“Please, after chasing down platoon and company leaders across Alabama and Georgia, the rug rats are easy,” Bruce scoffed. As Bruce drove the stroller to the table, Mike led the zombies to their chairs. PJ just used the highchair as a seat now because ‘he was big’. With Cassandra on his hip, Mike put each one in their chair and they promptly laid their heads on the table.

  Leaving the boys in the stroller and Jessica in the baby carrier, Bruce sat down as Millie put down his mug from hell. “I tells you that you was wearin’ ‘em young’uns out yesterday,” Millie said, reaching out and caressing PJ’s and Sherry’s heads.

  Snatching the mug up, “They need to toughen the hell up,'' Bruce scoffed. Before he finished his mug, the rest of the family came in from the gym and Bruce was thankful. He wasn’t going to have to fight the zombies to eat. When they finished, Angela took Jessica and Stephanie took Isaac to feed. Like he only now realized he was alone, Joshua woke up crying and Buffy ran over, taking him out of the stroller and Joshua stopped crying as she talked to him. After the babies were fed they were passed around the command table so everyone could get some baby love.

  Taking his time and enjoying his breakfast, Bruce saw the center door open and Bonnie came in followed by her dog, a tiny Pomeranian she called Tiger. It was a gift from a clan member in her apartment building. The complexes in the metro area couldn’t be called dorms because they were multi-room. They were small but still, there was a bathroom, living room, kitchenette, and bedroom. Some had two bedrooms and a few had three. That’s why they were referred to as apartments.

  Dogs were in Hope but nothing like before the plague. Between the teams, there were two hundred that were trained to locate blues like Max. Most of these breeds were larger and there were a few mutts that had this job. Smaller dogs were rarer but there were some. Bruce knew the reason Bonnie got the dog as a gift was because of her ordeal. For those who had dogs, there were long lists of people wanting puppies.

  At the farm, the only original dogs left were the Chihuahuas, Buddy and Sassy. Since the outbreak, they rarely left Matt’s or Jake’s room. The only time they did was to go out to use the bathroom, which wasn’t but twice a day. The Basset Clyde had died of old age before Mike and Bruce made it home from the hospital. The Pyrenees were moved off the farm when Paul relocated the animals because they wouldn’t abandon their herd. There were several German shepherds and Bruce was going to breed Max when he got older.

  Bonnie moved over to the wall and brought her AR across her front, standing guard. It was Bruce who’d told Carl and Ted to give Bonnie a time to report in for duty since she lived in town, the metro area of Base Hope. Bruce didn’t want her busting ass to get to the farm when he woke up going to the gym. Bonnie was one of the few who had a golf cart assigned to her. Everyone wanted one, but the power output of Hope just couldn’t take it. The only ones who used gas vehicles inside the walls were those on duty. There was a whole field outside the wall that held cars, and people could check those out and ride around. Some did but nobody left the immediate area because blues still stayed forty miles away.

  After everyone had finished, they passed the babies back. Angela and Stephanie put the babies in the stroller, making Jessica ride with Isaac. “If you play with the kids today, don’t wear them out again,” Angela told him with a huge grin.

  Bruce’s mouth fell open with a gasp as Stephanie kissed his cheek then spun his face toward her. “The zip line was a bit much,” she told him, putting her hand under his jaw and closing his mouth.

  Finally gaining his power of speech, “They’re my kids and I’ll play with them how I want,” he told them.

  Leaning over and kissing Bruce then moving back just a bit, Angela looked him in the eye. “You sure you don’t want a little more time off?” she asked in a hushed voice.

  Shaking his head, “No, I needed the downtime, but it’s time to get back in the trenches. Whatever I was supposed to learn, I guess I know it and I’m just too stupid to realize it,” he answered.

  Standing up, “You’ve said that like every week. Learn what?” Angela asked.

  “I don’t know,” Bruce shrugged. They both just smiled and kissed the kids who were recuperated enough to at least be sitting upright zombies. Bruce watched everyone leave except Ted and Carl. This wasn’t uncommon that no one really talked to Bruce on his time off because they didn’t want him to think about what Mike called, ‘work’. “Let’s get the kids to school and daycare,” he told them, standing up. He glanced down and saw Tiger sitting beside Max. From day one, they had been buddies. This tickled Bruce to no end. Max took dumps bigger than Tiger.

