“Death to Slavers and Rapists.”
“Do ya’ think they’ll get the message?”
Tim asked Eric.
“If they don’t, we’ll just have to deliver it via other means.”
Eric said it patting his rifle gently.
After about a half-hour everyone gathered up their things and prepared for the march to the north. Eric pushed the mic button on his radio and spoke to the other group.
“Trial complete. One found innocent. We hung the others. We’re moving toward your location now—Out.”
Chapter 14
The Slavers Advance
Crescent City was crowded and noisy, with trash everywhere. Bone Breaker wasn’t satisfied with the living conditions and was determined to make a few changes. He gathered his lieutenants around him.
“We need to make some changes around here. It’s getting dirty and there is way too much noise. I want to scout out another area where we can live with a little less noise and a whole lot less trash. We’ll take some men with us. We’re gonna move out in the early morning. Nick, ensure everyone has enough food, water, and gas for at least five days. We won’t be gone that long but will stay away as long as it takes to find suitable accommodations.”
“You got it, boss.”
Nick shouted to several people as he began to make the arrangements for tomorrow.
That afternoon another group of slavers returned to Crescent City with new captives. They were new meat for the slave auction block. Bone Breaker looked them over quickly, but he was in a hurry, so he didn’t give them much attention. He usually spent some time looking over the new arrivals to see if there was any worth his interest. Today he was pressed for time, making other plans.
The next morning Bone Breaker and his crew left town and headed northeast. There were about five-hundred slavers consisting of three-hundred of his finest warriors and two-hundred of the best women. They were well-armed and ready for almost anything. It was first light, and the air was chilly. Bone Breaker was thinking that there should be another place close enough to Crescent City, yet far enough away from the hustle and bustle of so many people living in such close proximity.
Nick chose the best to go with him. Those left behind were simply bodies, but most of the class and caliber he wanted for his personal army. Neither were they people he wanted to be surrounded by. The plan was to separate himself from those in Crescent City, but not too far away, in the event he needed allies. Crescent City would no longer be his home, he was ready for change.
Bone Breaker and his men had been occupying the oceanfront town since the war began, and he decided they had outgrown it. He hadn’t known it at the time but searching for a new place to live would save his life and the lives of his best men.
The slaves that arrived in a group the previous day were all sick. One slave had manifested signs of the plague, however, their keepers hadn’t noticed. It wasn’t uncommon for one or more slaves to die once they arrived at Crescent City. Ten slaves died during the night and another hundred were gravely sick. By the time people discovered what was happening, Bone Breaker and his large contingent were already gone, heading down the highway. During the next two days, hundreds dropped from the sickness and died shortly thereafter.
Bone Breaker’s group was completely unaware of what was happening back in Crescent City. They found a place that they considered ideal to make camp. It was in the forest located at the bottom of the rolling foothills of Mount Shasta, a dormant volcano towering above the landscape near the large fresh water of Lake Shasta.
There was an abundance of fresh-water fish in the lake, and wild animals populated the forest. People were already living there, but the slavers quickly dominated them and put them to work doing all the manual labor required to get the place ready for Bone Breaker’s large army of outlaws.
While plans were underway, a hundred men left and returned to Crescent City to gather supplies for the group. As the bikers approached the city, they saw dead lying all around. Some had crashed bikes while others simply appeared to have stopped and died where they stood, dropping to the ground like wet rags and never moving from that spot again. Hundreds more lay in groups or as solitary figures that had fallen as death overtook them. It was a horrific sight to behold.
A few of the slavers stopped their bikes and searched the dead bodies for anything of value. Others ransacked the houses. There was at least one dead body inside every structure. About half the bikers turned their machines around and headed out of town. However, it was too late; they would all die within hours. They pulled off at a roadside stop and within minutes, were no longer able to ride due to the pain and weakness that ravaged their bodies. Four days later Bone Breaker sent out seventy-five men to see why the first group hadn’t returned. The bikers discovered fifty dead slavers at the roadside rest area. Most were decomposing rapidly and were very nearly reduced to bone by a myriad of insects and birds. Rodents were feeding off the carcasses as were feral cats and dogs. Many of the animals were adding to the stink and decay as they also died. Several of the men got off their motorcycles and started to approach the dead.
“Stay away from them!”
Nick yelled to Slasher.
“They look like they’ve died from some sort of disease, and it looks like it was a nasty one. We need to ride past here to see if there are any signs of it in the city and then we should hightail it back to Bone Breaker and let him know what happened.”
◆◆◆
“All of them? Are you serious? You think it’s the whole town? Everyone is dead?”
Bone Breaker could scarcely believe it when the group returned, and Slasher told him of the deadly scene they encountered. Only a disease could kill so many people so quickly. Bone Breaker asked for clarification.
“And the deaths were one-hundred percent?”
Slasher nodded grimly. It was unbelievable. Once Bone Breaker recovered from the shock, he gathered his people around him.
