Sacrifice
Author: Thomas A. Watson
Date: 2013-06-21 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Zombies; Post Apocalyptic; Apocalyptic; Horror; Fiction
Description: Book Three in the Blue Plague series. Mankind is on the verge of extinction. Bruce and the family have continued to pull survivors together after the world succumbed to a virus that altered the genetic make-up of humans. The infected are everywhere, killing everything in their path and what’s most troubling, they’re learning. The family and clan are learning as well. Finding out just what it takes to rebuild for a large group of people and at the same time fight to survive. The infected aren’t the only thing out there in this new world that wants to hurt them. Other survivors from their past w
Publisher: Assassin Knight

This book is a work of fiction.

Names, characters, objects, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

No blues, animals or idiots were harmed during the writing of this book. (I’m serious none where.)

This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of the author.

Printed in the USA

Acknowledgement

Hello once again. I can’t believe that Blue Plague has sold over 10,000 books. I can remember sitting down and telling my wife I wanted to write and she said ‘go for it’. The first draft of the Blue Plague my wife told me I had to make some changes. The first dealt with Debbie.

In the original script, Debbie didn’t try to arrange for Bruce to have someone in his life if her vision became true. My wife said that was horse crap. (She did use another word.) She said, “If a woman has been married that long and has that much invested in her man. Be damn, if she is going to let him hook up with some cheap whore. She would pick a partner out for him, that she approved of.” As she continued the rant I had to admit, ‘Damn that is a good storyline.’ (After seeing what some of our divorced friends hooked up with, I really couldn’t argue.) So the trio was born.

Like I’ve said before, you can’t write a book alone and without my family it would be impossible. As many that follow Blue Plague on FB have heard, Blue Plague was originally a six book series. There was no ‘Sacrifice.’ Survival was over four hundred thousand words. Well, when my wife saw that, she looked at me like I was insane. “Make it two books,” she said and ‘Sacrifice’ was born. (She wouldn’t even sit down to read it until I did that. She hates really long books.)

If you are wondering, yes. The series is finished but it takes me several months just to get the rough version ready to publish. I have to say thank you dad. Larry Watson, my dad, is an avid reader and an English guru. He does my first edit then I send it off to the people who bleed red on my work. Without him I think they would pass out from the grammar.

Then I come to my friends like Jessica, Veronica and Ashley who I had do my proofreading and edits. To this day, it amazes me I can read what I type and it says what I want it to say. Now when someone else reads it, I always wonder, ‘How did that word drop out of that sentence?’ It’s kind of freaky to be honest, when an editor calls you and ask, “What did you mean on so and so page number?” I open the book read what it says (to me) and the reply, “That’s not what’s typed.”

Those on FB that have been doing my proofreading, I have to say thank you and you need to contact my dad and start an editing business. Are there mistakes in this one? Yes. Three editors, eleven proofreaders and I have still found little mistakes. (My most notorious is: form instead of from. I swear I hit ‘r’ before ‘o’.) Do I fix all mistakes found by the editors? No. I’m sorry but the correct grammar to me in some instances ruins what I’m trying to say. These mistakes are left in and most deal with commas. Sometimes I really don’t like that punctuation mark.

It felt really good to sit back down with Bruce and gang after starting my other books. They seemed like old friends who I hadn’t been with in a while. This series will always hold a special place for me, it’s my first.

Also, I did lighten up on the guns. (Sorry guys, a lot of the girls said it distracted them. Just to clarify, it wasn’t my wife.) I just give the basic info now but I refuse to write, “They grabbed some guns.” Without ever explaining what type and I have to tell about modifications since some aren’t legal. (Just a little spice for the ATF.)

To my family and friends, I have to say thank you for supporting me.

To those in the service, holding the line, my brothers and sisters: God Bless you and I pray you all return home safe.

It is now my pleasure to say, here is Blue Plague Sacrifice. I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 1

Feeling the room spinning, Bruce slowly woke up and opened his eyes. That only proved that the room really was spinning. Closing his eyes, Bruce tried to convince himself that the room was not spinning but that didn’t work. Bruce sat up, which only changed the rotational direction of the room as he fought off a wave of nausea.

Looking around, he saw the family spread out in the den and game room, laying everywhere. Buffy, PJ, and the twins were sound asleep in between him and Debbie. Closing his eyes, Bruce tried to remember when they showed up but his brain refused to work right now. Bruce stood up, trying not to step on anyone and headed into the kitchen.

Bruce ran to the sink, put his head under the faucet and turned on the cold water. Letting the water run over his shaved head, he cupped his hand under his mouth and started drinking some water. After ten minutes of partial submersion, Bruce felt better. Standing up and letting the water run down his torso, Bruce looked at his watch, reading 0420 and it was Monday.

Well, two more days until the kids got married. The thought almost made him cry again, but Bruce pushed it out of his mind. Bruce tried to remember what was on the agenda today, but his brain was still on strike and gave no hints when it would start working again. Giving up, he headed upstairs to shower and change.

After his shower, Bruce headed back down to the den and woke Mike up. “Mike, it’s time to get up,” Bruce said, shaking him.

Mike grumbled as he slowly sat up, blinking his eyes to make Bruce stay still in his vision. “Dude, I feel like hammered shit,” Mike said.

“Well, if it’s any consolation you don’t look like it,” Bruce replied.

Mike just stared at Bruce before replying, “Not funny, Bruce. I can hear and feel the rotation of the earth.”

“Come on brother, we have work to do,” Bruce told him.

“What do we have to do today?” Mike asked trying to fire up his brain to remember.

“I don’t know, but there is something for us to do,” Bruce admitted.

“If I shoot myself in the foot, can I have today off?” Mike asked rubbing his temples.

“Hell no! I thought you were a tough Marine?” Bruce barked.

Mike looked up at Bruce, “Unlike you Ranger boys, Marines have enough intelligence to go back to sleep.”

Bruce laughed, “Go put on your dress. I’m heading to the hall to get some coffee.”

The thought of coffee sounded appealing to Mike as he answered, “Be there in a minute.”

Bruce left Mike to his misery as he headed to the hall. Stepping inside, Bruce could hear the kitchen staff cooking as he went straight to the coffee pots. Grabbing a cup, he thought about telling the kitchen staff to keep it down. Figuring that would make him look like a sissy, he walked toward the family or command table to his spot. Bruce slammed the cup of coffee down his throat as Millie came over with the mug from hell.

Bruce looked up at her, “Thank you Millie. I know when I drink the mug from hell; I won’t be sleepy for two days.”

Millie just waved at him as she sat the cup down, “Bruce, after seein’ how much ya drank yesterday, I’m surprised you can walk. I can fix ya some tea to sober ya up right quick,” Millie offered.

“No thank you, Millie. I’m good,” Bruce replied, not wanting anything to do with medicinal tea. Bruce lifted up the huge mug, taking a long sip.

Millie looked at Bruce and changed the subject, “Bruce, they be some in this new group that’s gonna be problems. The main one be Jenny Green, but she be havin’ several friends. To say they trouble is like saying shit stinks. They’s complaining about kids with weapons and how everyone has ta train to fight.”

“Thank you Millie. I’ll take care of it,” Bruce promised, not in the mood for more problems.

Millie kissed him on top of his shaved head, “Congratulations, Bruce, on your kid’s marriage announcement. Just ta let you knowd, I cried for two days when my last two got married.”

Bruce just nodded his head as Millie headed back to the kitchen. Bruce just stared at his coffee until Mike came in, letting the door slam shut. Mike staggered in heading for the coffee like a man on a mission. Before Mike could pour a cup Millie came out of the kitchen handing Mike his mug from hell. Millie kissed him on the cheek and headed back to finish breakfast. Mike wobbled to the table and sat down sipping his coffee.

Bruce looked up at Mike, “Brother, I feel older than dirt today.”

“I know, same here,” Mike replied.

They sat drinking coffee as the rest of the farm came in for breakfast. By 0615, everyone was at the table, even if they didn’t want to be there. Danny looked up at Debbie, who like her, did not feel worth a crap. “Mom, why the hell do people drink if they feel like this the next morning?” Danny asked, thinking that humans were stupid.

“Baby, it just seems like a good idea at the time,” Debbie answered honestly. Danny groaned, laying her head on the table.

Bruce smiled at her as he looked at Paul down the table. “Paul, what’s on the agenda today?” Bruce asked.

Paul looked at Bruce replying, “All the storage areas are done. Now we have to move the mountains of stuff inside. It’s going to be close but I think we have enough room now.”

“Eighty, forty-two foot containers and an eighty thousand square foot storage area? I hope so,” Bruce answered as Millie started putting plates on the table.

“Those containers we turned into underground storage will give us over eighty thousand ‘cubic feet’ of storage per site. Then with the eighty thousand square foot main underground storage area, that alone will give us just under a million cubic feet of storage. But we are talking over twenty thousand tons to store. We rearranged the main storage area yesterday, freeing up a lot of area but like I said, it’s going to be close,” Paul told Bruce. He did not believe what he said, and was still trying to convince himself. Bruce just nodded as he fed PJ.

Father Thomas walked over to the table as Bruce was fighting with PJ trying to make him eat cantaloupe and losing. Bruce looked up as Father Thomas stopped beside him laughing, “I think he’s going to win Bruce.”

“Wanna bet on it?” Bruce said, putting a little piece in PJ’s mouth and holding it closed. PJ tried to fight but swallowed the food then slapped Bruce.

Laughing, Father Thomas replied, “Glad I didn’t bet.” Then he continued, “Bruce, I didn’t want to interrupt the celebration yesterday but can I talk to the young couples today?”

“Sure thing father. How about after breakfast?” Bruce answered then added, “I don’t know how receptive they will be, but go ahead.” Father Thomas went to the couples and asked them to meet him in the game room after breakfast.

The family ate then headed out to face the day. The temperature had warmed up to the fifties, which, which for Louisiana was cold, but nothing like the last week and a half. Most of the three hundred plus of the clan were moving supplies. Two work crews were starting on two more barracks. Everyone had an assigned area to sleep, but the way survivors were being added, they wanted to be ready for the next group. By noon, everyone who had tossed a few down in celebration felt a lot better as they gathered for lunch.

After lunch, Bruce joined in again on moving supplies to the underground areas. Stopping for a minute, Bruce watched the activity around him. Tired, he smiled, watching everyone move with a purpose to help the clan.

Sharp vivid images of the gang members’ torture session weeks ago suddenly filled his mind. Bruce tried to block them, but they just became more intense. Nausea and disgust washed over his body as he felt the sorrow and pain of the sniper on the table, driving Bruce to his knees. Unable to stop it, Bruce threw up his lunch, hearing the screams in his mind. Trying to rationalize the need for it to himself, another wave of nausea swept over him, making him throw up again. Controlling his breathing, Bruce filled his mind of images of his family in times of joy. The torture session slowly left his mind’s eye as Bruce kept his breathing steady.

Walking by, Mike saw Bruce on his knees throwing up and headed over to him, smiling, “Glad to know you’re human. I threw up after breakfast.” Bruce didn’t hear what Mike said as he sat on all fours, trying to banish the thoughts from his mind. Mike patted Bruce on his back and repeated what he said.

Bruce wiped his mouth and looked up at Mike, “Yeah, I’ve been fighting it all day.”

When Mike saw Bruce’s face, his smile vanished. There was a hollow look on Bruce’s face. Then the look just vanished when Bruce spoke. “Something else wrong brother?” Mike asked.

“No. Too much to drink for this old man,” Bruce said, getting up heading back to work. Mike just watched Bruce walk away, unconvinced.

Bruce walked over, grabbed a pile of clothes and headed back to the storage area. Bruce could usually tell when the ‘mental trips to hell’ were coming on but this was the third time that they had just hit him like a ton of bricks. The nightmares were sure to start soon. Bruce knew this from past experience and he was not ready for them. It felt like part of him wanted to just start hating so the damn things would stop, but he couldn’t do that. His family was more important than he was.

Working and keeping his mind occupied, the images did not bother Bruce the rest of the day. At dusk, Bruce headed to the gym to work off the last of his energy before heading to the hall to eat. When Bruce walked in wearing a tank top carrying his gear in his hands, he saw everyone at the table eating already. Hanging his gear on the wall, he sat down in his seat to a plate waiting on him.

Debbie looked at Bruce and could see something, “What’s wrong baby?” She asked.

“Nothing,” Bruce lied. “Just trying to remind myself I’m not old.”

“Baby, the day you’re old, we’ll all be dead,” Debbie informed him.

Bruce chuckled, replying, “Well, I have to remind myself I’m still tough every now and then.”

Everyone ate and talked around the table. Bruce tried to join in and joke but couldn’t. When the first person stood up to leave, Bruce grabbed the twins and PJ, telling everyone he was going to bed. Bruce headed to the house, showered with the kids and got them ready for bed. Bruce lay down with them, eventually falling asleep.

Tuesday was much better, and he felt like himself again. Bruce worked out twice Tuesday trying to exhaust his body. The dreams found him anyway and they were worse than he remembered.

Chapter 2

Bruce woke up in a cold sweat on Wednesday morning at 0210. Bruce fought to control the nausea until he reached the bathroom. Moving slowly out of bed so he wouldn’t wake the others, Bruce ran to the bathroom and closed the bathroom door. Bruce threw up in the toilet and when he finished, he stood up, looking in the mirror. He was pale and covered in sweat. Leaning on the sink, Bruce just stared at his reflection.

“It had to be done, so get over it. I’ve handled this before, so forget it. You will not wallow in hate. The family is important, not you,” Bruce said to his reflection in the mirror. Bruce turned on the faucet, splashing cold water on his face. A hand touched Bruce’s back, almost making him run through the wall as he let out a yelp. “Are you ok Bruce?” he heard behind him.

Turning around, he saw Angela standing in the doorway. When Bruce’s heart rate came down he said, “Angela, if you ever scare me like that again, I’ll flush you down the toilet.”

“I heard you throwing up,” Angela responded.

“Just nerves. My babies are getting married today,” Bruce replied with some truth.

“They make really good couples Bruce. I know they’ll be happy,” Angela said, trying to reassure him.

“I know, Little Foot, now go back to bed. I’ll be there in a minute,” Bruce lied.

Angela left Bruce as he jumped in the shower. Finished with his shower, Bruce went into the bedroom. Seeing everyone asleep, he got his clothes and gear and headed to the gym. After his work out, Bruce went to mission control to check on the farm and then he headed to the new barracks. The night crews were working under lights, smoothing out the concrete. Bruce walked over to the fence line and up on the berm, looking out over the land.

Today, he would lose his babies, but he knew they would be happy and that’s all that mattered to him. Mindy and David were getting married first, followed by Danny and Matt. Jake and Mary were going to be the last. The families would just keep switching sides at the altar.

Mary was mad at first when she realized that she would not be there to see the others get married. Jake and Matt fixed the problem by putting in a video feed so she could watch from the house.

Bruce smiled, remembering his conversation with Debbie when Steve got married. The kids were going to be married in ACUs and armed. Bruce knew this made Matt one happy young man. Bruce wished more than anything that they could do a real wedding but it would not look right in front of the clan. They were all one and the same, so the decision was made by the couples that they, like Steve and Tonya, would get married ready for combat.

It was 0530 when Bruce headed toward the hall, only to find Mike already there drinking his coffee. Bruce went up to the front of the hall as Millie handed him his mug. Bruce headed to the table and sat down.

Mike spoke when he sat down, “Couldn’t sleep huh?”

“No, so I worked out,” Bruce said, getting comfortable in his chair.

Mike looked at Bruce with a serious expression, “Bruce, I want to tell you thank you.”

Bruce gave Mike a questioning stare, “What for?”

“If I hadn’t met you, my family would probably be dead. Instead, I get to see them married and happy,” Mike replied. Bruce just blew Mike off. Mike just looked at him, replying, “I’m serious brother. How many other families can say they’ve survived this intact? If it wasn’t for you, I know I couldn’t say it. When you and Debbie asked us to move in with you, we thought you two had lost your minds. I know people used to live several families to a household, but not now. I have never told you this, but we almost said no. Nancy and I thought it would not work out, but on the trip out here, we decided what the hell, let’s try it at least.”

Mike took a deep breath before continuing, “If we hadn’t, we would have stayed in town and died. Bruce, you were the one who convinced Nancy to go along with this prepping thing, not me. You know yourself; at first she wanted no part of it. Then Debbie showed her E-bay, you showed her weapons and our world was never the same again. I don’t know why you and Debbie asked us, but thank you.”

Bruce just looked at Mike, smiling, “I never knew you two almost said no. Was Nancy that jealous of our relationship together? We were never that flamboyant about it; we stayed in the closet.”

“Yeah, she hated it when I shaved my legs for you, but not her,” Mike replied, smiling back.

Bruce laughed, “Well brother, I don’t know what made us ask you and Nancy, but we did. We knew that we could always count on y’all. The only thing I’d change would be a taller fence. You know when Nancy asked me what the worst case scenario was, I told her a zombie apocalypse. She bought that damn fence two weeks later and I wanted to slap her. Who needs a ten foot cyclone fence around a hundred and ten acres complete with razor wire for the top? She actually took me serious about zombies. Now I want to kiss her for it. I would’ve put up a barbwire fence, but never a fence like that. If it wasn’t for that fence, we already would’ve been overrun,” Bruce told Mike, who just stared at him.

Bruce continued, “I’m serious Mike. We’ve killed, what? Two fifty to three hundred blues here at the farm. My whole family would’ve had to stay on watch 24/7 to watch a place of this size, which can’t be done. Without you and your family, mine would be dead also brother. We’re lucky.”

Mike nodded his head, agreeing. Then Mike changed the subject, “You ready for today?”

Bruce sighed, “Yeah, as I’m ever going to be. I’m glad Danny and Jake are with Matt and Mary. We will really be family then brother. Mindy will be good for David. I just wish we could give them more than one day off.”

“You could’ve told me you got rings for the kids when we were at Fort Polk,” Mike said, still a little irritated.

“I was gonna tell you. I just didn’t think they would move so fast. Granted, I would move fast if I was them. I just didn’t expect them to,” Bruce admitted.

Mike accepted the apology, replying, “That’s good then and I agree with you. I’d move fast also. In the world before the infection, you could take life for granted. Now, you have to live each day like it’s your last, because it might be.”

Millie came over to the table, “Will you twos help me take the women somethin’ to eat in the house?”

Bruce grabbed his chest like he was having a heart attack. “We can take them something to eat? Are you kidding me?” Bruce asked in an exaggerated voice. Millie just looked at Bruce. Bruce stood up quickly, not wanting her to find the wooden spoon. He and Mike had snuck in the kitchen three times and taken every wooden spoon in there, but Millie always came out with another one to threaten them with, occasionally popping them with it.

They followed Millie to the kitchen, grabbed trays loaded with plates of food, and headed to the house. They passed the soon to be grooms leaving the house. Bruce headed to Danny’s room, but found the door open and no one inside. Leading Millie and Mike to Mary’s room, they found it empty also. Bruce turned around, heading to his room.

Stopping in front of his door, he balanced the tray and tried to open the door but it was locked. Bruce knocked on the door, only to hear, “Go away boys, the girls are getting ready.”

Bruce couldn’t tell who said it, but replied, “If I’m not mistaken, this is my room. Out of the goodness of my heart, I have brought you food and this is how I’m repaid?”

Stephanie opened the door, standing there in sports bra and panties. “The boys kept trying to get the girls to come out, saying this was a stupid tradition,” Stephanie informed him.

Bruce walked in to find the room full of women and girls running around sports bras and panties. Bruce sat his tray on the dresser, and Mike and Millie did the same. Bruce found all three brides-to-be were here putting on makeup or fixing their hair with someone to help them. Looking around the room, Bruce saw PJ and Cade just sitting on the bed with blank expressions, watching the women run around. Bruce put his hands on his hips, “Why are my boys in here with all of you women? Are y’all trying to traumatize them?”

Everyone stopped and looked at Bruce, then at the boys, who were just wondering what was going on. Angela smiled then continued to brush Mindy’s hair. Debbie looked up at Bruce, “We have to get ready. If you don’t want them traumatized, you should’ve taken them when you got up.”

“I got up really early. Besides, one of you could’ve brought them to me,” Bruce suggested.

“I’m not talking to you right now Bruce. My babies are getting married. Why don’t you make sure the boys are ready,” Debbie requested.

Walking to the bed, Bruce picked up PJ and Cade, “We’ll go pee on something, just to remind you that you’re boys.” Bruce felt something pop him on the butt, making him jump. Turning around, he found Millie standing there with a wooden spoon.

“That be enough out of you today,” Millie warned, pointing at him with a wooden spoon.

Bruce looked at Millie, trying to rub his stinging butt, but couldn’t with a kid in each arm. “I have a good mind to let them pee in your kitchen for that,” Bruce mumbled then walked over to Danny kissing her on the head. “You look beautiful sweat pea.” Bruce then walked over to Mary and Mindy, kissing them and telling them the same. As he left the room, Bruce looked at Millie and Debbie, sticking his tongue out at them.

Mike followed him out, “You live life on the edge brother man.”

“Not really. Every once in a-while we have to make them think we aren’t scared of ‘em,” Bruce replied, heading downstairs.

“I thought we were scared of ‘em,” Mike replied, following Bruce.

“We are, but they don’t have to know it,” Bruce said, heading outside. Mike fell in beside him.

“Where does Millie keep getting those damn spoons,” Mike wondered. “I’m getting tired of stealing the damn things.”

“I think she gets a piece of wood and chews one out each morning,” Bruce confessed.

Mike and Bruce joined everyone at the command table. The weddings were scheduled for 0800 one after another, then everyone else was going to work. The newlyweds would get one day off. Bruce sat Cade and PJ in their high-chairs and moved them down by him.

When Bruce sat down, Jake asked, “Dad, what’s wrong with women? Why can’t the groom see them before the wedding?”

Bruce held up his hand, “Son, you’re trying to get me to explain the female mind. Let them have their traditions, that way they leave us alone.”

Jake nodded in agreement as the group started eating. Bruce stopped feeding Cade and PJ to look at the boys. Each of the groom’s-to-be, hands were shaking and none of them were touching their food. Smiling to himself, Bruce kept feeding PJ and Cade. Bruce remembered his wedding day like it was yesterday. Just like the boys, he wanted Debbie with him before the wedding. Never in his life had he been so nervous and he wanted Debbie there with him.

After breakfast, the hall was cleared and Bruce was asking Willie and Maggie to watch PJ and Cade when he saw Debbie open the door and motion him to her. Bruce walked outside to see Stephanie and Angela beside Mindy. Bruce was glad to see her shaking like the boys were. Bruce stepped to the side as the others passed him going inside leaving just him and Debbie with Mindy.

Bruce looked at Debbie and pointed out, “I don’t remember you shaking like that when we got married.”

“I quit shaking when I saw you standing by the priest. I knew you hadn’t run away, and I finally had you,” Debbie answered as Bruce walked over to Mindy.

“I can’t believe you thought I was going to run away,” Bruce replied.

“Well, Daddy kept telling Mama he was going to shoot at the foot freak until he ran out of the church,” Debbie revealed.

“Jack loved me,” Bruce declared.

“Not until we were married for seven years baby,” Debbie said, smiling.

Mindy giggled, looking up at Bruce, “Thank you Daddy Bruce.”

“For what?” Bruce asked wondering why everyone wanted to thank him today.

“Making me believe in myself again and showing me someone still loved me,” Mindy answered.

Bruce sighed, looking at Mindy, “If you’re my daughter, then don’t ever do that again.”

“Do what?” Mindy inquired.

“Doubt yourself or this family. We stand together or die together, there’s no in between here,” Bruce informed her as he kissed her on the head. Mindy wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him tight.

Debbie spoke up, “Mindy don’t cry yet, your makeup will run. The music has started, let’s go.”

Debbie opened the door and they followed her inside. Bruce led Mindy down the aisle and gave her to David who looked like he was ready to pass out. After Bruce gave her away, he stepped over to David’s side because he was also one of David’s groomsmen. Buffy came up carrying the family rings. Like Mindy, Buffy was dressed in BDUs with an M-4 across her back. After they exchanged rings and were pronounced man and wife, David removed the rings Bruce had given him from his pocket. They took off the family rings and put on their wedding bands.

The group reset as Bruce and Debbie went to get Danny. Danny met them coming out of the house. Bruce stopped and stared at her. Danny was in full gear with new tiger stripped BDU’s that fit very well. Danny had tightened up her tactical vest to show the curves of her body. Her shirt sleeves were rolled up and she had on knee and elbow pads with her tactical gloves. Her Galil was slung across her back and the P-90 was on her hip. Seeing her, Bruce had to admit, Danny in full combat gear looked rather intimidating.

“You think Matt will like this Daddy?” Danny asked.

Bruce smiled, “Baby, he’s going to pass out.”

Danny walked over, hugging Bruce. Debbie once again led them inside and when Matt saw Danny, Mike had to catch him. Mike had to hold Matt up when Danny took off her glove to put on her ring. When Matt kissed his bride, Danny whispered something in his ear, making him get weak in the knees. Bruce didn’t even want to guess what was said. When the service was finished the hall prepared for one more.

Mike left to walk in with Mary as Bruce stood beside Jake. When the service was finished the newlyweds stood together for more pictures. There were at least ten people taking pictures during the wedding with two recording video. When the brides threw the flowers, Bruce grabbed Buffy and the twins and ran to the other side of the hall.

Looking across the hall at the kids, a tear ran down Bruce’s cheek. He could see how happy they were and that’s all that mattered. Buffy pulled on his shirt sleeve, getting Bruce’s attention. “You know I’m sleeping with you tonight, Daddy,” Buffy declared, not asked.

Bruce shrugged his shoulders, “You know you can sleep with us whenever. I thought Danny was moving into Matt’s room and giving you her room.”

“She is, but I don’t want to be alone tonight Daddy,” Buffy confessed.

“You’ll never be alone BB,” Bruce said, hugging her.

Susan came around, gathering up all the kids, heading to the house as everyone headed off to work. The newlyweds headed to the house.

After lunch Bruce heard a line of trucks pull out and called over the radio wanting to know what was going on. Conner called back, “We have a convoy heading out for more heavy equipment, tractors and attachments.”

“It’s getting kind of warm lately to be running around, don’t ya think?” Bruce asked.

“The temperature is fifty-two degrees. It was fifty-eight yesterday when we sent out a convoy for fuel to fill up the tanks,” Conner said over the radio. Bruce shook his head at the reply. The clan was still following the scavenging schedule that had been set up before the weather turned cold. Bruce did not like it, but if they hadn’t seen any blues, they still must be holed up staying warm.

“They are cleared to go, but first sign of activity, they are to pull back,” Bruce replied.

“Already told them that,” Conner replied in a very snappy tone. Bruce let the comment slide as he saw Paul walking toward the barn.

“Paul!” Bruce called out as he ran over to Paul. Paul stopped and waited on Bruce.

“Yeah Bruce,” Paul said as Bruce reached him.

“I thought we had enough supplies. Why are we sending out more patrols?” Bruce asked.

“Bruce, we are only getting heavy equipment and fuel now. Most of the equipment will be stored at the end of the road and we now have thirty thousand gallons of empty tanks that need to be filled. We are just following the plan we laid out,” Paul maintained.

“I know. But it’s getting a little warm,” Bruce remarked.

“Bruce, it was warmer yesterday and they didn’t report any sightings of blues. We got two truckloads of ATV’s and electric carts from inside of Shreveport,” Paul pointed out.

“How many more runs?” Bruce asked.

“Tomorrow is the last run. We are filling the storage tanks and all of the tanker trucks we have here and treating the tanks at the refinery. We’re going through some fuel here,” Paul answered.

“After tomorrow no more runs for supplies until the command group meets,” Bruce directed.

Paul looked at Bruce, “Bruce, I didn’t want anyone to leave but you were right. We needed this stuff. With a few more items, we won’t have to scavenge much this summer,” Paul suggested.

Bruce left Paul heading to one of the piles to start moving it in a storage area as a woman came up to him. “Bruce, I need to talk to you,” she said, stopping in front of him with her hands on her hips.

Bruce looked at the woman. She was about 5’6”, portly, and around forty with brown hair and a snobby appearance. “Let me guess…. Jenny Green,” Bruce said. Jenny took a step back, caught off guard.

Jenny quickly regained her composure, “I must object to the way you are working us. Also, the requirement that kids are to know how to shoot a weapon is ridiculous. They are kids, not soldiers. Then you make them exercise and reward those that are fittest. That makes the other kids feel bad. You should reward them all because they tried. Then-,” Jenny stopped as Bruce held up his hand.

“Jenny, we have a lot of work to do and I’m not in the mood for copious bullshit. I want the kids to give it their best. I want them to know their limits. No, I don’t believe that everyone should get on the baseball team and get a trophy. I want them to earn it,” Bruce told Jenny. Before Jenny could say anything Bruce said, “Jenny, I’m sure you’ve talked to others here and I’m not in a good mood today. We have a lot of work to do today. If you don’t work, you don’t eat. If you continue not to work, we will throw you out on your ass. Now get back to your group.”

Bruce walked off, leaving Jenny gawking at him with an open mouth. Bruce joined in the group moving the pile of boots the clan had taken from the sporting goods store. Grabbing several boxes, he headed to one of the storage areas in the pastures. Walking down the steps into the storage area, Bruce saw someone had built shelves in the containers. A man in his late sixties pointed where to put the stack and Bruce left to grab more.

The movement of supplies was done with manual labor since they had a lot of people now and didn’t want to waste fuel. Some groups formed lines to move the stacks. Others just grabbed a load and headed to the containers. By sun down, the last stack was moved into a container.

Bruce went to each storage area and saw the containers were full and only the big storage area had a little room left. The supply convoy had brought back four huge tractors with more attachments than Bruce even knew existed, two bulldozers, another excavator, two more dump trucks, and three bucket trucks. Unlike the one they had on the farm, these were massive, the kind used by the power companies. Bruce figured the boom could reach a hundred feet.

Heading to the hall for supper, Bruce was stunned at the amount of supplies they had. Never in his wildest dream did he believe that they could get the amounts the clan had gathered. Reaching the hall, Bruce walked in and headed for his table. Sitting down, Bruce asked, “Anyone hear from the Marcus clan?”

“Yeah, talked to Marcus yesterday. He’s still mad that Carroll won’t let him get a new tractor,” Paul said.

“Why won’t she let Marcus get a new tractor?” Bruce asked.

Paul laughed, “Carroll told him just because civilization has fallen, it isn’t the time to grab what he always wanted.”

“Paul, give Marcus one of the tractors we got today. Better yet I’ll take it over tomorrow morning,” Bruce affirmed.

The clan ate and everyone was exhausted so no one had any trouble falling asleep. The dreams did not come for Bruce and he slept like a rock. Waking up at 0400, Bruce woke up Buffy and told her to get dressed. Once they were dressed, Bruce headed to mission control. Bruce called the Marcus farm on the radio. When the night watch responded, Bruce asked if Marcus was awake yet, and if he was then Bruce wanted to talk to him.

After a few minutes, Marcus came over the radio, “This is Marcus. Bruce, what’s the problem?”

Bruce keyed the microphone replying, “No problem. Just wanted to see if you were awake. If your farm is as busy as ours, you should be tired.”

“Yeah we’re tired over here, but I can’t sleep past 0400 or I feel lazy,” Marcus replied.

“Hey Marcus, I’m coming over to bring you a present. Tell your guards not to shoot me. I should be over in twenty minutes, okay,” Bruce informed him.

“Okay Bruce. I’ll be waiting on you,” Marcus replied.

Bruce headed outside with Buffy to his new truck. This was the first time he’d actually seen the damage that was done to it when Debbie was attacked in Shreveport. There were dents all over the body with several bullet holes in the hood and windshield. Letting out a long sigh, Bruce opened the door and motioned Buffy to get in. Bruce started the truck and asked for the gate to open.

Turning toward the dead end where all the extra vehicles were parked, Bruce headed down the road. Bruce stopped when he saw the three semi’s with the tractors on them. The closest one looked like a hundred and fifty horse power. Considering as he looked at it, Bruce was certain he could tie a rope to the house and pull it anywhere with this monster. Attached to the tractor was a three section plow. The other two looked smaller, like one hundred and twenty-five horse power, but Bruce wanted Marcus to have the best one.

Bruce turned to Buffy, “I want you to follow me to Marcus’ in the truck.” Buffy just clapped her hands in joy as Bruce climbed out and Buffy climbed behind the steering wheel.

Bruce opened the cab of the semi to find the keys in the ignition. Bruce climbed in, turning on the glow plugs. When they shut off, Bruce fired up the truck and called mission control saying he would be back in an hour. Bruce released the brake and started toward Marcus’ farm.

Twenty minutes later, Bruce was pulling up to the log gate, which stood open, with Marcus and family standing in the opening. Bruce jumped out of the semi and watched Buffy pull up in the truck. Bruce laughed noting Buffy was looking between the steering wheel and the dashboard to drive.

Bruce headed over to Marcus and Carroll hugging their necks as Buffy came running over and did the same. “Marcus, I brought you a present,” Bruce said, pulling Marcus to the semi.

“Bruce, we have so much stuff here now and don’t have enough room to put up-,” Marcus stopped, looking at the trailer.

“This one’s yours. Don’t ask me how to work it because I have no idea,” Bruce said to a shocked Marcus, who forgot how to talk.

Darrell came over to Marcus, “Well come on; climb up, paw.”

When Darrell helped Marcus up on the trailer, Marcus just rubbed his hand over the tractor. Bruce smiled, watching Marcus, then Carroll walked over to stand beside Bruce. “Bruce, don’t ya think this being a little prideful?” Carroll asked.

“Damn right it is! We’re living in hell on earth now and if we can have a little joy out of something without distracting us from our duties, then so be it,” Bruce told her.

Carroll looked at Bruce, then smiled, “You’re right Bruce, a little joy from a new tractor won’t be stoppin’ the world.”

“I hate to run but Debbie is going to be mad at me when she finds out I brought Marcus a tractor after you said he couldn’t have one,” Bruce admitted.

“You tell Debbie I’s wrong and she better not say nuthin’ to ya,” Carroll said putting her arm around Bruce’s waist.

Bruce put his arm over Carroll’s shoulder, “Fat chance on that,” Bruce replied, watching Marcus still rubbing the tractor.

“Thank you Bruce. It’s been some time since I’ve seen Marcus speechless and I’m sorry we couldn’t make it to the weddin’ yesterday,” Carroll said.

“Forget it girl, but you’ll still be there Sunday, right?” Bruce asked.

“Yeah, we’ll be there Bruce,” Carroll assured him.

“Okay girl. Let Marcus drool over it for a while. I’ll see you Sunday,” Bruce said hugging Carroll kissing her on the cheek.

Buffy hugged Carroll as she asked, “Did you see me driving?”

“Yes I did Buffy and you was doing real good but be careful, okay?” Carroll said hugging her back.

Buffy ran to the passenger side as Bruce walked over to the truck. “What? I thought you were driving me back to the farm,” Bruce asked Buffy. Buffy squealed with delight as she opened the passenger door and climbed over to the driver seat. As Buffy pulled away, Bruce saw Marcus finally open up the cab and climb in.

At 0610 they pulled back into the farm and headed toward the hall. Buffy took off at a dead run to tell everyone she drove the truck. When Bruce made it to the table, Buffy was already finished with her tale and eating. Bruce sat down and started eating.

Paul leaned over the table looking at Bruce, “Well, did he like it?”

“Don’t know? He never said anything. He just drooled over it,” Bruce disclosed between bites making Paul laugh.

Steve stood up, tapping his glass with a spoon to get everyone’s attention. When the table was looking at him, Steve said, “I just want everyone to know, Tonya and I are going to be parents. The new family member should be here in July.”

Everyone ran over to hug the new Mama and Daddy. When Bruce came over to hug Steve and Tonya, he asked them how Nathan took the information. Steve looked at Bruce smiling, “He’s the happiest. He gets to be the big brother like his dad was.”

“Well, his Dad was the best, so he has some big shoes to fill,” Bruce pointed out.

“He’ll do good Dad,” Steve wagered.

Once everyone was back in their seats Bruce asked for their attention. “Okay Paul, what’s the plan for today?” Bruce asked.

Paul looked up, “Well the slabs are dry for the next two barracks, numbers four and five. We’ll start framing today. After we paint, barrack number three will be ready today. I have several people assigned to spread hay over the berm we put around the fence so the rain won’t wash away the dirt. The last convoy will head to the refinery to bring fuel back here.”

Bruce nodded his head, “Stephanie, I want you and Danny to make sure everyone here has three sets of ACUs, two pair of boots, one pair of tennis shoes and one set of civilian clothes to wear. Also make sure they have the necessities like towels, socks, toothpaste and such. This afternoon is when you will start handing it out.” They nodded their heads and Bruce sat down. Finishing his plate, he left to go help on the barracks and work on a project in the armory.

At noon Bruce walked into the hall for lunch stopping to knock the saw dust off his clothes. Taking off his boonie hat, he adjusted the band holding the micro video recorder. Walking to the command table Bruce hung his rifle up on the wall. Dropping into his chair Bruce looked around the table and didn’t see Steve or his family nor David and Mindy. When Millie set his plate down, Bruce started eating before the plate hit the table.

Bruce paused to take a breath and drink some tea as Pam screamed for him and Mike from mission control on the radio. “Big Daddy One and Two, this is mission control!”

Bruce keyed his microphone, “This is Big Daddy One. Big Daddy Two is beside me.”

“Get to mission control! The convoy is being attacked!” Pam screamed over the radio.

Bruce jumped up, knocking his chair over and running to grab his rifle. Heading toward the door, he put on his hat and micro camera. Debbie, Angela, and Stephanie grabbed the kids and followed with the rest of the command crew. Bruce ran across the patio, heading inside to mission control. When he entered, he could hear the radio going off with reports.

“They are moving in from the north. Team two has one man down,” someone yelled over the radio with huge amounts of gunfire in the background, along with the roars of blues.

Another voice came on, “The drivers are dead lets-,” the voice stopped speaking ending in a scream as it cut off.

“Get up high!” a female voice yelled over the radio. Bruce knew that voice, and he grabbed the microphone.

“This is Big Daddy One. What’s the situation? Over,” Bruce called out but no one answered. Bits of chatter were heard over the gun fire and roars of blues.

Bruce called again, “This is big daddy. Report. Over.”

“Daddy!” a scream came over the radio speakers.

Bruce closed his eyes as he keyed the microphone, “Mindy, its daddy. What’s going on?” Bruce could her breathing with exertion over the radio for several minutes. Bruce called her again, and then Mindy answered.

“I’m in deep shit, Daddy!” Mindy yelled, and Bruce could hear rapid single suppressed gun shots.

“Mindy, where’s the rest of the fire team?” Bruce asked.

“They’re dead, and the blues are ripping the bodies apart,” Mindy reported as she fired single shots.

“How many blues are attacking you, Mindy baby?” Bruce asked.

“Thousands and I see more coming! I’m on top of the big fuel tanks. There’s only one ladder that they can use to get at me!” Mindy reported in a scream, firing single shots.

“Mindy, I’m on my way. Just hold ‘em off baby,” Bruce told her.

“No Daddy, don’t come! There’re too many!” Mindy yelled. Bruce could hear her firing rapid shots.

Bruce yelled into the microphone, “You listen to me young lady! I’m on my way and if you let those fuckers kill you, when I get to your body, I’ll shoot myself in the head and spank your ass before I’m hauled down to hell! Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes sir! I’m waiting, Daddy!” Mindy yelled with a quivering voice.

Bruce grabbed Debbie, “Talk to her. Remind her to reload her magazines and cover herself with her pistol while she does. We will be there in forty minutes.” Bruce turned to the room, “Buffy, go get our assault packs, now! Mike you and Danny get your gear and meet me at the new bucket trucks. Jake, Matt and Mary get your gear and get to the relief team with the Strykers.” Bruce said, as David walked into the room.

David screamed at Bruce, “Let’s go!”

“We are, son,” Bruce said, heading toward the door.

“Fuck you, I’ll get her!” David yelled and started to turn around. Bruce grabbed the front of his shirt lifting David up and slamming him into the wall.

“You’ll do what I say or you’ll die and take her with you,” Bruce said in a flat tone. David shut up when Bruce spoke. Not because of the voice but because Bruce’s face had no emotion and his eyes were dead. David just nodded his head. Bruce put David down, “Get your gear and get in the Strykers with the relief team.” David nodded and ran upstairs to get his pack. Sounding like a heard of horses, Buffy came running down the hall, dragging the packs behind her. Buffy handed Bruce his pack as he headed outside.

Walking to the truck, Bruce keyed his radio, “Bill, Paul, and Willie lock this place down and get ready for company.” Reaching the truck, Bruce climbed up into the bucket and motioned Buffy to follow. Seeing Mike and Danny run up to the truck Bruce said, “Mike you drive, Danny you have shotgun, let’s go.”

The bucket trucks were obtained from the power company by the clan to work on the towers and setting up cameras. They were the size of semi’s with work boxes on the back and a huge extendable bucket.

As Mike pulled out in the truck he was followed by three Strykers. Bruce keyed his microphone laying out the plan. “Mike step on it! Drive straight to the refinery. Take the interstate into town. Danny you are there to make sure no blues get inside the cab. Jake and Matt, when we get close to town throw a UAV up. The Strykers will stay on the Red River Bridge. We’re going to get swarmed and you’ll have to guide Mike out while keeping our exit clear. If we get bogged down, you will leave. I’m going to start throwing grenades inside the refinery so not much will be left. Buffy you will keep the blues from climbing up the bucket arm.”

Conner came over the radio when Bruce finished his briefing, “Let’s move through with the Strykers.”

“If you open up with a Stryker inside the refinery you could set off an explosion. I really want Mindy alive,” Bruce answered as he kneeled down with Buffy in the bucket to get out of the cold wind as Mike flew down the road. Bruce and Buffy prepped for battle opening up packs to get to magazines.

When Mike hit the interstate, he opened the truck up and pulled away from the Strykers. “Slow down, you’re pulling ahead,” Conner called over the radio.

“You have your orders son. Follow them,” Bruce replied as Mike stomped the accelerator. Bruce stuck his head out of the bucket and watched the Strykers fall behind. The Stryker’s top speed was 60mph, and Mike was getting close to triple digits. When Mike crossed the Red River, the Strykers were not in sight but Bruce could see blues everywhere. One would occasionally get in the way of the huge truck only to explode on contact when the truck hit it.

