh man, Mr. Haliday, it’s a Camaro,” Blake said.
“What’s wrong with that, they don’t burn? Blake, the car is useless. If it makes you feel any better I’ll write the owner a check. Let’s move.”
Blake set the makeshift fuse and they took off again.
“Last but not least, the grand finale for the night. This third car is where it gets risky. This is what we’ll do.” He explained the plan to Blake and they got ready to go. “If we get separated, you meet me back here. Let’s go.”
They cut the engines on the bikes and rolled down a hill about an eighth of a mile. When they stopped by the car, Haliday went and punctured the tank. No gas, though. He walked over to another one and same result. This wasn’t going to work out that well. There were no other cars far enough away from the homes.
He looked around and saw an older store by itself with a dirt parking lot that looked empty. He checked it out and it appeared it had been empty for probably 10 years or more. The people in the Thumb Area had it made. Nice rural areas, but they still had that American dream—they’d open a business; it would fail and sit empty. Simply not enough people around to support it.
He found an old bottle and poured a little gas inside with a piece of rag to make a Molotov cocktail. He lit it, then grabbed a rock and tossed it through a window. He tossed the flaming bottle in next. Blake and he started yelling and fired a few shots from their rifles and also Haliday’s .40. They got on the bikes and took off. There were plenty of flashlights and candles glowing now.
They were heading down the road when they spotted a pair of headlights coming their way and a spotlight sweeping the road. Haliday peeled off the tape from his headlight and shot into the woods. Blake followed him. They got about 150 yards in and killed the bikes, laid them down and took cover.
Haliday grabbed a camo jacket shell and tossed it over his bike. Blake grabbed one and did the same thing. Haliday liked this kid. He learned quickly. They threw some small deadfall branches on them as well. There was not a lot of wooded area here and they’d be easy to spot if they tried to make a run for it. Staying put was the only option next to abandoning the bikes. They couldn’t afford to do that.
The vehicle that was approaching stopped about a mile down the road from the burning store. It was moving slowly toward the store and sweeping its spotlight into the fields and woods searching for them. They must have misjudged distance because they did this for almost half a mile past the store. They weren’t sure where they were hiding. With the spotlight, Haliday knew they weren’t using NVG’s or any type of thermal unit.
As they sat and waited, another vehicle came screaming by. It didn’t stop until it got near the store. Haliday looked through his binoculars the best he could. Once again he wished he had NVG’s. Looked like an older Jeep and older pickup. Four guys were standing near them talking and waving toward Blake and Haliday’s general area.
“Mr. Haliday, I’m a little scared.”
“Look Blake, just stay down, do not move or do anything. Listen to what I tell you.” Two of the guys got back in the truck and then the truck made another sweep down the road with the spotlight. Haliday covered the binoculars up and looked at Blake. “Don’t worry kid, just put your head down and don’t think about it. I’ll tell you what they’re doing and if you need to do anything if that helps.
“Ok Blake, they are still spotlighting the road and whole area, if they had spotted us they would be coming at us already. They are heading back toward the store. The Jeep is taking off now. It’s heading in the direction of the second car fire. The guys in the truck are still looking around. Looks like they plan to stay a while because they just opened up a cooler and it looks like meal time.
“Blake, carefully low crawl over to your bike and grab that wool blanket out of your pack. Cover yourself up with it. We’re going to be here a while.” Haliday followed suit and grabbed one out of his saddle bags. They laid there for a while watching the guys stand by the burning store. Haliday asked him about football, why he didn’t go to college, anything to help keep the kid calm. Haliday had waited like this before, hours upon hours; it didn’t bother him.