back to Road Trip to Rushmore, or to Team R36

 

Wednesday, 30 August 2141 Typhoid Fever Jocelyn's Appraisal Enemies of the Doom Riders Lands of the West, According to the Doom Riders Notable Items At Halidom Other Discussions With Doom Riders Heading to Glasgow Thursday, 31 August 2141 Friday, 1 September 2141 Saturday, 2 September 2141 Sunday, 3 September 2141 Monday, 4 September 2141 Tuesday, 5 September 2141 Wednesday, 6 September 2141 Thursday, 7 September 2141

report covers 30 August 2141 to 6 September 2141

 

map of the ash fall from the Yellowstone eruption of 2020

 

 

Wednesday, 30 August 2141

 

weather:  high temperature 95° F, low 63 ° F. Clear skies, light winds beginning in the afternoon, from the south and southeast. Radiation levels in the Black Hills, and to the south and west, were about 3 microsieverts per hour ... a bit less than the limit for a nuclear plant worker, over an entire year.

    

     The Morrow team had scouted a camp facing Mount Rushmore -- home to a few thousand people until the previous summer, but now inhabited only by a hundred or less of diseased, injured and starving men. The decision was made to contact the camp dwellers; everyone put on their gloves, and prepared their masks.

 

ignore the dotted red "incursion route" ... that's from another Morrow team's activities in 2139

 

      Driving up, the camp dwellers saw the dusty trail raised by the Morrow vehicle; a dozen or more of them were standing in the central open area.

 

the Roll20 map of the encounter; MP team members still in their vehicle are grouped lower left;

gray scruffy shapes are destroyed structures, solid gray with black outlines are still-standing tents and shacks.

 

      The inhabitants of the camp were gaunt, sickly, and mostly injured -- peg legs, crutches, bandages, eye patches, and hooks for hands were not uncommon. Burn scars, old wounds, and signs of starvation and disease marked them all; they were weak, coughing, and Doc Aquino thought many of them had dysentery or typhoid.

 

a rusty metal wheel symbol standing in the camp

 

     The only visible pet was a one-eyed raven that recited the phrase, "The hang man's comin'" from time to time.  

     Pulling to a stop, Tayler put her helmeted head out of one side hatch; Benefiel was on the .50 cal in the top cupola. Begay was driving, Booth was at the "observer" seat (for the radios and other electronics). Turner was in the rear hatch, and Doc Aquino was at another of the side hatches.

     Tayler waved a can of peaches at the closest of the injured men, and said, "We have a flat of tinned peaches! Let's talk." The starving camp dwellers limped forwards ... Tanner thought they had to look of men who'd been expecting to die until a moment ago. One of the camp dwellers, a particularly grizzled fellow, said, "Welcome to Halidom. Are you ... Waste Lords?"

 

Note that none of the Morrow team members had their Project patches on their coveralls.

 

     "No, we're not them. Can we talk?" Begay and Turner got out of the armored car and carefully advanced, with their hands free. The grizzled man said, "My name is Kyle Krusher, what brings you here then?"

     The team made some non-committal answer, and handed out cans of peaches (with pull-tab tops) -- the starving residents of Halidom greedily devoured these, though one or two vomited immediately afterwards. When asked by the Morrow team, "Why are you here?', Krusher stepped onto a very low platform at the far end of the plaza, where a few Shure Model 55 "Elvis" microphones stood on stands, picked up a beat-up old electric guitar on (it wasn't plugged in, or even playable); DJ Worthless (in the sound truck) ...

 

a combination of a World War 2 "DUKW" amphibious truck, and a wienermobile -- and covered in speakers;

the "hot dog" body had "DÄNGËR-FLÄMMÄBLE" written on it, in hard-to-read mock-fraktur script

 

     ...made a sort of "thump, thump" noise on several of the speakers around the camp, and readied his turntables and tape players. Other camp inhabitants stood by expectantly, armed but not "drawn", waiting for the End of the Set. Capitalized, bold text indicates that the DJ plays a bit of heavy metal music through the camp speakers -- 150 year old tapes or records, played on the sort of outdoor speakers found at used car lots or lumber yards.

