Chapter 3

In addition to their earlier scouting trips, which were made just after I had recovered from the effects of the virus, I had Bob and Sharna make several local scouting trips. The results of those trips were very informative.

It has been over two months since the meteoroids arrived. The ground and water strikes caused immense amounts of water, soil, and other solids to be vaporized and thrown up into our upper atmosphere. The rainstorm started as a light rainfall two days after the first meteoroid hit the surface. The subsequent meteoroid strikes increased the amount of vaporized water and solids circulating in our atmosphere, which increased the intensity of the rainstorm. The atmospheric moisture condensed into raindrops, and as the raindrops fell, they mixed with the vaporized solids. The result was muddrops landing on the surface. As the rainfall intensified, the muddrops became pools of fluid mud. As the mud pools increased in depth, the pools became a flood of liquefied mud flowing into the low areas.

Even after two months of continuous rain, the rain continues to fall, but it is gradually becoming less intense. The pollutants are being washed out of the atmosphere, but the rain is still muddrops. In the Sacramento Area, the runoff from the pools of liquefied mud collected in the low-lying areas south of Highway 80 and west of 99. In that area, the terrain is a sea of mud and seems to be getting deeper.

Before we were hit by the meteoroids, Highway 99 just south of the Sacramento city limit was about twenty-five feet above sea level, and its elevation rose to about forty-five feet near Elk Grove. To the west of Highway 99, the land sloped downward to the sloughs that fed into Suisun Bay, which used to flow into the ocean.

I suspect a very large meteoroid hit the ocean to the west of San Francisco. I believe the impact caused the tectonic plate on the eastern side of the fault line to shift, perhaps tilt upward would be more accurate. The tilting of the plate caused San Francisco and Oakland’s altitude above sea level to increase. Based on how far San Francisco is from the ocean, I think the plate rose at least twenty feet.

The plate’s movement affected the water runoff from the area around Highway 99 into the sloughs. We know the Carquinez Strait no longer connects Grizzly Bay and Suisun Bay to the ocean, which means the bays are now lakes. If the rain and runoff continue, the bays will become larger and deeper, which in turn means the Carquinez Strait may eventually become the lakes’ overflow path back to the ocean. The questions that concern us the most were, How far east will the sea of mud extend before the Carquinez Strait begins to carry the overflow back to the sea? Will the sea of mud reach Highway 99, and if so, how far east will the sea of mud extend?

One of the main objectives of Bob and Sharna’s scouting trips was to assess the number of survivors in the area around Auburn and the surrounding towns. Their findings would definitely affect the plans we make for our first steps in reclaiming the continental United States.

I rushed through my usual morning routine for I wanted to get to the Advisory Council meeting a little early. I hoped there would be enough time to chat with my advisors, so I could get the latest update on certain tasks my advisors had been working on over the past months. I was partially successful. But before I could talk with everyone, it was time to start the meeting.

“Good morning”, I said as I glanced at my main players who were sitting at the conference table while their support people sat in the audience seating.

I sometimes wished that we could go back to it being just me and my advisors like it was when we first started the Ark Foundation. Now, our jobs have grown to the point that we all needed assistants and our assistants had to be aware of what was happening in the Advisory Council meetings.

“For the record, the primary purpose of this meeting is to discuss merging the individual plans we prepared for the first step in returning to the surface. Prior to our starting the pickup effort, I individually tasked, and worked with, the people sitting at this table with the development of plans for securing and developing Auburn and the surrounding area. Circumstances necessitated our expanding our original effort to include what we now call the Sacramento Area.

“The increased size of the area we will be securing resulted in a major increase to the scope of the planning that had to be accomplished before our initial exit from the Ark. During the past months, I have been having various groups consult with each other in their planning; so the plans should be well integrated. Today, I hope to identify the factors necessary to complete the integration of the primary plans, which were developed by the Ark Army, the Recycling Department, and the Habitation Department. The plans developed by our remaining departments support or rely on these three plans, so unless something significant arises, I want to limit today’s discussion to the three main plans.

