Bruce and Danny led the two to the Center and sat them down to eat. Several looked up, seeing them crying, and Bruce and Danny just motioned for no questions. Millie ran out with their plates of food she cooked for them. Neither one wanted to eat, so the kids and Bruce fed them.
When they finished eating, Bruce convinced them to go and take a nap with the kids, which they agreed to. When they left the Center, Bruce just sat back in his chair in bewilderment. Carroll looked at Bruce and started cackling. “What’s so funny?” he asked.
“You’s sitting there looking like you seen a ghost. Bruce, they’s both with child, and they feed off each other. Don’t be comparing them to Debbie. A woman has moods when she be with child, but two together, it’s too many feelings close together. I had two sisters at home pregnant, and we all wanted to move until the childs was birthed.”
“Well, that explains a lot then,” Bruce said.
Buffy looked at Bruce. “How does that explain anything?” she snapped. “You become an adult and you go crazy. I think it sucks.”
“Buffy, it’s not that bad,” Bruce said.
“Oh yeah, because you can’t see how y’all act. I can, and I don’t want to be one,” she said, getting up.
Bruce stood and left with her, trying to put her mind at ease. The only thing he heard was it started at sixteen. Not sure what the hell Buffy was talking about, he just asked her to go and talk to her friend Julie. Hugging her before she left, he watched her run off. Looking up at the sky, he said, “God, I don’t know what you did to the other side of the human species, but sometimes, I think they are totally separate from men.”
Not getting a response, Bruce headed to the shop to work on his battle plan until supper. The duo was much better then, to Bruce’s relief, and then, they headed over to the Oz area so Bruce could talk to Gene. They sat and watched the comings and goings at the base over the many cameras till Bruce saw Gene heading to his room.
When Gene walked in his room, the two Rangers inside went to stand in the hallway with the other five. Seeing the Rangers in the hallway, Jake woke up Gene’s computer as he sat down. Gene saw Bruce and the girls looking at him, and he smiled. “It still freaks me out when Jake turns on my computer,” Gene said.
“Your computer is only in standby. It’s not turned off, Gene!” Jake yelled from across the room.
Bruce was fixing to relay, but Gene spoke. “I heard him, Bruce, but the screen is dark, and it’s not making a lot of noise, so it’s off,” he said.
“Dad, you really need to talk to your friends about computers,” Jake said.
Bruce leaned toward the webcam. “It’s a special ‘off,’ Gene,” Bruce whispered.
Jake just looked at Bruce with his eyes narrowed. “You would think you would’ve given birth to your boys, not your daughter. Sometimes, I think y’all found me,” Jake said.
“Well, I didn’t want to tell you, but we picked you up at Wal-Mart,” Bruce said.
“Wal-Mart!” Jake yelled. “Not Best Buy or Game Stop? That’s disgusting,” Jake snapped.
Bruce looked at Gene. “He grows on ya,” he said.
“Of that I have no doubt,” Gene said, taking a drink of water.
“Well, how comes the planning?” Bruce asked.
“Once we deploy after the first skirmish, one regiment on my right flank will pull out, heading toward your lines. Then, I will have to condense my front. You will probe twice on each flank, and I will launch an artillery strike at a predetermined area, taking out some equipment. We will launch a micro UAV to see the damage, and you will call for a meeting,” Gene said and started calling out quadrant numbers. Bruce found where he was looking, then Gene continued.
“I will give you this building and will make the general relaxed since we called the meeting place. You say only ten people per side for security and five to meet. I will take care of the general and pull the rest of the troops in. Next, I will call here and tell them the general is taking over, and I’m going to stop him, but the President needs to get here fast. I will make him take my route down, and we can deal with him.”
“He has to die, Gene, along with his Homeland officers,” Bruce said.
“Bruce, they are not that much of a threat.”
“They are two thousand strong and could hook up with any number of gangs. They know locations of weapons and our layout. They are not coming here, and that means the families as well. Those officers have slaughtered hundreds, and their families will be targets here. I’m not going to have a volatile situation inside of Hope.”
