Blue Plague (Book 7): Hope

by Thomas A. Watson

  “A female blue?” Gene asked, cocking his head.

  “Yeah,” Willie nodded. “Anyone got an idea on how to catch one? We don’t have bait and the nearest gang is over a hundred miles away.”

  “I got an idea,” Jake said grinning.

  Giving a nod, Gene looked around. “So, do we need to set up with prepared defenses?”

  “No, we need to find a place where they can only come at us from one way,” Carl said and everyone nodded with wide eyes.

  “We need more ammo,” Ted said.

  Gene looked at the faces around him and saw anxiety with a touch of fear. “So they’ll come in force?”

  “Dude, the last time we did that was in Texas,” Carl said. “Bruce sat us up on a bridge and it took us two days to kill all of them that showed up. Several of us had to float down the river and find a dozer, bring it back, and dig a path out from the masses of bodies. If they don’t show up, they aren’t around.”

  “Then why the hell haven’t we done this before?” Gene asked looking around.

  “Bruce uses bait, gang members to catch them, and he only did that when he was acting insane,” Ted answered.

  Not liking that Bruce hadn’t used this lately, Gene looked at Jake. “You think you can get one without endangering the troops?”

  “There will be some danger, but we’ll have to clear a few houses,” Jake said with a grin.

  “Alright, son. Talk to us,” Gene said, pulling out a small notepad.

  ***

  It was just before lunch when Omega rolled into another neighborhood. It had taken a little while to find what they needed, but they did. When the line of RGs pulled to a stop, Jake jumped out, bringing up his rifle.

  “Good plan,” Matt said, landing beside him.

  “If the blues cooperate,” Jake said, watching a group of ten carry a very large cage they had welded up. “They are very bad playmates and don’t follow the rules of the game.”

  “I’m thinking that house,” Matt pointed at a single-story brick house.

  Danny and Mary jumped down with Max as Jake nodded. He motioned the group to follow and took off as more troops carried supplies. When Max got close to the house, he growled. “Just hope there is a female in there,” Matt said as the troops sat down all the stuff.

  “You know, that would be our luck,” Jake said and took off with Matt, circling the house. They easily spotted a side window that was broken out with a well-worn path leading to it. “This one will do.”

  When they got back to the front, he saw Gene waiting. “We start with this one,” Jake said, nodding to the house.

  Looking at the house, Gene nodded. “Well, I know there’s one of the evil spawn you call the ‘matrix kids’ inside,” he said and everyone turned, seeing a small blue face sneering at them in the front window.

  “You know, seeing fangs on a child size blue makes you realize, you don’t want them growing up,” Carl said with a shiver.

  “No shit,” Gene said then looked at the group. “Teams, you have ten minutes to set up.”

  Jake and Matt moved over by the group carrying the large steel cage and told them to follow. “This new army is like the Roman Legion,” Ted said, moving over to a group that was carrying lumber. “You have to know how to build and destroy.”

  “As long as all these blue fuckers die, I don’t care what we have to do,” Carl said, watching Willie lead a group circling the house to cover the teams.

  “Amen,” Ted said as he led his group to the porch. Two held a sheet of plywood over a window as another man came over with a cement nail gun and popped nails at the corners. Then another group moved up, covering a window then all around the house, groups moved up to cover the windows.

  Matt and Jake directed the group to put the cage at the window the blues were using to get in and out of the house. Getting the eight-foot-wide, twelve-foot-long cage as close as they could, Matt sighed, seeing the top of the cage was higher than the window.

  “Those nail guns are louder than a gunshot,” Jake said, tying a rope to a lever that had three large springs connected to the door that would slam the door shut when the lever was pulled.

  Hearing movement inside, Jake backed away as Matt aimed at the house. “Let’s move back, fuck the other windows,” Matt said, hearing a lot more movement.

  “Move back,” Jake called out on the radio, playing out the rope back to the RGs.

  When the team was back, Gene came over. “Okay, I’m taking an entry team in,” he said, motioning to a group of Omega.

  “If they’re running, let them go,” Matt said, aiming at the house. “I don’t want to do this more than once.”

