Chaos in the Ashes Read online

  Chaos In The Ashes

  William W. Johnstone

  PROLOGUE

  During the final days of the second millennium, the end came. It had been predicted; some even planned for it. Most didn’t. Those who did plan were called survivalists—some were called militia—and they were much maligned by the press and by the government. The left-leaning liberal press belittled them and the very government to whom they were paying taxes portrayed them as evil, racist, and dangerous. A few were just that, but not most. The majority of those who practiced survivalism and who joined militias were decent men and women who had simply grown disgusted with big government. They were wolves, making plans to survive, while others around them were dewy-eyed lambs unknowingly waiting for the slaughter, despite the fact that they had been warned time and again that the lid was about to blow off. The lambs stood with their hands out, waiting for the government to run their lives, tell them what to do and when to do it, and give them something for nothing—paid for with tax-payers’ money, of course.

  Many survivalist groups were harassed by federal agents and vindictively punished. People were killed by federal agents; others watched as their possessions were seized or destroyed by agents of the federal government. But the movement could not be broken. It grew as the end approached, as did the hatred and fear many in the government and the press felt for the men and women who made up the various groups around the nation.

  When the end came—and it was the end of civilization and order and reason world-wide—training and discipline saved many of the survivalists, or Constitutionalists, as many preferred to be called.

  One of the quiet survivalists was a man called Ben Raines.

  Ben belonged to no organized group, although federal agents had for years tried to prove he did. Like most Constitutionalists, he owned no illegal weapons, paid his taxes, obeyed the law, and lived a quiet and peaceful life. Because of his so-called radical views, he did receive the occasional visit from the feds, but like many other Americans who longed for a return to the true meaning of the constitution and a commonsense form of government, Ben learned to live with the creeping socialism and the uninvited intrusions into his privacy. However, he didn’t have to like it and was quite vocal in his opposition of it.

  That got Ben’s name on the list compiled by federal enforcement agencies; the list containing the names of Americans who had broken no laws but needed watching anyway.

  Real red, white, and blue democracy at work.

  But in the end, the prying and the snooping didn’t do the feds a bit of good . . . the whole goddamn world fell apart.

  And it was the Constitutionalists and the Survivalists who convinced Ben Raines that he should be the one to lead the nation out of the ashes of destruction and chaos.

  Ben reluctantly agreed, with conditions attached: the new government would bear little resemblance to the old government, for the old government had stopped working. It worked for many years, until Congress started screwing around with the Constitution and passing so many laws the average tax-paying citizens didn’t have a clue as to what was going on.

  It would not be that way in the new government.

  The new government, at first, would be called the Tri-States.

  Unlike the old government, the Tri-States would not attempt to be all things to all people all the time. That was and is impossible in a true democracy. Constitutionalists and Survivalists know that, to a very large degree, we all control our own destinies—or should. The government need not get involved, and in the Tri-States, the government would not get involved.

  Ben Raines laid the groundwork for the new, common-sense government. When a society is based on common sense, there really isn’t much need for lawyers. In North America, when the end came, the ratio was something like one lawyer for every three hundred and ninety people—the highest in the world! The Tri-States had lawyers, of course, but the beauty of the Tri-States is that there aren’t that many laws.

  A common sense society means that if someone breaks into my house and I catch them at it, I am going to shoot them on the spot. And after I shoot them, I won’t be arrested, won’t be tried, won’t go to jail, and can’t be sued by the thief’s family or by the thief, should he or she survive.

  A common sense society means that if you buy an over-the-counter drug and eat the whole damn package and fall over dead, the manufacturer and the druggist can’t be held liable for your stupidity.

  A common sense society means that if someone gets drunk and has a wreck and kills himself and a whole bunch of other people, the families of the survivors can’t sue the beer company or the person who sold the irresponsible nincompoop the beer. (It’s called controlling one’s own destiny.)

  It takes a special type of person to live in a society based on common sense. It takes a person who has respect for the rights of others. For all the rights of others, regardless of race or religion or creed.

  Ben Raines figured, and calculated correctly, that only two or three out of every ten Americans who survived the Great War could prosper and enjoy life in a free society. It was a radical change from the old form of government, where the government was constantly interfering in everybody’s business, with new rules and regulations and complicated paperwork.

  In the Tri-States, crime was virtually non-existent. The main reason being, it just wasn’t tolerated. In the Tri-States, not only was carrying weapons allowed, each citizen was required to have weapons, for everyone of age was a part of the Rebel Army. Once the government outside the Tri-States crawled to its knees and again started screwing around in the lives of its citizens, the press called the Tri-States a gun-powder society. As in so many cases, the press was only half right. The people who chose to live in the Tri-States did so willingly and happily. They were people who did not have to lock the doors to their homes at night or take the keys out of their car or live in fear of being mugged or assaulted. Any street in any town in the Tri-States was safe to walk upon any time of the day or night. There were no slums, no gangs, no drive-by shootings. There was full employment. In the Tri-States, everybody who was able worked. Or got out. There were no free rides. The old and the young and the infirm were cared for with the utmost compassion. Values and respect and morals were taught in school. In the Tri-States, morality was once more in vogue. Teenage pregnancies were rare and it wasn’t due to schools handing out condoms to young people. That came about by like-minded parents and educators teaching children values and self-respect, beginning at a very early age. Reading was emphasized in the Tri-States.

