Blue Plague Survival

by Watson, Thomas A

  Walking back into the bedroom Bruce found all three asleep. Bruce arranged the bodies so he could get in the bed. Bruce laid on his side looking at them, sighing he pulled all three close as he fell asleep.

  Chapter 29

  Marcus and Farmer’s Almanac were wrong about the cold front. It hit three days early on the twelfth. Bruce waited till the thirteenth. When he woke up to frost on the ground, he called a go. Bruce left the farm at 0800 after the twenty man security team and the twenty man scavenging team mounted up. A new scavenging team would be brought down every morning.

  Bruce was hoping for ten truck loads a day to be taken to the farm. With each truck carrying twenty tons. Keeping the trucks rotating, five would always be on the road with a security convoy. The trip one way was two and a half hours so when a convoy left from the base, Bruce estimated it could be back in seven hours. Then the five trucks there would leave as the returning convoy was reloaded. The only teams that would not be relieved were his security teams. Bruce had worked out a rotating down time where tomorrow three teams would be up while the fourth provided security.

  Bruce was in the passenger seat of Debbie’s SUV with Jake driving. The ten members of team one, Bruce’s team, and team three, Conner’s team, were riding with them in the SUV. Looking around the vehicle, one really could not say it was riding. It was more like being shipped, as tightly packed as they were. Behind them was Nancy’s SUV with Mike’s team two and Bill’s team four. They had left the beast for the Shreveport teams.

  Bruce looked in the rearview mirror seeing the long convoy of ten semi’s with box trailers and two with flatbeds. The flatbeds carried the forklifts, fuel and a ramp so the forklift could drive up into the bed. They had four regular forklifts and one boom lift. Bringing up the rear was the hummer with the Mk-19. Turning to look out the front Bruce stared at the taillight of the Stryker in the lead.

  Looking at the dash thermometer reading twenty-two degrees at 1000, Bruce smiled. This was way weird for Louisiana in November he thought but I’ll take it. Ten miles from the Base the convoy stopped and Bruce traded places with Jake. Jake threw one of the little ravens up and jumped in the SUV. When the UAV was five miles in front of them, Bruce radioed the convoy to maintain 45 mph matching the speed of the UAV. Ten minutes later, they reached the gate and drove through.

  Jake flew the UAV ahead not seeing anything except wildlife. They were heading to the back of the base to the ammo storage area. They would pass within four miles of the main post. Bruce told Jake to swing the UAV over it as they drove by.

  As he drove Bruce would glance at the little screen seeing bodies everywhere on it. When Bruce heard Jake say, “Holy shit,” Bruce looked at the screen. It was a large building in the center of the screen but surrounding it was a huge pile of bodies. Bruce just stared mesmerized at the site. That’s tens of thousands, Bruce thought looking at the screen.

  “Bruce, are you going cross country or what?” Mike called over the radio. Bruce looked up as the SUV drifted off the road. Bruce slowly guided the vehicle out of the ditch so they wouldn’t flip. “What the hell are you doing up there? You’re driving like a bitch,” Mike called back over the radio.

  After Bruce was back on the road he replied, “Jake has some good images on the computer.”

  “Are they wearing high heels?” Mike asked.

  “Nah that site wouldn’t take our credit card. The Raven is only showing a lot of dead bodies,” Bruce replied.

  “I prefer them dead, saves me the trouble,” Mike replied back.

  Jake guided the Raven to the ammo storage area and did not see anything. Stopping at the gates, they cut the locks on the first one. The second gate was an electronic sliding gate. They cut the gear chain and slid the gate open. When the vehicles were in, Bruce called for the gate to be closed.

  In front of them was a field of earthen covered buildings. Stopping the convoy, Bruce got out and the cold wind hit him hard. Grabbing an acetylene torch from the trailer off the back of the SUV, he went to the first building and cut the lock. Opening the door, Bruce shined his light in and caught his breath.

  Crates of supplies were stacked in neat rows. Walking in Bruce saw this building was mainly ammo. Bruce was feeling light headed as he walked down the main isle. Bruce turned around yelling, “Daddy has a new pair of shoes.”

  “I hope they’re warm,” Mike called from the front of the building.

  Ignoring Mike, he keyed his radio, “Team four, security at the gate. Team three, rear security. Team two, loading security. Mike, mark the rows we want, scavenge team start loading. Team one grab torches let’s see what Santa brought Daddy.”

