Blue Plague Survival

by Watson, Thomas A

  “Mike, where’re the patrols?” Bruce whispered.

  “One is heading for you now, following the fence and water’s edge,” Mike told him.

  “Steve you take right, I’ll take left. I fire first,” Bruce said as he raised his pistol up.

  It took the guards several minutes to make it to them and Bruce rested his site on the head of the guard on the left. Bruce squeezed the trigger when the guards were ten yards away followed a split second by Steve. The guards dropped to the ground like their strings had been cut.

  “Debbie, did you hear that,” Bruce called on the radio. Debbie was a hundred yards from him.

  “Hear what?” Debbie asked answering Bruce’s question.

  “Mama one, patrol headed your way,” Mike called out.

  Several minutes later Mike was on the radio, “Nice shot guys. Why didn’t you wait for them to get closer?”

  “I’m ready to hit these fuckers,” Debbie growled. Bruce smiled, Debbie was on the wave.

  “Where is the third patrol Mike?” Bruce asked.

  “Just sittin’ behind cabin number three smoking,” Mike said making Bruce smile, cabin three was on his side.

  “Everyone hold, I have’em,” Bruce said and he ran up behind cabin nine. He worked his way up to cabin five and stopped. There was roughly thirty yards between cabins and that was a long shot or a long run. What the hell, let’s walk, Bruce thought.

  Casually, Bruce stepped out holding his pistol behind his leg and walked towards the two guards. The guards noticed him at twenty yards and called out to him in quiet voices. Bruce just waved with his left hand and the guards started smoking again. When Bruce was five feet away he raised his pistol and shot each one in the head. Then he headed back to the rally point for Steve and Buffy.

  “What the hell was that Bruce? Why did you just walk up to them and shoot ‘em? You can do that from a distance. You do have a gun and it shoots over a distance,” Mike informed him.

  “Thought I knew one of them and he owed me some money. I was gonna get it before I shot’em, but it wasn’t him,” Bruce told Mike.

  “Oh, well that’s ok then,” Mike replied with understanding. “Are you going to execute the mission early? It’s not even 0300 yet,” Mike asked.

  “I sure as hell ain’t going to wait. It’s not my fault Debbie beat the kids making them row fast throwing off my time table. They just have to die sooner,” Bruce replied, almost back to his team.

  “Tell her not to drive the kids that hard, that’s our job. Go ahead and kill the bad guys early then,” Mike called back.

  Bruce rejoined Steve and Buffy then radioed Jake, “Jake do you and Matt have shots at the guards on the fence?”

  “Yep we have all six,” Jake responded.

  “What is the distance?” Bruce asked.

  “The closest is 380 yards and the furthest is 420 yards,” Jake replied.

  “Take’em,” Bruce told him. The words were barely out of his mouth when Bruce faintly heard the first cough of two rifles. The coughs were followed by successive shots in rapid successions.

  Jake called over the radio, “All down.”

  “Team two let’s move,” Bruce called over the radio.

  Team one moved along the north side placing charges while team two moved along the south. They placed the charges along the hall then moved toward the cabins. Most of the cabins had the doors and windows cracked open which made the teams jobs a lot easier. In twenty minutes the teams were pulling back to their rally points.

  Mike called out, “One coming out of cabin five.”

  Followed by Matt calling out, “He’s down.”

  The teams reached the rally point and Bruce pulled out the remote detonator. Then he called out over the radio, “Get low, cover your head and ears this is going to be loud.” Bruce laid down and flipped the switch setting off almost two hundred pounds of C-4 spread out among the cabins.

  The charges went off together as one in a thunderous ‘ka-boom.’ Then the shock wave hit him pushing the air out of his lungs. Trying to get air in his lungs, Bruce felt a sharp pain in his left shoulder as debris landed around them. Bruce shook his head and looked at the area as the dust started to clear. The buildings with the charges were all collapsed and cabin five was missing a door and all its windows. Cabins nine and ten were intact but the windows were gone.

  Bruce called out, “Sweep the area. Get the hostages to stay down but don’t risk yourself.”