When they were five miles away from the refinery, Mike started slowing down and Bruce stood up keying his microphone, “When we get there, you can’t stop or slow down Mike. If you do, we’ll die. The fuel storage is the back of the refinery,” Bruce said as Mindy came on.

“Hurry! I’m almost out of ammo!” she cried out.

“Mindy, we’re almost there. Did your convoy stop on the inside or outside road?” Bruce asked.

“The outside road,” Mindy replied.

“We will come through on the inside road. I’m on a bucket truck and you’ll have to go to the other side of the tank to get on. We won’t be able to stop, so you’re going to have to move, okay,” Bruce said as Mike pulled off on the exit ramp. Once they went under the interstate, Bruce started to extend the bucket and saw blues charging them from all sides.

Mike didn’t go to the main entrance. Instead, he drove over the curb and through the fence heading to the back storage tanks. Buffy started opening up on several blues that had jumped on the truck. Bruce reminded her to watch her shots and not hit the cab.

Mike turned on the outside access road and floored the big truck, leaving the blues behind as Bruce and Buffy finished cleaning off the truck. When the last one fell off, Bruce looked up ahead and his heart stopped. There was a sea of blues around the vehicles of the ambushed convoy. The only vehicles Bruce could even see were the top of the tanker trucks. There were tens of thousands on the road ahead as Bruce prayed the inside access road did not have that many as Mike turned the truck toward the inside of the plant.

When Mike turned on the inside road, Bruce could only see a few blues over there as Mindy called, “I’m out.”

“Get to the inside now!” Bruce yelled as he lifted the bucket up even with the top of the storage tanks. Seeing Mindy run across the top of the third tank, he swung the arm over toward the tanks. “Mike, I see her. Slow down, but don’t stop!” Bruce yelled in the radio over the roar of the blues.

Mike slowed as Bruce moved the bucket closer to the tanks, scraping the first one as they passed it. Looking toward Mindy, Bruce saw a blue come off the ladder and run toward her. Raising his rifle, Bruce fired a burst into the blue’s chest, knocking him down. When the bucket was beside the tank, Mindy jumped and grabbed the edge bucket. Bruce grabbed her arms and started pulling her in as Jake yelled over the radio, “They’re circling the tank!”

Pulling Mindy in, Bruce looked forward only to see a surge of blue bodies run at the truck. The impact almost threw Bruce out of the bucket as the huge truck hit the mass of bodies. The truck continued forward over the bodies but was slowing down as the mass of bodies started smashing and piling against it.

“I have her Mike. Just go straight through the fence and get back on the road,” Bruce said as the blues swarmed over the truck. Looking down, Bruce couldn’t even see the truck anymore as he and Buffy opened up. Mindy grabbed a magazine and helped try to stem the tide.

As Mike crashed through the fence, Jake guided him by telling Mike when and which way to turn. Bruce turned around looking behind them, only to find a sea of bodies chasing them. Pulling a grenade off his vest, Bruce started to throw hand grenades behind them, attempting to at least slow them down, because they were running faster than the truck was moving. With so many bodies, the grenades only made a small thump, removing a small circle of infected as they exploded.

Feeling the truck lurch back and forth, Bruce turned around as Mike dropped off the curb back onto the road, stomping the accelerator. Bruce could hear a lot gunfire from inside the cab when Jake suddenly yelled, “Dad, lower the bucket-- stop light!”

Looking ahead, Bruce saw the traffic light and lowered the bucket arm down instead of reeling it in. The bucket was forty feet behind the truck and fifteen feet off the ground when they went under the light. Bruce could feel something hitting the bottom of the bucket and looked over the side to find a sea of pissed off faces looking at him.

“Lift us back up!” Buffy screamed.

Bruce threw the lever, lifting them up as he turned around to see several blues sliding up the arm towards them. No sooner than one was shot off, another one took its place. Seeing another traffic light ahead Bruce lowered the bucket under the light and raised it back up once they were clear. As Mike picked up speed the blues chasing them started to fall behind.

Bruce joined Buffy and Mindy in clearing off the truck as Jake told Mike to turn on the interstate. It took until they reached the bridge to clear off the truck as the Strykers were mowing down waves of blues holding the route home open. Bruce patted his pouches down and didn’t feel any magazines. Mindy looked at him, handing Bruce a full magazine she had taken from his pack.

Reaching the bridge, Mike passed the Strykers and they fell in behind the truck as Bruce sat the bucket back down. Looking ahead Bruce could see thousands of blues charging out onto the highway. Bruce keyed his microphone, “Strykers, get in front and plow us a road. Spare no ammo boys and unleash hell!”

The Stryker’s pulled around the truck and opened up with torrents of weapons fire. Two of the Strykers had 50 calibers. The other had an Mk-19, and it started throwing out 40mm grenades in a rain of destruction. As the blues stormed on to the interstate, waves of them just disappeared when they were hit with the hail of destruction. When they cleared the city and passed the race track, Bruce called to Mike.

“Big Daddy Two. Are you and sweet pea ok?” Bruce asked.

“I shit my pants,” Mike said without emotion.

“Well are you two ok?” Bruce asked, keying his headset and thinking Mike was kidding.

“Besides having a load of shit in my pants and having a girl sitting beside me, foaming at the mouth, yeah, we’re good. How about you? Wanna stop and get some ice cream?” Mike asked in a quivering voice.

“I’m good. Pull over. We’re getting in the Strykers,” Bruce said looking at the back of the truck. It was covered in blue blood and chucks of flesh. “Don’t touch the outside of the truck. It’s covered in blood,” Bruce said.

As Mike pulled the truck over, Bruce lowered the bucket behind the truck until it sat on the ground and they climbed out. Bruce walked to the front to check on Mike and Danny. Coming to a stop beside it, he could see a shit load of bullet holes through the door and windows. Mike opened the door and jumped out, followed by Danny. Bruce led them to a Stryker and they climbed in and sped off, leaving the following horde behind. The horde, losing sight of its prey, either continued down the interstate or headed back into town.

As the three Strykers sped down the road, Mike pulled off his pants and underwear. Wrapping them up, he opened the hatch and threw them out. Mindy just curled up beside Bruce crying. Bruce put his arm around her trying to comfort her. Danny and Buffy moved over beside Mindy, hugging her. They rode in silence back to the farm.

The vehicles pulled around the back to a crowd of people and came to a stop. Bruce got up, leading Mindy down the ramp. David got out of another Stryker and ran toward Mindy, calling her name. Mindy looked up and ran to meet him. They embraced each other, crying.

Debbie came over to Bruce, putting her arm around his waist, “I don’t like it when you pull plans like that out of your ass, but I’m not going to say anything this time. I’m proud of you stud muffin.”

Bruce looked down at her, “That was a good plan.”

Debbie scoffed, “Yeah, right baby, but I’m not arguing about the results.” Mike came out of the back of the Stryker naked from the waist down, except for his boots. Nancy ran over to him and stopped at the sight.

Debbie looked at Mike, “Mike what happened?” Mike had a look of embarrassment, fear and shock on his face as he looked at everyone.

Before Mike could say anything, Bruce answered grinning, “I pissed on his leg.” Everyone looked at Bruce in shock.

Debbie let go of Bruce’s waist, “Bruce, why in the hell would you do something like that?”

“Well I told Mike I was a ‘super badass’ and he said he was a ‘double super badass’. Then I told Mike, I piss on double super badasses. Mike said I wouldn’t. So when we stopped to leave the truck, Mike jumped out and I pissed on his leg to prove it,” Bruce told the lie as if that explained the reason and made complete sense. Bruce looked at Buffy, Danny and Mindy with a foreboding stare and each nodded at him.

Debbie slapped his arm, “Bruce, how could you do that to Mike? It’s disgusting and very immature.”

“Well, it seemed like the thing to do at the time. Besides boys are disgusting and immature,” Bruce acknowledged.

“Debbie, its fine. We’re boys after all. Girls won’t understand,” Mike said in a flat tone as he headed to the house.

When Mike had entered the house, Debbie stomped her foot at Bruce. “You will go apologize right now mister. You hurt his feelings Bruce. Now take the testosterone down a notch!” Debbie snapped.

“He’ll be alright, Debbie,” Bruce said as Angela and Stephanie moved over and stood beside Debbie.

Angela spoke first, “Boy or not, you go say you’re sorry or I’ll wear socks every night.”

“Yeah Bruce, that was a little too immature, even for a boy. If you don’t say you’re sorry, I’m wearing socks to bed also,” Stephanie threatened.

Danny came over to stand beside Bruce, “Mom, it wasn’t that bad. Jeez. Dad only peed on him.” Danny said to help Bruce cover for Mike.

Buffy ran up to Debbie. Danny was about to tell her to not say anything as Buffy said, “Mama, Daddy only peed a little bit on Daddy Mike’s leg. It wasn’t a lot.”

Debbie looked at the two girls in disbelief, “How can you defend your father over something like this? Mike threw off his pants and his feelings are hurt. I love you two and I know you love your father but I don’t want to see either of you right now.” As Mindy ran over to join Buffy and Danny, Debbie looked at her, “Mindy, no, I don’t want to hear it. I’m happy and glad you’re back safe but Bruce went way over-board with his alpha male shit this time.”

The three girls walked off, leaving Bruce alone to face the wrath of Debbie. “Now, go say you’re sorry!” Debbie demanded.

Bruce lowered his head, acting like he was remorseful, heading to the house in a slow walk as a smile slowly crept across his face. Opening the door, Bruce headed upstairs to ‘apologize’ to Mike. Walking into Mike’s room Bruce found him putting on new pants. Mike looked up, “Thank you brother.”

“For what?” Bruce asked not understanding.

“Covering for a chicken shit,” Mike said sitting down on the edge of the bed.

“Mike you’re pissing me off now. You think I haven’t had that happen before? Remember, I’ve been in combat before this. You kept on with the mission. That’s all that matters, brother,” Bruce told him.

“Bruce, the other ones with us were girls, little girls. One is not even a teenager yet! Did they lose control of bodily functions?” Mike stated.

“They’re young and have little fear, but I’m sure if you check Mindy’s pants, you will find a skid mark. She had to stare down the horde while we made our way to her,” Bruce alleged.

Mike let out a long sigh, “Bruce, I’ve never been so scared in my life. I could actually feel the truck getting lower to the ground as they piled on. It was so dark inside the cab I had to turn on the lights. They punched a hole in Danny’s window first, and she, just as calm as day, just started popping off caps. Then one punched a hole through my window and grabbed my arm. I knew if I let go of the steering wheel, we were dead. That’s when I shit my pants. I was going to die and I couldn’t do anything about it. Then Danny let out a yell as she leaned over me, shooting through my window.”

Bruce walked over, putting his hand on Mike’s shoulder, “That’s what I mean; you were willing to die to make sure we lived.”

“How do you do it Bruce? Stay cool under that kind of stress?” Mike asked.

Bruce looked away from Mike before answering, “Be ready to die.”

“I was,” Mike replied.

“And not let it bother you. Accept that you’re dead. If you live, that’s good, but don’t care one way or the other. If you’re not ready to sacrifice everything, you’ve already lost,” Bruce answered.

Mike just looked at Bruce and could tell he was serious. Not wanting to discuss this any further he asked, “So, you’re in trouble now?”

“Yeah, who cares though? Everyone here thinks I’m a little off center,” Bruce said, without care.

“I don’t brother,” Mike said, standing up, wrapping Bruce in a bear hug, and then letting him go. Mike looked at Bruce, “How do we handle this now?”

“Just act like we always do. Besides, the food should be ready, and I’m starving,” Bruce said.

Bruce and Mike headed to the hall for supper. Opening the door they saw the meal line was open and headed toward the command table. Mike and Bruce took their seats at the ends of the table. Full plates were waiting on them. Before Bruce could start eating Emily and Sherry climbed out of their chairs and into his lap. Then the twins pulled their plates over to them.

Looking up at the ceiling, Bruce just sighed and fed the twins, who just loved it. Then Bruce let them feed him. Most of the food never made it to his mouth, but Bruce didn’t say anything because the twins were having fun. Bruce looked up and saw most were finished eating. Bruce knocked on the table to get everyone’s attention. When everyone was looking at Bruce he said, “Command group, tomorrow morning we are meeting in the den. Someone get Millie to have breakfast ready and we will eat there. Plan on being there for several hours, and tell Millie, either she or Lynn has to be there.”

Everyone at the table nodded their heads and several got up to leave. Bruce finished letting the twins feed him. When he was finished, Bruce stood up with a twin under each arm. Bruce kissed Debbie, Angela, and Stephanie and he headed to his room to get some sleep. After Bruce and the twins showered, he stepped out to the bedroom to find Debbie in the bed with Angela and Stephanie standing at the foot of the bed.

Seeing them standing there with arms crossed and annoyed expressions, Bruce asked, “What?”

Debbie answered, “I told them it didn’t matter, but they wanted to know.”

“Know what?” Bruce asked Debbie.

Stephanie put her hands on her hips, “What were you covering up for Mike?”

Bruce looked at Debbie, “You knew?”

“Yeah, Bruce, like, duh,” Debbie replied sarcastically.

“You told them?” Bruce asked, motioning to Stephanie and Angela.

Debbie shook her head no, answering, “No Bruce, they knew it when you opened your mouth. They joined me to help you.” Bruce just stuttered, not able to put together syllables. Looking at Bruce stutter, Debbie smiled, saying, “Bruce, I don’t care why, but they want to know.”

Bruce looked toward the two at the end of the bed. Angela was tapping her foot with her arms across her chest.  Stephanie now had her hands on her hips. Taking a deep breath Bruce said, “Mike shit his pants when we were swarmed.”

“Yeah and?” Angela asked, wanting more.

“And what?” Bruce asked.

“What else did he do?” Stephanie demanded.

“Nothing else. He was embarrassed, so I covered for him,” Bruce admitted.

“That’s it? He shit his pants?” Stephanie asked in disbelief, her hands falling off her hips.

“Yeah that’s it,” Bruce admitted.

“You were willing to get in trouble for that?” Angela asked, and Bruce nodded his head.

Stephanie sat down on the end of the bed, rubbing her temples. “Boys give me a headache,” she admitted.

Bruce just stared at Debbie then said, “You know, if you wouldn’t tell them how to read me like a book, they may not have seen it.”

“Don’t flatter yourself baby. You’re not that complicated of a book,” Debbie informed him. Bruce cocked his head to the side, fixing to unleash an inundation of words at Debbie as she spoke. “Bruce they love you just as I do. I think they are entitled to answers to some puzzles they solve. Besides, one of the new women is fixing to start hitting on you soon, since you have three women in your bed. She thinks since Angela and Stephanie are here, it’ll be okay. Someone told me she was going to try to catch you alone so she could molest you and have you all to herself,” Debbie said.

Stephanie jumped off the end of the bed, pulling a knife off her belt, “Who’s the bitch?” Bruce took a step back as Stephanie waited on an answer from Debbie.

Angela looked at Debbie, “Well, tell us who the skanky whore is so we can deal with her ass.” Bruce backed up to the wall watching the two women.

“Oh, there isn’t one. I just wanted Bruce to see how much you two care for him and me,” Debbie said as Angela and Stephanie started blushing.

“Great! So instead of one psycho woman watching over me, I have three,” Bruce pointed out.

“Pretty much,” Debbie replied, matter of fact.

“Stephanie, you can put the knife up now,” Bruce said, feeling a little uncomfortable. Stephanie put the knife back on her belt, smiling.

Stephanie walked over to Bruce looking at the floor. “I love you Bruce,” she said, looking up to kiss him on the lips then walking to the bathroom.

Angela walked over to Bruce, “I can’t even jump that high, so will you lean down just a little.” When Bruce leaned down, Angela kissed him on the lips. “I love you too,” she said, walking into the bathroom to join Stephanie getting ready for bed.

Bruce looked at Debbie, who was smiling in the bed with the twins beside her. “Told you they love you baby,” Debbie said.

Too many questions were in Bruce’s mind to start asking so he just climbed into bed. Emily climbed on his chest, “I love you Daddy,” she said. Then Sherry joined Emily on his chest, “I love you too Daddy.”

“I love you too,” Bruce said hugging the girls as Buffy came in with a towel wrapped around her head. PJ was in her arms and Cade was following her.

Buffy put PJ on the bed and he climbed up to join in the hug, followed by Cade. Buffy looked at Debbie, “Mama, I don’t want PJ to walk anymore.”

Debbie chuckled as she asked, “Why BB?”

“Chasing Cade around is bad enough, but PJ takes off any chance he gets. I don’t know what’s under Danny’s bed, but he wants it bad,” Buffy said, getting one of Bruce’s t-shirts and a pair of boxers. Buffy had to tie a knot on the side for them to fit but Danny wore them, so she did too.

“That’s all part of being a big sister, BB,” Debbie said as Buffy climbed into bed and the twins wrapped their arms around her.

“Emily and Sherry don’t act like that,” Buffy said as she hugged the girls back.

“They did when they were younger BB,” Debbie said as Angela and Stephanie climbed into bed. Cade kissed Angela, saying, “Love you mama.” Angela squeezed him tight.

Bruce leaned over, kissed Angela and Stephanie, and then said, “I love you too.”

They all curled up in the blankets quickly falling asleep. Bruce woke with a start, not because of dreams, but because Buffy had on socks. Grumbling, Bruce pulled them off and drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 3

Earlier that day, sixty miles to the south-west:

Warren was sitting in the house boat he used for his command post waiting on the scouting party to get back from the night patrol. A young nude woman in her early twenties brought him a plate of food and set it on the table. Warren reached over, grabbing her ass and squeezing it hard. The girl never moved or made any sound. Smiling, Warren reached up and slapped her across the face. Once again she just accepted the slap and stood there. “Get on your knees,” Warren told her, and she did as she was told.

Chuckling to himself as he ate, Warren looked at the woman. That is how they are supposed to act, he thought to himself. Several of his gang had wanted to keep the women locked up but Warren wouldn’t let them. If a woman wanted to leave then she could carry her ass. Of course, if she were caught leaving, then it was play time. Warren’s gang now had over three hundred men, and when a woman tried to escape, she had to go through every man there. Most women never made it past the first dozen. Not that many had tried to leave, because where could they go. With over three hundred women in camp and half that many kids, there was more than enough to go around.

The area they were in was secured. A fifteen foot fence cut the peninsula off and Toledo Bend protected their back. All the women and kids had to do was just obey the rules, which meant whatever a man wanted, they had to do it.

Warren sat back from the table smiling. Two weeks ago they had made a run into Mississippi to a National Guard armory. His gang now had military weapons and a lot of ammo. They even got some grenades but no heavy weapons or vehicles. That didn’t bother him too much. Those army vehicles made a lot of noise and drank a lot of fuel. To compensate for lack of protection, his gang would just hit fast.

He had sent a patrol out last night to check on the gang that had taken over the state park at Lake Bistineau. It was time to take them out, and then deal with his wife at the Williams farm. Looking at the clock on the wall which read 10am, Warren started eating as Ed, his youngest brother, came in.

Ed looked at Warren, “The patrol is back and Carl is on the way here.” Warren just grunted as he continued eating, waiting on Carl the middle brother. Ten minutes later Carl walked in.

Warren stopped eating and looked up, asking, “Well how many men do they have?”

“None, they’re all dead,” Carl said.

Warren laughed, thinking, well, we can go see my wife. “Blues get them?” Warren asked.

“Only some of them but they were dead already when the blues ate on them,” Carl answered with wide eyes.

Warren closed his eyes not wanting to hit his brother right now. “Just tell me what you found,” Warren said.

“Well, we saw that nothing was moving at the park, so we went in for a look. The buildings that had gang members in them were blown up. The buildings that held supplies and women weren’t. Then four trucks were shot full of holes. One of the guys on my patrol was in Desert Storm and said the buildings looked like they had been taken out with missiles. I asked him to explain and he said what he thought happened is the military watched the area with drones to figure out where the women slept and which was used for storage. Then they sent in gunships to blow up the buildings and brought in transports to off load troops to get the women. These troops took out the trucks and rounded up the women.”

Carl stopped, seeing Warren getting mad, then he continued, “I asked him why he thought it was the military. Couldn’t someone just sneak in and blow up the buildings? He said no. The blasts were too focused for anything but a Hellfire missile. Then he said a gang would have taken the supplies. I looked inside the buildings and sure enough they were full of ammo, explosives, weapons and food. Warren, I agree with him. I think the military is still around here.”

Warren stood up, kicking the kneeling woman in the chest. Bending down, he grabbed her by the hair and bent her over the table. The woman never made a sound and just laid there as silent tears rolled out of her eyes. When Warren finished, he grabbed the woman by the hair, throwing her to the ground.

Buckling his pants, Warren looked at his brothers, “We will only strike east and west from now on. No more than three vehicles together at a time. If our patrols stay small they won’t be able to find us. Double the guard and have someone monitor the radios at all times.”

Ed looked at Warren, asking, “What will we do if they find us?”

“Run, you stupid mother fucker. What else can we do?” Warren said, getting angry at his brother.

“Don’t we need to plan where we are going to go?” Carl asked.

Warren slapped Carl across the face, knocking him down. “I was getting to that. Don’t think you’re smarter than me Carl. I’m the boss!” Warren said. Carl, holding his face just looked up at Warren.

Warren looked back at Carl. Warren had not thought about making plans but it was a good idea and he did not want Carl to think he was too smart. “Get your lieutenants together. We will make plans today in case we are hit.”

Ed looked at Warren, “Warren, don’t hit me, okay, but whenever we send out just a few trucks the blues hit us.”

Warren just shook his head, “Well they had better move fast then, shouldn’t they?”

Ed swallowed, replying, “Warren, we have to bring food in every week.”

“What? We have plenty here for us,” Warren told Ed proudly.

“Warren, some of the women and kids are looking rather poorly now from lack of food,” Ed replied.

Warren just shook his head, looking at the floor. “Paw never taught you right baby brother. A woman’s only purpose is to supply a man’s needs. So I guess it’s up to me, the oldest,” Warren said, turning around, picking up the woman off the floor and throwing her back on the table.

Warren looked at Ed. “Fuck her Ed!” Warren told him.

Ed looked at the woman lying on the table and replied, “I can’t Warren.”

Warren pulled a pistol from the small of his back and aimed it at Ed. “I did not ask you, Ed. I told you.” Ed looked at his brother with a pleading look.

Warren cocked the hammer back and aimed the pistol at Ed’s crotch, “If you don’t fuck her in the next thirty seconds. I’ll shoot you in the dick, Ed.”

Ed looked at Carl for help but did not find any. Ed moved to the table and did what his brother told him to.

Chapter 4

It was Friday morning at 0320 when Stephanie woke up sweating. Clearing her head, Stephanie found herself lying next to Bruce with one arm across his chest and her legs wrapped around his leg. Smiling, Stephanie rubbed Bruce’s chest, breathing deeply and taking in Bruce’s smell. Stephanie could never remember being this happy before.

Taking her arm off of Bruce, Stephanie tried to roll over but felt someone under her back. Sitting up, Stephanie saw Buffy roll into the area she just left. Reaching up to Buffy’s face, Stephanie removed the blond locks of hair covering her face. Looking beside Buffy, Stephanie saw little Angela buried under the twins and Cade. Moving over, Stephanie moved the kids off of Angela.

Stephanie smiled looking at Angela. After Debbie, she was her best friend. Angela never hesitated to telling people what she thought. Leaning down Stephanie kissed Angela on the forehead. Turning her head Stephanie saw little PJ on Debbie’s chest snoring softly.

Moving beside Debbie, Stephanie laid down beside her, putting her arm around Debbie and PJ then throwing her leg across Debbie’s. Squeezing Debbie tight, Stephanie kissed her on the cheek. Stephanie loved this woman so much that only Bruce could compete with it. Debbie had made all her dreams come true and there was no repaying that, Stephanie thought as she drifted back to sleep.

Debbie smiled hearing Stephanie’s breathing becoming regular. Debbie had watched Stephanie with Angela, and when Stephanie hugged her, it took everything she had not to hug her back. Debbie leaned over, kissing Stephanie on the cheek, which made her smile in her sleep. Debbie drifted back to sleep happy with this new family.

Bruce woke up at 0440 and looked around. For the first time in a long time, no one was lying on top of him or trying to crawl under him. Looking across the bed, Sherry was curled up to Buffy while Emily and Cade were lying beside Angela. Stephanie and Debbie were wrapped up together with PJ between them.

Feeling left out and abandoned, Bruce got out of bed, put on some workout clothes, grabbed his rifle and headed to the gym. After his workout, Bruce came back to the bedroom to find Debbie, Angela, Stephanie and Buffy awake. The other kids were still in the bed asleep.

Debbie came over putting her hair up in a ponytail getting ready for her workout. “Morning baby. Have a good workout?” she asked as he leaned down to kiss her.

“Yeah, it was a good one,” Bruce replied.

Angela came over wearing tennis shoes, shorts and a t-shirt for her workout. Stopping in front of Bruce, she jumped up and wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. Looking Bruce in the eye, she said, grinning, “You’re sexy standing here covered in sweat, big guy.” Angela kissed him and dropped down to the floor.

Bruce just stared at her, caught off guard. Seeing the look of bewilderment on Bruce’s face Debbie laughed. Stephanie stepped out of the bathroom wearing a sports bra, shorts and sneakers. Stephanie walked over and kissed Bruce, then said, “Let’s get this workout over with.”

Bruce looked at Stephanie, “You better put a t-shirt on girl. I don’t want people ogling over one of my girls when I’m not there to set them straight.” Stephanie just looked at Bruce then hugged him tight. Bruce returned the hug and kissed her on the head. Stephanie opened his drawer putting on one of his t-shirts, smiling in a wonderful bliss.

Angela stomped her foot, “You didn’t say anything about me being scantily clad.”

“You have on a shirt and weren’t going to work out showing off your package,” Bruce replied.

“You mean I can’t work out in my bra?” Angela asked with mocked shock.

“Not without me there. I have to let everyone know they can look but can’t touch,” Bruce said. Angela smiled, walking over and hugging Bruce. Bruce looked up at Debbie, “I thought one wife was hard. You know that I’m going to go insane with the three of you.”

“That’s okay, baby. Between the three of us, we can change your diaper and give you crayons to color pretty pictures,” Debbie said, smiling at him.

Bruce looked at Buffy who was standing at the door smiling. “Are you going to let her talk to me like that?” Bruce asked her.

Buffy put a hand on her hip, “She’s Mama, and she can do whatever she wants.” Angela, Stephanie and Debbie laughed as they walked out the door carrying their rifles, heading to the gym.

Bruce headed in to the bathroom turning on the shower, steaming up the bathroom. Stripping down he turned to get in the shower when he heard, “Dada,” behind him. Looking behind him he saw PJ standing in the doorway clapping his hands.

“You couldn’t sleep another ten minutes, could you?” Bruce asked PJ. PJ just laughed at Bruce, walking over to him and holding out his arms to be picked up. Bruce took PJ’s diaper off and picked him up. Opening the shower, Bruce turned some cold water on figuring all three of the women wouldn’t like Bruce giving PJ second degree burns.

When the water cooled down, Bruce stepped in, put PJ down and washed off. When Bruce started washing PJ off, he heard a knock on the shower door. Looking at the shower door, Bruce saw a little silhouette standing on the other side. Bruce opened the door to find Cade looking up at him.

“Bath,” Cade said, pointing at the shower.

“Come on in then,” Bruce said smiling. Cade jumped in the shower laughing. Bruce pulled off the diaper and threw it over the door.

Bruce washed the boys and shaved his head. Turning off the shower, Bruce grabbed the boys and sat them on the floor. Drying off Cade, Bruce saw PJ take off into the bedroom. “PJ, come back here,” Bruce called but only heard the reply of laughter as he finished drying Cade. Bruce heard the twins start squealing. Bruce shook his head as he dried off fast and went to rescue the twins from the wet baby.

Walking into the bedroom, Bruce saw a wet, naked PJ hitting two lumps under the covers and laughing. Bruce crossed his arms, looking at PJ. PJ saw Bruce and quit hitting the twins. “What are you doing on my bed, wet and beating your sisters?” Bruce asked PJ. PJ actually looked around then back at Bruce like ‘are you talking to me.’ Bruce walked over and picked up PJ, holding him at arm’s length. With uncertainty on his face, PJ looked at ‘Dada’ wondering if he was in trouble.

“If you weren’t so cute, I would have to flush ya down the toilet. So I guess I’ll just have to keep you,” Bruce said, hugging a wet PJ. PJ didn’t understand the words but he understood the love as he hugged Bruce and kissed him with an open mouth. Bruce laughed at the kiss, wiping the slobber off his face.

“Flush him down the toilet, Daddy! He got us wet,” Sherry said from under the blanket.

Then Emily added from under the blanket, “Cade wet the bed. Flush him too.”

Bruce turned to look at Cade who just looked at the floor. “It’s okay son, even your mama has wet this bed,” Bruce said.

Turning to the bed, Bruce said, “Okay girls, get up and help me get the covers off so they can be washed.”

The girls groaned but got up as Bruce pulled off the sheets. Going to the bathroom, Bruce brought back a soapy rag, scrubbed the spot out, then dried it off the best he could. Debbie, Stephanie and Angela walked in to find Bruce scrubbing the bed and the kids jumping around him on the bed.

“What happened?” Debbie asked, looking at the mayhem going on.

“Cade had an accident,” Bruce replied.

Angela walked to the end of the bed. “Cade, I took you to pee twice last night,” she said in a harsher tone than she meant to. Cade just looked down at the mattress.

Bruce grabbed Cade in his arms, hugging him tight. “How dare you do that to him. You wet the bed just a few days ago if I remember correctly,” Bruce told her.

“Bruce, you tickled me until I peed on myself,” Angela said in her defense.

“That is irrelevant to the case against you,” Bruce replied in cross examination.

“Okay Cade, tonight you and I will wet Bruce’s side of the bed,” Angela stated.

Bruce looked at Cade in his arms and asked, “Cade, you want to see Mama get a spanking?” Cade clapped his hands laughing.

“Cade!” Angela gasped. Bruce lunged toward her and pulled her in the bed. Bruce popped Angela on the butt lightly two times then let her go. Angela rolled off the bed and looked at Bruce.

“You turned my son against me,” Angela said rubbing her butt.

“No just letting him know he has back up now,” Bruce said, making Angela laugh. Angela held out her arms and Cade ran to her.

“Hey Debbie watch this,” Bruce said. “PJ, give Daddy a kiss,” Bruce said, picking PJ up. PJ leaned toward Bruce with his mouth open, touching Bruce’s mouth. Spinning around, Debbie started opening drawers in the dresser looking for a camera, throwing clothes up in the air letting them rain down on the floor.

Finding one, she turned around to see Bruce and PJ watching the crazy woman. “Do it again, Bruce,” Debbie instructed.

Bruce made PJ kiss him again as Debbie snapped pictures. Bruce handed PJ to Debbie and took pictures of him kissing Mama. Then Bruce took pictures of PJ kissing the twins followed by Stephanie and Angela. After PJ’s kisser was worn out and he didn’t want to kiss anymore, the women showered. Bruce got dressed and dressed the kids while the women got ready.

When everyone was ready, they headed downstairs to the den. Everyone was eating while waiting on Bruce and his group. Susan gathered the kids, taking them to the hall for breakfast. After kissing all of the kids, Bruce grabbed a plate of food and sat down in his recliner to eat.

“What the hell took you so long? You’re usually the first here,” Mike asked, sitting in his chair.

“PJ learned how to give kisses and it was picture time,” Bruce answered. Everyone went, “Awe,” at the same time and Debbie whipped the camera out and started showing everyone the pictures on the display screen.

After everyone had seen the pictures and sat down, Bruce looked around the den and game room, “Where are the newlyweds and Steve?” Bruce asked.

“They are in the hall eating,” Millie answered. Bruce called them over the radio telling them to get their asses’ to the house. In less than a minute they all came running through the door breathless. After they sat down, Bruce stood up, checking off names. Conner, Bill, Willie, Paul, Millie, Cheryl and the family were all present.

Bruce started the meeting, “Okay, first, if the temperature is over 45 degree’s no scavenging inside any big city. We learned a hard lesson yesterday and we will not repeat it. I want to have a memorial service for those that we lost.” Conner held up his hand and Bruce nodded at him.

“I want to head up a patrol to recover the bodies,” Conner said.

Before Bruce could say anything Mindy said, “There are none.” Everyone looked at her.

Bruce asked, “Are you sure Mindy?”

“Yes, I watched the blues tear them apart and eat them. I couldn’t even shoot any of them as they did it. All I could do was shoot the ones trying to get up the ladder to me,” Mindy said with tears on her cheeks. David put his arm around her, pulling her close.

“You did good yesterday, Mindy. Don’t ever forget that,” Bruce said, wanting to take the guilt away.

“My team got wiped out. How did I do good?” Mindy asked.

“You survived Mindy, and as long as you live, your team lives with you. Your team now is this family,” Bruce said and she just nodded her head. Bruce looked at Jake, “Well, since this was started, Jake, I know you have looked at the UAV footage. How many were there yesterday?”

“About forty thousand, Dad, give or take five thousand. On the way out of town we faced about the same,” Jake replied nonchalantly.

Bruce felt a chill run up his spine as he turned to Mindy, “Mindy, from the time of the start of the attack till you had to climb up the tank, how long do you think it was?” Bruce asked her.

Mindy thought for a minute then answered, “Five, maybe as long as seven minutes.”

“How’d the blues get the gunners inside the Strykers?” Bruce inquired not liking that time line.

“The ramps were down so we could leave fast if we had to,” Mindy answered.

“Okay, from now on, the Strykers are to stay buttoned up once the fire teams are out. The gunners might have been able to stem the tide but I doubt it,” Bruce said, looking around.

After letting everyone have a minute to think, Bruce started again, “Remember people, this is a war. We are going to lose people. Let’s just keep the losses to a minimum. Next, Willie, have you set up a training program?”

“Yep, I’m ready,” Willie said.

“Get your thirty and start Monday morning. You’ll have one month, and remember, unless they are completely worthless, all have to make it,” Bruce said and Willie nodded in agreement.

“Mike, home defense, tell me about it,” Bruce said.

Mike looked at his notebook then back at Bruce. “Willie and I walked the fence and want a fighting position every fifty yards. The fence line around the property is a little under two miles. That’s almost eighty positions. I want three people to each position, which is two hundred and forty people. Then we need to build some ramps so we can have the Strykers and the Bradleys fire over the fence in support of an attack. This will leave us with almost a hundred to call on for reserves and to resupply the line. Next, we need to cut back the trees to open up a three hundred yard field of fire around the entire property.”

Bruce nodded his approval and made some notes then looked at Jake, “Jake, what do you need to get those big UAVs we picked up in the air?” Bruce asked.

“A paved runway, three quarters of a mile long,” Jake answered immediately.

Bruce gave Jake a startled look. “They aren’t that big of a plane son,” Bruce pointed out.

“In the manuals, it says one and a quarter mile runway,” Jake replied.

Bruce sighed, “Okay, we will pave the road in front of the house-,” Bruce stopped as Jake spoke.

“It won’t work Dad unless you’re going to use thick concrete. We have too much traffic on the road with heavy vehicles and they will rut the surface. The Grey Eagle and Reaper UAVs can carry Hellfire missiles and I really don’t want ‘em crashing that close to the house,” Jake said.

Bruce turned to Paul, “How long would it take to put a paved road through the east field?”

Paul thought for a minute before answering, “Three days after we gathered all the supplies.”

“Do we have to get them from Shreveport?” Bruce asked, closing his eyes praying.

“No, the parish road repair area would have what we need, and it’s only ten miles from here,” Paul stated.

“Jake, I want you to put together a security crew and scavenging crew to go get what we need Monday. Those UAVs are priority number one. Just one question first son. Don’t we need a satellite for over the horizon function?” Bruce asked.

“Dad, Matt and I captured several communication and military satellites in August and September. We’re still trying to hack the NOAA weather satellites and more military satellites,” Jake replied. Bruce just gawked at Jake in disbelief. “Well, no one was using them. If we wouldn’t have taken them over, their orbit would have deteriorated. Not being a sissy, but I would really like to know what the weather is going to be like,” Jake said, defending their actions.

“It’s okay, son, but keep us informed of the spook department escapades in the future,” Bruce said and Jake nodded. Bruce looked at Paul, “Okay, what next?”

Paul cleared his throat, “We need another water tower with the extra people here. The eight hundred gallon one you built is being pushed to the limit. It is emptied every morning and night. We got a lot of ¼ inch sheet steel. I want to build a fifty thousand gallon tank and use the little one as back up. Next, when it gets cold again, the place in Shreveport that makes the fuel storage tanks needs to be paid a visit. I want to put four more here and four at Marcus’.”

“Don’t we have enough fuel here now? Like, what, almost thirty-five gallons underground,” Bruce asked.

“Bruce, we are using a lot just gathering supplies. Granted, when we stop that our consumption will go down a lot, but we’re still building and using heavy equipment, not counting the military vehicles. I didn’t want to say this, but at the refinery those tanks hold over a million gallons of fuel and we need to finish treating it before it goes bad. There’s another refinery south of here that holds about the same, and we need to treat it as well. Plus the new battery house is ready. I need to use the generators to charge all the batteries to full. That alone is going to take two full days,” Paul said.

“How many batteries did you use?” Bruce asked.

“Fifteen hundred,” Paul replied.

Bruce nodded with a startle, “Okay, I will draw up that plan with teams to secure the fuel. Now how many people can we feed off the growing area we have now? ”

Paul replied without hesitation, “If we use the area we have now and put in another forty acre growing area, pretty close to a thousand.”

“We can feed a thousand people off of sixty acres?” Bruce asked, not believing Paul.

“Yeah, with all the new green houses and harvesting the fields three times, we will get close to nine hundred tons per year. Growing it is not the problem Bruce, storing what we grow is the problem. We don’t have enough jars and canning supplies,” Paul replied.

“There is a company in east Texas that makes jars. We can get some from there and the glass factory in Shreveport,” Bruce said.

“How the hell does this family know where so much stuff is located?” Bill asked in disbelief.

“Once a month we would sit and search for places around us to find supplies. Everyone in this family knows the layout of the refineries around here because we knew fuel would be important. If we don’t know where to get it, we made a detailed list of where to find it. It’s called ‘knowing your surroundings’,” Bruce answered.

“This family is owed so much by everyone you have brought here, it’s unbelievable. Most people that prep for disasters close off from the world. But this family tries to save it,” Bill said with gratitude.

“Yeah and those that close out the world will die off. It takes a lot of people to survive an event like this, not to mention the next generation,” Bruce told Bill. Bruce looked at Stephanie, “When will the inventory be done?”

Stephanie thought for a minute then said, “Thursday.”

“Mindy, you will help them with inventory,” Bruce said then looked at Debbie and Nancy. “What are your plans to schedule people for training and work,” Bruce asked them.

Debbie looked at her notes, “We are arranging for everyone to have a six hour workday with four hours of class time. We have worked out shooting, of course, then, preparing of game, sewing, computers, and basic engines. In the future, we are adding chemistry, machine shop, gardening, livestock, and engineering. Those are what we are set up for now. We will, of course, add more later.” Debbie said looking at Nancy.

“We have twenty people at any time that can be diverted to a new task on short notice. We post the work schedule on Sunday morning, and when it is changed, it really screws up the itinerary. Please think about your request before asking for people. I have made notes so far and can cover what has been discussed,” Nancy said looking up.

“Okay, when you have a project, make sure you tell them when it needs to be done. From now on, we will meet on Friday mornings or evenings to give them a chance to change the schedule for the next week,” Bruce said.

Nancy spoke up, “Bruce, we have another problem. We have a lot of people who aren’t working out and are showing up late for work duty.”

Bruce shook his head, feeling like a school principal, “Jake, rig up something so people are scanned in at the gym. The food hours are 0600, 1200, 1800 and 0000. Those who have not worked out their minimum four times per week have to wait one hour after the food line opens the next week. Only someone from the command group can override that. Those that are late for work will owe pushups to me every evening before supper. One for every minute they’re late. Anyone not compliant will be put on shit detail. Anyone refusing to work shit detail will be thrown off the farm.”

“People are getting tired baby,” Debbie said.

“I know they are, but is anyone here being a pussy and wimping out? No, because they know what’s at stake. Debbie, I know you know this, so don’t give me that look,” Bruce said as he saw fire come into Debbie’s eyes. When Debbie calmed down Bruce continued, “We will not carry anyone here. If they don’t perform, they leave. Now with that being said, I want all work not absolutely necessary to stop on Sunday. Of course guard duty doesn’t fall in this category. Now, on Sunday I’m telling the clan we are having a dance next Saturday, no work. They will have a whole weekend off. All Christian holidays from now on, no work unless necessary,” Bruce stopped, seeing everyone smile, thankful for a reprieve.

“Some are going to want to drink,” Bill said.

“Those on duty can’t drink. If someone shows up for duty impaired, punishment will be swift and severe. I will not tell people what they can and can’t do unless it endangers the clan. If they lick a toad’s ass to get high, I don’t care, until it compromises the safety of the clan. That being said, the alcohol and medicine we have here is for the clan, and that is how it will be used. After their work is done and they want to go off to get some liquor, they take the responsibility for their actions,” Bruce said.

“What if they want to smoke dope?” Bill asked.

“Don’t care, as long as they’re not doing it on clan time or are impaired on clan time,” Bruce answered. Seeing Bill shake his head, Bruce said, “Bill, we will not be babysitters here. I would rather someone get messed up, find out they are worthless and, throw them out and be rid of their DNA. Yes, people can do alcohol and drugs in moderation. I don’t care what some cocksucker in Washington said. If they want to get high and it doesn’t interfere with the clan, we don’t care.”

“What about kids?” Bill asked.

“That is up to the guardian, not us, until it endangers the child. I let seventeen year olds get drunk just days ago. If Buffy would’ve asked for one, I would have given her one,” Bruce said. Buffy sat up, hearing that she could have asked for a drink.

“Just seems weird,” Bill said.

“Bill, do you want people that are responsible or ones who have to be babysat like the government did to this country?” Bruce asked.

“Okay you’re right, but what happens when we throw them out and they come back or attack us in the field,” Bill asked.

“We kill them,” Bruce said with a cold tone.

“Alright then,” Bill replied, not sure if he liked the answer.

Bruce continued the meeting moving from person to person asking what they thought needed to be done first. Everyone agreed on weapons first. After that agreements stopped. They made the list of who could now carry weapons and those that could go on patrol so they could hand out the bandana’s and pins to identify. Discussions continued for another two hours, then Bruce held up his hand for quiet.

