From The Ashes: America Reborn Read online

  Now Ben begins to plan for the sea/air invasion of England. The site of the landing will be Plymouth. The highly trained and efficient Rebel army moves through England like a well-oiled machine. They liberate the south and head into Scotland, saving London for last. During the Scottish campaign the Rebels learn that plague is sweeping Europe and will soon be a real danger in England because thousands of people are fleeing across the Channel in hopes of finding safety. This includes criminals who are surrendering simply for the vaccine. Ben reluctantly gives orders to sink all ships heading from Europe, and anyone suspected of being a carrier or ill is sent to the Shetland Islands.

  The plague surfaces in London, and Ben gives the orders to raze the ancient town to the ground and fumigate until there is no possibility of contamination whatsoever. During the cleansing of London Ben learns that a new threat has appeared in the form of pirates, who are wreaking havoc on shipping lanes and controlling islands around the world. Since he must travel to Hawaii to eliminate the outlaw scum that have settled there, Ben decides to deal with the pirates along the way and travels south by sea from England around the Cape, stopping at each major island chain to free it from the pirates and restore order.

  Once he reaches Hawaii, Ben orders the Rebels into action, and while the fighting is sporadically fierce, the outlaws are disorganized and in short order Hawaii is once again free.

  The battle-weary Rebel army prepares to return to America for a well-deserved rest.

  SIXTEEN

  We did a complete tour of the high school, and I was impressed. While not many of the male teachers wore formal shirt and tie, all were neatly dressed and had control of their classrooms. The students were learning history, math, science, computer technology, English, foreign languages. The library was huge, as well stocked as any public library, and busy. I looked around for the general, but he had disappeared, probably intentionally leaving me alone with the principal.

  Hardesty: We stress reading for pleasure here in the SUSA. From a very early age. The generation of kids you’re seeing here is not a television generation. TV in the SUSA is limited, and frankly I think it’s one of the best decisions President Jefferys and General Raines ever made.

  WWJ: General Raines told me that before the collapse, he considered most TV programming brain rot.

  Hardesty: I certainly agree with him.

  We walked over to another building, and halfway over I heard the faint strains of a Chopin polonaise being played, and played very well.

  Hardesty: Music is also very important here in the SUSA. But it isn’t limited to classical, by any means. The kids study and play pop, folk, country, bluegrass, blues, and rock and roll. Rock and roll from its beginning in the early days of the 1950s.

  WWJ: Do the kids form bands and play for dances?

  Hardesty: Oh, sure. But I am very happy to say that 99.9 percent of the kids have adamantly rejected heavy metal and other forms of that . . . crap.

  WWJ: I’m surprised they’ve even been exposed to that type of music.

  Hardesty: We don’t censor much here in the SUSA. There really is no point in it. That just makes it more attractive to kids.

  WWJ: But television is heavily censored?

  Hardesty: We won’t air programs that glorify drug use, promiscuity, things of that nature. We feel that TV should show at least some sort of positive message. I grew up in the television age; it was an important—so I thought at the time—part of my life. Fortunately my parents were a strong influence in my youth. My father didn’t sit around for hours at a time with his nose stuck up the butt of some so-called sports “hero.”

  One of the things I had noticed after only a few days in the SUSA was that the word hero was used with great care, almost always associated with some lifesaving deed or event, some battlefield ceremony or remembrance such as an awards presentation to a soldier, or just for being a good, giving, caring person.

  Hardesty: My father enjoyed sports and took me to various games, but he always stressed they were pure entertainment and not to be taken too seriously.

  WWJ: Did he push you into playing sports?

  Hardesty: Oh, no. He didn’t think much of parents who did that. He let his kids choose their own way, and I will always be grateful for that. I’m sure there were times when my dad would have loved to stay home and watch TV on the weekend. But instead he took us kids hiking in the wilderness, camping, exploring, fishing, target shooting. Dad wasn’t much into hunting, but he enjoyed target shooting.

  WWJ: Did you ever play sports?

  Hardesty: Oh, sure! I never made the record books but I played. The problem was there was so much emphasis placed on winning before the Great War. Only the best players got to play. It isn’t that way here in the SUSA. But I’m getting ahead of the tale. What my dad did, he and a number of other fathers, they organized their own teams. Everybody played. Some of those kids couldn’t catch a baseball with a bushel basket, but they still played, and we all learned a lot of valuable lessons in life and living from those games.

  Hardesty laughed in remembrance, and continued, “I remember one kid who had something wrong with one of his legs. Had to wear a brace from knee to foot. He couldn’t run, couldn’t field very well, and wasn’t a very good hitter. But by God my father saw that he played, and that kid gave it everything he had when he did.”

  WWJ: Your father sounds like the type of man who would fit right into this society.

  Hardesty: Oh, he would have, without a doubt. He never fought in a war, never saved anybody from a burning building. As far as I know, he never saved any damsels in distress, but he was a hero in my eyes . . . and in the eyes of a lot of other kids. I only know of one fistfight my father ever had . . . and one of the few real bad fights I ever had. Some jockstrap brain with a kid who could scarcely grunt, but was a good football player, walked up to my dad one afternoon and in a real ugly tone of voice said my dad should take his fourth-rate team of losers and cripples and start a freak show. My dad hit that loudmouth so hard his jaw breaking sounded like a pistol shot. That guy went down and didn’t move. Then his son jumped me and the whole other team, including the coaches, all came running over, mixing it up with our team and our coaches.

