Anarchy in the Ashes

She wiped her eyes and kissed him. “Well… least I feel reasonably safe when I’m around you,” she said with a smile, some of her spirit returning.

He put a big hand on her stomach. “How is the kid doing?”

“Kids, Ben,” she corrected.

“Right. Twins.”

“They’re fine.”

He smiled at her. “Ever been to the Great Smoky Mountains?”

“No.”

“It’s lovely. You’ll like it.”

“When do we pull out?”

“In a couple of weeks. We’ll let the more seriously wounded get fit to travel. And we’ll probably be joined by General Tanner’s people and by the kids. Should be interesting.”

“Know what I want to do right now?” she questioned. There was a smile on her lips and her dark eyes sparkled with mischief.

“Play Monopoly?” Ben said with all innocence.

“That’s one way to describe it. How many times do you think you could make me pass Go?”

He thought about that for a moment, then leaned down and whispered in her ear.

“Oh my, Ben! Well… if you can do that, then I’ll just have to think of something nice for you. Have any ideas?”

He again whispered in her ear.

She drew back as if in shock. “Pervert!” she said, but with a smile.

General Tanner’s “grandfathers” pulled into Ben’s base camp. The old warriors were jubilant as they met with Ben and the others and each congratulated the other on their shared victory over the IPF.

The teams began returning from the north, returning with men and women who told horror stories about their treatment at the hands of the IPF. They told of the mutant breeding farms, of being forced to have sex with the monsters, and of those women who were heavy with mutant children having been taken to the west.

“How many did the teams miss?” Ben asked.

“About half of us,” he was told.

It sickened Ben, but he was fully cognizant of the fact there was nothing he could do-not at this moment.

“You did all you could, Ben,” Gale told him, and that made him feel better. “Someday, perhaps. But I’ve come to realize that you can’t shoulder the troubles of the world alone, honey.”

It made him feel better, but still left him with an ugly taste in his mouth.

Standing alone outside his headquarters at dusk, Ben looked toward the setting sun and murmured,

“Someday, Striganov, I promise you. Someday, I’ll find you and kill you.”

Behind him, Gale heard the promise and shuddered as a hard chill of fear shook her. She wondered if she would be permitted to live that long? She hoped so. She knew Ben did not love her, knew that for a fact-her woman’s intuition told her that. But she felt him to be content with her, and she had enough love for the both of them. Of course, she would never let him know that, she thought with a smile, as the chill of sudden fear left her.

She stood in the shadows of the motel and looked at the man, so tall and strong as the rays of the setting sun silhouetted his shape, making his shadow appear fifty feet long, making the man fit the image so many thought him to be.

And did she feel that way as well?

She didn’t know. And she was afraid to question her mind too closely on the subject.

She turned and slipped quietly away.

“Here comes the Orphans” Brigade,” Buck said, sticking his head into Ben’s quarters. “General, you got to see this to believe it.”

“That bad?” Ben questioned, getting up from behind the desk. He put on his beret and headed for the open door.

The columns of young people were still about a mile away from the HQ. They were marching steadily. Ragged and dirty and appearing malnourished, the kids marched with their heads held high.

Ben, with Gale by his side, watched the young

people. One column was marching in from the northwest, the other from the northeast.

“Damnedest thing I believe I’ve ever seen,” Ben said, his voice not much more than a whisper.

“Oh, Ben,” Gale said, taking his hand. “Some of them are just children. Babies.”

“Don’t you believe it, Miss Roth,” Buck said. “Those kids-most of them, so I hear tell-have been on their own for years. They’re tough little guys and gals. And the way it was told to me, most of them would as soon kill you as look at you.”

“Buck, I can’t believe that,” Gale replied, her heart going out to the little ones in the columns.

“Believe it,” Ben told her. “They’ve had no schooling, no parental or adult guidance, no discipline other than what they impose on themselves. A sort of tribal law, I should imagine. They have had but one thought all their waking years, and that is to survive. Yet another sad fact of postwar.”

“They look so helpless,” Gale muttered.

“Bear in mind,” Ben said, “those two columns of kids helped destroy four battalions of trained IPF personnel. And they took no prisoners.”

“Colonel Gray mentioned that they looked helpless,” Mary Macklin said, joining the growing group. “He offered one little girl a candy bar and she bit his hand to the bone.” Mary smiled at the mental picture. “His LETTERRP’S said the colonel then became quite ineloquent.”

