From The Ashes: America Reborn Read online

  The General smiled when he said that, and I laughed and replied, “Only a few hundred.”

  Ben Raines: No point in doing an interview if it’s not complete. I used to hate to read an interview or article about somebody where the reporter took up five thousand words and said nothing of substance.

  WWJ: Sometimes it’s the person being interviewed who says nothing of substance.

  Ben Raines: Then the reporter is asking the wrong questions.

  WWJ: Am I asking the right questions?

  Ben Raines: So far.

  WWJ: All right, then. How about this one: social security here in the SUSA?

  Ben Raines: We have several forms of saving for the retirement years. One is very similar to the old system back before the collapse; but it isn’t very popular. But many of the older workers like it so we’ll keep it . . . at least for a time. The most popular is a voluntary saving/investment plan. Say a person wants a hundred dollars a month taken out of his or her paycheck toward savings at . . . oh, four/five percent annually. They can put seventy-five dollars a month into that government savings plan, and twenty-five dollars a month into an investment fund, which is very carefully watched by government brokers. Or eighty/twenty or fifty/fifty or whatever they choose.

  WWJ: Is the plan mandatory?

  Ben Raines (shaking his head): No. The government doesn’t have the right to tell someone they have to save and then take their money against their will. But I would say that probably ninety-five percent of the people living here are under some sort of plan. Maybe a higher percentage than that.

  WWJ: But there is a risk involved in the investment plan?

  Ben Raines: Sure. There is always a risk. But so far it’s worked out well for all concerned. Ours is a booming economy. Our dollar is the most solid in the world. Backed up by literally trillions in gold, silver, diamonds, art, you name something precious and valuable, we’ve got it.

  WWJ: Which you admit you took during your many sweeps of the nation and in some cases, the world.

  Ben Raines (smiling): Well, it didn’t seem to belong to anyone at the time.

  BOOK #19

  TREASON IN THE ASHES

  Behold, I shall show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

  –The Bible

  Ben stands in front of the NAL firing squad. Hoffman watches with delight as Volmer offers him a last cigarette. Ben accepts, but instead of lighting the cigarette he shoves the lighter into Volmer’s eye, blinding him. Ben escapes over a low wall, arms himself, and hides in a storeroom of the villa, wondering what to do next. He has no idea how long he’s been in captivity and wonders about the Rebel cause. He vows to fight on no matter what. Suddenly he hears fighting in the courtyard and the voice of his son Buddy. The troops have arrived!

  Back in camp, Ben learns that more punks and outlaws have formed during the time the Rebels have been fighting Hoffman’s army. Creepies have resurfaced as well, stronger and more aggressive. He makes plans to wipe them all out systematically. The big problem is the discovery that a small group of politicians left over from the Great War have been hiding in the Adirondacks and building an army to retake the United States and stop the Rebels.

  A huge standing army of punks and mercenaries under the command of General Paul Revere, aka Nick Stafford, an old foe of Ben’s from his time in Vietnam, is the commander. On orders from Blanton, Revere begins to move his troops west through Canada in order to spearhead a drive into the heart of north central America. Ben moves his troops into position along I-90 and waits. Once again outnumbered, he will fight a guerrilla war. The Rebels are skilled and deadly. Revere’s army is stalled between I-90 and the Canadian border, unable to move and taking heavy casualties.

  During a lull in the fighting Ben offers President Blanton terms for surrender. Blanton is outraged and refuses initially but then agrees to discuss a compromise after a Rebel night action nets a thousand prisoners without a shot being fired. After some negotiation a meeting is set to be held in an old Adirondacks resort hotel that is Blanton’s headquarters. Ben and Homer are beginning to come to terms when Revere pulls a double cross and bombs the hotel. Ben is knocked unconscious and awakens to devastation and carnage. He is alone. He arms and supplies himself and sets out to find the Rebel lines. Along the way he picks up a band of liberal survivors. To their horror, he arms them from the dead and gives them a crash course in survival.

  Ben comes upon a prison camp where he finds his team, Jersey, Corrie, Beth, and Cooper held prisoner. He rescues them and finds them ready to fight. They’ve suffered brutally at the hands of Blanton’s soldiers and are fit to be tied.

  Revere is now a rogue commander, running a vast army bent on defeating both Blanton and the Rebels. But Blanton refuses to join forces with Ben, and in a meeting Ben reveals that he has no choice but to form his own nation of eleven Southern states which he will call SUSA (Southern United States of America)

  Ben will fight on two fronts if necessary. As he prepares to square off with Blanton he continues to squeeze Revere in the Midwest. The Rebels introduce the SUSA flag—eleven stars against the familiar red, white, and blue—and are willing to fight a vicious civil war to protect the new country. Revere focuses his energy on Blanton, but the president still refuses to ask for help. But as Ben prepares for war, Revere decides to move his army into Canada and wait a year to prepare a major offensive against the Rebels and Blanton. Ben, however, decides not to wait for the attack and prepares to chase Revere. He will bring the fight north of the border.

  TWENTY

  WWJ: How about hunting in the SUSA, General? The rumor outside your borders says it’s forbidden.

