Blue Plague: Sacrifice, page 36
Bruce had pushed Omega and the drivers to their limit of endurance not to mentation the trio. Thinking of them, Bruce looked around the cab at all three, sleeping. They did a great job over the week. At Ft. Sill they had found several hibernating packs and quickly fixed that. Several of the females in the packs were visibly pregnant which only made Bruce more determined to grab as much shit as they could.
Grabbing his radio and keying it, “Base, this is a tired Big Daddy One, open the gate,” he called out.
“This is Big Daddy Two glad to have you back,” Mike called back.
“Hey Two, get the command group ready. We are having our pow-wow and then I’m going to sleep for at least two days,” Bruce called back.
“We can do it tomorrow,” Mike called back.
“Daddy two, I’m sleeping,” Bruce called back.
“I copy. Will radio everyone. Marcus and Carroll are both here,” Mike reported.
“Is anything wrong?” Bruce asked, getting worried.
“No they just got back with a load,” Mike informed Bruce.
Bruce shook his head, thinking he just saw an elephant cross the road, then it dawned on him what Mike had said. “They are still making runs into town?” Bruce called back.
“No, I’ll fill you in when you get here. How many vehicles do you have?” Mike asked.
“Twenty semis and four are heavy transport trucks. Ten more MRAPs and a few Hummers,” Bruce replied back.
“Oh damn. It’s going to be tight, wasn’t expecting you to add so many extra vehicles. We will figure something out,” Mike called back.
“Negative, we will leave the large haulers on the road. Send someone to take them down to the depot,” Bruce told him then asked if the rest of the team caught that and he got halfhearted replies all the way around. Bruce eased past the gate and stopped the truck and turned to wake the trio. “Hey guys, we’re home. Let’s get the hell out of this truck,” Bruce told them.
Stephanie stretched out yawning, “Damn this truck beats the ever living shit out of you. Don’t go to war with a group of people. Make them ride in this damn thing and they’ll surrender.”
Bruce laughed, “It’s by no means the worst Little Red,” he replied as Angela and Debbie sat up.
“Why are we on the road?” Debbie asked.
“Mike said there are a lot of vehicles in the back and I’m not in the mood to wait. So someone else will take the heavy haulers to the depot,” Bruce told her.
“Call them back and have someone come get us,” Debbie said laying her head back down.
“Quit being a sissy. You three slept since we hit Texas,” Bruce told her grabbing his stuff and opening the door.
“Yeah, until you yelled out ‘Hippo in the road’ and almost went into the ditch,” Angela stated opening the passenger door.
“Well, I swear I saw one,” Bruce told them honestly.
“Bruce, when you start hallucinating, you are way past tired. What else did you see?” Debbie asked.
“Nothing,” Bruce lied. Debbie just stared at him not blinking. “Oh, okay. I saw an elephant, a baboon, that little man who hollers ‘The plane boss, the plane.’ Then the entire cast of the 1970 ‘Planet of the Apes’,” Bruce replied.
“I was wondering why your head was wet,” Debbie stated as she got out of the truck.
Bruce climbed out and followed them into the farm as several people came out to move the trucks. Walking through the gate, Bruce heard the Bradleys start up. ‘Well they are going to unload them then they will move the trucks’, Bruce thought not caring either way. “Just to let you three know, we are headed right to the meeting, then I’m going to sleep,” Bruce told them as they walked to the house.
Debbie stopped and turned around, looking at Bruce like she was fixing to stab him. “Are you insane? In the past five days you haven’t had more than eight hours of sleep!” Debbie yelled as Bruce walked right by her.
“Yeah, I know and I’m not getting up early tomorrow for anyone. The kids better know how to get ready and feed themselves,” Bruce said as Debbie fell in beside him.
“Okay then, as long as you get some rest we’ll do that,” Debbie stated.
“I’m taking a shower first. My clothes can walk around by themselves right now,” Bruce told her.
“No argument here. The only one that doesn’t think you stink is Stephanie,” Debbie said as Stephanie turned around.
“Bruce always smells good,” Stephanie said over her shoulder.
