Blue Plague: War (Blue Plague Book 6) (18 page)

“Bruce, third is led by a major who has trouble tying his boots. If I leave him, he will bump into your line. I really want to keep casualties down.”

“You’re right. Stay safe, and my choppers are out heading to your boys.”

“Those are your troops, Bruce, just like we will be before long,” Gene said. “Stay safe. I’m out.” Gene looked around the Hummer, at everyone looking at him in awe.

Martin shook his head. “Sir, I’m really fighting the urge to pop you in the head. Me and the boys have been trying to figure out how we could knock you out and tie you up so we could join up with Omega. All this time, you were with them,” he said.

“Tie me up?” Gene asked.

“Yes sir. We couldn’t leave you here because it’s no secret that Givens wants to kill you along with several in Homeland. They don’t mind killing; that’s why Givens has the job. We all know they killed General Center.”

“Oh, I know. Bruce sent me their e-mails. They own that base,” Gene said.

“You could’ve told us sir,” Martin said.

“I had to be sure, and when we finish here, we have to join Omega and Gamma in the war fast, but I will fill you in on that later.”

“How in the hell do you know Bruce, sir?” Martin asked.

“Martin, when you were at Benning, did you hear of Dark Knight?”

Shaking his head, chuckling, he said, “Shit not many wearing the tab haven’t heard of him.”

“Bruce is Dark Knight, and I was his LT for four years.”

“No fucking way!”

Gene started laughing. “Oh yeah. That man aged me twenty years in those four he was under me.”

Martin leaned forward. “Is he really married to both Angela and Stephanie? We hooked up a dish and watched a broadcast last week,” he asked.

“Pretty, ain’t they?” Gene said. “And yes, he’s married to them both, and they are both pregnant now,” Gene said.

“You’ve seen and talked to them?” Martin asked.

“Yeah, I talked to them on my computer many times,” Gene said and sighed. “But the light of his life is dead. He lost his wife in an attack by a gang. Now that was a woman. Angela and Stephanie are doing a good job taking care of him now. Bruce has a tendency to go ballistic in the stupid shit area.”

“Sir, those stories can’t all be true,” Martin said.

“No, they’re embellished a lot now, but they really happened.”

They all just looked at each other. “Sir, you going to join Omega with us?” Martin asked.

“I’ll fight wherever Bruce tells me to,” Gene answered and started laying out how Bruce contacted him and the plan to get the families out.

Bruce was watching the screens as Omega redeployed further out in case Givens attacked. They had moved out after Fredrick was led through their lines, going to Hope. The center of his line was at Plain Dealing with a platoon there, and the others spread out. Just as they finished setting up, he watched in horror as second regiment overshot their line.

Just as he was about to start an artillery strike, they stopped at the town of Bradley, Arkansas. They were now thirteen miles from his line, ten miles closer to him than they were supposed to be. Bruce was getting ready to pull his troops back when radar started picking up the micro UAVs. He told everyone to stay put because they were inside the government’s artillery now.

Looking at the screens around him, Bruce made sure all their artillery was marked for death if they so much as sneezed and radioed his troops to stay under cover. When he heard Gene come over the air and tell them not to turn any radar on until he got there, Bruce relaxed. He watched them for an hour, spreading out their line, and behind them, the headquarter element spread out and started working on the wounded. Seeing all the wounded, Bruce started to feel guilty for raining down so many Hellfires.

“Sir, we have vehicles heading toward Plain Dealing!” one of the technicians yelled at him.

“Light them up!” Bruce yelled.

“Sir, they will be there before we get lock!” Bruce moved over behind him and watched the line of vehicles speed down the road, reaching the outside of Plain Dealing in four minutes.

Bruce keyed his mic. “Omega, we have enemy in Plain Dealing.”

“No shit, Dad, we see them,” Jake shot back.

Bruce broke out in a cold sweat when he head Jake’s voice. “Son, you’re supposed to be to the east.”

“Well our positions for our rigs weren’t completed, Dad, so we had to hide our rigs here, and we were getting ready to move on foot to our bunkers when we heard motors coming.”

