Dark Titan Journey: Finally Home (19 page)

“My dad told me the day we act on what we know and follow what others know is the day we are an adult. He said sure I could’ve tried to make the climb and maybe even made it, but I would’ve been trusting to luck and not skill, which is what a boy does, not a man.”

Nathan held out a Buck knife. “Today I pass this to you, the same knife he gave to me. Today you are a man.”

John stared down at the knife then looked up at Nathan with tears on his face. “I—I…”

“I give it freely but ask you to pass it on the day you see a boy become a man,” Nathan said.

John took the knife then wrapped his arms around Nathan as he tried not to cry. “I wish I wouldn’t cry,” he said in a broken voice.

Wrapping his arm around John, Nathan laughed. “When my dad gave that to me, I cried. That’s when my dad said, ‘A man can cry for joy or remorse in front of friends, but pain is to be hidden at all times.’”

John let Nathan go and stepped back, wiping his face and looking at the knife. “Thank you.”

“It’s not a gift; it was earned,” Nathan said, turning around. He stopped and grabbed a plate. “Did Emma eat?”

“A little, but she really wouldn’t,” Jasmine said, wiping tears from her face, as were the others. Nathan sat down and started the ‘airplane,’ flying it to Emma. “So you heard?”

“Ya think? Shit, y’all were loud enough I didn’t need the hunter’s ear,” Nathan said, filling up the ‘plane’ again.

Jasmine sat down in front of him. “I’m sorry, I just don’t like the thought of you getting hurt.”

As the ‘plane’ flew into Emma’s mouth, Nathan turned to Jasmine. “I’m not overly fond of that myself.”

Amanda stepped on his woobie, wrapping her arms around his neck. “I’m sorry, but I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Nathan patted her back as Emma started yelling at him: The ‘plane’ was in that hand. Nathan let Amanda go, got another spoonful, and flew the ‘plane’ to the waiting Emma. “Sit back and I’ll tell you what I found out.”

It took some time but after he told them what he saw they sat there wide-eyed. “So one at a time, what do you think?” he asked.

“Let’s get in that truck and get home. We can be there tonight,” Amanda said.

Shaking his head, Nathan looked at her. “Think, don’t react. You only react instead of thinking in a fight because you’ve already thought.”

Amanda slumped her shoulders. “We won’t make it. Cars can be heard a long way away and we lose the ability to study an area before we can move in it.”

“Very good,” Nathan said. “What if we take the back roads like we’ve been doing?”

“We lose the advantage of speed the car has,” Amanda said in a low voice.

Nathan smiled. “That’s thinking. Now what else?”

“This area was emptied on the day it happened,” she said, not really thinking.

Nathan pulled her to his chest. “Amanda, I’m not mad at you. Disappointed, but not mad. I’m going to tell you something: You and this group are truly the first people I’ve really cared for. I love my friends and if they got hurt I would be sad. But if any of you got hurt, I don’t know what I would do. Just the thought of something happening to any of you hurts my heart.”

Looking around and seeing everyone looking at him, Nathan smiled. “I let you guys in. I don’t know how you got in my heart, but you did.”

Jasmine sat beside him. “Will you just tell us why you went and what you think? I’m emotionally spent.”

“That would be appropriate,” Nathan said, adjusting Emma in his lap. “I wanted to get a timeline to see if they were actively taking now. If that were the case, that means we would have to either move away, rethinking our route, or try to sneak through. I needed to see how dangerous the area was for us. This area was taken on the first day. I don’t know why, but someone thought it was important. Next, we know this is part of a plan because of the doorstops. They would literally have had millions made. I know FEMA had camps pre-positioned, so that means they knew they would round up people. We know the EMP here wasn’t as bad.

“We know they took people here the first day, so we shouldn’t run across groups driving around looking for people. They don’t care about stuff that was left behind, so they think the area is secure. Instead of crossing the interstate west of Ogallala we will cross to the west of North Platte. The dirt road out there heads straight north. We will move to it tonight, cross the interstate, and continue north for thirty miles.”

“What about groups looking around up there?” Amanda asked.

“The area north of the interstate makes the areas we’ve been through look like a metropolis. That is where houses start getting few and far between. That’s cattle country, so it will be a lot of cross-country moving,” Nathan said.

“Did you see any of those doorstops in Kansas?” Jasmine asked.

“No, but I wasn’t looking. I mean, who looks to see if a doorstop is holding the door?” Nathan asked.

“Ah I did,” John said. “At that house where we stayed in the barn and Nathan left that day to check the area ahead of us. I was walking around outside and noticed it. I didn’t go in the house because you said not to, but I could see it holding the door open. I didn’t think anything of it.”

