Looking up, he saw Ares walking over with another, smaller dog following behind him. "What the h.e.l.l," Nathan said, walking around the table to face them. Ares led the dog closer and stopped in front of Nathan, panting. Nathan's eyes got wide. A German shepherd puppy! No wonder he kept wanting to go over to the trailer. Nathan knelt down beside the dog and it cowered down then rolled on its back with its tail between its legs.

Smiling at the dog and offering his hand to it to be smelled, Nathan looked down. "Oh no you don't, Ares, you can't have a girlfriend." Ares went p.r.o.ne in front of Nathan and gave him the puppy dog eyes. "Begging isn't going to help," Nathan said as Ares let out a whine.

"A puppy!" Amanda squealed. Jumping from the table, she ran over but Nathan stopped her.

"We don't know anything about it," Nathan said, not letting her get close.

Amanda looked at the dog still lying on its back and looking up at them. "Well check it out," she said.

"It could have any number of diseases that Ares could get. We don't have vets around," he said and that froze Amanda.

"But she's scared and lonely," Amanda said pleadingly as Jasmine and John came running over, their rifles in their hands.

"Where did the dog come from?" Jasmine asked with some alarm.

"It was in the trailer when they drove in. I just forgot about it. Ares attacked one of the men I shot because he'd pulled a pistol and was going to shoot me when I ran past to stop the tractor. After I shot the man, Ares went over and smelled the dog. I figured it would run off but it stayed right there, cowered down," Nathan explained.

Jasmine held out her rifle and pushed it into Nathan's hands. "Okay, I'll hold your rifle, you don't have to ask," he said as Jasmine walked over and knelt down by the dog. She looked the dog over then held its mouth open to examine her teeth.

"It's a German Shepard about seven months old. She looks in good shape, considering," Jasmine said.

"So you're a vet?" he asked.

"No, but I worked in one's office for three years in high school. That's what I was studying," she said.

Amanda clasped her hands and started jumping up and down. "Can we keep her please?" she repeated a dozen times, adding "pretty" in front of please every other repeat.

Nathan started rubbing his temples. "Amanda, enough!" he finally snapped and she stopped talking but kept jumping up and down, holding her hands in a prayerful grasp in front of her. "That is more food we have to carry," he said.

"Ares has a pack. We can get her one," Amanda offered.

"It took Ares a long time to get to the weight he's at now, and she's a puppy and can't carry a pack yet," he said.

"That's not fair," Amanda said. Nathan gave Jasmine a pleading look.

"Hey, don't even get me in this," she said, standing up.

"Thanks for the help," he said, handing her rifle back. He looked back at Amanda. "You are learning how to fight. I don't think you have the time to train her," Nathan said, meaning "I don't have the time to train her."

"I can train her as we go," Amanda offered.

"Do you know how?" Nathan asked and Amanda dropped her hands and looked down at her feet.

"No," she moaned as Ares low-crawled over beside Amanda and looked up at Nathan with pleading eyes.

"I'm fixing to just go and hide somewhere so no one can find me forever," Nathan moaned, grabbing his face with his hands.

"Okay! I won't keep her! Don't leave!" Amanda piped with alarm, staring wide-eyed at Nathan. Nathan dropped his hands from his face and looked down at Amanda and saw fear on her face and her body trembling. "Please don't leave me, I won't ask again," she said with tears forming in her eyes.

Nathan knelt down and held out his arms and she ran over and wrapped her arms around his neck. He hugged her tight and murmured in her ear, "I didn't mean that, Amanda, I swear to you on my soul. I wouldn't leave you for any reason. You got me out of that stupid store and you make me remember why I like the quiet and alone time."

"Huh?" she asked with her head still buried in his neck.

"You'll understand when you get older," he said, picking her up. She wrapped her legs around him and Ares sat up, panting. Nathan pushed her head back and brushed the tears off her face. "If you do this, you do this all the way. You can't let learning about other stuff go because of this dog. We have a long way to go and it's going to be hard. We've barely begun and look at the c.r.a.p we've been through. Are you sure?" he asked.

Amanda nodded. "I'll do my best, I promise, and I'll keep doing everything else," she said.

"We have four more in our group and some of them are little. You'll have to help," he said.

"They have an older brother and sister," she pointed out.

"They need more. That's why they're with us," Nathan said. Amanda thought about that for a minute.

"You mean we're family?" she asked.

Nathan lifted his eyebrows. "Well I guess you can say that."

"Okay then, I promise," she said and kissed his cheek as he put her down. He looked over at Jasmine and John and saw John pa.s.s Jasmine something.

"Pa.s.sing notes?" Nathan asked.

"No, I won the bet," Jasmine said, holding up a hundred dollar bill. "You gave in," she said with a smile. "Someone has you in the palm of their little hand." Jasmine spun around and walked away with her hair bobbing from side to side.

Amanda and Ares loved on the new dog and she ate it up. "What are we going to call her?" Amanda asked.

"She's your dog," Nathan said, wanting to crawl in a hole and never come out.

"No, she's ours, it has to be a Greek name like the other dogs," she said.

"Athena," Nathan offered.

"Athena, I like that," Amanda said. Nathan showed her how to work on teaching the pup her new name. After a few minute, he said, "Stay here and remember, you have a rifle on the table that is in parts."

"Okay," she said as he walked off, mumbling.

Chapter 10.

Day 15 The next morning, when Jasmine woke up she looked over but didn't see Nathan on his bed roll. She had laid it out last night hoping he'd get some sleep. He still hadn't said all what he'd found, but he seemed real excited about it. She stood up, grabbed her jogging pants and t-shirt and threw them on. She looked up to see John on watch and he smiled at her.

