Blue Plague: Decisions, page 3
“Well I’m figuring about five hundred truckloads. Anyway, when the first fifty are almost loaded we call for the next fifty. Gamma will provide transport security to and from the yard. We will just keep the trucks rolling until it’s empty or we have enough,” Bruce answered.
“That means we’re running hot at night?” Ted asked, a little worried.
“It’s alright Ted, I’ll find you a Teddy bear,” Bruce told him. Everyone laughed and continued eating. Bruce looked at Stephanie and Angela. “You two want to get your gear and the kids and fly down with me?” Bruce asked.
“Really?” Angela asked.
“Uh, yeah, unless you have other plans,” Bruce said.
“Girls, hurry and eat. PJ, I swear, would you cooperate just one time to eat,” Stephanie begged, trying speed up the feeding process.
PJ shook his head no and kept moving his mouth away from the spoon. “Boy, I would letcha starve if you do that to me,” Bruce warned. PJ just slapped his highchair, daring him to try.
Everyone ate, except PJ. Stephanie finally gave up. They all ran inside to get dressed. After getting in his flight suit, Bruce headed to the barn. Paul had moved most of the choppers out but five were still kept inside the fence. Bruce walked over to a Black Hawk that had an Omega symbol painted on the front. As he walked around the chopper to inspect it, Bruce heard his name called out.
Turning around, he saw Jimmy running up to him. “Hey Bruce, I see you found your chopper,” Jimmy said.
“My chopper?” Bruce asked.
“Yeah, you and Mike have your own choppers assigned to ya. Your Loach and Apache are over there,” Jimmy pointed. Bruce looked over and saw them by the west field.
“Why do I get my own?” Bruce asked.
“Well you and Mike are the bosses and each team has its own wing of ships. I guess I should tell ya that Mike has his own Warthog,” Jimmy told him.
“I’m so going to kick his ass,” Bruce threatened.
“Well Bruce, you were kinda busy tryin’ to kill every infected and gang around,” Jimmy pointed out as a chopper took off from the airfield.
Bruce turned to see a twin rotor Chinook take off. “When did we get those?” he asked.
“Two weeks ago. We went down to Polk and finished cleaning them out. We have sixty chopper pilots now. We are cross-training some on the Chinook,” Jimmy informed him. The Chinook was a monster able to carry fifty troops and was fast. Bruce always thought they looked like a bus with two rotors stuck on them.
“What about the Super Stallion we took from New Orleans?” Bruce asked.
“It’s almost finished being rebuilt. Joe has experience with that beast, I figured that was the one you wanted to fly,” Jimmy said smiling.
“Sorry, I love that big beast,” Bruce told him as he finished his walk around.
Throwing his gear inside, Bruce looked up and saw Stephanie carrying PJ and holding Emily’s hand, and Angela who was holding Cade’s and Sherry’s hands. They all had smiles as they walked up to him. “Hey guys, ready to fly?” Bruce asked. The twins and Cade started jumping up and down. PJ was just chewing on his fist. Bruce knew the other three were happy but he had no idea what PJ thought.
“Well if ya need us, give us a call. By the way, Jake came over and fixed your GPS,” Jimmy said, walking away.
“Cool,” Bruce said as he helped everyone inside. The twins just about died when they found out they couldn’t sit up front. Angela and Stephanie strapped everyone in as Bruce helped. Bruce heard the copilot door open and close behind him. Turning around, he didn’t see anyone so he finished buckling PJ in.
Bruce climbed out, then closed the cargo door and climbed inside to find Buffy sitting up front. “What, I can’t come?” she asked as Bruce looked at her.
“You know you can,” Bruce said, putting his helmet on. Buffy copied him then watched him go through the startup process.
“You have to do all that just to start it?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he replied as he gripped the sticks.
“Kinda stupid, they could just put a button to do all that,” she replied, making Bruce laugh as he lifted off after asking if the airspace was clear. Mission control said all UAVs were up at eight thousand feet and no micros were out.
“Y’all got your helmets on back there?” Bruce asked Angela and Stephanie.
