From The Ashes: America Reborn (2 page)

Ben Raines: We have them all on both computer and microfilm. Reproduced many times. The accounts are available in every school and university throughout the SUSA. We want our students to see how the government of the United States allowed a once fine and wonderful nation to deteriorate into open rebellion by millions of its citizens. I’ll have a computer put in your quarters, and you can pull up whatever you want and read at your leisure.

WWJ: Thank you. We may be getting ahead of ourselves here, but why such hatred and rage among so many millions of Americans before the Great War?

Ben Raines: Because they were paying the bulk of the taxes and receiving damn little for it. Just before the Great War, Americans were paying something like 50.4 percent of their income in taxes. Over half of a citizen’s income was going for various taxes: city, county, state, federal. Millions of Americans just got tired of it and started a rebellion movement.

WWJ: Were you part of that movement?

Ben Raines: Not openly. You have to understand that I was being watched closely by federal agents. My phones were tapped. I had to move very carefully.

WWJ: And you came to the attention of the federal government because of your books?

Ben Raines: Yes. I had been a critic of big government all of my adult life. And while I had many acquaintances who were liberal in their thinking, and even had a few good friends who were liberal, I despised the philosophy. It ruined America.

WWJ: Are you saying friends of yours turned you in to federal agents?

Ben Raines: They didn’t do it knowingly. They wouldn’t have done it knowingly. A skilled agent doesn’t have to be that obvious.

WWJ: Explain that, please.

Ben Raines: You go to a party and strike up a conversation with a guest. The guest gently moves the conversation over to politics, and says something like: “Did you read the column by so and so? He really let the federal government have it, didn’t he? He’s almost as outspoken as the writer, Ben Raines. Now I really enjoy his work.”

WWJ: And I say, “Oh, I’ve known Ben Raines for years. Now there is a man who really hates the federal government.”

Ben Raines: That’s right. That’s all there is to it. The agent takes it from there, feeding you cue words and lines and all you do is fill in the blanks. That is just one way the government gets information on its citizens. It didn’t take them long to compile a complete dossier on me.

WWJ: But couldn’t you have gotten all that through the Freedom of Information Act?

Ben Raines: No. The feds were not required to give you any information gathered about you if the investigation was still ongoing. The Freedom of Information Act looked good on paper. It placated a lot of people. Even if the investigation was closed—and files are seldom closed by the feds—it might take a citizen years to receive any information. And if the investigation came under the heading of national security . . . forget it. If that was the case, any pertinent information would be blacked out. The Freedom of Information Act was a crock of crap.

WWJ: That’s incredible.

Ben Raines: That’s the way big governments work. And because I used to do contract spook work for the government, they knew I knew all about the system. I knew I was under surveillance, and they knew I knew. It was a very interesting way to live. My greatest fear was that the government would manufacture evidence linking me to this, that, or the other, and they would use that against me.

WWJ: The government manufactured evidence? You mean, they would lie about a case just to silence a citizen?

Ben Raines: Sure. Nothing new about that. The feds had been doing it for years. They would swear out a warrant and threaten to make the citizen prove his or her innocence in court, knowing the legal fees alone could put the citizen in bankruptcy. And they would be sure to point that out during a face-to-face with the citizen. That’s just another way of shutting up a critic of the government.

WWJ: I can but assume there were other ways.

Ben Raines: Oh, hell, yes. They could and would use the IRS against a citizen. We’ll talk more about the IRS later. I’m in too good a mood right now to start discussing that goddamned agency of the government.

WWJ: You really hated the IRS that much?

General Raines fixed me with a look that I felt right down to my toenails. He stared at me for a long, long time. Finally he nodded his head.

Ben Raines: I hated the goddamned IRS so deeply I cannot express in words my loathing for it. Now let’s drop the subject for the moment. As a matter of fact, let’s take a break and walk around some.

BOOK #1

TRAPPED IN THE ASHES

Government is not reason. Government is not eloquence. It is force. And, like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

• -
        
  George Washington
  

Ben Raines, ex-soldier and former mercenary, is now a writer living and working out of his home near Morrison in the Louisiana Delta. Politically, morally, and ethically a dedicated conservative, his adventure novels speak out against the decline of American values. He is certain that a dangerous swing toward a permissive society and dangerous liberalism is slowly eroding—and will eventually destroy—the greatest country in the world. He is a voice in the wilderness with a loyal but small following of readers who share his commonsense but controversial views.

His life is now a simple one. He has made it so on purpose. Ben has insulated himself from the world, retreating into his writing and his thoughts. Maybe he drinks a little too much bourbon every so often, but all in all he is at peace with himself and comfortable with his life. The only intrusion and reminder of his past comes one night when he is awakened from a deep and hazy sleep to the insistent ringing of his telephone. “Bold Strike,” are the only words he hears before the line goes dead. Then one night, many months later, a stranger arrives at his door unannounced and makes him a startling offer. Bull Dean and Carl Adams, old friends and ex-comrades in arms, are plotting the overthrow of the government of the United States, and they want him to be a part of it. Ben does not believe his ears; what he is hearing is impossible. Bull Dean and Carl Adams were killed in battle. He saw the bodies himself.

The man tells Ben they are very much alive. Not only that, they’ve built a standing army of veteran soldiers.

Ben refuses to sign on. A few years ago maybe, but not now, no way. The man tells him it’s a standing offer and that if he changes his mind all he has to do is run an ad in the local paper saying he wants to buy a Russian wolfhound. Ben almost laughs in disbelief.

