Blue Plague: Decisions, page 29
“Be my pleasure,” Marcus told him.
“Have each squad’s vehicles parked behind them on the wall in case they have to fall back. Have the lights on the RGs extended and light up the kill area. Let the fly boys know where we are. The hostages that are not on the wall will stay by the command center here. I want them ready to jump in any vehicle if we start to get overrun. Have Omega and Gamma’s mortar crews set up here. I want them to send up flares when it’s dark so the blues can find us with ease. I’m not in the mood to chase them down,” Bruce told everyone. “Platoon leaders, see to your teams, and Mike, make sure they are evenly spaced on the wall,” Bruce added.
The upgrades consisted of a second heavy machinegun cupola on the back of the RG. Then on the back was an array of ten powerful lights on a telescoping pole with a small generator to run them. On the inside were more gun racks and ammo storage. In each platoon leader’s rig were three monitors that could be fed video from the RV of the overhead UAVs, as well as two more radios.
“Hey Bruce, we caught the judge. He was one of the judges from Oak Grove. He told Switch, this gang’s leader, that Omega was only twenty to forty strong. That was why this group wasn’t scared of us,” Willie told him.
“Makes sense,” Bruce replied, thinking about it. “Please tell me you still have him,” he asked.
“Well hell yeah,” Willie answered. “The stupid idiot keeps trying to hold his breath to kill hisself. We had to tie him up special so he would quit hitting his head on the ground,” Willie added.
Keying his radio, Bruce looked at the group. “Are there any questions?” he asked.
“Yeah. It’s not really a question but I just wanted you to know I sent another fifty home guard to you,” Stephanie told him.
“Thank you baby, but that is starting to put the base at risk,” Bruce replied.
“Listen to me you son of a bitch. We sat and watched you lead that battle and everyone here knows the troops are tired. You’re lucky I haven’t ordered two hundred to follow me and Angela up there in a ground convoy. If you say anything else we will see you in an hour and I will cut you, not life threatening but it will hurt!” Stephanie yelled over the radio.
“Angela, can’t you control her?” Bruce asked over the radio.
“She’s not in here, she’s out loading a truck with supplies,” Nancy told him.
Letting out a sigh, Bruce answered back, “Stephanie, I’m sorry, you’re right. We can use the troops but please don’t send any more. I might need you to come for us in a convoy.”
“You’re forgiven,” Stephanie told him, causing Bruce to relax. “Just to let you know the convoy is ready to leave when you call for it,” she added.
“Thank you,” Bruce said and looked at Danny. “See what I mean? They don’t listen,” Bruce told her.
“Well Dad, they really don’t have to. And in their defense, Mom would have just left in a convoy,” Danny told him.
Since he couldn’t argue the point, Bruce looked at the others. “If there are no more questions let’s get the show on the road and prepare for our guests.” As everyone stood up and left, Bruce walked over to the RV, heading to the intel center in the back. On the wall screens he saw the two hordes heading toward them and the gathering of blues to the east.
Picking up the mic from the radio operator, Bruce keyed it. “Stephanie, what are the numbers you are coming up with in total?” Bruce asked.
“Just over two million altogether,” she answered.
Throwing down the mic, Bruce walked outside and looked around. “This war sucks,” he said out loud and went to the wall to help get ready.
Chapter 20
It was 1800 and Bruce was standing on the wall with Marcus and Mike, looking out over the kill zone. Marcus had taken a hundred prisoners out and tied them up in the trees like Bruce had asked. Then he told fifteen of his men to go get some chainsaws off the vehicles of Gamma and Omega. Then they just started to cut down trees, leaving them where they fell.
When Mike saw this he told the line to send half out and cut down trees. They only managed to cut back in most places fifty yards, leaving only the trees holding prisoners standing. With all the trees lying about haphazardly, they hoped it would slow down the blues some.
“The Memphis horde is rounding the lake and joining the group that was to your east. They are three miles away,” Nancy told them. “The Jackson horde just started moving off the road. They should be to you in an hour,” she added.