  Leading his little pack of stumbling zombies, Bruce paused as they passed Debbie’s statue. He looked just past her statue to see an engraved slab of marble with a relief picture of Paul Ziggly. Bruce had wanted a statue, but Henry said he didn’t have picture angles to do it correctly since he had never seen Paul. There was no doubt Henry was an artist but also a perfectionist. Qualities, Bruce had never thought could be combined. Seeing it was important to Bruce, Henry took the pictures and a month later presented the engraved picture. “I know you found him, Debbie, but just wanted to let you know I did also,” Bruce told the statue. Inside the mausoleum, Bruce could hear Henry grinding away. And nobody went in when they heard that.

  Walking on, he headed over to the daycare school where little Debbie had been born. It had been expanded and upgraded like everything else. But Bruce really thought in time it would be shut down and converted into something different. The barracks at the farm were built to house over five thousand but now, held just over three thousand. That’s why Bruce thought it would be shut down. To him it seemed like a waste of resources, but Susan was over the schools and he would let her make the call. During his time off, he would often sit and just go through the computer to see what everyone was doing and check on the areas they were running.

  Even Paul and Cheryl had moved out of the house into the barracks. Now some rooms were connected, so Alice and Robert had their own room right beside Paul and Cheryl. Paul’s and Cheryl’s son Chad was now seventeen. He had always been on the construction crews, but last year joined the Praetorian Guard here at Base Hope. Chad’s primary job was still construction and it seemed he had the knack to design and build, just like his dad.

  The daycare school only taught up to sixth grade. All the kids still at the farm in higher grades were bussed into town where there were multiple schools. School only lasted six hours but it was year round and for the most part, kids took extra classes. It didn’t take a genius to figure out the more one knew, the better your chances of survival. Compared to before the Fall, the curriculum was now college level at middle school level and there were a lot more hands-on classes. Not just shop classes, but many others like home economics that taught canning, sewing, and other basic skills.

  Heading through the fence, he saw Susan step out resting her hands on her pregnant belly. Susan took her job very seriously and was at the school most days by 0500. Nobody had a job and stayed behind a desk. If you had to schedule, outline, or other paperwork for your area, you did it and your job. There were no paper pushing managers anymore.

  Seeing the line of little zombies stumbling along behind Bruce, Susan giggled. “I told you, Bruce. You were wearing them out yesterday.”

  “Emily, Sherry, Cade, PJ,” Susan snapped and all four lifted their heads up and eyes opened wide. “Time for class,” she told them, and they took off running inside. “Is what Angela and Stephanie pumped yesterday in the diaper bags?” Susan asked.

  Nodding and trying not to chuckle, “I guess,” Bruce answered. When Angela and Stephanie were working, they pumped of course. Angela pumped when she got around to it. Stephanie pumped every three hours on the dot. Just ten days ago they were doing the noon live broadcast when an alarm beeping sounded. Stephanie had been giving a report on the new construction and stopped. Looking at the camera she said, ‘Sorry, I have to pump’ and walked off the set. Bruce was thankful that Stephanie just didn’t haul out her boobs and do it while she continued her report.

  Taking the stroller, “I’ll keep them in daycare so you can enjoy your last day off,” Susan told him while wheeling the stroller inside.

  “Well,” Bruce huffed and spun around, almost running into Carl. Carl just stepped to the side and let Bruce pass and joined Ted and Bonnie to follow Bruce. Walking around the machine shop that was behind his old shop, Bruce stopped. The kids had taken over his and Mike’s old shop because he had a new one, and Bruce had told Mike it was theirs not his. Dani, Mary, Jake, Matt, David, Mindy, and Buffy had laid claim to the building and restocked it with tools for their own shop. Dani and Mary had their offices inside to do paperwork. Buffy had one as well, but that’s where she did her school work because Stephanie never stopped teaching.