“Yes,” they said together.
“Good, I want to make sure I can hear ya scream,” Bruce said as he opened the throttle, shooting forward. The chopper took off at three hundred feet as Bruce weaved side to side. Screams came over the intercom from Angela and Stephanie.
Bruce pulled back and the chopper shot up. “Bruce, this is not funny!” Angela finally yelled out between screams. Leveling at six thousand, Bruce dove down to the ground.
Buffy was clapping her hands laughing as the ground came up and Bruce leveled out at five hundred feet. “Bruce, I’m going to kick your ass for that. I think I peed my pants,” Stephanie said over the intercom. Bruce chuckled but took it easy after that, heading down to the treatment yard.
It took them thirty minutes to fly the eighty miles to the yard, and Bruce made slow circles around the yard at five hundred feet. “How big is this place?” Angela asked.
“Just guessing, I’d say just over a hundred acres,” Bruce replied. “Stephanie, this last row is fully treated poles. How many would you guess?”
“Can you get a little closer and please don’t do stupid shit?” Stephanie asked. Bruce eased down till he was just fifty feet above the stack. “Bruce, I’m putting it close to fifty thousand,” she answered.
“More than enough,” Bruce said, lifting off.
Buffy, who had watched Bruce fly, asked, “You mean you turn with the pedals, the stick between your legs moves you, and the one beside you makes it go up and down?”
“Basically, yeah,” Bruce said.
“A man invented this thing,” she stated.
“What’s that got to do with it?” Bruce asked.
“A girl would’ve made it easier,” Buffy declared.
“Just how did you come to that conclusion?” Bruce asked, almost yelling.
“The more stuff a toy has, the happier a boy is. I mean, just look at all the buttons and stuff,” she said, waving her hand at the instrument panel.
“What’s your point, half-pint?” Bruce growled.
“A girl would have made it easier with just one control,” Buffy predicted.
“Well one hasn’t done it yet,” Bruce told her.
“Well duh, if we did, it would just hurt boys’ feelings,” Buffy told him.
“You know you can get out and walk,” Bruce told her.
“I got my weapon, I don’t care,” Buffy told him in a sassy tone.
Bruce looked over at her as she looked out the window. “What’s wrong BB?” he asked.
“Nothing Daddy,” she said.
Bruce looked at her, knowing she was lying. “Buffy, what’s wrong, you can tell me,” Bruce said gently.
“My friend Julie and I got in a fight. I think she’s jealous,” Buffy finally answered.
Smiling, Bruce remembered finding Julie at the school in Haughton when he and Mike had walked home. “Buffy, friends fight, I mean look at me and Daddy Mike,” Bruce told her.
“I know Daddy, Danny said the same thing. I think Julie is jealous because she only has Ms. Lynn and Maria. She wants to stay with me when I’m around you. I think she wants a daddy,” Buffy said.
“Buffy, I’m not kidding, Daddy can’t handle any more kids. I’m going crazy as it is now,” Bruce told her truthfully.
“I know Daddy, and Julie couldn’t even keep up with our family,” Buffy said, looking out the window.
Bruce sighed, “Well she could hang out with us sometimes,” he offered.
“Daddy, the twins would kill her, not to mention Cade and PJ. They don’t like to share. Cade bit me last week when I came to sleep in your bed. I did bite him back but I did it just to make Angela let me out of a headlock,” Buffy told him.
“You had to do it Buffy,” Angela told her over the intercom.
“The only reason I did was so you would let me go,” Buffy shot back.
“Has he bit you again?” Angela asked.
“No,” Buffy admitted. Then she looked up at Bruce, “Daddy, I’m sorry I was mean to you. I never had a friend before and I just don’t like seeing Julie cry. She wants someone to hold her and be a mama and daddy. She really misses hers and doesn’t have anyone like that.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Bruce told her as they approached the farm.
Bruce set the chopper down and they climbed out. When Bruce opened the back door, Stephanie was standing in it. Her pants and boots were in one hand and she stood there in panties. “What the hell is wrong with you?” Bruce asked.
