Blue Plague: War (Blue Plague Book 6) (9 page)

“That’s cutting the playing field down a lot, Bruce—to their advantage. They already have speed, strength, and the ability to take damage.”

“Willie, in a month, Omega will be here with Gamma going toe to toe with the government. I really don’t want to worry that much about blues,” Bruce said. “What worries me is if we get in a slug fest and a mega horde shows up. We can’t call time out and run home.”

“Dude, you keep those thoughts to yourself. I don’t want to hear them. I don’t know about anyone else wanting too, but I don’t. If you’re leading, I’ll follow and fight with you, but you keep those thoughts to yourself,” Willie told him, turning around.

The radio crackled. “I agree with Willie, Bruce. Next time, don’t open your radio up when you talk about what worries you,” Ted called over the radio.

“I want my blanket,” Carl said over the radio.

When Carl’s transmission clicked off, a small voice came over the radio. “Carl, I’m getting you a knife that will talk to you,” Buffy chimed in.

Very quickly, the radio clicked on. “That’s okay, Buffy,” Carl answered.

“I’m serious, Carl. Herman tells me it’s going to be okay and who to poke holes in. Then, everything is better,” she said in a small cheerful voice, and Bruce smiled.

“Bruce, make her stop it,” Carl whined.

“Buffy, put Herman to bed, and keep shooting blues. Knives scare Carl because they say bad things to him,” Bruce said.

“Daddy, he just has to find the right one,” she said.

Keying his radio, Bruce tried not to laugh. “Buffy,” he snapped.

“Okay, Daddy,” Buffy said. Bruce started laughing and saw Willie looking at him.

“That’s what I mean, Bruce. With you and your insane family with us, I’ll attack the ocean. We may not win, but it damn sure would know we had been there,” Willie said as Bruce climbed down. His knees had informed Bruce that anymore jumping and they were quitting.

Walking over to the command vehicle, Angela opened the door for him. PJ and Cade were playing with cars on the floor as she grabbed his face and turned it to her. “Reports are already coming in about blues using knives, axes, hammers, and poles. One person in Ohio reported blues throwing rocks at him. And Bruce, they’re saying the blues aren’t hibernating till the temperature get below twenty now.”

“That’s evolution. Ain’t it a bitch?” Bruce said.

Chapter 8

The next morning, the platoon leaders and kids gathered with Bruce in the command vehicle, eating breakfast. Once the sun went down, the blues started coming in bigger groups but never massed or pressed them hard. There just weren’t the numbers to do that here anymore. When the numbers were tallied up close to nine thousand, blues were thought to have been taken out. Not the numbers Omega was used to facing, but it was enough to damn sure keep their attention.

UAV flights over the area showed very few blues within fifty miles. Stephanie had talked with Sandi over the radio through the night then started watching the UAV flights, getting numbers for Bruce.

Taking a sip of coffee, Bruce looked around at the group. Everyone had gotten at least seven hours of sleep through the night and were in good spirits. They had killed several blues carrying weapons through the night, but Bruce had learned what he wanted to know. They just shot them now. One blue they shot was carrying a pitchfork and charging them like a pike man.

“Listen up, everyone; let’s get this started. We have more killing to do,” Bruce said.

“And business is good!” the team shouted. Even Angela and Stephanie joined in.

Not able to help it, Bruce smiled. “We are at the far east end of the line we will be fighting at in January. According to their battle plan, the government’s left flank will be anchored at Strong, Arkansas, and their right flank will be anchored at the Texas line. That is a front of a hundred miles with three regiments of two thousand men each. I know we are planning on them joining us, but I want to be ready in case it goes to shit. They are spread out enough where an airstrike can’t wipe out large portions, and they will have anti-air capabilities,” Bruce said, standing at one of the tables that had an LCD monitor for a top, pointing at the image of the map on the screen.

Grabbing a stylus, he drew the line he’d just explained across the map on the touch screen. “I want our area clear of as many blues as we can get. If we have to dismount, I don’t want to wade through a group of blues. That will give us an advantage. The area they are going through is going to still have blues in the strength we are killing them in our area now, and as the government pushes forward, the blues will stay with them. That will give us an edge. Now, Stephanie, what’s the area like around us?” Bruce asked.

She pointed at their location ten miles east of Farmerville and drew a circle around it. “This circle is roughly twenty-five mile radius, or twenty-five miles in every direction. In the last hour, we counted six hundred and nine blues moving. Less than a hundred are moving toward us. So the density of blues was roughly eighteen per square mile, which means all the running and gunning Omega has done has paid off,” she said as Ted pointed at the circle.

“How can you say that by that circle?” he asked.

“Louisiana had a population density of a little over a hundred people per square mile. I know the big cites skew the data, but for this area, it’s pretty much right on the money. That circle is almost five hundred square miles. If Omega would’ve been wasting time, we would have faced thirty-seven thousand with a seventy-five percent infection rate. We faced less than a quarter of that,” Stephanie explained.