“The report I received from the scouting trip Bob and Sharna made yesterday indicates the atmosphere should be clear in two months if the rain continues. But, I am concerned about the Folsom Lake Hydroelectric Facility. Yesterday’s scouting report indicated the facility needs immediate attention or it may be damaged beyond repair in the not too distant future. So I added securing that facility to our current effort. I know this is short notice, but I want to set our exit date for seven days from now. Hopefully, the Facility will continue to function undamaged for that long without our attention.

“Since our External Security Department will lead the return to the surface, I am going to have Mike Henderson make the first presentation. Mike.”

“Thank you, Jon. Seven days will be a major challenge for the Ark Army. Oh well, challenges are just what I need to start my day off right. Vic, would you please project the Sacramento Area map on the screen. Thank you.”

Taking a pointer, Mike moved to the whiteboard on which the map was projected. While pointing to the respective towns and roads, Mike presented his briefing. Whiteboard pens were also available to highlight key points on the map.

“To orient you, the our Freight Yard is here on the map, North Auburn is here, and Auburn is here.

“As Jon said, Stage 1 of the Sacramento Area effort was initially supposed to be limited to Auburn, which includes North Auburn. I’m going to just call them Auburn. Jon informed me of the problem at the dam yesterday, so I added securing the Folsom Lake Hydroelectric Facility to the Ark Army’s Stage 1 effort.

“Our current plan has us securing the Sacramento Area in seven stages. Stage 1 is securing Auburn and the Hydroelectric Facility. During Stage 2, we will secure Granite Bay and Folsom. In Stage 3 we will secure the main towns along Highways 50 and 49 from Folsom to Angles Camp. The remainder of the major towns in the Sacramento Area will be secured during Stages 4 through 7.

“Based on the estimate of a five percent survival rate, we expect to find about nine hundred survivors in Auburn. Securing Auburn will provide us with a base of operation for the remaining six stages. Stage 2 will be our first major challenge for we expect to find close to six thousand survivors in the Folsom-Granite Bay area, and Stage 3 should give us about three thousand survivors.

“The Ark Army currently consists of about a thousand people, so we plan to recruit and train the survivors of these areas because the Ark Army will need additional people for Stages 4 through 7. During the last four stages, we expect to encounter an estimated one hundred and fourteen thousand survivors. Needless to say we will have to regroup and reorganize before we initiate Stage 4 and the remaining stages of our conquest.

“For today, I will only be addressing the specifics of Stage 1, namely securing Auburn and the Hydroelectric Facility. Our current plan includes four basic efforts:

“One, secure the Auburn Freight Yard.

“Two, acquire the vehicles we will need for securing Auburn and the Hydroelectric Facility.

“Three, secure Auburn to include the establishment of four blocking guard posts and four Survivor Collection Centers. Blocking Post 1 will be northeast of us at the Applegate Inn. Post 2 will be north of us on Highway 49 just outside Elders Corner near Joeger Road. Post 3 will be southwest of us where Hillside Road goes under Highway 80. Post 4 will be southeast of us on Highway 49 at Teichert Aggregates.

“Four, secure the area around the Lake Folsom Hydroelectric Facility. This effort includes us setting up a security post at the dam and us supporting the Line Crews that will find and correct any damage to the power stations and transmission lines between the dam and Auburn. Any survivors found during this effort will be routed to one of the SCCs that will be set up in Auburn.”

Rosy interrupts to ask, “Mike, what is an SCC?”

“Sorry, Rosy, I am so accustomed to the acronym that I use it without thinking. SCC stands for Survivor Collection Center.