“You scared the piss out of me literally, Bruce!” Stephanie shouted. Bruce looked behind her and the kids were all clapping.
“They liked it,” Bruce pointed out.
“That’s only because they don’t know better. I’m not talking to you for at least an hour,” Stephanie said, getting out and walking to the house with her head held high.
“She’s going to get you Bruce,” Angela warned.
“Yeah, like that can happen,” Bruce said, getting the kids out. The ground crew came over to get the chopper ready.
They went inside to change, and true to her word Stephanie wouldn’t talk to Bruce no matter how hard he tried. Giving up, Bruce grabbed the kids and headed to the pool. Seeing most of the command crew at the big table, Bruce unleashed the kids and joined them.
“Well, whatcha find?” Mike asked.
“All the poles we need,” Bruce told him.
“You mean we finally caught a break?” Paul asked.
“Hell no, we still have to get them,” Bruce replied. He heard diesel engines off in the distance and looked at Mike. “You have Gamma out on patrols?” he asked.
“No, they’re on guard duty, well, two teams are,” Mike answered.
“They’re guarding the airfield?” Bruce asked. They never guarded the airfield because nothing was around.
“No, they’re guarding the surveyors. They wanted to start today,” Mike informed him.
“No seriously, what’s going on over there?” Bruce asked.
“I’m serious, the surveyors are out there now with forty men in heavy equipment. They started at the southwest corner and are moving north and east, leveling the area for the fence,” Mike said.
“I should’ve thought about that, moving two directions at once. What about the heavy equipment crews?” Bruce asked.
“We had to tell other people no. Right now we have fourteen bulldozers and six excavators out there along with other heavy equipment. If you would’ve flown over them you wouldn’t have believed your eyes,” Paul informed him.
“Huh?” Bruce asked.
“Bruce, they’ve been working for three hours and already have a half a mile north and east cleared. Gamma only has twenty people out on guard so I didn’t want to risk more but I had three hundred people who wanted to start today. More probably would’ve asked but I started yelling at everyone,” Paul told him and Mike started laughing. Paul just cut his eyes at him.
“You shouldn’t have yelled at them, Paul,” Bruce told him.
“Cheryl took care of it,” Mike informed Bruce.
“I told everyone I was sorry,” Paul whined.
“Paul, I’m not even goin’ ta say anything to your wife so forget it,” Bruce told him and Paul looked down at the table. Bruce looked over at Mike. “How strong is Gamma now?” he asked.
“No, you can’t have anyone off my team! Recruit your own people, asshole!” Mike snapped.
Bruce jumped back, “I wasn’t. I just wanted to make sure you had enough to guard the work crews and the convoys.”
“Oh, well, okay then. Gamma is a hundred and fifty strong with fifty support. Half will guard the fence and half the convoys,” Mike answered.
“Okay that’s good,” Bruce said as Stephanie sat down beside him. “You talking to me now?” Bruce asked her.
“Your hour is up,” she said as she sat down beside him and put her bare feet in his lap. She leaned over and handed him a bottle of nail polish. “Paint my toes please?” Stephanie asked.
Bruce looked around the table at Mike, Conner, Ted, Paul, and Carl. Then back to Stephanie. “Ah no, how about later,” he offered.
“No, that’s not fair, you were mean to me. If you love me, paint my toes please. Then I’ll know you were just playing with me,” Stephanie whined. Bruce looked around the table at the guys snickering.
“Baby, come on,” Bruce whined back.
“You don’t love me, that’s why you did it—” Stephanie shut up as Bruce took the top off the fingernail polish and started his task. The guys just snorted, trying to hold in their amusement as they watched Bruce paint Stephanie’s toes.
Angela came out the back door and looked over at them. “Bruce, paint mine too!” Angela yelled out and bounced over. The twins heard it and came running. By supper Bruce had Angela and Stephanie done and the twins wanted him to paint theirs at the table in the Center.
Bruce never tried to scare Stephanie or Angela with a helicopter ride again.
