Ashes - Survival In The Ashes Part 19

"Barbaric saddles!" was Dan's reply.

But at his CP just at the base of Vulture Peak, Villar didn't have to hear complete transmissions to know Malone's people were losing. The bits and pieces he could pick up were quite enough.

"The b.a.s.t.a.r.d is fighting an ecologically correct war and is still winning!" Villar said. He looked over at Ashley, Kenny, Khamsin, and Satan.

"Ideas, gentlemen?" "I do not like this place," Khamsin said. "Malone does not like me. I vote we leave our vehicles behind and walk out. We can always find vehicles once out of this wretched place."

"I ain't leavin' my Hog!" Satan said emphatically.

"Then go to h.e.l.l!" Khamsin told him. "I don't like you either."

"Gentlemen!" Ashley said. "Please. We don't have to walk out. We can use horses to carry us and our supplies. I agree with Khamsin.

We've got to get clear of Ben Raines and rebuild our forces."

"I'm with that," Kenny said. "But there ain't near-about enough horses for everybody. Somebody's gonna have to walk."

Khamsin waved details aside. "The question is how do we get out?"

"I'm ahead of you on that," Villar said. "Just north of us is a glacier. A hiking trail leads to a promontory overlooking the glacier. We take the trail east."

"East?" Kenny sat up and paid attention. "That's heading for Raines country." "That's right. He won't expect us to cross territory that's been secured. Now we can't have over three thousand men all leaving at once and all of us using the same trails. None of us would make it." He looked at Satan. "Are you in or out?"

The big outlaw shrugged. "I'm in. h.e.l.l, Malone ain't gonna last long. Ain't none of us gonna last long if we don't get shut of Ben Raines.

I'm for gettin' on a boat and sailin'

to Bulls.h.i.+t, Italy. I know the son of a b.i.t.c.h isn't goin' over there!"

"Don't bet on it," Khamsin said. "I will wager with any man that Ben Raines is going to conquer the world before it's all over."

"Odd you should say that," Ashley spoke softly.

"I feel the same way about it."

Villar didn't say it, but he felt pretty much the same way.

A man came in and handed Villar a note. From the expression on the runner's face, Lan knew the message was not good news. He read it, balled it up and dropped it on the floor, then sighed heavily.

"Most of those units who headed south will not be joining us. The fools bunched up in Memphis and headed west from there. Pilots bringing supplies up here spotted them and radioed in. Ben Raines's d.a.m.nable PU!'S from Base Camp One did the rest."

Villar sat down and rubbed his temples with his fingertips. "We had thousands of men, didn't we?

We were going to conquer America and make quick work of it, weren't we? We were going to be kings, weren't we? Now look at us. We are certainly a pitiful bunch now, aren't we? Now we are reduced to tucking our tails between our legs and sneaking out . . . walking! Carrying a few possessions on our backs." He laughed, and much to the surprise of all, the laugh contained some genuine humor. "Pride goeth before a fall, gentlemen. And we all had much more than our share of that."

"So does Ben Raines," Satan said, a sour note to his voice. "He's sh.o.r.e kicked our a.s.ses all over half the United States."

"Ah, but no," Villar corrected. "The last part of your statement has merit. But not the first. Ben Raines has confidence.

There is a difference. Ben Raines has confidence plus patience. We had pride and impatience. We were c.o.c.ky. Ben Raines was merely sure of himself and his people. We must be careful not to repeat our mistakes in the future."

Khamsin looked up. "Are you sure that any of us has a future, Lan?"

"As certain as anyone can be, Khamsin. That aside, the growing season is over in Alaska."

He laughed once more. "Farmers, that's us. We're going to have to be farmers."

"I ain't farmin," was Satan b.i.t.c.hed.

"Not no, but h.e.l.l no."

"Then how do you propose that three thousand mouths be fed three times a day?" Villar asked. "That's nine thousand meals a day, Satan. And we're running out of field rations."

"Steal it!" the biker said.

Villar laughed. "From whom? Think about it. No, we're going to have to go south where we can farm year round.