“We’ll stay here for the time being, until this thing, whatever it is, burns itself out. Then we’ll head east and finish the job with those farmers at Fitch. I like that little town and it’ll give us a chance to live in real houses for a change.”
The slavers made themselves comfortable at the base of Mount Shasta until the time to rumble again.
Normally, the bikers would be out and about looking for hostages to trade on the open market, but the plague scared just about everyone. No one wanted to venture out from their safe haven until they were certain the sickness had passed.
As time went by, they forgot about the horrors of the deadly disease and how it spread so rapidly. Eventually, when boredom set in, the outlaws were getting anxious to venture out. They were quick to forget what trapped them here in the first place.
No one talked about Crescent City and no one wanted to go back there anytime soon. They were itching to get back to Fitch and begin pillaging that area once again. They were still strong in numbers and Bone Breaker was confident that more potential slaves, women and children, were out there for the picking. Especially the children…they tasted so good! He was developing a taste for them. Who was it that called people long pigs? Oh yeah, he remembered, it was the cannibal Hawaiians that called people that.
The more he and his lieutenants thought about it, the more restless they became. No one had made a move for two months. Bone Breaker finally called a meeting with his men.
“You all know why we left Crescent City. You also understand how deadly the plague was. Our food supply is running low after being holed up here for the last two months. It’s been a good vacation but now it’s time to move on.”
He paused and waited for a reaction from his men. None offered anything to the conversation.
We need to prepare to move on those farmers that nearly wiped us out the last time we tangled with ’em. In the next week, we’ll avoid Crescent City and send out forays to the east, south, west, and toward San Francisco. I want to keep the groups small,
no more than twenty or so men. I don’t wanna lose a large group of my soldiers to the plague again. Each of you will lead a group. We need to find food, guns, ammunition, and of course some new women.”
The statement received a roar of agreement. Some of the men were tired of the women they had and looked forward to trading the older ones in for newer models. Bone Breaker allowed it. After all, they needed something to take their minds off the plague and get them focused and ready for war. The prospect of new women for some great sex was just what they all needed.
Bone Breaker began speaking again and the group settled down to hear what he had to say.
“We need food more than we need women. But a new woman or two wouldn’t be a bad thing either.”
This caused him to laugh and the others joined in.
“We also need fuel for our motorcycles. We’ll head out in search of those things in a couple of days. Don’t look for women first. Look for what we need the most! We don’t want to run out of anything. We are low on resources, but it hasn’t reached a critical stage yet. Pick any target of opportunity. If you run into a heavily fortified stronghold, make note of it, but don’t spend a lot of time trying to take it.”
“We don’t want to lose any of our people, but we also don’t want to lose a chance of getting fresh food or weapons and ammo. Once we’ve stocked up again, we’ll go for those farmers again. This time I’m reasonably confident we can take them out and we’ll make them pay for what they did to us last time we came up against them. Any questions?”
He waited. There were none.
“Okay boys take care of business because some of you may not be coming back. Go home, have a honeymoon with your old ladies, and be prepared to ride out in a couple more days. It’ll take us that long to sort out what we’ll need while we’re preparing the women for not seeing your smiling faces for a while.”
The meeting broke up and the men went their separate ways. They all knew what they needed to do, and they were looking forward to doing it. It was always an adventure. Most of them loved the pillaging and plundering. They were, after all, a conquering mass and took what they wanted from those who could not defend what they had. The strong dominated the weak.
It had been that way all through the ages; from earlier than Genghis Khan up to the present time. “We come, we see, and we take what we want. If anyone stands in our way, they die.”
The next morning five groups of twenty men left the new encampment. Each group headed in a different direction. They headed toward Fitch, down toward the Beach Highway toward Reading, north to Medford, Oregon and on toward Klamath Falls, Oregon. They were to search primarily for food, fuel, weapons and ammunition. They also were instructed to look for medicine, bandages, and anything else of value to help aid any wounded or injured members of their group. Strict orders were given to avoid any bodies that appeared to have died from the plague.
Every rider had enough water and gasoline to last for a week. This amounted to a combined total of two-hundred gallons each. All of the fuel and food came from the outlying towns they pillaged once they set up camp here at Shasta. Everything, including the extra ammunition, was carried in a van and a pickup with a camper shell mounted over the bed. Two men rode in each of the vehicles while the remaining men rode their motorcycles. Cooking utensils were also carried in the back of pickups. Each group would arrive at their objectives at a different time. None were to engage anyone unless the outcome of the engagement was assured. They had lost many women and men to the plague and were resigned to finding replacement soldiers and concubines.
The first group of slavers to contact anyone was the group heading south on the Beach Highway. The gang rounded a long sweeping curve that wound its way around some sand dunes and ran into the soldiers, who had more than adequate firepower. When the slavers tried to turn around and retreat, they realized they were surrounded.
