Slowly Nathan got used to the view and looked around. He could see the group in green and in thermal. His head was hurting too much for him to be excited; the little man must have taken some speed. Looking down at his stuff, Nathan was freaked out. He actually had some depth perception.
Putting his pack back on, Nathan started bitching. A small part of him was really happy Emma was asleep so she didn’t learn new words. The other part of his mind didn’t give a shit. The little man with the hammer was beating the shit out of the inside of Nathan’s skull.
As Nathan walked over to his horse, the group paled as he dropped F-bombs with every other word. Climbing on his horse, Nathan combined his words in ways that should’ve been impossible. Amanda paled and just shook her head as the words flew out of Nathan’s mouth. To Nathan’s credit he wasn’t shouting or being very loud, just very vulgar, his voice just lower than a normal tone.
Nathan stopped his bitching and swung his head, causing the group to jump back in their saddles. “Let’s get this monkey-fuck shit-show on the road,” he grumbled, and pulled Smoke’s reins back, leading her to the dirt road. Smoke, sensing how pissed off Nathan was, tenderly stepped up to the road. The others let him get ahead of them a few yards before leading their horse out to follow.
Ares, like Smoke, could sense how upset Nathan was. Ares moved back and walked beside Nathan. Looking up at Nathan, Ares let out little whines, wanting to lay his head in Nathan’s lap. Hearing the whines, Nathan looked down at Ares. With Nathan’s weird vision, he could see Ares’s sad expression. “I’m fine, Ares,” Nathan lied, and continued cussing.
Riding behind Nathan, Natalie looked over her shoulder. “Casey, go make him happy,” she commanded in a low voice. Riding beside Casey, Amanda nodded and motioned for her to go up to Nathan.
Casey shook her head. “No way, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone that mad.” Not able to argue Casey’s point, they just followed a very pissed off Nathan.
Thankfully Nathan stopped cussing out loud after an hour. The ibuprofen had weakened the punk ass little man with the hammer, but didn’t make him go away. The others rode in silence, watching where they were supposed to hoping Nathan relaxed.
Luckily they hadn’t seen anything unusual. Everyone knew if something was spotted, Nathan was going to go ballistic. The farm houses that they used to pass every mile or so had become spaced at every two or three miles, and the land was farmed as far as the eye could see. Only small stands of trees broke up the monotony of the landscape.
Sitting up in her saddle stretching out, Amanda shook out a cramp in her hand and noticed the sky was getting lighter even with the cloud cover. Looking down at her watch, she noticed it was almost six. Pulling out her map and compass she started looking around to find out where they were on the map. “We passed our rally point twenty minutes ago,” Casey informed her.
After studying her map and seeing Casey was right, Amanda looked ahead at Nathan. “Think we should ask him where we’re going?”
“You can. He flipped off a cow back there that was just standing at the fence chewing a cud. For a second I thought he was going to shoot it,” Casey said.
Amanda looked around. They were just northeast of Tipton and she didn’t see a house anywhere. The others pulled closer to the two as they followed Nathan. Amanda looked over her shoulder. “Have you noticed any houses with people lately, John?”
“We passed several, but as you can see now, there’s nothing,” John said.
“Why didn’t he stop at the rally point?” Amanda asked everyone.
“There was a mobile home set up beside that clump of trees and someone was still there,” John answered. Nathan could hear them mumbling but ignored it as he tried to ignore the asshole pounding his skull with the hammer. In the last hour the little man had eaten some Wheaties and was now driving spikes in his skull with his hammer.
The others continued to follow as the sky got brighter. Having traveled so much at night, the group got nervous in daylight. Ahead of them, truth be told, Nathan was itching for a fight and didn’t give a shit if someone spotted them. When the NVGs started shutting off because there was so much light, Nathan ripped the harness off his head, knocking his boonie hat off. Nathan pulled Smoke to a stop, shoving the harness in his messenger bag, and climbed off his saddle, grabbing his hat.
Climbing back on his saddle, Nathan started bitching out loud again. To everyone’s surprise, his language was worse. The others stopped as he got his hat, not really wanting to get close to him. When Nathan kicked Smoke to start back up, the others followed.
