“A,B,C,D-,” Bruce recited the alphabet as Mike dug out small pieces of wood and trash out of the wound. When Bruce had said the alphabet several dozen times, he started closing his eyes as he recited.
“Say them backwards now,” Carroll told him. Bruce looked at this mean evil woman who, he thought he liked, at one time.
Debbie slapped his hand, “Do it Bruce or I will get the switch from Marcus myself,” Debbie told him.
“Z,Y,X,W-,” Bruce struggled reciting backwards when he would mess up Carroll made him start over. Nancy brought the blood in she had taken from Steve and started running it in.
“Get some IV Benadryl and give him 25mg in case he tries to develop an allergic reaction. The IV bags of antibiotics are in the sink, in the bowel of water. They should be thawed out, hang all three and after that third bag of fluid is in, stop the fluids. I don’t want to over load him,” Mike told Nancy and Debbie as he started irrigating the wound. After the blood was in Bruce felt a lot better.
“Mike, I feel a lot better and Carroll can I please stop with the ABC’s backwards,” Bruce asked in a normal voice.
“Yes, Bruce ya can stop,” Carroll told him patting Bruce’s chest.
Mike finished the irrigation and dried Bruce’s shoulder off for the dressing. “Your heart rate is down and your blood pressure is much better. You were going into septic shock brother. A few more hours would have been too long,” Mike told him.
“Can I have some drugs then,” Bruce asked with a smile.
“Sure,” Mike said then turned to Nancy. “Get him some Tylenol.”
“I hate you,” Bruce told Mike then turned to Carroll.
“Did I kill your kittens or something? Because if I did, I will find you some more,” Bruce said.
Carroll rubbed Bruce’s shave head. “No, but you was needin’ ta listen and your poor little wife was too distraught to make ya, so I filled in for her,” Carroll told him then kissed Bruce on the head.
“Carroll, I really like you and probably love you but you scare the shit out of me. I have killed thousands of infected and hundreds of men but when you threaten me, I want to wet my pants,” Bruce told her.
“That’s ok Bruce, I love ya but you’re a rambunctious man and Debbie’s such a little woman,” Carroll told him kissing him on the head again. Bruce smiled a mischievous smile and looked at Mike out of the corner of his eyes. Mike saw it and slid his chair back.
Bruce turned to Carroll, “Carroll, Mike hasn’t been letting me eat much.”
Mike jumped out of his chair as Carroll pointed her finger at him. “Carroll he’s lying. I have no control over how much Bruce eats,” Mike told Carroll.
Carroll patted Bruce’s chest, “I’ll getcha somethin’ to eat Bruce don’t cha worry none.” Carroll told him heading to the refrigerator. Danny and Buffy went with her to help.
“Dude, that was cold,” Mike told him.
“You won’t give me drugs. You don’t get any tonight either,” Bruce told him.
“You get me in trouble and I don’t get lovin,” Mike said coming closer to Bruce and grabbed his head kissing Bruce on the mouth. Bruce raised his right arm to push Mike off. He felt better but was still real weak. Mike finally let Bruce go. Bruce rolled over spitting.
“Dude you licked my tonsils,” Bruce yelled out. Everyone in the house started laughing and someone opened the back door to see what was going on. Seeing Bruce awake they turned around to a patio full of people yelling Bruce was ok. Everyone, standing outside started cheering at the news.
Debbie hugged Bruce as he continued to spit out Mike’s slobber. “You asked for that one baby,” Debbie said.
“I feel like shit,” Bruce admitted.
“Come on, let’s go upstairs,” Debbie told him.
“I want to pee and some food. In that order,” Bruce said as Carroll walked over.
“I was gettin ready to fix ya somethin’ but a woman came in and sayin’ lunch was ready in the center. She said she’ll bring ya a plate,” Carroll said.
“Danny, go tell Millie I’m eating out there, after I pee. Carroll, you and Marcus eat with us?” Bruce asked trying to sit up and stopped. “What do you mean lunch? What time is it?” Bruce asked afraid to move his left arm to look at his watch.
“It’s almost 1400 baby,” Debbie told him. Not believing her he moved his left arm pain flooding his system and his watch was not even on his wrist.
“Your watch is in the sink,” Mike told him.
“It was just dawn,” Bruce said bewildered.
