“Copy, see what I can do,” Mike told him.
The convoy drove as fast as they could on the little roads, which for big trucks was not very fast. It was 1630 when they arrived at the farm. Bruce called to have the gate open then told the truck drivers to take it easy and not hit the fence.
Pulling around to the back, he stopped in front of the barn. Bruce had only taken out one flower bed. Parking the truck, Bruce got out followed by Buffy as Mike came running up to him and the other trucks pulled in very slow.
Mike looked at the trucks carrying the heavy equipment and lumber. Then he turned to Bruce, “Nice work brother. I have twelve plus the family still here that’s sixteen total,” Mike told him as Nancy and Debbie walked up.
“Steve, go to the shop and grab a pair of bolt cutters and bring them,” Bruce called over the radio.
“What’s the hurry Bruce?” Nancy asked.
“The truck stop on highway one has over sixty semi’s that we’re bringing here,” Bruce told her then called the fire team and the two supply drivers to him.
“It’s kind of late now, let’s just get them tomorrow,” Mike told him.
“We had contact there. Those trucks need to be here today. There will be no supply run tomorrow, maybe a patrol but no supply run. Get those drivers over here,” Bruce told Mike then turned to Conner.
“Get six people that can drive the Strykers and the RG. That is what we are going to use to ferry us back and forth. You have eight minutes because we leave in ten,” Bruce told him then turned to the group gathered around him.
“Look, I know some of you haven’t been trained yet, but I need you. There’s a truck stop twenty miles from here with over sixty trucks that I want here. I do not know what’s in them and we are only taking the ones that are loaded. In a quick glance I saw nine tanker trucks and let’s pray they hold fuel. Those not trained will stay in the armored vehicles until your truck is ready. Once you’re in your truck you will lock the door and not open it until we’re back here. If you don’t want to go, I’ll understand. I wouldn’t ask but we need those supplies and trucks.” Bruce told them hoping all of them would go. A man in the front asked.
“When do we leave?” he asked.
Bruce looked at his watch, “Six minutes.”
“Let’s go then,” he said, as Mike spoke up.
“We don’t have room for that many trucks here Bruce,” Mike informed him.
“I know that Mike. We are going to park them past the house on the dead end road. Turn them around at the dead end and park them on the side of the road,” Bruce told Mike as the Strykers and RG pulled up.
“Bruce, it’s only a mile to the dead end,” Mike told him.
Bruce looked at Mike, wanting to strangle him, “Mike, you can fit over a hundred semi’s in a mile.”
Mike just huffed at Bruce. Ignoring Mike, Bruce started pointing at people then to vehicles for them to get into. Bruce and Buffy were the last ones in as Bruce told the driver to go. On the way to the truck stop Bruce called out the plan.
“When we get there, I want the Strykers on the north and south. Debbie and David will take the east. Nancy and Mary will take the west. Mike, Jake, Steve and Matt will start opening trucks and hotwire them. Start on the tankers and the last truck with lumber. Danny, Buffy and I will start checking the trailers. If the trailer has something in it, we take it. We can take twenty two in a trip. Keep on your toes and call out contact’s. Conner, you’ll escort each driver to their truck any questions?” Bruce asked finishing his briefing. Nobody asked anything. Afraid nobody heard him, he asked if everyone understood and everyone said they did.
Pulling into the truck stop everyone went to the task they were responsible for. The convoy was pulling out in less than thirty minutes heading home. Dropping off the trucks at the end of the road they loaded up and did it again.
The third time they pulled into the truck stop they only had eighteen more trucks to get. The others were empty. As the perimeter team moved in position, the blues hit them hard.
The calls came out, “Contact east,”” Contact south,” “Contact north,” “Contact west.” Bruce divided up his hotwire team to each post. Then Bruce called on the radio to those in contact.
“I need numbers and direction,” Bruce yelled over the radio. He needed to know where to send back up, which was only him and Buffy.
“North clear now, seven down,” reported one of the Strykers.
“West clear, nine down,” Nancy reported.
“South, too many to fucking count,” Conner yelled over the radio as he fired at the wave of blues coming at him.
“East is the same,” Debbie called.
“Hot wire team, southeast,” Bruce yelled over the radio as he took off.