 

     "It's very fitting that we tell our story to you, so it will be known to the end of the world.

     We were brought together more than a generation ago by the power of ROCK, to finish the great tasks started by the Ancients. But we were no more than one nomad clan among many in the Nowhere Lands.

     Five years ago [2136] the Doom Singer appeared. He was the master of all fighting styles, keeper of many guns, and led us to victory against the Montanan Empire and the Canadians. Three years ago, we had grown to three thousand strong, joined by the bond of ROCK; men flocked to the Wheel, inspired by our POWER CHORDS. The mighty Wheel is the symbol of our power – the Wheel rolls on, never stopping.

     Here at Halidom the Doom Singer built our army, a fighting force of extraordinary magnitude. He brought guns, tapes and records from secret Ancient bunkers, and taught us fighting skills, and the power of the Shadow Bands.

     Last summer, we were preparing to fight the Waste Lords, down south at Trader Pass [Glorieta Pass, in New Mexico]; while the Waste Lords and their allies blocked the pass, a second army of our enemies suddenly appeared from the east, led by the California Liberation Army Militia, and destroyed our forces in Trader Pass. The Doom Singer disappeared, not to return for another generation. The remainder of our army, under Master Ravage, was pushing south into Texas; they were caught between the Waste Lords and their savage Californian allies.

     The rest of last summer, Halidom was bombed from the skies, raided by the Waste Lords, and starved. Most of us here were the wounded, sick or crippled -- easy prey for the Waste Lords, who took away only the children. They destroyed most of what they did not take, poisoned the wells, and burned out the Doom Singers chambers behind the presidents' faces.

     Those of us hiding in the Black Hills had little to eat --  wild plums and berries, weeds, small animals;  we even ate our dogs. Those of us that lived came back from hiding before the snows set in. There are about a hundred of us now, led by Brother Adamantion, who is our doctor and best mechanic. Brother Blades travels the wastelands with his Shadow Band, to warn us of attacks.

     A brave warrior, Rethnax, died today of infection after many months of illness, also our last child has died ... was that what you were waiting for? We have been awaiting our Doom. FINAL CHORD."

 

     After hearing the tale of woe recited by Kyle, the team asked a few questions about the bunker in the mountain; "It was looted and destroyed by the Waste Lords; anyone who spends more than a few hours in their dies of a terrible illness. There's a small entrance at the top of the bunker, which comes out behind the presidents' heads."

     When asked who they were, Kyle responded, "We are the Doom Riders, followers of the Doom Singers -- last of the true ROCK GODS." Jocelyn Tanner and Doc Aquino poked more than just the tops of their helmets out of the armored car, and the Doom Riders were a bit surprised. "You have Breeders with you!" There was a tense minute or so, but the Doom Riders were talked down to a calmer level.  

 

By now it was clear, in game terms, that the Doom Riders were operating at about "half level": 

their skills, hit points, movement rate, etc. were at least halved.

Actually, over half of the camp residents were unable to walk, and were still in their crude cots or sleeping bags.

 

you can see the tunnel entrance in this picture, just below the painted Doom Wheel

 

      The team was welcome to investigate the bunker; four of them (the men) put on their masks, donned disposable coveralls over their helmets, boots, gloves and Resistweave™ coveralls, and approached the tunnel. The gravel road leading to the tunnel wound back and forth up the front of Mount Rushmore; it had clearly not been maintained for about a year, with small rock-falls, slides, and freshly-grown small trees and brush on the roadway. The tunnel itself seemed crudely excavated -- clearly post-Atomic War. A year ago, lots of soot from a massive fire inside the bunker had come boiling out of the tunnel, defacing the rock around it. The tunnel was also contaminated with radioactive material, consistent with a destroyed plutonium RTG somewhere inside. The team's flashlights showed scorched debris and blasted equipment -- the bunker had been thoroughly demolished.

