Bug Out! Part 8: RV Park Terror (9 page)

“Done so soon?” Jane asked as he dashed by. Lucy gave him a look.

“I want to plug the laptop into the satellite receiver,” he said. He went into the coach, picked up the laptop, and trotted back over to the workshop.

Jerry was coming back over from the clubhouse. “Well, I found an internet outlet in the far corner, and also the space where the TV was,” he said. “I guess the tweakers took the TV…they should have been able to sell that.”

Frank had his laptop set up on the work bench next to the cabinet. He plugged in the power cord, and turned it on.

“I suspect whatever service this park had has been turned off for a long time,” Jerry said.

“Probably,” Frank said. “Wonder if we’ll get a message with a phone number?”

“Well, on my system at home, those came over the TV, not through the computer. Will that table display TV? It’s got an HDMI port.”

“Yeah, but this satellite system is pre-HDMI, and I can’t plug in RCA cables,” Frank said. “Hey, remember that TV that Jeb let us use? Think he grabbed it before we had to high tail it?”

“Oh, yeah, forgot about that. I’ll go ask him. Maybe we could set it up in the clubhouse.” Jerry left, headed for Jeb’s rig.

The laptop was booted up, so Frank logged in, and then plugged the internet cable in. Nothing…no internet connection.

“Crap,” Frank said. He walked out of the barn just in time to see Jeb and Jerry carrying the flat screen TV into the clubhouse. “Excellent, you did still have it.”

“Yeah,” Jeb said. “I couldn’t see leaving it. It fit in my storage bay with no problem.”

The two men wrestled the big TV through the door, and set it on the cabinet where the cable outlets were. Jerry plugged in the cable, and then the TV. Jeb pointed the remote at it and turned it on.

“Invalid account,” Jerry read off of the screen. “There’s the phone number.”

Frank pulled out his phone and called. An operator answered.

“May I help you?”

“Yes, I’d like to re-start service at my RV Park.”

“What is the serial number on the box?” the operator asked.

“Shoot, I’ve got to go look,” Frank said. “I’m walking over to it now.” He walked quickly to the barn, followed by Jeb and Jerry. Frank pulled the receiver out far enough to see the number. He read it off to the operator.

“One moment, please,” she said.

“Sir, that is a really old box. If you want high definition service, you’ll need to order a new one.”

“Is this usable for non-HD TV and internet connection?”

“Yes, but we will be discontinuing service to that type of equipment in the near future.”

“How soon is the near future?” Frank asked.

“Six to eight months,” the operator said.

“Not a problem, we’ll get a new one before then. What options are there for internet on this box?”

“You said you’re at an RV Park, correct?” she asked.

“Yes,” Frank said.

“Then you want the high-bandwidth commercial service, I suspect.”

“How much is it?”

“We have a plan for six hundred dollars a month.”

“How soon could you get it turned on?”

“As soon as you pay for it, sir.”

Frank pulled his wallet out of his pocket, and took out a credit card.

“MasterCard okay?” Frank asked.

“Yes, of course,” she said. “Number, please.”

Frank read off the number to her, smiling and giving the thumbs up to Jeb and Jerry.

“Okay, Sir, you’re access is turned on. Is there anything else I can help you with today?”

“Not at this time,” Frank said. “Thanks, and goodbye.”

Frank put his phone back in his pocket, and looked at his laptop. He selected the network, then fired up his browser. He was connected.

“Yay!” Jerry said, grinning. “How much?”

“You don’t want to know,” Frank said.

“C’mon,” Jerry said.

“Six hundred bucks a month, but it’s a commercial plan. I think we can probably put a few Wi-Fi antennas around with this service. It’s worth it to me.”

“Well, I hear we have to take up a collection for taxes anyway,” Jerry said.

“I’m gonna go see what’s on TV,” Jeb said. He left the barn.

“What kind of TV package did we get?” Jerry asked.

Frank shrugged. “Didn’t ask. Whatever the commercial package is.”

“Wonder if this system is hooked up to the cable outlets at the RV spaces?”

“Worth a try,” Frank said. “But right now, I’m going to do some hacking. The clock is running on release of the apps. If we still want a chance to nail the enemy leaders, I need to crack these chips.”

“Hey!” shouted Jeb from the clubhouse. “Better come check what’s on TV!”

