"What road did you come in on?" USA asked.

"Highway 25. There was a checkpoint but no one was there," Nathan replied.

USA looked back the other three. "Todd and Jack are in deep s.h.i.t," he said then looked back at Nathan. A tall man with t-shirt with a hand holding a joint and captioned "This bud's for you" stepped beside USA.

"You better not have hurt them," he snapped with a scornful voice.

"Hey Bud'," Nathan snapped. "If we had hurt them, why in the f.u.c.k would I be talking to you? I can see you are of astute mind but hey dumba.s.s. You are standing beside a burning barrel; you can't see s.h.i.t past fifty feet. Look at our weapons-we have suppressors. It would've been nothing to sneak up here, squeeze off a few rounds, and throw the bodies over the bridge. But we didn't. We wanted to let you know about the abandoned roadblock and ask how the road was ahead."

The guards went pale as they realized how close they came to death. USA nodded. "Thank you, sir, for telling us about the roadblock. I'm sorry if we offended the ladies or kids," he apologized.

"No harm, no foul. We are just trying to get home, close to Tupelo," Nathan said.

"You're the first travelers we've seen in three days, since the government demanded everyone stay in place. Travel is forbidden unless approved by Homeland. Several Homeland groups run the interstates. We heard on the radio that they shot some people on I-55," USA said.

Nathan nodded. "We saw some bodies on I-22," he said. The guards exchanged worried glances. "Didn't know they were that close?" Nathan asked.

"No sir. The police chief will need to know about that. On the CB we heard they often roll into a town collecting weapons. That's why we have these road blocks," USA said.

"So you haven't heard of any close?" Nathan asked.

"No sir. From what we've gathered, they stay near big cities and big roads. Several good ole boys around here went over to I-55 and let the air out of seven of the Homeland boys," USA said.

"Well gentleman, we have to go. A word of advice: put burning barrels at the other end of the bridge and you guys stay in the middle," Nathan told them.

"Hold on mister, you have to wait for the Chief before you leave," USA said.

"Let me make myself clear: I'm leaving. I'm not asking permission. Since this s.h.i.t has started I've put over twenty bodies in the ground. I'm tired and getting p.i.s.sed off," Nathan growled. He turned to the group. "Head out."

Bud held up his hand to Nathan. "It ain't like that. The chief wants to know what's goin' on. He ain't tryin' to control n.o.body."

"We have a long ways to go and we only travel at night. I've told you what we've seen so you can relay it to your chief, but we're gone," Nathan said, backing away.

The four noticed he was backing away and was very casual about it. They all lifted their hands away from their weapons. "Sir we're goin' to get in trouble," USA complained.

"Let's say I give you something for your trouble," Nathan said, reaching in his pocket to pull out his roll of money. He tossed it to USA. "That's five G's for giving us information about the road ahead. Try to take any more and you'll die for your greed."

USA looked at the roll then to Nathan. "You won't have anything to worry about here. One piece of advice: If you hear horses on the road, leave em be. That's the Kirby family and they've been unkind to a few folks lately."

"Thank you, sir," Nathan replied. He turned to find Jasmine waiting for him. She smiled as they sped up the catch the group. When Nathan and Jasmine rejoined the group everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Nathan why did you give them the money?" Jasmine asked.

"Something for something," Nathan told her.

"But weren't you worried about them wanting more?" Jasmine asked.

"No not really but after we had gone a thought might have crept into their heads so I let them know they would have to die for more," Nathan told her.

Amanda moved over to his left and grabbed his hand. "You were kind of rude but I thought it was cool."

"I was rude but not so rude as to irritate. A man becomes much more reasonable if you explain to them you could've killed him easily but didn't because you didn't need to. h.e.l.l, if I had been one of those guys I would've given us food for not just killin' me," Nathan said.

"You're so smart," Casey said, hugging Nathan's waist as they walked.

Jasmine followed watching in silence as the two little girls played Nathan into the palms of their hands. She had to admit, they were doing a very good job. "So you were right about government groups shooting people," Jasmine said nicely. She wanted to get in on this as well.

"Of course he was right," Amanda chipped in. Jasmine sighed. She wanted to b.u.t.ter Nathan up as well but the two little girls were taking her thunder.

"Amanda, that wasn't nice," Nathan said.

"Sorry," Amanda said, hugging his left arm.

