It was eleven when he woke Jasmine. She sat up, smiling. “See or hear anything?” she asked.
Nathan shook his head. “Just animals.”
Jasmine stood up and hugged him, making Nathan’s heart skip a beat. “Thank you for the sleep.” She told him then put on her pants and top. It didn’t take Nathan long to go to sleep.
When Nathan felt someone shake him, he could swear he had just lain down. He opened his eyes to see Jasmine smiling. “Sun will be down in an hour.”
“I hope you guys feel better today,” Nathan said, sitting up. Amanda handed him a plate. He looked around to see camp was packed up. “Do you guys feel better?”
“We heard some helicopters earlier,” Tom offered.
Shoving food in his mouth, Nathan looked around and could tell the group was still nervous. They were just trying to hide it. “We cross I-25 tonight and won’t see another interstate till we travel four hundred miles.”
“We are going to watch the interstate before crossing?” Amanda asked.
“Yes we are,” Nathan assured her.
When Nathan was done, he gathered his stuff and picked up the ever-present Emma. After Emma was in her sling, Nathan turned to see everyone already mounted up. Shaking his head, Nathan climbed on and kicked Smoke leaving the gully.
They hadn’t traveled far when the same feeling Nathan felt before he went to sleep started creeping over him. He scanned with the thermal and kept looking around with his monoculars but didn’t see anything. Fighting the urge to kick Smoke into a dead run, he eased her into a trot.
It was after midnight when he stopped them at a small stream behind a hill. A mile away, I-25 was on the other side of the hill. Nathan climbed off Smoke, handing the reins to Jasmine. Grabbing his thermal binoculars, Nathan eased up the hill.
Nathan sat for over an hour watching the interstate. From his the hilltop, he could see for miles, but other than animals he didn’t see anything. Hearing something coming up behind him, Nathan looked back to see Jasmine crawling up beside him.
“See anything?” she asked.
Nathan passed her the thermal binoculars. “Other than animals, no.”
“What have you been up here so long for then?” she asked .
Letting out a sigh, Nathan lowered his monoculars. “You guys are right, something is weird.”
“About time you felt it,” Jasmine said, lowering the thermal binoculars.
Ignoring the remark, Nathan took the binoculars. “We will move fast across the interstate.”
Jasmine nodded, wondering if Nathan expected her to complain. “If you want to ride hard the rest of the night that’s fine with us.”
“Too easy to run up on trouble,” Nathan admitted, backing up off the hilltop. Jasmine followed, and when they were off the hilltop, they stood up and jogged down to the others. “Stay in line, and if you see something, call it out. If we are shot at, pass me by and head to the rally point.”
“See anything?” John asked hopefully, and Nathan shook his head.
“I hate Wyoming,” Amanda mumbled.
Natalie nodded. “Yeah, something is not right here.”
Nathan pulled Smoke’s reins, turning her so he could see the others. “Guys, don’t think about it, just stay alert. Remember what you have been taught, and think. If you start popping rounds off you could hit one of us.”
They all nodded, then Nathan spun around, kicking Smoke. When they rounded the hill, Nathan had Smoke pour on the steam. They covered the mile to the interstate in no time. They slowed only to go up bank and over the interstate. When they were back on the plain, Nathan kicked Smoke hard back into a full-bore gallop.
He looked over his shoulder to see the others right behind him and the dogs struggling to keep up at the very back of the line. Emma woke up with the wind hitting her face and didn’t care for that. Reaching down, he pulled her sling over her, forming a cocoon.
When the interstate was far behind them, Nathan pulled up on Smoke’s reins, slowing her to a walk. Nathan patted her sweat-soaked neck. A hand shot out of the cocoon, holding a sippy cup. Refilling it, Nathan handed it back as Emma started to babble quietly. “It’s okay,” Nathan said, patting the cocoon.
Seeing a pond up ahead, Nathan guided Smoke toward it. When Smoke saw the pond, she broke into a trot. Reaching the water, Smoke lowered her head, drinking. Nathan looked back at the others as their horses started drinking. “The horses need rest,” he said.
“They rest every day,” Natalie objected.
