Blood in the Ashes

by William W. Johnstone

  “You mean, you’ve had all this good stuff you can stand?” she asked with a grin.

  “You hit it right, Nina. We don’t have to worry about the dogs, and those sorry bastards up ahead don’t much worry me. I just hope they get in my way.”

  “You’re cute when you get mad, Ike.”

  “Aw, shit!” Ike said, blushing.

  TWELVE

  Tony Silver had every available man he could spare in the long convoy. The group from north Florida had rolled in, and the column had rolled out, heading north. But Tony was having second thoughts about Ben Raines. He had asked one of Voleta’s people why she hated Raines so.

  The guy had mumbled something about Ben Raines being a false god and a scourge on the face of the earth. Tony thought all that to be a crock of crap. Raines probably screwed Betty one night and shortchanged her. Or, he thought with a smile, short-dicked her.

  He laughed aloud at that.

  His driver met Tony’s eyes in the rear-view mirror. “Something, boss?”

  “Naw. Just thinking, that’s all.”

  “Boss, what’s the deal with this General Raines, anyways? How come it’s so important for us to take this dude out?”

  “That’s kinda what I was laughing about, Bill. ’Cause I don’t really know, myself. But we got a deal with this Sister Voleta, and Tony Silver don’t never welch out on no deal.”

  “Right, boss.”

  Tony leaned back in the comfortable rear seat of the old Cadillac limo. Sister Voleta/Betty Blackman was not leveling with him, and Tony did not like to be in the dark in any deal he was part of. Just too damn many unknowns.

  He sighed, thinking: OK. First we kick the ass off Ben Raines, and this time there was no doubt in his mind that would be done. They would have Raines outnumbered ten to one. Then Tony would deal with Voleta. Permanently.

  After he screwed her.

  The men and women of Ben’s contingent dug in deep in the brush and timber on the ridge, digging in carefully, doing so without disturbing the natural look of the terrain. The ridge afforded them the best vantage point they could find, in terms of defense. And to a person, they knew the upcoming battle must be a decisive victory.

  In front of them, at the base of the ridge, lay a small creek that would have to be forded by any attackers choosing a frontal assault. That would slow them considerably. To the rear was a long northeastward pointing finger of a lake. Ben doubted any type of amphibious assault would or could be launched against their position. To the east lay a tangle of thorny brush and marshland. The west was thick timber and undergrowth.

  Captain Rayle came to Ben’s side. Ben liked the young captain, for Rayle would speak his mind . . . respectfully. “At first I was dubious about your choice of a defendable position, sir,” he admitted. “Now I see you have chosen the best possible position in the entire forest.”

  “Thank you, Captain,” Ben replied, hiding his smile. He had not lowered his binoculars. He swept the land once more, in a slow half circle. Lowering the field glasses, he asked, “Everything shaping up, Captain?”

  “Yes, sir. We’ve hidden and camouflaged our vehicles well. Someone would have to literally walk right into them before they were detected. We hid them just off a fire road to our northeast, easily accessible when we decide to leave. We have .50-caliber machine guns facing in all directions, dug in. We’ve filled every container we could find from the surrounding towns with fresh water. It’s been tested and, to be on the safe side, we’re in the process of adding purification tablets. We have well-dug mortar pits completely circling the crest of the ridge. M-60s are supplementing the heavy .50s. At your orders, we have no Scouts out forward. All personnel are accounted for and dug in on this ridge, sir.”

  Ben could ask for no more than that. Captain Rayle’s report touched all bases. “Very good, Captain. How’s the food situation?”

  “More than adequate for a sustained assault, sir. I have people digging a medical bunker in the center of the ridge. Ms. Roth has taken charge of that, sir.”

  “I just bet she has,” Ben muttered.

  “Peg pardon, sir?”

  “Ah . . . nothing, Roger. Talking to myself, that’s all. Instruct your people there will be no firing until I give the word.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Very good, Roger. Now comes the most difficult part.”

  “Sir?”

  “The waiting.”

