Avalon- The Construction

by L. Michael Rusin

  Bone Breaker stood on a large rock, turning to address his gang,

  “You all know why we’re here. We’re gonna teach those farmers a lesson they will not soon forget. We’re going to own this valley and everyone in it for as long as we want!”

  The group yelled and screamed. The shouting was deafening. Bone Breaker smiled. He liked being king, and these were his subjects. He let them yell as he stood there with his arms folded against his chest; it made him feel powerful.

  When they settled down, he went on,

  “There will be no fires until we have successfully won the battle with those farmers. No reason whatsoever to let them know we’re coming. I’d say there’s another fifty miles to go before we’ll be the in their backyard, and by the time we’re there, they won’t be able to do anything about it.”

  Another roar of approval went up from the crowd and Bone Breaker stood there with his arms folded against his chest.

  They were ready for what was coming. So was he. He wasn’t going to suffer a defeat this time. They had raided a National Guard armory and they had everything they needed, including something for that damn tank this time.

  That night Slasher got close to the Bone Breaker and said,

  “Boss, can we talk?”

  “What’s on your mind?”

  This attack….”

  “What about it?”

  “I know how bad you want to get these farmers, and I’m with you 100%, believe me when I say that….

  “Then, what’s the problem?”

  “What if they wipe us out again, what will you do if that happens?”

  “We’re strong, we can take them. We have nearly 500 people not counting the women.”

  “True, but we had more than that the first time around,…remember?”

  The Bone Breaker began to get red in the face and Slasher was worried. He had a hand to his chin and a finger tapping his temple. He was quiet and so was Slasher. There was a long pause. Then, he turned to look at Slasher. It was a calm look, not a mean one….

  “What do ya suggest?”

  “Mind if I speak freely?”

  “You’ve got the floor.”

  “Well I’ve been thinkin’ about it for some time and what we want to do is win the fight, lose as few people as we can and still get the job done. After all, if we lose all of our people, we might not be able to bounce back. It’s getting harder and harder to find recruits. We need to win this fight and we need to stay strong with as many members as we can.”

  He stopped speaking and stared at Bone Breaker.

  “I know all of this, tell me somethin’ I don’t know.”

  “Okay, I say we lay low for a few more months, hit them after we’re stocked up better than we are now, food, guns, ammo…and then hit them hard. We haven’t exactly snuck up on them so far. What if they know we’re comin’?”

  “Do you have a plan?”

  “Actually, I do but let me work out a few more details but, in the meantime, let’s fall back. We can hit these farmers anytime we want to. So far, we’re okay in terms of food and armaments, we’ve got some choice women to warm our beds with, why not back off. If the farmers know we’re comin’, it’ll throw them off guard when we retreat. Also, remember that tank. What if they still have it?”

  “I think you’re right, we’ll pull back in the morning and head back to Crescent City. I’m sorta disappointed tho’ I was lookin’ forward to some new women.”

  “They’ll keep and when we do hit them, we should do it with stealth not with a hammer. There has to be a better way. Remember the Greeks and the Trojan Horse?”

  “Tell me about it.”

  The Greeks wanted to take over a strong fortified city called Troy, but they weren’t able to by simply attacking it with soldiers, so they built this great big horse out of wood and put it on wheels and rolled it up to the city gates and then left. The horse was full of soldiers. When the Trojans rolled the “Gift” into the city, that night the soldiers inside the horse came out and opened the gates to the Greek soldiers waiting outside. They took the city because of the subterfuge.”

  “God, I like it.”

  “Well let’s come up with a Trojan Horse of our own and not set ourselves up to be decimated by those farmers again. Whoever is leading them is smart and I suspect has some military training. If we wait and then have a plan where we can defeat them by being smarter, there is nothing we can’t do in California and you’ll be the king of it all.”

  “We’ll be headin’ to the coast in the morning.”

  ◆◆◆

  The next morning the Watch Tower on the west end of Fitch reported all of the slavers moving out toward the coast.

  Mike Reynolds and Sam Walchak, two of the so-called “farmers” Bone Breaker was referring to, had watched and listened to the big slaver talk. Mike, an ex-Navy SEAL and Sam, an ex-Green Beret, were from Avalon and were both seasoned veterans of the shooting war Bone Breaker was referring to in the recent past. They didn’t know about this until the morning, but it gave them time to get better prepared for the coming battle, and it was coming, Mike was sure of it.

  They had put on Ghillie suits made of ragged strips of linen, gunny sacks and grass, sewed onto a pair of coveralls, and were no more than a hundred yards from the main encampment. Nearly invisible, and hearing all they needed to know as they blended into the trees, bushes, and the ground where they lay. Once the camp settled down, they would head deeper into the woods, then turn west and return to Avalon to prepare for the upcoming attack by Bone Breaker and his group of thugs. This morning they heard the slaver had moved out toward the coast.

  A few months earlier, Mike and Sam decided they needed more notice in terms of an early warning system, so watch towers had been erected twenty miles down the road from the old railroad track bed that led to Avalon on the main highway from the west. It was an early warning device to prevent a sneak-attack from surprising them or the community of Fitch. They considered the rural town their responsibility since trade and communication had opened up between them.

