else.”
“It isn’t over, Gale. We haven’t given up. I have teams moving to the north right this minute, to rescue as many people as possible. But what we have to do is recoup and rest, plan our next move carefully. We’ll eventually beat Striganov-I’m sure of that-but we just can’t do it now.”
“We’ll always be fighting, won’t we, Ben? I mean, fighting somebody or something?”
“It looks that way, Gale.”
She wiped her eyes and kissed him. “Well… least I feel reasonably safe when I’m around you,” she said with a smile, some of her spirit returning.
He put a big hand on her stomach. “How is the kid doing?”
“Kids, Ben,” she corrected.
“Right. Twins.”
“They’re fine.”
He smiled at her. “Ever been to the Great Smoky Mountains?”
“No.”
“It’s lovely. You’ll like it.”
“When do we pull out?”
“In a couple of weeks. We’ll let the more seriously wounded get fit to travel. And we’ll probably be joined by General Tanner’s people and by the kids. Should be interesting.”
“Know what I want to do right now?” she questioned. There was a smile on her lips and her dark eyes sparkled with mischief.
“Play Monopoly?” Ben said with all innocence.
“That’s one way to describe it. How many times do you think you could make me pass Go?”
He thought about that for a moment, then leaned down and whispered in her ear.
“Oh my, Ben! Well… if you can do that, then I’ll just have to think of something nice for you. Have any ideas?”
He again whispered in her ear.
She drew back as if in shock. “Pervert!” she said, but with a smile.
General Tanner’s “grandfathers” pulled into Ben’s base camp. The old warriors were jubilant as they met with Ben and the others and each congratulated the other on their shared victory over the IPF.
The teams began returning from the north, returning with men and women who told horror stories about their treatment at the hands of the IPF. They told of the mutant breeding farms, of being forced to have sex with the monsters, and of those women who were heavy with mutant children having been taken to the west.
“How many did the teams miss?” Ben asked.
“About half of us,” he was told.
It sickened Ben, but he was fully cognizant of the fact there was nothing he could do-not at this moment.
“You did all you could, Ben,” Gale told him, and that made him feel better. “Someday, perhaps. But I’ve come to realize that you can’t shoulder the troubles of the world alone, honey.”
It made him feel better, but still left him with an ugly taste in his mouth.
Standing alone outside his headquarters at dusk, Ben looked toward the setting sun and murmured,
“Someday, Striganov, I promise you. Someday, I’ll find you and kill you.”
Behind him, Gale heard the promise and shuddered as a hard chill of fear shook her. She wondered if she would be permitted to live that long? She hoped so. She knew Ben did not love her, knew that for a fact-her woman’s intuition told her that. But she felt him to be content with her, and she had enough love for the both of them. Of course, she would never let him know that, she thought with a smile, as the chill of sudden fear left her.
She stood in the shadows of the motel and looked at the man, so tall and strong as the rays of the setting sun silhouetted his shape, making his shadow appear fifty feet long, making the man fit the image so many thought him to be.
And did she feel that way as well?
She didn’t know. And she was afraid to question her mind too closely on the subject.
She turned and slipped quietly away.
“Here comes the Orphans” Brigade,” Buck said, sticking his head into Ben’s quarters. “General, you got to see this to believe it.”
“That bad?” Ben questioned, getting up from behind the desk. He put on his beret and headed for the open door.
The columns of young people were still about a mile away from the HQ. They were marching steadily. Ragged and dirty and appearing malnourished, the kids marched with their heads held high.
Ben, with Gale by his side, watched the young
people. One column was marching in from the northwest, the other from the northeast.
“Damnedest thing I believe I’ve ever seen,” Ben said, his voice not much more than a whisper.
“Oh, Ben,” Gale said, taking his hand. “Some of them are just children. Babies.”
“Don’t you believe it, Miss Roth,” Buck said. “Those kids-most of them, so I hear tell-have been on their own for years. They’re tough little guys and gals. And the way it was told to me, most of them would as soon kill you as look at you.”
“Buck, I can’t believe that,” Gale replied, her heart going out to the little ones in the columns.
“Believe it,” Ben told her. “They’ve had no schooling, no parental or adult guidance, no discipline other than what they impose on themselves. A sort of tribal law, I should imagine. They have had but one thought all their waking years, and that is to survive. Yet another sad fact of postwar.”
“They look so helpless,” Gale muttered.
“Bear in mind,” Ben said, “those two columns of kids helped destroy four battalions of trained IPF personnel. And they took no prisoners.”
“Colonel Gray mentioned that they looked helpless,” Mary Macklin said, joining the growing group. “He offered one little girl a candy bar and she bit his hand to the bone.” Mary smiled at the mental picture. “His LETTERRP’S said the colonel then became quite ineloquent.”
Gale looked at Mary. “Poor little girl,” she said.
“Then that poor little girl grabbed his rifle, kicked him in the shins, and took off into the woods with the AK.” She said it all with a straight face. But there was
a definite twinkle in her eyes.
Gale looked shocked at the telling.
“How old was the girl?” Ben asked.
“Eight,” Mary said.
Ike walked up and looked at the approaching young people. The leading edge was only a few yards away. The young people stopped and were looking at the adults looking at them.
“Aw,” Ike said, “look at them poor, little kids. Makes your heart ache, don’t it? Me and Sally got to take in a few of them to raise.”
Ben smiled.
Ike walked into the street and stood smiling down at the first few young people. He felt his heart soften as he looked at the ragged and dirty little kids. The stocky ex-Seal knelt down beside one little, dark-haired girl.
“Howdy, honey,” he drawled in his best Mississippi accent. “My, you sure are pretty. How’d you like to come live with me and my wife?”
The little girl, no more than nine or ten, pulled a pistol from a holster and pointed it at Ike. Ike paled in shock. She said, “How’d you like to eat lead, fatso?”
Ben had to struggle to keep from laughing at the expression on Ike’s face. It was very difficult to get anything over on Ike, and Ben knew this story would fly around the camps of the Rebels. Ike would never live it down.
Gale glanced at Ben. “Ben!” she hissed. “Damn it, it isn’t funny.”
Ben groaned, suppressing a chuckle.
“Now, darlin”,” Ike said, very carefully getting to his feet. “There just ain’t no call for nothin’ like this. I don’t mean you no harm.”
