Dark Titan Journey: Wilderness Travel (19 page)

An hour later they turned off the county road onto a gravel road in a forest. Out on the interstate there was a little light coming through the cloud cover, but in the forest they could only see with the NVGs. The only sound they heard was the crunch of gravel underfoot as they followed Nathan. Since nobody except Nathan knew where they were it was all they could do. Since they had left the interstate they didn’t even know where they would stop now.

They saw a few dark houses off the gravel road. They did see a family of raccoons playing in the road but when the raccoons spotted Ares they raced off into the woods. They turned down a dirt road and Nathan stopped the group at a turn off after an hour. Nathan motioned for them to wait as he and Ares walked down the turn off.

The woods fell away from the road to a small field beyond the turn off and Nathan spotted the barn he had seen on his tablet tucked back in the corner. “Ares, time to work,” Nathan whispered moving to the barn. On the side of the barn facing the field there were two big doors for moving a tractor in and on the opposite side was a smaller door with a hasp handle. They circled the barn. Ares didn’t alert to any presence so Nathan went inside. There were no windows. Nathan looked around with his NVG and found an old tractor and assorted junk. In one corner were empty beer bottles and an old fire pit. From the looks of the place kids came here to drink, but other than that it looked abandoned.

Nathan and Ares went back and led the group to the barn. Barn was being generous in description; it was more of a large walled off shed. Leading the group inside Nathan pointed over to the back corner. Nathan dug out a lantern from the wagon carefully so Emma wouldn’t wake up. “Turn your NVGs off,” he said, lighting his lighter.

The barn filled with a soft glowing light as Nathan lit the lantern. He hung it from a nail in the wall then dropped his pack and took the pack off Ares. Ares grabbed his woobie in his mouth and pulled it off his pack. “I got it, Ares,” Nathan said, spreading out the woobie. Ares plopped down on it.

“Yeah, I’m tired too,” Nathan said, rubbing Ares.

“Okay now—,” Amanda started, but Nathan held up his hand.

“We have to secure this area. I’m going to walk around the building and knock where I see light coming out, and you have to block it. Someone needs to get food ready and water bottles need to be collected. Someone else set up camp.”

Circling the building, Nathan only found two spots where light escaped between the boards. When someone inside covered them he couldn’t see any light. Back inside, Nathan laid out his woobie beside Ares’s. He pulled off his boots and took off his vest. Casey and Amanda sat down beside him and offered him a bowl of stew.

Nathan cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention. “Before I tell you what I saw I want your opinions,” he said. “Jasmine, you first.”

“I counted seventy-four bodies before I had to stop. They were men, women, and children. Someone went through everything they were carrying. The road looked like it had been cleared. I think someone killed them to take their stuff,” Jasmine said.

“Pretty good. Howard?” Nathan said and started eating.

“Same. It was a big group that wiped them out,” Howard pointed out.

“Okay. Amanda,” Nathan said.

“Whoever did it just wanted to kill,” she mumbled.

Grinning that Amanda had seen past the bodies, Nathan asked, “Why do you say that?”

“There were pretty girls in the first group along with kids,” Amanda replied.

“First group?” Jackie asked. “We walked through another one?”

Amanda shook her head. “No, about two miles farther down on the other side of the Interstate was another pile in the ditch,” she replied sadly.

“You’re right, firecracker,” Nathan said, patting her leg. “You are alive. Don’t feel bad about that. What happened was a bad thing but not our fault. Don’t let it get to you. John, you’re next.”

John looked around then back at Nathan. “We didn’t see anyone camping along the road. We traveled over twenty miles without seeing another group,” he said.

“Very good, John,” Nathan said, and John grinned. “Anyone else?”

Amanda laid her hand on Nathan’s leg. “What do you think happened?” she asked.

“They weren’t killed by a gang,” Nathan said, pulling a brass casing out of his pocket. “This is a 12.7 mm casing. The U.S. military doesn’t use this but several U.N. nations do.” He held up a handful of empty shell casing with metal links. “At the first site there were at least two mini-Gatlings. They shoot over four thousand rounds a minute. The piles of brass convinced me that’s what killed those people. If it had belt feed weapons with a slower rate of fire some of those people could’ve run. They just didn’t have enough time. I think it was one of the alphabet agencies with a group of U.N. troops.”

Howard shook his head. “There is no way the government could move U.N. troops here that fast. It hasn’t even been three weeks yet.”

“Before this shit happened there were over thirty thousand U.N. troops stationed in the good ole USA. And who said we moved them here? Why couldn’t their own government move them here?” Nathan asked.

“Foreign troops can’t be stationed on U.S. soil,” Jasmine snapped.

“I didn’t let them come here,” Nathan said.

“Why do you think U.N. troops were stationed here?” she asked.

“I keep up on current events,” Nathan said.