Gale looked at Mary. “Poor little girl,” she said.

“Then that poor little girl grabbed his rifle, kicked him in the shins, and took off into the woods with the AK.” She said it all with a straight face. But there was

a definite twinkle in her eyes.

Gale looked shocked at the telling.

“How old was the girl?” Ben asked.

“Eight,” Mary said.

Ike walked up and looked at the approaching young people. The leading edge was only a few yards away. The young people stopped and were looking at the adults looking at them.

“Aw,” Ike said, “look at them poor, little kids. Makes your heart ache, don’t it? Me and Sally got to take in a few of them to raise.”

Ben smiled.

Ike walked into the street and stood smiling down at the first few young people. He felt his heart soften as he looked at the ragged and dirty little kids. The stocky ex-Seal knelt down beside one little, dark-haired girl.

“Howdy, honey,” he drawled in his best Mississippi accent. “My, you sure are pretty. How’d you like to come live with me and my wife?”

The little girl, no more than nine or ten, pulled a pistol from a holster and pointed it at Ike. Ike paled in shock. She said, “How’d you like to eat lead, fatso?”

Ben had to struggle to keep from laughing at the expression on Ike’s face. It was very difficult to get anything over on Ike, and Ben knew this story would fly around the camps of the Rebels. Ike would never live it down.

Gale glanced at Ben. “Ben!” she hissed. “Damn it, it isn’t funny.”

Ben groaned, suppressing a chuckle.

“Now, darlin”,” Ike said, very carefully getting to his feet. “There just ain’t no call for nothin’ like this. I don’t mean you no harm.”

“Yeah?” the cute little girl asked belligerently. “That’s what them guys told me last year, too. I believed “em. You know what they done to me?”

“I’d really rather not hear about it, if you don’t mind,” Ike said.

“I guess you and your wife is gonna love me and hug me and give me food and pretty clothes and all that shit?” the little girl demanded Ike answer.

“Well, ah, yes,” Ike said, after wincing at her language.

“That’s what them men told me, too,” the girl said. “So I believed ‘em. They took me to a house and raped me-all of them. They hurt me real bad. Then Wade come along and him and his people killed them men. I believe Wade. I don’t know you, so I don’t believe you and I don’t trust you. I got my reasons, mister.”

Ben stepped forward as the HQ appeared to swell with the arrival of more young people. “You can believe him, girl,” he said. “Ike is sincere in wanting you to come live with him and his wife. Ike and Sally are good people.”

The ragged little girl with the pistol in her hand swung oldstwisestyoung eyes to Ben. She holstered the .38. “Maybe,” she said, suspicion in her voice. “I don’t know you neither, but you look familiar. Who you is, mister?”

“Ben Raines.”

The little girl reached into a leather pouch on her belt and removed a plastic-covered picture. She compared the picture to the man then turned to face the large knot of young people, now hundreds strong. “It’s him!” she called.

The little girl fell to her knees and every boy and girl in the column followed suit. Ben stood open-mouthed, astonishment evident on his tanned, rugged features.

“What the hell?” Ben muttered.

Wade crawled toward Ben. Clearly embarrassed, Ben tried to motion the young man to his feet. But the young man would have none of that.

“Get up!” Ben whispered hoarsely. “What are you doing?”

With his eyes downcast, Wade called out, “All praise Ben Raines.”

“What!” Ben whispered, aware that his people were looking strangely at him.

“All praise Ben Raines,” the hundreds of young people echoed.

Ben lost his temper. “Now just a damn minute!” he yelled. “Everybody here-off your knees. Get up and face me.”

Ben handed his Thompson to Ike and the eyes of the young people all followed the shifting of the old SMG. More than a few sighed audibly. They now viewed Ike in a different light.

Ben motioned the young people up from their prostration, feeling a bit foolish as he did so.

Reluctantly, and with fear on their young faces, the kids rose to their feet.

“You young people do not worship me!” Ben said, his voice carrying over the crowd. “Nobody worships me. I won’t have it. It’s silly. Where in the world did you young folks get such an idea?”

“It… it is written,” Wade stammered out the reply. The seemingly fearless young man now seemed genuinely afraid standing facing Ben.

Ben looked hard at the young man. “Written? Where is it written that I am to be worshipped?”

