“Do you suppose your friends down in the town would like something to eat?” Ben asked, sitting down at the table with a cup of coffee.
“I ‘magine,” the girl said. “They ain’t nothin’ to eat on in the town. Them people’s poorer than us.”
“Yeah,” the boy said. “All they got is some bread, and not much of that.”
Ben was silent for a time, watching the hungry kids wolf down their food. They were just kids; they both had milk mustaches.
When they had slowed in chowing down, Ben asked, “You been in the outlaw business long, kids?”
“We been survivin’ ever since I can remember,” the boy said. “Runnin’ from slavers, runnin’ from them cannibals, runnin’ from men who want to do bad things to us. All the time runnin’. Finally we come up on Bennie. Then we found some more kids and hooked up with them. Then the Yanks invaded and there was guns everyplace. We pick ’em up when we find ’em. You’re General Ben Raines, ain’t you?”
“Yes. I am.”
“You gonna kill us?” the girl asked.
“Of course not,” Ben said with a smile. “I’m not here to hurt innocent people. Only bad people.”
“Well, you found an island with a shitpot full of ’em,” the boy said.
Dan had changed into dry clothing and walked up. The girl spotted him first. “Uh-oh,” she said. “I think we’re in trouble, Jackie.”
“No, you’re not,” Dan said, smiling at them. “Not unless you were behind that machine gun, shooting at me.”
“Oh, no. That wasn’t us. We’re not big enough to handle it,” the girl said.
“What are your names?” Ben asked.
“He’s Jackie,” the girl said, jerking a thumb at the boy. “I’m Lacy.”
“No last names?” Dan asked, taking a seat.
Lacy shrugged her slender shoulders. “We don’t know them if we have any.”
“Dear God,” Dan said.
“God?” Jackie spat out the word. “There ain’t no God, mister. All that talk is nothin’ but sheep-shit.”
“We can talk about that later,” Ben said, noting the shocked look on Dan’s face at the boy’s outburst. “Lacy, tell me something, please. And tell me the truth.”
“You want to know if we hurt anybody down in that town, right?”
“You’re very quick. Yes. That’s part of what I’d like to know.”
“Naw. We didn’t hurt nobody. We ain’t never hurt no good people. We wasn’t even gonna take their food, ‘cause they had so little of it. Bennie’s scared of you and your soldiers, though. He’s . . . well, he’s about half crazy. He’s the oldest. He’s about... oh, twelve, I guess. The cannibals, they eat his parents. Him and his sister escaped and the gangs caught them. They done bad things to both Bennie and his sister. They left him in a ditch thinkin’ he was about dead. He ain’t never seen his sister since then. What they done to him, I guess it messed up his head. He don’t trust no full-growed person. I asked him once what he was gonna do when he growed up. He went crazy, sort of. Screamin’ and hollerin’ and jumpin’ up and down. Then he just fell down on the ground and went to jerkin’ and foamin’ at the mouth and then got stiff as a board. Then pretty soon he just got up and went on about his business.”
“He’s sick, Lacy,” Ben said. “He probably has what is known as epilepsy. We have medication for that. But how would we get it to him?”
“No. He ain’t got that neither. What he’s got is a big knot on the side of his head. And it gets bigger ever’ month. Right here.” She pointed to her temple.
“Tumor,” Dan said. “He’s probably epileptic as well.”
Ben nodded his agreement. Jackie was busy working on his second plate of food. Lacy said, “Stop that, Jackie. You’ll get sick and you know it.” When he continued gobbling down the food, she jerked the plate from him just as Buddy walked up and whispered in his father’s ear.
“All right,” Ben said. “Do it.”
Buddy walked away.
Ben smiled at Lacy. Her hair was so dirty he couldn’t tell what color it was. “How would you kids like a hot bath and clean clothing?”
Lacy narrowed her eyes. “Let me tell you something, General. I ain’t no whoor and I ain’t suckin’ dicks for food or clothin’, neither.”
“Good Lord!” Dan said, jumping up from the chair.