  Bruce stood up and started to lift up his weapon when pain in his left shoulder sent him to his knees. Looking down were the pain was coming from, Bruce saw a six inch piece of wood sticking out of the top of his shoulder. Reaching over, he felt the wound. The piece had hit him in the deltoid and Bruce could feel the other end where it had come out the back of his arm, right above the triceps. It felt like it missed the joint but it still hurt like hell. When he tried to move his arm, he wanted to puke, not to mention the end stick would hit his face.

  “Steve, come here,” Bruce told Steve. Steve crept over to his Dad.

  “Break off the end but don’t pull it out,” Bruce told him.

  “Let me pull it out,” Steve cried out looking at the chunk of wood sticking out of his Dad.

  “I’ll bleed to death, dumbass. What’s left behind in the muscle will help control the bleeding, now break it off,” Bruce told Steve. Steve grabbed the shard of wood applying pressure to the end sticking out of Bruce’s shoulder sending stars in Bruce’s vision as Steve tried to break it off.

  “It’s a fucking stick. You can’t break a fucking stick?” Bruce yelled at him.

  “This is a tough fucking stick,” Steve snapped back just as the six inch shaft sticking out of Bruce’s shoulder broke off. Steve looked at Bruce, “Tiddy baby,” Steve said as he turned toward the cabins feeling sick and he did not want his dad to see him puke.

  “You’re not going to kiss it and make it better?” Bruce asked following him the throbbing in his shoulder almost making him pass out. Steve gave him the finger without turning around, still trying not to throw up. “I’m your Daddy boy,” Bruce called after him.

  “Then quit actin’ like a bitch,” Steve called back making Bruce laugh.

  Team one advanced to cabin nine to get the hostages as a man came out dragging a teenage girl by the hair. Bruce flipped his SCAR to auto fixing to send a wave of hate toward the two when the man’s upper torso just vanished. The arm was still holding the girl’s hair and the lower torso from the belly button down were still standing then slowly fell back. A loud boom rolled toward Bruce from behind him. Another man came running out and his upper body vanished but the lower torso actually made another step before falling.

  “What the fuck are you two shootin’ them with? Artillery?” Bruce called out over the radio to Matt and Jake.

  “My present,” Jake replied as Bruce heard two more loud shots come from the fifty cal sniper rifle. Bruce not seeing anyone disappear figured Jake was taking out targets elsewhere.

  “And you said I cheat,” Bruce replied.

  “Hey you make your own rules, so that means I can too,” Jake replied over the radio and Bruce heard another loud report.

  Bruce’s team had advanced to the cabin with the hostages. Steve took right and Buffy took left both firing short burst as they entered. Bruce was fixing to tell them they only had to shoot the hostages if the enemy was close, not just blow them away.

  “Two down,” Steve reported.

  Followed by Buffy reporting, “One down” as Bruce came in the cabin. Bruce saw naked women and kids staggering around the long cabin. Several had cuts and were shaking. They all turned their heads toward Bruce as he walked in.

  Bruce yelled out, “Get in a line, we’re rescuing you. We have pissed your host off big time so please do what we ask so we can get the hell outa here. Now follow my daughter, she’ll stay with you to protect you while I talk to your host about your abysmal treatment.” The group just looked at Bruce like he was insane th
en Bruce added, “Unless of course you want to stay here.”

  As one, the group formed lines between the rows of bunks. “Buffy you take lead and get them to our rally. Steve you watch our ass,” Bruce yelled as Buffy grabbed the first woman in line pulling her to follow. Bruce flanked the group as he heard several loud shots from Jake. Then Bruce heard full auto suppressed fire behind him. Turning around to help Steve, Bruce saw two figures fall and three more behind them disappear as he heard three loud successive shots.

  “Jake, that’s fuckin’ cheating now, at least let me shoot one every now and then,” Bruce yelled over the radio.

  “Shut up Dad. This is fun,” Jake called back as Bruce heard a shotgun blast to his left. Bruce dropped back down as he turned toward the shot.