The man leaves and Ben goes on with his life—for a while.

In fact the man has told Ben the absolute truth, just not quite all of it.

A group of high-level military is plotting the overthrow of the government. But they are also plotting to “send up the balloon” and plunge the world into the nightmare of nuclear war. They are convinced that global destruction and a fresh start are the only means of putting the world back on track. A devious plan to pit the superpowers against each other is in effect. The result of a brilliant series of crosses, double-crosses and triple-crosses will be chaos and death.

Nuclear missiles, built in secret by the United States to preserve the balance of power even as the SALT treaties are being negotiated, are launched from an American submarine assumed to have been lost at sea. The superpowers, each blaming the other, respond with deathly force. The plotters have unleashed the dragon, and the world will never be the same. Only the strong will survive in this strange new world.

And because of a nest of yellowjackets on his porch, Ben Raines doesn’t even know it happened. The wasp attack produces an allergic reaction that sends him into ten days of deep sleep and periods of delirium. When he comes to his senses he discovers, to his horror, that America as he knew it is no more.

Ben drives into Morrison, Louisiana, to find only death, destruction, and silence. He wonders if he is the last man on earth. After an initial bout of despair he remembers the tough words and tougher training of his old top sergeant and knows he will survive. Knowing he has no choice, and feeling strangely guilty for surviving, he goes from store to store collecting the essentials of survival—medical supplies, food, weapons and ammo, gasoline, and a wide-band shortwave radio.

In the deserted sheriff’s office he finds the weapon that will be with him throughout his journey and will become his signature—a reliable and deadly Thompson submachine gun. Ben resolves never to be without it.
It’ll become part of my arm,
he thinks to himself as he returns to his home in the Delta to plan his next move. After much thought and much bourbon, he resolves to use his skills as a writer to document the results of the nuclear holocaust and its effect on the United States. He will travel throughout the country recording his thoughts and the tales of survivors.

His mission clear, he packs his pickup and heads north to begin his journey across America and toward his destiny. His first intention is to find out what happened to his family, to see if anyone has survived, and to bury the rest.

Along the way he meets the citizens of this brave new world—what few are left. The level of destruction is staggering. The major cities are gone. Washington, DC, is “hot,” radiating death, and no longer part of the map. And, while the use of “clean” weapons has left other parts of the country physically intact, the death toll is unbelievable. Chaos is everywhere, and bands of dangerous men far outnumber the few survivors who are trying to rebuild and pull themselves out of the ashes.

As he learns to shoot first and ask questions later, Ben wonders why it always seems that the violent and the vicious triumph and revel in disaster. All over the country, racial hatred bubbles to the surface and turns into race war. The lack of authority and order creates a hell on earth. America is an armed camp. He discovers that his entire family, with the exception of his older brother, has died. The reunion saddens and angers Ben, however, as he discovers that his brother Carl has become a soldier in the race war on the outskirts of Chicago. He has become a man with a mission to wipe all blacks and other minorities from the face of the earth. Ben moves on.

On his way east he spends a night at a deserted motel, where he meets a black man named Cecil Jefferys and his band of family and followers. Cecil and Ben become friends over an evening meal and Ben meets Salina, the beautiful half-caste woman who will later become his wife and the mother of his two adopted children.

As he travels he hears rumors that Bull named him commander in chief of the Rebel army hidden around the country and now awaiting orders. Rumor becomes fact when an army colonel tells him it’s true. The command is again confirmed when he passes a billboard near Fort Wayne, Indiana, with a message for him to contact the Rebels on a military frequency and tell them what to do. While Ben is not ready to become a leader, he contacts the Rebels and tells them to destroy military bases and airplanes and to take whatever is useful from them for defense and protection.

Outside Charlottesville, Ben finds a woman with a sprained ankle hobbling along the road. He helps her and discovers that he is attracted not only to her beauty and youth but also to her will to survive. Jerre travels with Ben, and he teaches her the tools of survival. Ben convinces himself that his only interest is telling the story of this disaster so that future generations will know what happened and learn from it. But he is drawn to the Rebel cause and has a dream, which he tells Jerre, of a mountainous place with plentiful resources and room to be free.

He also begins to dream and conceive a society built on self-determination, simple laws, and tough justice, where color and race aren’t issues. Only what the person is willing to commit to others and themselves matters. Jerre tells him his destiny will be to lead a new nation. When she leaves to join a band of students gathering at Chapel Hill, intent on rebuilding what the older generation has destroyed, Ben finds himself more than a little bit in love with her and sorry to see her go. He soon finds a traveling companion, however, when a stray malamute named Juno adopts him and remains constantly at his side.

Time passes, the country begins to rebuild. Several groups attempt to create self-sustaining systems. Blacks gather in the Deep South to create a New Africa under the leadership of Ben’s good friend Cecil Jefferys.

A reorganized central government is setting itself in place to attempt to reunify the states. Unfortunately the new President is ex-Senator Hilton Logan, a misguided, weak, and devious man. His ideas about the new world order are far apart from Ben’s vision. Also, he is not what he seems. Posing as a liberal throughout his political life, he is, in fact, more interested in becoming a king than a president.

During his travels through Florida, Ben meets ex-SEAL, Ike McGowen. Smart and tough, Ike will become his trusted friend and reveal himself as a member of the Rebel army.

It begins to become clear to Ben that the only hope for law-abiding citizens to create a new world is to band together against increasingly repressive government intrusions. Reluctantly, he accepts command of the Rebel forces and begins spreading the word that all interested in a new society should begin to gather in the old states of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.