      The Morrow Project group decided not to explore past the entrance; after leaving the tunnel and descending from the mountain, they carefully removed their disposable coveralls and buried them.

      When the men returned to the camp, many of the "mobile" Doom Riders had taken seats -- a couple of them were feeling queasy from devouring cans of peaches. Others had taken cans to their bedridden comrades. The Doom Riders offered to share some of their own food: "Care for some greens? It's mostly chickweed, miner's lettuce, dandelions, wild onions, mint, and red clover. Very healthy, says Brother Adamantion."

     Doc Aquino knew that typhoid fever (and some other diseases, such as hepatitis, dysentery and cholera) are often spread by poor hygiene during food prep; the team declined the offer of food.

 

Typhoid Fever

 

     Transmission:  it's caused by a bacterium, spread by eating or drinking contaminated food or water.  

     Symptoms:  fever, weakness, abdominal pain, constipation, headaches, mild vomiting, skin rash on the chest with rose-colored spot, delerium.  This can go on for weeks or months. Extreme cases also cause mental confusion.

     Death rate:  20% without treatment; 10% with some treatment but without antibiotics; 2% if treatment includes antibiotics. Typical causes of death are dehydration or infection caused by intestinal perforation.

     Treatment:  it's a bacteria, usually treated with antibiotics. While resistance had been developing in the 20th Century, that's no longer a problem in the 22nd Century.

     Vaccination:  the usual vaccine is 50% to 90% effective for two years, only 25% effective for up to seven years. The Universal Antibody is 100% effective against it; in addition, Project members were given the vaccine as well.

     Prevention:  good hygiene, sanitation, good sources of water

     Note:  a small percentage of infected persons can become asymptomatic long-term carriers, capable of infecting others for a year or more. Also, this is a separate disease from the (similar) typhus.

 

      Brother Adamantion had by now been wheeled down from the workshops -- he was confined to a makeshift wheelchair, being helped along by a couple of still-mobile companions. He was the oldest surviving Doom Rider, formerly quite fat (though a year of starvation had reduced him to a very wrinkled state), with a welders mask semi-permanently attached to his head, and lots of scars on his face and arms. His wheel chair had many tools, and a few weapons, in pockets and straps on the sides and back. The Morrow team asked more questions about their history, and the territories of the western United States.

 

Jocelyn's Appraisal

 

      The Doom Riders know they're too sick and weak to run away or to win a fight (though lucky shots do happen). When the V-150 rolled silently into their camp, with gas-masked crew in the matches, they expected to be slaughtered. They're a bit relieved at not being slaughtered, though a fair number of them might prefer a quick death to dying of starvation and typhoid fever.

 

Enemies of the Doom Riders

 

     These are listed more or less in descending order of threat level as of last summer.

 

Players should keep in mind that this information is very much from the point of view of low-level soldiers of the Doom Riders.

 

• The Waste Lords, from southern Colorado, have many vehicles and guns, and an IRON MAN named The Hammer. They conquered the San Luis Valley over a decade ago, ruling it ruthlessly using drugs to keep the people placid. Hundreds of Ancients from the Morrow Project are part of the Waste Lords; they had large bunkers in the Big Rocks.

• The Foundation of Mankind is an army of religious zealots from California. They have trucks, cannons and guns. Their force at the battle of Trader Pass (the 10th Legion) was the second-most numerous, after the Waste Lords.

• The California Liberation Army Militia are powerful allies of the Waste Lords, they destroyed the harmless Feemen at Cheyenne, destroyed many of our convoys east of the Big Rocks, and led the army which attacked the Doom Singer from the east at Trader Pass. Their leaders were Colonel James Bruce Bowie, Sergeant Sonny Crockett and Sergeant Ricardo Tubbs.
  

• Communists are soldiers with automatic rifles, riding big trucks with red stars on them. Also known as the Soviet Naval Infantry. They were working closely with the CLAM.
  

• The Ravagers come from the mountains near Denver; they attack with aircraft, mostly.

