“And then?” Khamsin asked.
“We return to the lower forty-eight and kick the snot out of Ben Raines and his Rebels.”
“It’s time for us to haul our asses outta here,” Red Manlovich told his people. “We’ve had a good thing goin’ for a good many years. Now it’s over. Thanks to that goddamned Ben Raines.”
“Pull out to where?” Red was asked. “There ain’t no place safe no more.”
“Yeah,” another said. “Utah sure ain’t safe. Them goddamn Mormons is worser than Ben Raines.”
“Nobody is as bad as Raines,” Red said. “That ain’t possible. We’ll just slide on over into Oregon and work our way up to Alaska. Ever’body I’ve talked to says Raines ain’t interested in Alaska. So I reckon that’s where we’ll head. Pack it up, boys. We’re gettin’ gone from this place.”
“How?” he was asked. “Them damn Rebels done sealed off ever’ damn road all around us.”
“All the main roads, Jackie. The main roads. But we know roads them bastards don’t even know exist. It’ll take us awhile, but we’ll get out. We just got to be careful and take our time. Let’s do it.”
“Go,” Ben gave the orders.
The airport had been cleared and the big guns began roaring, sending their lethal loads crashing and roaring into Boise. A light rain was falling as the artillery opened up.
Trapped inside the city, the Night People cursed Ben Raines; they were unable to do much else, for Ben did not commit troops when he could use artillery to destroy an enemy.
The savage bombardment ripped the morning as Ben gave the creepies all the fury he could muster from every gun at his disposal. Stretched out along the Interstate, the guns of Ben Raines soon had the downtown area flaming as Willie Peter and Napalm turned the buildings into infernos, driving the creepies into the street, where antipersonnel shells exploded and ripped their flesh with shrapnel.
The Rebels had the battle plan worked out to perfection; none of them had to be told their jobs. All around the besieged city the Rebels had set up ambush and sniper points and machine gun emplacements. The creepies had no place to run except straight into the outstretched arms of death.
Ben ordered his people in closer, working the shattered, smoking, and oftentimes still burning streets like a grid, flushing out those creepies who thought they could hide and be safe from the guns of the Rebels. Most were wrong in that thinking.
The Rebels hunted them down ruthlessly and killed them without pity or remorse. The Godless cannibals did not cry out for help as they lay wounded. They knew better. For the Rebels would not show them one morsel of compassion. The only soothing balm the creepies could expect from Ben Raines’s Rebels was a bullet to the head. And any wounded creepie the Rebels came up on got just that.
The creepies’ last act of desperation came when they tried to make a deal with Ben.
“Let us go and we’ll tell you the locations of all our breeding farms and holding pens around the nation,” a Judge radioed from the burning city.
Ben’s eyes were killing cold as he listened to the message being repeated. He smiled at Corrie. “Tell the gunners to cease firing.”
Boise fell eerily silent as Ben consulted a map.
“Are you accepting our offer?” a Judge radioed.
“Tell him I’m thinking about it,” Ben said. “And to shut up until he hears from me.”
The message was related.
“Get voice-stress equipment up here,” Ben ordered. “And a qualified operator with it.”
When the equipment was in place, Ben said, “Get the bastard on the horn.”
“Yes, General Raines?” the Judge spoke.
“Go to CB equipment,” Ben told him. “I would imagine you don’t want your fellow Night People around the country to know what you’re doing, right?”
“That is correct, sir.”
Low power CB’s were hooked up.
“If I think your information is valid,” Ben radioed, “I’ll let you walk. You and your . . . people will use Capitol and Americana to cross the river and get out. Those will be your only exits. Is that clear?”
“Yes, General.”
Ben turned to Buddy. “Set up machine gun emplacements at the intersections along Crescent Rim Drive. Go!” Ben looked at Corrie. “Tell the bastard to start talking and record all this.”
After a moment, the PSE operator nodded his head. “He’s telling the truth, General.”
“That’s nice. Very cooperative fellow. It’s refreshing to meet someone who keeps his word.”
Jersey and the others laughed. They knew Ben wasn’t about to let the creepies go free.
“Every city in Washington seems to be full of the bastards,” Ben said. “Goddamnit, we were led to believe that the Seattle area took a nuke. Now we’re learning that it’s clean. Did any area take a hot strike in the Great War?”
“Kansas City and the Washington/Baltimore area are the only ones that have been confirmed,” Jerre said. “Now I’m curious about Europe.”
“So am I. Even the areas we’ve avoided because the government threw up Hot Zone warnings are beginning to intrigue me. To declare L.A. hot would be one way to keep any people out, wouldn’t it? Oh, shit, if what I’m thinking is true . . .” But he would not say his thoughts aloud.
“What do you mean, General?” Cooper asked.
Ben was silent for a moment before sharing part of his thoughts. “I think that goddamned general at Shaw AFB lied to me years back. He told me . . . no, he didn’t,” Ben muttered. “He just implied that many cities had been hit. The government lied to the people. Deliberately lied.” He laughed bitterly. “Hell, what else is new? Kansas City is hot; that’s a fact. We know that. And we know that Washington is hot. But everything else is clean!”