Chapter 3
The colonel ran down the hall to the command center. A sergeant had told him the general was there waiting on him. They’d lost the last of the satellites five days ago and couldn’t see anything around them anymore. The UAVs they had couldn’t go over the horizon so they were totally blind now. Walking through the door, the colonel saw the general at the main monitor which took up most of the wall. On the screen was the image of a Predator drone. “Satellites come back on line?” the colonel asked.
“No, we took over a communication satellite a few hours ago. We just got over Louisiana,” the general told him, looking at the monitor. “They are doing some major landscaping down there,” the general said.
The colonel looked at the monitor and saw bulldozers and heavy equipment working on a huge rectangle. “Our last flight over them was only six days ago and they’ve done that much?”
“Yeah, but what are they doing?” the general asked.
“If I didn’t know better, I would say they are putting up a big ass wall,” the colonel replied.
“That can’t be, the measurements are five miles north to south and ten miles east to west. They only have five thousand people there. They can’t cover an area that big,” the general said.
“Maybe they are just building an outer defense to stop the blues. We saw them plant over five hundred acres in the spring. They could just be creating a buffer zone,” the colonel guessed.
“That’s a lot of work for a buffer zone, and look at the flight area. They have more aircraft. Looks like over a two dozen Warthogs and a hundred choppers. This is going to get real tough, Colonel, if it comes to blows,” the general growled.
“Sir, we have never been in a position to attack them until winter. We would have to plow through several million infected just to get to them. We’ve been over this a thousand times. We can’t reach them with an assault force until winter. Yeah, you could send troops now but they will be wiped out by infected before they make it half way. Then if they find us with fewer troops they can just attack from a distance. Have they got the Patriots up yet?” the colonel asked with hope.
“No sir, we detect no radar and all of them are still parked,” a technician replied. ‘Damn it, why don’t they have those running yet,’ the colonel wondered. ‘If they at least knew, then they could get ready for us. All they have to do is take out our forward elements and they would be safe. Then maybe America would have a chance.’
“Colonel, why did you threaten the Homeland team yesterday?” the general asked.
“Sir, they were going to shoot one of my troops and his eight-year-old son. Just because someone escaped yesterday,” the colonel replied.
“That’s their job,” the general told him.
“Sir, they were going to kill one of my men who wasn’t even on duty at the time. They were doing it to scare others. That sergeant is a mechanic for the Apaches we have. Without him they don’t fly, sir. We only have a few mechanics left. If you want to attack this group you need to help me protect these troops from stupid acts like that,” the colonel told him.
“Watch your tone,” the general warned.
“Sir, how can we attack if they kill our troops? When they shoot one it lowers morale and we lose that experience. We don’t have troops in training anymore sir, this is all we have,” the colonel reminded him.
“Yes I see your point, but you played a dangerous game yesterday,” the general said.
“Sir, you instructed me to prepare for an assault and use what we have. I was just following your orders, sir. If they kill what we need then they are going against the President’s orders,” the colonel said.
“Damn you’re right,” the general said and turned around to a soldier standing by the door. “Troop, go tell the Homeland Director if he shoots another one of my soldiers without my written permission, I’ll have him shot,” the general told the soldier, who took off out the door.
‘It took all that for you to grow some balls, you slimy cocksucker,’ the colonel thought, smiling. “Sir, we only have two functioning Predators and the Global Hawk we got from Groom Lake before we lost contact with them. Since we have no satellites now we need to keep one over us at all times. We cannot let a horde sneak up on us. We have watched hordes cover two hundred miles in five hours. With us being down six hours we could wake up to find one a few miles from us,” the colonel informed him.
“Good point, I’ll authorize the command center to operate until I talk to the President,” the general told him. The colonel smiled. Now the President would have to shut off his air conditioner.
“Do we know who escaped, sir?” the colonel asked.
The general reached in his pocket, pulling out a piece of paper. “Sergeant First Class Adam Cole and his wife Karen. Last known contact with them was lunch yesterday,” the general read the names from the paper. The colonel smiled inside.
