Dark Titan Journey: Finally Home (29 page)

Natalie handed him several full magazines. “These are the ones you dropped. I refilled them.”

Reaching out Nathan hugged her, then Jasmine. He took the magazines, putting them back in his vest. He patted Tom on the back. “Stay on guard till I get back.” Tom nodded with determination.

Chapter 19

Day 53

Leaving Tom in the barn, Nathan climbed in the buggy, flipped the switch to battery, and turned the key. He stomped on the throttle, throwing dirt up, and drove down the road. He looked at the speedometer, seeing they were doing thirty. He stomped on the brakes, skidding to a halt. Nathan flipped the switch to engine and started the engine.

When he stomped the gas he was thrown back as the buggy shot forward. He swung the steering wheel back and forth, following the twisting road. When they hit a straightaway, he looked down to see they were doing sixty. He looked over at John who didn’t have his customary smile.

Slowing down, Nathan drove down the road at a slower speed. “What’s wrong, John?”

John looked over at him then back ahead. “They shot little girls. Our little girls.”

“Yes, they did,” Nathan replied.

Before they reached the house, John turned to Nathan. “After we get home and you go to fight them, I’m coming with you. We can’t let them win this war.”

“No we can’t. I’ll take you with me,” Nathan promised. He looked over and saw a smile on John’s face, but it was a darker smile. As Nathan neared the house, he spotted anther buggy outside. Nathan grabbed his rifle as he slowed, watching the windows and doors.

“It was already here,” John said getting out. Nathan looked at him. “I saw both of them from up on the ridge when they left the house earlier.”

Nathan turned around, looking up the road they traveled down to get here. He could just make out the hilltop John had been watching the road from. It was three miles away and at least a thousand feet higher above the valley they were in. Spinning around, Nathan headed to the house, still keeping his rifle aimed at the house.

Opening the door, he walked inside to see a lot of equipment set up in the living room. On the coffee table was another M-U. Nathan looked at the screen and only saw the two dots near the center of the screen. “That’s us,” Nathan said, pointing to the screen.

“I don’t even want to know what this thing cost,” John said, following Nathan around the house. When they cleared the house, John stopped by the back sliding door. “Nathan, there are some bodies outside.”

“It’s the family that was in the house,” Nathan answered, packing up gear.

John looked at the two adults and six kids that were thrown outside in the grass. “These men are evil, just like those bikers.”

“Lonny said the biker gangs are working with the government. Once this is over the government will give them safe passage to move drugs,” Nathan said.

Not knowing what to say, John helped Nathan pack up the gear of the three men. John carried out the gear. “I don’t think we can get all of it on one buggy.”

“Then put half on the other one,” Nathan said, bending over a big rifle case. John walked back in as Nathan opened it and sucked in a breath. “Mama-mia,” he gasped.

Walking over John looked down in the case. “Is that a Barrett?” Shocked, Nathan looked up at him. “It’s in Call of Duty.”

Nathan nodded. “Yes, it’s the M82A1.” Nathan spotted the ammo cases and opened them, seeing API ammo. “That is armor-piercing incendiary ammo.”

“Why would they have that?” John asked.

“To take out light armor or choppers,” Nathan said, closing the case.

John opened some more cases. “They have rockets.”

Nathan gawked in disbelief. “The first case is Stingers anti-air, and that one is a Javelin anti-armor.”

“Seems like a lot for just a small group,” John said.

“Lonny said they were worried about attacks from the air, and the unit in Scottsbluff and above Cheyenne had Bradleys and Strykers,” Nathan said, closing the cases. “Let’s get this stuff loaded.”

“How come only one of the tubes on them has the sights and the other three don’t?” John asked.

“You take the sight off and clamp it on the next tube to reload it,” Nathan said.

“If we see an airplane, we shoot it down,” John said, grunting to pick up one case.

Nathan shook his head. “What if it’s a patriot airplane?”

Stopping at the door, John turned around. “I really don’t want to wait to see if it shoots at us.”

“Understood but we just can’t start dropping planes because they are flying,” Nathan said, grabbing the other case. They had everything loaded and Nathan looked at John as they stood in the living room. “There’s a week’s worth of food for three men in the buggies. Let’s leave what’s here.”

John nodded and followed Nathan outside. Nathan showed him how to drive the buggy and left John with the other
one as he climbed in the first. John spun out, following Nathan up the hill. Nathan looked at the M-U beside him and noticed the screen was fuzzed out. He slowed down and stopped halfway up the mountain.

