Dark Titan Journey: Wilderness Travel

by Thomas A. Watson

  “You guys stay on this side,” he told the three and moved to Ares. He heard someone behind him throw up as he eased up to Ares. He thought he saw something about twenty yards in, so he ventured deeper into the woods, wondering why Ares wasn’t leading him. When he reached the spot he found out why.

  It was another officer and she was dead as well. “Search” only told Ares to find a live body, not a cadaver. She was a stocky female. And unlike the other officer she was in tactical gear.

  He grabbed her M-4 and called the others over. Laying the rifle down, Nathan spotted her wound on the inside of her left thigh. “That probably got the femoral artery,” he said, undoing her Tac vest and pulling it off. Then he pulled off her shirt and took her concealed vest off, throwing it in the pile.

  He heard the others coming up behind him. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the three were just staring at him with blank faces. He looked down at Jasmine’s feet then looked back at the officer’s feet. OK, that’s close, he thought, taking her boots off and throwing them in his pile. Seeing her backup pistol, Nathan took it off and it joined the pile. Lying next to the officer was a notebook with some supplies. Opening the notebook, he found it was a handwritten journal. He skimmed the final entry.

  “What happened?” Jasmine asked.

  “It says in here,” Nathan said, laying the notebook on the body. “Someone on a tractor came by and shot the first one. This one stayed here for at least two or three days and then they came back and got her,” he said, not finding anything useful in the supplies.

  “What are you doing?” Jasmine asked.

  “Getting her stuff. She doesn’t need it anymore,” Nathan said.

  “You can’t desecrate a body like that,” she said. Totally taken off guard, Nathan fell off his heels onto his butt. Ares moved over and found food that Nathan had passed over. Ares didn’t see the need to waste it.

  “Oh I see, so when you are shot down the road I have to look at you and say ‘I’m sorry we didn’t take the dead cop’s stuff so you could help us defend ourselves and you got shot.’ Is that it? Because in case you haven’t noticed we aren’t going to be buying a lot of tactical gear like I’m wearing,” he pointed out.

  “It just seems … wrong,” she said.

  “In a regular world it would be, but now she doesn’t need it and we do,” Nathan said and continued stripping the body down. “Read the journal and see what else it says. John and Amanda, start grabbing this crap and set it on the hood of the car,” he told them and they started moving. Standing up, he saw the female’s officer’s tote bag and grabbed it.

  Undoing the belt, he rolled the body and found a boonie hat in the same ACU pattern of her fatigues. Not seeing anything else useful, Nathan walked out of the woods. Throwing the stuff he had on the hood he opened the door but didn’t see the keys in the column. Not finding them inside anywhere, he walked back to the body, digging in her pockets and finding the keys. He continued emptying her pockets, only finding some photos and a spring-assist knife. Grabbing them, he walked back to the car and threw the pictures and knife on the hood.

  Walking to the trunk, he opened it using the key as John and Amanda came and stood beside him. “Wow,” Amanda said, looking at all the stuff. “How did you know she would have the keys?” she asked.

  “She was in her tactical gear and he wasn’t. That meant she had already been in the trunk,” Nathan said and started pulling out gear. Then he saw the dead officer’s war bag, the bag the tactical gear would be kept in. He opened it, looked at the boots and smiled. The dead officer had been just a bit taller than John and a little lighter in the ass, but Nathan was certain it wouldn’t take much longer and John would be able to fit in his clothes.

  He started tossing out gear and handed John the other M-4. Seeing some ammo cases, he grabbed them. Finally the trunk was empty except for the dead female’s uniform. Reaching down, Nathan removed her badge and put it in his pocket. He went to the front seat and went through their belongings, finding a few extra magazines and a box of shells. He looked at the shotgun in the holder and left it.

  Moving to the dead man, he just patted him down, only finding his backup weapon and a spring-assist knife. Nathan took the man’s boots off and grabbed his knife and backup pistol. Seeing Amanda and John had moved the rest of the stuff to the hood, he joined them.