Nathan thought about that. “I’m glad you spotted it. I was having trouble believing they just started that.”

“You think it tells them when someone closes the door?” Natalie asked.

“Yes, and sends a signal where it’s at. It doesn’t have to have the address; it sends out its GPS coordinates” Nathan said.

“Why not a bomb?” John asked.

“There’s not that much room for explosive. At best it would wound. They want to find people. That’s why I think it’s a locator,” Nathan explained.

“We need to sleep if we are making a dash,” Jasmine said.

“True, but we don’t leave till well after dark,” Nathan said. “Amanda, let me read what you wrote.” Amanda handed over her notebook and Nathan opened it. “I’ll take first watch, get some sleep.” After what had happened earlier, nobody said a word and lay down.

Chapter 15

Day 48

Sitting up and watching the sun touch the horizon, Nathan looked at the group sleeping. They had made the dash to cross I-80 last night and were camped thirty-three miles north of the interstate. The trip turned out to be very anticlimactic compared to what they were expecting. They did have to hide in a draw waiting on a military convoy heading west.

As they crossed the interstate they looked east toward North Platte and saw something they didn’t think they would see for a long time: a lit-up city on the horizon. It looked like a jewel sitting on a black satin cloth. Every house they passed had the front door open. Once they crossed the interstate and made some distance, Nathan checked on a house just to confirm it had a doorstop, and it did.

Nathan had scoured Amanda’s notes from the radio yesterday and today and nobody had mentioned it. He had read the military reports and they all talked about rounding up people spotted. One radio report he kept looking at was an operator calling out coordinates and for spot report. Nathan looked it up on his map and found the location. It was a house just outside of Yuma, Colorado.

An hour later someone called out a negative spot report but positive action. Then an hour later a spot repot was called out six miles away of four moving on bikes. Was this someone who moved a doorstop? And if they did, how the hell did they find them six miles away? He couldn’t think of a way you could scan a hundred-plus square miles in an hour.

As he was thinking, Emma ran over and jumped in his lap. “You like beating on me, don’t you?” Nathan asked.

Emma pointed up. “Sky.”

“I don’t even want to know what you mean by that,” Nathan said, pulling her up into his lap. When they had made camp last night, he slept first letting the others cover six hours, then he woke at noon, letting the group sleep. He looked up and saw Chip squatting down beside him. “Want to join her?”

Chip smiled and climbed in his lap. Nathan hadn’t hand out the presents he had collected from the houses yesterday; he wasn’t in the mood. But today he laid them out for everyone. He had found crayons and coloring books for Chip. When Nathan got up he gave them to him. Chip opened the coloring book to a blank page and started drawing.

Nathan’s experience with Casey’s drawings let him know he was by no means an expert, but what Chip drew was a little worrying. Nathan swore it was dead bodies, and someone was chopping heads off. He would show Jasmine after he woke her up, and if that didn’t work he would have Casey interpret the drawings.

“Hey guys let’s get the others up so we can eat,” Nathan offered. The two jumped out of his lap and took off to the group. Seeing the kids waking up the others, Ares and Athena ran over to help. The group woke up unhappily.

Nathan spit out his dip as Amanda sat up, rubbing her eyes. She looked at him and smiled. “Morning, firecracker,” Nathan smiled.

“Morning,” she said as she yawned. She looked down at her feet and saw a plastic package. Picking it up, she let out a squeal that got the others moving real fast. Amanda jumped up, running at Nathan full-bore. She leapt at him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Oh, thank you so much!” she cried, kissing his face all over.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Nathan said as she climbed off.

Amanda held up the package. “These,” she declared.

Nathan turned his head. “I don’t see anything.” Jasmine wanted to know what was going on and Amanda turned around, holding up a pack of training bras.

“That’s sweet,” Jasmine said, hugging her. Amanda ran over to the others to show them. Jasmine smiled at Nathan. “That was sweet.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Nathan replied, looking away.

Jasmine laughed. “Not only how did you find them, but how did you know what size to get?”

Turning around, Nathan was in shock, “They come in different sizes?”

“Yes,” Jasmine giggled. “How did you know they would fit her?”

“There’s a little girl on the package,” Nathan explained his reasoning.

Jasmine wrapped her arms around him. “They do come in different sizes.”