The group sat in silence for several minutes. “Nathan what does this mean?” Jasmine asked.

“Nothing good,” he replied. “It’s too many coincidences. I think this is a power grab, and whoever is in charge wants the population pure sheep. Those who don’t comply and follow orders, like stay off the highway and stay put, well…you saw what happened. We are in deep shit,” Nathan said.

“This is America! They can’t do that!” John exclaimed.

“You would be surprised what they can do here in America. Less than five hundred people run this country and those who hand out the most free stuff get elected. I can’t get on my high horse because I’m just as guilty as the rest of the population. I didn’t speak out enough as they took whatever they wanted. Now here we are,” Nathan said.

“We can’t let them get away with it,” John said.

“We are over a thousand miles from my group. We aren’t in much of a position to start a battle,” Nathan said.

“How far are we from Mississippi?” Howard asked.

“Two miles,” Nathan said, which got several gasps from the group. “I’m sorry I picked up the pace but I really didn’t want to run into the group patrolling that stretch of highway.”

“You mean—” Amanda checked her watch. “We traveled thirty miles in eight hours?” she asked.

“A little more than that, firecracker,” Nathan said smiling. “I’m sorry for pushing everyone.”

“I wanted you to lead us in a run,” Jasmine confessed. Others nodded their agreement.

“Don’t think it didn’t cross my mind,” Nathan admitted.

“So what do we do now?” Jasmine asked.

“What we planned. We get to Howard’s family farm. The only thing this changes is that we have to be more careful,” Nathan answered. “Jasmine, come up with a watch schedule with two people on duty at all times. One adult and one of the kids,” Nathan said. “Get some rest, everyone. We leave at dark.”

Chapter 13

Day 18

Nathan watched the sun go down as he packed up the solar panel and newly recharged batteries. Amanda and Casey were helping with Emma just watching her run around them. Everyone got eight to ten hours of much needed sleep, with those on watch keeping Emma awake, fed, and happy. None of which were easy.

With the stuff put up Nathan and Amanda continued training Athena, with Ares helping. Athena was a smart dog but nowhere near what Ares was. When everyone was up the ‘morning’ workout routine was done and everyone started to eat.

“Howard, I think it would be best if we approached your dad’s farm in daylight,” Nathan said.

“Yeah, I’m sure it would be in our best interest,” Howard agreed.

“We have forty miles to travel to get there. Let’s see if we can make it halfway tonight then start out a noon tomorrow and get back on a day travel schedule. That should put us there a day sooner.”

“Why not just move close at night and wait till morning?” Jasmine asked.

Nathan grabbed his chest in mock surprise. “This coming from the person who wanted the fastest route?” he exclaimed.

Jasmine looked down. “You were right. The fast route could’ve gotten us killed,” she mumbled.

“Hey because you and the firecracker wanted the faster route it probably saved our lives,” Nathan said. “Don’t forget you were the one with the night travel idea.”

“How do you figure it saved our lives?” Amanda asked.

“We were going to be moving on secondary and state roads. I don’t think whoever is trying to stop traffic will bother with small county roads, and the gravel roads will be impossible to monitor. But if we had used my original route we would be four days from our destination, not two. I think we would’ve run into those wanting the roads closed,” Nathan confessed.

“You really think so?” Amanda asked.

Nathan nodded. “Yeah. Remember, we would’ve been traveling in daylight.”

“I say let’s just move at night till we get to your place, Nathan,” Amanda offered.

John nodded. “I like that plan.”

Nathan smiled. “Let’s just get to Howard’s family first.”

“So we travel at night then wait till morning when we get close?” Howard asked.

“Guess so,” Nathan said as Emma ran over and wrapped her arms around him, giving him that freaky smile. “You’re so weird.” Nathan said making her giggle.

At dark the group left staying on gravel roads. It didn’t take long before Nathan told everyone they were in Mississippi. With only scattered clouds they didn’t need the NVGs much and most walked with them flipped up and off. Nathan stayed twenty yards ahead with either Amanda or Casey beside him.

After midnight Nathan stopped the group so everyone could eat and rest. Amanda sat down beside him with Casey. “How are we going to cross the river ahead?” Amanda asked.

“One of the bridges in Amory,” Nathan replied.

“That’s a town,” Amanda said.

“I’m not swimming the Tombigbee River,” Nathan said.

“Let’s cross somewhere there isn’t a town,” Amanda said.

“Bridges are usually in towns. We would have to travel thirty miles south to cross a small rural bridge then travel thirty miles back up,” Nathan stated.

Amanda let out a sigh. “Man that sucks.”

“Yes it does,” Nathan agreed.

They reached the outskirts of Amory at two. Nathan guided them around neighborhoods. There were three bridges here: two for vehicles and one railway. They would cross on the closest, on Highway 6.