  Gene looked over his shoulder, holding up a flash bang. “Oh, they’ll run,” he chuckled. The group gathered on the porch as one hit the door with a sledge hammer knocking it open and Gene tossed in the flashbang. “Grenade,” Gene yelled and they all looked away.

  With all the windows covered but one, the normally large bang was muffled. “That had to hurt,” Matt said, shaking his head as Gene’s team started entering the house. They could hear the blues growling and letting out yelps as the team entered, opening fire.

  Bodies started jumping out the window and piling into the cage. “Damn, look at all the fuckers,” Matt said, seeing bodies pouring out like water.

  “Gene, start killing them. The cage is full!” Jake yelled over the radio, yanking the rope and releasing the springs. Mounted on a track, the door slammed closed on a blue’s leg just below the knee as it had dove out the window. Several blues after him slammed face first into the steel cage door.

  “Oh shit,” Matt said, seeing the blues turning to the small gap left open by the trapped blue’s leg. Snapping his rifle up, Matt started shooting the blues on the outside of cage piled up between the cage and the house.

  Jake took off toward the cage, seeing the blues clawing at the gap. “Where is Dad and his damn sword when I really need it?” he spat, bringing up his rifle and killing those still trying to come out of the window.

  Skidding to a stop and slamming in a new magazine, Jake swung his rifle to aim at the blue’s trapped leg and did something he rarely did, flipped to full auto. Squeezing the trigger, he watched the bullets decimate the blue’s thigh.

  The blue died nearly instantly, thanks to the magic bullets, and two others got hit in the leg that got between Jake and the target. When his magazine ran dry seconds later, Jake dropped it looking in the cage and seeing two drop on the one he’d just blown the leg off of. Slamming a new magazine in, Jake watched the blues surge back toward the gap in the door. Just with a quick glance, he counted over a dozen and several females.

  Bringing his rifle up, he aimed at one but didn’t want to kill it yet, they needed live blues. “Oh,” Jake cried out, letting his rifle hang down as he patted his chest and the blues beat at the door. Pulling out a torch lighter, Jake squeezed the trigger and the small jet of blue flame shot out.

  The blues stopped banging at the door as he moved closer. “That’s right, fire,” Jake said but the blues stopped moving back in the cage. “Oh, my fire isn’t big enough, huh?” Jake mumbled and yanked his shemagh off, lighting one end.

  As the fire caught, the blues all started yelping and scurrying to the back of the cage. “Yeah, big fire, assholes,” Jake said, throwing the flaming shemagh beside the door and Gene stuck his head out the window.

  “They are all dead in here,” he said, seeing the severed leg holding the door open. “Need some help?”

  “Yeah, find something else that will burn so they stay away from the door till we get it closed,” Jake said, running around the cage.

  Grabbing the leg, Jake tugged but the spring held it tight. “Jake, we had to open that door with a five-ton wench and you think you can just pull something trapped in it?” Matt said, running over with others.

  “It just needs to slide out,” Jake grunted.

  Matt grabbed the rope and tied it to the door. “Some of you pull on th
is door, so we can get that leg out of the way,” he said, running around the cage to help Jake.

  As he grabbed the leg, Gene started throwing paper and pillows out on the shemagh. The fire that was almost out roared back up, making Jake and Matt jump back and the blues go insane. “What the hell kind of pillows are those?” Jake said, holding his arm up and kneeling back down to grab the leg.

  “Beats me, but they say you’re not supposed to smoke in bed, I wonder if that’s the reason?” Matt said as they tugged on the leg with a dozen troops pulling on the rope. The springs holding the door gave a small creak as the door slid back an inch.

  The severed leg slipped out, sending Matt and Jake to the ground. “Let the door go!” Jake shouted and heard a resounding ‘clang’ as the door slammed shut. Jumping up, he grabbed a padlock and locked the door.

  Getting off the ground, Matt held up the severed leg, “Well, it cost them a leg,” he grinned.

  Chapter 18

  Omega pulled out onto the I-10 Parkway that led into Mobile just before the sunset and everyone gathered around Gene. “Okay boys and girls, if this works like these others say it will, we will be facing serious numbers,” he said looking around.

