Escape and Regroup

Tank shells and the sound of gunfire absorbed the air and sent people running.

"Pat! We gotta dip."

"Agreed Bash, but where the fuck can we go?"

"Pat, tell everyone to stay on my ass!"

"Everyone follows the Red Mustang! GO! GO!"

The folks of Lots piled into cars and trucks speeding after the little red mustang, driven by a man in WWII Coveralls. The convoy speeds past soldiers all of which turn and fire at them.

"Bubba, I need you to return fire buddy, my malibu can't take much more of this!"

Without hesitation, Bubba unloaded rounds from his pistol at the soldiers, followed by a few others, in other cars. The convoy was pushing 120 mph as they left Ottawa and headed toward Starved Rock State Park, the little red mustang drove through a rotting wooden fence, and detoured into a dry field, speeding across it, followed by everyone else. A few minutes later they arrive at the Caves, a place deep inside the national park where high schoolers and college students would go to party, hook-up, or roll a joint.

The convoy parked up inside of one cave then headed into another cave to talked and make a plan.

"Pat, the fuck was that?" demanded Bubba.

"It's the government... They just attacked the whole US. I read the alert shortly before we lost signal." said the man in the coveralls.

"Ghost, man, what were we gonna do? We ain't got food, no supplies...." started Bash

"Pat, divide the group into four smaller groups. You and I will be taking a group to get food and supplies, while the others focus on setting up camp, fortifying these caves, and locating and boiling clean water." said Ghost

"Good plan, everyone who as a gun step forward." As they do, the other arrange themselves into groups. Bubba goes to take a drink of a bottle of Hennessy but is stopped by Pat.

"Man come on, we can use that shit to disinfect wounds and clean our hands, save that, drink the Twisted teas. For now, have your group begin taking inventory of everything we brought with us. Alcohol, food, any potential weapons, shit like that."

"Bet, say less. You was and is the Overlord of Lots, so we follow your lead."

"Bet, everyone else, get to work, Ghost, Bash, Stevo Big Jon and I will be back with supplies."

The away team heads out of the caves in the Malibu and back toward civilization.

"Yo Ghost, where should we start?"

"First of all, we need codenames. None of that real shit, except for Bash, man already has an alias. Pat, you'll be The Overlord, since Bubba fittingly called you that. I'm the Ghost, Big Jon, you'll be Gator G, since you don't shut up about Georgia, and Stevo, can just be Stevo. Sound fair?"

"Yep." They all reply.

"Alright, step two, we aren't going into town until we are sure the fighting has died down, not completely gone, but just enough for us to get in and out. To add to that, we'll be hitting farms and houses nearby. They'll have food and supplies we can gather.

As the team park and make their way to the first house, the door is open and blood stains line the walls and floors. With a nod from Ghost, they enter the house, clearing it first making sure nobody is home. Once they had, they all met back up.

"House is clear, grab a cooler from the closet and take everything food related. Pat, you, Stevo and I will search the shed and garage. " said Ghost drawing his revolver.

The two make their way outside and check out the garage.

"Hey Ghost, they got radios, like walkie talkies."

"Good, this will be a good way to communicate. I found gas cans and drums. Stevo, run back to camp and have him bring someone with a truck so we can load this shit up."

They make their way to the shed where they find the dead farmer, holding a 12-gauge shotgun and had a few small firearms lying about.

"Looks like he didn't make it."

"Agreed, bullet hole through his head, let's take the guns back, Bash and Gator G should've finished loading up the food and medical supplies and sleeping supplies."

Once back inside, it didn't take long to get everything loaded into the Malibu. Stevo and Cody returned to the house and began loading up the gas drums and cans. Once they were done, they made their way back to the caves, where they returned to a well-fortified base of operations.

As they unloaded supplies and handed out guns, Pat hopped up onto a rock and got everyone's attention.

"Alright! Everyone! As the Overlord of this group, I'm asking for volunteers to head into town with us at dusk. It'll be dangerous, but some of you have done some crazy hoodrat shit but we gotta do this and we have our own army guy on our side. We can't lose! So who's in?"

One by one, people stepped up until they had a group of fifteen people all willing to go.

"Alright, let's do this!"