“I was thinking the same thing. Thugs like those who took over the town take whatever is immediately available and overlook things that take a little effort. There may be enough there in gardens and maybe some small farms outside town to sustain people until they can grow their own crops. The problem is, I’m not sure the people Kotchel has can take advantage of the situation.”
“If they’re good people, it would be advantageous to have them around. Presuming they will need some training, maybe some of us can go there to help.” Zach looked at Stacey. “What do you think?”
“We haven’t settled in here yet,” she replied, “so moving a little southeast won’t be a traumatic change. Besides, Avalon has always been a neat place. However, you seem to be forgetting that we’re not farmers.”
Zach looked at Peckham. “That’s a fact. We can do training in hunting, fishing, and a lot of survival skills, but we’d need some people with green thumbs.” “I think we can spare a few people if they’re willing to volunteer. I’ll talk. . . ” Peckham stopped talking and turned around to where Zach had returned his attention. “What’s back there?”
“Do you have someone watching the people planting seeds?”
“No, they’re part of our group.”
Zach asked Warren if he could borrow the binoculars. He trained them on a rock at the top of the hill from where the people were planting. He set them down, shaking his head. “You may not have anyone watching them, but they are definitely being watched.”
Chapter 6
“DO you mind if I borrow one of those AK-47s we just put in storage?” Zach asked. “I’ll go up there to check it out.”
“I’ll get two,” said Warren. “I’m going with you.”
The two men were on their way within minutes. Zach kept his eye on the rock while Warren went for the weapons, and he didn’t see any more activity up there. He suspected that whoever was watching them had caught them looking back. If so, he probably used the cover of the rock to crawl over the hill and get away. No matter, there would be tracks.
They trotted all the way, but it took almost five minutes to get to the spot. There was no one there, and no one in the valleys between the small hills in the area.
“Look here,” Warren said, pointing at a dusty area where someone had smashed weeds down.
“Someone was here all right.”
“We’ll see if we can follow the tracks,” Zach told him.
Tracking the first twenty feet was easy, but then the trail stopped.
“How could it stop?” Warren wanted to know.
“We have someone who knows what he’s doing. He intentionally made the first part easy for us to track and then started stepping carefully, being sure not to break any blades of grass or dislodge rocks. He brushed over any footprints he made. That takes time, though, and he’s out of sight, so he had to have started hurrying again at some other starting point. We just have to find it. Warren, go to the right and look for signs. Broken stems, a spot where a rock was kicked away, anything like that. If you haven’t found anything after about thirty feet, double back a little lower. If you still haven’t found anything, go a little lower and go right again. I’ll do the same on the left.”
They spent just two minutes searching before Warren called, “Hey, Zach, I think I found something.”
Zach went over and inspected the ground for a minute or two. “You’re right; something was here and dislodged a small rock. But if you look a little ahead, you’ll see a small print, like that of a little hoof. It was probably one of the wild boars that inhabit the island. See how the dirt is all the same color and blown into the indentation? This isn’t new.”
Zach patted Warren gently on the back when he saw the look of disappointment on the young man’s face. “You didn’t make a mistake, Warren. You found a print, so your instincts are good. Now, let’s keep looking and find the ones made by the watcher.”
It was another seven minutes before Warren again called Zach. When he looked at the spot Warren had discovered this time, Zach immediately said, “Yes, this is it.” After following it for a few seconds, he added, “Wow, he really started running at this point.” They followed the trail for forty yards to the bottom of the hill and then it disappeared again.
“Should I start looking to the right?” Warren asked.
“I think I’ll head back now.” Zach said. “We have some planning to do if we’re going to start a settlement in Avalon, and we have no chance of catching up to this guy until he’s gone as far as he’s going. Besides, from what I’ve seen, he’s not a danger to us.”
Warren looked questioningly at Zach. “What could you have learned about him that makes you say that?”
“The people on the boats yesterday and today were thugs. They were out to steal pretty much anything and everything they could. They were strangers to this island. This man, or it could be a woman for all I know, apparently knows this island very well, which means whoever it is has been here for quite a while. If they intended to steal or cause harm, they would have done it long before now. All the bombs going off and gunfire the last two days has probably created a lot of curiosity, so they probably just came to see what the devil was going on.”
Warren thought that over and nodded. “I guess you’re right.”
“Oh, one other thing.” “What?”
“The person is probably right handed.”
“How do you know that, and what difference does it make?”
“It’s not certain,” Zach admitted, “but more than likely a person in a hurry will head off in the direction they’re most familiar with, the side they work from. And, it probably makes no difference at all, but when I was in the field, I thought it gave me an advantage to know which side the enemy was shooting from.”
That intrigued Warren.
“Did that ever save your life or anything like that?”
“Nope, but there were a lot of things I learned that I never had to use. I consider that very fortunate.”
* * * * *
Stacey returned to the sailboat, and Peckham was waiting when Zach and Warren returned.
“What did you find?” he asked.
