On their way in, they had been met by several hundred men and women, who had been forced by the outlaws to work on farms, producing food for the punks and various other crud. With the advance of Ben’s Rebels, the outlaws had fled the countryside, heading for Lewiston, leaving the now freed prisoners to fend for themselves.
Most of them bore both old and new scars on their backs from the frequent use of whips, their captors trying to get more work out of them than was humanly possible.
“Nice folks that we’ll be facing in the city,” Ben observed. “Real salt-of-the-earth types.”
“How big was this place, General?” Cooper asked. “Back when.”
“About thirty thousand. It won’t take long to bring it down. Corrie, is everybody in place?”
“That’s ten-four, sir.”
“We’ll strike at dawn. I want those sorry bastards in there to sweat some.”
They were doing more than sweating inside the small city.
“Well, I ain’t never dealt with none of them cannibals!” an outlaw who had just come in from the interior yelled at the leader of the outlaws who had taken refuge in the town. “And by God, I’ll surrender if I want to, and I want to!”
“You’re part of my bunch now, Dick,” Jenkins told him. “When I took you and your boys in, you swore loyalty to me, and by God, you’ll damn well keep your word.”
“Screw you, Jenkins! I’m callin’ it quits. Man, it’s a damn death trap in here.”
“It’s a death trap out there, you fool!” The outlaw waved his hand. “Raines will never believe you didn’t deal with the creepies. Besides, you’ve heard them talkin’ on the radios. They’re deliberately talking on an open frequency so we can hear. Anyone who kept forced labor is to be dealt with the same as those who helped the creepies. And that’s you, Dick. You! Think about that. I’m not going to be put up against a wall and shot. I’m going to die on my feet fighting that son of a bitch Ben Raines. And if you got any balls, you’ll do the same.”
“Yeah, yeah, Jenkins. I know how tough you are and all that happy crap. But if you think Raines is going to send troops in here to fight us, you’ re crazy as a road lizard. All he’s going to do is sit out yonder and blow us all to hell and gone with artillery; just like he’s done all over the damn state. What’s so glorious about dyin’ like that, huh?”
“It beats bein’ put up against a wall, Dick. Not by much, I’ll admit. But some.” He shook his head. “There just ain’t no stoppin’ the man.”
Dick turned to leave the room.
“Where the hell are you goin’?” Jenkins shouted.
Dick slowly turned around. “To make my peace with God, pal; if He’ll listen to me. ’Cause this time tomorrow, we all gonna be dead.”
TEN
The Rebels waited for the signal to destroy the town. They had rolled out of their bedrolls long before dawn, eaten breakfast, and cleaned their weapons. Now they waited.
The gunners manning the artillery drank coffee, relaxed, gossiped, and waited for the general’s signal.
Ben turned to Corrie, standing beside him, wearing a headset. “Everybody in place?”
“Yes, sir. All exits blocked.”
“Let’s get it over with then. Bring the city down, Corrie.”
The earth trembled as the big guns unleashed their destructive fury against the outlaws and thugs trapped inside the town.
Fifty shells, most of the warheads containing HE charges, struck the town. The second barrage from the guns with that capability was napalm, and the third was Willie Peter. Ben kept up a steady barrage for one hour then ordered the gunners to stand down.
“Take the point, Buddy,” Ben said, after pulling the plugs from his ears. “Find out if there are still any snakes wriggling in the pit.”
“Prisoners, Father?” the young man questioned.
Ben cut his eyes to his son. “No,” he said flatly.
What was left of the town was put to the torch while Georgi and his men moved against those troops still massed around Coeur d’Alene. Many had fled Rafford’s command, running off in small groups. Some made a successful escape. Most did not. The Russian was just as ruthless as Ben and by mid-afternoon, the small city was rapidly becoming no more than a fading memory as the afternoon skies filled with greasy smoke.
Ben and Ike had pulled their columns up 95, clearing towns as they advanced north. They stopped at the junction of 95 and 5 and waited for word from Georgi.
