Dark Titan Journey: Wilderness Travel (26 page)

Feeling the horse relaxed between his legs, Nathan did the same then guided her out into the pasture. Getting the feel for the massive animal, Nathan had to admit she handled wonderfully. “I’m going to call you Smoke,” he said, patting her neck.

Smoke whinnied as Nathan led her into a trot. The kids stopped leading their horses to watch Nathan trot around the pasture. Amanda turned to Mark and Glenda, who had stayed to help. “He’s riding. Why can’t we?” she asked.

Glenda watched Nathan, impressed with his riding. “I can tell he’s ridden horses a long time,” she told Amanda.

“Please let me ride,” Amanda whined.

Mark raised his eyebrows at Glenda. “I thought the horses were bad.” He helped Amanda into the saddle then moved around helping the others.

Nathan, seeing the kids getting in the saddles, broke Smoke into a gallop and rode to them. Pulling back on the reins, Smoke slowed and Nathan guided her to Amanda. “You ready?” he asked.

“This is easier than a car. This is your steering wheel, gas, and brake all in one,” Amanda said, holding up the reins.

Nathan laughed. “Yes, but a car doesn’t have a mind of its own.”

They led the horses around the pasture in a slow walk for the rest of the afternoon, with only Casey falling off once. She just jumped up and climbed back on all by herself. Nathan helped the kids unsaddle their horses and brush them.

It was only when they sat down for supper that the kids figured out riding in saddles for a long time hurt. Bob sat by Nathan as he fed Emma, who was just opening her mouth when the spoon came close. “Can’t anyone else feed her?” Bob asked.

“No, she goes insane,” Nathan replied as Casey handed him a piece of paper.

“I drew this for you,” she said, smiling.

Taking the paper, Nathan looked at the picture. “This is beautiful! When I get home, I’m hanging it on the wall.” She hugged him. Nathan leaned down and kissed the top of her head. Then she ran off giggling. Nathan picked up the picture and looked at it then turned it to Bob. “What is this supposed to be?” he asked in a whisper.

“A dinosaur?” Bob shrugged.

“Shit, I thought it was a duck,” Nathan said looking at the picture. Folding the paper up carefully, Nathan put it in his messenger bag. Everyone sat around talking till dark then headed off to bed. Nathan led his group to the barn and when they were asleep, he went down to the little room where they had put the boxes.

Chapter 18

Day 22

Everyone was awake before dawn and except for Nathan had very sore butts. Seeing them hobble around, Nathan didn’t have the heart to tell them they were going to ride all that afternoon. Nathan pulled on his boots and grabbed his vest and rifle.

“What are we doing today?” Jasmine asked.

“After breakfast, we are going to shoot. I want each of you to hit what you are aiming at,” Nathan said, putting Emma’s little boots on.

Jasmine sighed with relief. “Thank God. That saddle hurt my butt in places I never knew were there.” She forced herself to bend over and put on her boots.

Nathan smiled and picked up Emma. “Sorry, riding lessons resume this afternoon.”

Everyone let out groans as they followed Nathan out of the loft. In the dawn light, they could see breakfast being laid out on the picnic tables. They fixed plates and sat down to eat. Bob joined them.

“How do you guys like riding?” he asked looking around the table only to be met with moans. “Felt the same way when I started.”

“Where can I take them to practice shooting?” Nathan asked.

“I’ll show ya. We have a little range down by the creek,” Bob said.

After breakfast, Bob showed them the area and Nathan dropped the boxes of ammo he was carrying. He went over the basics again the showed them how to shoot. Even though they all had suppressors, Nathan made them wear the ear protection he had given them. Since little Emma refused to stay behind, Nathan found some ear muffs for her.

They started at twenty-five yards and everyone hit their targets. They moved to fifty yards. By noon, having gone through over a thousand rounds, everyone was hitting targets a hundred yards away. Nathan had them move from targets up close to far away and back again, changing magazines constantly. Nathan called them together and made them pick up spent shells before they headed back for lunch.

They met everyone at the picnic tables and Bob filled Nathan in on what they were doing. “We got a load of lumber and are building a type of dorm for those coming out here. We started on the boxed berm around the house but made it four feet wide instead of three. The new fence is being put in around the house twenty feet inside the old one and will have ten rows of barbed wire instead of three. Then we are putting rolls around the top strand. We are also going to add three more strands to the old fence. We turned the goats loose and they are eating the grass like crazy. I thought Mindy was going to die when they ate her flowers but I told her those flowers were going to get dug up when the berm got put in so she didn’t cook the goats. The gate and guard house are done and we have three deer stands put up out back for lookouts. Thank you again for paying off the co-op bill. I bought several tons of natural seeds. Thank God this was a rotation year and I planted soybeans.”

“Rotation year?” Amanda asked, following the conversation.

“You can only plant cotton so many years in a row. Then you rotate crops to put back into the soil what cotton takes and take out what cotton leaves behind,” Nathan told her.