Being very careful to stay clear of Raines's farms and ranches in Texas and New Mexico and Arizona. Malone was good enough to tell me about them.

We're going (to have to raise crops, vegetables and the like, and then learn how to can the food for preservation." Ashley started laughing at the thought of these men hovering over pressure cookers and filling Mason jars.

"Forgive me," he finally said, wiping his eyes.

"But the mere thought is ludicrous. Lan, do you know how to operate a pressure cooker?"

"If I can construct a barometric bomb comand I have, many times -I can certainly learn to homecan foods." Villar's reply was not coldly given, for he, too, could see the humor in it all.

"Shhiiittt!" Satan said. "I sh.o.r.e am glad my original bunch ain't here to see this. Talkin"

about farmin' and cookin' and cannin' foods.

Good G.o.d amighty!"

Kenny stood up. "I'm taking my men and heading back to Florida, Lan. That's final. I got-or I had coma good operation going down there. You boys head on to Alaska. Ill take my chances down south. I'll head on out tonight and run interference for you guys. See you." The young man was gone from the room.

"Anybody else want to split on his own?"

Villar asked.

No one did.

"Get back to your sectors and start packing it up then." "Our leaving is going to put a large hole in Ma-lone's defenses," Ashley pointed out.

Villar smiled nastily. "Well, now ... I guess that's his f.u.c.king problem, isn't it?"

It was summer in the rest of the battered nation, but in sections of Glacier National Park, it was plain d.a.m.n cold.

Ben looked out the window of the lodge at the sunsprinkled and purple-shadowed remnants of a dying day and said, "The International Peace Park."

"What's that, sir?" Beth asked. She stood in front of the huge fireplace, warming her hands in the newly built fire. She had warmed her b.u.t.t until Cooper, with a grin, pointed out that her BDU'S were beginning to smoke.

"Back about the time you were being born, the Glacier National Park joined Canada's Waterton Lakes National Park, just north of us, to form the International Peace Park. It was a celebration of an open border between the two countries. It remained diat way until the Great War."

Ben turned and smiled, holding up an old brochure. "I just read that, Beth. I'm no expert on the national park system ... so it used to be called."

Ben had called for a cease-fire and had ordered Rebels with bullhorns to start calling for the surrender of all Malone's men. That move had at first startled the Rebels, for Ben was not known for magnanimous gestures toward the enemy.

Actually, the move was not as benevolent as it sounded.

Under the cover of the cease-fire and the offer of surrender, Ben had ordered dozens of small teams to move into the enemy-held park at full dark, loaded down with plastic explosives and electronic detonators and the deadly Claymore antipersonnel mines.

"You're a sneaky, deceitful, son of a b.i.t.c.h, aren't you, Raines?" Chase spoke from across the room of the chalet.

"I certainly am, old friend. In matters of war, I am not to be trusted at all."

"General," Corrie called from the room where the communication equipment had been set up.

"Patrols report a force of about two hundred and fifty men are attempting to walk out of the park.

They're heading east; some of them are on horseback."

"Let them go and keep them under surveillance."

"You think they're trying an end-around, Ben?"

Jerre asked. He shook his head. "No. I think they're trying to escape. They've abandoned their vehicles and attempting a bug-out. Ask patrol if they can spot who is fronting the column. The leader will be on horseback, for sure."

It didn't take long, for Rebel patrols were now located in secret pockets all over the park.

"A young man, General," Corrie said. "They are just north of Mount Wilbur. Patrol leader says that will take them to a hiking trail just south of Chief Mountain and will eventually connect with Chief Mountain International Highway."

"That would be Kenny Parr. He's trying to make it back to Florida. Alert all units to get off the hiking trails and to allow any enemy troops who are hoofing it out to get clear of the park. Ike has moved up to take the area they will enter. Tell Ike to keep them under constant surveillance until they are out of the park and then ambush them. Wipe them out to the last person."

"Why wait until they're clear of the park, Ben?"

Chase asked.