“I can understand about the officers, but they have families here also. You’re talking about killing close to five thousand people.”
“Gene, what would the refugees there do to those families once they got here? They have lived in a separate compound, living well,” Bruce said.
“We can’t just kill them because of association,” Gene said.
“Shit, I’ve killed entire groups because I couldn’t take them out without massive loss on my side, so everyone died.”
“The families are innocent.”
“They maybe, but you are bringing those that were oppressed by members of them.”
“Can’t we at least try?” Gene asked.
“Okay, Gene, we can try,” Bruce said, getting a shock from everyone in the room and Gene. “I will arrange a place to for them to gather. You can tell the President you are sending some choppers in to get him and lead his group in by armored column. I will give the officers there the chance to let their families enter Hope without them. The only catch is you and you alone will carry out the punishment that is demanded for every member that comes from Colorado that breaks our law. You know our laws.”
Gene looked at Bruce and nodded. “I agree to those terms.”
“I will come up with a plan before then,” Bruce said.
“I can do it, Bruce. I’m the one who is asking for their entry.”
“No, Gene, I will because if they refuse or try to fight, they will all be wiped off the face of the Earth. No matter what, the President, his staff, and the entire leadership of Homeland will not leave that site.”
“Now, that I want to help on.”
Seeing Gene had no idea what was needed, Bruce just stared at him with a flat expression. “Gene, you need to get ready for this war. It’s nothing like we have ever fought before, and it’s only going to get worse. We can’t save everyone and must be ready to sacrifice to save what we have,” Bruce said.
Looking away, Gene said, “I know, Bruce, but I have been up here with these people and watched them all suffer. I want to try and save as many as I can.”
“I will save all these people here in Hope, Gene. They are my first responsibility. You need to be ready for this, brother, but I will risk my troop’s lives one more time for you to do this for those families,” Bruce stated.
Gene shook his head. “That’s why I want my troops to handle this. Yours will already be risking a lot.”
“No, Gene, your troops have lived with them in fear. When the time comes, I want to know the ones there can kill them.”
Gene nodded. “Understandable, Bruce, and thank you. I will fight this war with you until the end. I may even get to repay my debt,” he said, grinning.
“I doubt that. You can’t carry someone that far now,” Bruce said, grinning back.
“I can hotwire a car though.”
“Hoorah.”
“Thank you, Bruce. Hoorah.”
Bruce looked at Jake and nodded. The screen went black as Stephanie and Angela got out of his lap. Bruce stood up and stretched as Mike came over. “Brother, you really didn’t want to kill those families, did you?” he asked.
“No, but I will. That is a lot of people that would be hostile towards us, Mike. I would rather do it in one place.”
“If you think the
y are hostile, then why let them in?” Mike asked.
Looking away and staring at the wall, Bruce answered, “To show Gene what this new world is going to require.”
“I don’t want them hurting our people, Bruce,” Mike grumbled.
“Oh, they won’t hurt those already here, but some of the refugees are going to attack some of the families of the Homeland officers. They will be clan members, and Gene will be the one to hold the gun and kill them. Those people that have suffered and starved, the Homeland agent might be dead, but their families will be here, and some will lash out, and Gene will be the one holding the gun, not me.”
Chapter 11
It was Christmas evening as Bruce sat in the Center with the family and clan. Presents this year were very simple. All the kids got toys, and Bruce was watching them play on the floor. As much as he tried, he couldn’t enjoy the moment. Events were rushing toward the clan too fast. Getting up, he walked around and kissed everyone and hugged the kids and then headed to the shop.
Sitting at his desk, he pulled out his notebook and maps to go over everything again. The group in Maryland was still trying to teach a blue to use a weapon, and had lost another lab technician. The blue did use the gun, but it beat the man to death with it. The Pennsylvania group’s leaders were totally insane. Bruce wanted to just bomb them, but there were over five thousand hostages there. Many of the reported gang locations were turning out to be real gang locations. Some were borderline, but they would watch them real close. As long as people could come and go as they pleased and were treated well, he didn’t care what people did.
