“The choppers didn’t pull back,” she said in a low voice.
At the same time, the choppers swapped sides of the road, letting their opposite gunners work on keeping the road clear. Danny saw a huge white dome ahead and then saw a sign, ‘Georgia Dome’. Looking down the road, Danny was amazed at the bodies that God’s Mower had cut down as the driver slowed down and turned again.
“I’m so proud of you, dummy!” Buffy shouted as Louis sped back up.
The two Blackhawks peeled away and two more flew in, taking over as they sped past the dome. Seeing blues still coming onto the road, Danny opened up, firing a long burst as Buffy opened up with the minigun.
“Motherfucker, this is a ninety degree turn. You wreck us, I’ll let Herman cut you up and feed you to the blues!” Buffy yelled over the intercom.
Moving her gun side to side, Danny kept firing as the blues closed in and the driver slowed, taking the sharp turn. “Angela, are you sure that’s the best way?” Buffy shouted and Danny realized Buffy was on the regiment radio. “Can’t we just drive through the fucking building?”
Danny looked up as they neared the high-rises and felt the driver weaving and turning onto another road. A huge white building was on their right as the driver turned on MLK. “Oh, fuck,” Danny said, seeing glass exploding on what had to be the twentieth floor.
A dozen blues were hurtling toward them from the high-rise. “Button up!” Danny screamed, grabbing the hatch and closing it. The hatch slammed down but didn’t close, and Danny saw the ammo belts were in the hatch.
Thumps sounded on the hull as the bodies impacted. She turned to see Buffy and Beth already in, then turned to the front in time to see a body hit the hood, almost exploding. “You can speed up, dummy,” Buffy said calmly to Louis.
The rig gave a lurch as the driver sped up and they watched in horror as blues poured from the buildings ahead. “Can you see this? Some of them are jumping from really high up and we aren’t even there yet,” Buffy said as more thumps sounded out.
Seeing liquid dripping in, Danny jumped back, seeing blood streaming under the cracked hatch. “Mask on,” she said and everyone dug out their hardened paintball masks.
“We are spreading out, Danny,” second platoon’s lieutenant called over the radio.
Before Danny moved her hand, Buffy grabbed her radio and answered. “Bitch, you better speed up. These bitches are jumping out of buildings on us!”
Danny reached up and pulled on the ammo belt that was keeping the hatch open. Feeling it wasn’t budging and using her shoulder, she pressed up on the hatch and had to push hard to get a little room before pulling the belt inside. Dropping the blood-covered ammo belt on the floor, Danny locked the hatch.
Buffy pushed past her, moving to the right troop window. “Yeah, bitch, I see you!” she shouted and Danny turned to see a blue male’s face pressed up against the window as it held onto the roof. Buffy pressed the back of her hand up to the window, flipping the bird in the blue’s face.
“I’m going to find your mama, cover my dick in honey and ground up glass, and rape that bitch!” Buffy yelled as the rig bounced and the blue fell off. “I will find you, cocksucker!” Buffy shouted at the blue as it fell to the pavement. Danny gasped, looking out the back window and seeing the rig behind them had several blues on it.
“Buffy is spending too much time with Dad,” Danny mumbled, seeing the rig swerve sharply trying to shake the blues off.
Buffy crawled back under the cupola and looked out the front window. “See where that chopper is hovering? That’s where you turn. Now fucking put your foot down and don’t wreck, or you will get out and push!” she screamed.
“Bravo keep tight, turn ahead,” Danny called over the radio.
Buffy looked at Danny, “Angela says the choppers have cleared the area at the turn and we can open up.”
“What about the ones on us?” Danny asked, feeling another thump.
“Let me drive, I’ll get their asses off,” Buffy said cheerfully.
“No, BB. I need you on a gun,” Danny grinned. “When we take the turn, we open up my hatch and clear us off.”
Pulling her pistol up, Buffy grinned at Danny and Beth. “That’s right, we are some bad ass bitches.”
Hearing plinks on the hull, Danny’s heart paused. “Who’s shooting at us?”
