Blue Plague: Hope: Book Seven

by Watson, Thomas A

As Mary grabbed her radio, Jake looked at the map at the other areas his companies were forming defensive positions around the southwest side of Birmingham, three miles apart. Hearing gunfire, he stood up and looked out the troop hatch.

  The RG driving beside him was shooting at a group of blues charging the road, with a minigun. A stream of red arced out raking the group and they just collapsed, but more poured out of the woods behind them.

  “Mary, tell the lead element to slow, so we don’t have these fuckers chasing us,” Jake shouted.

  “They can’t slow much because they are getting hit hard,” she said, getting behind the Ma Deuce. Thunder erupted as she shot a group of blues charging from the other side of the road.

  Climbing up on the bench seats inside, Jake stood up in the troop hatch and looked around. His RG was in the middle of his one hundred combat vehicles that were stretched over two miles and that didn’t include the support vehicles.

  “Fuck this,” he said, reaching down and grabbing the radio for his company. “Alpha Company, this is Bat One (call sign for first battalion commander, short for first battalion). Forward elements, stop. Third and fourth platoon, you will pull into right lane pulling side by side with first and second platoon. I want bumpers touching troops. We will stay in place until the blues thin out. Do you copy?”

  The five platoon leaders responded back and Jake turned to see vehicles driving past. “Mary, tell third platoon leader they have the rear, and divide the platoon up to keep the two lines as even as possible,” Jake said, looking toward the left.

  Pulling his SCAR up, Jake shot two blues charging from the trees. As his RG slowed to a stop, Jake climbed out on the roof, looking down the road. Blues were charging out of the trees, but not evenly. As the rest in his RG stood up in the troop hatch, Jake moved up beside Mary.

  When the Ma Deuce ran dry, Mary pulled another ammo can up and saw Jake just looking around at different areas of the column the convoy was pulled into. Just looking at his face, she knew he was in deep thought.

  Loading the fifty, she looked up at him. “What are you thinking so hard about?”

  “Mary, I swear they are testing our line,” he said, staring down the quarter mile long line.

  “What?” she snapped, standing up in the cupola.

  Raising his hand and counting, “Look up sixteen vehicles ahead in our row. There are bodies of blues just twenty yards from those two MRAPs. If you watch down the line, more are coming out there than anywhere else,” Jake said.

  “I’m not buying that,” she huffed. “I don’t like the idea of blues coordinating.”

  “No, the ones coming see where the best chance is and charge that spot,” Jake said, pulling the company radio to his mouth. “Nah, I’ll test it myself,” he said, letting the radio go.

  He looked at the radio operators that were assigned to his rig. “I have this, get back on the radios,” Jake said, then looked at the rig behind him. “Let the blues get closer, but no closer than twenty yards!”

  They waved and Jake told the rig in front of him the same. “Jake, at least get the driver on a gun,” Mary said as the gunfire slackened around them. A matrix kid bounded out of the woods on all fours, springing at them like a demented jack rabbit.

  Snapping his rifle up, Jake squeezed the trigger hitting the kid in the chest. Its body slammed into the side of the RG hard enough that they felt the thump through the eight tons of truck. Mary turned to the rig in front of them. “Jake’s orders do not apply to the matrix kids!” she shouted.

  Ejecting his magazine, Jake laughed and slammed in another. “Yeah, I have to say, the little demons make my sphincter tingle.”

  “I want to wet my pants,” Mary mumbled, swinging the fifty over as six blues charged out of the trees a hundred yards away. They jumped over the bodies of dead blues and broke into a full sprint. She paused her shot for two seconds as the blues closed to fifty yards and then, pressed the trigger.

  The shells were like all the ammo now, hollow points filled with europium. To Mary, she didn’t think the fifty needed the europium, but was still glad it was there. Moving at four thousand feet per second, the first bullet hit the blues before the sound reached Mary.

  Just as a blue female dropped to jump, two bullets hit her torso, filling the air with a mist. A head and part of a shoulder fell to the ground as the legs took two more steps. The next five were hit with a long burst, knocking limbs off and exploding torsos.