“Jake, it looks like a company-sized element. Is that about what you get?” Bruce asked, trying to calm down.

“Yeah, and if this is keeping our distance, you tell Gene I’m kicking his ass.”

“You might have to stand in line, son.” Bruce watched the vehicles stop inside of Plain Dealing. Then, Bruce saw more vehicles move out toward other areas of his line.

“Willie, get ready to engage and pull back,” Bruce called over the radio.

“Ah, Bruce, that’s good for you to say, but they are bigger than we are. If we pull back, I’m going to have to do it under fire and take a lot of casualties.”

“Scramble the Apaches!” Bruce yelled.

Jake came over the radio. “Dad, I’m fixing to engage. They are getting too close and have numbers.”

“Jake, they are four times your size, son.”

“Yeah, and if they get closer, they will just be able to overrun me.”

“Mike, are you seeing this?” Bruce asked.

“Yes, Bruce,” Mike answered.

“Run this, and use the artillery and Hellfires. I have the Apaches en route,” Bruce said, heading toward the door.

“Damn it, Bruce, second and third regiment is starting to move down,” Mike shot back.

“Shove it, Mike,” Bruce yelled. “Jake, before you start, call for artillery on their forward position so they can’t reinforce,” Bruce said, climbing into a Hummer and getting behind the mini gun. “Driver, get me to Plain Dealing now!” Bruce screamed.

“Sir, it’s ten miles away,” the driver said, pulling out and throwing up rocks and dirt.

“Go really fucking fast!” Bruce screamed.

In an old, brick building, Jake was on the upper floor, looking out over the street. The troops were within a hundred yards. “Matt, you and Danny get ready to take out the four Strykers with the Javelins. Everyone with an AT-4, go for the Hummers. When the artillery hits, open up, and don’t stop.”

“This is first platoon. Need artillery on their forward elements now. Mortars, drop right at the edge of town, and don’t stop till I tell you,” he said, bringing his rifle up to his shoulder. Behind him, off in the distance, he heard the MRLS and mortars, and so did the enemy. They started dropping down and moving away from their vehicles faster toward the shelter of the buildings.

When the first shell hit, first platoon opened up. Fifty troops died instantly as Danny and Matt shot off the Javelins from the roof of the building Jake was in. One of the Strykers saw them and opened up with the Mk-19, throwing grenades.

As the first ones hit the roof, the Javelin hit it, blowing it up, but the grenades impacted the side of the roof, throwing Danny and Matt back. All the air in Matt’s lungs left his body as something hit him in the chest. As he crashed against the roof, he heard Danny yell. Rolling over, he saw her right arm covered in blood then saw blood on her face. Crawling over to her, he grabbed her. “Are you okay?” he yelled.

“Fuck no. That son of bitch shot me!” she yelled, pulling a grenade off with her left hand and threw it off the roof.

Matt threw two more and keyed his radio. “Jake, Danny’s hit,” he yelled.

“Get her to the street. I have two down here. Will meet you there,” Jake replied.

Matt tried to look at Danny’s arm, but she stopped him, hearing an AT4 launch beneath them. “Look at it later; let’s get the fuck out of here! Jake only had two AT4s!” she screamed, grabbing her rifle and hearing another AT4 launch. Matt lifted her up and moved to the stairs. Gripping his rifle, Matt let Danny move down the stairs, and he noticed she wasn’t moving her right arm, and there was more blood dripping from it. When they reached the bottom, they saw Buffy run out the side door heading toward the front of the building. Ripping a grenade off her vest, Buffy threw it around the corner and ducked back as bullets hit the corner, sending brick chips flying.

“Matt, I have my wounded at the top of the stairs. Come help me get them down!” Jake yelled over the radio. Using her good arm to hold her rifle, Danny ran up to Buffy, and they started firing around the corner. Matt ran inside, heading upstairs. He saw two wounded at the top of the stairs and Jake and Mary firing out the window. Grabbing one of the wounded, Matt yelled, “Jake, let’s go!” He lifted a wounded woman over his shoulder and glanced at Jake before turning and running down the stairs. He looked up to see Jake pick up the other woman and him and Mary coming down. An explosion hit behind them that threw Jake, Mary and the wounded woman down the stairs on top of Matt.