“You didn’t like your present?” Nathan asked. Jasmine ran to her sleeping bag. Lying at the foot was a bag of premium coffee. Picking it up, Jasmine let out a squeal almost equal to Amanda’s. The others jumped up, looking at their presents. Everyone got a pair of outdoor slippers, used but in good condition. Natalie, Casey, and Tom picked up messenger bags and watches. The bags were really just soft laptop cases but they had always looked enviously at the others, feeling left out. John picked up a pair of sunglasses, putting them on and smiling. They all had notebooks with pens and pencils, and a few knick knacks he had found. Amanda found a storage clipboard and several nice writing pens.

Nathan watched them, smiling, as they all smiled, showing each other what he brought them. Feeling a tap on his leg, Nathan looked down and saw Emma playing with her stuffed dog. She held it out. “Woof.”

“And that will be his name,” Nathan said, carrying her over to the group. The group hugged Nathan for the presents. Casey looked at the package of training bras. “Casey, don’t start. When you get older,” Nathan said, and she just looked up at him, smiling.

Jasmine laughed at him. “Nathan, you act like you gave birth to them.”

Nathan glanced at her. “These are my kids,” he announced, and the group fell silent. “And I would like for you to be my girl.” When Jasmine leapt at him, it wasn’t like Amanda had done. Jasmine was more solid. When she hit Nathan, wrapping her arms around him, she sent him to the ground. It really didn’t matter, because she’d already knocked the air out of him. The kids ran over, dogpiling on. They only got off when they noticed Nathan was red in the face.

They helped Nathan up as he gasped for air. “Damn, I’ve never had a girl try and knock me out when I asked her to go steady.”

Wrapping her arms around him, Jasmine smiled. “I’ve done everything but throw you down trying to catch you.”

Nathan laughed and looked around at the kids. “You hear that? Stepmom is crazy.”

“That’s why she fits in,” Amanda said.

“Let’s eat, guys, we need to start moving,” Nathan said. Nobody moaned as they started moving. Nathan pulled Jasmine away and pulled out the drawings Chip made. “What do you see?” Nathan asked.

Jasmine took them. When she gasped, Nathan was a little happy he had seen something. “My god, Nathan.”

“What the hell do you see?” Nathan asked.

Holding up one drawing, Jasmine took a deep breath. “A mound of dead bodies, people running, and a man eating someone, crying.” She held up the other one. “People trying to hide and a man looking for them, killing who he finds, and a kid hiding under dead bodies.”

“Well I got some of it,” Nathan said. “I think he saw this.”

“What do we do?” she asked.

“Let him draw it out and work through it. He knows he has protection and love, so we will just watch him,” Nathan said.

Jasmine nodded. “Okay, we can do that.”

As the sun dipped below the horizon, they helped get ready to go. After the daily routine, the food was gone, horses were loaded, and everyone climbed on their horse. Nathan glanced around, seeing they were ready, and flipped his monoculars down and headed west. It was pasture land, so he just let Smoke walk as he searched ahead for danger and holes. They rode northwest through the pastures, and cows could be seen everywhere. Nathan liked that. If a plane or chopper flew over there would at least be other heat signatures around.

They stopped around midnight to let the horses drink, and Amanda rode over to Nathan. “Nathan, a little while ago some guy came on saying the government was trying to push out from Denver to Salt Lake. He didn’t say how they got there.”

“Now that’s shit we need to know,” Nathan said. “We’ll just cross I-25 farther into Wyoming.”

“What if they push farther into Wyoming?” Amanda asked.

“We go farther north than they are,” Nathan replied. “Eat something and keep an ear out.” Amanda smiled and moved back over to Casey and Natalie. Nathan turned to Jasmine to find her staring at him. “It doesn’t mean anything now. Interstate twenty-five is almost two hundred miles away.”

Jasmine laughed. “I know, I’m just looking at you.”

“Why?” Nathan asked.

“If I’m not mistaken, I’m your girl. If I want to look at you, I can,” she said.

“Well, okay then. It’s not much to look at,” Nathan said.

Jasmine scoffed, “Whatever.” Nathan smiled, then looked down at Emma with an arm wrapped around Woof, sleeping hard. Nathan adjusted her in the sling; she looked uncomfortable.

Not long afterward they were trekking across the land. Looking around the rolling hills, Nathan felt like a pioneer. A pioneer with NVGs and thermal sight, super hearing, automatic weapons, and space age supplies, but he still felt like a pioneer. Hearing a horse move up beside him, he wasn’t surprised to see Jasmine.

“Whatcha thinkin’?” she asked.

“We are some badass pioneers,” Nathan admitted.

Jasmine nodded in agreement. “That would be a good assessment. I was just thinking, we haven’t heard any gunfire again.”

“They took everyone that can shoot a gun,” he replied.

