Smiling at the exchange, Jasmine helped Chip take a drink from his glass. “Nathan, what did you find out from the radio and Amanda’s notes?”
Landing the ‘plane,’ Nathan turned to Jasmine. “Besides the fact that I don’t know how to write?”
“I didn’t say that,” Amanda snapped, “just no one can read it.”
“Same thing,” Nathan said, loading up the spoon.
Seeing Amanda take a deep breath, Jasmine picked up a stick and tapped her leg. Amanda spun her head, glaring at Jasmine. Jasmine gave Amanda a warning look, shaking her head. Wisely, Amanda took the hint and dropped it.
“Seriously, what did you find out?” Jasmine asked, watching the ‘plane’ fly.
“The Chinese are in Washington State in strength. F-U reported over a million, but they are heading south toward Cali, thankfully. They would’ve landed more but there seem to be several subs in the area that don’t like that idea. It looks like North Dakota didn’t like the Canadians invading. There is wholesale slaughter going on there. A hurricane hit Florida two days ago near Miami and even the government is writing it off. They expect by the end of the week four million will be dead because there isn’t enough clean water. Chicago burned down again and the south is basically one big riot,” Nathan said, setting Emma’s empty plate down.
Nathan grabbed Emma’s sippy cup and laid her down in his lap. “In the Midwest the government strongholds are Kansas City and Denver. The Governor of Texas ordered all inmates serving life sentences or sentences over fifteen years shot. Miraculously, crime in Texas just about stopped. Roving gangs are killed and any captured are nailed to trees along a highway, alive. Then they are left to die.” Nathan looked up smiling, “For some reason gangs have left Texas.”
“See, trees are really good,” Amanda stated.
Nathan laughed. “Yes, I love trees too, Amanda.” Seeing Emma was asleep, Nathan took her sippy cup and lay back, putting her on his chest. “Roving motorcycle gangs are pretty bad around here. Like Amanda said, interstate eighty where it hits seventy-six to Denver is a major government corridor. Oh yeah, the five aircraft carrier groups that were out are now all against the government.”
They sat thinking about what Nathan told them and John was the first to speak, “So crossing eighty won’t be hard?”
“No harder than the anything else we’ve done,” Nathan said. “Now we just can’t bust our ass out there and stroll across it. We will have to approach it carefully and sneak across.”
“Like in the middle of nowhere,” Natalie asked.
Nathan shook his head. “No, if they have scouts out, that’s where they will be, in areas where ambushes happen and help can’t get there fast. I’m thinking we cross near a town, maybe five miles outside town. That’s close enough that ambushers won’t want to take the risk because help is close by. It would be a waste of man power to watch that closely. I’m thinking we’ll cross near Ogallala.”
Jasmine jumped. “There’s not really a town of Ogallala!”
“Yes there is, I’ve been there,” Nathan said. “I didn’t find Clara.”
“I liked that book,” Amada said.
“I liked the movie,” John said. “So you don’t think we’ll have problems?”
“No more than we’ve had, if we’re careful,” Nathan said, sliding Emma off his chest and placing her on his woobie. “None of this is a cake walk. Let’s do the daily routine and pack up.” Everyone jumped up and started packing. After the morning routine everyone was surprised to see Nathan carrying armfuls of young saplings. He trimmed off the branches to make a bunch of poles about six feet long.
“If you cut down the young ones they can’t grow up and fill this damn place with trees,” Amanda snapped. Nathan ignored her as he strapped the poles to the pack horses.
The sun was just starting to sink on the horizon as Nathan led them back to the dirt road. Everyone was in their place as Nathan led them across the flat prairie farmland. When the sun sank everyone turned on NVGs as they rode in silence. Emma had woken up and babbled quietly to Nathan.
Emma pointed up at the clear night sky. “Stars,” Nathan offered.
“Ar,” she said.
“SSSS,” Nathan emphasized the s. “Stars.”
“Tars,” Emma said.
