“Yes sir, that is close to a pound. Before the lights went off that would’ve been worth twenty thousand dollars,” Nathan told the Beard as Amanda came up behind Nathan and put his bottles in his pack.
“Sir, I ain’t ever going to be able to repay you for this,” the Beard said and the other men stepped forward, patting Nathan on the shoulders.
Amanda stepped to the side of Nathan as the Beard spoke. “Wow,” she said, looking up at the Beard and taking a step back in shock.
“Hey little missus,” the Beard said, looking down at her gently.
“Where’s your mouth?” she asked the ball of hair in total amazement.
“It’s in here.” A hand came up and touched the beard.
“Are you sure? The hair doesn’t move when you talk,” she said, leaning forward and looking at the Beard real hard.
The hands went to the Beard and pulled back inches—a lot of inches—of hair, and sure enough soon they could see a mouth. “See, I told ya,” he said as he let the hair go and the mouth disappeared. He turned around and handed the gold to a young boy who put it in a bag.
Nathan lightly slapped Amanda’s shoulder. “You spoiled it,” he whispered at her then looked at the Beard. “You stay safe, and if you get in a shoot-out with the government types stay hidden,” Nathan warned them.
“You do the same,” the Beard said, and the other men shook Nathan’s hand as he thanked them for the coffee.
He walked back to the other truck as the woman was putting the food in bags. “Thank you,” Nathan said.
“You have a good person managing your money,” the woman said, looking at Amanda.
“Thank you,” Nathan said as the Beard came over carrying a jug of lemonade. He whispered to the woman whose eyes got real big. The woman leapt at Nathan, wrapping her arms around him and kissing his cheek.
“Thank you sir so much,” she said, wiping her eyes.
The Beard came over and tied the jug to Nathan’s pack. Nathan didn’t want to tell the Beard he could feel that eight pounds. “This is for ya later today,” he said, stepping back in front of the group.
“Thank you, sir,” Nathan said, and just then he heard a loud vehicle pull up behind them. He turned around to see a deputy step out of an old truck. He had a huge handheld radio hanging off his shoulder. Not taking his eyes off the deputy, Nathan turned his head to the side. “There’s another one in the truck. If we start shooting we have to take them down fast,” he said over his shoulder to the group.
“They already have two crosshairs apiece,” the Beard said.
The deputy walked over with his hand on his pistol and looked at Nathan. “I’ll have you lay that on the deck. All weapons are to be collected county wide,” he said.
“I’ll lay your ass on the deck first. I’m a POST-certified officer. Any action against me will be viewed as a hostile act and I’ll cut you in half,” Nathan said and the officer jerked upon hearing the words.
“You’d shoot a fellow officer?” he asked incredulously, taking his hand off the pistol.
“For following a law like that, in a heartbeat. Then as I stepped over your corpse I’d take a piss,” Nathan informed him.
“I’m just enforcing the law,” he told Nathan.
“No, you’re enforcing fascism. I took an oath to stand against that. It’s called the Constitution. If I’m not mistaken you did as well,” Nathan said.
The officer looked at the group behind Nathan. “We are impounding these vehicles. All working vehicles are to be turned over immediately. You will be compensated,” he told the group, who started mumbling.
“You can’t do that. I bought them and they are keeping them for me,” Nathan said and the officer looked at him hard.
“You must be wantin’ some today,” the officer said, squaring off to Nathan.
“Looks like I’m fixin’ to get some,” Nathan said with a southern drawl, watching the officer closely as his radio went off. It was calling all officers to a large shootout in town. “Looks like someone didn’t want to give up their shit,” Nathan said. “Your move, leave or die,” Nathan said casually.
“Oh, I’ll be back,” the officer said, turning around and jumping into his truck. He punched it, throwing dirt up as he sped toward town.
Relieved he didn’t have to start the day off with a shootout, Nathan turned around. “I think you guys need to call it a day and get the hell out of here,” he told them.
“We heard and thanks for that. I think he’d have tried us,” the Beard said. “You need a lift?” he asked.
“Which way you going?” Nathan asked, and the man pointed north. “No, we’re heading west. You hurry and get out of sight,” Nathan said as the rest of the crowd loaded up their stuff.
“You too and be careful,” the Beard said as Nathan led his group across the highway. As they started down the road the two trucks pulled out, heading north and picking up speed.
They were a mile down the road when Jasmine moved up beside him. “You were going to shoot that cop, weren’t you?” she asked.
“Better believe it,” he said without hesitation.
“He’s a cop like you! You are a cop, right?” she asked.
“Yes I am, and have been for over fifteen years. But you don’t take guns from people in times like this. If you’ve seen what you said you’ve seen, then you should understand.”
“But if they got all the guns then it would be better,” she said slowly.
“First, it’s impossible to get all the guns. But let’s say just for argument’s sake they could. That means a man that is three hundred pounds can grab you, throw you down, and do what he wants. You can’t stop him without a gun,” Nathan told Jasmine. “Think about it, if they are bigger and stronger than you, what options do you really have?”
“That’s what the police are for,” she said.