“Jake, I want everyone who goes out on patrol to have a micro recorder on at all times,” Bruce told Jake and he nodded. “Two more things. First, does everyone here know everyone on the farm by sight? Because I sure don’t,” Bruce asked. Nobody said they knew everyone by sight. Next Bruce asked, “Do we have pilots here now?”

“Three. One is an airplane multi engine and two are helicopter pilots,” Stephanie answered.

“I want to talk to them Saturday night. I want some helicopters here and I want them to train several others to fly,” Bruce said.

“Bruce you have a tank. Do you really need some more toys?” Debbie asked already knowing the answer.

“Debbie, if we would’ve had a helicopter yesterday, we could have flown to Shreveport in ten minutes picked Mindy up and not risked such a large group,” Bruce said.

“Get those fuckers in here now!” Debbie snapped seeing Bruce’s train of thought.

“Saturday will be good enough baby. Now, any questions?” Bruce asked not receiving any he finished the meeting.

“I’m inventorying weapons today. Buffy, you’ll be with Daddy. We will meet again Saturday night to go over the meeting Sunday. Now, it’s time for lunch. Let’s eat,” Bruce said as everyone headed to the hall.

Stepping out on the patio into the sunshine, Bruce put on his sunglasses and saw that the thermometer read fifty-nine degree’s. Stepping inside the hall, several people stopped talking as the command group came in and headed to their table. Bruce didn’t pay them any attention as he sat down. After shoveling his food down, he left with Buffy in tow to go to the four storage containers beside the shop to begin his count.

Opening the door to the first container, Bruce almost felt giddy as he counted, and Buffy counted behind him. When they finished, Bruce would compare the numbers. If they didn’t match, they redid the count. In between counts, Buffy would ask about a weapon, and Bruce would show her how it worked. At 1800, they had only done three containers. Bruce locked the doors and headed back to the hall for supper.

Sitting down in his chair, Bruce looked up as Millie sat down his plate and said, “That Jenny woman and her friends be tryin’ to make troubles.”

Bruce pushed his plate away from him and folded his arms on the table and laid his head down. “That’s why people try to survive in small groups. They get tired of assholes,” Bruce said feeling very tired.

Millie patted his back, “I knows, Bruce. If you wants, I’ll go over there an’ kick her ass.”

“No, Millie. I’ll take care of it,” Bruce said with his head on the table. Millie shrugged her shoulders and walked away from the table. She did not head toward the kitchen but to the table Jenny Green was sitting at with her small group. Debbie, seeing where Millie was heading, tapped Bruce on the arm. “What?” Bruce said with his head on the table.

“Millie is going over to that bitch’s table,” Debbie said.

Bruce lifted his head up, “If she hurts Millie, I’ll kill her,” Bruce said.

“Hurt Millie? Yeah right,” Debbie said, chuckling at the thought.

Millie stopped in front of the table and pointed her finger at Jenny. “Listen woman, yo best bet is to shut yo mouth and be thankful to be alive. If yous don’t like it here, leave. Nothin’ be stoppin’ ya. If you cause any more grief here, I’ll be dragin’ your ass outside an beatin’ the ever living hell out of ya. Don’t think I can’ts because I’m almost twice your age,” Millie told her as the hall became quiet to hear the exchange.

“You have no right to talk to me that way. I’m only trying to make life better for everyone here,” Jenny snapped.

“No you not. You only wants to feel important buts you’re only a wart on a hog’s ass, an irritation to the hog and eye sore to everyone else. Now don’t say another word or I’ll come over that table and snatch all tha hair off your head,” Millie warned, as Jenny reached up with her hands, covering up her hair.

Millie turned around and headed back to the kitchen. Bruce smiled, hoping that would be the end of it, but he knew better. He was still happy someone had tried. With his appetite gone, Bruce only picked at his food. Giving up on eating, Bruce told everyone he was going to walk around.  Stepping outside, Bruce breathed in some fresh air then headed toward the barn. Halfway there, a wave of nausea hit him, making him stagger. Again, without warning, the images of the torture session flooded his mind. Bruce leaned over putting his hands on his knees as he tried to control his breathing as the screams filled his head. Unable to hold it any longer, Bruce fell to his knees and threw up. Trying to block the images and sounds, Bruce didn’t hear the running footsteps coming up behind him.

When Angela and Stephanie kneeled beside him, they almost gave him a heart attack. Stephanie put her hand on his back, “Bruce, what’s wrong?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Bruce lied.

“Bruce, you just threw up a gallon and you didn’t eat anywhere near that much,” Angela informed him, like he didn’t know.

“I’m just sick and tired of dealing with assholes who want to tell others how to live,” Bruce said as the images and sound left his mind’s eye.

“Bruce, don’t let that woman upset you,” Angela said. Stephanie was just watching Bruce’s face the entire time.

“I just need to be alone for a little while then I’ll be fine,” Bruce assured her as he stood up. They both hugged him as he headed for the barn, stopping to hold his head under a water faucet. Then Bruce walked into the barn.

“Something’s wrong,” Stephanie said, staring at the barn.

“No shit, let’s go kill the bitch,” Angela demanded.

“He was lying, it has nothing to do with that,” Stephanie said, still looking at the barn.

“How the hell do you know he’s lying?” Angela asked.

“Page 202-,” Stephanie started to say, “never mind. I just know he was lying. Let’s get Debbie.”

Angela and Stephanie went back to the hall. Going over to Debbie they leaned toward her and whispered in her ears one at a time. Debbie stood up, telling Danny and Buffy to watch the kids as she went outside with Angela and Stephanie. The three talked for a minute and Debbie went back inside telling the older kids to watch the younger kids tonight.

Seeing Debbie with a worried look on her face, they agreed, and Debbie turned to leave. Mike grabbed her wrist. “What’s wrong?” Mike asked.

“I don’t know but something’s wrong with Bruce and he’s hiding it. Mike don’t let anyone disturb us okay and don’t try to find out yourself. I’ll tell you tomorrow,” Debbie said with a commanding voice.

Mike nodded his head, “All right Debbie, if you need us we’ll be here.”

Debbie thanked him and left the hall heading toward the house with Angela and Stephanie in tow. Walking in the back door, she headed to mission control. Debbie walked behind the desk to stand with the man who was on duty. Looking at the monitors, Debbie saw Bruce by the catfish pond on his hands and knees slowly getting up. Bruce walked over to the pier and sat down on his knees folding his hands in his lap.

Debbie knew Bruce was meditating now. The young man on duty was staring at the monitor and said, “I was fixing to call the roving patrol to check on him. I watched him throw up twice after he left the hall.”

Debbie looked at the young man asking, “What’s your name?”

“Jerry ma’am,” he replied.

“Well Jerry, you will not tell anyone about this. Bruce ate way to fast and got sick. He didn’t want to throw up in front of me because I knew he ate too fast. You boys always have to be right and don’t want to show any weakness in front of others,” Debbie told him.

“Yes ma‘am, you’re right about that. We have to at least act tough. Don’t worry, I won’t say anything,” Jerry promised.

“We’re going upstairs to act like we’re asleep so he can sneak in and go to sleep. If he throws up or anything else happens, you come and get me, okay?” Debbie asked.

“Don’t worry ma’am, I will,” Jerry promised.

Debbie left and headed upstairs to the bedroom, followed by Angela and Stephanie. When Angela closed the door, Debbie turned around. “I think I know what’s wrong with Bruce,” Debbie said, staring at them.

Stephanie looked at Debbie, waiting on her to continue and when she didn’t, “Well tell us.”

“I think he is reliving the day he tortured those gang members in the shop. He told Mike when he came in ‘it was worse than he remembered.’ Bruce also told me if you do something with hate only for pleasure, it will eat at your soul unless you let the hate flow all the time. You have to live in hate so you don’t have a conscience. Those bikers killed Alex and the others. I think he went in there to just get information, but in the end, he wanted to deal retribution and started enjoying it, seeing them as people and not targets,” Debbie reasoned.

“How do we help him?” Angela asked, grabbing Debbie’s arm.

“I don’t know, but I want you two to follow my lead after I get him talking, okay,” Debbie told them, and they both nodded their heads in agreement. Debbie looked at them and said, “I told you two I needed you. It could’ve been months before I knew he was hiding something.”

“Thank Stephanie and that damn book she wrote,” Angela said, looking at Stephanie.

Debbie looked at Stephanie asking, “Stephanie, in the hall you whispered that you thought Bruce was trying to forget something. Why did you say that?”

“He just kept blinking his eyes and shaking his head while he spoke very fast,” Stephanie told her.

“Good, girls let’s get ready for bed and wait on Bruce,” Debbie said.

They got ready for bed and waited on Bruce for over an hour, discussing how they could help him. Debbie was fixing to go to mission control to check on him when Bruce opened the door. Debbie could see he didn’t feel good. Bruce was covered in sweat, and he looked pale. She wanted to kick herself for missing it, but she had back up now.

Debbie got out of the bed, cutting Bruce off as he headed to the bathroom. “What’s wrong baby, and don’t try the crazy bitch in the hall routine with me, okay?” Debbie said reaching her hand up rubbing his face.

“Nothing baby. I’m fine,” Bruce replied but wouldn’t look her in the eyes.

“Baby, please tell us. What’s wrong? I know something is wrong and so do they. We love you, so, please?” Debbie pleaded as Angela and Stephanie got out of the bed to stand beside her.

Bruce looked at the three of them and just dropped down on the floor on his butt. “Debbie, I broke the rules when I took those men inside the shop. I was only going to get what I needed out of them, but they killed Alex. They attacked us when we just wanted to survive this shit. I knew I was going too far but I didn’t care. I had everything I needed from them in the first few hours, but I wanted them to feel pain. When I had the info, they weren’t targets anymore, and I didn’t care, I wanted them in misery.” Bruce stopped and Debbie could see in his face that he was reliving the event as he started again. “I’ve done it one other time, in Africa when we were ambushed. I caught one and made him tell me what I wanted to know. Then I gutted him alive and left him so others could see he had pissed me off. In the shop, the hate filled me as I made them scream for mercy. Now when the memory hits me, I can actually smell the blood.”

Debbie knelt down beside him, “How many times has it hit you?”

“I don’t know, several dozen times,” Bruce replied not really wanting to count.

“Tell me when some of them were,” Debbie asked. Bruce closed his eyes and told her the times he could remember. Debbie smiled as Bruce told her, realizing it only hit when he was exhausted, feeling down, or overwhelmed. That was easy enough to fix, Debbie thought to herself. Now to see if what she thought about the guilt was right. Debbie stood up, looking down at Bruce. “This is my fault, Bruce, and I’m sorry,” Debbie said.

Bruce looked up at Debbie with a startled look, “How is it your fault? You didn’t do anything,” Bruce asked.

“Exactly, I haven’t given you enough sex, stud muffin,” Debbie said as she stripped butt naked in front of Bruce. Bruce just gaped at Debbie as if she had lost her mind. He was dealing with his inner demons and she just strips down demanding sex. Debbie looked into Bruce’s eyes and the haunted look was gone. In that instant, she knew she was right. “I’ll tell you what. Since I haven’t jumped your bones in several days, Angela and Stephanie are going to help me get those evil spirits out,” Debbie said pointing behind her as Angela and Stephanie stripped down.

Bruce, who was still sitting on the floor, started back peddling away from the three naked women as they closed in on him. “Have you lost your ever loving mind?” Bruce howled as he backed into the door and stood up. The three walked over to him as Bruce tried to climb the door with his butt cheeks.

Debbie smiled at him as she continued, “It’s a great idea, Bruce. We will work you over together tonight. Then we will take turns trading off every day. Let’s face it, baby, you like to bring a lunch and make a day out of fun time. Now, I have help, so you can take as long as you want.”

“It’s the end of civilization and you want to start sexual experimentation now?” Bruce cried out, still trying to climb the door with his butt.

“This isn’t experimentation. It’s game time. Now, get naked baby!” Debbie demanded.

“Wh-no- ah-he-,” Bruce stuttered and started to blush, wondering why he couldn’t climb the door with his ass cheeks.

Stephanie moved beside Debbie and put her finger on Bruce’s lips to make him quit stuttering. “Don’t worry Bruce. It’ll be fun. In the dirty movie I saw, they used handcuffs. Let’s try that,” Stephanie said with a gleam in her eyes. Panic flooded Bruce’s face as he wondered what the hell had he gotten himself into now.

Angela moved closer to Bruce, “I want to watch you play with Debbie’s feet.” Bruce gave up trying to climb the wall with his butt and slid past Stephanie toward his side of the bed.

“Have you three been taking drugs?” Bruce accused, turning around to find the three following him like a pack of wolves. Bruce backed into his nightstand, knocking off the lamp sending it crashing to the floor.

Debbie stopped a few feet in front of Bruce with Angela and Stephanie on either side of her. Bruce started thinking about jumping out the window when Debbie spoke.  “Feeling better baby?” Debbie asked, smiling.

Bruce just collapsed to the floor with a thud, sitting up when he noticed Debbie was smiling. His heart was beating out of his chest, and his breathing was labored as he looked up at the three. “I ought to spank each of you until I leave hand prints on your ass!” Bruce threatened.

Angela spun around putting her butt in his face, “Me first,” she said.

“I’ll get the handcuffs,” Stephanie volunteered. Bruce fell over on his side, breathing harder, making them laugh at him.

Debbie kneeled beside him, “When those thoughts start coming, you remember this. We now know what to look for. I don’t care if it’s during the middle of lunch in the center. We will strip down and do this again in front of everyone,” Debbie promised with a mischievous grin.

Bruce looked at Debbie, calling her bluff, “You wouldn’t dare?”

Stephanie rolled Bruce on his back with her foot and sat down on his abdomen, “Wanna bet on that?”

Bruce looked at Stephanie and smiled, “You know what that would do to my reputation? Everyone here thinks I’m a super stud. What would they think seeing me run from three naked women?”

“Not our problem,” Angela said, sitting on her knees beside Bruce’s head.

Debbie leaned over his face, “Your well-being is our concern.”

“Okay, point taken. Can I get up now?” Bruce asked, feeling real uncomfortable as he looked at Stephanie.

Stephanie looked down at Bruce, “Bruce, is that a gun on your hip, or are you just glad to see me?” she asked.

The three fell over laughing as Bruce stood up and began stripping off his clothes as he headed to the bathroom. Throwing his clothes in the corner, Bruce turned around and looked at Debbie, “You play a dangerous game sugar mama. What would you have done if I’d have said yes?” Bruce challenged.

Debbie looked at him grinning, “Well, get your ass in here and find out.” Bruce ran into the bathroom, closing the door, which made them laugh harder.

Stephanie looked at Debbie, “What would we have done?” she asked.

“Put up or shut up,” Debbie replied with a wicked grin.

Stephanie shrugged her shoulders. “Okay,” she said as the three climbed into bed.

Angela rolled over to look at Debbie, “I want to watch you and Bruce,” she said. Debbie just looked at her with a blank expression.

“Are you serious?” Debbie finally asked.

“I’ve never seen a fetish before,” Angela said, with excitement on her face.

“That would be cool to watch,” Stephanie admitted.

Debbie put her hands over her face, “What have I created?” she said.

“Come on. Where do you two meet up? We can hide and watch,” Angela said, making Debbie laugh.

Stephanie bounced over and sat on top of Debbie’s thighs, “Now that would be cool.”

Bruce opened the door to find the three still naked and Stephanie sitting on top of Debbie. “Now I can watch this,” Bruce said, trying to get the upper hand back so he could at least still feel cool.

Angela sat up, “Funny you should mention ‘watch’. Stephanie and I want to watch you and Debbie,” she told Bruce.

“I’m going to act like I didn’t hear that,” Bruce replied, losing all sense of being cool.

“Come on, Bruce. I’ve never seen a fetish before,” Angela begged.

“I’m not listening to you,” Bruce said, stepping into his closet.

“Well, you can’t watch us then,” Stephanie yelled out.

“Fine,” Bruce replied flatly.

Angela crawled down to Debbie’s feet and put her face beside them. “Look Bruce, I’m rubbing Debbie’s feet and breathing on them real hard,” Angela called out.

Bruce stuck his head out of the closet. “You had to tell them about me and your feet, didn’t you, Debbie?” Bruce asked. Debbie could only nod her head because she was laughing too hard to speak.

Bruce ducked back in the closet. They could hear him moving clothes hangers around the closet. Debbie stopped laughing and sat up, almost knocking Stephanie off of her. Stephanie wrapped her arms around Debbie to keep from falling back as Debbie yelled, “Bruce, if you come out in those flannel pajamas, we will follow you around naked all day tomorrow.”

Bruce stepped out of the closet with the pajamas in his hand to see Debbie sitting up. Stephanie’s arm was wrapped around Debbie, pulling Debbie toward her chest. “Jesus, are you kissing her titties?” Bruce exclaimed.

Debbie fought hard not to smile as she looked at Stephanie’s breast then back at Bruce. “They are pretty, Bruce,” Debbie admitted.

“Look Bruce!” Angela exclaimed, “I’m kissing Debbie’s feet.” Bruce stepped back, grabbing the closet door and shutting himself inside.

Stephanie jumped off of Debbie and ran over to the closet. Debbie just fell back laughing. Stephanie knocked on the door, “Bruce, do you have handcuffs in there?” she asked.

“Leave me alone. I’m sleeping in here tonight,” Bruce yelled from the closet.

Stephanie stomped her foot, “Bruce, if you don’t come out here and get in this bed. I’m coming in there with Angela and Debbie,” she threatened. Hearing Bruce moving towards the door, Stephanie stepped back as Bruce flung the door open and stomped to the bed. Stephanie followed him and got in beside him, pushing Bruce toward the middle.

Bruce turned over so he couldn’t see her, only to see Angela and Debbie come for him like sharks. “My word, what has gotten in to all of you?” Bruce asked.

Angela stood up at the end of the bed, “If you let us watch, we’ll leave you alone,” she proposed. Bruce just stared at her like a she had lost her mind.

Reaching down, Angela grabbed Debbie by the ankles and spun Debbie around, pulling her by her ankles until her feet were in front of Bruce’s face. “Here are her feet. I wanna watch,” Angela said.

“What do you do with them? I can’t figure it out,” Stephanie asked, wrapping her arms around him.

Bruce looked at each of them saying, “I’m worried about you two.”

“Us? You’re the one with the foot fetish,” Stephanie said.

“Just kiss her feet once Bruce,” Angela dared. Bruce leaned forward and kissed Debbie’s feet. The second his lips touched her feet he knew he had made a mistake.

Bruce flipped over on his stomach and no matter what the three did he wouldn’t turn back over. They finally gave up and just curled up beside him drifting off to sleep. Bruce never had to worry about the images ever again after that night. Whenever they would try to start the image of three naked women tormenting him would replace them. Like all boys, naked women would always win in Bruce’s mind.

Chapter 5

Bruce woke up the next morning with Angela on his stomach. Trying to move so he would not make Angela slide off on to Debbie or Stephanie, Bruce slowly rotated his body. Bruce finally managed to get out of bed. Looking back at the bed Bruce grinned. Damn they are some kind of beautiful he thought. Bruce leaned down and kissed all of their feet, one at a time.

Bruce got dressed for his morning workout. Grabbing fresh clothes and stuffing them in a gym bag with his vest, Bruce headed toward the door, but stopped looking back at the bed before leaving.

Leaving the house, the air outside was a bit nippy. When Bruce was half way to the gym he heard Mike call out for him. Turning around Bruce saw Mike running toward him from the house. Mike stopped in front of him grinning, “Tell me about it,” he said.

“About what?” Bruce asked.

“Dude, Nancy and I heard all the banging around, squealing, laughing and yelling,” Mike said with a devilish grin.

“Nothing happened last night brother,” Bruce said. The grin fell off Mike’s face.

“You mean they just teased you for two hours?” Mike asked with disappointment.

“No, they stripped butt naked and tried to molest me,” Bruce admitted.

“They were naked, and you didn’t do anything!” Mike said with amazement, fighting the urge to slap Bruce.

“It’s easier said than done brother. What would happen if Debbie felt different about it later? Who would be the one to catch hell?” Bruce pointed out, even though Bruce knew he was lying.

“Yeah, good point,” Mike agreed then smiled at Bruce. “All that noise turned Nancy on like I haven’t seen in a long time. She came out wearing the red high heels and I didn’t even have to ask,” Mike said.

“Damn, dude. The red high heels twice in one month. You’re on a roll,” Bruce said grinning.

“You think y’all can do that again tonight?” Mike asked hopefully.

“Ah, that will be a no. Maybe in a week or two. You don’t want Nancy getting used to it you know,” Bruce said.

“Yeah you’re right,” Mike said, putting his arm across Bruce’s shoulder as they walked to the gym.

They worked out hard for an hour then ran on the treadmill for another hour. While they were on the treadmill, Debbie, Stephanie, Angela and Nancy came in. Bruce was thankful that the gym was packed so they could not torment him some any more. When Bruce was finished, he got off the treadmill, stripped down, and dressed in his ACU’s. Putting on his vest and grabbing his rifle, Bruce walked outside.

Bruce walked around before heading to the hall for breakfast. He checked on the work at the barracks then headed to the hall. Walking in, Bruce sat down and pulled out his note book. For some reason he just couldn’t stop chuckling about last night. Mike came in and sat down in his spot. “Angela and Stephanie aren’t in a good mood now. I don’t know what you said or did but they look like they’re on the warpath,” Mike said.

“It’ll be alright,” Bruce said looking down at his notebook as Millie came over with the coffee. Bruce thanked her as Debbie came in leading the twins. Stephanie had PJ in her arms and was followed by Angela and Cade. Debbie helped the twins in their chairs on either side of Bruce. When she was finished, Debbie leaned to his ear.

“I love you stud muffin,” she whispered.

Bruce smiled as Debbie sat down. After breakfast Bruce left with Buffy to continue inventorying weapons. The task lasted all day and they still did not finish. After supper, movie night started and the command group met again to go over what was going to be said tomorrow. They arranged the projects by priority. They talked to the pilots to find out what they needed to teach classes.

“I want a way we can identify the people we know that have been cleared here. Someone could sneak in here and just blend in to scope us out. Just think about it,” Bruce said. The group adjourned and Bruce headed upstairs to bed.

Bruce woke up the next morning and skipped his workout. Instead he walked the farm perimeter. Finishing his walk, Bruce headed to the center for breakfast. Millie sat down his tub of coffee and kissed him on top of his head. Bruce opened his note book going over his notes one last time looking up seeing Angela and Stephanie come in with the kids. They lead them to the table helping them up to the chairs.

“Where’s Debbie?” Bruce asked.

“She said she had to get something and would be here in a minute,” Stephanie told him.

Bruce continued sipping his coffee as Marcus and Carroll came in followed by sixty people. Bruce was glad Debbie had pointed out that the hall needed more tables last night. She had gotten several dozen on her scavenging run into Shreveport.  Marcus and Carroll came over to the table and stopped to hug the newlyweds. Carroll gave each couple a handmade quilt, which the girls went crazy over. They made their way around the table giving hugs until they sat down by Debbie’s empty chair.

When Millie brought them coffee, Debbie came in carrying a book. Debbie handed the book to Stephanie, “Read this,” she said.

When Stephanie grabbed the book, Bruce saw it was the Holy Bible. Stephanie looked at the Bible asking, “Why do you want me to read this?”

“You’ve read every book Bruce has given you about warfare, weapons, tactics, hand to hand combat, and other crap. This book is just as important to the family you’re now part of,” Debbie told her. Stephanie shrugged her shoulders and nodded her head without much enthusiasm. “How many times, have you been to church Stephanie?” Debbie asked.

Stephanie closed her eyes then opened them saying, “One hundred and sixteen times.”

“All those were when you went with us weren’t they?” Debbie asked. Stephanie nodded her head yes. “I should have noticed years ago that you didn’t go as a kid. That is the Bible my Daddy gave to me that I’m giving you. So for me, please read it,” Debbie pleaded.

“Okay, Debbie,” Stephanie said, smiling as she opened the Bible and started to read. Debbie was going to tell her she didn’t have to read it here and now, but stopped, mesmerized by Stephanie.

Stephanie would drag her finger down each of the four columns, her lips quivering, then she would flip the page. She only spent thirty seconds before she flipped the page. Everyone at the table just stared, watching her go through the books of the Bible. Even PJ watched, granted it was only for a few minutes but he did watch. When he let everyone know he was tired of watching, Debbie just handed him a bowl of oatmeal. Oatmeal to PJ was something to play with, not eat, as he grabbed a handful to show the oatmeal his death grip.

When Stephanie reached the second hour, most everyone in the hall had come over to the table to watch. Every now and then Stephanie would laugh or go ‘Aw’ but her finger never stopped moving. In just under four hours, Stephanie closed the book and looked up at Debbie.

“Well, now I know why you looked at me like I was stupid when I said I knew that Bruce couldn’t walk on water,” Stephanie said, then looked around seeing everyone staring at her. “Why is everyone watching me? It’s freaking me out,” Stephanie asked, pushing her chair back from the table.

“Did you just read the whole Bible?” Marcus asked with awe.

“Yes,” Stephanie answered nervously.

“Hey Marcus, watch this,” Bruce said turning to Stephanie. “Romans 8:20,” Bruce asked her.

Stephanie closed her eyes, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Stephanie recited.

“Amen,” Carroll said.

Father Thomas came over, “You have never read the bible before?” he asked.

“No, but I have to admit it was pretty good,” Stephanie replied.

“Father, I hope you studied well,” Bruce said, and Debbie kicked him under the table, making him wince.

“Well, it’s good to know I have someone to correct me if I stray,” Father Thomas replied smiling.

“You have no idea Father,” Bruce said as Debbie kicked him again. “Stop that, damn it! You have on combat boots, and it hurts,” Bruce told Debbie.

“I was hoping to cut off your mouth before it spoke,” Debbie shot back.

Marcus laughed then said, “Don’t push it, Bruce. I fell asleep one time in church twenty years ago, and Carroll popped me so hard on the back of the head I fell off the bench.”

Father Thomas laughed, then turned to Bruce, “May I start the service now, Bruce?” he asked.

Still rubbing his leg, Bruce nodded his head and Father Thomas went to the front of the hall and started mass. He was barely in his sermon before Stephanie raised her hand. Father Thomas motioned to her, and Stephanie asked a question. After he answered he continued with the service. After the third time Stephanie raised her hand, Bruce pulled it down and told her to save her questions until after class. That earned him another kick from Debbie.

After the sermon, Father Thomas handed the floor to Bruce. Bruce called on Paul to start it off. Paul spoke for an hour telling about accomplishments and new projects. After Paul, Bruce sent up Debbie and Nancy to go over changes to the work schedule and classes that were being started.

Next, Bruce sent up Bill and Willie to go over training and the law at the farm. Then they called out the people’s names that could go on patrols. They gave each of them a yellow bandana and the pin to wear that had a small M-4 on it. Next they handed out the pins to those that could carry around a weapon. Out of the 350 plus people only seventy or so didn’t have carry privileges.

Jake and Matt went next. After their briefing, they pulled the shades and showed the UAV video of the mob at the refinery. Then they showed Bruce running around acting crazy at Ft. Polk grabbing weapons and giving Mike a headache. When they were finished 99% of the people had tears in their eyes from laughing so hard.

Bruce walked to the front of the room as the boys went back to the table. Bruce cleared his throat, “Okay, first we will have a ceremony for those that we lost this week, the ceremony will take place this afternoon. Next, I want to tell everyone that I know we are pushing everyone hard, but my family and I are doing the same amount of work plus more. We want to ensure we can be safe here,” Bruce stopped as a hand shot up in the back. “Sir, I will take questions at the end,” Bruce said.

“Mr. Bruce, this is important,” Bruce heard a male voice say.

Bruce looked around the room, “This is the only question I’m going to take until the end. Sir if you would stand up, say your name, and ask your question,” Bruce said.

A man of oriental descent stood up, “My name is Henry Li and I didn’t want this to get missed again. I wanted to say several of us think you and the command group are doing too much.” A lot of murmurs of agreement came from the room.

“Thank you, Henry and others for noticing, but we have a lot to do,” Bruce answered.

“Mr. Bruce, we see you and every member of the command group up at all hours working on projects, pulling guard duty, going on patrols, scavenging groups and the list goes on. We think you’re pushing them too hard, along with yourself. I, for one have seen you fight and want to keep you rested in case we are attacked here or when we have people leave and get attacked, you can go save them. To see you doing task others can do doesn’t make since,” Henry said getting a standing ovation. When the clapping died down and before Bruce could speak, Henry started again.

“You have guard duty tonight and duty tomorrow. Everyone else gets time off for night guard duty, why not you? I will take your guard duty tonight Mr. Bruce,” Henry said proudly.

Bruce filled with panic. They couldn’t take guard duty away. That was the one time he could get some lovin. He couldn’t tell the clan that as he tried to make excuses. “Henry, guard duty is when I have a chance to be alone and organize my thoughts,” Bruce gave out the lame excuse.

“You can still do that, but I will take your duty for you,” Henry said. Bruce loved Henry, but he wanted to kill him. Bruce started stuttering, trying to come up with an excuse as Debbie stood up.

“Baby, they don’t want you to work yourself into the ground,” Debbie said and many people sighed with relief when Debbie took their side.

“But guard duty baby,” Bruce whined like a little kid, stomping his feet.

Debbie smiled at Bruce, “Bruce, everyone that knows you, knows you like to have a few hours of solitude about once a week. I propose that every Monday, we will clear everyone out of the shop, and you can just putter around your shop from noon to 1800.” Debbie said.

Bruce perked up, “Six hours of me time. Can I play with the new weapons?” Bruce threw in so nobody got suspicious.

“You can do whatever you want those six hours, but no more guard duty unless we are under threat,” Debbie offered.

“Oh goodie, goodie,” Bruce said with joy.

“But what about the rest of you and all the other stuff he does?” Mr. Li asked. Bruce wanted to tell him to shut the hell up. He had six hours of lovin coming. He wouldn’t even have to stop and look at the monitors.

Debbie laughed, “Mr. Li, if Bruce slows down, we slow down. As for the rest of the stuff he does, let’s start small and go from there.” Henry accepted her response, and Debbie got a round of applause. Bruce wanted to skip around the front of the room, he felt so good.

Bruce smiled as he started again, “Okay, from now on Sunday will be a day of rest unless it’s a vital project or guard duty. All Christian holidays will be observed so we can live and not just survive. This Saturday, we will have a day of celebration and dance, because we are alive.” The hall erupted in a thunderous cheer that hurt Bruce’s ears but he didn’t care. Tomorrow was fun time.

Bruce went over the rest of his agenda then restated the rules and punishments. When he was finished he asked for questions. Bruce started around the room answering questions, most dealing with the dance. When Bruce told everyone that they could wear regular clothes, the women started clapping. Unable to avoid it anymore Bruce pointed to Jenny Green.

She stood up, “Jenny Green, and first, I want to make an objection to giving guns to twelve year old kids and not just regular guns but military weapons. They are kids and should not be carrying weapons and being taught how to kill. I will address the rest of my complaints after each one is dealt with,” Jenny snapped.

Bruce was too happy to even be pissed off by her, “Well, your complaint is bullshit! Bill where is Frank?” Bruce called out. Bill hollered from the back of the room holding up Frank. Bruce pointed at Frank, “He’s only nine, and he carries a submachine gun. His daddy taught him.”

“That is what I’m talking about. These are kids. They need to find themselves and explore the world, not learn how to kill,” Jenny related her liberal shit.

Bruce took in deep breath, “First, if they can’t shoot, they can’t explore shit. Blues will rip them apart and eat them, or a gang will find them and do worse. Buffy, stand up on the table!” Bruce yelled out. When Buffy had climbed up on the command table, Bruce told her, “Buffy, grab your balls.” Buffy grabbed her crotch with both hands shaking them. “She found herself,” Bruce told Jenny and the room erupted in a round of laughter.

When the laughter stopped, Jenny started again, “That’s borderline child abuse. You have no right to have these kids learn this type of behavior. How were you put in charge here? I want another vote or at least to be put on the command group to help guide the welfare of the kids.”

“Jenny, let’s get something straight. There’s a judge and a congressman outside right now picking up shit because they wanted to take charge of my land and this clan. I’m in a very good mood. Don’t spoil it by pushing your luck. You’ll never be put on the command group. You are as fake as a three dollar bill. All you want to do is have some power to make people miserable and feel important. I bet you even fake your orgasms,” Bruce challenged, getting a lot of snickering.

Jenny just stood there with her mouth open not believing what Bruce was telling her. Before Jenny could speak, Bruce started again, “I know you have two kids, a boy that’s fourteen and a girl that’s twelve. The only reason they’re alive is because we rescued your group. Those ‘kids’ you talk about were part of your rescue. You are the one abusing a child by refusing to let your kids learn how to defend themselves. Let me tell you something, though. When their names come up to learn they will, just as you will or you’ll be thrown out. Your kids will be able to make their own decisions.”

Jenny looked at Bruce with hate in her eyes, “Don’t even think you will teach my kids like you have taught yours.”

“You’re getting on dangerous ground here, woman. You better choose your next words very carefully or shut up,” Bruce warned her. If Jenny would have been smart, she would have seen people moving away from her, but she wasn’t smart.

Jenny just smiled, “Yeah, I’m talking about your kids. Especially that stupid boy that married your daughter-,”

Bruce cut her off, “You better take that back fast, woman,” he advised Jenny. Out of the corner of his eye, Bruce saw Nancy in a dead run toward Jenny. “Too late,” Bruce said just as Nancy bowled over Jenny knocking her over the table. Nancy started driving punches to Jenny’s face like she was trying as hard as she could to push Jenny’s face out the back of her skull.

Jenny’s husband ran to pull Nancy off as Bruce yelled, “Hey man, I wouldn’t do that!” The husband, hearing someone yell, looked up in time to see Debbie’s boots hit his face with a drop kick.

Two of Jenny’s friends went to try to pull Nancy off and before Bruce could even warn them, Angela and Stephanie tackled them. Bruce looked up, seeing Danny running over to join the melee. He ran over intercepting her and wrapping his arms around her to hold her back.

“Let me go, Daddy! She talked about my Matt!” Danny screamed at the top of her lungs, tears of anger running down her face.

“He may be your husband, but he’s Nancy’s baby. That gives her first rights to this ass whooping,” Bruce told her.

“Mama Nancy, save some of that bitch for me!” Danny screamed, kicking and hitting at Bruce holding her. For the first time in his life, Bruce was actually scared to let his daughter go.

Bruce looked back to the fight to see Nancy pick Jenny up over her head and body slam her on the floor. Turning to Debbie, he saw she was throwing kicks so fast Jenny’s husband couldn’t do anything to block them. Angela and Stephanie just had their opponents on the ground pounding their faces with their fist and elbows. Bruce just smiled, watching the fight.

No one noticed Carroll making her way through the crowd. When she reached the fight, she yelled, “Stop it right now!” The four women stopped in mid punches and kicks to see where that command came from. Seeing Carroll standing over them with a pissed off expression, they gave her their undivided attention.

“Now stop fighting! Nancy, Debbie, Angela, and Stephanie get behind me now,” Carroll said leaving no room for argument. They moved quickly to follow Carroll’s instructions, except for Stephanie. When Stephanie stood up, she stomped on the woman’s face she had been beating the shit out of. “Stephanie!” Carroll snapped, looking at Stephanie.

“What? She started it,” Stephanie said bobbing her head. Carroll just pointed for Stephanie to go as Marcus went to stand beside Carroll.

Danny screamed, “Let me go! That bitch is mine!”

Carroll spun around, “Danny, I’m not your Daddy. I gave each of my daughters a switchen’ when they was in their twenties, after they birthed kids. If I have ta get a switch for ya, I promise I’ll wear your hind end out,” Carroll threatened, looking at Danny hard.

Danny stopped struggling, looking at Carroll as Bruce whispered in Danny’s ear. “She’ll do it, Danny, and I won’t stop her because she scares the shit out of me.” Bruce let go of Danny, and she just stood beside Bruce, not for protection, but for a shield.

Carroll turned to the ones on the floor, “Get up and don’t make me say it twice. The rest of you adults get over here and stand by them. I want you kids to sit at the table now,” Carroll said pointing at Jenny’s group. The kids took off running to the table, sitting down while the adults did as they were told.

Jenny’s husband stood up, pointing his finger at Carroll. Marcus jumped in front of him, “If you say one word, before the sound reaches my ear, you will hit the floor dead,” Marcus told him. The color drained off his swollen face from the threat Marcus delivered.

“Marcus, I can handle this,” Carroll told him.

Marcus turned to Carroll, “I haven’t let anyone bad mouth you in the years we’ve been together, woman. I ain’t about to start now. Don’t think your threats will work on me either because I still know how to cut a switch myself,” Marcus told her with a grim expression.

“Oh hell yeah Marcus, you go boy! I got your back!” Bruce yelled out jumping up and down making Marcus smile. Carroll just ignored him.

Carroll did smile at Marcus then she turned to Jenny, “You causin’ more trouble than you’re worth,” Carroll told her. Jenny drew a breath to speak. Carroll pulled a pocket knife out, flipping her wrist, making the blade snap open. “If you say one word, I’ll cut your tongue out an feed it to the hogs,” Carroll said. Jenny clamped her mouth shut, putting her hands over her mouth.

“Oh look at Carroll pull a shiv out on the bitch!” Bruce yelled out, jumping up and down pointing at Carroll. Carroll continued to ignore Bruce.

Carroll looked at the six adults, “Sits on the floor til they decide what to do with ya.” Buffy, out of nowhere, came running up behind Carroll, holding a broom handle over her head. Coming around Carroll, Buffy swung the handle with all her strength, hitting Jenny across the face, breaking the broom handle, and knocking Jenny out. Jenny almost made a complete flip from the impact before she hit the floor in a slump.

“Buffy!” Carroll yelled.

Buffy looked at Carroll, dropping the broken handle. “She hurt mama’s feelings and made Danny cry. I don’t care if you spank me. I’ll go and get you the switch,” Buffy said with defiance and tears on her face.

Marcus came over to Carroll, “You go easy on her. She’s fighting for her family, Carroll,” Marcus told her with and edge to his voice.

“I knows, Marcus,” Carroll said, rubbing Buffy’s head. “You defended yo’ Mama and sister, now let me take care of this. Go to your Mama,” Carroll told Buffy, kissing her on top of her head.

Buffy walked toward Debbie, but stopped at the table Carroll had sat the trouble making families’ kids down at. “If any of you want to talk with me about this later, I’ll meet you outside. I will talk to you one at a time or all together,” Buffy told them. The five kids scooted their chairs away from the crazy blonde girl.

“Buffy! I said go to your Mama!” Carroll yelled, pointing at Debbie.

“Yes, ma’am,” Buffy said and ran to Debbie, hugging her.

“Oh hell yea! Say something to my women again. They will whoop your ass. I dare ya! No, I double dare ya. Then Carroll threatens to shank someone, hell yeah! I know why Marcus snatched her up now-,” Bruce shouted his observation as Carroll yelled.

“Bruce, I can do without the commentary!” Looking around, “There’ll be no more fightin’ today. Don’t think I stopped ‘em out ’a pity for ya,” Carroll said, looking at Jenny regaining consciousness. “Any other day I’d have let them beat cha ta death. You don’t be talkin’ like that about a woman’s babies.” Carroll looked around the room, “Everyone sit down. Let’s break bread together. Someone bring their kids a plate of food. The adults can wait till you’ve decided they fate.”

Everyone returned to their seats as Bruce was bouncing around calling out the fight. When he got to the table Carroll looked at him and pointed at the adults sitting on the floor, “What do you want to do about ‘em?”

“Shank’em!” Bruce hollered out. Debbie leaned over and whispered into Carroll’s ear.

Carroll shook her head. “Men be worthless when that’s on they mind,” she said as Bruce started the commentary again, walking around the table.

“Did you see Nancy hit that woman like a Mack truck? Bam! Over the table, on the floor, here is your can of ass whoopin’ girlfriend. Then I tell her husband ‘don’t touch Nancy’, but did he listen? Hell no! What did he get? Bam! Two size 5 ½ boots to the face from a little hot Debbie, that’s what he got. Debbie said look at my boots bitch boy!” Bruce cried out as he kicked in the air. Everyone was watching Bruce, laughing as he reenacted the fight. Carroll was really trying hard not to laugh but it was a losing battle as Bruce continued the commentary, complete with live action replay.

“Then two skanky hoes try to jump the mamas from behind. What do they get? Little Foot and Little Red throw ‘em down ‘saying lick my balls’ and ‘how does my fist taste, skanky hoes?’ Then I see Danny coming and with the look in her eye, I had doubts about stopping her. She was past the ass whoopin’ stage. She wanted to rip the bitch’s ass off and eat it. Oh yeah! When I grab Danny she only yells at Nancy ‘Save me some of that bitch’s ass!” Bruce yelled out continuing to act out his commentary. Even Carroll was laughing now.

Bruce continued as the whole hall was now watching and laughing, except those who received the ass whoopin’. “Then I see Carroll just walk her ass over there like she knows she’s a bad ass. Carroll lets out a shout, and I wet my pants. I’m thinking ‘oh damn my women are fixing to get a spanking, and I ain’t going to stop it because I don’t want one.’ Then Danny yells out now that Nancy has paused, letting that woman see her foot up close, since it has been up in her ass.” Bruce turned to Danny, “Carroll yells at Danny that she is fixing to get a spanking, and I know I will hold my own daughter down as long as Carroll doesn’t come after me. Oh, but this is the best part-- Marcus tells the bitch’s husband ‘say something to my woman, you will die before the sound hits my ear.’ Now that is cold blooded shit!”

“Then Marcus threatens Carroll with a spanking. I’m thinking, oh no, I love this man and Carroll is going to get on him. Then Carroll pulls a shiv out-,”Bruce stopped as Debbie yelled, “BRUCE!”

Bruce looked at Debbie like he didn’t do anything, “Yes, baby,” Bruce said calmly.

“Bruce, sit down. You’re embarrassing me,” Debbie informed him.

“Okay, but let me tell Mike something,” Bruce said, running down to Mike.

Carroll leaned over to Debbie. “You could take him inside for a little bit,” Carroll hinted to her.

“Carroll, as worked up as he is now, I’ll be there the rest of the afternoon and most of the night,” Debbie said, never taking her eyes off of Bruce.

“Oh, he’s one of those,” Carroll said, nodding.