  THIRTEEN

  Tina had linked up with three other teams of Gray’s Scouts. They were now less than a mile from the outskirts of the Base Camp, spread out in a thin line to the north of the main complex of buildings. The radiopersons had changed crystals in their walkie-talkies so they could communicate without being detected by Willette’s people.

  “Big Momma?” the backpack radio crackled. “We have smoke to the west, and ... I guess some answering smoke from the east. You suppose that would be Wade and Ro talking to each other?”

  The two young men, Wade and Ro, and their youthful followers, most between the ages of ten and eighteen, had been, almost to a person, male and female, raised in the savage wilds of the ravaged land once known as America. They had grown thusfar without benefit of mother or father. Most could not read or write. Most did not know the meaning of the word “parent.” Love was something that was unknown to them, at least to the point where they could put that emotion into words. Happiness was not being hungry or alone or cold. They grew up eating whenever they could find food; knives and forks and spoons had been replaced by fingers. They carried what they owned on their backs.

  These young people had linked up with Ben Raines only a few months back, joining him to fight against the Russian, Striganov. These young people thought Ben Raines to be no less than a god. For all their young lives they had heard of the wonders performed by Gen. Ben Raines, of how the man could not be killed, how he was a nation-builder, how he fought a giant mutant and killed it with only a knife. So much more. They loved Ben Raines, and they were prepared to die for him.

  Many were so young in age, mere children, but they were oh-so-wise in the ways of survival. They knew the ways of the woods as well as any living thing, for until recently, that is where they lived, observing and imitating the ways of animals. Ro and his followers in the east, Wade and his followers to the west.

  Now they were preparing to make war against those who spoke harshly of General Raines and Colonel Ike and the other older, wiser men of the Rebels.

  “I would imagine so, Eagle Five,” Tina spoke into the mic. “Those kids are woods-wise and deadly when pushed. They can take care of themselves. I’m just glad they’re on our side.”

  “Eagle One, this is Eagle Six. We’ve been monitoring your exchanges. We have just moved into position on the south side of the camp. Do you have any firm plans?”

  “Affirmative, Eagle Six. We free the birds at 2000 hours tonight.”

  “Ten-four, Big Momma. We’ll begin neutralizing the guards on the south side beginningat 1958. Good luck. Eagle Six out.”

  Tina turned to a team member. “Take someone with you and try to make contact with Ro and Wade. Tell them what we’re planning and coordinate with them.”

  Two Scouts slipped silently into the deep timber.

  “Woods are too damn quiet,” Willette observed. He had been watching the timber through binoculars, attempting to detect some alien movement. He had been unable to spot anything out of the ordinary.

  “My guts tell me we’re being watched,” Carter said. “Small of my back is itchy.”

  Willette lowered the glasses. “Yeah. Me, too. We’re being watched from all sides. Something’s in the wind. Inform the people that the traitor, Tina Raines, and those who follow her will probably launch an attack tonight. They’ll be trying to free the other traitors. Tell them tonight will be a test of their loyalty. Tell them that while no one among us wants any bloodshed, that may not be possible under the circumstances. And be sure to add that all this is being done for General Raines
. Everything we do is for him. Those that choose to fight the traitors will be looked upon favorably in Ben Raines’ eyes.”

  Carter chuckled. “I never thought it would be this easy, Tom. It’s slick. Just as slick as owl’s shit.”

  “I only wish we had more people,” Willette said. “If we had one more company, victory would be assured. But I think we got it anyway.”

  “You want me to really fire ’em up, Tom?”

  “Yeah. Preach to them.” He laughed. “Divide and conquer. It works every time.”

  “Divide and conquer,” Carter repeated the words. “That’s good, Tom. Who said that?”

  “I think it was Robert E. Lee.”

  FOURTEEN

  Ike listened to more chatter on the walkie-talkie and looked at Nina, lying on her stomach by his side in the brush.

  “Blivit,” he said.

  “Blivit?”