“An old man told us,” Wade said. “I mean … he didn’t exactly say it like that, but he talked real funny-old-time like. And he said that to worship a false god was a sin in the eyes of the Lord. I told him that maybe that was so, but that there wasn’t but one man I would ever bow down to, and that was Mister Ben Raines.”

Ben nodded, and to the young people, the nod appeared sagely. Irritation flashed across Ben’s face. “Was the man’s name the Prophet?”

The crowd of young people drew back, as if much afraid. They knotted together, touching, seeking comfort by physical contact.

“Yes,” Wade said, standing his ground, but looking very much like he would rather cut and run.

Ben looked at the young spokesman. “What did he say or do when you told him that?”

“He… said that perhaps you… Ben Raines … might be the man to do the job at hand. But that on your head would lie the … the con-con-was he struggled with the unfamiliar word-“the consequences should you try but fail.”

“All right. Now tell me this, young man. What do you think the old man meant by that?”

A look of confusion passed over the young man’s face. He finally shrugged his shoulders. “That you are a god-what else?”

“He was wrong,” Ben said. “And you are wrong in thinking you should worship me.”

“No, sir.” Wade’s reply was softly given, just audible

to Ben’s ear. “No, sir, I don’t think so. Arid none of the people who are with me think so, neither. Mister Ben Raines, I have traveled all over this land,” Wade stated. “I have been to both big waters, east to west. I have been from Canada down to Texas, and I have personally seen with my own eyes what some people have built in reverence to you.”

Ben stirred. Those rock and stone monuments he had heard about but never seen. He did not know how to reply to Wade. A strange emotion moved deep within him. Stirred, turned, then became still as Ben took a deep, calming breath.

Wade said, “You have many, many followers, Mister Ben Raines. We are but a few of them. You have people who revere you living in small pockets all over this nation. But for the most part they are afraid to leave the safety of their tunnels and caves.”

Tunnels and caves! Ben thought. We have people in this nation who are living in tunnels and caves? A society of darkness?

Wade said, “Those people would join you, sir. But they are afraid.”

Afraid of whom? Ben thought. Or what? “When did all this start?” Ben asked.

Again, Wade shrugged his shoulders. “I … don’t know, Mister Ben Raines. Right after the war come to us, I reckon. Long time, judging from the age of some of the tributes to you.”

“How did you and your … group avoid President Logan’s relocation efforts and Al Cody’s agents all these years?”

Wade smiled. “We know the ways of the mountains and the deep timber, Mister Ben Raines. We are as

much at home in the wilderness as you are in your house. Have you ever tried to capture sunlight or a moonbeam and hold it in your hand?”

Ben returned the smile. He liked this young but very tough and capable young man. He felt Wade and his people would be good allies. “No, I haven’t attempted to do that, Wade. I should imagine it would be very difficult.”

“Yes, Mister Ben Raines. Very difficult.”

“We are going to the east, Wade. Moving over into Tennessee and Georgia and North Carolina. Would you and your people care to join us?”

“That is why we are here, Mister Ben Raines. And that is why Ro and his people have come.”

“Ro?”

Wade pointed to the second column of boys and girls. And to a tall young man who stood at the forefront. “Ro.”

Ben nodded and stepped toward Ro. He extended his hand, but the young man backed away, refusing to accept the gesture of friendship.

“It is not permitted, Mister Ben Raines,” Ro told him.

“What is not permitted?” Ben asked, an edge to his voice as he became slightly irritated.

Ro looked at him and smiled a secret smile. “It is as the old man said: You do not yet know who you are. But still, it is not permitted.”

He bowed and turned to his people. He said something Ben could not understand. The language sounded very much like pidgin English.

Dear God, Ben thought. Have we reverted to this-already!

Ro turned again to Ben. “We accept your invitation to join your following. We will follow you wherever you lead. For now, where do you want us to camp?”

“Bed them down, Buck,” Ben said. He looked at Wade. “This is Sergeant Osgood. He’ll show you where to bunk and then we get you bathed and fed and clothed and have our medical people look you over.”

“We are at your command, Mister Ben Raines,” Wade said. He turned to his group and spoke to them in the same pidgin English Ro had used. The young people turned, falling into a loose formation. Ben stood and watched them march off, following a clearly embarrassed Buck Osgood.

“I feel like a damned pied piper,” Buck said.

The same strange ritual was conducted by Ro, making Ben feel more set-apart than ever. He knew, felt a very dangerous precedent being set, or had already been set on this day. But how to combat it? He didn’t know. But he knew he had to come up with something very quickly.

