From The Ashes: America Reborn (12 page)

WWJ: It’s a good idea, and obviously it works for you down here, but it wouldn’t work outside the SUSA.

Ben Raines: Oh, it could work outside the SUSA. But many of the doctors in your society would be opposed to it, and the lawyers would be jamming the courtrooms with all sorts of lawsuits.

WWJ: But the lawsuits would not be entirely the fault of the lawyers.

Ben Raines: That’s right. The citizens with minor injuries would have to accept the idea of seeing highly qualified paramedics instead of a doctor. Down here, that’s no problem. Outside our borders . . . ?

The general smiled and waggled one hand from side to side and said: “Very iffy.”

We walked into the medical facility and everyone, civilian and soldier alike, immediately stood up. The general waved everybody back to their seats and jobs. He said: “We’re just visiting, folks. Nothing is wrong. Nothing to get alarmed about. The gentleman with me is planning a move into our area and I’m just showing him around.”

The citizens relaxed and the paramedics on duty resumed their work. There were several children there to receive booster shots for various childhood inoculations. A pregnant woman. A man with a badly cut hand was there to get the dressing changed. A teenager was there to receive his pre-induction physical before entering the army. The teenager stared at General Raines, his mouth hanging open. It is not often one gets to see a living legend. While General Raines chatted with one of the medics, I clicked on a tiny microcorder and walked over and sat down beside the young man.

WWJ: When do you report for duty?

Teenager: In a month. I’m going to try out for the Scouts.

WWJ: That’s a tough outfit.

Teenager: One of the toughest. Them and the SEALs.

WWJ: Don’t you have to take parachute training first?

Teenager: Oh, I’ve already done that. You can get all that done in high school here. I’ve been a qualified jumper for two years.

WWJ: Well . . . good luck.

Teenager: Thank you, sir.

I talked with several of the people waiting to see the paramedics, asking them about seeing an EMT instead of a doctor.

One Said: I’m not here to get a triple bypass. I’m here to get my BP checked and to get a shot. But these people could just about do heart surgery. Most of them go on to medical school after a few years and become doctors. Getting to be a paramedic down here is a tough go. Most of these people have performed emergency battlefield surgery at one time or another, serving with one of our Rebel units.

WWJ: Aren’t you afraid they’ll misdiagnose something?

The man looked at me and smiled and said: Nope.

Back on the road, heading farther out into the country, we rode for a few miles in silence. I finally said: “There isn’t much traffic on this road.”

Ben Raines: People are working.

WWJ: But it’s the middle of the summer. Where are all the kids?

Ben Raines: I told you: our school system goes practically year-round. If the kids are not in school, they’re working at something. Mowing yards, painting or repairing fences, cleaning out gutters, working in the fields, flipping burgers, bagging groceries, baby-sitting, working at day-care centers, looking after elderly people in nursing homes, volunteering at hospitals, taking college-prep courses, participating in organized sports, going on field trips with various groups . . . you’ll find very few of them sitting around on their asses doing nothing or in gangs dreaming up mischief to get into.

WWJ: Doesn’t sound like much fun for the kids.

Ben Raines: They have plenty of time to be kids, believe me. There are teen centers all over the place, with games and music and dancing.

WWJ: With adults keeping an eagle eye on the kids?

Ben Raines: Oh, no. Their own peer group does that. If kids are raised right, they know when they’re screwing up. But we don’t have a dope problem here in the SUSA. Alcohol is nearly impossible for a kid to get. We don’t have slums or bad sections of town.

WWJ: You told me you got rid of the dope dealers.

Ben Raines: That’s right. We hanged them.

WWJ: I can’t see that ever happening outside the SUSA.

Ben Raines: It won’t. Liberals make excuses for criminal behavior. Many judges outside the SUSA turn teenage murderers back on the streets with little or no punishment. That’s wrong. We know that if there are jobs going begging, vo-tech schools that are free for anybody to attend, OJT available at hundreds of factories and businesses . . . there is no excuse for criminal behavior. We just won’t tolerate it. And that’s the key. We won’t tolerate it.

Both of us heard the ambulance from the aid station come screaming up fast behind us, lights flashing. General Raines immediately pulled over onto the shoulder to allow the emergency vehicle plenty of room and said we’d follow it. Let me see just how skilled the paramedics were.

We had not gone two miles before an army patrol vehicle came up behind us, then passed us, the two soldiers inside giving General Raines a very quick but very startled glance.

WWJ: Is this usual? I mean, the authorities accompanying the ambulance?

Ben Raines: Not really. We’ll see.

Several miles farther, we turned off the highway and onto a secondary road. We could see the emergency lights flashing about half a mile ahead, off to our right.

The radio in our vehicle suddenly started squawking. I could not make heads or tails out of it.

Ben Raines: Home invasion. Four men down. The citizen and his family are all right.

WWJ: Home invasion?
Here?

Ben Raines: First one in several years. The punks sure made a terrible mistake picking on this home. This is the farm of Pen Wilson and his wife and kids. Both of them ex-combat veterans of many years. Good people.

General Raines smiled and added: “Many of the people down here are ex-combat veterans. They won’t put up with any crap. Bad mistake to crowd them.”

We got out of the vehicle and walked up to the house. A very attractive but very capable-looking woman met us at the door. She had a pistol tucked in her waistband. She smiled and greeted the general.

Ben Raines: Helen. Everybody OK here?

Helen: The family’s all right. The punks didn’t do so well.

Ben Raines: Know them?