• The Cartel are mercenary traders, mostly from far south.

• The Blood Drinkers are cannibal tribals from Nevada.

• The Montanans are wild men on horseback, presumably from beyond the Red Desert. They were working closely with the CLAM.

• The Ultraviolent are dangerous mutants from North Park. They wear orange, and are probably related to the Feemen of Cheyenne.

• The Shadows are female assassins from a hidden fortress in the Big Rocks. They paint themselves like rattlesnakes and attack in the dark.

• The Salvationists of Casper were spared by the Doom Singer, in return for guzzoline, but they betrayed us to the California Liberation Army Militia. Jack Blade [one of the Doom Riders] here visited Casper twice, as a mechanic for fuel convoys -- he says they didn't like his skin color, which sounds foolish. They said Jack wasn't ... Aryan ... enough.

• We don't know much about the the Arizona Rangers, but they're definitely allies of the Wastelords.

• The Iron Society rules the factory-city of Styx, where bombs and guns are made. They have large balloons, pushed by propellers, which they used to spy on us.

 

 

Note the Doom Riders don't know the words dirigible or zeppelin ...

 

Lands of the West, According to the Doom Riders

     

• The Nowhere Lands (Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota) were heavily damaged by the Atomic War and the Yellowstone Eruption in 2020. Not many people live there; it's very hot and dry.

• Canada:  they have a well-equipped army, including artillery and some airplanes.

• The Big Rocks:  see the enemies list.

 

• The Deadlands (Nevada, Utah and Arizona) contain vast deserts, but also the cities of Styx and Kingman. The Cartel controls trade between the Big Rocks and the Coast.
  

• Sierra Gehenna (California) was massively affected by the Atomic War; huge earthquakes, triggered either by the War, or by the Long Valley eruption in 2020 (shortly after the Yellowstone eruption), sank much of the Los Angeles-San Diego area.

• Oregon and Washington were home to the Communists; the normal truck route from the Big Rocks led through Idaho, past Fort Boise, and up to Bone City (formerly Spokane). The CLAM forces came via this route during the war last year.
  

 

Notable Items At Halidom

 

• A dozen or so antennas, none very large -- CB or ham radio type.

• Several dozen tents or hovels.

• A repair/construction workship, cobbled together from a lot of salvaged gear.

• A hospital.

• Two skid-mounted electrical generators.

• A food storage trailer (a former refrigerated van trailer).

• A couple of stills.

• A couple of small watch-towers with old hand-cranked sirens.

• A couple goofy belt-fed machine guns pointed at the sky.

• Two destroyed 15cm Imperial German field howitzers (though someone blew the breech blocks off last year).

• A couple of school buses:  BATTLEBUS and DA SLUG
  

• An amphibious DUKW with the body of an Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile on it. A lot of speakers and sound-and-light equipment were mounted on it.
  

• Some poles around the camp also had speakers mounted on them.

• Some dune-buggy-ish vehicles -- at least three of these were in working condition. They each had a .50 cal machine gun mounted on them.

• A chainsaw-scout, unarmed.

• Two semi-tractors, with sheet metal armor added to the cab and engine:  TOTAL KAOS and ROD'S RIG.
  

• A big wrecker, with some armor on the cab.  THE HOOK.
  

• Several semi-trailers, both for fuel and for cargo.

• Lots of burned-out, destroyed, and deliberately broken vehicles:  tanks, trucks, cars, bikes, artillery pieces, etc.

 

Other Discussions With Doom Riders

 

     Kyle Krusher and Brother Adamantion told the Morrow team that the bunker behind the presidents' faces had held Ancient technology, but wasn't much help in military matters. The Doom Singer had awakened a sleeping girl from the bunker, named Corinne -- she was stolen away by the CLAM in September of 2139 (two years ago). This theft caused the Doom Singer to increase the defenses here at Halidom.

     The Doom Singer had brought "tapes, records and guns" to the Doom Riders -- Benefiel noticed that some of the heavier automatic weapons had "GAU" prefix codes -- apparently Air Force weapons.

