Dark Titan Journey: Wilderness Travel (6 page)

When their follower got closer, Nathan could see she was in her late teens or early twenties. She stopped in front of them and held out her hand. “I’m Jasmine,” she told them, taking off her sunglasses.

Pausing for a second, he reached out and shook her hand. “Nathan,” he said.

“You guys were moving along,” she said, smiling. “You must know about the refugees coming in?” she asked.

“Nope, just moving through,” he said as Ares finally quit drinking.

“That’s why I was following you. I knew you were leaving,” she said, and Nathan shook his head.

“No, this is our group. Go join another,” he said, knowing what was coming.

Jasmine looked him in the eyes. “You’re the first I’ve seen who aren’t a bunch of rednecks, gang bangers, or people who’ve never walked further than the front door of their house. I’m not stupid. I’ve seen over a dozen women raped in the last week, two people shot, one beat to death, and three stabbed. I know what’s going to happen if I stay here longer,” she said.

“Amanda, get the pack on Ares, we’re leaving,” Nathan said, seeing several people take an interest in the group. “Jasmine, I’m sorry, but we’re leaving,” he said.

“Fine, I’ll follow,” she said, putting on her sunglasses. Across the street two men came out of a house and pointed at the group. With the grins on their faces, Nathan knew they weren’t pointing at him.

“Okay, you can come with us but I’m the boss. The first time you don’t do what I say and endanger us I’ll tie you up and leave you behind. If you get one of these kids killed you won’t be far behind,” Nathan said like he was ordering pizza, and then he looked at Amanda as she put the bowl in Ares’s pack.

Nathan didn’t say anything to them as he grabbed Amanda’s hand and started walking out of the subdivision. Not long after that they came around a curve to a four-lane highway like the one the camp was on. “Ahh, shit,” Amanda said, looking at the road.

“Amanda, watch your mouth. Enough is enough, you’re a little girl. You’re tough, but still a little girl,” Nathan said, never breaking pace to the highway.

“Watch my mouth?” she popped back. “That’s a big fucking road. Bad stuff is close to big fucking roads,” she said, pointing with her left hand holding the leash.

“I’m not kidding on the mouth, I’ll spank your butt,” Nathan said, looking down at her with a gleam in his eye. “I know it’s a big road but you are attracting attention. We want everyone to think we’ve been here a thousand times and know where everything is at,” he reminded her.

She looked down shamefaced. “Sorry,” she said.

“You can cuss tonight when we camp, just not too loud or where I can hear it,” Nathan said. Amanda jerked her head up with a smile as they turned onto the highway and crossed over to walk on the southbound lane side.

They made it another mile only to see a camp on the other side of the road. A group of young men were standing just off the shoulder of the road yelling out stuff no doubt aimed at Jasmine. “Jasmine, hold John’s hand,” Nathan said over his shoulder.

A few minutes later he heard several “Awws” from the group followed by a few challenges at John. “John, don’t even look at them,” Nathan warned, never slowing pace.

“Yes sir,” John said and Nathan let it slide, hearing the tremble in his voice. He didn’t know if it was from fear or from holding Jasmine’s hand. Knowing boys, Nathan figured the latter.

When the sun touched the horizon they were still walking and Amanda looked up at him. “That’s our rally point; we’re supposed to camp,” she said. “That’s the road on the right with the pond on the left with a gentle slope to the southwest.” She pointed off to the left.

Nathan was very impressed. “You go, girl,” he said. “Yes it is, but look around. There’s too many people still around. We don’t want to head into the woods with fifty people watching where we went in.”

Lifting her chin up, she said, “I’m not complaining, but I really don’t want to walk all night.”

“Can’t we slow down? She’s getting tired,” Jasmine asked from behind them.

“I’m not talking to you,” Amanda sang out. “Nathan, I can keep going. I’m just saying,” she said, leaving it open.

“Amanda, I know what you mean. My legs are numb, but I’m not in the mood to kill more people today just because they want our stuff unless I have to. If this keeps up, ammo is going to become an issue,” he said.

“Okay, so where are we going?” she asked, taking a drink.

“There’s another spot a mile up about two hundred yards off the side of the road,” Nathan said.

“Out across the fields?” John asked.

“You two are getting good with remembering the map,” Nathan told them. “Yes, we cross the field into the woods and find a spot to crash.”

Only half the sun was peeking above the horizon as they entered the field then walked into the tree line. The mosquitos were waiting as they stepped into the woods. With the exception of Jasmine, the others just let the damn things feast, only swatting when the little bastards tried to fly in their noses.

They reached a small clearing half a mile in and Nathan dropped his pack, pulling out the ThermaCELL, followed by Amanda. No sooner than the things were on then the torrent of bloodsuckers abated. Praising his holy ThermaCELL, Nathan set it down and started pulling out gear. “Just get what you need to sleep. No washing or anything else, we will do that at our next camp. I’m sure there are others in these woods,” he said in a low voice and turned to see Jasmine had a holy ThermaCELL held out against the bloodsuckers of the night.

