Chapter 21

Captain Abigale Bell, her Platoon officers, and Squad NCOs are in Captain Bell’s meeting room at SCC 1.

Captain Bell says, “During the past two days, we have gone out to the other SCCs and made arrangements to relieve Companies C, D, and E. Today is the day, so let’s deploy so they can return to the Ark.

“Sergeants Redman and Creswell’s Squads will remain here with me. Lieutenant Diaz, you are to take your Third Squad to SCC 2 and relieve Company C. Lieutenant Cruz, you are to take your Third Squad to SCC 3 and relieve Company D. Sergeants Watson and Meer you are to take your Squads and relieve Company E. I want the two of you to work together as equals, but when necessary, Sergeant Meer is in charge.

“I’ll call in your deployment to the Ark. When you have relieved the respective Companies, contact me and I will pass your status to the Ark.

“Any last minute questions?

“No questions, then go ahead and deploy.”

The day after Company A relieves Companies C, D, and E, Seal Team 1 prepares to deploy to SCC 2.

“Ark 4, Seal 1. Over”

“Go, Seal 1. Over.”

“I am deploying to SCC 2. Over.”

“Roger, Seal 1. Ark 4 out.”

Thirty minutes later, Lieutenant Alexander Brooks and Seal Team 1 pull into the parking lot of the shopping center across the road from SCC 2. For the past week, Alex and his people have worked at setting up the Rite Aid store as their barracks and Headquarters area. The few holes in the roof were patched with Company C’s assistance. Shelving units were used to create bedroom areas. Beds, mattresses, and bedding were installed and the Seal Team’s radio equipment was setup. Now all he and his men have to do is unload their personal gear and equipment into the building, and settle in.

“Ark 2, Ark 5. Over.”

“Go, Ark 5. Over.”

“Division 3 is deploying, Ark 2. Over.”

“Roger, Ark 5. Good luck and have a good trip. Ark 2 out.”

Vehicles for over two hundred Seals, a hundred Petroleum Group members, and all of their equipment and supplies makes for a very long column of vehicles. Captain Phil Johnson, Ark 5, is in his Mobil Command Post at the center of the column. Lieutenants Andy Montoya and Bart Perry are in their command vehicles in front of Captain Johnson and Lieutenant Carlo Bennett is behind him just a short distance from the rear guard.

Captain Johnson’s MCP is one of the RVs that Sam Thomas’s Construction Department remodeled for the Ark Army. The RV’s beds, TVs, plush floor carpet, and other unnecessary accouterments were removed. The electrical and heating systems, stove, refrigerator, toilet, driver seats, and water tanks were retained and an additional fuel tank added. The white exterior of the RV was painted grey and a medium-green and light-brown camouflage pattern was added. Antennas and two movement-sensitive security cameras were added to the RV’s roof. Linoleum was glued to the floor and then long-range radios, map tables, chairs, white-boards, computer equipment, and other necessities were installed and when appropriate secured to the floor and walls of the RV.

The only things Sam’s people couldn’t install were the remote-controlled machine guns. The gun mounts and controls were a late order that Mary’s Provisioning Department had not received when the Ark went into lockdown. Perhaps they are sitting in one of Auburn’s UPS buildings waiting to be delivered.

“Seal 4, Seal 4-1. Over.”

“Go, Seal 4-1. Over.”

“We have a small problem at the head of the convoy. Can you come forward? Ark 5’s presence may be needed also. Over.”

“Seal 4-1, Ark 5. What is the nature of the problem? Over.”

“Lincoln took a major meteoroid strike. Over.”

“Standby at your location, Seal 4-1. We are coming forward. Ark 5 out.”

Lieutenants Montoya and Perry are standing in the bed of a pickup truck looking at what remains of Lincoln, California. While Lieutenant Montoya is scanning the area with binoculars, Lieutenant Perry is checking the deployment of the perimeter guards to each side of the convoy. When they are joined by Captain Johnson, Lieutenant Perry extends a hand to help the Captain into the pickup.

Captain Johnson asks, “What’s it look like to you, Lieutenant Montoya?”

