“That makes me feel better,” she said, reaching over and patting his leg, then stood up. “What time are we leaving going back to the camp?” she asked.
Shaking his head, he told her, “First ‘We’ aren’t going, I am.” Jasmine took a deep breath to retort and Nathan knew it wasn’t going to be good as he held up a hand for her to stop. “Listen, I’m not exposing you or the kids to unnecessary risk, and that’s what this is. And I have a request for you.”
“What?” she asked, letting the air out in a loud shocked huff.
“If something happens to me I want your word you will look after those kids,” Nathan said.
“You think you had to ask me that?” Jasmine barked at him, narrowing her eyes.
“It would make me feel better knowing,” Nathan replied.
“I would do whatever it took to take care of those kids, with or without you,” Jasmine said, making Nathan smile.
“In the bottom of the wagon, you will find a box with ‘supplies’ written on it,” Nathan said, winking. “It is twenty pounds of stuff you can use for them.”
“Well don’t let anything happen to you and we will be just fine,” she said, kneeling beside him. “We’ve become attached to you.”
“No kidding,” Nathan said, looking down at Emma, who was asleep with her arms wrapped around his chest. “Come on I have some work to do.” They walked inside and lay Emma on a couch. Nathan told Ares to ‘stay.’
They found Rodger out back with a group of men around five massive tandem axle cargo trucks and one old army deuce-and-a-half. Looking at the other trucks, Nathan could tell they were all farm trucks, none older than 1970. Three of the trucks were pulling empty forty-foot cotton trailers.
Walking over and wearing a big grin, Rodger waved his arm toward the trucks. “Think we can get all of it with these?”
Nathan looked at him with a flat expression. “No, no chance in hell.”
The smile fell off Rodger’s face. “You’re kidding, right?”
Nathan shook his head. “We would need three times this to get all of it.”
“Damn,” Rodger said in amazement.
“I’ll drive the deuce and lead the group,” Nathan said, walking over to the old army truck.
“Sounds good,” Rodger mumbled as he followed.
Walking to the truck and glancing around, Nathan observed ten men working on the trucks, several wearing deputy uniforms. “All of these your men?”
“No, just the ones in uniform. The others are hands here on the farm, or family,” Rodger answered as Nathan climbed up in to the cab of the deuce and a half. “You know how to drive one of these?” Rodger asked.
“We have one and two five tons at the retreat,” Nathan said, turning on the plugs then firing up the engine. “Engine sounds good.”
“Better be, I had it rebuilt last year,” Rodger said.
“Bet that cost a pretty penny,” Nathan said, shutting it off.
Rodger scoffed. “It did. I remind Bob of that every time he uses it here on the farm.”
Nathan glanced around. “Where is Bob?”
“He went to see about your horses,” Rodger answered.
Nodding as he jumped out of the truck Nathan walked over to a picnic table and pulled out some maps. With Rodger’s help, they laid out a route to the camp. Hearing lots of dogs barking, Nathan looked up to see Bob riding down the driveway on a horse leading a string of horses with two donkeys. Nathan counted five horses with the donkeys. Beggars can’t be choosers, he thought. All the horses looked in excellent shape, from just a glance. “I see you had some luck shopping,” Nathan said as Bob rode up.
“Yeah. Two more will be brought over tomorrow. All these range for fourteen to fifteen hands. One of the two that will be here tomorrow is a draft, seventeen hands high. The other is an appaloosa, sixteen hands. I could only get three saddles and some tack for these but we can get some more in town at the co-op,” Bob said as one of the farm hands led the horses off.
“You went by yourself?” Nathan asked in an unforgiving tone.
Bob brushed him off with a gesture. “Please, I went with two of the hands. They are riding around the property now,” Bob replied making Nathan feel better. “They get some rooms cleared out for you yet?” Bob asked.
“Huh?” Nathan asked.
“I told them to clean some rooms out for y’all to sleep in,” Bob answered.
Rodger took his hat off, rubbing his balding head. “Ah, no I’ve had everyone getting the trucks ready,” he said sheepishly.
