Dark Titan Journey: Wilderness Travel (18 page)

“Had to earn them.” Nathan reached down and rubbed both girls’ heads. Jasmine felt a little envious of them as the two just casually lay back on Nathan. She really wanted to join them. All of a sudden, Nathan started calling out multiplication tables and the girls started answering.

After fifteen minutes, Nathan asked, “Twenty-three times eighteen?”

Both the girls paused while working the problem out in their heads. “Four hundred and fourteen,” Jasmine said as John and Tom came up. When John heard Nathan teaching he dropped the water and ran over, sitting down next to the small group. Tom joined him, not knowing what was going on.

“Yep,” Nathan said and Amanda and Casey groaned.

Jasmine spun around and laid her head on Nathan’s legs. “Since I’m testing as well, I get to lay down with you two,” she said, grinning.

“I almost had it,” Amanda said.

Nathan started calling out bullet speeds and ranges then tested them on what he said. Whoever answered, Nathan would reach down and pat their head or give John and Tom a thumbs up. When Natalie answered a question Amanda and Casey scooted over and Natalie laid her head on Nathan’s chest with them.

Emma dragged herself over and lay down on the other side of Nathan after chasing Ares for an hour. When Nathan sat up the four girls just moved down and lay back down on his legs. Smiling at them, Nathan pulled out the beef stew he had heated up with a fuel tab and slowly fed Emma as he kept teaching. When the sun touched the horizon Nathan told everyone to get up, which they did, reluctantly. When Nathan stood up he noticed little Emma sound asleep.

“Thank you, Ares,” Nathan said, pulling his clothes down and dressing.

When he was dressed, Nathan grabbed his and Ares’s packs off the wagon, laying them on the ground. Nathan picked up Emma, wrapping her in his woobie, and put her in the wagon. After putting his pack and Ares’s pack on, Nathan checked his rifle, then put on his NVG monocular and lifted it out of the way. They had found seven good ones at the camp and several of the cheap ones. Nathan gave Howard’s family two of the good PVS-14’s and kept five, but Nathan kept both the thermal scopes. He had further to go than Howard did and felt justified.

Nathan motioned everyone around him. When everyone was around him, Nathan pulled out the rolls of money he had made for everyone. As he passed them out in the failing light he heard gasps. “Everyone keep this money close, it’s five thousand dollars each. If you get separated from us use it to get to the farm. Don’t show it to anyone other than this group or they’ll probably kill you. Remember to not bunch up, and if someone stops us fan out slowly. Whoever is beside Emma get her and get behind cover. What is the difference between cover and concealment?” Nathan asked.

“Cover will stop bullets and concealment just keeps you from being seen,” John answered.

“That’s right John,” Nathan said. He could see the whites of John’s teeth as he smiled.

“Amanda, can a car stop rifle bullets?” Nathan asked.

“Only some, and only if you’re behind the engine block or wheels, but don’t trust it,” Amanda replied.

“That’s a good girl,” Nathan said. Amanda walked over and hugged his waist. “Remember noise and light discipline. People will shoot at what they hear and light they see at night. Let’s get this show on the road,” Nathan said heading to the interstate.

By the time they coved the distance to the interstate it was dark. With clouds overhead they could make out the road but nothing else. Nathan lowered his monocular and turned down the road. John, Tom, Jasmine, Amanda and Natalie all had on NVGs like Nathan’s. At that point Nathan was really glad he forked out the money for them before this crap happened. Casey had one of the cheap ones, which she didn’t mind. It was just bigger than and not as detailed in vision as the others, but she could see in the dark and that was all that mattered to her. Howard made his boys rotate the good one with the cheaper ones. Jackie just wore one of the cheaper ones.

Nathan kept track of time since the mile markers on the side of the road kept the distance for him. After the first hour of walking they made it over three miles and there was very little talking. Up ahead over a mile away Nathan noticed the highway split with trees growing in the median. Nathan’s attention was drawn to campfires burning. In the green light of his monocular each campfire looked like a small sun.

