Blue Plague: Hope: Book Seven

by Watson, Thomas A

  Gene looked over at Bruce, “Don’t know,” he shrugged. “I can only read and retain so much. I will finish going over the outline tonight.”

  “Good. You are coming with me to help the kids fish,” Bruce said as Angela and Stephanie climbed in the SUV.

  Nodding, Gene led Sandy over, “It’s not like it’s that hard in your ponds,” he said, helping Sandy in.

  “Nope, they want to fish in the new lake.”

  “Bruce, that damn thing is full of gators. Hell, it’s hard to believe it’s only been there for months. Looking at the gators, you would swear it has been there for years,” Gene said as Bruce climbed in.

  “That’s why I have big guns in the back.”

  “Fine, but I shoot the first gator that even comes close,” Gene said climbing in.

  Soon the group was standing beside the massive lake on the west side of the base that supplied power. Before they climbed out of the vehicles, gators started sliding into the water. “Why were the twins so insistent on fishing in the lake?” Stephanie asked, watching the gators.

  “They heard Paul talking about all the fish they’d stocked in the lake,” Bruce said as Stephanie dug in her range bag, pulling out an M4 with a grenade launcher.

  “Give me some hand grenades,” Angela said, grabbing her rifle.

  “Guys, if you leave the gators alone, they will leave you alone,” Bruce said, watching the two arm up.

  Shaking her head as she pulled on a tactical vest, Angela looked up. “I don’t know what a gator’s idea of ‘leaving it alone’ means. For all I know, it means if you are near I get to take your leg.”

  Not able to argue that, Bruce let them arm themselves to the teeth. When he turned, he saw the entire protection detail arming themselves like they were going to face a horde of blues. “Hey now, my kids are here and the first one that endangers them, I’ll kill you. But not before skinning you alive with your own teeth!”

  Carl came over, checking his M4. “Bruce, there are a bunch of ten footers out there and I’ve seen one I know is thirteen feet long.”

  “Pussy,” Bruce said and started stripping.

  “Bruce!” Angela and Stephanie bellowed, making some of the protection detail drop to the ground and everyone else jump.

  He spun around as they stormed toward him. “I swear, if you even think of catching a gator, I’ll pull your bottom lip over your face,” Stephanie snapped.

  As the image filled his mind, Bruce’s hands fell off his shirt. “I’ve done it before,” he explained.

  “Yeah, and the last time you did it, Debbie threw every beer bottle in the cooler at you,” Stephanie growled. “I don’t have beer bottles, so I’ll take Angela’s grenades.”

  “Let Daddy catch a gator!” the twins cheered with PJ and Cade jumping up and down.

  “See? They want to watch,” Bruce pointed at his cheering section.

  Narrowing her eyes and making Bruce nervous, thinking his bottom lip was about to be pulled over his head, he stepped back. “Fine,” Stephanie growled and pushed her M4 in Angela’s chest. When Angela grabbed it, Stephanie took off her vest and dropped it to the ground. Bruce’s eyes got wide, seeing her start to take off her shirt.

  “What the hell are you doing?” he shouted.

  “I’m going to wrestle the damn thing with you,” Stephanie said taking off her shirt and letting it fall to the ground.

  Bruce dove for the shirt to cover her up and when he turned, he saw Stephanie kicking off her shoes. Seeing movement from the corner of his eye, he turned to see Angela handing Ted hers and Stephanie’s weapons and start undressing.

  “Are you insane?! You two are pregnant!”

  They both looked up to see the shock on Bruce’s face. “You act stupid, we are too,” Angela said.

  “Okay, okay,” Bruce said pulling both into a hug. “You win, I won’t catch a gator.”

  “Thank you,” Stephanie smiled and kissed his cheek.

  “Will you two put on your clothes now?”

  “We are wearing bras, Bruce. It’s not like they are any different than a bikini top,” Stephanie sighed.

  “Most here have seen us naked running around the farm,” Angela snorted.

  “No, my motor is starting to run, and we promised the kids a fishing trip today,” he said looking down at their bodies.

  Giving Bruce a playful slap on the chest, “Thank you, but I know I don’t look that good,” Stephanie said, pulling on her shirt.

