Blue Plague: Sacrifice, page 11
Buffy, who was at the door waiting on everyone, started laughing. “This is going to be funny,” she said.
Bruce looked at her as he tried to put clothes on PJ. “What are you laughing at?” he asked her.
“Watching y’all chase them around the gym while we workout is going to be great,” Buffy told him smiling.
“Y’all?” Bruce said, “You’ll be chasing down kids also. That’s part of the big sister role.” The smile fell off Buffy’s face as she looked at Bruce. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but did you not say you wanted little brothers and sisters and tried to volunteer me and your Mama to adopt everyone,” Bruce said.
Buffy stomped her little foot, “Daddy, the twins are okay sometimes, but PJ tries to get into everything,” Buffy whined.
“That’s why you have to help us show them the right way to act,” Bruce said, picking up PJ.
Buffy sighed. “Alright,” she replied without enthusiasm.
Debbie smiled as she grabbed her rifle, holding out her hand for Emily. “That’s being a big girl,” Debbie told Buffy.
The group headed to the gym for their workout, and true to Buffy’s premonition, PJ tried to go everywhere. He couldn’t walk fast yet, but he could crawl close to light speed as far as Bruce was concerned. Bruce would no sooner put him down and finish a set than he would have to go chase him down. During one set, PJ climbed onto a treadmill that someone had left on and was shot off the end. Sailing several feet through the air, he hit the floor laughing, as he rolled into the wall. Debbie took off to check for damage, only to find a laughing PJ, who was heading back to do it again.
While PJ was exploring the gym, the twins would just hold each other’s hands and walk from person to person, watching them workout. When Bruce was working out with dumbbells, they just stared watching Bruce move the big dumbbells. Bruce went over to the rack getting the twins little five pound weights and told them to copy him, which they loved.
With the added distractions, the morning workout lasted an extra half hour, but the adults and Buffy enjoyed the company of the little ones. Leaving the gym, PJ was holding his arms out toward the flying machine, yelling. Debbie, who was carrying PJ, turned his face to hers. “Mister, you scared the shit out of me with your catapult,” Debbie told PJ. He laughed at her then gave her an open mouth kiss, slobbering on Debbie’s face. Debbie laughed with PJ and hugged him tight. “That’s okay, I’ll let you play on it tomorrow, just at a slower speed,” Debbie promised.
Walking into the hall the group headed to their table. PJ was barely in his high chair before he started banging his hands on it, demanding his food. Bruce looked at PJ telling him to stop as Millie brought a bowl over setting it in front of PJ.
“Bruce, you quit that. He’s a growing baby,” Millie said, scolding Bruce. PJ blew raspberries at Bruce as he grabbed a hand full of oatmeal then smeared it over his face. Raising his eyebrows, Bruce was amazed PJ actually got some in his mouth.
“I can hit my mouth,” Bruce told PJ in a teasing voice. PJ slammed his hand down, yelling like he was telling Bruce ‘I’m trying. Leave me alone.’
Debbie looked up at Bruce as she started helping PJ. “Bruce, stop tormenting the baby!” she cautioned him.
“He’s my son. If I want to torment him, I can,” Bruce replied in a sassy tone. Debbie just cut her eyes at Bruce. “I’m just not going to torment him any more today,” Bruce added, satisfied in his own mind that he was still the boss.
Stephanie leaned over to Angela, “Oh she’s good,” she said.
“She’s my idol,” Angela replied.
Bruce ignored them and started looking around for Max. Standing up, Bruce saw Max at the door looking back at him. Walking around the table, Bruce walked over to Max. “You just went a few hours ago,” Bruce told Max. Max just looked up at Bruce whining.
“Oh okay,” Bruce said, opening the door and walking out with Max. Unlike this morning Max was done with his business in minutes and ran back to the door waiting on Bruce to let him in. Walking back inside, Bruce sat down and saw Millie had already brought out his food.
As Bruce started eating, he looked down the table to Danny and Jake. “Danny, Jake, you two are with me today,” Bruce told them.
Danny was the first to whine, “We were out all day yesterday. What about our six hours of down time?”
Not to be out done, Jake whined louder, “Dad, that’s not fair. Everyone else gets time off.” Bruce just gazed at them with a stern look, daring either to continue.
