Dark Titan Journey: Finally Home (16 page)

John dropped his saddle. “The last house we saw was three miles back.”

Nathan gently pulled Emma out of her sling and eased her down on the woobie. “In Wyoming, we will go days without seeing a house.”

Stomping her foot, Amanda turned to Nathan. “Idaho better have damn trees.”

“That it does,” Nathan said, moving over to help Tom tie off a rope for a tie line.

Jasmine started pulling out food as Natalie and Casey came over to help. As the sun broke the horizon they all were sitting quietly, eating. “Ah-hem,” John cleared his throat, and the others looked at him. “Nathan, you think half of us should stay awake for guard?”

Casey looked around. “There are seven. How do we do half?”

Tom leaned over. “Like last time, four on one shift and three on the other.”

Setting down his plate, Nathan stood up and stretched. “Jasmine, Casey, Amanda, and Tom, first shift. Me, Natalie, and John, last shift.”

“We have first shift,” Jasmine announced. Nathan smiled as he dropped his gear and lay on his side next to Emma. He was soon snoring lightly. Those awake started cleaning gear and keeping watch.

Chapter 13

Day 45

Feeling wind blowing in his ear, Nathan reached up trying to brush it away. The wind stopped but started up again. Opening his eyes he saw Jasmine leaning over him. She smiled. “Your shift,” she said in a sleepy voice.

Nathan sat up and, true to form, immediately started looking around for Emma. He spotted her playing with Ares. Jasmine held out a hand to pull him up. Smiling, Nathan took it and stood up. When Jasmine turned to spread out her sleeping bag Nathan stopped her. “Just use mine.”

Looking down at Nathan’s woobie, Jasmine shook her head. “Not what I have in mind sleeping in your bed.”

Totally awake now with that revelation, Nathan stepped back. “Ah, well, you know,” he stuttered.

Wearily Jasmine laid down on his woobie and was soon asleep. It was only then that Nathan registered she that was in her bra and panties. Sighing, Nathan turned around to see John and Natalie up. Nathan walked over and picked up his rifle, Amanda’s notebook, and the scanner. Seeing it was charged he turned it on and started reading Amanda’s notes.

Natalie brought him a cup of coffee as he read and listened to the scanner. He occasionally made notes of what he heard as he read. He didn’t like much of any of it. After two hours he turned off the radio and laid down the notebook so he could check the horses. They had already been brushed, and Jasmine’s group had let them graze in the field beside them.

He found nothing wrong, so he washed up and sat down, pulling out his map and tablet. Then he went through the daily ritual of mapping out their route for the night. As he was committing it to memory, Emma ran over and dove in his lap. She sent his map and tablet to the ground as she giggled. Shaking his head, Nathan picked her up. Long ago he had quit getting upset about that. It didn’t any good for her or him.

“Doodle bug, you are a mess,” Nathan said, noticing Jasmine hadn’t given her a bath. Not able to take the sticky filth any longer, Nathan moved over by a water jug and wet a rag. He talked to Emma as he cleaned her up and Emma talked back in gibberish but she talked back.

When he was done, he grabbed her toothbrush. This was the only time he liked her weird smile. Nathan stopped brushing and took pictures with his camera of what looked like Emma foaming at the mouth with her weird smile.

Seeing what Nathan was doing, John laughed. “Nathan, that just ain’t right.”

Putting his camera down, Nathan gave Emma some water to rinse her mouth out. “Just how in the hell do you teach a kid to spit?” Contemplating this new thought, Nathan grabbed a brush and brushed Emma’s hair.

John walked over and sat down beside Nathan. “Nathan, can I ask you some questions?”

“Sure,” Nathan answered, working on Emma’s hair.

“I thought we would see more people starving,” John noted.

“Remember we are in the sticks. If we were to go in a city, we would see starvation.”

“Yeah, I know. What I’m trying to ask is, why haven’t we seen more bodies? I know we are in the sticks, but at that river in Oklahoma, we saw dozens of bodies floating around,” John asked.

Putting a rubber band on Emma’s hair to hold the ponytail, Nathan let her go, “John, where do people go when something’s wrong? The city. I’m sure in the cities there are piles of the dead.”

“Just how long does it take a person to starve to death?” John asked.

Picking up his thermal binoculars, Nathan scanned around. “We talked about this in Mississippi. In nursing school I was taught the rule of threes: three minutes without oxygen, three hours without shelter, three days without water, and three weeks without food. But that is without any food. People can survive a long time with minimal food, like a handful of rice a week. Most deaths at first are from lack of clean water. Then people start eating stuff they shouldn’t.”

“Drinking bad water is going to kill a lot of people?” John asked with doubt.

Not spotting anything around them, Nathan repacked the thermals. “Ten years ago I was dating a nurse who wanted to save the world, that means I wanted to help. We went to Central America and Africa on medical assistance trips. I’ve seen cholera up close. You usually die in days without good medical care. I saw a man in El Salvador die of cholera within ten hours of the first time he threw up. We couldn’t put fluids in him fast enough when he started shitting. Dysentery is almost as bad. You shit so much you start shitting blood. There are several nasty diseases like that. Without medical treatment, the death rate climbs.” John thought about that as Natalie joined them.

