Blood in the Ashes (26 page)

Only when the horrible gagging sounds had ceased did Ike look around. He looked at the swollen, blackened face of Willette. The man's bowels had moved and the stench was as foul as Willette's living character. Or lack of it. Ike spat on the concrete and walked back to his team.

Tina walked to Colonel Gray's side. “What do we do with the rest of the prisoners, Colonel?”

“Shoot them,” Gray said.

First intercepted radio reports, picked up from walkie-talkies of the Rebels, indicated Sister Voleta's troops were getting pasted by the Rebels. Sister Voleta and her troops had been running hard, pushing their vehicles as fast as road conditions would allow. They now stood at the end of an old firebreak road just south of Angelico Gap, listening to the reports filter in. None contained any good news for Sister Voleta.

All the troops of the Ninth Order had discarded their robes for clothing more practical. Only Voleta wore a robe.

“We've had it,” a man told her softly. “Those men who tried to take cover near Lake Nottely were either shot to death or burned to death.”

“Barbarians!” Voleta spat the word. It did not occur to her that she had ordered the deaths of countless men and women and children by burning at the stake.

And the man reporting to her did not bring it up.

The man continued his depressing report. “We've lost contact with Captain Willette and his company. There are teams of Raines' Rebels working all over the area. Ben Raines—”

“I don't want to hear that name again!”
Voleta shrieked.

“Yes, sister.” The man bowed. He was faithful to the end, and the end was only moments away.

He opened his mouth to speak and Sister Voleta waved him silent. “I know, I know,” she said. “I thought we were strong enough to defeat . . . that
pig
. I was wrong. I shall be big enough to admit it. Very well. We are not beaten. Far from it. We shall someday emerge stronger than ever. But for now, we'll head for the gap and the highway just north of it. We won't be able to take the vehicles any further. We'll have to leave them here and walk the rest of the way,”

“Yes, Sister. I'll take the point.”

“No, Lester.” She put a hand on his arm. “You and a few others stay with me. I have a feeling about this.”

“As you wish, Sister.”

They walked straight into a deadly ambush. Ben and his people were hidden in the gap and chopped the men and women of the Ninth Order to bloody rags with machine gunfire. After only a minute, Ben called for a cease fire.

The Rebels picked through the carnage, gathering up all the weapons and ammo and usable equipment. They stripped boots from the dead and any clothing that wasn't ripped by slugs.

Sister Voleta was not lying among the dead and dying.

“That yo-yo got away,” Captain Rayle reported to Ben. “I don't know how she managed it, but she did.”

I'll have to contend with her someday, Ben thought. This isn't over. Her hatred for me is so intense, she'll keep trying to kill me, one way or the other.

I wonder if that baby was mine? he concluded. I guess I'll wonder all my life. Unless I run into him someday.

Ben walked among the dead and dying, picking his way carefully among the bloodstained rocks and brush.

Will this never end? Ben silently questioned the force that controls the destiny of every living thing. Will those who follow me ever be allowed to live in peace? Must we, for the remainder of our lives, go constantly armed, forever doomed to wage one battle after another, simply for the right to exist?

He thought of Gale and muttered, “I wonder how many times so many Jews wondered the same thing?”

A cold rain began falling, chilling the earth and those who still lived upon it.

Is that your reply? Ben pondered, remembering the savage night on the motel balcony.

Ben stopped his aimless wandering along the battlefield and looked down, looking into the eyes of a man who lay dying at his booted feet. The man spat at him and cursed him, the hate within overpowering the pain within and without. His voice bubbled from a chest wound and the rain that fell into his open mouth.

“It ain't over,” the man gasped his promise. “You won this fight, but a lot of us got out. They'll get you, Raines. And you'll die hard, I can promise you that.”

“Why?” Ben asked.

“‘Cause . . . 'cause America didn't work, that's why. You . . . said so yourself , back in ‘89. All we was tryin' to do was live our own way.”

“But your society was based on a twisted religion from the mind of a woman so overcome with hate it defied normal thinking.”

“Our right,” the man gasped, blood, pink and frothy, bubbling past his lips.

Lung shot, Ben thought.

“We'll get you, Raines,” the man once more uttered the death threat. “I wish I could be there to see Sister Voleta burn you at the stake. Listen to you scream and beg for mercy.”

“Why did you follow her?”

The man's eyes rolled back in his head and he shuddered several times, his boots drumming on the wet earth. His final reply was a sighing of air leaving his dead body.

Ben looked at the men and women gathered around him. His Rebels. His.

I've got to get away from this, Ben thought. These people must learn to cope without me. They have to do that, for future generations. I must leave. And not just for their sake, but for my own, as well.

Ben sighed. “Let's go home, people.”

Joni and George arrived at the slave camp just outside what used to be known as Perry, Florida just as the slaves were finishing with their former captors. It was not a pretty sight. Bodies were hanging from tree limbs, sprawled in death on the dusty grounds, and some had been staked out, spread-eagled naked under the sun, and covered with baby oil. The sun was slowly roasting them to death, in a most painful manner.

This was a much larger plantation, a combination cattle and farming operation, so there were almost twice as many slaves and almost four times the guards that had been at Live Oak. The fight had been savage and bloody, and the slaves, of all races and creeds and religions, had taken a number of casualties; but they had killed all the guards.

Joni introduced herself and George, asking, “How many more slave farms did Tony have, and where are they?”