  “Says you,” Bruce grinned, wiggling his eyebrows.

  Giving Bruce a kiss, Stephanie sat down and put on her shoes. “Well, start the fishing trip, Bruce.”

  Gathering the kids, Bruce moved to the lake with them and ran for his life as the twins started casting. It took some convincing but they finally let Bruce show them how to cast, but only after they’d hooked Ted, who’d made the mistake of standing behind them.

  When they all had corks out, Gene walked over to stand beside Bruce. “Dodging bullets comes in handy when you take kids fishing with rods and reels.”

  “I still want to punch Marcus for getting them rods and reels. That’s why I always gave them cane poles.”

  “How can women wear thongs and not get them dirty?” Gene asked and Bruce slowly turned to look at him. “Bruce, I can’t wear boxers for a day without looking like I ran over a small animal inside them.”

  “Shit, I don’t know. Where did that come from?”

  “Just a random thought,” Gene shrugged.

  “Well, that’s why I only wear dark boxers, so I don’t see the skid marks.”

  “Gene, are we going to succor the youth in this application of angling?” Sandy asked, walking over. Shaking his head and mumbling, Bruce pulled out his cellphone to look up words.

  Reading the screen, Bruce turned around. “Sandy, you should say, ‘Are we going to help the kids fish.’ Not for Gene’s sake, but for mine. I can only interpret correct speech for so long, okay? I’m tired of looking up words.”

  With a big smile, Sandy nodded, “Then I shall endeavor to covey meaning in less opulent linguistic communication.”

  “Sandy,” Bruce sighed, slumping his shoulders. “I’m really tired of looking up words.”

  Gene pulled Sandy into a hug and whispered, “Just say, ‘I will use more simple words’.”

  “Sorry, Bruce. I will use more simple words,” she repeated and Gene kissed her on the forehead. “But you know what I’m saying, Bruce, so why should I vitiate my vocabulary?”

  “Yes, I know what you are saying sometimes, but I have to think about it, Sandy,” Bruce said as he moved over and pulled a fish off of Sherry’s line. “When you’re around friends, you relax and use relaxing vocabulary, so nobody has to think and just relax. I use my brain enough keeping us alive.”

  When he turned around he saw Sandy was in deep thought. “Yeah, like that,” he said, waving a hand at her. “Relax and think about molesting Gene.”

  Hearing that, her face perked up. “Another competition of sexual fortitude.”

  Walking over, he looked at Gene, “Will you get PJ out of the water,” Bruce asked as splashing sounded behind him. Looking past Bruce, Gene saw PJ chasing a fish that Cade had caught.

  Wondering how Bruce had known PJ was in the water before he actually was, Gene took off and Bruce looked at Sandy. “Sandy, you don’t have to have a contest to jump his bones,” Bruce told her in a low voice. “He loves you and I’m going to warn you, if you break his heart, I’ll pull your fingernails out with pliers.”

  Letting out a gasp, Sandy stepped back. “He loves me?”

  “Yes, he does, and you treat him right.”

  Stepping to the side, Sandy looked past Bruce as Gene pulled PJ out of the water. “What do I do?” she asked and looked up at Bruce.

  “Love him back,” Bruce sighed. “I’m not really the one to ask, so why don’t you talk to Stephanie and Angela.”

  Bruce gave a startle as Sandy hugged him tight, then trotted over as Gene
pulled wet clothes off of PJ. “I feel like Dr. Ruth,” he mumbled and moved over to help the kids fish as he and the others tried not to get hooked.

  Chapter 9

  It was the middle of February as the mass of helicopters flew south into Texas. In the lead chopper, Jake looked at the map laying on his lap. “Will you quit worrying?” Danny said beside him, yelling over the engine noise.

  “Hey, I’m in charge, and if anything bad happens, it’s my fault,” he snapped.

  Across from them, Buffy was flipping Herman around in her hand with the blade out. “Bubba, we have rehearsed this a hundred times. If something bad happens, it’s not your fault,” she said in a raised and very cheerful voice. The others on the helicopter watched the little girl play with the knife in a flying helicopter with trepidation.

  “Buffy, you’re scaring some of the new people,” Ted said, leaning down to her ear so he didn’t have to shout so loud.