  Hardesty enjoyed a quiet laugh there in the hallway and said; “I’d like to say that my team won the fight, but we didn’t. The other team gave us a pretty good lickin’. But the hotshots went away with plenty of bloody noses and black eyes. And nobody ever called us losers and cripples again.”

  WWJ: You said that isn’t the way it is here in the SUSA. What did you mean by that?

  Hardesty: Everybody participates in sports here. Everybody plays. Nobody is left out. We now have one entire generation who haven’t had winning at all costs jammed down their throats. Winning is important, we certainly tell them that. But playing the game fairly and giving your best is the most important. If you win, that’s good, if you lose, you haven’t lost anything—you haven’t been battling the forces of darkness and evil. It’s just a game.

  WWJ: How have the parents handled that?

  Hardesty: There was some grumbling at first. But that was to be expected from a certain type of person. Those sports-fanatic winning-is-everything types either calmed themselves, or they left. This is not a multiple choice whatever-suits-you system.

  General Raines walked up just as Hardesty was finishing speaking. Neither of us heard the man approach. For a man his size, the general could move very quietly.

  Ben Raines: You visited any of the classrooms yet?

  WWJ: No. I don’t think I need to. I can see who has control of them. Mr. Hardesty, is corporal punishment used in the SUSA public schools?

  Hardesty: If it’s necessary. But that doesn’t happen very often. Very rarely do we have to apply the board of education to anyone’s posterior.

  WWJ: Could I see an elementary school, General?

  Ben Raines: You can see anything in the SUSA that isn’t off-limits to the general population. You ready? />
  I shook hands with Hardesty and followed the general outside. I had made up my mind: I was moving into the SUSA.

  BOOK #16

  VENGEANCE IN THE ASHES

  “Every man hath a good and a bad angel attending on him in particular, all his life long.”

  –Robert Burton

  The battle for the Hawaiian Islands is not quite as easy as expected, the outlaws under the leadership of Books Houseman put up a chaotic but determined resistance and the Creepies dig themselves into the island wilderness, making the Rebels’ job of eradication difficult and dangerous. Ben looks forward to getting his people stateside for a long rest before facing the next enemy of freedom. But it’s not to be.

  During the height of the island campaign, Ben receives intelligence from General Payon at Base Camp One that an army, at least fifty thousand strong, is on the march in South America and moving north, leaving nothing but destruction in its path.

  Not the usual ragtag outlaw band, this army is well trained and equipped with the best, including a large number of gunships cloned from the Russian Hind battle choppers. It will be the first time the Rebels have to face a threat from the air. To make matters worse, the enemy uniforms bear the feared death’s-head of the old German SS. They are modern Nazis, and they’re coming to America.

  Ben learns that while he was fighting to free America, fragments of major terrorist groups around the world were uniting themselves against a common enemy—freedom. Their leader was a South American self-styled general with the strange name of Jesus Dieguez Mendoza Hoffman. His grandfather had come to South America just after the end of World War II and stayed to raise his children to embrace the Nazi cause.

  As reports of Hoffman’s movement pour in the Hawaiian campaign is winding down. Ike tells Ben that it’s time to head home to the new threat and leave a small force on the islands to help the locals clean up. Ben agrees, and preparations begin to move the army stateside. Ike will also be in charge of training any outlaws who are willing and able to become Rebels. They’re going to need everyone they can get.

  General Payon’s army, though highly trained, is taking a beating in southern Mexico as Ben arrives at Base Camp One in Texas. Hoffman and his commanders are proving to be skilled at fighting a war, plus they outnumber the Rebels five to one.

  Ben decides it’s best to protect the border while giving Payon exit routes north rather than move south to meet him and Hoffman’s force. But it’s too late, Payon’s southern army is almost totally wiped out, and the general is trying to hold Hoffman’s army until the Rebels are ready at the border. The problem is that Hoffman sympathizers and a sizable portion of his army have already infiltrated North America, with outposts as far north as Arkansas and Missouri, and Ben must deal with them before he can focus on the border. A captured officer reveals that Hoffman’s forces are called the NAL (New Army of Liberation) and that reports are true—they follow the horrible teachings of Adolph Hitler.

  Ben fears that the Rebels will be squeezed into a desperate situation and that the battleground will be Texas. He orders Ike to create a no-man’s-land along the border to help contain the larger southern army. A group of tough Texans calling themselves the Texas Rangers sign on with the Rebels.

  During a firefight near McAlester, Oklahoma, Ben is captured by a Nazi survivalist group headed by a man named Jackman. They are aligned with the NAL. The Rebel leader is tethered in the back of a truck and driven to Jackman’s headquarters in Mountain Home, Arkansas. But they underestimate Ben, and he escapes quickly into the woods, where he arms himself and takes them on single-handedly. He’s enjoying himself more then he has in years. After stocking up on weapons and getting a meal at a farmhouse deep in the woods, Ben goes after Jackman and his band of crud. While his army prepares for battle in Texas, Ben starts a war of his own.