  Jasmine looked up from the journal. “The male officer, Tony, got shot the day it happened. Around six p.m. The woman’s name is—was Glenda. She’s only been on the force for two years. She said it was the Gordon brothers and their crew and names them off. They came by on a tractor pulling a trailer. It wasn’t till they got close that Glenda saw who it was. They shot Tony and she started shooting at them. She says she thinks she got one but only wounded him. She grabbed her gear and moved off the road, grabbing Tony’s stuff for his wife.

  Jasmine wiped her eyes. “She ate what they had in the car and the brothers came by again the next day on foot. She says she knows she wounded one then and they kept yelling at her they were killing all officers. She drove them off and they said they would be waiting. Out of food and water, she was going to risk going out the next day but the brothers drove up real fast in a truck. They got her in the leg and she kept shooting till they left. She says she knows the truck is dead, ‘cause she dumped a clip in the engine. Her last entry is four days ago,” Jasmine said, closing the notebook, tears running down her face.

  Wanting Jasmine to understand, Nathan walked over to her and pulled her to the side of the road so they could see the cop car. “Look at the bullets in the door and the cases on the ground. They had automatic weapons. They may have been trying to kill cops, but I think they wanted the weapons,” he said.

  Jasmine nodded her head. “Glenda wrote that they yelled that to her,” she said.

  “So you want to leave it for them?” he asked.

  “I was going to take it anyway but I’ll bury the shit before those assholes get it now,” Jasmine said.

  “Let’s get this stuff and get the hell out of here,” Nathan said.

  “Nathan, we just can’t leave them like this. Please,” Jasmine begged, looking at the officer on the ground and off into the woods where Glenda’s body was.

  Shaking his head, Nathan moved over to the man and started rolling him up in the tarp. “If those shitheads show up while we do this I’m spanking your ass,” he told Jasmine. They all ran over to help. John struggled gamely but then threw up from the smell, and Amanda threw up as they put the body in the backseat. Nathan went back to the woman’s body and picked her up in a fireman’s carry and laid her gently on top of her partner in the backseat.

  Nathan closed the doors and walked to the front of the car. “Put the notebook in the front seat and let’s get the hell out of here,” he said, grabbing a bag. Everyone loaded up their arms and walked away, leaving the memorial to the officers.

  Before the car was out of sight, Jasmine glanced back and looked at it one last time. She hadn’t told Nathan what the Gordon brothers told the woman they were going to do to her after they got her gun. Jasmine didn’t want to scare Amanda. “That’s not going to happen to me or Amanda,” Jasmine whispered and trudged onward, saying a silent prayer and hoping Glenda’s husband would find out what happened to his wife.

  They had spent way too long at the car and Nathan stopped and looked at his map. There was no way they were making their site with all the extra crap they were carrying. There was a small ravine off the dirt road half a mile before it ran into the paved road, and Nathan decided that was the camp spot for the night.

  When they reached the small ravine, Nathan stopped and looked down in it and nodded. They climbed down into the ravine and started laying out the equipment. Nathan had never been so happy to see ammo till he started counting it up. The can that should’ve held a thousand rounds held only three hundred. The male officer’s vest was full with fi
ve hundred rounds. The female’s vest only held a hundred.

  Nathan made Amanda load the empty magazines while Jasmine and John cleaned the weapons. They each took a Tac vest and pistols, with Jasmine keeping the pistol John had given her. The female’s spare fatigues fit Jasmine perfectly except in her chest, and she couldn’t get the concealed vest to fit for the same reason. The tah-tahs were too big.

  Standing there in a t-shirt, she looked over at Nathan, who was just smiling. “Don’t worry about that vest. The Tac vest will stop a rifle round but it’s heavy. If you want, you can shed a few pounds by taking off the shoulder, groin, and neck guards like mine,” he offered. She smiled and did comply with his instructions.

