Ashes - Ambush In The Ashes Part 4

"You didn't do much wandering around either, boss," Jersey stated.

"No, I didn't," Ben admitted. "I guess I didn't care to view what I consider to be a hopeless situation. Not any more than I had to, that is."

"What's the next major city?" Cooper asked, turning his head and directing the question at Beth.

"Rabat. Ribat al-Fath, originally. It used to be some 40.sort of religious retreat, according to this visitor's guide."

"Big city?" Corrie asked.

"Over half a million before the Great War."

"Wonder how many now?" Anna asked.

"Maybe a hundred thousand," Ben answered her. "And fly-overs report the population is in bad shape. Then it's Casablanca."

"I saw that movie one time back at Base Camp One," Anna said. "I enjoyed it."

"I think everybody loves that movie, Anna," Ben told her.

Beth opened a map. "Then we go to Safi and then cut across to Marrakech.Right, boss?"

"That's the way I've got it figured, Beth. Then we'll backtrack and see what's happening in Essaouira and then down to Agadir. We'll follow the coastline highway all the way down to Laayoune and then cut across the Western Sahara to Bir Meghrein, in Mauritania."

"Faraway places with strange-sounding names," Jersey said in a quiet voice.

"That's a line from an old song, Jersey," Ben smiled the reply. "Hadn't thought of it in years. But you're right."

"They're not going to make it, are they, boss?" Corrie asked. "The people, I mean."

"The strong will. The weak will die. If they're left alone, and they probably will be, the strong will soon revert back to many of the old ways. They lived for hundreds of years in that fashion. The younger, smarter ones will leave, go to Europe or America." Ben waved a hand.

"But h.e.l.l, I could be way off base in my think-ing."

"Scouts are reporting there's been one h.e.l.l of a slaughter in the towns and villages along the way to Rabat," Corrie said abruptly. "The gangs of punks and 41.thugs and insurgents and what have you took the women and young girls and then killed everybody in sight before pulling out. Scouts think it started late yesterday. It's pretty grim along the way. The carrion birds are having a feast."

"We've all seen it before," Ben said quietly. "I've been expecting it.

Corrie, get the flatbeds with the earth moving equipment up here. We're going to have to scoop out some ma.s.s graves."

"Again," Cooper said.

"Yes. And I'm afraid it won't be the last time we do it."

Asilah and Larache had been spared the slaughter, but the next town down the coast, Ksar el Kebir, took the full force of the outlaws' savagery.

"The Great Fortress," Ben said, speaking through the mic in his gas mask. Ben and team stood just inside the first houses and shops of the old city. "That's what this city used to be called."

"Didn't help them much," Anna said.

Bodies lay everywhere in the twisted and grotesque final throes of death. Black carrion birds were busy ripping out dead flesh and pulling out yards of intestines. Huge bloated flies hummed all around the Rebels.

"The fleeing gangs couldn't have killed everyone," Ben said. "b.u.mp the Scouts and find out where the survivors are."

"They're hiding in little pockets all over the city," Corrie informed him. "They want us to move on and leave them alone."

Ben didn't change expressions. "Do they want us to bury the dead beforewe go?"

Dr. Chase had driven up from his position in the center of the column and was looking strangely at Ben.

"They want us to go," Corrie repeated.

"Mount up," Ben said. "Let's go."

42."Ben . . ." Chase said.

"Mount up!" Ben ordered. "I'm not going to nursemaid these people. If they don't want our help, that's fine with me."

"Not everyone feels that way, General," the voice came from behind Ben.

Ben turned around. A man and a woman stood looking at him. A nun and a priest.

"The survivors are frightened," the nun said. "They don't know who you are. They've just been through a terrible ordeal."

"Won't you stay and help us, General?" the priest asked.

"Get these people some protective gear," Ben ordered. "Have your doctors check them out and bring them up to date on everything, Lamar. We'll start burying the bodies."

Father Joseph and Sister Mary had been checked out and brought up to date on their shots. They both had taken hot baths and were dressed in clean clothes when they met with Ben about two hours later. The sounds of earth-moving equipment gouging out pits in the ground grumbled throughout the edge of the city. Rebels were working in the city, gathering up the bodies and trucking them to the ma.s.s grave sites. The chaplains that traveled with each battalion were offering up prayers for the dead.

"You're Americans, aren't you?" Ben asked, waving the man and woman to chairs in the makeshift CP.

"Yes. We've been here since before the Great War," the priest replied.

"Are there more Americans in this area?" "Several hundred, at least. At last count." "You're both educated people," Ben said. "There 43.43.must be shortwave equipment in this city. Why didn't you start transmitting, sending out trouble calls. Somebody would have rescued you. We would have if we'd received a signal."

"This is where our work is," the sister replied. "We have people who depend on us."

"If there are Americans here, why didn't they make an appearance in Tangiers?""They're mostly concentrated in Casablanca," the priest said. "About two dozen or so are in this immediate area."

"Religious people?"

"Only a few. Most are business men and women who were trapped here when the Great War erupted around the world. During the past couple of years, nearly a hundred have fled the southern part of the continent, getting away from Bruno Bottger and his n.a.z.is."

"We a.s.sume that is why you've come to Africa," the sister said. "To fight the n.a.z.is?"

"That is correct, sister," Ben replied. Ben looked at the priest and the nun. Both had told Dr. Chase they were in their mid-fifties, but time had not treated them well. Chase had told Ben the pair were not in good health. "And to do what we can for the people on the way down to the fight."