“It’s bad, Sir. From the size and location of the crater, I’d say it hit in the middle of the northwest quadrant of the city. The impact destroyed most of the city’s downtown area and the shockwave knocked down the surrounding buildings and they caught fire. There were probably no survivors in that area. The residential areas to the south and southeast of us took some damage and there were probably survivors in that area.”

“What are your thoughts, Captain Perry?”

“I agree with Lieutenant Montoya’s assessment. Most of the survivors in and near the city probably ran out of food and moved on to wherever they thought was a better place to live. My guess would be Rocklin, Roseville, or Sacramento. There may still be a handful of survivors here, Sir. Do you want us to put out search parties?”

“No, I think you’re right about them moving elsewhere. It’s been several months since the last of the meteoroid strikes. I doubt we would find anyone at this time. We’ll proceed to Benicia as planned. The Ark or our resupply convoys can conduct survivor collection efforts later if someone thinks they are necessary. We need to focus on getting to Benicia.”

After Captain Johnson returns to his MCP, the convoy turns onto Ferrari Ranch Road and the Captain calls in a status report.

“Ark 2, Ark 5. Over.”

“Go Ark 5. Over.”

“Status report, Ark 2. Our progress has been delayed by small meteoroid strikes on the road’s surface. We are filling the holes with packed rock and dirt, and proceeding. We are passing City 1 and most of it was destroyed by a meteoroid strike. No survivors observed in the area. I believe the survivors relocated, so no search party was put out. There may still be a few survivors in the area, so if you think it is needed, we can conduct survivor collection efforts during our resupply runs.

“I anticipate further delays due to meteoroid strikes on the road’s surface. City 1 was probably a good location for a power substation, Ark 2. If the transmission Line Crew is headed in this direction, they may want to check here before proceeding. Over.”

“Roger, Ark 5. I will let my Intelligence and Planning people know there are probably no survivors in City 1. My understanding is the Line Crew is following a different route. Report back in when you reach City 2. Ark 2 out.”

“Ark 2, Ark 5. Over.”

“Go Ark 5. Over.”

“Status report, Ark 2. We are just south of City 2 and heading to City 4. Meteoroid damage to road surface continues to slow us down. No signs of survivors observed in the area and I am deferring survivor collection efforts until later. I will report in when we reach City 4. Over.”

“Roger, Ark 5. Ark 2 out.”

“Ark 2, Ark 5. Over.”

“Go Ark 5. Over.”

“Status report, Ark 2. We are unable to reach City 4. A meteoroid strike took out the road and the northern half of City 4. We pulled back to the county road that is a mile north of City 4 and we will bivouac at that location for the night.

“I plan to head west on the county road for two miles and then turn south to the highway. I will contact you when we get to City 5. Over.”

“Roger, Ark 5. Ark 2 out.”

Mike Henderson knocks at Jon’s office door and enters when Jon waves him to a chair. After Jon ends his telephone call, Mike says, “I think we are going to be really busy during the next few weeks, Jon, so I thought I would give you my end-of-month status update on the status of the Ark Army verbally, since the written report will likely be delayed.”

“Good timing, Mike. I’ve lost touch with everything you’re handling and had planned to talk with you. So, where are we?”

“Overall, we are on schedule. We completed the Survivor Search effort in Auburn, and there are a little over seven hundred survivors split up between the four SCCs. The body collection and burial efforts have been cut back due to lack of manpower. My plan is to have that effort turned over to the SCC’s survivors once things are organized. Leah’s Recycling Department is doing a good job keeping everyone supplied with scavenged items and Mary’s Provisioning Department has provided us with almost everything we need.

“For Division 1, Company A is guarding the SCCs. Lately, that means keeping the peace between the survivors who haven’t found jobs to keep them busy. Companies C, D, and E will be departing for Folsom in a couple of days. Captain Maroun will be happy to be reinforced once the other three Companies set up their SCCs and defensive perimeters. Company F is pulling guard duty here at the Freight Yard and escorting the Scavenger Teams when they go to homes and businesses in search of useful merchandise.”

“Refresh my memory, Mike. Since we found all the survivors and brought them back to the SCCs, why is Fox Company escorting the Scavenger Teams?”