They had passed only one group of people on the side of road. Since the people were over a hundred yards away nobody was worried. As everyone in the group moved up they all looked at the campfires. “What is it, a Boy Scout camp out?” Tom asked.

“I wish,” Nathan replied. “I count over twenty fires and the closer we get I’m sure the number will grow.”

“Think we can make it past them without them knowing?” Jasmine asked.

“Doubt it, but their night vision is ruined. They won’t be able to see much farther than the fire,” Nathan answered.

“We are wasting time standing here,” Amanda said.

Everyone chuckled at her, “Yes ma’am, we are wasting time,” Nathan said. “When we get close I’m going stop you several hundred yards back. I’ll ease forward and check it out.” Nathan turned and started walking.

The fires turned out to be over two miles away. When the group was three hundred yards away Nathan pulled them to the side of the road and told them to eat and drink. Snapping his fingers, Ares moved over beside Nathan. “Time to work,” Nathan said as Ares let out a low growl. Amanda ran over and took off Ares’s pack.

“He can’t fight very well in this,” she said, carrying the pack to the wagon.

Nathan smiled and headed down the road toward the camps. Just like he thought, the closer he got the more he spotted. Oddly, there were only campfires in the median and none on the sides of the road. When Nathan was a hundred yards away he moved to the shoulder of the road and kneeled down. Reaching over his back he pulled the thermal scope off his pack.

For thermal scopes this one was in the upper-range in quality and wasn’t bulky. This model was not an actual scope but mounted in front of a rifle scope or a monocular mount like the NVG Nathan had on, but it was longer and heavier than the NVG. The price tag on the box read $6,500 and Nathan thought that was a steal.

Nathan turned it on and waited for it to heat up. He lifted the NVG over his left eye scanned ahead with his left eye. His heart almost stopped when he saw all the people shapes in the woods in the median. The interstate curved half a mile ahead and Nathan could see people the entire length of it. Setting down the thermal, Nathan pulled out his map and saw that the median continued between the roads for four miles.

Picking up the scope, Nathan eased down the road and noticed everyone was inside the tree line and very few were asleep. To make matters worse, he could tell many were drunk. He adjusted the hunter’s ear he picked up in the supplies. Every once in a while he could hear screams. Sometimes they sounded like a man and other times like a woman. The screams were coming from all over the median.

Easing down in the outside ditch, Nathan looked around to make sure no one was close. Seeing the closest to him was across the interstate sixty yards away Nathan keyed his radio. “Jasmine can you hear me? Over.”

“I hear you Nathan, over,” she answered.

“Can the others hear me? Over,” Nathan asked.

“Yes they can,” Jasmine answered. Nathan waited for the over to tell him she was finished. After a minute he heard, “Sorry, over.”

“There are people all over this median and some are partying hard. I can tell you some things that shouldn’t be happening are, but we can pass by, over,” Nathan said.

Nathan waited a little while and was fixing to call back when his ear piece went off. “About how many? Over,” Jasmine asked.

“Hell, I see several hundred in front of me now and it looks like people are camping all the way down this median, which is four miles long. It could be thousands, over,” Nathan said.

“Are you fucking shitting me!?” Jasmine shot back. “Over.”

“Negative on defecating on you, over,” Nathan replied.

“What about going around? Over,” Jasmine asked.

“Negative, we either have to use the fields or go back to where we started and back track to alternate route. Move to me staying in the inside lane and let everyone know not to go to the outside shoulder, over,” Nathan said. He wasn’t walking back or making the boys drag that wagon through fields.

“Copy, we are packing up, over,” Jasmine said.

“Jasmine, tell Amanda to keep Athena on a leash beside her and have both Casey and Natalie beside the wagon in case Emma wakes. We can walk by unnoticed from what I’ve seen, but we can’t draw attention, over,” Nathan said.