  Team one headed to the SUV trailer. Danny, Jake and Steve grabbed cutting torches, flashlights and headed to buildings. Buffy stayed with Bruce and he taught her how to use the torch. After the third one, Bruce let Buffy roll the torch around to cut off locks and he pulled security. Two hours later they had unlocked all eighty buildings. Putting the torches back they started looking inside the buildings.

  Bruce was finding things he had no idea what they were or did, but some at least, were going with them. Running into each building, Bruce would jump up and down yelling with joy. Then he run up and down the rows then out the door to another building. The rest of team one just followed laughing and watching Bruce.

  At 1400, Mike called over the radio, “First five are ready for convoy to leave.”

  Bruce stopped yelling in the building he was in and keyed his radio, “What?” The first convoy was not due out until 1700.

  “Bruce we are just loading crates, that doesn’t take shit. Most of the scavenge team is just trying to stay warm,” Mike reported.

  I didn’t think about that, Bruce thought as he keyed the radio, “Load the others, flat beds to. Tell the convoy team when they get close to have ten semi’s leave the farm. We will up the convoy’s from five to ten. Get the convoy relief up to help.”

  “Some of those drivers were for the Shreveport team,” Mike reported.

  “There’re more than enough people there that can drive a truck and what the hell do you mean stay warm, I’m burning up,” Bruce told Mike. Bruce wanted to take off his coat and heavy gloves.

  “Bruce, I can hear you up here running around yelling and screaming in each building. If you open up anything before I can join you, we will have a problem. I’ll start the loading here team two out,” Mike replied sharply.

  Bruce looked at his team, they were all smiling at him. “Am I acting that badly?” Bruce asked them.

  Jake answered, “Dad this is awesome. You’re acting like we did when we were little at Christmas. Except I think you’re more excited.”

  “Aren’t you excited?” Bruce asked.

  “Well yeah, but you’re so stealing the show,” Jake said then Bruce saw he was holding his video camera.

  “You’re videoing me son?” Bruce asked not liking that.

  “We all are dad,” Danny told him. Bruce looked at all four even little Buffy had a camera in her hand. Before Bruce could say anything else, Danny added, “Dad, I think the next building holds some Stinger missiles.”

  Bruce forgot what he was going to say yelling, “What?” Bruce took off at a dead run with his film crew in hot pursuit. By 1700 Bruce had run through all the buildings and was walking back to the loading area as the convoy pulled out. Bruce was carrying his coat in his hands. Bruce walked over to Mike.

  Mike looked at Bruce, “Dude, it’s twenty-eight degrees and you don’t even have a coat on.”

  “Mike, checking out these areas takes some work,” Bruce replied.

  “Maybe if you did it without so much yelling, screaming, running, jumping up and down you might not get so hot,” Mike pointed out.

  “Whatever,” Bruce told Mike then he got serious. “Mike, I’m taking teams one and three to the motor pool to get some vehicles. Then we will take team one, two, three, and the scavenging team to the armories. We will load them up and pull it back here while
team four holds down the fort.” Bruce laid out the change in plans.

  Mike thought about it then replied, “I like that better than the original. I just never liked the idea of the big semi’s just sitting in the middle of the base getting loaded.”

  “Ok, we’ll be back shortly,” Bruce said calling teams to join him.

  They drove out to the closest motor pool. Bruce giggled looking at all the military vehicles. Cutting the lock they drove in as Bruce looked around. He could tell a lot of vehicles were missing but there was still more than enough for them.

  “Team one we’ll take back five Strykers,” Bruce started to say but was interrupted by Buffy as she started jumping up and down yelling, happy that she was getting to drive one. Bruce continued, “Team three, get two more ready and some transport trucks for gear. I don’t care what you get but I want it big and able to move a lot gear.” Bruce finished. Conner called back he would get some ready.

  It took thirty minutes to slave off the five that team one was taking. They climbed in and headed back to the ammo storage area. Buffy did a real good job driving back so Bruce told her to keep in her spot. Buffy let out a big “Woohooo.”

  Bruce jumped out of his Stryker as Bill walked up. Bruce told him, “Bill, keep two Strykers here for back up and evac. The weapon is not loaded nor is there any ammo in the back but I think you can find some lying around here. As you can see, my kids are already fixing that problem on theirs.” Bruce pointed at the kids loading ammo on the Stryker. Looking back at Bill, Bruce told him, “Keep a low profile but stay ready, this is where we will change out guard.”