“We found most of the survivors, Jon. The Scavenger Teams are doing a door-to-door search of all the homes in Auburn. Every so often, we find survivors who didn’t want to come in to the SCCs or didn’t make their presence known to our search teams. They often become upset with us for stripping the food and other necessities from the homes in their area. Being shot at on that job is an all too frequent event. Unfortunately, survivors shooting at our people is a violation of our ROEs and we have had to inflict the death penalty in most of those cases.”

“What is the current count of the people we executed, Mike?”

“I’m not sure, Jon. In my last written report, which was a month ago, I said the count was at forty-seven people, but we’ve had a couple of incidents since then.”

“What about Crowley Incidents where some asshole abuses the people with him, but he doesn’t cross the line and warrant execution?”

“I think we’ve had a total of thirty nine incidents including Crowley, Jon.”

“That is a lot of abusive people, Mike. Did they all get Captain Bell’s punishment regime?”

“Most of them received a modified version of that punishment, Jon. As you recall, Crowley got his hands on a revolver and shot himself in the head three weeks after his first punishment session. I decided to tone down the punishment to three sessions and half the strokes. So far the other offenders haven’t killed themselves, although eleven of them headed out of town as soon as their backs healed enough from their first session. I am surprised that Crowley didn’t take that option.”

“I have mixed feelings about the survivors leaving, Mike. I’m happy we don’t have to put up with that sort of asshole, but we could have used their genes. Then again, if being an abuser is genetic, the loss of their genes may be a good thing.”

“Well, Jon, I don’t think being abusive is a genic trait. So, if they survive their journeys and are accepted into their new locales, then they can leave their genes at their new location and we will incorporate their genes into our community when we expand to that locale.

“Anyway, to get back to my status report. Division 2’s redeployments are complete. Seal Team 1 is at SCC 2 and they have coordinated their activities with Companies A and F. Seal Team 2 decided that Blocking Post 4’s location was a death trap, so they are in the process of moving the post to the Auburn State Recreation Area. They plan to establish homes for their Bond Groups about a mile northwest of the Blocking Post. Seal Team 1’s people and the Army personnel and Negotiators at SCC 2 and 3 plan to have their Bond Groups join Seal Team 2 at that location. The main holdup to Lieutenant Morrison’s plans is getting electricity routed to the Recreational Area and to their future homes; right now the Recreational Area is on generator power.

“Isn’t that a lot of diesel fuel, Mike?”

“Yes, but Blocking Post 4 has been on generator power since it was first established. That is also true of the other three Blocking Posts.”

“Alright. I know the Line Crews are busy routing power to the SCCs and critical locations in Auburn, so I’ll make a note to check on when the Line Crews will be able to route power to the Blocking Posts.”

Division 3 is enroute to the Benicia Refinery. However, they left Troop 3 of Seal Team 4, which is comprised of Seal Platoons 5 and 6, at Folsom Dam to complete the tree clearing effort. Once that effort is complete, Seal Platoon 5 will join the rest of the Division in the oil fields and Seal Platoon 6 will remain at the dam to keep the dam’s filter grid clear of debris. Captain Maroun decided Seal Platoon 6 could use some help, so he is providing a few of his people to assist in the tree clearing effort.”

“What’s your Command Center doing, Mike?”

“Busy, Jon. Major Brown’s Operations Section is keeping track of where everyone is and what they’re doing, and they are coordinating our units’ activities. Major Vannes’ Intelligence and Planning Section is busy gathering intelligence on Folsom and Granite Bay, so they can put together a detailed plan for a modified version of Stage 2. She was very upset with the botched up mess that her Stage 1 plan turned into and vowed that it wouldn’t happen again. Major Price’s Communications Section is handling all the radio traffic and passing messages to the appropriate people.”

“Mike, with everything going on we must have a lot of radio traffic. Do we need to start using multiple frequencies?”

“I’m not sure, Jon. I’ll pass the idea on to Major Price. She will know if they need to expand their capability. If I recall, Mary has at least four more of the long-range radios Major Price’s people are using.”

