25th Mile (6) The man’s breathing was still irregular and Clay feared that he had not done the right thing. But after 30 seconds Clay found that the mans breathing became more regular and his color started to return, and then after about 3 minutes the man said his first words to the man who saved his life. They were a gasping “Thank You……” Clay finished patching up the mans left arm, and found it easy going since the wound was pretty much a glorified scratch compared to the other wound. It was a defensive wound that started when the round hit the meaty part of the mans thumb and traveled up his arm and exiting “stage left” through the meaty part of his upper arm. Clay found that the man’s name was Eric and he like Clay had surmised was traveling home. The only chance with keeping, Eric alive was to get him to a Doctor to remove the bullet. And that meant they needed to evacuate the area fast. Leaving Eric alone after making him more comfortable and explaining what he was going to do, Clay returned to the Trooper. While the Trooper was pretty well camouflaged Clay took no chances when approaching it, fearing an ambush. Moving back to the Trooper in a circuitous route approaching the vehicle from a different direction than he departed. Approaching the trooper he stopped to watch if for several minutes to ensure everything was safe. After 5 minutes of no movement, he approached the Trooper and raced down the hill to get Eric. After filling Eric with pain killers, and lowering the front passenger seat Clay managed to get Eric in a mostly horizontal position that provided him with some comfort. In vain Clay also tried the Cellular Phone, CB and IC-R5 radios, but found them all out because of atmospheric conditions. Back in the Trooper, Clay headed for home. Since the only hospital he knew about was several miles from his house he resumed his Journey in the same general direction. With a second day of high-stress Clay recognized that his nerves where shot, but desperate to help and Eric and see his own family he decided to keep moving. While Eric slept Clay remembered another time, long ago when his fire team was asked to assist with a Helo Crash in a hostile urban environment. While under fire Clay was told by a wounded soldier that the Blackhawk had been hit with multiple AK-47 rounds and an RPG, in a failed building assault to capture members of a hostile “clan”. The soldier said that the helo had come in at an altitude of 300 feet when the left door gunner was hit in the hand by small arms fire, another crew member had taken over the 6 barrel M-134 minigun (4000 rpm) when an RPG round impacted under the right door gunner. The pilot and co-pilot had both been knocked unconscious by the RPG impact, and the Helo went down like a rock. Clay was witness to the windshields blowing out when the helo crashed, and how fast smoke filled the aircraft. The right mini-gun was out of commission and the left minigun was without a gunner and firing uncontrolled, even after the crash The Co-pilot was unconscious and lying forward on the helos controls, The right door gunners leg had been blown off and he was lying in a puddle of his own blood, with his shattered femur bleeding profusely. Arriving on the scene, Clay’s team (Alpha Team) secured the crash site while (Bravo Team) cleared the building of Tangos. Clay remembered that rescue like it was yesterday, and the helplessness at watching the door gunner die in his arms. Then learning later that the soldier died because a UN commander decided that rescue personnel could not enter the area because of local hostilities added to his frustration. But the crowning moment was when Clay found out later when asking about the condition of the men that the gunner had been listed as suffering from “Surgically Uncorrectable Torso Trauma.” To Clay it had meant nothing but “shot all to shit”…………………. Mile 15 Eric, now full of over the counter pain killers had been awake enough to keep him company. Clay had some Morphine with him (5mg) but was hesitant to give it to Eric because he seemed to remember something about morphine causing breathing problems. Clay found out that Eric was a geologist who knew quite a bit about earthquakes. As they drove across the devastated landscape Eric though in pain and in a halting voice took the time to describe several of the most powerful earthquakes he knew about in the USA. Through Eric; Clay found out about the New Madrid, Missouri earthquake of (1811), the Charleston South Carolina Earthquake of (1887) and Anchorage Alaska earthquake of (1964), he also found the technical names of some of the new geological features they found. Clay stopped to check Eric several times during that Saturday, the third time he stopped it was about 3pm. Eric was doing better and Clay figured he would be dead now if there was major internal bleeding. Eric was having trouble breathing still; but it was looking like he would pull through. After several hours of circuitous travel, they were finally parallel the USMC Miramar, Air Station. What they could see of the base, was moderately to severely damaged but