From The Ashes: America Reborn Read online

  A battle rages for six days on both sides of the 140-mile front along I-70. The rebels are outnumbered by the IPF, but are more heavily armed. The first two days of intense shelling are followed by four more of hand-to-hand combat, and Ben’s well-trained troops take heavy losses. Maiden’s and Solis’s civilian troops suffer plenty of casualties as well, but are holding up better than expected. In a final devious gesture to undermine the strength of the coalition’s attack, Hartline puts prisoners in the front of the cross fire. The Rebel forces are overwhelmed and forced to retreat.

  Stories of the battle being waged by Raines and his Rebels have spread to the remotest corners of the country and are reaching settlements of survivors. Ben Raines has become not simply a folk hero but a deity, especially among the legions of uneducated orphaned youths. In extreme northern regions of Michigan, and southern South Dakota, these groups heed the call to participate in this war for freedom and order.

  As Raines and his outnumbered Rebels prepare one final guerrilla assault on the IPF in Indiana, they receive word that they will be joined from the north by unexpected reinforcements in the form of some retired soldiers and from the east and west by groups of orphans all prepared to fight to the death for the cause. A surprised General Striganov orders the surrounded IPF to retreat west to Oregon, Washington, and northern California.

  Raines’s people move toward Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina, where they will regroup until they are strong enough to face the IPF again.

  FOUR

  Ben Raines: Want to try to stay with our judicial system again?

  WWJ: We can start off with it. But it’s much more interesting when you start digressing and touching unexpectedly on subjects.

  Ben Raines (after a good laugh): Shall we begin with our courts or the citizen’s right to protect his or her own self? Your choice.

  WWJ: Let’s go with self-protection. I’ve heard it’s quite different here.

  Ben Raines: We believe it pretty much stays with the original meaning of the Constitution.

  WWJ: The United States Constitution?

  Ben Raines: Yes. Jefferson’s Constitution. A lot of our laws and rules and regulations are based on his interpretation of how a government should function.

  WWJ: Many outside the SUSA say that isn’t so.

  Ben Raines: They’re wrong. You know that Jefferson was Lincoln’s intellectual mentor?

  WWJ: No, I didn’t.

  Ben Raines: He was. But we can’t just stop with the writings of Jefferson when we discuss the rights of the law-abiding. We have to look at the backgrounds of all the men who signed the Declaration of Independence. All fifty-six of them. Right here in the SUSA we have as complete a written history on their lives and thoughts as can be found anywhere in the world.

  I sat back, the tape recorder running. General Raines would get to the subject in his own time. Besides, it was much more fun and enlightening doing it this way.

  Ben Raines: All fifty-six of those men suffered because of their beliefs. All of them signed that document knowing they faced death by doing so. Five of them were captured by the British and tortured before they died . . . tortured in hideous ways. Twelve had their homes looted and burned. Nine of them died from wounds suffered in the first Revolutionary War. One wealthy signer from Virginia was stripped of all his wealth and died a beggar, in rags. The British used confiscation of personal property as a means of attempting to silence dissent. Just before the second American Revolution the United States government was using the same sort of tactics. It didn’t work the first time around, and it damn sure didn’t work the second time around.

  I suspected, then, that General Raines was probably going to discuss Jefferson for a time. I had read somewhere that the general considered Thomas Jefferson to be one of the greatest men ever to walk on American soil. I decided to prompt him.

  WWJ: Was Jefferson always a rebel?

  Ben Raines: Hardly. He was in his late twenties before rebel fever seized him. It was during his tenure as a county lieutenant and burgess in the House of Burgesses when the fever struck him. Second term there, I think. Some historians say Jefferson really became a rebel in 1774.

  WWJ: You admire him greatly, don’t you?

  Ben Raines: I can’t imagine anyone who wouldn’t. Jefferson was a man of great vision and also of great contradictions. But let’s save him for later. Right now, let’s see if I can unravel our system of justice for you.