“Man, that’s smart,” Amanda said, taking a long drink. Nathan was amazed that she hadn’t grown since she had been with him. Amanda only weighed eighty pounds and was just over five feet tall. No matter how much he fed her she didn’t gain weight. Normally that would be good but with the trip they wanted to follow him on he wanted her to have some reserves built up.

Nathan looked up seeing someone come over and realized it was Glen. Stopping beside Nathan, Glen handed Nathan a sheet of paper. “Here is what came over. I recorded it and wrote it down. I have no idea what code you’re using but it’s a good one.”

Nathan read the note and sighed with relief.

Amanda stood up. “Well what does it say?”

“Everyone is at the camp. Tim and Sherry made it with all my stuff and animals. I will have to look on my tablet for the rest of the code words and numbers,” Nathan said, leaning back smiling.

“Can I see it?” Amanda asked. Nathan handed it over. The note read:

Looney tunes in the house stop.

Alfalfa and Darla in the club with the gang stop.

Daffy is taking a bath stop.

Batman is working stop.

Mickey was almost in trouble stop.

Message follows, 2,7,9,24… (and a lot more numbers).

“This means something?” Amanda asked, not convinced.

“Alfalfa is Tim, that’s the code telling me they made it to the camp and the gang is all my stuff. If they had to leave something behind it would say ‘in the car’ and instead of gang it would say ‘at work’. Looney tunes refers to everyone at the camp that are members,” Nathan said.

“Aren’t Tim and Sherry members?” Jasmine asked.

Amanda sighed, “No, Jasmine, I’ve told you. They are part of the camp because they are Nathan’s family. Do you listen to anything I say?” she asked.

Jasmine let it slide and asked Nathan, “So will we be accepted there?”

“Jasmine, I just asked you if you listen to me!” Amanda threw her hands up. “The camp only allows each ‘family’ as many people as it can support for a year. Nathan has enough for us for two years. I know I’ve talked about this.”

Nathan shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t look at me like that. She wanted the story of my life and I’ll be damned if she didn’t commit it to memory,” Nathan told her.

Jasmine just laid her head down on the table, mumbling. Amanda shook her head watching her. “Really, Jasmine, we are family now. You haven’t been paying attention,” Amanda told her. Amanda looked at Nathan, “When will you know the rest?” she asked.

“When I get my tablet,” Nathan said.

“I’ll get it,” Amanda said, moving away.

“Hold it,” Nathan said, grabbing her. “Take the note. Use the file ‘Cooking’ to find out what is says. I want you to write it down and bring it to me, understand?”

“Sure.” She kissed his cheek and took off running.

Casey looked at Nathan, “Did Nolan make it alright?” she asked. Nathan nodded and Casey smiled.

“Who’s Nolan again?” Jasmine asked without lifting her head up.

“Tim and Sherry’s baby boy,” Casey said, making Jasmine groan. “Nathan, can I go and help Amanda?”

“Yes, but remember you have riding this afternoon so you two make it quick,” Nathan said. Casey slung her rifle over her shoulder and took off running after Amanda.

Jasmine looked up. “I—,” she started to say and closed her mouth. Grabbing Emma, she walked to the stables, calling the other kids to follow.

Watching Jasmine walk away, Nathan shook his head. “Somehow and for some reason, I think I’m going to pay for that later,” he mumbled.

He walked around to the front of the house so Bob could show him the progress. They heard diesel engines and saw three military hummers coming down the driveway. Nathan noticed two of them had fifty calibers with soldiers manning them. “Hope those are friends because when Ma Deuce talks, you listen,” Nathan said, referring to the fifty cals.

Bob laughed. “Yeah, seen ‘em in action a few times. That’s our brother Dennis.”

The small convoy pulled in. Out of the back of a HUMVEE stepped a man who Nathan could see instantly was Rodger and Bob’s brother. He didn’t need to see the four stars on his collar.

The General hugged Bob, then turned to Nathan and extended his hand. “You must be Nathan. I’m Dennis.”

To say Nathan was shocked would’ve been an understatement. “How the hell did you know that?” Nathan asked, wanting to find a tin foil hat.

Dennis laughed as Nathan shook his hand. “I met up with Rodger in town. He told me about you,” Dennis said.

Relief flooded Nathan’s body. “You had me worried there, thought I was being tracked,” Nathan admitted.

The happiness fell off Dennis’s face. “You will be before long,” he said with sadness. Then he looked past Nathan and his face lit up with a smile. Nathan turned to see Howard and his family running toward Dennis. Dennis held his arms open as they all hugged him.

“It seems they are just as happy to see Dennis as they were you,” Nathan said to Bob.

Bob shook his head. “Dennis thinks they’re his. I’ve asked Mindy more than once if he was right but she just grabs a broom and tries to take my head off,” Bob told him. “To be honest, I like it. He has a son and family with them.”