It was dawn when they noticed a house ahead beside the road they were on. In the last two hours they hadn’t seen any. Everyone started digging in their packs for binoculars as John spoke from the back. “There are some people in the front yard. Two beside a tractor, three on the porch, and one up in the tree beside the house. All of them have rifles.”
When the house was about a mile away, Jasmine glanced at the group then up at Nathan. Taking a deep breath, Jasmine kicked her horse into a trot, pulling beside Nathan. “Nathan, there are people up ahead.”
“Yeah, no shit,” he barked, grabbing Emma’s sippy cup and filling it up. He laid it on her chest as she slept. Jasmine raised her eyebrows and took another deep breath, letting it out slowly.
“Don’t we want to avoid them? John said he saw weapons.”
“Fuck those cocksuckers,” Nathan barked. “They want some, I will kill every man, woman, child, dog, and goat there.”
“What if they don’t do anything?” Jasmine asked, suddenly feeling sorry for the people ahead.
“Then those nine get to live today,” Nathan proclaimed as Emma woke up and picked up her sippy cup.
“Nine?” Jasmine asked.
“Two by the tractor, three on the porch, some dork in the tree beside the house, one in the upstairs window poking his rifle out the window like a dumbass fucking whore, and two butt-licking cocksuckers beside the barn,” Nathan barked, reaching for the SAW.
Jasmine saw a figure walking away from the tractor, heading to the road. “Nathan, please be nice if they are,” she begged. Nathan didn’t answer as Jasmine moved back to the others. “Spread out,” Jasmine said. “John and Tom, concentrate on those at the barn. Amanda and Natalie, cover the ones on the porch and tractor. Casey and I will take the house. Don’t aim at them until they are a threat.” They nodded as she pulled back up beside Nathan.
Nathan didn’t have a chip on his shoulder, he had the whole damn tree daring someone to cross him. Jasmine tried to calm her breathing as they got closer and the figure reached the road, but everyone else at the house was just standing and watching. When they were fifty yards away, Jasmine saw it was an older man standing beside the road waiting on them. She could tell he was holding an AR-15 loosely in his right hand.
When they were ten yards away, Nathan came to a stop, looking at the man with a blank expression. Jasmine looked at Nathan’s face and it was devoid of emotion. Turning back to the man, she saw he was older wearing coveralls and a cap but with a smile on his face. He kept his eyes on Nathan. Jasmine could tell he was scared of Nathan.
“Morning,” the man called out.
Nathan tilted his head, “Yeah, it damn sure ain’t a good one.”
The man smiled bigger. “Well my family and friends are alive and together, so I can make an argument about that,” he said. He nodded to Nathan’s group. “Seems your family is together, so you can make an argument for the same.”
Nathan sat silent for a second before replying. “There still ain’t shit good about it.” Jasmine bowed her head, then lifted it back up, remembering she could be embarrassed later.
The old man chuckled. “I ain’t walked in your shoes, so I can’t say.”
Even though he was trying not to, Nathan was starting to like the old man. “Want to tell me why the boy in your upstairs window has his rifle pointed at my head?” Nathan asked calmly with a blank face.
The old man spun toward the house. “Goddamn it, Johnny, I told you not to aim at them!” the old man bellowed. The house wasn’t off the road more than a hundred yards but Jasmine was sure that the old man could’ve been heard a mile away. The rifle that was poking out the window was pulled inside the house. Shaking his head, the man turned back to them. “I’m truly sorry about that.”
“Thank you,” Nathan replied blandly.
The old man looked behind Nathan. “How do you know any of the kids behind you didn’t aim at us?” he asked.
“You’re breathing. They only aim when they kill,” Nathan replied factually. “If they aim at someone that’s not a threat, they will end up across my knee with a belt.”
The old man shook his head. “Mister, I ain’t done nothing to ya. Why you so pissed off?” Nathan took a deep breath and Jasmine wanted to hide.
“I’m sick and tired of killing government cocksuckers who are trying to kill me just because I won’t bend over and let them fuck me! I’m sick of killing motherfucking shitwads who want to take my shit and hurt my kids! I’m fed up with having to hide as I try to get the fuck home! My fucking head is about to explode from a headache because a little man inside my skull is pounding railroad spikes! I’m tired of these girls mojoing my ass with voodoo, bending me to their will!” Nathan bellowed.