“We are averaging forty miles a day. Since we picked up the other horses they are much better, but they need to rest,” Nathan said. “We will travel tonight but will take a day off after that.” Hearing several groans, Nathan was getting ready to start shouting.
“Hey,” Jasmine snapped at the group, “my horse stumbled a few times back there. Nathan said they need to rest, so they rest.”
The others sighed and agreed. Nathan led Smoke over to the grass and let her graze as he kept watch. The others followed, and Jasmine moved beside him. “You feel better?”
Nathan shook his head. “No, I swear someone is watching us.”
Jasmine looked up in the sky. “Think it’s a drone?”
“If it was a mid-altitude drone we would hear it. I can’t begin to think a drone is following us,” Nathan said, turning around and studying each member of the group.
“I agree with you, I feel like someone’s watching us,” Jasmine said, unconsciously gripping her M-4.
“If they are, we can’t see them, and they can move faster than we can. Thinking like that makes you paranoid. If they can see you, you can see them, and vice versa,” Nathan said.
“Then what is it?” Jasmine asked.
Nathan shrugged. “Shit if I know.”
They sat for half an hour, letting the horses graze, till Nathan led Smoke around the pond with the others behind him. Since they had ridden the horses so hard, Nathan kept them at a walk till the sun broke the horizon.
Up ahead they saw a windmill sitting next to an old dilapidated barn. Just past the barn was a gently sloping hill not much taller than the barn. Getting closer, they spotted two huge water troughs. One had several horse hitches next to it. Nathan led them over and climbed off Smoke, tying her to the hitch as she started drinking. As he dropped his pack, the others followed suit, and Nathan walked over to the other trough.
A rifle shot split the quiet morning air, causing Nathan to dive beside the water tank. Emma screamed when he landed on her, making Nathan roll on his back next to the trough. Pulling Emma out of the sling, he looked over at the others and saw a small form lying on the ground between the two troughs.
The others were crowding behind the other trough where the horses were tied up. Nathan saw Amanda run to the small form lying on the ground. “No, Amanda, stay down!” Nathan bellowed.
Just as Amanda reached the small form, another shot rang out. “Ugh,” Amanda gasped, falling down beside the other small form.
With the second shot, Nathan knew where the shooter was. Before Amanda hit the ground, Nathan stood up, aiming at the top of the hill behind the barn. “Ares, kill!” he shouted, running toward the hill with bloodlust in his heart. Ares bounded past him, growling, as Nathan kept pulling his trigger, spraying the top of the hill.
As he ran past the others, Jasmine stood up and started shooting, then the others followed suit. Seeing bullets kick up dirt all along the edge of the crest of the hill, Nathan saw movement on the left side of the hill top. Dropping his empty magazine, Nathan slammed in a new mag and concentrated his fire where he saw movement.
When Nathan reached the hill, Ares was getting close to where he was shooting. Nathan dropped the partial mag in his rifle and put a new one in as he ran up the side of the hill in a dead sprint. Nathan heard another rifle shot, then a person screaming. Screaming at the top of his lungs, Nathan charged over the crest of the hill, wanting blood.
He found Ares dragging a man around by
his arm, shaking it violently. Ares let go of the arm and latched onto the back of the man’s neck, shaking his body back and forth. Letting his rifle drop to hang on its sling, Nathan pulled his knife and charged the man Ares was attacking.
Diving on the man, Nathan started plunging his knife in the man’s back. The first thrust felt like he was trying to drive it through concrete, but Nathan didn’t care. When the man stopped fighting, Nathan sat up. “Ares, break.”
Ares backed up, still hunched down with blood dripping from his mouth. Nathan rolled the man over to see he was still alive. “You shot a fucking kid,” Nathan said, moving his knife under the man’s chin.
The man gave a weak smile. “Yeah, and got another one too.”
Nathan raised his knife up and drove it into the man’s right bicep. The man let out a scream and reached over with his other hand. “Ares, hold,” Nathan said, grabbing the left hand. Ares lunged forward, locking his jaw on the man’s wrist, coming close to Nathan’s hand.
“Why did you shoot kids?” Nathan yelled.