Outside, Danny and Buffy were firing at the advancing troops, using all their grenades to buy time for Jake, Matt, and Mary. “Jake, move your ass. These assholes really want this building!” Danny yelled over the radio and changed magazines. With only one hand, it was quite challenging, and she was not in the mood for a challenge.

“Some cocksucker tried to blow us up!” Jake called back.

“Yeah, he shot an AT-4, but Buffy dropped him. Now, come on; we can’t last much longer!” She leaned out, firing. From behind a smoking Hummer, Danny saw a green sphere flying through the air at her. “Oh shit,” she moaned.

Buffy was shooting at anything that was moving and even a few bodies that weren’t. Seeing two men running toward her, she aimed and squeezed, hearing Danny tell Jake to move it as both men dropped, screaming. When she heard Danny say “Oh shit,” Buffy looked up and saw the grenade flying toward them.

She watched it hit the ground in front of her bouncing, and yelled, “Grenade!” as she jumped back, hitting Danny in the chest with her back, knocking Danny behind the corner with her as the grenade exploded.

Jake and Matt stepped outside just as the grenade exploded and saw Danny and Buffy fall back, crashing hard on the sidewalk. “Danny!” Matt screamed and ran to her.

“Danny and Buffy are down. Half the platoon is wounded or dead. First platoon is staying in place! No surrender; kill everything!” Jake yelled on the radio as he ran behind Matt toward Danny and Buffy. He saw Danny’s right arm was a bloody mess, and Buffy had blood on her left hip, and her pants were starting to soak through with blood. Both had their eyes open, but their eyes were rolled back.

Grabbing a grenade off his vest, he pulled the pin and threw it behind a burning Hummer then saw a line of troops moving toward them, stepping over a lot of bodies.
Well, it took a bunch of them to take us out,
Jake thought as he pulled his rifle up to his shoulder, sighting in on one. Then, a stream of red cut the line of troops coming at them in half.

Jumping back, Jake turned and saw his dad coming at them, firing a mini gun out of the top of a Hummer. Jake spun back around the corner. “Oh yeah, y’all fucked up now, my Dad is here!” he yelled as he shot two men trying to retreat. The Hummer stopped in front of them, and Bruce jumped out and ran over to them.

He saw Danny and Buffy laying down, not moving, and Matt and Jake were covered in blood, and he didn’t see Mary. The once suppressed rage filled his body as Bruce spun around and charged the line of attacking troops, screaming. His life meant nothing now as the wave filled his being. Coming around the burning Hummer, he saw a pile of wounded soldiers and started shooting all of them then rushed forward. Ignoring the pleas, Bruce shot anything not Omega.

Matt and Jake took off after him to join in the killing. How many they killed they didn’t know, but it didn’t matter. Not finding any more, they ran back to the corner of the building. As they reached the girls, all through the distance, the sound of war raged on.

Chapter 14

Gene was walking the major around, showing him where to deploy, when to the west, he heard thunderous explosions and felt the ground shake under his feet. “What the hell is that?” the major asked.

“War,” Gene said, running to the command track. “What the hell is going on?” he yelled.

“The general ordered a probing attack to the front, and they hit heavy resistance. Then, Omega dumped rockets and artillery on our forward edge. Next, they brought down Hellfires, taking out the Patriots that they missed and all the MRLSes. The casualties are in the hundreds so far. They strobed their radar and saw planes coming in from Shreveport; then, they lost the radar. All of our micro UAVs suddenly just dropped. We think they jammed the frequencies. Then, we lost one of our main UAVs, and we pulled the other one back,” Henderson said.

Gene grabbed the handset from Henderson. “This is Colonel Walker. All units, pull back to scrimmage line now. Any unit not pulling back will be hit by friendly artillery!”

“This is General Givens; you will ignore that order and continue contact!” Givens yelled.