  WWJ: The tape recorder is running.

  Ben Raines: Isn’t it always? All right, what is it you don’t understand?

  WWJ: I’m not sure those living outside the borders of the SUSA understand anything about your system of justice.

  Ben Raines: Well, let’s tackle it from this angle: A punk takes a gun and holds up a convenience store. During the course of the robbery the store clerk is killed. Now then, if that occurs outside our borders, the charge will range from second-degree murder to manslaughter; rarely will it be murder in the first. In the SUSA, when a person takes a life during the commission of a crime, it’s murder one. Because no matter how many excuses for criminal behavior the sobbing sisters and bleeding hearts come up with—in your society, not here—an innocent, law-abiding, taxpaying person is still dead.

  WWJ: And the punishment for that crime here in the SUSA is . . . ?

  Ben Raines: Death. A decent human being’s life is too precious here in the SUSA for us to play word games with.

  WWJ: They are put to death in a humane manner?

  Ben Raines: They are either shot or hanged. The choice is theirs.

  WWJ: That’s not much of a choice.

  Ben Raines: The criminal didn’t give the murder victim that much choice.

  WWJ: Let me play devil’s advocate for a moment. During the course of your investigation, your people discover that the criminal really didn’t mean to kill; he didn’t go in the store to commit murder. Isn’t that taken into consideration?

  Ben Raines: No. Because the clerk is still dead. His or her life is over. He or she is in the grave. His or her family had to witness the burial of a loved one who had harmed no one. Here in the SUSA we have proven that harsh and swift punishment is a great deterrent to violent crime. Statistics do not lie. They present cold and irrefutable facts. Outside the SUSA, they spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year on prison construction, so-called prison reform, clothing, medical care, law libraries, lawyers, and God only knows what else. But probably less than a nickel out of every dollar goes for rehabilitation of the incarcerated. I’ve already told you that here a prisoner can return to society with a Ph.D. and walk right into a high-paying job and be an accepted member of any community.

  WWJ: And there have been no mistakes made with any individual?

  Ben Raines: No. At least not yet. Not to my knowledge. But we’re a young nation. And there are any number of very smart criminals out there.

  WWJ: Who makes up the parole boards?

  Ben Raines: Who sits on them? Not a bunch of liberal, out-of-touch-with-reality eggheads, I can tell you that. Ordinary citizens make up the various parole boards throughout the SUSA.

  WWJ: I will agree that your method of incarceration and rehabilitation sounds good. But would it be practical for the rest of the nation?

  Ben Raines: I don’t see why not. But I will admit we haven’t had much success with the more violent types of criminals. Some people are just born bad.

  WWJ: Do you really believe that, General?

  Ben Raines: Oh, yes. Certainly. The bad-seed theory is really not a theory anymore. Scientists were on the verge of proving that even before the revolution.

  WWJ: There are many outside the SUSA who would not agree with you.

  Ben Raines: There are many outside the SUSA who wouldn’t agree with me if I stated the sun came up in the east.

  I could not argue with the general on that point. Ben Raines was one of the most hated men in North America. But I also knew that a lot of that hatred sprang from jealousy. G
eneral Raines and his followers had carved a successful nation out of the ashes of war in a relatively short time. He had proven that his system of government—something he had preached for years prior to the revolution—would work. And he was hated for it.

  WWJ: How about the constitutional rights of a criminal? Do they really have any rights here?

  Ben Raines: Sure they do. Basically the same constitutional rights that are guaranteed to everyone. In many areas of the criminal-justice system, criminals have more rights here than outside our borders.

  WWJ: But it’s common knowledge that a law-abiding citizen can use deadly force to protect life, loved ones, and property here.

  Ben Raines: That’s true. The constitutional rights of a law-breaker kick in when the authorities arrive at the scene. The suspect does not have to answer questions. He or she can have an attorney present during questioning. Same as on the outside. The main difference between the system here and that in practice outside our borders is one that you stated a moment ago: A law-abiding citizen has the right to use deadly force to protect life, loved ones, or property. If they elect to use deadly force, once the investigation is concluded and it’s proven that a criminal act was taking place or about to take place against the citizen, the citizen cannot be arrested, prosecuted, or sued in civil court for his or her actions.