  Releasing the trigger, Mary watched a lifeless torso cartwheel another twenty yards from the momentum the blue had running. “I want my field of fire longer. Half a mile would be fine with me,” she said, swinging her gun back to the trees.

  Jake aimed his rifle at a blue male charging them and held his fire till it was thirty yards away. “I agree, baby, but I think I’m right and if I am, I have a plan to use when we set up,” he said as a matrix kid sprang out of the woods.

  As Jake moved his aim, Mary pressed the trigger hosing the area where the kid landed and it vanished in a mist leaving only a lower leg and chunks of meat. “I was getting it, baby,” Jake said, swinging his aim at another blue.

  “I told you, the demon spawn get shot on sight. Fuck this ‘letting them get close’. They move faster and jump much further than the big ones,” she said, tracking another group. At a full sprint, the blues could cover twenty-five yards in a second, so they only had four seconds to shoot before the blue reached them.

  And the man she loved, wanted to let them get closer to test a theory? “Momma Debbie put up with it, I can too,” Mary said, squeezing the trigger and watching the bodies explode.

  After twenty minutes, Mary could tell without a doubt, the blues were hitting them harder in their little area. “Everyone in the RG get up here and start shooting,” Jake yelled. He was moving his aim from body to body, squeezing the trigger so fast it almost sounded like full auto.

  The thunder of helicopters filled the air as a line of ten Blackhawks pulled over the convoy and streams of red hosed the tree line from each side of the line of Blackhawks. Not taking his eyes off the trees, Jake ejected his magazine and slammed in another, watching the streams of bullets chop down trees.

  Almost as one, the choppers guns ran dry and they flew off, banking to the east. “Give me the company radio,” Jake said, holding out his hand and one of the radio operators passed it up.

  “Alpha Company. This is Bat One. Pull out in side-by-side formation to rally point, keeping ten-yard spacing at thirty MPH and set up as instructed,” he said and handed the radio back.

  “Okay, they were probing,” Mary said, grabbing another ammo can.

  “Sir, Bat Two wants to talk to you,” the radio operator said, holding out the radio.

  Taking the radio, “Yeah, Matt?” Jake said.

  “Were the blues attacking a weak point?” Matt asked.

  “A weak point I made,” Jake said. “How did you know?” he asked, dropping into the RG as he felt it start to move.

  “I watched the feed from a drone,” Matt said.

  “You have a functioning command rig?” Jake shouted. Only command rigs had a large collection of monitors.

  “Yeah, I wired up three more monitors in my RG as we drove from Hope. I couldn’t keep up with everything with the three monitors in here.”

  Jake looked over at Mary, shaking his head, “I should’ve done that.”

  “We can stop at the store and pick some up,” she smiled and climbed back up in the cupola.

  “Somedays, I want to be a monk,” he sighed, pressing the radio. “Copy on that, Bat Two. Are you in position?”

  “Hell, no. Echo company overshot the line and got into serious shit. I had to take two companies to go get them and pull them back to the line. I swear, I feel like I’m herding cats.”

  “Yeah, I feel the same,” Jake said. “If the blues see where others have gotten close, they will charge that area.”

  “I’ll try it and tell you about it at the meeting this afternoon
. Bat Two, Out,” Matt said.

  Letting the radio go, Jake pulled out his cellphone and wasn’t surprised to see it didn’t have signal. The mobile airfield set up relays to link the regiment for cellphones, then feedback via satellite. Jake figured it just wasn’t up yet. Dropping back inside, he grabbed a satellite phone and stood back out, calling his cyber ninjas.

  When he was done, he hung up and climbed onto the roof, crawling up beside Mary. She saw him and smiled. “Wonder how Buffy is handling being in the regiment command?”

  “Oh, I’m sure she’s pissed, but Dad told her she would stay with him until she figured out she’s not a terminator,” Jake chuckled. Seeing movement, he jerked up his rifle as a blue rounded a house and charged the convoy. As his crosshairs met the blue, Jake squeezed the trigger and watched the blue face dive, skidding several yards.

  “I would’ve got him,” Mary said, shaking her head.

  “I know, but I like to live up to the hype,” he grinned.