“No, we show up after the crime has occurred and try to catch the criminal. The only reason we are here is to enforce the law and generate revenue. That means it has to be broken first. We can’t do anything till the criminal commits a crime. If you had a gun and the man threw you down and you shot him, you stopped a crime you thought was going to happen. If I tried that I’d be in prison,” he said then looked at her. “This is all before now of course. If I think someone is going to do something to me or these two, I poke holes in them with this,” he said, holding up his rifle.
“What about me?” she asked.
“I’ve already taken steps to help you, but until you prove you’re an asset to us I can’t say,” Nathan said. “I’m being honest and I’m sorry if that upsets you. I have two that I’m teaching to survive and live. If you hamper that then we part ways.”
She walked beside him, lost in thought for two miles. He was fixing to ask her if she wanted to leave when Jasmine spoke up. “I knew I picked the right group. I’m sorry if I said anything that hurt your feelings or upset you,” she said.
“You didn’t do either,” Nathan said.
“Just tell me what I can do. I’ve never even held a gun before.” Jasmine looked at the ground. “I’m a student at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. When the power went off it was like a big party the first day. On the second I saw my first rape and ran to my dorm. The next day we heard screaming and found two guys raping a girl in the dorm. Several of us tried to help, but they started punching us, knocking several girls out and throwing them in the room they had a girl tied up in. I ran to my room. I backpack a lot so it was packed already, and I grabbed it and my money and ran to one of the sorority houses.
“I had a friend there and he is a true geek. He has a really big radio that he talks to people on. When I got there he was listening in to military units and I heard how bad it was. I stayed with him till that night and saw how the party was heading downstairs and left,” she told Nathan. Amanda walked over and put
her head on Jasmine’s arm as they walked.
“Where’s your family?” Nathan asked.
“Boston,” she said, wiping tears off her face.
“So you were trying to get there?” Nathan asked.
“No. On the second day I heard on the radio that the military was putting the loss of life over ten thousand from the fires alone. They said the part of town where I lived was a war zone,” she said sadly. “I was just trying to find a safe place where I won’t have that stuff done to me. If my family’s alive, I’ll find them if this ends,” she said.
“Well if you ever want to head north we’ll help outfit you up,” Nathan said.
Jasmine chuckled. “Last night was the first night I’ve slept since this started. Someone was watching out for me,” she said and looked at him. “Why didn’t you wake us for our turn?”
“To be honest, I wanted John to get some sleep, but you looked like you needed some as well,” Nathan said.
“Thank you,” she said, and Amanda got Nathan’s attention and pointed at a group of trees off the side of the road.
“Let’s eat there,” she said with authority.
“You guys heard her, let’s eat there. She paid for it,” Nathan said, walking off the road and heading off into the trees.
They dropped their packs and dove into the hamburgers and Nathan had to admit they were pretty good. He watched the others eating and smiled, glad he was with them. Ares ate his burger in two bites and sat there patiently, looking at everyone and letting them know he could stand to eat some more.
Amanda looked over at Jasmine who was sitting across from her. “Jasmine, how old are you?” she asked.
“Nineteen,” Jasmine said, smiling. She had taken off the jacket top Nathan had given her and was leaning back on her pack.
Amanda just stopped chewing, still staring at Jasmine, “Can I ask you something?” she asked, her mouth full of burger.
“Sure, Amanda,” Jasmine said.
“How did your boobs get so big?” she asked.
Trying not to laugh, Nathan started coughing as he inhaled a mouthful of hamburger. He stood up and leaned over, trying to cough out the hunk of meat stuck in his throat; his eyes were streaming. Jasmine ran over and slapped his back really hard and he spit the mouthful on the ground. Ares ran over and ate it and looked up at Nathan like, ‘Hey, you spit it out.’ Then he stared longingly at the rest of the burger in Nathan’s hand.
“I’m choking to death and you worry about food?” Nathan rasped in a dry voice at Ares. Ares just sat down, his gaze locked on the burger. “Forget it,” Nathan said, sitting back down and draining his bottle of lemonade. Once he’d regained his composure he looked at Amanda. “Don’t ever do that again,” he said with only a hint of rasp to his voice.
“What? I want to know. I’m only six years younger than her and I need to know this,” Amanda shot at him. “She. Has. Hooters,” Amanda said, enunciating each word. Nathan fell back laughing, as did everyone else but Amanda. She was looking steamed. “This is not fair, guys. Do I have to take some vitamins or something?” she asked. This sent the others into more fits.
Finally Jasmine leaned over and wiped her face off. “No, Amanda, they just come. You don’t do anything,” she said. Amanda looked at her and saw Jasmine was telling the truth.
“Well, they need to hurry up,” she said, taking a bite of burger and sending Nathan rolling again. Amanda was starting to find that very irritating.
When Nathan could breathe he looked at Jasmine, “Thank you for getting that hunk of food out of my throat so I could breathe with Amanda trying to kill me and all,” Nathan said, and Amanda just mumbled at him. He refilled his bottle of lemonade and passed around the jug so everyone could do the same.
