Dark Titan Journey: Finally Home (18 page)

In a back bedroom he found a Cornhusker gym bag. Nathan emptied it and looked at the room. It was in perfect order and looked like an older boy’s room. Nathan figured the woman of the house was strict or the boy was super neat. He was leaning toward the first because all the parts of the house he had seen were pristine. He searched the rooms, finding another boy’s room, two girls’ rooms, the parent’s room, and an office. The dressers were closed and it looked like nothing was taken. Nathan rummaged around in them and headed to the office. On the desk was a daily tear-off calendar. The date was the day of the CME.

Finding a few more useful items, he tossed them in the bag then he headed to the kitchen. Opening the cabinets and pantry he found them fully stocked. The amount of food was rather impressive. Grabbing several items he threw them in the bag. He looked around till he found the garbage and saw an open microwave meal package on the top. Making another pass through the living room, Nathan followed a hallway.

He knew this would lead him to the carport after seeing the doors when he had approached the house. Opening the door and stepping in it was dark, even with the NVGs. He turned on the IR light and the room to his right eye was a bright green day. His left eye could barely make out the shape of a new Dodge truck and a Durango. Looking around Nathan froze seeing a wooden gun cabinet. Looking through the glass, Nathan counted sixteen rifles and four pistols.

“What the fuck is going on?” he said looking around. Ares just looked at him. Grabbing a crow bar off a work bench, Nathan pried open the cabinet door and the box door at the bottom. Seeing 5.56 Nathan loaded up and grabbed some other calibers they had. Leaving the guns, Nathan turned to leave and spotted a key rack on the wall by the door heading into the house.

Nathan grabbed one and hit the unlock button. The room flashed and he heard a chirp behind him. “Fuck me,” he mumbled, frozen in place. He slowly walked over to the truck. Its parking lights were still on. Opening the door the dome light came on, and a sound he didn’t think he would hear in a long time reached his ears: the door open chime.

Unable to resist, Nathan put the key in and turned. The instrument panel lit up. Not wanting to crank it, Nathan turned it off and closed the door. He walked back over and hung the keys up. Hearing Ares whining Nathan turned to see Ares looking at the truck whining. “You are way too smart,” Nathan informed him. “We can’t take it, as much as I want to. We can’t.” Nathan patted Ares.

“Come,” Nathan said, walking toward the door. Ares left the truck and stopped, seeing Nathan pick up a bag of dog food. “Woof,” Ares huffed. “I know it’s not your brand but your girlfriend is eating all your food,” Nathan said. They headed outside. On impulse, Nathan grabbed the door to close it and froze.

“Aw, that’s bullshit,” he said. “I know they leave them open but it is a learned behavior to shut a door. I wish dad hadn’t been so hard on me about closing the door.” Nathan looked at the door against the inside wall and noticed a doorstop shoved under the edge. Setting the bag of dog food down, Nathan looked around the door but didn’t see anything for a booby trap. He could tell the doorstop had been tapped in.

With the light on his NVGs still on Nathan studied it. It was big for a doorstop but he could tell it didn’t belong with the décor of the house. “Something’s not right about this,” Nathan mumbled, and walked outside, grabbing the dog food. He climbed up on Smoke with the bag of dog food, no easy feat.

Feeling the gym bag pulling on him, Nathan adjusted it and noticed it was full. “Ares, did you put shit in here while I wasn’t looking?” Ares just looked at him. Nathan headed to the next house, following the dirt road leading to the house.

Heading down the road, Nathan noticed a dead animal in the road. Getting closer, he saw it was a dog, a lab. He could tell it had been dead a while. The bullet holes on its side said how it died. “Damn, they take a man and family out of his home then shoot his dog. When we get my guys home, you and I are going killin’,” Nathan told Ares. Ares sniffed around the body, giving off a soft whine.

The next house wasn’t as massive so it didn’t take as long, but Nathan came away with another bag full of stuff. Once again he found the same type of doorstop shoved under the door. Not wanting to touch it, he loaded up and started down the road, finding several more dead dogs. Several of the bodies had been ripped open by scavengers.

In was the fourth house Nathan found what he was looking for. It was a note dated the day of the CME, laying on the kitchen table.

