From The Ashes: America Reborn

by William W. Johnstone

  TWENTY-ONE

  I was surprised, very surprised. Actually, astonished might better sum up what I felt when I entered the main building of the home for the elderly.

  There were young people all over the place: talking with the elderly, helping them, playing various games with the elderly.

  WWJ: Is this punishment for the kids?

  Ben Raines: Hardly. They’re volunteers. Some of them are going into the nursing field, some plan on becoming paramedics, some are planning on becoming doctors. But all of them are good kids.

  WWJ: General, do you have any bad kids in the SUSA?

  Ben Raines (laughing): Sure, we do. But our percentage is far lower than outside our borders. These kids are just giving something back to society, that’s all.

  WWJ: And they’re doing it on a voluntary basis?

  Ben Raines: They sure are. These kids are old enough to remember what it was like before the SUSA was solidly in place. They remember the hard, mean, bitter times.

  WWJ: And their children and grandchildren, too.

  Ben Raines: The SUSA won’t be around that long.

  The General’s reply was very softly given as we stood in the polished halls of the home for the elderly.

  WWJ: You seem awfully certain of that, General.

  Ben Raines: Oh, I am. As I have stated before: there won’t be anything left in what used to be called the United States of America. Nothing but hundreds of small bands of very strong, determined people, ready to start rebuilding from out of the ashes of war.

  I felt a slow chill work its way up and down my spine at his words. There was not a doubt in my mind but what he meant every word. I cleared my throat and said, “Let’s hope that day is a long time coming.”

  Ben replied, “It will come in a few years. Let those outside our borders grow a bit stronger, and they’ll try something.”

  He smiled at a young volunteer who was pushing an elderly gentleman’s wheelchair and said, “Come on. I’ll introduce you around, then I’ve got to find the boys and get our game going.”

  WWJ: Your game?

  Ben Raines: When I’m home, I come out every week and play a round or two of croquet with the boys.

  I stared at the general for a moment, not sure I had really heard him correctly. One of the most feared men on the planet was about to play croquet?

  Ben Raines: I happen to like the game of croquet. We used to play it when we were kids. Every Sunday afternoon Dad would get out the croquet set and we’d have a game. You have something against croquet?

  WWJ: Oh, no. Not a thing.

  Ben Raines: Good. Come on.

  The general played two sets of croquet with the “boys,” a group of men whose average age looked to be about ninety. When the last game was over and we were heading back to town after touring the facility, Ben said, “The old codgers beat me again. They beat me every time. I swear they’re cheating, but I can’t catch them at it.”

  WWJ: I must confess, I have never played croquet.

  Ben Raines: More skill involved in it than you might think. It’s also a game that nearly everyone can play. If I could just figure out how those old boys are cheating.

  I laughed at the expression on the general’s face, and said, “Maybe they’re just better players than you?”

  Raines replied, “No way! They’re cheating, and I know it. Then he smiled, and added, “But I guess they’ve earned the right to fudge a little bit every now and then.”

  I clicked on the tape recorder and consulted my notes. A few more days and I would be finished. But there were still a great many questions I wanted to ask, even though I did not know if the interview would ever be printed in its entirety. General Ben Raines had never before granted such an interview, but he was still the most hated man in all of North America . . . outside the SUSA.

  I went through my notes and asked, “Does anybody ever boycott anything down here?”

  Ben Raines (smiling): No. I’ve never heard of one.

  WWJ: Protest marches?

  Ben Raines: Protest against what? We have the good life here in the SUSA.

  I had talked with perhaps 150 people since my arrival. Not one had a negative thing to say about the SUSA. I was very suspicious of that at first: were they afraid to speak against the SUSA? I soon discovered that fear had nothing to do with it. At least in their minds, these people did have the good life. It was frustrating for someone coming from the outside and attempting to do a long interview about . . . well, more than a form of government. It was a way of life.

  WWJ: I don’t think we’ve touched on privacy.