Feeling really good, Nathan stood up and started getting ready, and on queue the others followed. Stepping onto the road they continued west. Behind them they could hear a vehicle go down the highway they’d left behind. “Can I walk beside you, Nathan?” Jasmine asked him.
“Sure,” he said.
“Sorry, it’s hard to talk to the back of a head,” she said, falling in step with him. “Where are we going?”
“There’s a lake up ahead. We’re going to stay there tonight and probably tomorrow,” he said.
Shaking her head, she asked, “No, I mean what’s our destination?”
“Oh. Well the kids are determined to follow me to Idaho where I live,” Nathan said.
“If you don’t mind, why are you going there? It’s really far. I mean, I understand you live there and all.”
“I have several friends that I made a promise to. I said if something like this happened I would stick with them. We joined a group and have a set up in the mountains,” he said.
“The mountains, that’s good,” she said.
“Shit, you’ve not walked the damn things. I wanted a retreat in Nebraska or South Dakota,” he said.
“Why?” she asked.
“We bought a thousand acres in Idaho and can only use like a hundred and fifty of it. My friend Aiden is from Texas and said he never knew you could buy vertical land. I wanted a spot we could actually comfortably live off of and not just survive off of,” Nathan explained.
“That makes sense, so why did you join with them?” she asked.
“I consider them my family and, to be honest, I have to agree with them. We all lived in Idaho and in something like this we would’ve had to tromp a thousand miles to get to our shit,” he said.
“Where’s your family?” Jasmine asked.
“I’ll tell you another day. Today is a good day,” Nathan replied.
“I’m sorry, and yes, it’s a good day,” Jasmine said, looking around. “Do you think I’m doing the right thing? Should I head to my family?” she asked.
“Jasmine, you’re asking the wrong person. I’m prepared to travel across a continent to get home, but I know what’s waiting for me. We planned for stuff, had meeting spots, radio frequencies set up and so much more. I can tell you this, if I had not promised them I would come home, I’d be at a man’s farm in Georgia. His name is Jessie,” Nathan said.
“So you thought about staying?” she asked.
“Oh, I more than thought about it, I came very close to staying,” he admitted.
“So you don’t think I’m being a coward?” she asked.
“Can I talk straight with you and you won’t get mad?” Nathan asked.
“Yes,” she said slowly, not wanting more boob questions.
“Did you and your family ever talk about a place to meet in an event of this magnitude?” he asked.
“No, of course not,” she scoffed.
“Does your family own a hunting lodge or a place far away from other people? And do they have it stocked?” he asked.
“No,” she answered.
“Do any family members have something like that?” Nathan asked.
Thinking about it for a few minutes, Jasmine said, “My uncle owns a sailboat.”
“Close,” Nathan said. “What I’m getting at is this: If you go there and you start at your house … if you make it, that is. Where do you go from there? This is a big country. To be honest with you, in your shoes I would do the same thing. Wait till it cools down then look,” he said.
“My friend with the radios, Charles, said it’s going to be two years before it will even be close to the way it was,” she said.
Nathan nodded. “Maybe, but I think it’s going to be longer.”
“You don’t think we can rebuild?” Jasmine asked, not really wanting the answer she knew was coming.
“Oh I know we can, but have you heard what the government is doing?” he asked.
“Yes, trying to rebuild, wanting people to stay in place so they can take care of them,” she said.
“Exactly, take care of them.
Not let them take care of themselves. They are demanding taxes get paid, but people can’t get to their money. But the government can.”
“They stopped people from having to pay rent and mortgages,” Jasmine pointed out.
“Okay, you don’t see a problem already?” he asked.
“Well no. That would have been a big problem coming up with that much money when no one has a job,” she said.
“Yes it would be, but remember, people that own houses are the workers. Granted, some workers live in apartments, but for the most part they will buy a house eventually. That’s what most people save up for. Now if you tell those workers they have to pay their taxes and they aren’t able to, and then you take their houses, look at the equity this country just came into,” he said.
“That’s far-fetched,” Jasmine said skeptically.
“I don’t think so, but you’ve heard them talking about taking the guns. If they were so worried about our safety they would be out training people to shoot. If someone breaks into your home and kills your kids you can’t even call 911. You have to go find 911,” Nathan said.
“You have a point there,” Jasmine said, nodding.
“Tonight I’ll let you read what a friend sent me literally minutes before the grid went down,” he said.
“You have a computer?” she asked in wonder.
“Yes, and a tablet,” he said.
“I miss my computer,” Jasmine said, looking all dreamy.
“There’s still no Internet,” he said, chuckling.
“I just liked to sit and type,” she said.
They came around a curve and stopped. There was an eighteen-wheeler delivery truck stopped on the side of the road. Nathan hopped up and looked inside, but didn’t see anything, and there was no sleeper on the back. He walked to the trailer and saw it was secured with a padlock. He took out his crowbar and stuck the end in the lock and pried it open.
“We’re going to get in trouble,” Jasmine said, looking around nervously.
Dark Titan Journey: Wilderness Travel Page 7
