Chapter 12

The next morning, Day Six of the Ark’s return to the surface, the men of Seal Team 2 fall-in for morning roll call in the Applegate Inn’s parking lot. After completing the normal morning ritual of roll call and the Ensigns announcing All Present or Accounted For, Lieutenant Morrison said, “Good Morning, Gentlemen.

“We found out yesterday that our six-month assignment here at Blocking Post 1 has been extended to at least three years. That was a shock to me, and I can imagine it was a shock to you also. Since we are going to be here a lot longer than we thought, we need to turn this place into a comfortable home. Your Ensigns and I were talking about that yesterday and we’ve identified a couple of things that can be done immediately. We are also open to any suggestions that you may wish to make.

“However, our main task right now is to build our barricade. I also don’t want any innocent survivors wandering around this area and getting shot. So ... we have two tasks for today: search the nearby area for survivors and begin building the barricade.

“Ensigns, I want you and Seal Platoons 2 and 3 to form two search parties; each party is to search one side of the highway. Applegate was an unincorporated community with a population of less than fifteen hundred people; it was a bedroom community. I want all the buildings in the area within two miles of here checked for survivors. It sounds like a large task, but there are only a few roads in our search area. Since we will only be searching the portion of the area where survivors are likely to be attracted by our presence, we will have to expand our search area to cover the entire Applegate area after the barricade is complete. When you find survivors, bring them back here. When the search is done, I will make arrangements to have them taken to one of the SCCs.

“What I suspect is, we will find more bodies than survivors during today’s search. It is going to get warm once this rain stops and the sun comes out. We don’t want to live with the smell of decomposing bodies, so we need to dig a mass grave with the backhoe so we can collect and bury the bodies that we find.

“Ensigns, yesterday we went over today’s work schedule. Get with your people and get them started. Dismissed.”

Ensign Bilart motions for Chief Petty Officers Kaner (Seal Platoon 1) and Woodard (Seal Platoon 2) to join him and Ensign Burr does the same to CPOs King (Seal Platoon 3) and Cirque (Seal Platoon 4).

Ensign Burr looked at CPO Cirque and said, “Chief, the Lieutenant wants you to take Seal Platoon 4 to the highway maintenance yard in Auburn and bring back one of the cranes they used to move concrete dividers. If you can’t find one, get something that can be used to move the dividers, and remember, they each weigh close to three tons. When you get back, your Platoon will be the one to build the barricade. Any questions?”

“No questions, Sir, but I’ll need two of the trucks for my people if that is okay with you, Sir?”

“No problem, Chief, get your people together and get going.”

As Burr is speaking to Cirque, Ensign Bilart said to CPO Kaner, “Chief, Seal Platoon 1 has guard duty and the Lieutenant placed you in charge of the tree cutting detail. The Lieutenant thinks that when our search duties are over and we have a lot of men working in the area, you can split the Platoon into two details. For the guard detail, he suggested two men on each of the gun trucks and two men as roving guards. The Lieutenant also wants only people with experience using chainsaws to be handling them. The Lieutenant has a few specific directions regarding the trees near the Inn, so I will discuss them with you during the search. If you have no questions, have your people relieve the current guards.”

While Ensign Bilart is explaining Seal Team 2’s search duties to CPO Woodard, Ensign Burr turned to CPO King and said, “Chief, Seal Team 3 is to go with me to search the east side of the freeway for survivors and to collect and bury any bodies we find. When our search effort is complete, you and the men are to report to Chief Kaner for tree cutting detail. Do you have any questions?”

“Ahh ... no, Sir. However, I have several suggestions for you and Ensign Bilart if you’re interested.”

Ten years earlier, a Navy P-3D Orion crashed in one of the less accessible, mountainous areas of the island of Hawaii. It took six days to identify the precise crash site, assemble a Crash Site Recovery Team, move the team from the island of Oahu to Hawaii, and have the team hike into the mountains to the crash site, which was in a narrow valley. The terrain, high winds, and strong shifting updrafts and downdrafts prevented their insertion by helicopter, and prevented their extraction by helicopter.

When they arrived at the crash site, they found the aircraft had broken up and was scattered over a nine hundred yard path that crossed several shallow ravines and the terrain was covered by dense shrubbery and a few trees. For a week, the Recovery Team searched the small valley for the remains of the crew. The search was complicated by the bodies being dismembered during the crash and thrown clear of the aircraft.

After a week of exposure to the hot humid weather of the Hawaiian Islands, the remains were in an advanced state of decomposition at the start of the task and the decomposition continued for the next week. Collecting the decomposing body parts wearing only leather gloves that became soaked with body fluids was a grisly task. They tried to matchup the severed heads, arms, and legs with their owner’s torsos; one head and two arms were never found. When the officer in charge of the Recovery Party decided to end the recovery operation, the Recovery Team had to carry the body bags out of the mountains.

CPO Sidney King was a member of that Recovery Team and he had not forgotten what he and his comrades had to endure, and he had a very vivid recollection of how messy a decomposing body could be.