  WWJ: Suppose the thief was unarmed?

  Ben Raines: That’s his tough luck.

  WWJ: That’s a hard system, General.

  Ben Raines: Works for us.

  BOOK #4

  BLOOD IN THE ASHES

  They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

  –Ben Franklin

  If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

  –Thomas Jefferson

  Ben, Gale (who is now three months pregnant with twins), and his Rebels are traveling in a convoy eastward between Lebanon and Cooksville, Tennessee (from southern Missouri). Other rebels will be going to northern Georgia from Louisiana and Arkansas. Ben is surrounded with his old friends and fellow officers—Dan Gray, Cecil Jefferys, Juan Solis, Mark Terry, Ike McGowen, and Dr. Chase. The IPF and Sam Hartline have moved to territories in the Northwest, and the Rebels plan to gather up resources until their next confrontation.

  As they travel through Tennessee, they run into what seems to be a primitive ritual human sacrifice held in a miniature Stonehenge by a group calling themselves the Ninth Order. Those conducting the torture, led by a woman who calls herself Sister Voleta, are forced by Ben to release their other prisoner, Claudia. Voleta vows revenge. Later at camp, Claudia reveals that there are spies within Ben’s ranks.

  Ben decides that if there are indeed dangerous infiltrators, his absence from camp will more quickly reveal the truth. Reporting that he is headed for Atlanta, he and Gale and a small group of Rebel soldiers edge south of Atlanta and travel through Monticello. Ben orders his contingent of Rebels to gather at Clark Hill Lake.

  South of Ben and his Rebels, Antony Silvaro, aka Tony Silver, a native New York punk with a penchant for raping young girls, has been rapidly expanding his small empire in north Florida and south Georgia. Tony and his thugs have been capturing and using survivors as slave labor for his extensive Florida plantations. In contact with people inside Ben’s Rebels and with Sister Voleta, Tony captures Ike McGowan and tries to torture him into informing them where Ben has gone. Meanwhile, Ben and Gale and his personal team of Rebels are on Highway 11 ten minutes north of Macon, Georgia.

  Suddenly Ben remembers who Sister Voleta is. Ben had met her (then Betty Blackman) at a book signing in Nashville before the war. They flirted, had dinner, and later went to bed together. Months later she contacted him, through his agent to inform him she was pregnant, and he told her that if she could prove the child was his, he would take responsibility. He had not heard from her since. . . .

  For days Ike offers Tony Silver’s men no information and finally manages to escape the prison. He encounters a young woman named Nina along his escape route (Highway 60) and is impressed by her ability to survive. Together they make their way back to Rebel territory.

  Back at the Rebel’s main camp in north Georgia, Captain Willette, the traitor who has teamed up with Sister Voleta, begins to spread spurious rumors among the Rebels that Ben Raines has gone insane and is abandoning them. He imprisons Dan Gray, Cecil Jefferys, Juan Solis, and Mark Terry and accuses them of treachery. Rebel families who will not go along with Willette are herded together in a football stadium and massacred.

  Meanwhile, from their location in Sumter National Forest in South Carolina, Ben and his troops dig in and confront Silver’s armies. Although significantly outnumbered, the Rebels win a decisive victory. They pick up and begin to return to Base Camp (through Seneca, South Carolina, north to Westminster and Clayton, to Lincolntown). Gray, Jefferys, Solis, and Terry have regained control of Base Camp, but not without huge casualties. When Ike returns with Nina, they inform him that his wife, Sally, and children were among those massacred in the stadium.

  While Silver is busy fighting Raines north of Florida, his slaves have staged a successful rebellion. Ever available to the highest bidder, Sam Hartline offers Silver his mercenary services and heads for Perry, Florida.

