"We'll take ten, please," he said and the woman startled and backed up and the group fell quiet.

"I'll need to see the money before I put ten pounds of meat on the grill," she said.

"Amanda, pay her," Nathan said, letting her hand go. Amanda dove down in her bag, looked at her hands, then came back out holding two one-hundred-dollar bills.

"With everything, please," Amanda said, holding out the money. The woman took the money and a man started putting patties on the grill.

"What's in the jugs?" Nathan asked.

"Lemonade and tea," she said.

Smiling, Nathan reached around and pulled out his two empty bottles and handed them to the woman. "Fill them for me please; sweet tea in one and lemonade in the other," Nathan said. "Everyone, fill up," he said over his shoulder then looked at the woman. "Tell Amanda what we owe you," he said. He stepped away and looked over at the other truck and noticed a coffee pot.

He went over to Amanda and opened her pack up and pulled out the cup she used, a big thermal coffee cup he had given her at the store. "What are you doing?" she asked, turning her head.

"Getting your cup," Nathan said, zipping her back up.

"What if I wanted to use it?" Amanda asked.

"Use Ares' bowl. They have coffee," Nathan said, stepping over to the other truck. He reached in his bag and pulled out a twenty, "Twenty dollars for a cup of coffee," he told one of the men sitting on the tailgate.

A ma.s.sive black beard with a man's body attached took the twenty. "Help yourself," he said, moving out of the way. Nathan poured a cup and added some sugar and creamer and put the lid on before taking a sip. "Thank you," he said with a sigh, looking at the beard with a body and a set of eyes. The beard began just below the eyes, expanding outward and almost touching both shoulders before extending to the belt buckle. Nathan could only guess but he figured the Beard was at least a foot thick.

"You're welcome, but you still ain't taking our guns," the Black Beard said with smiling eyes.

Nathan smiled, having noticed the pistol on his hip. "Don't want em. If I had extras I'd give em to you," he told the Black Beard and it started to laugh with the others.

"You're not from around here?" the Black Beard asked and the others leaned forward.

"Nope, headed to Idaho," Nathan said, and they all looked at him with awe.

"That's a mighty long walk, fella," the Black Beard said.

"You better believe it," Nathan agreed.

"That why you left town so early?" the Black Beard asked.

"We weren't in town," Nathan said, mesmerized that such a ma.s.sive Beard could have a body and talk.

"Makes sense. You have all them fancy shootin' sticks, figured you'd shoot at the officers trying to take em," the Beard said.

"Come again," Nathan said, trying to follow what the Beard was trying to tell him but the eyes were distracting him.

"All the towns around the Fort pa.s.sed an ordinance that no firearms are allowed inside city limits starting today. Don't matter if you keep them inside or not, they want them. That's why we set up out here. City limit is just half a mile down the road," he said, waving in that direction. Nathan remembered all the footprints; they'd been inside the city limits.

"What genius came up with that?" Nathan asked.

"The agent over this area, he's part of Homeland. They're fixing to bring a bunch of people in from Birmingham that got burnt out. I saw the first truck loads and it ain't nothing but trouble they're bringing," the Beard said. Nathan was just dying for the eyes to say something. If the Beard had a life of its own it just stood to reason the eyes did to.

Breaking his stare at the eyes, Nathan looked in the bed of the truck and noticed several long arms. "Don't you think you're playing it a little close, being this close to the city limits?" he asked.

"Nah, they have enough to enforce in town today. This is our last trip out. We're heading back up in the hills," the Beard said.

"Now that's smart," Nathan said.

"Yep, we just need to make a little more money to get more feed for the animals till we can harvest a crop," the Beard said earnestly.

Really liking the Beard, Nathan nodded and reached in his bag; he pulled out two hundred dollars and gave it to the Beard. "Here's my contribution to the cause," Nathan said.

The eyes looked down at the money and Nathan was sure they were going to talk this time. "What you wantin' for this?" the Beard asked.

d.a.m.n it, thought Nathan, let the eyes say something. "I want you to survive this," Nathan said, draining his mug. The body attached to the Beard took his cup from him and poured another cup of coffee, stirred in some cream and sugar and handed it back to him. Taking out his camera, Nathan snapped a few pictures of the Beard. n.o.body would ever believe him without proof.

"Mister, I'm indebted to ya. This should almost get us," the Beard said.

Putting his camera up, Nathan took a sip. "d.a.m.n, you fixed it better than I did," he said and reached in one of the outer pouches and pulled out several gold chains. Pretty close to a pound, and he didn't care that he'd taken close to four pounds of gold off the a.s.sholes. "Here, for fixing my coffee better than I did," Nathan said, holding them out. "Don't let any gang bangers see em. I had to kill a few to get into town and they might know the bling," he told the Beard, wanting the d.a.m.n eyes to say something.