“Copy that, mortar teams start up,” Bruce replied over the radio. Behind him Bruce heard the four mortars open up. When he heard the explosions he said, “Well, looks like we have some killing to do.”
“There’s going to be killing to do for years to come,” Marcus said, walking over to join his platoon.
Mike and Bruce turned and watched Marcus walk away. Then Mike looked at Bruce. “Bruce, I just want you to know if I see you pull your sword and charge the blues I’m going to shoot you myself.”
“Nobody loves me today,” Bruce said, moving to his squad.
In Mission Control, they watched the horde move across the land off the interstate. On the interstate they had moved fast, but moving across the land the horde’s speed was cut in half. This made them group up in a huge mass of bodies following the edge of the lake to reach their pray. The front of the horde was over a mile across and two miles long. When the horde rounded the corner of the lake that formed the peninsula, Mission Control watched the mortars impact, sending bodies flying.
The horde didn’t scatter or run away, they just moved toward the line. When a mortar round exploded on the front of the group, it did slow the advance but not by much. When the horde had moved onto the peninsula, the front edge was less than a mile away. Mack was looking at the monitors along with everyone else as he keyed his radio. “Bruce, tell the mortars to hold, air is inbound,” he said, and the mortars stopped firing.
On the monitors, several different views from six UAVs showed two A-10s heading across the peninsula flying at two thousand feet. One was lined up with the leading edge, the other the rear. Those on the ground saw the plane closest to them release cluster bombs one after another. The bombs impacted along the entire leading edge as the second A-10 did the same to the rear of the blues. In Mission Control they watched the bombs send hundreds of bomblets out. These covered the front and back of the horde but the horde still pressed forward.
Those on the ground felt the earth shake from the explosions as the first two planes pulled up, only to be followed by two more. Like the two before them, these planes were carrying six, one-thousand-pound cluster bombs. Following the other two planes’ flight paths, they released their bombs inside the last bomb run. They were followed by two more A-10s for a total of five flights.
In Mission Control there was silence as the last two planes pulled off. In the attack area, few trees were standing, but the blues were still moving toward the team. Tens of thousands of blues were dead but with over a million it was not much of a dent. More importantly, hundreds of thousands were wounded and couldn’t move fast, making them easy targets when they reached the wall.
Then on the monitor they watched another flight of A-10s move in, flying in pairs, six more in total. This flight carried napalm and they worked from the back to the front, dropping fire bombs on the blues’ rear. When each bomb hit it exploded, sending out a huge fan of jelled fire. Trees exploded in flames and blues just evaporated. Those six planes by themselves killed over two hundred thousand blues.
As the last two planes pulled off, Mack called over the radio, “Gun runners coming in.” Bruce looked to the south and saw a twin engine plane at about five hundred feet. Then he saw four flames shoot from the nose. Looking to his front, Bruce watched shells descend to earth.
“What the hell is that?” Bruce asked over the radio.
“A King Air,” Mack called back. “We outfitted eight of them with guns; each has four, fifty cals in the nose. They carry almost a ton of ammo for the guns.”
The first plane was pulling off as the next followed in and Bruce heard gunfire to his left. “We have contact,” Ted called out from the far north end of the wall.
“You need reinforcements?” Bruce called back.
“Negative, Boss,” Ted responded. “You aren’t going to believe this, but most of the blues are just jumping up at the prisoners we have tied up,” Ted informed him.
“Hey, whatever it takes. Keep us up to date,” Bruce told him.
Ted joined the rest of his team in engaging the blues. The blues slowed, moving down the front of the wall. Those on the wall engaged the majority that were surrounding the prisoners. Starting on the outside, they dropped them down. The heavy guns took out small groups that tried to charge the wall. The fire burned to the east from the napalm strikes and blew off to the north.
“Choppers coming up to your rear,” Jimmy called out. Since nothing was in his area at the moment, Bruce turned around and saw four Apaches hover behind the wall four hundred feet up. None were carrying Hellfires. Instead they were all carrying rock pods for the 2.75 inch rockets, seventy-six per aircraft. Spellbound, Bruce watched them dump pod after pod into the horde. He couldn’t see what the rockets did but knew they were fucking some shit up. Once they emptied their rockets, the four started up with their chain guns.