“Close enough,” Nathan said, patting her. Emma smiled up and tilted back her sippy cup. The dirt roads in the Midwest ran for the most part north to south and east to west spaced, a mile apart, forming blocks of a square mile of farmland. Nathan led the group miles north then miles west then back north again.
It was past midnight when Nathan led them down to a creek. The group led their horses to the water and opened food. “Welcome to Nebraska,” Nathan said.
“The only difference is a few humps of dirt,” Amanda mumbled, opening her pouch of food and closing her notebook. None of them even responded.
As Nathan ate, John climbed off his horse and walked over. “Nathan, we’ve only passed four houses. The effort for the government to come out here just seems like a waste of time.”
“Remember, the Postal Service knows where everyone is and who lives there. Back in Arkansas, they had a group of men ride up to a house and empty it or kill those that didn’t leave. Then they’d load up and do it again. That one small group of a hundred troops gathered thousands. The people are spread out so neighbors can’t help and the neighbors see and hear what happens if you don’t leave. I’m not going to lie, I really thought living far out with your family made you safe, but without a few numbers and some good weapons, you might as well live downtown” Nathan explained.
“But the resources they are using!” John exclaimed.
“These are the only ones they have to worry about. They have the people in the city already bottled up. Out in the country is where the rebellion always starts. You can see it all through history. It’s hard to control movement, and if a person knows how to live off the land you can’t really take away their food if they don’t agree with you. Most people that live in the country have at least one weapon, so you have the seeds for resistance. Eighty percent of Americans live in urban areas. If you can control that last twenty percent, you make fighting back really hard. I have to say I’m impressed with their thought process. This roundup of the countryside was planned out pretty well,” Nathan said.
“How long ago do you think they started planning this?” Jasmine asked.
Nathan scoffed. “Shit, I have no idea. Ask the rest of the group when we get home. They were the ones wearing tinfoil hats. They talked about it all the time. I’m going to have to tell them I was wrong. I really thought someone would blow the whistle on this kind of planning.”
“There was talk on the Internet about what the government was doing, but nobody believed it,” Tom said.
Nathan paused, taking a bite. “Damn, you’re right. We were warned. We—I—just couldn’t believe it.”
Everyone finished eating and followed Nathan back to the dirt road. The road they were on went over a hill and Nathan turned off, cutting across a plowed field, heading northwest. When they reached the other side of the field, Nathan turned north on another dirt road. After a few more miles the road again went over a small hill, and like before hill was a loose term. They couldn’t see over it but it was higher than the area around them.
Again Nathan led them into a plowed field, heading northwest. The others in the group looked over their shoulders at each other for answers about Nathan’s crazy course. With nobody even having a guess, they just followed. The next hill they came to everyone was expecting the same but Nathan led them around it very slowly and joined back up to the road they were just on.
Not able to take it any longer, Jasmine moved up towards Nathan. Seeing her go, everyone followed. They knew she would ask and they could hear the answer without feeling stupid. Jasmine eased back on her reins letting her horse walk beside Nathan’s. “I know I’m going to regret asking, but why are we avoiding hills?” Nathan pulled b
ack on his reins, stopping Smoke, and everyone else stopped with him.
Nathan looked through his thermal and pointed to the west. “See that hill over there?” Jasmine nodded. “It’s over a mile away, close to two miles. You can see the top really easily, can’t you?” Again Jasmine nodded. “How easy would it be to see a group riding horses over it?”
Jasmine looked down. “Sorry.”
“I didn’t explain because most of you said you read Lonesome Dove. They explain skylining but don’t use that word. Remember when the Indians took their horses and they crept up on their bellies looking over the ridge, watching the camp before Deets got killed? When you crest a hill, do it low to the ground so you don’t break the skyline. It is easy to detect that movement against a flat background,” Nathan explained.
Jasmine shook her head. “You make Lonesome Dove sound like a book about tactics and survival.”
“If you think about it, they tell you how to rustle cows and herd them. Shit, I can think of more now that you mention it,” Nathan admitted.
Amanda drove her horse between Jasmine and Nathan. “If you fucking tell me snakes move like that in a river I’m never going near water again.”
