Blue Plague: Decisions, page 5
“Dad, this setup cost over a million dollars. He even has his towers on liquid cooling—” Jake continued on for a few minutes. Bruce understood the conjunctions and adjectives.
“So I take it this is a top setup,” Bruce said when Jake finished.
“Dad, you have no idea,” Jake said, never taking his eyes off of the computer. Matt pointed at the setup and moaned. “Yeah Matt, 3-D interface,” Jake said, understanding the moan. Even Bruce was starting to worry about the boys as Gopher walked in.
“You see my lair,” he said. Matt just continued to point, making moaning sounds. “Yeah I like it too,” Gopher said, answering the moan. Matt moaned again. “Yeah, it cost me a small mint and I’m going to miss it. I really hate to leave it here,” Gopher replied.
Matt and Jake spun around with wild looks in their eyes. “There is no way you can leave this!” Jake yelled. Matt just growled.
“I really don’t have a use for it guys. The power this thing uses is on the steep side. I haven’t turned it on in six months and when I did it drained my batteries in an hour,” Gopher told them.
“Can we have it then?” Jake asked.
“What the hell do you need it for?” Gopher asked. Jake went on to describe how they had taken over the military and civilian satellites, the computer network they had set up on the farm and how they’d set up a small intranet on the farm for the clan. “So you guys are in the game?” Gopher asked.
“Well duh,” Jake said, then froze. “Was your tag: g, zero, nine, h, three, R? (G-0-9-H-3-R),” Jake spelled out the word.
Gopher squinted his eyes, looking at Jake, “Yeah, Gopher. What‘s your tag?” Gopher asked.
“Oz Lord,” Jake replied. Gopher’s eyes widened in shock and he looked at Matt.
“So you’re Oz Ghost,” Gopher stated.
“Welcome to the land of Oz,” Jake said.
“Damn, I thought y’all were older. That hack you put on the FBI database last year was just too cool. Why didn’t you two ever join ‘Anonymous’?” Gopher asked and Bruce was just stunned to the core.
“They are a good group but we prefer to know our team,” Matt finally spoke.
“You hacked the FBI? Are you insane? And Anonymous who?” Bruce yelled as his shock finally wore off.
“I take it he’s not in the game?” Gopher asked Jake and Matt.
“Yeah, thank God. The crazy crap he does in real life we would all be in deep shit,” Jake told Gopher and turned to look at his dad. “Yeah Dad, I hacked them many times but I shut their site down last year. Haven’t you ever wondered why the ATF never came to check on your gun business? They make at least one inspection every year on all class three dealers but not you. Anonymous is a group of hackers that surfed the net together. They are the elite, but I want to know my teammates. I want to be able to look them in the eyes and see what kind of person they are. That’s why Matt and I started the Land of Oz,” Jake told him.
“You stopped the ATF from coming to the house?” Bruce asked.
“In a roundabout sort of way, yeah. Every year I would hack them and erase your orders and data from their data banks. They never knew you existed,” Jake replied.
“And you were worried I had a few hand grenades?” Bruce yelled.
“Dad, if for some reason they would’ve raided us they would’ve figured out I wiped their system. But the point would’ve been moot. They would’ve just shot us for the grenades,” Jake told him.
“You could’ve told me. I could have gotten more toys,” Bruce whined. He looked at Jake with a pissed-off expression. “I’m not talking to you for the rest of the week. That was information I needed. I could have gotten some really cool shit!” Bruce shouted, then stomped his foot and walked out.
“Dad, you have a bunch of cool toys now, come on. You even have a tank,” Jake called after him but Bruce didn’t respond. “I’m so going to get it,” Jake said to himself.
Gopher looked at the door Bruce had walked out of, then at Jake. “Touchy, isn’t he,” Gopher said.
“You have no idea,” Jake and Matt said together.