  Civil liberties types were appalled at what was going on in the Tri-States. It was such a quiet and happy place. Something must be wrong with a society where everybody is contented. Life isn’t supposed to be that way. You’re supposed to have discontent and dissent and troubles and woes and personal analysts and psychiatrists and head manipulators and so forth. Something must be drastically wrong with a society that wasn’t wallowing in a plethora of misery.

  Why are these people smiling?

  Because they’re happy, stupid!

  But the government of the former United States of America just couldn’t tolerate the contentment that was found in the Tri-States, and eventually moved against the society, finally over-running the residents of the Tri-States with sheer force of numbers. The main objective was to kill Ben Raines.

  But Ben Raines was as hard to kill as the Tri-States philosophy.

  After the fall of the Tri-States, Ben rebuilt his army of Rebels and moved against the government of the (once) United States; a government that had begun to turn on its citizens again, becoming everything that the old Tri-States was not; becoming exactly what it was before the Great War that nearly destroyed the world. />
  Ben and his Rebels began claiming territory out of the ashes of defeat and despair and destruction. First it was a small area called Base Camp One. Then it grew, until finally thirteen states adopted the philosophy of the old Tri-States.

  The central government of what used to be known as the United States of America finally capitulated and held out the hand of peace to Ben and his Rebels.

  Ben accepted the hand of friendship and cooperation and the two nations within a nation began working together . . . as much as liberal and conservative can ever work together.

  But for years before the Great War, many people in America had been conditioned to expect the government to do nearly everything for them, including thinking.

  All this freedom scared them.

  What the hell do you mean, we control our own destinies? What the hell do you mean, tellin’ me I have to work at a job I don’t like? What is this common sense crap? I got a right, man. What do you mean, turn down my radio? I’ll play my radio as loud as I want to. Screw you.

  On the other side of the coin, there were those blue-lipped, narrow-minded types who simply could not tolerate any type of open society. If they didn’t like it, you couldn’t have it. Didn’t matter if they lived in New York and you lived in Montana, they knew best. Period.

  You may not read this book because we consider it nasty. You may not have an abortion because we don’t think it’s right. You may not own a gun because we are opposed to that. Like-minded people may not band together and form their own government because we won’t let you. (However, we are perfectly within our rights to force our views on you.) On and on and on.

  Gimme some money! Gimme a free ride! Gimme food! Take care of me from the womb to the tomb or we’ll riot and burn and destroy.

  Eventually, that’s what happened.

  And like Humpty Dumpty, it could not be put back together again.

  BOOK ONE

  If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready, at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may. But while I do live, let me have a country, and that a free country.

  - John Adams

  ONE

  Ben was glad when he could no longer see the smoke from the fires of discontent. The big transport plane had entered Rebel-controlled territory. For hundreds of miles, the scene had been even worse than Cecil had described.

  “We should never have left the country,” Ben muttered. “I went against my own philosophy.”

  But he knew that even had he stayed, he could not have changed the course of events.

  Ben dozed off and was awakened by the pilot’s voice. “We’ll be landing in about twenty minutes, General. The airport is secure.”

  “Landing into what?” Ben whispered.

  Chaos. Rebellion. Upheaval. Mindless acts of violence and destruction. Civil war. Mobs of people running amok, after having reverted back to barbarism. Burning and looting and killing and raping. White against black. Black against white. White against white. Black against black. Senseless brutality involving all races.

  “Everything we fought for, destroyed,” Ben whispered. “The nation in ruins.”

  Again.

  Back to the ashes.

  Ben looked at his reflection in the window. His hair was streaked with gray. He was middle-aged and, for a man his age, in superb physical condition—but now, for the moment, he felt old.

  As the plane slowly descended, Ben allowed himself to wallow, briefly, in self-pity, something he almost never did. His personal team, Jersey, Corrie, Beth, Cooper, and the teenage girl he had adopted while in Europe, Anna, sat away from him. They knew that when Ben was in a lousy mood—as he was now and had been ever since receiving the communiqué from Cecil—it was best to leave him alone.

  Ben’s plane was the first one down, a dozen other huge transports coming in right behind his. Ben stood up and stretched the kinks out of his muscles and joints and deplaned. He spotted Cecil Jefferys standing on the edge of the tarmac and walked over to him. The men stood in silence for a moment, content to look at each other, as good and old friends will do. Ben had to struggle to hide his shock at Cecil’s appearance. The black man’s hair was now completely white, his face deeply lined.

  Cecil put out his big hands and gripped Ben’s shoulders in an unusual display of affection. “God, but it’s good to see you, Ben.”

  “Same here, Cec.”

  “I’ve got a fresh pot of coffee, some food. We’ll talk while we eat. Come on.”

  In a private room off the main terminal building in what had once been a major American airport, the men sat and talked and ate.

  “What happened, Cec?”

  “The whole damned country just fell apart, Ben. With practically no warning.”