  Ben Raines: Guaranteed in the SUSA. Just as it’s supposed to be under the old United States Constitution. But personal privacy from the government before the Great War became nothing more than a profane joke. The United States government snooped and pried and poked into every aspect of a citizen’s life. And the press was just about as bad.

  WWJ: And that doesn’t happen here?

  Ben Raines: Hell, no! By neither the government nor the press. Phone taps are very rare down here. Good God, our equivalent to your treasury doesn’t know how much money the individual citizen has in his or her bank account. I don’t know that it will always be that way, but that’s the way it is now.

  WWJ: And the honor system for collecting taxes is working?

  Ben Raines: So far. As I’ve stated, there are those who cheat; probably always will be a few. We catch the majority—we think—some get away with it. But dishonorable, dishonest people will usually trip themselves up somewhere along the line. We’ll give them a second chance. But if they screw up again, we can and often do throw them out of the country. That’s why we’re so selective about who we allow in here on a permanent basis. We take them at their word when they apply for citizenship. It doesn’t take long for the bad apples to start stinking. People begin complaining about their business tactics and then we investigate. Many times the party under investigation will use as a defense that he or she didn’t fully understand our laws. That’s pure bullshit. A dishonest person knows damn well what they’re doing is unethical or immoral or fraudulent. But so many people cheated on their taxes back before the collapse because the damn government was overtaxing them and the decent, hardworking citizen was receiving so little for the tremendous tax burden they were forced to bear. I know how it was. Every time I turned around somebody was collecting some goddamn tax. And you had to pay it; you didn’t have any choice in the matter. And it’s rapidly becoming that way again outside our borders. They’re going right back to the stranglehold of entitlement and social programs that helped to fuck up America before the collapse. Whiny, mealy-mouthed, weasel-assed left-wing liberals are once more coming to the fore, pissing and moaning and flinging snot all over the place just like they were doing before the collapse. They never learn.

  WWJ: So you gathered together the tough-love, tough-minded Americans and formed the old Tri-States government?

  Ben Raines: That’s one way of putting it. Down here, we prefer to say we’re realists. We know we cannot be all things to all people all the time. We know that is not only very impractical, but fiscally unfair to the decent, hardworking taxpayer . . . it places a tremendous burden on those people who do their best to live a good, responsible, moral life. We know that any system is going to have cracks and holes in it that some people fall through . . . no matter what the government does.

  WWJ: But I know you do try to help people.

  Ben Raines: We try to help those who will make some sort of effort to help themselves. The rest of them can go right straight to hell.

  WWJ: And take their kids with them?

  Ben Raines: Unfortunately, that’s the way it works out some of the time. It’s regrettable, but it happens.

  WWJ: Tough on the kids.

  Ben Raines: It’s tough on everybody.

  We rode on in silence, driving deeper into the country. I had never seen so many vegetables in my life and said as much.

  Ben
Raines: We process a lot of these for long-term storage. A lot of them are prepared for the Rebel’s field-ration kits, stews and so forth.

  WWJ: So you are preparing for an emergency here at home. Such as war.

  The general looked at me, smiled sadly, and said, “We’ve never stopped.”

  BOOK #21

  BETRAYAL IN THE ASHES

  Let the chips fall where they may.

  - Roscoe Conkling

  The ruthless Bottger has given Ben an ultimatum—be out of Europe in twenty-four hours—and he’s backing it up by adding an additional ten thousand troops a month to his already bulging army. Ben knows he can’t possibly comply, even if he wanted to, and waits out the coming attack. But, strangely, it doesn’t materialize. The deadline passes, giving Ben more time to beef up his army, which he does by shaking hands with the devil in the form of white supremacist, ex-evangelist Billy Smithson, who has set up Missouri as an all-white nation. Smithson agrees to send half his army to Europe in exchange for leaving his dominion untouched by the Rebels.