  “I want the second section of Omega to form a block here at Battleship Parkway where it feeds onto the interstate. First section, I want you a mile further down the road sealing the interstate off. The blues will have to get on the interstate at the town of Bridgehead to come at you, but I’m sure you will see some so stay frosty. Section three, I want you in the center to offer relief where we need it.”

  “Hey boss, why not set up a little closer to Mobile like where the tunnel is for I-10?” Willie asked, looking at the map.

  “Doesn’t give the blues enough real estate to come at us,” Gene said. “This way, they can charge down I-10 and come at us from Battleship Parkway. We have heavy equipment to dig out, so just let the bodies pile up.”

  “Gene, it’s a good plan, but we need to be able to roll back because we’ve fought off elevated interstates before,” Jake said, pointing at the map. “The bodies of blues will form walls. Granted, we want that to slow them down, but the narrow choke point might cause them to run and hide again. Or worse, we will have to go and clear the blues a path to come at us.”

  “So what, you want to set up closer?” Gene asked. “I really don’t want to clear them a path to attack us.”

  “Let’s set up at this interchange on Battleship Parkway with second and third section of Omega. They will be able to fire from the bridges and we can set up blocking positions on all the ramps. Keep first section, but move them closer to Bridgehead. If either group’s area gets congested with bodies, we can pull back toward each other.”

  “That’s putting like three miles between each blockade if things go downhill,” Gene said, studying the map.

  “Pfft,” Jake scoffed. “Dude, at last estimate, there was barely a million around here. We pulled most north when we took out that super horde. We stacked up half a mil outside of New Orleans on Omega’s first run, which now would only be a platoon.”

  A shiver ran down Gene’s spine with the way Jake so casually considered a million blues attacking them, barely noteworthy. “Not doubting you, but a million bodies charging you at fifty miles an hour shouldn’t be taken lightly,” he said, not looking away from the map.

  “Gene, we have magic bullets now and in all our other runs, we had to kill them with head shots,” Matt said. “I can tell you, you don’t want to have to clear a path just so the blues can attack us. We’ve done that before in Texas and it sucks ass. The blues love attacking those sent out to clear the path.”

  “No shit,” Ted mumbled.

  “Hey, Dad told you they were just out there hiding, so shut it,” Jake snapped at Ted.

  Throwing up his hands, “Jake, he said ‘some’ are out there hiding, not a fucking horde,” Ted shouted.

  “Hey, you’re the one that wanted to dig out,” Danny said, adjusting her rifle under her arm.

  “Yeah, twenty-foot-tall mounds of bodies at both ends of the bridge trapping us had me a little worried. Bruce was just happy shooting them piecemeal as they tried to climb over,” Ted snapped.

  “Enough,” Gene snapped, still looking at the map. “That’s a lot of real estate for us to cover, Jake, but I’m agreeing with you about not going out and clearing the blues a path to us.”

  “Anyone want to wake Dad up and tell him?” Danny asked looking around.

  “He’s awake,” Gene said, finally looking up.

  “I’ll let him know what’s going on,” Jake said turning around.

  “Jake,” Gene said, stopping him. When Jake looked over at Gene, he saw Gene grinning. “You can tell him, but Bruce is fucked up. He’s staring at his hand, wiggling his fingers and laughing.”

  “Dad is such a pussy when it comes to medicine,” Danny huffed.

  “Oh baby girl, do I have some stories to tell you about that,” Gene laughed.

  Danny stepped closer with a grin. “When we get back, you and I are sitting down for a chat.”

  “No, all of us are,” Jake laughed.

  “Alright, section leaders, give your platoon leaders instructions,” Gene said, writing on the map with a grease pencil. “These are your assigned areas.”

  “Who’s going to tell Daddy Mike?” Danny said looking at Matt.

  “Why are you looking at me?” he cried out.

  “Uh, he’s your dad.”

  “I’ll tell him,” Gene said and looked down at Buffy. “You’re with me, troop, and just to let you know, I have a belt and you can ask your Daddy. I’m not afraid to use it.”