Debbie laid her head on the table, “I created another monster,” she said. Angela started laughing and snorting. “Bruce, sit down in your chair now!” Debbie yelled. Bruce ran to his chair, sitting down and smiling. Debbie lifted her head up from the table, “Bruce, what are we going to do with them?”

“I don’t care. Ask me Tuesday morning,” Bruce said smiling ear to ear. Debbie dropped her head on the table.

Bruce stood up, “I have it. Everyone in the clan can vote on them. Stay or go. Everyone over the age of ten can vote. Father Thomas will argue for and Danny can argue against,” Bruce said, just wanting Monday to get here.

So that was how the first public trial occurred on the farm. The group got to stay by less than ten votes, and every ballot that was counted for them to stay had ‘only because of the kids’ written at the bottom.

Chapter 6

Bruce was out of the bed at 0400 Monday morning, moving at sonic speed. Finishing a brutal workout in record time, he went to watch the supply convoy leave. He didn’t feel the chill in the morning air as he stood watching the convoys pull out to get the supplies to make the runway. To be honest, Bruce didn’t feel much of anything as he wore his boyish grin. A wise man once said, ‘man has two heads, but only enough blood to run one at a time.’ Thinking about that afternoon, Bruce stood on top of the berm watching the bulldozers clear a path to the tree line and further. Tired of watching the dozers-- they wouldn’t let him drive one-- Bruce went to finish his inventory of weapons.

Walking into the main underground storage, Bruce started counting by himself. Buffy had gone with Danny on Jake’s team to get the supplies to make the runway. Stopping at the line of mini guns, Bruce got side tracked and started playing with the weapons. Setting up a mini gun then getting one of the 120mm mortars set up, Bruce let the time get away. Looking at his watch and seeing it was 1147, Bruce took off to the shop.

Walking in, Bruce waved at Joe and Harry. “Hey guys,” Bruce said.

Joe smiled, “Shop’s all clean for you. If you don’t finish your project, put a note on it to let us know if you want us to finish it or not.”

“Thank you,” Bruce replied, genuinely grateful.

“No thanks required. Because of you and your family, my daughter-in-law and grandson are alive,” Harry said.

“We’re going to work on the new water tower. Call us if you need us,” Joe offered, heading to the door.

“Hey, there is something I wanted to ask both of you,” Bruce said.

“Go ahead,” Joe said, stopping.

“Do you two think each of you could find at least two apprentices and start training them?” Bruce asked.

“That’ll be easy. There’s several with the bug already,” Joe said.

“Next, I want you two to sit down and make a list for your ultimate machine shop. I want you to be able to do anything in it. Don’t tell anyone, but I’m going to build one twice the size of this one behind the shop, roughly about three thousand square feet in working floor area with a basement the same size. I hope you two know where we can get the stuff you put on the list. Please try to keep the search area less than three hundred miles,” Bruce related.

“Are you kidding about any of that?” Joe asked with a shocked expression.

“No, none of it,” Bruce said.

“Bruce, I have always wanted to make the ultimate shop. I’ll show you the plans. I have them memorized. Let me draw them out,” Joe said with excitement on his face.

“Okay, you two get together and draw up the list of equipment and shop plans. You two will help me present it to the command group Friday night,” Bruce said.

“Hell yeah,” Harry said then looked at Bruce. “I want to come with you if we get the equipment,” he asked.

“Me to,” Joe said.

Bruce held up his hands, “Guys that would not be a good idea. Look at it from the clan’s perspective. Each of you has a skill that’s vital for the survival of the clan. We just can’t run to the store to pick up spare parts anymore. Well technically we can, but they’ll run out,” Bruce said.

Joe looked at Bruce, “We understand, but come on, this is a dream come true here.”

“All right guys, I’m not promising anything. If I can put together a large security team and your places aren’t that far away, I will do what I can,” Bruce said. Then added, “Guys, I can’t stop you if you want to go, but I hope you see what I’m saying.”

Joe picked up a three foot long, one inch thick, steel rod off the steel rack by the door, looking at Bruce. “If you think I’m some liberal pussy, we’re going to have a problem now,” Joe said, not playing.

Bruce took two steps back holding up his hands. “At no time did I ever want to imply that. I just wanted you to know, we aren’t holding anyone here by force,” Bruce replied.

“Oh, well, we know that Bruce. If you say we can’t go, we will abide by that. You’re the chief here. If we can help you carve out a small safe area, we will,” Harry said with conviction.

Joe threw the rod back in the rack, making Bruce feel better. “Dude, I thought you were trying to lump us with those dumbasses. We know if we want to leave now, we could. My wife and son went to check on her mother on the other side of Monroe before the shit hit the fan. I know if I wanted to go right now, you would outfit me and probably come with me,” Joe said looking at Bruce.

“I have a Stryker outside. We can be there in two and half hours,” Bruce said grabbing his rifle off the table.

“I knew you would, Bruce. I already checked out my mother-in-laws house. It was empty. I was on my way back home when the army stopped me and put me in the camp ‘for my protection’. For all I know they’re at the house waiting,” Joe said.

“Where did you live?” Bruce asked.

“Five miles south of a little town called Womack,” Joe said.

“If they made it there, could they survive for this long?” Bruce asked.

“Yeah we had about five – six months of food, but don’t get your hopes up. Harry was one of my neighbors. He went to check on the house before the government moved him to be safe, and they weren’t there,” Joe replied with disappointment.

“Okay Joe, I’ll keep them in my prayers,” Bruce said.

“Thank you, Bruce,” Joe said as he and Harry left.

Bruce went to the rack and pulled some metal rods out. There was a project he did want to do since Debbie was not here for the fun project. Bruce went to the grease board and drew a rod eighteen inches long. Then Bruce drew a rod across it seven inches from one end. Walking over to the metal rack Bruce grab the metal rod Joe was going to beat him with, thinking Bruce had insulted him. Taking the rod to the saw, he cut an eighteen inch long piece and a four inch piece.

Putting the eighteen inch piece in the mill, Bruce zeroed and programed it to shave the rod down on two sides leaving a ¼ inch wide section of metal seven inches long. When the mill started, Bruce heard the door open and close. Looking over, he saw Debbie coming. Bruce started running toward her and Debbie held her hand up making him stop. “You be gentle, mister. I know how you are when you get like this,” Debbie said with a stern face.

“I have no idea what you mean,” Bruce said, acting innocently.

“Bruce, you’re so horny, you are actually vibrating,” Debbie related.

“Well yeah. These little quickies suck,” Bruce informed her.

“You don’t like the quickies? Even if that’s all we can do?” Debbie asked mockingly.

“Debbie, you know that’s not my style. But if it wasn’t for those, I would’ve probably chased the goats down and humped at least one of them to death,” Bruce predicted.

Debbie laughed. “Come here, baby. Leave the goats alone,” Debbie said, holding out her arms to Bruce.

Bruce walked to Debbie and picked her up saying, “The white goat with the black spot on her side was starting to look real good.” Debbie laughed as Bruce sat her on one of the work tables.

An hour and forty minutes later, Debbie pushed Bruce back. “Time out,” Debbie said breathing heavy.

“Time out! Are you crazy? We only have three more hours,” Bruce said, looking at the clock.

Debbie looked at Bruce with panic. “If you think we’re going for three more hours like that, you have lost your ever lovin mind,” Debbie said, brushing the sweat soaked hair out of her face.

“Debbie the last time we got to have real play time was months ago. I have to make up for lost time,” Bruce said, wiping sweat off his face, grinning. Bruce heard giggling with snorting from the corner of the shop.

The grin fell off Bruce’s face as he looked at Debbie. “How could you?” Bruce asked. Debbie just smiled and shrugged her shoulders. Bruce turned to the corner, looking at a metal cabinet that he put coats and stuff in. “Come on out,” Bruce said.

The doors slowly opened, and Angela and Stephanie stepped out smiling. “That was freaking awesome. I think Debbie deserves a medal or something,” Angela said smiling as they walked over.

Bruce folded his arms across his chest looking at the two. “You two are demented,” Bruce informed them.

“No we aren’t,” Stephanie said, skipping beside Angela. “We wanted to watch,” she said stopping beside the table.

Bruce looked at Debbie as she said, “Bruce, they have proved they are part of this family more than once. Yesterday they actually beat Danny backing me up,” Debbie said sitting up.

Bruce raised his eyebrows with an agreeing expression, nodding his head. “Yeah, they did do that,” Bruce agreed.

“That was better than both movies I saw,” Stephanie stated with pride.

“Thank you,” Bruce replied in a flat tone.

“Oh come on, Bruce, don’t be mad, that was cool,” Angela said grinning.

“I’m not mad. Just shaken out of the mood,” Bruce told her.

Debbie jumped down off the table. “Bruce, you’re kidding me?” Debbie asked.

“No,” Bruce replied matter of fact.

“How can you say that after Ft. Lewis?” Debbie asked, putting her hands on her hips.

“I knew then I was preforming in front of a crowd,” Bruce said. Debbie just stared at Bruce in disbelief.

Burning with curiosity, Stephanie asked, “What happened there?”

Not taking her eyes off Bruce, Debbie related the story. “First let me tell you, I have no idea what the Army does to Rangers, but they are the horniest bunch of men I’ve ever seen or heard of. The company Bruce was in had just come back from the field somewhere in the Philippines. Well, at this party we were at, the boys started betting who could go the longest,” Debbie said, never taking her eyes off Bruce.

“Well, that’s simple. Just go to a room and make noise until you win,” Stephanie said, like it was a no brainer.

Debbie laughed finally looking away from Bruce at Stephanie. “No, Stephanie. They drop in the living room, den, kitchen, or where ever to make sure the one rule was maintained: wood up,” Debbie told her.

“You’re kidding,” Angela said, having trouble believing it.

“No I’m not. They call it a ‘wood run’. That wasn’t the first time it had happened and I saw it, but it was the first time I let Bruce talk me into it,” Debbie said then added. “The pot got up to $8,500.”

“Did y’all win?” Stephanie asked.

“Shit, they should have just given us the money and saved themselves the trouble,” Debbie replied, waving her hand at her.

“Y’all won $8,500?” Stephanie asked astonished.

“No, we left with $10,000. After spunky monkey here went for two and half hours straight, outlasting the next closest by thirty minutes ,they raised another $1,500 and bet us Bruce couldn’t go another two hours,” Debbie explained.

“Four and half hours straight?” Angela asked with her mouth hanging open.

“Bruce didn’t get sex after that for a month,” Debbie informed them.

“Sounds like a college party now,” Angela pointed out.

Debbie laughed, “You want to go to a wild party, go to a party that a group of soldiers throw, especially if there are Rangers there.”

“Well start back up then, Bruce,” Angela said pointing at Debbie.

Debbie held up her hand as Bruce turned around, “No, we can pick up next week unless one of them want to tag me out,” Debbie said and Bruce just crossed his arms over his chest looking at her.

Angela and Stephanie took a step back. “Uh no, that’ll be okay. I’m not ready for the Olympics,” Angela said.

“Me either,” Stephanie agreed with her.

Debbie threw Bruce his clothes as she started getting dressed. “Then don’t volunteer me,” Debbie said.

Debbie and Bruce got dressed then Debbie came over and kissed him. Angela and Stephanie came over and kissed Bruce. As they left, Stephanie turned and said, “The foot thing was neat Bruce.”

Bruce grabbed a shop rag, throwing it at her. When they were gone, Bruce sighed, then went back to work on his project. Taking the bar off the mill, he took it over to the shaper and bolted it down then put edges on the top and bottom of the seven inch piece. Then Bruce shaped the end into a needle point.

Taking the rod with the newly made thick bladed knife at the end Bruce welded the four inch piece behind the blade. When the metal cooled, Bruce picked up the rod and put the four inch cross section in his right hand with the seven inch blade between his ring and middle finger. Bruce looked at his creation and smiled. It was a modified punch dagger.

After taking out the gang at the convenience store in August, Bruce wanted to make something that would not require so much forearm strength to take a man out. The blade was heavy enough that he did not have to worry about it breaking. Next he would put a strap on it so he could strap it to his forearm. Bruce looked up at the clock and saw it was 1800.

‘Well that’ll be for next week,’ Bruce thought as he put his vest on, grabbing his rifle and new creation. Bruce left the shop, heading to the hall for supper. Before going inside Bruce looked over the two hundred yards inside the fence to look out in the east field. He could see the flat area bulldozed down from the gate and going out across the field. The farm was on a small rise, which in Louisiana constituted a hill, and he could see where they had cut a channel out heading toward the wood line.

Bruce grinned as he went inside the hall. Not many people were in yet as he made his way to the command table. He hung his rifle up and put his new creation on the table before sitting down. Taking out his notebook, Bruce started going over notes of things to do and things that needed to be done. Bruce was in his own world as the Center started to fill up. He continued as Joe and Harry came over to his table. Bruce looked up hearing someone come over. “Is that what you were working on?” Joe asked pointing at Bruce’s creation.

Bruce smiled, “Yeah. I know you two could have done better, but this is my beta version.” Bruce said.

“Can I see it?” Joe asked. Bruce handed it to him and described what he was trying to make and why.

Joe nodded, “Well it will do that, but it’s heavy as hell. If you wouldn’t be offended, can I have a crack at it?” Joe asked.

Bruce really didn’t want to, but if a master machinist wanted to make you a cool toy you let them. “By all means, Joe,” Bruce answered.

“Come by tomorrow afternoon so I can measure your hand,” Joe said as he and Harry left. Bruce turned toward the door as the whole family came in together. Jake came over carrying something in his jacket, and seeing the grin on Jake’s face, Bruce just prayed whatever it was would not hurt him too bad.

“Dad, we found you a present,” Jake said stopping beside him. Opening his coat Jake pulled out a German Sheppard puppy, handing it to Bruce. Bruce took the puppy, smiling, ‘oh the other dogs aren’t going to like this,’ he thought. The puppy looked around nervously as Bruce inspected it. It was not as malnourished as Bruce expected. The puppy was a male between four to six months old. As Bruce continued looking over the dog, Jake described how they found it.

“We made it to the parish maintenance area and started loading equipment up. Then I saw something moving in the back of the yard. I motioned for everyone not on the fire team to get secured in a vehicle then moved to the back of the yard. We looked for thirty minutes and I thought I was just seeing things when Buffy calls out she hears something whining under a small building. When I get over there, I hear it and know it’s a dog. We coaxed it out with some food. Looking around, we found what was left of the mom and rest of the litter. Blues had torn them apart and ate them. I figured this one hid when they were attacked. From what was left of the others, I think it was a month ago,” Jake said.

“Inside the small shed were several large bags of dog food that he had chewed open. There wasn’t much left so he would’ve had to start going out for food before too much longer. We all know you have always wanted a German Sheppard, so he’s yours, dad,” Jake said.

Bruce looked at everyone, “Thank you very much,” he said.

Buffy sat down, “What are you going to call him, Daddy?” she asked.

Bruce thought for a second then replied, “Max.”

Buffy nodded liking the name. Bruce petted the puppy, who was warming up to him. PJ was banging his cup on his high chair, yelling to let everyone know he didn’t like the dog. It was sitting in Daddy’s lap, and he wasn’t. PJ threw his cup on the table, yelling louder. Bruce looked at PJ. “Boy, you better rectify,” Bruce told him. PJ just blew spit bubbles at Bruce. Bruce looked at Debbie who was sitting in her chair on Bruce’s left beside PJ, laughing. “You better control your child, woman,” Bruce told her.

Debbie shook her head no, “This falls into Daddy territory,” she said.

Bruce looked at PJ, who was still yelling and hitting his high chair with his hands. “Keep on PJ and you sleep outside tonight,” Bruce threatened. PJ stopped in mid swing, looking at Bruce in what could only be described as shock. Slowly lowering his arms, PJ’s bottom lip started quivering and tears started forming in his eyes.

Debbie reached over, pulling PJ out of his high chair, loving on him. “Bruce, you say you’re sorry, or you sleep outside tonight,” Debbie told him.

“PJ, I’m sorry. Come here,” Bruce said holding out his arms. PJ turned back to Debbie hugging her.

“You’ve traumatized him, Bruce. Are you happy?” Debbie accused, wrapping her arms around PJ.

“Oh, you’re good PJ,” Bruce said. PJ turned around to Bruce and laughed.

Debbie held him out at arm’s length, “You faker,” she accused. PJ laughed and clapped his hands, making everyone at the table laugh.

Bruce grabbed PJ, introducing him to Max. Max was not all that thrilled at first with the small human, but after Max licked PJ’s face and PJ hugged him, Max liked him.

While Jake went over what they had gotten, he told Bruce they had not seen any blues but a lot of livestock and deer. They had brought all the heavy equipment and run convoys of dump trucks and semi’s with dump trailers from the maintenance area back to the farm, full of asphalt. There now was a small mountain of asphalt at the other end of the field. Paul figured it should be enough for the runway. Millie came over carrying plates and set them down on the table. Most of the family waited until the plates were on the table before they started eating. Bruce put PJ back in high chair, which he didn’t like at all. He wanted to play with the fuzzy animal. PJ shut up when Debbie started feeding him.

Bruce looked at Angela and Stephanie then turned to Debbie. “Debbie, starting this week, I want you to spend one hour everyday teaching Angela and Stephanie hand to hand after your workouts,” Bruce told her then he turned back to them. “Three days a week you two plus Mindy and Buffy will spend two hours in the afternoon with me. You’ll find out what you will learn when we meet. First class is Wednesday at 1400,” Bruce told them.

Angela and Mindy just nodded. Stephanie had a look of horror on her face. “How can I prepare if I don’t know what we’re going over?” she asked.

“You can’t. That’s why I’m not telling you. I’m going to teach you to adapt and be ready for anything,” Bruce informed her. Stephanie just nodded her head, thinking this wasn’t a good idea.

During supper, Bruce sat Max on the floor and started working on teaching Max his name. In the hour before they left to go to bed, Max had learned his name. Bruce helped gather up kids to head to bed. Bruce pulled a sleeping PJ out of his high chair, after Debbie took pictures, of course. Then Bruce carried him to the house.

Bruce laid PJ down on the bed when they got to the room and asked Debbie, “Baby, when we took everyone’s information did we ask where they lived?”

“Yeah, we wanted to know who had experience living in the country,” Debbie replied, looking up at him after helping the twins into night shirts.

“Can you tell me Joe’s address?” Bruce asked.

“Which one?” Debbie asked.

“We have more than one?” Bruce asked.

“Four,” Stephanie replied.

“The machinist,” Bruce clarified.

“Joe Holiday,” Debbie said, “Yes, we have his address.”

Bruce walked over to his lap top, started it up and told Debbie and them what Joe had told him that afternoon. When his computer came up, Bruce pulled up the spread sheet and wrote down the address. Then Bruce pulled a map out of his vest and found where Joe lived.

“Bruce, what are you doing?” Debbie asked.

“I’m going to see if anyone’s home,” he replied.

“Baby, if Joe doesn’t think they are there, and Harry checked it out, then the chances aren’t good,” Debbie said.

“I know baby. But, if they had to come back on foot it would take them a little while,” Bruce told her.

“Baby, if they tried to come back on foot, they’re dead,” Debbie told him.

“Mike and I did,” Bruce shot back.

“Yeah, with training and weapons that few people possess,” Debbie pointed out. Bruce just cut his eyes at her. “Oh, okay. We’ll send a patrol later this week when we start back up,” Debbie said.

“I want to go tomorrow and take you three and Buffy with me,” Bruce said. If Bruce would have told them he was an alien, he would have received the same response.

“That’s not a strong enough fire team to be going that far,” Debbie said in a stunned voice.

“Since Jake took most of the family out, they are down tomorrow. I was taking him and Mary with Danny and Matt in a second Stryker,” Bruce said.

“Please, Debbie. I want to go,” Stephanie said begging.

“Debbie, if you think we shouldn’t go, I will tie Stephanie up-,” Angela started to say until Stephanie came up behind Angela putting her hand over Angela’s mouth.

“She didn’t mean to say that Debbie, and she wants to go also,” Stephanie said, moving Angela’s head up and down.

Debbie laughed at them, “Okay Bruce, we’ll go in the morning. Stephanie, let Angela go so she can breathe,” Debbie said.

Stephanie let go of Angela and jumped in bed. Angela looked at Stephanie, “Girl, I’ve been out there several times, and it still scares me. I’ll go with the family, but I don’t think it is fun out there,” Angela said.

Stephanie looked at Angela with a hurt expression. “You think just because I’ve only been on one patrol and a few scavenging groups, I didn’t have to fight to get here,” Stephanie stated.

Everyone stopped and looked at Stephanie. “Stephanie, did you have problems getting here?” Debbie asked. Stephanie nodded her head then looked down.

“Stephanie, why didn’t you say anything?” Debbie asked.

“You didn’t ask, and I didn’t want you to get in trouble if things started getting better,” Stephanie said in a quiet voice.

Bruce turned around in bed, “Tell us about the trip, Stephanie.”

Stephanie took a deep breath. “When I left the CDC, I had already put my go bag in my SUV, but I had my pistol, the SIG Sauer you and Bruce bought for me, in my purse. Running from the research building, two walkers jumped out at me. I never even thought as I aimed and fired, hitting both in the head. I really wished I would have bought a suppressor because my ears were ringing. I did not hear the runner coming up behind me. The only reason I’m here is because Bruce taught me to always clear your surroundings. When I turned to clear my back, the runner was less than fifteen yards from me. I snapped up and it took me the rest of my magazine to kill her. I changed magazines and cleared again then ran for my Blazer.”

“When I jumped in, I locked the doors and grabbed my go bag, putting it beside me with the shotgun. Looking back, I also wish I would have bought the AR-15 like you wanted me to, but hind sight is 20/20 right, Bruce?” Stephanie said smiling then continued.

“What’s a go bag?” Buffy asked.

“It’s a bag you always keep packed with supplies to survive for several days,” Bruce told her as Stephanie continued.

“It took me four hours to get out of Atlanta. It was a war zone. I think I ran over eight blues but I’m not sure because two different groups wouldn’t get out of the road. Debbie had told me to run over anyone or anything that did that, so I did. Before I left Georgia, I was stopped by a cop who said he had to take me into custody, even after I showed him my CDC badge. Just as he was fixing to call it in, a blue came out of nowhere and attacked him. I sped off while the blue tore into him.”

“The next time I was stopped was in Alabama. I had gotten off the interstate and was on secondary roads then and came up on a check point manned by two men who had arm bands on that said ‘Sheriff’. When I stopped, one came up to my window; the other stood in front of my SUV. That’s when I remembered Bruce saying if you can’t impress them with intelligence, baffle them with bullshit and act like a ditzy girl to throw off your opponent. They didn’t care that I was CDC, and I could see that the way they were looking at me, and then at each other, I was in trouble. I told them I had a letter from the Governor in my bra and unbuttoned my shirt to act like I was getting it. The one at the front came over to join his buddy. I lifted up my pistol and shot both in the face before they could even move. After I scanned the area and didn’t see anything, I got out and collected their weapons throwing them in the back. I ran over to their car taking the radio, a bag of magazines, and a shotgun. Then I jumped back in the Blazer and drove around their cars,” Stephanie said, looking down at her hands.

Bruce stopped her, “You took their weapons and radio?” he asked. Stephanie nodded her head yes. “What kind of weapons did you get from them,” he asked.

“Two H&K MP5’s and two Colt 1911’s,” she replied then added. “You always said ‘once your enemy is down and he has better gear, take it’, so I did. They were the same as the ones you taught me on here.”

“You did good, Stephanie. Keep going,” Bruce told her, grabbing her hand.

“Well, when I crossed over into Mississippi, I was really tired but didn’t want to stop so I kept going. I came up to a traffic jam from hell. I stopped, grabbed one of the MP5’s, and climbed up on the hood to see if I could make it through. That was when the small mob hit me. It was only sixteen but it seemed like a lot more. I took out most with the MP5 but forgot to grab another magazine and shot the rest with my pistol. Knowing how they have a hard on for sound, I said screw it and drove down the ditch and median until I made it past the traffic jam. I made it through two more check points with my ID. I really wanted to put on my tactical vest and gloves but was scared they wouldn’t buy a scientist in tactical gear. So I just left it in the floor board covered up.”

Stephanie sniffed, wiping her nose then continued. “I was almost out of Mississippi when I just got so tired, I was seeing double. I pulled over at a rest area then I drove to the back of the building. I crawled into the back and laid down covering up with a blanket so no one could see me. I had a shotgun and MP5 with me and went right to sleep. I woke up two hours later when I heard a truck pull up in the rest area. When I heard a lot of whooping and hollering I knew that I had made a mistake. I counted three voices, all male, when I heard one yell beside my Blazer. The other two came around, and I stayed real still hoping they would just leave. One of the men said it was just a civilian truck and there wouldn’t be anything in it and they should go. I prayed that they would listen to him, but I heard a voice from the back of the Blazer say it had hospital ID stickers and might have drugs inside.”

“When I heard that, I wanted to just cry. One of them said he would get something to open it with, and I heard him leave with another one. I felt the truck shake as someone tried the doors. The one trying to open the doors walked away from me to yell for the others to hurry. I grabbed the MP5 and my pistol and crawled to the front seat. For a split second I thought about driving off, but I remembered Bruce saying ‘a vehicle will not stop a bullet’.”

“Looking in the mirror, I saw one standing behind me at the corner of the building. I opened my door and jumped out bringing the MP5 up and aiming at his chest. My gut said pull the trigger, but I waited because he had not threatened me. When his friends joined him, they rounded the corner to find me aiming a gun at them. I don’t know which one said it but I heard, ‘If you don’t put that down, you’ll get hurt, little girl.’ I pulled the trigger emptying the clip into all three and then I dropped down taking a knee. That being only the third time I had fired a weapon on full auto. I thought my ears hurt earlier. Holy shit, were they ringing after that. Seeing all of them still moving, I jumped to my feet shooting them with my pistol. Then I jumped into my Blazer and took off. I don’t know if they were dead or not or if they had friends. I just took off like a bat out of hell. One of them couldn’t have been more than seventeen years old,” Stephanie said wiping a tear off her cheek.

Stephanie looked up as she spoke. “I promised myself I was driving on no matter what after that. When I crossed the Mississippi river into Louisiana, I saw a road block, bigger than any I been through. There were an easy two hundred men there, military and police. When I pulled up, I held out my CDC ID to the state trooper and told him someone in Jonesboro had been bitten seven days ago and had not turned. I said I was the advance doctor, and that I had to get there quick before he turned to see what types of antibodies he held. The trooper called over the radio and a major with the state police came over. I told him the same story, and he wanted to send an escort with me. I told him no and that the CDC needed the road to stay open because the rest of the team was behind me. When he looked at me funny, I told him we had tried to fly, but we had lost two helicopters in Atlanta. The major wrote me a note to get through any checkpoints I ran into and asked if I needed anything. I told him I needed a few more gallons of fuel because I had taken several detours. They filled me up and sent me on my way. I only had to use his note once in Ruston, and they were expecting me. When I left the interstate for the back roads, a man came out of nowhere waving at me to stop, standing in the middle of my lane. I moved to the other lane and so did he. So I hit him. For all I know he needed to save his kid, but I just hit him. He was the last one before I made it here,” Stephanie said finishing her story.

Bruce reached out, rubbing her hair, “You did a good job. If that man had good intentions, I don’t think he would have stayed in the road. I wouldn’t have changed lanes, Little Red,” Bruce said, pulling Stephanie close and kissing her, then asked. “You didn’t say anything about the weapons because you didn’t want us to become accomplices after the fact?”

Stephanie nodded her head. “With all the people that saw me, it would’ve been easy to track me down. I didn’t want to get y’all in any trouble,” she replied, sniffling.

Bruce laughed, “Girl, if the world would suddenly turn around, they would just bomb us here.”

Debbie climbed across the bed to hug Stephanie as Buffy told Stephanie, “Damn, you can kick ass.”

“Buffy, language,” Debbie told her.

Angela climbed over to Stephanie, “Stephanie, I didn’t mean anything. Please believe me. If I hurt your feelings, I’m sorry. You can hit me as many times as you want,” Angela said with tears running down her face.

Stephanie smiled, wiping tears off her face, “I can’t hit you. Besides Debbie, you’re the best friend I have ever had,” she informed her.

“Well, you can spank me then,” Angela said, hugging her.

Bruce laughed, “I finally figured out what Angela’s fetish is.” This caused the three women to laugh with him.

“What’s a fetish?” Buffy asked.

Bruce looked at her and said, “Run down the hall and ask Danny real quick.” Buffy took off out of the room, as Debbie just looked at Bruce. “What? She’s her older sister. That’s part of Danny’s job,” Bruce replied.

They all got ready for bed, with Max lying down on the floor by Bruce’s side of the bed. Buffy came back an hour later, climbing into bed, saying, “That’s gross.”

Bruce pulled Stephanie over to him wrapping his arm around her as he fell asleep. Stephanie fell asleep with a smile spread across her face as she dreamed about Bruce.

Chapter 7

Bruce woke up to Max licking his face and PJ laughing. Pushing Max off of him on to the floor, Bruce sat up looking around the room. PJ was sitting on top of Buffy and clapping his hands, which Max took for ‘come here’ so he jumped up on the bed. Walking on the sleeping bodies, Max went over to PJ and started giving him kisses.

Bruce got out of bed, telling Max, “Get down, boy.” Max looked at Bruce like ‘why’ as Bruce reached over and picked up PJ. Seeing his licking toy taken away, Max jumped off the bed. Bruce saw Max start sniffing around and called him to follow.

Bruce ran down the stairs with Max close behind and PJ laughing at this new game. Running through the living room, Bruce opened the front door only to be hit by a blast of cold air. PJ stopped laughing and tried to climb over Bruce to get away from the cold air, yelling at Bruce. Shutting the door, Bruce ran to mission control, handing PJ to the woman on duty. “Watch him for a second,” Bruce said, handing PJ to her.

Bruce looked down at Max who was sniffing around the room. Running over to Max, Bruce picked him up and carried him to the front door, taking him outside. The boxers Bruce had on did little to shield him from the cold. Bruce had barely put Max down when he started to pee. Sighing with relief, Bruce waited on Max as he wrapped his arms across his chest. Max finished and started to walk around to find a place to finish his business as Bruce’s feet started going numb. Going from place to place, Max looked for the right spot to do his business. Bruce started bouncing up and down.

“Just take a dump, Max. I’m freezing,” Bruce pleaded with Max. Max just looked at Bruce as if saying ‘don’t rush me.’ Just when Bruce was about to give up, Max finished. Yanking the door open Bruce ran back inside and congratulated Max. Even though, he had tried to freeze Bruce to death. Hearing PJ throwing a fit, Bruce went to mission control and grabbed PJ, much to the relief of the night watch, and then they went upstairs.

Walking back into the room, Bruce saw everyone was awake and getting ready for workouts. Bruce looked at the clock, which read 0505. Putting PJ on the bed, Bruce grabbed some workout clothes and put them on. Then Bruce helped get the kids ready which on most mornings was an easy task. This morning the twins were being difficult. Sherry was running from Stephanie, who was trying to put a shirt on her, and Emily wouldn’t come out from under the covers so Debbie could get her dressed.

Looking up at the ceiling, Bruce told God he was sorry for anything that he had done to disappoint him. Bruce looked towards the girls, “Hey, that’s enough. I tell you what, if you’re good, you can come with us to the gym,” Bruce told them.

Emily came out from under the covers, and Sherry stopped running. Both girls were now smiling. Bruce looked over at Cade who was letting Angela dress him and he had a sad look on his face.

“Cade, you can come as well,” Bruce said making Cade smile.

Buffy, who was at the door waiting on everyone, started laughing. “This is going to be funny,” she said.

Bruce looked at her as he tried to put clothes on PJ. “What are you laughing at?” he asked her.

“Watching y’all chase them around the gym while we workout is going to be great,” Buffy told him smiling.

“Y’all?” Bruce said, “You’ll be chasing down kids also. That’s part of the big sister role.” The smile fell off Buffy’s face as she looked at Bruce. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but did you not say you wanted little brothers and sisters and tried to volunteer me and your Mama to adopt everyone,” Bruce said.

Buffy stomped her little foot, “Daddy, the twins are okay sometimes, but PJ tries to get into everything,” Buffy whined.

“That’s why you have to help us show them the right way to act,” Bruce said, picking up PJ.

Buffy sighed. “Alright,” she replied without enthusiasm.

Debbie smiled as she grabbed her rifle, holding out her hand for Emily. “That’s being a big girl,” Debbie told Buffy.

The group headed to the gym for their workout, and true to Buffy’s premonition, PJ tried to go everywhere. He couldn’t walk fast yet, but he could crawl close to light speed as far as Bruce was concerned. Bruce would no sooner put him down and finish a set than he would have to go chase him down. During one set, PJ climbed onto a treadmill that someone had left on and was shot off the end. Sailing several feet through the air, he hit the floor laughing, as he rolled into the wall. Debbie took off to check for damage, only to find a laughing PJ, who was heading back to do it again.

While PJ was exploring the gym, the twins would just hold each other’s hands and walk from person to person, watching them workout. When Bruce was working out with dumbbells, they just stared watching Bruce move the big dumbbells. Bruce went over to the rack getting the twins little five pound weights and told them to copy him, which they loved.

With the added distractions, the morning workout lasted an extra half hour, but the adults and Buffy enjoyed the company of the little ones. Leaving the gym, PJ was holding his arms out toward the flying machine, yelling. Debbie, who was carrying PJ, turned his face to hers. “Mister, you scared the shit out of me with your catapult,” Debbie told PJ. He laughed at her then gave her an open mouth kiss, slobbering on Debbie’s face. Debbie laughed with PJ and hugged him tight. “That’s okay, I’ll let you play on it tomorrow, just at a slower speed,” Debbie promised.

Walking into the hall the group headed to their table. PJ was barely in his high chair before he started banging his hands on it, demanding his food. Bruce looked at PJ telling him to stop as Millie brought a bowl over setting it in front of PJ.

“Bruce, you quit that. He’s a growing baby,” Millie said, scolding Bruce. PJ blew raspberries at Bruce as he grabbed a hand full of oatmeal then smeared it over his face. Raising his eyebrows, Bruce was amazed PJ actually got some in his mouth.

“I can hit my mouth,” Bruce told PJ in a teasing voice. PJ slammed his hand down, yelling like he was telling Bruce ‘I’m trying. Leave me alone.’

Debbie looked up at Bruce as she started helping PJ. “Bruce, stop tormenting the baby!” she cautioned him.

“He’s my son. If I want to torment him, I can,” Bruce replied in a sassy tone. Debbie just cut her eyes at Bruce. “I’m just not going to torment him any more today,” Bruce added, satisfied in his own mind that he was still the boss.

Stephanie leaned over to Angela, “Oh she’s good,” she said.

“She’s my idol,” Angela replied.

Bruce ignored them and started looking around for Max. Standing up, Bruce saw Max at the door looking back at him. Walking around the table, Bruce walked over to Max. “You just went a few hours ago,” Bruce told Max. Max just looked up at Bruce whining.

“Oh okay,” Bruce said, opening the door and walking out with Max. Unlike this morning Max was done with his business in minutes and ran back to the door waiting on Bruce to let him in. Walking back inside, Bruce sat down and saw Millie had already brought out his food.

As Bruce started eating, he looked down the table to Danny and Jake. “Danny, Jake, you two are with me today,” Bruce told them.

Danny was the first to whine, “We were out all day yesterday. What about our six hours of down time?”

Not to be out done, Jake whined louder, “Dad, that’s not fair. Everyone else gets time off.” Bruce just gazed at them with a stern look, daring either to continue.

They both looked at Bruce, and then started eating again replying at the same time, “Yes sir.”

“That’s the price of being part of the command group. You work twice as hard, twice as long, and it must be twice as good,” Bruce told them.

“I want a transfer,” Danny replied under her breathe.

“Keep on young lady and I’ll join you to my hip. Let’s see how you act then,” Bruce told her.

“Oh come on! There’s no way you heard that!” Danny exclaimed, slamming her hands down.

Bruce looked at Danny. “Danny, parents can feel it when their kids give back a smart ass comment,” Bruce informed her.

Debbie looked up from feeding PJ. “Daddy feels them. I hear them, and yes I heard that,” Debbie said.

“What do we have to do?” Jake asked.

“Cover my ass,” Bruce said.

Danny looked up tickled. “Alright! Let’s blow something up!” she shouted with excitement, jumping up from the table.

Bruce looked at Debbie and before he could speak Debbie said, “Don’t look at me, that’s your child. I’m still trying to figure out how you gave birth to her.”

Bruce looked back down at his plate and finished eating. Today he wasn’t going to win any verbal sparring matches with anyone. Debbie had finished feeding PJ so Bruce took him out of the high chair and carried him over to Susan in the corner of the hall where school and day care was starting out today. Bruce sat PJ down in a play pen with Joshua, Susan’s little boy. The two started playing together, which consisted of seeing who could beat up the toys the most.

Bruce smiled at the troublesome pair and headed over to Susan. “Hey Susan, I need to ask you a favor. I want you to ask the kids what they want for Christmas. One toy apiece and it can’t be an X-Box?” Bruce said.

“Sure, Bruce,” Susan said smiling. Then dropping her smile Susan added, “Just to let you know, one of Jenny Green’s friends yesterday yelled at Maria because we were letting them color Christmas pictures.”

Bruce groaned then looked at Susan. “The next time she or anyone else says that, ball up your little fist and punch them in the eye. I know Conner has been teaching you. Let them know it was from me,” Bruce told her.

Susan smiled again, “Okay, I can do that.”

Bruce walked back to the table and stopped behind Conner, “Conner, I’m very disappointed in you,” Bruce said from behind him.

Conner jumped up out of his chair with an astonished look, “What did I do? And whatever it is, I’m sorry.”

“Susan isn’t armed. There are gun racks everywhere on this farm, so that excuse is out the window,” Bruce told him.

Conner looked at Susan playing with the kids. “She’s a teacher and is with the kids almost every day,” Conner replied.

Bruce, looking at Conner, replied, “That’s the most precious thing we have here. She’s with the future over there. Without them, we’re just wasting our time.”

Conner nodded his head, “You’re right, Bruce, I will have the problem rectified in forty-eight hours,” Conner promised.

Bruce headed to his room to get changed, followed by Max. Pulling off his workout clothes, he went into his closet to grab some clothes. Reaching toward his ACUs Bruce saw his section of tiger stripe BDUs. Reaching over, Bruce grabbed one. ‘What the hell, I’m the boss. I can wear what I want every now and then,’ he thought as he threw it out on the bed. Bruce reached up to the top of his closet, pulling down a box and carrying it over to the bed.

Opening the box, Bruce pulled out his blue Calvary cowboy hat and yellow silk bandana. Bruce had gotten both when he was assigned to a Calvary regiment when he was in the Army. Bruce got dressed for the day. Zipping up his tactical vest, he reached for his gloves and brought them up to his face. The smell almost made him hit the floor. Bruce laid them on the night-stand. ‘Those so have to be washed’ Bruce thought reaching into the closet and grabbing another pair of tactical gloves. Bruce tied his bandana around his neck, put on his sunglasses, and then his Calvary hat.

Unable to resist, he strutted over to the bathroom to look at himself in the mirror. ‘Oh hell yea! I look bad!’ Bruce thought, seeing his reflection. Acting like a little boy, Bruce turned this way and that, posing in the mirror. Bruce wanted to get a camera and take pictures but decided it might be a bit ostentatious. Bruce walked out of the bathroom as Debbie, Angela, and Stephanie came in.

The three just stopped and their mouths fell open as they stared ogling at Bruce looking like a regal bad ass. Angela was the first one to speak, “Debbie, if you don’t jump his bones right now, I am,” Angela stated in awe.

Bruce poked his chest out as far as he could. He was starting to get a little light headed because he was holding in his breath so his chest would stay poked out. “Wear that Monday, baby, and let’s see who quits first,” Debbie informed him.

Not expecting that from Debbie, Bruce let out his Breath. “Oh hell yeah boy!” Bruce shouted with glee as he strutted out of the room, feeling ten feet tall and bullet proof. On cloud nine, Bruce passed Danny and the others coming in from breakfast.

“We can wear tiger?” Danny cried out, taking off running to her room, followed by the other kids and Buffy.

Bruce didn’t care and if pressed, wouldn’t remember what Danny had said in the hallway. Walking outside, Bruce headed to where the vehicles were parked behind the barn. Noticing people staring at him, Bruce fought off the urge to start walking with a gangster limp. Reaching the Strykers, Bruce looked down the line of the twenty-two neatly parked vehicles. There used to be more but they were at the refinery. All the Strykers that had machine guns had a large suppressor on the end of the barrel.

Bruce walked over to the first one in the line and opened it up, crawling inside. Dropping the ramp, he walked out the back to see Mike coming over to him. “Who are you today? Some mutated form of John Wayne?” Mike asked.

“Nah, I’m not that big of a bad ass, yet. But I will be one day,” Bruce replied with a tone of confidence in his voice.

“Where are you going today?” Mike asked.

“Joe’s house. It’s sixty miles from here in the middle of nowhere,” Bruce responded.

“What for?” Mike asked.

“I want to see if his family is there,” Bruce said and told Mike the story.

Mike shook his head. “Bruce, if Joe even thought it was remotely possible, he would already have went,” Mike said.

“So I just waste some fuel and time. What the fuck’s the problem?” Bruce snapped in a pissed off tone.

Mike held up his hand in mock surrender. “Dude, fine with me. I just don’t want Joe to get his hopes up,” Mike replied.

“He doesn’t know I’m going and I want to keep it that way,” Bruce replied in a normal voice.

Mike and Bruce continued talking as Debbie, Angela, and Stephanie came up followed by all three couples and Buffy. Bruce looked at the ten of them standing there in tiger stripes and smiled. We are nonconformist Bruce thought, then remembered he was the one that laid out the status quo. Bruce motioned everyone over. “Jake, your group gets its own Stryker,” Bruce said then laid out his plan. “Your team is team two. We are going here and you’re leading,” Bruce said pointing on a map. Bruce looked at Buffy, “Buffy, you’re with me,” seeing her shoulders slump with disappointment. She had wanted to go with the teens. Bruce smiled. “You’re driving,” Bruce said.