“The chopper ahead of us,” Heath, the primary radio operator, shouted from the passenger seat.
Buffy looked out the front window and saw shapes in the troop area of the Blackhawk shooting at them. “Those better be little bullets and my minigun better be okay.”
As the rig bounced over bodies, Danny saw a gold dome on her right as Heath turned around. “The chopper reports we have bodies on the roof and they can’t be sure they are all dead.”
Danny raised her pistol up. “Oh, they will be shortly.”
“You tell ‘em, sis,” Buffy cheered.
Grabbing Beth, Danny looked at Buffy. “Buffy, we all push up on my hatch. I’m taking back and you take front. If it’s clear, call it out and Heath, you open the cupola so Buffy can get in,” she said and looked at Beth. “You will take left, got it? If it’s clear, duck back in and open your hatch.”
Visibly trembling, Beth nodded as Buffy told Heath and they all moved under Danny’s hatch. “Push,” Danny grunted and they all pushed up, straining hard.
“How many fuckers jumped on us?” Buffy grunted as the hatch slowly opened. The bodies rolled off and the hatch suddenly sprang open as everyone raised their pistols.
A blue face was feet away as Danny pulled the trigger on her XDM, sending a .45 to punch the blue in the nose. Its head yanked back as the rear of its head exploded. Seeing movement, Danny squeezed the trigger hitting another blue in the chest and feeling the rig slow and turn.
She heard more pistol shots, but cleared the rest of the rear and turned as Beth dropped down. Seeing Buffy climb out, Danny pulled up her SAW and looked back along the convoy to see blues raining down. “This sucks slimy donkey dicks,” she said, lifting her SAW as Louis finished the turn onto Capital and she couldn’t see down the road anymore.
She turned around to see Buffy pulling a blue’s body out of her cupola. “If you fucked up my gun, I’m killing your kids!” she shouted, kicking the body off the roof.
Climbing in the cupola, Buffy stomped on the hatch. “Open the fucking hatch, pussy!”
Danny glanced over to see Beth opening the left hatch. “Did you hear Angela, dummy?!” Buffy screamed in the intercom. “She said slow down! Or we move from under the cover the choppers are giving us.”
“Slow down, so the rest of the convoy can catch up,” Danny called over the intercom. Feeling the rig slow, she looked around and saw bodies everywhere then looked up to see four Blackhawks hovering over them.
The rig stopped and Danny saw a raised crosswalk over the road that was utterly destroyed. A large building was on the right that looked like a parking garage. Feeling better, she looked back to see her convoy still pulling out and every vehicle was covered in bodies. Hoping the bodies on her troops’ rigs were dead, she grabbed the radio to call Angela to see if she could tell the driver to pull away, but Danny froze.
A blue was clawing his way up the side of six-story building on her right. It was moving so fast up the building, it looked like it was running on all fours.
“They are running up the walls!” she screamed as loud as she could and opened fire, holding the trigger of her SAW down.
Hearing Danny scream and fire, Buffy screamed and pressed the minigun but didn’t see blues, so she just hosed everything around them. The rig pulling up behind them was throwing bodies off and heard the roar of gunfire and saw tracers from the minigun spraying the entire area to its front. They all brought up weapons and just held down the triggers.
The troops in the choppers saw the wild fire but didn’t see targets and then the other vehicles opened up, shooting any building in range. Hearing the roar of gunfire under th
em, the door gunners opened up just as the troops in the cargo area did.
“It ran up the building!” Danny continued to scream, feeling her bolt lock back and she did the fastest reload ever.
“Move your ass, dummy!” Buffy screamed, holding the trigger down as glass and bricks rained down from the buildings from all the gunfire.
The RG lurched forward as Danny opened up again, spraying the building she’d seen the blue run up. Buffy, finally seeing a steady stream of gunfire to follow from Danny, stopped spraying wildly and aimed at the same building.
Everyone else saw them hitting the building and moved their aim, sending rivers of bullets into the structure. Buffy never stopped firing, even as they drove under the walkway.
