Blood in the Ashes (9 page)

“Hold her hands, baby,” Tony said to Ann. He positioned himself behind the sobbing young girl. “You 'bout the same age, you two. So you tell this chick she fights me, she's gonna get hurt. I can work it in real easy, or I can tear her cunt up. It's all up to her.”

“Believe him,” Ann said to the naked, frightened girl. “It ain't bad once it's done to you two, three times. It gets to feelin' real good. Believe me. He'll treat you real good, too. Just don't fight him no more.”

The young girl nodded her head. “OK.” She pressed her face against the sheet on the bed. She was thin from years of extremely bad diet and from being on her own in a world rapidly filling with savagery and barbarism. Her name was Peg. She was twelve years old.

Tony ran his fingers over the girl's buttocks. He touched her anus, then his fingers touched her center and pushed inside her. The girl moaned at the sudden intrusion.

Tony said, “I can make it good for you, baby. Or I can hurt you. It's all up to you.” He worked his finger in and out. Peg began weeping. “You tell me where your little buddy ran off to.”

Ann stroked the girl's hair. “Tell him, Peg. It's better than being out there all alone. You won't have to fuck no one but Tony. Believe it. You'll have plenty of good things to eat. Dolls to play with. He'll. get you pretty things to wear and a machine that makes musical noises come out of funny little round things.”

“She ran off to our hiding place. On the waterfront. It's an upside-down number on the front of the place.”

“What?” Tony looked confused.

“Can't you do numbers?” Ann asked.

“No.”

Ann wrote a six on a piece of paper. She showed that to Peg.

“Yes. That's it. What number is that?”

“Nine,” Ann told her. “Don't you have any schooling?”

Peg shook her head.

“Who gives a shit?” Tony said. He pulled away from the child. “I got to see a man. I'll be back later.”

He left the motel room. He really didn't want sex now. That report he'd received from Dublin about his people there coming under attack had him a little worried. Tony stopped outside his motel room, an idea coming to him.

Who would be foolish enough to attack the army of Tony Silver?

Only one person. He had everybody else too scared of retribution.

Only one person.

Ben Raines.

Had to be.

“Well, I'll just be goddamned!” Tony muttered. “Ben Raines, right under my fuckin' nose all this time. Things are definitely beginning to look up for me.”

Tony began laughing.

He motioned for one of his men to come over. “Paul, get a team together. 'Bout, oh, fifty guys ought to be enough to kick the ass off of Ben Raines. More than enough. A
god!
” Again he laughed, Paul joining in the laughter. “Goddamn joke is what Ben Raines is. I'll show the people who is really boss around this land. Me!”

“Right, boss,” Paul agreed. “Everybody knows that. Everybody.”

“Shut up, Paul. We'll be moving out first thing in the morning. ‘Bout nine o'clock.”

“Right, boss.” The goon turned to leave.

“Oh ... Paul?”

“Yeah, boss?”

“I want you to get some boys together and go down to the waterfront. Warehouse number nine. Do it quiet like, now. There's a young chick down there I want. Bring her back and have her cleaned up. And don't none of you guys even
think
about stickin' a dick in her. That's prime gash and it's mine.”

“Sure, boss. Don't worry none about that. I'll see to it personal.”

“All right. You bring her to my room when she's bathed. I'm gonna bust me two cherries in one night.”

The man grinned, exposing rotten teeth. “Right, boss. I gotcha.”

“Two tight pussies and Ben Raines. All within twenty-four hours of each other. Son of a bitch! My luck is on a steady roll.”

“Right, boss.”

“All right, lads,” Dan Gray spoke into the mic. “Thanks and take care.” Breaking the connection, Dan smiled. Interesting, he thought. Big fire up near Blue Ridge Lake. Gunshots reported. Dan had ordered his scouts into the area at first light.

Shooting the place up and then burning it to the ground would be something the ex-SEAL would do if his feathers got ruffled. Ike was as randy as they came.

“Hang on, Ike,”
Dan muttered.

Ike looked at the loaded and cocked .38 in Nina's hand. She held it like she knew what to do with it. And had done it before.

“Now what?” Ike asked.

Nina grinned and eased the hammer down. She tucked the pistol behind her belt. “We eat—what else?”