Zach told the acting mayor what he’d found, and Peckham agreed that they probably needn’t be too concerned about the watcher. Besides, he also agreed with Zach’s earlier recommendation that they improve their guard situation so incoming boats and surreptitious watchers would be spotted much faster.
Once they finished with that subject, Peck-ham told Zach about a conversation he had with Captain Kotchel while he was gone. “The usual ‘good news and bad news.’ The good is, the twenty-six people are solid. They lost everything they had fighting their way out to the coast, but that was because the odds were stacked against them. Just making it shows they can handle themselves. Several were involved in civic organizations in the past, so they’ll be helpful in putting together a plan to make the island more functional.”
“I can see how that can be helpful,” Zach agreed. “I heard that all the county records were vaporized, and I’d have to guess that the hoodlums who took over Avalon destroyed their records, too. It will be important to come up with some rules to go by, and experienced people like yourself and those people will be vital in coming up with them.”
“We think alike.”
Zach cocked an eye. “Okay, that was the good news. What’s the bad?”
“The Captain checked on what is happening around Tracy. There’s a prison in the area called Barnes Occupational Center. It isn’t what its name implies. It became a reception center for prisoners before they moved to other prisons. As a result, they usually have violent men there. That was one case when the war started where the prisoners all broke out. They’re felons and killers, but apparently they aren’t all stupid. They formed the nucleus of the group that is calling itself the ‘government.’ As McFee said, Richard Silva was a member of the California Assembly. However, he was convicted of fraud and money laundering ten years ago a
nd served time. He declared himself the new governor. Apparently they did have an election of some kind, but only those in the group voted.”
“None of that is a surprise, but Tracy’s pretty far north,” Zach said. “How’d they hear about what you have here on Catalina? Also, how and why were a bunch of thugs on a boat way down here?”
“Well, that’s where the bad news gets worse,” Peckham responded, his tone serious and a little despondent.
“How’s that, exactly?”
“The container ship that was armed with tanks, bazookas, and a helicopter also had a lot of smaller boats in their cargo holds. Before the big ship arrived here and attacked Avalon and Two Harbors, they dropped the boats, with full crews, off along the coast of California. They became pirates, and bad guys smell out other bad guys. They and the Barnes escapees found each other.”
Zach whistled. “Land and sea. That makes them doubly tough.”
“Triply,” Peckham corrected.
“Oh?”
“Yeah, because not only are they corrupt. . . they have nothing to lose.”
“And we do. That’s a point well taken. We’ll consider that when working out a guard plan. I’ll get things set up in Avalon, and when I get back, we can work something out before they get here.”
Peckham shook his head. “Thing is, the worse news gets terrible. They must have a means of communications themselves. Captain Kotchel got word that two boats were headed this way twenty minutes ago. That was right after we sent McFee on his way, so we no doubt will see more ‘tax collectors,’ and these thugs will be better prepared than the first set.”
* * * * *
Chapter 7
MALCOLM Slaughter, a large, barrel-chested man who sported a three-day growth of beard, put down the receiver of the single sideband radio. They kept the radio behind the reception counter of the Tracy Inn, now designated as the California State Capital Building by Richard Silva, who recently became Governor after an election where only few people voted him into the office.
They kept the ballots in a locked container locked away in a back room of the building.
Silva sat on an old but well maintained sofa across the lobby from the reception desk. Seated next to him was Victor Venable, known to his friends as VeeVee. He was a long-time criminal defense attorney elected to the position of California Attorney General in the same election as Silva.
A lieutenant governor, a state treasurer, five senators, and eleven assembly members also got their positions in that election. Silva and Venable knew all the men from prison. Venable knew law. He had gotten many criminals out of jams, and his connections were paying off in getting the kinds of people they needed. Most of the elected officials were ex-clients.
When Silva was charged with fraud and money laundering ten years earlier, Venable managed to plea bargain the sentence down to a year in a “gentlemen’s prison.” From there, Silva carried on business as usual. He lost his seat in the State Assembly, but that no longer mattered. He was now the new governor.
Slaughter, who Silva and Venable named the state’s chief law enforcement officer a week earlier, checked the security in the room. One armed man was watching the front door and a second was watching the door leading out back to a garden area. All other doors were locked. Assured that all was in order, Slaughter talked as he walked around the reception counter and strolled over to the sofa. “I told them to blast everything they see.”
“Whoa there, Mal,” Silva said. “Kill the top people, sure. They murdered a member of our state militia and deserve to die. It’ll be a good lesson for the others, but we not only need the food and supplies they have on hand, we’re going to need what they produce in the future. Right now, I figure that, between the people who lived there before and the preppers who moved in with them, they have enough to last us for a few months. Just because we didn’t get it today doesn’t mean we won’t get it eventually. Tell your guys to pick out the leaders and knock them off, but leave everyone else and all the supplies intact.”
“That ain’t gonna be easy ta do, guv,” Slaughter responded, sinking into an easy chair adjacent to the sofa. “McFee said they’ve got some sniper types on the island, and most of the others are trained shooters. The plan is to stay a distance offshore and blast away with bazookas until there ain’t no opposition left.”
