Ashes - Standoff In The Ashes Part 14

"I think he's praying," Sally called.

"That'll be a first for him," Jeff said.

123.

123.

"Don't knock it," Jean said. "If I thought it would do any good, I'd be trying it, too."

Ben carefully worked his way up to his knees and pulled a grenade from his battle harness. It was going to be a long toss, but he thought he could do it. If nothing else, it would d.a.m.n sure get their attention.

He pulled the pin, and with a grunt of effort chucked the pineapple. It landed just in front of the Jeep and then slowly rolled under it.

"s.h.i.+t!" Jeff squalled. "It's a grenade!"

The grenade blew, and the old Jeep disintegrated into many pieces. Two seconds after the grenade exploded, the gas tank went up with a roaring swoos.h.i.+ng sound.

Ben and Lara watched as the burning body of the bounty hunter called Jeff was lifted into the air and dumped about twenty feet from the blazing Jeep. Sally jumped up screaming, her clothing on fire, her hair a burning torch, engulfing her entire head. Lara shot her, to put her out of her misery.

Pete jumped up and made a run for it, away from the inferno in the center of the street. Ben chopped him down with one burst, and Pete ended his life kicking and screaming in the middle of trash and litter."G.o.dd.a.m.n you both to the h.e.l.lfires!" Jean screamed. She jumped up, yelling and cussing. Firing her rifle from the hip, she advanced toward Lara's side of the street.

Lara shot her. Jean sat down in the street, still firing her rifle and cussing. Lara finished her with another burst. Jean toppled over, and was quiet.

Ben chucked another grenade into the blazing mess. It must have landed directly at Johnny's feet. When it blew, bits and pieces of the last bounty hunter in this group went flying out of the smoke and fire.

The old deserted town grew quiet except for the snapping and cracking of the flames, which were now slowly burning down into nothing.

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Ben stood up from behind cover and watched as Lara stood up. "Let's find something to smother the flames and smoke," Ben called. "If those tires start burning, the smoke will be sure to attract unwanted company."

"Entrenching tools in the Broncos," she said. "We'll toss dirt on the flames."

"Let's get to it. I don't feel like another war today."

"Personally, I'd like to have a bath."

"There's a creek right over there," Ben said, pointing. "If you're not bashful."

"What do I have left that you haven't seen?"

"Not a thing, Lara."

She smiled at him.

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The fires were eventually doused with shovels of dirt and with water carried from the creek in collapsible canvas camp buckets. When they finished, both Ben and Lara were filthy from the ash and soot.

"Bath time," Lara said. "G.o.d, do I need one."

"Take it, and take your time, enjoy yourself. I'll stand guard and then you can keep a lookout while I bathe."

"Wonder if this soap we got from die nudiouse will lather."

"One way to find out."

Lara looked toward the creek. "That water is going to be cold."

"We have two choices-we can stink, or we can s.h.i.+ver for a little while and be clean."

"You do have a way with words, Ben. Be back in a few minutes."

"I'll be here."There was no need to hurry. There had not been much 126.

William W. Johnstone smoke, and what there had been apparently had not drawn anyone's attention. No planes or choppers appeared in the sky, and no ground troops made an appearance.

While Lara took her time in the cold waters of the creek-Ben occasionally heard a shriek from her-he dragged the bodies out of the street and dumped them into a ravine behind a row of decrepit old stores. He then shoved dirt over them, covering them as best he could.

The animals would eventually get to the bodies, but that was nature's way, and there was nothing else Ben felt like doing with the bounty hunters.

At Lara's call that she was finished, Ben wandered down to the creek.

"Your turn, Ben. But let me warn you-that water is cold!"

Very lovely woman, Ben thought, watching Lara dry her hair with a clean s.h.i.+rt. "You feel better?"

"One hundred percent. And the soap does lather."

Ben didn't linger in the creek as long as Lara, but he got his body clean and washed his hair, then dressed in clean BDU's while waiting for his underwear to dry in the sun.

"Is there underwear in the supplies you have cached?" he asked Lara.

"You bet."

"The one thing we forgot to get back at the nuthouse."

"Believe me, I know. Mine is still drying over there on a rock."

Ben and Lara spent the next hour prowling the ruins of the town. They found a couple of old fis.h.i.+ng rods and reels and some a.s.sorted tackle.

Lara showed Ben the faint track of an old logging road that led off into the timber and another track that led to a nearby lake.

"How far is the lake?" Ben asked.

"About five miles."

"Should be jumping with fish."

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127.

"Oh, yes."

"Let's put this town behind us, then. What do you say?"