“The town is finished,” Striganov radioed. “I just hanged Larry Rafford.”
“That’s ten-four, Georgi,” Ben told him. “Hold what you’ve got until I get there. Spokane is not going to be an easy ride.” He turned to Buddy. “Take the bikers and work your way around to come up on the city from the west. Check out this old Air Force base. Secure anything we might be able to use and wait there. Work your way in close to Spokane but do not enter the city unless you get orders from me. Draw supplies and take off.”
At the time of the Great War, Spokane was a nice-size city, with a population of nearly two hundred thousand. It had colleges, a university, museum, and an international airport.
“We can expect a lot of creepies in this city,” Ben spoke to Ike. “And they’re very heavily armed. The Judge told me that they keep their breeding pens and food factories inside the city, so standing back and destroying it is out. We’re going to have to take it nose to nose with the uglies.”
“Be like old times,” Ike said with a smile. “Back when we knocked heads daily.”
“Yeah. And you keep your big ass out of the line of fire. No heroics, Ike.”
“Look who’s tellin’ someone to be careful,” the Mississippi born and reared Ike said. “Talk about the pot callin’ the kettle black!”
Ben ignored that. “Cross over the line and take your people up 195. Pull up about ten miles south of the city and bump me when you’re in position.”
“I’m gone,” Ike said, tossing him a grin and a very sloppy salute.
Ben got Georgi on the horn. “Georgi, swing your people around and come down Highway Two, approaching the city from the north. Cec, you’re going up Highway Twenty-seven. West, go in on Highway Fifty-three. Five and Six Battalions stay in reserve. I’ll go straight in on the Interstate. Take off and get in place.”
Ben got a mug of fresh coffee and wandered around, looking for Doctor Chase. He found him sitting under a shade tree. “Alert your people to expect a lot of wounded, Lamar.”
“We going in nose to nose?”
“Yes. They’re holding captives in there. We’re going to have to take it block by block.”
“Can you delay for a day?”
“Yes. Why?”
“That will give me time to get whole blood flown in here.”
“Tell me when you’re ready, Lamar.”
“No, you tell me when you’ve got a toehold so I can set up a field hospital close in.”
Ben laughed at him. “You’re a hard-to-please and cantankerous old bastard, you know that?”
“Stick it up your kazoo, Raines!”
Ben walked through the busy camp, chatting with Rebels as he went, Jersey and Corrie shadows beside him.
“I better not find anyone without their body armor when we go in,” he warned platoon leaders. “Or they’ll be back in the mess tents washing dishes.”
To Thermopolis: “You ever been to Spokane, Therm?”
“No.”
“You’re about to get the scenic tour.”
“Don’t tell me if you’ve planned a welcoming party. I like surprises.”
“We’ll see in a day or two.”
To Emil: “Ready to go, Emil?”
“Forward to victory, Great General Raines! We shall rid the land of the hordes of barbarians and restore America to its former greatness!”
“Right, Emil.”
“We’ll strike them down with a mighty sword and trample them under our boots.”
“Don’t get too carried away, Emil. Save your strength
for the creepies.”
“When I’m fighting on the side of righteousness, I feel I have the strength of ten men, the courage of an eagle, and the heart of a lion.”
“One thing about it, Emil,” Ben cut him off before he could really get wound up, “we have to pass right by Michelle’s position.”
Emil froze rock-still for a moment, his eyes glazing over at just the mention of her name. Back in New York, he had fallen ass over elbows in love with a French-Canadian lady named Michelle Jarnot, part of Danjou’s troops. Sadly, his affection was not returned, and Emil had moped around for days.
“Oh, my Michelle!” he wailed. “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”
While Emil was counting, Ben quick-stepped the hell away from that area.
Chase informed Ben that the whole blood had arrived and to get this goddamn campaign in high gear. Whole blood doesn’t keep forever.
Ben had his people moving within the hour.