  “Amanda, take off your vest,” Nathan said, grabbing the one Jasmine had thrown down. By the time he walked over to Amanda she was stripped down to her t-shirt. He put the new vest on her, crossing the straps and pulling the side panels closed. It fit. It was a little big, but at least it didn’t wrap around her twice. “Oh, I like this one,” she said till she smelled it. She wrinkled her nose but kept quiet. Nathan nodded approvingly. She was learning.

  With the gear divided they all started to clean it up. Since they were in a ravine, Nathan let them use light. They were done before midnight and had started getting ready for bed when they heard a tractor going down the paved road half a mile away. They listened as it continued down the road, passing the dirt road without turning.

  “Think that was them?” John asked.

  “Don’t know and we aren’t going to find out,” Nathan said. They agreed on the guard shift with John demanding the last one. Nathan just nodded and lay down and was asleep before he knew it.

  Chapter 8

  Day 14

  Nathan’s eyes shot open as he felt Ares’ chest vibrate with a low growl. Reaching over, he grabbed his rifle and sat up. Seeing Ares still lying down, he relaxed a little. “If you woke me because a deer was close, I’m eating your breakfast,” he told Ares.

  Then off in the distance Nathan heard a tractor and his pulse quickened. Straining to listen, he noticed the noise was starting to get fainter. Rubbing his face, he laid back down, seeing John in the starlight looking at him. Nathan waved and John waved back.

  Nathan started thinking about their route for the day. From the sound of the tractor they were going to be close to that area, but was it the same group? It could just be a farmer, he thought. The alternate route added another day of travel and took them close to three big towns. That was the reason he’d chosen this route; they only came near small villages of a few thousand. The closest town to them now was Jasper, and it was well over ten miles away.

  Thinking about it, he concluded they would hear the tractor and be able to hide long before the men driving it would see them. Smiling to himself, Nathan stood up and grabbed stuff for coffee. Sitting down at the end of the ravine with John, Nathan started the coffee up, wanting to hurry up and start the day. Granted, they had scored big time, but it had cost them a half a day’s travel.

  Noticing the sky was getting brighter, he looked at his watch to see it was almost six. Hearing movement, he looked toward the end of the ravine where Amanda and Jasmine were sleeping. He saw Jasmine stand up, clothed just in her bra and panties, and caught his breath again. Looking at Jasmine, Nathan knew if there was a God, he was a man. Only a man could put together a woman like that. Glancing at John, Nathan saw him with his mouth hanging open and his arms just hanging by his side. A look of blessed peace was on John’s face, along with a little drool coming out of the corner of his mouth.

  Nathan would almost swear the boy wasn’t even breathing and he tried not to laugh and spoil the moment. Glancing at Jasmine, Nathan saw her bend over as she grabbed her jogging pants; John stumbled back as he looked at her butt. She dressed and walked over to them, patting John on the arm and squatting down by Nathan.

  Jasmine looked at him laughing silently. “What’s so funny?” she asked.

  “Just remembered a joke I heard a while back,” he said, not wanting to spoil the moment or embarrass John or himself.

  “Oh tell me, I really need to laugh,” Jasmine pleaded, pouring a cup of coffee.

  The laughter left Nathan’s body as he panicked. “I don’t tell them very well and only screw them up,” he lied.

  “Please,” she begged.

  “It’s not really proper,” Nathan lied again, hoping she’d quit digging.

  “I can tell you some raunchy ones,” Jasmine assured him.

  Letting out a long sigh, Nathan racked his brain. “Okay. A construction worker on the fifth floor of a building needed a handsaw. So he spots another worker on the ground floor and yells down to him, but the man can’t hear him. So the worker on the fifth floor tries sign language.

  “The man on the fifth floor pointed to his eye meaning ‘I,’ pointed to his knee meaning ‘need,’ then moved his hand back and forth in a sawing motion. The man on the ground floor nods his head, pulls down his pants, whips out his tube steak and starts masturbating.

  The worker on the fifth floor gets so pissed off he runs down to the ground floor and says, ‘What the fuck is your problem! I said I needed a hand saw!’