“Jasmine, do you have a gun?” Nathan asked.

“No, I have pepper spray and a Taser,” she said proudly.

Blinking his eyes rapidly, Nathan was caught totally off guard. “Okay, you and John go to sleep. Amanda and I will take first watch and wake you after midnight. No talking above a whisper,” he warned them, feeling Amanda moving beside him. He looked down to see her spreading out Ares’ woobie.

The woobie was barely on the ground when Ares walked over and just flopped down. Nathan sat down and pulled out the night vision scope and his monocular. Putting the head harness on, he clipped the monocular on and reached in his tote bag and pulled out two stripped down MREs.

He and Amanda ate the MRE’s as total darkness sat in. When they were finished, he picked up Amanda and put her between his legs and leaned down to whisper, “If you hear something, move slow and use the scope to look. If you see something, tap my leg. Let’s tap each other’s leg every so often to make sure we don’t sleep,” Nathan explained to her and she nodded.

It was only ten minutes before Nathan felt her breathing fall into a regular pattern. Nathan patted his leg and Ares moved over, putting his head on Nathan’s leg. Slowly wrapping an arm around Amanda, Nathan sat watch in a light doze, waking when he heard the slightest noise and letting the others sleep through the night.

Chapter 4

Day 9

Amanda awoke with a startle and felt an arm tighten around her. She started to panic till she felt it was Nathan’s arm by his elbow pad on his shirt. Blinking her eyes to get the sleep out of them, Amanda noticed it was still dusk.
It was darker than that a few minutes ago
, she thought. She grabbed Nathan’s arm and turned it till she saw the face of his watch. It was almost 5:30 a.m.

She leaned her head back and looked up at Nathan. “You didn’t tap me to stay awake,” she whispered.

“You just looked too cute to wake up,” Nathan said and she smiled up at him.

“My butt hurts big time and my legs are numb,” she said with a grimace.

“Well get up and wake the other two, we’re leaving,” Nathan said. “Tell them to be quiet. There are people in the woods to the north. I’m guessing but I figure less than a hundred yards from us,” he whispered.

Not liking others that close, Amanda slowly eased over to John and Jasmine, shaking them awake and telling them to get ready and be quiet. In just that little bit of time she was gone Nathan was packed and rolling up Ares’s woobie. Amanda turned to get her stuff to see it was in and on her pack. She picked up Ares’ pack and lifted it on his back and buckled it on.

Not able to help it, Nathan scoped out Jasmine as she stood up, stretching. “Whoa,” Nathan mumbled as he walked over to Jasmine and watched her roll up her sleeping bag. “Jasmine, tell me you have some pants in your pack, please?” Nathan asked in an almost begging voice.

“Pants? Yes I do,” she said, not understanding.

Relieved, Nathan asked tactfully, “Will you please put them on, and how about a shirt that’s not so—revealing?”

Putting her hands on her hips, Jasmine snapped in a harsh whisper, “This shirt covers everything.”

Giving up on tact, Nathan asked in a straightforward manner, “Okay, how about a shirt that’s baggy and doesn’t show you to be a hottie with real nice tah-tahs?”

Seeing the look on Nathan’s face, she stifled a giggle. “No, they’re all like this. I’m sorry. If that’s the case I don’t think you’ll like the pants either,” Jasmine informed him.

“Get your stuff packed and I’ll be back,” Nathan said. He saw John looking around on the ground, making sure he didn’t leave anything.

Very impressed with John, Nathan made a mental note to say something as he reached in his pack and pulled out his ACU top like Amanda was wearing; he also pulled out his ACU pants. He pulled out a belt and cut a length of paracord then walked back to Jasmine. “Put these on,” he said, handing her the pants. She started to comply but the pants caught on her boot. Nathan helped her pull them on and couldn’t help but notice she was solid muscle and in really good shape.

His ACU pants were large and long and swallowed Jasmine, but he was able to tighten the waist till the pants at least didn’t fall down. She put the belt on as he ran the paracord over her shoulders, making her some suspenders. When he tightened the cord he noticed her tah-tahs were kinda big and were holding up the string. He wanted to run the string around the tah-tahs but he wasn’t about to go there. He hesitated and glanced at her as she was working on the belt. “Um, Jasmine, could you …” Nathan said, pointing at the cord.

“What?” she asked.

“Like around the hooters,” Nathan said, motioning on his chest. Rolling her eyes, Jasmine sighed and pushed the cord off her breasts as Nathan tightened the cord and tied it. Jasmine tucked the pants legs in as Nathan walked back to his pack.

“Man, she’s got some knockers,” Amanda told Nathan when he bent down to get his gear.

