***
Three miles away, Jake was in the back of his rig, hooking up more monitors. “Jake, there’s not much here,” Mary said, looking out over the parking lot they’d sat up in.
“That’s fine with me,” Jake said, hanging a monitor on the wall of his rig. “I can finish this.”
“I worry about you sometimes,” Mary said under her breath and turned, hearing a suppressed shot. She saw a body drop a hundred yards away. “Okay, that’s like six blues in the last twenty minutes. If I have to be out here, I want to kill some shit.”
“Baby, let me get this hooked up and I’ll call back, saying the area is clear enough and we can move out.”
“That shit better be on your side,” Mary snapped. “You and Matt filled my room full of computer shit. I’m not losing my little sleeping area.”
Jake stuck his head out of the back, looking at her in shock. “The radios are on my side.”
“Hey, if you want the computers, fine, but not on my side,” she said, lifting her chin.
Smiling, Jake reached out to hold her hand. “Don’t worry, they are on my side,” he said, then let her hand go as he ducked back down. “I’m sleeping with you on your side.”
Letting out a sigh, Mary looked around at the desolation. Around the parking lot, parts of human skeletons were scattered about. Many were picked clean and showed signs of massive violent ends. She looked down at the radio operator. “Give me a channel to Bat Two.”
A few seconds later, a headset was passed up and she pressed the switch. “Bat Two, this is One, Over.”
“Hey, Mary,” Danny called back rather cheerful.
“Danny, is anything happening over there?” Mary asked.
“Yeah, we are using the bait to catch some female blues,” Danny called back.
Mary snatched up the radio for the company. “All units, prepare to move in five minutes. Bat One will lead,” she called over the radio. As she lifted the radio to call Danny, Mary saw people running for vehicles.
“Danny, Bat One is coming to you. There isn’t shit going on over here,” Mary said.
“Copy, but come in on our east side, so you don’t mess up the fishing,” Danny called back.
“Okay,” Mary said and looked down at the driver. “You drive where I tell you, understand?”
“Yes, ma’am,” the driver replied.
“At least we can do something,” Mary said as the driver pulled out.
***
Leaning over his rifle, Matt saw the man in the cage jumping around and screaming over a hundred yards away. “You know, if they would just shut up, the blues might pass them by,” Matt said, moving his crosshairs to a group of blues charging the cage.
“In all fairness, I would freak out if I was handcuffed in a cage with the door open and blues coming at me,” Danny said beside him, leaning over her rifle. “Two females at the back,” she said, following the group in her scope.
“Got ‘em,” Matt said pulling the trigger and a male in the lead dropped. Danny’s rifle coughed beside him and he saw another male drop.
“Matrix kid, coming up behind them,” one of the troops said behind them.
Matt didn’t say anything as he pulled the trigger dropping another male and Danny shot a split second later, hitting another. “I got the male on the right,” he said, pulling the trigger and watched the bullet slam into the blue’s gut.
Running at almost fifty miles an hour, the blue was dead in mid-stride and fell over doing awesome cartwheels then tumbled into a roll, skidding across the asphalt as Danny dropped the last male.
Moving his aim past the two females, Matt saw the matrix kid directly behind the females. “That kid is outrunning the females,” he said, trying to time his shot and not hit the females.
“I don’t have a shot,” Danny said.
“Fuck it, let the females get in the cage and then we’ll kill the kid,” Matt said as both females lunged, diving at the cage. “Holy shit,” Matt said, watching the kid twenty yards behind the females leap and dive after them. The females crashed into the cage, followed a split second by the matrix kid.
“Shut the door!” Danny shouted and the troop behind them pressed the button and the cage slammed shut.
Matt and Jake had redesigned Bruce’s original cage to have an electronic release and they’d made theirs out of high-grade, one-inch aluminum rods. The rods were spaced one inch apart, then an aluminum mesh was welded over them. The mesh had quarter inch holes so the only thing a blue could stick out was its fingers. They did that, just in case someone got too close.
“Want me to kill the demon spawn?” Matt asked as the three tore into the dead man.
