25th Mile (3) 10 ea iodine swabs 3 pk sterile Q-tip, 10/pk 2 ea 3” non-sterile rolled gauze, 5 yards 2 ea 4” non-sterile rolled gauze, 5 yards 1 pr tape shears 2 ea large triangular bandage 5mg Morphine 5mg fentanyl 5mg alfentanyl Emergency IV setup and delivery system After inspecting two cars and finding occupants beyond help, he found a male about the age of 50 with an obviously broken arm. Saving his SAM splints for later, Clay rapidly made a splint was made from some old magazines on the floor of the vehicle and Clay moved on. Next there was a car filled with 4 young college aged people, who were obviously returning from a beach trip as evidenced by the surf-boards and Wet Suits. They were very badly shaken and one of the girls had a large gash on her forehead. Clay removed the debris from the wound, and cleaned and closed the wound with five deft stitches from a suture kit. Enlisting three of the young adults to help and leaving the remaining one behind to tend to her friend together for over four hours they patched, stitched tended the injured along with another dozen or so volunteers until their medical supplies were exhausted. While over the next five hours they had helped many people in their area, it was too little to late. Without supplies and trained medical personnel, they quickly were unable to assist other than in the most rudimentary ways. Looking around at the wounded, Clay realized with startling clarity that many of them would die in the next day or two without help. Upon this realization he knelt down and said a quick prayer the wounded and for the safety of his wife and children. Looking up Clay noticed that twilight was approaching, although it was hard to tell with all of the smoke and debris in the air, the sun was almost blotted out, being black with smoke. The young people who had helped him and himself had migrated back to the Trooper, along with 7 or 8 of the volunteers, where they were drinking lukewarm soda and water left over from their beach trip and talking in hushed tones. Realizing introductions had not been made Clay introduced himself and found out the names of everyone and thanking them each individually. Under the glow of the flames from the exploded refinery that was still burning brightly, Clay thanked them all for their help and told them he was proud of them for unselfishly helping out. He found that they attended the local University and had ditched class that day to go surfing, speaking to the college students Clay commented that class probably would not be held again for some time, since the school was probably damaged and/or destroyed. There was a painful silence when all realized the truth of the comment. The conversation then turned to getting home. One of them voiced the opinion that they should wait in place for help, but when Clay pointed out that it had been some 5 hours since the earthquake and they had yet to hear even a siren, it could only be surmised that most of the police and fire departments were overwhelmed with the casualties. Everyone sat in stunned silence as the remaining portion of the security blanket society had placed around them was ripped away from around them. Clay was sure these kids had never felt so alone and vulnerable in their life, so quietly he said a quick prayer that they would be strong enough for the trip home. Because in his heart he knew that if the terrain for his trip home was this bad, driving for them would be near impossible, even if they could find reliable transportation and walking might be their only recourse. As the realization of their situation dawned on Abby she began to weep softly. Davey in a sign of compassion put his arm around her to comfort her, and she continued to weep into his shoulder for several minutes. It was obvious that because of the heavily reconstructed nature of the Trooper, Clay had escaped serious injury. But it was obvious also that most people for miles around were injured or dead. Torn limbs with broken bones abounded and dead bodies protruded from crushed cars, cries of pain and blood still abounded from the vehicles along the freeway. People who were not injured and trapped in their vehicles were starting to wander about in shock. As Clay raised his eyes from the dead and wounded and looked around at the unearthly damage, he saw that to the south-west were copious amounts of fire and smoke, destruction was everywhere. He decided at that moment that he should start working towards getting home to be with his family. The freeway was covered with broken glass that crunched under the tread of Clay’s heavy Dockers, and the ground was cracked and in places large ground ruptures belching hot sand out of the bowls of the earth into giant ovals, some as wide as 10 feet across and about a food deep. After seeing numerous vehicles swallowed whole, Clay promised to himself to steer clear of them on the way home. He did have some piece of mind knowing that that his wife handled emergencies well the family had prepared an extensive earthquake kit that was stored in an outside shipping container on the property. However none of this eased his mind enough to satisfy the primal urge to protect his family. Clay reached for his cellular phone to call Karen to ensure the safety of his family. As he expected he was unable to get through; as he was dialing a second time, without warning there was a large explosion directly off to his left from the other lane of the