Nathan raised his eyebrows. “I’ve never seen a moccasin ball in a river, but I’ve seen them in lakes.”
“That was supposed to be make-believe,” Amanda gasped.
Nathan patted her. “Don’t worry, we are out of the area where cottonmouths and copperheads live. The only snakes you have to worry about now are rattlesnakes.”
“Really?” Amanda asked with a smile.
“Yes, you may find few in southeastern Kansas, but that’s about as far north as they go,” Nathan said.
Amanda looked around smiling, “Nebraska isn’t so bad after all.”
Nathan looked back at Jasmine. “Do you understand skylining now?”
“Yes, but I feel stupid now,” Jasmine mumbled.
“I’m sorry if I made you feel that way, but will you ever forget it?” he asked, and Jasmine shook her head. “Then you will be safer and won’t get hurt, so I don’t care,” Nathan replied, and kicked Smoke back into a walk.
Jasmine turned to the others. “From now on, we take turns asking questions. He’s right, I won’t forget it, but some of you can feel stupid too.”
John shifted in his saddle. “I didn’t ask and I still feel stupid. I know about skylining from video games.”
“It doesn’t matter, we take turns. I’m tired of him thinking I’m a complete dumbass,” Jasmine snapped, kicking her horse. The others nodded as caught up to Nathan. Up ahead, Nathan chuckled at Jasmine’s comment.
It was just almost six a.m. and the sky was getting light when Nathan led them off the road into a field. The field stopped next to a spur running down from a hill to the south, and Nathan climbed off his horse and led it up the spur. The ridge only rose forty feet. The others climbed off and led their horses up behind him.
At the top, Nathan led them down into a draw with a pond with a dike on the north end. He circled the pond and walked his horse into a draw that emptied into the pond. The others saw they were basically in a long, narrow bowl with knee-high grass.
Nathan pulled off Smoke’s saddle then dropped his pack. After laying Emma down, Nathan hobbled Smoke and let her eat. Turning around he saw everyone had their saddles off too. He walked over to the donkeys and untied the poles he’d cut. He unpacked the tarp and grabbed his paracord. By now everyone was watching.
Spreading the tarp out Nathan placed a pole at each corner and tied it to the eyelet. Motioning for the others to come over, Nathan had them stand the poles up, raising the tarp. Nathan ran cord from the top of each pole, staking the other end in the ground.
When he was done they let go, liking the shelter Nathan had built but Nathan didn’t stop. He ran cord under the tarp from one corner to the other and pulled it tight, taking the sag out of the middle. The group agreed that was smart as Nathan placed a pole in the center where the X of cord crossed.
Then Nathan walked around pulling up handfuls of grass and tied them in knots, then threw them beside the shelter. The group was at a total loss. Nathan dug up several bushes with a folding shovel and knocked the dirt off them. He tossed the bushes by the pile of knotted grass. Taking his shovel Nathan started throwing shovel fulls of dirt on top of the tarp.
Walking under the tarp, Nathan started hitting the clumps from below the tarp, making the dirt spread out. When the dirt was spread over the top, he threw the knotted grass and bushes on top.
John gasped. “Holy shit! You camouflaged the roof.”
“The damn tarp is already camouflaged,” Amanda pointed out.
“Woodland camouflage doesn’t work well in grasslands,” Nathan said, pulling his gear under the tarp. The others grabbed their stuff and did the same. The sun was above the horizon as they spread out their sleeping gear. Emma was already on Nathan’s.
As Nathan took off gear, the others looked at each other. Finally everyone pointed at Natalie. Natalie sighed. “Nathan, what’s the point? If someone walks up here they can see us.”
“You are right, and that’s what guards are for. But from above, say from a helicopter, it looks like some horses eating grass and drinking from a pond,” he said, taking off his boots.
“Won’t they be able to tell with thermal?” John asked.
Nathan moaned. “Yeah the dirt up there will get hotter than the dirt around us.”
“How many on guard?” John asked.
“Two should be okay, one down here watching the kids and the other almost to the top of the ridge behind us,” Nathan said, lying back.
