Avalon: The Retreat (14 page)

Throughout the years, the ash from hundreds of coal-fired stoves, and later the big boiler, came down the road loaded on horse-drawn wagons to be dumped here. It was gray in appearance, and one major benefit of the coal ash was that barely a weed grew here. It’s smooth surface offered an easy ride.

The trees on both sides of the road, now grown back, were at an impressive size again, having been disregarded by men and their axes. The clear cutting had stopped more than eighty years ago, and because the woodsman’s axe fell silent for these many years, the trees did what they always did when left alone… they grew. In this case, eighty years of growth had yielded magnificently towering giants. Clear of lower branches for the first fifteen feet, most of these trees were at least four feet in diameter, and their tops reached a towering a hundred feet or more.

The search party and their motorcycles were dwarfed in size as they moved together in unison.

After a few minutes, the old rail bed clearing came into view, and Mike signaled for them to stop at the edge of the woods while they were still on the ash road. He parked and walked out to the clearing, taking his binoculars out for a better look. It wasn’t likely there were any “unfriendlies” out there, but he wanted to make certain. The watch at the hidden bunker had not yet been posted when Mike got on the radio and pushed the transmit button.

“Base, this is Leader One.”

He waited and the radio crackled when Dan’s voice came back to him.

“What’s up?”

“Set the watch out here as soon as possible.”

“Roger that.”

Sam accompanied Mike as he edged closer to the clearing, and Mike swept the area from side to side several times, stopping frequently to look for any subtle movements. His military training taught him that most people would absentmindedly slap a bug away from their faces or turn their heads, and those small movements were discernible to a skilled observer. Wild animals would notice it too, which is why they paid heed to the sounds and movements of birds and other wildlife. In a few minutes Sam and Mike made their way back to their bikes and hopped on.

They continued slowly toward the clearing, stopping at the tree line for one final sweep with the binos before rolling through. There was nothing out there; it was early, but it didn’t hurt to be cautious. They made their way past the sand traps and, in short order, were on the old rail bed headed toward the river and the state highway that wound its way through the lower mountains far below them. Mike halted at the first landslide and motioned for Sam and the others to stay behind.

“When Dan and I reach the next slide area, I’ll give you a radio check and let you know if it’s clear. If there are any bad guys coming this way, we may have to make a fight on that ledge; there’s nowhere else to go, especially if they happen to be above us. A few grenades and we’re toast! There’s no reason to lose everyone, and you two can make a run for Avalon and at least get ready for whatever got us.”

He wasn’t being melodramatic; they were all combat veterans and understood it was just the way it was. The other two nodded, and Mike and Dan went up and over the slide and motored to the next slide area. Once they arrived, Mike scrambled to the top of the debris and took out his binoculars again. There was nothing ahead or above them.

Down in the valley, there was a great deal of smoke coming from the highway. Even with his binoculars, he still couldn’t make out much, except that something was going on or had just happened down there. He keyed the radio button and spoke. “Clear.”

Sam responded. “Roger that.”

They did the same “leap frogging” again. When on foot, the last man moves up and slaps the first man on the shoulder as he passes, which is the signal that that person is now to begin the move forward. That last person, now in the lead, usually goes into a kneeling position with his weapon at the ready, straight ahead, and swinging left to right. The man behind him covers left and the third man covers right. The man at the rear covers the rear until he leaps to take the lead. Today, they were traveling by bike and could forego the slapping and the kneeling, but the concept was the same, and they used the landslides as points of reference.

When Mike and Dan arrived, the radio crackled again, and in a few minutes they were all together and past the last slide. They continued their journey with a fairly wide spacing until they reached the turnoff that would take them to the Roach Hotel. Mike took out his GPS; although he knew the route by memory, he wanted to verify. He knew that when lives were on the line he couldn’t assume anything, and two minutes to check was far better than any amount of backtracking due to a wrong turn.

To everyone’s relief, it was so far, so good. They would be approaching the area near the cave soon, so they stopped to sync-up. Not having an absolute plan was no reason to mindlessly barrel into a potentially bad situation and make it worse.

“Keep your eyes peeled. We’re only a few miles from the cave, so we have to be extra alert. Until we’re back at Avalon, there are no more ‘friendlies’ except our own, wherever they happen to be. I suggest we make it another two and a half miles, walk the last bit, and then stash our rides. I don’t want the noise getting the wrong people’s attention focused on us. Roger, you stay with the bikes for cover and backup.”

They rode on to a specific place that Mike knew of, including its exact distance to the cave. They dismounted, pushed their bikes another mile, stopped, and parked them in a semi-hidden stand of trees. Roger cut brush to hide the bikes while Mike, Sam, and Dan headed on foot toward the Roach Hotel. It was straight ahead, up and over a ridge and down slightly to the right.

“Maybe two more miles,” Sam offered a guess.

It was getting hotter as the day went on, and they all started to sweat as they climbed the ridge. A few feet from the top, they stopped; this was a vantage point where they could see just about everything down near the opening to the cave. Mike took out his binoculars and could see people milling around. The cave was covered, but the job of concealing it had been hastily done, at best. If someone got close enough, they would probably find the opening and those inside would have no place to escape.

