Dark Titan Journey: Wilderness Travel Read Online Free PDF Page A

you were going to braid it again for me and then you fell asleep,” she said, crossing her arms.
    “I’m sorry. I’ll braid it before we leave,” Nathan promised, making her happy.
    Amanda jumped up and put on her socks over her bandages. Then she moved over to Nathan.
    “Copy what I do,” he said as he started stretching.
    John watched them start stretching. “What are y’all doing?” he asked.
    “Amanda wanted to stretch and exercise with me before we start,” Nathan told John.
    “Can I?” he asked hopefully.
    “Not sitting down,” Nathan said.
    With a grin that filled his entire face, John jumped up and joined them. An hour later they were all sweating as they sat down and started fixing breakfast with real eggs. After they ate and cleaned up, Amanda filled all the water bottles and hydration bladders. Nathan drained the water out of the container and they packed up the camp. Nathan made Amanda lead them back to the road and then he led them out for the day.
    Holding his hand, Amanda looked up at Nathan. “You said we could average about fifteen and sometimes twenty miles a day but we’ve only been doing around twelve,” she pointed out.
    “Yes, I want to get you conditioned for it. That’s why I’m teaching you along the way and taking a lot of breaks. We will travel for four days and take one off to rest when we start moving. Not even I can just take off and go that far, even with food prepared along the way,” Nathan said.
    “We have food,” she said.
    “Not enough to make it. We will have to hunt, fish, gather plants, and live off the land. By then I expect we will be resting every third day to secure food.”
    “What will we hunt?” she asked.
    “Birds, rabbits, squirrels and any game that crosses our path,” Nathan said.
    Feeling a little squeamish, she murmured, “Okay,” more to herself than him.
    Continuing the lessons, Nathan showed them edible plants and poisonous ones. Much to Amanda’s delight, he didn’t find any more snakes. He showed them animal tracks and told them what made them. When they rounded a corner a rabbit was sitting in the middle of the road. Nathan reached over his shoulder and pulled out his .22 and aimed at the rabbit’s head twenty-five yards away. The suppressor muffled the shot as he pulled the trigger, taking the rabbit’s head off.
    Putting the rifle on safe, Nathan slid it back in its scabbard on his pack. “How many suppressors do you have?” John asked as they walked to the rabbit.
    “Nine all together,” he said then remembered he had one more. “Make that ten now,” he added. “I only brought the ones for the M-4 and 10/22. I had the one on the HK 23 delivered,” he said.
    “What?” John asked.
    “He killed the guy that was carrying it,” Amanda said in a very cheery voice.
    “What was he doing to you?” John asked.
    “He was going to kill us so Nathan killed him and his friend. The next day when the others came back he killed seventeen more,” she said nonchalantly.
    Looking up at Nathan as they walked, John asked, “Is she joking?”
    “It’s a bit more involved, but she covered the high points,” Nathan said, looking at Amanda. “I had to take out those that were coming or they may have followed us,” he said.
    Seeing Nathan stare at her out of the corner of her eye, she said, “I’m not saying anything about you fighting an army.”
    Nathan stopped and looked down at her with a fake scowl. “I think I’m fixing to hold you down and spit in your ear,” he delivered the mock threat, pulling out a can of Skoal.
    Seeing the can of snuff, Amanda looked at him with a mad face. “When are you going to quit that nasty stuff?” she screeched.
    “When I want to,” he said, filling his bottom lip up and putting the can back in his pocket. As he started walking, she caught up and grabbed his hand.
    “It’s not good for you,” she said earnestly.
    “I know,” he said, nodding and spitting a stream of tobacco on the