  At a motel outside Mountain Home Ben rescues six locals who are about to be hanged. He arms them from weapon stashes the Rebels hid right after the Great War. He creates so much havoc that word gets back to Ike and the Rebels he’s alive. They make a plan to drop an assault team in Arkansas and clean house. Once again the Rebels take back America, but Hoffman is moving relentlessly north, taking Mexico City and defeating Payon’s army.

  Hopelessly outnumbered, Ben decides the only course is to fight a guerrilla war, and he orders his army to dress down to civilian clothes and wait for Hoffman along the Rio Grande.

  SEVENTEEN

  The elementary school was in recess when we arrived, with several hundred kids at play outside. We managed to get inside the main building and out of the way just as the bell rang. Then the halls were filled with laughing children, being herded this way and that way by adults . . . all of whom were casting nervous glances at the general. The kids didn’t pay any attention to either of us.

  Just as the halls emptied, a lady approached us, a smile on her face. “Ben,” she said, “it’s so good to see you. It’s been too long.”

  Ben Raines took her outstretched hands and held them for a moment. I got the impression the two of them had, at one time, been a little bit more than friends. I was introduced, and Judith Craine, the principal of the elementary school, led us on a tour of the facility.

  Judith and the General chatted easily and I listened and learned a little bit more about Ben Raines and the SUSA.

  Judith: Ben and I go “way back.” All the way back to almost the beginning. I was a student at a university when Ben came through just after the collapse, looking for a friend of his. I talked with him at length, liked what he had to say about government, and after he left to continue his searching, I headed for the Northwest.

  WWJ: And the rest, as they say, is history.

  Judith laughed, and it was a pleasant laugh. She nodded, and said; “That is correct.”

  WWJ: What is so different about this school, Ms. Craine, as compared to the elementary schools outside the SUSA?

  Judith: Not that much, really. Perhaps a bit more discipline. However, there is none of that far-out progressive education nonsense here; kids don’t throw temper tantrums whenever they feel like it under the guise of “expressing themselves.” Starting with K we teach the basics: readin’, writin’, and ’rithmetic. We believe that children not only need but want discipline in their lives; but we’re very careful not to go overboard with it. Children need to work off all that energy, and we give them plenty of time to do that. I suppose the main difference is that here, we begin teaching morals and values and honor at a very early age. However, we don’t cram it down young throats. It’s taught in ways that appeal to young minds.

  WWJ: Can you give me an example?

  Judith: Games in which all take a part. Games, but with a moral ending. Games in which feelings might be hurt if the wrong answer is chosen. Games that involve right and wrong.

  WWJ: People outside the SUSA will say that is your interpretation of right and wrong.

  Judith: Of course it is. One doesn’t steal, one doesn’t lie, one doesn’t murder, one doesn’t cheat, one doesn’t deliberately injure others . . . right is right and wrong is wrong.

  WWJ: On those issues, yes. I’ll agree with you.

  I cut my eyes to General Raines. He was silent, smiling at the exchange. I turned back to the principal.

  WWJ: But there are sometimes areas of gray.

  Judith: Occasionally. But tell me when it’s all right to steal from honest people, or to murder or cheat or lie for profit. I want you to point out those gray areas.

  I had learned a lot of things about life in the SUSA, and the people who lived here. One of the things I had learned was that they had a very fast answer for almost any question an outsider might pose. When I could not come up with any immediate reply, General Raines stepped in.

  Ben Raines: You serving a good lunch today, Judith?

  Judith (smiling): Always, Ben. But today is the day the kids get to choose their own lunch from a variety of foods. You really want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or pizza with
chocolate ice cream or a hot dog with tomatoes and cookies?

  Ben grimaced and said; “You really let the kids fix that crap and eat it?”

  Judith laughed at his expression, and replied, “Occasionally.”

  Ben Raines: I think we’ll pass on lunch.

  Driving away from the school, I said; “Interesting lady.”

  Ben said, “Very.”

  And he would say no more about Judith Craine. I did not press the issue. Outside the SUSA, Ben and Judith would be fair game for a reporter. But I had been warned that if you poke around in the private and personal lives of people who were residents of the SUSA, that was a dandy way of getting seriously hurt, or dead.

  And I didn’t doubt it for an instant.

  BOOK #17

  BATTLE IN THE ASHES

  One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks, is worth whole years of those mean observances of paltry decorum.

  –Sir Walter Scott

  No sooner than Ben and the Rebels returned to America, Field Marshal Jesus Dieguez Mendoza Hoffman is on the invasion trail. The modern-day Hitler invades Mexico and the United States from South America. His superior numbers and blitzkrieg tactics overwhelm General Payon and his Army of Mexico. The general never had a chance because the remaining aristocracy of Mexico controlled the army and are in sympathy with Hoffman and his Nazi ideology. After completing a difficult journey around the world to clear it of Creepies and outlaws, the outnumbered Rebel army masses on the Texas side of the Rio Grande to do battle with Hoffman and his staggering forces.