surprisingly, several structures were still standing. There seemed to be a lot of activity, using his binoculars Clay spotted several large tents setup, five of which bore the international red-cross marking. Clay, his prayers answered turned the Trooper West and as quickly as he could moved at a rapid clip toward the nearest medical tent. Reaching the Marine base in about 45 minutes Clay and Eric were greeted with the racus noise of bulldozers and heavy equipment, plowing earth into the ground ruptures that had opened across the Tarmac and on the base. Moving further on base Clay could see there were still a few buildings standing, but it looked like fire had destroyed part of the flight tower. Through the hive of activity Clay could see that there were a large number of fellow travelers and refugees on hand. But Clay ignored them, instead he moved directly to the nearest Medical tent and called for a Medic. There were no Medics or Doctors available, and everyone was seemed not only busy tending to the wounded, but extremely tired. It was no wonder, seeing the number of wounded they were working with. However after a minute of trying to attract someone’s attention a tired looking corpsman noticed Clay and sauntered out to the Trooper and took a look at Eric. Once seeing Eric, he moved a sudden burst of energy and jumped back to the door of the tent and barked out for an IV and a stretcher. Several people appeared and Eric was removed from the Trooper and he disappeared into the bowels of the tent. Clay stood alone for almost 20 minutes when the same corpsman stuck his head out of the tent and called for Clay. The corpsman said, “It looks like your friend will live, good thing you got him to us, he would have not been alive much longer if you had moved further up the road; what happened to him?” Clay told him about the ambush and the corpsman said, yeah we heard about some problems like that on the road, we hear it’s hell all the way back to San Diego.” Clay told him it was indeed some of the toughest traveling he had ever done and then he inquired about the state of the road further north. The corpsman just laughed and said, “there ain’t no road north of here.” Everything is gone, in-fact about the only way to move between here and the hills is by foot, helicopter or pack mule. We did a flyover earlier and found nothing but new canyons, cinder cones, destroyed houses and death. That’s whey everyone is piling up here. And, if we don’t get some assistance in the next couple of days – this place will be hip deep in misery. Clay told him of his intentions to get home and the corpsman advised him against it because of the danger. However Clay would hear nothing of it, he was going home. He asked the corpsman where he could get some water. The corpsman pointed to a water buffalo several yards away and said, “help yourself.” Clay returned to the Trooper and grabbing everything that would hold water, he filled them up. He walked away with (2) 100oz Camelback bladders, (3) 1 qt canteens and several water bottles full of metallic tasting water. Returning to the Trooper, he secured the water in the rear, attaching the canteens directly to the Alice pack in-case he needed them quickly. After quickly checking his oil and pressure gauges, Clay jumped into the Trooper and started her up. Looking north towards home out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash of light, a Humvee was barreling down on him with a burly MP flagging him to stop. Clay, gave him a wave and cut the engine. Three MP’s sat in the Humvee as a man in a light blue polyester suit, with a FEMA badge walked directly to the drivers side of the Trooper and said, “Sir, I’m sorry to inform you that by order of FEMA article 109999 region IX is now under martial law and you are herby ordered to surrender your vehicle to the Military authorities until further notice.” “You will be given a receipt for your vehicle and you will be reimbursed for it when order is restored. The man droned on saying something about standing in line with the others over there, and getting some food.” “In addition before we can feed you, it’s mandatory that all arms are relinquished to the authorities to keep you save and prevent accidents.” Not even looking in the direction the man was pointing Clay snapped into action, grabbing the FEMA guys right arm that was his left hand, and in one simultaneous motion, he started the Trooper and popped the clutch. Spitting out dirt and gravel he dragged the blue suited FEMA bureaucrat for about 25 yards leaving behind a cloud of paperwork and several stunned MPs. The bureaucrat tumbled violently after the sudden ride and abrupt stop on the dirt but Clay was glad to see him stand seemingly none the worse for wear, cursing and swearing. After 15 minutes of hard driving a pursuit never materialized, The best Clay could figure was that FEMA probably had better things to do than Bill some guy in an old Isuzu who was heading into what now could arguably be called the most hostile terrain in America. The lack of pursuit did not bother him as much as the attempted government sponsored