John stopped behind him as Nathan turned off the buggy. He held up his watch and waited. It took almost five minutes for the screen to return to scan mode. Right beside the center was a bright white dot for John behind him. Nathan noticed the outer edge of the screen was still fuzzy, and he couldn’t see his group at the barn.

He climbed out of his buggy. “John, turn your buggy off.” As John turned his buggy off, the outer edges of the screen started to clear up. After a few minutes he saw the red and white dots and a pure red dot to his northeast. “Damn, this thing is delicate.” Not seeing anything else, Nathan turned it off. He still had one on and he wanted to see if Lonny was lying.

Pulling out his notebook, Nathan turned the M-U back on. The screen showed a numeric keypad. Nathan punched in Lonny’s key and the screen showed an hourglass, then went into scan mode. Sitting there for a few minutes, Nathan watched a red and white dot move back and forth. The other dots were all stationary. Turning the M-U off again, Nathan started the buggy up and motioned for John to follow.

When they pulled back up to the barn Tom came running out to meet them. “I watched you two all the way down, and the two dots coming back up.”

Nathan stepped out. “Men, clear out a place and see if you can’t pull these inside.” Tom smiled and ran over to John, who started showing him how to drive the buggy.

When Nathan walked in the barn, he saw Jasmine sitting with the kids. They were all asleep, either lying on her or towards her. “Trouble?” she asked.

“Not really,” Nathan said, looking over at Lonny. “You?”

“He hasn’t said anything. I think he’s asleep,” Jasmine said.

“No he’s not,” Nathan said. Lonny lifted his head, hearing Nathan come over. He now knew everyone’s name and he was committing their faces to memory.

“So you believe me?” Lonny asked when Nathan stopped at his feet. Nathan pulled his knife out. “Wait.”

“You lied. They hacked in and said laptops can be tracked,” Nathan said, kneeling down.

“Yeah if you hook up to the internet just like any computer,” Lonny cried.

Nathan stopped and knelt down beside Lonny as he continued to lie. “They didn’t say that.”

“That’s the only way you can track a Homeland computer,” Lonny said.

Nathan shook his head. “Wrong, Lonny. They hacked in and even found a tacking ID for your computer.”

The color drained from Lonny’s face as Nathan held up his knife. Lonny closed his eyes, racking his brain. “Hold on,” he pleaded, remembering something from when he first started. “If the password is entered wrong ten times, the computer will use the satellite card to report its place. I forgot about that, they told me when I started but I never worried about it. I know my password.”

“Kind of convenient,” Nathan said, looking at Lonny with narrowed eyes.

“What about the rest I told you? It all checked out, huh?” Lonny asked.

“I don’t know yet. When they found that out they had to slow down, making sure they weren’t tracked,” Nathan said, standing up.

“I told you my password. You can turn my computer on and see,” Lonny begged.

“So they can track us?” Nathan asked.

“What, so you can kill me? You will see anyone coming two miles away,” Lonny said. Nathan turned around as the boys drove the buggies inside. He walked over and pulled out a laptop bag. Laying it on the hood, Nathan stepped outside. Tom and John followed him.

“John, I want you to walk halfway up the hillside and turn your radio on. When you see me beside the M-U, just press the transmit key for a second,” Nathan said and walked inside. He acted like he was messing with equipment on the buggy but was looking at the M-U when he noticed it fuzz out instantly.

Starting to get worried after five minutes, Nathan knelt down behind the buggy, praying they didn’t break it. Almost at the ten minute mark, the M-U came back online in scan mode. Nathan saw two red and white dots heading toward the center. When the boys came inside they squatted down beside Nathan. “I hope you turned your radio off.”

“I did,” John said. “What happened?”

“Shit, I thought we broke it,” Nathan said.

“Amanda’s radio is on,” Tom whispered urgently.

Nathan slapped his forehead. “That’s the bright white dot we see on everyone.”

“It could break it, it looks powerful,” Tom said.

Nathan nodded. “It is, but it only receives and doesn’t transmit. That’s what that thing doesn’t like, radio waves.”

“That makes sense,” John said. “EMFs are low-frequency while radio is high-frequency. EMF doesn’t travel far but radio does. I bet from up close, radio scrambles EMF like a microwave. I think a microwave up close would fry that thing.”

Nathan looked at John, surprised. “How do you know that?”

