“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Letting them dry off,” he replied. It took both of them to take John’s clothes off. When they were finished they heard a soft giggle behind them. Turning around they saw Emma standing up in the wagon. “I will watch her, go get some sleep,” Nathan said walking over to Emma.
When he stopped at the wagon, Emma jumped into Nathan’s arms. Nathan sat down with her and fixed her something to eat. When Emma was done the sun was over the horizon. Nathan walked around, gathering his group’s clothes. He stopped and looked at the kids. All the girls were laid out in t-shirts and panties. John and Tom had on underwear and every one of them was snoring. Nathan noticed a small blister on Casey’s foot. “I’ll fix that when you get up,” Nathan said. He walked to the lake with an armload of clothes. He dropped them on the bank then went back and carried Emma and his rifle back.
For the next two hours Nathan washed clothes while Emma splashed in the water. When the clothes were done Nathan picked up Emma and waded out in the water. Nathan bathed both of them then carried Emma back to then shore. Nathan pulled out his tablet and showed Emma how to draw on it. She thought that was the best thing ever.
It was noon when Nathan woke up Howard and Jasmine for watch, telling them to wake others up in two hours. Nathan didn’t just fall asleep, he crashed.
A buzzing in his ear woke Nathan up. Cracking his eyes open, he noticed the sun was setting and he could hear people talking softly. Sitting up Nathan saw everyone up and eating. Nathan stood and stretched as Jasmine lifted up a cup of coffee for him. “Damn, that was some sleep,” Nathan said, taking the coffee.
“I’ll say. You didn’t even wake up with all the gunshots we heard toward the highway around three,” Jasmine said.
Suddenly several sets of arms wrapped around Nathan. “Thank you for washing my clothes,” Amanda said.
“Yeah, me too,” Casey and Natalie said in unison.
Emma ran at a fast wobble to Nathan and wrapped her arms around his knee. “Well it was my pleasure ladies,” Nathan said. He tried to hug them back but just settled for patting each on the back till they let him go.
“Thank you,” John and Tom said walking up. Nathan just raised his cup to them.
“Casey, you have a blister on your foot. Does anyone else?” Nathan asked.
“What if your feet just hurt?” Amanda asked. Nathan didn’t reply. Amanda raised her hand toward him. “Don’t say it, Nathan,” Amanda said.
Nathan shook his head and got a first aid kit from his pack. After putting moleskin on Casey’s blister, Nathan got dressed. His group started the morning routine and were joined by Howard’s family. When they were done Nathan showed Amanda how to teach basic commands to Athena. With Ares helping it was pretty easy.
At seven they listened to the presidential address. It was announced that all the military was back stateside and was working to bring the lawlessness under control.
When the address was over everyone stood up, getting ready to leave. “This should make crossing state lines interesting,” Nathan said, picking up Emma and putting her in the wagon.
Howard put his hand on Nathan’s shoulder. “We only have to make it to Mississippi. My uncle is the Sherriff of Lee County.”
“That could come in handy,” Nathan admitted.
Howard laughed. “My other uncle is the general over the Mississippi National Guard,” he said.
“Damn if you aren’t full of all kinds of surprises,” Nathan said walking around making sure nothing was left.
“Those two are my dad’s brothers. My mom’s brothers are all CEO’s of big companies and we rarely ever see them,” Howard said as Nathan led them to the interstate.
It was dark by the time they reached the interstate, and everyone had their NVGs on. Little Emma was snoring in the wagon. Nathan noticed people lying in the road ahead and held up his hand for everyone to stop. Using the thermal, Nathan found that the bodies were cold and there were a lot of them.
Turning around, Nathan discovered everyone looking down the road at the bodies. “They’re dead,” he told everyone.
“What happened?” Jasmine asked.
“How the hell am I supposed to know that?” Nathan asked. “I see dead people. For all I know, they drank bad moonshine,” Nathan said.
Jasmine looked away, “I’m sorry,” she mumbled.
“Hey,” Nathan said, grabbing Jasmine’s arm. “You’ve seen just as much as I have. I’m sorry but even you have to admit that was a stupid question at the time. We see dead bodies strung out on the interstate three hundred yards away and I’m asked the five W’s and the sixth question. What you should be looking around for are the ones who did it,” Nathan said.
“I’m sorry, it’s just a habit,” Jasmine said, smiling. Nathan had to admit, even in the glow of the night vision she still looked good.