“Will we need to scavenge more of those radios, Mike?”

“Possibly, Jon, but we planned to hit the Army Reserve Units in Sacramento and strip them of all their equipment. I should say scavenge all the equipment the locals haven’t already taken.”

“I just had a nasty thought, Mike. What are we going to do if one of those gangs gets their hands on a tank or something like that and come at us with that type of firepower?”

“Personally, I wouldn’t worry about a tank, Jon, but RPGs are a different matter. Tanks are diesel hogs and would run out of fuel before they went very far. If the gangs are smart enough to have a diesel tanker with them when they leave, it might be a problem but we have a few options. You remember the man-packable missiles the President gave us before we went into lockdown. The Intelligence and Planning Section intends to deploy them to all the Blocking Posts within the next month and to the Folsom Area once their SCC is established.”

“What about sending some to Benicia, Mike?”

“I’ll suggest Major Vannes consider that. She can evaluate the need for that type of weapon at Benicia better than I can.

“When I think about the gasoline and diesel deteriorating, Jon, the gangs will be out of fuel for their vehicles in about eight months. They will be limited to what they can carry on their backs and haul around in wagons. Furthermore, even if they had fuel, they won’t have a resupply line for food, medical supplies, weapons, munitions, and other necessities. They will have to depend on what they can scavenge. I believe they will split up into small groups and go their separate ways within two months of leaving a city.

“Major Rivera’s Logistics Section is the remaining group and he is doing a good job keeping all of us supplied with whatever we need. He, Mary, and Leah have coordinated with each other to define what he needs and he basically acts as a coordinator for receiving supplies from Leah and Mary and shipping them to where our people need them.”

“Thanks, Mike. The only other thing I need to know about is the current schedule for the modified Stage 1 and 2 efforts. Has Stage 1’s schedule stabilized and what is the projected completion date for Stage 1? Secondly, how long will the Stage 2 effort take?”

“The schedule for those two Stages is still in turmoil, Jon. Part of the problem is due to our deployments to Folsom and Benicia. The other half of the problem is defining when to consider our modified Stage 1 tasks far enough along to start the modified Stage 2 effort, which is the rest of the original Stage 2 effort.

“Our original schedule was linear and by that I mean we had to complete the Stage 1 tasks before we started any of the Stage 2 tasks. Our new schedule will have us performing Stage 1 and portions of the original Stage 2 tasks in parallel. However, that means we need to train more soldiers and support people. Our recruit training is turning out trained people, but we need more people enlisting. Leah is putting the survivors we don’t get as recruits to work as members of her Scavenger Teams.

“She builds a team’s size up until it is large and splits it into two smaller teams; then she does it again. I think that if she were to keep the process going, she would finish scavenging in Auburn and the surrounding area in less than two years. However once the Folsom SCC is in place, she will send some of her Scavenger Teams to Folsom. That will reduce our survivor population in Auburn’s SCCs and allow us to consolidate the four SCCs into one or two locations. If our first group of Arkians settle in on the farms and ranches in the surrounding area, they should have established farms and ranches in a year. So, we should have an adequate supply of fresh food.”

“I’m not sure we can consolidate the SCCs in the near future, Mike. The modified Stage 1 plan calls for the Folsom survivors to be transported to the Auburn SCCs. I anticipate the number of survivors at Auburn’s SCCs will increase until we need to open additional SCCs.”

“I overlooked that, Jon. It will cause a problem for Captain Bell’s mission of Company A guarding all of the SCCs in Auburn. I suppose we could add additional Squads to Company A’s Table of Organization to handle guarding the additional SSCs.”

“Ark 2, Ark 5. Over.”

“Go Ark 5, this is Ark 2-3-2. Ark 2 is not available. I’ll pass your message to Ark 2 when he returns. Over.”

“Roger Ark 2-3-2. Status report for Ark 2. Division 3 is passing through City 5. It looks like the tsunami did a number on the city. No indication of survivors. The highway is damaged and we are detouring around washed out sections of the road. Debris is cluttering the roads and slowing us down. Meteoroid damage to the roads is still a problem. Assuming no further major damage to the highway we should reach City 6 in about six hours. I suspect the road condition will worsen the closer we get to City 8. We will bivouac at City 6 for the night. Ark 5 out.

