Dark Titan Journey: Wilderness Travel (15 page)

“They went to sleep when the rain started. We told them we would stay up and keep watch,” John said, not blinking. The t-shirt Jasmine was wearing was soaked and transparent.

Jasmine giggled and walked over to him and lifted his face till he was looking at her. “John, do me a favor. When you talk to me, look me in the eye then look down,” she said and he started blushing. “Hey, it’s okay, but you have to learn to be more subtle about this. You’re starting to turn into a hunk and girls are going to pay attention to this,” she said and his eyes got big.

“I am?” he asked, delighted.

“Yes, you are. I don’t mind, but others will, trust me. When you talk, look them in the face and don’t let your head drop with your eyes,” she said.

“Okay, I will,” he promised.

She turned around and his eyes dropped but his head stayed up. “Amanda, how are you doing with all this?” she asked.

“I’m good,” Amanda said, playing on Nathan’s tablet.

“How do you think the other kids are going to be with this?” Jasmine asked.

“They’ll get through or they won’t.” Amanda shrugged.

Jasmine shook her head. “That’s not nice; we have to help them. They are part of our little group now, our family,” she told Amanda as she wrung out her shirt over Ares, waking him up. Ares jerked his head up and looked at her. “That’s for scaring the life out of me earlier,” she said, and Ares just moaned, plopping back down.

Jasmine walked over to Amanda. “What are you so intent with?” she asked.

“Just memorizing everyone,” she said, flipping through pictures.

Nodding her head in approval, Jasmine said, “That’s smart.”

Laying the tablet down, Amanda looked at her. “Jasmine, I really like you, but I have to tell you something,” she informed her.

“I really like you too, Amanda,” Jasmine said.

“He’s mine and you can’t have him,” Amanda said. Jasmine leaned back.

“Who?” she asked.

“Duh, Nathan of course,” Amanda said. Totally caught off guard, Jasmine just blinked at her. “I see the way you look at him and talk with him. I found him first, he’s mine,” she told Jasmine in a little commanding voice.

“Yours for what?” Jasmine inquired.

Amanda looked at Jasmine like she was so stupid. “My boyfriend?” she said, rolling her eyes.

“Sweetie, you’re thirteen,” Jasmine told Amanda; she wasn’t sure what emotion she was feeling now.

Amanda rolled her eyes again. “Duh, and you’re only nineteen. I’m not stupid. Momma said you can’t have a boyfriend till you’re seventeen or it’s puppies loving,” Amanda informed her.

“Puppy love,” Jasmine corrected, wondering what the hell she was supposed to say. “So what are you going to say to Nathan?”

“You don’t
say
it,” Amanda said, flipping her hand at Jasmine. She couldn’t believe Jasmine was this stupid about boyfriends. “You write them a letter and they give it back,” Amanda pointed out.

Not able to stand anymore, Jasmine grabbed a chair and pulled it over by Amanda. “You wrote a note asking what?” Jasmine had to know.

Amanda closed her eyes and shook her head. “If he would be my boyfriend when I’m seventeen. Gosh, I told you already.” Jasmine replayed their conversation. She didn’t remember that. Suddenly Jasmine was filled with the desire to find her mother and apologize for her teen years.

“So you wrote a note asking him to be your boyfriend?” Jasmine asked. “What if he says no?”

“He can’t. He saved me and he loves me,” Amanda said with a smile.

“Can I see the note?” Jasmine requested. Amanda dug in her tote bag and pulled out a folded piece of paper. Opening it up, Jasmine read: “
Nathan, will you be my boyfriend when I turn 17? Check yes or no and give it back.”
There was a box beside each. Refolding the paper, Jasmine handed it back, smiling. “Amanda, Nathan is a man. He’s old enough to be your dad.”

“Well he’s old enough to be
your
dad too and you still go after him, but I found him first,” Amanda said, letting her know it wasn’t open for debate.

Jasmine wracked her brain trying to figure out what to say. “He’s a man,” was all that she could think of.

“That’s just an older boy,” Amanda said.

John came over to join the conversation. “Amanda, you can’t date a man. Besides, I know Nathan loves you. He loves both of us, but it’s not the same,” he said. Jasmine wanted to kiss John for the help.

“That just means he already loves me,” Amanda said.