  The new towers being erected were carefully camouflaged and manned by two teams who stayed on the site for five days on and two days off. Over the last year, an occasional straggler arrived at the town of Fitch, sometimes from the east but more often than not, from the north or southwest. In terms of the overall population it was uncertain how many people on the West Coast survived. The fallout patterns were varied, and any prediction as to who was left was uncertain. The great Mojave Desert lay in the southwest and it was rarer that anyone came from that direction.

  It was uncommon for anyone to come from the west except the slavers. There were towns in that direction, but each town had troubles of their own, and there wasn’t much communication between them. People who survived the war were leery of strangers. Many put up road blocks manned by people with firearms.

  Mike and Dr. Dan were working on that. These things took time, and everyone was suspicious of everyone else. There were exceptions, of course.

  Over the last six months Avalon had grown steadily. Fitch was growing as well, because many of the stragglers showed up after bypassing the hidden entrance that led to Avalon and continued traveling on an easterly trek. Eventually arriving at Fitch.

  Although the entry had seen much use over the last three months, it was still hard to notice. Groups of people regularly went down and paid attention to the vague track of footprints leading up the mountain. There was talk of camouflaging it much more, but it had not been done yet. The more the old track bed was traveled the more the signs of usage became obvious. The teams repairing this obvious wear and tear of the old track bed reported back to Mike and there was talk of putting up a barrier and then setting a guard. Nothing had happened yet. There was so much to do; it was difficult to zero in on specifics. Also, and important, having the people available for all of these lookout points was taxing.

  Fitch installed four watch towers that were manned using the same syst
em as the watch stations in the west. Most of the watch standers were married men who had their wives or girlfriends with them. A moderate house was erected near each site, and the sleeping quarters could easily accommodate twelve people, but rarely did. Each dwelling had a basic kitchen and a water tower that utilized gravity fed water to service the small houses and their gardens. The dwellings were constructed by stripping some of the abandoned homes at Fitch or in the surrounding countryside. The structures were taken apart, marked, and then put back together on each successive site like a big jigsaw puzzle.

  There was one watch tower about thirty miles south of Fitch, in the general direction that FBI agent Beth Kelly and her group of children had come from, another one toward Bishop and the other one seventy-five miles from Fitch in the east above the great desert of Death Valley. There was one lonely tower toward the north just below the mountains, situated on a promontory where nothing could move anywhere in the surrounding area without being observed. That tower was about fifty miles northwest of Fitch.

  Each structure was camouflaged with paint and debris from the surrounding area, so carefully put together that even standing next to one, you would be hard pressed to be aware that it was there. This technique of hiding things in plain sight was borrowed from the British, who were able to hide the Suez Canal from German bombers during World War II. They couldn’t hide structures and land areas, so they changed their appearance to look like something else. They also did the same thing in Seattle, Washington during World War II to hide the Boeing plant. This was accomplished with huge nets that were erected above all the buildings, streets and parking lots. On top of these nets were painted sheets of canvas with depictions of roads and rows of houses, undetectable, and thus able to hide the airplane plants of the Boeing Company. From above it looked like streets, neighborhoods and homes, nothing more.

  The roof on a house could be made to look like a pile of boulders or shrubs. Looking at something straight on, it would resemble a profusion of bushes. This was accomplished using camouflage netting, paint and other objects fastened in place. The techniques used by the Avalon group were very good. Nobody wanted the guard sites to be discovered or overrun by the casual observer or passerby. In particular, by hundreds of passing motorcycle riders bent on pillaging.

  Each facility had a stockpile of ammunition for the .50 caliber machine gun, the .30 caliber machine gun, and the small arms for the watch standers. All of these armaments were compliments of the recently re-established United States government.

  The group was much better armed these days as a result. The regular shipments of arms from the new national capital city of Chicago complemented what they already had.

  Each watch station was much like a small community, consisting of a large garden under a plastic covered greenhouse and water well. Each tower had a cement pillbox with the .30 caliber gun fixed in place and the .50 caliber in the tower to maintain a better view. The builders took half-inch steel plates that had been scrounged from different locations, including a sheet metal shop outside of Fitch, and installed them in front of and on the side of the .50 caliber gun. This was reinforced with rebar and cement. The placement of the .50 caliber was determined in order to take advantage of the longer-range ability of the .50 compared with the .30, and so it would benefit from the additional elevation.

  The watch tower standers were specifically trained by Mike and Sam to deal with any eventuality that might arise. Men and women were trained to stop and overcome any anticipated objective. They learned how to work as an efficient, highly skilled, and motivated team. It was standard practice to have someone visit every watch tower every day, as a security measure. No one was ever isolated for more than a day or two at the most. If the messenger who was sent out failed to return, an assault was planned immediately to make sure any trouble was permanently stopped in its tracks. They also had short-wave radios, but an onsite inspection was performed to ensure the site had not been overrun or captured.