Ike stared at her in the gloom of the darkened living room. “Would you mind telling me just what in the hell that stunt was all about?”

“I just wanted to see if you were as ballsy as you appeared to be.”

“And?”

“You are.” Nina found her knapsack and took out several cans of army rations.

Ike knew the rations well. He looked at the olive-green cans. He grimaced. “You sure you ain't got any dehyde?”

She shook her head. “Sorry, Ike. It's this or go hungry.”

“Long as it ain't them gawdawful green eggs. What all you got in that bag?”

She chuckled softly in the gloom of the old house. “Bacon and eggs.”

Cussing under his breath, Ike found his little military can opener and began circling the rim of the can. “Least it's dark in here,” he muttered. “Won't be able to tell if they're green or not.” The odor hit his nostrils. “They're green,” he said glumly.

Ben's walkie-talkie crackled softly. “Come on,” he whispered into the AN/PRC-6T.

The most forward Scout said, “They're definitely waiting for us, General. They've set up an ambush on both sides of Highway 80. First big supermarket on the south side.”

“Weapons?”

“Heavy machine guns and M-16s. That's it, sir.”

“Hold your position and stay low. I'm sending teams to flank them.”

“Roger, sir.”

Ben gave James the coordinates. “Don't jack around with them, James. Use mortars and rocket launchers. I don't want any more casualties from this operation.”

“Yes, sir. We'll stand back and blow hell out of the bastards.”

“Go.”

The paramilitary troops of Tony Silver knew the savage fury of trained and disciplined troops for only a few seconds before the M-60 machine gunfire, the mortars, and the 40mm grenades blew them into their own dubious place in the yet unwritten history of the aftermath of the most humanly destructive war ever waged on the face of the earth.
³

The attacks were coordinated to launch within a second of each other. And the troops of Tony Silver, who thought they were so well-hidden, so tough, so professional and so feared by all, had only a maximum of five seconds to scream out their pain and fear before their unwashed bodies were torn to bloody strips of mangled flesh.

Ben watched grimly through binoculars as Tony's little army was creamed.

“Let's get the fuck outta here!” the man in charge of this contingent of Silver's army of thugs and goons and murderers and rapists shouted. “Them is regular army troops. Where the fuck did
they
come from? We're outclassed.”

The “army” split. They tucked their tails between their legs and cut out, jumping into cars and pickups and vans and heading east on Highway 80, fleeing as if pursued by the devil.

They left behind them death, rape, torture, sexual perversion and hideous memories in the minds of the people in Dublin who had survived—thus far.

“Cut down those people over there,” Ben said, pointing at the hanging bodies. “James, have Scouts follow those retreating for several miles; make certain they're really bugging out. Let's find out about the residents of this town.”

Ben Raines and his Rebels soon discovered the aftermath of Silver's scurvy followers. The scene was sickening to them all.

Tortured and sexually abused men and women and children began streaming into the littered streets of the town when they discovered the new troops were there not to harm them but to help them.

The Rebels broke up the mob of people into sections, for interviewing, for medical treatment, for food and clothing.

After a time, Susie came to Ben. “This Tony Silver's got to be stopped, General. I've talked with and seen little girls and boys not over nine or ten years old who were sexually assaulted and abused. It's pitiful, General.”

Ben listened.

Sergeant Greene said, “One man told me a lot of the kids—mostly girls, ages twelve to fourteen—were taken out of this area. To be turned into whores for shipment around the country.”

Ben nodded. But one question kept nagging at him: Why did the people left in the town allow it to happen? Why didn't they fight?

James said, “There isn't a female in this town, between the ages of nine and sixty, who hasn't been raped repeatedly. The men were sexually humiliated, in front of the women.”

“Are these people residents of this town?” Ben asked.

“No, sir,” a Rebel said. “Those I've talked to say Dublin was wiped out by the plague. These people are a mixed bag, from all over the state. They just got here 'bout six months ago.”

“Why here?”

The Rebel shrugged. “They're some kind of religious order, sir. Don't believe in violence.”

“No guns?” Ben said acidly.

“That's it, sir. Not a weapon in the whole town.”

Ben felt anger wash over him. What had the young Rebel, Bert, died for? A group of dickheads so naive they believed all they had to do was hold up the dove of peace and it would be honored? Stupid, naive, out-of-touch-with-reality crapheads.