She couldn't help but chuckle as she waved her fingers at him. Slipping on her sandals, she stepped over Amanda and Athena who were cuddled up together. Best friends already. Not seeing Ares around, Jasmine stepped outside and saw Nathan at the table working on a rifle. Before she could head over, John came up to her and handed her a cup of coffee. Telling him thanks, she walked over to Nathan.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Putting a scope on this rifle," he answered, knowing she could see that.

"Yes, but did you get to sleep?" she asked.

"No, I've been digging around in the piles of stuff," he said.

"You found more?" she asked in a low whisper.

"Not more gold, but a lot of useful stuff," he informed her.

Jasmine shook her head. "We are carrying a ton now. Do you know how hard it was dragging your d.a.m.n pack up here?" she asked.

"When the bladders are full it weighs about what you do," he said, looking through the scope as John set down a cup of coffee for Nathan. "Thank you, John," he said without looking up. When John moved away, Nathan turned around. "I should've known that I wasn't special enough for him to fix coffee for," Nathan said, taking a sip.

"I'm not responding to that," she informed him. "Now what are you wanting us to pack over h.e.l.l's creation?"

He pointed at a line of cases. "Open those up and tell me what you find." he said.

She walked over and opened one. "It's a night vision monocular like you wear."

"That's right, and I found seven of them," he said. "Also found two thermal scopes." He grinned.

Jasmine shook her head, smiling. "Okay, those are worth carrying, but what are you doing today? Why can't we leave yet?" she asked.

"I have to get some transport for the little ones ready," he said, pointing to a lawn cart with four huge tires.

"Where the h.e.l.l did you get that?" she asked.

"From beside the shed where I got the rest of the carts."

"What the h.e.l.l is it here for? These s.h.i.t stains don't look like farmers," she pointed out.

"Oh, in fact they were farmers. They have a twenty-acre crop of pot and it looks to be some primo stuff. There are buds over a foot long."

"That's why they didn't bring many people here," she said, remembering what the woman had told Nathan.

"Yeah, and they had a small meth set-up out in the woods," he added.

"Well, now that we have more c.r.a.p to carry, what do you want to do today?" she asked.

He put down his tools. "I want you and John to teach the three older ones about the M-4 rifles," he said.

"Nathan, Casey is ten."

"I said teach them, not arm them. I want to see which ones will understand. You've seen what happens to the unarmed out there. Age is not a consideration," he said, remembering what Lillian had said.

She nodded. "Okay I'll do it. What are you going to do?"

"Get their ride ready," he answered.

"And Amanda?" she asked.

"She'll keep the little blond girl entertained," he said, picking up his coffee.

"Emma," Jasmine said. She looked at the tent with the others. "Did they ever wake up?" she asked.

"Of course, they've been out to pee."

"They were worn out," she said. Then looked at him. "What is all this?" Jasmine asked, waving at all the junk.

"It turns out the girl was telling the truth. She told me they were survivalists, just not the type I've seen. They had plans on what to hit the second anything went bad. They started the first night, getting-" he stopped and she nodded. "Then they moved to weapons and ammo, then food. Then one got the idea of the trucks on the roads that were delivering food. They wouldn't have to fight, just unload it. They would hold people at gunpoint to do that."

"Yeah, that's how they got the ones here," she said.

"I know," he nodded. "But they continued and killed any cop they came across. I figure there are five or six semitrailer-loads here of food alone. Both of those sheds by the field are full of ammo and there are two more piles beside them. I haven't searched the shed beside the house yet. If they would've stopped they could've lived here like kings for years," he said.

"We'll leave tomorrow right?" she asked.

"What has you so antsy?"

"You have to ask?" she said, nodding her head toward the tractor then the graves.

He wouldn't look at her, but he nodded. "I know. Yes, we'll leave tomorrow, but we are meeting today to talk about routes." The tent behind them opened. Howard stepped out and walked over.

"d.a.m.n, it's tomorrow," he said, putting a shirt on.

"Yeah, let ya sleep," Nathan said.

"You look like c.r.a.p." Howard sat down.

"Thank you, Howard, for telling him," Jasmine said, looking at Nathan.

"I'll wash in a minute," Nathan said grumpily. He laid out what needed to be done and how he wanted it done. The two nodded as he got up and grabbed some clean clothes. Then Nathan headed to the pump.

Howard looked at her. "He always like that?" he asked.

"No not really."

"Well, let me get them up so we can start," Howard said, getting up.

The group moved with purpose throughout the day and the three kids were kept busy learning gun safety as the others helped and gathered equipment to leave. Nathan packed the cart with food and ammo. Then he strapped the sniper rifle to the side of it. He wasn't carrying it if they had to pull the d.a.m.n cart. He grabbed several blankets and pillows from the mountain of stuff and made a pallet on the supplies. Then he grabbed some tarps they could use for shelter since there were so many of them now.

Getting some rope, he made a harness that he could hook to his shoulders to pull the cart without holding the handle. Checking the tires, he looked up to see the little blond girl in front of him. "Why aren't you with Amanda?" Nathan asked. She looked at him with what could only be described as a flehmen reaction. She curled her lips out, exposing her teeth at him. "What the h.e.l.l?" Nathan said, standing up, and the girl squealed, spun around and took off running. Well she thought she was running.

Nathan took two large steps and grabbed the back of her little overalls and lifted her up. "Why did you do that to me?" he asked the little girl. She just giggled and did it again. "Are you trying to scare me?" he asked as Amanda ran over.

"Man, she can move," Amanda said, holding out her arms for her. "Come here Emma."

When Nathan handed Emma over she looked back at him and did it again. "See that, she walked right over here and did that to me," Nathan told Amanda as Emma curled up her lips exposing her teeth.