Ben turned and put his hands on Jerre’s shoulders, gripping them hard. It was the first time he had physically touched her in a long time, other than tossing her to one side during an ambush. “Do you know what this news means?”
“Ben, you’re hurting my shoulders! Ease up, please.”
He laughed and let up on the pressure. “Sorry, kid.”
“What does it mean, Ben?”
“It means . . . there was a massive cover-up, but one within a cover-up. President Hilton Logan was fed misinformation, and he took the bait.”
“Fed it by whom, and why?” she questioned. “Who would do it. It would have to be someone very close to the man, right?”
“Probably. And certainly someone who shared the beliefs of the Night People. We’ve learned that the creepie movement is about fifty years old. That’s a fact. So that means that probably people in congress were actually closet-cannibals; practicing this . . . bizarre religion while they were supposed to be representing the people. Not only here, in America, but all around the world.”
“General,” Jersey said. “That means . . .” She trailed it off.
“Yes. It was a hoax. A massive, sick, and very ugly hoax on the part of our leaders; leaders from all around the world. Corrie, radio Buddy and tell him to abort the ambush. Tell him that I want these people alive. I want every shred of information they’ve got stored in their heads.”
“Ten-four, sir.”
Dan had returned from the rescuing of the men and women and children at the breeding farm. He had heard Ben talking and hypostatizing. And the news had shaken even his usually calm demeanor.
“They were neutron bombs, General. Not hot, but clean. Destroy the people, but not the cities. Maybe a half dozen very limited nukes were detonated around the world. Only two here in the States.”
“Yes, Dan. That’s what I’m thinking. L.A., Seattle, Miami, those cities were hit by clean bombs; very low level strikes. Then the creepies surfaced and moved in. What an ugly, profane joke to play on the decent peoples of the world.”
“London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Dublin, Geneva, Moscow,” Doctor Chase muttered. “All the great old cities of the world and the huge cities in America. They�
��re still standing.”
“Yes,” Ben said. “Havens for Night People. That was the plan all along. And we bought it. All of us. We were so accustomed to Big Brother’s slop from the mouth, we all bought it. Hell, we didn’t even question it! That was why the relocation plan went into effect. To hide the truth from the people. And I’ll bet you all every damn country around the globe did the same thing. It was an international hoax.”
“Ben,” Jerre said softly. “If that is true, and I suspect it is, that means there are, at the most, eight or ten thousand of us, and millions of Night People around the globe.”
“Yes. Hundreds of thousands of them right here in good ol’ America. That’s why we don’t see many survivors. That’s why those still alive are afraid to approach us. They don’t know what side we’re on.”
“What do you mean, Ben?” Chase asked.
“The creepies are constantly working the countryside, rounding up people.”
“At night,” Dan added. “Probably always working at night.”
“General,” Beth said. “Those uniforms we found in New York City. The creepies are wearing uniforms just like ours.”
“Yes. Telling the people they’re Rebels and then when they’ve won their trust, they grab them.”
“To eat,” Dan finished it.
NINE
“You tricked me,” the Judge said, staring balefully at Ben. “I was told you were not a man of your word.”
“I’m fighting a war, whatever-your-name-is. Not running the Boy Scouts. But I’m curious as to who told you that.”
The Judge did not miss the very obvious fact that Ben was pulling on thick leather gloves although the day was warm and it didn’t appear very likely that General Raines was preparing to go work in a garden or change a flat tire on a vehicle. The Judge had a pretty good idea that what was going to happen was Ben beating the shit out of him if he didn’t tell the truth.
“We don’t have to resort to violence, General. I’ll tell you.”
“I’m waiting.”
“It’s doubtful you will remember him. He was a man who tried to live in your old Tri-States but simply could not abide by the rules.”
“Name?”
“I . . . think his name was Peter something. He is dead.”
“By your hand.”
“Yes.”
“And then you had him for dinner.”
“Lunch, actually.”
Ben suppressed a shudder at the man’s cold reply. He was not trying to make a joke. He was deadly serious. “Where did this . . . movement, this religion of yours have its beginning?”
“I was told it began in the forties. Before I was born. I suspect it began long before that. But its roots are in California.”
A light sprang into Ben’s.
“Yes,” the Judge said, seeing the glimmer of understanding in Ben’s eyes. “Los Angeles.”
“Pieces of the puzzle are beginning to fall into place. I had guessed L.A. Go on.”
“By the mid to late 1960s, many were groping for something to believe in. They came to us. Already the group was big and growing larger very rapidly. It was inevitable that people of power would join.”
Ben nodded his head. Everything was falling into place. And he had guessed very accurately. “Give me some names and positions of people in power.”
“Names are unimportant now, are they not?” the Judge asked. “Most are dead. We had United States senators and representatives among us. Police chiefs and sheriffs. Military people. Mayors and city council members. State senators and representatives. Millionaires and paupers. Housewives and CEO’s. Young and old.”
“How did you get them in? Nobody in their right mind would willingly accept such a life as yours.”
The Judge smiled at the slur. “General, we are now in our third generation of Believers.”