Just as he was fixing to tell everyone he was going down there to watch, Ted came over the radio. “Choppers, don’t hit the lone trees to our front. We have bait there,” he told them. Bruce could hear a lot of gunfire coming from the other end.
“Ted, is it still good down there?” Bruce asked.
“Yeah Boss, none have made it within eighty yards of us. Most of the ones coming at us are wounded something fierce,” Ted told him. The four Apaches pulled off and four more pulled up and started firing, then left when they were empty.
“Spooky on scene,” Mack called out, and Bruce looked up. He didn’t see it until it started firing. It was a mile up and a mile to the west, sending streams of lead out. Then Bruce saw a big flash at the back of the plane and heard the impact of the cannon round. Spooky circled the kill zone, firing at will. “Air is clear, mortars can start,” Mack called out.
The words had no sooner come over the radio than Bruce heard the thumps of the mortars firing. “Omega and Gamma, the Jackson horde is rounding onto the peninsula,” Nancy called out. Lifting up his arm and glancing at his watch, Bruce saw the air attack had lasted an hour and a half. “You have approximately two hundred thousand in the Memphis horde still coming at you. The Jackson horde is double that,” Nancy warned them.
“That horde was almost one and a half million!” Bruce yelled over the radio.
“Bruce, we dropped over a hundred thousand pounds of ordinance on them, then tons of ammo. They tend to die when you do that,” Nancy told him.
“South end of the wall, get ready,” Bruce called out over the radio, ignoring Nancy.
“Mortars hold fire, air inbound,” Mack called out and the mortars stopped. In the twilight, Bruce could make out two A-10s coming in low and releasing their bombs. The cluster bombs opened up, sending out a rain of explosives along the front and back of the advancing horde. They then lowered their noses and opened up with their cannons into the Memphis horde on the north end of the wall. The first two were followed by four more dropping cluster bombs, then eight followed dropping napalm.
Looking out at the forest to his front, Bruce could see flames reaching to the sky. When the first shot sounded to his right it scared the shit out of him, causing him to jump. Looking to his front, he could see blues under the bait. He brought his rifle to his shoulder but each time he sighted on a blue it would drop as someone else shot it.
As before, the gun runners followed the A-10s but this time Bruce could watch. The planes were higher than before, due to the fire in the woods, but that did not stop them from dumping death on the horde.
The horde melted under the onslaught from the air as the wall engaged the blues that jumped up at the bait. Lowering his rifle, Bruce just watched the show. When the last gun plane left he heard the Apaches move up behind them. When they started dumping rockets on the horde, Bruce smiled, watching the explosions three hundred yards away. “That is totally cool, Daddy,” Buffy said from his side.
Looking down, Bruce saw her where she always was: on his left side. She was grinning as the Apaches opened up with their guns. “Yeah, it’s pretty cool, BB,” Bruce said, turning back to the show. By 2200 the hordes were wiped out and the wall was just shooting stragglers.
Bruce called the platoon leaders together at the RV. The area around the RV was lit up with lights, and hostages were lying around listening to Gopher on the radio. When the platoon leaders all arrived, Bruce started. “Okay, since our air wing is full of insane, bloodthirsty people, I want you to start letting your people eat and sleep. Base has a convoy en route that will be here tomorrow at 0600. Supply group, I want anything of value here. I’m going to talk to Switch,” Bruce told them.
“Boss, I want to talk to Switch,” Willie told him.
“Willie, this is on me,” Bruce said sternly.
Shaking his head, Willie said, “Boss, you didn’t see what I saw going into that house. I will never tell you, so don’t ask. If you have to know you can watch my helmet cam.”
Bruce closed his eyes and pulled off his helmet, rubbing his shaved head. “It’s him,” Bruce heard from behind him. Turning around, Bruce saw a shitload of people coming at him. The platoon leaders, his kids and the supply group jumped between Bruce and the rescued hostages. The group stopped, seeing the wall of rifles pointing at them.