As they are waiting for the debris to be removed from the road in Vacaville, Lieutenant Carlo Bennett says to Captain Phil Johnson, “I’ve got an idea that may help us make better time, Captain.”

“I’ll be happy to consider anything that will get us moving faster, Lieutenant. What do you have in mind?”

“While we were at Blocking Post 4, we had to create a killing field on each side of Highway 49, so we scavenged some heavy equipment to clear the trees and brush from the fields. Now, those destroyed buildings and equipment yards over there look like the remains of a construction company. If we looked around, we may find a bulldozer or front loader that still works. My people have experience with operating construction equipment, so we could use something like that to clear the debris from the road and to fill in the holes in the road caused by the meteoroids. We may even be able to also make temporary repairs to the washed out sections of the road.

“We brought enough diesel for our needs, but we will have to drive the construction equipment to Benicia, so we may need more fuel. I saw what looked like a tanker truck at that truck stop back in Dixon, and if so, it may have diesel fuel. If not, I’m sure we can scavenge some diesel from around here, and we can keep an eye open for tanker trucks of diesel at the truck stops ahead of us.”

“That’s a good idea, Lieutenant. We’re burning up more gas than planned due to delays, so if the tanker truck has gasoline bring it back. In fact, if it is empty bring it back and we can use it to store any fuel we can scavenge.”

“Seal 6-1 and 6-2, Seal 6. Over.”

“Seal 6-1. Go, Seal 6. Over.”

“Go, Seal 6. Seal 6-2, over.”

“I’m at Ark 5’s MCP. Report to our location. Seal 6 out.”

A short while later, Ensigns Macey Yanetta and Isaac Nichols report to Lieutenant Bennet. He motions them off to the side to talk privately.

“I suggested to Captain Johnson that we use a bulldozer or front loader to clear the road of debris, fill in the holes, and try to repair the road.

“Macy, that looks like the remains of a construction company over there. Have Chief Fisk take Seal Platoon 1 and see if he can find some operational equipment we can use for that purpose. If they had heavy equipment, they probably refueled it on the work site. While he is there, have him look around to see if he can find a fuel trailer with diesel. Bring it any fuel trailers they find even if they are empty.”

“Alright, Carlo. I’ll have him do that right away. Anything else?”

“No, go ahead and get him started.”

“Isaac, when we were passing through Dixon, I saw what looked like the remains of a truck stop off the right side of the road. I’m fairly certain there was a tanker truck in the parking lot. I want you to have Chief Boyle’s Seal Platoon 3 go check it out. If they can get it started, have them bring it back even if it’s empty. Hopefully, it has diesel fuel, but if not, we can use the additional gas for the trucks. If there are other tanker trucks or anything that might be useful have them bring that back also. That’s all for now, Isaac, but let me know what the Chief finds.”

After walking back to Captain Johnson, Lieutenant Bennett says, “I’ve sent one Seal Platoon to look for heavy equipment and a fuel trailer, Sir. I also sent a second Platoon back to Dixon to bring back that tanker truck if they can get it started.

“Anything else, Sir?”

“Yes. I haven’t seen anything like a truck stop here in Vacaville, but as large as this city was, I think they would have had one. Maybe there is one further up the highway. We passed Highway 505 a ways back. Since we are going to be stuck here for a while, send a Seal Platoon to see if there is a truck stop somewhere along that highway. Have them grab any tanker trucks they find. If they find any eighteen-wheelers with freight trailers, have them check the trailer contents for anything we might be able to use.

“One other thing, Lieutenant. We will be bivouacking in Fairfield when we get to the city limits, which hopefully will be by midafternoon. If we don’t get the construction equipment and tanker trucks we need from here, I want your Seal Platoons to spend three or four hours scavenging Fairfield for heavy equipment, tanker trucks, and fuel. By now we probably have an empty tanker truck or two, so put some people to work scavenging fuel as soon as we arrive. Maybe they can fill up the empty tanker trucks by morning.”