“Believers?”
“You call us the Night People. A misnomer. We are the Believers.”
“Go on.”
“Drugs, General. It’s easy to find recruits among those hooked on drugs. And easier still to keep them.”
“You bastards! You people controlled the flow of drugs into America.”
“Oh, not just America, General. The world. Certainly, we did. And still do, to a large degree.”
Ben recalled back in the Midwest; the woman telling him about drugs, and something dark stirred in his mind.
“You people are not just in the cities, are you?”
“No. That is something you people dreamed up, General, and we let the myth continue. We are in cities and hamlets. Urban and rural.”
“Everywhere.”
The Judge nodded his head.
“Miami?”
“Alive and doing very well.”
“I’ve sent fly-bys over that city! The pilots reported a dead city. Destroyed.”
“It appears that way only during the day, General. Not at night. Parts of that city, and others thought to be hot, have been destroyed. But only small parts of them. You yourself concluded years back that few nuclear bombs were used in the Great War; that most were germ and neutron. You were right.”
“And how I wish I wasn’t.”
“You won’t win, General. You have made small gains, yes. But you can’t win in the long run. We are too many and growing.”
“Yeah,” Ben said, disgust thick in his voice. “By feeding off the population.”
The Judge shrugged. “It is our way of life and we are entitled to it.”
“Are you saying you have a right to eat other people!”
“Of course. We don’t subscribe to your silly concept of God and Jesus and life after death and all the rest of that absurd bullshit. This is all there is, General. When one is dead, one is dead. Period. The only rules one must follow are the ones he or she believe in.”
The Believers.”
“Precisely.”
“Obviously you and your followers don’t believe in it too strongly, or you wouldn’t have offered me the deal you did.”
“Let’s just say I’m flexible.”
Ben stared at the cannibal and the man stared back, no fear in him. He pointed to the equipment and to the mic in front of the Judge. “You know we can tell if you are lying or telling the truth.”
“I am aware of that.”
“Your answer to the next question I ask will determine if you live or die. Be aware of that.”
For the first time, Ben saw a flicker of fear dance across the man’s eyes. “All right, General. I fully understand.”
“You’d damn well better understand,” Ben warned. “If I cut you loose, will you return to the ways of the Believers? Yes or no.”
“I cannot answer that question.”
“Why?”
“I must have time to think on it. You’re asking me to change a life-style that I have practiced virtually all my life.”
“A life-style that is wrong, damnit!”
“I was taught that it was right.”
“You cannot believe that the eating of human flesh is in any way right.”
“But I do.”
“Is that your answer.”
“I will not change, General.”
“That’s firm?”
“That is firm.”
Ben looked at the man and shook his head. “You just signed your own death warrant.”
Ben and the Rebels waited until the area had burned down to the point where it presented no danger of spreading before pulling out. He then ordered all troops in the southern part of the state to begin working their way north. Search and destroy.
Some of the buoyancy had gone from the Rebels after hearing of the massive numbers of Believers still alive, not just in America, but around the world. But the missing buoyancy was quickly replaced by a feeling of determination and resolve. All right, so the battle isn’t very nearly over, as we thought. We’ll just keep on fighting until we win, was the single thought in Rebel minds. The thugs and outlaws and punks and creepies are
wrong, we’re right, and with the help of God, we’ll win.
So let’s go!
The Rebels never missed a bet on their move up north. They checked out every road, paved, gravel, dirt, or grass — if it looked as though it had been recently traveled — all the way to trail’s end. And in doing so, they made some thugs and outlaws who thought they were safe very unhappy for a moment, and very dead for a long time.
Ben had taken his contingent north by Route 95, while Ike had taken Highway 55 which connected with 95 at New Meadows. Ben would send troops checking out county roads to the east while Ike sent troops to the west. Five and Six Battalions had already cleared everything in their sector along Highway 93. They had backtracked into Montana and picked up Highway 473, which ran west for a few miles before turning into an unimproved road, which eventually and very slowly, would take them to Highway 14 at Elk City.
Ted Ashworth had seen the writing on the wall and had packed up and pulled out of Lewiston, slipping across the border into Washington and taking his outlaws with him. Ted wanted no part of Ben Raines and his Rebels.
North of him, Larry Rafford had different thoughts, those thoughts brought on with a slick and quiet maneuver from General Striganov.
“Goddamn Russian bastard!” Rafford cursed, after his patrols west out of the city came staggering back in, all shot to hell and gone.
Georgi, with time on his hands and nothing to do except wait for Ben to push north, had sent the troops under the command of Rebet and Danjou first west into Washington, and then south down to between Spokane and Coeur d’Alene, sealing off any escape by Rafford.
Danjou’s men had blocked all exits west from the Washington state side, while Rebet had placed his troops in a defensive line against possible attack from the creepies in Spokane.
Larry Rafford’s arrogance had sealed his fate.
Ben cut off Highway 95 and took a rutted old county road west, which finally changed to blacktop, and came up under Lewiston from the south. Ike took his troops on up 95, crossed the river, and pulled up on the east side of Lewiston.
Survival in the Ashes Page 20
