Blue Plague The Fall

by Watson, Thomas A.

  “That’s because Army pukes don’t know what it means,” Mike said over his shoulder.

  The three walked to the house. Nancy and Debbie had already washed up and were making tea and Kool-aid when the three walked into the kitchen. They stopped what they were doing, looking up at them. Bruce walked over to them. “I’m sorry for my actions toward the boys today, and if I embarrassed either of you, I do apologize. I told Mike he had to assist me in my actions to demonstrate to the young men that we would not accept any foolishness toward our daughters. I’m the only one to blame,” he finished.

  Nancy and Debbie just stood there with blank expressions on their faces. Mike, standing behind him, was staring at Bruce with his mouth open.

  “Well, we may have overreacted,” Nancy said. “And we know neither of you would actually hurt the boys. Everyone still had a blast at the field, so I apologize also,” she said, walking up to him, hugging him and kissing him on the cheek. Then she walked over to Mike, hugged him tight, and gave him a big kiss. He was still looking at Bruce with an open mouth.

  Bruce turned to Debbie, “I did not mean to embarrass you, baby.”

  “You could never embarrass me, big man,” she said, hugging him, then reaching up, pulling his face down to hers standing on her tiptoes, and kissing him.

  “Now you three go shower, and come down and help us get some food ready,” Debbie told the three.

  The three walked out, passing Tonya coming down the stairs as they were going up. Steve gave her a kiss as she went by. When they reached the top Mike grabbed Bruce’s arm, spinning him around. “You took some chance back there. Why were you willing to take all the blame?” he asked Bruce.

  “No reason for both of us being in trouble and not get loving for awhile,” Bruce told him.

  “Hey, I don’t need to hear this,” Steve said, walking to his bedroom. “They are my moms, guys,” he said over his shoulder, going into his room.

  “You have told him about the birds and bees right, Bruce?” Mike asked.

  “Of course I have, and any points I missed I am sure that Tonya will point them out later,” Bruce told him.

  Bruce and Mike walked into their master bedrooms and started cleaning up to get ready for the company coming over. They would at least act civilized to the young men.

  Later that night after the boys had left and the kitchen was cleaned, everyone went to bed to start playing X-box. Bruce and Debbie were lying in bed. Debbie was on her iPad, and Bruce was playing X-box. All the kids and Mike were playing the new Call of Duty, and they were online beating up the wolf clan.

  “Baby, could you mute your headset so we can talk?” Debbie asked Bruce.

  “I can still keep playing?” he asked hopefully.

  “If you can talk and play at the same time,” she said.

  Bruce told everyone that he was muting his headset but was still playing; Mama wanted to talk. Mike told him before he muted that if he was in trouble to blame him. Bruce said okay and muted, turning to Debbie, but looking at the TV out of the corner of his eye.

  “Steve asked me if Tonya could move in after church tomorrow,” Debbie said.

  “Yeah, he asked me, too, while I was grilling burgers,” Bruce told her while he gunned someone down on the TV.

  “Well, what did you tell him?” Debbie asked.

  “I said I did not care. She spends at least one night a week here, but he had to ask you,” Bruce told her as he shot someone coming out of a building.

  “This is different, Bruce. This means that they will be sleeping in the same room. Tonya will not be sleeping in Danny’s room like she will later tonight,” Debbie told him as he cussed at the TV as someone shot him.

  “She has slept in Steve’s room before,” he informed her, knifing a person on the game.

  “Yeah, and he slept on the floor. This is different, big guy,” she told him as she started to watch the game.

  “We lived together before we got married,” Bruce reminded her as he pulled a pistol, shooting someone in a building.

  “For three weeks during summer break for me,” Debbie said, starting to get interested in the game.

  “It really makes no difference, baby. They love each other, and you said she was taking protection so they will not have kids out of wedlock. Damn it,” Bruce said as some “red devil” kid blew him up with a rocket launcher.

  “So you see no harm in Tonya moving in?” Debbie said. “There is someone shooting at you from the top of the building on the right.”