“Baby we have been working on you for over seven hours,” Debbie told him.
“It’s still Tuesday isn’t?” Bruce asked a little worried.
“Yes baby,” Debbie told him.
Bruce just stood up feeling light headed. Debbie unhooked his IV and led him down the hall to the bathroom and helped him use the bathroom. Then Debbie led him outside to throngs of people who started clapping and cheering seeing Bruce up and about.
Emily and Sherry screamed ‘Daddy’ running to him hugging his legs. Bruce slowly kneeled down and gave each a hug and kiss. Mike and Debbie helped him stand back up and Stephanie was standing in front of him holding PJ.
“Where have you been boy?” Bruce said to PJ who clapped his hands saying, “Dada, dada.”
“Well it’s about time,” Bruce said kissing PJ then kissing Stephanie.
The crowd moved with Bruce toward the center. Bruce went to his table that already had plates waiting on him. Bruce sat down in his chair and looked at Mike.
“Can I get the IV’s out?” Bruce asked.
“No, you will be getting IV antibiotics until Friday,” Mike told him.
“That’s three days,” Bruce said.
“Well, at least you can count,” Mike said taking a bite of food.
“Of course I can count but for some reason, I really hate the fucking alphabet right now,” Bruce said in disgust shaking his head. Everyone at the table started laughing. Debbie then filled Bruce in on what happened.
“Marcus, will you and your crew come down this Sunday for the briefing? I want to go over some plans,” Bruce asked trying to get food to his mouth but the IV in his right arm hurt when he tried to bend his arm. Debbie picked up Emily and sat down in her chair. Then Emily and Debbie took turns feeding Bruce. Then Sherry felt left out so she stood up in her chair to help.
Carroll laughed at the three feeding Bruce. “If you do what Mike and Debbie tell ya, we will come. We have seventy six peoples now. Can you feed that many?” Carroll asked.
Mike answered, “Carroll, we built this center to feed over two thousand at a time. With the group Bruce brought in we now have one hundred and eighty four. We can hold everyone.”
Millie came over and put a towel over Bruce’s chest and tied it behind his neck like a bib. “You scare me like that again and I’m findin’ a belt,” Millie said kissing the top of his head with tears in her eyes. Bruce just shook his head.
Carroll looked at Millie, “You over tha kitchen and you feed Bruce?” Carroll asked her.
“Yeah, the other women voted me head of tha kitchen,” Millie told her.
Carroll reached in her pocket pulling out a zip lock bag, “This be herbal tea my mama gave me the recipe for. It helps with tha blood poisoning. I’d give it ta Debbie but I thinks Bruce could whine his way out of drinkin’ it with her because, it doesn’t taste good. Two teaspoons to one glass of hot water let it sit for twenty minutes then filter out the leaves. Three glasses a day for four days,” Carroll said.
Millie grabbed the bag and headed to the kitchen. Debbie looked at Carroll, “I would’ve made him drink it,” Debbie told her.
“Debbie years ago, Marcus cut his hand. He whined somethin’ fierce and I quiet makin’ him drink it. We had to take’im to the hospital two days later. We havea soft spot for ’em so it’s better to let someone else be mean to ’em,” Carroll told her. Debbie nodded her head in agreement.
The group made small
talk and thirty minutes later Millie came back carrying a glass of tea and a flyswatter. “My granny made medicine tea likes this. She never taught anyone else cause she died suddenly. It do works, but it don’t taste good. Bruce, you’ll drink it,” Millie told him tapping the flyswatter on her leg.
Bruce just looked at her and laughed telling Debbie to give him a drink. Debbie picked up the glass and Bruce took a sip. Bruce could feel his toes curl up backwards as he yanked his head back from the glass. “Shit!” Bruce exclaimed wanting his tongue out of his mouth. Millie took a step toward him.
“Hold on woman. I’ll drink it just let me work up to it,” Bruce told her. Millie stopped moving toward Bruce. “I would rather lick a dead elephants butt. Debbie, just pour it down me,” Bruce told her. Debbie put her hand on the back of Bruce’s head so he couldn’t pull away and Bruce drank down the whole glass. When Debbie lowered the glass Bruce wanted to cough his testicles up on the table.
