BLUE PLAGUE

  WAR YEARS

  Book Eight

  Countdown

  THOMAS A. WATSON

  BLUE PLAGUE:

  Countdown

  Book Eight

  © 2022 by Thomas A. Watson

  All Rights Reserved

  Credits

  Edited by Sabrina Jean

  www.FastTrackEditing.com

  COVER ART BY CHRISTIAN BENTULAN

  This book is a work of Fiction. People, places, events, and situations are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or historical events, is purely coincidental.

  This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the written consent of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Thank you for acknowledging the hard work of this author. If you didn’t purchase this book or it wasn’t purchased for you, please go purchase your own copy now.

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  Contents

  Special Thanks

  Introduction

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Special Thanks

  Sabrina Jean

  Rebecca Larsen

  Tina Rush

  William Beedie

  Deb Serres

  Fleur Wilkinson

  Joseph Ruffolo

  Tina Watson

  Cora Burke

  Arthur Maybee

  Anna Shirley

  Yalonda Butler

  Jan Tice

  Leslie Bryant

  Kathy Roberts

  Randy Clements

  Introduction

  Hey everyone,

  Yes, at long last we have Blue Plague once again. War Years was always part of the series, but I wasn’t going to write it until we got the rights back. Lo and behold, all of you and Tina did just that and we got the rights back. I’m blessed for fans like all of you and a wife like Tina.

  War Years is a continuation of the story but in a different way. Yes, Bruce will stay in the story and the ending in Hope was always the ending I intended. It was written before the first book was even completed. The reason was, I knew I would take a break from Blue Plague before beginning War Years and I didn’t want to leave any fans hanging without closure. In War Years, there will be some future scenes because in the continued Blue Plague series, War Years will be the end of the story.

  The reason from the beginning for War Years was simple: the war of survival was being passed to the next generation.

  First let me say, it was like meeting long lost friends when I started writing Blue Plague again. How many books will be in War Years? I have no idea but like always, the ending is already done and was done before Survival was finished. I just don’t know how we are going to get there yet.

  Once again, thanks to all of you. Thanks to my family and Tina for standing beside me and helping me along in each and every story.

  Now, may I present ‘Blue Plague War Years: Countdown’.

  Thomas A. Watson.

  Chapter One

  Cracking his eyes open, Bruce lifted his head off the pillow, glancing toward the bedside table to see it was just after five a.m. With a warm smile he glanced down to see Joshua and Isaac sound asleep on his chest. On his left side Angela was sprawled out, with Jessica nursing in her sleep on Angela’s chest. Just thinking when Isaac and Joshua nursed, Bruce fought not to chuckle. Stephanie put one on each breast and could do it in her sleep. He had thought the booby fairy had come to see Angela and Stephanie before but holy crap, they had some tatas now.

  For the past three and half months Bruce had done no clan work but did consult several times mostly about Hope, the city being built because the original area was now firmly called Base Hope. He read a few books, played with kids and of course, tended to babies. Today was his last day before moving back into the helm. None had asked, but Bruce knew it was time.

  Holding the boys to his chest, and really hating the fact he was sleeping in the middle, Bruce slowly eased up while glancing side to side trying not to disturb anyone. One thing they had learned, if one baby started crying, all three were soon crying and that was to be avoided at all cost.

  Standing up in the bed he walked to the edge and stepped off before moving over to a line of bassinets. Putting Isaac in one and Joshua in another, he left Jessica since she was still nursing. For nearly the entire time he had been off, Bruce had only slept on his back because there was at least one baby always on his chest during the night.

  Last night was one of the rare nights when it was just them and the babies. Dani’s old bedroom was now Buffy’s and that’s where Emily and Sherry slept for the most part. Now that Mary’s room was empty of computer servers, it had been turned into a boys’ room for Cade and PJ. Since they had moved in with Buffy, their hero, Emily and Sherry would always go to sleep there but a few times a week they would come in during the night and climb in bed. Bruce soon learned the nights they didn’t sleep with them, the twins crawled into bed with Buffy. Only because Buffy would announce to the world the next day that Emily and Sherry had dog-piled on her while she’d slept.

  PJ and Cade were trying to be big boys now and sleep in their own room but more than the twins, they came in during the night to crawl in bed. The two thought they were big boys because they’d finally trimmed and carried off all the branches from the tree Bruce had cut down in the front yard that they’d climbed up six months ago.

  Just to put his mind at ease, Bruce left the bedroom and headed down the hall and cracked open Buffy’s door and gave a snort. Emily and Sherry were sprawled across Buffy. Easing the door closed and turning around, Bruce opened the boys’ room and saw PJ and Cade both asleep on the top bunk. Satisfied they were good, he headed back to the bedroom and straight to the bathroom.

