Blue Plague The Fall

by Watson, Thomas A.

  Then they lowered the beast to the ground off the rack, breaking all four of the suspension springs. They did not take into account the extra ton of weight they had put on the body. After crying in private with each other, they lifted the beast back up, putting heavy duty springs and brakes on it. The entire project took the two over six months with the family helping. The family was not around when they cried about the springs.

  The wives could now reupholster any vehicle in hours, something the duo could not master to save their lives. Everyone in the family could tear down an engine, be it diesel or gas, fix it, then put it back together. The duo was very careful to destroy any record of the money that was put into the beast. They had built it for fun and nothing more. They could joke that they had an armored car that seated six and could go anywhere with the foot-wide tires. It had been very rarely driven in the two years that it had been completed. It stayed on jacks beside the shop under a shed the kids had built for it.

  The last compromise was the Mini Cooper. That had been all Bruce. After seeing Bourne and the Italian Job, he had to have one. Everyone tried to talk him out of it, and Debbie stayed mad at him for several weeks, but he was persistent. Finding one on eBay, Bruce bought it and he, Mike, and the boys souped it up. The car was black with two white racing stripes and could almost outrun a jet fighter.

  Mike and Nancy had bought Steve a Chevy quad cab 4x4 when he graduated high school. There was no way Mike was going to buy him a Ford. He had to sleep at night. Although he did not think Bruce would actually hurt him, he was not going to take the chance. With all the vehicles the family had, it only made sense that they had several fuel tanks around the property. There were over two thousand gallons of diesel and one thousand gallons of gas on the property in underground tanks. When fuel prices dropped, they would fill them up. It always worked out just right. When fuel hit five dollars a gallon several years ago, they never had to fill up until it came back down to three dollars a gallon. Buying in bulk, they got the fuel cheaper than at a gas station.

  Mike turned around to look at the kids after his daydreaming. Mary, Danny, and Tonya were at one table loading magazines, and Matt, David, and Jake were at the other loading magazines. Nancy and Debbie were at the buggies loading pistol magazines and talking. Tonya had on one of Nancy’s old tactical vests.

  He knew it was Nancy’s because it had “Girls Rule” on the back. When she came out with that vest on, Mary and Danny both wanted one. When they asked Debbie if she wanted one too, she said, “No, that’s okay.” They asked her why, and she said that was common knowledge and she did not need to flaunt it. The next time at range time Nancy had bought her another vest to use.

  Mike looked at everyone talking. Everyone had on a tactical vest with a drop holster with an assault weapon across the back except Tonya. She had a pistol but no assault rifle yet. Mike knew this was why Steve and Bruce were late. They were fixing up her surprise. When Bruce asked Debbie if they could give Tonya her old M-4, she said of course. Then Nancy said she could have one of her old vests. When they gave the vest to Tonya, she grabbed it and pulled it to her and said thank you. She had no idea what was to come, Mike thought smiling. Only simple working people could understand the gift, and that’s what Tonya was. There were no magazines in any of the weapons except for parents’ pistols; this was a range rule. No loaded weapon until the “cleared to load” was given when the range went hot.

  All of the adults had concealed weapons permits, and they always carried a pistol on their person. In this day and age, Mike could not believe some people still did not own a gun. Still others wanted to take guns away from everyone.

  Mike was getting impatient, looking back toward the farm watching for Bruce and Steve. Today was only personal weapons and not special weapons. Bruce was a class 3 dealer and licensed gunsmith. They had several full automatic weapons that were all legal with each having its own tax stamp. Each member of the family had a suppressor for his or her primary assault weapon, which was legal also, with each having its own tax stamp. Mike laughed when people would come over and shoot with them, and they pulled out the suppressors. They would always say the same two things: 1) We are going to jail because you have those things, 2) I can still hear it when I shoot. Bruce would tell them anyone could own a suppressor if they were not a felon. It only cost two hundred dollars for a tax stamp, and a suppressor only quieted a shot down not made it silent.

  All the boys had M-4s, and each had them set up as they liked with flashlights, lasers, fore grips, and sights. Each was different in its set-up, but all were the standard civilian M-4s. Both Nancy and Debbie had their AUGs. Mary had an M-4 like her dad; the only one who was different was Danny: She had a Galil assault rifle. It was an Israel-designed assault rifle with a folding stock. It fired the same .223 that the M-4 and the AUG fired, but the magazines were not interchangeable with the M-4 or the AUG. Mike liked it all right, but the thing was heavy. It weighed a lot compared to all the other weapons that the family used. But Danny threw a fit to get that weapon, and the only thing he and Bruce had told everyone was the assault weapon that they chose had to shoot a .223 or 5.56 the same round. They did not want to have eight different calibers to supply for the family.

  It was when Danny had got the weapon that it all became clear. When she was in the den practicing field stripping it with the family sitting around her watching, David said, “You are the only one here that is basing their gun off a video game.” Everyone started to laugh except the moms. They did not play Call of Duty. Danny turned to David and said, “You are just jealous because you suck with the Galil.” Mike had to admit that she was a terror on Call of Duty. Danny had tricked her Galil out like everyone else and was an awesome shot with it. Not once did she ever complain about the weight as she humped it around. Mike was proud of her following her own trail. He also knew if his daughter had asked him for one, he would have done the same as Bruce and got her one. Mary was happy with her M-4, but her unique weapon was a twelve-gauge street sweeper. Now that had cost Mike a pretty penny.