Once the taste subsided and his toes straightened out Bruce felt better and his shoulder had quit throbbing. Marcus looked at him. “It took me two hours to drink each glass. It did make me feel better but the taste was something awful,” Marcus told him.
“It’s not that bad,” Bruce told him smiling. Bruce felt drunk and happy as his head wobbled on his shoulders. “I want to go to bed. I can feel the rotation of the earth,” Bruce told Debbie grinning. Debbie looked at Mike.
“He can sleep. His next dose of antibiotics is at 1800,” Mike told Debbie as Bruce looked at him.
“Dude, there are two of you,” Bruce told Mike grinning.
“Carroll, do you have the recipe for that tea?” Mike asked her.
“Of course I do,” Carroll said.
“Will you show it to me, medicine is going to get short,” Mike told her.
“I’ll bring over Mama’s books Sunday,” Carroll promised.
“Alright let’s dance,” Bruce said trying to stand. Bruce waved his left hand around, “Look it works again.”
“Come on Bruce let’s get you upstairs,” Debbie told him trying to guide him.
Bruce staggered around, “Fuck it, I’ll sleep right here,” Bruce said pointing at the floor. Staggering over, “Nah, I’ll sleep here,” Bruce said pointing at the new area of floor. Then Bruce looked at Carroll, “Your Mama makes good shit,” Bruce told her giving her thumbs up, while trying to walk a straight line but not even coming close.
Jake, Steve, Buffy and Danny ran to help Debbie guide Bruce out. The twins went to help but Stephanie grabbed PJ and ran toward the door to grab the twins, keeping them out of the way. They managed to get Bruce to the bed and he just collapsed. The twins crawled into bed wanting to sleep with Daddy.
“Girls you can’t sleep with daddy tonight. Now go with Danny and Buffy and help them take care of PJ. Do that for Mama because PJ will want to lay down with Daddy too and he will keep him awake,” Debbie told the twins. Danny grabbed PJ before the twins could and led them out and everyone followed.
Bruce sat up looking at Debbie and Stephanie, “I can hear the solar winds,” Bruce told them and fell back.
“What the hell was in that tea?” Stephanie asked in amazement.
Debbie was wiping sweat off her face, “I have no idea but I want some. Stephanie, go down to the kitchen and get a big bowl so we can clean him up.”
Stephanie took off to the kitchen as Debbie untied Bruce’s boots. Stephanie was back before the first one was off. The two struggled to get Bruce undressed. Debbie fought the urge to just cut the damn things off but didn’t. These were his ‘tiger stripes’. After stripping Bruce they started washing him off.
Bruce opened his eyes and looked at his body. “Hey I’m naked,” Bruce told everyone.
“We know baby, we took your clothes off,” Debbie told him as she and Stephanie washed him off.
“Why aren’t you naked?” he asked Debbie.
“I will get naked later stud muffin,” Debbie told him as she held up Bruce’s leg so Stephanie could dry it.
“Stephanie, why aren’t you naked,” Bruce asked as he wiggled his fingers in front of his face in total fascination.
“I will get naked when Debbie does,” Stephanie said.
Debbie crawled on the bed and kissed Bruce on the lips. “Baby, I want you to close your eyes and count to twenty and when you get there we will be naked,” Debbie told him. Bruce closed his eyes and didn’t make it past five before he was snoring.
Debbie turned to Stephanie and asked, “You still want to be a part of this marriage?”
“Hell yes,” Stephanie said, her feelings hurt.
Debbie smiled saying, “You’ll do. You might need a little help, but you will do.”
Chapter 24
The week flew by. After the first morning when Millie brought Bruce breakfast to his room. Millie watched Bruce slam the tea making funny faces. At noon he did the same thing then Millie never even waited to see if Bruce drank it. Bruce was forced to stay in bed and he started throwing a fit until Debbie told him no more tea, then Bruce shut up.
He stayed in bed playing X-Box waiting on his tea. It was Friday evening when Bruce did not want to drink the tea anymore. Debbie almost let him skip it then decided to make him drink it. Saturday, Millie had to stay until he drank it down all three times. When Bruce finished the last glass, he told everyone what they could do with that damn tea, in very graphic detail. Millie just walked out smiling.