car jacking. Clay chuckled to himself as he thought about how FEMA could teach the guys who assaulted Eric a thing or two about car jacking. After all FEMA had the right to virtually suspend the constitution; effectively taking over all communications media, sources of power, food resources and methods and means of transportation. It was getting darker and although Clay had not seen the sun since Friday, for the first time he activated his bright HID Day-Sun lights. The terrain was scary in the semi-light that accompanied the earthquake, but now under the powerful spotlights it was downright terrifying. Newly exposed scarps, had thrust themselves out in powerful vertical movements, creating formidable obstacles. He had given up driving along the road, and was now navigating by compass. He had no idea exactly where he was, but he kept the compass pointed towards home, updating his maps every ½ mile or so. After several hours of had driving he found another of what Eric had called a Surface rupture blocking his path. It was long and narrow with a series of parallel breaks across it, each break being about 3’ wide. Swinging the lights to the left and right, Clay saw that there was probably no-where to go without breaking out the come-along and a length of chain. And even then getting the Trooper across was a dicey proposition; he had crossed several already and almost lost the Trooper a couple of times. However upon closer inspection of the rift Clay noticed that off to the East the surface rupture narrowed to about 1’ across and the Terrain flattened out afterwards as well. Mile 17 After moving the Trooper closer to the narrowest area of surface rupture, Clay climbed out and with a deep sigh from the stress of the last two days and general tiredness began inspecting the rupture, it looked like it would support the Trooper, but just to be cautious Clay decided that it would be best to walk any gear he could not live without across before moving the Trooper. After moving the gear, that comprised of the Alice Pack, and two containers one with water, and the other with clothes and he stowed it in a depression several yards away from the Trooper and across the surface rupture. Then preparing for the eventuality of a collapse of the ground rupture wall he took out a single 25’ length of chain walked it to the far side of the surface rupture, carefully stepping over the cavernously deep hole that the rupture had created. Next from the back of the Trooper Clay removed, a 2ft metal spike, a single come-along and a 6lb short sledge hammer. Walking back with the heavy load under his arms he unceremoniously dumped the equipment down onto the ground on the other side of the rupture next to the remaining equipment. Then kneeling down with his left hand he picked up the metal spike and pounded into the hard gravel with the sledge hammer. Once he was sure that it was secure, Clay attached the business end of the Warn M1200 Winch, leaving the heavy chain and come-along on the ground for backup. This way he reasoned if the Ground rupture collapsed he could jump out, and there was a chance he could winch the Trooper to safety, since he had no desire to walk in this terrain. Starting the Trooper, he inched forward in 4wd low, while at the same time running the winch, paying close attention to the amount of slack on the cable he inched forward, with the winches 4.6 hp motor and drive-train pulling the vehicle forward with ease. The tires started working their way across the narrow ground rupture, inching forward – the front tires spun as they grasped for traction, sand and gravel falling as they dislodged loose terrain then finally the front tires were across the ground rupture. Then Clay hearing what sounded like the a splintering tree behind him looked over his right shoulder to see what the noise was, was just in time to see the earth 6ft behind the Trooper start to collapse. Instinctively Clay floored the Trooper, brining the mighty engine to life and the Trooper surged forward, with the Front tires digging a furrow across spitting rocks and gravel everywhere, then just when he thought they would make it across unscathed; in one heart breaking jolt Clay felt the ground under the rear tires give way, keeping the engine floored, the front tires kept the Trooper from falling into the abyss that was now over 10’ wide. The Trooper strained and struggled for over 2 minutes and Clay was preparing to abandon the vehicle when the winch picked up the remaining slack and the rear tire caught traction and pulled them to safety. After catching his breath, Clay said a quick prayer thanking God that he was in one piece and crossing the remaining ground ruptures without incident he loaded up his unused power puller and with a sense of whimsy pulled the steel stake from the hard ground and threw it in the back and then started looking for a place to rest, he needed sleep. After about an hour os searching he found a low valley to the east of where he supposed the Freeway was, recognizing several landmarks he was finally able to get his bearings, surprisingly he was within 50yards