"I'm for it. After we pull the vehicles down this old road a few hundred feet, we can toss some brush over the entrance here. It might fool anyone who comes looking.""You don't think the Federals will?"

"It's doubtful, Ben. Feds diat come into the wilderness don't generally come back out ... if you know what I mean."

Ben knew. The freedom fighters in die USA had gone underground, and were waging a guerrilla type of war. They were in control of a lot of die wilderness areas. "How about troops from Fort Drum?"

She shook her head. "Nothing there anymore. The military has all been s.h.i.+fted down to the border with your nation."

Ben nodded his head. "And they'll stay down there, too. Before this war is over, every man and woman Osterman can draft into service will be along our borders."

"She still has the thousands of mercenaries under contract," Lara reminded him.

"As long as the money holds out, they'll stay. But how much is that costing the taxpayers? Several millions of dollars a day, I'm sure .. .

probably more than that. When die money runs out, the mercenaries will leave. The currency in the SUSA is the strongest in die world. The USA's dollar is weak, widi no hope of getting stronger. We have trade agreements widi many of die world's nations. This is not dieir fight, and diey'll stay out of it. Many of diem have signed agreements to that effect. This is strictly a civil war between Americans, Lara. And until die socialist/ democrats up here in the USA learn to compromise and live and let live, this civil war will drag on forever."

"Can die SUSA stall long enough for die money to run out?"

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Ben shook his head. "No. Not stall. Hold out, yes. And we will. We'll lose some territory and then regain it. Ground will pa.s.s back and forth several times before the worst of it is over."

"And the SUSA will be victorious?"

"We'll win the fight. Victorious? I guess that will depend on the individual's point of view."

"I ... think I know what you mean."

"We'll talk more about it. I've got a few ideas about this civil war that we need to discuss. Right now, let's get out of here. Head for the lake."

"Damp underwear and all, hey?"

Laughing, they headed for the Broncos, Ben pausing long enough to grab his still slightly damp drawers from a rock.

The road out to the lake had not been used in a long time, and the going was very slow. The road, never a hard surface road, had long since grown over, and several times they had to break new ground through the brush because of trees that had fallen and were blocking the road."Forget about hiding our tracks," Ben said.

"The Feds don't come into the wilderness, Ben, as I said. Once we get past the lake, there are b.o.o.by traps all over the place. Too many Federal patrols, have been caught in here, too many times."

"That means you know the way, though?"

' 'Oh, you bet I do. That was one of the reasons Bradford was torturing me, trying to get me to tell him the way to our camps."

"What about spotter planes and choppers? Don't they ever fly over?"

"Not anymore. Not since the war began with the SUSA.

129.

Even when they did, they didn't get too low." She smiled at him. "We have shoulder-fired missiles."

"How much farther to the lake?"

"Just about a mile. We'll get there in plenty of time to catch a mess offish for supper."

"If they're biting."

"Oh, they always. .h.i.t a lure. Lake hasn't been fished in a long time."

"Lead on, Lara."

They broiled fish for supper, and they were delicious. They finished was.h.i.+ng up just as night was casting its darkness over the land, creating silver shadows over the lake. A light cooling wind was blowing.

"Peaceful time," Ben said, looking out over the quiet lake. "It's lovely."

"Yes, it is. I remember when it was always like this," Lara replied, a wistful quality in her voice.' T sometimes wonder if those times will ever come again."

"Oh. .. someday. Maybe not in my lifetime, but certainly in yours."

"You're not that old, Ben."

"Maybe not. But I sure feel like it often enough."

"Years of war will do that. I've been fighting the socialists ever since they came in power. Hiding and living out in the wilderness. Before that it was the gangs of punks and warlords all over the nation. I know a little something about it."

"I'm sure you do, Lara. Freedom never comes cheaply, does it?"

"Nothing worth having ever does. Especially freedom. We took it for granted for too long, I think."

"Yes, we did. And we forgot how d.a.m.n sneaky the left wing can be, especially when the print and broadcast media130 was overflowing with those types, aligning with them in sometimes not too subtle ways." Ben paused for only a few seconds as his ears picked up very faint sounds not normally a.s.sociated with the forest. "I think we've got company, Lara."

"Yes. I figured they would come in before long. Relax. Those are my people."

"How can you be so sure?"

"The way they move. We've had to become expert in the woods, Ben. We had no choice in the matter. It was either that, or die."

"They're good. They were right on top of us before I heard one of them."

"That would be Jimmy Smathers. He's just a kid, just learning. They brought him along this time because they knew it was us."

"How old is this boy?"