“Where are you going?” Amanda asked, not liking the idea of Nathan not being right beside them.
He pointed across the parking lot to a general store. “There. I’ll do the same,” he said, taking Smoke and Ares.
The girls entered the store staying together. They started grabbing all the dry goods and Amanda grabbed Ziploc bags. The others gave her questioning looks. “Trust me, if we don’t get them Nathan will get pissy,” she enlightened them. They found laundry bags and threw their stuff in. Thinking they had enough, they dragged it outside. Jasmine spotted some kids’ clothes and grabbed some for Chip. Then she noticed sippy cups and got some for Emma and Chip, then she picked up a few toys and headed out.
The boys packed the bags of stuff on the animals. When the girls’ bags were tied on they saw that Nathan had a stack beside Smoke. The boys quickly stowed the stuff. Nathan handed several large map books to Amanda.
“Put them up,” he said. When she put them in her saddle bag she noticed they were topographic books for several states. “The Sheriff’s station is right up there,” Nathan said pointing and led them to it.
Like the businesses, the door was closed and the windows were intact. Nathan went over to a squad car and looked inside the headed to the front door. He picked the lock and walked in. The group stayed outside, feeling very nervous. Nathan came out and climbed up on Smoke. “Let’s go,” he said, kicking Smoke.
“What did you find in there?” Jasmine asked.
“A note on a Captain’s desk saying a Homeland officer was going to be there the day after the event. I couldn’t find anything with a date written four days after the power went out. All the guns and ammunition are gone. That squad car didn’t have its shotgun in it either,” Nathan answered.
“What do you think happened?” Amanda asked.
“I’m not sure yet, let me think,” Nathan said, leading them over the bridge. Strong City was just over the bridge and, like its neighbor, was totally vacant. All the houses’ doors were open but the businesses were left alone. Nathan saw a store up ahead. “John, do we need more food?” he asked.
“I don’t think the horses and donkeys can take much more,” John answered.
“Fine, let’s get the hell out of here,” Nathan said, leading them down the road. They followed the blacktop road for an hour, and when Nathan pulled off onto a dirt road, everyone fought the urge to cheer. The road twisted and turned around small farmsteads and, though they couldn’t see all the houses, the ones they did see had the front door open.
Everyone was lost in thought till they noticed the sun brighten the horizon. Nathan led them off the dirt road, heading to a farm. When they got close they saw the front door open. Without saying anything, Nathan jumped off his horse and walked up to the house with Ares.
Nathan smelled it before he even stepped inside. Covering his nose, he stepped in. The mess inside had an orderly rush to it. He found the bloated body of a man on the floor with a bullet wound in its chest. He looked around then headed outside and took Smoke’s reins, leading the group to the barn.
Nathan let the group set up while he walked around the land. An hour later he returned, and just sat down dropping his pack. “It doesn’t make sense. Why this area? The chickens are dead, there is food in the house, and I didn’t find any guns, but a man was shot in the living room. It looks like two big trucks pulled up and left,” he said, thinking out loud.
“You think because this area is so remote, that’s why they took everyone?” John asked.
“Most of the areas we’ve been through are in the middle of nowhere,” Nathan said.
“Maybe they just hadn’t got there yet,” John offered.
Nathan stood up and began pacing. “There is no way they can round up that many small towns,” Nathan said.
Amanda cleared her throat, hoping she wasn’t going to make him mad. “Nathan, what about small towns that can support themselves? There are a lot of farms here.”
He looked at her and smiled. “That’s good, firecracker.” Amanda smiled. “Eat and start watches. I’ll be back in a little while. If I’m not back in two days, leave without me,” Nathan said, opening the door.
“Hold your damn horses, mister!” Jasmine shouted, heading off the others.
“I’ll be back. I want to check something out and I can’t do it with you guys,” Nathan said.
Jasmine closed her eyes. “Be careful,” she pleaded. He just smiled and took off out the door with Ares close behind.
“What do you think he’s doing?” Amanda asked.
Jasmine threw her hands up. “Heaven only knows!” she exclaimed.