“Hey,” Lacy said, cocking her head and staring strangely at Dan. “Where are you people from, anyways? How do you figure a lot of kids stay alive ‘ceptin’ by usin’ their bodies? But I tell you what: I can write my name and read some words. I taught myself that.”
A lot of Rebels had gathered around, silently listening to the words of the kids.
“That’s good, Lacy,” Ben said, his voice husky. He cleared his throat. “Lacy, no one here is going to molest you or make any kind of sexual suggestion to you or to Jackie or to any child, for that matter. We no longer tolerate that kind of behavior in America. People who molest children don’t live very long in the new society. All I asked was if you would like a hot bath and some clean clothing.”
“I sure would,” Jackie said. “I got fleas on me and I stink.”
Lacy stared at Ben through wise eyes. “You’re not a devil.”
Ben laughed. “Well, now, some people might disagree with you on that. But who told you I was a devil?”
“Bennie.”
“Well, Bennie is an awfully sick boy. And if he’ll let us, we’ll help him.”
“He won’t,” Jackie said. He reached for the plate of food that Lacy had taken from him and she slapped his hand away. “I’m still hungry!” he protested.
“Save it for later. They’ll be a lot more hungry times, boy-o.”
“No, there won’t,” Dan said, his voice surprisingly gentle. “Your hungry days are over.”
Jersey smiled at Lacy and the girl returned the smile.
Jersey stood up, walked around the table, and held out her hand. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.”
Dan held out his hand to Jackie. “Come on, lad. It’s bath time for you.”
Both kids stood up and turned to go. Lacy paused and looked back at Ben. “You sent that handsome young man off to take the town, didn’t you?”
“He’s my son, Lacy. And yes, I did. But it will be done without anyone being hurt. I promise you that.”
“I don’t know why I believe you, but I do.” She and Jersey strolled off toward a hot bath.
Jackie jerked away from Dan and made another grab for the plate of food and Ben snatched it away just in time. “You’ll have plenty of food later on, Jackie. You, and all your friends down in the town. That’s a promise.”
“We ain’t the only ones hungry in this land,” the boy replied.
“I know.”
When Ben again saw Jackie, about an hour later, he at first didn’t recognize him as the boy walked hand in hand with Dan.
Rebels began bringing snatched and gagged kids out of the town, some of them kicking and biting and scratching, most of them coming along peacefully as they realized the Rebels, who had slipped up on them like ghosts, were not going to hurt them. They were first fed, then deloused and bathed, then they received haircuts and clean, fresh clothing. Clothing for the kids was beginning to be a problem because of their size, so Rebels took out needle and scissors and thread and began altering spare uniforms and what civilian clothing they had with them.
When the young General Bennie Mays began an inspection of the town he thought was his, he was shocked to find that the only territory he now controlled comprised about one block on the edge of the village and his troops now numbered seven. Behind him lay a solid line of Rebels. He was so frustrated he put his swollen head down on a stone and wept.
“Come on, Bennie,” a girl’s voice reached him through amplification. “These people ain’t gonna hurt nobody. They’re real nice folks. They done give us food and clothes and treated us right. Give it up, Bennie. They got doctors who say they’ll help you
r head.”
“Turn the machine gun around and kill them Rebels who slipped up behind us,” Bennie ordered through his tears.
But his troops refused. “We’re givin’ it up, Bennie,” an older boy said. “All of us. Chuck just jammed the big gun. It ain’t gonna work no more. It’s busted.”
“You try to walk away from me and I’ll kill you!” Bennie raged through his aching head.
“Then you ain’t no better than the people who’s been chasin’ us all this time,” another boy said.
“I didn’t mean it,” Bennie said, laying his pistol on the ground. “I didn’t mean it. I’m scared.”
They argued for a few moments, not paying any attention to their surroundings. When they looked up again, they were completely ringed by Rebels.
“Steady now, boys,” Buddy said. “Keep your guns on the ground and stand up slow. We have hot food, clean clothing, and baths waiting for you. You’re safe now. Everything is all right. I promise you.” He waved another contingent of Rebels forward.
