Free From The Ashes: America Reborn by William W. Johnstone

Buddy Raines, Ben’s illegitimate son, has escaped his mother (Sister Voleta) in search of his real father. While traveling toward the Rebels, he also has some conflicts with some of Big Louie’s people, and it is in Big Louie’s territory that he runs into his sister, Tina Raines, who is stunned by the family resemblance. Buddy is brought back to camp and reunited with his father.
    While most of the Rebels are fighting against Big Louie’s people in Kansas, General Cecil Jefferys is south of South Carolina holding back Colonel Khamsin (“the Hot Wind”) and the IPA, who are preparing to invade Rebel positions in Georgia. Jefferys recruits the local people of Athens, Georgia, originally led by Jake, who is not pleased to be shoved aside. These amateurs soldiers, under the leadership of Lieutenant Mackey, become affectionately known as Mackey’s Misfits.
    As the IPA becomes a burgeoning threat, Ben surprises Big Louie’s (now Ashley’s) troops by proposing that they team up in order to fight against the more powerful IPA. Colonel West, a career soldier who worked for Louie and Ashley, becomes a valuable ally.
    From West they learn that Kansas City is not “hot,” as was assumed before. The information is surprising, but also makes the Rebels wonder about the habitability of other cities that were presumed to be dangerously irradiated.
    Fighting Khamsin in Georgia, Raines and the allies find themselves surrounded on the north and south by Khamsin and the IPA. The only escape is through Atlanta, which is not hot with radiation, but inhabited by the Night People, a terrifying group of cannibalistic mutants, who are afraid of being outside in the daytime. At dusk, the Rebels retreat swiftly into Atlanta, and Khamsin’s troops follow to their grisly deaths.
     
    Having won the battle against Khamsin, Ben, Buddy, and the Rebels decide to return to Louisiana, where they will implement their plan for setting up outposts there.
     

 

 
     
     
    EIGHT
     
    We drove over to the capital in Ben’s HumVee, and I sat for a moment, speechless. It was the most unassuming and unpretentious grouping of buildings I had ever seen.
    Ben Raines laughed at the expression on my face, then said; “We don’t go in much for pomp and pretense in the SUSA. We keep the cost of government as low as possible.”
     
    WWJ: It resembles what I would expect to find on a military base.
    Ben Raines: That’s understandable. It was built by our combat engineers. Come on.
    WWJ: Do you have security people following you around all the time?
    Ben Raines: Yes. But it isn’t my idea. They take their orders directly from President Jefferys. I could order them all to go straight to hell and leave me alone. They would just stand there and smile at me.
    WWJ: You and President Jefferys have been together long?
    Ben Raines: Almost from the very beginning. He’s my best friend.
    WWJ: And he is the first black man ever elected to such a high office in America.
    Ben Raines: That is correct. It wasn’t much of a contest. Cecil won by something like ninety percent of the vote.
    WWJ: And you have no desire to hold the office of president of the SUSA?
    Ben Raines: None whatsoever. When I am no longer able to be a field officer, I will retire and drop out of sight.
    WWJ: You have a retirement place all picked out?
    Ben Raines: If things work out, Montana.
     
    We entered the largest building in the complex and everybody present jumped to attention. It was becoming increasingly clear to me that General Raines was held in awe by not just the military—universally known as the Rebels—but by everybody who was a permanent resident of the SUSA. There were pictures and paintings of past leaders on the walls: Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Truman, and many other presidents and statesmen. But no pictures or paintings of Ben Raines. I asked about that.
    Ben Raines: I’m a soldier, not a politician. I did sit for a painting a few years back. I don’t know where the