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  “Great to hear Colonel’s Spears, ok how about the 184th ?” asked the Colonel.

  “Sir, I’m Captain Holcourt I will be speaking on behalf of both Alpha and Bravo Company. Everyone is staying; two thirds of the men live within the fifty miles and are asking to bring their families in”.

  “Thank you Captain again good to hear, next up is MI, what’s going on gentlemen?”

  “Sir,” said Major Paul. “Half the unit has decided to leave I’m sorry, we couldn’t make the case to them for staying. The others didn’t believe our bullshit and decided they are staying they have no families they want to bring in.”

  Colonel Clayton heard part of their briefing to their Soldiers, they did everything they could to discourage them from staying, stating if it was an EMP event they no longer really had a country to protect. Colonel Clayton let it go, if the ones who decided to leave couldn’t think for themselves he didn’t really want them to stay anyway. Many of them after meeting with their Officers (not the NCO’s) decided to talk to the Colonel to find out the real scoop, he told them, those are the ones who decided to stay. Most of the MI Officers were leaving except for a First and Second Lieutenant, all of the Senior NCO’s were staying and a good number of the lower enlisted were staying.

  “Well Major I will be sorry to see you and your Officers go.”

  “Sir we will be talking one of our vehicles with us.” add the Major.

  “No you won’t.” the Colonel glared at him.

  “Sir those vehicles belong to the 368th I’m signed for them.” said an arrogant Major.

  “Those vehicles belong to the US Army and to the US Government, those vehicles are staying, in fact Major after this meeting those of you that are leaving will immediately be escorted off the base. If that’s your attitude.”

  “What are you going to so shoot me?” asked the Major.

  “Roger that Major.” with that the Colonel pulled out his sidearm, cocked it and aimed it at the Major’s head. I have no problem blowing your fucking head off Major.”

  The people in the room held their collective breath. “Yes Sir, no problem we will be leaving on foot.”

  Sergeant Major yelled the Colonel, “Please see that the Major and the people who are leaving with him are escorted off post. Take one of the teams with you, if they give you any trouble, arrest them and throw them in the stockade.”

  “Yes Sir,” said the Sergeant Major. “Let’s go Major.”

  The MI Major and his XO got up and were escorted out of the conference room, once outside they were escorted out by the Sergeant Major and an A-Team who just happened to be standing by. The Colonel looked over the rest of the people in the room, “I said up front that no one was allowed to take any of the Military vehicles period, I intend to do everything I can to hold on to them, we’re going to need them. Now if the Major told me they had a POV they were taking I would have happily shaken his hand and wished him well.”

  They continued to talk about the personnel issues, the Colonel told them they needed to secure housing for the families, and he instructed the Sergeant Major to get with Mister Dognillo to get on it and get it resolved. Next they discussed the POV situation; the Commanders stated that about a quarter of the POV’s started right up with no problems. They also said that just about everyone wanted to donate their vehicle to the cause. Colonel Clayton told the Commanders to thank them for the offer but he wasn’t going to confiscate any personal property, well not yet. He did suggest that they probably needed a secure place to keep all running vehicles, soon people would be looking for them and right now the entire base wasn’t secure.

  There was a knock on the conference room door, Colonel Clayton signaled to go ahead and open it, standing there was a Colonel Blackfoot, the CO of the 1st Brigade, 91st Division, Headquarters. Everyone in the room looked towards him, Colonel Clayton immediately got up and walked over to meet him, “Joe it’s good to see you.” said Colonel Clayton.

  “Well I couldn’t let the party start without me could I?” said Colonel Blackfoot.

  “I’m glad you’re here we just started the briefing twenty minutes ago, just wrapping up the personnel side of it.”

  Colonel Blackfoot grabbed a seat near Colonel Clayton and sat down. Colonel Clayton said, “It looks like we’re going to have about ninety-percent strength at this time, that’s good news.”

  Colonel Blackfoot stated, “The entire 91st HQ is local and we had a 100% turnout for drill which means everyone is here now, no one is leaving assuming some can get their families in. Word out in the street is that you’re the man to talk to about that?”

  “Yeah Joe we can make that happen as long as they aren’t any further than fifty miles away from post. But, if they have their own running POV they can go as far as they like, we will help out with fuel as much as we can.”

  “Like I said there all local, where are we going to put the families?” asked Colonel Blackfoot.

  “Mister Dognillo and a few others are looking into it now.”

  “Well we could start by using the Hotels in and around post that are close there are a ton of those. We have a lot of barracks that we could probably convert into family housing.” Colonel Blackfoot went on.

  “Alright Colonel why don’t you and your folks take on logistics for the post?” asked Colonel Clayton.

  “It’s our specialty, glad to help! What else can we do?”

  Colonel Clayton responded, “How about a Cessna or another plane like that, actually a few of them would be good and pilots to go with them?”

  “Will they still work?”

  “They should they are all engine, I’m talking about prop planes not jets. Their radios and guidance won’t work but we can solve those problems.”

  “Great but we will need security as we hit the local airport and maybe a few other airports around the area and of course vehicles.”