“Hell no, that little fucker can burn just like the bitches,” Danny said, getting to her knees. “That’s six cages filled now with nine blues and a matrix kid.”
Nodding as he got to his knees, Matt grunted. “Yep, productive morning.”
“Where the hell is Bat One?” Danny said, looking back at the radio operator who’d been looking through binoculars and helping them spot.
“They will be here in a few minutes,” he said. “Got a blue looking out of a window of the brick house across the road.”
Dropping back down behind his rifle, “Which window?” Matt asked.
“Second from the right,” he said.
As Matt took a breath and let it out, Danny looked around. “Did they stop for donuts? It’s been over an hour since they called.”
Matt’s rifle coughed. “Got ‘em,” the radio operator said and scanned around. “Don’t know, ma’am, but they did stop for something.”
“Bat Two, this is Bat One, we are heading your way. You should have visual in a few,” Mary called over the radio.
Danny reached down, grabbing the company radio. “West wall, pull out and let Bat One form up with our defensive wall,” she called out and tossed the radio down as Matt’s rifle coughed again.
“Want to send the truck out to pick up the cage and drop another?” he asked, getting up.
They both turned to see Bat One’s convoy heading for them. Both were shocked as the lead vehicle pulled inside the perimeter with the supply vehicles and the other MRAPs formed up along Bat Two to make a defensive box.
They saw Mary stand up, shouting down in the rig and walked off the roof onto the hood and then jumped off. “Seems my sister is pissed,” Matt said.
“My brother is like my father. He can piss anyone off,” Danny said as Mary stormed over. As she climbed up the side, Matt leaned over and pulled her up to the roof. “What did Jake do?” Danny sighed.
“We had to stop at two stores!” Mary screamed.
Danny looked at her, “What the hell did he need so bad?”
“Fuck if I know, but Lowes must have had a special discount for blues because there were shitloads in the store,” Mary huffed, visibly livid.
“Um, did you lose any troops?” Danny asked carefully.
“No,” Mary snapped. “But it was close because one of the fire teams almost shot another team. The one I was on!”
Glancing over at Matt, Danny gave him a questioning stare and he just shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know what he needed,” Matt said.
They both looked out and saw Jake standing out of the troop hatch and putting on a welding helmet as one of the troops cranked up a generator beside his rig. “I’ll go see,” Matt said, grabbing his rifle and just jumped off the rig. He broke into a jog as Danny patted Mary’s arm.
“Sorry, sis,” she said.
“Danny,” Mary said, letting out a long sigh. “I love him and he tried to explain, but he was talking nine hundred miles an hour when I asked what we needed. But when he’s excited…”
“Yeah,” Danny nodded in understanding. “Matt is the same.”
“He knows very few in our company have done room clearing in combat, but did that stop him from bringing in two platoons? Hell fucking no!” Mary finished in a bellow.
Putting an arm around Ma
ry’s shoulder, Danny pulled her close. “Hey, we have nine more baited traps. Let’s see what we catch while they play,” Danny said.
Mary turned to Danny with an icy expression. “I get to be primary gun first. I’m killing something before I talk to my husband,” she growled.
“Deal,” Danny grinned. “Send out the truck and drop another cage out,” Danny said over her shoulder.
The MRAP at the southeast corner pulled up as a flatbed truck with a crane pulled out. On the back was another cage with one of the snipers they had caught. Pulling up to the cage, the crane swung out and a hook caught a large metal loop on top of the cage and hauled it up to the bed of the truck.
Inside the other cage, the man saw the bloody remains of his partner and started screaming, trying to shake the cage as the blues growled and banged inside their cage, trying to get him.
The cages were four-foot-wide, four-foot-across, and seven-foot-tall, weighing close to eight hundred pounds empty. The cage the man was in wasn’t even wiggling, but the one with the blues was vibrating across the bed of the truck.
A man climbed out of the cab and jumped on top of the blues cage, unhooked the cable and then jumped over to the other, hooking it up. Staying on the cage, the man rode it as the crane put it on the ground and then unhooked it.