Ben brought his anger under control. “Tell them to read Ecclesiastes. Get their priorities in line.”

“Sir?” the young Rebel asked.

“Never mind, Joey. Just talking to myself. All right,” Ben said with a sigh. “Maybe it all ties in. I have a feeling it does.”

“What, Ben?” Gale asked. She was sick at her stomach from what she had seen and heard this awful day. But she knew Ben had no patience with people who would not fight for their lives.

“The Ninth Order, Captain Willette, Tony Silver. The whole rotten, scummy bag.”

“How does it tie in, Ben?”

He shook his head. “Hunch, Gale. That's all. Could be I'm wrong.”

The Rebels gathered around him dismissed that instantly. The thought of Gen. Ben Raines being wrong about anything was something no loyal Rebel ever entertained. That would be unthinkable.

“Let's patch these people up and get the hell out of here,” Ben ordered. “I feel sorry for the kids and the elderly—but losers don't impress me.”

“You have no right to judge us so harshly, General,” a man said.

Ben turned. The man facing him was dressed in a business suit. Ben found that just slightly less than ludicrous, considering the surroundings. “I lost a good man in your town, mister. And I'm not real sure his death was worth it—considering the fact that you people refuse to stand up and be counted in a fight.”

“We are peaceful people, General Raines.”

“That's fine, mister,” Ben countered. “All well and good back when you could pick up a phone and. call the police, back when law and order and rules and codes of conduct were the norm. That is no more. And I seriously doubt—except in isolated pockets of this world—it will ever be again. At least not in our lifetime. Now, mister,” he said, lifting the old Thompson,
“this
is the law.”

“We refuse to take a human life,” the man said.

Ben frosted him with a look. “Then you're a goddamned fool. I'm not advocating mass murder, mister. Just telling you to protect yourselves.”

“The Lord will provide.”

Ben smiled grimly. “Then I suggest you find yourself the jawbone of an ass. Or, in your case, the backbone might be a better choice.”

Nina lay in Ike's strong arms. The morning sunlight was beginning to filter brightly through the dusty windows of the old home. Nina's bare breasts pressed against Ike's naked chest. It had been quite a sex-oriented night. Ike smiled, recalling an old saying from his boyhood days down in Mississippi: Girl could do more with six inches of cock than a monkey with a mile of vines.

He laughed softly at the crudeness of the old expression.

Nina opened her eyes and yawned in his face. “What's so funny, Ike?”

He told her.

“Jesus! What an awful saying.” But she laughed as she said it.

“What's for breakfast, Nina?”

“Canned eges and bacon.”

“Thanks just the same, but I think I'll pass.” Ike disengaged himself from her warm nakedness and dressed, conscious of her eyes on him.

“You got a few scars on you, Ike,” she observed.

“More than my share, I reckon,” he replied. “Got a few in Vietnam. Rest of them came from my days as a Rebel, following Ben.”

“This really the first time you've been unfaithful to your wife?”

“Yep. Not countin' the mental times.”

She laughed. “I can relate to that.” She rose from the pallet on the floor, totally unashamed of her young lush nakedness. “Your wife been faithful to you, you think?”

“I think so,” Ike said thoughtfully. “But I'll tell her about us. Even though I don't have to. She'd guess. She knows me pretty well.”

Nina shook her head. “What is it with you people who follow General Raines? You're so . . . well, I guess,
dedicated
is the word. And Ben Raines ... is he really a god like I've heard a lot of people say he is?”

“The Rebels?” Ike shrugged. “We're just kinda like that ol' boll weevil, I reckon. Lookin' for a home. Ben a god?” Again he shrugged. “I don't know. Sometimes,” his reply was very soft, “sometimes I believe he really is. Others?” Ike shook his head. “How old are you, Nina?”

“I ... I think I'm twenty-one, Ike. But I really don't know for sure. I was either seven or eight years old when the bombs came.”

And I was in my mid-thirties, Ike thought. And already fought a war this girl has no memories of. “You get dressed,” he told her, picking up his M-16. “I'm gonna check out the area.”

“Ike?”

He turned.

“I'm very glad it was you who come along last night.”