“The main purposes of the Blocking Posts are to alert us to any movement of a hostile force into the Auburn area along the area’s main highways, and to stop the force from entering Auburn. It is possible to enter Auburn through the residential areas and other routes, but these two highways are the most likely routes a large force would use to approach and move through Auburn. We don’t have enough people to cover all of the possible approaches, so our plan is to cover the most likely approaches and be prepared if a group enters Auburn using a different route. The possibility of a group entering Auburn by another route is the primary reason the plan calls for each of the SCCs to be guarded by an entire Company of soldiers.

“When I say we will secure a town or area that means we will move into the town and declare martial law, and then we will take control of everything that happens in the town and immediate area. When martial law is declared, we anticipate that the survivors will generally cooperate with us. However ... some of the survivors will resist us using violence for a variety of reasons. We anticipate that the people who resist will be armed with rifles, shotguns, pistols, bows and arrows, and even clubs.

“My people will make a reasonable attempt to apprehend anyone who uses force to resist us if they can do so without placing their lives and well-being at risk. Hopefully, we can resolve the resisters’ problems with us and get them to join us.

“However, we do not have the time and people necessary to spend days trying to talk these people into surrendering. If requesting them to put down their arms and a reasonable amount of discussion fails to convince them to surrender, my orders will be for my people to use force to subdue the resisters. If the resisters survive, we will give them a trial. If they go to trial, they will probably be found guilty and the sentence for resisting the legal authority in an area under martial law is death. Therefore, my people will be aiming to kill, not wound, the resisters during any firefight.

“For the most part, that covers what our military contingent will be doing during Stage 1 of the Sacramento effort. The specifics of how we accomplish our objectives are not relevant at this time, so I have omitted them from this briefing. Does anyone have a question?”

Sam indicated that he had a question, so when Mike recognized him, Sam said, “Just for clarification. You said a detachment would be sent to Folsom Lake Dam to secure it. Do you also intend to secure any portion of Folsom as part of your Stage 1 effort?”

“The simple answer, Sam, is No. The detachment sent to the dam will be large enough to secure and hold the area around the dam and they will hold that position until reinforced. During that time, any survivors that approach them and request aid will be sent to Auburn. However, the detachment will not actively engage in searching Folsom for survivors or securing areas other than a security perimeter immediately near the dam.

“Except for the Company securing the Hydroelectric Facility, the Ark Army will be securing Auburn and searching for survivors in Auburn. Once we accomplish our Stage 1 goals, we will hold Auburn while the Recycling and Habitation Departments are engaged in completing their Stage 1 plans. These departments will put the Auburn survivors to work and start the restoration of the Auburn area. I will wait until the support departments are ready to support us before beginning Stage 2. At that time, I will leave a nominal force to protect Auburn while the rest of the Ark Army begins Stage 2, which is securing Granite Bay and Folsom.

“Using Bob and Sharna’s scouting data, my analysts predict that by now the survivors in the larger towns we plan to secure have formed gangs to protect themselves and their resources, which include shelter, food, medicine, and other necessities. There should still be an adequate amount of frozen, canned, and preserved food in the various cities to support the survivors for the next three to six months. However, frozen food is dependent on the power grid, which has been deteriorating and has failed in Auburn. Once power goes down in an area, any frozen food will have to be used quickly or the food will spoil. The fresh fruits and vegetables that were in the stores when the meteoroids arrived are rotten, but it may be possible to obtain fresh supplies of these foods from local farms.

“We believe the gangs are or will be fighting with each other over control of the limited resources available in their cities. To be clear, they are killing each other to gain and keep the resources for their personal use instead of cooperating for the good of everyone in the area. The longer it takes for us to get to and secure these cities, the fewer people there will be for us to deal with. In my opinion, that is both a good and a bad thing. The bad part of it is we need those people to join us, since those survivors are the recruits we plan to use in the future. The good part of the gangs killing each other is that it will make our job of securing the area easier and we will suffer fewer casualties.

“Many of you know the reasoning behind our decision to not make securing Sacramento one of the early stages in our effort. I believe everyone needs to be aware of why it was made Stage 6 instead of Stage 3. I briefly mentioned it; but to fully understand the why, it is important to recognize the probable actions of the survivors living in Sacramento.