The man didn’t answer till Nathan started twisting the knife buried in his bicep. “We found out if we shoot a kid others will run out to rescue them!” the man screamed.
Nathan could feel something he had never truly felt before, unbridled hate. “How many kids have you shot?”
“I don’t know,” the man gasped.
Hearing a growl from Ares, Nathan looked up and noticed blood on Ares’s back. Tears started down Nathan’s face as he looked down at the man twisting the knife. “How many more of you around here?”
“Two more, three miles from here in a house!” the man screamed.
“Did you radio them?” Nathan asked.
“No, we can’t use radios with the equipment we have,” the man gasped as Nathan quit twisting the knife.
Leaving his knife in the man’s arm, Nathan stood up and walked over to Ares. Taking a deep breath, he knelt down beside Ares and started brushing away his fur. On Ares’s right side near his rump, Nathan found a two-inch gash where a bullet had grazed him. Even though it was bleeding heavily, Nathan moved over to the man.
“What equipment? If you lie, the dog will eat your dick before you die,” Nathan said coldly.
The man motioned with his head to his right. Nathan looked to the right and saw a small camp. There was a two-foot-long, one-foot-tall box with a three-foot antenna sticking out the top. At the very top of the antenna were three evenly spaced prongs, each a foot long with a ball on each end. Nathan noticed there was a computer tablet connected to the box with a thick cable.
The box and tablet looked blocky, and Nathan realized they were ruggedized, but the cable didn’t look like it came off the box. Nathan looked at the tablet and could see red dots overlaid with white. Then he noticed the tablet had geometric circles radiating from the center.
Nathan walked back to the man. “What’s the code?”
“Seven, four, four, one” the man gasped.
“When will your friends be here?” Nathan asked, kneeling down on the man’s chest.
“They should be on their way when they heard the shots. You won’t be alive much longer,” the man said, smiling.
“Longer than you,” Nathan said, pulling out his knife and running it across the man’s throat. Blood shot up like a fountain, soaking Nathan and Ares. The man gasped, trying to breathe, as Nathan stood up and Ares let the man’s wrist go. Nathan stood over him till his last gasp escaped.
Turning around Nathan started running back down the hill. “Ares, come,” he snapped. Ares bounded past him as Nathan ran over the crest to see everyone gathered around two small figures on the ground. “No!” shouted, sprinting forward. When he reached the bottom he lost his balance and crashed on his face. Rolling back up, Nathan ran to the group.
Jasmine turned to see a blood-soaked Nathan and Ares running at them. “Nathan!” she screamed, and ran at him.
Nathan didn’t stop as she reached him, he just ran around her. Stopping by the kneeling group, Nathan saw Amanda laid out, groaning, with Casey beside her, crying. Athena had her head on Amanda’s legs as Nathan knelt beside them and started running his hands over them. “Nathan!” Jasmine yelled.
Looking up at her, Jasmine grabbed his face. “Their vests stopped the rounds, relax,” she said in a calm but shaking voice.
Nathan closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. “Ares got shot. Bandage it while I look them over.”
Amanda lifted her head up. “They shot Ares?!”
“He’s fine, it only grazed him,” Nathan said, lifting off her vest. Lifting up her t-shirt, Nathan saw a huge bruise covering the right side of her chest. “Bring my pack, Tom. John, they have friends close. Get the sniper rifle and get to the hilltop.”
As they left, Nathan moved over to Casey. Natalie had her head resting in her lap. In a moment of panic, Nathan looked around for Emma. He found her lying where he left her, beside the water trough with Chip beside her, holding her tightly as she cried. Taking a deep breath, Nathan looked Casey over. Raising her camo jacket, Nathan undid her vest and lifted it up. Not seeing anything on her chest or belly, he eased her arms out of her backpack and slowly rolled her.
Nathan could see where the rifle round passed through the pack, and at the bottom of Casey’s ribs on her right side was a massive bruise. “What?” Nathan gasped.
Natalie looked up at him with tears streaming down her face. “What is it?”
Not answering, Nathan pulled the pack out from under Casey and rolled her back gently. He opened the pack and saw the ballistic plates he had given Amanda. Nathan dropped the pack and leaned over, kissing Casey. “You girls are so smart,” Nathan said as Tom dropped his pack.