Amanda came over to Nathan, “What are the five W’s and sixth question?” she asked.
“Who, what, when, where, why and the sixth question is, how,” Nathan told her.
Amanda thought about that for a minute. “Damn, that would answer everything,” she mumbled.
Jasmine laughed, “Yes it’s considered the basic for information gathering,” she told Amanda.
Nathan turned away from the two, “I want you all to stay a hundred yards behind me,” he said, walking ahead with Ares.
When he was out of ear shot Amanda leaned over to Jasmine. “I was just about to ask him the same question,” Amanda admitted.
Jasmine patted her arm. “It’s a habit and Nathan’s right. We need to quit asking him questions like that. He has enough to worry about.”
“How can we learn, then?” Amanda asked.
“Try to figure it out for ourselves then ask him,” Jasmine replied. “Come on, let’s go.”
The group followed a hundred yards behind Nathan and watched as he eased up to the bodies. When Nathan stopped to look at something the group stopped. Nathan never stopped longer than a few seconds. When he stopped at one cluster of bodies he pointed his rifle at them and everyone gasped when the area in front of him lit up.
Jasmine dropped down to her knees, seeing the light on Nathan’s M-4. Then she noticed the light was very bright in her left eye with the NVG but her right only saw a faint purple light and only when Nathan spun the light toward them. Then suddenly the light was gone. “What the hell was that?” Amanda asked.
“I have no idea but I wish he would’ve told us he was going to do that,” Jasmine answered. Seeing Nathan move off down the road, they followed.
The group weaved around the bodies and tried not to look at them but it was hard. It seemed just like regular people: men, women and children. Suitcases and personal effects were scattered everywhere. The bodies were stretched out on a hundred yard section of the highway and everyone noticed very few had died off the highway. The bodies had been shot multiple times with really big guns.
As the group approached the end of the carnage they noticed Nathan in the median picking stuff up still a hundred yards in front of them. This time the group didn’t stop when Nathan did, they just moved out of the killing field.
Nathan looked up seeing the group get closer and moved back to the interstate as he keyed his radio. “Listen up! I want everyone to keep an eye out around us. If you see anything, let me know, over,” he said over the radio.
“What did you find? Over” Howard radioed back.
“Stay off the radio unless it’s important. Others can hear and trace, over,” Nathan answered.
Jasmine’s heart started to race, threatening to beat out of her chest. This is my fault! I wanted a faster route, and Nathan wanted a safer route, she thought. She started to breathe faster, looking around for something to attack them.
Nathan kept a fast pace but no one seemed to mind. In truth, if Nathan had begun
to run that would’ve been fine with the group. They noticed some cars had been pushed out of the road by something really big, leaving the roadway clear but the shoulder and median full of vehicles wrecked, in some cases utterly crushed piles of metal.
They had walked for six hours nonstop before Nathan halted and scanned a stand of trees off the road with the thermal scope. Not seeing anything other than a few deer, Nathan led them off the road into the group trees. As everyone kneeled down around him they started asking questions. Nathan held up his hand for them to stop.
“Guys we don’t have time to chit-chat, we are in some serious shit. We are south of Hamilton and are getting the fuck off this interstate, now. I want everyone to drink and eat because we are out of here in fifteen minutes. Don’t use the radios unless you have to and keep your transmissions short. The longer you talk, the easier it is to find us. Now get to it.” Nathan dropped his pack.
When everyone saw him pull out food they did the same fighting the urge to ask questions. Nathan pulled out his woobie and poncho and called Amanda and Jasmine over. “I have to look at the map and my tablet. I’m going to throw the poncho and woobie over me. You two get out your blankets and if you see any light escape cover it up fast, understand?” They both nodded.
Amanda and Jasmine walked around Nathan and threw their blankets over where they saw light escaping. After a few minutes, Nathan put his stuff away. Amanda and Jasmine sat down beside him and they ate in silence. True to his word, after fifteen minutes, Nathan motioned for everyone to move out.
They followed Nathan a mile further down the interstate where a bridge crossed over with no exit to the interstate. Everyone helped to gently ease the wagon up the bank so Emma wouldn’t wake. They followed the small county road. The tension in the air slowly dissipated the farther they got from the interstate. Everyone began to realize how tired they were, but they kept up with the pace Nathan was setting.
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 her
e 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.
Dark Titan Journey: Wilderness Travel Page 20