“I worry about you Little Red. I can’t even stand the smell of myself right now,” Bruce said as they walked to the front of the house.
They noticed three large shipping containers were sitting in the ground in front of the house. Walking around them they ran into Mike, Nancy and the kids. Bruce knew he stunk when even the twins didn’t want hugs and PJ covered his nose. The trio had taken sponge baths so they were not quite as bad and the kids went to them. Little Cade almost knocked Angela down when he ran up to her wrapping his arms around her. Then he went to Debbie and Stephanie but stopped before getting to Bruce.
“It’s okay. I stink, Cade. You won’t hurt my feelings,” Bruce told him.
Mike looked at Bruce in shock. Bruce had dark circles under his eyes and stubble on his head with a partial beard. When Mike saw Omega team get out of their vehicles he thought they looked like warmed shit. Compared to Bruce they looked like they were ready to run a marathon. “Brother you leave my site for one week and fall apart,” Mike said as he hugged him. Stepping back Mike asked, “Dude, what the hell did you step in?”
“Ode of Bruce,” Bruce replied.
“Get rid of it,” Mike suggested as they headed inside.
Walking into the house Bruce passed the living room and headed right upstairs. Dropping his clothes and gear he jumped in the shower and basically burnt the top layer of skin off. Drying off Bruce wrapped a towel around his waist. Then he grabbed his razor and shaving cream as he headed back down stairs. Walking into the game room, still wrapped in a towel, Bruce collapsed in his chair.
Holding up his razor and cream Bruce asked, “Will someone please shave me? I can’t because I see two of me in the mirror.”
Millie got up and went into the kitchen and came back out with a bowl of water. She lathed up Bruce’s head and face and started shaving. Bruce looked up at Millie, “You’re so sexy right now,” Bruce told her.
“Bruce, you be needin’ help,” Millie said laughing as she shaved his head.
Bruce looked over at Mike, “Well how many days did it take till you used the whip?” he asked Mike.
“Eight hours after you left,” Mike replied.
“And the other?” Bruce asked.
“The same one I used the whip on. One other hinted at it but didn’t come out and say it. I have it on video from my micro cam. We’ll talk about that later, when you have more than two brain cells working,” Mike answered.
Bruce nodded and looked at Marcus. “What did you get from Shreveport that you had to put over here?” Bruce asked him.
“Nothing, my team hasn’t been to Shreveport,” Marcus replied.
“It took you four days to come back from north east Texas?” Bruce asked.
“Well, we went back,” Marcus replied smiling.
“You what?” Bruce asked trying to make his mind work as Millie continued to shave him.
“We went back to the ammo storage area,” Marcus replied.
“So you made another trip?” Bruce asked smiling.
“No, they made four more to the storage area and one to the mason jar company,” Mike answered.
Bruce’s eyes widened with awe as he asked, “You mean to tell me you brought back two hundred truckloads of ammo?”
“Yeah, we left some of the artillery shells,” Marcus answered.
“We can’t put all that shit here,” Bruce said as Millie lifted up his head to shave his neck.
Mike coughed, “Well actually we can. Two truckloads will fit in one storage container and Paul went shopping again. I don’t think there are any forty-two foot containers left in the area. We now have twenty-six underground storage areas.”
“Well, all of it doesn’t need to go here!” Bruce exclaimed.
“Oh it’s not all here. We put sixty tons at Marcus’s farm. He has two more storage areas,” Mike replied.
“So we have another- what- three thousand tons of ammo,” Bruce asked not believing what he was saying.
“No, we put it closer to another five thousand five hundred tons of ammo and that’s just here,” Nancy answered.
“Fuck me,” Bruce said.
“Backwards,” Debbie added in shock.
“Riding a red tricycle,” Angela exclaimed.
“With a monkey playing a harmonica,” Stephanie completed.
“I think we have enough ammo now. Tell him the rest,” Carroll said, smiling at the comments.
“Several of Marcus’ clan went down south to the ammo company down there and hauled it up here. We have three industrial reloaders with several tons of propellant, brass and lead,” Willie told Bruce.