They both looked at Bruce, and then started eating again replying at the same time, “Yes sir.”
“That’s the price of being part of the command group. You work twice as hard, twice as long, and it must be twice as good,” Bruce told them.
“I want a transfer,” Danny replied under her breathe.
“Keep on young lady and I’ll join you to my hip. Let’s see how you act then,” Bruce told her.
“Oh come on! There’s no way you heard that!” Danny exclaimed, slamming her hands down.
Bruce looked at Danny. “Danny, parents can feel it when their kids give back a smart ass comment,” Bruce informed her.
Debbie looked up from feeding PJ. “Daddy feels them. I hear them, and yes I heard that,” Debbie said.
“What do we have to do?” Jake asked.
“Cover my ass,” Bruce said.
Danny looked up tickled. “Alright! Let’s blow something up!” she shouted with excitement, jumping up from the table.
Bruce looked at Debbie and before he could speak Debbie said, “Don’t look at me, that’s your child. I’m still trying to figure out how you gave birth to her.”
Bruce looked back down at his plate and finished eating. Today he wasn’t going to win any verbal sparring matches with anyone. Debbie had finished feeding PJ so Bruce took him out of the high chair and carried him over to Susan in the corner of the hall where school and day care was starting out today. Bruce sat PJ down in a play pen with Joshua, Susan’s little boy. The two started playing together, which consisted of seeing who could beat up the toys the most.
Bruce smiled at the troublesome pair and headed over to Susan. “Hey Susan, I need to ask you a favor. I want you to ask the kids what they want for Christmas. One toy apiece and it can’t be an X-Box?” Bruce said.
“Sure, Bruce,” Susan said smiling. Then dropping her smile Susan added, “Just to let you know, one of Jenny Green’s friends yesterday yelled at Maria because we were letting them color Christmas pictures.”
Bruce groaned then looked at Susan. “The next time she or anyone else says that, ball up your little fist and punch them in the eye. I know Conner has been teaching you. Let them know it was from me,” Bruce told her.
Susan smiled again, “Okay, I can do that.”
Bruce walked back to the table and stopped behind Conner, “Conner, I’m very disappointed in you,” Bruce said from behind him.
Conner jumped up out of his chair with an astonished look, “What did I do? And whatever it is, I’m sorry.”
“Susan isn’t armed. There are gun racks everywhere on this farm, so that excuse is out the window,” Bruce told him.
Conner looked at Susan playing with the kids. “She’s a teacher and is with the kids almost every day,” Conner replied.
Bruce, looking at Conner, replied, “That’s the most precious thing we have here. She’s with the future over there. Without them, we’re just wasting our time.”
Conner nodded his head, “You’re right, Bruce, I will have the problem rectified in forty-eight hours,” Conner promised.
Bruce headed to his room to get changed, followed by Max. Pulling off his workout clothes, he went into his closet to grab some clothes. Reaching toward his ACUs Bruce saw his section of tiger stripe BDUs. Reaching over, Bruce grabbed one. ‘What the hell, I’m the boss. I can wear what I want every now and then,’ he thought as he threw it out on the bed. Bruce reached up to the top of his closet, pulling down a box and carrying it over to the bed.
Opening the box, Bruce pulled out his blue Calvary cowboy hat and yellow silk bandana. Bruce had gotten both when he was assigned to a Calvary regiment when he was in the Army. Bruce got dressed for the day. Zipping up his tactical vest, he reached for his gloves and brought them up to his face. The smell almost made him hit the floor. Bruce laid them on the night-stand. ‘Those so have to be washed’ Bruce thought reaching into the closet and grabbing another pair of tactical gloves. Bruce tied his bandana around his neck, put on his sunglasses, and then his Calvary hat.
Unable to resist, he strutted over to the bathroom to look at himself in the mirror. ‘Oh hell yea! I look bad!’ Bruce thought, seeing his reflection. Acting like a little boy, Bruce turned this way and that, posing in the mirror. Bruce wanted to get a camera and take pictures but decided it might be a bit ostentatious. Bruce walked out of the bathroom as Debbie, Angela, and Stephanie came in.