  Closing the door and turning on the light, he tapped the interactive mirror. Since Hope had its own internet, the interactive mirror had been put in by Jake and Matt before Bruce brought the family home from the hospital. In one corner was the weather, the other had the clan news station playing, and then at the bottom he tapped his name and it showed his schedule for today, which was just taking the kids to school and daycare. Stephanie and Angela had been on him to establish care with one of the doctors but wouldn’t let him do it while he was on vacation. Not knowing how the hormones were playing that day, Bruce had let it lie and told them to set an appointment when they thought he should go.

  He had taken time off, but one thing Bruce did was backtrack the journey the kids he’d rescued from the island had taken. Since it was personal and surely an impossible task he hadn’t done it before, but now he had time. One day during the second week they were home, Stephanie and Angela had told Bruce to do what he wanted.

  Not even entertaining the idea of going alone, Bruce had taken his protection detail along. It wasn’t hard finding the shot-up buses on I-49 near Boyce. There were three tour buses and all had been shot up. Two had wrecked and were overturned in the ditch. The other had been shoved to the side of the road by Omega when they’d run around Central Louisiana. All Bruce knew, it wasn’t his rig that did it. Once again, Bruce had been beyond impressed with the sixteen-year-old Paul who’d taken responsibility for a group of kids he didn’t know. From right there, Paul had to lead a line of young kids twenty miles across the countryside while fighting blues with nothing other than a length of pipe and dodging the gang that had hit the convoy. Bruce was certain the gang they had taken out in Ville Platte was the one responsible because there were two shot-up Harleys near the wrecks.

  The only luggage were the remains of military rucksacks, but there were lots of bones. One bus still had the undercarriage closed and when he’d opened it, Bruce had found it was packed with MREs. In the others, he’d found the remains of MRE boxes from where animals had torn into them. With his protection detail covering, he’d started the task of going through luggage and that’s when he’d found the uniform with a few bones of a National Guardsman. The three holes in the chest of the shirt showed how the guardsman died. Continuing his search, Bruce had found a faded map inside the bus with a highlighted route. The bus had been headed to Colorado but more importantly, it had left the National Guard Armory in Alexandria.

  The convoy hadn’t even traveled twelve miles before it was attacked. Knowing what it was like during the Fall, there wasn’t any doubt all the buses had been packed with people. At that time, one thing Bruce did know was there were no Louisiana National Guardsman from Colorado at the base but there were forty-one civilians who were from Louisiana brought in from Colorado. He would later find out there had been eighteen guardsmen there but all had been executed by Homeland for various reasons, like wanting to leave.

  Not finding anything there Bruce had headed to Alexandria, and the armory had been scouted by Omega but it was empty. All military equipment was gone, but if you looked in the city, you could find it lying about where the guardsmen had died trying to fight the blues.

  After killing a few blues that tried to interrupt his quest, Bruce found the ‘Big Building’ Frank had told him about at the armory. Cracking the door to let Max see if it was okay, Bruce had gone inside and found the luggage. Bruce realized the military had told everyone to leave behind their stuff so they had room for food.

  There were cots everywhere and Bruce went over to a desk covered in dust near the door. Off to the side, he’d found a clipboard and a laptop. A handwritten note from a major, dated the day before the kids had left, read that civilians were no longer allowed to take suitcases to make room for food stores and more people. The only exception was a diaper bag, and it could only carry supplies for an infant. Under the note Bruce found columns that listed departures, next to last and complete with date and time. Six days before he’d found the kids, it listed three buses with two hundred and thirty-six civilians, with six soldiers per bus, departing for Colorado. The last entry was a cargo plane loaded with MREs and ten troops heading to Boulder, Colorado two hours after the buses left. There was another entry for a cargo plane the next day but no departure time. Bruce was still certain the guardsmen who had been manning the armory had died there. The torn-down fences around the armory left little doubt the blues hadn’t penetrated the armory.

  Handing the laptop off to Ted to take and plug up in one of the trucks to recharge the battery, Bruce had started digging through the desk for the CQ log. The CQ log was Change of Quarters and was just a list of events that occurred at the barracks. Every unit in the military kept one because it was a list of events, and the military loved lists. It didn’t take Bruce long to find it in a drawer. Reading it, he was surprised to find that the guard unit had still been fighting in Alexandria that day and the morning after the buses had left carrying the kids when the power went out.

  Putting the log with the clipboard, he started going through the luggage. It didn’t take him long to find a small school backpack that had ‘Frank’ printed on it. Putting it to the side, he’d kept digging and couldn’t help but smile seeing two identical pink backpacks. On the side of each one, written in marker, he saw they belonged to Emily and Sherry.

  As he was putting those to the side, a helicopter had landed and Bruce stormed outside wanting to know who was bothering him. He’d found Jake and Matt climbing out of his Blackhawk since they both were now pilots. Jake had just held up his hands, seeing his dad’s face, and told Bruce he knew what he was doing and wanted to help.