“We know he’s not going far,” John said. They both looked questioningly at him. “He didn’t take his horse and his pack is right there,” John pointed out.
“Let’s eat. Natalie and I have first watch,” Jasmine said.
Amanda and Casey were on watch when they saw Nathan in a slow jog coming across the field. “Think that means trouble?” Amanda asked.
“No,” Casey told her.
“Yeah you’re right, he would never lead it here to us,” Amanda said watching Nathan. She headed over to the door and opened it for him. Nathan was soaked in sweat and breathing hard as he walked in. “Care to explain?” Amanda asked, making him chuckle.
Nathan stripped dropping his soaked clothes. “No, let’s wait for the others. We will leave after dark. Tell the next crew to wake me for last shift,” Nathan told her and laid down. It wasn’t long before his breathing was regular. Amanda fixed a bowl of food for Ares and poured him some water. When he was done eating he lay down beside Nathan.
Amanda grabbed Nathan’s clothes, filled a water tub from a hand pump, and started scrubbing. When she was done she hung them up. At the end of their shift they woke Tom and John. Amanda told them what Nathan said, then threatened them if they woke him up for a shift. Neither of them had any intention of waking Nathan, and it wasn’t because of Amanda’s threat.
Chapter 8
Day 41
Nathan smelled coffee and opened his eyes to see a cup right in front of his face. Blinking his eyes he focused on Jasmine smiling at him. “Morning, sunshine! Or should I say, evening, moonbeam!” she said. Nathan sat up taking the cup and looked at the windows to see the sun setting. Not even in the mood he just sipped his coffee. “I heated some water for you so you can shower,” Jasmine said standing up.
Grateful, Nathan walked over to the blanketed off area and washed up. Stepping out he felt much better. Seeing his clothes hanging up he grabbed them and noticed they had been washed. When he dressed he noticed everyone was sitting in a circle looking at him. He walked over and Tom held up a plate for him.
“Thank you,” Nathan said, shoveling food in his mouth. “I jogged over to Herington,” he said and Amanda spoke up.
“Ah, that’s nine miles from here,” Amanda pointed out.
“Pretty damn close. Anyway, it’s empty also, but headed farther out as I came back and saw two military checkpoints set up on Highway 77. I even saw trucks loaded down with people heading north,” he said, smiling.
“We figured that part out,” Jasmine said.
He nodded. “Yes, we guessed right. They aren’t using like big numbers of troops, no more than a few hundred. They go down a road and empty out the houses. Anyone that fights are just shot,” Nathan said.
“A few hundred is a lot,” John said.
“Not for what they are doing. I was expecting five to ten thousand to empty out the countryside. But these people can’t warn the others by phone, or even drive over,” Nathan said. “This does change our route.” Nathan said pulling out his map and noticed everyone pulling out one of the books he gave Amanda. “Don’t draw our route on your map in case you lose it,” Nathan said.
“We were going to go between Salina and Abilene, but I’m sure that area is going to have more troops. We’ll go south of Salina then head north,” he said. “Depending how fast we can move, we may cross I-1
35 tonight,” he added.
“Why did you have to go and check it out?” Jasmine asked.
“I wanted to see if the area ahead had been emptied,” he said.
“We could’ve seen that tonight,” she said.
“That we could’ve, but not that they’re still in the process.” Nathan could see she wasn’t following him. “They empty out the small towns, leaving a military presence there. Then they move out into the country. If someone gets away, where do you think they’re going to run?”
“To town,” she muttered.
“Yes. If someone they missed needed something, they would head to town,” Nathan said.
“I’m sure these people have radios,” Amanda said.
“They are being jammed. I tried calling you guys. Don’t worry, I was seven miles from here. But I can say they can triangulate rather fast,” Nathan said, and got several angry looks. “We had to know. I called from a house and moved away. A hummer was there in fifteen minutes.”
“What if we answered?” Amanda snapped.
“I said, ‘Don’t talk, I’m coming home,’” Nathan said.
“So we can leave the radios off?” Jasmine asked.