“For a god,” Gale said, walking to Ben’s side, “you have some pretty good moves in the sack, Ben. Did you learn all that on the slopes of Olympus?”

Ben almost choked on his cigarette. “Jesus, Gale! I didn’t find it amusing.”

“I didn’t either, Ben. What are you going to do about it?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“Tunnels and caves, Ben?”

“That’s what the young man said.” He looked at Cecil and Ike and Juan and Mark. “Any of you people ever hear about a subterranean culture that worships me?”

“Nothing, Ben,” Cecil said. But Cecil could never lie worth a damn.

“Umm,” Ben said.

Chase had joined the group. Ben looked at him. The doctor, like the others, remained noncommittal.

“It’s a big country, Ben,” Ike said. “It doesn’t surprise me to learn there are groups who hold you in high regard.”

“Being held in high regard is one thing,” Ben replied. “Being looked upon as possessing some supernatural power is quite another. And I don’t like it.” He looked hard at his friends. “None of you gave me an answer to my question, boys-why?”

“I tried to tell you, Ben,” Doctor Chase said. “Tried on several occasions. But you always brushed it off as having little or no importance. I got tired of trying.”

“We have all tried, Ben,” Cecil said. “But you refused to believe it or even discuss it with us. Now it’s coming home, as we all told you-or tried to tell you-it would.”

“You people are behaving as if the problem is all my fault,” Ben said peevishly.

“No.” Doctor Chase picked up the anger in Ben. His words were softly spoken. “I think it is just time for this to occur, Ben. And I warned you about that, too.” The doctor walked away, without going into more detail. He knew he didn’t have to

“It’ll pass,” Ben said firmly. “By God, I’ll see to that personally.”

“Good luck, El Presidente,” Ike said. And he got a hard look from Ben for the words. was ‘Cause you’re sure gonna need it.”

A subterranean society did indeed exist in what was once known as America, South America, Central America, Asia Minor, Africa, Asia-all around the globe. The People of Darkness, as some called them, spanned the war-torn globe. They lived in tunnels and caves and underground repositories and old mines. They came out to work carefully hidden vegetable gardens and to hunt for game. They did not venture out before dawn or after dark. For where they lived-or existed-many of whom having lived there for more than a decade, the animal population explosion was very real.

Some mutants, those more animal than human, had on occasion bred with bear, and the results were truly hideous to behold. They were very dangerous. But perhaps the most dangerous were the offspring of mutants who had kidnapped and bred with human women. They not only possessed the strength and fury of the animal, but also the cunning and intelligence of their human side.

The mountain lion now roamed the land, in greater numbers than ever before; the wolf had reclaimed his rightful spot in the scheme of the animal world. As had all predatory animals. Some, like the mutant bear, whose genes contained the radiation and germ contamination, produced monsters in their litters, bigger and stronger and much more deadly than the pure species.

And these stalked the deep timber and deserted villages and towns at night.

The people who lived in the caves and tunnels had long ago given up on modern technology and weapons

and what was once considered the acceptable mode of dress. They wore the skins of animals and the soles of their feet were as tough as shoe leather. And they did not worship God.

Some of them worshipped Satan, with all the horror that went with that. Some worshipped some form of higher entity; but for the most part they did not believe He was all-powerful. No true all-powerful God would have permitted the world to turn into such as it had now become.

No, blind faith was almost universally unacceptable.

But Ben Raines, now-he was real, and that weapon he carried was real, and Ben Raines was doing something to correct all this misery and awfulness. So, many of them reasoned, Ben Raines must be in touch with some higher power. And if that was true, then Ben Raines was the man-god here on earth.

In a manner of speaking, the older and wiser among them cautioned.

So around the fires against the night, in hundreds of caves and underground mini-communities around the nation that was once known as America, Land of the Free, Give Me Your Huddled Masses, and all that crap, the men and women of the People of Darkness talked of things past and what they hoped for the future.

And of Ben Raines.

“Counting the kids who just came in, Ben,” Cecil said. “We can put about twenty-four hundred troops in the field.”

“Against Striganov’s ten thousand or so.”

“Yes.”

“All we can do is wait for the day to come when we are strong enough to move against the IPF.”

All agreed that to try that now would be suicide.

“Are you going to marry Katrina and Roy?” Cecil asked. “That’s the talk around camp.”

