Chapter 4: Inventorying the Assets

(Day 18, June 9, the highway between Fairbanks and Anchorage, Alaska)

As the caravan rolled down the Parks Highway, survivors at each town along the way met it. Cantwell, Talkeetna, and Palmer were also State Trooper posts. At each post, people joined the caravan, including seven more State Troopers, and a Park Ranger from Denali National Park. One helicopter, and two light planes were among the police assets headed to Anchorage. Other pilots in the villages would volunteer to fly ahead and scout, making sure that the caravan reached the next town undisturbed.

There was equipment at the military bases, planes, weapons, generators, and medical equipment once the survivors got organized. From Eilson Air Force Base, they had brought a Mobile Medical Center and two ambulances, in case something happened along the way. There would be others at Elmendorf and Fort Richardson.

Aboard two buses were forty-eight men from the 172^nd Infantry Brigade from Fort Wainright, and their equipment. Another sixty had gone ahead aboard a C-130 to Willow Airport, north of Anchorage, to secure the Willow, Houston, Wasilla, Knik and Palmer areas for the Agricultural Technicians prior to their arrival.

That was the highly fertile Mat-Su Valley, where the legendary sixty-pound cabbages and the like were grown. The crop had to be planted and soon. Two veterinarians accompanied the technicians, to examine the livestock in the area, if the dogs and wolves hadn't killed them all. That was one of the goals of the Infantry, to exterminate any wild dogs, wolves and bears they found. Sportsmanship and wildlife preservation were secondary to the survival of the human race. On the other hand, reducing the predator population would increase the moose and caribou numbers, and they were a source of edible meat.

When the caravan reached the town of Talkeetna, it stopped for the night. The stops along the way to take on stragglers had slowed everyone down considerably. They had already fragmented into three groups, the last of which awaited the arrival of fuel tankers at Cantwell, the vanguard of the group having exhausted that town's supply of gasoline. Relocating to the city of Anchorage from the outlying areas served to get the infrastructure back up.

In Anchorage the port was reopened, as the bodies were identified and cleared by the 223 Army and Air Force personnel still alive from Elmendorf and Fort Richardson, by virtue of bio-chemical suits they donned at the outset. There was equipment at the military bases, planes, weapons, generators, and medical equipment once the survivors got organized.

From a population of over 250,000 people, possibly 1400 civilians had survived in Anchorage. Of that 1400, approximately 50 were members of rogue outlaw bands abducting female survivors for their pleasure. By Day 17, all that remained of the outlaw bands were in three groups, considering they were racially divided, and fought among themselves over control of the city, and the Kenai Peninsula. When word spread that the guard from the 172^nd rolled into Palmer, the gangs fled to regroup, or try to merge with the population.

The 21 white bikers, holding some 102 hostages were holed up in Soldotna, near Kenai. The black gang was fortified in the Clarion Hotel. They held 210 hostages, more than any of the other gangs, with 16 remaining gang members to conduct food and kidnapping raids, and guard the prisoners. Several of the women they held captive had already leapt to their death from the upper floors after breaking out windows. The 13 soldiers of the Chinese gang with just 34 prisoners had waged a violent war against the African Americans. The Dragons were occupying the Marriott in Anchorage. In other hotels, several men had secured defensive positions with hunting rifles, and had been able to discourage the foraging gangs.

Of the thousand plus in the caravan from the Interior, only about 120 were charged with its protection, including the Army escorts. From the Willow and Palmer airports, four pilot and observer teams began to fly recon missions throughout the area, looking for survivors, friendly and not, and the condition of ports such as Seward, Whittier, and the Oil terminal at Valdez. When the towns and farms were secured and the families moved into the habitable dwellings, forty of the Infantry troops secured the International Airport to assist the dozen or so police and airport personnel keeping the terminal and the planes from falling into the hands of terrorists.