Jasmine let her head fall back. “Amanda, it would be like you asking your dad to be your boyfriend.”

“He was my
dad
and you can’t do that,” Amanda snapped.

“Will you wait to give him the note?” Jasmine asked, not wanting the little girl to get hurt till she could make her understand.

“You might tell him,” Amanda said.

Jasmine looked her right in the eyes. “I can promise you, I won’t,” she said.

“Okay then, I’ll wait a little while,” Amanda said and smiled.

***

Leaving the building Nathan strode through the slanting rain to the tents. He saw his three companions sitting in a circle inside the gazebo and headed that way. By the time he reached them, the rain was barely a drizzle. Jasmine was sitting in front of Amanda, and John was at Amanda’s side. The tension in the air was so thick he could cut it with a knife.

Putting his hands on his hip and taking a wide stance, Nathan said, “Now whatever you three are having a problem with, get over it. Take off your gear and get on the floor and wrestle it out.”

Jasmine and John stood up and looked down at Amanda. “Fine,” she said in a sassy attitude. “Ares, here,” she commanded, and Ares ran over to her side as she stroked his back. “Who wrestles me first?” she inquired with a lopsided grin.

“I’m outta here,” John said, walking away.

Spinning around, Jasmine stopped in front of Nathan, raising her finger to his face as if to say something then dropped it to her side. Then she took a breath and pointed at him again, then let out the breath, dropping her hand. “You figure this out for yourself,” she said, grabbing her wet shirt and walking out.

Nathan watched her go and turned to Amanda. “What the hell is going on?” he demanded. Amanda shrugged her shoulders, smiled at him then sat back down with the tablet and began going through the pictures again. “Put the tablet up,” he said and she took a breath to start a line of choice words. “Pick your rifle from those that you gathered and get it clean,” he said.

Putting up the tablet, Amanda walked over and actually spent ten minutes choosing a rifle. Seeing that it wasn’t raining anymore, she went outside to the table. Nathan just shook his head as Ares looked at him before heading outside. “What?” Nathan asked.

Ares snorted and walked past the table, heading to the trailer behind the tractor. “Ares, I told you no!” Amanda snapped and Ares stopped.

“Let him go, Amanda. He’s probably found some food he wants,” Nathan said. What he really wanted to say was, “Ares wants to run away because you guys are driving us insane and slowing us down.”

“He’s been wanting to go over there but I wouldn’t let him,” Amanda said, taking the rifle apart.

“Any reason?” Nathan asked.

Amanda nodded her head. “Well yeah, when you found me Ares made me feel better and it helped the other kids some too,” she said. “So I wanted him to stay near us.”

“Does he listen to them?” he asked.

“No, and I think he’s scarred of Emma,” Amanda said as she finished taking the rifle apart.

“That’s the little one, right?” he asked and she nodded. “That’s impossible,” Nathan said.

“Okay, whatever you say,” she said in a tone that spoke volumes. Nathan remembered something his mom had said when he was a little boy. Something about “Just wait till you have kids of your own.” Nathan bit his tongue and thought happy thoughts. Calmer, he still wanted to unload but now his tongue hurt. He just stared at the back of Amanda’s head till he saw movement out of the corner of his eye.

Looking up, he saw Ares walking over with another, smaller dog following behind him. “What the hell,” Nathan said, walking around the table to face them. Ares led the dog closer and stopped in front of Nathan, panting. Nathan’s eyes got wide. A German shepherd puppy!
No wonder he kept wanting to go over to the trailer.
Nathan knelt down beside the dog and it cowered down then rolled on its back with its tail between its legs.

Smiling at the dog and offering his hand to it to be smelled, Nathan looked down. “Oh no you don’t, Ares, you can’t have a girlfriend.” Ares went prone in front of Nathan and gave him the puppy dog eyes. “Begging isn’t going to help,” Nathan said as Ares let out a whine.

“A puppy!” Amanda squealed. Jumping from the table, she ran over but Nathan stopped her.

“We don’t know anything about it,” Nathan said, not letting her get close.

Amanda looked at the dog still lying on its back and looking up at them. “Well check it out,” she said.

“It could have any number of diseases that Ares could get. We don’t have vets around,” he said and that froze Amanda.

