"William W Johnstone - Ashes 30 - Tyranny in the Ashes (txt)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Johnstone William W)

Slowly, an ever-growing group of people began calling for a man named
Ben Raines to lead them. But Ben didn't want any part of leadership. For
months he disregarded the ever-increasing calls from people all over the
nation, until finally he could no longer ignore the pleas.

Months later, thousands of people made the journey to the northwest part
of the nation and formed their own nation out

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of three states. It was called the Tri-States, and those who chose to
live there based many of their laws on the Constitution of the United
States: the original interpretation of that most revered document.
Basically, it was a commonsense approach to government, something that
had been sadly lacking for years with liberals in control of the old
United States of America. But after only a few months in their new
nation, Ben knew that only about two out of every ten Americans could-or
would was more to the point-live under a commonsense form of government.
Under this form of government, everyone, to a very large degree,
controlled his or her own destiny. The Rebels, as residents of the
Tri-States were named by the press, took wonderful care of the very old,
the young, and those unable to care for themselves. But if a person was
able to work, he worked . . . whether he liked it or not. There were no
free handouts for able-bodied people. If they didn't want to work, they
got the hell out of the Tri-States. Very quickly.

The first attempt at building a nation within a nation failed when the
federal government grew powerful enough to launch a major campaign
against the Tri-States. The original Tri-States was destroyed and the
Rebel Army was decimated and scattered. But the federal government made
one major mistake: They didn't kill Ben Raines.

Ben and the few Rebels left alive began rebuilding their Army, and then
launched a very nasty guerrilla war against the federal government that
lasted for months: hit hard, destroy, and run. It worked.

But before any type of settlement could be reached, a deadly plague
struck the earth: a rat-borne outbreak, the Black Death revisited.

When the deadly disease finally ran its course, anarchy reigned over
what had once been America. Gangs of punks and warlords ruled from
border to border, coast to coast. Ben and his Rebels began the long,
slow job of clearing the nation of punks and human slime and setting up
a new Tri-States.

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This time they settled in the South, first in Louisiana, in an area they
called Base Camp One. Then they began spreading out in all directions as