"I'm glad you got em fore they got you. That's what I'm sayin'. We had some in town but now they're bringing em in by the truck loads. This here is real gold?" the Beard asked.

"Yes sir, that is close to a pound. Before the lights went off that would've been worth twenty thousand dollars," Nathan told the Beard as Amanda came up behind Nathan and put his bottles in his pack.

"Sir, I ain't ever going to be able to repay you for this," the Beard said and the other men stepped forward, patting Nathan on the shoulders.

Amanda stepped to the side of Nathan as the Beard spoke. "Wow," she said, looking up at the Beard and taking a step back in shock.

"Hey little missus," the Beard said, looking down at her gently.

"Where's your mouth?" she asked the ball of hair in total amazement.

"It's in here." A hand came up and touched the beard.

"Are you sure? The hair doesn't move when you talk," she said, leaning forward and looking at the Beard real hard.

The hands went to the Beard and pulled back inches-a lot of inches-of hair, and sure enough soon they could see a mouth. "See, I told ya," he said as he let the hair go and the mouth disappeared. He turned around and handed the gold to a young boy who put it in a bag.

Nathan lightly slapped Amanda's shoulder. "You spoiled it," he whispered at her then looked at the Beard. "You stay safe, and if you get in a shoot-out with the government types stay hidden," Nathan warned them.

"You do the same," the Beard said, and the other men shook Nathan's hand as he thanked them for the coffee.

He walked back to the other truck as the woman was putting the food in bags. "Thank you," Nathan said.

"You have a good person managing your money," the woman said, looking at Amanda.

"Thank you," Nathan said as the Beard came over carrying a jug of lemonade. He whispered to the woman whose eyes got real big. The woman leapt at Nathan, wrapping her arms around him and kissing his cheek.

"Thank you sir so much," she said, wiping her eyes.

The Beard came over and tied the jug to Nathan's pack. Nathan didn't want to tell the Beard he could feel that eight pounds. "This is for ya later today," he said, stepping back in front of the group.

"Thank you, sir," Nathan said, and just then he heard a loud vehicle pull up behind them. He turned around to see a deputy step out of an old truck. He had a huge handheld radio hanging off his shoulder. Not taking his eyes off the deputy, Nathan turned his head to the side. "There's another one in the truck. If we start shooting we have to take them down fast," he said over his shoulder to the group.

"They already have two crosshairs apiece," the Beard said.

The deputy walked over with his hand on his pistol and looked at Nathan. "I'll have you lay that on the deck. All weapons are to be collected county wide," he said.

"I'll lay your a.s.s on the deck first. I'm a POST-certified officer. Any action against me will be viewed as a hostile act and I'll cut you in half," Nathan said and the officer jerked upon hearing the words.

"You'd shoot a fellow officer?" he asked incredulously, taking his hand off the pistol.

"For following a law like that, in a heartbeat. Then as I stepped over your corpse I'd take a p.i.s.s," Nathan informed him.

"I'm just enforcing the law," he told Nathan.

"No, you're enforcing fascism. I took an oath to stand against that. It's called the Const.i.tution. If I'm not mistaken you did as well," Nathan said.

The officer looked at the group behind Nathan. "We are impounding these vehicles. All working vehicles are to be turned over immediately. You will be compensated," he told the group, who started mumbling.

"You can't do that. I bought them and they are keeping them for me," Nathan said and the officer looked at him hard.

"You must be wantin' some today," the officer said, squaring off to Nathan.

"Looks like I'm fixin' to get some," Nathan said with a southern drawl, watching the officer closely as his radio went off. It was calling all officers to a large shootout in town. "Looks like someone didn't want to give up their s.h.i.t," Nathan said. "Your move, leave or die," Nathan said casually.

"Oh, I'll be back," the officer said, turning around and jumping into his truck. He punched it, throwing dirt up as he sped toward town.

Relieved he didn't have to start the day off with a shootout, Nathan turned around. "I think you guys need to call it a day and get the h.e.l.l out of here," he told them.

"We heard and thanks for that. I think he'd have tried us," the Beard said. "You need a lift?" he asked.

"Which way you going?" Nathan asked, and the man pointed north. "No, we're heading west. You hurry and get out of sight," Nathan said as the rest of the crowd loaded up their stuff.

"You too and be careful," the Beard said as Nathan led his group across the highway. As they started down the road the two trucks pulled out, heading north and picking up speed.

They were a mile down the road when Jasmine moved up beside him. "You were going to shoot that cop, weren't you?" she asked.

"Better believe it," he said without hesitation.

"He's a cop like you! You are a cop, right?" she asked.

"Yes I am, and have been for over fifteen years. But you don't take guns from people in times like this. If you've seen what you said you've seen, then you should understand."

