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obliged,” Nathan said, pulling out his knife. “You tell your Sheriff to leave us alone. I don’t want to kill more of your friends but I will,” Nathan said walking behind him as the man sat up holding his hands out, and Nathan walked behind him. Jasmine was raising her hand to talk to Nathan as the man spoke.
    “Sure thing, mister, sorry bout th—” he stopped as Nathan covered his mouth and drove his knife into the base of his skull. Jasmine was looking into his face seeing the surprise on his face, then the light left the man’s eyes. Nathan pulled his knife out and wiped it on the man’s shirt. He knelt down and pulled the man’s hunting vest off and went through his pockets.
    Jasmine helped loot the man’s body. “Though you were going to say something about that,” Nathan said, rolling the man over.
    “Shit, I was about to shoot his ass, shooting people like that,” she said, pulling out a 1911.
    Looking up at her Nathan shook his head, “Jasmine, they had every right to do it. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. When we get home, if unarmed people try to take our stuff they will be killed.”
    Startled Jasmine jumped back. “Nathan, that’s not right.”
    “You’re damn right it’s not. But there is no choice. We lose what we have and we die. Nobody lives.” He gathered what he wanted from the dead man, leaving the hunting rifle.
    John picked up an AK-47. “We want this, Nathan?” he asked.
    “Bring it. We might need it for trade,” Nathan said walking to the ATVs. They pulled some water and food off the ATVs. They could hear the faint sound of engines off to the east. “Come on,” Nathan said, heading back to the group. He stopped by the man he had stabbed, rolling him over, then back. Standing up he walked to the group.
    Emma ran over to him when they reached the group. “Come on,” he said climbing up on Smoke, “we have four miles to go.”
    “Thought we weren’t going to ride the horse hard?” Amanda asked.
    “Since we know where the search ends, now we can move out of the area,” Nathan said.
    They rode through the woods, following Nathan at a very easy pace. Twenty minutes later they heard an explosion behind them. “What was that?” Tom asked.
    “Grenade,” Nathan said over his shoulder.
    “How do you know?” Casey asked.
    “Because I left it,” Nathan said.
    Amanda rode up beside him. “How did you make it go off back there and you’re here?” she asked.
    “I pulled the pin and put it under the body,” Nathan replied.
    “How do you know it wasn’t someone just coming up on the body?” she asked.
    “Don’t, but the odds are against it,” Nathan told her. “That should give them something to think about now.”
    “Or piss them off more,” Amanda added.
    “True but they are losing men that they can’t afford to,” Nathan replied. It was midmorning when they crossed the highway leading to Powell and headed back into the forest, following logging roads. They hadn’t heard any engines after the explosion but everyone was still nervous.
    Nathan stopped them in a small clearing with a creek off to the side. When everyone saw him getting off and drop his pack they climbed down. “We need to set the tent up,” Nathan said.
    “The sun’s out,” Casey said.
    “It’ll rain before tonight,” he said.
    “This time we’ll wait before moving,” Jasmine said, pulling her saddle off her horse.
    “No, we need to get to the plains,” Nathan said.
    Spinning around putting her hands on her hips, “You didn’t want to travel last night but we wanted to and look where that got us,” she informed him.
    “No, I was being a pussy,” Nathan admitted.
    “Look what happened,” she said, throwing up her hands.
    “Doesn’t mean anything, who’s to say if we had waited we wouldn’t have run into that group in an ambush?” he asked.
    Caught off guard, Jasmine just stared at him. “Nathan we were wrong in wanting to go,” Amanda said.
    “Wow,”