“Yep,” was all he said, putting on his gear and trying not to laugh at Amanda’s description.

“Nathan, if I don’t take this damn vest off tonight I’m going to shoot someone,” Amanda said, adjusting it under her clothes.

“We’re staying by Lake Henry. It’s only twelve miles away,” he said. “I want to make it by this afternoon. We need a day of down time.”

“Fine by me,” Amanda said.

Knowing something was up because Amanda didn’t complain, he narrowed his eyes and asked, “Are your feet hurting?”

Looking up with a totally innocent face, she said, “I put some new socks on and the bandages were a little bloody.”

“Will you answer the damn question?” he barked out in a whisper.

“Yeah, they’re hurting a little, but nothing like yesterday,” Amanda admitted, slumping her shoulders. A part of her really didn’t like that she couldn’t bluff Nathan, but the rest of her loved it that he cared that much for her.

Grateful she answered without a debate, Nathan patted her shoulder. “Thank you. Did you check the ground?” he asked.

“Didn’t find anything except the empty food wrappers,” she said. “And I buried them like you taught me.”

“Let’s go then,” Nathan said and turned to see Jasmine and John waiting. “Single file okay? I thought I heard some people coming through the woods in this direction around midnight,” he whispered. Checking his rifle, he started off at a slow, easy walk as his body reminded him he hadn’t stretched today.

Easing through the woods, Nathan saw an orange tent off to their right. He pointed and the others saw the tent in the false dawn’s light. When they reached the field, Nathan looked down and saw their footprints in the dirt of the field. He clearly remembered only a few others’ tracks in the field and he could now see literally three to four dozen sets heading to the woods.

He picked up the pace. As they reached the road, the sun peaked over the horizon, letting them know a new day had started. Putting on his sunglasses, Nathan fought the urge to flip off the sun and looked at the others. “Same order as yesterday. Jasmine, we haven’t told you how we operate so just follow our lead, okay. I have one water bladder full. How about everyone else?” Nathan asked.

“Mine’s half-full and I have one bottle,” Amanda said.

“I have one full bladder and one bottle,” John said.

“Both of mine are full and I have one bottle,” Jasmine said, looking around.

“Okay, that will get us to our next camp spot,” Nathan said, pulling out the map. “Here is our rally point. We’ll stop up ahead and eat breakfast somewhere.” Amanda and John looked at the map, running their fingers over it then looked up, nodding. Nathan rolled the map up, shoving it in his pocket.

“Rally point?” Jasmine asked.

Holding up her head with a snotty look, Amanda said, “Where we meet if we get separated.”

“But Nathan has the map,” she said.

“That’s why you look at it to check the route. Two miles ahead we come to a county road to the left and follow it to the dam, then go to the second cove on the west side of Henry Lake,” Amanda said in a slightly sassy tone.

Taken aback, Jasmine looked at the little girl like she was possessed. “You memorized that with just that small glance?” she asked.

“Yeah, didn’t you?” Amanda asked, adjusting her hat and giving a snort as she lowered her sunglasses.

“Amanda, you’ve had some practice.” Nathan gave her a look. “Come on before people start to wake up,” he said, leading them off. Amanda grabbed his hand and held onto Ares’ leash as they headed down the road. Nathan heard whispering behind him and chose to ignore it. They were almost at the road to head west when he saw two trucks parked together on the far side of the road. Propped up against one of the trucks was a hand-painted sign that read, ‘Fresh Hamburgers $20.’

“Let’s see if they’re for real,” Nathan said, leading them across the median to the trucks. There were about nine people, all wearing pistols, gathered around a gas grill. He spotted several huge jugs in the back of one of the trucks.

“Are you insane? Twenty dollars for a burger?” Jasmine asked from behind him. “I don’t have any money,” she admitted.

“Don’t worry, I’ll pay for it,” Amanda said.

“Don’t pull out all that money up here or we’ll have to shoot our way out,” Nathan warned Amanda.

“Momma said you always count your money in your purse. I’ll count mine in my ammunition bag,” she said, making Nathan laugh.

They walked over and a woman with short hair and a stocky build came over and met them. “What can we get for ya?” she asked.

“Is the meat really fresh? Power has been off for a while,” Nathan asked.

She let out a laugh. “We still have cold storage, but to answer your question it was ground yesterday,” she said, leading them over and opening a cooler up. Nathan saw pounds of good red meat.

“We’ll take ten, please,” he said and the woman startled and backed up and the group fell quiet.

“I’ll need to see the money before I put ten pounds of meat on the grill,” she said.

“Amanda, pay her,” Nathan said, letting her hand go. Amanda dove down in her bag, looked at her hands, then came back out holding two one-hundred-dollar bills.

“With everything, please,” Amanda said, holding out the money. The woman took the money and a man started putting patties on the grill.

“What’s in the jugs?” Nathan asked.