The woman shook her head and said: “They’re not from around here, General. I never saw any of them before. I was fixing lunch when ol’ Cookie started barking. Then we heard a yelp of pain. Cookie stopped barking. Turned out the sons of bitches killed her with a club. By that time, Pen and me had grabbed guns and were ready. . . .

A very large man suddenly appeared behind the woman. He smiled at General Raines and stepped outside. I noticed he had several fingers missing from his left hand. He said: “General. Good to see you. Even under these circumstances.”

Ben Raines: Pen. The kids OK?

Pen Wilson: They’re fine. They were out horseback riding down along the creek. The youngest is pretty shook up about ol’ Cookie.

Helen: Neighbor from down the road came over soon as they heard the shots. She’s with Martha out by the barn. Her husband is digging the grave for Cookie.

A paramedic I had met back at the aid station came around the side of the house. He said: “Two dead and two alive. The wounded aren’t serious. They’ll live to spend the rest of their lives in prison.”

Ben Raines: Or hang.

Paramedic: True, General.

Pen Wilson: Preferably hang.

WWJ: Was any member of the family killed?

Ben Raines: Doesn’t make any difference here. Armed criminals invaded a home and threatened innocent people with bodily harm. If the jury calls for the death penalty, the judge has no choice in the matter. The judge can’t override a jury’s decision if they demand the death penalty.

WWJ: You think the jury will call for the death penalty? That takes a long time. The memory of the home invasion won’t be so fresh then.

Ben Raines: The trial will be held within thirty days. That’s the law. We don’t screw around in the SUSA. But if I had to guess, I’d say the two remaining punks will spend the rest of their lives in prison.

WWJ: They might get paroled.

Ben Raines: Not a chance. Shots were fired. That nails the lid on it right there. If you threaten people with a gun during the commission of a crime, or even say you have a gun, or behave as though you do, the judge will start you out at twenty-five years behind bars. Discharge a weapon during the commission of a crime, the jury can order the death penalty.

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

Ben Raines: I didn’t think it would take long!

BOOK #11

DEATH IN THE ASHES

“I slept and dreamed that life was beauty. I woke—and found that life was duty.”

- Ellen Sturgis Hooper

The Rebels set out westward from Base Camp One on Interstate 20. Their mission is to clear as many cities as they can of the Night People in an effort to ensure the stability of their outpost system.

They don’t travel too far before they encounter a hostile Aryan Nation group who don’t seem to notice that their motto “Help Americans live, fight, and stay strong” can be shortened to spell out HALFASS. This initial confrontation reveals information about an established network of biker-outlaw groups who now control much of the Southwest and Northwest.

The Rebels rescue Meg Callahan, a prisoner of the bikers, who tells the Rebels about Matt Callahan (aka the Rattlesnake Kid)—her insane father—and his ally Satan, who control territory in Wyoming and Montana. Ben remembers Matt Callahan as a writer of fiction before the war who was obsessed with Western history. Soon Ben begins to suspect that Meg has ulterior motives for joining the Rebels, although she doesn’t appear to be in cahoots with her father.

The Rebels move up through New Mexico and Colorado setting up outposts with friendly survivors and investigating the cities for signs of the Night People. Wherever they encounter establishments of the Creepies (as in Cheyenne, Wyoming and Helena, Montana) they demolish the entire city.

General Striganov calls for Ben’s help farther north to fight the armies of Malone, another white supremacist who controls northern Montana. Meg escapes to return to Malone just before the battle. Ben and his armies join the fight just as Ashley and Sister Voleta reappear to support Malone against the Rebels.

The Rebels are able to defeat the combined forces and then swing south to confront Callahan in his version of Custer’s last stand. After the battle, Raines and the Rebels adopt some bikers who had abandoned the outlaws, including Leadfoot, Wanda, and the Sisters of Lesbos, all of whom are affectionately dubbed the Wolfpack. Led by the Wolfpack, the Rebel forces move east toward Saint Louis, where they prepare to confront more Night People and a new burgeoning threat from the east—the armies of Lan Villar.

TWELVE

The general seemed to put the incident at the Wilson house out of his mind as soon as we got back on the road. We continued to drive deeper into the countryside. The houses became fewer. The fields of soybeans, milo, corn, cotton, and vegetables seemed to stretch forever.

WWJ: Who harvests these hundreds of acres of vegetables, General?

Ben Raines: Migrant workers. We have an agreement with Mexico. The workers are paid a decent wage, and their quarters are clean, well maintained, and very livable. They have full use of our medical facilities, and their younger children are tutored by students from a local college. The kids of the workers at least get some education, and our students who are going into the teaching profession get actual hands-on classroom training. It works out well for all concerned.

WWJ: It still isn’t completely clear in my mind where all the money for this comes from, General.

Ben Raines: Look, before the Great War, the USA—all states combined—was spending about half a trillion dollars a year on criminal justice and paying judges to hear the most trivial of civil lawsuits. The major cities of America employed hundreds of attorneys. Back then the cost of seeing a capital murder case through arrest, investigation, trial, appeals, and a decade later, finally, maybe, the death sentence carried out, cost millions of taxpayer dollars. The simplest of criminal investigations cost several thousand taxpayer dollars and God only knows how many manpower hours. Not here. That case back at Pen’s farm is, except for a very quick trial, over. The trial itself won’t last two days. Hell, it might not last two hours! I doubt if the jury will deliberate more than ten minutes. There is nothing to deliberate about. Down here, all the billions of dollars the states spent on that crap before the Great War is used for more worthwhile purposes.