“But she’s scared and lonely,” Amanda said pleadingly as Jasmine and John came running over, their rifles in their hands.

“Where did the dog come from?” Jasmine asked with some alarm.

“It was in the trailer when they drove in. I just forgot about it. Ares attacked one of the men I shot because he’d pulled a pistol and was going to shoot me when I ran past to stop the tractor. After I shot the man, Ares went over and smelled the dog. I figured it would run off but it stayed right there, cowered down,” Nathan explained.

Jasmine held out her rifle and pushed it into Nathan’s hands. “Okay, I’ll hold your rifle, you don’t have to ask,” he said as Jasmine walked over and knelt down by the dog. She looked the dog over then held its mouth open to examine her teeth.

“It’s a German Shepard about seven months old. She looks in good shape, considering,” Jasmine said.

“So you’re a vet?” he asked.

“No, but I worked in one’s office for three years in high school. That’s what I was studying,” she said.

Amanda clasped her hands and started jumping up and down. “Can we keep her please?” she repeated a dozen times, adding “pretty” in front of please every other repeat.

Nathan started rubbing his temples. “Amanda, enough!” he finally snapped and she stopped talking but kept jumping up and down, holding her hands in a prayerful grasp in front of her. “That is more food we have to carry,” he said.

“Ares has a pack. We can get her one,” Amanda offered.

“It took Ares a long time to get to the weight he’s at now, and she’s a puppy and can’t carry a pack yet,” he said.

“That’s not fair,” Amanda said. Nathan gave Jasmine a pleading look.

“Hey, don’t even get me in this,” she said, standing up.

“Thanks for the help,” he said, handing her rifle back. He looked back at Amanda. “You are learning how to fight. I don’t think you have the time to train her,” Nathan said, meaning “
I
don’t have the time to train her.”

“I can train her as we go,” Amanda offered.

“Do you know how?” Nathan asked and Amanda dropped her hands and looked down at her feet.

“No,” she moaned as Ares low-crawled over beside Amanda and looked up at Nathan with pleading eyes.

“I’m fixing to just go and hide somewhere so no one can find me forever,” Nathan moaned, grabbing his face with his hands.

“Okay! I won’t keep her! Don’t leave!” Amanda piped with alarm, staring wide-eyed at Nathan. Nathan dropped his hands from his face and looked down at Amanda and saw fear on her face and her body trembling. “Please don’t leave me, I won’t ask again,” she said with tears forming in her eyes.

Nathan knelt down and held out his arms and she ran over and wrapped her arms around his neck. He hugged her tight and murmured in her ear, “I didn’t mean that, Amanda, I swear to you on my soul. I wouldn’t leave you for any reason. You got me out of that stupid store and you make me remember why I like the quiet and alone time.”

“Huh?” she asked with her head still buried in his neck.

“You’ll understand when you get older,” he said, picking her up. She wrapped her legs around him and Ares sat up, panting. Nathan pushed her head back and brushed the tears off her face. “If you do this, you do this all the way. You can’t let learning about other stuff go because of this dog. We have a long way to go and it’s going to be hard. We’ve barely begun and look at the crap we’ve been through. Are you sure?” he asked.

Amanda nodded. “I’ll do my best, I promise, and I’ll keep doing everything else,” she said.

“We have four more in our group and some of them are little. You’ll have to help,” he said.

“They have an older brother and sister,” she pointed out.

“They need more. That’s why they’re with us,” Nathan said. Amanda thought about that for a minute.

“You mean we’re family?” she asked.

Nathan lifted his eyebrows. “Well I guess you can say that.”

“Okay then, I promise,” she said and kissed his cheek as he put her down. He looked over at Jasmine and John and saw John pass Jasmine something.

“Passing notes?” Nathan asked.

“No, I won the bet,” Jasmine said, holding up a hundred dollar bill. “You gave in,” she said with a smile. “Someone has you in the palm of their little hand.” Jasmine spun around and walked away with her hair bobbing from side to side.

Amanda and Ares loved on the new dog and she ate it up. “What are we going to call her?” Amanda asked.

“She’s your dog,” Nathan said, wanting to crawl in a hole and never come out.

“No, she’s ours, it has to be a Greek name like the other dogs,” she said.

“Athena,” Nathan offered.