  “Go get some more stuff, just don’t yell and run around so much this time,” Bill told Bruce as he grinned at him.

  Bruce turned around heading to the Strykers, “I’m going to act like I didn’t hear that.” Bruce said walking away.

  Matt came over to Bruce as he walked up he said, “Daddy Bruce, Buffy flipped me off and said if I sat in the drivers spot she’d duct tape me to a tree naked.” Matt tattled to Bruce.

  Bruce never got to say anything as Danny barked at Matt, “Matt, Daddy told her she could drive so you leave her alone. So just get in one and shut up.”

  Matt replied instantly, “Yes baby.”

  Bruce put his hand on Matt’s shoulder telling him, “Sorry son it doesn’t get much better. They love giving us hell.”

  “I heard that Daddy, I’m telling mom what you said,” Danny yelled back.

  Bruce smiled at her threat as he and Matt jumped in a Stryker. They pulled out stopping at the motor pool. Conner had five HEMTTs with trailers and two more Strykers ready. Bruce dropped drivers off for the vehicles. They left as Conner took them to the closest armory. After getting through the fence they had to cut the door down. The lock was electric and the lock bolted into the door. It took ten minutes to burn around the lock and Bruce kicked the door open.

  Bruce told everyone to be careful and don’t touch the edges. Bruce walked in and yelled for Mike. They started picking the locks of the cages throwing them open. Bruce stopped picking locks after he opened the first one up. He ran in jumping up and down then ran out to see the other cages. Mike was just walking up to a door taking thirty seconds then opening the door.

  When Mike opened one door Bruce almost knocked him over as he ran in yelling, “Oh yeah I want that, and that, holy shit I have to have this. Oh shit, I want two of those.” Mike just shook his head fixing to walk to another door when he noticed Jake with a camera on Bruce.

  “I want a copy of that,” Mike told Jake.

  “I can hook you up Daddy Mike but this is so going up on a movie night,” Jake said grinning watching Bruce hug a mini-Gatling gun. Mike laughed reaching out covering Buffy’s eyes, “I think he’s going to mate with it.” He said then headed to unlock the rest of the rooms pulling Buffy with him.

  It was 2000 when they started loading up racks of weapons on the trucks. Around 2030 everyone heard Bruce let out a rebel yell as he found the room Mike had unlocked that was loaded with thermal and NVG. To put it mildly, Bruce was next to worthless as they loaded the trucks. When the trucks were loaded, Mike had to literally drag Bruce out of the armory.

  Bruce knocked Mike’s hands down, “Dude, leave me here. I’ll wait until you come back. This is the coolest shit ever. I’m putting one of those mini guns on my truck. I’m goin’ to road warrior someone’s ass. That is some sexy shit, you’re in charge.” Bruce turned to head back inside as Mike grabbed his arm and spun him around.

  Looking into Bruce’s face, Mike used to see the same look on his kids faces as he pulled them out of a toy store. Except this was a big ass kid. Mike looked at Bruce, “Bruce, the trucks will be here soon. We’ll come back for the rest, I promise, the guns will be fine until we come back. I need you to stay in charge ok.”

  “They might get lonely and cold,” Bruce whined stomping his feet.

  “We will close the door. Now come on the guns could use a little peace and quiet after all your yelling,” Mike told Bruce, while pulling Bruce to the vehicle. Mike pushed Bruce in the Stryker telling Buffy to raise the ramp. Mike held onto Bruce until the ramp was up.

  The ten trucks pulled in before midnight, they loaded them and had them back on the road by 0300. Bruce took off running for the Stryker and climbed in popping his head out the turret.

  “Come on, let’s go to the armory. They probably think we’ve forgotten all about them. Come on lets go,” Bruce said dropping down and a few seconds later the Stryker fired up.

  Mike pinched the bridge of his nose shaking his head. He was getting a major headache and it was in a Stryker yelling for them to move. Bill walked up to Mike asking, “Who’s lonely at the armory?”

  “The weapons we left,” Mike answered as Bruce started yelling from the Stryker. “I want a tranquilizer gun,” Mike said, then noticed Danny with a camera pointed at him. Mike looked at the camera, “You have no idea what I’ve put up with for this family and clan. I’m ready to go home right now. I want a vacation.” Mike stopped as Bruce ran over grabbing his arm.