  Last month, just to show everyone in the clan and prove a point of how far Buffy had advanced, Susan had Buffy teach a geometry class as a substitute teacher. There were mainly seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds, but over a dozen adults as well in the class. Bruce was proud of Buffy because she didn’t pull Herman out even one time, but she did make nearly everyone in the class do pushups. But the students were very impressed with Buffy’s teaching. Some were tired with sore arms, but they had learned.

  The first thing the kids had done to the old shop was expand it. The new addition was taller than the original shop and had five twenty-foot-tall roll-up bay doors. This is what made Bruce stop, all five doors were open. Inside were five MRAPs the kids were using. He could see Dani, Mary, and Buffy working under the hood of one now and he knew it was Dani’s rig. Like they had been told, Dani and Buffy rebuilt the rig after Buffy tried to run over every blue in the state of Georgia.

  All five rigs had the tracked undercarriage mounted now, the one that Joe and Harry had designed. After showing him Buffy couldn’t break it, Bruce gave the go-ahead to upgrade some of the MRAPs. One thing they did find out was the turbocharged four hundred horsepower engine in the MRAP could only push the twenty-five-ton rig forty miles an hour with the tracks on.

  During his time off, Bruce had worked on his rig because he could do what he wanted. After the tracked undercarriage was on, the first thing Bruce had done was get a bigger engine. That was when Dani and Buffy were rebuilding their rig. Dani saw what Bruce was doing and because she was his child, Dani had taken off looking for a bigger engine. Dani had then put a six hundred horsepower engine in and put twin turbochargers on it, now her rig could once again do sixty.

  The reason Bruce stopped outside the old shop was because the girls looked like they were adding more to the engine. Bruce had done all his work before mounting the engine and thought they had too. Giving up, he headed over and stopped at the bay door. “What are you doing?” he called out.

  Looking up and flipping her head to throw her ponytail out of her face, “Hey, Daddy,” Dani smiled. “We’re adding another alternator.” For the life of him Bruce couldn’t think of why, since he knew the engines Dani and the others had put in all five MRAPs already had two alternators. Yes, they’d replaced everyone’s engine. To anyone else, it would’ve been funny seeing the girls out there tearing apart the MRAPs. Jake, Matt, and David did help, but the girls did the majority of the work. Bruce had tried to help when he was done with his own, but they’d refused to let him. They all told him to go do something else.

  Giving up, “Can I ask why?” Bruce blurted out.

  Nodding, “You can ask, but we aren’t telling,” Dani grinned. “You’ll find out tomorrow in the briefing. Now, go enjoy your last day off.”

  “Okay then,” Bruce chuckled. The new shop was in the front of the house, just twenty yards away from the fort. The huge building sat all alone. As Bruce headed to the shop, he glanced over at the fort. When he and Mike had built the original fort before the Fall, the kids had used it as a clubhouse. And that’s what it was used for again. There was a line of battery-powered cars under the fort. The deck had been expanded and Bruce had put a zip line up from the deck, running a hundred yards across the yard. A grown-up could ride the zip line and the cable barely sagged, it was so taut.

  At least three times a week, Bruce would grab the kids after school and play. Not always at the fort but just spending time with them. He even took them camping twice, with Angela and Stephanie joining them the second time. He spent time with Buffy but like teens do, she was hanging out with Dani more. But at least once a week Bruce had let Buffy choose a car in the storage area outside and let her drive him around the countryside.

  Then one day, Dani had pulled up in a monster truck. Not a competition truck that only had a shell for a body, a real quad cab truck with sixty inch tires and a V12 supercharged engine. Dani, Mary, Mindy, and Buffy had taken off. There was a swamp three miles from the north gate and the girls had torn it up. When the truck was driven back, it looked like a ball of mud with trees sticking out of it. They’d cleaned it off and parked it with the collection so others could use it.

  As Bruce stared at the fort, Ted looked at the new shop. He was certain, any man who had ever lived would have to fight to not have an orgasm just walking inside because Ted damn sure did. The building was over thirty feet tall and the main area was fifty thousand square feet. There was an addition on the back that was separate and held a wood working area.