  The system was sound and functional in every regard. It was a six-month tour once guards were trained and assigned to a tower. At the end of the six-month deployment they were allowed to rotate to another tower in a different area, or they could go to the retreat at Avalon. In some instances, they would choose to go to the town of Fitch.

  They could also stay at the watchtower they started with, but everyone had to rotate at least once every other year. The duty at one of those stations became almost a way of life for some of them, and having their families with them helped maintain stability in the group and prevented boredom from setting in. Once the towers were in place there was never another incident that involved some straggler ambling along unnoticed. Everything that moved was noted. Written logs were meticulously maintained.

  A captain of the guard was accompanied by a second in command. No one could be a captain longer than a year to prevent any small dictatorships to become ensconced at any guard tower.

  Another important ingredient was the many people beginning to show up at Fitch, some of them unskilled. They had no trade, sometimes their educational level was subpar, and yet these people had to be fed. They couldn’t be turned away, they weren’t that intelligent, but they were also people and entitled to respect. Those that showed up had to be utilized in a positive way, because in the times that were on them, at that particular period, there was no incentive for feeding somebody who couldn’t do anything other than eat. This way, they were placed in a position requiring responsibility, and they earned their food daily. In the times they were all thrust into, everyone had some kind of job.

  Each sentry tower had the same routine, and everyone did the same type of drills and maintained the same kind of activities. By doing this, no matter which tower they were assigned to, the process and procedures were the same.

  The only thing that changed was the terrain and the people. Keeping most things equal helped stabilize the system. Boredom set in occasionally but was overcome by the activities they all shared. Everyone had a job. Everyone was watched by everyone else, and the jobs got done. In the event that somebody came along, who didn’t want to comply with the rules and regulations that would be explained to them by a committee, they were given a choice, either fit in and do your job, or be ostracized, and they would be sent out on their own. Most people chose to work and share their responsibilities equally. There were no slackers. To be kicked out of a position that was assigned to you meant death from deprivation.

  Self-defense, patrolling, and tracking were essential to keep everyone physically fit and alert. The large garden/greenhouse at each tower required daily attention and there were other routine chores such as housekeeping, cooking, and cleaning. They were required to learn and perform reloading of ammo and maintaining weapons, along with harvesting whatever was ready for the table. Additionally, someone had to prepare and cook the meals, and someone had to wash the dishes when the meals were done. These jobs were rotated so no one would get stuck doing the same job all the time.

  Caroline, Roger and Dr. Dan came down from Avalon on house calls once a month, or more frequently if they were needed. This was to ensure that everyone’s health was maintained. On various occasions, patrols were dispatched, on foot, motorcycle, or by plane; at times on horseback, depending on the distances.

  ◆◆◆

  Initially, outlying farms were visited by someone from Fitch or Avalon to see if there were any survivors, and any livestock they discovered was released from pens and set free.

  Every house was investigated, and much furniture and many household goods were salvaged to be used elsewhere. If there was a need for furniture or anything else to make a living space more comfortable, it was delivered without hesitation. Books in particular were gathered up and distributed wherever they were needed. The men in the towers particularly liked them to help pass the time. Occasionally, the books were traded to eager readers at other towers, at Avalon, or at Fitch.

  It was a society dependent on others in these close-knit
and combined communities. Tools, kerosene, canned goods, candles, writing paper and writing devices such as pens and pencils were cherished. All types and brands of alcoholic beverages were sought after as well. Of course, there were other things such as shoes, socks, underwear, shirts, jackets, blouses and dresses that were in demand. Anything serviceable was gathered up and either sent to Fitch or Avalon to be distributed. There was a burgeoning industry forming for people who did the patching and mending. Nothing serviceable was discarded for any reason.

  Hand tools used for gardening were in demand by nearly everyone. Farmhouses were searched, and anything usable was dismantled with meticulous care and relocated to where it would serve a need. Nothing was left to waste.

  Many items were no longer being manufactured and people needed to learn where they could get certain things. One of the big items was window glass. Homes that were abandoned early on in the war were stripped completely and left as shells. Eventually they were completely taken apart board by board and re-used elsewhere. This was most evident in the countryside where the site of a chimney standing alone could be seen, silent sentinels, like the stone statues on Easter Island, standing guard against nothing but time and the elements.

  Short-wave radios were hard to come by, and whenever they were found, they were reassigned and used as needed. Auto parts, as well as horse or animal-drawn wagons and their harnesses were scavenged. When a barn full of alfalfa was found, it was gathered up in an old wagon and hauled to wherever it was needed. Horse and mule team harnesses were meticulously crafted. When there was a need for a replacement that could not be found, they simply duplicated what they had.

  Antennas were sought after by everyone. One of the prized commodities was toilet paper, nearly to the point people just about fought over it. Although the stockpile of toilet paper at the large warehouse store at Fitch was holding out, it was becoming obvious that it wasn’t going to last forever. Women, children and men were counseled to be frugal with it. In some cases, people simply used a small bucket of water, a cloth for washing and another for drying off.