of the Freeway. While working his way down the valley, he stopped the Trooper with a sudden jolt. There in the bottom of the valley was parked Eric’s truck, the truck was nose down in a wide ground rupture and obviously abandoned. Upon seeing the truck Clay recalled the men and their violent theft of the truck. Ensuring the MAC-10 and Glock were fully loaded, Clay watched the area in the failing light for about an hour. Then just prior to the darkened moon rising like a dirty bronze orb in the sky, expertly using cover and concealment Clay approached the Truck with the Trooper, carefully skirting around the ground rupture and ensuring the trooper was pointed in the best direction for a quick get away. Approaching the truck, Clay knew instantly from sweet-sticky smell that death surrounded it. One of the occupants was still in the truck, a trail of red ants seeking moisture moved from the broken left front axel, up the side panel through the interior and up the mans arm into his gapping eye socket. It was obvious what happened, the men driving to fast in the immense truck had hit the ground rupture front end first, snapping the front axel and instantly killing one of the gang-bangers. “Couldn’t have happened to nicer guys Clay thought.” They must be on foot now, since the truck had been stripped bare of almost everything. Walking carefully back to the Trooper, Clay resumed scouting for a place to spend the night. Mile 18 After searching for several hours Clay found a huge abandoned drain culvert; it was collapsed on one side and formerly used by farm workers to drive tractors through. It was located under a busy roadway that intersected with the Freeway. Clay was able to back the trooper into it. The culvert was about 30ft deep leaving plenty of room for the trooper and for Clay to move around in. Clay immediately upon getting out of the Trooper, pulled out the Camouflage tarp and taking his Garitty Tactical flashlight put in a red lens to keep the light from showing his position he slowly and methodically hung up the camouflage tarp to hide the culvert from prying eyes while he slept, as a cautionary measure he created. Only after the netting was strung did he rig a small piece of fish line inside the culvert attached to several pieces of metal debris that had been deposited in the culvert by a previous flash flood or wind. The metal would act as a noise maker if anyone breached the threshold of the culvert. Then taking the Alice pack, out of the back of the Trooper he placed it on the ground in a dark corner and rolled a sleeping bag out next to it. Then breaking out his Grundig shortwave, he tried to hear the news. Failing to get any reception, he finally resorted to running thin antenna wire outside and up through the top of the culvert. Spinning the dial, and keeping the volume low he finally was able to get reception from a station in the mid-west. “…..The darkening of the Sun and moon is not entirely due to the debris cast into the air from the recent earthquake. As impossible as it seems scientists are now saying that there is an actual diminishment of solar energy. Either way, the immediate result will be twilight conditions and colder temperatures…………….” Another station located in Arizona pleaded for assistance in obtaining water and food for senior residents of the state stranded without power or water for the past several days. Then a station in Northern California came Online. It was an older man, who with solemn dignity was discussing the great disaster that was unfolding around the state. He started talking about the great earthquake of Revelation 4:18 and how it will be accompanied by drastic weather changes. He went on to say “We will know this is the tribulation period if changes include the darkening of the sun (Rev. 6:12), stars falling to the earth (Rev 6:13), the wind stopping (Rev. 7:1), hail and fire mixed with blood (Rev 8:7) a third of sun moon and stars darkened (Rev. 8:12) and fire falling from heaven the sun scorching people (Rev. 16:8-9) and 100-pound hailstones falling from the sky (Rev. 16:21). But first there will be thunder and Lightning followed by a famine this world has never seen before…………….” With the station fading into nothingness Clay wondered if the preacher was right. He read the Bible daily, but had not given much time to the Tribulation. However the old preacher gave him something to think about. But right now he had more immediate concerns. If it was the end of the world, he would need a good nights sleep to face the challenges ahead as he struggled to return to his family. Ensuring the Glock and MAC-10 were close at hand he lay down on the bag and tried to sleep. As he faded off to sleep he thought of his family and prayed again for their safety. He awoke surprisingly refreshed, with his watch reading 6am. Almost 9 full hours of rest. He must have been exhausted to sleep that long. With a glad heart knowing that today, “Lord willing” would be his last day on the road, he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and reaching for his stove lit it and started some water boiling. Rolling