  “Captain Holcourt can you and yours help out the Colonel?” asked Colonel Clayton.

  “Yes Sir of course, I’ll get with him after the meeting.”

  Colonel Clayton and Colonel Blackfoot were good friends outside of the guard Joe and John had met briefly before the meeting to discuss some issues, one of them being command structure. John outranked Joe by time in rank technically John could exercise his authority that way but decided the best way was to get Joe’s buy in.

  Joe had no problem letting John take the lead in fact he hoped for it, if this was an EMP event someplace down the road combat was going to happen and Joe was not a combat leader he had never been. He knew what he could and couldn’t do, he also knew that John had years of combat experience under his belt and was also a good combat leader. In his mind he wouldn’t mind being second or third in command, he like everyone else just wanted to get through this.

  “Alright let’s move on to the next subject.” said Colonel Clayton. “Vehicles I believe is where we left off of. Like I said I don’t want anyone surrendering their POV’s right now, but they should probably be closer and secure. We can set up a secure parking lot if the owners want to move them in there. What’s everyone think?”

  Everyone nodded in agreement, no problems there. “Next on the agenda?” the Colonel asked.

  “Food Sir, we need to consolidate all of the food on post into one or more facilities we can control.” said Colonel Backfoot. “With families coming with kids we need to eat all of the perishable items we can find before we start digging into everything else.”

  “Agreed,” said Colonel Clayton. “Sergeant Major give Colonel Blackfoot a couple of teams and vehicles to search the post, the PX, barracks, anything else we might find for all food items. We need to find a place near to keep it all and figure out what we need to use now. In the meantime its MRE’s, how’s that Colonel?”

  “That’ll work,” said Colonel Blackfoot.

  “Sir,” said the Commander of Bravo Company, 319th Signal Battalion. “We have several PRC-77’s that we can hand out to different teams to use, they were hardened a
nd look are in good condition. “

  “That’s great news Captain, Sergeant Major don’t we have some in storage too?” asked Colonel Clayton.

  “Yes Sir we do.”

  “Alright let’s dig them out and any other radio gear we have and get it dispersed, test it first to make sure it’s working. Also let’s pull out a couple of the DPV’s (Desert Patrol Vehicles) see if they run and if they do get them geared up.”

  “Yes Sir we’ll get right on it.” replied the Sergeant Major.

  “Colonel Spears how’s 352nd doing?” asked Colonel Clayton.

  “Sir, we are all set up and ready for business.”

  “Great News Colonel! Have you been in touch with Mr. Lowell out at ValleyCare Medical yet?”

  “Yes Sir I did right before the meeting, if it’s Ok I would like to hitch a ride out there with a couple members of my staff with the mechanics and signal people when they go out.” asked Colonel Spears.

  “Not a problem Colonel, that’s also good news. Listen folks we need to be out there showing our colors in the community whenever possible. There may not be much we can do right now but just the civilians knowing we are here and working, it will help a lot of them relax.”

  “Sir, what about the Seabees?” asked Captain Holcourt.

  “Are they around?” asked the Colonel.

  “Yes Sir they had to make up a drill weekend and this was it, I have a few friends who work there.” said Captain Holcourt.

  “You’re on point then Captain; I want you to get your ass over there to see what’s going on, are they in our out?”

  “Yes Sir will do.”

  “Any other business then?” asked Colonel Clayton looking around the room. “Ok then let’s get on it we’ve got work to do.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The Sergeant Major came to the Colonels office, “Sir we have the Dublin Chief of Police at the front gate he’d like to talk to you. He’s on foot with a couple of his officers.”

  “Let them through and once they get here send them right in.” said Colonel Clayton.

  “Sir,” the Sergeant Major said. “The mechanics got two HUMVEE’S (HMMWV) running, but we had to use parts from the underground storage facility to do it.”

  “Roger that Sergeant Major, can someone pick up the Chief of Police in one then?”

  “Yes Sir that’s why I mentioned it.”

  “Ok, send someone to pick them up.”

  About ten minutes later the Sergeant Major escorted the Dublin Chief of Police and two of his Officers in to his office. Colonel Clayton approached the men and shook each of their hands while being introduced.

  “It’s nice to meet you Chief what brings you here?” asked the Colonel.

  “I got a report that some of my men ran into a couple of your patrols, what’s that all about?” the Chief was coming across as confrontational.

  “Yes Chief I sent out two A-Teams early this morning to try to confirm what might be happening.” said the Colonel staring down the Chief.

  “Your teams refused to obey the Officers orders I can’t have that and they were heavily armed.” said the Chief.

  The Colonel could see where this was going and he needed to nip it in the bud real quick, “Frankly Chief I don’t give a flying fuck what you or your Officers think. My men did what they were ordered to do. From what I understand your Officers ordered them to surrender their weapon and that just wasn’t going to happen. Now Chief we can have a great working relationship or not, that’s entirely up to you.”

  The Durbin Chief of Police was not used to anyone talking to him like that, “Fuck you Colonel this is my town.”

  Colonel Clayton laughed, “Chief you had to walk to the post on foot how effective are you and your men right now? My guess is Zero! How many reported in or reported in and left? And do you have any idea what’s going on?”