“Lemonade and tea,” she said.

Smiling, Nathan reached around and pulled out his two empty bottles and handed them to the woman. “Fill them for me please; sweet tea in one and lemonade in the other,” Nathan said. “Everyone, fill up,” he said over his shoulder then looked at the woman. “Tell Amanda what we owe you,” he said. He stepped away and looked over at the other truck and noticed a coffee pot.

He went over to Amanda and opened her pack up and pulled out the cup she used, a big thermal coffee cup he had given her at the store. “What are you doing?” she asked, turning her head.

“Getting your cup,” Nathan said, zipping her back up.

“What if I wanted to use it?” Amanda asked.

“Use Ares’ bowl. They have coffee,” Nathan said, stepping over to the other truck. He reached in his bag and pulled out a twenty, “Twenty dollars for a cup of coffee,” he told one of the men sitting on the tailgate.

A massive black beard with a man’s body attached took the twenty. “Help yourself,” he said, moving out of the way. Nathan poured a cup and added some sugar and creamer and put the lid on before taking a sip. “Thank you,” he said with a sigh, looking at the beard with a body and a set of eyes. The beard began just below the eyes, expanding outward and almost touching both shoulders before extending to the belt buckle. Nathan could only guess but he figured the Beard was at least a foot thick.

“You’re welcome, but you still ain’t taking our guns,” the Black Beard said with smiling eyes.

Nathan smiled, having noticed the pistol on his hip. “Don’t want ‘em. If I had extras I’d give ‘em to you,” he told the Black Beard and it started to laugh with the others.

“You’re not from around here?” the Black Beard asked and the others leaned forward.

“Nope, headed to Idaho,” Nathan said, and they all looked at him with awe.

“That’s a mighty long walk, fella,” the Black Beard said.

“You better believe it,” Nathan agreed.

“That why you left town so early?” the Black Beard asked.

“We weren’t in town,” Nathan said, mesmerized that such a massive Beard could have a body and talk.

“Makes sense. You have all them fancy shootin’ sticks, figured you’d shoot at the officers trying to take ‘em,” the Beard said.

“Come again,” Nathan said, trying to follow what the Beard was trying to tell him but the eyes were distracting him.

“All the towns around the Fort passed an ordinance that no firearms are allowed inside city limits starting today. Don’t matter if you keep them inside or not, they want them. That’s why we set up out here. City limit is just half a mile down the road,” he said, waving in that direction. Nathan remembered all the footprints; they’d been inside the city limits.

“What genius came up with that?” Nathan asked.

“The agent over this area, he’s part of Homeland. They’re fixing to bring a bunch of people in from Birmingham that got burnt out. I saw the first truck loads and it ain’t nothing but trouble they’re bringing,” the Beard said. Nathan was just dying for the eyes to say something. If the Beard had a life of its own it just stood to reason the eyes did to.

Breaking his stare at the eyes, Nathan looked in the bed of the truck and noticed several long arms. “Don’t you think you’re playing it a little close, being this close to the city limits?” he asked.

“Nah, they have enough to enforce in town today. This is our last trip out. We’re heading back up in the hills,” the Beard said.

“Now that’s smart,” Nathan said.

“Yep, we just need to make a little more money to get more feed for the animals till we can harvest a crop,” the Beard said earnestly.

Really liking the Beard, Nathan nodded and reached in his bag; he pulled out two hundred dollars and gave it to the Beard. “Here’s my contribution to the cause,” Nathan said.

The eyes looked down at the money and Nathan was sure they were going to talk this time. “What you wantin’ for this?” the Beard asked.

Damn it
, thought Nathan,
let the eyes say something
. “I want you to survive this,” Nathan said, draining his mug. The body attached to the Beard took his cup from him and poured another cup of coffee, stirred in some cream and sugar and handed it back to him. Taking out his camera, Nathan snapped a few pictures of the Beard. Nobody would ever believe him without proof.

“Mister, I’m indebted to ya. This should almost get us,” the Beard said.

Putting his camera up, Nathan took a sip. “Damn, you fixed it better than I did,” he said and reached in one of the outer pouches and pulled out several gold chains. Pretty close to a pound, and he didn’t care that he’d taken close to four pounds of gold off the assholes. “Here, for fixing my coffee better than I did,” Nathan said, holding them out. “Don’t let any gang bangers see ‘em. I had to kill a few to get into town and they might know the bling,” he told the Beard, wanting the damn eyes to say something.

“I’m glad you got ‘em ‘fore they got you. That’s what I’m sayin’. We had some in town but now they’re bringing ‘em in by the truck loads. This here is real gold?” the Beard asked.

“Yes sir, that is close to a pound. Before the lights went off that would’ve been worth twenty thousand dollars,” Nathan told the Beard as Amanda came up behind Nathan and put his bottles in his pack.