Ike grinned. “You did some of that yourself, Nina. Last night.”

She laughed. “Get outta here!”

Ike stepped out of the old house, using the creaking back steps. The mountains of north Georgia loomed all around him, the area thick with brush, having grown wild and unattended for more than a decade. It was a peaceful dawning, the birds singing and calling to one another, the calling a sound of joy, of being alive on this cool early fall morning in the mountains. And, Ike thought, shivering, winter is just around the corner.

“Got to find some clothing for the both of us,” he muttered. “Damn feed sack would be better than that stinking robe.”

Nina stepped out on the back porch, a can of C-rations in one hand, a spoon in the other hand. Ike looked at the contents of the can and shuddered.

“I just never
did
develop a taste for that crap,” he said.

“I wish I had a real cup of coffee,” Nina said wistfully. “And some bacon and eggs and toast. And some jelly.”

“Smucker's?” Ike asked with a grin. He backed away from the odor of the eggs.

Nina cocked her head to one side. “I don't know what that means.”

“Yeah? Well . . . it used to be a brand of jams and jellies.”

“Smucker's? With a name like that, it had to be good, I betcha.”

Ike laughed as the young woman pegged the company's old slogan right on the button. In the brightening morning, standing in God's light, Ike could see the young woman was really quite lovely. “Yes, that's true, Nina.” He cleared his throat. Shook his head as he thought of all the things this young lady had missed out on: the fun of college, the Saturday afternoon games, the dances; the joy of living in the most affluent and powerful nation in the world; daily breakthroughs in medicine; fine perfumes and designer jeans. God! the list was almost endless.

Now she had only a world gone savage to look forward to.

Maybe he could help ease that transition.

“Let's get our gear together, Nina. We've got a long way to go.”

“I'm with you, Ike.”

 

 

James reported to Ben. The big sergeant had a disgusted look on his broad face. “These people want us to stay and protect them, General.”

“What did you tell them, James?”

“I told them to forget it, sir.”

“Good. Get the people ready to pull out.” He looked at his watch. “Fifteen minutes, James.”

“But you
can't
leave us!” a woman's voice came from behind the men. “You're our president. You have to protect us.”

Ben turned to face the source of the complaint. The woman was in her late twenties, Ben guessed. Nice looking, a pixie with a dirty face, and a misguided view of reality.

“I am not your president,” Ben informed her. “And I don't owe any of you a damned thing. You owe it to yourselves to learn weapons and how to protect yourselves.”

“But that is against our religious beliefs!”

“Then I would say you people definitely have a problem.”

Tears cut twin paths down the woman's grimy cheeks. “Do you have any idea what those animals did to us? No—how could you? They were filthy and perverted and evil and godless. And if you leave, they'll return. And this time, they'll kill us after they ... use us as vessels of their depravity.”

“Get a gun,” Ben told her. “The first one who shows his head in this town, shoot him.”

“We can't do that!” she screamed.

“Won't,” Ben contradicted her. “How did you avoid being shipped out with the other younger women?”

She wiped her eyes. “I'm a nurse. They—those animals—had some medical problems. That's how. You can't just drive off and leave us here, defenseless.”

“I am sorry to inform you, miss, but that is precisely what we intend doing. If you would like for us to show you weapons and how to use them, we'll stay and do that. The choice is yours.”

The woman's eyes glowed with hate. “You're just as cruel and heartless as Silver's men. I hope Silver's people get you.”

“They won't,” Ben told her.

“You can't know that for a fact.”

“Yeah, lady, I can. We're just something you people will never be.”

“Oh? And what is that?”

“Survivors, ma'am.”

“But we have a
right
to our religious beliefs!” she shouted at Ben. “A God-given right.”

“That is probably true,” Ben agreed. “But you do not have the right to expect others to die for your lopsided beliefs.”

“God will strike you dead, General Raines.”

“Perhaps,” Ben replied solemnly. “But I rather think God likes His warriors. 'Cause He damn sure made a lot of us.”

“That's
blasphemy
!” the woman yelled at him.

The crowd of men and women began yelling threats at Ben, shaking their fists at him, calling him Judas.

Ben laughed at them and walked away, to his pickup, Gale by his side.

“You're a hard man, Ben,” she said.

“Hard times, kid,” Ben replied.