The soldiers cut the slavers to ribbon. When the short but intense battle was over, dead slavers were everywhere. Those left alive tried to escape to the ocean, but they were systematically tracked down and killed. None of the slavers escaped the carnage. One soldier was wounded in the shoulder, the only casualty on the side of the army.
Everything of value was collected including the food, medical kits, knives and ammunition. The water and fuel in the pickup was intact and it was a stroke of luck that none of the containers were punctured during the wild firefight.
After the dead bodies were searched, they were piled up along with their motorcycles and torched. The black smoke billowed upward into the blue sky. The soldiers continued their trek north.
The second group to come in contact with an armed force was the one heading toward Medford, Oregon. It came about as a motorcycle approached the town’s entry; they ran into a barricade made from vehicles, tires and miscellaneous debris including fifty-five-gallon drums and railroad ties previously used for landscaping.
There was an opening just big enough for a single vehicle to get through once a large truck was moved out of the way. About thirty townspeople manned the barricade. All were armed with hunting rifles and a few had military-type assault weapons. Slasher approached with a man on either side of his motorcycle. He wanted to talk. Thirty rifles were trained on the three men.
“We come in peace.”
He attempted to be conciliatory and to feign a peaceful posture.
“We’ve heard all about you and your peace.”
The spokesman for the townspeople wasn’t fooled by the slavers.
“You need to turn around and leave the area. If you don’t, you’ll be killed. We don’t like you and your bunch.”
The spokesman shouted over the barricade.
“The next time we see any of you it will be your last moment on this earth. Turn around and git!”
The spokesman clicked the safety off on his rifle to emphasize this point and then another twenty-nine more followed suit with the click-click of safeties being removed. The rifles were all aimed at Slasher and his two men.
Slasher attempted to cajole the townspeople,
“We mean you no harm. We’re simply looking for food and fuel and then we’ll be on our way.”
He spoke in a manner to allay any fears these people might have, but it didn’t work. Their reputation had preceded them.
“Git or die!”
One of Slasher’s men approached the roadblock, shouting belligerently,
“You hicks don’t seem to understand. We can come back with a thousand men and roll over all of you and then take whatever we want; including your women and children.”
To make his point, the leader of the townspeople shot him dead and turned his rifle toward the others.
“You had your last warning. We will start firing into all of you if you aren’t out of our sight in the next sixty seconds.”
Slasher and the remaining slavers kick-started their motorcycles.
“We’d best leave, we’re in the open here and they have us covered. There’s no reason to commit suicide to make a point.”
He rolled on the power and headed down the highway away from the townspeople.
In another thirty seconds they were well out of rifle range and he pulled over.
“Unless we make an all-out frontal assault, we’re better off leaving these people alone. They are well-armed and they obviously mean business. Let’s head south and take the Coastal Highway and bypass this town. One of us is down, that’s enough for now.”
Slasher cranked up his motor and headed south. The others fell in behind him in a cloud of exhaust fumes. They picked up speed and disappeared over a rise in the highway.
In the meantime, the group that headed towards Klamath Falls, Oregon was met at a roadblock on the highway leading into town. They were fired on at their approach, but no one was hit. The message was loud and clear.
“If you come this way, we are ready, willing, and able to fight.”
It was useless to try to engage the townspeople, so they turned
around rather than get chewed up by the superior fire-power of the residents. The group decided not to risk it and to report back to Bone Breaker.
None of the slavers wanted to engage in this kind of fight because it was easier to pick up strays. Most of the time, there was no resistance from the people they encountered. Going up against people who resided in towns was a different story. They were prepared to fight for their homes and families. Why attack a fortified position when the easy pickings were out there just waiting to be taken by force?
The leader of this group was a man called Soldier. He was a veteran of Bosnia, and a Marine, hard as nails, and he wasn’t a fool. He realized that taking this town defended by a determined and well-armed group might cost him many of his people; maybe even his own life. It was better to go back to Bone Breaker and let him know what they were up against. There was no reason to waste his men with little prospect of a major gain. There were no heroes these days, just a bunch of outlaws looking for easy pickings. It was best to just turn around and leave. Their mission was mainly to scout things out anyway and they had done that. The decision to do anything else was in the hands of Bone Breaker.
Several more bullets came their way, but they were comfortably out of range and no one was hit. It was a clear warning meant to let the slavers know the defenders weren’t fooling around.
“We’re heading back to see Bone Breaker. Let’s do it.”
He turned around in a synchronized swing to the opposite direction and roared away.
Chapter 15
Conquest
The group of twenty outlaws was approaching Reading, California on their motorcycles, and could see the town ahead. There was a barricade erected at the town’s entrance that appeared to be manned by about fifty men armed with shotguns and rifles.
They had a hot air balloon hovering above them with two men in the gondola looking at them with binoculars. It was connected to a winch mounted in the back of a one-ton truck.
Avalon- The Construction Page 14