After the search teams’ Ensigns and two CPOs got together, CPO King explained his past experience to the Ensigns and CPO Woodard. King suggested cutting one of the tarps, which they used to cover the food, munitions, and other supplies they carried with them when they deployed, into quarters that could be used to carry the bodies out to the pickups. His second suggestion was that they scavenge shovels, rakes, and other implements to shift the bodies onto the tarps, so they won’t have to handle the decomposing bodies with their gloves.

Seal Platoon 4’s Seaman Piper Hart drove the backhoe back from Auburn yesterday, but he was not available. Since no one in Seal Platoon 3 had experience with a backhoe, CPO King told Seaman William Hauser that he was to take the backhoe and dig the mass grave.

Seaman Hauser said, “Chief, Hart drove the backhoe here yesterday, so I can probably drive it with no problem. I can drive it, but I don’t know how to use it.”

CPO King said, “Hauser, no one in our Platoon knows how to use a backhoe, but it is our job to dig the grave. You are good with machinery, so I decided you are now our backhoe operator. What I want you and Seaman Sanchez to do is drive the backhoe north on the frontage road for about a half mile. Then start looking for a good place off the road that will make a nice resting place for the people we are going to bury. Sanchez can stand guard while you dig the grave. Perhaps the two of you should swap off, so you both learn how to use the backhoe.

“Now when you find a good grave site, imagine a long trench and park the backhoe at one end of the trench with the front of the backhoe facing the other end of the trench. Ideally, the trench should be parallel to the road to make it easy for the pickups to backup and unload the remains. Deploy the backhoe’s stabilizers and use the bucket to scoop the dirt up and deposit it on the side of the hole that is away from the road. When your hole is deep enough, pull the backhoe forward a few feet and repeat the process until you have a long deep trench. Now go find Sanchez and the two of you go dig us a grave.”

“Ah ... Chief, how deep and how long and wide of a trench do you think we will need?”

“I’ve got no idea, Hauser. The Lieutenant said Applegate had fifteen hundred people living in the whole area. Considering the size of our search area, my guess is we will need to bury at least a couple hundred bodies. So dig a trench twenty feet long, three feet wide, and six feet deep. That should be more than adequate for that number of bodies without caskets, and if necessary, you can lengthen the trench.”

As CPO King knew from first-hand experience and Seal Platoons 2 and 3 quickly learned, moving decomposed bodies is an exceptionally unpleasant task. The bodies the Recovery Team handled had only been decomposing for two weeks when their task ended. The bodies the Seals had to recover and bury had been decomposing for more than ten weeks. Heads, arms, and legs tend to separate from their torsos when lifting a severely decomposed body. When the Seals tried to shift their first body onto their tarp using the bedsheet and mattress cover that the body was resting on, they found out how messy the job was going to be. The body fluids of the decomposed body had drained through the sheet and mattress cover and rotted the material. The rotten material ripped and body parts and entrails went in several directions.

Shovels, rakes, and hoes quickly became the tools of choice for moving the bodies, and the Seals made sure they kept their gloved hands and the rest of their bodies well away from what was left of the decomposed bodies. Thankfully, their filter masks filtered out most of the odor. There was no easy way to empty the truck beds into the mass grave other than shoveling the body parts out of the truck bed and into the grave, which was another gruesome task. But overall, the Seals treated the bodies of the deceased with as much respect as possible.

The search of the surrounding area failed to find any survivors. No one was counting, but it was estimated that less than two hundred bodies were found in the nearby homes. There were no bodies found in many homes, and the Seals assumed the owners of those homes fled the area seeking a safer place when the meteoroids first arrived. Perhaps, they went into Auburn hoping to find medical care that would help them recover from the virus.

While the search was getting underway, Seal Platoon 4 arrived at the highway maintenance yard. The gates were locked by a chain and padlock.

CPO Cirque said, “Matthews, get the bolt cutters and cut this padlock off so we can get into the yard.”

Five minutes later, the gates were open and they drove their trucks into the maintenance yard. As the Platoon exited their vehicles, Cirque looked around and saw the type of crane they were sent to bring back. He motioned to Seaman Riley Matthews to come with him and they walked over to look at the crane while the rest of the men spread out searching for any survivors who may be in the area. The men were also looking at the yard’s equipment as they setup a defensive perimeter.

“What do you think, Matthews?”

“It’s one big mother, Chief. Why?”

“Do you think you can drive it?”

“I suppose so. I’ve driven my dad’s eighteen-wheeler, so this should be a piece of cake.”

“Good! Climb up into the cab and familiarize yourself with the controls. You are now our crane operator.”

“What! I can drive it, Chief, but I don’t know how to operate it.”

“Matthews, I doubt anyone in our Seal Team has any experience with something like this baby, so get up there and start learning how to use your new toy.”

CPO Cirque turned and walked away. While walking, he started glancing at all the construction equipment. He suddenly came to a stop with an odd look on his face. Turning in place, he gave each piece of equipment a few moments of serious consideration. After making a complete turn, he walked over to two men who were looking at a construction forklift.

“Heitz, Stanton, what are you guys looking at?”

