Free Dark Titan Journey: Wilderness Travel by Thomas A Watson

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 massive 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 massive 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 passed 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