  He grinned, the smile wiping years from his face. “Yeah. That’s an old military expression. Means ten pounds of shit in a five-pound bag. And that’s exactly what’s happenin’ right now.” He shook his head. “My God, how did this thing mushroom so rapidly? A few days ago, it was just rumors floatin’ around the camp. Now the new base is overrun, my buddies in lockup, and Ben is on the run. I should have shot that goddamn Willette ten minutes after he joined the convoy.”

  Nina suddenly tensed. “Ike?” she said, pointing through the thick brush. “Look over there. Almost directly in front of us.”

  Ike cut his eyes, not moving his head, for movement is picked up faster by experienced woodsmen than sound. A slow smile made its way across his lips. “Well, now,” he whispered.

  A half dozen men were standing in a knot, about a hundred and fifty yards from Ike and Nina. All the men were heavily armed. A voice, obviously agitated, reached them.

  “I tell you all, goddamnit, I heard voices a minute ago.”

  “Aw, horseshit, Al. Colonel McGowen and his pussy are miles from here. The forward team reported them moving north. If you heard any voices, you was hearin’ your own head talkin’ from all that moonshine whiskey you drunk last night.”

  The men laughed roughly.

  It was their last dirty bark of humor on this earth.

  Ike clicked his M-16 onto full auto, nestled the butt into his shoulder, and burned a full clip into the knot of Ninth Order. The black rifle did its work, the so-called “tumbling” bullets knocking the men off their feet, slamming and jerking them around like so many mindless marionettes, the strings of which were being manipulated by an insane puppeteer. The bullets spun the men into trees and stained the virgin ground beneath them with wet, sticky crimson.

  “Come on!” Ike said to Nina.

  Together, they finished the job, with a single bullet to the back of the head of any left alive. Working swiftly, they stripped the men of ammo, with Nina discarding her .270 for an M-16. They hung bandoleers of ammo about them like old-time Mexican bandits, the bandoleers crisscrossing their chests. The men all wore canteens full of water, attached to web belts; those went around the waists of Ike and Nina. Ike hooked a half dozen grenades to his new harness and gave several grenades to Nina, showing her how to hook them in place. He showed her how to work the additional walkie-talkie.

  “Now you have communications, Nina—in case we get separated. I’ll go over the nomenclature of the M-16 once we get some distance between us and them.” He pointed to the cooling carnage sprawled unsightly on the forest floor. “Let’s split, babe. Now we got some firepower.”

  “Can we run away now?” Lilli asked.

  The three young girls were playing dolls in Tony’s motel quarters outside Savannah. Lilli had seen dolls before, lying like shattered little beings amid the rubble of man’s hate and destruction, but the child had no earthly idea what one was supposed to do with them. Now it was kind of fun, dressing them up in little doll dresses. Once you knew where to look in the old stores, you could find all sorts of pretty things to dress up all kinds of dolls.

  “We’re guarded,” Ann flatly informed her. “And the windows is barred and the doors got special locks on them. We can’t get out. These three rooms,” she said, pointing left and right, to the adjoining motel rooms, “is it. You still hurtin’?” she asked Lilli.

  “Some. But it’s better. It really hurt when Tony done it to me. I’m gonna tell ya’ll something: I don’t like that Patsy woman none at all. She done things to me made me feel ... well, kinda dirty. You know what I mean?”

  “She done it to me, too,” Peg said. “It don’t hurt, but I don’t like it.”

  Ann said nothing about the cruel woman called Patsy. Patsy had forced the girl to have sex with her more than once, with Tony watching one time. And she had forced Ann to strap on a huge penis and act like a man. That’s when Ann really began scheming and plotting ways to escape. But first she wanted to somehow hurt Tony as badly as he had hurt her. She already thought she knew how she was going to get even with that Patsy woman.

  “What’s wrong with you, Ann?” Lilli asked. “Your face looked funny for a minute.”

  “Yeah,” Peg said. “You sure are quiet.”

  “Just thinkin’ about ways for us to get out. I can’t come up with nothing yet. But I will. I betcha on that.”

  A key rattled in the lock and the door swung open. A burly man stood in the open doorway, grinning lewdly at the three young girls. “Shuck outta them jeans, babies,” he said. “Patsy’s on the way up here with another chick. And I’m gonna watch the action. Hell, I might decide to join in. I ain’t had me no young gash in a while.”