Seeing Bob get red in the face, Nathan spoke up. “If you don’t mind, I wanted to sleep in the loft of the barn. It’s out from under foot and it gives us two places of fire if we are attacked.”
Bob studied Nathan. “We are good people here, Nathan,” Bob said misreading Nathan’s gesture.
“Bob, I know you are good people. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here. You need to spread out inside this yard like we talked about,” Nathan said. “I just want a place to crash that is easily defendable. If the kids want to stay inside, that’s fine, but I would like to stay in the loft.”
Bob smiled. “You are more than welcome to stay there. I just didn’t want the guest that saved my son and his family to sleep in the hayloft.”
“I do thank you. If the kids and Jasmine want to stay in the house, I appreciate it.” Nathan thought for a moment. “There is one thing though. I want a hot shower.”
Bob laughed, “Yeah me too.”
“You don’t have a generator?” Nathan asked.
“Of course I do. But it got fried with everything else,” Bob told him.
“Have you tried to fix it?”
“Not yet, but we’ll get to it. If we can’t, then I’ll throw the old one back on. To be honest, we’ve been pushed hard. The big tractor I just bought died and we can’t fix it. We did get the two old ones running. The fields were already planted and had to stay tended. We just finished spraying them day before yesterday,” Bob said.
“We’ll talk more tomorrow,” Nathan said. “I’m going to get John. Rodger, go and get the NVGs from Howard’s family. I’ll collect them from my crew. Just remember, we want them back.”
When Nathan was gone Bob looked at his brother. “That man is something else.”
Rodger nodded and sighed. “I wish we could get him to stay here.”
When the sun ducked below the horizon the line of trucks pulled out. All lights were off and each driver and at least one other person in each truck had on night vision. The kids had acted just like Nathan thought they would when he told them only John was going: They went ballistic. When Nathan finally got them calmed down, he explained why and told them if they didn’t like it they could stay with this group. But if they stayed with him they had to do what he said even if it didn’t make sense. Reluctantly they agreed.
Nathan took the lead with John beside him and Ares in between them. John held his M-4 out the open window. John had never been picked for anything over anyone else and Nathan had picked him to go on a mission. Not football or a game but a real-life mission. He was so excited he could barely stay still. Nathan had said if anyone got in the way, Nathan was going to run over them. If anyone shot at them, John was to shoot back, no matter who it was. John smiled and agreed he would shoot back. He thought this was the best thing ever.
Rodger was at the back of the convoy in his ’57 Chevy police cruiser. There were at least three car lengths between each vehicle and they were moving along at forty-five miles per hour. Nathan knew that would give him enough time to brake if they come up on a blockage.
They were on a dirt logging road that they would use to enter Alabama when Nathan’s radio went off. “We’re in ’Bama,” Rodger called out.
“Copy, stay alert,” Nathan called back. Seconds later they pulled onto a small blacktop road. “Moving
it up to sixty,” Nathan radioed. This road had only a few blind corners and long sightlines. Nobody answered but Nathan looked in his mirror and saw everyone keeping up. He would’ve loved to go faster but many of the old trucks, the old deuce he was in included, were maxed out at sixty.
Less than two hours later, Nathan slowed the convoy. Up ahead on the right was the dirt road he had led his small group down. I seemed like two lifetimes ago instead of days when he had last walked up this road. They shut the trucks down and Nathan climbed out, followed by John and Ares. Two men jumped out of the trucks behind them and climbed in the truck Nathan was driving. Rodger pulled his car up and climbed out the passenger side with another deputy getting out the back.
“Thought only you drove that,” Nathan said.
“Usually,” Rodger said, grabbing AR-15s out of the car for him and the deputy. “If we have to bullshit someone, I wanted the car ready to roll.”
Nodding in understanding, Nathan spoke to the group. “Okay, stay close. If we see someone we will make a judgment call. If they look like the ones that were there, they get the same. If it looks just like regular people we will only take what we need and leave them what’s left.”
