Dark Titan Journey: Finally Home (17 page)

“The only difference is a few humps of dirt,” Amanda mumbled, opening her pouch of food and closing her notebook. None of them even responded.

As Nathan ate, John climbed off his horse and walked over. “Nathan, we’ve only passed four houses. The effort for the government to come out here just seems like a waste of time.”

“Remember, the Postal Service knows where everyone is and who lives there. Back in Arkansas, they had a group of men ride up to a house and empty it or kill those that didn’t leave. Then they’d load up and do it again. That one small group of a hundred troops gathered thousands. The people are spread out so neighbors can’t help and the neighbors see and hear what happens if you don’t leave. I’m not going to lie, I really thought living far out with your family made you safe, but without a few numbers and some good weapons, you might as well live downtown” Nathan explained.

“But the resources they are using!” John exclaimed.

“These are the only ones they have to worry about. They have the people in the city already bottled up. Out in the country is where the rebellion always starts. You can see it all through history. It’s hard to control movement, and if a person knows how to live off the land you can’t really take away their food if they don’t agree with you. Most people that live in the country have at least one weapon, so you have the seeds for resistance. Eighty percent of Americans live in urban areas. If you can control that last twenty percent, you make fighting back really hard. I have to say I’m impressed with their thought process. This roundup of the countryside was planned out pretty well,” Nathan said.

“How long ago do you think they started planning this?” Jasmine asked.

Nathan scoffed. “Shit, I have no idea. Ask the rest of the group when we get home. They were the ones wearing tinfoil hats. They talked about it all the time. I’m going to have to tell them I was wrong. I really thought someone would blow the whistle on this kind of planning.”

“There was talk on the Internet about what the government was doing, but nobody believed it,” Tom said.

Nathan paused, taking a bite. “Damn, you’re right. We were warned. We—I—just couldn’t believe it.”

Everyone finished eating and followed Nathan back to the dirt road. The road they were on went over a hill and Nathan turned off, cutting across a plowed field, heading northwest. When they reached the other side of the field, Nathan turned north on another dirt road. After a few more miles the road again went over a small hill, and like before hill was a loose term. They couldn’t see over it but it was higher than the area around them.

Again Nathan led them into a plowed field, heading northwest. The others in the group looked over their shoulders at each other for answers about Nathan’s crazy course. With nobody even having a guess, they just followed. The next hill they came to everyone was expecting the same but Nathan led them around it very slowly and joined back up to the road they were just on.

Not able to take it any longer, Jasmine moved up towards Nathan. Seeing her go, everyone followed. They knew she would ask and they could hear the answer without feeling stupid. Jasmine eased back on her reins letting her horse walk beside Nathan’s. “I know I’m going to regret asking, but why are we avoiding hills?” Nathan pulled back on his reins, stopping Smoke, and everyone else stopped with him.

Nathan looked through his thermal and pointed to the west. “See that hill over there?” Jasmine nodded. “It’s over a mile away, close to two miles. You can see the top really easily, can’t you?” Again Jasmine nodded. “How easy would it be to see a group riding horses over it?”

Jasmine looked down. “Sorry.”

“I didn’t explain because most of you said you read
Lonesome Dove
. They explain skylining but don’t use that word. Remember when the Indians took their horses and they crept up on their bellies looking over the ridge, watching the camp before Deets got killed? When you crest a hill, do it low to the ground so you don’t break the skyline. It is easy to detect that movement against a flat background,” Nathan explained.

Jasmine shook her head. “You make Lonesome Dove sound like a book about tactics and survival.”

“If you think about it, they tell you how to rustle cows and herd them. Shit, I can think of more now that you mention it,” Nathan admitted.

Amanda drove her horse between Jasmine and Nathan. “If you fucking tell me snakes move like that in a river I’m never going near water again.”

Nathan raised his eyebrows. “I’ve never seen a moccasin ball in a river, but I’ve seen them in lakes.”

“That was supposed to be make-believe,” Amanda gasped.

Nathan patted her. “Don’t worry, we are out of the area where cottonmouths and copperheads live. The only snakes you have to worry about now are rattlesnakes.”

“Really?” Amanda asked with a smile.

“Yes, you may find few in southeastern Kansas, but that’s about as far north as they go,” Nathan said.

Amanda looked around smiling, “Nebraska isn’t so bad after all.”

Nathan looked back at Jasmine. “Do you understand skylining now?”

“Yes, but I feel stupid now,” Jasmine mumbled.