“Sacramento’s population was over six hundred thousand people when the meteoroids arrived. We believe that the number of survivors in Sacramento is currently around thirty-one thousand people. Considering the size of Sacramento and number of survivors living there, there is no way we can secure Sacramento at this time. It is just too much of a risk to us for we do not have an adequate number of people to take and hold Sacramento. We need to recruit more people and allow the number of gang members in Sacramento to decrease before we will have a reasonable chance of securing Sacramento without taking major losses.

“Yes, Carol.”

Sam’s Bond Mate Carol Thomas (aka Carol Bailor) asked, “What is going to happen when the people in Sacramento start running out of food?”

“I was just getting to that, Carol, for it is one of many points we addressed in our planning for Sacramento and the other large towns in the area. We expect the gangs to move out of their cities when the food supplies run low and they will become what we have been calling roving bands of outlaws. The competition between gangs within the cities for resources will force the weaker gangs to leave their cities before the lack of food causes the stronger gangs to leave the cities. Once the gangs leave the cities, they will move from area-to-area scavenging food and supplies. Eventually, some of the gangs will move into the area we control, which is why Jon and I will leave a strong security force in Auburn and Folsom when we begin Stage 3.

“When we encounter a gang, or a gang moves into our area, we will give them the choice of joining us or being wiped out. The gang’s followers will probably make good recruits once we train them. However, I don’t have much hope for the leaders fitting into our structure due to the type of people these leaders will be, but, we will give them a chance to join us.”

Carol asked, “What do you mean by the type of people these leaders will be, Mike?”

“It’s the environment in which these gangs are created, Carol. A gang’s leader must have a strong, ruthless personality; they will expect to be obeyed. This type of person cannot tolerate a challenge to their authority or else the other gang members will turn on them. The people that join us must be willing to accept being a member of a group that is controlled by its officers. I do not believe the gang leaders will tolerate an enlisted superior or one of our officers telling them what to do; thus they will not fit in.

“Unless someone has another question, that concludes my part of the presentation.”

Looking around the table, I saw no one seemed interested in presenting another question, so I said, “Thank you, Mike. Samantha, go ahead and present the Habitation Department’s plans, and as you do so, tie your plans in with what Mike presented.”

While Mike returned to his seat, Captain Russell turned off the projector and Samantha rose to her feet and moved to the podium to begin her presentation.

It is surprising how many people do not want to talk about the harsh realities of life. I think everyone in the room understood that Mike was talking about allowing people to die to save our people from being killed and killing anyone who created a problem for us during the process of our securing the Sacramento Area.

I knew from earlier discussions that a number of people in the room strongly disagreed with what Mike and I planned to do. I was glad they didn’t start another argument about the morality of killing helpless people. Perhaps they finally realized that it is a question of survival and we plan to survive regardless of what we have to do to survive. Hopefully, we will be presented with alternatives other than arbitrarily killing someone who we feel is standing in our way.

Samantha started her presentation with, “Our plan is basically to supply the people needed to rebuild Auburn, Granite Bay, Folsom, and the other cities we secure. This will require a combination of what we call Specialists and Generalists. Except for a few items, we will be working closely with Leah’s Recycling Department to support her activities and she will explain her plans for those activities.

“My department’s primary contribution to the Stage 1 effort is providing the people who will perform the various tasks in the cities.

“For anyone in the audience who may not be aware of it, when Julie and I set up the Habitation Department, our original intent was to locate around a million warm bodies who met a defined personality profile. Part way through our effort of defining how to measure our applicants’ personalities, our mission was redefined to include finding people with specific skill sets and knowledge. This made a drastic change in how we recruited people.

“We essentially modified our plan for finding compatible people to recruiting two categories of people. Our existing plan was okay for recruiting what we call Generalists, which is basically a warm body that can be trained to perform a needed task. However, we had to change our questionnaires to identify Specialists, which are people who had the skill sets and knowledge that we might need.