Finding the ports intact, but with no signs of life, a crew of 50 was deployed to Valdez aboard one of the 737-800's from Anchorage International for an on ground inspection. The refineries at North Pole, near Fairbanks and the one at Valdez could supply the state and more with oil and gasoline for years to come. People would need to be found and trained to man the refineries and tankers before trade could possibly be established. There was hope for the future.

The bikers realized the influx of the people from up north jeopardized their hold on the Kenai. As a recon party drove down Highway 1, the highway that went all the way to Homer on the end of the peninsula, the bikers ambushed them killing one man, wounding six, and pinning them down along the highway. Sergeant Tim Leach called for some reinforcements and air support on his radio. The four men that were in the second Humvee manned the M-60 machine gun on top of the vehicle, even though two were slightly wounded.

A half-hour later an Apache gunship came and wiped out the last of the twelve bikers. After the ambush team failed to return, the remaining gang fled with their female hostages aboard two buses. The Apache found them, and contingent of five troopers and nine of the convoy defense team members were dispatched to intercept them aboard a Blackhawk, and a Jet Ranger. After a short fierce firefight, the last two survivors were locked up, pending a trial, and the hostages freed, and driven back to Anchorage where the Providence Hospital was being disinfected and reclaimed.

During their physicals, their clothing was searched, turning up weapons among nineteen of the supposed women hostages that were members of the gang. Even under threat of reprisal, several of the former hostages pointed them out to the troopers. They too joined their brothers in the city jail. Once the presence of the troopers was known, other survivors came out from hiding.

In Anchorage, the ranking State Trooper held an assembly in the Convention Center so that all of the survivors were made aware of the situation. Everyone filled out an application to interview for the jobs that needed filling. State Trooper Capt John Randall from Fairbanks chaired the meeting, similar to the one in Galena, and assured the people that if they lied on the applications, they would be put on a ferry to the lower 48 to fend for themselves. Randall also announced that because no contact had been made in states outside of Alaska, they had to consider that the survivors were on their own.

The first task was to evaluate everyone's skills and get them back to work. For the time being, everyone's money would be honored from before. A committee was appointed from the Interior group to conduct interviews to determine the skills of the populace, and assign them to jobs, unless they held that job previously. Then they could resume their old occupation as long as it was necessary. Curiously, none of the city government or lawyers survived IT.

Frank Sweeney, a City Councilman from Boston was among the survivors and insisted that with his experience in city government, he should be appointed the leader of the people. Randall told him to sit down, and there would be an election of a representative body on July 1, just days away. Until then, the police and military would maintain order in Alaska by necessity.

Sweeney was given a map, and told to report to the People Mover center, where he would learn to drive a bus. When he refused, he was given the option of being locked up or going to retrain to work in Valdez at the oil terminal. Frank thought at least on the bus, he would have a chance to campaign when the nominations were opened.

Several Petroleum Engineers were located in the interviews. Oliver Duncan was to go to the refinery at Kenai and Grant Turner and Scott Morris were to head down to Valdez. Quite dismayed that their families on the outside were probably dead, these people accepted the positions reluctantly. There were oil rigs in Cook Inlet along the west side, and Duncan and his team of six men appointed to him, were to inventory all of the equipment, and report to Mike Laws in Anchorage.

When all of the survivors were rounded up and a census taken, there were still more single men than women in Alaska, and that took into account the surviving families. Once the necessary positions to run the community were assigned, a scavenging team of twelve men and six women was organized to locate vehicles, construction equipment, road maintenance equipment, aircraft, boats, guns and ammunition that had not yet been looted, industrial equipment, manufacturing plants and machinery, warehouses, parts stores for all of these, and round up all that the owners were not found, and store them.

This was already being done on the military bases, and teams of MP's were flown to Fort Greeley to check on the status of the troops there. While there were casualties from the war, military survivors had to be somewhere, and they were going to be contacted. A recon squadron was established out of Elmendorf Air Force Base to locate and consolidate any assets that would be needed in future military operations.

A matchmaking service was initiated by one of the couples, Rev. Clyde Danner and his wife Sue Ellen. It was voluntary, and the database was to reach over 200 individuals before any introductions were made. Of course it was to be based from his church in Palmer. The good reverend was also a dairy farmer by trade.