  Buffy didn’t have her helmet on and looked down the cargo bay of the Chinook. With her long blond hair and Shirley Temple curls framing her face, Buffy was beyond pretty. Then, when one looked down at the young girl decked out in her combat vest with a SCAR in her lap, it just seemed to violate the laws of nature.

  “Bitches better get tuff because Herman says he’ll enjoy cutting your ass if you fuck up!” she shouted down the bay. More than one gave a shiver and looked away as Danny let out a chuckle.

  “Be nice, BB,” Danny said looking down at the map on Jake’s lap. They were heading to Houston to clear out a storage warehouse that held some europium. “It’s a good plan, Jake, so let it go.”

  “I might have forgotten something,” he said and looked over at her. “You better make sure your team keeps the area secured because the primary team will be pushed to empty the warehouse. They won’t be able to do that and keep an eye out.”

  “If something gets by us, it means we are dead,” she said leaning back.

  “You’re going to be in charge of the next mission,” Jake snapped.

  “Nope,” she grinned. “I’m over training for Omega.”

  “I’ll talk to Dad about that.”

  “You do and I’ll knock your teeth out.”

  Buffy let out a snort and Jake looked over at her. “Buffy, you better stay glued to my hip, you understand?”

  “Bubba,” she whined. “Why can’t I go with Danny’s team? I was cleared by the doctor and Daddy.”

  “Buffy, my hip or you stay on the chopper,” he said, jabbing a finger at her.

  Flopping back against the seat, Buffy held up Herman. “Don’t worry Herman, we will stab something,” she said and folded up the knife with a flip of her wrist.

  “Buffy, I talk to my knife, so it doesn’t work on me,” Jake said and looked back at the map. “More importantly, I talk to my belt also and I will spank your ass if you don’t stay right beside me.”

  Buffy just let out a sigh and nodded as Danny leaned over to Jake’s ear. “Jake, you know all the stuff she’s faced with Dad. Why are you being so hard on her?”

  “I’m not Dad and she needs to realize that,” he said. “Dad can do a hundred different things and still fight like a bad ass. You need to realize he’s not here and it’s on us. I can’t do that and make sure Buffy isn’t overextending herself.”

  Giving a big grin, Danny nodded. “I know, and that’s the best part. We are finally going to show him, we can fight on our own.”

  “Danny, the last time we fought on our own, several of us were wounded bad and almost died.”

  Throwing her hands up in the air, “They blew up our building and threw like a hundred grenades at us,” Danny cried out. “Not even Dad could’ve done anything about that.”

  Jake just stared at her with a hard face. “Have you asked him?”

  “Asked him what?”

  “If we made a mistake, and what he would’ve done?”

  “No, there wasn’t anything he could’ve done.”

  Turning back to the map, “I did, and Dad said he would’ve had an advanced team half a mile out with mines on the road.”

  The smile fell off Danny’s face. “Hindsight is 20/20,” she mumbled.

  “Think, Danny. Dad started doing that after that ambush we got hit in back in Texas when he was trying to kill everything. We saw him do it and order it, but none of us even thought about it. That’s what I’m worried about because we never expected the military to move past their positions.”

  Suddenly, the feelings of being invincible started to waver for Danny. “Um, you did go over your plans with Dad, right?”

  “Hell, yes. Be damned if I make that mistake again.”

  Letting out a puff of air, Danny felt much better. “Then, it’s all good then.”

  The crew chief walked back from the cockpit, “Five minutes!” he yelled, holding up a hand with all fingers up.

  Jake nodded and folded the map up as Buffy put on her helmet and stood up. Feeling butterflies in his stomach, Jake swallowed hard, wishing Matt was there with them. He and Matt were to alternate attacks to retrieve the europium. The doctor still hadn’t cleared Mary to return to duty and that was fine with Jake, even though he and Matt had agreed their wives wouldn’t go into the field with them. Danny would go with Jake and when she was cleared, Mary would go with Matt. David and Mindy couldn’t be separated, so they stayed together commanding the same team.

  Getting up, Jake looked down at Buffy, who looked up with a big grin. “You need to get your game face on, BB!”

  “It is,” she said with a cherub face.