The three just stopped and their mouths fell open as they stared ogling at Bruce looking like a regal bad ass. Angela was the first one to speak, “Debbie, if you don’t jump his bones right now, I am,” Angela stated in awe.
Bruce poked his chest out as far as he could. He was starting to get a little light headed because he was holding in his breath so his chest would stay poked out. “Wear that Monday, baby, and let’s see who quits first,” Debbie informed him.
Not expecting that from Debbie, Bruce let out his Breath. “Oh hell yeah boy!” Bruce shouted with glee as he strutted out of the room, feeling ten feet tall and bullet proof. On cloud nine, Bruce passed Danny and the others coming in from breakfast.
“We can wear tiger?” Danny cried out, taking off running to her room, followed by the other kids and Buffy.
Bruce didn’t care and if pressed, wouldn’t remember what Danny had said in the hallway. Walking outside, Bruce headed to where the vehicles were parked behind the barn. Noticing people staring at him, Bruce fought off the urge to start walking with a gangster limp. Reaching the Strykers, Bruce looked down the line of the twenty-two neatly parked vehicles. There used to be more but they were at the refinery. All the Strykers that had machine guns had a large suppressor on the end of the barrel.
Bruce walked over to the first one in the line and opened it up, crawling inside. Dropping the ramp, he walked out the back to see Mike coming over to him. “Who are you today? Some mutated form of John Wayne?” Mike asked.
“Nah, I’m not that big of a bad ass, yet. But I will be one day,” Bruce replied with a tone of confidence in his voice.
“Where are you going today?” Mike asked.
“Joe’s house. It’s sixty miles from here in the middle of nowhere,” Bruce responded.
“What for?” Mike asked.
“I want to see if his family is there,” Bruce said and told Mike the story.
Mike shook his head. “Bruce, if Joe even thought it was remotely possible, he would already have went,” Mike said.
“So I just waste some fuel and time. What the fuck’s the problem?” Bruce snapped in a pissed off tone.
Mike held up his hand in mock surrender. “Dude, fine with me. I just don’t want Joe to get his hopes up,” Mike replied.
“He doesn’t know I’m going and I want to keep it that way,” Bruce replied in a normal voice.
Mike and Bruce continued talking as Debbie, Angela, and Stephanie came up followed by all three couples and Buffy. Bruce looked at the ten of them standing there in tiger stripes and smiled. We are nonconformist Bruce thought, then remembered he was the one that laid out the status quo. Bruce motioned everyone over. “Jake, your group gets its own Stryker,” Bruce said then laid out his plan. “Your team is team two. We are going here and you’re leading,” Bruce said pointing on a map. Bruce looked at Buffy, “Buffy, you’re with me,” seeing her shoulders slump with disappointment. She had wanted to go with the teens. Bruce smiled. “You’re driving,” Bruce said.
Buffy jumped in the air, doing several circles, pumping her fist in the air, and yelling with excitement, and then ran into the Stryker. Bruce watched her run in, then turned to Debbie and crew. They were all looking at him incredulously. “What? She drives good,” Bruce told them as Buffy fired up the Stryker. Unconvinced, they continued staring at Bruce. “Well, every once in a while she does like driving over a car, and once she went through a house chasing a blue, but she got him,” Bruce lied unnerving the three as he went inside the Stryker. The three looked at each other and followed Bruce inside.
Bruce gave them each a CVC helmet to put on so they could talk and showed them how to use it. When they were plugged in Bruce looked at Stephanie, “Stephanie, where’s your sunglasses and gloves?” Bruce asked.
“I have them,” she replied, tapping her thigh pocket.
“Put them on. When you leave the farm always wear them just like you would in a lab. They are your first line of protection,” Bruce told her as Stephanie put them on.
Bruce nodded and radioed Jake to pull out. Buffy followed Jake off the farm. Bruce looked up to the front, watched Buffy driving sitting on her backpack and smiled. Bruce told Debbie to get in the turret and started going over how to operate it. When they were ten miles away from the farm, he let her squeeze off a few bursts. Next, Bruce told Debbie to go up to Buffy to learn how to drive. Then he had Angela get in the turret and went over the systems. Bruce laughed when she took off her pack, and like Buffy, sat on it as a booster seat to see everything as she fired off a few short bursts.