The deputy held out his hand. “What if they don’t want to let us have it?” he asked.
“I found it first. If they want to fight for it then that’s on them. There are literally tons of stuff there,” Nathan said walking away. “Ares, lead.” Ares took off a slow trot heading down the dirt path.
The group followed Ares, not hearing anything but insects. When they reached the small rise, Ares only paused to growl at some raccoons eating the bodies of the men Nathan had shot. One of the raccoons stood up and hissed at Ares, making the others do the same thing. “Ares, leave them alone. That many would kick your ass and mine,” Nathan commanded in a whisper.
Ares looked over his shoulder at Nathan with a pleading look. “Forget it. Search,” Nathan snapped.
Ares took off in a slow trot as Rodger looked around at the mounds of stuff. “Holy shit,” he gasped. “There have to be twenty tractor trailers full here.”
“Easy,” Nathan said. “This group had planned out what they were going to do if something happened. They didn’t stockpile anything, they just went and took it. Evil but smart.” Ares came trotting back. “Call ‘em up, the area is clear,” Nathan said reaching down to pat Ares on the head. Ares didn’t him any attention, looking at the raccoons by the bodies.
“You’ve been here. Where do we start?” Rodger asked.
Pointing to the back at the cabin with the small shed and the other sheds, “There, that is where the guns and ammo are. Later I will point out the food stocks.” Nathan said, looking at the cotton trailer still connected to the tractor. “Rodger, you think we can hook that trailer to one of the trucks that doesn’t have one?” he asked hopefully.
“Of course! All these trucks are used for that, hauling lots to the gin,” Rodger said moving over to the tractor.
“There are some small tanker trailers back there by the fields. Think we can take them too?” Nathan asked.
Rodger thought about it. “One or two for sure but I don’t know if we can tandem haul with the loads we’re taking.” Nathan guided the trucks in as Rodger walked back over. “Won’t be a problem taking that trailer. Wish we could take the tractor as well,” Rodger said with longing.
“Supplies first. Bob has tractors,” Nathan said as the trucks shut down.
“Yeah, two small fifty horses. There is a reason he bought the big ones. That operation was wearing the little ones out,” Rodger said as Nathan looked around. “What?” Rodger said, focusing his attention on the eye with the NVG.
“It took us over five days to walk from here. We just drove it in less than two hours,” Nathan spat in disgust. “I miss cars,” he said, reaching for his can of snuff.
Rodger patted him on the back. “I’m surprised you made it that fast.” Men were already emptying out the sheds. They had eighteen including Nathan, but two were always going to be on watch. The group turned off the NVGs and broke out chemlights.
Nathan smiled, as he seen several men hauling out guns from the cabin. “Glad I moved everything,” Nathan said, walking over to the old deuce. It was parked just past the cabin, almost to the field of pot.
“Moved what?” John asked, grinning.
Nathan looked at John with his ear-to-ear grin. “What you and I are collecting. Once we are done we will load up other stuff. That was the deal. What I put on this truck was for my group. What we can’t take we will leave for them.” Nathan said and slowly smiled looking at the grin on John’s face.
“Okay, let’s get to it,” John said, standing straighter and poking out his chest. Nathan patted him on the shoulder and led John over to the same cart he used to hide the contraband. Leading John into the woods Nathan uncovered all the boxes and a few suitcases. John shook his head at all the boxes and bent down to pick one up. “What’s in this?” He grunted and strained to lift just one up.
“I’ll show you later, it’s a surprise,” Nathan said as John struggled to carry the box over to the cart. There were two dozen boxes laid out in the gully, and each weighed over a hundred pounds. Slowly they moved all the boxes to the truck. John was tried but he’d be damned if he was saying anything. They went back for the suitcases, which were just as heavy.
When they finished they moved on to a pile and Nathan pointed out what needed to be loaded. Nathan pulled out an MRE and handed it to John. “Eat fast, we have a lot to do.” Nathan pulled out one for himself as well.
“Thank you,” John said, not so much hungry as tired. “You going to tell the others to eat?”