  Shaking his head, Jake moved down the cargo bay to the ramp. He looked back to see Buffy right behind him, and Danny behind her. Danny moved up beside Jake and pointed at the twenty troops on the right side. They all stood up checking their weapons as Jake pointed at the twenty troops on the left side who stood up, doing the same.

  The crew chief moved past Jake and pressed a button lowering the ramp and they looked out at the line formation of thirty Chinooks behind them, and twice that of Apaches and Black Hawks. “I wish blues could be intimidated because this would scare the shit out of humans,” Jake mumbled, feeling his mouth get dry. His Dad had made him take charge before, but never anything this big or this far away.

  Feeling the chopper bank right, Jake grabbed his SCAR and looked at the massive building below them that was the target. He saw blues in small groups, charging toward the building as the chopper started to level out and drop down.

  On the side of each chopper, streams of red shot out when the door gunners opened up as the thirty Chinooks surrounded the warehouse, dropping to the ground in a circle. Jake let out a sigh of relief, seeing the blues drop as the magic bullets hit them.

  When the chopper was still a few feet off the ground, Jake jumped off and headed left leading his troops. He stopped halfway to the next chopper and turned facing away from the building, dropping to one knee and raising his rifle to his shoulder.

  Seeing a female blue streaking toward them, he rested his sight on her and squeezed the trigger, letting a three round burst go. The rifle bucked in his hands and he watched the three rounds hit the blue in the chest. The blue opened her mouth to roar but collapsed and slid several yards on her face, coming to a stop and not moving.

  “That one was mine, damn it!” Buffy shouted, swinging her rifle to shoot another blue. Watching it hit the ground and not moving, Buffy grinned, “I love magic bullets.”

  “Cover Buffy,” Jake said standing up and keying his radio. “Teams, report.”

  “Team One on west side, down and holding. In contact, no problems.”

  “Team Two on south side, down and holding. In contact, no problems,” David called out.

  Jake grinned as the other two teams reported the same. “Second wave, cleared for landing,” he called over the radio. “Air wing, cleared to push out.”

  “Pushing out,” Steve called over the radio and the Apaches started moving away from the building, engaging blues that were now po
uring out and charging the area. “Your gunships are in position at five thousand feet, so don’t hesitate about calling them.”

  “Don’t worry,” Jake mumbled then keyed his radio. “Danny, hold the outside. I’m taking my team inside.”

  “Copy,” Danny called out as she snapped several shots out, killing a blue kid. “Jake, getting lots of reports of matrix kids, so watch your ass inside because I see a bunch of broken windows.”

  Ted moved over to Jake, tapping his arm. “Team is ready to breach.”

  Jake looked up as another thirty Chinooks circled around the building, dropping down. “Breach,” he said, turning to the small pedestrian door.

  Forty troops were stacked up at the door as a man pressed a button, blowing the door off and three more troops tossed in flashbangs. The large building seemed to shake as the three explosions went off inside.

  Hearing roars from inside, Jake felt his balls pull up to his throat, watching the first of the team start to stream in firing before they were even through the door. He felt a hand grab him and looked down to see Buffy pulling him to the door.

  “Buffy, we are in the middle,” he snapped.

  “God damn it, I’m killing some of these sons of bitches!” she screamed, letting his arm go.

  Jake walked past her and filed in with the team. The warehouse was packed with stacks of pallets wrapped in shrink-wrap, stacked five high and reaching almost twenty feet up. He found the team forming a line across the front of the warehouse that was almost a hundred yards wide, firing at blues running at them. Feeling a bump as he keyed his radio, he saw blonde hair poking from under a helmet as Buffy giggled, shooting a blue kid as it jumped twenty feet in the air.

  “South team, you need to move your line back to avoid friendly fire from inside,” he called over the radio, trying to remember the layout of the map. Feeling nervous, he tried to calm down as Ted stepped over to him.

  “Relax, you know what to do,” Ted said calmly as Buffy giggled, shooting several more blues.

  Nodding, Jake took a deep breath thankful once again that everyone shooting had a suppressor on their rifle. “Team Two, move to next block forming a line on Blake Street. Breaching Team, try to keep your fire toward the south wall, but don’t hesitate to shoot.”