god?” Again he shrugged. “I don’t know. Sometimes,” his reply was very soft, “sometimes I believe he really is. Others?” Ike shook his head. “How old are you, Nina?”
“I … I think I’m twenty-one, Ike. But I really don’t know for sure. I was either seven or eight years old when the bombs came.”
And I was in my mid-thirties, Ike thought. And already fought a war this girl has no memories of. “You get dressed,” he told her, picking up his M-16. “I’m gonna check out the area.”
“Ike?”
He turned.
“I’m very glad it was you who come along last night.”
Ike grinned. “You did some of that yourself, Nina. Last night.”
She laughed. “Get outta here!”
Ike stepped out of the old house, using the creaking back steps. The mountains of north Georgia loomed all around him, the area thick with brush, having grown wild and unattended for more than a decade. It was a peaceful dawning, the birds singing and calling to one another, the calling a sound of joy, of being alive on this cool early fall morning in the mountains. And, Ike thought, shivering, winter is just around the corner.
“Got to find some clothing for the both of us,” he muttered. “Damn feed sack would be better than that stinking robe.”
Nina stepped out on the back porch, a can of Crations in one hand, a spoon in the other hand. Ike looked at the contents of the can and shuddered.
“I just never did develop a taste for that crap,” he said.
“I wish I had a real cup of coffee,” Nina said wistfully. “And some bacon and eggs and toast. And some jelly.”
“Smucker’s?” Ike asked with a grin. He backed away from the odor of the eggs.
Nina cocked her head to one side. “I don’t know what that means.”
“Yeah? Well … it used to be a brand of jams and jellies.”
“Smucker’s? With a name like that, it had to be good, I betcha.”
Ike laughed as the young woman pegged the company’s old slogan right on the button. In the brightening morning, standing in God’s light, Ike could
see the young woman was really quite lovely. “Yes, that’s true, Nina.” He cleared his throat. Shook his head as he thought of all the things this young lady had missed out on: the fun of college, the Saturday afternoon games, the dances; the joy of living in the most affluent and powerful nation in the world; daily breakthroughs in medicine; fine perfumes and designer jeans. God! the list was almost endless.
Now she had only a world gone savage to look forward to.
Maybe he could help ease that transition.
“Let’s get our gear together, Nina. We’ve got a long way to go.”
“I’m with you, Ike.”
James reported to Ben. The big sergeant had a disgusted look on his broad face. “These people want us to stay and protect them, General.”
“What did you tell them, James?”
“I told them to forget it, sir.”
“Good. Get the people ready to pull out.” He looked at his watch. “Fifteen minutes, James.”
“But you can’t leave us!” a woman’s voice came from behind the men. “You’re our president. You have to protect us.”
Ben turned to face the source of the complaint. The woman was in her late twenties, Ben guessed. Nice looking, a pixie with a dirty face, and a misguided view of reality.
“I am not your president,” Ben informed her. “And I don’t owe any of you a damned thing. You owe it to yourselves to learn weapons and how to protect yourselves.”
“But that is against our religious beliefs!”
“Then I would say you people definitely have a problem.”
Tears cut twin paths down the woman’s grimy cheeks. “Do you have any idea what those animals did to us? No-how could you? They were filthy and perverted and evil and godless. And if you leave, they’ll return. And this time, they’ll kill us after they … use us as vessels of their depravity.”
“Get a gun,” Ben told her. “The first one who shows his head in this town, shoot him.”
“We can’t do that!” she screamed.
“Won’t,” Ben contradicted her. “How did you avoid being shipped out with the other younger women?”
She wiped her eyes. “I’m a nurse. They-those animals-had some medical problems. That’s how. You can’t just drive off and leave us here, defenseless.”
“I am sorry to inform you, miss, but that is precisely what we intend doing. If you would like for us to show you weapons and how to use them, we’ll stay and do that. The choice is yours.”
The woman’s eyes glowed with hate. “You’re just as cruel and heartless as Silver’s men. I hope Silver’s people get you.”
“They won’t,” Ben told her.
“You can’t know that for a fact.”
“Yeah, lady, I can. We’re just something you people will never be.”
“Oh? And what is that?”
“Survivors, ma’am.”
“But we have a right to our religious beliefs!” she
shouted at Ben. “A God-given right.”
“That is probably true,” Ben agreed. “But you do not have the right to expect others to die for your lopsided beliefs.”
“God will strike you dead, General Raines.”
“Perhaps,” Ben replied solemnly. “But I rather think God likes His warriors. “Cause He damn sure made a lot of us.”
“That’s blasphemy!” the woman yelled at him.
The crowd of men and women began yelling threats at Ben, shaking their fists at him, calling him Judas.
Ben laughed at them and walked away, to his pickup, Gale by his side.
“You’re a hard man, Ben,” she said.
“Hard times, kid,” Ben replied.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Tony’s convoy met the men from Dublin on the interstate, one group heading west, the remains of Tony’s Dublin contingent heading east as fast as they could go. The lead vehicle of Tony’s group flagged them down.
Tony stood in the middle of the interstate, growing angry as the men tried to explain what had happened.
“What the fuck do you mean?” Tony shouted. “You mean you guys just cut and run out? What the hell does Raines have, trained tigers with him?”’
“Uh, that’s about the size of it, Tony,” the leader of the Dublin contingent said. “Them Rebels is all trained better than us. They got them military weapons and they know how to use them.”
Tony fought his temper under control. “Awright, awright,” he finally said, clenching and unclenching his big hands. “Jesus, I don’t wanna hear no more of your excuses. How many troops does Raines have with him?”
There was a lot of shuffling of feet and eyes that would not meet Tony’s hard eyes. “Uh … “bout forty, boss.” “Forty!” Tony screamed. “Forty fucking guys
caused you people to turn tail and run?”
“Uh … they wasn’t all guys,” a man said, making matters much worse. “There was some cunts with ‘em, too.”
“Cunts! Pussies?” Tony sputtered. “You mean to stand there and tell me you tough guys ran from a bunch of broads?”
“Jesus, Tony. These broads had guns!” “I don’t care if they had pussies that fired torpedoes!” Tony screamed, jumping up and down in the center of the highway. “A broad is a broad. Shit! Goddamnit. What is this
