The Rebels, with armor spearheading, smashed more than two miles into punk territory that first day, from two directions: the north and the east.

From the south, General Payon's army had pushed up nearly four miles and was holding.

In Los Angeles, the Rebels were on a roll that could not be contained by the punks and creepies remaining in the city. The Rebels were fighting night and day, crushing any who dared face them. All logical avenues of escape had been cut off by the Rebels. Snipers were posted all around the territory still in punk hands, and the sharpshooters were deadly, In the City of the Angels, all that remained was mopping up.

"We estimate thirty-five thousand dead,"

Cecil reported to Ben. "Fifteen thousand broke free. Of those, probably five thousand are wounded, half of them wounded so badly they won't survive their wounds."

"Our casualties?" Ben asked.

"Extremely light considering the amount of territory we've taken. It's all but over here in Los Angeles, Ben. I'm sending Georgi andhis people down to a.s.sist you."

"That's ten-four, Cec. We're facing no organized resistance here. With another battalion to help us, we can wrap this up in a few days."

"Maybe not, Ben," Cecil cautioned. "Doctor Chase just got word back from Base Camp One.

Many of those people down there are infected with a virus that is airborne. It's deadly, Ben. And our lab people don't have a vaccine for it."

"All right, Cec. I'm halting all advances now and sealing off the city."

"I'll wrap it up here and be down to join you just as quickly as possible, Ben."

"That's ten-four, Cec. Eagle out."

Ben turned to Corrie. "Order all advances halted, Corrie. Advise General Payon to hold what he's got. Tell him I advise taking no prisoners. He won't like it anymore than we do, but he'll see the reasoning behind it.

Order all Rebels to burn out a buffer zone and stay to the north and to the east of it. Shoot anyone who tries to cross it. Fires every one hundred yards at night. Lord knows we've got enough material on hand to keep them going."

Those in the city knew why the Rebel advance had been halted, or could guess why. Most knew they were walking disease factories. And most had sense enough to understand that if the Rebels would not get close to them, they must be contagious.

"So what have we got to lose?" many said. "Let's take some of those Rebel b.a.s.t.a.r.ds and b.i.t.c.hes with us.

If they try to take us, we'll bite them and spit on them."

The Rebels stood behind their buffer zones and waited.

In Nevada, those punks who had broken free of Los Angeles were slowly reaching the rendezvous point.

"Leroy's dead," Ishmal said. "He told me no brother would kill him. He must have gone nuts.

Word I got is that General Jefferys called him a disgrace to his race and a piece of worthless s.h.i.t and then shot him right between the eyes."

"General Jefferys sounds like my kind of spade"

Rich said with a smile.

Bull stepped between the two men before another killing could go down. "Just cool it, boys! We got enough problems without you two havin" at each other."

"Chang stepped on a pressure mine," Fang said, once Ishmal and Rich were separated. "I seen it. Blew both his legs off. It was horrible.

Most of his gang was cut down by machine-gun fire."

"There ain't gonna be no stoppin' the Rebels.

Us goin' to Alaska is only prolongin' the end."

"You got a better idea?" Bull challenged.

"No," Fang said with a sigh. "Not unless we go straight."

"That's what I'm gonna do," a woman said. "The percentages was with us in the city. Not no more. BenRaines ain't gonna allow it. We're either gonna obey the law comright down to the last letter of it comor he's gonna shoot us. Or hang us." She shuddered at that thought. She had personally witnessed what happened to those street punks the Rebel courts had convicted on the testimony of the freed prisoners and slaves. The Rebels had left them hanging from tree limbs. It was the ugliest sight she had ever seen. "Back in the olden days we could run to a lawyer or the ACLU or something. Not no more. I think that even if the ACLU was still around, if they was to try to step in on our behalf, Ben Raines would shoot them as fast as he would us."

"What are you gonna do, Betty?" Sally asked.

"I'm gonna find me a man and then we'll find us a piece of ground. Raise chickens and hogs and stuff. Plant a garden. I don't know none of you people. I ain't never seen any of you before in my life.

I never heard of none of you. I don't know where you're goin." I don't care. Good-bye."

Bull looked around him at the hundreds of punks who had gathered. He reflected sourly that it looked like a bunch of b.u.ms at a hobo convention.

And, he surmised, that was not an unfair comparison.

Sorriest-looking bunch of no-goods he had ever seen. Beaten down, whipped, and ragged.

Every new bunch that came in from the city had a different horror story to tell, but with the same ending: Ben Raines was kicking a.s.s.

Betty was right; going to Alaska wasn't really going to solve anything. Ben Raines would come after them, and he would eventually destroy them all.

"What are you thinkin" about, Bull?" Chico asked.

"Our future."

"We ain't got much of one," the gang leader said. "I lost more than half of my people. And of the ones that's left, more than half of them want to quit. Six walked off last night. I ain't seen them since and probably won't never see them again."

"We got to look at it this way. The ones that stays are the tough ones. And we got to get organized.

If we're gonna survive, Chico, we've got to get organized. That's how Ben Raines does it. Organization."

Bobby of the Ponys said, "But that alone ain't gonna do it. We got to find artillery and tanks and s.h.i.t like that. And then we've got to study on how to use them. Have cla.s.ses and all that c.r.a.p. h.e.l.l, we may as well go straight."

Brute said, "Please! Must you use that word? It's very depressing."

Ben had sent troops back to scour the old military bases for artillery rounds. Until they returned, there was little the Rebels surrounding San Diego could do ...

surrounding not being quite the right word."h.e.l.l, they could break through practically any d.a.m.n place they wanted to," Ben said.

