She thought about that for a minute. "You're right, we should run," she agreed.

Sighing with relief, he said, "You really had me worried there, girl."

"Well, you fight anybody," Amanda said.

"Not if I can help it, and if I do I try to stack the odds in my favor," Nathan told her.

Amanda looked up at him. "We came around that corner and those bangers wanted some trouble and you gave it. There were more than you."

"They left me with no choice. They were going to kill us. Remember, never give up your gun. No matter what the other guy says. Even if they are holding me with a gun to my head, never give up your weapon. Once you do I'm dead and you're dead. Try to shoot them, run, but don't give up your gun," he told Amanda.

"Really," she said.

"Amanda, think. Why would a man who's holding a gun to your friend's head or demanding you drop your gun let you go if you do? You aren't a threat anymore, therefore you're dead," Nathan said. "The death they will give you makes a gunshot seem kind," he added.

"Like Momma," she said, looking down.

"Hey squirt," Nathan said, making her look up. "You remember, you're with me and if I'm still breathing the fight is on. And don't forget we've got that dumb dog," he said, pointing at Ares.

"He's not dumb," Amanda shot back.

"You said he was, for licking his b.u.t.t," Nathan reminded her.

"Well I'm sure it's important to him. He does it all the time, so leave him alone," she said.

"That's my little firecracker," Nathan said.

Out of the blue, Amanda asked, "Who were the girls I saw in your friends' folder?" The disdain was evident in her voice.

"Huh?" Nathan asked, hearing the tone.

"Just give me the thing and I'll show you," she said and he handed her the tablet. After it was on she turned it to him. "These?" she asked with more than a little att.i.tude.

"Oh, those are old girlfriends," Nathan said. Then he saw her counting. "Twenty-four," he said.

"You've had twenty-four girlfriends?" she asked.

"No, I've had more. Those are just the ones I dated for a while," he said. Then she started to pull up each one and question him as they walked through the woods along a dirt road. They stopped mid-morning for a break and continued on. The entire time the inquisition continued. When Amanda finished with the girlfriends she moved to his friends and kids, asking a ton of questions about each.

It was just after noon and Nathan was getting ready to call for lunch when they came around a bend and he saw a car in the distance. They had seen a few stopped cars on the back gravel roads but Nathan didn't like the looks of this one as he raised his binoculars. Amanda never stopped asking questions as he looked the car over carefully.

"Amanda, turn it off and be quiet," he said.

She heard something in his voice and turned off the computer pad and looked up. "It's a stopped car. We've seen like a billion," she said.

"It's a cop car and I swear there is a bullet hole in the windshield," he said as she put the tablet in her tote bag.

"Oh man, does it have some holes in it," John said beside him. Nathan lowered his binoculars and looked at John. He was using his ma.s.sive binoculars. "Someone shot that car all up," he said.

"Let me see," Nathan said, holding out his hand for John's binoculars. When John pa.s.sed them over, Nathan noticed they were Marine 20-100x70s. "Jesus, you can see Mars with these d.a.m.n things," Nathan said, lifting them up to his eyes. He felt like he was standing right in front of the car. "Yep, it's shot to s.h.i.t," he said, looking at the front of the cop car.

"Let's go around," Jasmine said.

"That's going to take some time and add fifteen miles to our trip," Nathan said, still scanning the car and the surrounding area.

"Screw that, let's go this way," Amanda said. "If someone is there we'll crank a gat on em," she said, making Nathan lower the binoculars and look at her.

"Excuse me," he said.

"Yeah, we'll just crank a gat on em," Amanda repeated.

"Where did you hear that?" Nathan demanded.

"Those bangers you shot," she answered, adjusting the AK on her chest.

Shaking his head, Nathan handed the binoculars back to John. "Don't bunch up. I'll take this side with Amanda; you two take the other side," he told John and Jasmine.

They progressed slowly down the road and when they were about a hundred yards away from the car Nathan noted some sh.e.l.l cases on the road. Then he noted tractor tire tracks. Keeping his weapon ready, they approached the police car and a familiar smell crept into Nathan's nose. As he moved around the side he saw something covered up with a tarp behind the car.

Easing around, he told everyone to stay as Ares came forward on high alert. Ares was just looking around wanting to know what all the tension was about. Moving over to the tarp, Nathan crouched down and pulled it back to find an officer shot multiple times in the chest. Nathan threw the tarp off and didn't see his duty belt or weapon. Leaning over, he touched the officer's chest, confirming he didn't have a vest on.

He looked around, keeping in a crouch.

"What is it? He's dead," Jasmine said.

"Don't be loud," Nathan said in a low voice. "Who covered him up and where's his rig and weapon?" he asked, standing up and moving slowly around the body. "Ares, search," he whispered. Ares looked at him then at the woods in front of him. "Ares, search," he commanded and Ares just looked at the woods and trotted towards them, stopping in the ditch. He turned to look at Nathan then at the woods.

"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 b.u.t.t. Ares moved over and found food that Nathan had pa.s.sed 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 c.r.a.p 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-a.s.sist 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 a.s.s, 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 sh.e.l.ls. 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-a.s.sist 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 s.h.i.t before those a.s.sholes get it now," Jasmine said.

"Let's get this stuff and get the h.e.l.l 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 s.h.i.theads show up while we do this I'm spanking your a.s.s," 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 h.e.l.l 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 c.r.a.p 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 five 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, pa.s.sing 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 G.o.d, 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 b.u.t.t. 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 embarra.s.s 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 a.s.sured 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 p.i.s.sed off he runs down to the ground floor and says, What the f.u.c.k 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 b.u.t.t 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.