“Athena, I like that,” Amanda said. Nathan showed her how to work on teaching the pup her new name. After a few minute, he said, “Stay here and remember, you have a rifle on the table that is in parts.”

“Okay,” she said as he walked off, mumbling.

Chapter 10

Day 15

The next morning, when Jasmine woke up she looked over but didn’t see Nathan on his bed roll. She had laid it out last night hoping he’d get some sleep. He still hadn’t said all what he’d found, but he seemed real excited about it. She stood up, grabbed her jogging pants and t-shirt and threw them on. She looked up to see John on watch and he smiled at her.

She couldn’t help but chuckle as she waved her fingers at him. Slipping on her sandals, she stepped over Amanda and Athena who were cuddled up together. Best friends already. Not seeing Ares around, Jasmine stepped outside and saw Nathan at the table working on a rifle. Before she could head over, John came up to her and handed her a cup of coffee. Telling him thanks, she walked over to Nathan.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Putting a scope on this rifle,” he answered, knowing she could see that.

“Yes, but did you get to sleep?” she asked.

“No, I’ve been digging around in the piles of stuff,” he said.

“You found more?” she asked in a low whisper.

“Not more gold, but a lot of useful stuff,” he informed her.

Jasmine shook her head. “We are carrying a ton now. Do you know how hard it was dragging your damn pack up here?” she asked.

“When the bladders are full it weighs about what you do,” he said, looking through the scope as John set down a cup of coffee for Nathan. “Thank you, John,” he said without looking up. When John moved away, Nathan turned around. “I should’ve known that I wasn’t special enough for him to fix coffee for,” Nathan said, taking a sip.

“I’m not responding to that,” she informed him. “Now what are you wanting us to pack over hell’s creation?”

He pointed at a line of cases. “Open those up and tell me what you find.” he said.

She walked over and opened one. “It’s a night vision monocular like you wear.”

“That’s right, and I found seven of them,” he said. “Also found two thermal scopes.” He grinned.

Jasmine shook her head, smiling. “Okay, those are worth carrying, but what are you doing today? Why can’t we leave yet?” she asked.

“I have to get some transport for the little ones ready,” he said, pointing to a lawn cart with four huge tires.

“Where the hell did you get that?” she asked.

“From beside the shed where I got the rest of the carts.”

“What the hell is it here for? These shit stains don’t look like farmers,” she pointed out.

“Oh, in fact they
were
farmers. They have a twenty-acre crop of pot and it looks to be some primo stuff. There are buds over a foot long.”

“That’s why they didn’t bring many people here,” she said, remembering what the woman had told Nathan.

“Yeah, and they had a small meth set-up out in the woods,” he added.

“Well, now that we have more crap to carry, what do you want to do today?” she asked.

He put down his tools. “I want you and John to teach the three older ones about the M-4 rifles,” he said.

“Nathan, Casey is ten.”

“I said teach them, not arm them. I want to see which ones will understand. You’ve seen what happens to the unarmed out there. Age is not a consideration,” he said, remembering what Lillian had said.

She nodded. “Okay I’ll do it. What are you going to do?”

“Get their ride ready,” he answered.

“And Amanda?” she asked.

“She’ll keep the little blond girl entertained,” he said, picking up his coffee.

“Emma,” Jasmine said. She looked at the tent with the others. “Did they ever wake up?” she asked.

“Of course, they’ve been out to pee.”

“They were worn out,” she said. Then looked at him. “What is all this?” Jasmine asked, waving at all the junk.

“It turns out the girl was telling the truth. She told me they were survivalists, just not the type I’ve seen. They had plans on what to hit the second anything went bad. They started the first night, getting—” he stopped and she nodded. “Then they moved to weapons and ammo, then food. Then one got the idea of the trucks on the roads that were delivering food. They wouldn’t have to fight, just unload it. They would hold people at gunpoint to do that.”

“Yeah, that’s how they got the ones here,” she said.

“I know,” he nodded. “But they continued and killed any cop they came across. I figure there are five or six semitrailer-loads here of food alone. Both of those sheds by the field are full of ammo and there are two more piles beside them. I haven’t searched the shed beside the house yet. If they would’ve stopped they could’ve lived here like kings for years,” he said.