Bruce just looked at everyone, “Hell, I’m going on trips more often,” he declared.
“No you are not,” Debbie told him. “You drove everyone into the ground.”
“I now know what they are capable of,” Bruce replied looking at her. Turning back to Mike, “What the hell else did y’all do?”
“We had Jimmy fly five of us new pilots and Pat down to Polk and came back with six more choppers. We brought back more spare parts also. We put four of them at Marcus’, they’re sending over six to learn to fly,” Mike told him then continued.
“Paul and Willie went and emptied Shreveport of lumber and concrete. Not to mention shipping containers. They also came back with truckloads of steel for the machine shop. Paul also brought back more fuel tanks and treated the fuel storage at the Air force base. We also have airplanes now with four pilots. The depot is almost fenced off using the trees we cut down. It is one hundred acres and let me tell you there is a lot of stuff down there. They just started dropping off trailers going and grabbing an empty one loading it up and dropping it off,” Mike told him.
Bruce just looked at Mike, “I was only gone five days,” he whined.
“Uh, you told us not to waste any time,” Bill said.
“Wh-,” Bruce tried to talk.
“He’s not kidding Bruce. When you left, everyone here started moving in over-drive since you wanted a lot of stuff completed fast. Like Bill said and everyone is repeating it ‘let’s not waste any time. We have a lot to do and not much time’,” Nancy told him.
Millie finished shaving Bruce but he still couldn’t speak. Mike looked at Bruce, “Bruce the clan is moving with purpose because you asked them to. I believe that they think, you risking going that far away, we are in for a shit storm. I hope you are proud of them because I am,” Mike said.
“Yeah, I’m proud,” Bruce finally managed to get out.
Paul stood up, “I also brought another sixty-four horses and eighty-eight cows. We are building a thirty acre holding area beside the depot with the trees also. With a twenty foot wall and with one of those remote machine guns that you drive by remote control we can cover them,” Paul said.
“A SWORD,” Jake helped him out.
“Yeah, one of those. We now have over a hundred horses and one hundred fifty six head of cattle. We need two hundred and fifty but it’s a start,” Paul replied, smiling.
“If I go to sleep for a week, will y’all have everything done when I wake up?” Bruce asked hopefully.
“No, I doubt it. You think of something new every day. Sometimes I think you do it just to irritate people,” Paul disclosed.
“How much fuel can we store now?” Bruce asked Paul. Paul just looked away.
“We aren’t going to talk about that right now Bruce,” Mike growled. Bruce looked at Mike and saw irritation on his face.
“Oh, someone got in trouble?” Bruce asked. Mike just waved his hand up in the air.
Mike looked at Bruce smiling, “Well how many weapons did y’all get and what else did you find?”
“Let me see now, I’m just guessing but about 4,000 M-4s most A1’s, about 250 SAW’s, 100 M-240, 80 M-2s, 30 mini guns, 40 MK-19s, I have no idea how many pistols, about 2,000 M-16A2s, half a truck full of M-67 frag grenades, the other half is filled with 40mm, about forty of each sniper rifle that is in current military use. More UAV’s, thermal scopes, goggles-. I don’t know what else. I can’t think straight,” Bruce said trying to get his brain to work.
“You got all that from one base?” Willie yelled out.
Debbie jumped up yelling. “Hell no! Mister, ‘We can sleep as we move and we drag our genitals when we walk’, went up into Kansas then back down into Texas. We stopped at four Army bases including two National Guard bases, a Marine base and three Air Force bases. We haven’t stopped moving since we left Dallas Tuesday night and let me tell you the numbers he just gave you are low, by a lot!” Debbie finished, giving Bruce a stern look.
“Hey you got to sleep, so quit bitching,” Bruce told her.
“Well do we now have enough guns?” Susan asked.
“If we don’t, we’re fucked because we aren’t getting anymore,” Debbie told her.
Mike looked at her, “He went crazy again didn’t he?” he asked.