Sticking his foot in the hook, the man rode the crane back to the blues’ cage and hooked it up as the driver got out and opened the sniper’s cage. After the driver jumped back in, he drove over to another flatbed that had six cages strapped down with blues inside.
Since the top of the cage was solid metal, the man standing on top didn’t have to worry about the blues inside getting him as he rode the cage over to the other flatbed. When the cage was down, he unhooked it, and rode the crane back to the truck.
“They are very good,” Mary said in awe as the flatbed pulled back inside the perimeter.
“Yeah,” Danny nodded. “Believe it or not, those are the cyber ninjas that Matt brought along. They wanted to do something other than keep tabs on what the Land of Oz sends to Matt and Jake.”
Mary pulled off her rifle and laid down on the roof. “Can you send someone to get my sniper rifle, Danny? If I go back over there right now, I’m afraid I’ll shoot my husband.”
“Tell the driver to go get Mary’s AR-10 from her rig,” Danny said over her shoulder and the radio operator leaned over, shouting in the MRAP.
It didn’t take long for the first blue to show up but it was a male, so Mary shot it in the leg. When it crashed down, she curled her lip up. “I don’t want magic bullets right now.”
“Sorry,” Danny said, trying not to laugh as a matrix kid jumped out a second-floor window of a house. It landed on all fours and sprang out, running on all fours for a few bounds then stood up in a blinding sprint.
“Fuck you little bastard,” Mary spat as she pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the kid in the chest, sending it into a flailing tumble.
Seeing another blue, Danny just kept her finger off the trigger and let Mary blow off steam. Watching the blue drop, “Mary, I’ve been thinking. Why don’t you and I take over a company, instead of running one with Matt and Jake? We are the same rank and have the same job,” Danny said.
“Fuck, yeah,” Mary said, squeezing the trigger and dropping another blue. Danny wasn’t about to say anything about that one being a female.
“We will run another company in the same battalion we are already over,” Danny said as Mary shot another blue, taking its head off.
“Who will be the ultimate leader? Us or them?”
“Um, that’s what I wanted to talk about,” Danny said as a group of blues rounded the corner of a house charging them from half a mile away. “I think we need to rotate out with them, so all of us can get the experience.”
“We’re in charge first,” Mary said, squeezing the trigger in rapid succession and dropping the seven blues.
“Mary,” Danny said in a whisper. “We want to catch some females.”
The driver climbed up on the roof panting hard but handing over an AR-10 and a tote bag. “Fine,” Mary said, putting her SCAR down and taking the rifle. She took out the magazine and dug in the tote bag, pulling out another. “You shoot the boys,” she said, slapping the magazine in.
Seeing another group coming, Danny pulled her stock tight against the shoulder. “I see one, no, two females,” she said, pulling the trigger and dropping a male that was in the lead. The others jumped his body as Danny shot three more males and the two females tripped over the bodies.
Watching the females get up, Danny jumped as Mary’s rifle coughed. Looking through her scope, Danny saw one of the female’s knees explode, almost removing the lower leg. “Yeah,” Mary grinned, pulling the trigger three times rapidly.
As the other female turned to look at her companion, a bullet slammed into her left thigh and another into her right knee. She dropped down growling beside the other one as Mary lifted her head up looking over her scope.
“I’m a pissed off bitch,” Mary said with a somewhat evil chuckle.
“Jake better get her some flowers or something,” Danny mumbled as the two females started crawling toward the open cage.
“Large pack, eight hundred yards, coming around that overturned semi,” the radio operator said behind them. “I’m counting eleven.”
“Sucks to be them today,” Danny said as Mary started pulling her trigger rapidly.
In sick fascination, Danny watched the bullets plow into the blues’ legs, dropping half of them. “You will die slowly,” Mary said, changing magazines. Any that weren’t shot in the legs soon were.
“Damn girl, you’ve been practicing without me,” Danny said, watching the males getting blown apart piece by piece.
“No I haven’t,” Mary growled, squeezing the trigger and hitting a staggering male in the shoulder, almost taking its arm off.