  Ben Raines: The rumors are wrong. As usual. We have regular hunting seasons all over the SUSA. But we do have a number of wildlife areas set aside where no hunting is allowed; where animals are allowed to roam and live free as God intended them to do. In a few areas we have reintroduced the wolf, and we have had no trouble from ranchers and farmers. The wolves feed on the older and sick animals and keep the herds of deer healthy and strong.

  WWJ: What about poachers?

  Ben Raines: In the wildlife-refuge areas, poachers run the very real risk of being shot on sight. Any unauthorized person found with a firearm in those areas is arrested on the spot. And the penalties are severe.

  WWJ: It seems the penalties are severe for most crimes in the SUSA. That seemed to be the main criticism against the SUSA.

  Ben Raines: Crime is punished severely in the SUSA. That’s one of the reasons why we have the lowest crime rate in the world. Not one of the lowest, the lowest. That’s one of the reasons we can take the billions of taxpayers dollars that other societies spend on criminal justice and put that money to a better use. And in many civil suits, we have what is called “English law.” Loser pay. Whether it’s enforced is up to the judge.

  WWJ: The loser pays for all attorney fees and court costs?

  Ben Raines: That’s right. It sure cuts down on the number of frivolous lawsuits.

  WWJ: But what do those people do to settle the problem—real or imagined?

  Ben Raines: Settle out of court. Hash out their grievances in front of an arbitrator, in private, and resolve the problem. That system has worked well for us.

  WWJ: I can’t see it working that well outside the SUSA.

  Ben Raines: It probably wouldn’t work outside our borders. There are too many people outside the SUSA who want something for nothing. Too many people who feel that society owes them something. We don’t have many of those people in the SUSA. They just can’t make it here.

  WWJ: Because the SUSA relies so much on honor?

  Ben Raines: I think that has a lot to do with it.

  I gazed out the window at the seemingly endless fields, the ones we were passing were planted with various types of vegetables: literally thousands and thousands of acres of vegetables.

  WWJ: Who owns all these acres?

  Ben Raines: Individuals, mostly.
Here in the SUSA, the small farmer has made a dramatic comeback.

  WWJ: How?

  Ben Raines: One thing that helped was eliminating the middleman. That and a number of processing plants. Right now, the SUSA is feeding a number of hungry countries as fast as we can grow the food and ship it to them.

  WWJ: How about beef prices?

  Ben Raines: Again, for the most part, we eliminated the middleman. But mainly it was the ranchers: they built their own slaughterhouses and processing plants. We just did away with anyone involved who wasn’t essential.

  WWJ: Food safety?

  Ben Raines: The best in the world. Inspectors at every plant. You’ve been in our supermarkets. They’re all spotless.

  We drove on deeper into the country. I asked if we were still in the district, and the reply was yes.

  WWJ: Big district.

  Ben Raines: Runs for about a hundred miles in any direction except east. The Mississippi River is our eastern boundary.

  WWJ: I haven’t seen a single military security or police vehicle since we left the capital.

  Ben Raines: I told you: we don’t have that many patrolling. It’s a standing joke to visitors that we probably have more paramedics than we do military security or civilian police.

  WWJ: Because of the citizens’ right to defend themselves?

  Ben Raines: It has a lot to do with the caliber of people who live here. As I have said, and you have discovered, we’re rather selective about who lives here.

  WWJ: And that is another controversial point your critics are quick to bring up.

  Ben Raines: They can bring it up until they fall over from exhaustion. The point is: it works for us, and the vast majority of our citizens are in agreement with the policy. Very few people here lock their doors at night or take the keys out of their vehicles.

  WWJ: Most people outside the SUSA don’t believe that.

  Ben Raines: That’s their problem. But they damn sure find it to be true very quickly when they come down here to visit.

  WWJ: You believe there are classes of people?

  Ben Raines: Of course. Anyone who doesn’t is a damned idealistic fool. But we certainly don’t have a caste system here. Our justice system is truly blind. A person who makes ten dollars an hour is treated the same as the person who makes ten thousand dollars an hour. A person who makes ten thousand dollars an hour and gets in trouble is going to be able to post bond faster than the person who makes ten dollars an hour and gets in the same type of trouble. But that isn’t preferential treatment—that’s simple economics. When they get to court, their defense is basically the same. The facts. No legal maneuvering or fancy fast footwork. Just cold, hard, irrefutable facts. Anything pertaining to the case is allowed into evidence for or against. But we’ve gone over this; you know how our legal system works.

  WWJ: But I still have questions about it.

  Ben Raines: Ask.

  WWJ: I was down at the newspaper office the other afternoon, at the computer, looking over some old issues of the local paper. I saw this story about a man who was attacked by three unarmed teenagers—attempted mugging. The kids were sixteen and seventeen years old. This happened in a town not too far from here . . . some three or four years ago. He was a man in his early sixties and was carrying a pistol. He killed two of the kids and badly wounded the third. Nothing was done about it.

  Ben Raines: And that bothers you?

  WWJ: Well . . . I’m not going to cry myself to sleep over it. But anywhere else that man might have to serve some time for that.