“Four,” the leader of the Perry group said. “But we only have to worry about two of them. At the plantations in Clarksville and up in Graceville, the guards won. They killed all the slaves. Just lined them up and shot them down.” The speaker's name was Lou, a middle-aged man, but one who looked as though he had made his living as a stevedore prior to slavery. His chest was huge and his shoulders and arms padded with muscle.

“We've got to get to the rest of the plantations as quickly as possible,” George said. “Some mercenary named Hartline is on his way down here.”

“Sam Hartline!” Lou said, his face paling as he spoke. “Oh, God! That's a bad one. I remember him from three, four years ago. You're right. We've got to get rolling in a hurry.”

Joni looked at the cheap wrist watch on her wrist. “Can we make it, Lou?”

“I think so, miss. We're pretty well armed all the way around and radio reports from the other two plantations indicated the revolt was on the side of the slaves. What do you have on your mind, Joni?”

“Linking up with Ben Raines.”

Lou nodded. “I think that's a good thought, Joni. I was on my way out to the old Tri-States with a bunch of people back in '93 when we were ambushed in Iowa. Forced us to turn back. I always regretted we didn't make it.”

“How long before your people can move out?” Joni asked.

Lou looked around him. “Give us an hour. You folks can get on Highway 27 and move on south until you reach Cross City. Wait for us there. Once we link up, we'll move against what's left of the guards at Chiefland, then head on over to Newberry. Do you know which route Hartline is taking down here?”

“Yes. Interstate 95.”

“All right. Just as soon as we clear Newberry, we'll take 41 up to the intersection of Interstate 75 and pour it on. That will take us right up to the ruins of Atlanta. You folks shove off. We'll link up with you in about two hours.”

“You think we have God on our side in this one, Lou?” Joni asked.

“There is no God,” Lou replied bitterly. “I gave up believing in that a long time ago. As far as I can tell, we've got only two things left to believe in.”

“Oh?” George looked at the man.

“Ourselves and Ben Raines.”

Tony grinned at Ann. His grin was anything but nice. “I don't trust you, baby,” he said. “I think you're up to something.”

Ann said nothing. She crouched naked in the center of the bed. The knife she had stolen from Lennie was under her pillow, the blade open.

“I don't know what,” Tony said. “But I'm gettin' bad vibes from you. So you and me, baby, we're gonna get it on one more time. Then I'm gonna give you to Sam Hartline.”

This time, Ann could not prevent a hiss of fear and revulsion.

“Yeah.” Tony grinned. “Hartline's gonna split you wide open. It should be interestin' listenin' to you squall.”

There was nothing Ann could say, so she remained silent.

Tony checked his watch. A gold Rolex he had stolen years before. “Hartline ought to be back in two days. So you and me, baby, we'll get it on tomorrow for the last time.” He grinned, exposing soiled and rotten teeth. “You rest up tonight, baby. 'Cause tomorrow, I'm gonna roll you over and take a whack at you from that direction.”

He laughed and walked out the door, carefully locking it behind him.

Ann turned on the bed and looked at Peg and Lilli, “You heard him. I get it tomorrow. I got to do it tomorrow, or it'll never get done. Ya'll pack, and keep it light for fast travelin'. Spare shirt, jeans, socks and panties. Any food you might have hidden back. This time tomorrow, we'll either be free, or dead.”

The girls hurried from the room. Lilli looked back. “Can I take one of the dollies, Ann?”

“Yeah,” Ann said. “You can take one of your dollies.”

“You gonna take one of your dollies, Ann?” Peg asked.

Ann shook her head. “No.”

“Why?”

“'Cause I think, after tomorrow, I will have outgrown dolls.”

Ben stood alone at the mass grave site. His face wore a grim expression.

“All this,” he muttered. “For what? All these lives, snuffed out. For what?”

But only the silence of the grave greeted him. And graves do not speak.

 

 

Gale was surprisingly cheerful when Tina visited her while her father was at the grave site.

“You're pretty chipper today, Gale,” she said. “What's up?”

Gale smiled at the young woman; they were about the same age. “Oh, I guess I'm just happy to be getting settled in one place. It's a nice house, don't you think?”

“It's lovely.”

The home she had chosen was on the outskirts of what had been known as Dalton, Georgia. It was not a large home, for Gale knew Ben was probably only days, maybe hours, from taking off on his quest, and she didn't want too large a house to look after.

“Tell me the rest of it?” Tina prompted, taking the cup of tea Gale fixed for her.

“I'm happy because Ben is happy. Well, as happy as he ever is.”

“Because he's leaving?”

“Yes, as odd as that sounds.”

“I understand,” Tina said. “Believe me, I do.”

“I knew you would. When are you and Robert going to marry?”

“Probably never,” Tina said matter-of-factly. “You know that marriage has become, is becoming, kind of old hat.”

“One more long-accepted social institution gone,” Gale replied with a smile. “Perhaps it's time for that.”

Tina shrugged. “Who knows? Dad doesn't seem to object. Least he's never said anything about it.”

Gale grinned at her. “How could he?”

Both young women chuckled.

“You going to live here all by yourself, Gale?”

“Yes. I'll be all right. You and Bob are right down the street. Ike and Nina have settled in a house right behind me. So I'm not afraid.”

Tina finished her tea and rose. She said, “Lots of women would be pitching a fit right about now, Gale. They wouldn't put up with Dad leaving.”

Gale shook her head. “Ben would never have chosen that type of woman.”

“You're right. You know him pretty well, don't you, Gale?”

“Well enough to let him go,” she said with a smile, and the smile was not at all forced.