Blue Plague The Fall

by Watson, Thomas A.

  Jake and Matt pulled another case into the game room. This one had a white stripe on the lid. Jake kneeled down, releasing the pressure relief valve, and unlocked the top. Looking inside, they saw weapons in sealed plastic bags. They placed the weapons in a line on the floor. It was quite a line when they finished. There were two AUGs, three M-4s, one Galil, one Uzi, one MAC-10, two Ruger 10 22s, three Beretta M-9 pistols with extended barrel and forward grip, a submachine gun that he had never seen, and two Saiga shot guns with short barrels and folding stocks then two more without folding stocks. Jake could understand why some of these guns were here. The short barreled Saigas were illegal unless you had a tax stamp but not Berettas and 10-22s. While Jake was thinking, Matt ripped open a bag holding an M-4, turning it around in his hands. As he looked at it, he said, “Wow.”

  Jake walked over to see what Matt was looking at. At the selector switch, there was a circle with a line through it, then one line, then three lines and finally an infinity sign. Then it hit Jake like a brick. Mike and his dad had already converted these weapons in the machine shop. Looking back down the line, smiling, Jake thought, this is better than Christmas. He had shot a lot of automatic weapons; his dad was a class-three dealer. His dad sold weapons to police departments around north Louisiana and east Texas. So there were over a dozen law enforcement demos in the armory, but you could not really own them, only hold them for the ATF. The forty-foot enclosed trailer parked beside the machine shop was full of tactical gear that Bruce and Mike took to the demos.

  Bruce had told him that they made good money at the police demonstrations just selling tactical gear and for Jake not to tell his mom. Bruce told Jake after they replaced stock that he and Mike would go spend the money, usually before they got home from the demonstrations on guns and other stuff the mamas would not understand. Jake did not have the heart to tell his dad, but he knew Mama knew about the charade. Jake just let Dad live the illusion because nothing got by Mom.

  Looking back in the box, he saw twenty sealed cardboard tubes about six inches long. He pulled one of the tubes out and saw that it was taped around the middle. Pulling the tape, Jake realized it was a seal. Pulling the top off, Jake looked inside.

  “Fuck me,” Jake said aloud.

  Everyone stopped what they were doing, looking at him in disbelief. All the kids cussed but not when a parent was close, especially a mama less than six feet away. “Jake, watch your mouth,” Debbie snapped at him.

  “Fuck me,” Jake said aloud again, not hearing his mother.

  “What the hell is it?” Steve asked, wanting to know what would cause Jake to use language that would unleash the wrath of Mama.

  Jake reached in the tube, pulling out a hand grenade. The kids and Debbie jumped up, running over to him and looking at the grenade in his hand. Mike and Bruce had taught the family about grenades. They even had several dummy grenades that they used for the family to practice with. No one other than Mike and Bruce had ever used real grenades. The kids and Debbie had never even seen a real hand grenade much less held one.

  “Fuck me,” Danny said out loud. This seemed to be the expression of choice at the moment, much to Debbie’s annoyance.

  “Danny, watch the language,” Debbie warned.

  “How the fuck did they get this, Mom?” Jake asked loudly, staring at the grenade.

  “Jake, that’s enough,” Debbie said with anger in her voice.

  “Mom, if the ATF would have come here and found these, they would have just executed us. They would not have arrested us. They would have just shot everyone in the house,” Jake said, finally looking up at her.

  “That is why only the adults knew about the crates, but only Bruce and Mike knew what they contained,” Debbie said, looking at the grenade, glad Bruce never told her about them. “And no, Jake, the ATF would not just come in and execute us.”

  “There are some people at Waco and Ruby Ridge that would argue about that, Mom,” Danny said.

  “Yes, Mama Debbie, they kill people just for having sawed-off shotguns. For these, they would probably throw our bodies in a wood chipper,” Mary said with conviction.