Thinking about it, Mike spoke to his two companions in low tones.

“I think our people are in the cave, and those ‘unfriendlies’ are wandering around looking for them. We need to even the odds. Sam you go left and work your way toward the cave by coming out through the woods there.” He pointed to where he meant, and Sam nodded.

“I’ll go right and circle around toward the back side of the cave. Dan, you cover us with your fifty down the middle. Wait fifteen minutes and move straight on toward the entrance from here; when it starts, open fire at any target of opportunity. Everyone stay low and be careful.”

The ground ahead of them was soft from the previous rains, making the motorcycle tracks visible. There were other tracks, too.

Mike said to Sam and Dan, “I make it to be about twenty-five to thirty of them based on what I see there,” pointing at the tracks. “They’re all in a group, bunched together and close. How nice,” he smiled, “one grenade could take most of them out, even though that would take the fun out of it.”

Mike took out his magazine, ejected the round in the pipe, and he then inserted another magazine that was painted blue and looked to be about a seventy-five round capacity. They were special loads of 9mm that wouldn’t break the sound barrier when fired because they reduced the noise coming from the firearm by nearly half. Dan had loaded the sub-sonic, special ammo carefully to ensure that each explosion would be no louder than a handclap.

He extracted the famous SIONICS Suppressor out of his pocket and screwed it on the end of the gun barrel. Sam was doing the same thing and so was Dan with the backup Mac-11 he kept slung over his shoulder. He likely wouldn’t get close enough to use it, but if one of the ‘unfriendlies’ ran toward him, he’d have it standing by.

Mike asked, “Everyone ready?”

They nodded and Sam smiled wide, making his big mustache wiggle. Mike continued in a low voice.

“You boys be careful; I don’t want to give Roger any practice patching someone up, although God knows, he probably needs it. Let’s do what we have to do. If we can get them all, that’d be great. I got nothing against these bikers, but it’s obvious they are not friendlies. If they were, they wouldn’t have our people trapped.”

Sam smiled and Dan’s face was tense. Mike switched channels on his radio, “Nineteen.”

Roger and Sam switched theirs, as well, and Mike spoke into the radio.

“Rats in the trap, this is Mike.”

He waited, the radio crackled, and a voice said,

“Where have you guys been, Sugar?”

It was Crystal Sneed.

“We had to have supper and then breakfast, Sugar Pie!” Mike answered with a humorous amount of sarcasm.

Crystal responded quickly.

“We aren’t sure, but we think there’s about a dozen out there. Thank God they haven’t found the cave entrance! We came onto them over near the river, and they engaged us in a running gunfight. We’ve been here a few hours.”

She sounded like she was out of breath. Mike said, “We make it thirty or so, but we’re going to do a quickie clean up; stay calm and wait. The password will be page fifteen, for affirmative, and page twenty for negative and that you’re on your own.”

“Darn you, Michael! Why did you have to trash my illusions by saying that? There will be no negative! Do you read me? Just let us know when the coast is clear.”

She hesitated and said, “Mike, we’re really scared.”

Mike looked at Dan and Sam and pointed a finger ahead of them and said, “Hoooraaah boys, fifteen minutes from… now!”

Everyone did a time check and confirmed, one by one.

“Fifteen minutes.”

They moved out and Sam was on the backside of the small patch of woods within eight minutes. Dan was on his stomach with the sling wrapped around one arm, steadying himself on an elbow. His legs were spread wide apart, and he took aim at one guy who was busy yelling at everyone. He waited; when the fifteen minute mark came, he would fire.

He stole a final glance at his watch, noting that he had ten more seconds. One thousand one…, one thousand two…, one thousand three… He looked through the scope again, took a relaxing breath and slowly let it go… One thousand ten… held that one and then slowly squeezed the trigger to the point that it was almost a surprise when the gun went off.

The guy’s head evaporated into a cloud of pink mist.

It was as if someone had just popped a balloon filled with red Kool-Aid. Sam was coming out of the woods at that moment, reloading another clip. Dan swung left and took out another bad guy who was leveling a handgun at Sam. The bad guy crumpled like someone dropped a wet rag on the ground.

Dan swung right and saw another bad guy coming from behind the rock cropping that was the back and roof of the cave. He was picking his feet up and laying them down as if the hounds of hell were after him. Before Dan could fire, Mike dropped him with a three round burst; the guy crumbled and rolled and didn’t move. The entire fire fight lasted about two minutes, and at its conclusion, there were thirty-two ‘unfriendlies’ sprawled on the ground and dead.

Dead amateurs
, Mike thought but didn’t say.

He pushed the radio button, and was smiling when he said,

“Okay, Sweetheart, the bad guys are all dead. You can come on out and play.”

The people in the cave came bursting out, led by Crystal. She ran straight to Mike, grabbed him, and kissed him hard on the mouth; it was a lingering kiss. There had been eight of them in the cave, which made it a full count. Everyone was excited, but Mike made the “Time” signal by placing a finger in his palm; they all went quiet.

“Sam, you and Dan look around for anyone who might be hiding and take them out. See what they have on them while you’re at it.”