“Those are hand-held rocket launchers, right?” Venable asked. Slaughter nodded speculatively, waiting for more.
“So, they can be carried to different places,” said Venable. “Is there any way they can get in close? Can we get them onto land?”
“Not a snap, but I guess it’s possible.” Slaughter thought about it for several seconds. “Yeah, now that I think about it, I know Catalina pretty well. If we go around the southern point and come up the southwestern side, we should be able to get there without them seeing us. There are several places we can anchor four or five hundred yards from the entrance to Catalina Harbor. But we’ll have to cross a hill or two once they’re on land; so if there are guards on the hills, we’ll be spotted.”
“If there are no guards, though, we won’t be,” said Silva.
“Right.” Slaughter was getting into it. Despite a lifetime of crime and even a short stint in a mercenary unit until he got kicked out for insubordination, he never killed anyone before the war. In the past month, however, he killed at least ten people and was responsible for the killings of many more. He found he really enjoyed the feel of it, even if was just giving orders and not doing the killing himself.
He continued. “My guys have automatic weapons, and there are four sniper rifles.” He looked to the other two for approval, but they showed no signs that they understood the significance of that.
“Go on,” said Silva encouragingly.
“My guys don’t know the leaders. So, here’s how I figure we’ll handle it. We’ll leave a couple of guys guarding the boats, and all the others will go to the hill overlooking the two harbors with bazookas, automatic weapons, and rifles. The top of the hill will give them cover and make it darned near impossible for the islanders to make a charge.”
The big man was thinking it through as he continued to talk. “They can shoot a few rockets into areas where people are working. Might kill a few we don’t intend to, but that’s no big deal. Most will still be alive and will run for cover. More importantly, the leaders will jump in and start giving orders. They’ll be easy to spot. The guys with the rifles will be our best shooters, and they’ll take them out. After our guys blast a few areas that way, there won’t be any order-givers left.
“While they’re all hunkered down trying to stay alive, the guys with the bazookas and rifles can shoo on back to the boats. I’ll tell them to keep a few guys on the hill to blistering the harbor area with automatic gunfire to keep the islanders pinned down. Then, when all the others are on the boat, those guys can shoot on back. My guess is they’ll be aboard and the boats on their way before those yokels even get around to chasing them. We ought to be able to pull it off without losing a man.”
“Do you really believe it’ll be that easy?” Venable asked doubtfully.
Slaughter shrugged. “If you want to keep most of the people alive and the supplies safe, it’s the only way. So, even if we do lose a few guys, it’s worth it.”
“That’s the reason we picked you for this job, Mal,” said Silva. “You can work out what has to be done; you’ve got what it takes to make sure it gets done, no matter the cost.”
* * * * *
Mary Ambrose, a middle-aged woman who worked as a housekeeper for the Tracy Inn before the war and still did light housekeeping chores for the new government people, was in a quandary. She was cleaning the small banquet hall, which Silva was planning on using for meetings of the new state legislature when he got around to it. The room was directly behind the lobby and reception area.
When she heard the men talking, she stopped working so as not to disturb the new state officials during their important deliberations.
She saw it as her place to not be seen or heard, if possible.
She was happy when Silva became governor. She remembered the trouble he got into as a youngster and the stories about him in the years after, but she felt everyone should have a chance to improve themselves. She felt his rise to the top position in the state was evidence that he had a lot of good in him.
She was beginning to rethink that idea.
* * * * *
Chapter 8
“I appreciate the vote of confidence,” Slaughter said to the supposed governor, “and I have no problem with taking stuff from those guys on the island. But, having spent half my life in prison, I’ve read a lot. I know that California’s Central Valley is the worlds’ richest agricultural area, and Tracy is a part of the valley. Why not just grow what we need here?”
“Good question,” said Silva, “and we intend to do just that; but it will take time. The valley doesn’t get enough natural rain to grow much of anything, so all the water comes from the mountains to the north. The canal system is in shambles, and it’ll take years to repair it. Besides, we’ll need lots of people to do the work. We can start growing some things just north of here by the river when we get the bodies, but not right now. Once you get your militia in shape, one of the first things you need to do is use them to recruit some workers.”
“Not that many people left,” said Slaughter.
“True,” said Silva. “Nuclear bombs and diseases killed just about everyone from Los Angeles, south, and they completely obliterated the San Francisco Bay area and everything in and around Sacramento. The radioactivity alone will make those places uninhabitable for years. Conventional bombs, diseases, and looters cleared out most other places, too, but not everyone is dead. California doesn’t have anything near the more than forty million we had before, but there are a few. In this valley and the central coast, there are little pockets with small groups and individuals who managed to stay alive. Thousands, I figure. Maybe tens of thousands. Most of them by sheer luck. They’re aimless and near starvation.”
Seeking a Sane Society: Nothing is the Same (The Seeking Series Book 2) Page 3