Dan’s Scouts took the point. Ben bitched about it, but he agreed to be stuck back with the tanks. Chase was bringing up the rear, with his mobile field hospital and doctors and nurses.
Buddy had radioed in that the old AF base was a mess, but he had uncovered some underground tunnels that looked very promising and had proved to be more than that. Thousands and thousands of cases of MREs and winter clothing encased in heavy plastic bags; just like new. M-16s and M-60s and ammo.
“Looks like we’re set for a winter campaign,” Ben had told the others. “And finding those MREs was a godsend. They might not be the tastiest meals around, but they damn sure beat the goop that Lamar dreamed up.”
“Screw you, Raines!” the doctor had told him.
“Dan is reporting that none of the little towns approaching Spokane are inhabited,” Corrie told Ben. “And no sign of creepies.”
“Believers,” Ben corrected her with a smile.
“They’re creeps to me, General.”
“Me, too,” Ben admitted. “How far have the Scouts advanced?”
“To what is left of a town called Opportunity.”
“Tell him to hold up there. Cooper, pass these tanks and put the pedal to the metal.”
“Do what, sir?”
Ben smiled. “Sorry, Coop. You’re a little young to remember that phrase. Just get us there.”
“Yes, please do that,” Jersey said. “How come the worst driver in the entire Rebel Army gets to be your driver, General?”
“Just lucky, I guess, Jersey.”
“You’re just jealous because I get to sit up front with the general,” Cooper said with a grin, a wriggle and a bad lisp.
“You wanna trade places with me, Jersey?” Ben said quickly, looking over his shoulder.
“Hell, no!”
Cooper got them to Opportunity in one piece and slid to a halt by Dan’s Jeep. There was nothing left of the town; every building had been gutted by fire. The only thing left standing was the road sign, and it had several bullet holes in it.
Every town they had passed since moving across the state line had looked the same. And all other units were reporting the same thing.
“Let’s see if that Judge leveled with us,” Ben said. “Beth, get a map with population figures and find every town that had a population of say, oh, seventeen thousand or more back before the war. We’ll see if the creeps destroyed or ignored anything less than that when they settled in.”
Ben studied maps while Beth got to work. It did not take her long.
“Twenty-nine, sir. Some of them with populations somewhat less than seventeen thousand — before the war. I’ve circled them on this map.”
Ben looked at the map. “And ten to one that outlaws are working the interior of the state.”
“No bet from me,” Dan said, looking over Ben’s shoulder. “Big state.”
“Almost sixty-seven thousand square miles. And before the Great War it had a population of four and a half million.” Ben shrugged. “Well, we’ve got about six hours of daylight left and we all know we have it to do, so let’s get to it. Corrie, radio all units to begin the attack.”
General Striganov’s troops knocked open a hole coming down from the north and set up his CP at the old Whitworth College complex. He did not want to penetrate in too far and get trapped, so he pulled up there and waited.
Ike punched a hole big enough to get a toehold and a route over to the Spokane International Airport and get it secured. He left it in the hands of Buddy and the Bikers and told them to start clearing a runway for the planes to land.
Cecil took his column and cut off of Highway 27 between Mica and Freeman onto a county road, coming up just south of Glenrose, about five miles east of Ike’s position.
West had come in on Highway 290 and was just north of Ben’s position, almost within shouting distance.
All units pushed off at Ben’s signal and immediately ran into heavy fire from the creepies. The Judge had told Ben that after their defeat in New York City, the Believers had better armed themselves, knowing they were in a fight to the death with Ben and his Rebels.
And the Judge had not been wrong. The Rebels found themselves slugging it out with an enemy that was just as well-armed as they were, including heavy mortars and rocket launchers.
There was no doubt in Ben’s mind that he was going to eventually take the city, but after several hours’ fighting, he knew it was going to be a slow process. The creepies were not giving up an inch of ground without it being turned bloody before they backed up.
And by the approach of dusk, the creepies had backed up damn little.