“That is definite,” Nathan said.
“Will we be able to use them again?” John asked.
“These radios only have a range of a few miles. They have to be that close to find us,” Nathan said. John sighed with relief.
“So how are we going to deal with this?” Jasmine asked, picking up Chip.
“Move carefully,” Nathan said. Jasmine scoffed as Amanda came over to him.
“We do that anyway,” Amanda said.
“We have to keep it up,” Nathan said, rubbing Amanda’s head.
“This is America, how can they do this?” Amanda asked.
“Our government has done many things to us, from releasing contaminated mosquitos carrying disease to spraying our cities with biological weapons,” Nathan said.
“That’s a little farfetched, don’t you think Nathan?” Jasmine asked.
“No, it’s fact,” Nathan answered. “In the fifties, the US Army released mosquitos in the south to test dispersal patterns, and the CIA released clouds of whooping cough off the coast of Florida. There were deaths of US citizens. We won’t even begin to talk about MKULTA.”
Jasmine shook her head. “No, we would’ve heard about someone being prosecuted for that.”
“It went to trial. The judge sided with the government. No one has ever served any time or prosecuted for that,” Nathan said.
“Holy shit,” Amanda mumbled, sitting down.
Nathan chided, “Amanda, it is really hard hearing words like that come out of a pretty little girl’s mouth.”
“Screw that,” Amanda snapped, waving her finger at him. “If they could do stuff like that then they can do stuff a thousand times worse now.”
“I guess I shouldn’t tell you about the patriot act,” Nathan said, stuffing his backpack.
“That was for terrorists,” Amanda stated proudly.
“It superseded the Constitution and allowed the government to deem Americans terrorists. We could be arrested and tried without due process,” Nathan corrected. Amanda just stared at him. “America is still the best country on the Earth but we let the wrong people get to be in charge and too many powerful people move behind the scenes.” Nathan threw his pack on his back.
“Quit scaring her,” Jasmine cautioned.
“I’m just stating facts that anyone could’ve looked up before this hit,” Nathan said, slinging his one-point harness on. “Guys, this is what we are facing to get home.” He picked up Emma and put her in her sling.
“What happens if they catch us?” Natalie asked.
Shaking his head, Nathan looked back at her, “I saw a man and his family shot today because they didn’t want to be relocated. I’m sure we’ll be shot on sight. I’m a deserter. Remember, I’m a cop and didn’t report. If you want, I’ll take you close enough to a center and you can go there,” Nathan offered.
“FUCK THAT!” Amanda shouted. “We’ve heard from John and them what it was like at the beginning of this. You want to offer that?”
“I can’t tell others what to do. If you come with me, you have to know the risk,” Nathan said and looked around at everyone.
John walked over putting his hand on Nathan’s shoulder, “We’ll stay with you,” he said. “Besides, if someone shoots at us you’ll correct that problem very fast,” he added making the others laugh.
“I’ll die to protect you guys,” Nathan admitted. “Let’s go,” he said, climbing up on Smoke. Nathan led them out of the barn and pulled down his monocular. Emma hit his chest with her sippy cup and Nathan’s conditioned response complied without him being any wiser.
They rode by several more houses with doors open but didn’t see anyone. Nathan turned around after they had ridden for two hours to see everyone bunched up behind him. “Guys, I can touch every one of you. Spread out,” he barked in a low voice.
Dejected, the group pulled back on their reins and spread out, with John bringing up the rear. Twenty minutes later Nathan looked back over his shoulder and saw them all bunched up behind him again. Nathan stopped, he didn’t have to call them closer. “Guys, if someone spots us this bunched up they will just shoot at us. If we spread out it is harder to hit all of us, so they will be pressed to try to bring us in,” Nathan explained.
The entire group looked downcast as he reprimanded them. “Sorry Nathan,” John mumbled.
“Don’t spread out more than twenty yards from me to John. I know you’re scared but think before you act,” Nathan said, kicking Smoke into a walk. It was almost midnight when they were a mile from Highway 15.
