From The Ashes: America Reborn (6 page)

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?

WWJ: Frankly, yes.

Ben Raines: Why?

WWJ: Well . . . because, and please don’t take offense at this, for none is intended, this society, at least on the surface, is such a warlike society.

Ben Raines: We’ll fight to protect our way of life, sure. And we’ll fight for others who subscribe to our philosophy. But if people leave us alone, we’ll be more than happy to leave them alone.

WWJ: You told me you don’t attend church on a regular basis.

Ben Raines: That’s right.

WWJ: But you are the leader of the SUSA.

Ben Raines: I am the commanding general of the armed forces. Cecil Jefferys is the elected president of the SUSA. Each district has an elected representative and a senator. They meet for a short time each year here in the capital of the SUSA. There really isn’t that much for them to do, for our basic laws are already set in place and they cannot be changed.

WWJ: You have a constitution?

Ben Raines: Certainly. And a Bill of Rights.

WWJ: What does it take to change a law here in the SUSA?

Ben Raines: Seventy-five percent of the popular vote.

WWJ: Has any law ever been changed?

Ben Raines: No.

WWJ: Have any ever been challenged?

Ben Raines: Not seriously challenged.

WWJ: What do you mean?

Ben Raines: Just that. No one paid any attention to the lawsuits. Those bringing the suits couldn’t find a lawyer down here to represent them. Lawyers outside our borders aren’t licensed to practice here. That sort of hamstrings attorneys who might want to rock the boat, so to speak, doesn’t it?

WWJ: Greatly simplifies matters for the residents of the SUSA is another way of putting it.

Ben Raines: We like our system of government. We don’t see any reason at all to change it.

WWJ: Let’s get back to religion for a moment. Are all denominations welcome here?

Ben Raines: As long as they worship God, and not the devil.

WWJ: So there are no covens, for want of a better word, in the SUSA?

Ben Raines: Oh, I suspect there might be a few scattered around. It’s a big area. But if there are, the members keep a very low profile. And they certainly don’t try to entice minors into that crap.

WWJ: What would happen to them if they did?

Ben Raines: It would be awfully grim if the parents got to them first.

WWJ: Say it did happen, and minors were involved in devil worship—enticed there by adults—and the parents injured or killed some of the adult leaders of the coven, they would be arrested and prosecuted, right?

Ben Raines: I doubt it. And even if they were brought to trial, no jury would convict them.

I leaned back in the chair and mentally scratched my head. It was becoming very clear to me why so many people outside the SUSA were in a state of confusion about the laws here.

Ben Raines: Confused, aren’t you?

WWJ: No. I understand it. But I’m not sure I can convey that understanding to my readers.

Ben Raines: It all goes back to common sense. Everything here is based on common sense. Common sense tells you not to stick your hand into an open flame. Common sense tells you not to stick your fingers into the blades of a running fan. Common sense tells you not to lie down on railroad tracks when a fast freight is approaching. The list goes on and on and on. You wouldn’t want to attend a convention of Jewish rabbis and start shouting that Hitler was a great man.