  Lilli began weeping, her face pressed into her hands. The man stepped to the bed and slapped the girl, knocking her to the carpet. He jerked up one of her dolls and savagely twisted the head from it. The doll made a momma-momma sound. He dropped the head to the floor, where it bounced into a corner.

  “Don’t you hurt my dolly!” Lilli screamed.

  The man laughed at her, then looked at the other girls. “How’d you like for me to take all your dollies away from you?”

  “No!” the girls cried.

  “Then git naked, babies. All of you. Show me the bare butts and pussies.”

  FIFTEEN

  The first team of Gray’s Scouts ran into a patrol just inside the main compound. A patrol of coup members, leaving for a nighttime search of the immediate woods rounded a corner and came face to face with the Scouts.

  Jimmy Paul, leader of the Eagle team, did not have time to raise his M-16.

  “Traitors!” the coup member screamed at the Scouts. The leader lifted his sawed-off ten-gauge shotgun and pulled the trigger, blowing Jimmy’s belly out his back, part of the stomach lining wrapping around the backbone, ripping and tearing out the stomach along with several yards of intestines.

  The patrol and the Scouts blasted away at each other at point-blank range. No one among either side survived the encounter.

  The camp erupted in gunfire, the muzzle blasts pocking the night like a Fourth of July celebration planned and executed by a pyromaniac with a full arsenal at his command.

  Jumping to his booted feet before the first echoes of gunfire died away, Colonel Gray shouted, “Now!” He hit the detonator, activating the C-4. The cell door lock blew apart. Other explosions rocked the old jail as cell locks were shattered. Gray, Juan, Cecil, Mark and Peggy stepped out into the smoky runaround of the cellblock. Mark was armed with an MM-10 machine pistol.

  “I’ll take the point,” he yelled, running toward the still-locked door to the cellblock. He held a block of C-4 in one hand.

  Before he reached the door, it swung open, two armed coup members stepping into the smoky hall. Firing one-handed, Mark pulled the trigger, fighting the rise of the weapon. The slugs jerked the pair backward in a macabre dance of pain and death. Mark tossed one of their M-16s to Colonel Gray, the other to Cecil. He ripped off their ammo pouches and threw them over his shoulder toward the newly freed prisoners. Dan and Cecil caught the full pouches and slung
the straps over their shoulder.

  Peggy Jones leveled her pistol and shot a young coup member between the eyes just as he rounded a corner, an AK-47 at the ready. He slumped back against the wall and slid downward, blood and brains leaking from the back of his head, staining the old brick of the jail.

  “Take his weapon, Juan!” she yelled, as the hallway filled with coup members.

  Gunfire ripped from the coup members’ rifles and pistols. Peggy went down, a bullet in her side. Juan jerked up the Kalashnikov assault rifle and swept the hallway clean, using a clip of 7.62 ammo, the slugs slamming young coup members right and left, filling the hall with smoke and pain and the odor of blood and death.

  “I’m OK!” Peggy yelled. “The slug just grazed me. It went clear through.” She tore off her shirt tail and the belt from a dead man to fix a quick pressure bandage.

  “Let’s go!” Dan shouted, pushing through the stalled crowd, jumping over the body-littered hallway.

  Outside the jail, the situation was chaotic, with no one really knowing who was friend or foe. Coup members were firing wildly in the darkness, many times the bullets hitting their own people.

  And Abe Lancer and his men were massing to free those men and women and children held inside the football stadium.

  “Anything moving?” Ben asked the young guard.

  The young Rebel, attached to Captain Rayle’s command, almost jumped out of his boots.

  “Jesus Christ!” he said. “No, sir.” He calmed himself, taking several deep breaths of the cool night air. “God, sir, you move like a ghost. I didn’t even hear you come up behind me. How do you do that, sir?”

  Ben laughed softly and patted the young man’s shoulder. “Settle down, son,” he told him. “They’re not here yet. The attack will probably start no sooner than ten o’clock tomorrow.”