Avalon: The Retreat (35 page)

They traveled slowly and with care. The main road stretched out in a straight line for a couple of miles. There were restaurants, clothing stores, a sporting goods store, and other shops and places of commercial enterprise that followed the road down both sides of the street in an unbroken line interrupted only by the fires. The smell of rotting flesh was almost more than they could bear.

The sporting goods store was worthy of a visit so she went inside like she was trained to do, back to the wall, covering fire to both sides, and as point, she whipped around the corner quickly and stepped inside with her revolver pointing straight ahead. With a two-hand stance, her back was against the wall and she went into a crouch. It was dark and hard to see, but although it had been ransacked, there were many items of value left behind.

There was a display cabinet with the glass intact, and she saw several different kinds of binoculars on the shelf. She signaled for the boys to come over and help themselves. A display of sheath knives and pocket knives were mounted on a rack with a clear plastic cover. They opened it and took them all. To one side were baseball gloves, bats, and balls. She wanted those bats. Over on one side of the store was a wall full of archery equipment. They took all of those, as well.

In a few more minutes, they could carry no more. It was time to leave and go back to the group and the children, but they still had no food. Davey wanted to know how they were going to carry all the stuff, so she sent him back down the street to get that bicycle they had seen lying on the sidewalk. She sent Tom into the sporting goods store and told him to get the large table cloth that was in the main window used as a prop for the display. Tom returned in a few minutes, and Davey wasn’t long coming back with the bike.

“Lay the sheet on the ground and spread it out. Okay, that’s good, now pile the things in the middle of the sheet. All right, now fold the four corners toward the middle and tie them in a knot. Perfect, now each of you get on one side, lift the bundle and put it on the bike seat. That’s great! Now get on either side of the bike to steady the load, and let’s push it back to where the rest of the group is waiting.”

As they headed toward the outskirts of the wooded area where the rest of them waited, they passed Jasper; she whistled for him and he poked his head over the top of the roof.

“Come on down, Jasper,” she called to him. “We’re heading back.”

He scrambled down the fire escape and jumped the last few feet to the pavement with a thud.

As they made their way back to where the others waited, she felt hollow inside. She knew they would be expecting food, not hardware. They needed to meld into the trees, set up camp, and come back after dusk the following evening to avoid the flies and do more exploring. When they arrived, most of the children were asleep. The lookout challenged them as they approached and it made her feel proud that they had learned so quickly.

“It’s Beth and the others, Ricky!”

“Okay, Miss Beth, c’mon in.”

She laid her head down and tried to ignore the hunger pangs in her stomach. Her mind was going from one thing to another and she couldn’t get to sleep. She was really worried. Without food, they were all dead in another month, some of the young ones sooner. This was bad; she had counted on there being some food here. Instead it was a ghost town full of dead people, an awful stink, smoldering fires, and those terrible flies. Just thinking about the flies brought to mind the one that flew into her mouth and it made her shiver involuntarily.

They passed the day waiting for night to come again. It wasn’t easy because they were so hungry and even Beth felt less energetic than she had in some time. Food, although not a lot of it, had kept her spirits and stamina at least in some slight balance. The sounds her stomach was making amazed her. It was a symphony of squeaks, groans, and gurgles.

The next evening they headed back to Fitch again. Only this time they went around the town to the west, walking down a small asphalt-covered strip that ran a couple of blocks away from and paralleled the main street. Cars were stopped haphazardly as if they suddenly ran out of gas and were abandoned in place.

There were houses, a car wash, and farther on, an auto repair shop. Beyond that were more fires burning, except these looked different than the fires burning in the other part of town. These were smaller and there was a different odor, one of meat cooking. It was slight but it was unmistakable, there was meat over a fire somewhere.

They turned down an alley that went behind the businesses and homes. They couldn’t see anything, but they heard noises ahead. It was difficult to make out what it was because they were still too far away from the source. She had them separate, like before, a few to the left and a few to the right. They walked slowly, and the smell of cooking meat increased in intensity.

After another ten minutes of walking, they could see the flickering flames of at least a couple dozen fires. They continued to edge forward and the scene became clear in another ten minutes. It was a main encampment of Slavers and they were roasting dead children on wooden spits over the fires! She stood there taking in the scene with her binoculars and was mesmerized by the absolute unbelievable sight in front of her eyes. She came to her senses and motioned for them to fall back.

They had to have a plan, and it better be a good one. She did a very sketchy count, and there were probably two or three hundred of them camped over there, maybe more. It was a formidable force to deal with. They didn’t see any captives, but Beth was sure they were there somewhere. She decided to fall back and cross over to the other side of town; they had to get away from these Slavers!

They knelt in a circle like football players in a huddle and told them what she thought they should do. No one argued; it sounded like a good plan to them. They fell back about three blocks, cut over another five, and came to a large building with a parking lot all around it. It looked abandoned, but it was buttoned up tight when they got to it. They walked all the way around it and it seemed like it was a few acres in size.

There were several cars in the parking lot, but all appeared to be abandoned. She sent Davey and Tom back to the auto parts store and asked them to find and bring back a crow bar. Beth, Len, and Jasper walked around the building again for another look, and it appeared to be untouched. Apparently the bikers were concentrating on the west side of town and were ignoring this area altogether. There must be a reason… and there was. A large sliding door suddenly opened in front of them.