Frank and Jerry ran over
to the clubhouse after Jeb yelled at them. He was sitting on one of the dusty chairs, staring at the TV screen. It was a helicopter shot of west Denver.

“What happened?” Jerry asked. Jeb looked at him, intense anger on his face.

“The cretins used nerve gas,” Jeb said. His eyes were tearing up.

“Oh, no,” Frank said. “How bad is it?”

“It didn’t hurt the army that much…they couldn’t get it close enough to where they were,” Jeb said. “They mostly killed civilians.”

“This was a terror attack,” Jerry said. “They want to scare the civilians out of joining the fight.”

“Yeah,” Frank said. “I’m going back to work on the encryption.” He clenched his jaw in grim resolve.

Jerry nodded. “Let me know about anything you might need…otherwise I’m going to leave you alone.”

“Thanks,” Frank said. He left the clubhouse.

“This won’t stand,” Jeb said, face red with anger.

The announcer came on.

“For those of you just tuning in, the western suburbs of Denver were hit with nerve gas about one hour ago. It was delivered by artillery. No official word on casualties yet, but it will be significant. The army is working closely with local authorities to root out the enemy forces that participated in the attack.”

“Gee, ya think?” Jeb said sarcastically. “I’ll bet the army hasn’t even shut down I-70 yet.”

“I wonder if General Hogan is sharing the chips with anybody outside of his group yet.” Jerry asked.

“Good question,” Jeb said. “I hope he gives us enough time to crack them. I want to stick my knife into Saladin and watch him bleed.”

“Crap, look at that,” Jerry said, pointing at the screen. It showed a school, with dead children laying on the playground.

“Son of a bitch,” Jeb said, face getting redder.

“This is video of a middle school that was in the area of the gas attack. There was no warning. No time to get people out. Normally we would see parents lined up along the perimeter, waiting to hear about their children. In this case, most of the parents were also victims.”

Charlie walked into the clubhouse with the Sheriff and Kurt.

“Got the TV working, I see,” Charlie said. “Guess I don’t need to tell you what happened.”

“How’d you hear about it?” Jerry asked.

“Radio in my rig. Those bastards.”

“What are we gonna do?” Kurt asked.

“We’re gonna do everything we can to keep Frank working on cracking the chips,” Jerry said. “He’s on it right now.”

The Sheriff pulled out his phone and looked at the long range app.

“Wonder what’s going on at the air force base on highway 94?” he asked. “I still see the icons clustered around there. No movement.”

“That’s why I had the radio on,” Charlie said. “I was hoping they’d say something. So far, not a word.”

“You don’t think they’ve taken over that base, do you?” Kurt asked.

“General Hogan knew about them coming, so I’d be surprised,” Charlie said.

“At least I don’t see any hits in Kansas. Not even one,” the Sheriff said, putting his phone back in his pocket.

“Yeah, we seem to be safe for now,” Jerry said.

Frank walked back into the clubhouse.

“Hey, Kurt, you still have that fast PC we were using at your place?”

“Yeah, it’s in my storage compartment. Why?”

“I was thinking that maybe we ought to fire it up in here, and use it to continue running the encryption program,” Frank said. “It’s a lot faster than the laptop, and then I could use the laptop to concentrate on hacking.”

“Gotcha,” Kurt said. “I’ll go get it.”

“I’ll help,” Jerry said.

The two of them left the clubhouse.

“Anything else on the attack?” Frank asked.

“Not really,” Jeb said. “Just some really nasty pictures of dead kids.”

Jerry and Kurt came back in with the PC. They took it over to a small table next to the network outlet, in the far corner of the room. Frank followed them over.

“Glad there aren’t windows right by this,” Frank said.

“It doesn’t matter much,” Charlie said. “The glass guy will be out here in less than an hour.”

“Good,” Kurt said.

Jerry got the PC plugged in and put together.

“How are you going to get your program over here?” Jerry asked.

“I emailed everything to myself,” Frank said. “I’ll pick it up that way.”

The PC monitor showed the windows login screen. There was an icon with Frank’s name on it.

“Oh, yeah, I remember when you set this up,” Frank said. “Seems like a long time ago.” He pulled one of the chairs over and logged on. The internet connected without any problem. Frank opened the browser and went to his e-mail. The message was there, so he opened it and downloaded the attachments. It took him about three minutes to get the program running again.