“We’ll leave tomorrow right?” she asked.

“What has you so antsy?”

“You have to ask?” she said, nodding her head toward the tractor then the graves.

He wouldn’t look at her, but he nodded. “I know. Yes, we’ll leave tomorrow, but we are meeting today to talk about routes.” The tent behind them opened. Howard stepped out and walked over.

“Damn, it’s tomorrow,” he said, putting a shirt on.

“Yeah, let ya sleep,” Nathan said.

“You look like crap.” Howard sat down.

“Thank you, Howard, for telling him,” Jasmine said, looking at Nathan.

“I’ll wash in a minute,” Nathan said grumpily. He laid out what needed to be done and how he wanted it done. The two nodded as he got up and grabbed some clean clothes. Then Nathan headed to the pump.

Howard looked at her. “He always like that?” he asked.

“No not really.”

“Well, let me get them up so we can start,” Howard said, getting up.

The group moved with purpose throughout the day and the three kids were kept busy learning gun safety as the others helped and gathered equipment to leave. Nathan packed the cart with food and ammo. Then he strapped the sniper rifle to the side of it. He wasn’t carrying it if they had to pull the damn cart. He grabbed several blankets and pillows from the mountain of stuff and made a pallet on the supplies. Then he grabbed some tarps they could use for shelter since there were so many of them now.

Getting some rope, he made a harness that he could hook to his shoulders to pull the cart without holding the handle. Checking the tires, he looked up to see the little blond girl in front of him. “Why aren’t you with Amanda?” Nathan asked. She looked at him with what could only be described as a flehmen reaction. She curled her lips out, exposing her teeth at him. “What the hell?” Nathan said, standing up, and the girl squealed, spun around and took off running. Well she thought she was running.

Nathan took two large steps and grabbed the back of her little overalls and lifted her up. “Why did you do that to me?” he asked the little girl. She just giggled and did it again. “Are you trying to scare me?” he asked as Amanda ran over.

“Man, she can move,” Amanda said, holding out her arms for her. “Come here Emma.”

When Nathan handed Emma over she looked back at him and did it again. “See that, she walked right over here and did that to me,” Nathan told Amanda as Emma curled up her lips exposing her teeth.

“Yeah, she does that to Ares and he walks away from her,” Amanda said.

“He’s a smart dog,” Nathan said, looking sideways at Emma. “Find out what she means by it.”

“How?” Amanda asked.

“Ask her?”

“Nathan, she only says a few words and her favorite one is ‘No.’”

“Well, ask her brother and sisters then,” he said, moving back to the cart. “That kid’s weird,” Nathan said getting back to work.

He was packing more stuff into the cart when he heard someone walking up. Turning around, he saw Jasmine carrying a box. She stopped beside him, and said, “Nathan, I went to search the shed by the cabin, you know, to look for—” Jasmine paused and Nathan nodded his head in understanding. “Well, I didn’t find more but I think you need to see what I did find.” She opened the box.

“Whoa,” Nathan gasped.

Jasmine smiled. “These what I think they are then?” she asked.

“Yep, those are 5.56 suppressors,” Nathan said, pulling one out and drooling over it.

“There are six more boxes like this one and some of them have different numbers on the side,” Jasmine said. “So can we have suppressors now?”

Nathan studied the suppressor then looked back in the box and pulled something else out. “I do believe so,” he finally said.

“What’s that?” Jasmine asked, pointing at the piece of metal in Nathan’s hand.

“It’s a special flash suppressor that goes on the rifle, and the suppressor screws onto it,” Nathan said, handing it over. “Show them to me,” he said, walking past Jasmine and heading to the small shed.

Jasmine spun around and walked beside him. “Is it a lot of work?”

“Those in that box aren’t. You just have to unscrew the original flash suppressor and put that one on,” Nathan explained.

“So we can still leave tomorrow?” she asked hopefully.

“Yes, I don’t see why not, but why are you in such a rush?” Nathan asked as they reached the small shed.

Jasmine put the box down and grabbed Nathan. “Nathan, these guys’ family will eventually come for them. Granted, the woman said none had been here, but these pieces of shit supported them and those family members will be expecting stuff. We have found kids’ and women’s clothes so these guys weren’t just getting stuff for themselves,” Jasmine told Nathan.

