80
Ben and his battalion walked slowly down the mountain toward the lushness that lay below them. They were, to a person, tired, stinking of sweat and the clinging odor of creepies, and disgusted with the day’s events. To a person they wanted a bath and fresh clothing, and after a time, a hot meal. They had found yet another of the Believers’ breeding farms, the force-fed human food source all dead, lying in bloated mounds in the camp. They had been lined up and shot, men, women, and children.
The Rebels had found the caves where the creepies had taken refuge and were particularly vicious in dealing with them, forcing them out of the tunnels with tear gas and shooting them as they exited the cave. The Rebels talked among themselves about leaving many badly wounded creepies behind that day, considering leaving them behind to die slowly. In the end they did not. They put them out of their misery and dumped them back into the caves, forever sealing them in the dank darkness.
The Rebels-to a person-were beginning to hate this lovely island. They hated the creepies, hated
81 what they were forced to do, and longed for the day they could leave and put it all behind them.
But they had many more long and brutal days ahead of them before that could happen. The Rebels had cleared all the towns and villages. They had secured all the roads and cleaned up many of the historical sites. The major airports were secure and receiving traffic. And daily the Rebels pulled on their boots and slogged out to kill creepies.
“They’re getting harder and harder to find,” Ben said, wearily pulling off his boots and looking at his big toe sticking out through a hole in his sock. “They’re deeper now than they’ve ever been.”
Dan Gray was with him in his CP, on the northwest side of the Mauna Kea Forest Reserve. The two battalions had searched all that day and had not found one cave.
“Analysis says that of the original number, less than ten percent of the creepies are still alive on this island,” Dan said.
“Analysis is sitting on their asses over on Maui, eating hot food daily and sleeping between clean sheets every night,” Ben replied. “They do a valuable and much-needed job, but sometimes I think they’re out of touch with reality.”
A guard stuck her head inside the small building. “Buddy and Rebet coming up, sir.”
The two batt comms entered, shook hands, and poured coffee. Dan was having tea. “Our sectors are clean,” Rebet said, sitting down wearily. “West reports nothing in the past three days.”
“I spoke with Danjou this afternoon,” Buddy said. “He is convinced his sector is sterile.”
Ben nodded his head in agreement. “So is Georgi. Personally, I am not so sure. But if we haven’t killed
82 them all, we’ve knocked them down to the point where they pose no real threat. Tomorrow we’ll start going over this island to make damn sure there are no survivors we’ve missed. Since the creeps eat only human flesh, if we leave them nothing to munch on, it’s a good bet they’ll start on each other. If the leaders will agree to keep this island unpopulated for a couple of years, the creepie problem will, or should, solve itself.” Ben stood up and poured fresh coffee. “I want daily head counts of all personnel. Make damn sure no Rebel falls into hungry hands. I don’t want to see anyone walking alone. It’s too dangerous. If we do this right, we can be out of here in a week; no more than ten days.”
“I would like to return here someday,” Dan said softly. “Once the memories have faded. It is a beautiful place.”
The Rebels began their slow search of the island, on foot and from the air. They found one more cave during that ten-day time and sealed it. No survivors were found on the island. It was void of human life.
Ben ordered the big island evacuated. No one was sorry to put it behind.
Back on Maui, Ben began preparations for the invasion of the two remaining islands, Oahu and Kauai. The only other island, Niihau, the ‘Forbidden Island,’ as some called it, was surely occupied by outlaws and thugs, but because of its size, it could be easily taken and would be the last one the Rebels struck.
And Therm had compiled a great deal of additional data on the divisions coming up from South America. All of it spelled out very bad news.
“The commanding general of the army is a man called Jesus Dieguez Mendoza Hoffman. Approxi—
83 mately thirty-five years old. The grandson of a very famous, or infamous, Nazi of World War Two fame. Since the army is made up of people of all nationalities, no one is quite sure what their ideologies might be. We do know this: They hate America and they despise you and the Rebels, Ben. They are goose-stepping, heil-Hitler types, made up of terrorist groups from all dver the world. They are well-trained, well-armed, arid they are fanatical in their desire to destroy what is left of the United States.”
Ben shook his head. “How far up are they?”
Therm smiled. “They’re bogged down in Paraguay, having a hell of a time moving all that equipment. Word we’re receiving is that the Indians and the resistance groups down there are really giving them a hard time.”
“I hope every one of those goose-stepping bastards comes down with malaria arid dies!”
Therm was still laughing: as he left the CP. Ben returned to his maps.
“We’re next,” Books told the roomful of gang leaders. No one from Kauai was in attendance, for crossing the channel was just too dangerous with Ike and his PT boats prowling around. “The Rebels wiped out the Night People on the big island. I don’t think the Rebels lost a person.”
Crazy Mac MacKenzie was muttering to himself. If anything, he had gotten crazier since Ben and his Rebels started knocking on the door.
Big Jess looked at him. “Mac, if you don’t shut that stupid mouth of yours, I’m gonna slap it off.”
Mac stopped mumbling and stared at Jess. “You’ll
84 die when you try,” he warned.
“Knock it off!” Books said. “What we don’t need is for us to start fighting among ourselves. Believe me, there’ll be plenty of fighting to go around when the Rebels get here.”
“Are we going to just let them land on the islands, Books?” Polly Polyanna asked.