“Fortunately, the need for Specialists was identified early enough for us to define what skill sets and knowledge the Ark would need when we returned to the surface. Since suitable Specialists might not meet all of our personality requirements, we also had to relax our compatibility standards for this group of people. We did not forego those standards; we only lowered the minimal level of compatibility for acceptance as a Specialist. After all, we knew we might have to live in the Ark with these people for a year or more, so some degree of compatibility was necessary.

“Our analysis in defining the necessary skill sets indicated that rebuilding the country would require electricity, gasoline, and people skilled in agriculture, medical care, education, and many other specialties. We turned the main focus of our effort to finding the Specialists that we would need in the future. Once we brought them into the Ark, we put them to work teaching our Generalists the skills and knowledge that would be needed in the future. We now have an adequate supply of people skilled in the majority of the specialties we will need when we exit the Ark.

“I should add that we did not look for people having the skill sets necessary for performing certain functions. This deficiency was primarily in those areas where we will not be able to restore a needed capability within a reasonable period of time. Although, we did acquire the knowledge and training materials that will allow us to train people in these disciplines when they are needed. A good example of these specialties is the production of steel. Auburn doesn’t have local facilities or an accessible source for the raw materials needed to make steel. We knew it would be many years before we secured a city that had the capability of producing steel, so acquiring people skilled in the production of steel did not make sense.

“Does anyone have a question? ... No. Okay, I’m done for now, Jon.”

“Thank you, Samantha. Leah, go ahead with your presentation.”

“Thank you, Jon. The main task my department will initially undertake is scavenging all of the available and needed resources located in the Auburn area. Prior to lockdown, my department prepared lists of things that will be needed in the future, the stores that sold these items, and the warehouses where the items were stored. We currently have the addresses of the locations where we can locate the items we will need. We plan to leave resources not immediately needed where they currently are, but we also know of empty warehouses that we can use as central storage locations when stocking multiple items at one location makes sense.

“Food, medical supplies, clothing, and hundreds of other items will be of immediate need by us and the survivors who join us. Gathering those items is one of the main tasks for Samantha’s Generalists, who we will be using for that purpose.

“My people will lead Scavenger Teams made up of Generalists to collect the needed materials and transport them to where they are needed or to warehouses that my people will manage with the help of warehouse personnel that Samantha will provide to us. In addition to the targeted locations, our Scavenger Teams will spread out and search homes and small businesses in the Auburn area in a systematic manner for critical supplies. The location of anything not on one of Leah’s lists and not needed immediately will be noted and reported to the Recycling Department. Tracking the resources we leave in place will be a very big job and we have enough people to start that effort, but it will grow in scope over the following months.

“My department will also be responsible for restoring the services Samantha mentioned. We will be using a combination of her Generalists and Specialists for doing the work.

“Mike’s expansion plan is to first secure our Freight Yard, and to then secure the dam and Auburn. My people talked with Mike’s and we agree with and support their plan for obtaining adequate transportation. Mike will send out patrols with a few of our Specialists who are skilled mechanics to locate and start the vehicles we will need to move rapidly through Auburn and the surrounding areas.

“I understand electric power is no longer available in Auburn. Mary’s Provisioning Department stocked a small amount of gasoline in addition to electric fuel pumps, gasoline-powered electric generators, and hoses. My people trained Ark Army personnel on how to use the fuel recovery equipment that Mary’s Provisioning Department is supplying to all military units deploying from the Ark. When they find serviceable vehicles, they will fuel them from service station tanks using our AC generators and pumps. We estimate that there is enough gasoline in the Auburn area to fuel the vehicles we will need for more than six months assuming it doesn’t degrade beyond the point of being useable.

“Once we’ve obtained transportation for Mike’s people, Mike will send a Company of soldiers to the dam. Samantha recruited people who used to work at the Hydroelectric Facility and they know how to maintain and operate the facility. She also recruited my Department’s Line Crews, who have experience maintaining our local power grid. Most of these people will be going to Folsom with Mike’s people.