Buffy jumped in the air, doing several circles, pumping her fist in the air, and yelling with excitement, and then ran into the Stryker. Bruce watched her run in, then turned to Debbie and crew. They were all looking at him incredulously. “What? She drives good,” Bruce told them as Buffy fired up the Stryker. Unconvinced, they continued staring at Bruce. “Well, every once in a while she does like driving over a car, and once she went through a house chasing a blue, but she got him,” Bruce lied unnerving the three as he went inside the Stryker. The three looked at each other and followed Bruce inside.

Bruce gave them each a CVC helmet to put on so they could talk and showed them how to use it. When they were plugged in Bruce looked at Stephanie, “Stephanie, where’s your sunglasses and gloves?” Bruce asked.

“I have them,” she replied, tapping her thigh pocket.

“Put them on. When you leave the farm always wear them just like you would in a lab. They are your first line of protection,” Bruce told her as Stephanie put them on.

Bruce nodded and radioed Jake to pull out. Buffy followed Jake off the farm. Bruce looked up to the front, watched Buffy driving sitting on her backpack and smiled. Bruce told Debbie to get in the turret and started going over how to operate it. When they were ten miles away from the farm, he let her squeeze off a few bursts. Next, Bruce told Debbie to go up to Buffy to learn how to drive. Then he had Angela get in the turret and went over the systems. Bruce laughed when she took off her pack, and like Buffy, sat on it as a booster seat to see everything as she fired off a few short bursts.

Jake called over the radio, saying that wasn’t fair, they wanted to shoot some too. Bruce said that was fine; just stop ten miles from the target so they could reload. Bruce told Angela to get out and switch with Debbie. Stephanie climbed in the turret and before Bruce could say anything, flipped switches, grabbed the fire control handle, and moved the gun mount, firing into a tree sitting in the middle of a field.

Stephanie turned around to Bruce, “I heard it twice,” she said.

Bruce radioed Jake and told him to pull over so they could reload and swap drivers. Bruce pulled the three out and showed them how to reload the M2. Buffy already knew how but had to use her legs to cock the handle. Bruce told Buffy to get in the turret which didn’t go over well since she already knew how to operate it. Buffy cheered up when Bruce told her she would get to fire it since she had never got to do that.

The two vehicles traveled for over an hour with Debbie driving now. Joe’s house may have been sixty miles away by map, but it was almost eighty by road. When they were five miles away, Bruce opened the back hatch but quickly closed it when the cold air hit him. The others just looked at him like he was a dumbass. Not one to hold her tongue, “It’s below forty degrees outside,” Angela said over the headset.

Bruce ignored her as he laid out how they were going to check the house. “When we pull down the driveway, Jake, you pull to the left. Debbie, you take the right. Stephanie, you’re in the turret, and Angela you’re by the back door to let us back in or cover Buffy and me,” Bruce finished.

Stephanie just looked at him. “Are you stupid? You can’t put Buffy in that type of danger,” she said.

Before Buffy could pop off, Bruce told Stephanie, “If they are regular people they are less likely to shoot at us seeing a little blond girl walking with a man, no matter how well armed she is. If they are bad guys, they will shoot at me and not see her as a threat. That is when y’all lay waste to the house.”

Stephanie nodded her head after thinking it through and Jake called over the radio, “We’re here.” They pulled into the driveway and drove to the house which sat two hundred yards off the road. They pulled the Strykers in the front yard. Bruce and Buffy got out the back then Angela shut the door. Coming from around the back, Bruce raised his hands up and told Buffy to do the same. Buffy didn’t like it, but she did it.

Walking up to house, Bruce saw the front door open a crack when they were almost to the porch and a rifle eased through the opening. Bruce froze and whispered to Buffy, “Don’t move,” as a male voice said from inside the house, “We’re not going back to any camp.”

“That’s fine with me. We’re just looking for the family of Joe Holiday, but we can look somewhere else,” Bruce replied.

A young man in his twenties came out the front door aiming the rifle at Bruce, making Bruce real nervous. “What do you know about Joe?” he asked.

“He’s at my farm,” Bruce answered.

A woman in her early fifties came out the front door. “Is he okay?” she asked Bruce.

Bruce didn’t answer because he was looking at the young man aiming at his head. The lady looked at the young man, “Gary, put that gun down now,” she said.

“Mom, they came here in military vehicles,” Gary replied.

Mom put her hands on her hips addressing Gary, “If I take it from you, I’ll break it over your head,” she threatened. Gary lowered the weapon with that threat but held it ready.

Mom turned back to Bruce, “Is he okay?” she asked again.

“Yes, ma’am,” Bruce replied.

“Why isn’t he with you?” Gary asked.

“Well, I was going to surprise him. He went to check on his wife and son who went to see her mother, but the house was empty. Joe came back here but was put in a camp. Harry stopped by here to check, and they weren’t here then, either. That’s when the military took him to the camp where Joe was at. We rescued them after it was over run. Joe and Harry are at our farm now running the machine shop,” Bruce gave them the condensed version. Out of the corner of his eye, Bruce saw Buffy getting ready to sling lead but couldn’t say anything.

Gary relaxed, letting the rifle fall to his side, “Dad’s with you?” he asked.

Bruce exhaled dropping his hands replying, “Yes he is.” Bruce keyed his radio saying, “Found ‘em.”

Seeing Bruce’s reaction, Gary said, “I’m sorry, mister, but it’s totally shit out there,” Gary apologized, defending his actions.

Bruce was fixing to tell him it was okay when from behind he heard a hatch open on a Stryker and Danny yell out, “Are you fucking crazy, pointing a gun at my Daddy?”

Bruce shook his head, “That’s my daughter. Don’t say anything. She’s mad, and it won’t end well for you,” Bruce explained then motioned to Buffy. “This is my other daughter. If you notice, while you had your attention on me, she had lowered her hands to her weapon. You were real close to dying, and what would I have told Joe?” Bruce demanded.

“I’m really sorry, mister,” Gary said as his mother slapped him on the back of his head.

“Son, I understand, but you need to learn how to keep it ready without being overtly threatening. You never even saw Buffy move, she was getting ready to cut you down. Now that I have lost five years off my life, let’s get you to Joe,” Bruce said turning toward the vehicles.

“We have others with us,” Mom replied.

“Well, go get your Mama and let’s go ‘Mom’,” Bruce replied.

“My name’s Patrice and my mother passed when the blues attacked the detention camp we were in,” Patrice said in a breaking voice.

“I’m sorry, ma’am. My name’s Bruce and how many do you have?” Bruce asked.

“Fourteen others,” she said. Bruce sighed, looking at the Stryker’s. There was no way they could get that many in. Seeing Bruce look at the Strykers, Patrice said, “We can’t leave them; they came with us from the camp. It took us two weeks to get here.”

Bruce looked at her like she was insane. “Patrice, we haven’t left anyone who wants to come with us unless you count the piece of shit gangs that are raping and killing. Those we usually just kill,” Bruce said, then added as Debbie walked up beside him.  “I’m just trying to figure out how to get all of you back.”

“We have a van,” Gary offered to Bruce then Gary looked up toward the Strykers and gasped.

Without turning around Debbie yelled, “Danny, knock it off.” Bruce was not that perceptive so he turned around as Debbie spoke to find Danny giving Gary the finger.

Debbie looked at Patrice, “That’s his daughter; I wasn’t involved in the pregnancy,” Debbie told her with a serious expression.

Patrice looked at Debbie with understanding, pointing at Gary with her thumb, “I’ve told Joe the same thing about this one.”

“Well, since you women are going to blame everything on us men, can we please leave,” Bruce snapped with a ton of attitude. He was tired of Debbie being nasty to him and his sweet pea. Turning around, Bruce gave Danny thumbs up, smiling at her.

“Bruce, quit encouraging her,” Debbie told him. “Patrice, tell everyone to grab what they need but room is at a premium, so don’t bring a lot of stuff,” Debbie told her.

“Well we have a lot of food also,” Patrice said heading toward the door.

Debbie laughed, “We have that covered. Come on, I’ll help you pack.” Debbie said following.

“Mr. Bruce, would you tell Buffy to not attack me if I move,” Gary said, looking really worried at Buffy.

Bruce looked down at Buffy who was looking at Gary like she was fixing to cap him. “Buffy, back off. If you shoot Joe’s son, he’ll be mad,” Bruce told her. Buffy just looked up at Bruce with her little sunglasses on.

“Ms. Buffy, I was just trying to protect my mom,” Gary said.

Turning back to look at Gary, Buffy stared at him, then smiled, “I’m protecting my Dad so I’ll give you a free pass this time. Happens again, I pop a cap,” she warned.

“Thank you,” Gary said, running inside.

Bruce laughed as Buffy looked back at him. “Danny says you have to deliver massive intimidation on first encounter. That way, if you fight later, you have the advantage,” Buffy recited.

“I know what you’re doing, Buffy. Who do you think taught Danny?” Bruce said, heading behind the house.

Buffy followed, asking, “Daddy, why aren’t you teaching me a lot like Danny is?”

“Teaching helps you reaffirm what you know. When she is done, I will go over everything with you to make sure she got it right,” Bruce said, stopping at the back of the house. Bruce saw a shed beside the carport and walked toward it. “You will teach the twins, and they will teach PJ. Contrary to your belief, Danny’s brothers taught her first,” Bruce told her, opening the shop door.

Inside was a small machine shop. It had the basic machines spread around the walls. Bruce walked over to the tool chest and opened it. Inside were the best bits, tools and mills money could buy. Joe may have mediocre equipment, but unlike Bruce, he bought the best in bits, mills, grinders, and tools. Bruce bought the cheapest but bought good machines. Bruce smiled and thought, ‘if you’re good, you don’t need the super machines, just the fine parts.’

On the table beside the tool chest was a small tool box. Bruce opened it to find the best calipers made. Joe’s name was engraved on top of the tool box. Closing it, Bruce knew this was coming. Bruce saw a book shelf with several dozens of books about the trade. Most of these he didn’t even have. Below the book shelf was a CD disk organizer. Thinking he had found Joe’s music Bruce opened it up to see each CD labeled with different projects.

Bruce called over the radio and told four of the teens to come to the back and help him. When they came around to the shop, Bruce had them help carry the stuff to one of the Strykers. When it was loaded Bruce went inside to see what was taking so long.

Walking inside, Bruce found Debbie putting pictures in a suitcase and zipping it up. Looking around Bruce didn’t see any pictures on the walls. As Patrice set down another suitcase, four in total, Bruce turned to Debbie, “Are all of those pictures?” Bruce asked them.

Debbie turned to face him, dropping her hand to the holster on her thigh. “Yes they are, and if you say anything about them, I’ll shoot you in the leg,” Debbie said in a serious voice.

“I was just going to ask if you needed help taking them out,” Bruce said quickly, not feeling like getting shot today.

“Sure you were. Yes, take these out. We’ll be ready to move out in five minutes,” Debbie told him.

Bruce went to grab the cases and had to really use muscle to lift the two off the floor. Seeing Bruce straining as he lifted, Jake and Matt each grabbed one of the other two. Putting them in a Stryker, Bruce went back as everyone left the house, half heading to the garage and the other half to the Strykers.

Bruce grabbed Gary, “You stay in-between the Strykers. If we’re attacked, we’re moving through. Don’t pass either one and keep in contact,” Bruce told him, handing Gary a radio and he nodded.

Bruce turned to Buffy, handing her his satellite GPS map. “Where are we?” Bruce asked her.

Buffy let out a sigh as she took the map from Bruce. She hated reading the map. Taking out her compass and aligning the map, Buffy looked around then back at the map. Then, using her memory she moved her finger over the map stopping several miles from where they were.

“No. Further south,” Danny whispered really soft.

“Hey quit helping, Daniel Boone!” Bruce told Danny. Danny just sighed but kept standing by Buffy.

“Bruce, quit being hard on Buffy. She’s learned a lot in the last few months. She’s allowed to have one area that she has problems with,” Debbie snapped at Bruce, making him look up. Seeing Debbie had a scowl on her face, he turned away.

When Bruce looked back at Buffy, she had her finger on their location. Bruce just looked at Danny and growled. “Okay Buffy, where is the farm?” Bruce asked her. That was easy; she unfolded the map, pointing it out. “That’s good, BB. Now, you’re driving and will be in the lead so memorize your route. Remember, we only have a little over half a tank of fuel, and we didn’t bring extra. No one will help, so it’s up to you to get us home,” Bruce told Buffy. Buffy just looked at Bruce in abstract horror with her mouth open. “That will not help you memorize your route, BB,” Bruce told her.

Everyone from the house and the team just stared at Bruce as Buffy, with shaking hands holding the map, went to their Stryker with Danny walking beside her. Bruce looked at everyone as he yelled, “Danny quite helping her or you walk home!” The shock only increased on the faces except Debbie’s who just shook her head.

“Bruce, they’re your kids, not recruits,” Debbie pointed out with an icy tone.

“What happens if we’re hit and everyone on the team gets killed? You just want her to stop and ask for directions when it’s up to her to get these people home?” Bruce asked her in a voice close to a yell. Debbie just shook her head, not wanting to have this argument again.

“Don’t worry Mom. It’s easy here with all the roads,” Jake told her. “When we went to Idaho and I had trouble reading the map, Dad hiked us ten miles back, handed the map to me, and said. ‘Sit here for one hour and then find the truck’ as he left me.”

Debbie looked at Bruce like she was fixing to shoot him in the leg. “I followed him and he was never out of my sight,” Bruce assured her as he thought about hiding behind someone.

“I didn’t know that,” Jake said, still holding a grudge.

Dark shadows passed over Debbie’s face as she asked Jake, “How old were you?” since they had taken many trips to the northwest.

“Twelve,” Jake replied, and Debbie squinted her eyes at Bruce, dropping her hand to her pistol again.

Bruce looked at her, crossing his arms over his chest. “You pull it, and I will pull your pants down and turn your ass red,” Bruce threatened.

“I can get one shot off,” Debbie said. “You torture my kids, leaving them in a wilderness and expect me not to get mad,” Debbie grumbled, wanting to punch him in the face.

“Oh, now they’re your kids. Just a few minutes ago, I gave birth to all of them!” Bruce popped off.

Angela stepped in between them. “As interesting as this fight would be, how about let’s get these people back to the farm, then you two can go at it,” she offered.

“See you at the house, baby,” Debbie growled as she headed for Jake’s Stryker and not Bruce’s.

“Bring it on, girlfriend,” Bruce said, turning around leaving. The new members just wondered what was going on.

Once everyone was loaded up, Buffy pulled out with everyone following. Buffy only made one wrong turn and knew it as soon as she did it. As she slowed down to turn around, Bruce told her to keep going and figure it out. Buffy got back on course and finally pulled onto their road. On the entire trip back Bruce and Debbie delivered threats back and forth over the radio. Bruce called ahead telling mission control he was coming in with visitors. Bruce called Mike over the radio, “Big Daddy Two. This is One. Do you copy?”

“Yeah One, this is Two,” Mike replied.

“Is Joe in the shop?” Bruce asked.

“Yeah,” Mike responded.

“Good, keep him there,” Bruce said.

“Are you shitting me?” Mike yelled back.

“I haven’t shit on you, but I’m fixing to shit on everyone!” Bruce screamed back.

“Dude, you’re PMS-ing early. If the cramps are that bad, take something,” Mike shot back.

Debbie came over the radio before Bruce could reply. “Get Joe. Let him know his family is fine then meet me on the patio, mother fucker!” Debbie yelled at Bruce over the radio.

“Mom-,” Danny started as Debbie cut her off.

“Shut it, Danny,” Debbie yelled over the radio.

“Yeah, look who’s being mean to the kids now!” Bruce yelled over the radio.

“Keep on and we start here and now you son of a bitch!” Debbie yelled out the challenge.

“Oh I’m so scared. Little mighty mouse woman is threatening me like a little bitch,” Bruce replied mockingly as Buffy pulled through the gate.

“Bring your smart ass mouth to the patio; we’ll see who the bitch is,” Debbie declared as Buffy drove around the hall and up to the shop, stopping.

Bruce threw off his CVC, grabbed his Calvary hat, and jumped out of the Stryker, not wanting to see Debbie right now. He had no idea what bug crawled up her ass, but he was going to remove it, surgically if necessary. Bruce walked in the shop and found Joe and Harry working.

“Joe, stop that shit!” Bruce yelled. Joe and Harry stopped working and looked at Bruce. “Joe come outside, I found you something. I’m not carrying those damn suitcases either, so don’t ask, and what I thought was important to you is in my track!” Bruce shouted with veins standing out on his forehead.

“Dude, you want one of my tampons?” Joe asked, seeing Bruce’s pissed off expression.

“Hell no, I need a big super absorbent one!” Bruce yelled as he spun around heading for the door.

Joe and Harry ran after him. When they reached the door, Bruce informed Joe, “We found your family. They’re over there, and they can tell you their story.”

Joe stopped in his tracks hearing that. Looking at where Bruce was pointing, he saw his green van and his son getting out. Joe took off running with tears in his eyes. Patrice and Gary saw Joe running towards them and ran to meet him. They embraced and kissed each other. When Joe turned around to tell Bruce thank you, he wasn’t there. Looking around, Joe saw him heading toward the house. Joe turned to Patrice who put a finger on his lips. Patrice had a radio in her hand with the volume up and Joe could hear Bruce and Debbie going at each other. “Joe, I love you, and miss you, but this is going to be good. Where is the patio and can you take us there?” Patrice asked him. Joe hugged her, leading them to the patio as Patrice turned up the volume to the radio so everyone could hear.

“You tried to hurt my babies, you son of a bitch!” Debbie yelled over the radio.

“If I would’ve left it to you, they would’ve had weekly vaginal exams!” Bruce yelled back.

“I will show you vaginal as I kick your ass!” Debbie yelled.

“Bitch, you couldn’t whip your way out of a wet paper bag with both ends open!” Bruce yelled and they didn’t need the radio to hear that.

Joe laughed, “This family is nonstop entertainment,” he told Patrice and Gary as he watched Bruce approaching the house.

“Your ass is mine!” Debbie yelled over the radio as Joe and his family broke into a run so they wouldn’t miss anything.

Bruce walked on to the patio to find Debbie had taken off her equipment and piled it on a table. Bruce started unbuckling his gear and just dropped it. Bruce took off his hat, setting in a chair. “I’m gonna to cut that hat up,” Debbie growled at him.

“Touch it, and I’ll shave your head,” Bruce promised. “Well my ass is here. The only thing holding you back is air and opportunity.” Bruce said taking a deep breath in and added, “There goes the air.”

Debbie lunged at Bruce, throwing a series of punches that Bruce blocked easily. Debbie launched another attack with punches and kicks and tried to grab Bruce’s arm as he blocked one of her punches. Bruce just pushed her back, pulling his arm out of her grasp.

As Bruce blocked and dodged, he would reach out lightly popping Debbie on the side of the head. It didn’t hurt Debbie, but boy, did it piss her off to know Bruce could pop her anytime. If that was not bad enough, every time Bruce tapped Debbie’s head he would say, “See, you’re just a little punk.” That brought out the wrath of Debbie.

If the two had stopped and looked around, they would’ve seen almost everyone at the farm watching them. The only ones not present were those on duty, and they were watching it on the security cameras.

Debbie caught her balance and crouched down, “What else have you done to my babies?” she yelled.

“Well I guess I shouldn’t tell you about the first time I took Danny tandem skydiving. I had to pry her hands off the airplane so we could jump. She screamed the entire way down and wet her pants!” Bruce shouted. Debbie launched several snap kicks followed by a round house.

Stephanie leaned over to Danny as Debbie kept throwing punches and Bruce just blocked. “Do they do this often?” Stephanie asked Danny.

“Once every few years,” Danny said, shrugging her shoulders. “No one knows what will set Mama off. The last time they did this someone used her SUV and left it on empty, and Mama blamed Daddy,” Danny said shaking her head.

Bruce glared at Debbie as she backed off. “Oh, what about the time Mike and I took the boys fishing in the great lakes. We threw them out and made them swim two miles back to land,” Bruce told Debbie as he grinned at her.

Debbie launched another flurry of attacks which Bruce just kept blocking. Then he caught Debbie’s arm, spun her around, and shoved her away, slapping her butt. “You punch like a bitch,” Bruce said. Debbie screamed at him as she took off and jumped into a drop kick, which Bruce ducked. Debbie sailed over his head, hit the ground and rolled to her feet.

“The first time Steve sky dived solo, I had to throw him out of the plane,” Bruce told Debbie as she started another attack.

“When we took the kids mountain climbing, none of them wanted to slide over the rope bridge. Mike and I tied up each one, hooked them to the line and shoved them off,” Bruce enlightened Debbie as she attacked again.

Bruce caught her arm as she threw a sharp jab at his face. Spinning Debbie around, Bruce grabbed the back of her shirt and her belt and lifted her above his head. Bruce walked over to the swimming pool. “Don’t you dare, Bruce; that water is cold!” Debbie screeched trying to grab onto Bruce.

“Well, it will cool you off then,” Bruce said, throwing Debbie into the deep end.

To say the water was cold would have been a gross understatement. Debbie came up to the surface gasping from the shock of the water. She swam to the shallow end until she could stand up. Turning around, she saw Bruce at the other end of the pool, with a smirk on his face.

Debbie turned to her kids, “You’re going to let him do that to me? Your Mama!” she yelled.

Bruce just laughed at Debbie’s plea and didn’t see Danny, Jake and Steve running at him. They all hit Bruce at the same time in a tackle, shoving him into the swimming pool with them following. Bruce broke the surface gasping for air and looking for the truck that hit him. Seeing his kids come up to the surface, he started dunking them under the water, shouting, “Traitors!”

Bruce heard a splash behind him and felt little arms wrap around his neck trying to force him under water. Grabbing the arms, Bruce flipped the person over his back into the water, only then realizing it was Buffy. Bruce took a deep breath and went under water, swimming under the kids, heading towards Debbie in the shallow end.

Debbie saw the shadow heading towards her and tried to run to the edge but with her BDUs and combat boots still on, Bruce caught her easily. Rising up out of the water with Debbie over his head, Bruce headed back towards the deep end with Debbie screaming. The four kids started yelling to each other, “Save mama!” as they swam to try and rescue her.

Bruce threw Debbie over their heads. Then as each kid got close, Bruce would pick them up and throw them back in to the deep end. The kids and Debbie all advanced at Bruce at the same time and Bruce started backing up. The five stood up with blue, quivering lips as they advanced on Bruce. Bruce stopped backing up when he heard several slaps followed by some yelling by the house.

Everyone in the pool stopped, turning to the commotion to see Nancy hitting Mike on his arm. “How could you do that to the boys? They could’ve drowned!” Nancy yelled.

“Baby, we were only playing,” Mike said, trying to avoid the more serious hits.

“Playing? That’s what you call playing!” Nancy yelled, hitting him.

“Nancy, I wouldn’t do anything to hurt or scare my kids on purpose. They need to face their fears!” Mike yelled.

“Hey,” Bruce yelled, and they turned to look at him. “I guess you shouldn’t tell her when we took the kids to Virginia that you held Mary down so the guy could buckle the bungee cord to her legs, and you threw her off the tower!” Bruce yelled.

Nancy lost all color in in her face hearing that. She turned around and started hitting Mike with her fist, hard. Mike, tired of the hits, grabbed Nancy, picked her up over his head, walked to the pool, and threw her in. Mike looked at Bruce, “Are you happy now?” he yelled as his kids hit him from behind sending Mike into the water with them on top of him.

“Now I am,” Bruce said, turning to his attackers who were still watching Mike. Bruce lunged at them wrapping his arms around them shoving them into the deep end.

Mike swam over to Bruce and they formed a wall, throwing anyone who came near back into the deep end. Danny tried to swim to the ladder at the deep end, and Bruce yelled out pointing, “Sissy over there!”

Steve and Jake grabbed her, and pulled her back in. The family fought each other in the freezing water ending up in the shallow end when all of a sudden Bruce yelled, “Who’s bad?”

“We’re bad!” everyone except Buffy yelled back.

“Who’s tough?” Bruce yelled out.

“We’re tough!” everyone including Buffy yelled back.

“Who has big hairy balls?” Bruce yelled out.

“We have big hairy balls!” everyone yelled together.

The crowd around the pool started clapping and shouting at the insane people. The family all raised their arms in victory as they climbed out.

Bruce turned around to the shivering group when everyone was out of the pool, “There were three grown family members unaccounted for,” Bruce told them. The family looked over at Angela, Stephanie, and Mindy as Bruce turned around. As one, the family ran at them as all three let out shrill screams. They picked them up over their heads, carried them to the edge, and threw them in. Then they jumped in with them and started all over.

Bruce came up to the surface and yelled, “Only those with big hairy balls can come in, sissy’s can stand in the corner, dreaming of big hairy balls!”

Of the three hundred people there over a hundred ran and jumped into the pool immediately. Joe reached down and picked up Patrice. “Baby, you wouldn’t, would you?” Patrice asked, grabbing his neck.

Joe took off running toward the pool yelling, “We have big hairy balls, baby!” as he jumped in with Patrice in his arms.

Several of the kids in the clan didn’t know what big hairy balls were, but they knew what swimming was. They ran and jumped into the pool, only to find out why people don’t swim in winter, especially when it was forty degrees. The Olympic sized pool was actually starting to get crowded as people continued jumping in.

Bruce looked up on the side of the pool to see Paul looking down at him. “I lost my big hairy balls, Bruce,” Paul said, grinning.

Cheryl walked up behind Paul and pushed him in, “Don’t worry, your wife keeps them in the top dresser drawer,” she said as she jumped in behind him. Seeing his Mom and Dad in the water, Chad jumped in with them.

The clan didn’t play long before they started dragging their frozen wet asses out of the pool. Better than eighty percent of the clan had jumped in just to prove they were part of the group. Millie came over and yelled, “Lunch is ready, but those with big hairy balls go dry off before they fall off!”

A soaked Susan walked over to Bruce, shivering with an equally soaked Conner behind her. “Bruce, I don’t know if I like you today. I’m teaching class when Conner comes in talking about hairy balls, throws me over his shoulder, runs out, and jumps in to the swimming pool. I think I’m sending you to the office,” Susan said, running into the house followed by a smiling Conner.

Paul walked by next, shivering, “That was not even funny,” Paul said as he went past them.

“Yes it was,” Cheryl said beside him.

“Don’t worry dude, I know where she hides your balls at now. I’ll steal ‘em back for ya!” Mike yelled after him.

Buffy walked over shivering with blue lips, “Daddy, I lost my balls,” she declared.

“Don’t worry, baby. Daddy will find you some more. Go get dry,” Bruce told her, and she waddled into the house trying not to let her clothes touch her more than they had to.

Mike looked at Bruce asking, “Okay, how long do we have to stand here to prove we’re tough?”

“Until everyone leaves,” Bruce replied, watching everyone slowly move away.

“Everyone, get the hell out of here!” Mike yelled at those still standing around.

“That’s not what I had in mind,” Bruce said, looking at Mike with disappointment.

“Screw that. Just a few weeks ago you tried to burn my nuts off. Now I feel them at the back of my throat,” Mike stated.

“Well go in then,” Bruce suggested.

“No, I’m just as tough as you are,” Mike declared.

“Okay, let’s go for another swim,” Bruce challenged.

Knowing Bruce wasn’t kidding, Mike looked back and forth from Bruce and the pool. “Okay you’re tougher,” Mike announced and went inside.

Bruce was thankful, because he was not getting back in that water. Walking over like nothing was wrong, Bruce grabbed his and Debbie’s gear and headed inside. Bruce wanted to cough but was scared to because he might see his balls roll across the floor. As Bruce headed upstairs, Max ran down to greet him. “Wimp where were you?” Bruce asked and Max barked at him like ‘where you left me, locked in your room’. Walking into the room, Bruce found Debbie, Stephanie and Angela in the bed under the blankets shivering. “Get in the shower, guys,” Bruce said.

“Ca-ca-can’t. N-no p-p-pr-pressure,” Debbie stuttered out.

Bruce shrugged his shoulders, laying his and Debbie’s equipment on the floor, but his hat went on the dresser. Walking to the bathroom, Bruce stripped down.

“He’s not even th-that cold,” Stephanie stuttered.

“Y-yes he is. It’sss an act,” Debbie replied, stuttering.

“He gets an Emmy then,” Angela said with admiration.

Bruce walked out and grabbed a dry pair of boxers. Putting them on, he headed to the closet, grabbed some dry fatigues and started getting dressed. “You’re just going to leave us to freeze to death?” Debbie asked.

“There are three of you under the blanket,” Bruce pointed out.

“You walk out that door, don’t come back tonight and forget about Monday,” Debbie declared. Bruce sighed and climbed under the covers. The three acted like magnets to metal, cuddling and burrowing up next to him. When they touched him, Bruce almost jumped out of bed. They were colder than the water.

“He’s warm. It wasn’t an act,” Stephanie said as shivers raked her body.

“Yes he’s cold, he’s bluffing,” Debbie affirmed.

“Give him the damn Emmy then,” Angela said, squirming up to lay on Bruce’s chest.

Bruce could actually feel them draining what little heat he had out of his body when he suddenly noticed, “Holy shit, y’all are naked!”

“No shit, Sherlock. You’re way too smart,” Debbie claimed, grabbing Bruce’s arm wanting more heat.

“I can’t feel my legs,” Angela announced with quivering lips.

Bruce pulled the covers over their heads and wrapped his arms around them, pulling them close. “You want to see frozen naked bodies that bad?” Debbie asked.

“Get me warm and I will walk around naked for you,” Angela promised, trying to burrow into Bruce’s chest.

“The blanket will hold the heat of our breath,” Bruce informed them then snapped. “Angela, quit wiggling.”

“I can’t,” Angela whined, still trying to burrow a hole into Bruce’s chest.

“Angela, I mean it. I know you three are cold. I can feel six identifiers to prove it. This is tough enough as it is,” Bruce admitted.

Debbie looked up at him with her whole body shaking as she asked, “You can get aroused now? After swimming in cold water, then having cold bodies next to you?”

“Cold naked bodies of three beautiful women, yeah. Where do you find that difficult?” Bruce replied.

“You’re not mortal,” Debbie stated, trying to wiggle under Bruce.

“Let him jump you Debbie. He’ll put off more heat,” Angela requested.

“Too cold,” Debbie proclaimed.

Bruce lay in bed with the three for more than an hour until they started feeling better. Getting out of bed, Bruce got dressed and headed to the hall with Max in tow. Walking in, Bruce found the Center full at 1300 when everyone was usually done.

Heading to the front of the hall to the food line window, Bruce stopped as Millie ran over to the window. “Get yo ass over there, I wons the bet. I’ll brings you a plate,” she told him.

Bruce held up his hands, “Millie, when the three stooges come in, would you fix them some hot cocoa and pour up a pot so everyone here can warm up?”

“Don’t be callin’ them girls that or I’ll be getting’ my spoon,” Millie threatened then replied, “Yeah that’s a good idea.” Bruce reached down, grabbing a piece of bread and shoving it in his mouth. “I seed that, Bruce!” Millie yelled.

Bruce jumped up on the closest table, careful not to knock off the occupant’s tray, and bent over, “Come on girl, let me have it!” Bruce demanded.

“Where’s my spoon?” Millie cried running around the kitchen.

Jumping off the table, Bruce ran over to the kitchen door, bent over and stuck his butt in. “Spank me good, I’ve been a bad boy,” Bruce declared shaking his butt. Millie ran up behind him and popped him with the spoon, “Woo thank you ma’am! May I have another?” Bruce yelled out, bending over to a laughing Millie.

“Get outa here and sit down befo’ I make water on myself!” Millie cried out between howls of laughter.

Bruce walked over to the table and stood behind Paul. “What needs to be done on the runway?” Bruce asked.

“We just have to run the scraper over it, and tomorrow we can lay the asphalt,” Paul informed him.

“I’ll do it,” Bruce said, as Millie brought him his plate. “I’ll bring your plate back,” Bruce promised her, heading to the door.

“Hey Bruce, have you driven a grader before?” Paul asked.

“Once,” Bruce said slinging his rifle across his shoulder, calling Max to follow.

Paul was going to say something but Mike shook his head, “If he’s driven it once, he can do it,” Mike stated.

A man stood up in the back of the hall and shouted at Mike, “Mike, with Bruce on our side, I kinda feel sorry for anything that messes with us!”

“No shit! So do I,” Mike admitted.

Chapter 8

Debbie woke to the sound of PJ laughing. Looking around the bed, she didn’t see him and sat up quickly. She found PJ with Max on the floor. PJ was lying on top of Max, and Max was licking his face.

“Hey, if you two are going to play, keep the noise down,” she told them. They both stopped playing and looked at her as if saying ‘we weren’t doing anything.’ Debbie laid back down, only to have Max jump up on the bed and come over to her, whining.

Debbie leaned over the mass of bodies in the bed and shook Bruce awake. “What?” Bruce grumbled.

“Your dog needs to go out,” Debbie informed him.

“Tell him to use the toilet,” Bruce said, rolling back over in the bed.

Debbie slapped his arm, “Bruce, if he pees on the carpet, you will pull it up and replace it,” she warned.

Bruce jumped up out of the bed, not in a good mood. He had been dreaming he was in another armory when Debbie woke him up. Putting on a t-shirt, Bruce looked at Debbie, remarking, “You’ve peed on the carpet. So has PJ, Cade, one of the twins and Joshua. It’s still the same carpet.”

“We aren’t dogs,” Debbie replied.

“Why couldn’t you take him?” Bruce demanded.

“You want to continue where we left off yesterday?” Debbie challenged him.

“Do you want to go swimmin’ again?” Bruce accepted.

Debbie lay down, withdrawing her challenge, and simply replied, “He’s your dog.”

“Max, pee on Debbie,” Bruce commanded.

Raising her head up, “Bruce, if you teach that dog to pee on command, I’ll put the pigs in the basement with your guns,” Debbie said laying her head back down.

“We will have a lot of bacon very fast,” Bruce said, walking out with Max.

Walking outside, Bruce found the wind was blowing, and it was really cold. Bouncing on his toes to stay warm, Bruce thought about digging up a housecoat to start using when taking Max out. The thermometer told him it was twenty-seven degrees, but it felt a lot colder than that. Finished with his business, Max ran back to the door, waiting to be let in. Bruce opened the door, and Max shot in like a rocket.

Looking at his watch as he praised Max, Bruce saw it was 0440. Running back upstairs, he got dressed in workout clothes. Grabbing his rifle, he headed to the gym to work out; Max followed him.

Debbie woke up at 0515 when the alarm went off. Debbie woke the others up, having to drag Buffy to the end of the bed to get her up. With hair going everywhere, Buffy got out of bed and told Debbie she would meet them at the gym and left. Debbie, Angela, and Stephanie got dressed then dressed the kids.

Stephanie looked at Debbie asking, “Debbie, what pissed you off yesterday?”

“Nothing. Bruce was just being a little too cocky. Sometimes I have to let him know I can’t be bullied and not too push the kids so hard,” Debbie admitted.

“You weren’t mad at him?” Angela remarked.

“Not until he started mouthing off at me,” Debbie let them know.

“You’re crazy just like he is,” Stephanie suggested.

“I can live with that,” Debbie replied, grinning.

They finished dressing the kids and headed to the gym. Bruce took the kids with him to the hall when the trio arrived at the gym. After putting PJ in his chair, he turned to put Cade in his high chair only to find Cade sitting in the chair beside Emily. Cade started throwing a fit when Bruce picked him up and tried to put him in his chair. Looking at Cade like he was possessed, Bruce put him on the floor and he climbed back up in the chair beside Emily.

“You don’t want to sit in a high chair, huh?” Bruce asked.

“No!” Cade replied. Bruce wasn’t sure of the answer because Cade said no to everything. Bruce took the tray off the high chair and threw it on the floor. Picking Cade up, Bruce put him in the high chair without the tray and moved him towards the table.

Cade looked at Bruce and yelled out. “Hey!” Bruce snapped. “You act like that, and I’ll let the twins dress you up like they do the dolls,” and Cade just thought Bruce was ridiculous.

“Bruce, quit threatening these boys like that,” Millie said, putting plates in front of PJ and Cade.

“Millie, not until I’ve had my coffee. Until then, talk to the hand,” Bruce said, holding up his hand. One of the workers in the kitchen ran out with his mug.

Millie just looked at him shaking her head, “Monday can’t be here quick ‘nough,” she remarked, heading back to the kitchen.

Bruce was sipping his coffee when Joe came over, “Bruce, I can’t tell you how grateful I am,” Joe stated.

“Joe, you are more than welcome. I know you would’ve done the same for me,” Bruce replied.

Joe chuckled, saying, “My son is terrified of your daughters.”

“All the women in my household are insane. I fear for my life at all times, so I act tough to make them worry,” Bruce commented as Mille set the twins each a plate down.

Looking at Millie when she set the plates down Bruce asked, “Millie, do you know how to sew?” Millie just looked at him expecting a joke. Seeing he was serious, she told him she could.

Bruce told Millie he sucked and Debbie was not much better. Outlining what he wanted, Millie told him it would not be a problem. When Paul came in Bruce went over the day’s schedule of laying the runway. When the trio came in, they rounded the table, kissing the kids and Bruce, then sat down. While talking to everyone, Bruce finished his coffee and breakfast. Standing up, he told Debbie the twins were spending the day with him inventorying the weapons.

As Bruce picked up the twins, Debbie reminded Bruce it was cold, so he promised to get them dressed warmly. After they got dressed, they went to the big storage area and finished the inventory. While Bruce went around counting weapons, the girls played chase with Max between the rows. Bruce was done before 1000. Leaving the main storage Bruce took the twins, got on one of the buggies, and drove around the farm. Letting the girls take turns driving, Bruce stopped in front of the house when he saw Jake. Jake was on top of one of the trailers that they had gotten from Ft. Polk.

“What are you doing, son?” Bruce asked.

“Just doing a system check and aligning the dish for satellite signal. If they get the runway done this afternoon, I’ll send out a flight.” Jake said.

“How hard are those things to fly?” Bruce asked.

“The Gray Eagle is nothing, Dad. I can teach anyone to fly it in a few hours. It is literally point and click. The Reaper is like a plane so we have to wait for pilots,” Jake replied.

“Well get some folks over here and teach them,” Bruce said.

Smiling, Jake replied, “First class is when I lift off.”

Bruce left Jake to play with his toy as he went to the basement to finish his inventory. Max and the girls picked up their game of chase in the basement while Bruce worked. When Bruce and the girls didn’t show for lunch, Debbie brought them each a plate to the basement.

“You’re not mad at me are you?” Debbie asked.

“Hell no, I’m waiting for the make-up part,” Bruce admitted with a grin.

“Figured as much,” Debbie responded, hugging and kissing Bruce then headed back to the hall.

Walking in, seeing most everyone gone and the kids running around playing, Debbie headed over to the table to work on the schedules. Mike was in his chair working on his laptop as Debbie sat down with hers. Seeing Debbie sit down, Mike got up and sat down beside her.

“Debbie, can we talk?” Mike asked.

“Sure Mike,” Debbie replied as she continued typing.

“Have you told Bruce?” Mike asked. Debbie’s hands froze over the keyboard.

“If you are talking about what you and I discussed, the answer is no,” Debbie said, looking up at him.

Mike sighed, “Debbie, I’ve been in the medical field long enough to know you don’t blow off premonitions like that. Please tell Bruce,” Mike begged.

Debbie looked at Mike, turning in her seat. “Okay Mike, what would happen if I did tell Bruce?” Debbie asked.

“I don’t know, but he might,” Mike admitted.

“No Mike, he wouldn’t. He would let it override his thinking and make a mistake. That mistake could cost us a lot and I’m certain it would cost us Bruce. Without him, this family and clan does not stand much of a chance,” Debbie told Mike.

“You don’t know that,” Mike stated.

“You are wrong, Mike. I do know that,” Debbie revealed.

Mike was stunned by her certainty of events. “Okay, I’ll admit that without Bruce our odds are shit. He fears nothing and can think in a fight like Stephanie thinks in a lab. But he might be able to come up with something,” Mike pointed out.

“Mike, I’m holding you to your promise. I want you to answer me honestly. What would Bruce sacrifice to save me?” Debbie inquired.

Mike knew in his heart the answer as it came out his mouth, “Just about everything.”

“That’s right and we can’t let that happen,” Debbie said.

“Why did you have to tell me?” Mike demanded.

“You will be the only one who will be able to pull Bruce back. I know you’re not stupid. This is going to hurt him in ways few can imagine. If I thought anyone could do it besides you, I’d get them to. No one else, not even I, can reel Bruce back in like you can at times. I told you so you could prepare the best you could,” Debbie stated.

“Okay then, what are you doing with Angela and Stephanie? The other night it sounded like romper room over there, yet Bruce tells me nothing happened. Something happened because he started acting like himself again,” Mike stated, wanting answers.

Debbie laughed, “Nothing did happen but I taught Stephanie and Angela how to get the guilt out of Bruce when he goes a little too far protecting us. This may shock you, but I wanted something to happen,” Debbie declared.

Hearing that, Mike sat up as Debbie continued. “Angela and Stephanie are there to lessen the blow. Bruce is now used to them sleeping in the bed and having them around. He has come to depend on them, which, if either one would have tried after I’m gone, Bruce would have shut down. I hope they will make him cling to some part of his humanity so you can save him. Even after you pull him back, he would remain alone, not letting anyone else close. They are already close to him. Defending this family, yes, he would have, but with no one to comfort him, to make sure he’s happy. That is the thought that brings me the most sadness,” Debbie admitted with tears running down her face. Debbie wiped her face looking at Mike. “If Bruce is alone with no one to love him, then what is the point of him living?”

“You’re choosing his next wife,” Mike accused.

Debbie laughed and sniffed. “You could say that, Mike. If someone is already there in his life, he won’t shut out the world and live with a memory of a dead wife. Yes, he has the kids, but they grow up. It’s what kids do. Bruce has to have someone there for him, and he has to be there for someone,” Debbie replied.

“Okay Debbie, I agree and I think you’re right, Bruce would shut down. Which one do you think he will choose?” Mike asked.

“I have no idea, one, both or neither. He just has to be used to someone already in his life so he can’t build a wall. If he builds a wall, he will live with the rage, losing his soul,” Debbie stated.

“What about Angela and Stephanie? They have come to care a great deal about Bruce,” Mike informed her.

“I’m not stupid, Mike. I know they’re in love with him. It’s really hard not to, but if Bruce chooses someone else, or one of them, the other or both will move on,” Debbie predicted.

“Bruce is not the only one who will sacrifice a lot to save someone,” Mike pointed out, looking at Debbie.