Ted stood up straight, squaring his shoulders. “All this shit does mean something. I just wanted it pointed out,” he said, raising his chin.

Everyone laughed at him as Stephanie pointed back at the map. “We barely pulled in any blues outside this circle. Why? I don’t know.”

Holding up his hand, pausing Stephanie, Willie asked, “Is it me, but where the hell are all the walkers at? Every other time we did this, we had walkers dragging their slow ass in here after we set up and started killing. I mean, I bet we didn’t kill but five, maybe ten, on my side all day and night,” he said, and everyone agreed.

Stephanie shrugged. “I don’t know, but most of those we have seen are runners with a few joggers,” she said, and her eyebrows came together as she thought. “Now that you mention it, I don’t remember seeing any walkers on the UAV flights,” she said.

“Maybe they hibernate like they’re supposed to when it’s cold,” Carl offered.

“Sounds good because they aren’t fully functioning infected,” Stephanie said.

“I don’t care. I can moon walk faster than a walker can move,” Bruce said and scrolled the map to their next location. “We are setting up here south of Lisbon in this field,” he said, pointing at the spot on the map.

Everyone groaned, seeing the small field, “Dude, that’s not a field; it’s a tennis court,” Ted exclaimed.

“It’s four hundred yards wide and five hundred long. We’ll have at least two-hundred-yard fields of fire,” Bruce said.

Shaking his head, Ted said, “I want to see the curvature of the Earth when we set up.”

“I’m willing to bet after we set up, we’ll be done in six hours,” Bruce said.

“You want to bet on this?” Ted cried.

Angela put her hand on Bruce’s arm. “Baby, I have to agree. You admitted in Kansas leading that horde to the river that wasn’t a good idea,” she said.

“In these numbers, I don’t care. Keep on, and we set up in a parking lot with twenty-yard fields of fire,” Bruce told everyone.

Carl grabbed Ted’s arm. “You say something else, and I’ll get Buffy to cut ya,” he said.

Stephanie looked at Angela. “I’ll just spank you,” she said.

Bruce laughed. “I’m serious. I think they’ll attack us faster with shorter fields of fire. We’ll pack our perimeter tighter with the only way in being under the vehicles,” Bruce said.

Stepping back from the table top monitor, Willie shook his head. “Dude, they don’t have to go under. In Oklahoma, we had one jump over our RG as we rode down the road. Not jump on but over it! I have no idea why, but it jumped over that ten foot tall, ten foot wide RG and never touched it. I guess one of his buddies bet him he couldn’t do it.”

“Did he try to attack you after that?” Angela asked.

“No, Buffy took off into the median and ran him over,” Willie said.

Everyone laughed as Bruce drained his coffee. “Let’s get the show on the road; business is waiting,” he said, bent down, kissed PJ and Cade, then turned to Angela and Stephanie. “Stay in here with the boys, and feed me the picture over the radio.” Bruce told them kissing each of them. “When we get there, the doors stay closed until needed, and the boys don’t get out period. If it starts getting touchy, one of you come and get the twins.”

Getting worried, Stephanie asked, “You feel something bad?”

“No,” Bruce said, shrugging. “Always be ready.”

Walking over to his RG, Bruce climbed up to the cupola, and got behind the fifty. He checked to make sure it was ready after he and Buffy cleaned it that morning. Seeing it was in shape to do business, Bruce told the driver to pull out. He turned around to see the twins standing beside Buffy and Danny. They had on CVCs like everyone else, and Bruce had no idea how or where they got them. The helmets were way too big, but they didn’t seem to mind; both were smiling ear to ear.

The temperature was in the high thirties as they pulled onto the road, and the drivers started speeding up. When they were up to speed, Bruce told everyone to get inside and close the hatches. No need to freeze without a good reason.

An hour later, they were slowing down, and Bruce opened the hatch and got behind the M2. Everyone, seeing Bruce move, copied him and opened the top hatches, standing up with their torsos out of the RGs. His driver eased off the road and drove into the middle of the field. As Bruce’s driver stopped, the rest of the first platoon came up till their bumpers touched the truck to the front of them. The ten rigs formed a wall two hundred and eighty feet long on the north end of their box. The second platoon drove up to Bruce’s RG’s front wheel on the west side of the box till the trucks bumped, and then the rest formed up behind the first vehicle. Third did the same on the east. The supply vehicles pulled in the box as the fourth platoon closed the box on the south end.

It was cramped, but like the day before, they had room to move around between the supply vehicles. The blues started showing up as fourth was pulling into position, just small groups of twos and threes. Everyone started setting up ammo and rifles as Bruce called over the radio.

“Remember, we have short fields of fire. I want one belt-fired weapon ready in each vehicle and the copula weapon manned at all times. I really don’t want to talk to them face to face, so don’t let them get close,” Bruce said. “Start the music,” he ordered, and the speakers stared to blast music.