Many people in the clan were starting to get the opinion that if the people being held by gangs didn’t try to fight, they didn’t need to be rescued. Bruce could see their point of view but didn’t agree with them. As long as he was in charge, he would do what he could to stop the gangs and save who he could just as long as it didn’t endanger too many of his troops.
Looking through his notes, he knew once the government was handled, the group in Maryland had to be dealt with and soon. He really didn’t want to kill that many scientists, but that was a long way from them. Then, the area was still full of infected. The site was not far from Camp David and had been under constant UAV surveillance, and holy hell was the area crawling with blues.
The first time he saw the area, Bruce thanked God he was in Louisiana. If the temperature was above freezing, the blues were out in force. Once it got down below freezing, the blues went inside but did not stay there. They watched a group of blues try to hunt down a deer in the snow. At two hundred feet off the ground, the UAV told them it was four degrees Fahrenheit. They didn’t get the deer nor were they moving fast, but they were moving. In the UAV’s thermal view, to everyone’s surprise, the blues were showing hotter than a human would, even their extremities.
Shaking his head, Bruce pulled out the map and went over the attack plan again. They had gone back out and were clearing the area again, even clearing several buildings and small villages house to house. Max, along with the other dogs at the base, were very instrumental in this. They had moved out a hundred vehicles and camouflaged them for Gene’s artillery strike. There were Hummers and other military vehicles that were stripped down and broken. Bruce wasn’t about to let Gene blow up good shit.
Omega was going to take the left flank on the Texas line, Gamma the right. Bruce had sections of the Praetorians in the center that had been trained on armor. They had over two dozen tanks and thirty Bradleys blocking the route in. With them was also another Patriot system, MRLSs, artillery, counter battery radar, and several Avengers. The Avenger was just a Hummer with eight Stinger anti-aircraft missiles. They also had several of the Bradleys that were set up with anti-aircraft missiles instead of TOWs or Javelins. Jake kept telling him that they didn’t need to worry about the choppers, but Bruce wasn’t taking any chances.
Gene had informed them that they had two Patriot systems now covering the government base. Bruce didn’t have the heart to tell him they knew from satellite feeds, but Jake did. Jake was in hog heaven when he told Gene that he owned both systems. The systems that were with the attack force were not linked up to the command network, so Jake couldn’t hack into them. Mack assured everyone his boys could handle them with ease. Once again, Bruce didn’t listen to anyone. He knew where they were going to be deployed and had several positions dug with Javelins waiting outside of Magnolia, Arkansas.
Teams were still clearing out Shreveport and the area around Independence Stadium. The stadium was being wired up for power, and equipment was being placed to get rid of the President and his cronies. Most in the command group agreed with Gene to try to save the families. To everyone’s surprise, it was Bill who agreed with Bruce. “Just kill them all and save us some headaches,” he had told everyone. Bill knew like several others that the regular people at the government camp would hold resentment against those families and had a right to.
Bruce was running his finger along battle lines when his cellphone went off vibrating, scaring the shit out of him. Jumping up, thinking some animal had jumped in his pocket, Bruce felt relief as he grabbed it and saw it was Angela.
“Hey, Little Foot,” Bruce answered.
“Bruce, where are you?” she asked with an uncertain voice.
“In the shop. What’s wrong?” Bruce asked, feeling worried as he headed to the door, grabbing his assault rifle.
“Baby, meet us in the command bunker in mission control. Bill is there waiting on us.”
“I’m heading there now, baby,” Bruce said, shutting the door of the shop and seeing people leaving the Center, heading toward the house. He saw two people stop at the back door as he broke into a jog. They waited, looking toward him, and knew it was Angela and Stephanie. “What’s going on?” Bruce asked as he neared them.