     After the Doom Riders's armies were defeated at Trader Pass and in Texas last year, the enemy had attacked Halidom in force -- bombarding it with artillery and aerial bombs, setting forest fires, and killing off all the animals they could find. The few survivors hid deep in the Black Hills until the enemy left; the Ravagers continued to bomb Halidom every few weeks until the middle of winter. Some of the surviving Doom Riders tried to shelter from the bombs and snow in the tunnels within Mount Rushmore, and discovered the poison which had been spread by the invaders.

 

Probably not a "poison spread", but the result of deliberate or accidental demolition of an RTG.

 

     Many of the Doom Riders now at Halidom had straggled back after weeks or months of hardship in the mountains or plains. Now they were starving, sick and low on supplies -- they didn't have enough fuel to drive enough vehicles to carry nearly 100 men to the Mississippi. After some queries by the Morrow team, it was pretty clear that nobody north, west or south of Mount Rushmore would welcome these diseased raiders.

     It also became clear that the Doom Riders felt that the "great work" of the Ancients had been the destruction of all life on Earth ...

 

If the characters had any other questions for the Doom Riders, please ask here.

 

     The team discussed among themselves where to send the Doom Riders, but in the end decided they'd be unwelcome pretty much anywhere, and perhaps didn't deserve a better fate.

     As the team returned to their vehicle to drive off, DJ Worthless gave them an old cassette tape:  90 minutes of badly re-recorded examples and samples of heavy metal. Several of the tracks are from a fourth-rate band ...

 

Heading to Glasgow

 

     The team heaved a collective sigh of relief when they left the Black Hills behind -- the Doom Riders had been a repellent, sad bunch of psychos. Traveling northwest, they noticed a few small, circular lakes, the remains of 20 megaton strikes on missile command bunkers. A century and a half of time, and 20 or 30 centimeters of volcanic ash, had reduced the radioactivity present to a reasonably safe level.

     In the middle of the afternoon, ten kilometers southeast of Broadus, Montana, a rusty old jeep-ish vehicle stood by the rough track; sheltered under a large sun-hat, a crusty old man held up a sign:

 

     The man's name was Elmer, and he was (as the sign stated) out of fuel. He was a dirty and smelly -- but since it was about 95 degrees in the shade and very dry, the team decided to give him a tow. His jeep was hitched behind the V-150, and the team's trailer hitched behind him ... off they went!

     Camp that night was among the ruins of Miles City, Montana, on the banks of the Yellowstone River. Elmer wasn't nearly as repugnant once he'd washed up in the river; over dinner the team chatted with him. He'd been part of the armies fighting against the Doom Riders last year; his jeep was in fact "spoils of war". He had nothing good to say about the Doom Riders, but hadn't been directly involved in the final battle against them at Trader Pass -- he'd been part of a scouting and "disruption of logistics" group in the Nowhere Lands. He did know that the Doom Riders had pretty much destroyed many towns over a period of a few years, killing all the women, castrating all the male survivors (and then attempting to recruit them), impaling their victims on the Doom Wheels, and using children as protection from the "good guys" (by putting the children in cages around their camps and vehicles, to prevent attacks).

     Elmer confirmed that the inhabitants of Casper -- actually "New Casper", at the former Teapot Dome fuel reserve -- were racist bastards.

     The team couldn't keep towing Elmer's vehicle, but he appreciated being brought to the Yellowstone River.

 

"At least there's water to drink. Are you sure there isn't anyone you want me to kill?"

 

Thursday, 31 August 2141

 

weather:  high temperature 90° F, low 60° F. Clear skies, winds about 12 kph from the north and northeast.

    

     After breakfast, the team waved goodbye to Elmer, and set off for Glasgow. The landscape bore little evidence of the 20th Century -- nuclear destruction, nuclear winter for two decades, and then many centimeters of volcanic ash had destroyed or hidden the buildings, roads, power lines, bridges, etc. ... a few stumps of concrete grain silos protruded from the ground. This was a fairly well-irrigated area (unlike the lands to the east of Rushmore), and the greenish-tan western wheatgrass covered the flat terrain. Some herds of wild horses were seen galloping in the distance.