Jake called over the radio, saying that wasn’t fair, they wanted to shoot some too. Bruce said that was fine; just stop ten miles from the target so they could reload. Bruce told Angela to get out and switch with Debbie. Stephanie climbed in the turret and before Bruce could say anything, flipped switches, grabbed the fire control handle, and moved the gun mount, firing into a tree sitting in the middle of a field.
Stephanie turned around to Bruce, “I heard it twice,” she said.
Bruce radioed Jake and told him to pull over so they could reload and swap drivers. Bruce pulled the three out and showed them how to reload the M2. Buffy already knew how but had to use her legs to cock the handle. Bruce told Buffy to get in the turret which didn’t go over well since she already knew how to operate it. Buffy cheered up when Bruce told her she would get to fire it since she had never got to do that.
The two vehicles traveled for over an hour with Debbie driving now. Joe’s house may have been sixty miles away by map, but it was almost eighty by road. When they were five miles away, Bruce opened the back hatch but quickly closed it when the cold air hit him. The others just looked at him like he was a dumbass. Not one to hold her tongue, “It’s below forty degrees outside,” Angela said over the headset.
Bruce ignored her as he laid out how they were going to check the house. “When we pull down the driveway, Jake, you pull to the left. Debbie, you take the right. Stephanie, you’re in the turret, and Angela you’re by the back door to let us back in or cover Buffy and me,” Bruce finished.
Stephanie just looked at him. “Are you stupid? You can’t put Buffy in that type of danger,” she said.
Before Buffy could pop off, Bruce told Stephanie, “If they are regular people they are less likely to shoot at us seeing a little blond girl walking with a man, no matter how well armed she is. If they are bad guys, they will shoot at me and not see her as a threat. That is when y’all lay waste to the house.”
Stephanie nodded her head after thinking it through and Jake called over the radio, “We’re here.” They pulled into the driveway and drove to the house which sat two hundred yards off the road. They pulled the Strykers in the front yard. Bruce and Buffy got out the back then Angela shut the door. Coming from around the back, Bruce raised his hands up and told Buffy to do the same. Buffy didn’t like it, but she did it.
Walking up to house, Bruce saw the front door open a crack when they were almost to the porch and a rifle eased through the opening. Bruce froze and whispered to Buffy, “Don’t move,” as a male voice said from inside the house, “We’re not going back to any camp.”
“That’s fine with me. We’re just looking for the family of Joe Holiday, but we can look somewhere else,” Bruce replied.
A young man in his twenties came out the front door aiming the rifle at Bruce, making Bruce real nervous. “What do you know about Joe?” he asked.
“He’s at my farm,” Bruce answered.
A woman in her early fifties came out the front door. “Is he okay?” she asked Bruce.
Bruce didn’t answer because he was looking at the young man aiming at his head. The lady looked at the young man, “Gary, put that gun down now,” she said.
“Mom, they came here in military vehicles,” Gary replied.
Mom put her hands on her hips addressing Gary, “If I take it from you, I’ll break it over your head,” she threatened. Gary lowered the weapon with that threat but held it ready.
Mom turned back to Bruce, “Is he okay?” she asked again.
“Yes, ma’am,” Bruce replied.
“Why isn’t he with you?” Gary asked.
“Well, I was going to surprise him. He went to check on his wife and son who went to see her mother, but the house was empty. Joe came back here but was put in a camp. Harry stopped by here to check, and they weren’t here then, either. That’s when the military took him to the camp where Joe was at. We rescued them after it was over run. Joe and Harry are at our farm now running the machine shop,” Bruce gave them the condensed version. Out of the corner of his eye, Bruce saw Buffy getting ready to sling lead but couldn’t say anything.
Gary relaxed, letting the rifle fall to his side, “Dad’s with you?” he asked.
Bruce exhaled dropping his hands replying, “Yes he is.” Bruce keyed his radio saying, “Found ‘em.”
Seeing Bruce’s reaction, Gary said, “I’m sorry, mister, but it’s totally shit out there,” Gary apologized, defending his actions.
Bruce was fixing to tell him it was okay when from behind he heard a hatch open on a Stryker and Danny yell out, “Are you fucking crazy, pointing a gun at my Daddy?”
