Avalon: The Retreat (42 page)

All of the citizens emulated the Swiss where every able-bodied person had a fully operational battle rifle in their closet and plenty of ammo for each weapon. Every person carried a sidearm and there was no talk of anyone banning guns since the last speech or utterance was made just prior to the start of World War Three. Little by little, the citizens of Fitch prospered. Surplus food was moved from Avalon to Fitch and in return, whatever Avalon needed to fix or install at the retreat, Fitch made available.

Proper medical care was administered to the people of Fitch because of Dan’s efforts and when he couldn’t be there, Caroline or Roger stood in. They were both becoming competent Medical Doctors in their own right under Dan’s tutelage. The hospital had everything Dan needed from X-rays, to mending broken bones, to the comprehensive operating room.

When anyone from Avalon came off the mountain to spend time at Fitch, they were provided a house to live in during their stay. Many of the residents were killed in the first raid of the Slavers and sadly, there were many empty houses replete with everything a visitor might need during an extended stay.

Mike and Sam came down and were each offered a house. They trained the townspeople in military tactics; setting sentries, patrolling, small squad tactics, firearms handling, marksmanship, and battlefield medicine. The people were eager to learn and most of them became citizen soldiers. While Mike and Sam were in Fitch, they developed a rotation between them… one week off for one of them and one week on for the other, reversing until the job was done.

The Ham set system first deployed by the Avalon group was very effective, especially with the “Eagle’s Nest” sentry post operating with the huge binoculars. There was a push to set up something similar by which the Fitch people would cover all approaches coming from the Bishop area. They located a spot and permanently manned it 24/7.

Most of the children that came with Beth were adopted by the townspeople of Fitch as they rebuilt their families, showing that love and compassion could overcome all odds. Beth, along with Davey and a few of her key leaders, moved permanently to Avalon and formed a family of their own.

There were only two land accesses to Fitch, by the highway from Bishop and from the coast; there was no direct route north or south. Protecting the access to Fitch was important and the citizens vowed to give their lives, if necessary, to prevent a recurrence of what happened with the Slavers.

Both Fitch and Avalon took turns reaching out by shortwave radio to those outside of their immediate areas. They heard from a group in Biloxi, Mississippi, another from Elyria, Ohio, and another from Springfield, Illinois. They continued to make contact with others and agreed to talk every night at seven o’clock Pacific Standard Time. They learned what was happening in other parts of what was left of the United States of America. There were frequent problems with the radio and the signal faded all too often. Sometimes only a part of a message was either sent or received; they needed an antenna.

They discovered, either by short wave radio messages or with the Ham set, that there were many others who had survived the radiation poisoning, the plague, and the hoards of gangs who decided to subjugate people. In some areas they were successful and a terrible bit of common information was that slavery and cannibalism was rampant throughout from these groups of thugs. Mike and Sheriff Waters explained in detail what measures they took to stop the criminals. They were surprised to discover how hungry people were for information and they shared it freely.

One of the most notable contributions from Avalon to Fitch was the growing seeds that Sally had hoarded away. With her seeds more food would be available not only in Fitch, but also in Avalon. Prior to the war, Fitch was a farming community that became over-run by Wall Street types and computer technology.

The valley was well on its way to becoming productive and prosperous again. Everyone helped anyone who needed it and there was a spirit of camaraderie and sharing not only in the way people acted toward one another, but in the way they thought about others. It was obvious that everyone played an important role in making up the common population, which was, at last count, three hundred people.

“I’ll be going down to Fitch tomorrow on the buckboard,” Caroline sounded tired as she said it.

“Are you sure you’re up to it?” Mike was concerned.

“Uh huh.“Her answer wasn’t very encouraging.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Caroline? You sound a little tired. Are you okay… really okay?”

“Well to be honest,” she confessed with a sense of resignation, “Those trips down that damn mountain and back up here are starting to get me down. I’m not complaining, you understand, but it’s a long trip. I know those people down there need us and you would not believe how many of those women are pregnant too. I wish I had wings.”

He slipped around behind her, put his arms around her stomach, and rubbed gently with his hands. She put her head back on his shoulder, and they rocked back and forth to an imaginary tune in each of their heads.

“I can’t imagine,” he said in a soft voice, “Why all those women just all of a sudden got pregnant. It must have been something in the air.”

She broke away and turned to face him, “It was that long, cold winter that did it, Michael.”

There she goes again,
he thought,
calling me Michael!

But he didn’t say a word. He had a plan formulating and would work on it tomorrow.

Both Fitch and Avalon monitored their Ham sets for any word about anything that could be of interest to any of them. Penny Rolls posted everything that was eventful and everyone at Avalon read every word. Eventually, the
Avalon Reporter
circulated down into Fitch and was widely read by everyone there as well.

The two towns became good neighbors and everyone wanted to know what was happening in both places. There was a newspaper office at Fitch but no one knew how to operate the presses, so it remained closed.

Mike remembered talking to one of the Fitch residents and the mention of an airport sort of whizzed by in the conversation, but it was something he had filed away for future reference. He knew that once the booby traps were deactivated out in the large front meadow at the entrance to Avalon, a good old fashioned airport could be put in place.