“You’re right, Mike, but I won’t sacrifice this family’s or humanity’s chance at survival. I feel we are restarting America the way it was meant to be. If we don’t build something for the kids, what’s the point? If we live in caves and revert back to the stone ages, what’s the point? Human kind cannot go backwards from here. Either we go forward or we die,” Debbie disclosed.

“Well, Bruce is the man for that,” Mike agreed.

“I just don’t want him sitting in that bedroom after the kids move on, all alone. That is what Stephanie and Angela are for. It was only going to be Stephanie, but Angela literally threw herself into our family after Alex. Now I don’t know how I would function without either one of them and that’s what Bruce will feel,” Debbie informed Mike.

“How long do you think?” Mike asked, not really wanting an answer.

“I don’t know Mike. If I did, I would tell you. I can tell you it’s not close, but other than that I don’t know. What I can tell you is that I have become more certain it will come to pass. Until then I will keep going on helping here and preparing everyone the best I can,” Debbie replied, squeezing Mike’s hand.

“Debbie, what if it’s years? Something is bound to happen with Angela and Stephanie,” Mike declared.

“I wish,” Debbie said, letting out a big sigh.

Mike leaned forward, looking at Debbie closely, feeling her face for fever, “Debbie, are you okay?”

“Yes Mike, I’m fine. If ‘something’ happens, as you call it, that would only ascertain their place in Bruce’s life. If ‘something’ happens with either or both of them, I would know Bruce would make a decision for one of them, and I wouldn’t have to worry anymore,” Debbie replied without doubt. Mike just looked at her with a bland expression. Debbie sighed, “Mike, Bruce is sex crazed, but Bruce sees it as part of a relationship. I knew after Bruce and I did ‘something’ he was mine.”

“Does anyone besides me know?” Mike asked.

“Stephanie, but she doesn’t believe it. And Carroll,” Debbie informed him.

Mike nodded, standing up, hugging Debbie, and saying, “I love you Debbie and I will do what you ask.”

“Mike, when Bruce comes back to you and is his normal self again, give him some time, then tell him you want to read the red notebook,” Debbie said.

Mike looked at her with confusion, asking, “Your journal?”

“No, this is about what I have felt, what I have done to prepare, and has a note to everyone. It’s mostly to Bruce, but I would like you to read it, then Nancy. I tell her why I couldn’t tell her,” Debbie informed Mike.

A shiver ran up Mike’s spine the way Debbie talked about it with such certainty. “Okay Debbie,” Mike agreed.

“One last thing, Mike. Don’t let Bruce get angry with me for ‘picking out his girlfriends’. I tell him in the book, but I can’t say it like a guy can. We both know boys don’t like to be forced into anything,” Debbie asked him. Mike nodded, hugging Debbie again.

They finished their work on the computers and went outside to help with the projects. Mike’s heart sat heavy in his chest as he helped out around the farm. Debbie had only told one lie to Mike that afternoon. She knew her time was getting close, the dreams were constant now. That is what had her on the edge when Bruce asked her to go out on the patrol with him to get Joe’s family. Debbie knew she would not make it a year and could not see herself with the family during the summer.

Chapter 9

It was Friday afternoon at 1400 as Bruce gathered with Stephanie, Angela, Mindy, and Buffy for the first of many lessons since they had missed Wednesday. Bruce led his group on buggies to the northwest pasture and set up metal targets. Max was riding in the back of Bruce’s buggy. Yesterday, he had started gun training Max. Bruce had worked up to a cap gun without Max taking off like a bolt of lightning. Today’s lesson was going to be precision shooting with primary and secondary weapons. Since they were suppressed and not much louder than a cap gun, Bruce was combining lessons.

Buffy looked at Bruce as he was setting up the folding tables, “Daddy, why do I have to be here? I know how to shoot.”

“Are you as good as Danny?” Bruce asked as he continued to set up the tables.

“Duh, no Daddy,” Buffy responded, not believing he asked that.

“Well, that’s why you’re here. When and if you get to her level, you’ll try to reach my level. Buffy, you’ve learned on a limited basis and it is time to fix that. You will be here for every lesson they will be here for,” Bruce told her.

Buffy nodded with a dejected look, then perked up and looked back at Bruce, “Will you teach us to blow stuff up?” she asked hopefully.

“Of course,” Bruce promised as Buffy started jumping up and down, yelling that this was the best idea ever. Angela just watched Buffy jumping around, trying to figure out how Bruce gave birth to her. She made a mental note to ask Debbie if Bruce was ever a sperm donor.

Several weeks ago, they had set the targets at the base to the berm against the fence to make a firing range to train people. Bruce lined the four up facing the target eighty yards away. The targets today were metal posts that had been taken off the range. Each post had four painted steel circular target plates connected to the post with a swing arm. When the plate was hit, it would swing to the other side of the post resetting itself. From the top of the post to the bottom of the target, post the plates were painted different colors.

Bruce lined the four up and started calling out colors for them to engage. When they made a mistake, he would show them the right way to do it.  For an hour the four engaged the plates that Bruce would call out. Then Bruce told them to pull their pistols, moved them up to twenty yards, and started again. They did this for another hour. Unsure at first, Max started running back and forth with Bruce. During the last hour, Bruce would make them start shooting and run back and forth from the target. As the group ran back and forth, they would use their rifles at a distance and side arms in close.

When Bruce saw one not keeping muzzle discipline, not watching where they were pointing their weapon, it was punishment time. Punishment consisted of push-ups. If he saw someone leave a finger on the trigger when they were not ready to engage, more punishment followed.

At the end of the three hours, they were all soaked with sweat in the frigid air from running back and forth to the targets. The four girls were sore and tired from the running and all push-ups, which they all had to do. Angela had been the first to owe push-ups, and everyone thought Bruce was kidding when he told her to drop. When Angela saw the look on his face, she hit the dirt and did them. Loading up, they headed to the hall, seeing about twenty people in the field who had been watching them.

When they walked in, Bruce informed them, “Weapons clean before you eat.”

The four just grunted as one, not wanting to argue, worried more push-ups would be involved. They just sat down and started cleaning weapons. While they sat down to their task, Bruce walked over to the far side of the hall where daycare and school had been set up. Seeing Daddy, the twins took off to him and jumped up in his arms, followed by Cade. PJ had tried to walk the distance, but that was taking too long so he dropped down crawling at close to Mach one toward Bruce.

As Bruce loved on them, Susan walked up and handed him a piece of paper. “Here is the list you wanted. I have one item from every kid under fourteen except Buffy,” Susan reported in an off tone.

Bruce looked at her. “What’s wrong, Susan?” Bruce asked.

Susan took a deep breath. “Bruce, don’t take this wrong, but we have fifty two kids here under fourteen. Buffy is the only one not required to attend classes. She works and trains, but I can see the other kids are jealous because she’s not in the mandatory four hour school classes every day. You said we are all the same but she is being treated different,” Susan explained, hoping Bruce wasn’t going to be mad at her.

Thinking about it, Bruce nodded his head “You’re right. If the kids ask, tell them Buffy will be taking classes at home like them. I promise her classes will be harder than theirs. In case you haven’t noticed, I demand more from my family than others, and that includes you,” Bruce replied.

“No shit,” Susan replied pointing at an M-4 hanging on the wall and lifted her shirt to show him the pistol on her hip. “I have to go out with Conner every day for an hour and practice,” Susan informed Bruce.

“It’s for your own good,” Bruce smiled in agreement with Conner’s action.

“I know it, and I’m glad he is teaching me,” Susan admitted.

Bruce hugged her as the rest of the clan came in and gathered up their kids, leading them to a table for supper. Gathering his rug rats, Bruce herded them to the command table to see everyone there. Looking at his recruits, Bruce saw Buffy was already done with cleaning her weapons and was helping the others who were almost finished. Grabbing each of the rug rats, Bruce sat them in their chairs and sat down in his as Max laid down beside him.

Debbie looked over at Bruce as he sat down, inquiring, “Did they do a good job today?”

Bruce smiled, replying, “Yes, they did a great job. Of course they thought I was kidding about payment for infractions.” Debbie laughed, looking at Angela, Stephanie, Buffy, and Mindy who was sitting down by David. Their hair was matted to their heads and they were covered in dirt.

“I don’t think it’s funny,” Angela proclaimed.

“Don’t think you’re special. When Bruce started teaching me, I thought he was crazy when he told me I owed him thirty pushups in the first fifteen minutes, my first time on the range with him,” Debbie informed them. “I refused to do them and Bruce just packed up everything in the truck, not talking to me. Bruce didn’t talk to me for three days, until I did those damn pushups.”

“That makes me feel better because I almost left,” Angela admitted.

“Did you ever make the same mistake twice?” Debbie asked.

“Hell no! Bruce would add up your mistakes, calling them out after a run and wanting payment. If I had to do just ten pushups at a time, it wouldn’t have been so bad. But I had to do thirty the first time,” Angela responded, rubbing her sore arms.

“Be glad you aren’t a boy. They owe twenty for each infraction,” Debbie told her.

“I do twenty,” Danny stated proudly.

Debbie looked at her, stating, “I know, Danny. That’s because your balls are bigger than mine.”

Danny smiled and looked at Buffy, inquiring, “How many infractions did you get today?”

“Eight,” Buffy replied in a dejected voice.

“That’s about what I had on my first day,” Danny informed her, which made Buffy feel better.

“Okay,” Bruce called out. “Quit whining about it. The group did a good job and the lessons will only get harder and more dangerous. You have to learn to be safe. That’s why infractions have to be paid. If all I did was tell you about a mistake and didn’t ask for payment, in the long run you could get someone killed,” Bruce explained.

“I know that, and I’m sure the others do as well, Bruce, but my arms are numb and when I hear someone say a color, I want to shoot at it,” Stephanie remarked.

Bruce laughed then said, “Okay Stephanie, I want to tell you that I have another job for you.”

“Oh shit! Did I make you mad?” Stephanie asked, thinking a reprisal was in her future.

“No, Little Red. This is a job for the family. I want you to teach Buffy one hour every day in school work,” Bruce told Stephanie as Buffy’s jaw hit her chest.

“All right, Bruce, I can do that,” Stephanie replied as Buffy just continued to gawk at Bruce with an open mouth.

Debbie asked Bruce, “Why not just let her go with the other kids?”

“She needs to learn more and at a faster pace than the others. If there are others as smart as she is, then I will find someone else to teach them one on one,” Bruce said.

“But why Stephanie? I don’t know what she’s talking about half the time. I tried looking some of the words up she uses and can’t even find them,” Buffy cried out.

Bruce laughed, replying, “Well I can agree with you there, especially when she talks about viruses.” Then Bruce looked at Buffy seriously, “Buffy, our kids were all taking advanced classes in school and know now how to teach themselves. You need to learn the fundamentals, like basic science, basic math, and English, before you can do that. I’m not just talking about addition and subtraction. I mean algebra, geometry, chemistry, computers and so on.”

Buffy looked at Bruce and pouted, “Why can’t you, Mama, or Danny do it? I can understand what you say.”

“Buffy, Stephanie is smarter than each of us and knows more than each of us. When I have one of the family learn something, I want them to learn from the best,” Bruce admitted.

“Dad, I think Stephanie is smarter than all of us put together,” Danny added her two cents.

“I’m not that smart, Danny!” Stephanie blurted out.

Jake leaned over the table looking down at Stephanie, “What’s the molecular weight of argon?” Jake asked her.

“39.948,” Stephanie replied without thinking.

“I rest my case,” Danny proclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air.

“What the hell is argon?” Buffy asked with bewildered look on her face.

“Argon is an inert gas with the atomic number eighteen and is grouped in the noble gases-,” Stephanie answered Buffy, but stopped when Bruce held up his hand, stopping her. Buffy just looked at Stephanie like she was an alien.

Bruce lowered his hand, looking at Stephanie. “Stephanie, I’m also doing this so you can learn how to teach others what you know without frying our brains. Remember, start small and advance at their pace,” Bruce informed her.

“Great! She gets to experiment on me and fry my brain,” Buffy said with a dejected tone, causing everyone to laugh.

“Buffy, if it makes you feel better, I’m taking a new class also. Starting next week, I’m going to start learning how to fly a helicopter, and yes, I’m nervous,” Bruce said.

“Okay, I’ll do my best, Daddy,” Buffy replied in a quiet voice.

“That’s all I ask,” Bruce told her, feeling proud of her.

The family started eating as Millie and the kitchen staff brought over plates of food and set them down. While the family was eating Marty, one of the kids Bruce and Mike had rescued from the school in Haughton, came over to stand beside Bruce, acting nervous.

“Mr. Bruce, I want to ask your permission to ask Buffy to the dance tomorrow,” Marty said shuffling back and forth on his feet.

Bruce looked at Marty and smiled. When they had found Marty he was chunky and out of shape and now he was lean with muscle definition. “Have you asked her yet?” Bruce asked him.

“No sir. Ms. Lynn said you have to ask the father before the girl,” Marty replied.

“If she agrees, then I see no problem with it,” Bruce informed him.

Marty sighed with relief, but before he could ask Buffy, she barked out, “No!”

Marty took a step back as the word hit him. Stepping closer, he tried to convince her, “Come on Buffy, it’ll be fun.”

“I’ll be there, but not with a boy,” Buffy proclaimed.

“Buffy-,” Marty started but then saw Buffy’s face turn to stone. Marty turned around and walked away with his shoulders slumped.

Bruce looked at Buffy with irritation, “Buffy, that wasn’t very nice. If you didn’t want to go with him then you didn’t have to be so mean about it.”

“I don’t need a boy around. Now they’ll leave me alone,” Buffy replied, taking a bite of food.

Bruce took a deep breath but before he could address Buffy, Danny told him, “Dad, let me handle this.”

Danny scooted her chair back grabbing Buffy’s arm and pulled her outside the hall. The clan that was left at the table started eating and most people were finished when Danny and Buffy came back in. Buffy sat down at the table looking down at her lap.

“I’m sorry, Daddy,” Buffy said looking up at Bruce.

“BB, you didn’t hurt my feelings. I’m not the one you need to apologize to,” Bruce stated.

“Daddy, will you go tell him I’m sorry and I’ll go to the dance with him,” Buffy begged.

“I didn’t hurt his feelings,” Bruce complained, not wanting to have anything to do with fixing up one of his princess’. Buffy just looked back down at her plate as Bruce felt a kick from Debbie on his left leg followed by one from Stephanie on his right. If looks could’ve killed, both would have fallen over dead as Bruce pushed his chair back and rubbed his shins.

Bruce stood up and walked over to Marty who was sitting at a table full of young boys. Bruce relayed Buffy’s apology and told Marty she would go to the dance with him. Marty just smiled, unable to speak, as Bruce walked back to the command table. “I’ll meet the command group in the den when y’all are ready to begin,” Bruce said, walking out and calling Max to follow.

Bruce walked over to the trailer beside the shop where he stored the tactical gear he sold to police departments. Opening the trailer, Bruce dug around until he found the tactical shin guards that riot police wear. Grabbing them he closed the trailer and headed back to the house. ‘Now let them kick me,’ Bruce thought.

Walking into the house Bruce found the command group already in the den and game area. Throwing the shin guards on the coffee table, Bruce sat down in his chair and asked Jake to go get his notebooks off his nightstand. As Jake left to go get his notebooks Debbie looked at the shin guards then at Bruce. “Hell yeah, I’m fixing to start wearing ‘em. That hurts woman,” Bruce informed her as he looked at both Debbie and Stephanie.

“Infractions need consequences if you are to learn,” Debbie countered. Bruce just grumbled as Jake handed him his notebooks and sat down.

Paul stood up, not waiting for Bruce to tell him to start. “All right, barracks four and five will be ready by the end of the week. The runway, as you all know is up and running. I am fixing to prepare another twenty acres in front of the catfish pond for another garden and we’re going to divide the chickens and put another chicken house on the west side of the property,” Paul stopped, seeing an inquisitive look on Bruce’s face.

“Every time I talk to anyone in this family, they say ‘two is one and one is none’,” Paul answered in response to the questioning look on Bruce’s face. Hearing the answer, Bruce nodded his head in approval. Paul looked down at his notes, “With the two new barracks, we are close to the output of our electrical grid, not counting the trailer command center that Jake set up for the UAV. That damn thing uses some serious power. I don’t know why, but we are using some serious power in mission control. If we fill the other two barracks, we’ll need more power. The system could handle it, but only barely. I would like a little wiggle room for error and yes that’s with the windmill operating.”

Bruce interrupted, “Paul how many more barracks could we build with the supplies we have now?”

“None,” Paul relied.

Not surprised, Bruce continued, “I want another five besides the first five and I want them doubled in occupancy. We will head out this week to gather the supplies and get more solar panels.” Bruce took out the drawing Joe had given him for the new machine shop. “How long would it take to build this?” Bruce asked.

Looking at the basic drawing, Paul answered, “Fourteen days.”

Everyone looked at Bruce, wondering what he had given Paul. “That is the design Joe and Harry made for a new machine shop. The one we have is satisfactory, but is inadequate for us to grow. Also Paul, I want you to come up with a school house/daycare building with a small fenced-in back yard. The community center is not the place for teaching. It has way too many distractions.”

“How big are you thinking?” Paul asked.

“Let’s start with at least two thousand to three thousand square feet, and I also want the hall to be doubled in size. I want it to be able to accommodate everyone if we fill up all ten barracks,” Bruce mentioned.

Paul just sighed, responding, “That’s only twelve hundred people Bruce. It’s big enough now for that.”

Bruce just nodded at Paul and said, “I want it to hold four thousand.”

Paul started rubbing his temples, trying to stop the headache he felt coming on. Mike laughed. “Bruce is good at giving people headaches,” Mike claimed.

“Are you sure you don’t want a sky scraper?” Paul asked.

Looking off, Bruce toyed with that idea for a second. As Paul was fixing to tell Bruce he was kidding, Bruce replied, “No, not now. Maybe later.” Paul continued updating about the farm but all projects were either finished or close to being finished. Then he sat down before Bruce wanted an ark.

Mike stood up next. “I have mapped out where to put our firing positions, and I wanted to add several towers around the property. On the east and west side, ten each, north, four and south, two to be exact. Then we need to increase the roving patrol to two, three man teams, around the clock and put three people in mission control. With the two in the fort that puts the guard staff at fourteen at any time.” Mike said, and then looked at Paul who was working out materials for the projects Mike had just added. “I want to have lighting installed throughout the farm for emergencies.”

Paul threw his notebook down. “How much of the farm are you talking about?” Paul demanded.

“Most of it,” Mike replied, knowing he was contributing to Paul’s headache.

“This hundred and ten acre fenced in farm is six hundred yards across and over fourteen hundred yards long. That will take a shit load of lights, not to mention power. May I ask why?” Paul responded getting a little irritated with the request.

Mike swallowed with a dry mouth before replying, “If we’re over run, I want people to be able to distinguish between friend and foe. With blues it’ll be easy, but if a gang gets in, we could end up shooting a lot of our own people.”

Bruce nodded, thinking to himself that it was a good idea as Paul replied, “Okay, I understand. What else?”

“That’s it for now. I have more plans but that is for stage two,” Mike said, sitting back down.

Willie spoke up next, “I hate to rain on your parade here, but mission control needs to be either moved or hardened.” Everyone just looked at him, except Paul, who just wanted to cry as he put his head in his hands. “If an assault force does gain entry, these walls are not bullet proof. I know you have sandbags around the front of the house but they only go up three feet. It would only take one bust from a weapon to wipe out the command center. Without someone to direct our attack, we lose our advantage of defense,” Willie pointed out.

Damn, I should’ve thought of that, Bruce thought as Mike asked, “Where do you propose we put it?”

“Dig a hole in the front yard next to the house, put some containers in it, set it up, then, cover it up. All the wires run here, so moving it anywhere else would be too time consuming. Also, I would put the entrance inside the house for added security. Like knock out the floor in mission control, making a stair-case under the wall to it,” Willie pointed out.

Debbie and Nancy gasped at the idea as Paul just leaned his head back looking up at the ceiling asking, “Why not just put an elevator in?”

“Well that’s a great idea. I just thought stairs would be easier,” Willie remarked.

“They are. I was being a smart ass,” Paul responded.

“So was I,” Willie answered, smiling.

Paul looked at Bruce with a look that spoke volumes. “I’m going to need a week to look at it,” he estimated.

Bruce nodded and stood up. “Sounds good. Now, I have the list from the pilots on what they need. At Ft. Polk, they have simulators, and we need them. Also, we’ll load the helicopters on flat beds and drive them up here. They figure they can have the first group of pilots ready by mid-January. I want to lead a group down Monday to get them-,” Bruce stopped as everyone objected.

Mike spoke first, “No way. You’ll bring back the entire base if they could even get you to leave this time.”

“No, Bruce. Mike is right. You have enough toys right now. Someone else can go,” Debbie informed him in a voice that implied no argument. Then others started adding their two cents.

Bruce listened to the arguments and finally gave in saying, “Alright, damn it! Willie and Conner will lead the team.”

“Just what are we bringing back?” Conner asked.

“Besides the simulators, manuals, ammo, flight suits, and all the equipment needed for the choppers,” Bruce replied looking down at his list, “Six Blackhawks, four Apache’s, two Kiowa’s, four Loaches’, two more Bradley’s, four more Stryker’s, ten Hummers, and more RG-33L’s, Cougars 6x6 mine resistant vehicles (MRV’s) that are bigger than the RG’s. I also want support equipment for all of them.”

“Of course you do. If you break one of your toys, you want to fix them,” Debbie responded in a smart ass voice.

Ignoring her, Bruce explained, “You know what the helicopters are for, but with the two extra Bradleys we can have one on each wall to fire out at attackers. With four more Strykers, we’ll have a total of twenty-six and twenty Hummers. Those are what we will use for patrols, which are fixing to kick into high gear. Jake has already found dozens of groups of survivors around us since the real UAVs came on line. I’m sending sixty men and forty trucks to Polk Monday morning and they have to be back by Tuesday morning. Another group of sixty will leave here then and head to Shreveport to gather supplies. Wednesday we start seeing if people want to join us.”

“Are you going to ask Marcus if he wants to join us Sunday?” Mike inquired.

“I already did this morning, and he is sending twenty people down with our group to get some Strykers and Hummers,” Bruce answered as Mike nodded.

Bruce continued, asking for lists of request by Sunday night for the Shreveport run. Looking at Conner and Willie, Bruce told them to get together and plan out their run. The meeting continued until 2300. Bruce told the kids he wanted to see them in his room with spouses. Then Bruce just looked at Mike, and he nodded his head.

Heading upstairs, Bruce went into his room and waited on everyone. When everyone was in, there was very little room left. Handing two sheets of paper to Jake, Bruce asked, “Can all that fit in two large moving trucks?”

Looking at the list, then handing it back, Jake answered, “Sure no problem.”

“Bruce, what are you doing?” Debbie demanded.

“Not me, ‘We’ are going Christmas shopping Sunday night for the clan. We are getting laptops, LED TV’s, X-Boxes, and kids toys. We will put the trucks inside the shop until Christmas,” Bruce told them. Everyone smiled and thought it was a great idea.

Tonya raised her hand, and Bruce looked at her as she asked, “Why laptops and electronics? Paul just said we were taxing the power?”

“Paul said we would if all of the barracks were full, which they aren’t, but it doesn’t matter. We are going to upgrade our system. The clan needs distractions, and I want everyone to have a laptop because we are starting classes,” Bruce said.

Tonya nodded in agreement as Bruce looked around and Mike inquired, “Why in the middle of the night?”

“It’s colder, and I want it to be a surprise. We will only be using the NVGs so nobody will see us in town with such a light force. Now if it turns warm between now and then, this is all a moot point,” Bruce answered. The group talked it over a few more minutes then everyone went to their rooms to go to bed.

Bruce woke up Saturday morning at 0800 since no work except guard duty was planned for the day off. Sitting up, Bruce realized he was the only one still in bed. Fighting off the urge to go back to sleep, he got up, and dressed in his gear, and went to find where everyone went.

Stepping outside, Bruce took a deep breath, breathing in the cool air, and then went to the hall. Walking inside, he found everyone. Groups of people were playing cards and board games, just enjoying the down time. Heading to the command table, Bruce sat down as Max came over to be petted.

“He woke me up at 0600 to go outside,” Debbie informed Bruce.

“You could’ve woken me up. I would’ve done it,” Bruce told her looking up to see Debbie smiling at him.

“Na. I took him out and when I got back everyone else, except you, was up and getting dressed so we let you sleep,” Debbie told him as she reached over and squeezed his hand.

“Thank you, sugar mama,” Bruce replied gratefully.

The clan just sat around taking it easy all morning. After lunch Bruce and Mike started up a game of kickball until the supper. Then everyone went to get ready for the dance. While everyone was getting ready, Bruce went to the fort to check on the guards. Seeing they were all good Bruce went back to the hall. He was going to stay in his ACU’s and gear through the party.

After supper, the tables were moved to one side while Jake and Matt set up the stereo for the music. True to form, they had played two songs and no one had gotten on the dance floor. When they started the third song, Bruce took off his gear, hung it on the wall, and grabbed Debbie to go dance. They were only on the floor by themselves for a few seconds before others joined in.

The party lasted until midnight, with several people getting drunk, but there were no fights as everyone was just happy to be alive and have a moment’s break. On Sunday morning, those who drank too much sauce were paying the price as they sat in the hall trying to eat breakfast.

After the Sunday meeting, movies were started and Father Thomas was driven over to Marcus’ clan to give them Sunday service.  Before supper, Willie and Conner gathered up the group heading down south and laid out the plan and items they were after.

That night Bruce and the family left at 2200 and went into Shreveport to hit the electronic stores, stopping first and getting two, twenty-seven foot moving trucks. It was below freezing so they didn’t worry about the blues, but no one turned on any lights, not wanting to advertise their presence. When the trucks were full they headed back to the farm pulling in at 0420. Even though the family was tired, nobody went to sleep when they returned.

The convoy pulled out early, heading down south. Jake and Matt watched over them with one of the UAVs and send another one out to search for survivors and blues. Bruce worked in the shop, mounting micro video cameras to head bands. Debbie was busy with the others so his Monday was true alone time. That evening, Bruce gathered his teams together to brief them on the Shreveport run. They would leave at 0900 after the returning convoy was unloaded.

After supper, the family just passed out after the last two days getting ready for the supply run to Shreveport. Bruce never even remembered lying down.

Chapter 10

Bruce woke as the door to his bedroom opened. Raising his head up, Bruce saw Mike looking in from the door. “Bruce, the convoy is almost here,” Mike informed him. Bruce nodded, looking at the clock which read a little past 0400.

“They’re back early,” Bruce replied, extracting himself from the mass of bodies in the bed.

“Yeah, I just sent the roving guards to wake up the people to start unloading the trucks we will be using today,” Mike replied.

Bruce again nodded, and then looked at Mike, “How long have you been up?”

“Boy, Marines don’t need that much sleep. We have to stay awake to teach the Army boys how to function like real men,” Mike responded. Bruce just gave him the finger, and Mike closed the door before Bruce could throw something at him.

After Bruce got dressed, he woke up Debbie and told her it was time to start the day. Leaving the room, Bruce headed to mission control in time to hear the convoy call for the gate to be opened up. Slinging his rifle across his chest, Bruce headed out back to see what the convoy had brought back.

Walking out the back door, Bruce saw Mike heading around the hall. Bruce followed him and found Mike waiting behind the hall for the trucks. “You ready for today?” Bruce asked, walking up to Mike.

“Hell yeah! I want to get as much as we can so we don’t have to go back into town until winter next year,” Mike replied.

Bruce turned to the line of diesel engines coming down the road. “Kind of loud aren’t they?” Bruce asked.

Mike chuckled, “The guards said they heard them when they were thirty miles away.”

Bruce chuckled with him as a Stryker pulled around the house, followed by a line of trucks and other vehicles. The Stryker pulled up to them, and Willie climbed out to join them as the line of vehicles continued pulling around.

“Did you leave anything behind?” Mike inquired as he gawked at the vehicles continuing to pull around the house, directed to places to park.

“Yeah, I tried to bring back more, but the drivers were starting to get worried that their trucks wouldn’t handle more weight,” Willie answered, walking over to them.

“You did get everything on the list though?” Bruce asked with a worried look.

“Everything and a whole lot more,” Willie replied, grinning.

Mike just shook his head, proclaiming, “What is it with you Army boys? Y’all want every toy known to man to fight with. A Marine only needs one shell per enemy.”

Bruce smiled, answering, “That’s because in the Army they teach us to count past one.” Mike gave Bruce the finger for the verbal jab.

When the area behind the hall was full of vehicles, the remainder was directed behind the barn. When all the vehicles were inside the fence, the trucks going back out today were unloaded first. The Shreveport crew was only taking twenty of the trucks, all of which were flat trailers. The other twenty they were at the end of the road already with empty box trailers. When they returned this evening, half the trucks would be pulled inside. The others would be stored at the end of the road and unloaded later.

After the Shreveport group had eaten, Bruce called for them to pull out at 0840. Bruce was leading the security detail for the group and was going to keep the convoy together during the shopping spree.

The first stop was a lumber yard, where forklifts loaded up stacks of lumber and other equipment for the new building projects. Once the ten flatbeds were loaded, Bruce had two Strykers escort them back to the farm.

Next, the remaining trucks moved out to a super home repair store. Bruce had the security team do a sweep of the store, then let the scavengers head inside to clean it out. This is how the group operated all day. Even though the temperature stayed around 35 degrees, Bruce had the security team checking in every five minutes at every location. Moving from place to place on the list, the group would load up then send a small convoy back to the farm to unload and return for more.

They never had to stay at one place for more than two hours because they had become masters at stripping a place of what they needed. Teams of scavengers would move in and form lines to the trucks, and forklifts would load by pallets. By 1500, they were at their last stop, the rail yard, for more storage containers. This time, all forty trucks came back with flat beds, and each was stacked with two containers on top of each other. As they left the rail yard, Bruce stopped the convoy by the oil refinery that had cost them a supply team. Except for the bodies of dead blues, there was no sign of the lost team. Bruce had a scavenger team drive the Strykers and tanker trucks back to the farm after filling them up.

As the convoy left Shreveport, Bruce called over the radio, “Convoy head home, security team follow me.” Bruce told Buffy, who was driving his Stryker, to pull off at the Haughton exit and head for her trailer park.

Pulling into the trailer park, it seemed like a thousand years since he had been there. Instead, it was only a few months ago that he and Mike had found Buffy after leaving the hospital on their walk home. Bruce told the four Strykers to turn around on the main road in the trailer park and be ready to leave in a hurry.

Bruce climbed out after Buffy turned around with the other Strykers. Debbie came over to Bruce as he radioed Buffy, “Buffy, stay inside the Stryker.”

Debbie looked at Bruce, asking, “What are we doing here?”

“I have unfinished business here, baby,” Bruce told her. “Mike, go to the trailer and get BB’s family bible and get back quick,” Bruce said over the radio.

Bruce left Mike in charge of the Strykers as he, Debbie, and the kids headed to Buffy’s trailer in single file. Nothing moved in the frigid air and with the Strykers off, the quietness was deafening. Moving up to the trailer, Bruce saw the window beside the front door had been broken out but the door was still closed.

Bruce keyed his radio, “Set up a perimeter around the front of the trailer. I’m going inside.”

“I’m coming with you,” Debbie answered over the radio. Bruce just nodded his head as he moved up on the porch. On the porch, there were animal and human bones scattered.

Bruce moved over to the window to look inside and the smell of infected and decay almost knocked him down. Trying not to breathe in the noxious smell, he glanced inside the living room. Bruce didn’t see the remains of the men he had killed.

Not seeing anything in the living room or kitchen, Bruce keyed his radio and whispered, “I’m pretty sure blues are inside. Those of you outside be ready to haul ass.” Bruce received replies from the kids as he opened the door. He thought it smelled bad outside, but as he stepped inside, the smell almost brought him to his knees. The smell was making his eyes water and burn while his stomach didn’t know what to do, so it just sent warning gags up to the throat.

Sweeping the living room and kitchen, Bruce and Debbie headed toward the hall with Bruce in the lead.  Stopping at Buffy’s room and the hall bathroom, Debbie cleared them as Bruce kept his weapon pointed at the master bedroom’s open doorway. The door was shattered, lying in the hallway. Easing down the hall, Bruce couldn’t believe the smell was actually getting worse. He never would have believed the human nose was that powerful.

Stopping before going inside the room, Bruce could hear breathing inside the room. Listening for several more seconds, he realized that it was more than one inside. Stepping inside, Bruce didn’t see anyone immediately until moving to the foot of the bed.

Lying on the other side of the bed were eight blues, all curled up together, sleeping. In the corner of the room, he found who he was looking for, Buffy’s mother Karen. Even with her blue skin and the fact that he had only seen her for a short time, Bruce knew it was her.

Raising his rifle up, he aimed at Karen, and Debbie followed his lead. When Bruce squeezed his trigger, Debbie opened up beside him. None of the eight woke up as they both emptied their magazines into the group of blues.

As Bruce and Debbie were changing magazines, Danny called over the radio in a worried voice, “Are you two ok?”

“Yeah, we’re good. Just a small group in here. Danny, I want you to come inside and help, okay. Everyone else, we are leaving in five minutes,” Bruce replied as he and Debbie finished clearing the room, not finding anything else.

When Danny stopped at the bedroom door, Bruce gave her instructions. “Danny, Buffy’s room was closed, so they didn’t go in there. I want you to load up what you think is important to Buffy and make it quick.” Bruce told her, then turned to Debbie, “Debbie, get a bag and put the pictures in the hallway in it and remember they’ll be contaminated.”

Bruce stepped over the pile of bodies into the bathroom to find the remains of a deer in the bath tub and a human skull on the floor. Moving over to the sink, Bruce couldn’t even smell the gun powder in the room from the stench. Opening the cabinets under the sink, Bruce saw a jewelry box and pulled it out, tucked it under his arm, then moved out of the room.

Moving down the hall, Bruce almost ran into Danny as she came out of Buffy’s room carrying a load of stuff wrapped up in a blanket. Debbie was waiting for them by the front door with a blanket full of pictures. Stepping outside, Bruce heard Jake softly whistling at him.

Walking to the back of the trailer where Jake was standing, Bruce found him pointing at something. Looking up at where Jake was pointing, Bruce saw a huge pile of human excrement. Then Jake tapped his arm and pointed behind another trailer to show him another one. Bruce’s heart skipped a beat as Jake spoke, “Most of the trailers have windows knocked out, and I think they all hold more blues. That is a lot of shit Dad.”

Bruce keyed his radio, “Team, move back double time to Strykers. Mike, don’t start up until we are inside.”

Running back to the Strykers, Bruce swore he saw a blue face look out a window at him. Ignoring it, he followed the team back. Once they were inside, Bruce told Mike to get them the hell out of there. Leaving the trailer park, they never saw anything come out at them and saw nothing on their way back to the farm.

It was almost supper time when they pulled through the gate. Driving around the house, the property once again looked like a huge dump ground. As everyone climbed out, they were sprayed down with bleach water in a fine mist. This was one of the new requirements that Stephanie had asked for. Everyone returning now from the outside had to be sprayed down then had to change clothes before doing anything else inside the farm.

The family headed inside, stripped and showered, then headed back to the hall for supper. Buffy walked beside Bruce as they headed to the hall with the rest of the family.

“Did you find Mommy?” Buffy asked, walking beside Bruce, not looking up.

Bruce took a deep breath, and then replied, “Yes, I did Buffy.”

Buffy stopped and looked up at him, “Did you shoot her?”

Bruce stopped and nodded his head, “Yes, Buffy I did. It has eaten away at me that I didn’t do it before we left her. Granted she wouldn’t have been able to take care of the asshole I left for her, but she would’ve been at peace. I know if I’m infected, I want to be put down. The thought of me hurting someone I love would destroy my soul,” Bruce explained to Buffy.

Buffy just sighed, looking at Bruce. “You don’t have to explain it Daddy. I know Mommy wouldn’t have wanted to live like that. I’ve had dreams about it and wanted to go and help her, but I don’t think I could’ve done it. I just wanted to say thank you.”

Bruce picked her up setting her on his hip, “Buffy, you are my daughter, and I love you as everyone in this family loves you. You don’t have to say thank you, but it’s nice that you do.”

Buffy wrapped her arms around Bruce and said, “I love you Daddy.”

“I love you too, BB. When we’re finished with supper, let’s ask the whole family to help us clean off the stuff we got from your house,” Bruce replied as Buffy smiled, thinking it was a great idea. Danny was beating down a wave of jealousy that was trying to creep up as Bruce put Buffy down. The twins didn’t even try to act like they weren’t jealous. Buffy’s feet no sooner hit the ground than they were running over to Bruce to be picked up.

Laughing, Bruce picked them up and headed inside. Bruce put the twins in their chairs beside him. Bruce sat down and looked at the end of the table to see Paul staring off into space. Conner and Willie were at the table ready to fall over.

Bruce looked at Conner asking, “Conner, didn’t you sleep some today?”

“Hell no! Our whole crew stayed awake and helped put shit up. Everyone knows you and your family went out Sunday night then worked all day Monday, so we did too. No one knows what’s in those trucks in the shop, and whenever someone tries to find out, Joe or Harry throws something at them,” Conner replied.

“Did you try to look in them?” Bruce inquired.

“No. Not any of my business. I did see one guy come out holding his arm where Joe hit him with a wrench,” Conner replied.

Bruce grinned at the thought of Joe and Harry taking their guard duty seriously. Standing up Bruce yelled, “Shut up please!” The hall became silent as everyone turned towards Bruce. “I want to let everyone know Santa asked me and my family to meet up with him to get everyone’s presents. They are in the trucks in the shop. I’m told that some of you have tried to sneak a peek. As some of you have found out, we have guards watching the trucks so that Christmas is not ruined,” Bruce told everyone.

Everyone turned when Joe yelled out, “The next person I catch trying to open them, will have a broken hand! Harry and I are sleeping in the shop until Christmas.” Bruce laughed at Joe as he continued, “Those trucks are for the clan! Don’t ruin the surprise.”

Bruce sat down as the hall came to life talking about the trucks and trying to guess what the presents could be. Millie came over with a cart and started putting plates down on the table. Grabbing a fork, Bruce started eating and looked toward Paul again, who was still looking off into space.

“Paul,” Bruce called out and he did not respond. Bruce called two more times until Cheryl elbowed Paul who finally heard Bruce.

Rubbing his ribs, Paul replied, “Yeah.”

“What the hell are you thinking about down there? Smoke is coming out of your ears,” Bruce replied.

Paul just looked at Bruce then replied, “You were serious about bringing thousands of people here, weren't you?”

Bruce thought Paul was joking but could see by the expression on Paul’s face, he wasn’t as Bruce answered, “Yes, Paul. I was serious.”

“Figures,” Paul said. “We need to put in fields around us. If we can turn them three times a year, we can grow enough food for that many with some to spare. Can I ask how many more we can expect?” The table became quiet with everyone following the conversation, except PJ, who was killing his food with his spoon, giving out little karate yells with each jab.

Looking at Paul, Bruce leveled with him, “Paul, I don’t know. If we find several thousand and they want to come here and accept the rules, then we will bring them. If we fill up all of our barracks then we will send other survivors to Marcus’ farm until they are over a thousand. If we find that many and more, we will build more barracks.”

“Bruce, you told me to speak my mind, so I am. With that many people it would only take two bad crop years to wipe us out, and then we all die. Not now, because we have years of food but let’s say ten years from now. In that time alone, I feel we will double our population here, just with the people we have. I don’t want to be held responsible if we can’t feed everyone,” Paul proclaimed.

Bruce smiled, seeing what Paul was trying to say. “Paul, no one will blame you for anything like that. If anyone is to blame, it would be me. What I want you and everyone here to see is we have to bring in people that want to work, who will fight, and believe in something bigger than themselves. Humanity is hanging by a thread here. For a stable population we need tens of thousands,” Bruce answered.

Paul nodded his head, “I know, Bruce. You’re always thinking five steps ahead of where we are at now. We only have a hundred and ten acres here inside this fence and it’s filling up fast. Military vehicles, helicopters, more solar panels, more buildings, and so on.”

“Paul, Marcus has over seven hundred acres of fields at his farm and there are several more around here. We can always throw a fence around them and farm those. I don’t think blues will climb a fence to eat produce, as long as we can keep the deer out,” Bruce advised.

Paul laughed, throwing his fork down, looking at Bruce, “That is what I mean. I’m just looking inside this fence. You are looking at the world. I’m sorry I let something like that bother me but it has been since you wanted the other barracks built bigger.”

“Don’t be sorry, Paul. A problem can’t have a solution if others don’t know about the problem,” Bruce answered.

Supper continued and when everyone was finished, the family went inside to help Buffy clean everything they had brought from her house. The pictures were hung on the wall, and Buffy put the jewelry box in her bathroom.

The next three days went by in a blur as more supply bunkers were made in the back fields, and the barracks were started. The expansion slab for the hall was poured on Wednesday as was the new school. Buffy started her morning lessons with Stephanie, who turned out to be an excellent teacher.

It was Friday morning and Danny and Buffy had just finished teaching a class on hand to hand combat. Buffy was getting her gear on when Danny stopped her. “Buffy, can I talk to you for a second?” Danny asked.

“Yeah,” Buffy replied as she stopped all movement.

Danny laughed at Buffy as she stood frozen in place. “You don’t have to freeze like that, Buffy. I just wanted to talk to you about how you act around the clan. They are part of us, just like the family. What I’m saying is that you act cold around them, like they’re going to hurt you or us. You’re enjoying the patrols too much. I’m not saying I don’t, but you have to realize that there is more to life than fighting,” Danny tried explaining to Buffy.

“How am I being mean to them?” Buffy asked.

“Buffy, you very rarely acknowledge anyone outside the family when they talk to you. You don’t really talk to anyone unless they’re a warrior. When Marty asked you to the dance, I thought you were going to pull a gun on him. Mama asked me to say something to you before she goes to dad,” Danny informed Buffy.

“What have I done wrong?” Buffy asked with worry on her face.

“Nothing BB, but no one wants to see you shut off from the world. That’s not living,” Danny disclosed.

“Okay, what do I have to do to make Mama happy?” Buffy replied, looking at Danny.

Danny smiled at Buffy and hugged her. Looking at Buffy, Danny knew that Buffy would do whatever it took to make Mama happy. Danny sat and talked for over an hour to Buffy until Stephanie called for Buffy over the radio. Buffy answered and told Stephanie she was on her way.