“I don’t see that we have a choice in the matter. Now here is the plan: Just as soon as we know the ships are on the way, we break up into small groups and take to the brush and the villages. Slick, are the booby traps ready to go?”
“They’re in place.” He grinned. “And they’re nasty ones, too.”
“Everybody know where they’re to go and you’ve all your radios, food, ammo, and other gear set to grab and run?”
“All set, Books,” Jerry James rumbled out of his beard. “We’ll give them damn Rebels something to think about, for a ironclad fact.”
“I guess all we can do now is wait.”
“To die,” Susie Loo said softly.
“I’d rather go down with a gun in my hand killin’ them damn law-and-order bastards than dangle from the end of a rope with a broke neck. Or slow-strangle like I’ve seen others do,” Big Jess said.
“For a fact,” a punk called Spit said. “I wanna fuck me one of them Rebel bitches ‘fore this is all over. Pass her around to the boys for a real fun gang bang. Listen to her squall when we turn her over. Just like we used to do back in L.A.” His face darkened with anger. “Before that goddamn Ben Raines destroyed it.”
Bobby was looking out the window at the still-smoking remains of Honolulu. The bombardment
85 from the ships had really done a number on the city. From Kamehameha Highway all the way over to Diamond Head, the Rebels had blown it all to shit. There were a lot of buildings still standing, but one hell of a lot more were gone to rubble.
“Have you talked to John Dodge, Books?” Polly asked.
“Yeah. John and his boys are going to try to block the landing. But they’re making a bad mistake by doing so. I don’t think it will take them long to see that. But if they wait too long, it’ll be all over for them.”
“They didn’t touch Pearl Harbor,” Bobby said, more to himself than to the others. But all heads turned toward him. “That’s where they’re going to offload their tanks and other heavy stuff. Bet on it.”
“I think you’reright, Bobby,” Books said. “Do you have a plan to thwart that?”
“No,” Bobby said. “None au all.”
“You sure haven’t been yourself here of late, Bobby,” Susie said. “What’s the matter with you, your old lady cut you off or something?”
Bobby smiled. “No. Actually, we’re getting along better than ever before. Our situation sort of reminds me of an old, old movie I saw one time. It was called … On the Beach.”
“Yes,” Books said. “You’re right, Bobby. It was taken from the Nevil Shute book by the same name. Yes. ‘In this last of meeting places/We grope together/And avoid speech/Gathered on this beach of the tumid river … This is the way the world endsThis is the way the world ends/This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang but a whimper.’”
“That’s beautiful, Books,” Polly said. “Brings
86 tears to my eyes. Did you write that?”
“No,” Books said with a smile. “That was penned by T. S. Eliot.”
“I ain’t goin’ out with no fuckin’ whimper,” Mac snarled. “I aim to kill me a whole bunch of Rebels ‘fore I go down.”
“That’s the spirit, boys and girls!” Books said. “Semper Fi and all that Marine Corps bullshit. We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
“You sure have a way with words, Books,” Susie said. “Did you just make that up?”
“Actually, no. Winston Churchill said that.”
“Who the hell is he?” Vic asked.
Ben walked the long lines of Rebels standing in loose formation. The Rebels did not stress skills in standing at attention, saluting, marching, or any of that other b.s. that armies have been known to emphasize over the long and boring years. Ben was fond of quoting Jean Larte ‘Guy’s comments concerning armies: ‘I’d like to have two armies: one for display with lovely guns, tanks, little soldiers, staffs, distinguished and doddering generals, and dear little regimental officers who would be deeply concerned over their general’s bowel movements or their colonel’s piles: an army that would be shown for a modest fee on every fairground in the country.
‘The other would be the real one, composed entirely of young enthusiasts in camouflage uniforms, who would not be put on display but from
87 whom impossible efforts would be demanded and to whom all sorts of tricks would be taught. That’s the army in which I should like to fight.’
That’s the army that Ben Raines had put together and called the Rebels. That’s the army that he stood in front of on this morning before the invasion.
The four new battalions were there, but of the four, only Jim Peters’s Fourteen Battalion would take part in the invasion. Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen were still in training, but getting close to receiving the coveted black beret of the Rebels and with far fewer dropouts that any training officer originally anticipated.
Ben stood in front of over ten thousand Rebels, a microphone in his hand. “We’ve got big trouble brewing back on the mainland, people. An army five to ten times our size is on the move up from South America, and their objective is to destroy what is left of the United States, and to wipe from the face of the earth every trace of the Rebel army.
“We’re going to take the remaining islands, and we’re going to do it quickly but carefully. Then we’re going to head back to the mainland and get set for the biggest battle we’ve ever experienced.”
As he spoke, although the majority of the gathered Rebels did not know it, Ike’s SEALs and other special-ops personnel were already on the islands of Oahu and Kauai, clearing paths through the maze of booby traps and getting ready to raise a little hell of their own come the night.
“We’ve taken damn few losses thus far,” Ben said. “So let’s keep it that way. You’re too valuable to fall under the guns of worthless street punks and assorted dickheads. And on that subject, the first person I see without helmet and body armor is going to get an
88 ass-chewing they’ll not soon forget.
“Spend the rest of this day going over your equipment and relaxing. We start moving out just after midnight. Good luck and God bless you all. You’re the bravest men and women I have ever had the pleasure of serving with. That’s all.”