  Laughing, Mary kept her eyes facing out as the convoy passed by more houses set way off the road. “I think you proved your point shooting skeet with Matt and both of you used assault rifles.”

  “That was fun,” Jake said as Mary spun the cupola, pressing the trigger as blues poured out of a house half a mile off the road. Sending a hundred rounds, Mary kept the pattern tight and Jake wasn’t sure how many blues had come out of the house, but he knew none made it out of the yard.

  “See, I don’t need help,” she said as the RG driving beside them fired off to the right side of the road.

  Jake laughed and reached down, pulling another ammo can up for Mary. “Never said you did, super hottie,” he said.

  The convoy passed through a suburb south of Birmingham, pulling off the road east of the small town of McCalla into a large field. It wasn’t a very large field but pulling in the center, they would have eight hundred yards to the closest tree line and over half a mile shooting over the road.

  Setting up in a box with the supply vehicles pulled into the center, Jake walked along the tops of the MRAPs, talking to the troops and commanders and describing the plan he wanted to try. He was almost done when Mary came over the radio, “Jake, chopper is almost here to take us to the regimental command.”

  Pressing the radio, Jake grinned. “You know, you could’ve just said, ‘they are taking us to Dad’.”

  “Hey, don’t get sassy with me,” Mary snapped.

  Moving at a jog along the tops of the vehicles, Jake laughed. “I’m on my way.”

  Mary was standing on their RG looking to the south as he stopped beside her. “Glad we don’t drive back,” she said.

  “Shit, I wouldn’t drive back unless I took the company with us, at the very least, one platoon. Then, that would leave them short here,” Jake said, seeing a small chopper speeding toward them.

  “Oh, I like flying in the little Cayuse,” Mary said as the chopper slowed and she waved. The chopper flew over and dropped down till it was a foot from the RG’s roof. Checking her gear, Mary moved over and crawled up inside with Jake behind her.

  Buckling in, Jake waved at the pilot and the chopper rose up and sped away to the south. He looked out at the countryside and they passed his Bravo company that was already set up in a large field. Moving across the land, he could see blues everywhere. Not in large masses, but like ants heading back to the mound.

  Feeling his leg being tapped, Jake turned and Mary was pointing out the open door to the west. Looking out, he saw another company was set up several miles away and streams of tracers were pouring out. From this far he couldn’t see the blues, only a fluid-like mass around the four walls made up of the company’s vehicles.

  “Wish I had my map,” Jake mumbled, wanting to know who that was. All he knew was it wasn’t one of his companies, or it better not be. They watched a Warthog dive in making a gun run followed by another, dropping napalm. The napalm erupted in a line of fire, forming a wall on the north side of the company.

  Feeling the chopper bank, Jake looked ahead and saw the airfield in the distance. Getting closer, he saw choppers were landing and taking off in the ten-acre area, enclosed inside the wall of semi-trucks. Off the north wall, he saw the box formation of a company of MRAP vehicles and half a mile away, another box of vehicles.

  The pilot slowed and hovered half a mile away as Apaches took off. When they were clear, the Cayuse darted in, passing the airfield and landing inside the area closed off by the MRAPs.

  Climbing out, Jake saw Prometheus sitting in the center. As the chopper took off, Mary looked at him. “What company is pulling duty here?”

  “Babe, this is Dad’s protection detail,” Jake laughed. “It’s a little bigger than a company.”

  Jake headed for Prometheus with Mary beside him. “I bet Daddy Bruce is bitching,” she sang out.

  “Nope, Angela and Stephanie are here, remember? If he’s bitching, it’s on the inside,” Jake smiled as a guard opened the door.

  They walked in and saw Bruce leaning over the center table and looking at the screen with a headset on under his boonie hat. “Copy, keep your line resupplied. There is a concentration of blues to your east that I’m about to hit with the MLRS,” Bruce said into the headset.

  “Fire,” they heard Stephanie say amongst the chatter and turned to see her at a console, looking at two screens.

  “I got four hogs coming in loaded, who needs them?” Angela asked and they turned to see her at another console.

  “Send two to Bat Five, third company. Concentrate on the east side,” Bruce said.