“They came to see me. But I’m not a minister, Cec.”

“You married Ike and Sally back in eighty-nine.”

“That was a mock ceremony and you know it.”

Cecil shrugged. “Ministers seem to be in short supply, Ben. And, whether you’ve noticed, or not, getting shorter.”

Ben said nothing. But he knew Cecil was working up to something.

Cecil said, “And those we’ve talked with seemed to have misplaced their faith.”

“Stop dancing around what’s on your mind, Cec. It isn’t like you. Come on, let’s have it.”

Cecil made up his mind. It might be the wrong direction to take-might be very bad advice-but Chase and Ike and Juan and Mark and Colonel Gray and all the others in positions of authority in the Rebels had agreed it was worth a shot.

“Maybe it’s up to you to put the faith of the people back on the track, Ben.”

“You better explain that,” Ben said. There was a deadly quality to his tone.

Cecil met his angry eyes. “Maybe what the kids believe isn’t such a bad idea.”

“I don’t believe I’m hearing this!”

“Ben…”

“Goddamn you, Cecil. Stop it!”

“No, I won’t stop. And I won’t allow you to make me angry. People have lost their faith in God. And a nation cannot exist as such without that faith, and you know it. Ben, if this nation ever gets whole again, it will be your doing. And only yours. No one is asking that you set yourself up as some little tin god on a make-believe throne. But if a strong belief in you is what it takes to help repair this country-then so be it.”

Ben sat back in his chair. He was stunned speechless. That this ex-college professor, this highly educated man, this man he called friend for many years … could even dream of such a monstrous idea. It was inconceivable.

It was ludicrous.

“Chase agrees, Ben,” Cecil said.

Ben sat in silence.

“Ike agrees, Ben.”

Ben looked at the man, not believing what he was hearing.

“Juan and Mark and Dan agree, Ben.”

Ben found his voice. “You want me to walk out of that goddamned door and not come back, Cec?”

“You know I don’t, Ben.”

“Then don’t you ever bring this up again, Cec. By all that’s holy-no pun intended-I’ll take Gale and clear out. I mean it.”

“It just may be too late, Ben. I think you have given that some thought, too. Am I right?”

He had, but he was not going to give up without a fight.

“Sometimes, Ben, an unwilling or reluctant god is preferable to the people.”

“We won’t speak of this again, Cecil. I’ll forget you brought it up.”

Cecil’s eyes were sad. “Yes, we’ll speak of it again, Ben. Whether you like it or not, whether you want to or not. But we will speak of it again.”

Cecil walked from the room.

Ben had made it clear to Gale the subject was closed. She respected his wishes and did not speak of the matter of gods.

As they stood in the predawn darkness, listening to the sounds of engines coughing into life, she looked up at Ben.

“A new land, Ben? A place where we can live in peace and raise our children?”

“I hope so, Gale.”

She knew he was just saying that because it was what she wanted to hear.

“Colonel Gray?” Ben called. “Move the people east.”

“Yes, sir.”

THE REBEL

Ben looked to the west, toward the dream of a master race. “I’ll kill you someday, Striganov,” he muttered, as Gale stirred beside him. “Tattoo that on your arm.”

THE RUSSIAN

Striganov stood with the sun just looming over the horizon. He stood looking toward the dream of a free society.

“I’ll kill you some day, Ben Raines,” he said. “That is a promise.”

“Sir?” Colonel Fechnor said.

Striganov turned. “Yes.”

“The women have begun birthing the half-mutants.”

“Oh? How do they look?”

Fechnor smiled, the sun gleaming off his steel teeth. “Magnificent, sir. They are truly a sight to behold.”

THE PEOPLE

The ragged and dirty little girl stood holding onto the hand of her big brother. She was six. He was nine.

They stood looking toward the east.

“Are we going now?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“To find this man?”

“Yes. It’s a long way, but we’ll make it.”

“And then everything will be all right? We won’t be hungry or cold or afraid anymore?”

“That’s right.”

They started walking down the weed-filled, old two-lane highway.

“This man,” she said, “he must be somebody really special.”

Her brother looked at her. “The people back in the caves said he was.”

“What is he?”

“They said he was God.”

“I’ve heard of that person,” she replied. “I wish we were there now. I’m hungry.”

“Maybe I can kill us a rabbit and we’ll cook it.”

She wrapped her thin coat around her. “Does God have a name?”

“Ben Raines.”