"So the sounds of the ambush won't be heard by any others attempting to escape and discourage them from trying it." Lamar Chase sipped his cup of hot tea and studied Ben, as he had done a thousand times over the years. In all his years he had never known a man who was any harder than Ben Raines, but yet one who showed surprising compa.s.sion to those who were trying to live decently. Ben could be as brutal and vicious as an attacking grizzly, but yet halt an entire column to stop along the road to care for an injured animal. He could calmly order the deaths of hundreds of men, yet his top priority in setting up secure zone was education.

He would shoot a criminal in a heartbeat and then pick up a broom to help in the cleaning out of a hospital to care for people.

The man was a d.a.m.ned walking contradiction.

Not a shot was fired within the over fifteen hundred square mile area of the park that night. But more than five hundred of Malone's people threw down their weapons and walked out of their bunkers to surrender to Rebels. Many of Malone's people were startled to find the Rebels not more than six feet behind them or to the side of them when they did make up their minds to surrender. The Rebels had slipped in on them as silently as a slithering snake, to lie waiting for the right moment to strike. It was unnerving as h.e.l.l.

By noon of the next day, Cecil had moved his people more than twenty miles north and Georgi had pushed twenty miles south, the Russian literally knocking on the back door of Malone's CP, forcing Malone to push deeper into the park.

"All units hold what you have," Ben ordered, after receiving the news that Kenny Parr's men had cleared the park confines and were moving toward Highway Seventeen, and a slightly larger force was moving up the same trail Parr had used.

"We don't want to spook any of the others who might be trying a bug-out."

"I have people in place just west of the highway, Ben,"

Ike radioed.

"Lan," Ashley said, "something's wrong."

"Yes," the terrorist agreed. "It's too quiet. Raines ordering a cease-fire caused warning bells to go off in my head. Kenny just radioed that he encountered nothing on his way out.

He's now clear of the park."

"It's a setup, Lan. Ben Raines is setting the boy up for a killing."

"Yes. And Khamsin is only three or four hours behind Kenny."

"I believe this calls for an abrupt change in plans," Ashley said.

"Oh, quite." Villar smiled sourly. "Any ideas?"

"Get the h.e.l.l out!"

"Not terribly original, but an idea whose time has come, I believe." Lan stuck out his hand and Ashley shook it. "Which direction would you prefer?"

"Ill take my men and head west. We'll find us a valley and pull the earth over us. No fires, no noise, no movement. It's the only chance we have of making it out of this mess alive."

"Yes. I'll push south and do the same. Raines won't use low-flying planes; he knows we still have Stingers. Maintain radio silence. Once Raines leaves the park, we'll link up. Good luck to you."

Kenny Parr's men walked right into an ambush. A mile from the highway, they walked into a Claymore-infested half mile of h.e.l.l. What the Claymores didn't mangle, M-16's and M-60's and .50-caliber machine guns took care of.

Kenny had dropped back to the rear of the column to check for stragglers. At the first explosion, he left the saddle, grabbed his bedroll and took off into the timber, running hard for his life. He ran for over a thousand yards, then dropped into a moss-covered slope and lay still.

He had never been so frightened in all his life.

Never. He was shaking all over. Even his eyelids were trembling. Ben Raines was a devil. He had to be a devil, straight out of the pits of h.e.l.l.

Either that, he thought, and that thought frightened him even more ... or a G.o.d, like some people believed.

A foul odor wafted to his nostrils and the young man grimaced in disgust.

Kenny Parr, outlaw, murderer, warlord, had s.h.i.+t his pants.

"Two hundred and forty-nine men dead," Corrie reported to Ben after speaking briefly with Ike.

"Kenny Parr's body could not be positively ID'D.".

"It's possible the Claymores mangled him so badly he couldn't be identified," Ben said. "But more than likely the little b.a.s.t.a.r.d got away. How about Khamsin's bunch?"

"Still moving up the trail. They were ten miles behind Parr's bunch and the terrain helped to m.u.f.fle the sound of the ambush."