“If you move a muscle you’re all dead.” It was a man’s voice, somewhat gruff and scraggly. “Put your weapons on the ground!”

They did as they were told.

“I’m Sheriff Bob Waters,” the voice said, “And you can all consider yourselves under arrest. If you do anything you’ll be shot. Put your hands over your head and walk toward me. Chris,” his voice got a bit louder, “Can you cover them!?”

“We got ‘em covered, Sheriff,” came a voice from the roof.

“If you’ll allow me…” Beth tried to reason with them.

“Shut up,” the Sheriff said, “You’ll get a chance to talk inside. Step this way… now!”

They walked forward and the door closed as they stepped through the threshold. There was a light on inside; they must have had a generator running somewhere. It was a home improvement store, one of those warehouse types with huge shelves of everything imaginable. She saw lawn mowers, shovels, and food on the big shelving units; lots and lots of food!

“Okay, Missy,” the Sheriff was talking as he came forward, “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

“Can we lower our hands?”

“No,” the man barked, “And answer my question, damn you!”

“My name is Beth Kelly,” she spoke slowly and deliberately, “I am a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation; my credentials are in my pocket.”

He reached over and felt for them through her clothing. When he found her badge and identification, he relaxed his attitude.

“Okay Miss Kelly,” the relief could be heard in his voice, “You and your people can lower your hands.”

“Sheriff,” another man interrupted, “The kids that were with her are back.”

“Let ‘em in, Ralph.”

The boys were startled when the door opened and they stood there blinking in the light.

“Sheriff, this is David Driscol and Tom Wyatt.” Beth introduced her group. “This is Doctor Len Stroud and this boy is Jasper Smith, our resident sniper… and he’s a good one!”

It took awhile, but Beth told them about the trek with the children, about the High Desert, and about how they had gotten this far. It was an incredible story and the people in the warehouse gathered around to hear. There were maybe fifty of them and the Sheriff explained how the Slavers came out of nowhere, overwhelmed them, and began killing the townspeople. The Slavers were all armed and the townspeople weren’t, so it wasn’t much of a battle. They quickly rounded up all the women and children they could find and headed out of town.

“They didn’t go far, Sheriff,” Beth spoke up. “They are over on the west side a few miles from here eating your babies.” A woman shrieked, and they all turned to look at her.

“Look, Sheriff,” Beth continued, “I have some half-starved kids just outside of town toward the south. I could sure use some food to take back to them if you could be so generous.”

“You damn sure better Sheriff!” It was the woman who had screamed. “I demand you do it!”

The Sheriff agreed, and within a half hour, they prepared to leave.

“I’ll be back with the kids,” Beth stopped on her way out, “And then we have to figure out a way to go after those animals. We’ll need to kill every last one of them, Sheriff.” She said it with a certain tone of finality. “When we return, can we give you a password or something to get in?”

“Don’t worry, Miss Kelly,” the Sheriff replied, “We’ll know it’s you.”

Mike and his group came down off the mountain in an easy ride. It didn’t take long to get to the base of the mountain and then swing toward the east to cross into the small valley. In another hour he expected to arrive on the western outskirts of Fitch. He signaled to his companions to pull over under a stand of Madrona trees.

Off toward the east Mike saw that the sky was a bit hazy, but the weather was still warm. The sun was trying to burn through and it looked like a big yellow ball he could actually look at, but not for long. There was no breeze and only the evergreens had leaves on the branches. He was looking forward to spring and caught himself laughing.

“We’re always wishing our lives away. We always want something different than what we have.”

A woodpecker landed on a tree trunk and was busy searching out bugs.

“Want something to munch on, Mike?”

It was Sam offering a piece of jerky made from the Claymore deer. Without saying anything, Mike reached over, took a piece, and chewed on it for awhile until it was soft enough to swallow. Each of them drank some water from the canteens and rested. Mike opened the cap on his gas tank and the rest followed suit and opened theirs. He moved the bike with his knees to shake it a bit and put the kickstand down. It was time to put a little gas in there to top it off. It was always best to take care of the boring stuff when there was nothing exciting going on. Sam and the others waited and when Mike finished filling his tank, he handed the can to Sam.

“I make it an hour’s ride to Fitch. We should park the bikes a couple of miles from the main highway and go in by foot to reconnoiter the place. What do you think Sam?”

Sam looked up from his pouring,

“Good idea. There’s no telling the source of those fires. Could be friendlies or it could be the bad guys. Either way, there’s no sense in letting them know we’re coming. That would be my plan, sneak up on ‘em, check out the situation, and decide what we’re going to do.”

Mike looked over to Roger and Gregg, and they simply nodded.

“Then we’re all in agreement; we’ll swing in from this direction.” He pointed toward the east with his arm extended. “Find a spot to stash the bikes and go in the rest of the way by foot. Everybody rested and topped off? Let’s do this. I need to get back to Caroline. I already miss the wench!”

Twisting their throttles, they engaged the clutches and were off. In another hour or so they would be where they wanted to be.