  “The other guy says, ‘I knew that! I was just trying to tell you: I’m coming!’” Nathan finished and Jasmine fell back on her butt laughing and John joined in. Nathan sighed and thought about telling Jasmine the truth later, but figured, ‘No, this is too good.’

  Sitting back up, she looked at him, smiling. “Thank you. I really needed to laugh,” she said.

  “Glad I could help,” he said, pouring a cup of coffee.

  Jasmine sat there staring into her coffee. “Do you think we’ll see those guys?” she asked.

  “I sure hope not, and if we hear a tractor we hide,” Nathan educated her.

  “Even after what we saw?” she asked.

  “Especially after what we saw. We don’t have the ammo or the time to right the injustices of this new world. If we come upon someone we can help, we will do our best if it doesn’t involve too much risk to us, but if we can’t, we leave. A bunch of guys on a tractor with guns falls into the chapter entitled, ‘Leave those shitheads alone,’” Nathan said.

  Jasmine let out a long puff of air. “I guess you’re right,” she concluded.

  “Hey Jasmine, I’ve just taught you how to operate your weapon and you’ve only fired mine three times. You’re not ready to start getting into some shit, girl. I’m teaching you so you can stay alive, not get into a war. At least not yet,” Nathan informed her.

  “I know, it just seems unfair,” she whined.

  “Yes it is and that’s what sucks. Life is unfair and good people get the shaft,” he let her know.

  She nodded her head. “Thank you, and you have my permission to spank me if I try to do something stupid,” she said.

  He thought for a minute. “Damn, didn’t know I needed permission,” he said.

  “Well you have it so it doesn’t matter,” she said smartly.

  “Alright, let’s get the firecracker up and get the morning stuff out of the way,” Nathan told them.

  An hour and a half later they were on the road. Jasmine and John were now decked out in tactical gear. John had sucked and pulled till he got the clothes to fit. Looking at Jasmine, Nathan had to admit Jasmine looked hot in the gear. She kept looking down at the drop holster on her thigh then back up. It had taken Nathan an hour last night to show both of them how to draw the pistol out of the holster by pressing a release and for them to get used to it. Jasmine and John both had the officers’ messenger bags for tote bags. They left everything they couldn’t use in the ravine, hoping it could help someone else someday, although they did take Nathan’s concealable bulletproof vest. Leaving something like that was just too much for Nathan. He could leave some of the guns, but not the vest or ammo.

  With Nathan
in the lead and Ares next to him, the others stayed in a staggered file behind him. It took Nathan awhile to explain that in single file one bullet could take out most of them. Glancing back, Nathan watched little Amanda looking around like she was told to. She had informed everyone that she wanted a gun like theirs. Nathan had promised he would do his best to get her an M-4 and she accepted that, but Nathan secretly had little hope of ‘finding’ another one. To be honest, Nathan was tickled pink they had what they had.

  They had walked for an hour when Ares let out a soft growl. Like a switch, Nathan dropped down into a crouch then eased into the ditch, telling Ares to follow. Looking behind him, he saw the others follow his lead. Looking down at Ares, Nathan saw him staring intently off to the side of the road. Fearing an ambush, Nathan scanned up ahead with his binoculars and didn’t see anything. The other three moved up to him.

  “What’s wrong?” Jasmine asked.

  “Don’t know. Ares smells something he doesn’t like,” he said, looking at Ares. “Follow me and be ready to run,” he told the three. “Ares, easy show,” he commanded and Ares started walking forward. As they moved up, Nathan saw where a tractor had been coming and going out of the woods. Dirt on the road showed it had been going right and left, but the wettest, freshest tracks were heading away from them.

  “What, Ares?” Nathan asked as Ares looked past the dirt road into the woods.

  “Come on, let’s get the hell out of here,” Jasmine said, a slight tremor in her voice as she looked at the impressions in the dirt from a tractor.

  “Ares doesn’t like something,” he said.

  Nodding as she looked up at Nathan, Jasmine said, “Right, all the more reason to leave.”