They gathered up all the stuff that Gopher’s crew was taking while Jake and Matt disassembled the computer. When Mike arrived with Gamma, Bruce still hadn’t said anything to Jake or Matt and just climbed in his chopper and started up the turbines. Danny and Mary joined Bruce in the silent treatment of the boys. As Gamma helped load Gopher’s family, Jake and Matt stayed to load the computer and rode back with Gamma. They told everyone that they wanted to make sure the computer wasn’t knocked around. But they were really afraid their wives were going to throw them out of the chopper on the ride home.
Danny was sitting up front with Bruce. She had already started flight simulators, having to wait and start another flight class because the first one she was going to take Bruce led Omega across the south, killing anything that pissed him off, which was a lot. Danny watched her dad’s hands and feet as Stephanie came over the intercom.
“Bruce, don’t you think you’re acting like a baby?” she said.
“No!” Bruce snapped back.
“Bruce, you have a lot of cool toys now, so it doesn’t really matter,” Angela chimed in.
“I could’ve had more,” Bruce almost yelled.
“Bruce, now that’s enough, the girls are joining you in this temper tantrum!” Stephanie shouted.
“Good!” Bruce shouted back.
“Angela and Stephanie, you just don’t understand. They were looking at that pile of crap like they should look at us!” Danny yelled back.
“Danny, undoubtedly you haven’t watched your father when he gets around weapons. I thought he was going to sleep with those artillery cannons they brought up from Fort Polk last week,” Angela snapped.
“That’s different, they were cool!” Danny almost screamed.
Angela looked at Stephanie, “Debbie was so right, Bruce gave birth to her,” she said. Nobody said anything for the rest of the flight home. When Bruce set down, Danny and Mary jumped out and ran inside the house. As the ground crew came over, Angela and Stephanie came up on each side of Bruce and held his hands.
“Bruce, you can’t let them fight like this,” Stephanie said.
“Don’t care, I’m not talking to either Jake or Matt till the end of the week,” Bruce told her. Stephanie just shook her head.
Bruce led them down to Mission Control to find Paul and Willie going over the plans of the base. Stopping beside them, Bruce told Paul, “Paul, when my sons get here find out what they need to set up the radio for Gopher. Then find out where we need to put it because I’m sure it needs to be away from here. I also don’t want it near anything vital in case someone launches a rocket to follow the signal down.”
“Ah, okay,” Paul replied, seeing Bruce was irritated.
“He’s mad at Jake and Matt. It’s a long story. If you see Danny or Mary around the boys just run, it’s not going to be pretty,” Angela told them.
Paul looked at Bruce. “Bruce, I don’t mean to meddle but when anyone in your family is pissed, it makes the rest of us uneasy,” he told him.
“I don’t care. I could’ve had more toys,” Bruce said and walked out. Willie and Paul just looked at Angela and Stephanie for an explanation. Stephanie tried to explain and to her surprise both Paul and Willie understood, even going as far as agreeing with Bruce.
Stephanie stomped her foot. “This is ridiculous, toys aren’t that important. Look what we have here now!” she yelled at them.
“It doesn’t matter,” Willie told her. Not wanting to get into a debate, Angela and Stephanie both left and headed upstairs to find Danny carrying a pile of clothes to their room. Neither one said anything and just turned around and went to the school to see the kids. Jake and Matt were not at the table for supper. Nancy took Angela and Stephanie’s side but no one cared.
Gopher joined them and told the group he had started broadcasting over a week ago. The ham radio was still alive, talking about Omega’s exploits. That’s when he looked at Bruce. “Bruce, I’m not judging but why have you stopped?” Gopher asked.
“Just taking a break and getting ready for the onslaught,” Bruce lied. He really didn’t know if he could do it anymore.
“It’s been over a month Bruce. You didn’t hit anyone in July. Now don’t think I’m complaining because I’m not. I know it’s only the first week of August—” Gopher stopped as everyone looked at him, making him nervous. “What?” he asked.
“Damn, it’s been a whole year,” Mike said.
“Feels like two lifetimes,” Angela said.
Bruce shook his head, not wanting to dwell too long in the past. “Gopher, I had to get the rest of the clan set up here. I’ll move out again soon,” Bruce assured him.