The forces of West and Ben had advanced only to Argonne Road before they were stalled. Georgi held onto the Whitworth College complex, but only with an all-out effort from his people. Cecil had made it to the city limits and ran into a solid wall of resistance. Ike had punched through to High Drive Parkway and then was forced to back up because of a tried end-around from the creepies that threatened to cut him off.
Jerre found Ben on the floor of an old service station-turned CP, studying a map of the state. His personal team was scattered around the building, in defensive postures. She squatted down beside him.
“Grim, Ben.”
“Yeah. Slick move on their part, pulling the prisoners inside the cities. Limits us and pulls us down to fighting their way.”
“What’s with the map?”
“If I was in the creepies’ position, with help all around me, I’ll pull something sneaky.”
“Such as?”
“Just a guess. But we know that the Pullman area is filled with Believers. As is Walla Walla and the Kennewick/Pasco/Richland area. I’d pull reenforcements up from Pullman to attack Ike’s position and people up from the tri-city area to come in from the west, on the Interstate, to attack Buddy and the bikers.”
“Buddy wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“Yeah. And Ike would be put in one hell of a situation.”
Ben waved Corrie over to him. “Get Five and Six Battalions on the move. Five will set up along Highway One-ninety-five at this little town of Spangle, while Six will move on over to the Interstate and set up ten miles from Buddy’s position at the airport. Get them moving now. When that is done, get all commanders on the horn.”
“Double the guards,” Ben told his people, scattered all around the fringes of the city. “No fires, no smoking, and maintain noise discipline. They might decide to hit us tonight. Be ready for anything. Eagle out.”
Ben and his team bedded down on the floor of the old service station, with Rebels on guard all around the outside of the building.
Ben suspected that the creepies would try a night raid, and he was on the mark with that suspicion.
He sensed someone was about to touch him and came wide awake, looking up into the eyes of Jerre.
“They’re coming, Ben,” she whispered. “All sectors reporting creepies moving up.”
“Get our people outside the garage inside,” Ben said, pulling on and speed-lacing h
is boots. “Everybody up?”
“Just Corrie and me.”
“Get them up, kid.”
“Coffee’s hot in the back room, Ben.”
“Thanks.” Ben picked up his M-14 and slipped into body armor and battle harness, then went into the back room and poured a cup of coffee that was as black as sin is purported to be and hot as hell.
But after several sips he was wide awake.
Jerre came into the room, the only light the dim illumination from the moon through a very dirty window. She poured a cup and leaned against the counter. “Sarah slipped into this sector last night. Doctor Chase said he was getting tired of her moping around and sighing and making goo-goo eyes in the direction of Colonel Gray.”
Ben chuckled softly. “They’re both smitten, that’s for sure. In a way I’m glad for them.”
“In a way?”
“The battlefield is a hell of a place for romance, Jerre. Dan is a professional; he’s not going to let thoughts of a loved one interfere with the business at hand. Sarah, though, is another story.”
“They’re getting into position, General,” Corrie called softly. “Two blocks in front of us. All field commanders are urging you to fall back and get into a safer CP.”
“Tell all field commanders their concern touches me deeply. I’m staying right where I am.”
“I’ll get that message right out, General,” Corrie said, laughing softly.
Both knew she would not send it.
“Gray coming in!” the call came from the darkness just as Ben got into position. “With company.”
“Come on, Colonel,” Cooper called.
Dan slipped in, pushing Sarah Bradford in front of him. “Sorry for the interruption, General,” Dan said. “But I wanted to get Sarah to a more secure location before the creepies struck us.”
“Perfectly understandable,” Ben replied.
“Did I screw up?” Sarah asked, looking at Ben.
“Not really. People who are fond of each other like to be with each other. Human nature. But from here on in, I would suggest you stay with the hospital unit while we’re in a combat situation. And Sarah,” he smiled at her, “that isn’t an order.”
Survival in the Ashes Page 21