“I’m sorry if I made you feel that way, but will you ever forget it?” he asked, and Jasmine shook her head. “Then you will be safer and won’t get hurt, so I don’t care,” Nathan replied, and kicked Smoke back into a walk.

Jasmine turned to the others. “From now on, we take turns asking questions. He’s right, I won’t forget it, but some of you can feel stupid too.”

John shifted in his saddle. “I didn’t ask and I still feel stupid. I know about skylining from video games.”

“It doesn’t matter, we take turns. I’m tired of him thinking I’m a complete dumbass,” Jasmine snapped, kicking her horse. The others nodded as caught up to Nathan. Up ahead, Nathan chuckled at Jasmine’s comment.

It was just almost six a.m. and the sky was getting light when Nathan led them off the road into a field. The field stopped next to a spur running down from a hill to the south, and Nathan climbed off his horse and led it up the spur. The ridge only rose forty feet. The others climbed off and led their horses up behind him.

At the top, Nathan led them down into a draw with a pond with a dike on the north end. He circled the pond and walked his horse into a draw that emptied into the pond. The others saw they were basically in a long, narrow bowl with knee-high grass.

Nathan pulled off Smoke’s saddle then dropped his pack. After laying Emma down, Nathan hobbled Smoke and let her eat. Turning around he saw everyone had their saddles off too. He walked over to the donkeys and untied the poles he’d cut. He unpacked the tarp and grabbed his paracord. By now everyone was watching.

Spreading the tarp out Nathan placed a pole at each corner and tied it to the eyelet. Motioning for the others to come over, Nathan had them stand the poles up, raising the tarp. Nathan ran cord from the top of each pole, staking the other end in the ground.

When he was done they let go, liking the shelter Nathan had built but Nathan didn’t stop. He ran cord under the tarp from one corner to the other and pulled it tight, taking the sag out of the middle. The group agreed that was smart as Nathan placed a pole in the center where the X of cord crossed.

Then Nathan walked around pulling up handfuls of grass and tied them in knots, then threw them beside the shelter. The group was at a total loss. Nathan dug up several bushes with a folding shovel and knocked the dirt off them. He tossed the bushes by the pile of knotted grass. Taking his shovel Nathan started throwing shovel fulls of dirt on top of the tarp.

Walking under the tarp, Nathan started hitting the clumps from below the tarp, making the dirt spread out. When the dirt was spread over the top, he threw the knotted grass and bushes on top.

John gasped. “Holy shit! You camouflaged the roof.”

“The damn tarp is already camouflaged,” Amanda pointed out.

“Woodland camouflage doesn’t work well in grasslands,” Nathan said, pulling his gear under the tarp. The others grabbed their stuff and did the same. The sun was above the horizon as they spread out their sleeping gear. Emma was already on Nathan’s.

As Nathan took off gear, the others looked at each other. Finally everyone pointed at Natalie. Natalie sighed. “Nathan, what’s the point? If someone walks up here they can see us.”

“You are right, and that’s what guards are for. But from above, say from a helicopter, it looks like some horses eating grass and drinking from a pond,” he said, taking off his boots.

“Won’t they be able to tell with thermal?” John asked.

Nathan moaned. “Yeah the dirt up there will get hotter than the dirt around us.”

“How many on guard?” John asked.

“Two should be okay, one down here watching the kids and the other almost to the top of the ridge behind us,” Nathan said, lying back.

Amanda crawled over and rested on Nathan’s chest. “You are so cool it should be illegal.”

Nathan’s face filled with pride. “Thank you, little lady.”

“You could’ve told us,” Amanda pointed out.

“You saw how I found an area and built it. Now you can too, and you will,” he said.

“We still could’ve helped,” she said.

Reaching up Nathan stroked the top of her head. “You were curious so you were watching my every move, wondering what I was doing, trying to figure it out. Now any one of you can do it.” Nathan could see that none of them were tired. “John, you and Tom set up the solar charger and fill the water jugs. Natalie and Casey, start supper while I go over what Amanda wrote. Then I’m going to read a story; we need some entertainment.”

Amanda lifted her head off his chest. “You’re not going to read us those survival manuals, are you?”

“No,” Nathan said, chuckling.

“They do have good information but holy crap are they boring,” Amanda said.

Casey jumped up. “What are you going to read us?”

“Sho-gun,” Nathan answered.

Casey frowned. “Never heard of it.”

“Soon you will be able to say you had it read to you,” Nathan said, patting her leg. The others started getting ready, excited about the idea of Nathan reading a book to them. Chip jumped out of Jasmine’s lap and ran around.