“Bruce, the only reason I’m saying anything is several gangs were getting on the radio saying Omega was wiped out. That’s why I started broadcasting in the open. People were scared that they were right. You do know that after the last excursion into Texas there were two gangs in central Texas that headed west, afraid Omega was coming. Y’all gave a lot of people hope,” Gopher told them.
“How long till you can broadcast again?” Bruce asked.
“Five days,” Gopher replied.
Bruce looked at Willie. “Tell Omega to get the vehicles out and prepped. We roll in seven days. I will lay out the mission in four days,” Bruce said in a remorseful voice. Standing up, he walked around the table and went outside. Stephanie and Angela told Danny and Buffy to watch the kids and followed.
Gopher looked around the table. “I’m sorry if I said something wrong,” he told them.
“You didn’t say nothin’ wrong, you just reminded Bruce he had work to do. Even if he doesn’t want ta do it anymore,” Marcus told him.
“Willie, recruit fifty more for Omega. If you need some from Gamma let me know. I still have the home guard to pull from,” Mike told Willie. The home guards were those that were trained and assigned guard duty for scavenging patrols and the farm as their primary job. They were over four hundred strong. Mike looked down the table at Joe, “Joe, get a group together and start the refinery on the east side of the base. Then I want three fuel storage areas like the million-gallon tank by the air field. You have one month,” Mike told him.
“Mike, we have one class of ten graduated, and fixin’ to have ten more graduated from basic machine school. Eight are going advanced, and that is going to put us shorthanded just keeping the equipment here going,” Joe informed him.
“Joe, Bruce is fixing to start again. I’m praying he doesn’t go insane out there but I’m not holding my breath. With the increase in size of Omega and air assets they’re going to be using around five thousand gallons a day. We are using that here with this construction. With the two refineries we treated, we have fuel for now. I want the refinery online so we can learn how to do it before we have to have it. I don’t want fuel to ever be an issue here,” Mike told Joe.
“Okay Mike, we can do it but it’s going to be assholes and elbows,” Joe promised him.
“Paul, tomorrow start on phase two and three,” Mike told him.
Shock spread across Paul’s face. “Mike, come on, you’re talking about building a small city one mile square. Then finishing the wall, guard towers, service roads, reservoir, dam, and hydroelectric station. We still have more storage containers to bury,” Paul blurted out.
“We have three hundred underground now. Put a skeleton crew to do the other two hundred. I’m not saying we have to finish all of them fast, I just want work going on all of them,” Mike told him.
“Okay Mike, but can I at least have skeleton night crews?” Paul asked.
“Yeah, I will have Gamma taking over and covering for the scavenging patrols, so make your list,” Mike said.
“List, hell, we have what we need around here already. We may have a lot of people but you want the pyramids built fast,” Paul told him.
“No, I want this done. I don’t want Bruce to worry about none of this here. I want his mind on what he’s doing,” Mike told him. Paul nodded his head. ‘If that’s what Bruce needs us to do then we’ll do it,’ Paul thought.
Bruce stopped beside the shop, looking out at the airfield to the west. Closing his eyes, he prayed that Debbie was right and the guilt was gone. He toyed with the idea of just wiping out gangs but knew that wouldn’t work; he had already set a precedent.
Angela and Stephanie saw Bruce and ran to his side. “You okay Bruce?” Angela asked.
Bruce turned to look at them and grinned. “Yeah I’m okay, Little Foot,” he said as they moved under each of his arms.
“The way you left had us worried,” Stephanie said, wrapping her arm around him.
“Sorry guys, I just have to get my mind in the game,” Bruce replied.
Stephanie looked up at Bruce. “You don’t have to do the same thing Bruce. Just fight the war,” she told him.
Squeezing both of them tight, he replied, “Yes I do, that’s what’s expected of Omega now, and to be honest, we need that fear factor. In time the gangs will just flee or surrender and we won’t have to fight them, but more importantly, I don’t want them to come here.”
“We will be here for you Bruce,” Angela promised him.
“I know you will, Little Foot. With this kind of support I can fight this war,” Bruce told them. The three just stood and watched the sun go down as the clan once again prepared for war.