The recon of the Kenai Peninsula found 76 more survivors, several of which were fishermen, or formerly charter boat operators, and fishing guides. These men were assigned the task of providing the Salmon, Halibut, Rockfish, and crabs to feed the population. Unfortunately, there were only a few beef cattle and someone would need to locate an unattended herd, and bring them back.

Alvin "Al" Bateman an oil driller known as a wildcatter, from Dalhart, in the Texas Panhandle offered that he had a ranch near there, with sixty plus head of Herefords. He had been there hunting bears, and promised all of the cattle in exchange for just knowing if his wife and daughters were still alive. His neighbor also raised chickens for one of the major poultry distributors before IT occurred. It was a long way to Texas, but one of the pilots among the group Jim Sampson agreed to fly him down in his Beech King Air 350, and bring the wife and daughters back.

Al was also a Ham Radio Operator, and would go on the air once he learned if anything was left of the ranch and his family. Then a C-130 or C-17 could be dispatched to bring back what remained of the herd, either live or butchered. Flying outside of Alaska was yet an unknown undertaking. There was always a chance that one couldn't find enough fuel, and four five-gallon gas cans were to go with them so they could scavenge fuel from other planes along the way if necessary. Two hand operated siphon pumps were stowed with the gas cans.

Vic Donnelly from Homer was also a Ham Radio Operator, and had located five others in the state, and three in the Yukon, and Northwest Territories in Canada.

The Hams in Canada had gathered several survivors together, and were in dire need of food, and clothing. Several Cessna 208 Caravan aircraft were dispatched on the 9^th to these locations for recon, and to deliver some MRE's from Fort Richardson. Once the needs of these were evaluated, and the accessibility by air, those who wished to join the Anchorage area communities were flown in on DeHavilland Dash 7's, or DH-6 Twin Otters. The Ham operators in Yellowknife and Dawson elected to stay. One of the Ham Operators in Whitehorse chose to move on to Anchorage where he helped get a radio station back online. In the group from Yellowknife, NWT, were two Mounties who opted to go with the group.

From sixteen of the survivors and the newcomers, the Fire Department was re-established. A combined Police Department was bolstered to almost fifty officers and a Judge was chosen from the civilian population who had been a Government and Social Studies teacher from the Galena Private School. Now the bikers and the other gang members could be put on trial.

As was expected, many of the civilians were pilots, and owned their own planes. Some were even airline pilots, capable of flying the big jets at the International Airport. By the next week, some of these were organized so that scouting patrols could be flown, and other remote villages visited to establish their needs and assets, and alert them to the July 1 election.

(Day 19, June 10, Galena)

In Galena, Lt Dawson requested that Lana and the girls make the move to Palmer to assist with the farming operation there. Concluding that Ernie would not ever come back, Lana Hart agreed and took her daughters to Palmer aboard the Cessna 207, where she was to oversee the operation of a recently constructed greenhouse. With her, Lana brought several trays of started tomato, pepper, cabbage, squash, and other plants to be put in the ground after her arrival. Sgt Stan Johansen was the pilot, and had been assigned by Capt Randall to the Palmer outpost.

Air Guard Sgt Bob Vine would fly the plane back to Galena, where he and three other airmen were assigned to support the fighters there as a crew chief and maintenance team. Two more men were charged with setting up a Ham Radio station there to communicate with Anchorage and Fairbanks. It was almost ironical that the older equipment was what worked. The country had come to depend upon computerized high-tech gadgets that now graced almost every wastebasket.

Galena was back down to around 270 people. Many from the surrounding villages resumed life as it was before the war. Between Galena and Kaltag downriver, and all the way up to Fairbanks, the Yukon River was for the moment, clear of pirates and other renegades. Gasoline, fuel oil, and Aviation fuel could begin to come down the Yukon by barge by the next week. Things were not so secure down near the mouth of the river.