“With Mike’s troops as a security detail, our Line Crews will start by inspecting the Wise power substation for damage. They will then inspect the transmission lines and the Newcastle and Horseshoe substations all the way to the Folsom substation, which is adjacent to the Hydroelectric Facility. Once their inspection is complete, they will do the repairs necessary to get electrical power to the Wise substation.

“By the time they get power to the Wise substation, which may take several weeks, we believe Mike’s people will have control of Auburn. My Recycling Department developed a list of critical services that need to be put back into operation. Our Line Crews will focus their efforts on restoring power to the SCCs and to the facilities my people have identified. There should be enough electrical repair parts and equipment in the Auburn and Folsom areas to make any repairs that may be necessary to the damaged lines, substations, and other facilities.

“There are a number of farms and businesses that raised vegetables, fruits, and animals in the area around Auburn. Once Auburn is secure, the farmers and other people Samantha recruited will work with the Department of Agriculture to focus their efforts on harvesting existing crops, getting new crops into the ground, and rounding up and caring for the surviving livestock.

“There are a number of critical services that need to be restored to the Auburn area as soon as possible. These services include supplying potable water to the residents, removing and treating sewage, firefighting services, medical services, law enforcement and judicial services, and many more. That means the people Samantha recruited to support those services will work with my departments to restore a variety of facilities to operation.

“One of the key factors of our many tasks is an adequate supply of fuel for our vehicles. Our plan is to use gasoline vehicles for as long as the available gasoline is useable, and then we will switch to diesel vehicles.

“My Recycling Department looked into the shelf life of gasoline and diesel fuels. They found that the shelf life of gasoline is about six months before it starts to degrade, and the shelf life of low-sulphur diesel fuel is over one year. Once gasoline starts to degrade, it does not burn properly, which makes vehicles hard to start, and assuming the vehicles can be started, the engines run rough. When diesel fuel destabilizes, it forms solids in the fuel that clog the vehicles’ fuel filters and the lack of fuel to the engine shuts down the engines. That means we should have vehicles still running a year from now. Our schedule indicates our petroleum crews will have the Benicia Refinery back to producing fuel before our existing supply is exhausted.

“One thing that will help our fuel situation is the use of fuel additives. However other than fuel additives, there is nothing we can do to extend the life of the available gasoline. I think we can filter the solids out of diesel fuel before it is used, and in doing so, I believe we can extend the life of the diesel fuel. We aren’t sure how long the fuel will be usable for my people were unable to find any studies conducted to determine the useable life of filtered diesel fuel and they did not conduct a test to prove our theory.

“It was pointed out to me that there is gasoline and diesel in service station tanks, tanker trucks, and at a number of our local bulk fuel delivery facilities. So we should have a good supply of diesel fuel and it should last us for at least the next nine months. However, since fuel degrades over time, it is a case of use it or lose it.

“That’s it for me, Jon, unless someone has a question about a specific task we will be doing or needs a more detailed description.”

No one seemed interested in further details, so I said, “Thanks, Leah. Larry, does our Justice Department have anything to add regarding reestablishing law and order in the Sacramento Area?”

“No, Jon. About the only thing I can add is that initially Mike and the Ark Army will be in charge and they will be operating under martial law. Mike, Bill, Sheryl, and I have discussed transitioning from martial law to our new legal code and law enforcement system. I have also been working with Sheryl and Bill’s Internal Security Department to get enough people trained in law enforcement techniques and our new legal code. I have also been busy training my people to be the judges and lawyers that will be needed after we transition from martial law to the civilian legal structure. We currently have enough people for the Aurora area and almost everyone we will need for Granite Bay. We don’t have enough people for Folsom and other areas. Hopefully, we will have people trained in law enforcement and judicial proceedings when we need them, but as everyone keeps saying, we will just have to wait and see how the situation evolves.”