When they reached the village Nathan spotted a roadblock as they approached. He searched with his thermal scope but didn’t see anyone. “Everyone, stay quiet in case the guys who are supposed to be manning that roadblock are asleep nearby.”

Everyone gripped their rifles tightly as they followed Nathan to the roadblock. The roadblock consisted of cars parked across the road with walkways between them. To one side sat an empty guard shack. They passed without incident and continued on. They heard an occasional dog barking but nothing else.

As the group turned on to Highway 6 they spotted the bridge. Barring their way was another roadblock. This one was manned. Four men stood around a barrel with a fire. The men just seemed to be talking to each other but they all had rifles across their backs. To everyone’s surprise, Nathan strolled right down the middle of the road to the bridge.

He calmed his breathing as he walked. He realized the guards were dressed in t-shirts and jeans, not typical dress for paramilitary. When he was fifty yards away the guards still hadn’t seen him. “Hello to the bridge!” Nathan called out. He beckoned the rest of the group to join him.

The guards all jumped, looking for Nathan. Nathan knew they couldn’t see him after looking into a fire. “We’re coming forward!” he called. One of the guards lifted a massive spotlight. “You put that light on me and I will cut you in half, boy!” Nathan shouted, making the man freeze.

The guards slowly pulled their rifles off their backs. “You can pull your rifles off your shoulders, you’re not being that sneaky but you point them at us you’re going to get shot. We aren’t pointing rifles at you, so be nice,” Nathan said, stepping into the edge of the firelight the burning barrel was giving off.

When the guards saw him they all stiffened, but as the rest of the group eased in to the light the guards began to relax. “Gentlemen I didn’t mean to be rude but that damn light you would’ve fried my night vision goggles,” Nathan explained.

A man with a t-shirt claiming he was “Born in the USA” stepped forward. “How the hell did you get into town?” he asked.

“Walked,” Nathan answered.

“None of the other checkpoints have called in,” USA said.

“You tell me how I got here then,” Nathan said.

“What road did you come in on?” USA asked.

“Highway 25. There was a checkpoint but no one was there,” Nathan replied.

USA looked back the other three. “Todd and Jack are in deep shit,” he said then looked back at Nathan. A tall man with t-shirt with a hand holding a joint and captioned “This bud’s for you” stepped beside USA.

“You better not have hurt them,” he snapped with a scornful voice.

“Hey ‘Bud’,” Nathan snapped. “If we had hurt them, why in the fuck would I be talking to you? I can see you are of astute mind but hey dumbass. You are standing beside a burning barrel; you can’t see shit past fifty feet. Look at our weapons—we have suppressors. It would’ve been nothing to sneak up here, squeeze off a few rounds, and throw the bodies over the bridge. But we didn’t. We wanted to let you know about the abandoned roadblock and ask how the road was ahead.”

The guards went pale as they realized how close they came to death. USA nodded. “Thank you, sir, for telling us about the roadblock. I’m sorry if we offended the ladies or kids,” he apologized.

“No harm, no foul. We are just trying to get home, close to Tupelo,” Nathan said.

“You’re the first travelers we’ve seen in three days, since the government demanded everyone stay in place. Travel is forbidden unless approved by Homeland. Several Homeland groups run the interstates. We heard on the radio that they shot some people on I-55,” USA said.

Nathan nodded. “We saw some bodies on I-22,” he said. The guards exchanged worried glances. “Didn’t know they were that close?” Nathan asked.

“No sir. The police chief will need to know about that. On the CB we heard they often roll into a town collecting weapons. That’s why we have these road blocks,” USA said.

“So you haven’t heard of any close?” Nathan asked.

“No sir. From what we’ve gathered, they stay near big cities and big roads. Several good ole boys around here went over to I-55 and let the air out of seven of the Homeland boys,” USA said.

“Well gentleman, we have to go. A word of advice: put burning barrels at the other end of the bridge and you guys stay in the middle,” Nathan told them.

“Hold on mister, you have to wait for the Chief before you leave,” USA said.

“Let me make myself clear: I’m leaving. I’m not asking permission. Since this shit has started I’ve put over twenty bodies in the ground. I’m tired and getting pissed off,” Nathan growled. He turned to the group. “Head out.”

Bud held up his hand to Nathan. “It ain’t like that. The chief wants to know what’s goin’ on. He ain’t tryin’ to control nobody.”

“We have a long ways to go and we only travel at night. I’ve told you what we’ve seen so you can relay it to your chief, but we’re gone,” Nathan said, backing away.

The four noticed he was backing away and was very casual about it. They all lifted their hands away from their weapons. “Sir we’re goin’ to get in trouble,” USA complained.

“Let’s say I give you something for your trouble,” Nathan said, reaching in his pocket to pull out his roll of money. He tossed it to USA. “That’s five G’s for giving us information about the road ahead. Try to take any more and you’ll die for your greed.”

