Nancy slowly reached out taking the book, “She wrote this for me?” she asked.
“Yes, Debbie asked us to give it to you after your letter, when you started asking a lot of questions,” Angela told her.
“Have y’all read it?” Nancy asked.
“No, Debbie didn’t tell us to,” Stephanie replied sitting back down arranging journals.
“You’re reading her journals,” Nancy pointed out.
“She told me too,” Stephanie replied then looked at Angela. “Debbie also told you to in my letter,” Stephanie said. Angela came over and sat down beside Stephanie and helped arrange the journals.
Nancy just sat staring at the notebook as Mike spoke, “Well how long do you think?”
“Have no idea but I hope it’s not soon so Bruce can kill some motherfuckers,” Stephanie replied.
“Stephanie, that’s the problem, he’s really enjoying it,” Mike told her.
Stephanie looked up at Mike, “So am I. Mike, I’ve never been so happy in my life as I was the last few months. I really didn’t know a person could be that happy. I had Debbie, Angela and Bruce along with some great kids. Now I have everyone except Debbie who made it all possible. I understand the wave now, Debbie wrote on it quite a bit. Bruce is referring to his targets as human. He’s getting joy out of the killing now. A few months ago Debbie showed us how to cope with his guilt when he stops. I really don’t care if I have to do something every day to make him forget. Debbie asked me to take care of the kids, Bruce and Angela and that’s what I’m going to do,” Stephanie told Mike.
Angela leaned over hugging Stephanie. “I’m with you girl, we take care of the kids, Bruce then each other,” she told Stephanie.
“Okay but how long?” Mike asked again.
“Debbie said you would know when. My guess is months to years,” Stephanie told him.
Mike nodded his head then asked, “Who else gets a letter today?”
“Millie, Carroll, Marcus and Henry, the kids get theirs when Bruce reads the red notebook. Debbie said we give it to him after he cries,” Angela told him.
“What are you talking about he’s cried-,” Mike started to say then thought about it.
“No, he hasn’t, Mike,” Stephanie told him. Mike just sat frozen looking straight ahead.
‘How could Bruce not cry’ Mike asked himself. That was impossible. Debbie was his world; more than once, Bruce told everyone all the good in his life had come from her. A shiver ran down Mike’s spine at the thought of how much hate it took to stop that kind of pain.
Shaking his head Mike stood up, “Okay, we’ll get together and talk some more about this. Bruce is coming back in a week and people are scared without him here,” he said.
“Bruce won’t be back for eighteen days,” Angela informed him.
Nancy and Mike turned to her waiting for an explanation but Stephanie answered, “Debbie wrote that. Bruce’s first trip out will last eighteen days, he’s going to get carried away. It won’t be the bloodiest or the longest but he’s going to learn a lot.”
Nancy gasped, “Does Debbie say anything about the kids?”
“She only said Bruce will protect his team at all cost so he could slaughter in numbers that are hard to imagine,” Angela told her. Then Angela looked at Mike, “We have to figure out a way to resupply them in the field,” she told him.
Mike just shook his head saying, “Figured as much.” Looking at the three Mike told them, “Get the command group together tonight so we can go over ideas. The recovery teams will be back tonight with the other survivors.”
As Mike turned to leave Angela stopped him. “Mike, are Stephanie and I right for Bruce?” she asked. They both held their breath waiting on his reply.
Looking at them Mike took a deep breath as he answered, “If it wasn’t for you two, I don’t think we would even have a chance to save Bruce. A very wise person told me the kids will grow up starting their own families and he would be all alone. Knowing he has you, Bruce deep down isn’t afraid without Debbie.”
Angela and Stephanie smiled as Nancy ran over to them hugging them, “I lost one wife, I can’t lose anymore, neither of you can leave,” she cried out.
Watching the girls hug, Mike walked over hugging them and said, “I’m going to mission control.”