  Debbie was going to slap Bruce and Mike for filling the kids’ heads with conspiracy. “I don’t care what they would have done; they are gone now. Bruce and Mike thought this was worth the risk. Now put the top back on it, Jake, and nobody is to touch them until the duo returns. Am I understood?” Debbie told them sternly. They all replied, “Yes ma’am.”

  Debbie told Matt and Jake they could go and start on their project. When they asked about the other crates, Debbie told them they could wait. She was actually scared to know what was in them. They both jumped up, running upstairs, getting dressed, grabbing their rifles, and running back downstairs and into the basement. They came up later carrying something wrapped in a blanket and picked up the suppressor they had set aside.

  The family just went about the day, making progress on the opened cases. Mary and Danny were moving a lot of the stuff into the basement. Debbie was inventorying what the opened cases contained. She knew without a doubt that the duo had not bothered to do this. The duo just bought stuff, never worrying about inventorying it. Without Nancy and Debbie, the duo would have just kept buying stuff that they already had, which they had done numerous times already. She opened up the two AUGs, taking one to Nancy. Nancy was talking to Pam, who was sitting up and eating.

  When Debbie got back to the den, she found the girls had pulled out an M-4 and the Galil. They had their rifles and were taking off sights and fore grips and putting them on their new weapons. When Debbie reminded them not to just shoot on auto, and they needed to sight the rifles in after they set them up, they both just looked at her with that teenage girl expression that she was so stupid. Debbie fought off the urge to slap both of them and continued working on the inventory list.

  At 8 p.m., Debbie called Matt and Jake on the radio, telling them food was ready and to remember they had guard duty tonight. They just replied okay. Mary and Danny were on guard duty now with their new weapons. They had asked Debbie for permission to sight in their rifles in the backyard. Debbie said they could. With the suppressors on, unless someone was close, nobody would hear. They also shot their pistols with their suppressors. Mary had taken her AR-10 sniper rifle with her to the fort since she now had a suppressor for it. The AR-10 looked like a large M-4 with a heavy barrel that shot 7.62 or .308. This is what most of the family used for long-range shooting. Mary and Danny both had one and could hit targets at five hundred yards with ease. Jake and Matt could draw pictures at five hundred yards with the AR-10.

  Debbie walked upstairs after finishing her list and took a shower then climbed into bed. She reached over to her nightstand for her cell phone. She looked at the display, and the message she tried to send to Bruce had not gone through. She had not received any more messages from him, but she knew he had gotten out of Shreveport and was coming home. They had heard today on the radio they had taken from the constable that the university had been overrun. All of Shreveport and Bossier was a war zone. Everything coming over the radio was bad news. Closing her eyes, she fell asleep holding her phone.

  Chapter 33

  Bruce woke up with a startle from a nightmare of blues killing and raping his family. He was covered in sweat even though it had cooled down a lot. When the daytime temperature was 108 degrees with 90 percent humidity, 80 degrees felt cool. He was trying to get the nightmare images from his mind; it was still pitch black, so he reached up, turning on his NVG and lowering it over his left eye. Looking at his watch, he saw it was 4:30 a.m. and 83 degrees. Looking around, he saw Alex standing to his left looking at him with Mike’s NVG. Alex waved at Bruce, and Bruce waved back. Alex had the monocular over his right eye. Bruce would tell him in the morning to keep it on his left. Alex shot right-handed, and with the monocular on his right eye, he would have to shoot from his hip.

  With the monocular on the left eye, you could aim down the barrel, and both eyes would transpose
the sight picture together. It was not super accurate, but you could hit targets much easier, wasting fewer bullets.

  Buffy was still asleep in his lap, holding his arm with her left arm and her right hand on her weapon. Looking around the camp, Bruce saw everyone sleeping. All but one of the kids were lying on blankets; one had rolled off and was sleeping on the dirt. Bruce could not be sure, but he thought it was Ben. No one was covered up with a blanket. Reaching up, he turned the NVG off, flipping it up, and started going over the route they would take in his mind.

  Sitting and holding Buffy, he watched the false dawn. When he could see the trees and the group around him, he glanced at his watch. It was 5:20. He tried to roll Buffy out of his lap so he could stand. She turned around and looked at him with wide open eyes.