Moving over beside Nathan, Jasmine sat down and started pulling off her boots, “That is a good idea about reading a book to them.”

“I should’ve started it sooner to break up the monotony,” Nathan said.

“After training and riding twelve hours we tend to be tired when we set up camp,” Jasmine admitted, standing up.

Nodding his head in agreement, Nathan watched Jasmine pull off her pants. “Yeah, I’ve been a bit tuckered out.”

Folding her pants, Jasmine noticed she had Nathan’s attention as she pulled off the ACU jacket. “You don’t mind me sitting on your woobie while you read, do you? I want a front row seat.”

Nathan blinked his dried-out eyes. “You can sit in my damn lap.”

Jasmine put on her flip-flops. “Emma would get pissed,” she said, walking over to help fix the food.

“Shit, I’ll throw her in the damn pond,” Nathan mumbled, staring at Jasmine.

Chapter 14

Day 46

As the sun set, the group followed Nathan out of the draw. They had loved his reading to them and were still talking about the story he read to them so far. Along the same route they had taken when Nathan led them in, they led the horses out. When Nathan stopped at the bottom of the ridge, he was ready to get on his horse. Carrying Emma in her sling with her moving was beyond a challenge.

When they reached the dirt road the sun was almost down as they followed Nathan at a trot. An hour later Nathan pulled Smoke into a canter. Up ahead the road came to a T. It had been so long since they had seen that it seemed peculiar. To their surprise, Nathan didn’t turn right or left. He went straight, right into the filed. Off to the west they could see a house in the distance with light coming from behind curtains.

They all followed, and started looking at each other and everyone pointed at Tom. Hanging his head as Natalie took the lead to the pack animals, Tom rode up beside Nathan. “Why are we going cross-country? You said you didn’t want to do that at night because the horses could step in a hole.”

“Right you are, but these are plowed fields so I’m not really worried about holes, and it’s pretty bright. We are traveling cross-country because there is a seasonal river ahead and all the bridges are right next to a town or several houses. Since the river is now a creek, we are just going to ‘bust brush,’” Nathan explained.

“Bust brush?” Tom asked.

“It means going cross-country, blazing a trail,” Nathan said.

Nodding his head, Tom pulled up on his reins and fell back, taking the pack animals’ lead rope back. The others spread back out, having moved up to hear the answer. They reached the stream bed, where a small creek flowed through the bottom as Nathan led them down, letting the horse drink.

Amanda looked at the trees on the banks, smiling. They weren’t big trees, just cottonwood scrubs. Nathan smiled as she climbed off her saddle and walked over and just rubbed on the trees. “Yeah, I like trees too,” Nathan mumbled as a sippy cup hit his chest. “You know, Emma, if you ask once in a while instead of hitting me with the damn thing I might enjoy this,” Nathan snapped, filling the cup up.

“No,” Emma said.

“You’re right, I wouldn’t,” Nathan said, handing it back. Nathan snapped his fingers and Ares, Amanda, and Athena all came running. “At least they all listened.”

Leading them out of the stream bed, Nathan led them cross country and they came to a paved state road. Without pausing, Nathan led them over the road and back into the fields. Behind him Natalie announced, “I really don’t like roads with painted stripes anymore.” Everyone, including Nathan, murmured agreement.

Even with the small rolling hills around them they could see reasonably far. It wasn’t much farther before Nathan led them back onto a dirt road and picked the pace back up. Seeing a house ahead, Nathan pulled out the thermal binoculars and scanned the area. The house wasn’t much warmer that the area around it. None of the windows were showing heat, so Nathan turned off the thermal and continued on.

The house was about fifty yards off the road as they rode past. When they were even with it, Nathan glanced toward the house and dropped his head. The front door was wide open. Nathan glanced up at Ares and Athena. Both were trotting down the road ahead of him with their tongues hanging out. Hearing someone coming up beside him, “I saw the front door, Jasmine.”

Jasmine jerked in her saddle. “You know the sound of my horse?”

Nathan laughed. “No, but I figured it was your turn to come and ask.”

Jasmine smiled. “So you know what we are doing?”

“Yes, and it’s smart, it gets everyone used to finding out information and doing something they don’t want to,” Nathan said.

Hearing that explanation for her idea, Jasmine smiled. “What do you make of that house?”

“Just that it looked like the others we’ve seen before. I didn’t notice bodies hanging,” Nathan said.

“There’s no way they can clear out the entire countryside,” Jasmine stated.

“Oh I know that but—” Nathan stopped suddenly.

“What?” Jasmine asked, seeing Nathan had a suspicion about it.

