Jason was hiding in a tree, glad for the cloudy night - it provided better cover for hiding. A few miles in the distance he could still see the lights of the militia camp. Every light seemed to be blazing, which he took as a sign that his disappearance had been noticed.
In his flight he'd found an abandoned militia cap and hoped it was the one he'd given Charlie two nights before. Since she was nowhere in sight he had some glimmer of hope that if it was her cap, it would mean she'd found Miles and was safe.
It was that thought that was his only companion during the long night.
Neville paced his office. He'd sent the officers away as he wanted to be alone. "What kind of camp am I running?" he wondered. His men had let a prisoner escape with important maps,didn't even notice she was gone for over an hour. They'd let his own son escape, walk right past guards and they'd never even looked up.
There would be consequences for this.
He walked over to his desk. Picking up his maps, he studied them carefully. Even with the missing map and papers, Neville thought he still had the advantage over Matheson and Monroe. It was all in the element of surprise, and neither knew Neville's full plans.
In the morning, he figured they'd move out, toward the next militia camp. The business of having to look for Charlie Matheson and his son was causing delays. It was all he could do to hope the delays wouldn't hurt his plans.
Miles squinted against the bright morning light. He looked around, only he and Aaron were awake. The fire had died down sometime during Aaron's shift.
"I'm going to see about making some coffee." Aaron said, poking the ashes with a stick to restart the fire.
Miles raised his eyebrows. "Coffee? Real coffee? Where'd you get that?"
"Same place I got the crackers."
"Huh." Miles was beginning to realize that maybe Aaron was more an asset then he'd formerly thought. Apparently, traveling with Rachel had made a world of difference because the Aaron Pittman Miles had known before wouldn't have stolen food like this.
"Only one real problem. Well, two really. No pot and no cups." Aaron went on.
"Charlie has a cup. And you can boil water in one of the tins from the crackers if you're careful. We can also use the tins for drinking."
"Cool."
"Haven't heard that one for a while."
"Works," Aaron said, sheepishly.
"Yeah. See about the tin, I'll see if Charlie's awake and can find us the cup." Miles did not want to repeat what he'd done the day before. Even just opening her pack without permission seemed too much now. He went over to their sleeping area. "Mornin' "
"Hey." Charlie,too, squinted in the sun.
He knelt beside her. "How are you feeling?"
"Fine." she answered exactly as he'd expected.
"Charlie." Rachel was awake now,too. "You are not fine."
"Rachel, Aaron has coffee." Miles bribed.
"Real coffee?"
"Real coffee?" she sounded surprised. Real coffee had been scarce as hen's teeth since the Blackout.
"Yup. Stole it from the Tower. Ask Charlie if you can borrow her cup, you two can share that one, Aaron and I will make do with a tin as the other cups have disappeared."
"Go ahead" Charlie had pulled herself to a sitting position while they'd had their exchange. "It's on top."
"You're not fine," Rachel repeated again, as she untied the drawstring to open the bag. "You should be in a hospital, with a doctor."
"And here I thought you stitched me up just fine." Charlie tred to joke.
"It's not funny, Charlie." her mom was not amused.
Miles felt like hiding a smile, the first time in weeks he'd even wanted to smile, as he helped Charlie to her feet."Get the cup, Rachel, we'll have coffee and see what else Aaron stole for breakfast."
It was late afternoon before Miles finally let them take a break. They'd made good time and traveled nearly twice as far as the day before.
"We're about halfway to the camp, I think." he told them, looking at each of them. Aaron and Rachel were tired, he could tell, but he felt it was best to stop for the night now before Charlie was totally exhausted and in too much pain to rest. He wished there was more pain meds for her. "Might be able to make it by tomorrow night if we get an early enough start."
"Charlie can't make it twenty five miles in a day." Rachel exclaimed.
"Yes, I can." Charlie defended herself.
"I said might be able to make it. It might take two days of travel, I don't know this terrain even with a map." Miles remarked. "Let's just take a break now, rest a bit, figure it all out, okay?"
Rachel didn't say anything but Charlie looked relieved there wouldn't be another big argument over her again. It seemed to her it was what Miles and her mom did best was argue, Charlie herself mostly being in the middle, especially the past few days since she'd escaped from Neville's grasp.
"Hey, you want something to drink?" Aaron came over to her. "I may or may not have stolen even more from the Tower."
Charlie laughed, it was was a good thing to laugh, to have something to laugh about. "Seriously, Aaron?"
"Well, yeah. Better then going hungry, since our own supplies are gone. Besides, they stole from me!"
"Yeah, yeah, that digital code thing." she remembered, even though she had no idea what it really was.
"Yup." he began pulling packages out of his pack. "I got crackers, cookies, some kind of kool aid,"
"What's that?" she interrupted.
He just stared at her a minute, then answered, "Drink mix. Makes like a juice."
She nodded in understanding.
"It's probably all right to mix up and drink, as many preservatives and colors that are in it." He yanked something else out. "Saved the best for the last. Strawberry jam. Thought we could put it on crackers like," he paused here, unsure if his idea had been a good one.
"Like Danny used to do." Charlie finished. She gave him a sad smile, to show it was all right, as she reached for the tin of crackers. "I remember,too."
"Um, I'm sorry, you want me to put them back?" Aaron seemed at a loss.
"No, it's okay. it's nice you got all this stuff."
"Well, we needed it and since it was just sitting there and they stole from me.."
"So, crackers for dinner again?" Miles said, from his spot under a shady tree.
"We have jam,too." Charlie called back to him.
"We need to go hunting or fishing or something. Crackers aren't very sustainable." Rachel took a handful anyway.
"It's better then no food." Aaron pointed out.
She nodded her agreement, "True enough."