Nathan turned off the highway and after an hour he led them off the road into the tree line. "There are houses less than a half a mile from here, so keep it down," Nathan told them as he dropped his pack.

"Shouldn't we move farther out?" Jasmine asked.

"This is the best we can do before dawn and we are only ten miles from Howard's dad's place," Nathan said, dropping his vest. He pulled out his tablet and solar panel. Amanda and Casey took off Ares's pack and set up water and food for both dogs. Then Amanda started working on commands with Athena. Nathan stripped down and put on some shorts as John and Tom came over carrying the jugs of water.

"I'm showering and washing these clothes. Tomorrow I'm wearing another outfit," John announced.

Nathan looked at John in the false dawn. Pulling that wagon had taken some weight off him but Nathan could see that John was getting bigger in the chest and thighs. He was putting on muscle. "I think I'm going to do that as well," Nathan said.

Howard's boys set up a shower area as everyone preformed their tasks. When the sun was up Nathan showed his tablet to Howard. "Howard, is this your dad's farm?"

Howard studied the tablet. "What is that program?"

"It's downloadable. It's a subscription service so you can renew the satellite images every ninety days," Nathan said. "Plus with this one I can add topographic lines with the satellite images."

"Man, that is too cool," Howard said. The rest of the group took interest. Amanda and John had seen it already and even used it, but n.o.body else had. "This is his property," Howard said drawing around an area with his finger. "It's nine hundred acres: three hundred in timber, four hundred in fields, and two hundred in pasture. It has three ponds and two creeks." Howard pointed out the areas.

"What's this group of buildings?" Nathan asked, indicating the middle of the property.

"That's the farm," Howard said as Nathan zoomed in. "That's the house, barn, shop, storage shed, hen house, pig barn, milking house, and greenhouse. These two trailers are where the two farm hands and their families live." Howard pointed out each structure.

"Now that's a set up," Nathan said, impressed. "So your dad has two brothers. How many siblings do you have?" Nathan asked.

"Five brothers and two sisters," Howard replied.

"Any that stayed on the farm?" Nathan asked.

"Just my baby brother Mickey," Howard answered. "If you don't mind me asking, why you so interested?"

"Just trying to understand," Nathan said zooming back out. "You are going to need twenty shooters, at least, to defend this farm. I would go for thirty. And without go-go juice you will need another twenty just to run the farm," Nathan said.

"d.a.m.n, you really think so?" Howard asked.

"Howard, your dad already has food production. People will figure it out sooner or later. In the country is food," Nathan said.

"Will you explain it to my dad?" Howard asked.

"I really don't want to wait around too long. But I'll talk to him if he wants," Nathan said.

"You really should," Howard said. "I heard you talking about using horses. We have horses but I doubt dad will sell them now. But he knows everyone in the county and he could get you some horses. I don't know the cost."

"That puts a whole new spin on things," Nathan said.

Amanda grabbed Nathan's arm. "Nathan, I've never even been around a horse. What if it tries to eat me?"

"Firecracker, you don't look like a bale of hay. Maybe a pretty flower. Horses don't eat meat. They might bite the s.h.i.t out of you if you're not careful," Nathan said.

"I don't want them to bite me, either!" Amanda exclaimed.

"Dogs bite too," Nathan said, smiling.

"Okay. But if one chews my leg off I'm cranking the gat," Amanda declared, making everyone chuckle. Amanda jumped up. "Come on Casey, let's wash everyone's clothes."

John smiled. "I really love Amanda sometimes."

"Firecracker does grow on ya," Nathan admitted.

Everyone moved off as Nathan went over to the wagon and woke up Emma. Nathan learned real fast, Emma didn't like to be woken up. He was sorely tempted to give her some Valium just so she could go back to sleep. Once she had her sippy cup she calmed down. Nathan fixed them some food and they sat on his woobie, eating.

Everyone was taking care of gear and eating as Amanda and Casey carried up armloads of wet clothes. Natalie helped hang them up to dry. When the clothes were up, Natalie gave Amanda and Casey the food she had fixed for them. Jasmine walked back from the shower, wrapped in a towel.

She headed for her pack and dug out some clothes, then just dropped the towel and put them on. Nathan swore his eyes extended three inches out of their sockets when her towel dropped. He knew he should turn away but his animal brain won, hands down. When Jasmine was dressed, Nathan realized he had been holding his breath and let it out.

Hearing his sigh, Jasmine turned around. "Oh I'm sorry Nathan, I thought you were showering with the rest of the boys." She blushed.

