Part 2 (2/2)
”Holy s.h.i.+t!” he said, looking around him at those who had chosen to follow the outlaw way.
”Ben Raines is on the move. The first bunch is about ten miles away and pus.h.i.+n' hard towards us.
Let's get the h.e.l.l out of here.”
They grabbed whatever they could find that was readily at hand and got into their cars and trucks and roared south.
”This ain't legal!” one of the warlord's lieutenants said. ”There ain't no justice in this. Ben Raines ain't got no right comin' in here and tellin' us what to do.”
The warlord, who had called himself Larado for so many years he had difficulty remembering his Christian name, looked at the man, disgust in his eyes. ”The Rebels don't pay no attention to that happy c.r.a.p, man. All that legal jive is out the window. Ben Raines is gonna bring back law and order and he's gonna do it at the point of a gun.
He'll roll right over anybody or anything that stands in his way.”
”Where the h.e.l.l we gonna go?” The question was frantically tossed out.
”We got no choice. We got to head south to L.a. and link up with them gangs down there.”
”Why not Frisco?”
Frisco is gonna do is delay but Frisco is ”All them cats in Raines. They'll buy us some time, gonna fall. Bet on it, man.”
”There is another choice” another outlaw said.
”Oh, yeah? What?”
”Stop the car.”
The rusty and battered old car slid to a halt.
Laredo twisted in the seat. ”What are you gonna do, man?”
”Find me a house, raise me a garden. Hunt some. And obey the laws that Ben Raines saysto obey.”
”You chicken-s.h.i.+t!” the driver sneered.
”Maybe,” the man said, getting out and pulling his duffel out with him. ”But I'll be alive and sittin'
on the front porch with a woman and some kids long after your bones have been picked clean by the rats.
See you boys.” He walked into the timber by the side of the road.
”He's yeller!” a man sneered.
”Maybe,” Laredo said. ”And maybe he's smarter than all of us.”
”Huh?”
”We gonna die, Slick. The days of the outlaw in the lower forty-eight is over. You all heard them radio transmissions from the Rebels the other day.
They told us we either lay down our guns now and surrender, or we die. They wasn't ki.in,” boys. Make your minds up now.”
”It's a big country, Laredo,” he was reminded.
”It ain't big enough for us and Ben Raines. Let's go if we're goin”. We got to find us a spot and dig in.”
Ike and Cecil's troops pushed down to Crescent City and found it deserted. The troops under the command of Striganov and West pushed down to Alturas and found the town in ruins; no signs of life. Ben and his contingent rolled into Youreka and stood down while Ben met with the leader of the survivors in that area.
The town, once holding a population of six thousand, showed signs of many fierce battles, some of them quite recent. But it also had clean streets, neat homes, and many large, well-tended gardens.
Neatness and cleanliness were almost always a sign of people who refused to knuckle under to any kind of disaster and who were not content to sit around and b.i.t.c.h and moan while waiting for somebody else to help pull them up.
The leader of the group, a middle-aged man named Chuck, showed Ben the small but well-furnished clinic, the school, and all the other improvements, including electricity, sewage treatment, and water.
”There were other survivors in this area, Chuck,”
Ben said, consulting a clipboard. ”George Williams from Chico. Another George from Red Bluff. Harris from Redding. Pete Ho from Ukiah. John Dunning from Santa Rosa.”
Chuck shook his head. ”Most of them are dead, General. At least as far as I know, they are.
Only Pete Ho and his bunch and me and mine held out, and Pete had to move his people over to near the state line. Near the Plumas National Forest. We talk to each other every week on the radio.”
”That explains why we haven't been able to make contact with anybody.” Ben lined out the names on the clipboard. ”What happened to the movement out here?”
”It just fell apart, General. I believe it was Harris who was the first to refuse to use the death penalty. The outlaws took him out first. Then oneby one, the other groups were either destroyed or ran away. All except Pete's and this one.”
It didn't surprise Ben. Only about half of the earlier outposts the Rebels had set up had survived. Their failure was due mostly to the breaking of the rules the Rebels had tried and tested over the years and found to work. Laws were not made to be broken. And people who broke them had to be punished. If not, the system-any system -- simply would not work.
They were hard rules, and only the strongest-willed could follow them. But weak people do not rebuild a nation after that nation's collapse. Doers rebuild nations, and then they help the weak.
”You have a fine town here, Chuck. I congratulate you. Give the list of any supplies you need to Beth here, and she'll get them for you.”
”Right now, General, we're desperately short of ammo and reloading equipment.”
Ben nodded at Chuck and waved at a Rebel, telling the man to supply Chuck with whatever he needed. Ammo was something the Rebels were never short of. Back at Base Camp One, factories ran around the clock, seven days a week, to keep the field troops supplied.
”Corrie, b.u.mp Georgi and advise him that Pete Ho is alive and will probably need supplies. There is an airstrip at Susanville. We'll make that a drop-off point for that sector.”
”Yes, sir.”
”Chuck, what can you tell me about Redding?”
”A lot of gangs working out of there. It's outlaw headquarters for this part of the state.”
”What's between here and there?”
”Nothing, General. And I mean nothing.”
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