  “Well Colonel I’m going to need as many of your vehicles as I can take.” said the Chief.

  “Chief the only thing you’re going to get is my foot in your ass as I kick you boys out of here and off this base. I take my orders from the Department of the Army or the President of the United States and you’re neither, now get the hell out!”

  “You’ll regret this Colonel I swear it, all of your personnel are restricted from entering Dublin.” said the Chief.

  “Chief as of this time Dublin is under US Military Control, you want a gun fight we can do that too, I promise you will lose and you will die. I have no problem with that.”

  The Chief looked around the room and at the Colonel, he thought about his quick ride over he saw what looked like hundreds of armed Soldiers. For all he knew there could be thousands and there was no way he and a handful of Officers were going to stop them, hell he didn’t even know what was going on. The Chief sat down in the chair across from the Colonels desk with a thud and a huge sigh, “Fine Colonel have it your way, what the hell is going on?”

  “That’s the first reasonable thing you said since you came in here,” said the Colonel. “Can I offer you and your men some coffee?”

  This perked up the Chief, “I would love a nice cup of coffee about now.” The Officers who were with him shook their heads yes enthusiastically. Colonel Clayton called for the Sergeant Major who walked in armed to the teeth, carrying a side arm and M-4 Assault Rifle. “Yes Sir, problem?”

  The Colonel shook his head chuckling, “No Sergeant Major, can we get our guests a cup of coffee.”

  “Yes Sir right way.”

  Colonel Clayton then went on to explain to the Chief and his Officers what they believed was happening, he answered all of his questions and brought him up to speed on the local hospital and the other potential issues that were going to happen over the next few days and weeks to come.

  “You’re sure of this Colonel?”

  “I’m as sure as I can be Chief, like you we have no communications with the outside world. Look around you; it looks a lot like an EMP event to me as well as others who are familiar with the symptoms.”

  “To answer your other questions Colonel I have about half a staff right now, either they didn’t report in and that could be because they live too far away or they wanted to stay with their families. I have about twenty Officers right now for the entire city. And that’s just not going to cut it as you know.”

  “Thanks Chief now we have something to work with.” said the Colonel. “On your way over here did you see any cars running on the road?”

  “Nope not a one.” replied one of the Officers.

  “The two car dealerships that sell some of the older cars down a few blocks did any of you try to start any of them?” asked the Colonel.

  “No why?” asked a puzzled Chief.

  “We have a bunch of POV’s that are running, well not a bunch but several. They started right up. Look for older vehicles like old pick-up trucks with no computer electronics, I can send a team out with you to help you and your men locate some vehicles if you like?”

  “You’d do that even after how I just spoke to you?” asked the Chief.

  “Yes of course, listen I get it your under a lot of stress, the shit just hit the fan and your concerned about being able to do your job. We have to work together Chief, its sink or swim altogether.”

  “What can I expect from the US Army?”

  “We will do what we can to help, but our primary positon is that we are here to defend the US from enemies foreign and domestic. Within the coming weeks we are going to see a huge number of people leaving the San Francisco area heading in all directions. They’ll be hungry and thirsty and looking for help, what you need to decide Chief is what you can do for your people that live here now. These people that will be coming will be desperate and some will do whatever they have to, to get what they want which includes kill for.”

  “You think it’s really going to come to that?” asked one of the Officers.

  “I do Officer very much, we need to secure the city’s water sources and look for any additio
nal source for the future and try to secure that. Whoever controls that controls the population.”

  “Colonel you really need to talk to the Mayor.” said the Chief. “Now you’re getting into something the Police have no interest in.”

  “But you do Chief, absolutely.” stated Colonel Clayton. “Soon water is going to become gold people will be fighting and dying over it, so yeah it’s a law enforcement issue. Here’s a suggestion to the civilians you can pass on; put out anything they can to catch rain water or moisture in. For big storms clean out their old trash cans, it’s not like anyone is coming to get it anyway, but a plastic bag in them or leave them empty and boil the water. “

  “Those are great idea’s Colonel, you really need to talk to the Mayor.” said the Chief.

  “I’ll try, but let’s get you started on getting some squad cars that run. You’re going to need some manual pumps in the long run to get gas from gas stations or syphon it out of other cars that don’t work.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The first day of the end of the world as we knew it was a long one, and the first night it was going to be a long one for the average Joe and Jane. No electricity, no running water, maybe or maybe not a way to cook food, many people would have camping equipment or RV’s and would feel secure for the night. Others would be locked away in their homes with no idea what to do.

  Over the next few days the population of Camp Parks grew and grew with the families arriving. Most of these families were amazing and pitched right in to start helping to set things up, they were also instructed to bring what perishables they had as well as canned food, it would all be added to the food bank for everyone. Yes, some people kept some of their food but they weren’t going to send out the food police, the feeling was peer pressure was going move them along.

  There were also Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Air Force personnel who were on leave or passing through that were now stuck, they were reporting in single or with families. Camp Parks was a US Military post and would accept all US Military personnel with or without families.