  “There that little shit is,” Bruce said, and he shot a grenade on top of the building and was rewarded with a kill. “Thank you, baby,” he said. “No, I see nothing wrong with it. Now her mom might, but I don’t. I love having her in the family, and her being here all the time will be excellent.”

  “Her mom already said she could. They asked her last night when Steve went down to ask for her hand in marriage,” Debbie told him as she watched for threats on the game. “Second floor window left side,” she said.

  “Steve did not tell me that,” Bruce said as he launched his predator drone.

  “He did not tell me either. Pam called and told me this morning. Baby, someone is running up on your left side,” Debbie told him.

  “Thank you,” Bruce said, turning his character on the screen and shooting the guy trying to sneak up on him.

  “Well, what did Pam say?” Bruce asked.

  “She said that they gave Steve permission to marry her. Warren–,” Debbie started to say.

  “I don’t give a rat ass what he said.” Bruce said sternly. “If he ever touches Pam again, I will throw him in the scrap pond and let the gators have him.”

  “That’s not nice baby. There is someone running up behind Mike and you. To the left behind the car,” Debbie told him.

  He turned and lobed a grenade in the direction Debbie told him, getting another kill. “Why can’t you always watch me play?” he asked as the red devil died again.

  “Baby, I’m not stupid. If I want your attention talking to you while you are playing, I have to help you out, or you do that man thing and only hear half of what I say. Some just ran into that building to your right,” Debbie informed him. “Anyway, they only asked Pam about moving in, not Warren, and Pam said it was all right with her. She was happy that they asked her first when I told her I did not know anything about them moving in together.”

  “Well, what did you say to her about it?” Bruce asked as he killed the red devil for the tenth time in a row without dying.

  “I told her if you did not care that we would let them move into one of the guest bedrooms downstairs. It’s the same size as our master bedroom and has its own bathroom,” Debbie told him.

  “Have you told the two lovebirds yet?” Bruce asked.

  “Of course not baby, that is why we are having this talk,” Debbie pointed out.

  “Well, let’s tell them then,” Bruce said as he got his gunship.

  “I will go and get them.” As she started to get out of the bed, Bruce stopped her.

  “Wait, first, they are both playing with us, and second, don’t you think we need to ask Mike and Nancy?” he said.

  “Nancy is the one who said they needed the guest bedroom, and she was answering for Mike. And what does the fact that they’re blowing up people on the TV have to do with it?” Debbie looked at him with a questioning look.

  “We can tell them over X-box,” he said proudly.

  “Absolutely not,” she said firmly.

  The game had ended, and everyone was in the lobby. Bruce picked up his headset, putting it on. Debbie looked at him and said, “You had better not.”

  Bruce smiled and unmuted his headset and asked Steve and Tonya to come down to their room. Shortly afterward, the two were standing at the foot of the bed looking like kids who were caught with a hand in the cookie jar.

  “Steve, your mother and I have had a long discussion about your request to have Tonya move in and have made our decision,” Bru
ce said in a flat tone. Steve’s shoulders slumped down, fearing the worst. Dad always dished out the bad news, but he would live with whatever was decided here; this was his family, and he had asked. “Are you ready for our answer?”

  “Yes sir, we are,” Steve replied in a dejected voice.

  “We feel honored to have your bride-to-be move in with us and for you two to take the guest bedroom downstairs,” Bruce said. It took a few seconds for the answer to sink in, but when it did, Steve snapped his head up, looking at his dad.

  “Thank you Dad,” he said, walking over to hug his dad and mom. Tonya just jumped in between them, hugging them both at the same time.

  “Now you two get out of here. We will see you in the morning,” Bruce told them as Tonya kissed his cheek.

  Steve and Tonya said goodnight as they walked out. Bruce turned the X-box off and looked at Debbie.

  “Love you baby,” he said, pulling her over to him. He turned off the lights, and sleep overtook them shortly.