That afternoon, Bruce met his four students at the firing range. On the tables were several different sub-machine guns. Bruce went down the line, showing each one how they worked and how to disassemble them. Then they moved to the firing line. After an hour, Bruce told them to pick the one they liked the most. Each one grabbed an H&K MP-7. Even Buffy put down her P-90. After they had their weapons, Bruce started the movement drills, running back and forth from the targets. Max, ever present beside Bruce, ran beside him, never behind or in front of him, as they ran alongside of the four. When they were finished, Bruce called out infractions and the push-ups that were owed.

As the four dropped to pay off their tally, Bruce looked across the field to see a group of people watching them. When all of them were done and rubbing their arms, Bruce asked, “What are all those people doing over there?”

“They watch us, and when we leave, they come over here and copy what we just did,” Mindy replied.

“They do what?” Bruce asked in disbelief.

Stephanie looked at Bruce, shaking her head, “Bruce, when you get around guns, you have a one track mind. I’m really surprised that Debbie has never gotten jealous. I know several times I’ve gotten jealous watching you around weapons.”

Bruce didn’t want to tell Stephanie that there had been several times Debbie had gotten jealous over guns. “What are you trying to say, Stephanie?” Bruce asked, wondering if Stephanie was going to take the guns away.

Mindy answered, “Dad, they watch us because you’re teaching us, and they all know you’re the best.”

Bruce smiled at Mindy when she addressed him as dad, then replied, “Well I think I have a solution to their problem.” Bruce waved at the group of about twenty people to come over to them.

When the group stopped, Bruce asked, “Are y’all missing a class or scheduled work to watch us?”

“No sir,” a girl in her twenties answered. “This is our free time. Everyone has allotted free time through the day.” Bruce nodded his head, pleased that instead of laying down doing nothing, this group wanted to learn more.

“Okay, form four even lines,” Bruce said, pointing at the group. Then he turned to his four students, “Teach them what you learned today. Then, on the days I train these four, we will allow for people to sign up for class afterwards, but only if you have free time and have earned your fire arm pin.” Bruce said, referring to the pin that was worn if you were trained and cleared to carry a firearm.

Bruce looked at Angela, “Angela, I want you to set up two classes in the mornings to teach those that can’t make the afternoon class. Any of your classmates that are free are to help you.”

Angela stomped her foot, replying, “Okay,” not thrilled with her new task.

“Angela, you owe me ten for acting like a little pussy in front of students,” Bruce told her as she just dropped down and started knocking out pushups.

Several people in the group laughed at Angela, causing Bruce to yell out, “Everyone in the group get down and give me ten pushups! You never laugh at a team member when they make a mistake during training and have to pay for it! After you finish with the first ten do another ten because you were laughing at an instructor!”

The group fell like they had been shot as Bruce yelled at them. It took several in the group a few minutes to complete the pushups, but they all did them. If Bruce made his family do them, none in the group had the nerve to tell him no.

Bruce looked at his instructors, “Instructors, each of you grab a different weapon and teach your group. As instructors, when you make a mistake, you and your class owe me ten pushups. That way mistakes are remembered by all. When one of your group makes a mistake and you don’t catch it. You and your student owe me ten.” The four just looked at Bruce in shock, each of them thinking to themselves that Louisiana was fixing to be pushed below sea level.

They broke up into four groups and the training started. Bruce walked from group to group listening, and then made the instructors switch weapons. After an hour, Bruce had them on the line firing. Before dark Bruce started making them run drills back and forth from the targets. When the run was complete, the instructor would tell the student if they owed pushups. The firing line was only stopped once. Angela stopped the line when her student, a young man, turned around with his finger on the trigger. It was dark when the group headed to the hall for supper after gathering up the weapons and all the spent brass.

Bruce walked into the hall and sat down, followed by the four new instructors. Debbie looked over at the four, smiling, asking, “So you’re teaching now. How do you like that?”

Angela looked at Debbie with a scowl, replying, “Debbie, I don’t want to talk to you now. I have a feeling you knew this was going to happen.”

“Oh I did. That’s how you really learn, when you teach it,” Debbie replied giggling.

Angela looked at Bruce, stating, “She’s laughing at a team member.”

“We aren’t training now so we can laugh at each other,” Bruce informed her.

Debbie looked at Angela, “If you think I didn’t have to do pushups when I helped teach, think again, sister. Teaching Steve, I thought my arms were going to fall off.”

Angela just looked back at Debbie, replying, “Debbie, I can’t feel my arms. I was so terrified one of my students was going to kill someone or themselves. I wasn’t going to teach them right, and they would die later on when it mattered. My heart was beating out of my chest.”

“That’s teaching,” Bruce answered.

The command group started eating when Danny looked up at Bruce and asked, “Daddy, how come we have so many girls here? Girls only outnumbered boys in America by a very small ratio, like less than one percent. Here it’s like three to one.”

Bruce opened his mouth to answer, but Stephanie beat him. “During any great disturbance like the plagues and wars, men band together to fight, while the women are left behind to fend for themselves like we are now. In the Crusades, there were whole villages in Europe that didn’t have but one or two men left behind. I’m actually surprised that we have as many men as we do,” Stephanie answered, stopping only when she noticed everyone was looking at her.

Bruce laughed and continued, “She’s right, but also men are seen as competition, while women are seen as property by attackers. It’s stupid of course, but those with little or no intelligence see it that way. With the men fighting off the attackers, they get killed while the women and kids escape. Even the reports we have heard from the government indicate they are holding women of breeding age separate from the rest of the population. We should have a lot more kids here, but as vulnerable as they are to blues, they don’t last long alone.”

Danny shook her head in understanding as she replied, “I’m glad I had you for a daddy instead of some dumb ass.”

The command group finished eating and headed to the house for the Friday night meeting. When everyone was inside, they started stripping off gear, dropping it to the floor. Paul stood up in front to start them off.

“Okay, we have the slabs poured for the expansion of the hall, school, and all five barracks. Four more new storage areas are now under ground in the fields. We just have to cover them up which will be done by tomorrow, then fill them up with supplies. I have three containers in the front yard for the new mission control. The area for the new machine shop has been dug out and the slab poured,” Paul stopped as Bruce asked a question.

“Paul, how long does it take us to put up a completed barracks?” Bruce asked.

“After the slab is down, it takes us four days,” Paul answered.

“You’re kidding, right? It took us two weeks on the first one, and we had more people working on it,” Bruce asked in disbelief.

“Bruce, we’ve built five of them. The construction crews can build one in their sleep now. By the time we get to the last one, I’ll put it at two days. That’s with the forty working during the day and ten at night,” Paul advised.

“Holy shit!” Mike replied.

Bruce nodded his head, agreeing with Mike, then looked at Paul. “All right, since they can build at that pace, cut them in half and only work on one this week. Let’s concentrate on the hall, school, machine shop, and working on the perimeter firing positions. We need the watch towers and firing positions that Mike drew up last week pretty fast. How long for just that?” Bruce inquired.

Paul thought for a minute, then answered, “Since we have two barracks with double the capacity of the first ones we built and don’t have anyone in them, why don’t I pull all construction crews to the hall and school. With that many people working, I can have both done by Thursday. We can then start on the machine shop. The perimeter is just filling some sandbags and digging a few holes along the fence then building some towers. We will be done with that by next week.”

“Paul, that’s not possible,” Bruce replied, thinking Paul was over stating their capabilities.

“Bruce, we have almost four hundred people here. Over three hundred can work on projects. Hell even the kids as young as nine help out. You’re thinking in old world terms when construction crews had to be paid and were small to keep cost down. Almost everyone here now knows construction and by that, I mean plumbing, electrical, painting, dry walling, laying brick, and of course laying concrete. Granted, when we started, most didn’t know which end of a hammer to use. Now, it’s a completely different story,” Paul replied with assurance.

“Don’t forget patrols start next week,” Bruce challenged.

“Whoopee do,” Paul replied in a flat tone. “So I lose what, twenty to forty people a day. Even with guard duty, kitchen duty, green house duty, farm duty, and all the other little things that we do to make this place run, we still have over two hundred people a day to put on work projects. Before you start wanting me to build skyscrapers, remember these aren’t big projects, just small buildings projects,” Paul added before Bruce let his mind run wild.

“What about the water tower and all the fuel storage tanks we brought back with us on that last run?” Bruce asked, trying to come to grips with how fast they could move on projects.

“Well, since you interrupted before I got to them, I’ll tell you now. The water tower was finished Monday and is already online. I’m sure you saw it behind the barn. It stands a hundred feet off the ground and holds fifty thousand gallons. Yes I made it bigger, I know you now. As for the storage tanks we brought back, they won’t take a large group of people to put them in. Ten people running heavy equipment digging holes. Then they run pipes from the tanks to inside the fence. I only asked for three more for us and two for Marcus. You brought back ten of them, all thirty thousand gallon tanks, not the three or five thousand gallon tanks I wanted. Marcus can only take two, so we will put the remainder here with what we already have. That will give us a storage capacity of four hundred thousand gallons underground. Our current usage is two thousand gallons a week, which we can’t maintain because we are running out of stuff to do with the heavy equipment. Even if we did, it is over a six month supply underground, not including the full tanker trucks we have at the end of the road which each holding around nine thousand gallons,” Paul finished with a smart ass tone.

Bruce couldn’t say anything as Paul waited on a reply. Seeing Bruce take a breath, Paul started again, “Before you ask about the helicopters, the air force base in town has over two million gallons of jet fuel underground. Jet fuel is closer to kerosene than gasoline so it breaks down slower. I figure we have enough fuel for five years before we need to worry about producing our own. Not because we will run out, but you can only stabilize fuel for so long. If you remember, when you went to Shreveport, we started treating the large storage tanks in town.” Paul just stared at Bruce and asked, “Can I continue now?” Bruce just nodded his head, coming to terms with what Paul had told him.

Still staring at Bruce, Paul said, “Bruce, you gave each one here a task to oversee. Let us do it. You concentrate on keeping us alive. Then I want to ask you about the large supply of paintball equipment I found amongst the supplies.” Then Paul looked back at the group and continued his briefing. When he was finished he asked for questions. After what Bruce went through, no one wanted to ask one.

Bruce looked at Paul, “The paintball equipment is for combat training. Alright, we have twelve storage areas completed with twenty containers each. Six are buried in the northwest field and six buried in the northeast field. The ones in the northwest field will be odd stating north to south one, three, five, and so on. On the northeast they are even two, four, six, and so on, also north to south. I want the others that are being built to continue to be offset one in each field,” Bruce explained then shut his mouth waiting on someone else to start.

Seeing no one else getting up, Bruce stood up, looking at Paul. “Paul, I’m sorry I doubted you. I remember these people when we drug them out of their hole and brought them to the farm. I should have known they were survivors and had the ability to adapt. Fortunately, it seems most of the worthless people have died off,” Bruce confessed as Bill held up his hand.

“Not so fast on that part, Bruce,” Bill replied, holding his hand up.

“What Bill?” Bruce asked.

“We have two problems here now a male and female both twenty four and worthless. Each of them has missed several work details and guard duty. The male even showed up for guard duty wasted this morning. I have tried to put them on shit detail, but neither showed. They’re the only ones we are having problems with. Hell, even that stupid bitch Green is working, not with enthusiasm, but she is working. I’ve had to put two others on shit detail this week, and nobody else wants to follow in their footsteps,” Bill replied.

“We throw them out in the morning,” Bruce replied, not even wanting to discuss the matter.

Nancy looked at Bruce, asking, “Are you sure, Bruce? We could let the clan vote again.”

“No, I let the clan decide the liberal’s fate, but the shit wad’s fate is mine,” Bruce answered with a tone that said discussion is over.

Nancy nodded as Bruce sat down and pointed to Mike. Mike stood up and went over the work on the perimeter and work crew request. When he was finished, Debbie and Nancy stood up giving the reports of work duty and class attendance, which was almost perfect. Millie stood up next and asked if the kitchen could keep small snacks out at all times and not just at night. Everyone agreed that it was a good idea and told Millie to go ahead.

Jake and Matt stood up next. Jake started as Matt hung a map over the fireplace. “We have found a lot of survivors in the area around us. We can’t count them, but within a sixty mile radius, I’m putting the figure around eight hundred. We have the UAVs flying expanding circles around us and have found activity at a lot of houses in the thermal field. Before we move out further, Matt and I wanted to make sure we didn’t miss anyone close by. From what we can tell, none of the groups we’ve found are gangs. It looks like they all move around freely,” Jake stated, then pointed at the map and Matt took over.

“Each of the red dots is where we have survivor activity. I just wanted to tell everyone that the house Daddy Bruce checked out with the stupid family that didn’t want to join us has no activity. They either left or have died. Jake and I think the latter. When we flew around the house, the UAV found several windows out and the front door wide open. Now, back to the ones we have found. If we start patrols it will take us a week to bring them in. From the video we have of several of the sites, they look very malnourished and weak,” Matt advised the group.

Bruce looked at Jake, asking, “How did you come up with eight hundred if you’ve not seen that many?”

“Well, in the mornings and evening, we can count foot prints with the thermal camera. Then I take into account the size of the building and make an educated guess,” Jake related his deductions.

“What are you giving as a margin of error?” Mike asked.

“Plus or minus fifty,” Matt answered as Mike let out a soft whistle.

Bruce nodded, and then asked with a grin, “Have you shot a hellfire yet?”

Jake laughed, answering, “No Dad, we only have a hundred and forty four until we bring in the rest form Polk, but tomorrow we’re going to use some of the training hellfires. We have only sent up one UAV armed and found out when you hang shit on the wing, your fuel consumption goes to hell. We cracked into NOAA satellites and have twenty seven military and NSA satellites online. That’s what all the satellite dishes are for in the east field.”

“Oh, okay, but I want to watch the missile shoot,” Bruce said, then stood up as Matt and Jake sat down. “Now, just to let everyone know, tomorrow after breakfast, the family is going to work on the forty foot horse trailer until noon. We are going to build it to accommodate survivors we get in the field that want to come back. Monday, I start flying lessons as do some others here. Tomorrow afternoon, I have to help get the simulators in the top of the barn since no one is living there now. Now I know Jake and Matt are signed up, who else?” Bruce asked. Mike, Danny, Stephanie, Willie, Paul, Steve, and Debbie raised their hands.

Bruce looked at Debbie and Nancy who arranged the schedules asking, “So everyone here is in the first class?”

Debbie looked up at Bruce, answering, “I don’t remember your name on the first class roster.”

“I’m the boss here, and I learn before anyone!” Bruce replied in a pissed off loud tone.

Debbie smiled, knowing she had pushed him a little too far as she replied, “Put it back in your pants, baby. You were the first one on the training roster, but only Steve and Mike will be in the first class. The rest of us will wait until the second class.”

“Don’t be playing with me like that,” Bruce warned her. Then he asked Debbie, “How many students in the first class?”

“Twenty total in the first class. One of the soldiers from Ft. Polk is a helicopter mechanic, and he is starting a class of twenty also. Our airplane pilot is starting with ten, and we will get a single engine plane for him to train people on. He is qualified for dual engine, but we can’t land one here yet,” Debbie stated. Then she looked at Bruce, enlightening him, “Don’t worry, I have you signed up for the mechanic class and airplane lessons after you learn the helicopter.”

Bruce smiled like a school boy as Debbie spoke, then looked at Jake asking, “I don’t remember seeing any survivors close to any towns?”

“That’s because there are none near any towns. The closest ones are about two miles from a village with a population of five hundred,” Jake responded.

“Okay, Debbie and Conner, you’re on my team. We will build it tomorrow at supper. Jake and Mary build you a ten man team. Danny and Matt, you will build a ten man team also. We will go out once a week with each team rotating an extra day. Marcus will send out recovery patrols on Friday that way they can work on their defenses, housing, and storage. Any questions?” Bruce asked.

Conner raised his hand and Bruce pointed to him. Conner stood up stating, “Bruce, I just want to say I don’t want you making first contact with the survivors.”

“Do you think I scare them?” Bruce asked a little perturbed.

“No, we don’t need you getting killed trying to bring in a group. I, along with the majority here, would be happy if you stayed at the farm, but that will never happen,” Conner gave his opinion with several others agreeing.

“First, you’re right, it won’t happen. Next, Mike is here so command is secure,” Bruce replied, getting tired of people arguing with him.

Mike looked up at Bruce, “We’ve been through this, Bruce. You’re way too valuable to the survival of the clan. Not only do you think of shit that no one else does to keep the clan going, but you think out a battle before it even starts.”

“Well, you have Willie here now, and he has combat experience also,” Bruce shot back.

Willie put his hands up, “Don’t bring me into this. Bruce, you are a natural leader and tactician. I would’ve never thought of using a single bucket truck to rescue a trapped person. I would’ve used an armored column to try to extract her. I saw your video footage of a one man, multiple chain ambush on those bikers. Yeah, I would’ve set up one chain on the road but not for the relief that showed up,” Willie admitted.

“Doesn’t matter. I’m going!” Bruce replied, acting like a child as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Conner shook his head, “No one said you couldn’t, as if you would listen to them,” he mumbled the last. “All I’m saying is let me or someone else attempt contact.”

“I always approach with Buffy or Debbie to show we’re not hostile,” Bruce answered.

“I’m not worried about Buffy. No one would shoot her first, which they would find out later was a big mistake. Then, losing Debbie would be just as bad as losing you,” Conner replied. If anyone in the command group would have been looking at Debbie when Conner said that, they would have seen shock spread over her face. Nobody was looking as Debbie quickly regained her composure as Conner continued.

“Bruce, this family has been preparing for this shit for a long time. This family has accumulated knowledge that this clan needs to know. Let me approach the survivors with Buffy. They will shoot me first and before they can shoot Buffy, you can lay waste to them. We’re wearing full armor, so I’m willing to chance a shot to the chest,” Conner replied. When Susan found out later of his request, she almost hit Conner.

Bruce didn’t like it, but Conner was making sense. Bruce looked at Buffy as she replied, “I’ll go with Conner.”

Bruce nodded and finished up the meeting then headed upstairs to his bedroom. Debbie and Angela went to get the kids out of Susan’s bedroom. Stephanie ran upstairs to find Bruce getting ready for bed. As she hung up her gear and rifle, Stephanie turned around facing Bruce. “You know Conner was right don’t you? You are the most valuable person here Bruce,” Stephanie informed him.

“I know I’m valuable, Stephanie. But I know something that the others don’t,” Bruce replied looking up at her. Looking directly in Stephanie’s eyes, Bruce related, “I’m going to die of old age, long after I’m of any use to anyone. My fear is I will outlive everyone and everything I love, dying alone.”

Stephanie just looked at Bruce with a blank expression as he climbed into bed and rolled over on his side. She was still just looking at him when Debbie and Angela carried in armfuls of sleeping kids. Stephanie helped put the kids in the bed and climbed in with Angela and Debbie to go to sleep.

It was several days later before Stephanie told Debbie what Bruce had told her. Debbie shocked Stephanie even more when she replied, ‘I know Bruce is going to die of old age, but I’m working on his fear now.’

Chapter 11

Saturday morning, the entire command group was at the table when Bruce asked Bill to point out the two discipline problems. Bill pointed the two out, telling Bruce their names were Raymond and Julie. Looking at the two Bill pointed out, Bruce saw they both had on pistols and had M-4s across their backs.

“They have weapon privileges?” Bruce asked.

“Barely,” Steve replied. He was in charge of testing for carry privileges inside the clan.

Bruce looked at the two sitting at the end of a table across the hall by themselves. Neither of them looked like they had taken a bath in days. Looking down the table, Bruce stood up saying, “Be ready to kill them if they make a move.” That statement caught everyone off guard as Bruce started toward the table where the two were sitting. Everyone at the command table pulled out pistols and laid them on the table.

Bruce stopped beside Raymond, keeping both of them to his front with an open area behind them. “Raymond and Julie stand up now,” Bruce commanded them, and the hall fell silent.

Raymond turned, looking up at Bruce with blood shot eyes and replying, “Man, go play soldier with someone else. I’m eating here.” Julie giggled as Raymond turned back to his plate.

Bruce reached out, grabbing the hair on the back of Raymond’s head. Then, using his weight, Bruce slammed Raymond’s head into the table, breaking his nose. Still holding Raymond’s hair, Bruce yanked him out of his chair and threw him on the floor. Before Raymond even registered what had happened, he looked up and saw Bruce, who was now pointing a pistol at his head.

Without taking his eyes off of Raymond, Bruce said, “Julie, if you move, you will die here and now. Everyone at the command table has a weapon pointed at you. Now Julie, I want you to raise your hands very slowly above your head.”

When Bruce saw Julie raise her hands above her head in his peripheral vision, he spoke to Raymond. “Raymond, put your hands on your head. I’m going to grab the front of your shirt to pull you up. Try anything and you can fill in the blanks,” Bruce informed Raymond.

Reaching down to grab Raymond, Bruce heard Danny say, “Bitch, move your hands anymore and your problems will only be starting!”

Bruce glanced up to see Danny pulling Julie’s head back and holding a knife to her throat. Looking back at Raymond and grabbing his shirt, Bruce pulled Raymond to his feet saying, “Well I see both of you are stupid.”

Holding his pistol to Raymond’s head, Bruce took the M-4 off of Julie, followed by her pistol then he did the same for Raymond. “Danny, search Julie,” Bruce said.

Danny put the point of her knife in Julie’s back and patted her down, pulling out a small pistol and three knives, throwing them on the floor behind her. Bruce instructed Danny to pat down Raymond, and she found two knives which she added to the pile behind her.

Bruce put the barrel of his pistol against Raymond’s head and said, “You have three seconds to tell me where it is. One, two-,” Bruce stopped as Raymond yelled, “In my underwear!”

Danny reached around into Raymond’s pants and pulled out a small pistol. Danny giggled as she said, “You have a little dick.”

“Bitch-,” Julie started to say as Danny lashed out with a side kick, catching Julie in the face and knocking her to the floor.

Danny jumped over to stand above Julie, putting the tip of her knife in Julie’s throat. “Did you say something?” Danny inquired.

“Danny quit playing and lead her over to the command table,” Bruce said as he walked Raymond backwards to the command table. Danny grabbed Julie by the hair and pulled her across the floor over to the table, with Julie screaming the whole way. They put Raymond and Julie beside each other and zip tied their hands behind their backs.

Bruce looked at the two now as he put his pistol back in his holster. Then Bruce started the hearing. “You two are guilty of not reporting to work detail, showing up under the influence of drugs, not showing up at all for workouts, and then not showing up for punishment duty. How do you answer to these charges?” Bruce inquired.

“You said we can use drugs. That you didn’t care,” Raymond responded.

“I said you could use them on your time not on the clan’s. If your habit endangers the clan, you are guilty,” Bruce corrected.

“I’m not picking up shit for anyone,” Julie snapped.

Bruce sighed looking at the two, then passed the sentence, “You two are found guilty of endangering the clan, not sharing in the work load, and making others carry your burden. Your sentence is expulsion from the clan, to be carried out immediately. You will be driven one hundred miles from here and left on the side of the road. If you’re ever seen by this clan again, you’ll be shot on sight. Remember, we have UAVs up all the time and will know if you come close.”

The two just stared at Bruce in shock as what he said sunk in. “You can’t do that to us. You rescued us. We’ll die if you do that to us,” Julie cried out.

“I didn’t do anything, you did this to yourself. You made your own bed, now you have to lay in it,” Bruce responded coldly.

“Please give us another chance!” Raymond pleaded.

“You threw away your chance when you didn’t show up for punishment duty,” Bruce answered.

“We‘ll do it. Please don’t throw us out. I‘ll quit drugs, just don’t throw me out. I’ll be dead in a week,” Julie pleaded with tears running down her face.

“No, I think you two will be dead in a few days,” Bruce replied. Raymond fell down on his knees crying, looking up for mercy. “Sorry Raymond, the old ways are dead. A man’s word, honor, pride and commitment to the clan are what we measure someone by, and that is what will change this world. Neither of you have any,” Bruce told them. “Bill, get four people and drive these two one hundred miles away and leave them. Put their clothes in a bag with one twenty-two caliber rifle, a pistol and five hundred rounds. Drop the bag a hundred yards from them after you drop them off,” Bruce told Bill as Bill moved over to grab the two. Bill looked back at the hall and called out two men and two women to help him.

The exiled couple was dragged out of the hall crying as Bruce looked up at the clan. Most people had acceptance on their face few had doubt, only a couple showing hostility. One of those was Jenny Green. “Yes Ms. Green? Do you think I was too harsh?” Bruce asked her, crossing his arms across his chest.

“You just killed them,” Jenny replied as her husband slapped her arm.

“No Jenny, they killed themselves,” Bruce corrected her.

Jenny did not reply as her husband kept slapping her arm telling her to shut up. When Jenny wouldn’t look at her husband, he forced her to sit down. After Jenny sat down, everyone in the hall started talking in hushed voices. Bruce sat down rubbing his temples, fighting a headache.

Debbie looked over at Bruce and could see the strain on him. “Baby, you didn’t have much of a choice,” Debbie said, trying to ease some of the burden off Bruce.

Bruce stopped rubbing his temples and looked at Debbie. “What? Those assholes? I know that. I’m trying to get a headache because there is so much to do,” Bruce affirmed.

Debbie smiled because she knew Bruce was lying. Debbie looked over at Stephanie and Angela who were both watching her. “Okay baby, we all know you are still the king of testosterone, but it’s alright to admit you feel bad when you have to make a decision like that,” Debbie explained.

Bruce was fixing to unload on Debbie until he looked at her and saw concern for him on her face. “I’m all right, baby. I’ll survive,” Bruce admitted. Bruce looked up at Danny, “Danny, how did you get over there so fast?”

“Daddy, you forget I teach hand to hand, and that bitch is sneaky. She throws punches when you aren’t looking. I knew she’d try something if she thought she could pull it off. I also didn’t want you to blow her brains out in front of the kids,” Danny replied.

Bruce stood up, announcing, “I’m heading out to start working on the trailer. See you guys there.”

The family followed and for the rest of the morning, they cleaned out the trailer, bolted chairs to the floor and put in an A/C and heater unit. After lunch, Jake led Bruce into mission control so he could watch the UAV fire a test rocket into a car parked on the road outside of Shreveport. Leaving mission control, Bruce walked with Jake and Matt to the barn to help with the new class room.

As Bruce looked up at the barn, he saw a boom fork lift lifting a large box up to the loft doors and putting it in. When the driver lowered the boom back down, Bruce ran over to the lift and told the driver to give them a ride up to the loft. When the operator raised the boom arm up, Bruce looked over the property until the arm stopped at the loft door. Bruce leaned over and motioned for the operator to lift them higher. The boom arm lifted them above the barn and stopped. Jake, Matt, and Bruce looked at the changed farm with equipment all over the place and with groups of people working everywhere they looked.

Looking over at the east side in front of the pasture, Bruce saw a group of vehicles he hadn’t noticed before. One was a truck with tracks and a box on the back, another one was an oversized HEMETT with a box on the back and another two beside it. Bruce gasped when he realized he was looking at an MRLS and a Patriot missile system. Jake laughed when he saw what Bruce was looking at. “I wondered how long it’d take you to find those,” Jake said.

“How did they get here?” Bruce asked, wanting to go play with them.

“Conner and Willie brought them here from Polk. Conner wanted the MRLS and Willie wanted the Patriot,” Matt replied laughing.

“Why didn’t they tell me?” Bruce replied in a hurt voice.

“They were scared you were going to tell Mom, and she’d unload on ‘em,” Jake replied.

“I’m the boss here, not Mom,” Bruce growled.

“Yeah Dad, but when you aren’t around, Mom can chew some serious ass, and you will always back Mom. I’m not saying that with disrespect because I do the same thing with Mary,” Jake stated matter-of-factly.

Bruce looked at his son and smiled, “It took me seven years to see what you see now, son.”

“Like Mom always says ‘behind every great man is a greater woman,’” Jake replied as Bruce leaned over and motioned for the operator to lower them down.

As the arm lowered, Bruce looked at Jake and Matt telling them, “We’re going to have some fun.”

When the arm lowered them to the ground, Bruce jumped off, followed by the boys. Heading to a Hummer, Bruce called a man over from the hall work crew. When the man came over, Bruce told him to drive the Hummer out to the vehicle storage at the end of the road. Calling for the gate to open, the man drove the three to the end of the road. Jake and Matt just looked at each other, wondering how much trouble they were fixing to get into.

Bruce told the driver to stop beside the truck that he and Buffy driven back with the M1A2 tank on the back. Jumping out, Bruce told the boys to drop the ramps on the trailer. Matt and Jake grinned at each other then jumped out, running to the back of the trailer as Bruce opened the drivers hatch and climbed inside. Turning on the power and waiting to see if he had power to start up, Bruce raised the seat up so he could see someone to guide him off the trailer.

Looking back down at the battery gauge and smiling, Bruce yelled for the driver to head back to the farm. The man looked at Bruce then at the tank and spun around to get the hell out of the way. Bruce hit the switch and started the turbine up. Jake ran up front to guide Bruce off while Matt stayed at the back to relay instructions to Jake.

Bruce grabbed the handle bar, flipped the drive to reverse, and backed off the trailer. Once off the trailer, Bruce crawled back into the turret, opened the hatches and motioned the boys up. Jake jumped in the commander’s spot and Matt took the gunner’s seat, both standing out of the hatch. Bruce handed them both CVC helmets and showed them where to plug in as he headed back to the driver’s seat.

Bruce put on his helmet and plugged it in. “Are you two ready?” Bruce asked.

“Hell yeah, Dad! How do I turn the turret around off the back deck?” Jake asked.

“There’s a joystick by your left hand with a trigger. Pull it back to lift the gun barrel up and move it side to side to move the turret,” Bruce told Jake. Jake grabbed the stick and played with the turret. “Hold on boys, let’s have some fun!” Bruce yelled out over the intercom as he opened the throttle. The tank shot down the road leaving a cloud of dust.

Inside mission control the two women and one man who were on duty looked up on the screen which showed the road in front of the farm and saw a tank rolling down the road. The woman by the radio grabbed the microphone, “Big Daddy One and Two, this is mission control. We just saw a tank roll past the farm coming from the vehicle storage area. I don’t know who’s driving it, but they seem in a hurry!”

“Mission control, this is Big Daddy Two. Tell everyone to stay off the road. Big Daddy One is playing,” Mike called back.

Bruce drove the boys down the road then off into a field then back on the road and headed back to the farm. Grabbing his radio, Bruce called for the gate to open but couldn’t hear the guard challenge him as he stopped in front of the gate, waiting for it to open. With his CVC helmet on, Bruce couldn’t hear the radio as he again keyed his microphone, “Mission control, this is Big Daddy One. Open the fucking gate!”

The young man in the fort hit the gate button, opening up the gate as the woman in mission control came over the radio. “Fort, this is mission control. We didn’t give you permission to open the gate,” she told the young man.

“Mission control, you can go fuck yourself, ma’am. That big ass gun was pointing right at me,” the young man responded.

Before mission control could reply, Mike came over the air, “This is Big Daddy Two, it’s okay mission control and fort, I don’t think he has any ammo in it.”

“Sir, with all due respect, I’m not going to find out on a ‘think’,” the young man replied. Mike just laughed, agreeing with the young man, but didn’t reply.

With the turbine whining, Bruce drove the tank to the main underground storage area and stopped at the ramp going down to the door. Shutting down the tank, Bruce jumped out, running down inside the bunker as Jake and Matt started mounting the machine guns on the turret and beside the main gun. A forklift drove out, with a grinning Bruce at the controls, carrying a pallet of cases.

Danny, Buffy, Mary, David, Mindy, and Steve came running over to the tank followed by Mike, Nancy, Debbie, Stephanie and Angela. By the time the adults got to the tank, the kids had formed a chain, passing up main gun rounds and putting them inside the turret. Watching the kids jumping with joy, Mike looked at the other adults, “I wonder if he’ll take us for a ride?”

“If he doesn’t, he won’t get any lovin’ for weeks,” Debbie threatened as Bruce walked over smiling.

“I like your ride, Bruce,” Stephanie remarked, putting her arm around him and looking at the tank, which caused Bruce to smile bigger.

“Thank you, Little Red,” Bruce said, turning around to look at his tank. Debbie nudged Stephanie with her elbow, smiling at her. Stephanie was learning.

“Bruce, you can go play with the kids, but we want to ride to,” Debbie informed Bruce.

“Of course, baby,” Bruce replied, smiling ear to ear.

“Bruce, I want to drive it,” Debbie confided and the smile dropped off Bruce’s face. Debbie just looked at Bruce, pointing out, “It’s not like I can scratch it, Bruce.”

“That’s true,” Bruce replied, kissing Debbie then turning around and running to the tank. He told Buffy to get in the drivers hatch and sit behind him. Danny and Mary jumped inside the turret as Jake climbed out and led Bruce out of the farm so he wouldn’t hit anyone.

Bruce stopped the tank on the road and climbed into the turret, which was crowded. Going through every position, Bruce gave a basic run down on how to operate the tank in less than thirty minutes. Spinning the turret around, Bruce crawled into the driver’s seat and told Buffy to watch him as he drove.

Debbie and the others went back to work. An hour later, they heard a cannon shot off in the distance. Debbie turned to the east as Willie and Mike walked over to stand beside her, and they heard the big fifty caliber open up. “Well, everything in fifty miles knows we’re here now,” Willie said.

“Doesn’t matter, they’ll find us sooner or later,” Mike replied.

“I saw blues swarm an M1 in Houston. So many climbed on it they clogged up the tracks and smothered the engine. Yeah, they couldn’t get inside, but the guys inside couldn’t get out either,” Willie said as another cannon blast sounded off in the distance.

“Doesn’t matter, we have Bruce,” Debbie educated Willie.

Willie nodded at that, replying, “Yeah, I almost feel sorry for what’s out there.”

Bruce returned later, swapped out kids, and took off again. After all the kids were done, Bruce returned to see Mike, Paul, Willie and Conner standing beside Debbie. Debbie looked at them and pointed at the tank. The four took off like school boys on summer break. Paul ran up to the driver’s hatch, telling Bruce he knew how and wanted to drive. Bruce smiled, jumped out and climbed inside the turret, making it real crowded.

The boys took off and changed places in the turret as each one fired off the main gun. Returning to the farm, the boys climbed out replaced by the girls. Bruce had Buffy sit behind Debbie and tell her how to drive the tank. In a few miles, Debbie had gotten the controls down and opened the throttle.

When Bruce had Angela fire the main gun, the girls started laughing, and Nancy started yelling that she wanted to shoot it. Bruce called Buffy out from behind Debbie and let her fire the main gun. After using up half a tank of fuel, they headed back to the farm. Bruce climbed out and led Debbie behind the barn and parked the M-1.

Climbing out of the drivers hatch Debbie had a smile that covered her face, “That was great!” she said, jumping down beside Bruce.

“Wait till I show you the Bradley,” Bruce teased her.

“I can’t see how it could be better than that, but I’m free tomorrow,” Debbie hinted.

The others joined them, and they headed toward the hall for supper. Sitting down, Bruce looked up at Willie who had called his name. “The M-1 is good toy but I don’t think it will be much use against a mob of blues with us firing anti-tank rounds at them,” Willie related.

“Not going to shoot at them with anti-tank. I brought a thousand M1028 canister shot,” Bruce replied.

Willie’s eyes just got wide as Stephanie asked, “What’s canister shot?”

Mike smiled, answering, “It turns that five inch barrel into a very big shotgun.”

Bruce smiled and looked at Willie, “Okay, I let you play with my toy. When can we play with yours?” Willie just looked down at the table as everyone turned to look at him. “That’s not fair, Willie,” Bruce whined then looked at Conner. “Conner, when can we play with yours?” Bruce asked as Conner started stuttering.

Maggie, Willie’s wife, was just shaking her head and staring at Willie, who was still looking at the table. Then Maggie stated, “You didn’t, did you, Willie? Please tell me you didn’t.” Willie just looked up at the ceiling like he couldn’t hear her. Maggie put both her hands over her face exclaiming, “You don’t even know how to the damn thing works. Why would you bring one back?”

“What are you talking about, Maggie?” Debbie asked her.

“My husband is infatuated with the Patriot missile system. He tried for years to get transferred to air defense so he could play with them,” Maggie announced to everyone.

“You don’t know how to work it?” Bruce asked in a shocked voice. Turning to face Conner, “I guess you don’t know how to work an MRLS either,” Bruce demanded.

“No, I just saw what they can do in Iraq and thought we could use one to back up the mortars,” Conner admitted.

Bruce stood up and left the center, walking out the door muttering very unpleasant words. Stephanie looked at Debbie for an explanation. “They brought back toys nobody knows how to play with,” Debbie responded.

Twenty minutes later, Bruce walked back in carrying a stack of five inch binders. Walking over to the table, Bruce sat them down beside Stephanie. Putting four in one pile and three in another pile, Bruce looked at Stephanie. “Stephanie, will you read these four and learn how to operate the Patriot and then these three to learn how to operate the MRLS? Then teach Jake how to do it so he can teach me,” Bruce begged her.

“Sure, Bruce,” Stephanie replied, smiling at Bruce and grabbing a binder.

“Why not just let Stephanie teach you?” Angela questioned.

“Because I looked through them to see if I could just read them myself, and they talk about advanced computer algorithms with radar return. So far only Jake has been able to explain them to me. I really want to know how to operate them in a few weeks and not months,” Bruce explained in a whiny voice as he sat down.

Debbie looked at Bruce as he sat down, “Why don’t you let Stephanie teach you and Jake?”

Looking at Debbie with a narrow stare, Bruce called out to Jake, “Jake, bring your notebook tomorrow and stay right beside me while Stephanie teaches us how to play with the toys that the others brought up here.”

Bruce turned away from Debbie, who was just looking at him smiling. Seeing the food line open up, Bruce stood up walking to the front. “Bruce, don’t make Millie mad,” Debbie warned.

“I’m going to get something to drink!” Bruce bellowed, walking to the front. Bruce stopped and looked down at a man he didn’t recognize who was sitting at the table wearing ACUs with patches. On his shoulder was a Ranger tab.

The table stopped talking as Bruce stared at the man’s shoulder. The young man looked up at Bruce and asked, “Can I help you sir?”

“Was that tab earned, Sergeant Pope?” Bruce asked pointing at the Ranger tab.

“Yes sir, Benning took part of my soul. Myself and Sergeant Simmons graduated together six years ago,” Pope responded, pointing at a black solder sitting across from him.

Bruce looked at Simmons’s shoulder and saw the tab. “Did both of you write down you were Rangers when you got here on the information sheet?” Bruce inquired.

“Yes, sir,” they replied in unison.

“Alright, first thing, call me sir again and we hit the floor. Next, what are you two assigned to do?” Bruce continued his questioning.

“Okay, Bruce. We’re helping Willie train the recruits,” Pope replied.

“What are your first names?” Bruce asked.

“I’m Ted,” the young white man replied and pointed at Simmons, “that’s Carl.”

“Well if you guys are game, how about joining my team. Are there anymore Rangers here?” Bruce asked looking around.

“I’m game, Bruce, but I’d like to train the clan when we’re not going out,” Ted replied.

“I agree with Ted. You get in some serious shit, but I really like training the people here how to fight. If I can continue to teach when we’re in garrison, count me in,” Carl answered.

“You can still train recruits but how about other Rangers?” Bruce asked.

“Just Willie, Bruce,” Ted replied.

Not asking, Bruce slid the chair next to Ted down a few feet, despite the fact that there was a man still sitting in it. Grabbing an empty chair, Bruce sat down and started talking to them. Debbie turned around and saw Bruce talking with two men at a table and got up to go get him. Walking over she stopped when she saw the tab on the white guy’s shirt. Spinning around in midstride, Debbie headed back to the table. Sitting down, Debbie howled, banging her fist on the table, “He found them!” Mike put his head on the table and started beating his head against it.

“It’s been several weeks. I’m surprised he hasn’t noticed them before,” Nancy pointed out, patting Mike on the back as he continued to beat his head against the table.

“It can’t be that bad. Willie’s a Ranger and Bruce has been doing well around him,” Stephanie indicated.

Debbie looked at Stephanie, shaking her head, “Stephanie, the Army stomps out the insanity streak in its officer corp. They don’t feel the need to do that in its enlisted ranks. No offense, Willie,” Debbie said.

“None taken,” Willie answered, then asked, “Bruce isn’t going to start a war is he?”

“Willie, the question is: How big a war is Bruce fixing to start?” Mike said as he continued beating his head on the table.

Bruce sat with his new team members, talking until 2200, long after the hall was empty. Then he took them to the armory, outfitting them with new gear, including tactical gear. Bruce made it to bed after midnight.

Chapter 12

Bruce got up Sunday morning at 0300, after sleeping for just a few hours. He dressed, grabbed his lap top, picking up the bag of memory cards he used for the micro camera, and headed downstairs to mission control. Stopping in mission control, he grabbed several flash drives and headed to the hall. Sitting down in his chair, Bruce started feeding in memory cards, labeling them with dates, and storing them on his hard drive, and then backing them up to flash drives.

The cards Bruce had for the micro camera held ten hours of video, and he had been recording for almost two months. It took two and half hours to transfer everything to free up the memory cards. Then Bruce put on headphones and started going through each day.

Bruce would pause the playback, sometimes pulling off a picture or cutting out small strips of video and moving them to separate files. Millie had come over, setting set his coffee down. Bruce never saw her and thought the mug had just appeared.

People started filing in for breakfast while Bruce was watching his movies, sometimes laughing, other times wanting to cry. The family came in almost as one to find Bruce sitting at the table, looking at his computer. After seeing Bruce, Debbie turned to everyone, “I was wrong he’s not still talking to them.”

Debbie, Stephanie, and Angela came over with the kids and they all stopped and kissed Bruce. He paused the video and hugged them back. Debbie looked up at the screen and saw that it was a video of Bruce training the girls. Debbie pulled Bruce’s headphones off and asked, “What are you doing, baby?”

“Emptying my micro cards, making training aids, and putting up pictures,” Bruce answered.

“How much do you have?” Debbie asked.

“Almost six hundred hours,” Bruce replied with a proud expression.

“You’ve had that camera on for two months?” Angela asked Bruce.

“When my hat goes on my head, I turn it on,” Bruce answered.

“Bruce, there are some things I think we really don’t want recorded,” Debbie warned, cutting her eyes at him.

“The camera is off then,” Bruce told her, making a mental note to erase Monday afternoon’s recordings of alone time.

“How will you use those as training aids?” Stephanie asked, looking at Bruce.