Shaking his head, Nathan huffed. “So far we’ve only seen them emptying areas near interstates. In Kansas we started noticing empty houses twenty miles away from the interstate. It didn’t matter what interstate, we found houses with the front door open twenty miles out all the way to the interstate, then twenty miles past it. But that house back there is forty miles from I-80. The town of Cambridge is only a few miles down the road.”

“We’re only forty miles from the interstate?” Jasmine asked, pulling out her map.

“Yes but we’ll cross it ninety miles from here,” Nathan said.

Jasmine nodded in understanding, seeing how I-80 curved northwest. Then she opened her pages back to Kansas and looked up. “In Kansas, would you say the government controlled that area?”

“Hell no,” he stated without a second thought.

“But everyone on the radio says the government controls the interstate to Denver. What if in the areas they control they send troops out farther to gather up people?” she offered.

“Shit,” Nathan said, pulling back on his reins and stopping Smoke. Nathan pulled out his map and grease pencils. He slowly drew a forty-mile-wide corridor on both sides of I-80. Grabbing his thermal binoculars, Nathan scanned ahead and spotted a house to their northeast. Dropping his binoculars, he led them out in the field, heading to the house.

Jasmine was scared of the look on Nathan’s face as she rode beside him. “Nathan, what are you thinking?”

“I think your idea is right. We are fixing to see if it is,” Nathan said as they rode through the field.

Jasmine started thinking about the idea she’d had. “What, them moving further out?”

“Yeah, now keep your eyes open,” Nathan said as he pulled Smoke into a walk, leading them up to the dirt road that ran past the house. When he scanned the house earlier it was cold like the last one, and his thermal had confirmed it. When they were even with the house they saw two bodies hanging by their necks on the porch. “Stay here,” Nathan said, riding forward with Ares beside him.

Getting closer to the house, Nathan could tell it was covered in bullet holes. Looking around the yard he found the piles of brass. Climbing off Smoke, Nathan looked at the brass. Some of the brass was coated in dirt and slightly sunk in the ground. Walking to the house he looked at the bodies and they were badly weathered. Having no intention of stepping in the house, Nathan walked around the outside but didn’t see anything else. Looking down at Ares, Nathan saw he was relaxed.

Climbing back on Smoke, “Ares, come,” Nathan said, heading back to the others. When he reached them he pulled out his map and studied it. “Rally point is now here, we’re changing routes.” Holding out the map, he pointed at the spot, and the others gathered around.

The new rally point was just inside the corridor he had drawn. “If it’s true we’re inside the search area,” Jasmine said.

“I know, but just barely. I want to be where they already cleared, just in case they decide to come and make the corridor bigger,” Nathan said, putting up his map.

“Nathan, have you heard any gunshots tonight?” John asked.

Thinking about it, Nathan couldn’t remember hearing any since last night. “No, has anyone else?”

Jasmine looked around. “I haven’t heard any but I can’t swear it because they are part of the background now.”

“Yes, that’s why we should hear one every once in a while. But John’s right, I haven’t heard one since last night,” Nathan said, propping the SAW across his saddle.

Amanda looked through her notebook. “Where is Grand Island?”

“A hundred or so miles to the east,” Nathan said.

She stopped turning pages. “Yesterday someone called ‘Mad Hatter’ said they were moving people out of a camp in Grand Island, taking them east on rail, and the ants were moving up twenty-nine.”

“I don’t remember seeing that,” Nathan said.

“Well it was there,” Amanda said. “You even wrote on the same page. What you wrote I don’t know.”

“Keep an ear on the radio and let me know if you hear something,” Nathan said.

Amanda nodded. “I’m only picking up stuff on ham frequencies. I swear I hear guys on military radios. They keep talking about sitting reps, action reporting, saluting, spotting reports, and such.”

Hearing her Nathan’s body slumped in his saddle. “Do you mean Sit reps, after action reports, Salutes, and spot reports?”

“Yeah, you’ve heard them talking like that?” she asked.

Nathan shook his head. “When did you start hearing them?”

“Not long after we started tonight,” she said.

“Write down everything they say,” he said, grabbing his thermal.

“But I don’t know what they are saying,” Amanda informed him.

“Just write what you hear. If you hear someone calling in a spot report on seven Uniforms on Alpha transports let me know fast,” Nathan said, kicking Smoke hard into a trot. The others spread out and started to really scan around.

Before the discovery Nathan had been leading them on a more northerly direction, but now it was hard northwest. When they could, they cut through fields, but when they came to drainage draws, Nathan would either get off and lead them through or take the nearest road west.

