Ashes - Fury In The Ashes Part 34

"Start engines?"

"No. I'll give the signal."

"Creepies have stopped forward advance."

"They're puzzled as to why we have not opened fire. Hold all fire. How does it look to the east?"

"Grim."

"I love your succinct reports, Corrie."

"Thank you," she said dryly.

Twelve minutes to bug-out.

"Therm and his people?"

"Loaded up and ready to go, sir. Dan is b.i.t.c.hing about you pulling out last."

"He'll get over it. Have the creepies resumed advance?"

"Negative. Bikers have loaded their motorcycles onto trucks and are on board."

"Lamar and his people?"

"Loading now, sir."

Eleven minutes.

"All units load up except for us, Corrie."

The minutes seemed to tick by at a crawl.

"Let's go, people," Ben finally ordered. "Time to wave bye-bye to the creepies."

Full dark outside. Ben held the door for Jersey. "Ladies first," he said.

"Move, General," she told him.

Ben stepped out into the rain and staying low, ran to the wagon. He opened the door. "This time, Jersey,"

he said with a grin, "you have to go first."

Two minutes to bust-out.

"Masks on and start engines," Ben ordered.

Dozens of engines burst into life, filling the air with roaring.

"Here they come," Corrie told Ben, listening through her headset. "From all sides."

"Fire gas."

One minute.

"They're in the perimeter!" Corrie said.

Zero.

"Go!" Ben said, his voice m.u.f.fled through the gas mask.

Dozens of tanks, trucks, vans, Jeeps, Hummers, and APC'S rammed their way out of concealment as the gas canisters exploded, filling the rainy air with choking tear gas."Hit the smoke!" Ben gave the orders.

Smoke canisters were exploded and everybody who could began throwing smoke grenades. The smoke only added to the confusion caused by the swirling tear gas.

"Just follow the lights of the truck in front of you, Cooper," Jersey said. "Don't get too close, but don't get us lost either."

"I hate backseat drivers," Cooper said. Then he slammed on the brakes to keep from plowing into the rear of the Jeep.

"Wonderful," Jersey muttered. "The man is a real whiz behind the wheel."

The creepies were shooting wildly, but hitting nothing. Tears were streaming down their eyes and they were staggering around blind.

"The last vehicle is clear of the compound,"

Corrie said.

"One s...o...b..-doo, two s...o...b..-doo," Ben started counting, as Linda stared at the commanding general.

"s...o...b..-doo?" she said.

Ben reached ten and said, "Let "em bang, Beth!"

She twisted the handle on a small box and the entire compound erupted into sea of flames and explosions as the Claymores were electronically detonated.

Barrels of gasoline had been left behind, and the buildings had been soaked with gas just seconds before the bug-out.

The entire area the Rebels had occupied was turned into a blazing, raging inferno. What the Claymores didn't kill, the flames engulfed and destroyed.

Clear of the blinding, choking gas, Ben pulled off his mask and said, "You can relax now. We're clear."

"Relax?" Jersey said. "We're not a mile away and there must be two or three thousand of those creeps back there."

"Yeah," Ben agreed. "But they don't have vehicles close by. By the time they get to their cars and trucks-if they have any at all-we'll be on the Interstate heading north."

"We'll have to deal with them someday," Cooper said.

"As soon as we're hooked up with Cecil, I'll have Seven and Eight Battalions head south to deal with what's left of the creepies. It'll be good experience for them."

"The Interstate is clear," Corrie said, after acknowledging the report from Scouts. "And we apparently have no pursuit."

"How soon will you be able to talk to Cecil, Corrie?"

"I'll be in range in about an hour."

Ben leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes.

"Wake me as soon as you're in contact."

He was asleep in two minutes.

The convoy rolled on through the night.

"Getting to you is going to be a b.i.t.c.h," Ben said to Cecil. "I think our best bet is to cut off at the Riverside Freeway and just bust through from the south."