Glancing over, Nathan saw two trucks and trailers fully loaded and the men still working hard. “Yeah, I guess I should,” Nathan said walking over. Ares joined him and was looking up at Nathan with a pleading look. “Well you didn’t chase the coons,” Nathan said handing Ares some food.
Nathan found Rodger carrying a large box that he handed to some men on a trailer. Nathan noticed how tightly packed and organized the trailer was and was impressed. “You might want to stop and get a quick bite,” Nathan said when Rodger turned around.
Rodger nodded. “Everyone take fifteen. Get some food and water,” he called out softly. Looking back at Nathan, he said, “You got want you wanted.”
“Not all of it. Don’t worry, we can’t carry all of it and you and your brothers will get the rest.”
“Hell, keep it. This is worth more than anything,” Rodger said, leaning back on the trailer and opening an MRE. “I’ve talked to Bob about what you said, moving some of my deputies out to the farm. He agrees it’s a good idea. We’ll make it a substation for the southern half of the county. I’m betting with what we get here I’ll be able to feed most of my force at least for some time,” Rodger said then started to devour the meal.
“Yeah, and the farm will supplement what we get so your deputies will be fed. But we’ll talk more later,” Nathan said. He returned to John to find him moving stuff into the back of the truck.
Lowering the suitcase he was carrying to the ground, John stopped and looked at Nathan with his ever-present smile. “How much can this truck carry?” he asked.
“A lot. Why?”
John pointed to the stack of boxes behind the cab, filling half the bed. “I don’t know how much that is but it’s got to be a lot.”
“Hm, didn’t think about that,” Nathan said, raising his eyebrows. “You’re right, those boxes are around half a ton alone. Let’s load the rest of the bed and see how the truck is setting on its springs before we load other stuff,” Nathan offered and grabbed a box.
The two worked in silence till the bed was full. Seeing the truck was starting to ‘squat’ Nathan told John that was good. The two saw the others pull over small fuel trailers using the ’57 Chevy. Nathan noticed two of t
he trucks had fuel trailers hooked up in double towing. “What about the other trailer?” Nathan asked, pointing at the cotton trailer still hooked up to the old tractor.
Rodger wiped his forehead. “I just thought we’d hook it to yours. Didn’t really think you wanted to be hauling fuel, with you being in the lead and all,” Rodger said as a man handed him a bottle of water.
“Well you do have a point there,” Nathan said glad someone was thinking ahead besides him.
“We will be done here in a few minutes. Let’s get that trailer moved over to your truck and load it. We need to go in the next hour or so,” Rodger said, looking at his watch.
“No, we need to leave in less than an hour. We won’t be able to go much faster than forty-five even if we want to,” Nathan said, pointing at the loaded trucks. “I prefer to use the cover of darkness.”
“Let’s get that thing loaded then,” Rodger said, and called some men over.
In forty minutes the group was pulling out. Even the Chevy was towing a fuel trailer. They stayed in the same file, with Nathan in the lead. Nathan found out quickly there wouldn’t be a fast getaway. It took him almost half a mile to get up to fifty. “Need to slow down, over,” Nathan heard on the radio. He looked in the rear-view mirror.
The group was spread out as the trucks struggled to pick up speed. “Can everyone do forty-five, over?” Nathan asked.
“Just barely, over,” came a reply followed by one more.
“Okay, let’s keep it at forty, over,” Nathan called out. “Shit,” Nathan said to himself, slapping the steering wheel.
Ares and John looked at him. John chuckled, “Nathan, at least we have the trucks. We couldn’t carry this much in years by hand.”
“Yep, I guess you’re right. Keep a sharp eye out. We are making noise but aren’t going fast so people will have a chance to get to the road.”
With the barrel of his rifle out the side window, John looked out the front window and patted Ares on the head. “Nathan, why did you let me come?”
“Easy: you listen. Those that listen are less likely to die or get me killed,” Nathan replied.
Dark Titan Journey: Wilderness Travel Page 24