“We copy and are moving to you, over,” Jasmine said quickly.

“Calm down or you’ll make a mistake. Relax and pass it along. Fear is contagious but so is a relaxed state, over,” Nathan called back.

“Copy,” Jasmine replied in a more normal tone.

Nathan sat in the ditch drinking water and waiting on the others. With his NVG he could make them out easily. They shone brightly walking along the road. The only time they ventured off the shoulder was to move around a car. Nathan turned the thermal off and put it away.

In fifteen minutes he was leading the group again down the shoulder. The only noise they made was the occasional crunch of gravel on the road. With the noise coming from the median they had little to fear of someone hearing it.

As they walked everyone looked at the groups in the woods until they spotted a group with some women tied up to trees and several on the ground with men on them and others around yelling. Nobody looked into the woods much after that except Nathan and occasionally Howard. Everyone in the group fought tears as they walked quietly down the road. It only took them an hour to clear the four miles because Nathan picked up the pace to get them out of there, hearing the occasional sniffle behind him.

When they were several hundred yards away Nathan prepared to stop, and saying a silent prayer of thanks that Emma had stayed asleep. Everyone gathered around as Amanda stood in front of him. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“Resting,” he answered.

“Bullshit! We are getting away from here,” she said in a harsh low voice.

“Little girl, watch your mouth! And to let you, know that damn wagon gets heavy,” he said looking down at her.

“I’ll pull the damn thing! Did you see what they were doing to those women?” she whispered harshly.

“Which group?” Nathan asked.

Amanda staggered back from him and Jasmine caught her. “Nathan, we just want to get away from here,” Jasmine said.

“John and Tom, are you two still good?” Nathan asked quietly.

“Sure, with our packs in the wagon it’s actually easier than just carrying packs,” John answered.

“Then head ‘em up and move ‘em out,” Nathan said. Howard grabbed his arm.

“We have to do something,” he told Nathan.

“Oh we are, we’re leaving,” Nathan replied.

“We have to help those people,” Howard said, pointing back at the median.

Nathan shook his head. “I hope you’re kidding.”

“No. I know you saw what was going on back there,” Howard said.

“Yep, sure did. I’m getting this group away from that.”

“How can you just walk away?” Howard asked.

“Easy. Turn and start walking,” Nathan replied.

“We can help some of them.”

“No we can’t. I have no idea who those people are but there are more than eleven hundred of them. I don’t know if you noticed but a lot of that group had military weapons. Hell, I spotted a hummer with a fifty cal on top. They would wipe us out and take the women in our group to join theirs. I’m getting the hell out of Dodge and taking my group with me. You want to stay and die, fine, but let us get a head start,” Nathan said. He turned and started walking down the interstate.

The others followed, leaving Howard standing in the road. Jackie came back. “Howard, you can’t help them, but you have a family you can help. Let’s go,” she said, and pulled him after the group.

Chapter 12

Day 17

It was four a.m. when Nathan led them off the interstate and back into the woods, stopping beside a small lake half a mile from the road. Everyone dropped their gear and collapsed. Counting the ten miles from the camp, they had traveled twenty-six miles. Nathan struggled to sit up. “John, Amanda, and Jasmine, we have stuff to do before we can sleep,” Nathan said, standing.

Seeing Nathan get up, the others followed and started setting up camp. Everyone was soaked in sweat but nobody cared. After they ate and filled water jugs all the kids collapsed. Nathan took off his gear and hung it up. Howard walked over as Nathan poured the dogs some food and water.

“Nathan, I’m sorry. You were right, we would’ve died,” Howard admitted.

“If we were lucky,” Nathan said.

“Weren’t you worried about them spotting us?” he asked as Jasmine and Jackie came over.

