Avalon: The Retreat by L. Michael Rusin & Kamel Press

Author:L. Michael Rusin & Kamel Press
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Kamel Press
Published: 2012-10-21T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22. Hanging by a Thread

The area in California just north of Bishop, West to the Pacific Ocean, East to the Great Sierras, continuing on down to the Tehachapi's, and extending into The Imperial Valley that joins Baja, was a completely dry, hot, and dust-laden wasteland now nearly devoid of life. There was some life down in the great valleys; an area once considered by many as the “Bread Basket of America”.

It was now an area of blowing dust filled with roaming, armed thugs on motorcycles. Some of the areas had been poisoned by radiation fallout and these days scarcely a Mojave Green slithered across the sands. It was dry, inhospitable, and a nearly unforgivable wasteland.

Some people had made it to the hundreds of old gold mine diggings and stayed in the tunnels to escape the burning heat. Most of the irrigation canals went dry and they too became lifeless. Those people living in each surrounding area slowly starved to death one day at a time. Hundreds of thousands had already died in just the last two months alone and their bodies could be found lying where they fell when the life escaped the confines of their mortal body. In some areas, the dead were eaten.

The living went in search of food but found little or none at all. There was food to be had in the cities along the coast, but those areas were death traps of starving roaming bands of people half mad from deprivation and lack of food, and the Slavers were working there too.

To say this was a dangerous place to be was to say sky diving without a parachute might be dangerous. Women, in particular, were stalked and used and then killed rather than be left alive to remain in competition for the precious little food that was hidden in basements, on boats still tied to the moorings in the marinas, or in motor homes parked here and there.

Food could be found, but it was a difficult search with fierce competition, and most times deadly. The restaurants, grocery stores, and warehouses were cleaned out months ago. The children, without someone to protect them, died quickly. They were defenseless creatures from the start of the conflagration and many died soon after.

The slave merchants were actively searching out anyone strong enough or pretty enough to be bought by those who still had money, which these days was in the form of food, booze, cigarettes, and anything fit to drink. A candy bar could get you the use of a pretty woman for the night.

Many areas were oozing with deadly and unseen radiation. A foray into those areas brought death to the visitor in as little as a day, and some places were more deadly than others. Los Angeles was extremely irradiated and so was Long Beach, with a bit of a separation between those places struck by the bombs until reaching San Diego where the poison was potent once again. It was all a crap shoot. People could dart in and back out if they were quick, but most died in spite of their swiftness.

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