  “President Blanton?”

  Cec shook his head. “We don’t know where he is. We don’t know if he’s alive or dead or hurt or what. We do know that most of his staff, his inner circle, are dead. We think he and his wife might have made it out. But we don’t know for sure.”

  “The new capital?”

  “In a shambles. Taken over by malcontents. It’s bad, Ben. Real bad. We’ve lost about two thirds of the SUSA, including the old Base Camp One. But we deactivated the missiles there before we pulled out. They can’t be launched. I doubt if these idiots can even find the silos, much less get into them. In all our years of war, Ben, I have never seen anything to equal this. The slackers, the malcontents, the give-me-something-for-nothing bunch, and all the rest must have been planning this for months—maybe years. And they’ve got some real brains behind this movement.”

  “Sure they have,” Ben said sarcastically. “All those ultra-liberals we read the riot act to several years back. I should have seen this coming.”

  Cecil stared at him for a moment. “Ben, do you really believe . . . ?”

  “I damn sure do.”

  “But Blanton was one of them!”

  “Was is the key word, Cec. He changed. He and I became friends. Friends as much as we ever could be. Certain members of his old party just couldn’t take that.” Ben shook his head. “I should have seen this coming.”

  “Oh, hell, Ben! Nobody could have seen this coming. We’ve got the best intelligence network in the world, and we didn’t see it coming. If what you’re saying is true, then the old ultra-liberal wing of Blanton’s party just sacrificed God only knows how many thousands of people.”

  “They don’t care about that. To them, the end justifies the means. They want back in power. They don’t give a damn how that comes to be.”

  “That’s monstrous!”

  “Yes, it certainly is. I preached for years that liberals were a greater threat to individual freedom than communism. Now tell me what happened.”

  Cecil drained his coffee mug and sighed. “People began peacefully gathering along our borders. One day there were five thousand, the next day a hundred thousand, the next day half a million. Then they started pouring across and rioting and looting. They came across our borders in human waves, thousands and thousands of men and women and children. Hell, Ben, we couldn’t open fire on unarmed civilians and little kids. We used rubber bullets and gas but they kept coming; our people were overwhelmed by the solid crush of humanity. We were spread thin as it was and the rioters broke through in dozens of places and began circling, trying to trap our people. But now they had weapons—”

  “Carefully planned out, wasn’t it?”

  “It damn sure was. Communications became impossible. Our people had to keep falling back, fighting a rear-guard action over hundreds of miles of border. All this happened in a day, Ben—one day. Blanton’s military was trying to contain the rioters in their territory, but they were spread much thinner than we and were quickly overwhelmed. Once the rioters became armed, we started using deadly force. Our field reports show that we killed probably twenty-five thousand rioters and wounded that many more before we were finally able to stand
and hold.”

  Ben sighed and nodded his understanding. “I’m leaving a token force in Europe. Bringing the rest of them home. But it’s going to be weeks before we have all of our equipment back Stateside. We’re just going to have to do the best we can until then.” Ben smiled. “Hell, Cec, we’ve fought worse odds.”

  Cecil leaned back in his chair and rubbed his face. “Jesus, ol’ buddy, I’m tired.” Then he smiled and it was the old Cecil once more. “I’ve been out of the field for a long time. I don’t see how you do it.”

  Ben returned the smile. “For the most part, I’ve never left the field. That’s how I do it.”

  Cecil cut his eyes to Jersey, Ben’s bodyguard, standing silently by the door. The diminutive Jersey, all five feet of her, was as lethal as a spitting cobra. Trained in martial arts, she could kill with her hands, as well as being expert with gun, knife, or garrote. Everyone knew she was in love with Ben, but it was a love that was not to be, and Jersey knew and accepted that.

  “I hate to hit you with this, Ben . . . I know it’s early. But what’s the agenda?”

  Ben looked down at the map before him; the territory the Rebels had lost was highlighted, and it was huge. “We start reclaiming our territory. Slow and easy. But this time we’re going to be fighting a political war as well as a fire-fight. I hate to use the term, but we’re going to have to win the hearts and minds—”

  Cecil groaned and Ben laughed. “Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?”

  Cecil said, “I don’t believe these people we’ll be fighting, many of them, even want a government, Ben.”

  “Maybe so. But this nation can’t exist without some form of government. We certainly can’t have anarchy. And the liberals don’t want that either . . . in the long run. But for now they’re using anarchy for their own gain. We have a government, Cec. As long as there are people working together to make something better, to pull something useful out of the ashes, we have a government. But when we start our push, we’re going to take it easy. We’re going to talk to the people and listen to what they have to say. That’s something that hasn’t really happened since town meetings went out of style. Maybe we’ll never be able to put this country back together again. Maybe we’ll die as old men trying to do it. Maybe we’ll die tomorrow trying to do it. But we’ve got to try. It can’t be business as usual. We did something wrong, Cec. Blanton did something wrong. But our basic Tri-States philosophy works; we proved that. At least it works for us. But how about the millions of people who say they can’t live under that type of open government? What about them? Is it that they can’t live under our rules, or that they won’t live under them? We won’t be able to solve the problem until we understand it.”