“Were those people in Mississippi starving to death?” Natalie asked.

“Yes, but they still had some time if they drank clean water. That’s what I mean, people don’t know what they can eat,” Nathan said.

“You mean like setting traps and stuff?” Natalie asked.

Nathan nodded. “Yes, but most people don’t know how. A good source of protein that’s readily available is bugs.”

The color left Natalie’s face. “Bugs?”

Laughing at her expression, Nathan nodded. “Yes, bugs. Three ounces of crickets will give you over a hundred calories from carbs. Termites are pure protein for your body. Pound for pound, insects and grubs have more nutrients than meat or fish. They are easy to find and gather, so you don’t spend a lot of energy collecting food.” They both stared at Nathan in utter amazement.

“You mean you can just go around eating any bugs you find and live?” John asked.

Nathan laughed. “No, like plants, there are ones you leave alone. Any bug that emits a strong odor, pass up. I was taught: Red, orange, or yellow, forget this fellow. Black, green, or brown, wolf it down. Any brightly colored bug, just leave alone. It’s advertising for a reason.”

Natalie’s jaw fell open. “You’ve eaten bugs?”

“Yes, many times,” Nathan said.

“So the world hasn’t even seen the die-off from starvation yet?” John asked.

Shaking his head, Nathan watched Emma try to wrestle Ares down. “No, John, the millions we’ve heard of are just the beginning. I’m sure a lot of those were not true starvation. Probably most were due to violence, bad water, fires, and other hazards.”

“That’s a lot of people being killed,” Natalie said with doubt.

“The group we killed that came to our camp had killed over a hundred,” Nathan said. Nathan didn’t want to mention that the group he had rescued her from had killed way more than that.

As realization set in, John let out a soft whistle. “Damn, most aren’t going to get a chance to starve to death. They’re going die from bad water, bad food, or violence.”

Natalie scooted over under Nathan’s arm. “I’m glad I’m with you.”

Squeezing her, Nathan tickled her belly. “Me too.”

Natalie laughed and Emma looked up, seeing Nathan tickling Natalie. “Ah!” she shouted with a grumpy face, and scampered toward them. Emma hit Natalie, yelling in gibberish that Nathan was hers.

Grabbing Emma, Nathan picked her up, “You need to relax.” Emma gave him that weird smile. “I will give you money if you quit that.” Since she held the smile, Nathan didn’t think she would take the offer. Nathan sat down with Emma in his lap and pulled Natalie under his arm, hugging her tightly. Emma just looked at Natalie with a scowl.

John laughed. “Emma has really become possessive over you.”

“John, I really don’t like thinking about that,” Nathan said in a flat voice. Nathan looked at his watch. “Let’s get the rest of the gear clean and start some food.”

Natalie ran to the supply packs. “I’ll cook.” As she cooked Nathan and John cleaned gear and kept watch. At six they woke the others and sat down to eat.

Amanda sat with the scanner and her notebook, making occasional notes. She flipped through her pages and looked up at Nathan. “Your handwriting sucks.”

“Why do you think you’re doing it?” he asked.

“You need to work on this,” Amanda said.

Emma was in Nathan’s lap as he flew the spoon to her mouth, pretending it was a plane. “I was. I was learning calligraphy to improve my handwriting.”

“Was?” Amanda asked.

Nathan stopped ‘mid-flight’ and looked at her. “Yeah, was. I’m sure I’m going to be busy teaching you guys to survive. My calendar is getting full.” Emma slapped his leg, wanting the ‘plane’ to ‘land’ as she held her mouth open.

“We will work on this when we get home,” Amanda stated like a royal command.

‘Landing the plane’ in Emma’s open mouth, Nathan turned to Amanda. “Did you just command me?”

“Yes,” Amanda stated. “You are the best at everything so your handwriting has to improve.”

Glancing at the rest of the group, Nathan could see they were just as lost as he was. “If I get the chance,” Nathan offered, filling the ‘plane’ again.

“Nathan, writing is important. Without it, humans would still be living in caves. That was how knowledge was passed down,” Amanda snapped.

“I know that. I can write,” Nathan grumbled.

Amanda shook her head. “I can’t read it, so it doesn’t serve its purpose of conveying information.”

Emma slapped him, waiting on the spoon. Nathan lifted it. “Fine,” he grumbled, wanting Amanda to drop it. Nathan guided the spoon to Emma and she turned her head. “Amanda, if you interrupted Emma enough for her to stop eating, I’ll spit in your ear,” Nathan snapped, chasing Emma’s mouth as she turned her head back and forth.

“You aren’t making the plane sounds, goofy,” Amanda told Nathan like he rode the short bus. Nathan closed his eyes, stopping a dozen smartass comments. Nathan took a deep breath and started making the plane sounds. Emma opened her mouth for the ‘plane’.

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.