"Uh-huh," Nathan said with a look of bewilderment on his face as Emma hit his leg with her sippy cup for more water.

"I'm really sorry. I should've looked around," Jasmine said, sitting on the woobie.

"Uh-huh," Nathan said, still gawking at her. Emma was starting to grunt with each hit now.

Jasmine took the cup, filled it with water, and put some powdered drink mix in it, shaking it up. She handed the cup back to Emma, who took it happily. Jasmine wanted to laugh at the flabbergasted look on Nathan's face. She smiled and patted his cheek. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Uh-huh," Nathan said.

"Can you say anything else?"

"Uh-huh."

"You want me to drop my towel again?" she asked, giggling.

Nathan's face flushed bright red and he stuttered, making Jasmine laugh. "Nathan is not here right now, if you would leave your name and number he will contact you when he returns," Nathan blurted out.

Jasmine leaned over and kissed his cheek, "You can blink," she whispered.

Nathan realized he hadn't blinked since the towel hit the ground so he did and grinned. Shaking his head, he looked down at Emma talking to her cup. At least that's what Nathan thought she was doing. It was just gibberish but she seemed intent. "I will say this," Nathan said as he stood up. "Wow!" Nathan handed Emma to Jasmine and grabbed his shower bag. "I need a cold shower," he said, walking away.

Jasmine laughed and looked at Emma. "You think he still sees me as a little girl?"

"No." Emma gave Jasmine that weird smile.

"Me neither," Jasmine said, hugging Emma.

Chapter 14.

Day 19 Dreaming of his friends back home, Nathan felt a hand grab his shoulder and jumped up looking for his attacker. John raised both hands in defense. "Nathan, it's just me. It's five and everyone is up."

Nodding as he tried to calm down, Nathan checked his watch. It was five in the afternoon. "I had guard duty at one." Nathan saw that camp was already packed up.

"Natalie and Jackie took it," John said.

"I have to tell them thank you," Nathan said. He saw that someone had already laid out clean clothes for him. His only possession not packed was his woobie; even the clothes Amanda had washed were put up. "Who packed my s.h.i.t?" Nathan asked, pulling on his clothes.

"Jasmine and Amanda," John said with a big smile.

Amanda came over carrying his tablet and spun it around. "Who are these people? This was at the store you found me at," she told Nathan with more than a little att.i.tude.

It was the group photo of him with everyone at the store. "I told you their names and about them already," Nathan said pulling on his boots.

Stomping her foot, she demanded, "This is important. You should've showed me." She thumbed through several pictures. "Are these people even real?" she asked turning the tablet around.

It was a picture of Brad, Abigail, Ashley, and Raymond. "Yes, the family of models," Nathan said, standing up.

"That's impossible, n.o.body can look that perfect," she said, looking at the picture as Jasmine and Casey stood behind Amanda. "They're not real."

Nathan laughed. "What, you think they were computer-generated?" He grabbed the RV catalog out of his messenger bag. "Here," he said, handing it over.

"s.h.i.t, they're real," Amanda said, looking through the book.

Nathan laughed and started to get ready for the day's routine as Tom carried Emma over. The others followed. After stretches and exercises Nathan again showed several punches, kicks, holds, and escapes. Everyone had to deal with Emma kicking them in the leg. Nathan finally gave Emma the tablet so she could draw.

Two hours later everyone was sitting down eating. Nathan was fighting to get Emma to eat which was unusual because she normally ate fairly easy. That evening Emma was pushing Nathan's patience to the limit. Even with Amanda and Casey sitting with them on the woobie, Emma was a pain. Grabbing Nathan's camera, Jasmine took several pictures of the episode. When Nathan finally had Emma fed he ate and lay back. He was no sooner lying back than Amanda and Casey had their heads on him, using his belly as a pillow.

"Do I make a good pillow, girls?" Nathan asked, looking down at them.

"Yep," Casey said grinning.

"Well then let's talk about meat preserving and tanning," Nathan said and started the lesson. Everyone moved closer. Jasmine sat down by the girls and lay back on Nathan's legs. She was soon joined by Natalie. Nathan paused, looking down at the four, who just smiled at him. After an hour Nathan started to question them. This continued until dark, when Nathan told everyone to get up. Emma had crawled on his chest and fell asleep, so Nathan very carefully stood up, carried her to the wagon, laid her down, and covered her up with his woobie.