  Chapter 15

  The next morning, as usual, Bruce was the first up. It was Sunday, so no workout today. He was sitting at the head of the kitchen table drinking his coffee and waiting on his laptop to warm up so he could check on the headlines. This is where most meals were eaten in the house. The table was long and could seat ten. His chair was on the west end, and Mike’s was on the east end. The wives sat on their respective husband’s right side. The kids just sat somewhere in the middle; the only constant was Mary and Danny were sitting next to each other. The only time the dining room was used was on special occasions and Sunday afternoon after church. They all went to a small Baptist church outside of Ringgold even though everyone was Catholic. It was not a strict church filled with fire and brimstone. Bruce could not take a preacher yelling and saying bad things to him. He figured you believed in God and Jesus and lived your life the best you could. Bruce took another sip of coffee, clicking on the news Web site.

  It had been reported that several cases of the Congo virus was in Europe, with a lot of cases in Paris and surrounding cites. They were reporting some riots in Paris with some fatalities. Well, another reason not to go to Europe, Bruce thought as he clicked on news in America. The headlines made him sit up. Rioting had been reported in Boston and New York. The reports were very vague, some saying that the riots were people wanting to send help to Europe and others saying it was people wanting to send more to Africa. Most of the west coast of Africa was a war zone. The State Department had suspended all flights to the continent. There was unrest reported in all the northern countries of Africa down the west coast. Only the southern tip of the country was unaffected by the unrest and had no reports of the Congo virus.

  Bruce was getting mad. He did not care about the rest of the world; there was unrest here in America, and all the stories kept referencing Africa or Europe. Closing that news site, he opened up several chat rooms he was a part of and another news site. He minimized his chat rooms while they loaded. The news site said the same thing the last one did. Riots in the northeast from Boston to New York, no reports of the Congo virus in the States, but the governor of New York was calling a press conference later today. It was expected that he was going to call for the National Guard to assist with the riots because the police were being overwhelmed. Bruce sat back, staring at his computer, and clicked on the first chat room; the board was on fire. It was a survivalist board, so he usually took everything on it with a grain of salt.

  Everyone was talking about the Northeast, and several of the people who were there said some parts of Boston were a war zone and it was not safe to be outside. The mayor had made an announcement for the public to stay indoors until the police could bring the situation under control. Bruce stopped reading and sat up. It was six o’clock, and everyone else usually got up about seven to get ready for church. Should he go wake everyone up? Was he just being paranoid? Standing up and pacing around the table, he started to think. There were over twenty million people in the New England states; that could lead to a lot of trouble. Fuck it, he said to himself and walked up the stairs and went into his bedroom and woke Debbie up.

  “Baby, come downstairs, okay? I want to show you something, okay?” he asked her.

  “If the damn pigs are out there, just shoot them, okay,” she said, half asleep.

  “It’s not the pigs,” he said in a flat tone.

  The tone of his voice made her sit up with a startle. “What is it?”

  “Just come downstairs. I am going to get Mike and Nancy,” he said, walking out of the room and turning right down the hall and stopping in front of the door. He knocked and said, “Mike, it’s Bruce. Are you up?”

  “I am now. Just come in,” Mike said, yawning.

  Bruce opened the door and walked in. “Mike, I need you and Nancy downstairs, okay?”

  Nancy replied, “We know that Tonya is moving in. Can I go back to sleep?”

  “This has nothing to do with that. I need you two downstairs right away,” he said, turning and walking out of the room.

  Both Mike and Nancy sat up and jumped out of bed. Bruce was acting strange, and this was not like him––especially waking Nancy––unless something was wrong. They both started looking for house shoes and robes. After they found everything and put it on, they both took off downstairs.

  When Bruce walked into the kitchen, Debbie was at the coffeepot getting a cup of coffee. She was yawning while she put in her cream and sugar and slowly stirred the dark liquid.

  “Well, I’m here baby,” she said.

  “Let’s wait for the other wife and husband,” he said, walking and sitting down at his laptop.

  Just then Mike and Nancy walked in, and Mike saw Bruce sitting down at the computer. “If you woke me up because you found something on eBay, I think I will throw something at you,” Mike said with a smile.