He went into action with some of the other men and quickly deactivated the anti-personnel devices. They filled the holes and cut the grass by allowing the cattle and horses to graze the area, coupled with some good, old fashioned hand cutting.

When it was finished, Mike went to Fitch.

As a SEAL, he had gone to a number of schools and one of those was a private pilot course where he learned to fly a single engine airplane. Sheriff Waters was in his office when Mike stopped by and the Sheriff looked up and smiled,

“Come on in my friend!”

Mike walked in and greeted the man warmly. “How have you been, Sheriff?” “Couldn’t be better, Michael,” he said warmly, extending his hand. “What’s your pleasure?”

“Sheriff,” Mike responded, “I need a single engine airplane to go from here to Avalon with Caroline. Since she’s expecting, I’d like to eliminate that long drive in a buckboard. It’s getting to her. Know of anything?”

The Sheriff tapped his forehead with a finger and a smile came over his lips, “I’ve got just the thing for you, my boy,” he said grabbing the keys off his desk, “Come with me.”

They went out to the street, got into the Sheriff’s car, and headed out of town.

After about fifteen minutes on the road, the bright orange windsock was visible ahead. The grass, normally well maintained, had grown as high as a man’s knees and weeds here and there were beginning to look out of control. Dandelions were scattered throughout the grass in profusion. The Sheriff pulled into what was once the airport and continued over to the large hangar off to the left of the office, which had a large sign over the top of it saying “Flight Instructions.”

The Sheriff was chatting about something and Michael grunted now and then. But he was checking the layout of the airport in reference to what was off in the distance. He would have to find his way back here once he left Avalon. The Sheriff finally stopped, recognizing the look on Mike’s face.

“This is it lad, come with me.”

The Sheriff fished out a key and opened the large padlock and they walked inside the large hanger. There were twelve aircraft parked inside. Some of them were new, but most were older models.

“Pick the one you like and if it suits you, consider it a gift from the City of Fitch to the Town of Avalon with our compliments. The owners are all dead now.”

“Is there any gas available for these babies?” Mike asked, knowing that birds with no juice wouldn’t help.

“Right over there behind the hanger. We hid the tanker truck from the bikers and it’s still sitting there full. I believe all of the birds are full as well. Who you gonna get to fly it?”

“Yours truly, Sheriff!” Mike said with a slight amount of satisfaction based on the look that came on the Sheriff’s face. “Let’s push this out and I’ll pre-flight it and shoot a few take offs and landings. Then I’ll be on my way back to Avalon. You mind driving by yourself back to town?”

“Not a problem. Is there anything you can’t do?”

Mike just smiled. The Sheriff was right; the plane was full of gas. Only one small problem put a damper on things, the battery was dead.

“Damn shame, son, I suppose we can jump it or something later on.”

“No need,” Mike replied, “Just do what I tell you to do, and we’ll crank it by hand.”

The Sheriff climbed into the chosen plane while Mike set the brakes, primed it, turned on the switch to the mags and pumped the throttle a few times after draining all the water out of the wing tanks and the carburetor. He rummaged around until he found an old mason jar and emptied the gas drain tubes into that. It looked pretty good.

“You ready, Sheriff?”

“Let’s do it.”

Mike cranked the prop and the old Cessna sputtered and popped, and winded to a jerky stop.

“One more time,” he yelled to the cockpit, “Except this time, start pumping the throttle back and forth and see if it’ll start as I hand crank the prop.”

“Fire away!”

This time the engine sputtered and a cloud of smoke came out of the exhaust as the Sheriff was rapidly pumping the throttle; then it came to life with a sudden roar. The engine was solid and running smoothly so Mike ran around to the cockpit, “I’ll take it from here, Sheriff, thanks.“

The Sheriff got out and Mike jumped in, released the brake, and slowly taxied out to the strip. He put on the brakes, conducted an engine run-up to check the mags at eighteen hundred rpms, and moved all the controls. When he was satisfied it would fly, he slowly pushed on the power, rolled down the runway, and went in with full power and ten degrees of flaps.

In another minute he was at seventy mph so he slowly eased back on the yoke and the aircraft gently lifted off the pavement; he was airborne. He lowered the nose a bit and released the flaps, and when the airspeed increased, he pulled back gently on the yoke, and the plane climbed straight ahead. Mike stayed in the same “touch and go” pattern for about fifteen minutes, taking off and landing repeatedly. When he felt comfortable, he went over to where the highway left town toward the coast and followed it until he saw the old railway bed that inched up the mountain. He flew above that and followed it up to the top where the big stand of firs and the road Eli built were visible through the trees.

On the other side of the trees was the big meadow. He eased back on the power, dropped in ten degrees of flaps, and pulled on the carburetor heat. The airplane began to slow so he cranked in another ten degrees of flaps. It slowed more and, when he felt his approach on final was a good one, he put on full flaps. The plane settled down smoothly toward the grass. In another minute, the wheels touched down and he let it roll out until it came to a stop.