  Then Bottger attacks. Ben orders bridges burned and roads blown as a holding action. When Smithson’s army arrives Ben tests them immediately and, with the help of black-run Rebel artillery, they blow Bottger’s New Federation forces back. Bottger is launching a major offensive out of Germany, but the superior Rebel artillery holds him fast. After a stiff three-day battle Bottger is forced to retreat under constant harassment from P51Es. But Bottger has a trick up his sleeve. He sends crack troops into the tunnel systems developed by the Night People to infiltrate and surprise the Rebels. Ben catches on to the trick in time to mine all the tunnel entrances behind his lines, and NF casualties are high. The Rebel army takes advantage of the slaughter and goes on the offensive, planning to drive Bottger deep into Russia and the horror of the Russian Winter.

  Back in the States Blanton’s enemies move against him. Congress impeaches him and calls for his removal from office. But General Bodison refuses to comply. Ben offers Blanton five SUSA battalions to shore him up and back his plan for martial law. Blanton reluctantly accepts. Meanwhile, the Rebel offensive moves strongly into Germany, driving Bottger east, but there are problems in the Rebel ranks. Bottger sympathizers are planning to overthrow Ben and take control of the army.

  If that’s not enough of a problem, rogue Secret Service agents break into Blanton’s office and shoot him, wounding him seriously but not fatally as it turns out. And in Europe dissident Rebel troops rebel and attack Billy Smithson’s camp. Ben has his hands full quelling the rebellion, but he succeeds and General Bodison takes control of the USA while Blanton recovers.

  The success of the Rebel offensive brings thousands of Free Europeans to the Rebel cause, and suddenly Bottger is boxed in with nowhere to go. Ben is convinced he’s got him when word arrives that the neo-Nazi has committed suicide in East Germany. Ben is suspicious and General Henrich, Bottger’s second-in-command, offers to show him the body as part of terms for a full surrender. During the talks close to a hundred thousand of Bottger’s men escape to Africa—the one place on earth Ben has no UN authorization to chase them. Ben is forced to turn his hand to clearing out Eastern Europe. The place is crawling with Creepies and outlaws.

  A new threat is rising back home in the form of a fundamentalist Christian named Simon Border, who has raised a large army and is threatening to attack the USA. The prospect of civil war looms large as the UN orders Ben and the Rebels, now called the WSF (World Stabilization Force), into Eastern Europe to clear out the countries formerly behind the old Iron Curtain. Rumors are flying that Bottger faked his death and is alive somewhere in the world. Rebel intelligence soon confirms that the madman is indeed alive and setting up an army in Africa. He’s daring Ben to come and get him.

  Ben knows, however, that it will take at least two years to clean up Europe and continues moving east to Russia. In Hungary, he befriends a gypsy girl named Anna. Though only fifteen years old, she has survived the worst the Night People and outlaws have to offer and begs to become a Rebel. She proves to be a skilled and dedicated soldier and Ben takes her under his wing. The army stops for the winter in Szombathely, Hungary, and Ben offers to adopt her and formally educate her in the Rebel way.

  TWENTY-TWO

  I met the general at his home the next morning: another of those sky-blue, hot and humid Southern days where people moved from air conditioner to air conditioner and the temperature and the humidity were just about the same.

  The general had the coffee ready, and we sat down in the den. I clicked on the tape recorder and said: “I know you don’t have much juvenile crime in the SUSA, but let’s touch on it again for a moment. How is it handled here as opposed to outside your borders?”

  Ben Raines: Has anything changed outside the SUSA?

  WWJ: No.

  Ben Raines: Figures. Well . . . minor infractions are handled just about the same, I would imagine. Serious juvenile crime is handled much differently down here. Minors involved in felonies are not protected to the extent they are outside our borders.

  WWJ: How does it differ?

  Ben Raines: No one involved in a felony has their records sealed from the public. Their names and faces are not shielded from cameras or the print press, and they are tried as adults.

  WWJ: From what age?