A young man stepped forward, holding up his hands. “We aren’t going to hurt him. We’ve heard of Bruce on the radio. We saw some of the troops here with the Omega patch but we saw others with a different patch so we weren’t sure if we were really rescued,” he said.
Bruce eased through his wall of protection to stand in front of the young man. “Young man, that is our second army. They are Gamma. This group was kinda big to be tackling with just Omega,” Bruce told him, and his wall of protection spread out to his sides.
A woman ran up to him and dropped down, hugging his right leg and crying. “Thank you,” she wailed. More started moving toward Bruce and Willie jumped in front of him.
“I’m sorry, but you people have not been cleared and there might be a gang member in with you. We can’t let you get any closer to Bruce; we’ve grown kinda fond of him. I hope you understand,” Willie told them. Many shook their head in understanding and the others looked down dejectedly.
Looking down at the woman still hugging his leg, Bruce reached down and pulled her up. When she was on her feet Bruce saw she was young, no older that twenty-two, but her eyes looked old. “Young lady, if you want to thank me, help me save others and rebuild this nation,” Bruce told her.
The young woman staggered on her feet. That he wanted her to help filled her with pride. “I swear I’ll do whatever it takes to help you,” she told him with tears in her eyes.
“I want you to go around and make sure all the survivors have eaten, and ask if they want to come to Base Hope with us. Let them know not to run up to me, it makes the rest of my team nervous,” Bruce told her. “Especially my daughters,” he said, motioning to his left and right. The young woman looked on Bruce’s left and saw Buffy aiming her rifle at her head, then on Bruce’s right where Danny was doing the same.
“I’m sorry,” the woman said, stepping back as they lowered their rifles.
“It’s okay but I’m not losing my daddy,” Danny told her.
“I understand,” the woman said as she turned away, then looked over her shoulder. “Thank you again,” she said.
“Ma’am, it wasn’t me. You have to thank my troops here for following an insane, shaved-headed man into battle,” Bruce called out to her. The crowd started moving away, thanking any troop they found.
Willie came over and stopped in front of Bruce. “Damn it, you have to grow some hair or shave your goatee!” he yelled out. “You are too damn easy to recognize,” he added.
“Forget that,” Bruce replied, turning around.
“Where you going, Boss?” Willie asked.
“Talk to Switch, they knew a lot about us,” Bruce answered.
“I’m the one who gets to make him answer!” Willie yelled out. Bruce stopped and turned around. “Don’t try that ‘I will carry the burden shit’ on this one. Either you let me or I hang up my spurs,” Willie warned him.
Sighing, Bruce replied, “Fine, Willie, but you don’t really want to.” Willie calmly walked over to the RV and grabbed Bruce’s bags. Bruce was relieved when he saw Willie was not jumping with joy. When Bruce walked over to the prisoner area he just stopped. Seeing over five hundred prisoners tied up made him get weak. There were more prisoners than there were members of Omega and Gamma.
All were bound with hands zip-tied behind their backs, ankles together, lying on their stomachs. Bruce could smell the stench of urine, defecation, and fear. There were only ten members of Omega supply group guarding them.
Willie led Bruce to a group of prisoners held off to the side. “These were the ones we caught at the command area,” he said and pointed to a man with long black hair. “That is Switch,” Willie said.
As Bruce walked over, he noticed the man was crying. “Ah, Switch, don’t be that way. I was going to play with you but Willie has demanded to take my place for now. If you don’t answer, it’s going to go bad for you,” Bruce said. He turned to Willie and took a bottle of lighter fluid out of his bag. Walking over to the other prisoners, Bruce pulled out his pistol and shot two in the knees and elbows, making them scream. Then Bruce soaked them down with lighter fluid and set them afire. The other prisoners started screaming until Bruce yelled out, “Those that make noise are next!” Silence fell over the group of prisoners except for the shrieks of the two still burning.
“See Switch, I like for you to hear your men praise you while we talk,” Bruce said, putting the lighter fluid back in the bag. He pulled out the radio. “Start recording,” Bruce told them in Mission Control. “Now Switch, you will talk,” Bruce said, sitting the radio down by him. And talk he did, for three hours straight.
