“We are at your command, Mister Ben Raines,” Wade said. He turned to his group and spoke to them in the same pidgin English Ro had used. The young people turned, falling into a loose formation. Ben stood and watched them march off, following a clearly embarrassed Buck Osgood.
“I feel like a damned pied piper,” Buck said.
The same strange ritual was conducted by Ro, making Ben feel more set-apart than ever. He knew, felt a very dangerous precedent being set, or had already been set on this day. But how to combat it? He didn’t know. But he knew he had to come up with something very quickly.
“For a god,” Gale said, walking to Ben’s side, “you have some pretty good moves in the sack, Ben. Did you learn all that on the slopes of Olympus?”
Ben almost choked on his cigarette. “Jesus, Gale! I didn’t find it amusing.”
“I didn’t either, Ben. What are you going to do about it?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Tunnels and caves, Ben?”
“That’s what the young man said.” He looked at Cecil and Ike and Juan and Mark. “Any of you people ever hear about a subterranean culture that worships me?”
“Nothing, Ben,” Cecil said. But Cecil could never lie worth a damn.
“Umm,” Ben said.
Chase had joined the group. Ben looked at him. The doctor, like the others, remained noncommittal.
“It’s a big country, Ben,” Ike said. “It doesn’t surprise me to learn there are groups who hold you in high regard.”
“Being held in high regard is one thing,” Ben replied. “Being looked upon as possessing some supernatural power is quite another. And I don’t like it.” He looked hard at his friends. “None of you gave me an answer to my question, boys-why?”
“I tried to tell you, Ben,” Doctor Chase said. “Tried on several occasions. But you always brushed it off as having little or no importance. I got tired of trying.”
“We have all tried, Ben,” Cecil said. “But you refused to believe it or even discuss it with us. Now it’s coming home, as we all told you-or tried to tell you-it would.”
“You people are behaving as if the problem is all my fault,” Ben said peevishly.
“No.” Doctor Chase picked up the anger in Ben. His words were softly spoken. “I think it is just time for this to occur, Ben. And I warned you about that, too.” The doctor walked away, without going into more detail. He knew he didn’t have to
“It’ll pass,” Ben said firmly. “By God, I’ll see to that personally.”
“Good luck, El Presidente,” Ike said. And he got a hard look from Ben for the words. was ‘Cause you’re sure gonna need it.”
A subterranean society did indeed exist in what was once known as America, South America, Central America, Asia Minor, Africa, Asia-all around the globe. The People of Darkness, as some called them, spanned the war-torn globe. They lived in tunnels and caves and underground repositories and old mines. They came out to work carefully hidden vegetable gardens and to hunt for game. They did not venture out before dawn or after dark. For where they lived-or existed-many of whom having lived there for more than a decade, the animal population explosion was very real.
Some mutants, those more animal than human, had on occasion bred with bear, and the results were truly hideous to behold. They were very dangerous. But perhaps the most dangerous were the offspring of mutants who had kidnapped and bred with human women. They not only possessed the strength and fury of the animal, but also the cunning and intelligence of their human side.
The mountain lion now roamed the land, in greater numbers than ever before; the wolf had reclaimed his rightful spot in the scheme of the animal world. As had all predatory animals. Some, like the mutant bear, whose genes contained the radiation and germ contamination, produced monsters in their litters, bigger and stronger and much more deadly than the pure species.
And these stalked the deep timber and deserted villages and towns at night.
The people who lived in the caves and tunnels had long ago given up on modern technology and weapons
and what was once considered the acceptable mode of dress. They wore the skins of animals and the soles of their feet were as tough as shoe leather. And they did not worship God.
Some of them worshipped Satan, with all the horror that went with that. Some worshipped some form of higher entity; but for the most part they did not believe He was all-powerful. No true all-powerful God would have permitted the world to turn into such as it had now become.
No, blind faith was almost universally unacceptable.
But Ben Raines, now-he was real, and that weapon he carried was real, and Ben Raines was doing something to correct all this misery and awfulness. So, many of them reasoned, Ben Raines must be in touch with some higher power. And if that was true, then Ben Raines was the man-god here on earth.
In a manner of speaking, the older and wiser among them cautioned.
So around the fires against the night, in hundreds of caves and underground mini-communities around the nation that was once known as America, Land of the Free, Give Me Your Huddled Masses, and all that crap, the men and women of the People of Darkness talked of things past and what they hoped for the future.
And of Ben Raines.
“Counting the kids who just came in, Ben,” Cecil said. “We can put about twenty-four hundred troops in the field.”
“Against Striganov’s ten thousand or so.”
“Yes.”
“All we can do is wait for the day to come when we are strong enough to move against the IPF.”
All agreed that to try that now would be suicide.
“Are you going to marry Katrina and Roy?” Cecil asked. “That’s the talk around camp.”
“They came to see me. But I’m not a minister, Cec.”
“You married Ike and Sally back in eighty-nine.”
“That was a mock ceremony and you know it.”
Cecil shrugged. “Ministers seem to be in short supply, Ben. And, whether you’ve noticed, or not, getting shorter.”
Ben said nothing. But he knew Cecil was working up to something.
Cecil said, “And those we’ve talked with seemed to have misplaced their faith.”
“Stop dancing around what’s on your mind, Cec. It isn’t like you. Come on, let’s have it.”
Cecil made up his mind. It might be the wrong direction to take-might be very bad advice-but Chase and Ike and Juan and Mark and Colonel Gray and all the others in positions of authority in the Rebels had agreed it was worth a shot.
“Maybe it’s up to you to put the faith of the people back on the track, Ben.”
“You better explain that,” Ben said. There was a deadly quality to his tone.
Cecil met his angry eyes. “Maybe what the kids believe isn’t such a bad idea.”
“I don’t believe I’m hearing this!”
“Ben…”
“Goddamn you, Cecil. Stop it!”
“No, I won’t stop. And I won’t allow you to make me angry. People have lost their faith in God. And a nation cannot exist as such without that faith, and you know it. Ben, if this nation ever gets whole again, it will be your doing. And only yours. No one is asking that you set yourself up as some little tin god on a make-believe throne. But if a strong belief in you is what it takes to help repair this country-then so be it.”
Ben sat back in his chair. He was stunned speechless. That this ex-college professor, this highly educated man, this man he called friend for many years … could even dream of such a monstrous idea. It was inconceivable.
It was ludicrous.
“Chase agrees, Ben,” Cecil said.
Ben sat in silence.