  “Are you getting up?” she whispered.

  “Yes, but you can go back to sleep,” he told her in a whisper.

  “Why? I was awake before you turned on the NVG,” she said. He just looked at her.

  “You kept tightening your muscles up all night, and sometimes you would hold me real tight. Did you have bad dreams?” she asked with concern.

  “Yes, I had some bad dreams. Sorry I woke you up,” Bruce confessed and apologized.

  “You didn’t wake me up. I was having bad dreams too,” she replied, looking at him. Buffy stood up and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you for rescuing me and being my daddy and not making me sleep with the other kids. If I had to sleep by myself, I would have cried all night,” she said, giving him a hug. “When I am by you, I feel safe no matter what’s around. Back at the school when you and Daddy Mike were shooting the blue people, I was scared but I felt safe. But you are never scared and always keep us safe,” she said while she hugged him.

  Bruce hugged her back and then pushed her back, looking in her face. “Buffy, at the school, I was so scared I thought I was going to pass out. I was scared shitless,” Bruce told her. She looked at him in disbelief and astonishment. “Everyone gets scared, baby, but you have to fight through it and continue what you are doing. That is what separates people that live and people that die. Fighting through your fear to fight what is causing it,” Bruce told her in a quiet voice. “Do you understand?”

  “I think so. Even though you are scared, you never stop fighting,” she said after thinking about what he said.

  “That’s right, because family is depending on you. Family first,” Bruce told her. “Let me get up,” he said, attempting to stand.

  Buffy jumped out of the way immediately. It took Bruce a few seconds to stand as his muscles screamed in protest. He felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to his body. Getting old sucks, he thought. He started doing some stretches to loosen his muscles. Seeing Buffy try them with her weapon slung across her abdomen and hitting her with each stretch Bruce reached over, taking it off of her, and laying it beside his SCAR on the ground.

  Bruce continued his stretches with Buffy copying everything he did. Next he began push-ups, sit-ups, and lunges. Then he started going through katas, and Buffy was mimicking everything she saw with determination on her face. When she was having trouble with the movements, Bruce would stop and help her. They continued for about an hour until the toddlers woke up.

  Cade started hitting Angela in the face, and Cassandra was shaking Susan awake; neither of them made any noise. The moms each woke up to tend to the babies. Susan woke Joshua up, laying him on his baby blanket, changing his diaper, then fixing him a bottle. Angela took Cade to the potty area so he could pee. Bruce almost asked her to let him piss on Jim but thought better of it. He did not want to get mad at the beginning of the day.

  Walking to his pack, Bruce tightened the straps on his tactical vest, his drop holster on his right, and his drop pouch on his left. Bending down, he picked up his rifle as Buffy picked up hers, grabbing the magazine pouch and slinging it across her right shoulder so it was on her left hip. As she reached for her backpack Bruce stopped her and shook his head no. He took the tomahawk off of his pack. Turning to Alex, he pointed at himself and Buffy then to a little stand of saplings about sixty yards from camp. Alex nodded his head that he understood.

  Bruce led Buffy to the small stand of saplings. Bruce was stepping silently on the leaf-covered floor as Buffy followed, watching him. Copying his movements, she was barely making any noise walking as they reached the small stand of saplings. Bruce stopped and looked at the saplings until he found what he was looking for. Walking up to a sapling that was about six feet tall and about two inches around, he grabbed it with his left hand. He turned to make sure Buffy was not close and listened for any sounds. Seeing Buffy was not in his swing area, and not hearing anything, he swung the tomahawk hard at the base of the sapling. The head passed through on the first swing. He eased the sapling down and then chopped about a four-and-a-half-foot section off the base. He repeated the process on four more saplings. Picking up the five poles he made, he walked back to camp.