"But if they got all the guns then it would be better," she said slowly.

"First, it's impossible to get all the guns. But let's say just for argument's sake they could. That means a man that is three hundred pounds can grab you, throw you down, and do what he wants. You can't stop him without a gun," Nathan told Jasmine. "Think about it, if they are bigger and stronger than you, what options do you really have?"

"That's what the police are for," she said.

"No, we show up after the crime has occurred and try to catch the criminal. The only reason we are here is to enforce the law and generate revenue. That means it has to be broken first. We can't do anything till the criminal commits a crime. If you had a gun and the man threw you down and you shot him, you stopped a crime you thought was going to happen. If I tried that I'd be in prison," he said then looked at her. "This is all before now of course. If I think someone is going to do something to me or these two, I poke holes in them with this," he said, holding up his rifle.

"What about me?" she asked.

"I've already taken steps to help you, but until you prove you're an a.s.set to us I can't say," Nathan said. "I'm being honest and I'm sorry if that upsets you. I have two that I'm teaching to survive and live. If you hamper that then we part ways."

She walked beside him, lost in thought for two miles. He was fixing to ask her if she wanted to leave when Jasmine spoke up. "I knew I picked the right group. I'm sorry if I said anything that hurt your feelings or upset you," she said.

"You didn't do either," Nathan said.

"Just tell me what I can do. I've never even held a gun before." Jasmine looked at the ground. "I'm a student at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. When the power went off it was like a big party the first day. On the second I saw my first rape and ran to my dorm. The next day we heard screaming and found two guys raping a girl in the dorm. Several of us tried to help, but they started punching us, knocking several girls out and throwing them in the room they had a girl tied up in. I ran to my room. I backpack a lot so it was packed already, and I grabbed it and my money and ran to one of the sorority houses.

"I had a friend there and he is a true geek. He has a really big radio that he talks to people on. When I got there he was listening in to military units and I heard how bad it was. I stayed with him till that night and saw how the party was heading downstairs and left," she told Nathan. Amanda walked over and put her head on Jasmine's arm as they walked.

"Where's your family?" Nathan asked.

"Boston," she said, wiping tears off her face.

"So you were trying to get there?" Nathan asked.

"No. On the second day I heard on the radio that the military was putting the loss of life over ten thousand from the fires alone. They said the part of town where I lived was a war zone," she said sadly. "I was just trying to find a safe place where I won't have that stuff done to me. If my family's alive, I'll find them if this ends," she said.

"Well if you ever want to head north we'll help outfit you up," Nathan said.

Jasmine chuckled. "Last night was the first night I've slept since this started. Someone was watching out for me," she said and looked at him. "Why didn't you wake us for our turn?"

"To be honest, I wanted John to get some sleep, but you looked like you needed some as well," Nathan said.

"Thank you," she said, and Amanda got Nathan's attention and pointed at a group of trees off the side of the road.

"Let's eat there," she said with authority.

"You guys heard her, let's eat there. She paid for it," Nathan said, walking off the road and heading off into the trees.

They dropped their packs and dove into the hamburgers and Nathan had to admit they were pretty good. He watched the others eating and smiled, glad he was with them. Ares ate his burger in two bites and sat there patiently, looking at everyone and letting them know he could stand to eat some more.

Amanda looked over at Jasmine who was sitting across from her. "Jasmine, how old are you?" she asked.

"Nineteen," Jasmine said, smiling. She had taken off the jacket top Nathan had given her and was leaning back on her pack.

Amanda just stopped chewing, still staring at Jasmine, "Can I ask you something?" she asked, her mouth full of burger.

"Sure, Amanda," Jasmine said.

"How did your b.o.o.bs get so big?" she asked.

Trying not to laugh, Nathan started coughing as he inhaled a mouthful of hamburger. He stood up and leaned over, trying to cough out the hunk of meat stuck in his throat; his eyes were streaming. Jasmine ran over and slapped his back really hard and he spit the mouthful on the ground. Ares ran over and ate it and looked up at Nathan like, Hey, you spit it out.' Then he stared longingly at the rest of the burger in Nathan's hand.

"I'm choking to death and you worry about food?" Nathan rasped in a dry voice at Ares. Ares just sat down, his gaze locked on the burger. "Forget it," Nathan said, sitting back down and draining his bottle of lemonade. Once he'd regained his composure he looked at Amanda. "Don't ever do that again," he said with only a hint of rasp to his voice.

"What? I want to know. I'm only six years younger than her and I need to know this," Amanda shot at him. "She. Has. Hooters," Amanda said, enunciating each word. Nathan fell back laughing, as did everyone else but Amanda. She was looking steamed. "This is not fair, guys. Do I have to take some vitamins or something?" she asked. This sent the others into more fits.