They didn’t have to wait long, and the groups started getting bigger. Still behind the machine gun, Bruce called the twins over, and they mowed down blues on their corner. Bruce let Sherry get behind the M2, and when she mowed down a pack, she started jumping up and down, yelling. Moving her to the side, Emily mowed down another group. Bruce reloaded the weapon as Stephanie came over the radio.

“Fuck a duck, Bruce. They are pouring over the land like water coming here,” she said.

He stopped loading. “In bigger numbers?” he asked.

“No, but much faster, like we are giving away free shit here.”

Finishing loading the fifty, Bruce let the twins get behind it and start cutting down blues. They were actually getting pretty good. They would look down the site and tap the trigger, sending out a small burst, which just made a blue disappear in a mist. Then, they moved to another target.

An hour after they started, a steady rate of fire was coming from all sides of the box, but blues rarely made it within a hundred yards. Bruce was now stopping the twins before the gun ran dry and throwing another belt on the last few rounds then let them go.

The second hour, the rate of fire was starting to fall because the blues were thinning out, and by the third hour, it was only single shots every few minutes. Hearing the tempo of fire die down, Bruce keyed his radio. “Now, what does the area look like?”

“It’s clearer than the area we just left. I don’t know what we did to piss them off, but they started coming from around fifty miles away,” Angela said.

“Well, let’s eat and move to the next area,” Bruce called out, getting out to the copula. He motioned Buffy over with the twins. “I’ll bring y’all something to eat,” he said as he climbed to the ground.

Willie ran over to him. “See, that’s why I don’t want to know your fears. If you would’ve kept ‘em to yourself, I wouldn’t have wasted all that good worrying.”

“Hey, I have to share my fears with someone,” Bruce said.

“Not me. Tell your kids,” Willie said. “They don’t care.” Cook stepped out of the RV that used to be the command vehicle but was now serving as the mobile kitchen. Carrying a plate for Bruce, Cook stopped and held it out without saying a word.

“Cook, I need three more for Buffy and the twins,” he said, and Cook nodded and turned around. Bruce started shoving food down his throat when he felt two hands grab his butt, making him choke as he jumped.

Turning around, he saw Angela and Stephanie. “It’s ours; if we want to grab it, we can,” Angela said as he coughed out the food that was trying to choke him.

Bending over, trying to catch his breath, Bruce looked up at them with his eyes watering. “You scared the shit out of me. I thought one of the troops was taking the closeness of the team a little too literal,” he said with a dry, raspy voice. Grabbing his cup, he drained it as Cook brought over more plates.

“Let someone else touch that, and I’ll let Stephanie show them how good she has gotten with her knife,” Angela said.

Bruce smiled at her then saw Carl walking back to his line. “Carl, take these plates to Buffy and the twins,” Bruce told him.

“Sure,” Carl said, taking the plates.

“Bruce, you have to eat slower. It can’t be good to just shovel food like that into your stomach,” Stephanie said with a concerned face.

“It comes in handy when you’re in a hurry,” he said as Cook brought over four plates. “Come on; I’ll help you take the plates to PJ and Cade,” Bruce said, grabbing two plates. “How are the boys doing in the command vehicle?” he asked.

“Oh, they’re doing great,” Stephanie told him. “They sit and watch everyone most of the time and then will play in the floor. Then, when it’s nap time, we get a laptop and put on a movie.”

Chuckling, Bruce followed them in to find the boys sitting in two of the radio operator’s laps. When the boys turned around and saw them, they yelled out and jumped down to run over. Bruce picked them up and carried them to the back, where a small table was set up. Putting the boys down, they all started eating. Well, Cade did. PJ picked food up with his hand then put his whole hand in his mouth and let the food go.

Watching PJ, Bruce laughed and started helping him eat until PJ started hitting him, meaning he could and wanted to do it by himself. Leaving the boys, Bruce walked over to one of the display tables. Angela and Stephanie came over, standing by him. “Where to next?” Stephanie asked.

Bruce pointed at the map. “This field between Sarepta and Plain Dealing,” he said.

“That field is big. I though you wanted small fields?” Angela asked.

“No, I just wanted to see if I was right, and I was,” Bruce answered. “Plus, by the time we move and set up, it will be 1400 hours. I don’t want to move and set up somewhere else at night.” Bruce keyed his radio. “Platoon leaders, command vehicle now.”

Ten minutes later, Carl was the last one in as he stopped at the door after closing it, looking at Bruce with what could only be described as disbelief. “What?” Bruce asked.

“Bruce, why in the hell would you give two six-year-old girls switchblades and submachine guns?” he asked.

“It’s a dangerous world, Carl,” he replied, not knowing about the switchblades.

“Switchblades?” Angela asked.

Jake stepped up to the table. “Yeah, I gave them each one. They really love them,” he said.

“Jake, they are sitting with Buffy in a circle eating, talking to their knives,” Carl said hysterically waving his hands.

“We all do, Carl. It’s not my fault you can’t find a knife that likes you,” Jake said as Bruce fought off his laughter.