They lunged at him, wrapping their arms around him as Stephanie sobbed, “Bill says a woman in Hope was raped.”
Dragging the two inside, Bruce cried out, “What!” They both started babbling, and Bruce pulled them faster down the stairs to the command bunker in mission control. Giving up on information from them when they reached the bottom, Bruce saw Bill talking to Mike. “Bill, what’s going on?” Bruce demanded.
Hearing Bruce’s voice, Bill spun around. “One of the roving patrols found a woman who was raped in one of the abandoned houses on base. I brought her to the infirmary here to be treated. They tried to strangle her,” Bill said.
“Did she name them?” Bruce asked, furious.
“Yes, she did, and we have them on security cameras leading her to the house. It seems she went willingly with the two,” Bill said.
Feeling the tingling in his neck as the rage built, Bruce asked, “Where are they?”
“Community Center three in Hope. I have two officers and one squad of Praetorians watching the building,” Bill said.
“Jake, tell me where they are in the building, and monitor them if they leave with their cellphones,” Bruce said, looking at him.
“You knew we could follow them with cellphones?” Jake asked, surprised.
“Son, I’ve seen CSI,” Bruce said, looking at Mike.
“Ted, Carl, Willie, Adam, and Mike, let’s go around and introduce ourselves to the people of the clan. We will walk in like we are saying Merry Christmas. Staying in a line, we will move toward them and at the last second jump them. Ted, Carl, and I will get one. Mike, Willie and Adam the other one. I want this done fast, and I want them alive at all cost,” Bruce said then looked back at Jake. “I want all the video of them from one hour prior of event till we take them in custody, and I want it by the time I get back,” Bruce instructed.
“I’ll have it done by the time you take them down, Dad,” Jake said, leaving with Matt to the monitor area.
“Nancy, Angela, and Stephanie, I want to know who they are and everything about them before I get there,” Bruce
said, leaving with everyone in tow.
Trying to suppress the rage, Bruce headed out the front door to the garage and climbed into Debbie’s SUV with his team as Mike did the same in Nancy’s. Bill followed in his Hummer. As he was pulling out, Stephanie called his phone. “Talk to me,” Bruce said with a low growl then hit speaker and noticed it was on three way with Mike.
“Suspect one is Oscar Jefferson, known as ‘OJ.’ He is twenty, a Caucasian, black hair, five foot seven at one hundred and seventy pounds. He joined us from Grenada. He is on a Sigma foraging team and construction crew. He has been through both the two and four-week course for combat. Review board gives him fair marks. For classes, he has only taken construction and some electrical courses. Barely maintains the basic gym requirements. Says he wants to join Omega or Gamma. He went in front of the punishment board twice. Once for showing up for duty intoxicated. Punishment: two hundred pushups and fifty hours extra work. Second time for showing up for work an hour late. Punishment: hundred pushups and ten-mile run with sixty-pound pack.
“Suspect two is Gage Thompson, no nickname. He is twenty-nine, Caucasian, brown hair, five foot nine at one hundred and eighty-three pounds. He joined us from Texarkana. He is also on Sigma foraging team and construction crew. He has only been through the two-week combat course. Review board gives him low marks. Classes are only engines. He has seen the punishment board five times, three times for showing up late for work, two times for showing up impaired, and once for not keeping required gym attendance. He has no stated goals.”
“Only one guess who the troublemaker in these two is,” Carl said beside Bruce.
“Bruce, the girl is Bonnie Lewis, seventeen, Caucasian, dark blond hair, five foot two, one hundred and ten pounds. Joined us with Bill’s group. She is in the Praetorian Guard and has been for almost a year. She has been through all three combat courses. Review board gives her high marks. Classes are a shit load. The only time she has been to the punishment board was showing up for duty ten minutes late. Twenty pushups for punishment, but she did forty. Goal is to be on Omega,” Stephanie said.
Blue Plague: War (Blue Plague Book 6) Page 14