It seemed Nathan never put down the thermal binoculars as they moved at a steady canter on the road and a trot in fields. It was three a.m. when Nathan rode off the dirt road they were on, heading down a draw toward a creek. Amanda gasped, seeing trees ahead.

Everyone else was looking at the house less than a mile away. John had looked at it through his thermal scope and discovered it was cold like all the others they passed, but he couldn’t see the front door. In their forty-mile dash in six hours they had passed a dozen houses and they were all cold. Of the ones they moved past the front of the house, they could see door was open.

The stand of trees Nathan led them into was beside a small creek. When they reached the center they couldn’t see the fields around them. Letting out a collective sigh, the group climbed off their horses and started taking the saddles off. Seeing the area get bright, they turned to see Nathan holding his tablet. His monoculars were flipped up and he was studying the tablet hard.

“What about light discipline?” Jasmine asked.

“We can’t see out so they can’t see in,” Nathan said without looking up. It was then they realized he was still on his horse.

“Aren’t we camping here?” Amanda asked. Her saddle was already on the ground.

“Yes,” Nathan said, scrolling the tablet. He turned it off and climbed off his horse, blinking his eyes to adjust them. Dropping his pack he turned to Natalie motioning her over. Carefully taking Emma out of the sling, Nathan handed her to Natalie as the others gathered around. He took off his messenger bag and handed it to Jasmine.

Taking the messenger bag, Jasmine watched Nathan check his vest. “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to check on something,” he said, climbing on Smoke.

“Let us come with you,” Jasmine said.

Nathan lowered the NVGs. “You’re kidding, right? If I get in shit I’ll have to move fast, making quick changes. You will slow me down and we’ll all get killed.”

“Then we don’t need to know,” Jasmine enlightened him.

“I’m not arguing. This is how it’s going to be. I want to be back before daybreak. Set up the tarp like I showed you and stay under it unless you are tending horses. Set up camp and get food ready. If you hear shooting for God’s sake don’t come check it out. Wait here for a day. If I’m not back after that, stay on the route in the tablet. I’ll catch up. No fire and no sleeping till daylight. Amanda, keep Athena here,” Nathan said, kicking Smoke. Amanda held Athena. “Ares, come.”

They watched Nathan weave between the trees until he disappeared from sight. Amanda clipped the leash to Athena and Athena tried to leave. “Athena, stay!” Amanda snapped, and Athena lay down. “Give me that damn tablet,” Amanda snapped at Jasmine, and started digging in Nathan’s messenger bag.

Amanda pulled out the tablet, turning it on. When it was on she went to the menu and tapped the screen. John laughed. “Amanda, that’s smart.” Amanda never smiled or acknowledged him as she kept taping the screen.

“What are you doing?” Jasmine asked. Amanda ignored her as the map program came on.

“She’s seeing what the last thing on the computer was, what Nathan was looking at,” John enlightened Jasmine.

When the map opened Amanda swore. “Shit!” She tapped the screen, moving the picture out.

“What?” Jasmine asked.

“There are four, no eight houses to our south along this creek bottom,” Amanda said, holding up the tablet.

“He’s going to the houses?” Jasmine asked.

“That’s what he was looking at. He focused in on each of them,” Amanda said, turning the tablet off.

“Why?” Jasmine asked.

Amanda turned to her. “Now I know why Nathan hates that word. But unlike him, I don’t know.”

John held up his hands stopping everyone. “Okay, why would he want to go to houses? We don’t need supplies and we know the area has been taken. What’s he looking for?” They all racked their brains but couldn’t come up with an answer. “Let’s get camp set up. Tom, you and Amanda take the horses to the north side of the thicket. The map showed a grass field. If it’s not there, come back. This thicket is just over a hundred yards long and wide, so keep an ear out. Jasmine, you and I will set up the shelter and cover it. Natalie, you’re standing guard and watching the little ones.”

As they moved to set up camp, they figured right as Nathan climbed off Smoke at the first house. It was a collection of buildings with farm equipment everywhere. Nathan tied Smoke’s reins to a tractor and crept to the front. The door was open. He looked down at Ares who was just panting looking around. “Ares, search.”

Areas trotted toward the house and looked around, then back to Nathan. Relaxing some, Nathan walked quietly to the front door. Lifting the thermal monocular up, he started to search the house. Finding some notebooks and other useful stuff he started grabbing and stopped when he went to put it in his messenger bag. “Dumbass,” he grumbled, setting the stuff down as he searched for something to carry it with.