Mike walked out leaving the three alone. Heading downstairs he walked into the living room. No evidence of the fight remained. The bullet holes were covered up and everything looked the way it used to except the curtains on the front window were now gone. Wiping tears out of his eyes, Mike headed down to mission control. Walking into flight control Mike found Bill and Marcus watching the UAV covering Bruce’s team heading south.
Seeing him walk in Bill asked, “So where do you think he’s going first?”
“That gang we found fifty miles northeast of Baton Rouge,” Mike replied.
Bill just shook his head, “Mike, that gang is around four hundred strong with who knows how many hostages,” he pointed out.
“Doesn’t matter about numbers son,” Marcus replied.
“I beg to differ when you attack four hundred with thirty,” Bill snapped back.
“He’s not going to do a frontal assault, that’s stupid. He’ll hit ‘em at night. Punch a hole in their line then take ‘em out in manageable portions,” Marcus said grinning.
“Is he going to kill everyone there also?” Bill asked.
“Only those that fight or get in the way,” Mike told Bill.
Bill looked over at Mike, “Mike, those were innocent women Omega mowed down at Toledo Bend,” he said.
“I know, I was there. I even mowed a few down myself. Let’s get something straight, they could’ve left. They weren’t locked up. They could’ve fought for their freedom but didn’t. Bruce called for scorched earth and I agreed, none but the kids needed to survive. They didn’t have a choice,” Mike growled.
Bill seeing Mike was getting mad held up his hands, “Man, I’m just saying they surrendered. I don’t see much difference in what was done there than in the camp by the judge and congressman.”
“Then we have a problem Bill. When Nathan is raped or killed by a gang member we’ll give you a little flower to play with while we find his killers and slaughter them,” Mike said squaring off.
Bill, seeing Mike square off with him, stepped back into Marcus who just shoved him forward, “Get off me pussy boy!” Marcus yelled.
“What the hell is wrong with you two?” Bill asked, putting his back on the wall. The flight operators seeing the commotion cleared the area around the three.
“We lost almost three hundred people here and you want to act like a prima donna, tree hugging, bitch!” Mike yelled.
Bill turned to Mike balling up his fist, “That’s enough Mike. I’m just saying we don’t need to descend to the level of the gangs out there. If we kill the defenseless then we’re no better!” Bill yelled.
“If they condone or threaten actions against us, they’re the enemy and have to die,” Mike replied in a flat tone.
“Okay Mike, but let’s at least keep this somewhat civilized. Those that surrender should be allowed to leave,” Bill said trying to reason with him.
“What so they can attack us again later? No, they die, we won’t put the risk of the clan at stake,” Mike told him.
“Mike, let’s at least put it to the command group?” Bill asked calming down.
“No, that’s our doctrine. You try to kill us, we’ll kill you right back. Every man, woman and if it calls for it, child,” Mike told him.
Paul walked in seeing Bill with his back against the wall flanked by Mike and Marcus. “Whoa, what did I miss?” Paul asked.
Bill looked at Paul, “They don’t see anything wrong with the execution of the women and torture of the attackers,” Bill told him.
“There is nothing wrong with it,” Paul told Bill in a placid voice.
Bill looked a Paul with a shocked expression, “How can you say that?” Bill asked
.
“Easy, I doubted Bruce once and I was wrong. In this new world, having a heart will get you killed. The time of sitting on the sidelines and bitching because you don’t get your handout is over. You have to work and defend your family and friends,” Paul replied.
“Thank you Paul,” Mike said.
Looking up at the UAV monitor, “Just coming to see how Omega is doing,” Paul replied.
“They will be at the gang site above Clinton by 1800 tonight. I figure Bruce will hit them tomorrow night then hit Baton Rouge,” Marcus answered.
“How the hell is he going to hit a gang of over four hundred, then attack a city with over a half a million infected?” Bill snapped.
“Have no idea but I’m willing to bet he’ll do it,” Paul answered.
“All right, this is getting us nowhere. I want the command group to meet tonight. We have a lot to go over,” Mike told them.
“Where do you want to meet?” Paul asked.
Mike almost said the living room but stopped. He didn’t think he’d be able to sit in there anytime soon without crying. “Here in the command center,” Mike answered.