  By the time they got back, everyone was awake except Jim. Mike was off to the side doing push-ups. Bruce put the poles down, pulling out an FSR from his pack and telling Buffy to get a bottle of water out of hers. When everyone saw them eating, they started pulling out food and water. Bruce was glad to see everyone sharing water, and two people were eating out of one MRE. Hearing people moving Jim woke up and attempted to brush the dirt off his slacks. Seeing everyone eating, he grabbed some food and water. He did not offer any of his food nor did anyone ask for any.

  After Bruce and Buffy finished eating, they brushed their teeth and started to get their packs ready. Bruce put the NVG back in his pack but left the thermal scope on. Once they had the packs ready, Bruce left them on the ground and turned to the kids. Bruce called them over in a low voice. They came over to him, and he told them to stand in a line facing him, which they did. Bruce then handed each of them the small staffs he had cut. He looked at them holding the sticks.

  “These are your weapons. You will keep up with them at all times. Your weapon should never be far from your reach. Without your weapon, you will not last long in a fight,” Bruce told them in a low commanding voice.

  “It’s a stick,” Marty pointed out.

  “It’s a staff, Marty,” Bruce corrected. “It is your weapon.”

  “She has got a gun,” Marty said, pointing at Buffy.

  “That’s because she listens, does as she’s told, and does not whine,” Bruce said, looking at Marty.

  Marty clamped his mouth shut as Bruce continued, “With a staff, you can protect yourself, incapacitate someone, and even kill a man with your weapon. Now let me show you how.”

  Bruce demonstrated basic techniques they could use with the staff, how to leg sweep someone and drive an attacker back. He told them to work together in groups of two and three when they attacked. As he worked with them, he told them they were to never charge off and attack. They were to only use the weapons if something attacked them. The lesson went on for half an hour. When he stopped, Bruce told them to get their packs ready. The blankets that he and Mike had given them last night were to be placed in their packs. When the kids took off to get their bags ready, Bruce gathered several empty MRE bags. He walked over to Alex and Angela with Buffy telling them to follow him. Mike walked up to Bruce with his SCAR held out.

  “Give me your rifle Bruce and you take mine. I cleaned mine. While you are gone, I will clean yours,” Mike offered.

  Bruce handed Mike his rifle and took Mike’s. “Thank you, brother. Tell the others they will hear us shoot so don’t be scared. Also let them know unless something is close, we won’t be heard with the suppressors,” Bruce told him.

  “I figured that is what you were going to do. I will watch Cade while you two go with Bruce. When you get back, we will be ready to go,” Mike assured him, taking Cade from Alex.

  Bruce led the group away from camp and told them to stop. He went about twenty yards out, placing the three empty bags on the ground, and walked back to the group. Giving them in
structions, he had each of them fire at a bag. He made them shoot single shots and bursts. Then he made them practice changing magazines; this was hardest for Angela since the P90’s magazine was on top of the gun and not the bottom. He then went over how to clear basic jams, always behind cover. Then he explained that cover was hiding behind something that the enemy could not shoot through. Concealment only hid you, and someone could shoot you through it. As each one took turns shooting, he told them to be ready to go to their sidearm if their main weapon went dry. He looked at Buffy and told her he would get her a sidearm when they got back to camp. Then he told them until they learned trigger control, they were to keep their weapons on safe until they were going to shoot.

  After each of them cleared their weapons, he led them back to camp. As they got back to camp, Cade ran into Angela’s arms. Bruce told them to reload their magazines that they had used. Angela and Alex sat down with Cade between them and started loading magazines. Buffy ran to her pack, pulling out one of the five hundred-round bricks Bruce had put in at the school and sat down.

  Bruce walked over to Mike, and they swapped rifles. They ran over the day’s trip and decided to leave the thermal scopes on their rifles. Bruce then asked Mike if he had his .357 and the ankle holster. Mike said he did; it was in his pack. Walking over to his pack, he dug it out, handing it to Bruce. Bruce looked at his watch. It was 7:45. He told Mike they were leaving at 8 a.m. Walking over to Buffy, he saw she had not loaded her magazines, not from lack of trying but because she didn’t know how.