Highway. Clay instantly hit the deck as instincts honed in combat suddenly came back to life. The Gas tank on a Late model Cadillac had exploded with such force that the trunk lid sailed 100yards into the air and landed on the far side of the freeway. The old caddy was shooting liquid death onto everything within 25 yards. The driver had escaped injury, by climbing out of the vehicle upon smelling smoke. But those around him were not so lucky. With the report of the explosion Clay realized that Police, Fire Department or any other public service put on this earth would not help them. This disaster was immense, beyond the authority’s ability to cope, and he was sure the roads were impassible and everyone within the City, County and possibly State had to have been effected, it was obvious that it would take them weeks, maybe even months to get things sorted out. With the thought of trained assistance barely complete, he suddenly realized that there was a conspicuous absence of sirens. Clay decided the first thing he needed to do was quickly inventory the loose equipment in his Trooper. Clay knew that what he had in that Car was as precious as gold now, and while he knew what was in his BOB (bug out bag). He also needed to know exactly what he had loose in the glove box, hidden under the seats on in the console and what condition it was in. Although he could if pressed, list the contents of the Trooper he wanted to perform a visual check of the vehicle and anything he had inside of it. In addition he wanted to help the four college students that had so unselfishly come to his aid and the aid of dozens of other people. Looking through the center console Clay dug up, two small tactical flashlights, 3 granola bars, a toothbrush and dental floss, about a ton of junk paper and a bic lighter, In the glove box he found 7 pieces of hard candy left over from last year, the registration for the Trooper and a pair of sunglasses, and under the seat he found a crescent wrench, Thomas Brothers map, a small socket set from China and a pair of jumper cables. Using the old pack from the Trauma Kit he stuffed everything useful into it and gave it to Bill, who seemed to be the leader of the college students. The registration and other important paperwork he kept for himself. Folding it carefully and putting it in his billfold. As Clay walked across the fractured pavement back to the Trooper the dread realization appeared across his conscience the people around him had not been in the situations he had, and had no idea how far a walk it was to their homes, most if not all of them did not even have proper shoes to walk in, let alone water, food and general supplies. With a heavy heart Clay realized that in addition to the wounded most of the uninjured and walking wounded would die here on the road or while walking to the “safety” of their homes if help did not arrive. In the waning light, Clay gathered the college students and anyone who would listen around the Trooper to discuss the future. He found that most were not going in the same direction he was but needed to head east away from the coast. Clay’s detour to the auto-shop meant that offering rides would take him miles out of his way. So without offering rides and firmly explaining why, Clay gave them a quick overview of the 10 essentials they would need to survive the trip home. In rapid detail Clay covered the following items they should look for. He outline the 10 items they could not do without; calling them “The 10 essentials” 1. Map and Compass 2. Water 3. Food 4. First Aid Kit 5. Flashlight 6. Clothing and walking shoes 7. Pocket knife and/or a multi-purpose tool 8. Pencil and paper 9. Tarp 10. Signaling device like a whistle Not wanting to overwhelm them, He did not discuss the disease and death that he thought would follow weeks and months from the pollution of the water supply or the hunger that would occur from the blocked roads and flattened super markets and stores. In the back of his mind he recalled his time in Iraq when 155 people died in the small Mahmuiya district after a collapse of the sewer and water systems during the first gulf war. In addition he advised anyone who would listen to inventory their vehicles for anything useful and gather material from the vehicles around them that were either abandoned or the occupants were dead; instructing them to do this before dark if possible. The college students were hesitant to take anything from the abandoned vehicles but Bill had no qualms about it. He had already found several full .5 L Evian water bottles that he had secured in a small backpack. Clay gathered them around and after a quick prayer thanking God for his providence in sparing them, everyone went on their way, Clay back to inventory his Trooper and the College students off to find the equipment they would need for their travel home. As they approached their car a violent aftershock swept through the landscape and opened up a large ground rupture not more than 100 yards from them. Bill rallied the others around him and they moved noticeably quicker removing everything from the damaged vehicle. Clay fished his key out of his pocket and opened the passenger side door, clumsily reaching across to the damaged drivers side door he pulled back a Velcro piece of the upholstery that was across the drivers side quarter panel. From within that hidden recessed compartment, Clay removed a Bianchi shoulder holster and a Glock