     Scattered over the prairie, usually at least 30 kilometers apart, were the ruins of "modern" (22nd Century) towns destroyed a few years ago by the Doom Riders. Some of these still had one or more large metal or wood Doom Wheels, with a few ragged skeletons impaled on the spikes.

     The trip to Glasgow, less than 300 kilometers, took about six hours. The dam at Fort Peck on the Missouri River had been destroyed during the Atomic War by a 550 kiloton surface burst; and Glasgow AFB had been similarly struck. In the late afternoon the team began the search fror the JEEP-13 bunker. While the "heat signature" of the bunker wasn't detectable (everywhere around here was baking in the sun), its radiation signature was located.

     It had been built into a power company substation; a bit of digging into the dirt and ash revealed the concrete door, and the ARV's crane easily lifted it. The interior was at about the same radiation level as Tayler's had been, and a cryostasis berth was present -- empty and unused. The bunker was amazingly hot inside -- the reactor, and the summer weather, made it somewhat dangerous to spend much time in there.

     There was a cabinet with all the supplies needed to prepare a person for long-term cryostasis (including instruments and instructions), but Doc Aquino was very leery of the quality of the very old drugs.

     There were similar supplies as found in JEEP-4; note that a can opener (a couple are in the kitchen) is needed for all of the canned goods.

 

• six 17.5 gallon steel drums of water, with plastic liners -- in case the well water supply is contaminated or interrupted. These had leaked and rusted out long ago.
  

• many cans of crackers, biscuits, bulgur wafers and hard candy. The wheat products are inedible (crumbling, dry and spoiled), but the hard candy tastes fine.

• two cases, each of 24 cans of pork-and-beans. In the 22nd Century these are inedible, and will squirt noxious juices if opened. 

• a case of 24 cans (15 oz) of peaches
  

• a case of 18 cans of Maxwell House freeze-dried coffee

• a case of 24 cans (20 oz each) of pineapple chunks in heavy syrup -- still edible, but odd-tasting.
  

• a case of 24 cans of powdered "Tang" orange juice--  it's about 90% sugar
  

• two cases of 24 glass bottles each of Pepsi-Cola -- the water in the bottles had somehow evaporated over 150 years.
  

• two sanitation kits; each is a drum which can serve as a chemical toilet (until the steel water drums are emptied), and has lots of stuff, including 10 rolls of toilet paper and 60 sanitary napkins.

• a simple AM radio receiver, which can run off of AC 110 volt power, or D cell batteries, or a hand crank

• six personal dosimeters (looking like big, fat yellow marker pens)

• six simple CBR masks sealed in bags

• two radiation survey meters (NOT geiger counters, these are high-range gamma detectors; each needs a D cell battery to operate)

• one hand-operated piezoelectric dosimeter charger (looks like a yellow plastic gun).

• a National Emergency Alarm Repeater radio, with "NEAR" in big letters on it; it's about the size of a "wall wart", and is plugged into a wall outlet; it senses particular changes in the voltage of power supplied to the bunker from the regular (pre-attack) power grid, and generates an acoustic signal ("It screeches loudly when the nukes hit").

• a cardboard box with six 100 watt incandescent light bulbs

• a 45 meter long extension cord

• a caged "work light", with a 4 meter long cord.

 

     ... and a CHIPP ("Cultural Heritage Imperative Preservation Program") vault. Inside the vault were dozens of tool-box sized "pelican" boxes, containing carefully-preserved letters of the Founding Fathers. One box had lists of the contents of the others; they were all from the National Archives.

     The team decided to leave the letters, but removed a lot of the survival supplies, closed the bunker, and camped for the night. 