“General, shut the fuck up, or I will drop some artillery rounds on you. All units, you have three minutes before impact. The enemy is calling in massive air, and we have no long-range air cover, only short-range. You will be wiped out by them or us if you don’t pull back now. General, I’m on my way, bitch!” Gene shouted.

Martin ran over to him, carrying his shoulder bag. “Sir, Mike wants to talk to you,” he said in a hushed voice.

Gene looked at the major. “If you follow anyone’s order but mine, I’ll kill; do you hear me?” Gene said.

“Yes sir,” the major said as Gene ran for the Hummer.

When he climbed in, he grabbed the microphone. “Gene,” he barked.

“What the fuck is going on?” Mike yelled.

“Givens ordered probing attacks,” Gene told him.

“No shit, but they are ten miles forward of your departure line,” Mike said, and Gene started cussing.

“Mike, call off your air. I ordered them back.”

“Bruce called in the Apaches, and they are fixing to hit you now!” Mike yelled.

“Mike, pull them back; I’m going back there now. Call Bruce,” Gene begged.

“His kids were in that attack line, motherfucker, along with mine. It was called out half the platoon was down. All of y’all are dickless pieces of shit and couldn’t fight your own fucking battle. You made us do it, cocksucker. You and your men could’ve overthrown those fuckers, but no, you don’t want to do this bullshit. You are fucking spineless. If my kids are dead, I will hunt every one of you fuckers down and kill you with my own hands!” Mike screamed at the top of his lungs.

“Mike, I just wanted to save all of them.”

“You can’t, you stupid motherfucker. You save as many as you can!” Mike yelled. Tears ran down Gene’s cheeks hearing Mike. In a normal voice, Mike called back but was breathing heavily. “Gene, I’m waiting on word from the units. Bruce went to the kids. If any of them are dead, so are your troops and refugees.”

“I understand, Mike. I have all my positions holding. After you take us out, make sure you take out Maryland. I’m sorry, Mike,” Gene said.

“I am too, Gene,” Mike said.

Gene dropped the microphone and turned to Martin. “Tell your boys we may have to fight our way in to the general. You will kill anyone that stands in our way.”

Martin whispered in his mic then looked at Gene. “Sir, you can’t blame them. They were trying to help us, and their kids get shot. If it was me, I’d be coming with a dull wood saw to kill us.”

“I know, Martin,” Gene said as they pulled up to the headquarters area. Gene got out, and two MPs walked over to him.

“Sir, you are under arrest,” one said as Gene drew his pistol and shot him in the face then spun and shot the other one. Then, Martin’s platoon flanked Gene as he walked forward. Troops cleared the way. An MP came running from the tent and was shot by one of the Rangers. Gene stepped over the body into the tent, and the general pulled his pistol only to have one of his Ranger “guards” knock it from his hands.

Gene looked at a table in the center of the tent and saw the President. “I told you, sir; he has gone insane!” Givens yelled.

“General, you do realize that we can hear your radios up here, right? And we have been watching. You didn’t follow any of the ordered battle plan. Have you heard from first regiment? No, you wouldn’t because they are not there,” the President said.

“Sir, first regiment defected to Omega,” Gene said.

“Are you sure?” the President asked.

“Yes sir. Fredrick called me and said Givens was going to get us killed and you didn’t care enough to stop him because you don’t a have dick. His words, sir,” Gene lied.

“So General, you have killed a lot of my troops and caused three thousand to defect. You will be shot and go down in history as a bigger traitor than Benedict Arnold,” the President said, and Givens started crying. “Colonel, you are in charge. Can you save this operation?” he asked.

“I don’t know, sir. I have to wait on information; then, I’ll know,” he said.

“I understand, Colonel. For now, I’m fixing to let Homeland deal with the traitor’s families,” he said.

“Sir, I wouldn’t do that. If you want the men to follow the commanding officer’s orders, you can’t. They will question every order given and not fight. We lose our army. They are not to blame.”

“You’re right. If at all possible, capture Fredrick.”

“Yes sir,” Gene said.

“Let me know,” the President said.

“Sir, we are against the wall. Either we do or don’t. Now, our only option is an all-out attack, but I will keep you updated,” Gene said and turned the monitor off. “Tie up the general,” Gene said and pointed at five other officers.

