“Thank you Dad. It wasn’t that big a deal,” Jake replied as pride filled him from his Dad’s comment.
“The hell it ain’t. I’ve done it and I think they are tryin’ to see if they can drive me crazy. I want to ask you, did Emily and Sherry do that moving in unison thing to you?” Bruce asked Jake. The only twins he has experience with were David and Mary. They were obviously fraternal and not identical twins.
“Yeah Dad, all the time and it kind’a freaks me out,” Jake replied as the girls hugged him.
Bruce and Jake continued to talk until Mike came in and sat in his chair. Debbie came and took PJ and sat on the couch feeding PJ oatmeal. Debbie had not even sat down with PJ, when the twins ran over and jumped in Bruce’s lap. Bruce let out a long sigh convinced he would never get to sit by himself ever again. When everyone was in the game room, Bruce called the meeting to order.
“Ok everyone I want this meetin’ to be short. We have ta move fast tomorrow before more blues show up. We have people to rescue and supplies to gather. Now my team will be goin’ to the survivors and Paul will be leadin’ one supply mission. Mike will lead the other for food. There will be no back up. Matt and Jake tell me they have several people trained to run the UAV’s. Angela and Alex you are now assigned to find placement for those that are comin’ here, get their names and what they can do. Pam you’ll run mission control tomorrow. Start time for mission is 7a.m. tomorrow,” Bruce told everyone. He wanted to get up and walk around but the twins were snuggling into his sides going to sleep.
Bruce continued, “My team will take two Strykers, one deuce and half with a trailer and the RG. With those four vehicles we can haul seventy plus back. My team will be myself, Buffy, Debbie, Jake, Danny, Conner and Matt. We’ll start with the farm that the idiots are in first. Then move to the other farms then to Jonesboro. Jonesboro still has blues in strength. The camp there was big accordin’ to Marcus, holding between six and seven thousand. With around thirty somethin’ people left that means lots of blues. If we get compromised, we leave. I don’t care if we have the survivors or not. I don’t want a battle of attrition when we’re on the ground, without cover,” Bruce said looking at each member of his team before continuing. “We’ll stop four miles from town, then Matt -n- Conner will watch our rides. The rest of tha team will move in on foot. Once we have all the survivors, we’ll head home. I figure we should be done around three.”
“There will only be three adults here at the farm once we leave. If the farm calls everyone is to stop and come a runnin’. I don’t care if we haven’t got anything or anybody. I want Paul’s group finished before my team gets back. Any questions?” Bruce asked. Lynn raised her hand and Bruce motioned to her.
“Leavin’ just me, Susan and Pam with’a few teenage boys seems a little risky don’t cha think?” she asked.
“I’m only worried about gangs right now after the slaughter we had over tha last few days. We’ll see them long before they get here so I’m not really worried. Risky yeah but very necessary and we need ta move fast. Saturday and Sunday we’ll be goin’ out again for more supplies,” Bruce told Lynn and she nodded her head. “Any other questions?” Bruce asked and little Frank raised his hand.
“Mr. Bruce, we still get to have movie night don’t we?” he asked. Bruce looked at his little face seeing hope. Bruce looked at the other kids and a few teens and seen the same look on their faces.
“Yes, we’ll still have movie night,” Bruce told him as all the kids started clapping. Bruce held up his hand for them to quiet down. “We have a lot of work to do, so no whining when you have to do it,” Bruce told the kids. “Jake and Matt what do you have to tell us,” Bruce asked turning to them.
Matt pointed to Jake and he stood up. “We don’t have an actual count but our figures say the teams that went out put down approximately forty thousand blues. This number is close plus or minus two grand. The twenty five mile radius around us is clear. We have not seen any on thermal. There might be a few but we can’t find them,” Jake finished looking at everyone in the game room each person had a smile on their face.
“Thank you son,” Bruce told him. “It is 5:30 now and Lynn has supper ready. We need to eat and get some sleep because not only tomorrow, but the next few weeks will be very busy. Anyone have anything to add?” Bruce asked looking around. No one raised their hand so Bruce told everyone to eat and get some sleep.