  “Let’s go come on,” Bruce said pulling him until Conner spoke.

  “Don’t you want to see the SOCOM armory?” he asked.

  Bruce spun around, “There’s a SOCOM armory here?”

  “Yeah,” Conner said. Bruce let go of Mike, ran over grabbed Conner and threw him over his shoulder carrying him toward the Stryker.

  Mike stopped Bruce asking, “What about the other armory? I thought you didn’t want them to get lonely?”

  “You said they’d be fine. Come on its SOCOM, they have cool toys,” Bruce yelled out putting Conner down on the ramp and shoved him in. Team one followed Bruce as did team three since he took their leader.

  “What’s SOCOM?” Buffy asked.

  With his camera still pointed at Bruce, Jake replied, “All special forces.”

  Mike yelled out, “Load up or he’s going to leave us.” Everyone headed to vehicles except team four, feeling a little left out.

  Bruce was pulling out and the rest of the vehicles followed. Mike radioed Bruce several times to slow down but Bruce replied back with many, unkind carnal verbs. Stopping at the armory’s gate Bruce climbed out the driver’s hatch with bolt cutters. Cutting the chains and throwing open the gate he ran to the armory yelling at the top of his lungs while everyone just stood at the gate watching him in awe.

  “How does he expect to get in?” Conner asked.

  “Ten bucks he chews through the door,” Jake said filming his dad.

  “No bet,” Mike said as Bruce reached the door and began hitting it with the bolt cutters.

  Screaming at the door, Bruce dropped the cutters and ran back to the Stryker passing the crowd watching him. It was fourteen degrees but no one was bothered by the cold as they watched Bruce wheel out the torch unit. Thinking that was too slow, Bruce picked it up over his head and trotted back to the armory. Bruce cut the door open as the crowd walked up to the armory.

  Bruce
finished cutting the lock, kicking the door open and ran inside yelling out like a kid. They could hear him beating the shit of the cages inside, trying to get in them. Bruce ran back to grab the torch as Mike stopped him.

  “Bruce, you can’t use the torch. Let’s pick the locks,” Mike said. Bruce looked at him like, that’s such a good idea. Bruce ran back to the first cage reaching for his picks. Mike pushed him aside, “Let me do it, you’ll break yours.” Bruce was standing behind Mike and kept bumping him as he looked in the cage. Mike yelled at Bruce, “Quit bumping my arm damn it.”

  Bruce stood still until the lock opened. Then he bowled right over Mike, knocking him to the floor. Standing in the room Bruce started yelling, “OH yeah toys! I fucking love this shit, I’m putting all this shit in my room!”

  Mike stood up turning to Danny, “Danny you and Buffy keep him in here until I get the rest open. Conner, pull the vehicles up.”

  Danny and Buffy at first tried to block the door but soon realized that wouldn’t work. Then with one on each side of the room, they would point at a gun and yell. Bruce would run over to see what they had found. The ploy worked long enough for Mike to open up the rest of the armory.

  Mike came back to the front as Bruce ran by him. Mike looked at the rest of the team, “Let him go crazy, let’s move this stuff out of here.” When the first cage was empty, Mike yelled for Bruce. Bruce thinking they had found something cool ran to him. As Bruce stopped Mike said, “You can help, what we don’t get we’ll have to leave.” A look of horror crossed Bruce’s face. Bruce ran to the cage behind Mike picking up a rack of rifles over his head. Mike was going to help him since it usually took two people, at least, to carry one of the racks. Mike just moved out of his way as Bruce ran by. “Whatever floats your boat dude,” Mike said as Bruce ran past him with the rack over his head, still yelling. Mike bent down picking up two cases to load up.

  Conner’s team held security while the armory was emptied. It was 0700 when the armory was empty filling all the trucks, trailers and Strykers. Mike knew Bruce wouldn’t leave anything from here so he told the teams to take everything including the room of uniforms and the three desks with chairs. Mike drew the line at the file cabinets but would be shocked weeks later when he saw them in the basement. Bruce rode on the back of one of the trucks. Mike tried to tell him the temperature was in the teens. Mike just gave up looking at Bruce’s grinning face as he rubbed the weapons and talked to them. Secretly, Mike hopped Bruce would get mild hypothermia just so he would slow down.