USA looked at the roll then to Nathan. “You won’t have anything to worry about here. One piece of advice: If you hear horses on the road, leave ‘em be. That’s the Kirby family and they’ve been unkind to a few folks lately.”

“Thank you, sir,” Nathan replied. He turned to find Jasmine waiting for him. She smiled as they sped up the catch the group. When Nathan and Jasmine rejoined the group everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

“Nathan why did you give them the money?” Jasmine asked.

“Something for something,” Nathan told her.

“But weren’t you worried about them wanting more?” Jasmine asked.

“No not really but after we had gone a thought might have crept into their heads so I let them know they would have to die for more,” Nathan told her.

Amanda moved over to his left and grabbed his hand. “You were kind of rude but I thought it was cool.”

“I was rude but not so rude as to irritate. A man becomes much more reasonable if you explain to them you could’ve killed him easily but didn’t because you didn’t need to. Hell, if I had been one of those guys I would’ve given us food for not just killin’ me,” Nathan said.

“You’re so smart,” Casey said, hugging Nathan’s waist as they walked.

Jasmine followed watching in silence as the two little girls played Nathan into the palms of their hands. She had to admit, they were doing a very good job. “So you were right about government groups shooting people,” Jasmine said nicely. She wanted to get in on this as well.

“Of course he was right,” Amanda chipped in. Jasmine sighed. She wanted to butter Nathan up as well but the two little girls were taking her thunder.

“Amanda, that wasn’t nice,” Nathan said.

“Sorry,” Amanda said, hugging his left arm.

Nathan turned off the highway and after an hour he led them off the road into the tree line. “There are houses less than a half a mile from here, so keep it down,” Nathan told them as he dropped his pack.

“Shouldn’t we move farther out?” Jasmine asked.

“This is the best we can do before dawn and we are only ten miles from Howard’s dad’s place,” Nathan said, dropping his vest. He pulled out his tablet and solar panel. Amanda and Casey took off Ares’s pack and set up water and food for both dogs. Then Amanda started working on commands with Athena. Nathan stripped down and put on some shorts as John and Tom came over carrying the jugs of water.

“I’m showering and washing these clothes. Tomorrow I’m wearing another outfit,” John announced.

Nathan looked at John in the false dawn. Pulling that wagon had taken some weight off him but Nathan could see that John was getting bigger in the chest and thighs. He was putting on muscle. “I think I’m going to do that as well,” Nathan said.

Howard’s boys set up a shower area as everyone preformed their tasks. When the sun was up Nathan showed his tablet to Howard. “Howard, is this your dad’s farm?”

Howard studied the tablet. “What is that program?”

“It’s downloadable. It’s a subscription service so you can renew the satellite images every ninety days,” Nathan said. “Plus with this one I can add topographic lines with the satellite images.”

“Man, that is too cool,” Howard said. The rest of the group took interest. Amanda and John had seen it already and even used it, but nobody else had. “This is his property,” Howard said drawing around an area with his finger. “It’s nine hundred acres: three hundred in timber, four hundred in fields, and two hundred in pasture. It has three ponds and two creeks.” Howard pointed out the areas.

“What’s this group of buildings?” Nathan asked, indicating the middle of the property.

“That’s the farm,” Howard said as Nathan zoomed in. “That’s the house, barn, shop, storage shed, hen house, pig barn, milking house, and greenhouse. These two trailers are where the two farm hands and their families live.” Howard pointed out each structure.

“Now that’s a set up,” Nathan said, impressed. “So your dad has two brothers. How many siblings do you have?” Nathan asked.

“Five brothers and two sisters,” Howard replied.

“Any that stayed on the farm?” Nathan asked.

“Just my baby brother Mickey,” Howard answered. “If you don’t mind me asking, why you so interested?”

“Just trying to understand,” Nathan said zooming back out. “You are going to need twenty shooters, at least, to defend this farm. I would go for thirty. And without go-go juice you will need another twenty just to run the farm,” Nathan said.

“Damn, you really think so?” Howard asked.

“Howard, your dad already has food production. People will figure it out sooner or later. In the country is food,” Nathan said.

“Will you explain it to my dad?” Howard asked.

“I really don’t want to wait around too long. But I’ll talk to him if he wants,” Nathan said.

“You really should,” Howard said. “I heard you talking about using horses. We have horses but I doubt dad will sell them now. But he knows everyone in the county and he could get you some horses. I don’t know the cost.”

“That puts a whole new spin on things,” Nathan said.

Amanda grabbed Nathan’s arm. “Nathan, I’ve never even been around a horse. What if it tries to eat me?”

“Firecracker, you don’t look like a bale of hay. Maybe a pretty flower. Horses don’t eat meat. They might bite the shit out of you if you’re not careful,” Nathan said.