"It's a n.o.ble gesture, General," the sister said. "G.o.d will surely reward you for your efforts."

"For saving lives or for killing as many criminals and n.a.z.is as I can?"

Both the priest and nun frowned, the priest opening his mouth to speak, then thinking better of it.

"Do you feel up to leading a patrol to where the Americans are hiding?"

"Oh, yes!" the sister said. "We can do that now."

Ben motioned to a Rebel and die soldier led the pair 44.away. Ben stood up and looked at Corrie. "This bunch should be a sight to see, Corrie."

"What do you mean, boss?"

"Isolated for a decade and never made the first effort to communicate with the world outside of this area."

"That does seem strange, doesn't it?"

"Very. h.e.l.l, they could have thrown a bottle with a note in it into the ocean and it would have reached us years ago." Ben walked to the open window and sniffed. "The stench of death is fading. Our people are working fast." Ben didn't ask what the tally of the dead was. He just knew it was high.

"I guess punks are the same all over the world," Jersey said, walking into the room. "I've talked with some of the survivors. Their stories are pretty d.a.m.n grim."

"Any idea where they've taken the women and kids?"

"To sell to slavers," Jersey said, a sour expression on her face. It's a booming business.""History repeating itself, I suppose," Ben said.

"Who are they selling the people to, boss?" Cooper asked.

"I don't know, Coop. People of very low moral fiber, to be sure." He glanced at Corrie. "Have there been any reports of our people being fired on here?"

"Negative, boss. The city is clear of any resistance. At least so far,"

she added.

"I have a strong hunch the gangs have gone," Ben mused aloud. "But they should have reached Casablanca by now and done their dirty work. Yet our flyovers show the city has not been touched. So where the h.e.l.l did they go?"

"Maybe hidden along the highway setting up an ambush for us?" Cooper suggested.

Ben opened a map. "That would be an incredibly stupid move on their part. Yet," he muttered, "you never know. You just never know ..."

45 Six Ben asked the Americans if they wanted transport out of the country. The only two who elected to stay were the priest and the nun. Ben did not argue the point with them, saying only, "It's very doubtful that we will ever be back this way."

"We're doing G.o.d's work, General," the priest replied. "We'll stay."

"Your option," Ben said. "We'll leave you with medical supplies, plenty of food, and wish you good luck."

The Americans were driven to Tangier and put on board a ship readying for the voyage back to the SUSA. The Rebels pulled out of Ksar-el-Kebir the next morning. No one mentioned the priest and the nun.

The Rebels stayed with a secondary road that ran along the coast instead of following the main highway which cut inland and offered too many great places for an ambush.

Kenitra had met the same fate as Ksar-el-Kebir, although not nearly as bad. In Kenitra, the citizens had banded together and made a stand against the hordes of thugs and punks and malcontents who always surface after a disaster of any kind. With the Rebels bearing down on them from the north, the gangs could not afford the luxury of a prolonged battle with citizens, and had cut out for parts unknown.

46.By the time the Rebels arrived, survivors from Rabat were trickling in.

The rampaging gangs had struck Rabat in full force just a few hours after leaving Kenitra, and while Rabat was a much larger place, the citizens there were not as prepared as those in Kenitra and had suffered terrible casualties.

"We'll be here for awhile," Chase told Ben.

"Take as long as you need, Lamar. We're in no hurry.""Oh, I will, Ben," the chief of medicine said with a smile. "Count on it."

Ben and his team and a unit from his personal platoon of Rebels took a couple of days to tour part of the city, but soon gave it up and returned to their quarters. It was too depressing, for the city, once a thriving place of over half a million people was rapidly falling into decay and ruin. Most of its citizens were barely hanging on at the very edge of survival.

The museums and finer homes had been looted, the libraries sacked, the books ripped apart and burned.

There was not a dog or cat or rat to be seen anywhere in the city.

"The people ate them," Ben said. "That is why I forbid any mascots to be brought along."

Ben and his team checked all the emba.s.sies and consulate buildings, in search of anything that might tell some sort of story as to what happened. They found only looted buildings and rat-chewed bits of paper.

"Nothing," Beth said one hot and humid afternoon. She threw a wad of paper back to the floor of the emba.s.sy building.

"Same here," Anna said. "It's almost as if time just stopped for these people."

"Maybe it did," Ben mused aloud. "Perhaps the end came so quickly they didn't have time to do anything except run or die."

47."But if they were killed," Cooper asked, "where are the bones?"

Ben shook his head. "I don't know, Coop. Eaten by animals, maybe."

"Or eaten by . . ." Corrie shut off that thought before the words could leave her mouth.

"Yeah, Corrie," Ben said. "I gave the same thought some consideration."

"s.h.i.t!" Cooper breathed, a disgusted grimace on his face.

"But we have no proof of that," Ben quickly added. "And probably never will."

"I doubt it's something the survivors would be willing to talk about,"

Beth said.

"I d.a.m.n sure wouldn't admit it," Anna offered. "I was hungry many times back in the old country, but ..." She made a disgusted noise and walked outside.

"Let's see what the intel boys and girls have managed to put together,"

Ben suggested.

"We're getting there," a Rebel intelligence officer told Ben later that morning. "But it's slow going, piecing together paper that has been shredded.""You have anything?"

"Food riots, for one thing. People running in blind fear, for another."