up his sleeping bag and re-attaching it to the ALICE pack, he was prepared to stow them in the Trooper, when he heard what he thought were voices. The faint yet still unintelligible sound of distant voices did not startle him that much, there were plenty of people around. He had passed several yesterday, stopping briefly to talk with a few of them and share some water with them. However cautiously he crawled over to the camo-netting and pulled it aside in an effort to observe the source of the voices. The sound had evidently carried quite a distance and silently Clay waited in his hide for several minutes before seeing the source. He badly wanted to get moving, but did not want to give up his back and expose his position before he was ready to leave. After a few minutes time, the owners of the voices came into view, there were three of them – two men and a woman, the men dressed in what had been high end business suits and fancy wing-tips, the woman in a slightly more feminine version of the business suit it was obvious they were corporate types they slogged through the sand in steps that looked painful to watch, faces red with exertion eyes glazed with hunger and in obvious pain from their choice in footwear after a in terminate time of slow stumbling they moved through the continual twilight to a point comfortably past his position. With a slight smile Clay thought of them as being lawyers discussing whom they were going to sue for making them walk home in such intolerable conditions, without even realizing that they would be lucky to make it home. With everyone reasonably out of view Clay started rolled up the camo-net and secured it onto the top of the Trooper with two bungee cords he had for that specific purpose, where he could deploy it rapidly if needed. Then starting the Trooper, he let it idle for a couple of minutes before moving forward and back down into the valley. He had traveled for only a few minutes when he came up on the trio walking. Pulling alongside of them, they called out to him asking for water, a food or a ride. It reminded Clay of time spent in countries whose named changed every couple years with the bloated babies and young kids running along the APC begging for scraps. Clay prayed that the Nation had not fallen this far. However while wanting to help them in any way possible his supplies were limited, and he was trying not to get in the habit of giving rides, just two many unknown variables. As they trudged over to where the Trooper stopped and was idling, Clay watched them closely. They were obviously weak from the trek home, their clothes were in tatters, but what struck Clay most was their lack of decent footwear. A man could walk home missing an arm, but he could not walk home in dangerous shifting sand through a treacherous environment with shoes meant for the carpets of the soft corporate environment they had left on Friday. Upon reaching the Trooper, Clay offered them each a drink from a canteen; but before giving it to them he cautioned them to drink it slowly. They stared at him with the lethargic and comatose look Clay recognized as serious dehydration. It was obvious they had little water during their journey and were starting to display the effects of dehydration with their skin hanging off their faces, their fingernails unnaturally white. With shaking hands and thankful hearts the trio refreshed themselves. After they were refreshed, Clay was surprised at the immediate change in their actions and posture. Within an hour they were feeling much better. Clay found that they worked together in a law firm downtown. Specializing in patent law, they had met each other in law school. And because of the long commute had been ride-sharing on and off for the past year when their schedules allowed it. Clay found out that the earthquake hit when they were just past the entrance to the Miramar air base, they had been walking ever since, going on three days. Surviving on “food” mostly hard candy found in the numerous abandoned cars. Realizing that they had only traveled 3 miles as the crow flies, Clay didn’t know what to say. Their destination was just a few miles away but at the pace they were making survival would be difficult. After careful consideration Clay decided to offer them to ride in the Trooper, to their location off of Carroll Canyon road, after all he was going right by there. Telling them of his decision, he received a round of smiles from them as he had them pile into the car. All of them eyed the MAC-10, but none mentioned it as started to get into the Trooper. Before everyone could get in Clay pulled one of them aside and handed him his binoculars. Clay explained that he was going to ride on the roof-rack with the binoculars, and keep on the lookout for hazards and people who were wounded. After a few hundred feet in the Trooper they started getting around to introductions. Clay found that the names of his passengers were Maria Sanchez and Bob Jaffee. Yelling down from the roof Paul O’brien, introduced himself. They started heading into an area Clay was sure contained a copse of small trees, backed by