Gary,

The army is here. They are taking us to Grand Island. They said a massive solar storm hit us and it wasn’t safe here. If you make it here from the oil field, come to us. The phone is out, along with the power. The army said they will have people take care of the animals, but they told me we shouldn’t be gone long. The kids are with me and your sister. Love you, and hurry to us.

Love, Jill

“This is fucked up shit,” Nathan announced. Not even looking through the rest of the house, he turned to leave and once again found the same kind of doorstop jammed under the door. “Fuck it,” Nathan said, pulling out a flashlight. Nathan took off his harness and knelt down on the floor, turning on his light.

He was temporarily blinded as he sat up on his knees, blinking his eyes. Ares woofed behind him, which Nathan took as dog for ‘dumbass.’ When he could see again, Nathan knelt down, looking at the doorstop.

It was a brown wedge about six inches wide, three inches tall at the back, and about eight inches long. The center had a black rubber strap running down it, and looked like it ran under the bottom. It was identical to the others. Taking off his gloves, Nathan gently touched it and was surprised to find it was plastic. “So they put a doorstop in so the wind wouldn’t close the door?” Nathan asked himself.

“That’s the stupidest thing you’ve said in a while,” Nathan chastised himself, kneeling back down to look at it. Unlike the other doors, this door was lower to the floor, so only the first inch was shoved under the door. “If it’s a bomb it doesn’t have a lot of room for explosive,” Nathan said.

“So you’re a fucking bomb expert now,” Nathan chided himself as he pulled out his switchblade. Since Nathan had lived alone for so long he talked and answered himself often. It was only in the last month that he had stopped. The time he had spent with his group was the longest he had ever been with anyone. Tim and Sherry lived on his land but they lived in the guest house. But even when they had moved in, Nathan’s habit of talking and answering himself had decreased.

Kneeling over the doorstop, Nathan eased the tip of his knife under the edge of the rubber strip. The strip covered the face of the wedge so it wouldn’t slide on the floor and the door couldn’t move off it. Gently lifting the rubber up, Nathan saw it was glued on. Nathan peeled it back to expose the face and saw a rectangle outline about half an inch wide in the center of the face of the wedge, running down under the rubber he hadn’t lifted.

“Daddy doesn’t like that,” Nathan said, and gently pushed down on the rectangle outline. He felt and saw the rectangle move down slightly. “It’s a button,” Nathan declared.

“Yeah but to do what?” Nathan asked, sitting up and looking at his watch. “I need to start heading back.”

Nathan stood up and looked back, picking up his head harness. Putting it on, Nathan spotted a cordless phone lying on the coffee table. Nathan picked it up and moved over to the door. He looked at the phone, then the doorstop. “It’s a phone, I’m willing to bet anything.” Dropping the cordless, Nathan walked over to Smoke, who was chowing down on the lawn. There were two gym bags hanging on the saddle and another on the ground next to the bag of dog food.

In a feat of engineering, Nathan climbed up with the bag of dog food and gym bag. When he sat in the saddle, Smoke looked back at him, giving a snort. “It’s not far,” Nathan snapped, and turned Smoke around. The sun was just coming up as they entered the stand of trees.

Nathan was relieved to see everyone waiting on him. Amanda said to the group, “He didn’t go for supplies, but Nathan never passes up stuff he can use.”

John nodded. “Yeah, I’ve noticed the same thing. He’s got a point.”

Nathan stopped beside them. “I heard that. Just for that, you don’t get what I found for you.”

Amanda stomped her foot. “Forget that! What was so important you had to go look at empty houses?”

Nathan narrowed his eyes at her. He knew they hadn’t followed him. His tracks were the only ones through the field. Suddenly, Nathan grinned. “Oooo, look who’s the smarty pants.”

“Nathan!” Amanda barked.

The grin fell off his face. “How about you get this shit off me so I can get down and tell you what I found, or I’m starting on people with a belt.” They all grabbed stuff. “Don’t open the bags,” Nathan said, climbing off Smoke.

The others dropped the stuff and spun around. Jasmine moved in front of him. “I’ll get the belt. What the hell was that important?”

“First, I’m the boss of this camping trip. I didn’t have time to explain. You will find that a lot in life-or-death situations. Remember when all of you joined this Cub Scout pack you agreed to do what I say. I don’t like the attitude directed at me right now from all of you. I’ve busted my ass making sure you are taken care of and I’m doing my damnedest to make sure you learn how to take care of yourself. To be honest, I feel really unappreciated right now. The best thing we can all do now is for y’all to go sit under the tarp,” Nathan said in a tense, low voice. His face said he was pissed. Then he bellowed, “I’m going to let Smoke eat!”