That night in the command center, what was left of the command group gathered in the command module of mission control. Mike had asked Jimmy, the army helicopter pilot, and Joe to join the command group.
Mike stood up to start the meeting. “Okay everyone, I’ve asked Joe and Jimmy to join the command group. Jimmy, I’m putting you over our air operations. Omega team reached the village of Clinton and is moving into position to watch the gang. The gang is in a large truck terminal surrounded by a twelve foot fence. I talked to Bruce an hour ago and he assured me they can take it in two hours. The reason I wanted this meeting is we need to figure out how to resupply them if needed,” Mike told them. Jimmy was the first to raise his hand, Mike nodded to Jimmy.
“Supplying them won’t be a problem. We have two aircraft that can carry several tons of supplies,” Jimmy said.
“Which ones?” Mike asked.
“The King Air 300 and the Fokker F27, they’re both twin engine and we ripped everything out to carry gear,” Jimmy answered.
“They still have to get to an airport,” Bill replied.
“No, an Interstate Highway will do,” Jimmy told him.
Paul asked, “Is the runway ready?”
“Yeah we fixed it right after we fixed the runway for the UAVs,” Jimmy told him.
Mike smiled asking, “What else have y’all been doing?”
“Joe and Harry took the twin engine Cessna and armed it with twin mini-guns,” Jimmy announced.
Mike laughed, “That could come in handy.” Mike looked at Angela and Stephanie, “How many people did we bring in today?” he asked.
“Two hundred and thirty-four, we should have the others in by tomorrow,” Angela answered.
“Anybody that has a skill we could really use?” Mike inquired.
“Oh you could say that, four are pilots in the Air Force. Three fly A-10s, the other one flies transports,” Angela told him ginning.
“Now we’re talking,” Mike said then looked at Paul. “Can you make some bunkers to house ordinance for the A-10s?” Mike asked.
“Yeah but we really need to strengthen the runway for those boys,” Paul answered.
“He’s right and the runway needs to be longer,” Jimmy added his two cents.
“How long?” Mike asked really wanting some attack aircraft.
Paul just shook his head, “Mike, we may have a lot of people here but remember. We’re building two more barracks and they are a lot bigger. Then we are expanding the Community Center again. Crops have to be planted and I was going to use the land around us but can’t now since we torched the ground with fuel. There’s a five hundred acre field a mile from us I was going to surround with a twelve foot fence and plant it. Next year we’ll do a thousand acre field. Now you want to build a bigger runway,” Paul told him.
“Yes I do, now how long?” Mike asked in a grumpy voice.
Paul answered with a sigh, “Give me a week.”
Carroll looked at Mike asking, “How many people bein’ held by that gang Bruce is fixin’ to wipe out?”
“We don’t really know. From the UAVs we only counted around a hundred but that should be real low. From what we’ve seen, gangs keep half to equal as many hostages as they do members,” Mike told her.
“Is Bruce going to kill them this time also?” Bill asked.
Mike just glared at Bill as Carroll answered, “Don’t matter if he dos, Bruce has ta make that call when he hits ‘em.” Bill just kept his mouth shut, seeing the looks from around the table he was getting.
“When’s Bruce goin’ to hit ‘em?” Marcus asked.
“0300 tomorrow morning,” Mike answered.
“He won’t be back in a week will he?” Marcus asked.
Mike looked at Angela and Stephanie as he answered, “No, I don’t look for him to be back for eighteen days.”
Joe raised his hand and Mike acknowledged him. “Mike, I want permission to upgrade some LAVs, RGs, Cougars and Strykers for Omega. Then I want to armor up some resupply vehicles for them?” Joe asked hopefully.
“Sounds good Joe, go ahead and start,” Mike told him.
The meeting continued for two more hours then adjourned. Angela and Stephanie left heading to the Center to eat with the kids. After eating, they played outside with them for a while then took them inside to get ready for bed. They all showered together and climbed into bed.