Coming out from under the walkway, Buffy saw an Apache hovering over the road, unloading its chain gun on the same building. “Fuck!” she screamed as they passed the building, but kept swiveling the gun back to shoot at the building. “How many is in there?!”
Suddenly, the stream of red stopped and Buffy looked down as the barrels kept spinning. Kicking the empty can away and dropping down, she lifted a can of ammo, over twice her weight, and climbed back up. Throwing the top open, she grabbed the belt as Danny continued to scream, shooting at the building.
Loading the belt, Buffy turned the cupola to the front as she finished loading the minigun. Looking up, she saw a tall gray building on the left standing alone and her mouth fell open, seeing a dozen figures crawling up the wall faster than she could run.
“They’re running up the walls!” she screeched over the radio, pressing the trigger as Danny reloaded and turned and saw the blues crawling up the wall.
“They’re running up the walls!” Danny screamed and sprayed the building.
***
Back at command, Angela heard the screams over Buffy’s radio. “I need all aircraft now! Vector to south downtown!” she screamed into the radio.
“What is it?” Stephanie shouted, leaning back in her chair and looking down at Angela.
“Blues are attacking them, running on the buildings!”
Bruce looked down at the table monitor as Stephanie screamed in the radio. “Fucking kill everything downtown!”
Tapping the screen, Bruce could see a shitload of tracers hitting two buildings from the choppers and the convoy, but he couldn’t see any blues. Tapping the screen, Bruce zoomed in and jumped back. “They are fucking running up the building!” he screamed, pointing at the screen.
For the first time, fear filled Omega from top to bottom, and hell followed this fear. All the companies heard the terror over the radio about blues running up buildings and like Bravo, every company leveled the area around them with gunfire, rockets, grenades, and one sergeant ordered his driver through a building to knock it down.
***
Ten miles away to the south, Steve turned his Dad’s Pavelow toward downtown and looked out the window in awe, seeing streams of helicopters and planes speeding toward the high-rises. “Holy shit,” he said as Stephanie screamed over the radio.
“Blow up every building downtown!”
Shoving the throttle forward, Steve pressed the intercom. “Get all guns ready, we are rolling in hot and holding half a mile out, dump everything we have!”
***
The convoy sped down the road as everyone screamed about the blues running up the buildings. Every rig was shooting anything around them that Mother Nature didn’t make. Passing a high-rise hotel, the windows exploded as it felt the wrath of Bravo for having the audacity to just stand there.
With his foot buried on the accelerator, Louis pulled into the large parking lot of the stadium and what cars were there, were soon riddled with bullets or just driven over. Pulling to the center of the lot with every person shooting, Bravo pulled into a box formation in record time, then everyone faced out and hosed the area.
Danny threw down the smoking SAW and grabbed the bigger M240. Setting it on the roof, she picked up the 7.62 belt and pressed the trigger, aiming at the hotel they’d passed, six hundred yards away.
The line facing the stadium opened up on the structure just because it was there and blues could climb it. The blues charging them were hit with gunfire as an afterthought, just because they got in the way.
Hovering around downtown, choppers dumped whatever they were carrying into the buildings as Stephanie moved them all to the east, to get them out of the line of fire for artillery. Many were empty before they made it and headed back to rearm as artillery and MLRS rockets started impacting.
When her minigun ran dry, Buffy dropped down and crawled in the back, grabbing an AT4. She climbed out on the roof, knocking the endcaps off. “Clear behind!” she yelled, pressing the trigger and sending a rocket into the hotel.
Seeing her barrel smoking, Danny flipped the lever, taking it off and grabbed another as Buffy lifted another AT4. “Clear behind!”
Danny looked up, seeing the explosion. She turned around to see everyone shooting. She looked back inside the perimeter and didn’t see any support personnel. Looking around the line, she found them standing on the rigs shooting out at anything.
Hearing more explosions, Danny looked at downtown as artillery and rockets continued raining down. Suddenly, the hotel exploded, blowing a huge hole in the side and then it was hit three more times as Hellfires rained down.
“You go, Mama Nancy!” she shouted, locking the new barrel in and moving her aim to rack any car around them and then swung her aim up at the buildings downtown, over half a mile away.