  Ben Raines: That depends on the seriousness of the crime. But anyone thirteen or older is tried as adult.

  WWJ: And housed in prison with adults?

  Ben Raines: No. They won’t be moved to an adult prison until they’re seventeen. They’ll be housed with young men or women their age until then.

  WWJ: Do they receive any counseling?

  Ben Raines: Oh, sure. But you have to understand that the psychologists and psychiatrists and so forth down here are not starry-eyed dreamers with way-out theories concerning the treatment of punks. They’re hard-nosed realists who know that if you catch most kids at an early enough age, you can turn them around. Once they get in their mid-teens, for most of them it’s too late. And speaking quite bluntly, they just aren’t worth the time, effort, and money. Mostly, the time and the effort.

  WWJ: I asked you this before, I think, but it bears repeating: You believe in the bad-seed theory?

  Ben Raines: Oh, it isn’t a theory any longer. Our people isolated the gene. But we don’t believe much in genetic engineering. That’s not my belief. But it is the will of the people.

  WWJ: I wonder if any of that type of work is quietly going on?

  Ben Raines: Oh, probably. Even our system of government keeps a few secrets from the people.

  WWJ: Back to juvenile justice. How about a kid say, oh, eleven or twelve who is a pest in the neighborhood, peeking into bedroom windows watching the girls undress, things such as that?

  Ben Raines laughed, and replied, “Now, do you know any boy who didn’t do that? Didn’t you?”

  I felt my face suddenly grow hot with embarrassment, and said, “Yes, I did. How about you?”

  Ben Raines: Of course, I did. If I got the chance. But when I got caught, I got my ass blistered twice. Once by the father of the girl I was peeking at, and again when I got home. That put an abrupt end to my midnight prowling. How about you?

  WWJ: Same with me. But shortly after that, the world went crazy and conditions in America, if you will pardon the expression, went to shit.

  Ben Raines (laughing out loud): I think that pretty well sums it up. But getting back to kids and crime, we think that decent people have a right to know what kind of little monster, or monsters, is slithering around the streets.

  WWJ: Regardless of how it might traumatize the youth?

  Ben Raines: That word, traumatize, irritates me just about as much as the overworked phrase: “I got a right, man.” When I was about six years old, I saw my uncle get his leg caught in an auger. It chewed the leg off up to the knee, while my uncle was hacking at his leg with a corn knife I had run to get him. He cut his own leg off in front of me. Did it traumatize me? No. Oh,
I thought about it for a time, then it faded. A few years later, when I was about nine or ten, I watched as an elderly, deaf man stepped in front of a fast freight train. There were pieces of him scattered for two or three miles up that track. I know. I walked up the track looking at the pieces. Me, and about ten other boys my age. Did it traumatize us? No. It did not. I never heard the term grief counselor until I was a grown man. Kids are a lot tougher than people give them credit for being. So, no. I’m not afraid of traumatizing a young mind.

  WWJ: So I would be safe in saying that you don’t put much credence in these people who claim to have been molested or raped when young and remember it years later?

  Ben Raines: No, I do not. I think a lot of innocent people have been sent to prison or had their lives and reputations ruined because of that crap.

  WWJ: That defense is not allowed in the SUSA?

  Ben Raines: I don’t recall anyone ever trying it. I personally think a DA and a grand jury here would laugh themselves silly.

  WWJ: When a person is called before a grand jury in the SUSA, are they allowed to have an attorney with them?

  Ben Raines: They sure are.

  WWJ: Many states don’t allow it.

  Ben Raines: The laws in many states outside the SUSA suck.

  I chuckled at the general’s use of slang and once more consulted my notes. I had arrived in the SUSA with a notebook filled with questions. I was down now to only a few pages.

  Ben Raines: Getting down to the wire now, are we?

  WWJ: Another day or two should wrap it up.

  Ben Raines: You really think you’re going to get that published outside the SUSA?

  WWJ: I certainly hope to.