All of a sudden, Nathan kicked Smoke, leading her into the ditch beside the dirt road they were on. Looking ahead, Nathan saw the ditch go deeper and carefully guided Smoke to it. When the group stopped behind Nathan they were below the level of the road. Amanda was about to ask what they stopped for when she heard an engine off in the distance.
“That’s a Humvee,” Nathan said in a low voice. “It’s on the highway.”
“Aren’t you going to see what it’s doing?” John whispered back.
“Talk in a low tone, it’s actually harder to hear than a whisper,” Nathan reminded him. “It’s coming toward us, and going slow. Something’s not right.”
The group listened to the sound of the Humvee as it crept down the road. Listening to it Nathan figured it couldn’t be going more than twenty miles per hour. The only reason he could come up with was that it was hunting. When the sound passed by the road they were on, everyone gave a sigh of relief.
Reaching over, Nathan handed his reins to Jasmine and climbed off his horse. He grabbed the thermal binoculars and handed Emma to Natalie, then crept up the side of the ditch as he heard the Humvee stop. Nathan froze and looked at the bank of the ditch, thinking there was no way that he could be seen. They heard a bullhorn.
“We see you hiding behind the house. Come out with your hands up,” the bullhorn squawked in the dark. Slowly easing forward till he could just barely see over the road, Nathan peered at the scene with the thermal binoculars.
Less than a half a mile away was a house just off the road. Nathan could see four white hot spots moving around behind the house and the Humvee on the road in front of the house. On the back of the Humvee was a pole going up twenty feet with a ball mounted on the top. “We are fucking hosed,” Nathan mumbled.
The group of people came around the side of the house as Nathan slid back down in the ditch. “Put your hands in the air after you drop your weapons. Failure to comply will result in deadly force,” the bullhorn announced.
When Nathan reached his horse, machine gun fire erupted in the night, making some of the horses and riders jump. “Easy,” Nathan told everyone as he reached down rubbing Ares, who was growling. As suddenly as it started, the machine gun fire stopped. A few minutes later they heard the Humvee
slowly drive away. Nathan climbed on his horse and took Emma from Natalie. Everyone came close to find out what was going on.
“What happened?” Amanda asked in a low voice.
“They found some people hiding behind a house,” Nathan said.
“How did they see them behind a house?” Amada asked.
Letting out a long sigh, “That hummer had a thermal system,” Nathan said, listening to the Humvee continue down the road.
“Can we shoot them?” John asked.
Nathan shook his head. “We don’t have anything that could hurt it besides the sniper rifle. Anyway, I’m sure it would have the sniper detection unit that would shine a laser where the sound of the gunfire comes from,” Nathan said.
“What do we do?” Jasmine asked, holding Chip tightly.
“Wait till it gets further down the road and get the hell out of here,” he said.
When Nathan couldn’t hear the Humvee anymore, he eased Smoke back up to the road. Not seeing anything, he motioned for the others to follow. Scanning with his thermal binoculars, he didn’t see anything but deer and a few cows. In front of the house he could see bodies. Kicking Smoke into a canter, Nathan led the group across the highway and didn’t slow down for an hour. As the group rode down the gravel road they spotted a few other farm houses, all with front doors open. At one they spotted the people hanging from a tree.
When they came to a creek Nathan led them off the road and let the horses drink. Nathan pulled out some food and broke some off for Emma. When he held it for her to eat, Nathan found her sleeping. “This kid can sleep anywhere,” Nathan observed, shoving the food in his own mouth.
The others drank to placate their parched throats. No one but Nathan was eating. “Nathan, how did you know that Humvee was looking for someone?” Natalie asked.
“When you can’t find your shoe, do you run around looking for it, or do you slowly walk around looking for it?” Nathan asked.
“They could’ve just been driving,” she offered.
“I’ve no doubt,” he said. “They were offering themselves as a target. When someone shoots at them the sniper system will pinpoint them and the guys in the hummer will fix them. They wanted people to shoot at them.”
Dark Titan Journey: Finally Home Page 9