 

Friday, 1 September 2141

 

weather:  high temperature 85° F, low 54° F. Clear skies until 1 p.m., then cloudy, winds about 9 kph from various directions. Actual sunrise 5:30 a.m., actual sunset 6:37 p.m. MT.

    

     Wanting to avoid the scorching sun, the team got an early start this day, and drove south. Much of this was across endless prairie, with only deserted towns every 45 minutes or so. The weather was cooler as they left the Nowhere Lands further behind.

     Skirting to the east of the Big Horn Mountains, the team saw a smudge of pollution haze over Casper -- "Ah, just like East Broad Top" -- and gave it a wide berth, turning southwest.

 

Saturday, 2 September 2141

 

weather:  high temperature 82° F, low 55° F. Cloudy skies, winds about 18 kph from the west and southwest. Actual sunrise 5:31 a.m., actual sunset 6:35 p.m. MT.

    

     This day, they crossed the Continental Divide at South Pass, just north of the Red Desert -- they saw herds of wild horses, pronghorn antelope and elk roaming the sagebrush-covered hills.

     They picked up the remains of Interstate 80 near Wamsutter; the traces of the Ancient highway were visible as rusted trucks and fallen overpasses. A lot of vehicle traffic had used this route last year -- the armies led by the CLAM.

     The Green River Valley and the Sage Plains had wide ranchlands, with scattered homes and corrals. Just as the sun was setting the team rolled into the town of Green River.

     The wide streets, wooden buildings, hitching-posts and water troughs, horse-and-buggy transport, and clothing of the locals were very "Wild West" looking. A couple of primitive motor vehicles were seen, parked. People came out onto the street to see the armored car -- and it was clear they'd seen similar silent armored cars before. The first question asked (by an adult) was, "Are you with Sergeant Crockett?" The crew of the armored car answered, "No", to the disappointment of the townsfolk.

     The town (pop. 600) had three saloons and a cafe -- one of the saloons had rooms to rent. Baths, showers, barbers, hot meals sitting at tables, and proper beds were greatly appreciated by the Morrow team. Some questions were asked and answered, but the team was hot and tired, and decided to spend a whole day at this town.

 

the travels of R36 for this session

 

Sunday, 3 September 2141

 

weather:  high temperature 75° F, low 48° F. Fair skies, winds about 20 kph from the east. Actual sunrise 5:32 a.m., actual sunset 6:34 p.m. MT.

    

     A day spent relaxing and chatting in Green River. 

     Last summer many of the adult men around the Green River Valley and Sage Plains had joined the CLAM's "Expeditionary Force" -- the Doom Riders had been seen as far west as the South Pass, so the population of this area had been very worried. As the "Green River Valley Militia", about 100 of so had been part of the forces fighting the Doom Riders.

      Also taking part in the war, as part of the Expeditionary Force, were hundreds of refugees driven out of Montana; they'd migrated to Oregon, and were coming back for revenge. Eight huge 6x6 trucks filled with Soviet naval infantry and two 6x6 armored cars, all with red stars, had also been part of the Expeditionary Force, along with about 200 horse-mounted infantry from the Snake River Valley in Idaho. A lot of smaller groups were part of the Expedition, from strange places to the west. The CLAM themselves had a silent armored car, a silent jeep, and three or four "not quiet at all" trucks. The Expeditionary Force had traveled from Bone City (Spokane, WA) to Fort Boise, then along the Snake River Valley to Pocatello, through the valley west of the Salt River Range, and then east through the Sage Plains.

      The CLAM leaders had been Sergeant "Sonny" Crockett, Sergeant Randolph Scott Tubbs, "Doc" Holliday, "Doc" Davis, D.B. Cooper, "Ranger Rick", JJ, Earp and Gootz -- the people here in Wyoming didn't recognize the name of Colonel Bowie.

 

Some of those name are alternate names for the same person.

 

      The horse-mounted infantry and cavalry had not been heavily involved in the main battle at Trader Pass last year -- the Soviet troops and other mechanized forces had been at the fore-front. One thing a lot of people had noticed was the member of the Waste Lords in a giant suit of armor -- about eight feet tall, carrying a giant rifle. The man in the armor was called "The Hammer".