model 17. Checking the Glock to ensure it was fully loaded, he loaded the other two magazines that were on the opposite side of the weapon with 9mm hollow pt ammo from the center console. He had not kept all the magazines loaded, as he did not want the springs to take a set and not be able to feed the ammo to the pistol correctly. In addition he had diligently rotated the magazines every 3 months. Once he was sure the pistol was undamaged and in full operational order he put the shoulder holster with pistol on over his work shirt. Reaching across to the passenger side Clay grabbed a light Jacket and put it on to cover the weapon. Clumps of people had started to form in the center of the Freeway and along the side of the road. Many where in shock, but most were debating on whether to wait for the Fire Department, Military, Police. One man obviously in shock was walking in circles dialing 911 on his cellular phone over and over. His face was purple contorted with rage and droplets of blood had dried onto his forehead. In a voice that was suddenly familiar to Clay, the man incoherently raved in a slurred voice into the air. “Where are the police, they promised to protect us.”, “Where is the Fire Department?, I pay my taxes?” Clay looked closer; sure enough it was Doug from work. He had totally flipped out. Clay gently took him by the arm and sat him on the side of the road, and offered him some water. After a 15 minutes Doug was calm enough to talk somewhat rationally. Clay looked over the Trooper while Doug spoke. In an halting and uneven voice that was fragmented and slurred Clay heard the story. Evidently after suffering through the earthquake, the emotional trauma had been to much and he had fled his car, cut and bleeding. He talked of how the Corvette has splintered and broken during the quake. When he fled he had lost his slip on Tanino Crisci's Italian Loafers, cut his left foot, savagely cut his face and broken out several teeth. His handsome face would never again be the same. Clay had pity on him, knowing that Doug needed serious medical attention; he started looking around for something to stop Dougs bleeding. Suddenly another aftershock hit, and a blowhole opened up with cinders and sulfur spewing out of the earth. Ash and debris flew in the air and Doug’s eyes opened wide as saucers. His face turned ghost white, and his bowls rapidly and obviously emptied in fear as he dropped his water leapt to his feet and fled back in the direction he had come from. Clay did not bother chasing him. Off in the distance he saw Doug struggling around the wreckage, leaving a trail of bloody footprints as he fled in terror. Clay did not bother chasing him. Doug like so many people had placed his faith in mans governmental organization that had promised to protect him. He had never been in a world where there were harsh realities like death, panic and pain. It was a new and violent world and Doug had been unprepared to face it. A visual inspection of the Trooper showed it in adequate condition for the drive home. It was banged and battered but Clay was pretty sure that it would run. From the tool compartment in the back of the trooper Clay pulled out one of his Power Pullers. The Trooper was equipped with a Warn M1200 winch, but it was unusable in the position the vehicle was in. Fortunately in addition to the he had a 25ft length of heavy chain and two 4000lb power pullers in the tool crib in the back of the Trooper. Using the power pullers and one segment of chain wound around the wreckage of a vehicle off to the side, Clay pulled the Trooper off of the now crushed Toyota. Opening up the fuel shut-off, Clay tried to start the Trooper, it took a couple of tries – but it finally started. Looked like that new Exhaust system would have to wait. Bill and crew returned to say goodbye. They had found everything they needed within several different cars that were abandoned or whose occupants were dead. In addition they added the sunglasses/sunscreen, a couple of BIC lighters, Some insect Repellant and even more importantly some toilet paper to the 10 essentials Clay recommended. Clay wished them Godspeed and they walked slowly away with the smoke obscuring their forms in just a few minutes. Once he was sure everything was running, Clay removed the damaged drivers side front door, out of concern that he would be unable to get out of the vehicle in an emergency. In the fading darkness Clay had decided to head to the high ground of a nearby low-lying hill that was in the general direction of home. The hill was not huge, but it would offer him protection from the elements and roaming crowds. Now with full access to the rear of the Trooper Clay pulled his BOB “Bug out Bag” out of the Trooper and set it on the bumper. He had not bother opening it or inventorying it. He knew what was in it. The BOB was built around his old USMC Alice Pack. Checking the exterior of the backpack he ensured that the 4lb Wiggys 0 degree rated sleeping bag and the old Mountain Hardwear 4-Season expedition tent he had had for years were secured properly onto the Alice Pack. Pulling a neatly typed laminated plastic Card from external Map compartment, he reviewed the contents of the BOB. Information =========== Edible plant info cards Nature Bound survival book Guide to wilderness medicine Survival cards Pen Pencil Grundig AM/FM/SW FR200 with batteries Maps Compass
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