The boys had never seen so many soldiers. It seemed to them they were looking at thousands. Actually, it was only about twenty-four hundred making up the three battalions. But to the kids it was much more than that.
They surrendered without incident. Even Bennie was awed by the Rebels. The Rebel doctors checked Bennie and after a bath, sent him back to the main hospital after alerting a neurosurgery team. They gave him a tablet that soon put him to sleep so the helicopter ride would not frighten him to death.
Ben rode into the small town and talked with the people there. They were in very bad shape, with no food, and until the Rebels arrived, no hope of finding any. It was late fall in England; the winds were cold, and soon snows would fly. The punks and crud had taken everything the villagers had grown that summer, leaving them nothing.
Ben sent the kids to the rear, left a team behind in the town to assist the villagers, and pushed on.
All over England, Rebels were finding the most appalling of conditions among the survivors. It was not that the people did not have the will to fight, for they certainly did, they just didn’t have anything to fight with. When the world fell apart a decade back, those of a criminal nature sought out and found guns by raiding military armories and police stations, or just killing those who had guns and taking them.
The governments of America, Canada, England, France, Germany, and many other countries had banned the personal ownership of firearms, so when the Great War came, the law-abiding citizens of those countries got what they always got from big governments: fucked.
And the lawless took over.
“Corrie,” Ben said. “Order every ship that can sail to put to sea and bring back food and clothing and blankets and fuel. We’ll divert some of the materials that were to go to Ireland over here. We’re going to need massive shipments of medicines, including vitamins. We’re going to need flour . . . oh, shit! We need everything.”
In the cities, in now armed and fortified camps of the creeps and crud and human garbage, the warlords monitored the almost stalled advance of the Rebels. They knew that once the Rebels personally witnessed the terrible conditions in which the lawless had left the citizens, they would be fighting with deep rage in them. There would be no mercy, no pity, no compassion shown the lawless.
The thugs listened to their shortwave radios and cringed at the news: Pontypool, Wales. Hanged ten this day. Ross On Wye. Shot twelve. Tiverton. Executed nine.
“Where in the hell is the lawyers and appeals and such?” a thug questioned.
“I think they’re keeping their heads down and their mouths shut,” another punk answered. “I think Ben Raines would just as soon shoot a lawyer as he would us.”
“When’s he gonna come at us?” Butch Smathers was asked.
“We’re last,” Butch said. “Raines is gonna save us for last, knowin’ that our food supply will be down to nothing in the dead of winter. We’ll be cold and hungry, and our morale will be low. Oh, he’s a smart one, he is. He’s a black-hearted, ruthless man for sure, when it comes to dealin’ with the likes of us. We got to start killin’ dogs and cats and rats and smokin’ and jerkin’ the meat. Tell them in the countryside to start roundin’ up all the cows and sheep and drivin’ them close to the city for pasture. It’s gonna be a cold winter, mates.”
Ben was studying maps when Ike and West walked into his CP and poured coffee. A heavy mantle of frost had covered the land that morning, and Rebels were in winter clothes.
“It’s gettin’ plumb borin’ out there, Ben,” the Mississippi-born-and-reared Ike said. “Resistance is the lightest I’ve ever seen it. Went all day yesterday without firin’ a shot.”
“Yes,” Ben said. “But we’ve still got about seventy percent of the nation to clean up. Look here. Our recon flights show a battle line stretching north to south from Burnham Market down to Brighton. I think Butch’s plan is to have the people still occupying the larger cities to fall back as we take over, then they’ll hold while London is evacuated by sea.”
“And they’ll do that under the blanket of the nastiest, foulest weather,” Dan added, sipping a cup of tea. “Our gunships will be grounded and we don’t have enough patrol boats yet to be very effective. Smathers is a thug and a killer, but he is anything but a fool.”
“Reading between the lines, you’ve found something more about him.”
