Part 30 (2/2)

Dan walked up. ”We have prisoners, sir.

Among them some of the tras.h.i.+est women I believe I have ever had the misfortune to encounter.”

Ben sighed. He knew the answer to his question before he even asked it. ”Children?”

”A goodly number of them. All of them malnourished and most of them showing the signs of abuse -- of one kind or another.”

”Let's get the kids over to Doctor Chase and then well deal with the women.”

Chase was muttering curses under his breath as he watched his medical teams examine the kids. He stood up and walked over to Ben.

”Nearly all the girls over the age of eight or nine have been s.e.xually molested, both v.a.g.i.n.ally and a.n.a.lly,” he reported, disgust on his face. ”Some of them much younger than that. Many of the boys show initial signs of having been s.e.xually abused . . . a.n.a.lly. We'll know for sure once tests are done. In addition, both the girls and the boys have been severely beaten. Most of the physical scars will fade. The mental scars are quite another matter.”

”What are they saying about it, Lamar?”

”They were abused with their mothers' permission.

Several of the women traded their childrens' s.e.xual favors for protection or whatever.”

”All right,” Ben said. ”We'll bivouac here and sort this thing out. I want the kids to positively ID the women who willingly sold them out, then we'll PSE the women for further confirmation.”

”And after that?” Sarah Bradford asked.

”I'll have them shot,” Ben said flatly. ”I will not tolerate s.e.xual abuse of children.”

”I will be more than willing to be a part of that firing squad, General. Anyone who would force their children into prost.i.tution doesn't deserve to live.”

Ben looked at her grim face. ”Find some other men and women who share that, Sarah. And then meet me at the west end of town tomorrow morning.”

Jersey, Corrie, and Beth stepped forward, as did Tina, who had just joined her father's contingent. Ben nodded his head. ”That's a starter,” he said softly. ”Dan, convene a panel. We'll meet at dawn tomorrow for the hearing.”

The vote of the twelve-member tribunal was unanimous: death by firing squad. Ben read the sentence aloud and then the sobbing men and nearly hysterical women were taken from the old gymnasium onto the old football field, placed against the side of a field house, and shot.

”Bury them in a common grave,” Ben ordered, after the gunfire had died away, his eyes on the crumpled bodies on the ground. ”We'll mount up as soon as the kids are airborne out of here.”

Some of the outlaws in the town had escaped the attack from the Rebels, and they had watched and listened as Rebel justice was served. They wasted no time in fleeing the area and getting on the air and telling other outlaws what had happened. Most outlaws, thugs, punks, and trash wisely decided that Was.h.i.+ng- ton state had become very unhealthy for them. They began scattering in all directions, getting the h.e.l.l away from Ben Raines and his Rebels. Many of them left with just the clothes on their backs, not even taking the time to pack. The older ones remembered the good times, when liberals ran the country and they could plea-bargain and holler about discrimination and every i not being dotted and every t not being crossed and they could walk free on the slightest of trial technicalities.

That was before Ben Raines.

Ben Raines didn't give a tinker's d.a.m.n about const.i.tutional rights; he'd strap your a.s.s to a table and pump you full of truth serum to get at the truth.

The truth was what Raines was all about: whether or not you did the crime.

”Things are goin' to h.e.l.l around here,” one outlaw observed. ”I think I'm gonna clean up my act and join up with some survivors. Take to farmin'.”

”You're not serious!” a friend in crime remarked.

”You mean actually work for a livin?”

”It's either that or have Ben Raines prop you up agin a wall and shoot you! We just ain't got that many choices left us.”

”Wait a minute,” his partner said. ”I'm goin' with you.”

Wherever Ben Raines and the Rebels went, those who chose to live outside the rules of society had but two choices: straighten up or die. Ben did not believe in many options.

Ellensburg, Pullman, Walla Walla, Wenatchee, and the tri-cities fell to the Rebels'

relentless and ruthless advance. Those creepies who had felt themselves safe in Yakima took stock of their situation and deserted the city, fleeing westward toward the bigger cities, taking their prisoners with them.

Ben had found another group of survivors and set up an outpost near the Canadian border. Now the entire eastern half of the state was, for the most part, a secure zone. There were still bands of outlaws in that section of the state, but they were keeping their heads down and looking for a way out.

For the moment, outlawing was the last thing on their minds.

Ben stood his people down and called for a meeting with his field commanders.

The men and women gathered at the old Yakima airport, where Ben had made his CP. He pointed to a map taped to a wall. ”Ike, whenever you feel like your people have had enough rest, shove off for the northwestern corner of the state and start working your way down to just north of Seattle. Five and Six battalions will take that sector -Everett and the towns just south of it comand clean it out. Cecil, you and West take the Tacoma/olympia area and secure it. Buddy, you and your Rat Teams are with Ike. Tina, you're with Cec and West. Dan will come with me. We'll take Vancouver and Portland.

La- mar, how about supplies?”

”We need to be resupplied, Ben. I'd say another two or three days.”

”That's fine. That'll give us all time to clean weapons, rest, and get the birds up here. We need to start an inventory of all that gear we seized from the Air Force base. Wherever we go, scrounge around for maps of Alaska; we're going to need them.

Now then, Seattle is going to be a screaming b.a.s.t.a.r.d, people. It was one big metropolitan area when the Great War hit, and the creepies have had years to fortify. Same with Portland and all the rest of the cities out here. And we know they've got hundreds, maybe thousands of prisoners in those cities. These cities are going to have to be taken block by b.l.o.o.d.y block. Well grab prisoners when we can and get the locations where the prisoners are being held out of them; try rescue raids. These aren't nice people, so I don't particularly care how you get the information we need. We all know that the more the rumors say how brutal we are, the more outlaws decide to stop outlawing and try to turn straight.

All right, people. That's it. Good hunting.”

Ben waved Dan to his side as the others filed out.

”If we try to stay on the north side of the Columbia River, the creepies will blow the bridges and cut us off from Portland. Start moving our people out now, crossing the river and coming up on Interstate Eighty-four and south of the city on Highway Twenty-six.”

”I'll get them moving now, sir. Do we destroy the cities after we've taken them?”

Ben hesitated. ”I don't know, Dan. We need ports on both coasts and on the Gulf.

We'll just have to play that tune when we come to it.”

The Englishman smiled. ”Still thinking about going to England, sir?”

”Oh, yes. We'll get there, Dan. One of these days. I promise you that.”

Ben began moving all units out, stretching them south to north. Ike began his pullout immediately, traveling north until junctioning with Highway 20, cutting west across the Cascades. He would turn north on Interstate 5, spreading his people along a line from Mount Vernon in the south to the Canadian line.

Five and Six Battalions crossed the mountain range on Highway 2 out of Wenatchee. They moved to within fifteen miles of their objective and halted, waiting until everyone got into position.

Cecil and West pulled out from Yakima on Highway 410, crossing the lower end of the mountains and bivouacking just north of the Clearwater Wilderness area, about thirty miles east of Tacoma.

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