Amanda crawled over and rested on Nathan’s chest. “You are so cool it should be illegal.”
Nathan’s face filled with pride. “Thank you, little lady.”
“You could’ve told us,” Amanda pointed out.
“You saw how I found an area and built it. Now you can too, and you will,” he said.
“We still could’ve helped,” she said.
Reaching up Nathan stroked the top of her head. “You were curious so you were watching my every move, wondering what I was doing, trying to figure it out. Now any one of you can do it.” Nathan could see that none of them were tired. “John, you and Tom set up the solar charger and fill the water jugs. Natalie and Casey, start supper while I go over what Amanda wrote. Then I’m going to read a story; we need some entertainment.”
Amanda lifted her head off his chest. “You’re not going to read us those survival manuals, are you?”
“No,” Nathan said, chuckling.
“They do have good information but holy crap are they boring,” Amanda said.
Casey jumped up. “What are you going to read us?”
“Sho-gun,” Nathan answered.
Casey frowned. “Never heard of it.”
“Soon you will be able to say you had it read to you,” Nathan said, patting her leg. The others started getting ready, excited about the idea of Nathan reading a book to them. Chip jumped out of Jasmine’s lap and ran around.
Moving over beside Nathan, Jasmine sat down and started pulling off her boots, “That is a good idea about reading a book to them.”
“I should’ve started it sooner to break up the monotony,” Nathan said.
“After training and riding twelve hours we tend to be tired when we set up camp,” Jasmine admitted, standing up.
Nodding his head in agreement, Nathan watched Jasmine pull off her pants. “Yeah, I’ve been a bit tuckered out.”
Folding her pants, Jasmine noticed she had Nathan’s attention as she pulled off the ACU jacket. “You don’t mind me sitting on your woobie while you read, do you? I want a front row seat.”
Nathan blinked his dried-out eyes. “You can sit in my damn lap.”
Jasmine put on her flip-flops. “Emma would get pissed,” she said, walking over to help fix the food.
“Shit, I’ll throw her in the damn pond,” Nathan mumbled, star
ing at Jasmine.
Chapter 14
Day 46
As the sun set, the group followed Nathan out of the draw. They had loved his reading to them and were still talking about the story he read to them so far. Along the same route they had taken when Nathan led them in, they led the horses out. When Nathan stopped at the bottom of the ridge, he was ready to get on his horse. Carrying Emma in her sling with her moving was beyond a challenge.
When they reached the dirt road the sun was almost down as they followed Nathan at a trot. An hour later Nathan pulled Smoke into a canter. Up ahead the road came to a T. It had been so long since they had seen that it seemed peculiar. To their surprise, Nathan didn’t turn right or left. He went straight, right into the filed. Off to the west they could see a house in the distance with light coming from behind curtains.
They all followed, and started looking at each other and everyone pointed at Tom. Hanging his head as Natalie took the lead to the pack animals, Tom rode up beside Nathan. “Why are we going cross-country? You said you didn’t want to do that at night because the horses could step in a hole.”
“Right you are, but these are plowed fields so I’m not really worried about holes, and it’s pretty bright. We are traveling cross-country because there is a seasonal river ahead and all the bridges are right next to a town or several houses. Since the river is now a creek, we are just going to ‘bust brush,’” Nathan explained.
“Bust brush?” Tom asked.
“It means going cross-country, blazing a trail,” Nathan said.
Nodding his head, Tom pulled up on his reins and fell back, taking the pack animals’ lead rope back. The others spread back out, having moved up to hear the answer. They reached the stream bed, where a small creek flowed through the bottom as Nathan led them down, letting the horse drink.
Amanda looked at the trees on the banks, smiling. They weren’t big trees, just cottonwood scrubs. Nathan smiled as she climbed off her saddle and walked over and just rubbed on the trees. “Yeah, I like trees too,” Nathan mumbled as a sippy cup hit his chest. “You know, Emma, if you ask once in a while instead of hitting me with the damn thing I might enjoy this,” Nathan snapped, filling the cup up.
Dark Titan Journey: Finally Home Page 18