Chapter 5
Three days later one of the UAVs sent video back that Gopher’s house was on fire. They never found out how, but knew it was set because of the sign in the front yard: ‘Omega next.’ Gopher loaded up a truck with a generator, ran in to Shreveport with a team, hooked the generator up and broadcasted out at noon the start of the four-hour Gopher block. Gopher made sure to say he was fine and they’d missed him. He announced he would be on the air soon and to keep monitoring.
Three thousand clan members were working on the construction projects. Now with the gates on the main fence up and a complete sweep of the inside of the fence, everyone felt safe. The only predators found were over a thousand gators. Paul announced that they would move them when the reservoir was complete. Matt and Jake put up a twenty by forty foot building beside the house and wouldn’t let anyone inside, except for Danny and Mary, who forgave them when they invited them inside. Bruce was just happy that Danny had only slept in his bed a few nights.
As Bruce was eating breakfast, he lined out Omega’s attack. He stopped eating and looked around the center eating area. When it was first built it had been twenty five hundred square feet. It was now over eight thousand square feet. Millie and Lynn had fifteen helpers assigned for each shift and Paul had expanded the kitchen in the last remodel. It took almost a thousand people just to make the farm run now. Cleaning solar panels, tending livestock, gardens, guard duty, working on vehicles, gathering food, teaching classes, and the list was endless just for the day-to-day operations. Bruce smiled, thinking how far they had come.
Angela looked over at Bruce and saw him smile. “What, baby?” she asked.
“Just thinking how far we’ve come. Then I remember we still have a long way to go,” Bruce told her as he started eating again.
“We’ll get there baby,” she told him.
“Yeah, with you leading us we can do anything,” Stephanie told him, smiling. Bruce just shook his head.
“Well at least Danny and Mary are back with their husbands. I have to admit Bruce, it was like full contact death match with her sleeping with us,” Angela told him.
Bruce laughed and stood up. “You two coming to the briefing?” he asked.
“Of course, as soon as we drop the kids off at school,” Stephanie replied.
“See ya there then,” Bruce said, kissing each of them, then the kids as he left. Walking outside, he breathed in the hot humid air. “In my next life I’m surviving on a tropical island,” Bruce thought to himself as he headed inside to Mission Control. He gathered his notes together and waited. Now that Omega was two hundred strong, Bruce had them broken into four platoons of fifty. Ted, Carl, Conner, and Jake were over the four platoons. Willie was in Third Platoon but he was over Third and Fourth Platoon. Jake was leading Bruce’s First Platoon with Bruce in overall command. Steve was over the air wing of Omega which now had a lot of firepower.
The command group was going to be there for the briefing just to see what was on the agenda. Bruce was pretty sure they would voice some opinions though. They all filed in in small groups and took their seats. Everyone pulled out notepads and looked up at Bruce.
“Now, first we’re hitting a gang in Oklahoma. They’re in the Ouachita Mountain National forest,” Bruce said and pushed a button on his laptop to show a UAV photo of the gang’s compound. “Estimates put this gang at three hundred to three-fifty. They have a lot of hostages. Also best estimate is four hundred. The compound they are in is far from any large concentrations of blues. Our overflights have only found a few hundred in a fifty mile radius. They are in the middle of nowhere and can live the good life. We’ve seen military hardware, Strykers, Hummers, and two Bradleys. We found them three weeks ago and have been keeping an eye on them. They make runs for supplies every few days in a single convoy. We are going to lie on a road and take ‘em out. Then pull up to the compound which is in a small valley. Sit snipers on the hills and snipe them for three days. If they haven’t surrendered by then we storm them. If they start killing hostages we just level the place.” Bruce stopped as Willie held up his hand. “Yeah Willie,” Bruce said.
“Boss, why not just hit them and be done with it?” Willie said and all the platoon leaders agreed.
“Well I was going to see if we could scare them into surrendering,” Bruce admitted.
“Boss, I’m not disagreeing with ya, but I don’t think we have the fear factor yet to make a group that size surrender. There’s another gang outside Boles, Arkansas that’s only sixty, let’s try making them surrender,” Willie suggested.