***
“Hold artillery,” Angela shouted. “Eagle flight, your run is clear and target is downtown, fucking level it!”
***
Loading her minigun, Buffy looked to the west, hearing thunder closing as Heath the primary radio operator shouted. “Danger close, air!”
“Oh shit,” Buffy said and dove through the cupola, landing hard on the floor as six Strike Eagles roared over downtown. Each unleashed ten tons of ordnance and a half a mile away seemed much closer.
The RG shook violently as the earth trembled and Buffy bounced off the floor, looking back at Danny and Beth. Danny and Buffy looked each other in the eyes. “They ran up the building,” they said together in a growl as the earth continued to shake.
When the explosions stopped, they both popped up and continued firing as a line of Warthogs zoomed in, dropping bombs and napalm.
The tall buildings started falling one by one as the aircraft kept coming. Even when the other companies started calling out that blues were running off, it didn’t stop.
“BUFF inbound, south to north run,” Heath called out. “Start of the run is one and a half miles away at Edgewood!”
Danny glanced back, seeing the massive bomber fly over them at five thousand feet. “I’ll knock your fucking buildings down,” she growled as bombs started falling.
The ground shook with each two-thousand-pound bomb and the high-rises started falling. When the BUFF pulled away as the last bomb exploded, Danny looked around the rig and everyone was looking at the buildings crashing down, panting hard.
Climbing out and looking around her company, she saw nobody was shooting and turned to the stadium as it let out a groan and the section closest to them crashed down. Looking back toward downtown, Danny could see a cluster of high-rises still standing in the distance.
“Fucking run up those and I’ll knock them down, too,” she said through clenched teeth.
***
“Call all troops in,” Bruce said, standing over the table monitor. Bruce looked in awe at the destruction from the overhead drones. Fires were raging in the rubble as Atlanta once again burned. For the second time in its existence, Atlanta burned. This time, Atlanta burned because blues ran up buildings.
Chapter 27
All of Omega was pulled into the Atlanta airport. For three days, they’d burnt female blues, killing in massive numbers and continued until no more blues showed up. They pulled to the airport and all
the fighting vehicles pulled bumper to bumper, forming a massive triangle. The crews were reloading and doing maintenance on vehicles and weapons.
Bruce stood outside Prometheus and looked around, trying to get the sight of a blue running up the side of a building on all fours out of his head. It didn’t help that one of the drones got real good pictures of it and Angela and Stephanie showed it the next day on their noon broadcast. Even though they were in the field, running air, they did both the noon and evening shows from Prometheus. Which they were doing right now and why Bruce was walking around.
He laughed to himself, remembering the noon report yesterday. Angela did her part of the show then moved over, taking over for Stephanie during a live broadcast, then Stephanie came over and finished the show. This was the one everyone got to see blues running up buildings on all fours.
On the footage from the drone, you could actually make out the blue using the claws on its hands and toes to claw his way up the building. Bruce gave a shiver, pushing it out of his mind again.
He pulled every vehicle in Danny’s Bravo company back that first day because they had to be scrubbed down and vehicles decontaminated. Then, each member of Bravo had to be decontaminated because they’d tossed the bloody bodies off the vehicles.
Taking a breath, he walked over to Danny’s vehicle laughing, seeing her welding. “Yep, she’s Daddy’s girl,” he laughed. Getting closer, he saw she was welding a heavy gun mount on the right side. He glanced over and saw one on the left with a minigun mounted on it.
There were small gun mounts for the SAWs but like her Dad, if Danny wanted to throw hate downrange, she wanted to throw a lot. He stopped beside her rig, shielding his eyes till she was done and lifted the helmet up. “Nice welding, pumpkin.”
“Thanks, Daddy,” she smiled. “If I don’t get five people in the back, I want five people’s firepower.”
“That’s my girl,” he laughed.
Matt stuck his head out of the troop hatch. “Danny, do you want vehicle ID on?”
“I know my team, Matt,” Danny said, turning around.
“No, baby. It shows where all your vehicles are at.”
Blue Plague: Hope: Book Seven Page 36