  “No, just come here,” he said without a smile.

  Everyone looked at him with shock and bolted to stand behind him. They read the headlines and the Web sites as he scrolled over them, each one stopping his hand at times, as someone else wanted to speed it up.

  “The hell with this, I’m getting my own laptop,” Mike said, running to get his laptop out of his room.

  Debbie and Nancy stood up looking at each other and took off to get their laptops. While they were gone, Bruce made everyone a cup of coffee and set it at each spot at the table. As he was sitting back down, everyone had returned and was glued to his or her computer. They sat for thirty minutes looking on the Web and gathering information.

  Bruce stood up. “Well, what do you guys think?” he asked.

  “Well, it centered to the Northeast, and they are pretty liberal up there. Hell, if someone is not politically correct, they have a march,” Nancy said.

  “This is different, pumpkin. Several sites said the governor was going to ask the National Guard to come in this afternoon at a press conference,” Mike said.

  Debbie looked at Bruce, “What do you think, baby?”

  “I think we are going to see riots here. Maybe not today but by the end of the week. Let’s face it. We remember Katrina, and how many of those idiots moved up here? They cannot take care of themselves and looked for any reason to take from others. I don’t know if it will get bad, but let’s pull up the farm’s status and see where we stand,” Bruce told them.

  It was never said, but everyone knew it would be Bruce to lead in a time of crisis. During the tornados and the bad storms, it was Bruce who led everyone. What he said is what was done. He never asked for it; everyone just expected it of him. Everyone started opening spreadsheets for the areas that they were responsible for.

  “Debbie, what do you have?” Bruce asked.

  “Forty chickens producing about thirty eggs a day. Both milk cows are putting out at least two gallons a day, the goats about half a gallon. All the greenhouses are planted; the garden will be ready to harvest in a few weeks––we should get a total of forty tons out of it. We were going to give a lot
of it away since we have so much stocked up here. We need more canning supplies and vacuum bags if we want to put it all up. The hay has been cut and needs to be baled; we have enough baling wire for three years. With this collection of hay, we are good for two years. We currently have enough seed to plant the garden and the greenhouses for three years even if we do not recover seed from the harvest. Mine and your bank account is at $18,000 and our savings is $74,800,” she reported.

  “Nancy, talk to us,” Bruce said.

  “We have enough canned and jarred food to last a total of eighteen months with no change in our diets. The walk-in freezer is not full, but we have enough meat stored for six months; we have room to double that. We have enough feed for the horses and the two cows and the bull for sixteen months. The dogs have enough dry food for eleven months and about three months of wet dog food. The chickens have enough feed now for eight months; the quail and pheasant are the same. We only have four months’ food for the catfish. We were going to pick some up next week. The LLC has $26,455 in the account, Mike and I have $31,200 in our account, $14,000 in savings. We used our savings to buy the land in North Dakota; that’s why it is so low now. In the house, we have $5,000 in cash, two pounds of gold, and sixteen pounds of silver,” she finished.

  “Mike, talk to us,” Bruce said.

  “We have all five solar arrays up with the output at twelve kwh; the house currently only uses four kwh even with the air set at seventy. Primary battery house is at full charge, and the backup house is set and ready to go. All batteries are dry but can be filled in an hour. We can be off the grid at any time. We have three back-up solar arrays that are put up in storage. It will take us four days to put them up and wire them into the system. Both backup generators have been serviced and can supply power if need. Currently we have 1,980 gallons of diesel and 1,120 gallons of gasoline. Both the diesel and gas can be treated to last. We currently have enough chemicals on hand to make another 4,000 gallons of biodiesel if we plant the garden in soybeans for conversion. We have enough salt for the swimming pool for the next three years. All the vehicles, including farm equipment, have been serviced and are up to date. The backhoe needs the oil changed, brought out, and driven around. The electric boom lift needs to be charged. We have over a hundred pounds of rechargeable batteries that need to be charged. There are no changes to the North Dakota compound except that four storage containers have been delivered and just placed on the property,” he finished his report.