  Inside, there were different sections laid out. A machining area with ten different machines, and a welding area right beside it. Then there was a gun smithing area and next to it was a huge workbench that ran the length of the wall with tools galore. Like before there were tools on the wall, Bruce had no idea what they were for, but they looked cool. There was one area Bruce had set up that had huge 3D printer machines and a computer controlled embroidery machine. On the left wall was the auto area. Right now their MRAP was inside and if they pulled the MRAP out, Ted knew they could pull Prometheus inside and work on it and still have room to move around. One thing Ted knew Bruce loved was the thirty-ton crane that was suspended from the roof. The kids had added one in the addition they’d put on the old shop.

  Having really enjoyed the break, Bruce spun and headed to the shop. Carl swiped a card to open the door and was shocked Bruce didn’t grumble. Bruce could scan his ID bracelet to get in, but still didn’t like the level of lockdown around him. He headed over to his desk as Ted went to a wall rack that held work coveralls. Bruce let them play with his toys since Ted and Carl were both taking machining courses.

  As Ted put on some coveralls, Carl headed over to some small desks he and Ted used in the shop. They had offices in the barn like most of the others on the command group. These desks were just for a space to work from when they were in the shop. Bruce had brought the desks in after seeing them both just sitting in chairs reading on their laptops.

  Grabbing an AR off the desk, Carl carried it over to Bruce and held it out. “Joe had the new class of apprentices make Omega new rifles,” Carl grinned, watching Bruce turn around with a huge grin.

  Bruce took the AR and saw it was Cerakote in dark gray and on the mag well was a huge white omega symbol. It was loaded with furniture (laser, light, fore grip, etc.) and had a suppressor mounted. “How many did they put out?” Bruce asked while inspecting the holographic sight.

  “Two for each member,” Carl answered before heading over to the rack to grab some coveralls. “Want me and Bonnie to start loading the MRAP up?” he asked, waving at the rig. He was rather proud of the work they had done on it and was thankful Bruce had taught them how. The rig was basically brand-new with upgrades but empty. Everything they had stored, like ammo and supplies, were stacked against the wall. Carl liked the tracks but still wished Bruce wouldn’t have gone so crazy hot-rodding the engine. Like the Bradley, the tracked MRAP had a steering wheel to drive with and pedals. It was Bruce who’d told them Joe had used the same transmission on the tracks that a Bradley uses.

  The kids’ MRAPs could do sixty. Bruce’s MRAP could do seventy and in all reality could probably go faster, but Ted and Carl had started screaming for Bruce to slow the fuck down. Ted and Carl still hadn’t let their driver Louis, aka dummy, drive it yet.

  Setting the AR on his desk, Bruce looked over at the MRAP. “No, let’s see what Jake is doing and if it’s extensive, we’ll just pull the engine to upgrade,” he said, and Carl just prayed there wasn’t anything else Bruce could do to an engine to make it go faster.

  Dropping in his chair, Bruce opened a notebook that he had been keeping notes in on all the jobs here at Hope. He had started this the first week, just for peace of mind, making sure others were thinking and covering as much as they could. As many times as he had asked for things to be done ‘NOW’, it seemed the rest of the command group took it to heart. Not even Bruce would’ve thought of the things they had done. Each member of the command group had areas with leaders reporting to them and those had managers reporting to them.

  It was all stored on the internet for Hope, but only the command group could access it. Mike’s pet project was healthcare and there were now fifty-two doctors, twenty-three nurse practitioners, and nearly a hundred nurses and other healthcare providers. There were now over a million bodies between Base Hope and Hope. After the expedition to Georgia, Bruce had Gene take Beta into Missouri to clear the area of the fort they had built while Mike went out and cleared the area in Texas around the fort to be put there. The fort in Killeen, Texas would’ve been the biggest because it enclosed Fort Hood, but Paul had started on what Bruce called the City of Hope during the expedition.

  The week Bruce brought Angela, Stephanie, and the babies home, Paul had started. Hope was sixty miles by sixty miles square. The north wall ran from Minden all the way to West Monroe. One thing Bruce did know was the inside of the base in Texas hadn't even been started and Paul had pulled half the work crew back to Hope to work on the wall here. Granted, Fort Hood was an active base before the Fall, but many of the buildings needed work.

 

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