Heitz said, “Hi, Chief. Stanton and I were just bullshitting each other about the forklifts we operated when we worked in warehouses. This one is quite a bit bigger than what we drove; it’s way too big for a warehouse and its configured for off-road use.

“Interesting. I came to a decision a few moments ago. The equipment in this yard is just sitting here doing no one any good. I decided that we are going to take any equipment that might be useful back to the Inn. If I have the drivers, I’ll grab anything that might be even remotely useful. So get two of those forklifts gassed up and ready to convoy back to the Inn. We need to build the barricade and I have an idea of how we can use them.”

Seamen Robert Heitz and Rom Stanton smiled at each other, and climbed into the cabs of two construction forklifts. A bulldozer, a dump truck, a front loader, and a cherry picker were quickly added to Cirque’s ‘Should be Useful List’. The only additional things he could think of to add to his list that might be even remotely useful were a grader and a street sweeper. Other than those nine pieces of equipment, the other types of equipment in the yard would only be useful in constructing a road and he couldn’t see how they might be adapted to other uses. Nine pieces of equipment and two pickup trucks meant eleven drivers and the Platoon consisted of fourteen Seals. That led to his decision to take an additional forklift, dump truck, and front loader.

He thought the bulldozer would be the slowest of the fourteen vehicles, so Cirque placed it at the head of his convoy. Once the convoy was headed north on Highway 80, CPO Cirque spent the journey trying to figure out how he was going to explain all of this equipment to Ensign Burr and Lieutenant Morrison.

Seal Platoon 2 was the first search party to complete the search effort. Ensign Bilart had Seal Platoons 1 and 2, with the exception of the six people who are on guard duty, begin the task of cutting down trees under the supervision of CPO Kaner.

CPO Kaner assigned Petty Officer First Class Marcel Cranham to supervise the guard detail and then had Seal Platoon 1’s PO Second Class Marcus Cayce walk with him to where CPO Woodard was talking with Seal Platoon 2’s two POs, PO First Class Rory Stamper and PO Third Class Shane Wagner.

Kaner said, “Morning, Chief. Ensign Bilart has tasked me with running this tree cutting detail. So while Seal Platoon 2 was out searching for survivors, PO Cayce and I have been looking the area over and thinking about what we need to do.

“Ensign Bilart told me the Lieutenant wants the trees cut down, cut up, and hauled off. He also mentioned that eventually we will be turning them into firewood to heat our buildings. Now, we don’t see any problems with dropping and cutting the trees into two or three sections. But there is no cleared place suitable for disposing of the cutup trees that is close by. I’d haul them down the freeway and leave them, but then we would have to haul them back to turn them into firewood for us to burn this winter. I don’t want us to make a lot of extra work for ourselves, so someplace nearby would be a better place to dump the tree sections.

“PO Cayce and I decided to use Fisher Road, which is the road just north of the Valero station, as our dumping area for the cutup trees. Fisher Road is a dead-end road that’s a little over a hundred yards long and there isn’t enough space on the road for all the trees we’ll cut. So I decided to start by clearing some of the area on the south side of the road. We can use the road and the area we clear to dispose of the trees we cut down that are closer to the Inn.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” CPO Woodard said. “How are we to handle the tree cutting?”

CPO Kaner said, “Let’s get the men, chainsaws, a couple of tow chains, and two pickup trucks, and meet behind the gas station. We can start cutting the trees to clear our tree disposal area and see how things go.”

An hour later, Seal Platoon 3 had returned from their search effort and finished cleaning their equipment, so Ensign Burr directed them to join the tree-cutting detail.

CPO King went to find CPO Kaner. He found him and Woodard standing behind the Valero gas station. King said, “Kaner, Ensign Burr told me and my men to report to you and help with the tree cutting detail. What do you want us to do?”

Kaner said, “Woodard and I have a few problems with what we’ve been doing and we decided to rethink how we are going about the task. Let’s put the men on a break until we can figure out a better way to do this job.”

They split up and went tell their men to take a break. When the three CPOs meet back at the gas station, CPO Kaner started explaining how he and CPO Woodard decided to approach the task and the problems they encountered.

“Lieutenant Morrison is concerned that we might drop a tree on one of our buildings. Ensign Bilart explained an idea that the Lieutenant came up with to keep that from happening. I agree with the Lieutenant’s concern and decided to implement his idea. However, based on the problems we are having here, our implementation of his idea needs a slightly different approach.

“The Lieutenant’s idea of the tree cutting effort is basically cut a tree down, cut it into manageable sections, and haul the sections to an out of the way location. The first problem was, Where should our people take the tree sections? PO Cayce and I scouted the area while you guys were out searching for survivors. It was easy to see that the trees to the south and west of the Inn are too dense to work in and there are no open areas suitable for disposing of the downed trees. We noticed the stand of trees to the west and southwest of the gas station weren’t as dense. We know the area around the gas station is outside the area the Lieutenant wants us to clear, but we decided cutting down trees here would give us a cleared area to dispose of the sectioned trees we drag away from the Inn. I discussed this with Chief Woodard before we started clearing this area.”