When Mary changed magazines, only two females were left, using each other for support as they hobbled toward the cage. Danny moved her scope and saw the other two still crawling toward the cage and the man inside was yanking hard against the handcuffs.
“I think he’s about to pull his hand off,” Danny said, seeing the blood on the man’s wrist.
“Bullshit,” Mary said, squeezing the trigger and Danny saw the bullet hit the mesh, scaring the man and he stopped pulling.
“The mesh is too small, Mary,” Danny said, watching the females slowly move towards the cage. “Yeah, to see them slowly coming at you would really suck,” she nodded.
“Fuckers shouldn’t have started shit,” Mary said, squeezing the trigger.
Not seeing an impact, Danny moved her scope around and then saw a blue male getting up, missing his left leg. “You should stay down,” Danny said as Mary squeezed the trigger. The bullet hit the blue in the throat nearly severing his head and the body dropped.
“Now he has time to think about it,” Mary said, squeezing the trigger and Danny saw the female that was missing her lower legs, head explode. “You will move faster,” Mary said, changing magazines.
The two that were hobbling, stopped beside the one crawling. It reached and pulled herself up and the three hobbled together toward the open cage and the man was screaming madly now.
They hobbled to the door and moved inside, then started tearing the man apart. “Close it,” Danny said and even from eighty yards away, heard the door slam shut. She looked over at Mary. “Feel better?”
“A little,” Mary nodded. “Can we put another one out?”
Chapter 25
Standing up in the cupola with Buffy, Bruce looked around the city of Birmingham. He had started moving out to the troops this morning, just checking on them and could see the troops liked it. Stephanie had told him a few hours ago that Mary had moved battalion one command over to Matt and Danny.
“Can I drive again?” Buffy asked, looking up at him. “I promise not to drive through buildings.”
“Buffy, you ran over a car this
morning,” Bruce said as a blue ran out in the street ahead of them. He swiveled the gun mount but the rig in front of them just swerved, hitting the blue and sending it spiraling back.
“It was a little car and a blue was on the other side,” Buffy whined. “I didn’t chase that one in the house, did I?”
“Thankfully,” Bruce sighed. “You almost threw me out.”
Reaching down, Buffy yanked on a rope Bruce had tied to him that connected to the rig. “You have this tied on,” she said.
Nodding as he looked around. “As does everyone in this rig, for some reason,” Bruce said.
“I drive very well, thank you,” Buffy snapped. “I’ve never got anyone hurt and I have top score on Grand Theft Auto.”
Bruce sighed as they turned on the road, heading to the high school where the kids were set up. “Maybe tomorrow,” Bruce said.
“It’s because the driver started crying, isn’t it!” Buffy shouted. “I told him to stop hitting the brake, damn it! You can’t power slide unless you have speed!”
“Buffy,” Bruce groaned.
“Then find me a truck that I can reach the damn pedals and I won’t have to sit in someone’s lap!”
“I’ll tell you what,” Bruce said. “When we get home, you and I can work on that.”
“Really?” Buffy grinned.
“Yes,” Bruce said smiling and Buffy turned away.
“Yes!” she whispered, pumping her arm.
As his rig pulled around the school, it slowed down, “Just pull up beside the wall,” he called over the radio. He didn’t have but five MRAPs with him and he didn’t plan on staying long.
None of the companies were reporting major activity and the drones were only spotting small groups of blues around. This still didn’t put Ted and Carl at ease. They wanted the entire protection detail as did Stephanie and Angela, but Bruce refused and just left.
Looking over to the east, he saw a large flatbed truck with cages and from the way they were shaking, he knew blues were inside. “Those little shits didn’t wait for me,” he snapped.
“Or me,” Buffy added.
As his rig pulled up beside the wall, Bruce counted eleven cages on the flatbed and could tell some held more than one female. Shaking his head and looking to the east, he saw blue bodies dotting the area and then his jaw fell open, seeing some of the bodies were moving.
Blue Plague (Book 7): Hope Page 33
