"William W. Johnstone - Ashes 07 - Smoke from the Ashes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Johnstone William W)

"Where and how many?"
"Comin' from the east, sir. Half a dozen cars
and trucks. Scouts say four people to each car, the
trucks are full of people."
"How far away?"
"Couple of miles out, sir."
Ben picked up his old Thompson SMG, knowing
all eyes were on him as he did so. "Let's go
see what we've got, people."
"Pitiful," Ike said. "No matter how many
times I see it, it's still pitiful."
The men were beaten down; the eyes of the women
frightened; the kids dirty and probably hungry.
"I know," Ben said.
"We don't mean y'all no harm," a man
spoke from out of the ragged group. "But we'd be
much obliged if y'all had some food for the kids."
"Alabama?" Ben asked the man.
"South Carolina," the man replied. "We
don't look like much now, sir, but we was doin' all
right until Khamsin and his people blowed in. We had us
a coop farm, nice gardens, ever'thing. We'd fought
outlaws, motorsickel gangs, white trash, and
black trash and you name it, and we'd pulled through all
right. But Lord have mercy! That Khamsin and his bunch of
heathens was just too much."
All the Rebels gathered around had noticed the
black family among the whites. One good thing had
come out of the horror of germ and nuclear war: Blind
prejudice, among most, was a forgotten thing.
From the intelligence Ben had received about Khamsin
and his troops, the residents of South Carolina were
indeed having a bad time of it. Ike had just
returned from Khamsin's HQ, where the ex-Seal
had led a small team in to rescue his ladylove,
Nina. During the raid, the so-called invincible
Khamsin, The Hot Wind, had been wounded in his
Libyan ass.
Ben said, "You people get something to eat. We'll
talk later." He motioned Col. Dan Gray
to one side. "Find out as much as you can from these
people, Dan. They seem like fairly decent folks
to me."
"My first impression agrees with that, general," the
Englishman said. "This would be a fine place to start
another outpost, right, sir?"
"You're reading my mind again, Dan," Ben
replied with a grin.
Gen. Ben Raines's latest dream was to build
a series of outposts across the land, stretching from east