They left Dennis with Howard and his family. Nathan pointed out other things he would do and was surprised to find Bob had pulled out a small pad and was making notes. They went inside to the area where Glen was setting up the radios and were shocked to see them up along with two computers.

Glen looked up when they entered the study. “The solar panels will be up in a few minutes and I will be able to start.”

“What about the antenna?” Nathan asked.

“It was put in an hour ago,” Glen said, then looked at Bob. “Thank you for bringing us out here.”

“Thank you for coming. You like the room Mindy gave y’all?” Bob asked.

Glen laughed. “It’s bigger than our first three apartments, and yes we love it.”

“You need anything, let me know,” Bob said as they left.

They headed out back and Bob told Nathan he needed to get back to work so Nathan watched from the stable fence as the kids and Jasmine rode around. Hearing someone approach, Nathan turned around to see Dennis. “Getting ready to leave?” Nathan asked.

“No, I’m moving some stuff over and my wife will be staying here,” Dennis said, leaning on the fence with Nathan watching the kids ride. “I’ll never be able to say thank you enough. You need anything, let me know.”

Nathan thought for a second. “Dennis, I want to ask you a question. What is Operation Dark Titan?”

Dennis closed his eyes. “I don’t know how you found out about that but be careful who you ask. I’ve had two officers
‘disappear’
for asking what it was.”

“You don’t know?” Nathan asked, getting worried.

“I didn’t say that, I just know who to ask,” Dennis said. “It’s big, and if
they
think you know then you aren’t around long.”

“You don’t trust me enough to tell me? I realize we just met,” Nathan said.

Dennis shook his head. “No, I don’t want to put you in danger. If they find out I know, there are ways of making people talk, and I owe you. I have no illusions, general or not. If they think I’ll expose it then I’m dead, but not before I talk.”

“How big does this go?” Nathan asked.

Not answering right away, Dennis pointed out in the field at the kids and Jasmine riding around. “Are you willing to risk their safety?”

“I don’t know where you’ve been. Their safety is already at risk. I just want more info to be better prepared,” Nathan said.

“Fair enough,” Dennis said. “First, how did you find out about Titan?”

“Got several e-mails before the crash, some were internal government memos. One said Operation Dark Titian was set to run,” Nathan answered.

“I pray they don’t know you received those memos. There was a hack into the NSA storage facility two days before the flare. The contents were thrown up on the web, and I know for a fact the hackers are dead. It doesn’t matter that they were in Canada. I don’t know how far they got in tracing the info that leaked or if they can still trace it but I do know they are looking for anyone with that information. Two independent alternative news sites’ entire staffs were killed in
‘apparent robberies’
,” Dennis told him.

“It sounds to me like they knew the CME was coming,” Nathan observed.

“It does, doesn’t it?” Dennis told him smiling.

“That’s impossible. We don’t have the understanding of the sun or the computing power to run simulations if we did,” Nathan said.

“There you’re wrong. The NSA has more computing power than you can imagine. They had a probable window of four days for the flare and it fell on the first. They have had some monkey wrenches thrown in but for the most part they are rather happy,” Dennis said with a pained face. “Operation Dark Titan was launched over a year ago.”

“Do you know who
‘they’
are?” Nathan asked

“Money men, the alphabet agencies, but only those at the very top and I don’t think it was just those here. Most every senior member of the U.N. was brought in,” Dennis said.

Nathan sighed. “I know it doesn’t matter but why?”

“Money. We were broke. The government gets capital and we need new stuff. Now they can take what they want without word really getting out,” Dennis said.

Feeling utterly helpless, Nathan just wanted to lie down and die. This was way over him. “How will the military play in this?”

Impressed, Dennis chuckled. “That’s the game changer. If they take the control slowly then it will be a few years before a revolt. If they take control fast, it will just happen sooner. From what I’ve read, less than forty percent of military forces will become hostile to Americans.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” Nathan said.

“It is until you realize that as of today there are a quarter of a million U.N. troops on U.S. soil and a hundred thousand of our troops are shipped out to their countries,” Dennis said.

“We suppress them and their troops suppress us,” Nathan said.

“Yep,” Dennis said nodding.

“When will the gun confiscation start?” Nathan asked.

Dennis shook his head. “It started ten hours after the flare. The ATF may not have kept a national registry but Homeland did with the NSA’s help. Then they sent the good ole ATF to do what they always wanted, take the guns.”

“What are you going to do in all this?” Nathan asked.

“I took an oath to a piece of paper and the United States of America. That’s why I’m bringing my wife here,” Dennis said.

Nathan fought the urge to look around for an attack. “How long do I have to get home?”

“You were too late when the flare hit,” Dennis said sadly.

“I mean before the military starts fighting?” Nathan asked.

“There are already. Oath Keepers are attacking now. I would say three, four months tops before full-scale military battles take place,” Dennis said.

“I can do that,” Nathan said, feeling a tad better.

“Can your camp be seen from the air?” Dennis asked.