“Even if they had, I don’t think they would’ve done much if we stood tall,” Nathan replied as he started checking his gear. “They are mean and evil, but think of them like a dog with a bone. We were just a bone walking down the road. They had a bone, so why fight when you’re enjoying your bone? Now if we had tried to take their bone then that’s a different story. I don’t think all of that group was together. I think they were a bunch of different assholes.” Nathan pulled out batteries to recharge.

Howard sat and thought about what Nathan said. Howard looked up as Nathan pulled out his solar recharger. “How many more would’ve had to been guarding us for you to have turned away and not rescued us?” Howard asked.

“If all nine had been there, I probably would’ve left,” Nathan said. “Howard, you have to judge your opponents and their numbers. Hell, I took on over thirty outside of Atlanta, but they weren’t much of a threat because I engaged them at distance. They couldn’t run because they had to hold up their pants with one hand and shoot a rifle with the other. Not much to be scared of but even an asshole can get lucky. Those shit bags at the camp were dangerous. They had good equipment. But the first four were drunk and sleepy. I could tell by the way they moved. I still thought I was going to die but I figured it was worth the risk.” Nathan stopped to see if Howard needed to ask a question.

Not getting any questions Nathan continued. “Howard, if I had to face a larger group at the truck stop, say like sixty, I would’ve left. That’s too much lead coming at me and the asshole luck factor goes up for a lucky shot. I don’t care if that group tonight was only armed with steak knives, I still wouldn’t attack them. Those numbers are too big for a group our size. Hell, I wouldn’t attack them with a platoon of SWAT. Don’t throw away your life for nothing. Now, if those shit bags had grabbed one of my group, it would have been a good day to die. But if I die I don’t have much hope for those with me. In a few more weeks I really think they’ll be able to make a pretty good run without me, but not now.”

Howard thought about what Nathan said as Nathan continued working on his gear. “I understand. Thank you for getting my family and those kids.” Howard stood. He patted Nathan on the back and held out his hand, pulling his wife up. They lay down on their packs.

Nathan laid out the panel, hooked up the battery charger, and started loading batteries. He turned around to see Jasmine staring at him. “What?” he asked.

“How come you get to walk around in boxers but say something when I wear bra and panties?” she asked.

Putting his hands on his hips, Nathan looked at her. “Well for one guys aren’t sexy like a woman, and you are pretty hot. Second even girls will look at another hot girl but guys don’t look at other guys. So everyone sees women as sexy,” Nathan said.

Jasmine giggled, “You are so full of shit you should be brown. Nathan, you are very hot,” Jasmine said.

Nathan’s jaw hit his chest as he looked at Jasmine and a red flush crept up on his cheeks. “Ah—you’re just tired,” he stuttered.

“Whatever,” she said. She kicked off her boots and took off her combat top, leaving on her t-shirt, which Nathan was thankful of. Then she pulled off her pants. “Don’t start,” she said, throwing them on her pack.

“Okay,” Nathan said. He knelt by Amanda, who was snoring softly. Nathan untied her boots and pulled them off. Jasmine did the same for John. Shortly they had all of the kids’ boots off. Jasmine was about to lie down when she noticed Nathan taking the clothes off the kids.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Letting them dry off,” he replied. It took both of them to take John’s clothes off. When they were finished they heard a soft giggle behind them. Turning around they saw Emma standing up in the wagon. “I will watch her, go get some sleep,” Nathan said walking over to Emma.

When he stopped at the wagon, Emma jumped into Nathan’s arms. Nathan sat down with her and fixed her something to eat. When Emma was done the sun was over the horizon. Nathan walked around, gathering his group’s clothes. He stopped and looked at the kids. All the girls were laid out in t-shirts and panties. John and Tom had on underwear and every one of them was snoring. Nathan noticed a small blister on Casey’s foot. “I’ll fix that when you get up,” Nathan said. He walked to the lake with an armload of clothes. He dropped them on the bank then went back and carried Emma and his rifle back.