"No telling how many thousands and thousands of people in there." He waved a hand toward the city. "And we've got five battalions of troops pretending they're containing them. Jesus!"

The situation wasn't quite as dismal as Ben painted it, but he was right. Those inside the three-sided box could bust out by sheer numbers in any one of dozens of places. The Rebels were stretched very thin. Only the burned-out three-block buffer zone all around the city gave them any kind of an edge.

"That, and the fact that those inside probably think we're much larger in numbers than we really are,"

Dan said. He studied Ben's face. "What's troubling you, General?"

"Waging war on the sick and dying. Oh, I know, Dan. They're thugs and murderers and punks and slavers and no-goods, but they're still sick and dying and many of them probably don't have the strength to lift a weapon or the strength to bust out if they had a chance.

My G.o.d, Dan, we all smell the stench of the dead in that city every day. And every day it gets worse.

Oh, h.e.l.l, Dan! I don't know what's wrong with me. I've never had fifteen cents worth of compa.s.sion for the lawless in my life. And I don't think compa.s.sion is the right word for what I'm presently feeling. Maybe what I'm experiencing is ... well, that it's morally wrong to wage war against those who don't have the strength to fight back."

"Well, well," Doctor Chase said from the open door of the command post-a former gas station on the edge of town. "Ben Raines is human after all."

"Come on in, you old goat," Ben said with a smile. "Where is the rest of the crew?"

"Right behind me a few miles. Cecil and his people are staying behind to mop up and to see what they can salvage." He jerked his thumb south, toward the city under siege. "You'd be doing them a favor by ga.s.sing them, Ben."

"If I had the gas, I'd do it, Lamar.

Especially after reading the reports you sent down a few days ago."

"It's got to be contained here, Ben. Right here! And then we've got to chase after those who break free and destroy them. Before they spread the sickness. The ones in L.a. are not nearly so communicable or deadly.

Wherever they are."

"In Nevada. About a hundred and fifty miles east of Reno. The Woods Children are tracking them, but staying well back."

"Ike on the horn, General," Corrie called.

"He's bringing in several thousand artillery rounds."

"General Striganov brought in some two thousand rounds," Buddy said.

"I know, son. I know!"

"And I found more than a thousand rounds," Dan added.

Ben sighed.

Lamar Chase could move very swiftly for a man of his years. He strode across the room, grabbed Ben by thearm, and spun him around. "G.o.dd.a.m.nit, Ben, listen to me! There is no vaccine. There is no magic bullet for this. We don't have a serum. This isn't AIDS. This isn't TB, or VD, or anything we can treat. We don't know what it is, we don't know what to use to treat it comnothing that we've got in our medical labs over at Base Camp One. It's a G.o.dd.a.m.n plague, Ben. It's everything ... oh, h.e.l.l, evil!

And if you don't give the orders to destroy that city and everyone in it, we're all going to die!

Do you understand me?"

Ben looked all around the large room.

Thermopolis stood with Emil, staring at him. Ben shifted his gaze to the Russian. Georgi met his eyes without flinching. Dan and Buddy and Tina and West stared at him. The commander of Eight Battalion leaned against a wall, smoking his pipe and waiting.

Ben walked to the open door-it was always open, the door was gone-and stared out. It was a beautiful fall day in southern California. Temperatures very mild, a bright sun, the blue of the Pacific Ocean glimmering a few miles to the west.

Perfect. If one could somehow forget the stench coming from the dying city.

He turned around and walked to his desk, taking out a map of Nevada and studying it.

"Did you hear me?" Lamar shouted at him.

"I heard you. Now hush up for a minute. How do you expect me to think with you screaming like a banshee?"

After a moment, he said, "Georgi, West, Ike, and Seven and Eight Battalions will prepare for a pull-out tomorrow morning. Cecil, Therm, and Dan, Tina, and Buddy will stay with me. Advise your XO'S now. Corrie, find Ike and tell him to hold up. I have orders for him."

"Yes, sir."

"Gather around, ladies and gentlemen. I have circled where the punks from L.a. have gathered.

Georgi, you and your people will set up positions here, at the junctions of Highways 51 and 361, just to the west of the Desatoya Mountains in Nevada.

Seven Battalion will set up in Tonopah, with Eight Battalion on Highway 6, blocking these two county roads. Ike will set up here, blocking highway 50 just west of Eureka. West, your people will block Highway 305 north of Austin.

I want you all to roll day and night, and get in place. When you are in place, half of our planes will start napalming the area, while the other half napalms my objective." He met the eyes of everyone gathered around. "No prisoners.

Get going. Good luck."

Thirty-six hours after Ben had split his forces, he walked out of his CP and he and his team drove down to where artillery was in place on the northernedge of the city. It was an hour before dawn and chilly.

"Commence firing," he said. "And may G.o.d have mercy on my soul."

Chapter Five.

Several patrols had gone out from the punk gathering.

They returned in a sweat. The gang leaders listening, sour expressions on their faces.

Brute was the first to break the stunned silence following the reports. "Cannon to the right of them, cannon to the left of them, cannon in front of them, volley'd and thunder'd."

Brute then stood with astonishment on his face as Cash said, "Someone had blundered: theirs not to make reply, theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die."

He smiled at Brute. "Why not, Brute? I taught school for ten years before the Great War."

"What is this?" Bull thundered. "A G.o.dd.a.m.ned fraternity meeting? You guys gonna kiss each other? h.e.l.l, people, we got to get gone from here!"

"There is no place to go, Bull," Brute told him. "All avenues of escape are blocked.