  “Yes, sir,” Buffy huffed.

  The group broke up with Gene walking over to the command vehicle and once again, shook his head at the massive size of the vehicle. Longer than two city buses with four sets of tandem axles that could all turn, and each set had power from its own diesel engine. Prometheus was one of three command vehicles and two more were being built.

  “Sorry, but they should have windows,” Gene mumbled, looking at the sheets of steel that covered the vehicle.

  “They are fun to drive,” Buffy said, walking beside him.

  Reaching down and patting her back, “I guess I’ll have to drive one then,” Gene said as Buffy grinned up at him. When they got closer, Buffy ran ahead and opened the door.

  Gene walked in with Buffy behind him and looked around at all the monitors and troops moving around. “Get me a line to Mike,” he said, taking off his helmet.

  “Big Daddy Two on the horn, sir,” a young woman said, handing Gene a headset. When he put on the headset, the woman pointed to a screen and Gene saw Mike. “Damn, I just wanted to talk, not have a face-to-face conference.”

  “So, are you about to do something stupid like Bruce?” Mike asked with no expression.

  “Well, we are going to try to get the blues out of hiding.”

  “Gene, I’ll be done here tonight. The objective is clear, we can load up and head home,” Mike said.

  “Negative, Bruce was right to call us down here. We need to know we can pull them out if they hide. Mike, I don’t like the idea of going house to house across the country to kill the cocksuckers,” Gene said, sitting down.

  “That wasn’t the reason we came down here,” Mike said with a sigh. “We have to be back in Hope soon.”

  “I know, I was told, and we will be,” Gene said. “Mike, we have the troops in the field. Let’s see if this works.”

  “Then why didn’t Bruce try this?” Mike asked.

  “Dude,” Gene snapped, leaning back in the chair. “Nobody knows what that man is thinking. Hell, I’m willing to bet not even he does. An idea hits him and he just runs with it.”

  “True,” Mike nodded.

  “Mike, you need to secure your perimeter. The others don’t think the blues will come for you, but I’m not sure.”

  “Hey, I’ve been around Bruce long enough,” Mike said. “That was
done before you set up on the bridge.”

  “Good.”

  “So what did y’all finally come up with?” Mike asked with a sigh.

  “Burn some female blues,” Gene shrugged.

  Mike jumped out of his chair, grabbed the camera and brought it to his face. “Are you insane? That really pisses them off! That’s what almost got Bruce overrun outside of Houston!”

  “Yeah, they told me, but Bruce didn’t have the manpower we do, and with that mega horde you two wiped out, the numbers shouldn’t be more than a million or so,” Gene said.

  Setting the camera back on the desk, Mike sat down. “You’ve been around them too long, to refer to a million blues with indifference,” Mike huffed.

  “Thought the same thing not twenty minutes ago,” Gene nodded.

  “Alright, we’ll stay buttoned up here and good luck,” Mike said with a sigh.

  “Will do and kickoff time will be in two hours.”

  “Not even Bruce did this shit at night,” Mike said, shaking his head.

  “See? That boy isn’t totally insane,” Gene smiled.

  When the screen went blank, Gene turned around to see Buffy coming from the back of the command vehicle where Bruce was in bed. “How’s Bruce?”

  “He’s drooling on his pillow,” Buffy said with a sigh. “I covered him up.”

  “Boy’s got to realize he’s not twenty anymore and must take care of his body,” Gene said getting up.

  Seeing Gene grab his helmet, Buffy moved to the door. “That’s why Momma got Stephanie and Angela to be mommas,” she said looking back. “They are still working on making Daddy take better care of himself.”

  Putting his helmet on and walking out the door, Gene gave a huff. “Well, hope they are up to the challenge because even Debbie had her trying times.”

  “I think they are doing good,” Buffy said, following Gene out.

  “So do I, Buffy, but I’m sorry to say, Bruce could make Gandhi want to kill people.”

  Cocking her head to the side, Buffy slowly nodded. “Yes, I think Daddy could do that.”

  “You know who Gandhi was?” Gene asked.