“I know, but they had to miss people, and there are motorcycle gangs popping up everywhere,” she said.

Nathan said, “If you’re outnumbered, hide.”

“The absence of gunfire doesn’t bother you?” she asked.

Shaking his head, Nathan grabbed his thermal binoculars, scanning around. “No, it lets me know trouble isn’t around.”

“Or trouble is just overwhelming targets before they shoot,” Jasmine said.

Nathan laughed. “Now you’re thinking! I didn’t think of that.”

Jasmine sat up straighter. “Just trying to help.”

“You are,” Nathan said, lowering the thermal. “The kids see you as a protector, and that eases their fears.”

“John is better at it than me,” Jasmine confessed.

“He may give direction but he looks to you for assurance,” Nathan said. “He also sneaks a peek when you walk around in panties and bra.”

Giving off a snort, Jasmine looked over at him. “There is no peek involved.”

“Just helping him out,” Nathan said. They rode in silence with the occasional low sound of conversation behind them. They rounded a hill looking down into a small valley, and Nathan raised his thermal binoculars, scanning around.

Suddenly, Nathan pulled Smoke to a stop, and Jasmine stopped her horse. “What?” she asked.

“There’s a house down there, and it looks like there is a dead horse in the corral, with two live ones. Someone alive is laying in the yard,” Nathan said.

“Let’s go then,” Jasmine said, looking down the valley. She could make out a house and barn surrounded by several small hills.

“Our campsite is only two miles from here,” Nathan said, dropping his thermal. “Let’s move a little closer.”

Jasmine got behind him as he headed down into the valley and approached the house, keeping a small hill between them and the house. Nathan stopped and climbed off Smoke. He eased up the hill on foot and scanned the house with his thermal binoculars, then walked back to the others.

He stopped beside Jasmine. “There’s someone alive spread-eagled in front of the house. The front door’s open but all the windows are broken out. I’m going in closer to see what’s up.”

Nathan dropped his pack and motioned for Natalie to get Emma. Handing over Emma, Nathan checked his gear. “If you hear shooting, go to the rally point. John, get the sniper rifle and cover me. If you see one person, kill them. More than one, head to the rally point. If I shine my IR light at you, get the others and move up to me.”

Jasmine eased her horse closer. “Be careful.”

“That is my first goal,” Nathan said, squeezing her hand. He climbed on Smoke. The house was now less than two hundred yards away but there was no cover. Kicking Smoke into a slow walk, Nathan slowly rounded the hill with Ares beside him. He could see the two horses standing in the corral and a dead horse with them. Nathan could tell Ares didn’t like something.

As he rode forward, he didn’t see anything else moving. Slowly approaching the spread-eagled figure, Nathan saw they were laid on railroad ties. When he was twenty yards away from the figure he climbed off. He could now tell it was a man covered in wounds and nailed to the railroad ties. Nathan knelt beside the man and touched him as Ares looked at the house.

The man gave a jerk. “Who’s there?” he croaked in a dry voice.

“A friend. Are the ones who did this close?” Nathan asked in a low voice, watching the house.

The man started sobbing. “No, they left yesterday. Please kill me.”

Nathan looked down and jumped back; the man’s eyes had been gouged. “Sir, who did this so if I run across them I can kill them.”

The man stopped crying. “Fifteen guys on motorcycles and four more in two vans. My family is inside. They made me watch, then—” The man stopped and started crying.

Nathan looked at the man’s wounds and was surprised he was even alive. “I’m sorry sir,” Nathan said.

“Please kill me and put me with my family,” the man begged in a dry voice.

“Yes sir,” Nathan said, pulling out the HK and placing it next to the man’s temple. “I’m sure they’re waiting for you,” Nathan said, and pulled the trigger. Hearing the suppressed shot, Ares spun around. Seeing Nathan next to the dead man, Ares walked, over nuzzling him. “Yeah, and it started out such a good day,” Nathan said, rubbing Ares’s head.

Nathan entered the house and cleared it. When he stepped outside, he was covered in sweat. He pulled out his IR light and shined it at his group. Putting his light away, Nathan fell on all fours and puked till there was nothing left. Hearing gasps he looked up, seeing John and Jasmine beside the man nailed to the railroad ties.

Getting to his feet, Nathan wobbled over to them. “Let’s check the barn,” he said, moving toward it. He motioned for the girls to get off their horses. They tied them to the corral fence and moved over. Casey took Emma and Chip held on to her arm as they stood back. “Just like you’ve been taught,” Nathan said, and led them in the barn. They moved through just like he taught them, not finding anything.