Fire in the Ashes

She closed her eyes and died.

At Ben's orders, the Rebels drifted silently into the forest, taking their wounded, leaving their dead; Salina and the boy lay among the still and the quiet and the dead. Ants had already begun their march across her face. She lay in a puddle of thickening blood, one hand on the arm of her dead child.

Ten

“How are the new people working out, fitting in?” Ben asked Cecil.

“A-okay, so far. Slater and Green are both prior-service. Air Force. Judy Fowler's going to be fine. I think they're all going to make it, Ben. But we're getting to the point of overtraining."

“Some of the people getting edgy?"

“More than a few. Jimmy Brady is hell-on-wheels with a rifle. Ike says he's never seen anyone better. Dawn Bellever is never going to be any great shakes with any weapon, but she managed to qualify on the range. I've assigned her to your office,” he dropped that in without pausing.

“All right,” Ben said absently. “I want only the very best to hit the field—if that time comes. Assign all the others to non-combat duties; but make sure they understand they are to fight if it comes to that."

Cecil looked at his friend.

Ben looked up, catching the worry in the man's eyes. “Something, Cecil?"

“Guess I've delayed long enough, Ben—you'd better hear it from me and not from the grapevine."

“We've been together a long time, Cecil. Never been any lies between us."

“Call a spade a spade, eh, Ben?” Cecil laughed at the old joke.

“I'm glad you said that and not me, buddy. Come on, Cecil—what gives?"

“Tina."

Ben sat up in his chair.

“She's left the base camp."

“Got her a boyfriend?"

“No, Ben,” Cecil spoke softly. “She's gone with Gray's Scouts. Out in the field."

Ben started to blow wide open. He caught himself and forced himself to calm down. Ben took several deep breaths and relaxed in the chair. “I keep forgetting she is a grown woman. And damn good at her work. But I would like to know why I wasn't told of this."

“You know the rules, Ben: no questions asked in that outfit."

“Where are they training?"

Cecil shrugged. “I don't know, Ben. If I did, I'd tell you. You know that's the way Captain Gray wanted it. But he is due to call in next week ... if you choose to interfere.” There was a definite note of disapproval in Cecil's voice.

Ben picked up on it. “I won't do that, Cecil. It's her life."

“I didn't think you would,” Cecil said with a smile. “Thought I knew you pretty well.” He left the big tent, walking toward his own. He thought: I know Tina is adopted; but Ben thinks of her as his own. I wonder how I would react if a kid of mine joined that crazy bunch?

* * * *

Gray's Scouts were formed during the weeks just after the government invasion and consequent crushing of the Rebel's dream. Their job was to infiltrate government offices; act as saboteurs; perform long-range recon into enemy territory; and anything else Captain Dan Gray might dream up that was dirty, dangerous, and bloody.

Captain Gray had left Special Forces before the invasion, having no taste for civilized man fighting civilized man, when, as was the case, the “enemy” was simply a group of men and women attempting to build a livable society and take care of their own.

Which the Tri-States were doing perfectly well and without so-called “Federal Government advice."

Gray had spent five years in Britain's SAS (Special Air Service) and was as wild and randy as those boys are trained to be.

To date they had been involved in only minor hit-and-run operations against the military units loyal to Lowry and Cody. But like Ben's Rebels in the mountains, they were chomping at the bit for a good fight.

It would not be long in coming ... for any of them.

* * * *

Colonel Hector Ramos headed the first convoy to reach the mountains. He and his personnel set up on the western boundaries of the Great Smokies, patrolling a seventy-mile stretch of terrain, from the Georgia line to just south of Maryville, Tennessee. They had traveled across Texas, Louisiana, then angled northeast through Mississippi and a portion of Alabama.

General Bill Hazen's convoy rolled in the day after Ramos arrived and took up positions from Maryville to Newport. Major Conger was less than three hours behind him. Conger deployed his personnel—the smallest detachment—as roaming scouts and listening posts along the Virginia line.

General Krigel pulled in last and set up positions on the eastern side of the mountains, from Greenville, Tennessee, well down into North Carolina.

The combined forces were not, as great armies go, terribly impressive. But there were no more great armies of the world. What world remained was still staggering and reeling under the aftereffects of the great war of 1988. So now, ten thousand armed men and women was a very impressive sight to behold.

Especially as they began setting up local militia and kicking out all federal police and arming the people.

* * * *

“You mean,” a man in Greenville asked a Rebel captain, “it's as simple as this?"