  Angela talked in her headset as Stephanie leaned back in her chair, looking at Bruce. “Two gunships coming in. I directed one to Bat Three, second company,” she said and Bruce nodded.

  “That’s good, send the other to Bat Five, third company. The hogs should be done then,” Bruce said and glanced up at Jake. “This sucks, I need to be out there,” he said.

  “Bruce, shut your mouth and run this war!” Stephanie shouted.

  “I’m getting reports of blues massing to the east of the command area,” Angela said. “I’m sending the two hogs to deal with them.”

  Outside, they heard the MLRS rockets launch and roar overhead. “Something is in for a bad day,” Jake said as they moved up to the table and looked down at the monitor. At the center was a map of the area and all around the borders were small screens, showing each company from a drone.

  “Bat Four, company two needs fire along their east side. Dump one volley of rockets and get the artillery up,” Bruce said, pressing a box on his waist. They watched as Bruce listened to his headset.

  “It’s a god damn gun! Raise the barrel, put shit in it and pull the fucking trigger!” Bruce bellowed into the headset. He listened to the reply and they saw his face turn purple. “Look, if I have to come down there and set up your big gun, I will use your dick to dig your grave. I gave you an hour, now get those guns up. You can have one volley to make sure you don’t kill my troops because if you do, I will nail your ass to a tree and find a blue to eat you!”

  Leaning over to Jake, Mary whispered with a grin. “I love the way he gives guidance. You can feel the caring support.”

  Slowly, Jake turned to look at her. “You realize if that was one of us down there over artillery, he would’ve already come down there with his belt.”

  “Those bitches need to get in the game,” Mary said.

  “Artillery firing, keep a corridor open over Bat Four, company three,” Bruce said and the technicians around the vehicle issued orders, clearing the air. Six thundering booms roared outside making Bruce jump. “TED!” he bellowed and the door opened up behind them and Ted ran inside.

  “Whatch’ ya need, boss?” Ted asked, moving over to the table.

  “Go down to the artillery area and instruct that lieutenant on proper fire procedures. We need those guns up and I don’t think he knows his ass from a hole in the ground,” Bruce snapped.

  “On the way,” Ted said and t
ook off.

  “Well, he did get the artillery up and he did shoot, Dad,” Jake said.

  “Son, Dad’s not in the mood,” Bruce said as Angela came over.

  “Mack said they don’t have the east base stocked with ordnance to keep up this tempo. He wants to start running the planes from Hope,” she said.

  “We haven’t used them that much!” Bruce cried out.

  “Babe!” Angela snapped then smiled. “The only paved roads there are the runways. They haven’t stockpiled there yet. It only puts our planes out another three hundred miles, the fast movers can clear that fast.”

  “I don’t like calling in those jet jockeys, moving in at Mach one, to drop thousand pound bombs that close to my troops,” Bruce said, looking down at the screen. “Fine. But you tell Mack, his boys hurt my boys, and we fight.”

  “They haven’t yet,” Angela said, going back to her station and rubbing her belly.

  Hearing the door open, Jake turned around to see Matt and Danny walk in. “Damn, this is like a real war,” Matt said grinning.

  “Danny, control your husband or I’ll wax his chest with duct tape,” Bruce snapped and pressed the box at his waist. “No son, you can’t pull out because the blues will swarm you. You were made a first lieutenant for a reason, now get your left hand and put it down the front of your pants,” Bruce said calmly into the headset. “Good, now find your balls and cup them in your hand. You have them? Good, now squeeze them hard!” Bruce shouted. “We are here to fight! You aren’t even being pressed hard. You keep this up and I’m issuing you a BB gun and making you follow us on foot!”

  Shaking his head, Matt frowned. “That better not be one of mine,” he mumbled.

  Leaning over to Mary, Jake whispered. “If it’s one of ours, we hide the body.”

  Mary nodded as Bruce looked up at them. “Jake, that was good tactics you used, son,” he smiled.

  “Thanks,” Jake smiled and Bruce held up his hand.

  “Nancy, I swear to God, if you start raining down Hellfires, I’m turning this circus around and spanking your ass!” Bruce snapped into the headset.

  “Mom needs to chill,” Matt said, looking over at Mary.