some houses. However as they approached the area, there were only small shrubs, the trees having disappeared. The houses on the hill were in shambles with the ones that had not fallen, bent and distorted by the motion of the earth. As another long aftershock shook the Trooper and the travelers, they started driving by what looked like a miniature tree. As they drove by, one of the passengers yelled “Look they sunk!!!” Clay looked out the drivers side at the nearest miniature tree. It didn’t look right. Then with a shock he realized what it was. The tree had indeed shrunk. It had sunk directly into the earth, during the quake. It was an eerie sign, 100’s off trees had sunk into the earth, almost disappearing. As the slope of the hill increased, telephone and power poles were seen to be sunk into the earth the wires sometimes only feet above the ground and sometimes stretched taunt or broken as the pole fell to far to support the wires. As they approached the group of houses, they saw that a small campsite had been setup on a flat area mid-way between the tree-line and the houses. Since most if not all of the houses were not habitable it was an ideal location to setup camp. People milled around in the semi-darkened late afternoon sun whispering to themselves, several camp fires burned and on the hill a house was sporadically sending small puffs of smoke into the air from under the ruble. People were trying to organize and clear the wreckage of their homes, but with the absence of heavy machinery, tools and equipment they were not making any progress. In addition they were hungry and thirsty, most having just exhausted what food they could get from the ruble of their crushed houses. “That was one thing”, Clay thought “that Karen will not need to worry about. We have a years worth of food, inside the house and another 6months of food and water stored in a small shipping container that in addition to food held a wide variety of survival equipment as well.” As they approached the area the excitement in the car grew, they were home. Clay could understand their excitement. Even if their homes were destroyed, home was home. As they further surveyed the damage of the homes the car again fell silent. It was obvious the destruction was immense, one hill was missing wiped clean of the luxury homes that resided on it, Clay remembered that Karen had had a friend on that hill at one time, he wondered what had become of them. Then to the surprise of all the occupants of the vehicle, the car radio crackled to life. Clay had assumed it was dead, he remembered listening to it when the quake hit, and was not able to get any reception a few hours after the quake. He had left it on, but had forgotten about it after the past couple of days. The announcer came on and said “This is KOGO 600 broadcasting on emergency power at 15:00 hours. As you know the earthquake has devastated the entire coast of California and the greater part of the Unites States of America. We are asking that everyone work together. Stay in your neighborhoods and wait for emergency crews to arrive……….The broadcast faded into nothingness for a few seconds and then another voice came on saying, “Ladies and Gentlemen the President of the United States Hillary Clinton, speaking from Orem, Utah.” “Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack through a deadly act of God.” “The victims were in traffic or in their offices -- secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal workers. Moms and dads. Friends and neighbors.” “Hundreds of Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by this unforeseen tragedy.” “The pictures of broken earth, fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness and a quiet, unyielding anger. “But as we stand hurt and bleeding we see a global community moving to defend a great nation. The full strength and resolve of the Global community represented by the UN stands ready to assist in Americas recovery, and I have graciously accepted their assistance.” “Earthquakes can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of Global resolve.” “Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of nature, and we are responding with the best of America, with the daring of our rescue workers, with the caring for strangers and neighbors who came to give blood and help in any way they could.” “Immediately following the tremor, I implemented our government's emergency response plans. Our military is powerful, and it's prepared. Our emergency teams are working in around the Country and in Washington, D.C., to help with local rescue efforts.” “Our first priority is to get help to those who have been injured and to take every precaution to protect our citizens at home and around the world from further danger.” “The functions of our government continue without interruption. Federal agencies in Washington which had to be evacuated today are reopening for essential personnel tonight and will be open for business tomorrow.” “Our financial institutions remain strong, and the American economy will be open for business as well.”
Copyright © 2004 Firsttime Story |