  Bruce saw a man wearing only blue jeans aiming and firing a shot gun at the island Matt and Jake where on. ‘You are a dumbass,’ thought Bruce as he raised up his rifle ignoring the pain in his shoulder. Bruce shook his head thinking, ‘you are shooting at snipers one hundred and fifty yards away with a shot gun.’ The shot gunner’s right thigh just vanished causing him to fall over screaming and dropping his mighty magical shotgun. He really thought he could hit someone a hundred and fifty yards away with his magical shotgun, Bruce thought as the man grabbed the stump that remained of his right leg.

  Bruce stood up ‘this just had to be addressed’ as he strolled over to the screaming man. Bruce stopped unbuttoned his fly and pissed in the screaming man’s face as the teams continued taking down stragglers. Bruce buttoned up and ran back to his team leaving the screaming man as the screams became softer. His sleeve was soaked in blood but the wound was clotting off as Bruce looked down at his shoulder. “I have business to attend to, you better keep working,” Bruce told his shoulder.

  Mike called over the radio, “The group on the road is comin’ back. They’re in four trucks.”

  Bruce called over the radio, “Team two take south, Buffy stay with the hostages. Steve, we have north. Conner and Steve use the SAW’s. They will probably ram the gate and try to stay mobile so take that away fast. Wait until the vehicles are inside the fence before you engage.”

  Bruce kneeled down at the corner of the remains of cabin one hearing the trucks approaching. The gate was about fifty yards away and looked pretty impressive to Bruce. It was a chain link gate that ran on tracks to slide open but there was a lot of metal plates attached to it. Making a rough guess, Bruce was putting the weight at over half a ton. Surely they are not that stupid, Bruce thought hearing engine’s roaring toward them.

  The first truck hit the gate at seventy miles per hour and did manage to knock it down but the truck flipped forward catapulting the people in the bed of the truck thru the air. Bruce watched in amazement as one flew toward him and was flapping his arms like he was trying to fly. The man hit fifteen feet in front of Bruce feet first. Fascinated, Bruce watched as the six foot man shrank to four foot as the bones in his legs shattered in hundreds of pieces. “Cool,” Bruce said out loud as he shot the new dwarf in the chest then swung his rifle toward the gate, still ignoring his shoulder.

  When the second truck sped past the downed gate, Bruce sent a 40mm grenade thru the front window. The grenade exploded in the cab killing the occupants in the cab. The steering wheel cut to the left sending the truck into a roll toward team two stopping ten yards from them.

  Bruce reloaded the M-203 as the third truck sped in and was greeted with a rain of full auto fire. The two SAW’s racked the front compartment with tracers arcing off into the night. Truck number three rammed into truck number two sending the passengers in the back over the cab. Debbie actually had to drop down as one sailed over her.

  Truck number four had slowed down to forty as it entered the gate and two people jumped out of the back breaking several bones in the process. ‘These guys have watched too much TV’ Bruce thought as he fired the 40mm hitting the front windshield and the round exploded in the cab. The truck coasted toward them as it was raked with gun fire.

  Bruce stood up to kill the wounded and heard groaning from the new dwarf. The man was holding his chest where Bruce shot him. “You’re one tough mother fucker,” Bruce told the man as he shot dwarf in the face.

  While the teams finished off the wounded, Mike called out, “You have blues coming.”

  “How many?” Bruce asked shooting wounded gang members.

  “A lot, the guards report that they heard the explosion here very well and we are over thirty miles away,” Mike told Bruce.

  Bruce looked at the destroyed gate. Well those fuckers might have killed us anyway’ Bruce thought. “How long do we have?” Bruce asked.

  “Ten maybe fifteen minutes until the first arrive but the UAV is up to three thousand feet and there are a shitload headed to you,” Mike told him.

  “Jake and Matt get over here and see if you can get some of those party barges started. If you can’t we are going to have to paddle them across the lake. Buffy get me a count of hostages we have to give a ride out of here. Team two, watch the front gate Steve you help them,” Bruce called over the radio as he ran to the dock.

  Reaching the dock, Bruce saw three party barges, two over twenty feet. Bruce ran to the closest big one and did not see the keys so he ran to the other and it did not have keys either. Bruce had never hotwired a boat but he was fixing to try. Looking at the end of the dock, he saw team three running toward him.

