thick brush. He circled the house once before stepping up to the porch. Carefully, he tried the doorknob. It turned with a grinding, unused sound. M-16 ready, on full auto, Ike pushed open the door. It protested on rusty hinges. Ike stepped into a musty-smelling living room.
Something screamed an animal sound and came leaping at him in the darkness.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“We’re clean up to that point,” the Rebel said, pointing to an intersection about a half mile from the first barricade just outside Dublin, Georgia. “Beyond that point, General, is the unknown. You want me to send teams in there?”
Ben nixed that quickly. “It’ll be full dark soon,” he said. “No point in risking more lives wandering around at night. They-whoever they might be-know the terrain. We don’t. Let’s backtrack a few miles for safety’s sake. We’ll hit the town in the morning.”
“Whatever is in there,” Susie said, “they’re pretty good. I haven’t seen any movement since we knocked out that machine gun emplacement.”
“Either pretty good or pretty scared,” Ben said. “Or pretty few.” He turned to another Rebel. “What did you learn from inspecting the bodies at the machine gun nest?”
“Five white males,” Sergeant Greene said. “Dirty. Unwashed. Bad teeth. All different ages. I’d say from twenty to forty-five. All wearing battle dress. None of them wore any type of unit crest or any other type of insignia.”
“Odd,” Ben said, more to himself than anyone
else. Once again, Tony Silver’s name came to his mind. Suddenly, Ben thought about Ike. He shook that away. “OK. Let’s pull back and get our camp set up for the night.”
Gale touched his arm. “I get the uncomfortable feeling we are being watched.”
“I imagine we are,” Ben said. “From a safe distance.”
Gale looked at the ten naked bodies hanging from the rafter across the street. Tortured and mutilated and grotesque. “What are you going to do with them, Ben?”
“Leave them for the time being. We’ll cut them down and bury them in the morning. Twelve more hours won’t make a bit of difference to them.”
The Rebels backtracked to the interstate and set up for the night around an old motel complex. Ben posted guards on the roof and on both sides of the interstate.
“Heads up,” Ben told his people. “We don’t know how many of the enemy we’re facing, much less what we’re facing.”
“Seems to me, General,” a woman spoke from the ranks, “since we didn’t make the first hostile moves to open this dance, those people back in Dublin-the ones who fired on us-are lookin” to get their asses kicked.”
“That is precisely what we are going to do, Judy,” Ben told her with an accompanying smile. “At first light.”
“Good!” she replied. “I’m damn tired of people shootin’ at me. Especially since all we’re tryin’ to do is be friends and help those who need it.”
A low growl of agreement spread through the ranks of the Rebels.
“In the morning,” Ben repeated, dismissing the Rebels.
“I’m hungry,” Gale announced.
“I’m sure,” Ben said. “You eat like a horse normally. Now you’re eating for two.”
“Three, Ben. Three.” She looked at him. “A horse!”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Ike sidestepped, tripped the man who came shrieking at him in the darkness, and got the guy in a hammer lock. Ike had dropped his M-16 and was just about to cut the guy’s throat when his hand cupped a soft breast.
Ike squeezed gently. He grinned and squeezed again. Soft. Quite a handful.
“Perverted son of a bitch!” the woman said. “Are you gonna cut my throat or just feel me up?”
Not relaxing his hold on the woman, Ike said, “I might decide to do both.” He squeezed again.
“Will you turn loose of my titty? And you’re choking me, you bastard.”
Ike eased off and stood up. The woman remained crouched on the floor. She rubbed her throat. In the dim light filtering through the dirty windows, Ike looked at her. She was maybe twenty-two or three, no more than that. Light brown hair, tanned skin. Old work shirt and faded jeans. She was built up nice and shapely. She met his gaze squarely, no back-up in her.
“What are you, a fat monk?” she asked.
Ike stepped back and pulled off the hooded robe.
He tossed the stinking garment to the floor. Ike was all muscle and gristle and bone. And he was strong as an ape.
Her eyes swept him from face to booted feet. She nodded her head.
“Did I pass inspection?” Ike asked.
“If that’s what you want to call it. OK. So you’re not fat. You’re a fireplug. But what are you? Besides a pervert, that is.”
“I am not a pervert. But you do have a nice set of titties.” He grinned. “I’m Colonel Ike McGowen. Now who in the hell are you?”
“A colonel! Sure you are,” she said sarcastically. “A colonel in what?”
“Raines’ Rebels.”
She opened her mouth to speak. Closed it. Blinked her eyes. She twisted around and sat on the floor, looking up at Ike. “General Ben Raines? I mean, President Ben Raines?”
“Yeah. Ben. I was leading a patrol a couple of counties west of here. Some nutty bastards that call themselves the Ninth Order ambushed us, grabbed me. I broke out several hours ago. That’s it in a nutshell. What’s your name?”
“Nina. Yeah, I know that bunch of crazies. Know them well. They killed my old man last month. They burned him to death,” she added bitterly, almost spitting out the last. “Stripped him, tortured him, tied him to a stake, then burned him. Made me watch. The men holding me had a good time feeling me up. They told me what they were going to do tome. Real perverted. They were going to screw me to death. You
believe that? They meant it! I kicked one in the balls and split. Been runnin’ ever since. Thought they had me a couple, three times, but I always managed to slip past them. Screw me to death. Caught me and my old man, ah, messin’ around. Called me a sinner. So that was to be my punishment. Jesus! What a pack of nuts.”
“I agree with you. Your old man? Your husband?”
“Kind of. We never got married, though. How about you?”
Vibrations passed between the man and the woman. Both of them picked up the other’s silent message. Strong erotic messages. The meaning was very clear.
“How do you want me to answer that?” Ike asked her.
“The only way to answer it, Ike. By tellin’ the truth.”
“I’m married.”
“Faithful to her?”
Something clutched at Ike’s guts. “Up to now,” he said with a grin, meeting her pale gray eyes. “You got anything to eat?”
She smiled.
Ike picked it up. He laughed loudly. The laugh felt good; he hadn’t had much to laugh about the past few days. “Food, baby,” he said, patting his stomach. “Sustenance for the bod.”
“Yeah. I got a sack of army rations. I swiped it yesterday.”
“Crations?”
“I guess.”
“Yuk! Well, let’s eat. Then we’ll get some rest and
head out at first light.” Ike tossed her one of the .38’s taken from the Ninth Order. “You know how to use that?”
Nina looked at the pistol. An odd look came into her eyes. She pointed the weapon at Ike and jacked back the