  Mike and Bruce had SCAR-L. The SCAR-L was a new weapon that the Special Forces were using. Mike had to admit he liked it. It was more forgiving than the M-4 and did not care what type of ammo you put in it. The M-4 only liked quality ammo and nothing cheap. The SCAR used the same magazine as the M-4, and Bruce had bought over four hundred polymer magazines. They had a few aluminum magazines, but polymers were much better. Aluminum magazines could get dented and jam, but a polymer magazine was either perfect or broke.

  Now as far as handguns went, everyone had their run of the mill. The only thing was it had to be either nine millimeter or .45 caliber. Now the family had literally hundreds of guns in different calibers, but their primary sidearm had to follow this rule. Mike and Bruce stayed with the Springfield XDM .45. Fourteen shots of .45 caliber was comforting. Everyone else kept changing from Berettas and Glocks. The boys stayed in the .45 like the dads, and the girls stayed in the nine-millimeter range.

  The assault weapons were for family protection only and not for hunting unless the damn wild pigs got on the property. Thinking of the pigs, Mike looked around for them. They had killed a lot on the property. The damn things had torn up the hayfield, so Bruce broke out the thermal scopes, and the family had killed twenty-six hogs in the hayfield. There had been a couple of times the damn hogs had tried to dig under the ten-foot fence. The dogs had alerted everyone, and the hole was filled in, and that started another hog war.

  Mike turned and saw Bruce and Steve driving up to them pushing the little electric buggy at its limit of thirty miles per hour. Both of them had large grins on their faces. When Mike called to Debbie and Nancy, they turned to see Bruce and Steve pull up. The damn little electric buggies are quiet, Mike thought. Bruce jumped out from the driver’s seat and reached back and grabbed his SCAR from the back. Steve had his M-4 across his chest and was carrying a rifle case in his left hand.

  “Everyone, could you please come over here?” St
eve called out.

  Everyone stopped what they were doing and walked over to Steve. Tonya ran up to him and kissed him on the cheek. Steve looked down at her and smiled and put his right arm around her waist.

  “I want you to know, Tonya, that everyone in this family loves you, but I love you the most,” Steve told her looking down in her eyes. “You have been out here with us every year shooting, and the family decided that is was time you were a part of us. This is from the family,” he said, handing her the case.

  Tonya grabbed the case and laid it on a table and opened it. There inside was an M-4 with a note that said, “We love you.” She looked up at everyone with tears in her eyes and started hugging everyone. When she got to Steve, she told him, “This means a lot to me. I feel like part of your family now.” Tonya grabbed Steve and pulled him tight. He hugged her back as the family was cheering and high-fiving each other.

  Steve looked down at her and said, “I love you, bugger bear.”

  Tonya replied, “I love you, too.”

  Steve pushed her away and reached in his pocket and pulled out a ring and got down on one knee and looked up at her. “Will you marry me because I will never love anyone but you.”

  Everyone just stopped all actions and just looked with open mouths. Tonya, standing right in front of Steve started to wobble from side to side, staring at the ring being held in front of her. Debbie fell toward Bruce and had to grab his arm before she fell because Bruce did not move to catch her. He was standing with a look of shock on his face.

  Tonya screamed with joy, “YES!” as she dove on top of Steve, wrapping her arms around his neck, knocking the ring out of his hand and him to the ground on his back.

  Everyone started to jump up and down yelling and hugging each other. A passerby would think someone had won the lottery, but this was something much better. The family had gotten a little bigger. Everybody was crying; even Mike and Bruce had tears on their faces as they hugged everyone. Then Mike and Bruce walked over to the newly engaged couple and pulled them up, with them still kissing each other. The whole family converged on the couple and had a long group hug. When they broke up, everyone started to look for the ring. Mary found it and gave it to Steve.

  Steve turned and put it on Tonya’s finger. “Now you are really part of the family,” he said, kissing her. Tonya just stood with tears in her eyes, lost for all words. All the girls converged on her as the boys grabbed Steve.

  “You could not tell your own dad?” Bruce asked, hugging Steve.

  “Dad, you suck at keeping secrets,” Steve let him know.

  “Well son, I am very proud of you, and I want you to know this house is yours and hers forever,” Bruce told him.

  “That is seconded by the other dad,” Mike said, wrapping Steve in a bear hug, crying.

  After an hour of hugging and Steve pulling his M-4 off and cleaning it from getting knocked down, the family walked up to the firing line. Debbie held up her hand as Bruce was getting ready to yell “weapons hot.”

  “I think today Steve gets the honor of calling the range, baby,” Debbie said.

  “As always, baby doll, you are right,” Bruce replied. “Son, for the family will you do the honors today?”

  Steve was blushing, as was Tonya holding his hand, as he yelled, “Weapons hot and all weapons pointed downrange unless cleared.”