One of the Rangers pointed at a captain. “Sir, you really want him tied up also?”

Gene nodded. “Men, tell me what are casualties are.”

On the other side of the battle lines, Bruce ran over to the corner of the building dropping his rifle and found Mary holding a bandage to Buffy’s hip. Then looking at Danny he saw her sitting up. Falling to his knees he moved Mary’s hands and ripped Buffy’s pants open. He saw several gashes in the flesh of her thigh and a big one over her hip bone. Pulling out his dressing, he bandaged her up and saw several rips in her vest showing the Kevlar underneath.

Then he moved to Danny and ripped her shirt open to see a huge gash in her bicep and another on her thigh. “Can you feel me touch your hand?” Bruce asked.

Danny grit her teeth. “Yeah.”

“Can you move it?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Well, do it.”

“Hell no. It hurts like hell!” she shouted. He put a dressing on the bleeding wounds and searched her to find she had a large gash in her scalp. Then, he moved to Mary and saw she had a dressing on her neck. Not seeing blood coming out, he left it alone. Looking Mary over, Bruce noticed her vest was ripped up with several hits to the chest and abdomen. He said a small prayer of thanks that the kids had them on as he continued to look Mary over.

Flipping his voice mic on, Bruce moved to Jake. “Willie, I want med evac inbound now,” Bruce said. “How many casualties?” he asked Jake, kneeling next to him.

“Eleven dead, twenty-six wounded that I know of. I haven’t heard from third squad yet.” Bruce bandaged the cut on Jake’s face and leg then moved to Matt and put several dressings on his wounds.

Seeing David and Mindy walk up, Bruce motioned them to him. “Get first platoon, and after the med evac, pull back. You’re in charge, David. Pull back to the command vehicle. If they blink, launch everything you have,” Bruce said. “Willie, what’s the damage to Omega?”

“Second platoon: six dead and eight wounded. Fourth: two dead five wounded. We are still trying to get to third squad of first platoon. The rest are at full strength.”

“Pull up here, and cover first platoon as they pull out, and have someone do the same for the others. David is over first,” Bruce said.

“What about our playmates?” Willie asked.

“I don’t care if they all die right now,” Bruce said, looking around at the destruction.

Huffing, Danny looked at him. “You don’t care if we save them? I got blown up for fucking nothing, and some of our team is dead!” she screamed.

“That’s bullshit, Dad. If that’s the case, we could’ve just bombed there asses,” Buffy said through clenched teeth.

“Let me get y’all home first. Then, I’ll worry about them,” Bruce said. “Does it hurt bad, BB?” Bruce asked, wishing the choppers could move faster.

“You remember when you had that stick stuck in your arm and you said it wasn’t that bad?” Buffy said, grimacing.

“Yes, BB,” Bruce smiled.

“YOU FUCKING LIED! THIS HURTS!”

“Buffy, don’t ever listen to Dad about pain,” Danny said.

Bruce heard the choppers coming in and turned around. “Big Daddy One, this is son number one. I’m coming in hot. Get the guys, and I’ll have you home in minutes!” Steve yelled.

“Jake, Matt, get your wives. Someone, put two more wounded on here, and remember our dead!” Bruce shouted. “Base, this is Big Daddy One. I’m bringing the kids home. Some of them are busted up good, but they’re still bitching.”

“We’re waiting, baby,” Angela cried out.

True to his word, it looked like Steve was going to crash as fast as he was coming in, but he flared out at the last second and touched down softly. Bruce picked up Buffy and carried her to the chopper as everyone followed. When everyone was loaded, Steve took off like a bat out of hell, and Bruce watched the world pass by in a blur.

Two hours later, covered in his own kids’ blood, Bruce was sitting alone in the command bunker as Marcus came in and sat down with him. “What are you going to do about the army out there?” he asked.

Staring down at the table, Bruce replied, “Don’t know.”

“Well, why don’t we just finish the plan, Bruce? Everything’s in place,” Marcus asked.