Everyone jumped back at the bellow and Emma latched onto Amanda’s leg as Nathan spun around and took off Smoke’s saddle. Without another word, Nathan led Smoke to the north.

They looked at each other and moved to the shelter. Tom and John grabbed Nathan’s saddle and tack, carrying it over to the shelter and placing it beside his pack. Jasmine looked at each person. “Were we that bad?”

“Yes,” John said, moving over to his sleeping bag.

“We weren’t that bad,” Amanda piped in.

“Oh,
we
weren’t. Y’all were,” John said, taking off his boots. Tom sat beside John on his sleeping bag.

“Y’all?” Jasmine asked.

“I’m going to ask a question. Do you think Nathan knows what he’s doing?” John asked. Jasmine and the others nodded. “Then why in the hell do you question what he does?”

“He could get hurt for nothing,” Amanda said and Jasmine agreed.

John shook his head. “You really think Nathan is going to risk himself for nothing? If you do, you’re not as smart as I thought you were. Think: He has plans on top of plans and still finds time to take care and teach us. I know each of us would be dead right now if it weren’t for him.
Y’all
don’t see that. He said watch him and listen. I never heard him say question every move he makes. You can’t help him when he goes off alone, none of us can. But I will say this, I’m training hard, so maybe one day he will ask me to come. He doesn’t take us with him to protect us; he knows we can’t yet.”

Jasmine stepped toward him. “We’ve killed protecting this group.”

John shook his head. “You still don’t see it. Jasmine, he sat on that creek bank, offering himself as a target, just to see if we would kill to survive. He could’ve killed them before they got close to us. Shit, ask Amanda about the nineteen he shot. He went out and brought back prisoners. He didn’t need us; he wanted to see if we would fight. Think, like he’s been saying all this time. He told us to hide and spread us out. If you can’t see that, I’m sorry I’ve wasted my breath.”

Jasmine looked at Amanda, who had tears running down her face. Jasmine pulled Amanda to her chest. “I just don’t want him to get hurt!” Amanda wailed.

“I know, me too,” Jasmine said, rubbing the back of Amanda’s head.

“Then quit getting mad at him when he’s doing what he knows is best, because that makes him mad. You have already seen when Nathan’s mad he doesn’t think straight,” John said behind them.

Amanda looked up at Jasmine. “You think he would be mad if I went and said I’m sorry?”

“No, Amanda,” John said. “He said wait here till he got back.”

Jasmine looked at Amanda. “John’s right, we wait.”

They all sat down except Emma, who kept walking around calling out, “Nafan.”

It was an hour later that Nathan led Smoke back and tied him with the rest of the horses. Emma informed everyone she didn’t need permission as she ran over to Nathan, squealing with glee. Nathan bent down and picked her up. “Hey, doodle bug.” Emma gave him her open mouth kiss, drooling over his cheek. “I really wish you would learn how to kiss.”

Carrying a blabbering Emma, Nathan walked over to the others. He sat Emma down, which she promptly informed him was unacceptable. Dropping his vest and taking off his rifle, Nathan turned and opened his messenger bag, taking something out. Turning around, he picked up Emma, who immediately stopped bitching.

Nathan walked over to John and stopped at the foot of his sleeping bag. “Big John,” Nathan said, motioning with his head for John to stand. John jumped up, looking a little worried. “When I was fourteen my dad took me camping and we went rock climbing. We climbed up a vertical cliff and found a ledge halfway up. My dad told me to stay there and I did. I never asked why, I just sat down as he continued to climb up. About an hour later he came rappelling back down to me. Handing me the rope, he told me to rappel down and I did. I was disappointed, but I knew he knew more than I did.

“When were at the bottom my dad told me he never should’ve taken me on that climb. It was a class five, one of the toughest. It was just a cliff we found, but after we started he knew it was above my level. But he saw how well I was doing so he let me continue to the ledge. He went ahead to see if I could make it. He told me on the bottom he didn’t want to risk me getting hurt climbing a rock wall, and the top was much worse. He put his hand on my shoulder and told me I listened like a man and didn’t act like a boy. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a Buck knife his dad gave him when he was a boy, the day his dad said he became a man.