"That's affirmative, Ben. The rest of the routesare pretty well torn up. Seven and Eight Battalions are on the way down. They'll head straight for your previous location and start cleaning up."

"Tell them to stay clear of our old compound area, Cecil. There will be a number of unexploded pressure mines still operative."

"That's ten-four, Ben."

"See you when we get there, Cec." Ben changed frequencies. "Buddy, spearhead us to the Los Angeles International Airport, please. We mustn't keep the creepies waiting."

The column turned west on Riverside and soon began picking its way through the rubble. This part of the Rebels" TO HAD been burned, but it had been hastily done. The real devastation would not begin until they were about ten miles into Orange County.

There, the destruction would be almost total.

"This time," Ben said, "we're going to search the rubble and be d.a.m.n sure."

"The tunnels and subways, if any?" Beth asked.

"We're going to blow them and seal them. I will not send troops down there when there is an easier way.

Future generations are going to curse my name, but future generations, I hope, will not have to deal with situations like this one."

"I'll say a prayer to that," Jersey said.

The Rebels started hitting roadblocks -- of their own past making-when they took a little dogleg that crossed over 57. From that point on they were lucky to make ten miles an hour.

"General" Corrie said. "Cecil says to stop breaking our necks getting to him, but to keep a sharp eye out for ambushes. The creepies are falling back from the airport and slipping back into the rubble."

"Ten-four that, Corrie. That means there are more creepies alive than we thought. Tell Cecil to b.u.mp all units and order them back into the city.

Let's do it right this time." He lifted another mike. "Buddy, backtrack and find us a fairly decent spot to hole up. I got a hunch we're going to get hit and hit hard pretty soon."

"We're going to need to be resupplied very soon, General," Dan interjected.

"Backtrack to Corona," Ben ordered. "Tell the planes to get loaded and head for that airport.

We'll have something cleared for them. Beth, how do we stand?"

"Plenty of small-arms ammo, General.

Practically nil on anything else."

"Then let's get up there and secure that airport -- what's left of it comand clear a runway."

"The creepies, sir," Dan said, "are not leaving Los Angeles International because they fear Cecil."

"No. This may have been their plan all along."

"What do you mean, Ben?" Linda asked.

"They made us believe they were defeated, they got usseparated, and now they've got us in a box. They're coming after us. To kill me."

Chapter Nine.

"Cecil got in touch with General Payon,"

Corrie told him. "The general is moving his people up to the creepie stronghold we just left. He says for us not to worry, his people will be more than happy to rid the land of those sc.u.m."

"It took a global war for our two countries to start working fully together," Ben said. "Pray that nothing happens to General Payon."

His team looked at one another, each with the same thought: And pray that nothing happens to Ben Raines.

"Corrie, do you have a location of Seven and Eight?"

"They're not even to the Nevada line yet. They're a good three hundred miles away."

"A day and a half if everything goes right. Two and a half days would probably be more accurate. As soon as a runway is clear, have Cecil advise the pilots that if they have to make a night landing, we will light the runway with vehicle headlights and they'll go off as soon as the planes touch down. That will give the creepies less of a target. And you can bet they're all around us. Dan, lay out a perimeter and get everybody moving some dirt and bricks and concrete blocks. We've got to hold out for at least two days."

"What about Cecil?" Therm asked.

"He can't move. The creepies are waiting for him to try something like that and he knows it. At least we took some of the pressure off him. Buddy, take your Rat Team, pick some other people, and start blowing buildings for a couple of blocks around this place.

Blow us out a buffer zone. No point in trying to burn anything in this d.a.m.n rain. Let's go, people.

We've got a lot to do and d.a.m.n little time to get it done."

And once again, the Rebels went to work, digging and building and moving material, constructing bunkers and earthen walls and fortifying the existing buildings on the small airport grounds.

"General?" Corrie called. "Cecil on the horn."