“Looking good?” Jerry asked.

“Yeah, this sucker is fast,” Frank said. “I’ll probably still get to it by hacking faster than this, but you never know. Thanks, guys.”

“Go get ‘em,” Jeb said.

“That’s the plan,” Frank said as he left the clubhouse for the barn.

Hilda and Mary walked out towards the trailers, carrying large plastic bags. Trish saw them coming out the window, and left the trailer, running towards them.

“My stuff!” she said happily. “You should have let me know. I could’ve come over and gotten it.”

Terry came out and watched.

“We were coming out anyway,” Mary said. She handed Trish two of the large bags. Terry came over and took them from Trish.

“Dobie!” Hilda called. He emerged from his 5
^th
wheel, a damp rag in his hand.

“Hi, ladies,” he said. “What’s up?”

“Here’s some bedding for you,” Mary said, holding up the bag.

“Oh, wow, thanks!” he said. “This is what you guys got at Walmart?”

“Among other things,” Mary said.

“What do I owe you?” he asked.

“Don’t worry about that now,” Hilda said. “We’ve got some financial stuff to discuss. Charlie’s planning on having a meeting later this afternoon, after the glass contractors are done.”

“Sounds good. Thanks!” he said, as he carried the bag back to his trailer.

Mary walked over to Jake’s trailer with a bag, and Hilda walked over to Gabe’s trailer with one as well. Then they walked back towards the clubhouse.

Terry put the two bags on the dinette table, and went back to dusting out cabinets and wiping down everything. Trish started pulling things out of the bags. There was two sets of bedding, pillows, bath towels, hand towels, kitchen towels, and bathroom supplies.

“Wow, you got a lot of stuff,” Terry said.

“Mary and Hilda were teasing me about it at the store,” Trish said, smiling. “They said I was
nesting
.”

“Well, we kinda are,” Terry said. He watched her reaction. Her face turned red, but she looked at him and smiled.

“Maybe,” she said quietly.

“You knew we’d be moving in together while you were in the store, didn’t you?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, quietly again.

“But you wanted to tease me, didn’t you,” Terry said, shaking his head, smiling.

“You seem to be happy,” she said.

“You don’t know the half of it,” he said, walking over to her. He hugged her again, and they started to kiss, getting more and more passionate. Terry’s heart was pounding in his chest. She finally broke the kiss.

“Down boy,” she said, trying to catch her breath. “C’mon, help me make the bed. We still have a lot of work to do here.”

He nodded and followed her into the bedroom.

Back in the clubhouse, Charlie, Jerry, and Kurt were all glued to the TV, when Mary and Hilda walked in.

“Uh oh, what happened?” Mary asked.

“The cretins used nerve gas in West Denver,” Kurt said.

“Oh, no,” Hilda said. “Those poor people. How many dead?”

“Lots,” Jerry said grimly.

“I hear somebody coming,” Jeb said. He got up and rushed to the window opening. “Hey, Charlie, the glass contractors are here. They brought two trucks.”

“Good,” Charlie said, getting up. They walked out to meet them.

In the barn, Frank was trying to find his way into the enemy system. He attempted to log onto the system at Hilda’s place. No dice…when they destroyed the hard drive, it brought the system down…or the bad guys simply turned it off.
YouTube!
Maybe the cretins still had their propaganda up. He went over there. Yep, there were the two videos. The one with the heads, and the other one showing all of the group’s faces at Kurt’s place.
Maybe I can get to an IP address from here
.

“Hi, Frank,” Jane said, walking into the barn with Lucy. “Need anything?”

“No, I’m fine,” he said, not looking away from the screen.

“Oh,” she said, seeing the still of the video on the YouTube page.

“Yeah, you don’t want to look over my shoulder,” Frank said.

“What’re you doing?”

“Trying to get to the IP address that this was posted from,” Frank said. “Tricky, but doable. I’m hoping that they set this up from their system, not from some random place.”

“Well, I think I’ll leave you alone, then. Good luck, honey,” she said, walking away.

“Thanks,” Frank said, still looking at the screen.

Dobie was walking his four dogs. Gabe saw him and went over to help, taking a couple of leashes.

“Thanks, Gabe,” Dobie said.

“How’s your 5
^th
wheel coming along?”

“Surprisingly well,” he said. “How about your place?”