The clan moved to the tables to get some food and talked amongst each other. Bruce noticed Mindy talking with David who had a grin from ear to ear. Bruce made sure the twins ate while Debbie fed the toxic poop machine who kept yelling to make sure everyone knew he was there.
Bruce and Debbie had everyone upstairs showered and in the bed before 7:30. To Bruce’s delight Danny and Buffy were sleeping in their room. Bruce read to the twins and PJ until they fell asleep which did not take long taking Debbie with them. Bruce put his book down and was fast asleep.
When his alarm clock went off at 4a.m., he swore he had just laid his head down. Bruce still got up put on some workout clothes and headed to the gym. He was not in the gym long before Mike showed up. By 5am the gym was crowded as everyone wanted to get warmed up for the day ahead.
Bruce and Mike finished their workout then went to shower and dress for battle. They really didn’t eat, it was more of just shoveling food into their mouths. Then they went to mission control to see what the UAV’s had found.
One of the teenage boys from the gas station was running the UAV’s and reported no sightings in twenty miles but found several large mobs of blues around Jonesboro. Bruce almost canceled the mission but the blues were on the east side of the village and the building was on the west side. Bruce figured that the blues were about a mile away so the rescue was still a go.
With his team in the Stryker, Bruce put Buffy in the gunner’s seat of the Stryker he was driving. With the large suppressor on the end of the mounted 50 cal, it looked like a different weapon. When Buffy had shown Bruce she knew how to operate the weapon system, he stepped out the back. It was false dawn at 6:30. Bruce called over the radio for everyone on his team to load up, they were leaving early.
By 7:30, they were pulling up to the first farm. Bruce pulled up in his Stryker. Debbie and Danny pulled up in their Stryker. Bruce and Debbie got out of the Strykers holding their hands up walking up to the little farm house. Buffy and Danny covered them with the weapon systems on the Strykers.
A clean shaven white man in his early forties came out carrying a shotgun. Bruce and Debbie tried for thirty minutes to get the man to bring his family to the farm but he refused. When Bruce told him he needed to put a fence around the house, the man just said that would be too much work and lower the value of the house. Debbie gave him a CB radio and told him to call if they got in trouble. The idiot thanked her and the rest of the families came out on the porch, as Bruce and Debbie climbed into the Strykers.
As Bruce pulled out, he took one last look at the families knowing they were as good as dead and felt pity for them. Bruce called Debbie on the radio and told her his thoughts. She reminded him you can’t cure stupid.
The other farm houses were more than happy to leave. Bruce told them to only grab a small bag of clothes and weapons to take with them. Most didn’t have anything but the clothes on their back and ran for the vehicles. At 11:10 the team had reached the point where they would leave the vehicles. Bruce, Debbie, Buffy, Danny and Jake would go to the building with the survivors while Matt and Conner watched the group and vehicles. Before leaving, Bruce called Pam for an update on the area.
Pam told him the blues were still on the other side of town and a few people had come out of the building but went back in. Bruce told her if anything changed to call back and Pam said she would.
Bruce led the team in single file through the woods walking parallel to the road that lead into Jonesboro. Moving slowly, it took them over an hour to reach the large, brown metal building that held the survivors. Bruce stopped the team in th
e tree line with the building less than fifty yards from them. He was studying the area as Debbie came up beside him.
“How are we goin’ to let them know we are here, because you are not just gonna walk up and knock on the door,” Debbie said looking at the building.
“I was just wondering the same thing sugar mama,” Bruce admitted looking at the building when a thought hit him. Bruce looked at Debbie, “Give me the extra radio in your pack. See those windows at the top of the walls,” Bruce said pointing to a row of windows under the edge of the roof fifteen feet off the ground. They were four feet long and about one and half feet tall.
“I’m going to wrap the radio in a shirt, shoot out a window and throw the radio through it and call them,” Bruce told her proud of his idea.