“All of it unpleasant. He’s ex-army. Paratroops. Went to a lot of special schools, most of them dealing with antiterrorist movements. He was in Northern Ireland. The military had to pull him out; he was too quick to shoot, and enjoyed inflicting pain on people. But the real reason they pulled him out was because he raped a thirteen-year-old girl. He claimed he was interrogating her; Army doctors confirmed she had been raped and sodomized. He was court-martialed and ordered cashiered out of the service. But before that could happen, the world blew up in everybody’s face. There is more, if you wish to hear it.”
“I’ve heard enough now to look for a corner to puke in,” Ben said.
“Yes,” West said. “What a delightful person. I’ve done some terrible things in my life, but I rather like to believe I conducted myself in an honorable fashion.” He smiled. “Most of the time.”
“Let me add just one more thing,” Dan said. “The man has the I.Q. of a genuis.”
“That’s not surprising,” Lamar Chase said. “Many criminals do. All kinds of theories about that — which I shall not go into at this time.”
“Thank the Lord for small favors,” Ike said.
Dr. Chase smiled sweetly at him. The smile resembled that of a weasel leaving a henhouse. “Isn’t it about time for your annual hemorrhoid check, Ike?”
“That’s your ass, Lamar!” Ike told him.
“No,” Chase replied. “That your ass, sailor.”
“I got to go,” Ike said, standing up. “See you people.”
He vacated the room to the sounds of Chase chuckling.
“You wouldn’t really do that to Ike, would you, Lamar?” Ben asked.
Chase smiled again. Very sweetly.
“Yeah, you would,” Ben muttered.
Six
Slowly the Rebels began working their way north and Thermopolis and his Eight Battalion joined with Ben and his command as they worked their way toward Birmingham. Wales was now a secure area. And a well-armed area. Ships were docking daily, bringing in much-needed food and clothing and medicines and blankets and fuel.
Ben had ordered the battalions of the Free Irish, along with Danjou’s Seven, Rebet’s Six, and two battalions of the BRF, to face off against those punks, crud, and crap who had strung out along Butch’s battle lines north to south, and not to let anyone through from the west. He told the batt coms to heavily arm each village they cleared and to alert the people about what they were doing.
Ben had a hunch that the villagers would take care of any retreating punks long before they ever reached the Rebel positions.
That news did not surpris
e Butch Smathers. “Oh, that Raines is a sly one, love,” he said to Lulu. “And low-down dirty mean, too.”
“Let’s get out, Butch,” Lulu urged. “Just say to hell with it and leave.”
Butch shook his head. “Raines is keeping his helicopters and spotter planes in the air over the channel twenty-four hours a day, baby. And he’s taking his good time in getting to us. He’s deliberately letting us sweat. That’s a wicked man, Lulu.”
Lulu was scared and made no attempt to hide it. Butch put an arm around her waist. “I’ve got a plan, baby. Some of us are going to make it. Not a great lot, but some of us. We’ll get out. I promise you.”
The thought of changing their lives and becoming law-abiding citizens never entered the mind of either of them.
The battalions of Rebels and the ever-growing numbers of the British Resistance Forces ringed the city of Birmingham. No one was getting out, and only the Rebels and the BRF wanted in. Coventry, Nuneaton, Dudley, and Walsall had fallen to the Rebels. South of them, punks and crud and creeps had fled east, toward London. But they found their way blocked by troops. They tried to overtake villages and towns and were shot to pieces by the townspeople. Those taken alive were hanged.
The citizens of England had endured too many years of abuse at the hands of the lawless to forget or forgive. Already, even before the land was cleared of the criminal element, people were rewriting the law books and electing officials and setting up police forces. But as Ben Raines had done over in the Colonies, the laws would be few, they would be clearly understood, they would not be ponderous; and the police, for the most part, would be used to come in after the fact, gather up the bodies of those who could not or would not obey even the simplest of laws, and leave.
And as in America, there were those who did not agree with the new order and refused to adopt the harsh measures. That was their right and no one tried to stop them. No one helped them, either. They were cold stone alone in hard times. They received no aid from the Rebels: no food, no blankets, no grain, no medical aid for the adults, no nothing. The Rebels owned the bat, the ball, and the glove — you could either play the game their way, or go home.
Terror in the Ashes Page 19