  Ben Raines: Not here. He didn’t attack the punks. They attacked him. That’s self-defense any way you slice it. How could he know that one or all of them wouldn’t pull out a knife or a gun at any moment?

  Ben Raines (checking his watch): This day’s just about shot. This junction up here will take us back to Base Camp One. Tomorrow morning we’ll visit one of our homes for the elderly . . . if you want to, that is.

  WWJ: I would. That’s something I had down on my list.

  Ben Raines: I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at what you find.

  WWJ: General, I’ve been surprised at just about everything I’ve seen down here.

  Ben Raines: I could take that one of two ways, you know?

  WWJ: Yes, you certainly could.

  The general glanced eyes at me, but said nothing. I hid a smile. I had finally gotten in the last word.

  BOOK #20

  D-DAY IN THE ASHES

  This [nation] will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.

  –Elmer Davis

  Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.

  . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.

  –Thomas Jefferson

  In order to protect SUSA while Ben fights Revere in eastern Canada, he orders nuclear missiles aimed at the major cities in the United States, including the White House in Charleston, West Virginia. In order to defeat Revere quickly Ben plans a two-pronged attack. Half of his army will move north into Quebec and the other will swing east from New Brunswick. The Rebel army has a surprise weapon for this battle. Ben has revamped the old P51 Mustang from World War II. The new version, called the P51E, is heavily armed, and because it flies so low to the ground, it is almost invulnerable to SAM missiles.

  As the battle begins New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia break from the Commonwealth and form the NUSA (Northern United States of America) and draft an alliance with SUSA. With NUSA’s help Ben plans to force Revere to dig in west of Toronto, cut his supply lines, and starve the renegade into submission. He needs time because while he’s dealing with Revere he’s also got to deal with the Creepies and the thugs who are holding Canadian cities hostage. Other provinces join NUSA, and soon the eastern half of Canada is in the Rebel camp and adopting the Rebel form of government.

  The isolation and starvation tactic works, and Revere surrenders. Ben offers him the chance to join the Rebels along with any soldiers who are qualified to take up the cause. With Revere on board Ben begins the dangerous and challenging task of clearing the Creepies out of eastern Canada. They are a powerful and sophisticated bunch and tough in battle. Ben decides not to waste Rebel lives and orders a “take no prisoners” war.

  By the time he’s finished SUSA has expanded and NUSA is secure. During the Canadian campaign the new United Nations recognizes SUSA as a sovereign state. Blanton and his colleagues in the US are not pleased because they know what Secretary-General Moon has in mind. There is a major threat to world stability in Europe. A neo-Nazi fanatic named Bruno Bottger has raised a massive army and is bent on reviving the dreams of Hitler and the Third Reich in the post-apocalyptic world. Secretary Moon offers Ben a job and a challenge—clean up the world and make it safe for decent people. Ben accepts and prepares for yet another war.

  While planning the operation he learns from intelligence sources that the reports of the plague in Europe were greatly overstated and in fact used as cover for the warlords and Creepies who are destroying the continent bit by bit. A thorn in his side in the form of the Red Cross and several human rights groups make the job doubly difficult as they scream for protection of the Night People’s rights. Ben is forced to prove his point about the bestial nature of the Night People and justify his search-and-destroy tactics by releasing some Creepies on an unwitting band of liberal reporters. The resulting carnage changes some but not all of their ideas about the true nature of these subhuman cannibals.

  One bright note is sounded when President Blanton, against the advice of his cabinet, supports Ben in his battle for Europe.

  In a move reminiscent of D day 1944 Ben enters Europe through Normandy in France. He leads the Rebels into battle on Omaha Beach. The Rebels fight a winter war through Fra
nce, ridding towns and villages of thugs and Creepies as they go. Ben heads for Switzerland to prepare the move south, where Bottger’s estimated 250,000 veteran troops are gearing for war.

  Bottger must be stopped in Europe; he is gaining in strength and will soon be in position to begin moving off the continent. Ben attacks, but Bottger’s elite MEF (Minority Eradication Force) provides stiff resistance. After several months of bloody conflict Bottger calls for a meeting in Geneva. Ben and the Nazi along with Blanton and other officials sit down to discuss the issues at hand. Bottger states that the land he now controls will be part of his empire forever, and he will fight to the death to preserve it. And he makes his racial position clear as well—in his empire there are no Jews, blacks, or other minorities and never will be. He also reveals that the strength of his army is vastly underrated; he’s commanding close to 3,000,000 men.

  During the talks Ben learns that Bottger’s scientists are developing a serum which causes infertility and that Bottger plans to introduce it to the drinking water in Africa and Asia to thin the world’s minority populations.

  Suddenly talks are interrupted by an attack. Blanton is taken prisoner. Nobody knows for sure, but everyone suspects that Bottger kidnapped him. That turns out to be the case, but now that Bruno has the president, he doesn’t know what to do with him. The Nazi decides to stage a fake rescue, but Ben and the Rebels beat him to it and Bottger’s plan is exposed to the world press.

  Bottger promises to fight to the death, and Ben has no choice but to stop this madman before his expands his power base outside of Europe. He will use whatever means necessary, including an alliance with a detested racist, to try and even the odds.