“That’s a good idea but Buffy and I will throw the radio in and before you say anything shut up and listen. You, Jake and Danny are better at long distance shooting. If the group in there see a woman and a little girl they are less likely to shoot at us. Now you can talk,” Debbie told Bruce. Bruce wanted to argue but she had valid points and he nodded his head.
Bruce lined the others up to cover them as Debbie got the radio ready to throw. When everyone was ready, Bruce told Jake to shoot out a window. Jake raised his AR-10 and squeezed off four shots hitting the window and shattering it. Bruce set his radio to monitor team channel and the channel Debbie had set on the radio she was throwing in. In case the people inside were hostile, Bruce did not want them to listen in on his team. Debbie and Buffy cleared the distance to the building fast, threw in the radio then turned around and ran back to the wood line.
Bruce called over the radio, “Hello is anyone there over.” He repeated it four times before getting a reply.
“Who’s this,” a male voice replied.
“This is Bruce Williams, I have a team here to take you to a more secure location if you want to leave,” Bruce answered. The man on the other end tried to say something else but the radio was taken away when a female voice came on.
“How do we know you aren’t with the gang that hit us a week ago?” she asked in a smartass tone.
“Ma-am if that was the case, I would’ve thrown grenades through the window and not a radio. We don’t have much time,” Bruce replied. The woman keyed the radio and Bruce could hear arguing and fighting over the radio. Then the first man came back on.
“Mr. Williams, where are you? We can’t see you,” he asked.
Bruce let out a sigh, “We are in the tree line. We really don’t want to be out in the open right now with those fast blue fuckers around. We cannot run that fast. Now, do you want to leave or not? Hold on,” Bruce told him as Pam came on the radio.
“You have four blues coming toward you from the back of the field. You should see them in a few seconds,” Pam told them. Jake moved his rifle to the back of the property and sure enough thirty seconds later four blues came out of the tree line about hundred yards away. Jake squeezed the trigger four times, as the first one hit the ground the last one died.
“That was good shooting,” the man replied over the radio.
“Thank you, now do you and your group want to leave?” Bruce asked looking at the building seeing faces at the windows.
After a few minutes Bruce was fixing to tell his team they were leaving when the man came back on the radio. “Can you send in one of your team? I have some questions to ask and I want to see who we are dealing with,” he replied.
Bruce expected this but still didn’t like it. He would not just leave with someone until he could look into their eyes. Bruce replied, “One of my team is coming in. Have the door on the side of the building open where we threw in the radio. If you hurt my team member no one in that building will live to see the sunset today. Don’t think you’ll be able to use them as a hostage either because the same thing will follow.”
“If your man shows no hostility to us, I give you my word none will be shown to him,” the man replied.
The man was a poet Bruce thought as he turned to the team. “Buffy and I are going in if something happens kill everyone,” Bruce said and taking off with Buffy in tow before Debbie could say anything. Bruce and Buffy ran to the building. When they were ten yards away the door opened and they ran in and the door closed behind them. Bruce looked around seeing filthy men, women and children standing around. A man in a dirty deputy uniform, holding the radio Debbie had thrown in, walked up to Bruce.
“Hi my name is Bill Thompson, I was a deputy at one time, who are you?” Bill asked looking at Buffy behind Bruce.
“I’m Bruce and this is my daughter Buffy. Now do you people want to leave?” Bruce asked Bill.
“You aren’t military,” Bill stated looking at Bruce then to Buffy as she held her M-4 ready for action.
“Good call Bill,” Bruce said smiling.
“Where do you want to take us to?” Bill asked as Debbie told Bruce over the radio that Jake had just shot two more infected.
“We have a farm that is secure not far from here but those that come will have to work to help make it more secure and learn to fight. This is no free ride, we have killed over forty thousand infected just this week. There are several large gangs moving around this area and those that come will be expected to work and fight. We have food, shelter and water. Now, if you don’t like it you can leave but you will live by our rules which I will tell you when we get there. Buffy and I are leaving in three minutes with or without you,” Bruce told Bill.
“We’re coming with you,” Bill said turning to tell people to get ready when a woman hollered causing everyone to stop.