“I know, but there is a lot of stuff here we can use,” Nathan said, pointing to the box at her feet.

Letting out a sigh, she said, “Yes, but eventually people will come looking for them and we shouldn’t be here. Hell, they could be looking for them now.”

Opening the door to the shed, Nathan bent down and picked up the box and carried it in. “Yes they could, but if we leave before we’re ready we could just as easily die out there as right here,” he said, putting the box down. He saw a small work bench with an M-4 in a vice. A pipe wrench was on the flash hider and the barrel was really scarred up. “Please tell me you didn’t do that?” Nathan asked, pointing at the weapon.

“Hell no, I found it like that,” Jasmine said. “I see and know how you treat weapons so I wouldn’t even try that.”

Nathan chuckled, shaking his head, “These guys were true idiots then,” he concluded.

Jasmine walked over to the work bench and lifted up a notebook. “Only on some things,” she said upon scanning the notebook. She turned it to face Nathan so he could see the writing. “This is a list of stores they planned to hit. Beside each one is the address of the owner or manager. It’s quite detailed and well thought-out,” Jasmine said as Nathan took the notebook.

“Holy shit,” was all Nathan could say.

“Yeah, there are gun stores, sporting goods stores, over a dozen jewelry stores, and if you notice, most are crossed out.”

Nathan nodded in agreement. Reaching over, Jasmine flipped to the next section. Nathan looked at the top of the page reading “Cops” in big letters. “This is a list of cops’ addresses and again you can see some crossed out,” Jasmine said, fighting off a shudder.

Nathan flipped through the pages and was at a loss for words. Names were crossed out and several pages were filled with notes. In another section Nathan found “People who prepare” written at the top, and other sections labeled “Trouble People,” “Pay Back,” and several others. All had lists of names and address with some already crossed out. “Fuck me,” Nathan mumbled.

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you,” Jasmine blurted out. “This group had a hit list for supplies and securing the area around them, and I can bet you money the rest of their families knew about it. They might not know where they were operating from, but they knew the plan. Do we really want to wait around for them?”

Nathan closed the book. “We leave tomorrow, but Jasmine, I really don’t think we have much to worry about.” Jasmine took a breath to speak but Nathan held up his hand. “Think about it. If these guys trusted their families then they would be here helping. Now think about the type of men that were out here. Do you think the families would risk trying to find the evil fuckers? Hell, my money is on the fact that their families are too scared of them.”

“You willing to take that chance, especially after all we’ve seen here?” Jasmine asked.

“Yes I am,” he replied. “We have time and a true gift here.”

Throwing her hands up in the air, Jasmine huffed, “Fine, show me how to do the guns then,” she complained.

“No, I’ll do them. You go and get the cart loaded,” Nathan said. He gave her a list of stuff to put in the cart and what the others needed to look for in the stacks of supplies.

Late that afternoon, the group sat around the table as Nathan laid out the route, using back roads and logging trails. When he was finished, Jasmine looked at him. “How long?” she asked.

“We will get to Howard’s dad’s farm in seven days,” he said and got groans from around the table.

“Why not take 78?” Howard asked from behind him.

“Because it’s a four-lane highway and will be full of people.”

Jasmine looked at the map carefully. “If we did take it, how many days would it take?” she asked.

“We’d make it to the state line the fourth day and to Howard’s family farm on the fifth,” he said.

“You didn’t even look at the map,” she snapped at him.

“What, you don’t think I wouldn’t have added it up and planned that route?” he asked with a ton of attitude.

“So you laid out two routes?” she asked.

“No, seven. With the first one I gave as the safest, and the last the most dangerous,” he said.

“That’s two days added for trying to be safe,” she said in disbelief.

“It won’t matter if we get there or not if we
die
,” he said, stressing the last word. “We are pulling a fancy wagon with kids in it. If we get in shit we will have to kill or be killed. Running is not really an option anymore.”

Jackie leaned over. “We can surrender,” she offered.

“Look what happened last time,” he said sharply and Jackie recoiled. “If you go with me, we live or we die, but we don’t surrender. There is no Geneva Convention here. They will do what they want, as you’ve seen,” he said and she nodded.

“What if we travel at night?” Jasmine asked.

“What?” Nathan asked.