 

Monday, 4 September 2141

 

weather:  high temperature 86° F, low 45° F. Fair skies, almost no wind.

    

     In the morning, the Project team left, headed for Idaho. The road between the Bear River Range and the Salt River Range was rutted and rough -- it had been heavily used last summer by a lot of trucks, but only by a few riders or wagons since then. The trip to Pocatello was about 500 kilometers, and took all day.

     30 kilometers or so before reaching Pocatello, the team passed a destroyed zone -- a 650 kiloton air burst had struck the Inkom cement plant during the Atomic War.

     The wide pastures and farmland of the Snake River Valley were a pleasant change from the weeks spent crossing the American Midwest. The valley had been uninhabited for decades after the Atomic War, due to the Long Winter and the fallout from several nuclear strikes on the National Reactor Test Site, east of Arco.

     The town of Pocatello, with only a few hundred inhabitants, sat on the edge of the ruins of the 20th Century city. As at Green River, many people here had taken part in the war against the Doom Riders, or had sold horses, food, or equipment to the Expeditionary Force.

 

Tuesday, 5 September 2141

 

weather:  high temperature 85° F, low 56° F. Cloudy skies, winds about 10 kph from the west.

    

     The drive to Twin Falls was pleasant -- the team was able to stop and buy meals at small towns along the way, and gazed on herds of horses, goats and sheep. Radiation levels in the Snake River were a bit higher than the team liked. 

     There were a very few motor vehicles in the valley, powered either by alcohol or charcoal-powered gas generators.

 

Wednesday, 6 September 2141

 

weather:  high temperature 90° F, low 55° F. Cloudy skies, winds about 15 kph from the west.

    

     The old route of US 93 from Twin Falls into Nevada became rocky and rutted after about 50 kilometers; the old highway had been washed out, covered with volcanic ash, and then washed away some more. Scrub grass and low, prickly trees covered the hills. The trip to Elko took all day.

 

"This? This is the good part."

 

     The northern quarter of Nevada had not been treated well by the Long Winter and the strange weather afterwards. It was hot and very dry.

 

"We're looking right along U.S. Highway 93 here."

 

     The remains of Interstate 80 were littered with rusted-out motor vehicles partially-buried in ash.

 

U.S. 93 near Elko

 

     Elko was a treeless plain, covered in silt from the Humboldt River (dry right now) and ash; some aluminum remnants of house trailers were visible, along with some steel and concrete posts from old billboards, rectangular or bean-shaped depressions where swimming pools had once been located, and the rubble of a couple of interstate overpasses.

    

Thursday, 7 September 2141

 

weather:  high temperature 98° F, low 63° F. Cloudy skies, no wind before 1 p.m., winds rising to 15 kph from the SW after 1 p.m.

    

     It was cool and dusty in Elko this morning, but quickly warmed up after dawn. The team drove over the course of ancient roads, about 30 kilometers north of Elko, and began exploring dusty canyons and old ranches.

     An old mining site contained the entrance to the bunker -- not quite as hidden as the one in Kentucky. An hour's work with their laser made a hole in the large concrete door, but the passage beyond was filled with cool nitrogen gas -- so they spent more time cutting and dragging the outer door remnants to improve circulation. Once the tunnel had been ventilated (the brisk afternoon winds helped) ...

 

The entrance tunnel was 5 meters high, 8 meters wide, and 40 meters long:  1600 cubic meters of air to circulate.

 

     ... the team proceeded inside. There was a "simple" roll-up door, and a person-sized door, at the entrance to the central core. The roll-up door bore the Tau symbol.

 

     The team peeked quickly inside the central core; power was on, at a low level, and there was no sign that the bunker had been disturbed for 150 years. They had no way to circulate oxygen into the vast volume of the bunker interior.

 

the Haven Redoubt elevation; tan shade represent areas without oxygen

 

On to Oregon Hospitality