A woman about fifty and a man a little younger walked over to Bruce. Unlike everyone else they were clean. Bruce did not like them from first sight. With them were two state troopers carrying M-4’s. They were clean also but their uniforms were dirty. “We have not given anyone permission to leave here and that includes you,” she told Bruce.
“Listen bitch, I don’t follow orders from you and if you try to stop me, you’ll die,” Bruce told her and one of the troopers moved his hands on his rifle. “Move another inch and I’ll give you a one way ticket to hell, free of charge,” Bruce told the officer and all the survivors watched.
“You can’t threaten them. I am district judge Carla Owens and this is Congressman Mitch Tanner,” Carla said pointing at the man beside her.
“I don’t care if you’re Donald and Daffy duck. If he moves anymore you will be the first to die. We leave in two minutes,” Bruce told her in an emotionless tone as the other survivors grabbed what little they had.
“We are in charge here Mr. Williams, not you. You will do what we say,” Mitch said finally speaking.
“I wouldn’t follow you out of a burning building. If you want to stay that’s fine but if you try to stop anyone from leaving your day will go to shit fast boy,” Bruce told Mitch flipping his selector switch to auto on his SCAR.
“We’re ready,” Bill came up and told Bruce. Bruce studied the group, he saw five soldiers in the group with M-4s, besides Bill and the state troopers they were the only ones armed. None of the other people had guns, a few had bats and one even held a sword.
“Soldiers spread out in the line of people and don’t fire unless we are gettin’ overrun. My team will cover us as we move, all of our weapons are suppressed. If you shoot we will die. There is a mob of several thousand on the other side of town. They’re spread out looking for you. We have a UAV up and can see them moving around. No talking or crying, keep in single file, one arm length from the person in front of you. We have five miles to go to get to our rides,” Bruce told everyone seeing relief on their faces. Bruce turned to Carla and Mitch who were talking. Mitch turned to the group.
“Do what he says for now,” Mitch told everyone.
Bruce did not give a shit he wanted out of here. He looked at the two state troopers. “Hey dumb and dumber that goes for you too. Don’t fire your weapons, if you do you’ll be shot. I’ll shot ya in the legs just so the
blues can get you,” Bruce told the troopers and he could see anger wash over their faces.
“They were assigned as our bodyguards by the governor and you will address them with respect,” Carla told Bruce.
“That is strike two bitch if you tell me to do something again you’ll spit teeth. No one is to shoot except my team,” Bruce told her.
“Silencers are illegal and I will make sure you are punished later,” Carla promised Bruce.
“Mine aren’t, well some of them aren’t,” Bruce replied heading to the door. Bruce called Debbie over the radio and told her to lead the group to the vehicles. Danny and Jake would flank the group, he and Buffy would cover the rear. It took ninety minutes to reach the vehicles because they had to go slow for the survivors. Just before they reached the vehicles, Bruce called his team over the radio telling them they were going to disarm the state troopers at the vehicles then laid out his plan. Bruce told Matt and Conner to put the women and kids in the Strykers and the RG. Then put the rest in the duce and half and trailer. Bruce received affirmative from everyone.
When Bruce reached the vehicles, Carla and Mitch were telling everyone they were riding in the RG with their escorts. Bruce yelled, “Now,” and suddenly the troopers, the judge and congressman were looking down gun barrels.
“If you move you’ll die,” Bruce told them. “Now slowly raise your hands,” he told them. They all raised their hands. Bruce took the M-4s from the troopers and turned to Bill. “You know how to run one of these?” Bruce asked Bill.
“Seven years Atlanta SWAT, I should,” Bill replied as Bruce threw him one M-4 and handing the other to one of the soldiers. Then Bruce took the pistols out of their belts and back up’s off their ankles. Then he looked at the troopers.
“When I trust you, then you’ll get them back. If you are seen with a firearm until then you will be shot. Now get in the trailer or stay here I don’t care,” Bruce told the troopers. “Let’s move out,” he told his team. It was 3:30 when they got back to the farm.
Blue Plague Survival Page 17