Reaching the southeast, Bruce saw blues coming out of the store and the tree line behind it. Bringing his rifle to his shoulder, Bruce started firing on full auto into their legs, trying to get some breathing room. When his bolt locked back, he launched a 40mm grenade toward the doors of the store, where the blues were still pouring out. The grenade exploded sending shrapnel into their blues legs, those in the front fell causing those behind to trip over them.
Slamming another magazine in, Bruce started firing burst at the blues heads. The fifty cal on top of the Stryker at the south did not have a suppressor. The noise it was making hurt his ear without the radio bud, but, Bruce just kept aiming and firing. Ejecting an empty magazine, Bruce slammed in his sixth and brought his rifle up. Not seeing any blues running toward him, he saw some crawling toward him and even some trying to crawl away from him. Lining up his scope, Bruce started shooting the crawlers. When Bruce put in his tenth magazine he couldn’t see movement anywhere.
Bruce keyed his radio, “Report off.” North, east, west and south reported clear. Bruce glanced at his watch. The attack had not even lasted four minutes. Keying his radio Bruce said, “My team, get those trucks started. I want to leave this store. The prices are ridiculous.” Then Bruce got several other reasons from the family to find another store, that made him smile.
Mike came back, “Yeah, the sodas are flat.”
“The bathroom was filthy,” Danny radioed back.
“There were no candy bars,” Mary whined over the radio.
“There were not even any video games,” Jake cried out over the radio.
“They don’t even rent videos,” Matt chimed in.
Debbie called out, “Well, the boy at the checkout was kinda cute.”
“He was probably gay Debbie, to be that cute,” Nancy replied over the radio as Bruce started hearing trucks start up behind him.
Jogging around the area, Bruce tried to get a count. It looked like at least sixty to seventy blues had come out of the store. The store had been cleared, so the blues had moved in between pickups. To the south, the bodies were torn apart by the big 50 but they covered the forty yards to the wood line. Bruce guessed the number was around three hundred and fifty blues. Looking at the brass casings on the ground, Bruce knew the ammo they had used was enormous for that number.
The blues had waited for them to stop and get out. Then they launched a four point attack. The only way they could do that was if they had watched them take the other trucks. Bruce was not sure if the south would have held without the 50 cal on the Stryker. He did not even want to think if they had used similar numbers on all fronts. Mike called on the radio that all the trucks were started.
Conner escorted the drivers and the convoy was soon on the road. Bruce called on the radio for an ammo expended count. After the last person reported he lowered his head. It had taken almost nine thousand rounds to take out four hundred attackers. By military standards, that was great but they did not have the reserves for that kind of exchange ratio. In the past engagements, the ratio was three rounds for one kill. Now it was over twenty for one kill.
The group pulled back into the farm after parking the semi-trucks. Bruce got out of the RG-33L thinking as Mike walked up to him
. “What was the hurry to get home? I didn’t even grab a beer at the store,” Mike grinned.
“All they had was cheap beer. Don’t forget, its movie night,” Bruce informed him.
“Well, it better be a good one. I want to at least see some boobies,” Mike told him.
“We can’t watch that kind of movie, too many kids. Plus if I see boobies, it’ll give me false hope of gettin’ some and that’s kind of hard with so many kids in that bed,” Bruce told him.
“Well, let’s watch a cartoon and at least laugh,” Mike offered.
“Deal brother, lets go,” Bruce said heading to the house with Mike and Buffy beside him.
Chapter 16
Sitting up in bed, Bruce glared at PJ. He wouldn’t quit hitting Bruce with his empty bottle when he tried to go back to sleep. Disgusted, Bruce looked at the clock reading 0640. Well it’s Sunday and I still didn’t get to sleep late, he thought getting out of bed irritated. Bruce reached back picking up PJ.
“You’re supposed to wake Mama up, not Daddy, PJ,” Bruce instructed him.
“I heard that,” Debbie said, her face buried in a pillow.
“That was PJ talking, baby. We’re going to take a shower,” Bruce said moving to the bathroom fearing the wrath of Debbie.