“I read about it for a science project,” John said.

Standing up, Nathan smiled. “I hope you got an A.” John smiled his normal smile. “If you see this thing freak out, yell,” Nathan said, walking around the buggy and grabbing the laptop case.

Carrying it over to Lonny, Nathan sat down in front of him and pulled out the laptop. “The boys are going to radio back to our group in an hour to see if they have uncovered more of your forgetfulness.”

“It was an honest oversight,” Lonny said. “Can I have some water?” Nathan pulled out a water bottle and let Lonny drain it. “I need to pee.”

“Pee on yourself. If I cut you lose they will come over here and put a bullet in your head,” Nathan said, opening the laptop.

“Pull out the satellite card, just in case I was on it when I shut the computer down,” Lonny said. Nathan turned the laptop on its side and pulled out the card. “I hope you told those two not to use their radios near the M-U.”

“They know, and not because of the M-U. You have radio trackers around here,” Nathan said, turning the computer on.

Lonny shook his head. “None close. We have one unit outside of Scottsbluff and another in Cheyenne.”

“I was told more,” Nathan said, watching the computer boot up.

“Maybe a few days ago, but they were pulled. Several headed to Yellowstone and the others were pulled east,” Lonny said.

“Yeah, those heading to Yellowstone we know about, they are looking for F-U,” Nathan said as the login screen came up. Lonny’s eyes practically bulged out of his head. Nathan pulled out his notebook and typed in Lonny’s login. On the inside, Nathan sighed, while on the outside he was a rigid stone.

Lonny shook his head. “There is no way you could have found that out that fast.”

“Dude, we knew that two days ago. We haven’t found out what shot the missile at F-U, but we knew it was coming,” Nathan said as the desktop opened.

“How?” Lonny asked.

Without raising his head, Nathan glanced up at Lonny. “You don’t get to ask.”

“It was a drone that shot the missile, but someone shot it down,” Lonny said quickly.

Feeling lucky with the lies so far, Nathan looked up. “That drone was nowhere near the antenna.”

“There were three drones,” Lonny said. Smiling on the inside, Nathan looked back down at the computer.

Sitting in front of Lonny, Nathan started opening up documents scanning them fast. When he saw one for the M-U, Nathan opened it and started reading. He was halfway through when John put a plate of food in front of him. Nathan took it and stated eating while he continued reading. When he was done Nathan looked up at Lonny, who was looking at his empty plate.

“You can’t have any of our food, so don’t ask,” Nathan said. “Each M-U unit cost seven million dollars?”

Lonny nodded. “Yes. Can I have some of our food?”

Without saying anything, Nathan stood up and walked to the buggies. He saw John asleep and Tom on watch. “Tom, wake Jasmine so she can take over.”

Tom shook his head. “Nah, I have it. I figure we will stay here tonight.”

“You’re right about that. I don’t want to jar the girls too hard,” Nathan said, opening up a case and pulling out a cord. He connected the cord to the M-U that was turned off inside the buggy. Tom watched him. “You can’t charge them while they’re on. They have a small solar panel as well but it still has to be off. The battery is good for twenty-four hours, but I’m still busy with our guest.”

Tom nodded as Nathan pulled out an MRE, some pills, and a bottle of water. Nathan headed back to Lonny, cut his hands loose, and dropped the bottle and MRE in his lap. Holding out his hand, Lonny took the pills thankfully. Casting a worried glance over at Tom, Lonny threw the pills in his mouth and opened the water bottle.

Nathan set his camera back up and started asking questions. Lonny was only too happy to answer. Looking at his notebook, Nathan started throwing in questions he had already asked, but asked them in different ways. Lonny always answered them the same way, sometimes reluctantly but he answered.

It was getting dark when Nathan heard someone behind him. “What the hell is he doing untied?”

Knowing it was Jasmine, Nathan didn’t turn around. “I cut him loose so he could eat.”

“You aren’t feeding him our food?” Jasmine said, handing Nathan a plate.

“He will eat his own,” Nathan said, shoveling food in his mouth.

Jasmine glared at Lonny and he slumped down under the glare. “If he moves, I kill him.”

“If he moves, I’ll kill him,” Nathan said, standing up. “I’ll be back, so don’t go anywhere,” Nathan told Lonny, walking away.

Jasmine leaned over Lonny. “Please move.” Lonny just shook his head. Seeing Lonny was going to be good, Jasmine followed Nathan.