  Glad for the help, Bruce had sent Jake to the laptop and asked Matt to find where the security cameras downloaded. Then he went back to searching bags. True enough, Jake had come in with the laptop unlocked and opened to the recording log with typed entries of everyone who had been sent out. Not believing his luck, Bruce had taken it and asked Jake to continue searching the bags. It wasn’t long until Jake found Nathan’s and Alice’s bags.

  Reading the logs, Bruce read Frank had been brought in by his aunt and uncle, his parents were killed by blues, but he now had the address. Alice was brought in by her mother, her father killed by blues. And her mother had left with her on the bus, but their address was listed also. Nathan was brought in by his sixteen-year-old sister, parents she’d reported were killed by blues. The sister had left Nathan at the armory and wasn’t logged back in. Weeks later, Bruce had talked to Nathan and in a small voice Nathan had said his sister went to pick up her boyfriend and never returned, but Bruce had Nathan’s home address. Robert was brought in by an eighteen-year-old brother and the brother had left on the buses. Robert’s parents and sister were killed by blues on the way to the evacuation center but again, Bruce had an address.

  Emily and Sherry were listed as brought in by a neighbor, their mother killed by infected, but Bruce had the neighbor’s address.

  Going through the entries, Bruce stopped at a long one that listed - Kerry, female, age unknown, address unknown and unknown infant. The information was provided by Avery Timms. Avery said he’d joined up with Kerry and her husband Ronnie in Eunice at the evacuation center at the high school. After the evacuation center was overrun by blues, everyone just took off running. Running through fields, Avery had met Kerry and her husband again just off East Laurel Avenue outside of town. Kerry had heard something in a ditch and went to look and found a baby. There was nothing, nor anyone alive or dead near the spot. Avery had given great detail to the spot and days later, Bruce would go to where PJ had been found and confirm the closest house was over a mile away.

  The report stated Avery was positive the infant wasn’t from Eunice because he knew most everyone. He knew Kerry and Ronnie, couldn’t remember their last name, but gave the street they lived on. Avery reported the child was just sitting in the ditch, naked, playing in the dirt. They soon found a wrecked car an hour later down the road. Inside was a diaper bag but it was for a girl and the car seat in the car was covered in blood. Near Lawtell, Ronnie was taken down by blues two days later and Kerry hadn’t spoken since.

  Closing the laptop, Bruce had come to the conclusion he would never know about PJ’s background, but he still had a smile. He knew the teen’s name now who had given everything, including his young life protecting the small kids. Paul Ziggly. Now Bruce had an address.

  Bruce was a bit shocked when more SUVs had pulled up as they’d put the kids’ bags in his ride. Dani, Buffy, Mary, Mindy, David, and Conner had all driven down. Mary had called Jake. Yes, cell coverage extended out nearly a hundred miles from Base Hope now. Jake had told her what Bruce was doing and the word spread. The rest of the family and others had wanted to come but they were busy.

  Robert and Alice had once lived in Alexandria and they’d found both houses, so Bruce grabbed pictures and documents because none of the kids knew when their birthday was.

  Paul Ziggly had lived in Pineville which was just across the river from Alexandria so they’d headed there. The home was intact and empty. Bruce had pulled pictures off the wall, thankful to finally put a face with the name. Paul was just a skinny sixteen-year-old with long hair and pimples. Going through the house, Bruce had discovered Paul was a mediocre student, didn’t play sports or have hobbies. It seemed like all he’d done was play video and role-playing games. Yet he was still a hero and had given his all, thinking of others, and gave his young life willingly to save the little kids without pause.

  Taking photos of Paul and his family, Bruce had led the group south to Nathan’s house in Kolin. Bruce’s heart sank when they’d reached the address. The house was burnt to the ground. There were two cars there and Bruce looked in them and found cell phones plugged in. Later, he would find pictures of Nathan’s family on both phones and all of Nathan’s information in his mother’s phone.

  Frank had lived in Bunkie. The house was intact but had been ransacked by people looking for supplies. But Bruce found pictures and documents then left, so Bill could bring Frank back. The last was the twins and the neighbor who had lived in Opelousas.

  It was late when they reached the address and Bruce had paused, looking at the neighborhood while blues were shot around him. He had driven through here with Omega, this very street in fact. Not knowing which house around the neighbor’s was Emily’s and Sherry’s, Bruce started searching with the others. It was Dani and Buffy who’d found it across the street. Buffy and Dani headed upstairs and gathered toys while Bruce searched the house. As he searched, Bruce had discovered Emily’s and Sherry’s mother was a single mom. There weren’t pictures of a dad, nor any other family members. There were several dozen pictures of Emily and Sherry, but only three with their mom. Bruce had told Jake to take the computers and his detail to take all pictures in the house. Then Bruce had found the birth certificates. The twins had turned five the day before he’d found them on the island.

 

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