For the next two hours Nathan washed clothes while Emma splashed in the water. When the clothes were done Nathan picked up Emma and waded out in the water. Nathan bathed both of them then carried Emma back to then shore. Nathan pulled out his tablet and showed Emma how to draw on it. She thought that was the best thing ever.

It was noon when Nathan woke up Howard and Jasmine for watch, telling them to wake others up in two hours. Nathan didn’t just fall asleep, he crashed.

A buzzing in his ear woke Nathan up. Cracking his eyes open, he noticed the sun was setting and he could hear people talking softly. Sitting up Nathan saw everyone up and eating. Nathan stood and stretched as Jasmine lifted up a cup of coffee for him. “Damn, that was some sleep,” Nathan said, taking the coffee.

“I’ll say. You didn’t even wake up with all the gunshots we heard toward the highway around three,” Jasmine said.

Suddenly several sets of arms wrapped around Nathan. “Thank you for washing my clothes,” Amanda said.

“Yeah, me too,” Casey and Natalie said in unison.

Emma ran at a fast wobble to Nathan and wrapped her arms around his knee. “Well it was my pleasure ladies,” Nathan said. He tried to hug them back but just settled for patting each on the back till they let him go.

“Thank you,” John and Tom said walking up. Nathan just raised his cup to them.

“Casey, you have a blister on your foot. Does anyone else?” Nathan asked.

“What if your feet just hurt?” Amanda asked. Nathan didn’t reply. Amanda raised her hand toward him. “Don’t say it, Nathan,” Amanda said.

Nathan shook his head and got a first aid kit from his pack. After putting moleskin on Casey’s blister, Nathan got dressed. His group started the morning routine and were joined by Howard’s family. When they were done Nathan showed Amanda how to teach basic commands to Athena. With Ares helping it was pretty easy.

At seven they listened to the presidential address. It was announced that all the military was back stateside and was working to bring the lawlessness under control.

When the address was over everyone stood up, getting ready to leave. “This should make crossing state lines interesting,” Nathan said, picking up Emma and putting her in the wagon.

Howard put his hand on Nathan’s shoulder. “We only have to make it to Mississippi. My uncle is the Sherriff of Lee County.”

“That could come in handy,” Nathan admitted.

Howard laughed. “My other uncle is the general over the Mississippi National Guard,” he said.

“Damn if you aren’t full of all kinds of surprises,” Nathan said walking around making sure nothing was left.

“Those two are my dad’s brothers. My mom’s brothers are all CEO’s of big companies and we rarely ever see them,” Howard said as Nathan led them to the interstate.

It was dark by the time they reached the interstate, and everyone had their NVGs on. Little Emma was snoring in the wagon. Nathan noticed people lying in the road ahead and held up his hand for everyone to stop. Using the thermal, Nathan found that the bodies were cold and there were a lot of them.

Turning around, Nathan discovered everyone looking down the road at the bodies. “They’re dead,” he told everyone.

“What happened?” Jasmine asked.

“How the hell am I supposed to know that?” Nathan asked. “I see dead people. For all I know, they drank bad moonshine,” Nathan said.

Jasmine looked away, “I’m sorry,” she mumbled.

“Hey,” Nathan said, grabbing Jasmine’s arm. “You’ve seen just as much as I have. I’m sorry but even you have to admit that was a stupid question at the time. We see dead bodies strung out on the interstate three hundred yards away and I’m asked the five W’s and the sixth question. What you should be looking around for are the ones who did it,” Nathan said.

“I’m sorry, it’s just a habit,” Jasmine said, smiling. Nathan had to admit, even in the glow of the night vision she still looked good.

Amanda came over to Nathan, “What are the five W’s and sixth question?” she asked.

“Who, what, when, where, why and the sixth question is, how,” Nathan told her.

Amanda thought about that for a minute. “Damn, that would answer everything,” she mumbled.

Jasmine laughed, “Yes it’s considered the basic for information gathering,” she told Amanda.

Nathan turned away from the two, “I want you all to stay a hundred yards behind me,” he said, walking ahead with Ares.