The old man leaned back and blinked his eyes wide. “Damn, guess you’re right. Fuck a good morning.”
Jasmine let out the breath she didn’t realize she was holding. Two men ran to the old man. They stopped beside the old man and Jasmine noticed both were young in their early twenties. One had on a cap and coveralls like the old man and the other had on jeans and t-shirt. “Papaw, did he say someone was coming here to kill them and us?” t-shirt asked.
“Naw, he was just saying what we’ve been hearing on the radio. They had to kill some government thugs and gangs who tried to take their stuff,” he said.
The boys looked dejected. “Man, we thought we was going to get to fight ’em,” the one wearing the cap said.
Nathan snorted. “Careful what you wish for. They are coming. If you don’t bow down and let those fuckers shove their dicks in your ass they will kill you and hang your bodies from the trees in your yard.”
The three slowly turned to Nathan, traumatized. “You serious?” t-shirt asked.
“We’ve seen more people’s bodies hanged on their farms than I ever want to remember. If you don’t leave when they say, they just shoot the shit out of everything. When everyone’s dead, they string up the bodies, regardless of age,” Nathan said, raising his hands and massaging his temples.
“Shit,” the old man gasped.
“Why they do that?” t-shirt asked.
Really wanting the little man inside his skull to die, Nathan closed his eyes as he massaged his temples harder. “To scare others. I left my group and scouted around Herington. I saw a Humvee and two troop trucks pull up to a house and demand everyone out. They waited five minutes and when no one came out, they opened up with fifty cals, shredding the house. Some troops went inside and pulled out the dead family. They wrapped rope around their necks and stung up the bodies. The youngest was still in diapers.”
The three where staring at him in horror as was Jasmine and the others. “And you didn’t tell us this?” Jasmine barked.
Never turning to her, Nathan didn’t open his eyes or stop rubbing his temples. “What difference would it have made besides putting more memories in your heads that you don’t need?”
“What else did you see?” Natalie asked behind him.
“I have pictures and video if you want to see. I’m not saying,” Nathan moaned, still rubbing. Jasmine moved over beside him putting her hand on his shoulder.
“They might have seen you,” Amanda pointed out.
Nathan snorted. “Only the ones I wanted to, and they died.”
“How many did you kill?” Amanda asked.
“Thirteen,” Nathan said. He stopped rubbing his temples and pressed hard. The asshole in his skull quit driving spikes but kept hammering. “I killed the six they left at the next house, stringing up the bodies. Then I moved to another house and called you on the radio and moved away. One of the ones I shot told me they were tracking radios and jamming them. When the Humvee and the truck showed up they shot the shit out of the house, and when they got out to get the bodies, I cut their asses in half. I’m sure I got some more because I booby-trapped the bodies,” Nathan said, knowing Amanda wanted answers and wouldn’t shut up till she got them. Feeling the little man starting to drive spikes again, Nathan started massaging his temples.
Jasmine looked at Nathan’s face and could see he was in pain. “Nathan, let me get some medicine for your headache,” she said, reaching for his backpack.
“It’s not working,” Nathan said.
The old man shook his head, trying to shake the shock of what he head off. “Mister, come up to the house. I’ll find you something for your headache. If nothing else I have some vodka, top shelf,” he offered.
“Thank you sir, but there is a stand of trees a mile north from here. I’m going set up camp and try to relax to get this little fucker pounding spikes in my skull to stop. We’ll head back out tonight,” Nathan said, finally opening his eyes. Dropping his hands, Nathan grabbed his reins.
The old man stepped in front of his horse. “Young man, you can stay here. Your horses look tuckered out, as do you.”
Nathan looked at old man with blurry vision and tried to smile. “I’m Nathan, sir, and I’m sorry for my behavior.”
“Name’s Greg. Shit, if I’d been through that, can’t say I’d be holding up as good as you or your family,” Greg said. “These are my grandsons, Hank,” he pointed at t-shirt, “and Greg Junior,” he pointed at the other one. “Come on up to the house and we’ll find you a place to bed down.”