  “We’re going to have to hotwire them,” Bruce told them as they came closer.

  “No we won’t dad, you can start them with a thin bladed knife,” Jake told Bruce.

  Bruce knowing better than to doubt Jake replied, “Well do it then. I really don’t want to be here when the blues get here.”

  Matt and Jake each went to a boat and went to work as Bruce called Buffy, “Buffy how many and where are you?”

  “Fifty-two Daddy and I’m at Mama’s rally point,” Buffy replied.

  “Grab the paddles out of mama’s boat and bring that group here and put them on the boat Jake is on. I’m getting the other group,” Bruce told her running toward his rally point. Bruce ran to the raft grabbing the paddles then ran to the hostages.

  “Stay in a single file and follow me. We have infected coming and have to leave fast,” Bruce told them and headed back to the dock with the hostages in tow.

  “Debbie, get everyone back here to the dock we are leaving,” Bruce called over the radio.

  “Debbie, move your ass! The closest group is less than a mile away!” Mike screamed over the radio.

  As Bruce neared the dock he could see the group Buffy had gotten filing on the party barge. The last of the group was on the boat as Bruce hit the dock leading his group to the other barge. Stopping and pointing at the barge, Bruce told the hostages to jump on, spread out and leave Matt alone.

  Bruce headed back to the other barge pulling out his machete. He cut the lines and pushed the boat out into the marina. Bruce turned toward the camp and could see four figures running toward him.

  Mike radioed, “The first group of blues just entered the gate, you really need to move.” The four took energy from Mike’s words leaning toward the boat running.

  Bruce looked at Jake’s boat and it had drifted out into the marina. The four hit the dock in a dead run and Bruce pointed at the barge as they jumped on. Bruce heard the engine on Jake’s boat start to fire up causing several roars to erupt from the camp. Cutting the lines, Bruce pushed the boat with everything he could muster sending it away from the dock. His shoulder was screaming in protest with the effort. Bruce jumped across the widening gap landing on the boat as it drifted out.

  Bruce dropped his machete on the deck and raised his rifle up as the first of the blues headed toward the dock. Bruce started to squeeze the trigger, firing burst off. Bruce dropped eight as he ejected the empty magazine slamming in another one as the first blue hit the dock. The party barge had only drifted back twenty feet from the dock and was slowing down as Bruce sighted in on the
lead blue firing a burst.

  Bruce emptied the magazine and dropped the SCAR to hang from its sling as he pulled his pistol out. A blue hit the end of the dock and leapt toward the boat roaring in midair. Bruce started squeezing the trigger hitting the flying target in the chest, neck and finally the head as the blue hit the front of the boat and slid into the water.

  “He tried to fly,” Mike said over the radio.

  “If they start flyin’, I’m givin’ the fuck up,” Bruce replied back over the radio.

  “Yeah, like you could do that,” Debbie said from behind him.

  Steve stepped up to Bruce’s right and opened up with the SAW and Danny opened up with her Galil from his left side. The weapons did have suppressors but it still scared the shit out of Bruce as Matt got the engine to fire up. Matt put the boat in reverse and created some distance then put it in forward pulling out of the Marina.

  “Keep it slow men, the lake is low and a lot of logs are out there. I really don’t want to swim across,” Bruce told them over the radio.

  “You’re turning into a sissy in your old age Dad,” Jake said over the radio.

  “Yeah, he would’ve made us swim the lake for this assault in his younger years,” Steve said over the radio standing beside Bruce.

  “You two can still swim if you keep it up,” Bruce said over the radio turning toward Steve.

  “What’s that Dad? You’re breaking up real bad,” Jake called over the radio as Steve headed to the back of the barge smiling.

  Bruce smiled as he watched Steve walk off then heard suppressed shots from the front. Turning around, Bruce saw Danny leaning over the side aiming back toward the dock. Bruce looked at the dock and saw blues dropping with Danny’s shots. When her mag ran dry she stood up replacing it as Bruce looked at her. Danny had a small grin and her eyes were filled with ecstasy, her breathing was shallow and steady. Bruce smiled at her as the wave rushed through Danny’s system.