When he was out of ear shot Amanda leaned over to Jasmine. “I was just about to ask him the same question,” Amanda admitted.

Jasmine patted her arm. “It’s a habit and Nathan’s right. We need to quit asking him questions like that. He has enough to worry about.”

“How can we learn, then?” Amanda asked.

“Try to figure it out for ourselves then ask him,” Jasmine replied. “Come on, let’s go.”

The group followed a hundred yards behind Nathan and watched as he eased up to the bodies. When Nathan stopped to look at something the group stopped. Nathan never stopped longer than a few seconds. When he stopped at one cluster of bodies he pointed his rifle at them and everyone gasped when the area in front of him lit up.

Jasmine dropped down to her knees, seeing the light on Nathan’s M-4. Then she noticed the light was very bright in her left eye with the NVG but her right only saw a faint purple light and only when Nathan spun the light toward them. Then suddenly the light was gone. “What the hell was that?” Amanda asked.

“I have no idea but I wish he would’ve told us he was going to do that,” Jasmine answered. Seeing Nathan move off down the road, they followed.

The group weaved around the bodies and tried not to look at them but it was hard. It seemed just like regular people: men, women and children. Suitcases and personal effects were scattered everywhere. The bodies were stretched out on a hundred yard section of the highway and everyone noticed very few had died off the highway. The bodies had been shot multiple times with really big guns.

As the group approached the end of the carnage they noticed Nathan in the median picking stuff up still a hundred yards in front of them. This time the group didn’t stop when Nathan did, they just moved out of the killing field.

Nathan looked up seeing the group get closer and moved back to the interstate as he keyed his radio. “Listen up! I want everyone to keep an eye out around us. If you see anything, let me know, over,” he said over the radio.

“What did you find? Over” Howard radioed back.

“Stay off the radio unless it’s important. Others can hear and trace, over,” Nathan answered.

Jasmine’s heart started to race, threatening to beat out of her chest.
This is my fault! I wanted a faster route, and Nathan wanted a safer route
, she thought. She started to breathe faster, looking around for something to attack them.

Nathan kept a fast pace but no one seemed to mind. In truth, if Nathan had begun to run that would’ve been fine with the group. They noticed some cars had been pushed out of the road by something really big, leaving the roadway clear but the shoulder and median full of vehicles wrecked, in some cases utterly crushed piles of metal.

They had walked for six hours nonstop before Nathan halted and scanned a stand of trees off the road with the thermal scope. Not seeing anything other than a few deer, Nathan led them off the road into the group trees. As everyone kneeled down around him they started asking questions. Nathan held up his hand for them to stop.

“Guys we don’t have time to chit-chat, we are in some serious shit. We are south of Hamilton and are getting the fuck off this interstate, now. I want everyone to drink and eat because we are out of here in fifteen minutes. Don’t use the radios unless you have to and keep your transmissions short. The longer you talk, the easier it is to find us. Now get to it.” Nathan dropped his pack.

When everyone saw him pull out food they did the same fighting the urge to ask questions. Nathan pulled out his woobie and poncho and called Amanda and Jasmine over. “I have to look at the map and my tablet. I’m going to throw the poncho and woobie over me. You two get out your blankets and if you see any light escape cover it up fast, understand?” They both nodded.

Amanda and Jasmine walked around Nathan and threw their blankets over where they saw light escaping. After a few minutes, Nathan put his stuff away. Amanda and Jasmine sat down beside him and they ate in silence. True to his word, after fifteen minutes, Nathan motioned for everyone to move out.

They followed Nathan a mile further down the interstate where a bridge crossed over with no exit to the interstate. Everyone helped to gently ease the wagon up the bank so Emma wouldn’t wake. They followed the small county road. The tension in the air slowly dissipated the farther they got from the interstate. Everyone began to realize how tired they were, but they kept up with the pace Nathan was setting.