After he and PJ showered, Bruce went to the closet and set PJ on the floor. Bruce put on clean ACU’s, missing his tiger stripe BDU’s. Almost everyone in the clan had this pattern so the family would wear this for now. Grabbing another tactical vest, Bruce walked out of the closet leaving PJ. PJ yelled from the closet like, ‘you forgot me butthead’.
Bruce turned around telling PJ, “You can move on your own. Hell, you crawl all over me every night.” PJ let out another yell. Thereby letting Bruce know, he meant business.
“I’m not kidding PJ. Come on out or I’ll close the door and leave you in there all day. I don’t think anyone would even miss you,” Bruce predicted, walking over to the dresser. Taking equipment from his old vest, Bruce loaded his new vest. The other one needed cleaning bad, he was fairly certain the blues could smell it. PJ crawled out of the closet stopping at the end of the bed, sat up on his knees and started blowing raspberries.
“I’m serious. I don’t think anyone would even miss ya,” Bruce said looking at him. PJ squealed and clapped his hands.
“Well, maybe in a few hours someone would start to look for ya,” Bruce told PJ. PJ laughed then crawled to Bruce babbling. Reaching Bruce, PJ grabbed his pants leg and started pulling on it as he babbled.
“You know I wouldn’t leave you in a closet. Even though, sometimes I want to flush you down the toilet,” Bruce told him. PJ started laughing. “You’re a mess,” Bruce said reaching down picking up PJ. With PJ in his arms, Bruce started tickling him, making him laugh and squeal. Feeling someone looking at him, Bruce glanced at the bed. The twins and Debbie were watching him and smiling. “What? I’m torturing him into submission,” Bruce told them with a serious face, but PJ was still laughing.
“OH, you scare me so much,” Debbie said as she faked a frightened expression.
Bruce tucked PJ under his arm like a football. This only make PJ laugh more. “You will fear me woman,” Bruce told Debbie.
“Yeah, like that’ll happen,” Debbie replied sarcastically.
Putting PJ on the floor, Bruce dove on the bed and started tickling Debbie. The twins watched Bruce tickle Debbie and they laughed at Debbie’s expense. Swiftly, Bruce reached out grabbing both of them and started tickling them. The little girls were just squealing with laughter with arms and legs flailing about. Emily tried to escape but Bruce grabbed her by the ankle. Pulling her back he made her pay for that. Then Bruce pinned all three down between his legs. Hearing yelling from the floor, Bruce reached over the side of bed and picked up PJ. PJ had been sitting on the floor yelling, “Ahh” over and over like ‘hey I want some too’.
“Now, I have you all and you will all suffer the tickle torture,” Bruce stated as he slowly lowered his hands to them.
Trying to catch her breath, Debbie spoke in broken words, “Please- quit- I- have- to pee.”
“Tickle torture does not care about pee,” Bruce informed her, as he started tickling all of them.
Debbie started kicking her legs laughing and screaming. She tried to grab Bruce’s hand but he kept moving all over to different spots on her body. She kept crying out, “You are going to make me pee,” while she was laughing. The twins had tears running down their face, they were laughing so hard. After five minutes of pure laughter. Bruce stopped and got off the bed. PJ was at the head of the bed bouncing up and down sitting on his knees. Yelling and clapping like he was saying, ‘that was great, do it again.’
Bruce turned to the dresser to get his vest and go down stairs when he heard the twins say in unison, “More Daddy.” Bruce stopped in his tracks. They had never called him Daddy. Bruce slowly turned around.
“You want more tickle torture?” Bruce asked them.
“YES Daddy,” they squealed together.
“They do Bruce, I don’t. I have to pee. Please Bruce, not again,” Debbie pleaded trying to catch her breath. Squeezing her legs together, Debbie scooted to the edge of the bed.
“Does Mommy want tickle torture too?” Bruce asked the girls.
“Get Mommy too,” they yelled together.
Bruce ran back to the bed just as Debbie had reached the edge. He grabbed her, pushing her back in the bed. Pinning them all between his legs again, Bruce started tickling, all over again. There were actual screams this time with the laughter. Except for PJ, each of them begged Bruce to stop with Debbie also screaming she had to pee. PJ was just laughing; to him this was the best thing ever. Bruce looked at Debbie telling her, “If you had to pee you wouldn’t be laughing.”
