Bug Out! Part 11: Motorhomes on the Dark Road by Robert Boren Page B

Malcolm looked over from their laptops.
    “Hey, General Hogan, what’s up?” George asked, smiling. He turned around in his chair.
    “Nobody’s been watching the apps lately, I take it?” the General asked.
    “Not me,” Malcolm said. “Been busy all morning.”
    “Same here,” George said.
    “Yeah, I’ve been programming for most of the morning,” Frank chuckled. “Makes you forget time and space.”
    “There were a large number of icons in New Mexico and southern Arizona,” General Hogan said. “They’ve been slowly disappearing over the last week. All of the remaining ones disappeared a couple of hours ago.”
    “How many we talking?” Frank asked.
    “Over a thousand. They were spread all over the place before. We caught some of them moving in the direction of southern New Mexico, in dribs and drabs. And then poof…all of them are gone all of a sudden. And that’s not all.”
    “What else?”
    “There’s been a large theft of lead,” he said. “From three different sources. Half a million pounds.”
    “Son of a bitch,” Frank said. “They’ve probably got a whole bunch of lead-lined semi-trucks made up already.”
    “That’s what we’re thinking. You said something about a timed automatic history of icon hits, Frank. Still keeping that up?”
    “Yep,” Frank said. “Want me to access it?”
    “Could you?”
    “Sure, but we should do that on the PC in the clubhouse. It’ll work better on that than it will on the laptop.”
    All four men walked back into the Clubhouse, and Frank logged back onto the PC.
    “What’s going on?” Jane asked.
    “We’ve got some disappearing icons all of a sudden,” Frank said. “I’m going to use the history files to see what’s up.”
    “That doesn’t sound good,” Jasmine said, worried look on her face.
    “Okay, how far back do you want me to start?”
    “How about two weeks?” General Hogan asked.
    “Sure, I can do that,” Frank said. “What you’ll see is this map of the US, a snapshot for every hour. If there’s movement, we’ll see it happening as each snapshot is displayed. Maybe I should send this to the TV screen over there.”
    “Good idea,” George said.
    Frank switched wires in the back of the PC and then used the remote to turn on the TV. They all stared at the screen.
    “It’s show time,” Malcolm said, chuckling. Nobody else laughed.
    The screen came up with a map of the USA, showing an hour for each second.
    “Too fast?” Frank asked.
    “No,” General Hogan said, starting at the screen as the icons floated around. “We can slow down if we need to later.”
    They watched, hushed, as icons moved. They could see the roundup of the fighters around Denver, and in other parts of Colorado. Same thing with northern Arizona.
    “Look at New Mexico,” the General said. Down in the southeast corner. It’s like a vacuum is sucking them up from that point.”
    They got closer to the screen, watching as a hole in the fabric of the icons grew, with icons further and further out disappearing.
    “Ten to one, they’re being picked up in shielded trucks, further and further out,” George said. They continued to watch as the ring of emptiness grew to encompass all of New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern Colorado. Then it got to the end.
    “Wow,” Frank said. “That was interesting.”
    “Can you go back again?” General Hogan asked. “Slow it down? Maybe even start it a week or two earlier?”
    “Sure,” Frank said. The screen went to the input block, Frank putting in new parameters. He hit the Save button with his mouse cursor, and the map showed up again.
    “Look at that concentration right there, in New Mexico. Can you zoom in?”
    “Yeah, but I’ll have to start it over,” Frank said. He went back to the input page and changed the coordinates to show New Mexico only. Then he re-started the display.
    “Look, there’s a clump, and it just disappears all of a sudden,” Malcolm said. “Where is that?”
    “I’m