“Thank you for the offer, but if you don’t mind, we’ll stay in the barn. I don’t feel comfortable in a house that can’t take gunfire,” Nathan said. With a long face, Greg nodded in understanding.
As Greg and his grandsons walked back, the group followed. They headed straight for the barn. When Nathan reached the barn he noticed Emma hugging his chest, babbling. Dropping his pack he turned to dig out his woobie but Jasmine ran over pulling it out. “I’ve got it,” she said, handing Chip to Tom. She grabbed Nathan’s arm, leading him inside the barn.
Nathan stopped to pick up his pack but Greg walked over and picked it up, “Nathan, I think she wants you to lie down.”
Not caring anymore, Nathan let Jasmine lead him inside to a corner. Greg dropped his pack and went back to unsaddle the horses. As Jasmine spread out his woobie, Nathan dug in his pack for Percocet. Popping two in his mouth, he pulled Jasmine close. “I’m going to pass out. If you need me throw water on me. Watch our stuff and keep an eye out,” Nathan whispered. He pulled Emma out of her sling. Dropping his gear where he stood, Nathan fell on his woobie and rolled on his back.
Whining as he walked over, Ares lay down beside Nathan, resting his head on Nathan’s chest. Jasmine picked up Emma and stood at Nathan’s feet. It only took five minutes for Nathan’s breathing to become regular as he drifted off to sleep. “Take care of him till I get back, Ares,” Jasmine said, then walked outside to watch over the group.
Chapter 11
Day 44
Hearing whispering, Nathan struggled out of a deep sleep. Feeling like his eyes were nailed shut, Nathan fought to open them. Slowly they opened and the ceiling of the barn rotated in his vision. Blinking his eyes till the merry-go-round stopped, Nathan tried to sit up but couldn’t. Looking down, he saw the top of Emma’s and Ares’s heads on his chest. Reaching up with his right arm he stroked Ares, who opened his eyes. “Hey, boy,” Nathan said quietly.
Ares gave a little whine as he lifted his head up. “Daddy’s fine,” Nathan said, petting Ares. Ares opened his mouth and panted. Nathan smiled and noticed it was dark outside. Remembering he’d heard whispering, Nath
an spotted John and Tom just inside the open door, looking outside. “Not standing in an open door, they remember,” Nathan chuckled as he started scratching behind Ares’s ears.
Like a bolt of lightning, Nathan realized it was dark. He tried to lift his left arm to see his watch but it wouldn’t move. Jasmine was curled up on his left side, holding a sleeping Chip, pinning Nathan’s arm under them. Lifting his head higher, Nathan spotted the girls lying next to his legs and Athena sprawled out at his feet.
“Damn, I can’t say I don’t feel loved,” Nathan said in a dry, croaking voice.
Hearing Nathan’s voice, Jasmine woke. Seeing Nathan awake and smiling she returned it, “Feel better?” she asked.
Letting out a long groan, Nathan laid his head down. “Hell yes, that little man with the hammer finally quit.”
“I’m glad,” Jasmine said, kissing him.
“Please don’t, I have to pee really bad,” Nathan chuckled.
Jasmine sat up and helped Nathan extricate himself from the mass of bodies. They didn’t have to move Ares; he jumped right up. When Nathan stood up he was dizzy and threw out his arms to keep his balance. Jasmine grabbed his left arm. “Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked, studying him.
Nathan closed his eyes and opened them again slowly. “Yeah, I’m a pussy when it comes to drugs. I should’ve known better than to take two Percocet, but that little man with the hammer was pissing me off.”
“Yeah, I figured as much,” Jasmine said. “Did I give you the headache from hell?” she asked with a worried expression.
“No,” Nathan chuckled. “I get migraines but haven’t had one in years. I think the stress and changing to the thermal brought it on.”
“Then don’t wear it,” Jasmine said.
“That isn’t an option. To be honest, I think wearing both monoculars will stop that,” Nathan admitted. He pulled his arm away from Jasmine. “Let’s get the horses ready,” he said, and looked at his watch. Jasmine cringed when he saw the time. “It’s three a.m.!” Nathan stated in shock.
Dark Titan Journey: Finally Home Page 13