  As one, the family turned and started firing at targets. They did this for an hour, until Steve yelled, “Lock your weapons, and put them on safe.”

  “Steve, here are the keys to the explosive bunker. Go and get about dozen sticks of dynamite, wire, and the clacker,” Bruce told him. “The rest of us will start picking up the brass.”

  Steve and Tonya jumped into a buggy and sped off to the farm. Louisiana law said if you stored explosives on your property that they had to be stored in an underground bunker and have a steel door. True to form, Bruce went even better: The bunker had walls over six inches in concrete, and the roof had the same with two feet of earth. There was over a half a ton of explosives in it.

  As Bruce watched them drive off, a tear was running down his cheek. Getting old is not so bad, he thought. Debbie walked up beside him and put her arm around him. “A penny for your thoughts,” she said to him.

  “I just feel that I don’t deserve you, the kids, or this family. It’s better than any dream I could have imagined for myself. What did I do to earn this life?” he said to her as he turned to look at her.

  “Baby, you deserve more than you have. You put your family first and love us unconditionally. Our worries and dreams mean more to you than your own. You comfort all of us in our time of need. When Nancy’s dad died, I thought you were going to die from exhaustion. You stayed with both Nancy and Mike, giving them comfort in their time of need. This you do for all of us all the time. You may act all big and bad, but to this family there is no bigger teddy bear than you,” she told him, grabbing his face in her hands and kissing him.

  “I love you, baby doll,” he told her, kissing her back. “Without you, all I would be is a very big asshole. Let’s get this stuff picked up and blow something up,” he told her.

  The family cleaned the range up and blew a large hole in the ground by the creek. Everyone agreed Tonya got to be the one to set off the charge.

  Tonya looked at Steve after the explosion and said, smiling, “Most people just get fireworks when they get engaged. We get to shoot guns and use explosives on our engagement day.”

  The family all climbed into the buggies and headed back to the farm. No one could even imagine the horror that would soon spread over the world. Mankind had faced trouble before but nothing on the scale that was on the horizon. A plane on the eastern seaboard was carrying the downfall of man to another continent. A virus that was already spreading across Africa and Europe would soon tear a lot of families apart and spread darkness over the land, leaving no one young or old untouched. Only the strong and prepared had a chance of survival, but it was no guarantee: They just had better odds. The sun set for the last time on a land, untouched by hell on Earth, called America.

  Chapter 12

  Manny woke up as the captain announced that they were starting the descent into Boston International Airport. He informed everyone that the local time was 7 p.m., and they should be at the terminal before 7:30. Manny sat and smiled; that meant that he would be at his apartment before nine. He looked over on his right, and Ellen was snuggled into his side, still holding his arm, sleeping soundly. She had awakened several times just to kiss him and rub on his body. Manny’s ego could barely be contained on the plane; there were no words that he could use to describe the feeling he had. Ellen Burgess, the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, was holding him.

  Manny turned to his left, and Casey had her head lying on his shoulder, asleep. He could not get it out of his head. Just over two days ago they were running and fighting for their lives. It just did not seem real now, sitting in a 747 first class with Ellen at his side. The only reminder was that Prince and Djang were not there with them. Then there were the scratches on his neck, chest, and left arm. Casey had the same souvenirs that he had, claw marks on her cheek running down her neck under her t-shirt. Manny looked closer, and thought it must be his imagination, but Casey’s marks looked gray. He reached over and touched her face, and the marks were cold. Well, it’s not infected, he thought, looking at his own arm. The marks on his forearm were still red and scabbed but looked pale on the edges. He pressed them up against the arm of the chair; he was not pulling his arm out of Ellen’s grasp for anything. There was no pain.

  He looked down to Ellen’s arm with the dressing, and he could not see under the bandage, but the skin around it was still beautiful and pink. Just then the stewardess came over and woke up Ellen and told her she had to put the armrest down and buckle back up. Manny wanted to jump up and yell at her, but that would be uncool, he thought. Ellen sat up and smiled at him and gave him a long hot kiss. She then sat her chair up and put on her seatbe
lt and, then taking his hand, placed it in her lap.

  “Wow, we are really almost home,” she turned and looked at him. “Why don’t you come over to my apartment, Manny, it’s closer than yours and you can spend the night with me?”

  Manny just looked at her with his mouth open and started to stutter, “Ah-ah-ah.”

  “I’m not asking you to spend the rest of your life with me, just tonight,” she said, giggling.

  Manny almost told her he would spend the rest of his life with her but then said, “Thank you. I can’t wait to take a shower and wash Africa off of me.”

  “Well, I might have to join you in the shower because I’m not waiting on you to take one or me using all the hot water,” she said with a sly grin.

  Manny knew he was blushing, and Ellen loved it, so he could care less. “If you insist, I would be more than happy to wash your back,” he said, blushing beet red.

  Ellen just laughed and kissed him again. She had to admit Manny was a good guy, and the way he looked at her made her feel good. After what she had been through, she wanted to feel good. She could still feel the terror in the back of her soul when they were running through the jungle. She shook her head, and Manny sensed something was wrong. “You all right, Ellen?” he asked her.