Nathan dug out his first aid kit, pulling out his stethoscope. He examined both girls quickly, then looked up as Jasmine and Ares walked up. “Ares is fine. I’m going to need to sew it up soon, though,” Jasmine said, looking at the girls. “We need to move before the others get here.”
“No, they will catch us. We will wait for them,” Nathan said. “Amanda has some broken ribs and a contusion on her lung, but thankfully she is breathing well. Casey has a lower broken rib and I’m guessing a liver laceration. I don’t know how big, but her pulse and blood pressure are fine for now. I want you and Natalie to carry them gently over to the barn till that asshole’s friends get here.”
“Nathan,” Jasmine started to say, and Nathan looked at her with tears running down his face.
“Jasmine, not now. Just do what I asked. I’m sure they’re close by now,” Nathan said, trotting back up the hill toward John. He found John lying out on the crest of the hill, looking south through the spotting scope.
“Vehicle coming,” John said as Nathan knelt beside him.
“How far out?” Nathan asked, barely making out the vehicle.
“About three thousand yards. They are driving at a really slow pace. They left that house you see across the valley,” John said.
“Let me know when they are a mile out,” Nathan said, crawling back down toward the dead man and his camp. When the crest of the hill blocked him from view, Nathan stood up and stepped over the dead man. He walked over to the weird box and saw the screen of the tablet. The dots were still on the left side of the screen, but a red dot with a white overlay was nearing the center of the screen. Then at the very bottom of the screen, Nathan noticed a bright white dot slowly moving toward the center.
Furrowing his brow, Nathan sped up to investigate. When he was three feet from the screen, the dot in the middle of the screen disappeared. “Huh,” Nathan said, reaching for the screen but stopped. He stepped back two steps and the dot at the center of the screen came back.
“What the shit?” Nathan gasped, and looked behind him to see John still looking through the spotting scope. Looking back at the screen, Nathan noticed a dot near the dot that had disappeared. Picking up the tablet, Nathan studied the screen and noticed the red and white dots moving around. The moving dots were ju
st inside one of the circles. They moved away slowly and stopped. At first there were seven, but as Nathan watched, one of the red and white dots became two. One was still red and white but the one left behind was solid white.
The tablet wasn’t a true tablet. It was square, not rectangular, with a twenty-four by twenty-four inch screen. Nathan looked at the edges of the tablet. At the top where the cable entered from the box with the antenna was a big N. Then on each side he saw W and E, and at the bottom was S. “Holy shit,” Nathan gasped, looking at the bottom of the screen, seeing the white dot still at the edge but moving toward the center. “John, is the vehicle still coming from the south?” Nathan asked.
“Yeah, but the road is really twisting. It’s some kind of dune buggy. I can see two people inside,” John said.
Nathan studied the circles on the screen, counting thirty-four ever-expanding circles. The white dot was just crossing the nineteenth circle. “John, are they just outside of two thousand yards now?” Nathan asked.
“Yeah, how did you know?” John asked without taking his eye off the spotting scope.
Nathan watched the white dot. “They just turned a little left, heading northeast,” he said, and John looked back at Nathan, who was staring at the screen. “Now they just turned back north.”
John looked back to see the vehicle was now back heading toward them. “What the hell are you looking at?”
“Some real Star Trek shit,” Nathan mumbled, then looked at the red and white dot near the center where the other dot disappeared. “John, I want you to crawl back some and come toward me.”
Leaving the spotting scope, John grabbed the sniper rifle, crawling back, and Nathan almost shit seeing the red and white dot move toward the center. “Okay, that’s good. Get back on the scope,” Nathan said. Looking up from the screen, Nathan looked around them. He could see where tires had rolled up toward the camp.
Dropping the tablet, Nathan ran over to the dead man and pulled the body over to the box. As he did this, Nathan only saw one dot move toward the center of the screen. He sat the body up and propped it up, putting the screen in the dead man’s lap. He ran to the top of the hill, grapping the dead man’s rifle.
Dark Titan Journey: Finally Home Page 27