Sunday morning Bruce got out of bed at 0330 feeling better than he had in weeks. Looking at the bed Bruce saw Debbie, Stephanie, the twins, PJ and Angela curled up with Cade. Bruce sighed as he looked at Angela. She still cried herself to sleep with Debbie and Stephanie holding her and Cade.
Bruce walked in the closet grabbing some fatigues and a vest. Getting dressed he grabbed baby SCAR and headed downstairs to the kitchen. Fixing a pot of coffee, he poured a cup and headed outside. With a cloudless sky the stars and moon provided more than enough light for him to see the farm. He saw a group of people working on the barracks and the storage area. Bruce headed toward the barracks moving his left shoulder around. It hurt a lot but the pain was dull, not sharp.
Bruce walked inside the barracks. The rooms were done and the crew was painting the walls. Bruce walked upstairs and it too was done. The walls just needed paint. Bruce left the barracks and noticed another frame up for another barracks. Feeling out of the loop he walked to the storage area. The floor was laid out and ten people were putting up the steel beams for the roof. Looking at how big it was, Bruce was glad the girls had made them settle for eighty thousand square feet. It was huge. Be damned if he would tell them that though. Bruce walked down into the area to the work group.
“I thought we didn’t have enough concrete to lay the floor,” Bruce mentioned.
“We got the rest of the concrete Thursday,” one of them told Bruce. Bruce thanked them and walked out looking at the fence. A sloping earthen berm ran the length of the property. Bruce whistled in amazement. Bruce climbed to the top of the embankment and looked out to the area to the west. The heavy equipment was out there in front of a big ass hole.
“Hey Bruce,” he heard behind him. Bruce turned to see Paul waking up to him.
“What’s with the pit?” Bruce asked pointing to the hole outside the fence.
“It’s a surprise,” Paul told him.
“What are you doin’ up so early?” Bruce asked.
“I get up several times in the night to make sure the night crews are doing ok. I just let them go and get cleaned up. Father Thomas is givin’ a service today and I wanted them to be able to go if they wanted to,” Paul told him. Bruce nodded his head. “Come on I will show you around,” Paul said and led Bruce around the property.
The fence was almost complete. The bulldozer would dig the sloped ditch in front of the fence next week. The only weaknesses were the gates. They had walled off the gate on the back of the property so they had the south, east and west gates. Paul told Bruce they would park heavy
equipment in front of the east and west sides so they could not be rammed and Mike had put claymore mines on the road and at the front gate. They could be fired from the fort or mission control.
When they walked into the front, Bruce stopped, staring at the chicken house. “Paul, the chicken house grew,” Bruce said.
“Bruce, we have over four hundred chickens now with three hundred hatchlings,” Paul told him.
“Paul, I have only been out of the loop for less than a week,” Bruce said.
“Sorry Bruce, but Debbie and Stephanie wouldn’t let anyone talk to you. I tried to go in after Debbie left your room only to find Stephanie standing over you. Bruce, she threatened to shoot me in the leg and if I didn’t crawl out fast enough, she would shoot me in ‘My pee pee spot’ her words,” Paul informed him.
“That’s ok, show me what else,” Bruce replied with a sigh.
Paul showed him the rest of the improvements and they parted at 0600 and Bruce headed to the house to find everyone in the kitchen dressed and drinking coffee.
“You look good baby,” Debbie told him.
“I feel like a million bucks, not that it means a lot now,” Bruce said getting another cup of coffee and walking to his place at the table kissing Debbie as he walked by. Then he leaned over to kiss Stephanie. They both smiled at him as he sat down.
“Why are y’all dressed so early,” Bruce asked.
Mike answered, “Marcus and his clan will be here in a few minutes. We told them Father Thomas was giving a service and they asked if they could come over.”
As if on cue, the intercom went off, “The guests have arrived.”
Mike walked over to the intercom, “Let them in,” he told mission control.
“Hey Mike, I went to the shop and our friends are gone,” Bruce said referring to the gang members.
“Yeah, Paul let them go,” Mike told Bruce.
“He let them go?” Bruce asked in disbelief.
“Yep, he put ‘em in a wheel barrel and took them to the scrap pond and let them go. Those gators don’t really care if their food is yelling or not,” Mike told Bruce then added. “There are over a hundred gators in that pond now and we won’t even talk about the creek behind the property.”
Blue Plague Survival Page 40