  Ben prepares to face the vengeful Sister Voleta and her armies just south of Murphy, North Carolina. He places Jefferys and his troops north in Ducktown, North Carolina, and Mark Terry and Juan Solis to the northwest. They close in on the enemy armies, but Voleta herself manages to escape.

  With the battle won, the Rebels are finally able to begin to rebuild their settlements in the southeast. Gale prepares herself for Ben’s imminent departure and moves into a house in Dalton, Georgia, where she will have their babies. Ben tells the Rebels to rebuild without him, and he hopes that upon his return they will have made progress in this mighty endeavor. Raines hands over the command to his new general, Cecil Jefferys, and gets ready for his personal journey north, where he will stake out new territory and begin to write his journal on the history of the struggle of Tri-States.

  FIVE

  Ben Raines: There is no such charge as assault with a deadly weapon in the SUSA.

  WWJ: What’s it called?

  Ben Raines: Attempted murder.

  WWJ: But it might not be attempted murder. I mean, it might just be a fight, right?

  Ben Raines: Wrong. Anytime a citizen is accosted by a thug, it doesn’t make any difference if the punk has a brick, a rock, a knife, a gun, a tire iron, or whatever, he’s not coming after that citizen to hand him or her a bouquet of roses. He’s there to inflict a great deal of pain and suffering or possibly death. And here in the SUSA he’s going to do ten to twenty years for it, at hard labor. If he robs the person and then leaves the victim bleeding and unconscious, he’s going to do an additional ten to twenty years. And here in our society, if a punk commits a violent crime, he does the entire sentence, for if it’s a particularly vicious crime, at the end of the sentence the judge will almost always add on “without benefit of probation, parole, or review of records.”

  WWJ: I can see why the crime rate is so low here in the SUSA.

  Ben Raines: We try to make crime very unappealing.

  WWJ: I would say you have certainly succeeded.

  Ben Raines: Thank you. We do try.

  WWJ: How about minor crimes?

  Ben Raines: Define a minor crime.

  WWJ: A kid stealing a set of hubcaps.

  Ben Raines: He’d better not run or resist when the owner of the car confronts him. And if he stands up and mouths off, he’s very likely to get pistol-whipped or butt-stroked.

  WWJ: Explain butt-stroked.

  Ben Raines: Hit in the mouth with the butt of a rifle.

  WWJ: Suppose the boy’s parents decide to sue?

  Ben Raines: I told you: a citizen cannot be sued for injuries inflicted upon a criminal
caught in a criminal act.

  WWJ: But young people are notorious for getting lippy.

  Ben Raines: In your society maybe they still do. That doesn’t happen very often here. We’ve been accused of taking several steps back in time in some areas. It’s true. We did and we’re comfortable with it. People are polite to each other in the SUSA. They teach their children to be polite and to respect their elders.

  WWJ: Is that a law in the SUSA?

  Ben Raines: No! But unlike the schools outside the SUSA, we teach subjects to our children that civil liberties types would be screaming are unconstitutional.

  WWJ: Give me an example.

  Ben Raines: We can start with morals and values.

  WWJ: Whose morals and values?

  Ben Raines: Ours.

  WWJ: And you receive no complaints from parents?

  Ben Raines: Of course not. Why should we? We’re all in this together.

  WWJ: You don’t teach the Bible in public schools, do you?

  Ben Raines: It isn’t required. But there is a moment of silence each day, and Bible classes are available for anyone who chooses to take them.

  WWJ: Do many students participate?

  Ben Raines: About seventy-five percent of them.

  WWJ: And the ones who don’t are subjected to taunts and ridicule from the others?

  Ben Raines: Not in this society. If you choose not to believe in God, that is your business. Church attendance is sure as hell—no pun intended—not mandatory. But I would say that seventy-five percent of the people living in the SUSA belong to some denomination.

  WWJ: That many?

  Ben Raines: Yes. Does that surprise you?