A. Kimbrough - Coastal Event Memories

In the months and years that followed, there were marriages, births, and a few deaths. The Marines did not assimilate into the general population.

One day, Walter was summoned to Director Kemp's office. It had been over 6 months when he had last seen him at a basketball game. He came to attention, and asked. “What can I do for you Sir?”

Kemp ignored the exaggerated formality and said, “We just picked up a broadcast on the AM band, from a station in the valley. There are survivors. We need you to do a reconnaissance flight as soon as possible. The ramp is being cleared now.”

Walter replied, “it's been a long time. It will take at least a day to check the plane out.”

“Get started immediately. That broadcast was the threshold that authorized me to leave this place. We only had food supplies for another year, but we would have had to stay until they were running low.”

The Marine team reached the hanger the next morning. The open hanger door revealed a dark overcast sky and light drizzle. The bird was in good shape, and by early afternoon, they were ready to fly. A half dozen Humvees drove up the ramp, and moved off toward Reno.

They took off, rotated, and flew Southwest. They broke through the clouds at 19,000 feet. The IR camera indicated activity around the edge of a colder zone that the surface mapping radar indicated was an Inland Sea. They followed it West, and came to what had to be the ocean. As they returned toward base, they spotted an IR image in the middle of the sea that was moving. Walter surmised that it was a boat, with several people on it.

The debriefing on their return was intense, and Director Kemp ordered them to prepare for a maximum range flight with extra internal tanks fitted.

The next morning they flew out to the location of the Denver airport. They slowly descended through the cloud layer and landed at the designated coordinates. There was one discrepancy. The ground altitude was over 25 feet higher than expected. A further investigation revealed a layer of compacted and fused volcanic ash, which covered the area. The IR and radar surveys indicated no sign of life or structures. The primary Federal Government Survival Bunker had been built under the Denver airport, at great expense over two decades. It was now sealed beneath an impervious layer of ash.

The return flight had no extra internal communications chatter, since the crew knew that the inhabitants of that bunker, and the Denver area, had not survived. The grief they had shared for family and friends was rekindled.

Subsequent long-range flights revealed that the Yellowstone Caldera had erupted, and the surface indicated a 90-mile wide pool of semi-molten lava. In the Northwest, a new Caldera stretched from the former site of Mount Rainer to the site of Mount Saint Helens. There was no indication of life in either area.

A final long-range recon flight over Southern California revealed another Caldera at Mammoth Mountain. As they moved west, they saw that the coastal mountain range were now islands, with only a few isolated pockets of survivors. It was a crushing experience for the aircrew. Walter was confident that a vote to crash right there would be approved. He was torn, but remembered his duty to those survivors that they might be able to help someday.

After their return from that flight, they were again restricted to quarters, “until some security issues had been resolved.”

Rose McAllen, Cindy’s friend, had arraigned to make the twice a week laundry deliveries. She was permitted to drive a cargo cart into the Marine living area. She asked to speak to Walter and related the story of another incident at Reno, which resulted in the deaths of several Homeland Security troopers and most of the Reno Community survivors. Apparently, when the Humvees approached the settlement, they were fired on by a verity of weapons. The attack helicopter was called in and the settlement was leveled. Only a few women and children were taken into “protective custody”.

Walter was escorted to Director Kemp's office a few days later. He was told to use the Osprey’s radar mapping hardware to locate a route over the mountains to the settlement on the Western shore of the Inland Sea. The expansion of Lake Tahoe had covered both highways 50 and 80, effectively blocking those direct routes.

Kemp told him that he would be leading a expedition over the new route to restore governmental control over the Inland Seal region. The taxes from the population would replenish the bunkers diminishing food stores, and Federal control would provide stability and prosperity to the region.

When Walter replied, “Like Reno?” He was given a severe dressing down, and threatened with spending the rest of his life in the brig if he did not fully carry out his lawful orders.

Walter apologized for his inappropriate choice of words, and resolved to stop this cabal of madmen, by doing what ever it took. The survey took several weeks, since all potential routes would require lots of repairs of washouts and landslides. It appeared that the path of least resistance was out on Highways 88, then 89, and finally joining Highway 50.

On all of the flights, they had been forbidden to have any contact with the survivors. Kemp and FEMA Director Morris wanted to make the initial contact, with the correct political overtones.

On the last survey flight over Highway 50, Walter made a decision to land at the community on Sutters Butte, where the AM radio transmitter was located. He found a group of several shipping containers pulled up on a beach that was on one side of a volcanic crater. The crater had broken out, leaving the beach and a channel to the Inland Sea. There was also a dock with a schooner tied up to it. A broken off radio tower was on the highest point overlooking the cove.

When they landed a man and a woman approached their craft. David and Rebecca had just returned from a trading trip with disturbing news. They were cautious, and David had a pistol holstered at his side.

The conversation was necessarily brief, with Walter describing the Reno incident, and Kemp's plan to restore Federal control of the region. He also related the plan to arrive over Highway 50. The disturbing news had been the arrival of a survivor of the Reno massacre. He had been on a hunting trip, and returned to see the murder of the surviving men. Walter cautioned David not to broadcast any of this information, because Kemp would not hesitate to use the attack helicopter if there was any resistance. He also related how his marines were disarmed and mostly restricted to quarters.

The discussions continued while everyone walked over to a shipping container, which contained an armory. They returned carrying enough guns and ammo to equip the Marine contingent.

After returning to base, the arms were stored in the support trailers, except for a few pistols that were smuggled into the quarters.

When the temporary road was completed bypassing the lake North of Carson, the Pacification Convoy was assembled. It included two flatbed tractor-trailers carrying the bulldozers, two dozen Humvees, four armored combat vehicles, and six Bradley Fighting Vehicles. The day it departed, with Director Kemp in the lead Bradley, Director Morris assembled his bodyguards and had the attack helicopter prepared with a full combat load. They departed at 4:00 PM, and flew to Sutters Butte.

David had just fired up the generator and was warming up the transmitter for the Saturday evening broadcast when the helicopter appeared. Flanked by his bodyguards, Director Morris stepped out of the hatch, and approached the shipping container that housed the transmitter and broadcast studio.

Rebecca had also seen the helicopter and knew it was a bad omen. She hurried the kids into the hiding compartment built into their closet. She then retrieved the Barret 50 caliber sniper rifle and went up on deck. From her vantage point she could see through the window of the studio. The radio receiver was connected through the bridge intercom, and she could here the usual opening recording of America the Beautiful.