In between the tickles and trying to catch her breath she told him in broken words, “If- you- would-stop- I would stop laughing.” Bruce told her he didn’t believe her and continued tickling all of them.
“Stop it Daddy,” Bruce heard behind him.
Bruce stopped all of sudden and turned to the door. The twins and Debbie didn’t care why he stopped. They just tried to breathe during the reprieve. PJ sat up looking for more. Standing in the door was Danny and Buffy, both wearing his t-shirts and boxers. Behind them were Mike and Nancy. “You two wear my clothes and try to stop me? I am the tickle torture king,” Bruce cried out with a mocking evil laugh. Then he started tickling Debbie, the twins and PJ again.
Debbie screamed out, laughing, “Make him stop! I have to pee!”
Buffy yelled, “We’ll save you mama.” Running to the bed, Danny and Buffy both jumped on Bruce trying to pull him off.
Letting go of the twins and Debbie, Bruce pinned Danny and Buffy tickling them, until they were having trouble breathing. The twins and Debbie just laid there trying to breathe, thankful for another reprieve. PJ crawled over to get more. When one of the three would try to move away, Bruce would reach over with one hand and tickle them until they lost their breath.
Standing in the door laughing at the sight, Mike turned to Nancy, “Ten bucks Bruce doesn’t stop until Debbie pees.”
“If you ever do that to me again, I’ll kick your ass,” Nancy warned watching Debbie begging Bruce to let her pee.
Suddenly, Mike grabbed Nancy dragging her to the foot of Bruce’s bed and forced her to the floor. Then Mike started tickling her making Nancy scream out laughing, begging for him to stop. The other kids came down the hall hearing the laughing and screaming. Seeing what was going on, they ran to try to help their mothers. It was a valiant effort, but doomed to failure. They only brought fresh bodies to be tickled.
Steve just stood in the door with Tonya. With disappointment on her face, Tonya looked at him asking, “Aren’t you going to help your poor Mama?”
Steve looked at her in shock, “Are you insane girl? That’s tickle torture. Dad doesn’t stop until someone pees on themselves.”
“That’s your Mama and she needs to pee. Hel
p her,” Tonya said, pushing Steve in the room.
Steve turned around yelling, “You have never had tickle torture.” Grabbing Tonya, Steve forced her to the floor tickling her until Tonya too, screamed along with Debbie, that she had to pee. And so the tickle torture was passed on to another couple and another generation.
After twenty solid minutes of laughter, everyone stopped almost at the same time, collapsing and breathing hard. If anyone would have come in the room, they would have sworn that every person in there had run a marathon because all the heavy breathing and sweat pouring off the bodies.
Bruce was lying beside Debbie. The twins dragged their numb bodies and sore bellies from laughing so hard across the bed. Each movement was a test of will, but they crawled inch by inch until they were both lying on Bruce’s chest. Bruce looked down at Sherry with Emily beside her. Looking in his eyes, Sherry informed him as she gasped for air, “That was great.” Then her head collapsed on his chest followed by Emily’s.
After several minutes Debbie announced, with great urgency in her voice, “Bruce, carry me to the bathroom, now. I’m not kidding. Please baby, now, hurry.”
Bruce started to get up when he heard Nancy from the floor at the foot of his bed, “You owe me ten dollars butt head.”
“Check her panties,” Mike said as Bruce picked up Debbie who was squeezing her legs together tight.
“Shut up Mike,” Debbie yelled at him causing Bruce to laugh with sore muscles.
“Bruce, I’m serious. I don’t want to give Nancy my last ten bucks. Help me out,” Mike pleaded trying to catch his breath.
Bruce carried Debbie to the bathroom and stood her in front of the toilet. Bruce lifted the lid and before she sat down, Debbie started peeing. “Nancy, you owe Mike ten bucks,” Bruce yelled out the door. It caused everyone to laugh, even though they didn’t want to. Debbie slapped Bruce’s butt as he walked out of the bathroom.
Looking at the bed, Bruce noticed Jake gasping for air wondering when he came in. Then on the floor, he saw Mike and his whole family. Turning to the door, he saw Steve and Tonya. ‘How and when did all these people get in here’ Bruce wondered. Then Bruce figured it was one of those mysteries in life you never figure out.
Blue Plague Survival Page 23