Chapter 7: Sunday, November 18th, 2012 - 1000

Rob was worried. They were parked behind an old shed just north of Heber. Three vehicles were parked on the pavement not a hundred yards from them and Rob could see the men talking through the gaps between boards in the wall of the shed. The house the old shed had belonged to had been burned to the ground. Rob thought the structure had been burned recently because of the fresh, un-weathered look of the burned boards. Rob knew the turn off to the property was only a few miles farther. From the turn off it was about 20 miles of dirt road but Rob thought it would be safer than going the longer but quicker way by pavement. The quicker way only had about five miles of dirt. The paved roads seemed to be patrolled more heavily than the dirt roads. Rob wished the patrols were the state police.

The patrols seemed to all be unshaven men in civilian clothes and heavily armed. Rob and his family had passed several vehicles in the last two days that looked like they had been forced from the road. The vehicles were ransacked and were usually accompanied by dead bodies. The men were the lucky ones because they died quick. The naked and very obviously raped female bodies were the worst. Some of the women had had large objects shoved up inside them after they had been used and they had been left tied to a tree or a car to bleed to death. Rob could tell they had been alive when left because of the amount of blood around them. Dead people don't bleed.

Rob was terrified that Susan would end up like one of those women. He was determined that she would not end up like one of them and saw the same grim determination on his son's face. Jimmy seemed to have grown up in the last two days and it wasn't surprising. A 13 year old boy shouldn't need to do the things his son had done or see what he had seen.

There had been a few minor skirmishes as they made their way toward Apache Junction. Most of the people they saw were running scared and were trying to get away just like Rob and his family where. Twice groups of men attempted to stop Rob's truck because it was obviously loaded with supplies. Neither group was prepared to face the barrage of bullets the three of them could produce. They followed the dirt road up the Salt River and found a road block at Tortilla Flat that was manned by two men. Both men were killed before they could give an alarm. That is where Rob found the two way FM radios the bad guys were using. Both of the men at the road block had one so Rob took them along. He didn't want to leave the dead bodies as a clear indicator of the battle. He threw them on the back of the truck and scuffed out the blood marks left on the road. He dumped the dead bodies over a cliff about five miles farther down the road. They used the radios to monitor where the bandits were going and what they were doing. They had made it past the tip of Lake Roosevelt by dodging and hiding based on clues gathered from the walkie-talkies. One pair couldn't be dodged and they had to kill them. Rob thought they didn't have a chance to report over the two-way radios. One of the bandits didn't die right away and Rob learned a frequency switching plan was in place every six hours and what it was. He wasn't proud of what he had to do to get the information from the wounded man. He was sure the information would be helpful.

They almost had a battle when they got to the little town of Young. There was a road block in Young not reported on the radios. Rob was afraid to go back because of the heavy patrolling around the lake and didn't know how he could go forward because this road block was heavily manned. There was no way to go around the town.

He watched the road block through his binoculars for a while. Most of the men were clean shaven and the ones that weren't had neatly trimmed beards. Rob saw a neatly dressed woman bringing a large thermos and some cups to the road block from the nearest house. All the men treated the woman respectfully. That is when Rob decided to take a chance and go into Young.

Rob drove slowly around the curve and toward the road block. He was driving one handed and was holding a stick with a white cloth tied to it. All the men came to attention at the sight of his truck and brought their rifles up. One older man was watching them through binoculars and he held up one hand. Rob stopped when he held up his hand and the older man impatiently waved for Rob to continue forward. Apparently the man's hand had been to stop his men from firing. Rob didn't want to take a chance with so many weapons pointed at him.

He slowly approached the barricade that had been erected across the road and stopped when the older man held up his hand again. He was within easy shouting distance from the barricade.

"One of you get out and come forward," the old man yelled. "Don't bring any weapons," he admonished.

Rob got out of the truck and made a show of disarming himself. He wanted them to understand that he really wasn't armed. Susan moved into the driver's seat and Jimmy moved into the front passenger seat. After they were situated Rob slowly moved toward the log barricade with his hands raised. He had no choice but to take a chance with the citizens of Young but he didn't want to be stupid about it. The men now knew that he had a woman and a young boy in the truck with him. That alone should ensure they knew he wasn't one of the bandits. They also knew that woman and boy were armed so that may make them a little more cautious in dealing with them.

"My name is Rob Blake," Rob called as he approached the road block.

"What do you want," the old man called harshly.

"I don't want anything," Rob replied in a normal voice as he walked up to the log across the road. "I need to get past Young so I can meet up with my dad."

"Where's your dad," the old man asked in a calmer tone?

"I am supposed to meet him at some property we have been preparing for a situation like this," Rob said as he gestured toward the road block. "We didn't expect it to be so sudden and we ended up on opposite sides of Phoenix."

"Where is this property," the old man asked.

"About 20 miles north west of Heber," Rob answered.

"You'll never make it," the old man replied shaking his head. "They are patrolling the roads up that direction and kill anyone not part of their group." Then the old man's eyes narrowed and he said, "They are patrolling back towards Roosevelt too. How did you get past them?"

Rob smiled brightly and said, "Oh we hid from some and killed some others. We didn't want to stop when they ordered us to. We found out how they are staying so organized with the cell phones shut down."

The old man was clearly startled and asked, "How are they doing it?"

Rob shook his head and said, "I will trade that information and what you need to take advantage of it for passage through your town."

"You aren't in a very good bargaining position," a younger man retorted angrily and clicking the safety off on his rifle.

There was another audible click in the silence and Rob knew that Jimmy was leaning out his window and had a rifle trained on the young man.

"My son can hit a playing card at 300 yards 9 out of 10 times so this shot would be child's play for him but that wouldn't accomplish anyone's goal," Rob said conversationally. Looking over his shoulder he called back, "Jimmy, pull the rifle back. No one's going to get shot right now."

The old man said, "Brother Simpson, put your rifle down." Turning to Rob he said, "Brother Simpson lost his wife to a gang of the thugs. He was going to meet her down towards Roosevelt and got to the cross roads where they had planned on meeting about 20 minutes to late."

Rob looked at Simpson and asked, "Did you get to kill them?"

Simpson just nodded his bowed head and Rob could see the tears on his cheeks.

"Good," Rob said savagely. "There are too many dead that aren't avenged."

The old man quoted sternly, "Vengeance is mine sayeth the lord."