Stephanie picked up another of Debbie’s journals and started reading. Stephanie didn’t speed read any of Debbie’s journals but she still read really fast. Like Stephanie, Angela was reading Debbie’s journals in chronological order.
Angela laid the journal she was reading down and looked at Stephanie. “Do you think Bruce will ever be the same?” she asked.
“No, you weren’t,” Stephanie told her still reading.
Angela nodded her head then asked, “He’ll come out of it though won’t he?”
“Yes, I don’t know when but he will come out of it,” Stephanie answered laying her journal down. “After I gave Carroll her first note and she read it we talked for a little while. Carroll said Bruce’s soul was up for grabs. Normally I’d just blow that off but I can’t now. Too many things have happened,” Stephanie said as she got out of bed and walked around to Angela sitting on the side of the bed.
“I can’t wait till the real Bruce is back. I miss his laugh and jokes,” Angela admitted.
“You’re breaking a rule,” Stephanie told her.
“What rule?” Angela asked. Stephanie reached under the blanket, pulling out one of Angela’s legs and pointed to the sock on her foot. “Oh, come on. Bruce isn’t here. If he was, I’d take it off,” Angela whined.
“No socks in this bed woman,” Stephanie told her. Pulling the blankets back Stephanie rolled Angela on her stomach pining her down then sitting on Angela’s butt looking at her feet. Pulling Angela’s feet up to her face, Stephanie ripped off her socks and lightly chewed on her feet making Angela squeal with laughter.
The kids woke up to Angela’s laughter to see Stephanie chewing on her feet. The twins jumped on Angela’s back and started tickling her and Cade tried to rescue his mother. The twins held him down and tickled him instead. PJ just watched not knowing what to do. Watching Stephanie, PJ crawled over to Emily’s foot and started biting it making her yell.
Laughter had finally made its way back into the room and the family.
Chapter 7
Laying down in the tree line, Bruce looked at his watch reading 0118. ‘Almost time,’ Bruce grinned. When Omega had reached Clinton, Bruce took Omega to scout the gang’s location. They were in a truck depot used to warehouse transport items. The building was huge, almost half a mile long with dock doors along the west side.
Omega had watched the gang through the night and Bruce had snuck inside to take a look. The hostages were in the center of the building
with gang members on each end. Outside there were four guard towers and a roving patrol. Pulling the team back at day break, Bruce laid out the attack and let everyone sleep before moving back into position at dark.
When they had moved into position several blues were spotted and taken out. Jake was on the west side and Matt on the east to provide sniper cover. Bruce had put two of the new recruits to cover them. They would enter ten men from the north and eleven from the south moving down the building. The rest of Omega would be ready for backup. The groups going in would work in two-man crews except Bruce, Danny and Buffy. One man was to take out gang members with a knife while the other would cover with a suppressed pistol. Bruce and Danny would stab and Buffy would cover them.
At 0230 Bruce called a go over the radio and tightened up the strap to the push dagger on his right forearm. Sitting in the tree line on the south side, Bruce watched the four man patrol drop one at a time in quick succession. Then the guards in the towers dropped.
Standing up in a crouch, Bruce ran to the fence covering Willie as he cut the fence so they could get in. With the fence open they filed inside heading to the side door. Bruce knew this door opened up directly into the warehouse area from last night. Opening the door slowly, Bruce led half the team to the right while Willie led the rest to the left.
The gang was sleeping in cots along the walls in neat rows with gas lanterns giving off low levels of light. Music was coming from the center of the warehouse as Bruce went to the first cot, placed his left hand over the man’s mouth and at the same time stabbing him in the side of the head. The man only gave a small twitch as he died. Standing up Bruce saw Danny had already finished with hers and was moving for the next one.
Moving from one cot to the next, the team killed silently staying in the shadows of the lanterns. Coming to the end of the line of cots Bruce noticed four cots left. Looking behind him he didn’t see any team members killing anymore gang members, with regret he turned back around. They had already killed almost everyone at this end. Bruce pulled out his pistol and motioned Buffy forward.
Blue Plague: Rage Page 6