Debbie looked at Mike, then turned to Bruce, with a scowl covered her face. “I almost had to pull a gun on him at that damn super army surplus store. He wanted everything in that whole damn store and then his kids were just as bad. Jake wanted to take one of the shopping carts that looked like a tank. Then Bruce wanted to go to one more base after we left one. Then coming back through Dallas, he wanted to stop back by the surplus store. I told him after we loaded up ten trucks from his other stops, there was not much left and we had no room for anything anyway,” Debbie said shaking her head.
“I’m sorry Debbie,” Mike said with total sincerity and understanding.
“We now have enough shit for a little while anyway,” Bruce announced, wanting Debbie to drop it.
Angela giggled and snorted, “We can fight three wars with the crap we have here now.”
“I just want to survive one,” Bruce told her and Angela stopped giggling.
“Bruce what is it that you feel?” Debbie asked.
Bruce looked at her trying to focus his eyes on her, “This year is going to be much worse than last. We need over two thousand people to fight these coming battles with another thousand in reserve. Marcus needs to train his people to load up and be over here in forty-five minutes. That is what two of the Bradleys are for. Then we need to start drilling here with assigned fighting positions. Running drills once a week until they can move to their spot in minutes. This farm must be ready for an attack in ten minutes. We need the kids in the main underground storage area loading magazines and running back and forth from each position getting empties. Mike’s Gamma team will be the rapid reaction force for breakthroughs. In the underground main storage, we will have a pool of fighters to send to weak areas of the perimeter. On the road, we need to bury drums of fuel and wire them with explosives to block the road with fire. That will need to be done along the perimeter as well to break up mass attacks,” Bruce said as his head started bobbing from side to side.
“What’s going to hit us, blues or a gang?” Stephanie asked quietly.
“Both, I keep playing out the battle but without enough people we get overrun. They want what we have,” Bruce told her as his eyes closed. His body demanded rest.
“Who wants what we have?” Carroll asked.
“The blues and gangs,” Bruce said with his eyes closed.
“What do we have that they want?” Debbie asked softly.
“Happiness,” Bruce said cracking his eyes open.
“Why haven’t you told any of us this?” Debbie asked, afraid of the answer but needing to know. This was the only time when you could get Bruce to really tell you what was on his mind, when he was exhausted.
“It’s going to be bad,” Bruce said, forcing his eyes open.
Debbie got up and walked over to Bruce and pulled on his arm, “Come on mister, you need to sleep.” Debbie turned around and saw Matt, “Matt take Bruce upstairs and make sure he gets in the bed.” Matt grabbed Bruce’s arm and led him upstairs and Debbie watched them go. Turning back around Debbie looked at everyone, “Whatever you do, never tell Bruce what he told us.”
“Why? We know it’s only a matter of time until we get hit. He’s just playing out the scenarios,” Bill told her.
“No, Bill, he feels it. He’s trying to cover every contingency. He feels it’s going to be a large gang, followed by a horde of blues,” Debbie told him.
“He didn’t say that,” Paul said.
Debbie shook her head, “No, he told us that over a week ago.” Debbie said as she turned to Angela and Stephanie, looking at them and told them, “When Bruce is tired and sleepy, he’ll tell you what’s on his mind.”
“It makes sense,” Willie said.
“What makes sense?” Paul asked, looking at him.
“How Bruce has directed us to do certain things at a time. It would have been easier to just build everything then train. Then what we go out after, if you sit and look back at it he has been holding part of the clan here as soldiers getting ready to fight all along. He never advances everything at once, like not everyone training or all construction,” Willie said.
“You can’t feel an attack,” Bill told him.
“I beg to differ. You, being a civilian, wouldn’t have had study military history. Generals like Sherman, Grant, Lee, Patton, MacArthur, Attila the Hun and Caesar, just to name a few, could feel an attack months away and could almost tell you how the enemy was going to do it. Bruce, like most of the great generals, has ridden the wave. He has felt the rage push him on the wave and unlike most I have seen, Bruce doesn’t let it take control of him. Don’t get me wrong, when he’s on it, he gives me the creeps, but damn is he good,” Willie told Bill.