“That’s what I’m leaning toward. We’ve sacrificed a lot for this, and I don’t want it to be in vain.”

“Well, Bruce, it’s cold out there, and they have lots of wounded.”

“Alright, Marcus,” Bruce said, walking back to flight control. He grabbed a headset. “Gene, this is Bruce. You out there?”

A few seconds later, Gene asked, “This is Gene. Good to hear from ya. The kids okay?”

“Buffy and Danny are still in surgery but should be okay. Jake, Matt, and Mary got a shit load of stiches.”

“What was your cost?” he asked.

“Thirty-two dead and seventy-nine wounded. You?”

“Two hundred nine dead, four hundred sixty-two wounded,” Gene said.

Taking a deep breath, Bruce asked, “You ready to finish this?”

“No,” Gene said, and Bruce took a step back from the radio.

“No?” he asked.

“Enough of this charade shit. Can you get this UAV from over my head?” Gene asked.

Lowering the headset, Bruce turned to the room. “Tell everyone to shoot at the UAV. Whoever hits it gets a prize,” he said. Suddenly, thirty missiles were screaming through the sky eighty miles away over the battlefield. A Patriot hit it, but the other twenty-nine hit the wreckage as it fell to Earth.

“Thank you. I’ll bring in my troops, and can I borrow some trucks to go get our people?” Gene asked.

“Okay, Gene, and we will send Gamma to help ya,” Bruce said.

“No, Bruce. Hope has done enough for us. We will take care of this, but I am going to need your air assets to wipe out what I leave behind in Colorado,” Gene said.

“You’re going to lose a lot of your men trying to get the families of Homeland,” Bruce said.

“Nope, had a man tell me today I can’t save everyone—just try to save as many as I can. Their husband, fathers, mothers, and wives are responsible for their family’s death. They took the job at Homeland; the others there didn’t,” Gene said.

Closing his eyes, thankful Gene finally understood, Bruce said, “I told a man that long ago after I almost got killed trying to save everyone. He wanted us to try.”

“Yep, and he told me, and he’s right.”

“Gene, the gate will be open, but most of the family is wounded or working on wounded.”

“That’s okay. I can meet them when I get back. Can you have those trucks ready tonight?” Gene asked.

“How many?” Bruce asked.

“About three hundred.”

“Yeah, around midnight.”

“See ya soon, brother, and I’m sorry; I should’ve listened to ya,” Gene said.

“No, I had a very wise woman tell me you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink. I just thought she was calling me a stupid horse,” Bruce said.

“Debbie would never call you stupid unless you really pissed her off,” Gene said.

“Hoorah,” Bruce said.

“Hoorah,” Gene replied.

Grabbing another headset, Bruce called Willie and told him to lead the troops in. Throwing the headsets down, Bruce walked outside to his truck. Climbing in, he headed toward the hospital. When he reached it, he never remembered driving over as he climbed out and headed inside. A guard saw him and stepped up to stop him. Then, he noticed who it was and wisely let him pass. Bruce saw the family gathered around several beds and headed toward them.

Stephanie and Angela saw him and ran over to him then wrapped their arms around him. “They’re going to be okay, Bruce,” Angela said.

“So they will all be fully functional?” he asked.

“Oh yeah, Bruce. Danny and Buffy will be on light duty for a while and have some scars, but other than that, they’ll be fine,” Stephanie told him.

Letting out a huge sigh, Bruce walked over to the others and saw Jake, Matt, and Mary in beds side by side. Mike was arguing with Matt to stay in bed as he walked over. Feeling someone beside him, Mike looked over and saw Bruce. Wrapping his arms around him, Mike said, “Brother, I have never been so scared in all my life.”

“I know, brother. I’m glad they are all okay. What’s the story on the other two?” Bruce asked.

“Danny’s bicep was pretty bad, but they did a good job on cleaning it out and saving it. Except for a lot of scars, she’ll be fine. Buffy had shrapnel all in her right thigh and a large piece imbedded in her iliac crest. They were able to remove it, and like Danny, she’ll have scars but should be fine. They are out of surgery and should be out here soon.”