“Come over, I’ll show you,” Bruce told Stephanie as he pulled up the video of him and Debbie going into Buffy’s mother’s trailer.

Debbie, Angela and Stephanie stood behind Bruce as he broke down each phase, pointing out what was right and wrong. When the screen showed the sleeping blues, Stephanie gasped.

“They didn’t wake up?” Stephanie asked.

“No,” Debbie answered.

Stephanie pointed at the screen, “They’re hibernating. Look at how they pile together for communal warmth. The males are at the forward edge with the females behind them-,” Stephanie stopped and the monitor showed Bruce and Debbie opening fire. The monitor continued showing the events and when Bruce and the team took off running, Stephanie reached forward and paused the video. “Did you see that?” she asked, looking at everyone. Seeing the blank stares, Stephanie backed up the video, pointing at one window then another one. “There were some awake, and they didn’t attack you. Now that’s weird,” Stephanie said to herself.

“You think that’s weird, look at this,” Bruce said as he pulled up the video from the Mindy’s rescue.

Bruce played through the video once and stopped it. “Well how about that? They never cared about damage to others or themselves, they just attacked,” Bruce said. Looking behind him, Bruce saw the three getting pale in the face and wobbling on their feet. Bruce jumped up and guided them to their seats.

Debbie sat down, not believing what she had just seen. There were so many, it just looked like a pulsating mass with arms, and Bruce had just ordered the charge right in. Trying to get her breathing under control, Debbie closed her eyes. Bruce called out to Millie to bring several glasses of water as he kneeled beside Debbie. Turning to check on Angela and Stephanie, Bruce found them just gaping at him like he was crazy. Millie sat down the glasses and Bruce dipped his hand in one and wiped water on Debbie’s face.

“Bruce, how could you face something like that? The mob in the woods was bad enough,” Angela asked.

“Face what?” Nancy asked.

“Come here,” Stephanie said as she moved to Bruce’s chair.

Nancy got up with everyone else at the table and crowded around the computer. When Mike saw what they were playing, he left and went back to his seat, followed by Mindy. They’d been there and didn’t want to relive it. The only ones talking were Buffy and Danny as they gave commentary, with big grins. The video stopped when the truck stopped. Only the master had Mike’s accident and they could only hear Bruce not the radio in his ear. When the video stopped, everyone looked up at Bruce then to Mike, Buffy, Danny and Mindy.

Nancy took off running to Mike, jumping in his lap, hugging and kissing him as she cried. “I’m sorry, baby. I’ll wear the red shoes whenever you ask me to,” Nancy promised, hugging him. All of Mike’s kids put their hands over their ears. Mike just grinned.

The entire hall was watching the exchange, wondering what the hell had happened now. Father Thomas came over asking, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing Father,” Bruce replied, shrugging his shoulders.

“You call that nothing!” Stephanie yelled as she grabbed his laptop, walked over to the projector, plugged it in, and played the clip for the clan.

At the end of the clip, Ted and Carl jumped up yelling and ran over to Bruce. They began patting him on the back, then ran over to Danny and Buffy and picked them up in the air, which Matt didn’t like. Setting them down, they ran to Mike and patted him on the back, rubbing his buzz cut head, yelling the entire time.

Debbie looked up at Angela, “See what I mean by the insanity streak? They live for that shit.”

Angela just nodded as Ted yelled out, “Man, y’all can braid the hair on your balls!”

Carl pointed at Buffy, “You have balls the size of a truck girl, and you don’t even weigh a buck,” he said the turned to Danny. “You were foaming at the mouth, girl. You can sling your balls over your shoulder,” Carl said. Danny and Buffy gave each other high fives, loving the compliments.

“Bruce, are you fucking crazy? That made the mob in the woods look like a small gathering!” Susan yelled out.

Father Thomas looked at Mike, “I knew he was insane, but I didn’t think that about you until now.” Most of the hall murmured in agreement.

Bruce stood up yelling at the hall, “Let’s get something straight! When I tell you to do something in battle you better do it! I expect total obedience from those I fight with and for!”

“You attacked tens of thousands with a truck!” someone yelled out from the back.

“I don’t care if I tell you to attack a mob with a broom! You grab that handle and start fighting! Show no fear and fight till you drop from exhaustion or die!” Bruce yelled back. Bruce observed the clan, calming down, “If you’re down and we can get you, we will. Those that are part of this clan know someone is there for them. Some of you want to know if I was scared. The answer is yes. Not for myself but three of my daughters were there with me and my best friend.”

“If a group that size attacked us now could we survive it?” someone asked.

“Oh yeah. We have enough people trained now that we can easily fight a small group like that,” Bruce replied causing several to gasp as he referred to that group as ‘small’. “But there are over 400,000 in Caddo and Bossier parishes. If they mob us now, we’re dead. Only with everyone here fully trained could we even hope to fight one that size,” Bruce added, making several people slump down in their seats.

Carl and Ted walked over to Bruce stopping in front of him and in unison said, “Sua Sponte.”

Bruce smiled replying, “Rangers lead the way.” Bruce clasped hands with each of them, telling them, “Move over to the command table. We will build a team today.”

Stephanie walked around the two, sitting down at the table then looked at Debbie. Debbie looked back, replying, “They just pledged themselves to Bruce. It’s the 75th motto ‘Of their own accord.’”

Bruce sat down, with Carl and Ted joining the table. After breakfast, Father Thomas gave the service. Then Bruce started the meeting with everyone giving updates on projects. At the end of the meeting Bruce told everyone that no work or training was required today but he and several others were giving training classes today. Anyone that wanted to learn was welcome.

To Bruce’s surprise, everyone that wasn’t on duty showed up for training. Jenny Green was absent, but her husband and kids showed up. For six hours, the command group held classes teaching the clan how to fight.

By the end of the day, many had sore muscles but felt a lot better going into the hall for supper. During supper, Bruce called out his ten man team, Bruce, Buffy, Debbie, Angela, Stephanie, Ted, Carl, Conner, Steve and Tonya.

Monday morning, Bruce’s patrol pulled out in two Strykers, a massive RG-33L, and a dually truck pulling the converted trailer. It was 0900 and the temperature was already sixty-seven degrees. The first stop was to the families that they had talked to several months ago that didn’t want to join the clan or build a fence around the house.

With a UAV overhead, they cleared the house, finding only a few body parts. Unbeknownst to them, a hundred and twenty miles to the east, the two that were thrown out from the clan were facing the same fate by a pack of blues.

Danny kicked the wall yelling, “Stupid assholes!”

“It was their choice Danny, not ours. We can only do so much,” Bruce said, walking outside. Then he shrugged his shoulders, “At least he didn’t ruin the value of his home by building a fence and boarding up the windows,” he said sarcastically.

“You have company coming up behind the house. Looks to be about sixty to eighty,” Jake called over the radio.

“Stryker A, pull to the back. B, stay in the front. Tonya, Angela, and Stephanie watch our ass. Everyone else, let’s say hi to our friends,” Bruce called out over the radio, and everyone moved into position.

When the blues broke the tree line, they were mowed down in less than a minute. After killing the wounded, they mounted up and headed to the next group of survivors. Pulling up to a farm house that was boarded up, Conner and Buffy walked up and called out to the house.

A man in his fifty’s came out on the porch holding a shotgun. Conner talked to him and the man went back inside, coming back with eleven other people, men, women, and children. All of them looked like skeletons as they climbed into the trailer. The volunteer in the trailer passed out food and water to the grateful people.

When the patrol pulled back inside the farm, it brought back sixty-eight survivors and had survived four attacks by blues, with the first one being the largest. As Bruce walked inside, the rest of the family walked over to Carl and Ted, hugging them and welcoming them into the family.

Chapter 13

Bruce woke up Christmas morning at 0400 and woke everyone up, telling them Merry Christmas. Everyone got out of bed to head to the hall for presents. Getting dressed, Bruce watched as Debbie dressed herself and PJ. The twins and Cade were standing at the door. They were going in t-shirts.

Debbie looked up and saw Bruce watching her and asked, “What, baby?”

“Nothing, but aren’t you glad we brought back extra stuff when we went shopping?” Bruce asked.

“Bruce, I have learned one thing, never doubt you. Granted, in the fourteen days since we started patrols to get survivors, I never would have guessed that we would have brought back over four hundred,” Debbie said standing up with PJ.

“With over a thousand people here now, it’s starting to get crowded,” Angela injected grabbing her rifle.

“I can live with that,” Bruce said, grabbing his vest and rifle.

They left the room, running into the rest of the family as they headed to the Center. Bruce looked at the Center which had expanded to nine thousand square feet. He and Mike had backed the truck with presents to the west doorway. Then they wrapped blankets around the back of it so they could open the door of the truck and leave the door to the hall open and not freeze everyone. Even though the temperature was only forty-five in the pre-dawn light that was still cold for Louisiana, making even Bruce shiver at times.

They walked into the hall to find everyone already there. When the family walked in, a round of cheers sounded off. The cheers were not for the presents, but for thanks for saving them. Well, the kids were just happy that they were going to get presents.

Paul ran to the podium that was put up when they expanded the hall. It was connected to a speaker system so the entire hall could hear someone speaking. Grabbing the microphone, Paul tapped it to get everyone’s attention. “Merry Christmas!” Paul said and the hall responded the same. “Before presents are passed out I just want to say something. I don’t know what is fixing to be passed out any more than you do, but I’m sure some of it will require power. Each room in the barracks has four outlets now and that is all each room is allowed. No one is allowed to use more. That means each side of a room can only use four items that require power. Please, when you are not using it, turn it off. Next, I found an incandescent bulb in barrack three’s bathroom yesterday. I don’t know where it came from and don’t care but I better not find anymore. We’ve seen a huge increase in power consumption, and I better not find out people are wasting power. Now Bruce, tell us how we are to proceed,” Paul finished his speech.

Bruce walked over to Mike, “You take care of the speech today.”

Mike gave Bruce an alarmed look as he blurted out, “This was your idea.”

“I’m not in the mood today. You do it,” Bruce said heading to the west door.

Mike watched Bruce walk away and turned to the clan, “Okay we have something for everyone here, several things in fact. Now, we are going to call out names. When your name is called, come up, get your presents, and take them back to your table but don’t open them until everyone has gotten their presents, alright? Now, without further ado, Merry Christmas from the family to the clan. We hope you enjoy.”

It took almost two hours to pass out the presents. Each room was given a 40 inch LED TV, an X-Box, DVD player, laptop and a copy of Call of Duty. They had gotten a lot of games from the stores, but Bruce demanded that everyone have a copy of Call of Duty, so he could play online again with the intranet Jake and Matt had made for the clan, the withdrawals were killing him. The other games would be kept in the library that was put in the new school building. Movies and books were also going to be stored in the library.

Debbie had demanded that every adult with a kid get a camera, and they handed out four hundred digital cameras. The kids that had requested a toy all had gotten what they asked for. To get ready for Christmas, Joe and Harry had put together over a hundred bikes.

Millie walked over to the family table carrying four wrapped up bundles and gave them to Bruce. Bruce looked up at her replying, “These are from you, not me, Millie. You give them to the kids.”

Millie grabbed the packages and passed them to the kids. Emily, Sherry, and Cade tore into the paper, squealing as they pulled out small sets of ACUs like the rest of the family wore. PJ was just chewing on his present, but Debbie helped him open it to find his sets also. PJ didn’t care, he just wanted the paper. Stephanie reached over and pulled the wrapping out of his mouth. With a scowl, PJ looked at her and yelled. Stephanie just put the paper back on his highchair and PJ started attacking it.

“Thank you, Millie,” Debbie said hugging her.

“It was Bruce’s idea,” Millie said turning heading to the kitchen.

“Hey woman, come back here,” Bruce called out. Mille spun around, putting her hands on her hips looking at Bruce.

Bruce reached down, pulled up a box, and handed it to Millie. Millie took the box, opened the lid, and tears came to her eyes as she pulled out a plaque. On the plaque was a brass plate and two brass hooks. The plate read ‘To Millie, one of the best people I know and a member of my family that I love dearly. Bruce Wayne Williams P.S. Don’t touch her spoon’. Millie pulled out a thick wooden spoon that sat on the hooks.

“You give her a spoon? After all the ones we stole!” Mike cried out.

Bruce looked at Millie and pointed at Mike, “He made me do it.”

Millie laughed, “I guess I should tell you, your wives always brought them back the next day.”

Whipping his head around, Bruce looked at Debbie, who was just looking up at the ceiling as Millie informed him, “Not just that wife.” Bruce turned around in his chair to find Angela and Stephanie looking up at the ceiling with Debbie. Millie left them, laughing and hugging her present, which she hung in the kitchen later.

Bruce sat and watched the clan, smiling. Everywhere he looked, all he saw was happiness. When people started carrying off presents, Bruce went over and whispered into Debbie’s ear, handing her a piece of paper then left for the house. Walking in the back door, Bruce ran upstairs to his closet and pulled out the duffel bag he had brought back from Polk.

Running back downstairs to the kitchen, Bruce laid out his presents on the table then covered them with a sheet. Walking around the table, Bruce put a card with a family member’s name over each item: Bruce, Debbie, Stephanie, Angela, Steve, Tonya, Jake, Danny, Buffy, Mindy, Mike, Nancy, Matt, David, Mary. Moving all chairs away from the table, Bruce waited on everyone.

When Mike opened the back door to come in, followed by everyone Bruce had on the list he had given Debbie, Bruce gave out his instructions. “Move to the spot on the table that has a card with your name on it,” Bruce instructed, waving his hand around the table.

After everyone was standing at their spot, Bruce asked them to pick the cards up, which they did. Bruce grabbed the sheet and pulled it off. Lying on the table in front of each person was a samurai sword. Debbie was the first to reach down, smiling half heartily. Then as she stared at the sword in front of her, she snatched it up, the smile falling off her face. Looking at the hilt closely, Debbie turned to Bruce, “Bruce-,” she started and stopped, looking back at the sword.

Jake pulled his sword half way out of the scabbard and looked at Bruce screaming, “Holy shit! Dad! These are real!”

“I know,” Bruce replied.

Mindy was looking at hers and asked, “What’s the difference?”

Stephanie answered, not even pulling her sword out, “These are hand made from the forge to the scabbard. They cost more than most houses and are sharper than a surgical scalpel.”

Mike looked up at Bruce, “Dude, where did you get these?”

“There was a private seller outside of Polk, and I visited his stock,” Bruce replied, smiling.

Stephanie grabbed Angela, who had pulled her sword halfway out and was fixing to test the edge with her thumb. “Don’t do that,” Stephanie warned.

Bruce smiled and pulled out his sword, holding it out in front of him over the table with the edge pointing up. Reaching into his pocket, Bruce pulled out a handkerchief and held it over the sword. Letting the handkerchief fall, the family watched as it drifted down, falling across the blade, cutting itself into two pieces. Gasps of astonishments came from around the table. Those who had not trained with a sword and had taken them out carefully put them back in the scabbards.

“I want to learn how to use it!” Mindy declared.

“Me too!” Buffy yelled out.

“I’ll use a gun,” Angela stated, looking at the handkerchief.

“You, of all people, have seen that you can run out of ammo. With these you can fight and still keep your distance from the blues,” Bruce advised Angela.

Angela looked at Bruce, “I think these things are more dangerous than a gun,” she exclaimed.

“Yes, I can see that, but like any weapon you have to learn to use it and respect it,” Bruce informed her.

They talked some more, then everyone put up their present and headed back to the hall for breakfast. Most of the clan had returned to eat. Joe and Harry, with their families behind them, came over to Bruce carrying something wrapped in a blanket. Joe handed Bruce a small bundle wrapped in a towel. “I finally finished it,” Joe stated proudly as Bruce unwrapped the object.

Bruce looked at the push dagger he had been working on several weeks ago then realized this was not the same one. It was much lighter and on the hilt was a cinch strap to tighten the hilt to his forearm.  It sat in a canvas sheath with straps.

“It’s made from hardened steel. You can use it as a pry bar if you need to,” Joe explained as Bruce inspected the weapon. Then Joe handed Bruce the one Bruce had made. Looking at the weapons side by side Bruce wanted to cry. The one he had worked on looked like a piece of crap compared to the one Joe had made.

“You have to teach me how to do this,” Bruce pleaded, looking up at Joe.

“I can do that,” Joe said as Harry gave a blanket wrapped object to Bruce and one to Mike. Bruce took his bundle and unwrapped it to find a SCAR.

“It’s not one of yours. Debbie let us take two out of the armory. The suppressor is our creation. All the ones so far are just screwed onto the barrel, adding another six inches, so what’s the point of having a short barrel. These new ones slide over the barrel and only extend out three inches. They are actually longer than the others by two inches but only weigh four ounces more than the others. The main difference is the old suppressors brought the decibel to around one hundred and thirty. These suppressors will bring the decibel to just over a hundred. You also notice this barrel is a little heavier so it will take longer to overheat,” Harry informed Bruce, who was drooling over the weapon.

Bruce looked up, grinning, “Can you make more?”

“Already started,” Harry stated proudly.

Bruce looked down at Mike who was caressing his new toy. Looking back at his, Bruce turned it over in his hands to see Harry and Joe had made the SCAR true selective fire just like his: single shot, three round burst, and full auto. Bruce fought the urge to head to the armory to put a reflex sight, ACOG scope, grenade launcher, and the rest of his goodies on it. Instead, Bruce stood up and hugged Joe and Harry.

Debbie looked at Bruce, smiling as he hugged Joe and Harry followed by Mike. True to form, give the boys new toys and the world was good to them. The command crew stayed in the hall until after lunch then went to the house for the Friday meeting which was over fast.

Willie announced that the recruits were ready, and Bruce said they would start the survivor patrols. Then Bruce announced that it was time to start pacifying the area and starting Monday, hunting patrols would start. Not wanting to miss his Monday, he said his patrol would head out Tuesday. Paul announced that they were going to start to work on clearing the area around the farm back three hundred yards. When the meeting was over, the command group headed back inside the hall.

Before supper, Jake announced that everyone would be able to play their games on the intranet he and Matt had built for the farm and that Saturday was Call of Duty night. Bruce was the first one up, jumping up and down yelling, pumping his fist in the air and dancing around the table.

After supper, Bruce helped gather the kids up taking them to bed. All of them were asleep before they even hit the bed. While the trio was in the bathroom, Bruce went to his dresser and pulled out three small jewelry boxes. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, he called the three out of the bathroom.

When they came out, Bruce stood up and looked at Stephanie and Angela, “First, I want to say in front of Debbie, she was right. Several weeks ago, Debbie told me I couldn’t give her a gift without giving both of you one. Debbie said you both are part of our family, and I have to agree, I don’t know how we could function without you two now. I want to tell you both thank you and I love you,” Bruce stated kissing each of them then turning to Debbie. “Debbie, l love you,” Bruce said and handed each one a box.

When they opened the boxes, each one found a set of dog tags on a gold chain, one with Bruce’s name and one with the Ranger emblem and motto. Bruce gave each a hug and kiss then went to take a shower.

Debbie looked at Stephanie and Angela, “When a solder gives you his tags to wear, it’s like he is giving you his heart. I quit wearing Bruce’s tags when he got out of the Army, but they’re still in my jewelry box. It’s one of my most prized possessions,” Debbie informed them.

Angela and Stephanie put on their gifts, skipping around the bed. Debbie put hers on as well, and they climbed into bed. As Debbie drifted asleep she felt better than she had in a long time.

Saturday morning, Bruce woke up before everyone. After he dressed, he grabbed his gear and shin guards then headed to the armory with his new SCAR. Putting on his reflex sight, ACOG, grenade launcher and a forward grip, Bruce then headed to the range on a buggy and sighted everything in.

When Bruce finished, he went to the storage area that held the paintball equipment, the one Paul was having a stroke over. Bruce grabbed ten paintball masks then went to the next storage area where they had stored equipment from Polk. Looking around, he found what he was looking for, tactical helmets and tactical goggles. Bruce grabbed ten of each and threw them on the buggy.

Bruce took the equipment to the shop and laid it out on a table. With the start of pacification patrols Bruce was worried about contamination when they cleared buildings. Everyone who left the farm had to have on glasses and gloves but the fighting, Bruce felt, was fixing to get up close and personal on a regular basis. The goggles were similar to ski goggles but were more durable. Each goggle came with multiple lenses that could be put over the main clear one.

Grabbing a mask, Bruce took off the paintball goggles and replaced them with the tactical ones. Bruce went to the trailer that held the tactical gear, and took out nine more shin guard sets, and carried them back to the shop. Laying out the equipment, Bruce heard the door open and turned around to find Debbie, Stephanie, and Angela carrying food.

“Picnic?” Bruce questioned.

“No, baby. You didn’t make it to breakfast. You don’t take care of yourself, so it falls to us,” Debbie informed him as they set the food down on the table.

Laughing, Bruce replied jokingly, “Yes, I would’ve died long ago if I didn’t have someone babysitting me.”

“Yes, you would’ve,” Debbie stated, not joking.

“What are you doing Bruce?” Stephanie asked, looking at the equipment.

Motioning over at the equipment, Bruce replied, “Getting my patrols new gear ready.  With us going into buildings to hunt the blues down, I want as much protection as I can think of.”

Debbie looked at the shin guards, “Those will not fit me, Angela, or Buffy,” she stated.

“I’m giving Buffy Danny’s shin guards that she used playing softball. You three will not need any for now,” Bruce informed them.

“May I ask why?” Debbie asked.

“Y’all distract me. I arrange the patrol to protect you and the objective. Now before any of you say anything, I don’t mean to. When I watched my helmet cam’s video, I noticed it,” Bruce answered.

Debbie smiled, “I did notice that but didn’t say anything. With the battle going on, you were barking out orders, and I knew it was purely reaction.”

“Later, I will take one of you at a time,” Bruce announced.

“We can go out on other patrols,” Debbie advised.

“Absolutely not!” Bruce commanded.

“That could be viewed as favoritism,” Debbie pointed out.

“I don’t give a rat’s ass! My girls go out with me and me alone!” Bruce bellowed. Just the thought of them going out without him pissed Bruce off.

“Okay Bruce, calm down. The only reason I’m agreeing to this is because it puts you and the rest of the team in danger, but don’t think we can’t handle ourselves,” Debbie said smiling.

Bruce cocked his head to the side. “I know that baby. You are a bad ass, and Angela and Stephanie are coming along well in their training. Will you please have a talk with Stephanie about reciting what the book says when I’m trying to teach her and the others?” he pleaded.

“I’m right here,” Stephanie said, putting her hands on her hips.

Debbie ignored her as she replied, “Bruce, she does the same thing to me and Danny when we teach her hand to hand. If I remember correctly, you were the one who told her to read the books.”

“Hey guys, I can hear you,” Stephanie responded.

Ignoring Stephanie, Bruce said, “Debbie, will you please tell her the books are only guide-lines and what we are teaching is application.”

Stephanie stepped between them, putting her hands on each of their chests, “Hello guys, it’s me.”

“We know you’re here, Stephanie. Will you please stop reciting verbatim what the book says? Both Debbie and I have read them but we’re teaching you how it really works for us. As you progress you’ll find out what works for you,” Bruce said looking at her.

“All you had to do was ask me to stop,” Stephanie said.

“I did,” Bruce and Debbie said at the same time.

Stephanie just looked from Debbie to Bruce. Debbie smiled, “Stephanie, you take what comes out of books as gospel. Just listen and question us later,” Debbie told her.

“I can question each of you later, right?” Stephanie asked, causing Angela to laugh and snort.

“Yes. Not during,” Bruce replied as Stephanie nodded her head in agreement.

Bruce hugged her then keyed his radio, “Attention this is Big Daddy One. The following people need to report to the shop: Ted, Carl, David, Buffy, Danny, Jake, Conner and Steve. If you have one of those names that I called, you know if I mean you or not.”

“Subtle, but effective, Bruce,” Angela replied.

“With this many people, I know there are others with the same names. That just cuts through the chase,” Bruce replied. Looking at the three, Bruce continued, “I want to start committees up in the clan. One for moral, like what can we do to make it better. One to monitor the barracks. For that one, I want each barrack to choose its person in charge. They are to report to a person on the command group. Also, we are fixing to train. If you want to join, get your gear.”

Each of them nodded and left to get their gear as the first of the group started showing up. Within ten minutes, the entire group was there. Bruce looked at Ted and Carl and asked, “Do either of you know another good soldier? We’re one short.”

Ted nodded and replied, “Kenny Myers, he’s airborne and is pretty good.”

“Do you know where he is?” Bruce asked.

“In the west field, guarding the workers putting in the fuel tanks,” Carl replied.

Bruce keyed his radio, “This is Big Daddy One, I need a replacement guard in the west field for Kenny Myers now, and I need him in the shop in five minutes.”

Four minutes later a stocky man in his mid-twenties came bursting through the door, breathing hard. Bruce stared at Kenny as he joined the group and stated, “Okay everyone. From now on this is Omega team. We’re going to start hunting the blues down and will be the primary strike team for the clan. We will be the tip of the spear. With that being said, does anyone not want to be on this team? There will be no repercussions if you don’t want to be on it.” Bruce looked at everyone, seeing if anyone wanted to leave. When no one left, Bruce continued.

“On this table is gear you’ll wear. I’m replacing the glasses with goggles which will be worn unless I say otherwise. From now on, I want ballistic plates in all tactical vests,” he told them, getting a lot of groans. “Danny, go get the black shin guards you used to wear playing softball. Everyone else get your gear off the table. Until I make a second team, you are to have your gear next to you at all times, at least in a pack. We are going to work on room clearance and reaction drills today. Tuesday we go to war and get some,” Bruce announced as Danny hit the door in a dead run.

As the team was putting on its equipment, Bruce went to get Kenny a tactical vest and gloves. Walking back inside, Bruce saw Danny putting her old shin guards on Buffy. Bruce handed Kenny his equipment and moved back to the front of the group.

“Now as far as weapons, everyone except Buffy, David, and Steve will have a grenade launcher. Buffy, when you can handle the extra weight you’ll carry one. Steve and David you’ll carry SAWs. Everyone will carry a sub machine gun, except Jake, who will carry a sniper rifle. Danny, you have to trade in your Galil for an M-4 or a SCAR, your choice. Everyone will carry a pistol, and it will be a .45 or 9mm. Everything will be suppressed, no exceptions. From now on, the Strykers will have drivers and gunners, so we just have to go and kill stuff. Look at my vest set up, I’m ammo heavy just as you should be. I have twenty four magazines on my vest for primary, four for my pistol, four for my P-90, four hand grenades, one flash bang and eight rounds for my grenade launcher. Now, those that need weapons follow me. Those that need extra pouches for you vest follow Danny. We meet at the range in one hour,” Bruce said, grabbing his helmet and leaving.

Jake moved forward, “Dad, the tactical vests we wear are bullet resistant to level three. Why the plates?” he asked.

“Sooner or later, we are going to fight others that shoot back with high powered weapons. Level three only stops pistol,” Bruce said, heading for the door.

Everyone followed Bruce to the armory, including Danny. Bruce told Danny to go upstairs and get Little SCAR out of his room. The rest of the team chose M-4A1’s with M-203’s and MP-7’s. Side arms are where everyone took something different but all were either 45 or 9mm and could take a suppressor. Joe and Harry had made suppressors for M-4s like they made for Bruce’s SCAR. It slid over the barrel almost to the hand guard before you screwed it on, only adding two inches to the overall length to the barrel.

As they grabbed their weapons, they ran off to join Danny in the equipment supply room in storage area four. At 1000, the team was on the range, sighting in weapons as the trio showed up to join. After they were finished, Bruce formed up a patrol line, making Max stay beside him. Then they assaulted the barn, scaring the shit out of the pilots and the class they were teaching. Next they stormed the hall, then the house. By then word had spread so they were not giving people heart attacks.

Bruce led the team back to the hall for lunch, stopping them out front. “That was fair,” Bruce lied. The team had done awesome. “I want micro cams on everyone after lunch. From now on, they are to stay on you. Jake, take care of it. Weapons cleaned and we start up after we eat,” Bruce said, walking into the hall.

Since his weapons were already cleaned, Bruce sat down and waited on lunch. Mike came in and walked over to Bruce. “Hey! Y’all almost gave us a heart attack, storming the room like that while I was in the simulator.  You made me crash!” Mike shouted.

“Sorry dude, we were working on entry techniques,” Bruce replied as the trio: Debbie, Angela, and Stephanie, came over and sat down.

“Brother, you have a radio. Let others know,” Mike commanded as he turned around and headed to his seat.

“Be glad they didn’t use a flash bang because several people wanted to,” Angela stated, looking at Stephanie.

“It says to flash bang before entry in the books Bruce gave to me,” Stephanie replied defending her request to use a flash bang.

“If you would’ve flash banged us, I would have shit a purple Twinkie and died on the spot,” Mike declared, looking at Stephanie.

“Along with Max,” Bruce added.

“Well, you would’ve been distracted,” Stephanie pointed out as Mike put his hands over his face and shook his head.

Bruce laughed, asking Mike, “How are your lessons coming?”

“Pretty good. My first flight is scheduled January 12,” Mike replied with a smirk.

“Mine is scheduled for the 6th,” Bruce informed Mike, who lost his smirk.

“I’ll find something that I can beat you at,” Mike replied with determination.

“Call of duty tonight?” Bruce challenged.

“You’re so dead,” Mike predicted.

Bruce laughed, but he had a strange feeling he was going to get his ass kicked tonight. “Mike, I want you to build a ten man team for a second strike team. Name it whatever you want except Omega. That’s my team,” Bruce instructed.

“Why didn’t you name it alpha?” Mike inquired.

“I refuse to have my team referred to as the ‘A-team’,” Bruce replied and Mike nodded in understanding.

“Okay, my team will be Gamma,” Mike announced proudly.

Bruce laughed as lunch was served. After lunch he told Mike to let the command group know there’s a meeting at 1600. Omega team, with the trio, worked until 1600 on tactics then Bruce let them go and headed into the house.

Walking into the game room, Bruce saw most of the command group was already there. He started taking off his equipment and dropped down in his chair. Looking over as Debbie, Angela and Stephanie collapsed on the couch, Bruce grinned. “Well, what do you guys think of the team?” Bruce asked them.

Debbie looked at Bruce, “Well I have to say your new friends are good, but I wish they would lose some of that insanity streak. One psycho ranger running around here is enough,” she stated, putting her feet up on the table.

Bruce grinned even bigger while the rest of the command group came in. Once everyone was seated, Bruce stood up. “Everyone, I wanted to go over some things real quick because we cut the last meeting short for Christmas. Are all the new supply bunkers full?” Bruce asked.

“No, only one through eleven, and eleven is only half full. The rest are empty,” Stephanie replied.

“Leave them empty. We are going to east Texas to the military supply depot. They store large amounts of ammo there. No weapons, but a shit load of ammo,” Bruce informed the group.

“Bruce, it was sixty degrees outside today. We can’t risk heading there now. We go by too many large cities,” Mike said from his chair.

“We aren’t going now but when we have another cold spell. Omega team is going hunting starting Tuesday, and I don’t want to disappoint the team,” Bruce replied with a cocky attitude. This caused Mike to start rubbing his temples in an attempt to stop the impending headache.

“Bruce, please don’t start going crazy,” Mike pleaded.

“I’m not. We’re going to wipe out every blue in a fifty mile radius of the farm. Jake and Matt, show them what I’m talking about,” Bruce replied pointing at the two.

Matt stood up, walking over to the map hanging over the fireplace. “We have found several packs around us. The closest is ten miles to the southeast, holding up in a barn. Then in several small villages we have found more packs holding up. Since the weather has warmed up, they are moving around again,” Matt stated, pointing at the map.

“What are the average sizes of the packs?” Willie asked.

“Twenty to thirty, in most cases. Some are larger. Only a few are smaller,” Jake replied, standing up and walking over to the map.

“How many packs have you found so far?” Stephanie inquired.

“Sixty-two so far but we are finding more every day,” Jake replied.

Paul looked at Bruce in disbelief, “So with your ten man team, you’re going out to hunt down thousands of blues?” Paul asked.

“No. We’re going to wipe them out,” Bruce corrected as everyone just stared at him. Bruce returned the stare as he explained, “We can’t risk them forming up in a mob to hit us, so we are going to hunt them down while the other patrols bring in the survivors that have been located.”

“Bruce, we will need to have another stand by team ready to back you up. One stand by team can’t cover both an assault team and rescue team,” Willie pointed out.

“No, an assault team would never reach us in time, and it would be a waste of man power,” Bruce replied, making everyone nervous.

Willie stood up and looked at Bruce, “You yourself have said there are 400,000 in Shreveport. Are you going after them as well?” he demanded.

“No, we don’t have the ammo, which is why we are going to east Texas when it turns cold again. Then I have to account for the fact that we don’t have the trained man power for that undertaking. Next winter, though, will be a different story,” Bruce answered with conviction.

“So what difference will killing the few thousand around here make now?” Willie asked.

“Okay, here is my battle plan. I want to create a fifty mile radius around us that is cleared out of blues. As we have been watching them, they are getting smarter still. Jake has video footage where a lone blue found a field of cows, then went back to gather his pack. That pack merged with another pack and in a combined force, they attacked the cows. I really don’t want one to see us and go and tattle to any other blues,” Bruce answered as Willie sat back down.

“Bruce, we have UAV’s up at all times, the big ones and the little ones. We see any that come close and kill all that come within three miles of the farm,” Mike replied, still rubbing his temples.

“It only takes one,” Bruce replied looking at Mike. “This year we are going to work on the fifty mile safety zone. Next winter we will push that out to a hundred. With a hundred mile zone around us we can live without the constant fear of being overrun.”

“Then what? Go out fifty miles every year?” Mike asked, getting a little worried.

“No, that will be our border. Anything that comes into it that is not a friend will be slaughtered,” Bruce responded as Mike started rubbing his temples again.

“Bruce-,” Mike started, but Bruce cut him off.

“Mike, with that much area around us, we will be able to engage threats in a location of our choosing. If it is a gang of marauders, we can fight them without having to worry about blues showing up to a party they weren’t invited to,” Bruce pointed out.

“Bruce, that’s over thirty thousand square miles for us to control,” Stephanie informed him.

Before Bruce could reply, Willie howled, “It takes a minimum of a division to control an area that size!”

“Willie, put a tampon on and stow it!” Bruce yelled then calmed down. “That’s our order of battle. Once we have trained everyone, we will send out hundred strong patrol units to keep the area pacified. It’s not like we have anything else to do besides kill blues,” Bruce informed everyone.

Debbie stood up, seeing that Bruce was still pissed, “Bruce, what I think everyone is saying is, why we don’t wait until we have more trained before we start pacifying the area.”

“No, I have made my decision. We start Tuesday, end of discussion,” Bruce replied, ending the argument.

“Okay, Bruce, I put my tampon in but listen please. By the end of January, we will have air cover with the helicopters and another thirty trained. That’s only one more month,” Willie cautioned.

“I understand, Willie, but I don’t want to waste any time on pacification. Now, how are we coming on gathering survivors?” Bruce asked Matt and Jake.

“We have all the ones inside the fifty mile radius that wanted to come with us. We have found more outside the radius, and I’m happy to say the numbers are actually encouraging. Matt and I estimate over twelve hundred in east Louisiana, western Mississippi, and southern Arkansas. We haven’t looked west or south yet because of the concentration of blues. We saw a horde moving along interstate ten from Houston so anything to our south is toast. Dallas is so close so that is why we haven’t looked west. The survivors we have found we can help,” Jake disclosed.

“Good thinking son,” Bruce replied. “Monday, start sending a single patrol of twenty to see if they want to join us.”

“We have one group to our southeast, near Bordelonville, that looks real big. Like us they are on a farm. They have moved semi-trailers around them to make a fence. They don’t appear to be a gang with all the kids we have seen and everyone moves around freely,” Matt relayed.

“That’s a good ways off. I hope they aren’t the closest,” Bruce stated.

“Hell no! We have twenty to thirty locations just between here and there. That doesn’t count for the ones to our east and north,” Jake stated.

Bruce just looked at Paul making Paul reply, “Barrack six is completed and seven and eight will be done by the end of the week. The people that have been brought in are little more than skeletons and it’ll be weeks before they can be put on a work schedule. The perimeter is almost finished except the ramps for the vehicles to fire over the wire. Wednesday we are starting to cut back the perimeter, starting on the north side first since we only have a clearing there of fifty yards. I also want to do that side first because that damn creek is full of gators now and they don’t do much when it is cold.”

Bruce nodded as Debbie stood back up, “Bruce wants to start committees in the clan. These will be just to report to the command group. These will address things like morale, barrack life, basic wants and needs, and suggestions. I love the idea because it takes a burden off of us. Are there any objections?” she asked as everyone nodded their heads with approval.

Danny jumped up. “If that bitch Jenny Green is put on any committee I promise she will disappear in hours,” she promised.

“I nominate Jenny Green for a committee,” Jake said as Debbie grabbed a book off the coffee table and threw it at him.

Bruce laughed as he asked Paul, “How long until the perimeter is cleared?”

“One week, ten days at the most,” Paul answered, after thinking about it.

“That’s good,” Bruce replied turning to Willie. “I want a group of thirty people so I can train them to fire the eight mortars we have,” Bruce told him.

“I already have a team ready for each one. Two mortars in each pit, a 120mm and an 81mm. Four pits each covering a direction north, east, south and west,” Willie replied. Seeing the shocked look on Bruce’s face Willie shot back, “You know I’m a Ranger also.”

“Bout time you acted like it. Now I just need to make you insane,” Bruce smirked.

“A few more months under you and I’ll be there,” Willie remarked in a serious tone.

Bruce laughed as he asked, “When will they be set up?”

“Monday we dig the pits and set them up. When it gets cold again I want to let the team’s fire off a few shots,” Willie answered.

“Sounds good. Anybody have anything else to add?” Bruce asked.

“Yes dad, I have an idea for us to keep track of people here,” Jake said as he ran upstairs.

When he returned he was holding a piece of a black nylon belt with a white piece of cloth sewn to it. “This is what I had in mind. On the cloth we can put a bar code so people can scan before workouts and meals,” Jake replied.

“How long to implement that?” Bruce asked.

“Well with me on schedule for three patrols this week and Matt will be running the UAV’s for us. Then when I’m in, I run them for his or your patrol, it will take us a few weeks,” Jake replied.

Stephanie stood up, “I’ll do it and have it ready by this week,” she stated confidently.

“Stephanie, I know you’re pretty good with computers but-,” Jake started as Stephanie said.

“What, you don’t think I can interface the spread sheet programs with an algorithm parameter?” Stephanie said and continued on for another ten minutes using words none of them understood. When she was finished Jake just looked at her in bewilderment.

Bruce was in shock, watching Jake sit down. “I’ve never seen someone shut you up when it comes to computers son,” Bruce blurted out.

Jake never took his eyes off of Stephanie as he replied, “How can I argue? I have no idea what she was talking about in the last half of her speech.”

“I didn’t understand any of it,” Mike admitted.

“Neither did I. Any more questions?” Bruce asked.

With no further questions the meeting broke up and everyone headed to the hall for supper. Bruce found Joe and Harry sitting at their table and walked over to them with Max following, looking for any food on the floor. “Hello gentlemen,” Bruce said.

“Hey Bruce,” Joe replied looking up.

“Hey guys, I was wanting to know if you two can make ten more SCARs like mine?” Bruce asked them.

“Sure no problem,” Joe replied.

“How long will it take?” Bruce asked hopefully.

“Monday at noon,” Joe answered.

“Come again?” Bruce asked, not believing what he heard.

“Bruce, we already have the program for the CNC, so all we have to do is put in the parts to alter them. We will start tomorrow after the clan meeting,” Harry replied, leaning back in his chair.

“I really don’t want you two to give up your day off. Just work on them Monday,” Bruce replied, without thinking.

“It’s no problem Bruce. Besides, I noticed your patrol is not leaving until Tuesday. I want to be out of that shop by noon Monday. I swear if you miss your Monday alone time, I will spray you with pepper spray and shoot your new dog,” Joe replied in a serious tone.

“I’ve not been that bad,” Bruce said in his defense.

“Yeah right, Bruce,” Harry replied with Joe agreeing with him.

Bruce just looked at them as Joe stated, “Tell Debbie not to take so long getting over there this time.”

“I’m not sure, but I think I’m insulted,” Bruce replied, thinking over the conversation.

“I don’t care. If you don’t have your ‘alone’ time, I keep wanting to throw holy water on you. I’m telling you now, tomorrow I’m going to ask the clan if you miss your Monday we give you another afternoon,” Joe remarked.

“I’m going to put on a dress since I’m acting like a bitch,” Bruce claimed as he spun around and headed towards his table.

“I don’t care what you wear, just make sure you can take it off!” Joe shouted after him. Several people around them turned, wanting to know what that conversation was about.

Bruce reached his chair and sat down with Debbie asking, “Do I even want to know what that was about?”

“No!” Bruce shot back.

“Well I want to know anyway,” Debbie replied, curiosity getting the better of her.

Bruce sighed, “It seems some people here have guessed what happens on Monday afternoon. I was just threatened to be sprayed with pepper spray and have Max shot if I missed this Monday. It seems some people here think I have been acting uptight and hostile. They wanted to throw holy water on me,” Bruce finished.

Debbie laughed, “Is that all?”

“Well yeah,” Bruce replied.

“Bruce there is no ‘think’. You are biting off heads a little too fast,” Debbie answered and looked toward Nancy. “Nancy, what did you just tell me when we left the house after the meeting?” Debbie asked Nancy at the other end of the table.

“I told you if Bruce missed Monday, I was wearing my red high heels for him Monday night,” Nancy replied looking at Bruce with a serious face.

Mike gasped in shock, replying, “Wear some other ones. Those are for me.” Nancy just turned and looked at Mike. When Mike saw her expression, he looked at Bruce telling him, “That’s cool, Bruce nibble on her neck. She goes crazy for that.” Nancy kicked him under the table and all of Mike’s kids covered their ears crying ‘gross.’

Bruce laughed replying, “Nah, that’s okay brother.” Bruce glanced at Stephanie and Angela then looked back at Mike. “Tell you what though, I would like to watch you two when the red heels are broken out,” Bruce admitted with a sly grin.

“How about tonight?” Mike replied, as Nancy kicked him again under the table.

Debbie laughed at them as she asked Bruce, “So what’s the deal that some have figured out your ‘alone’ time?”

“It doesn’t seem fair that I have alone time when others don’t,” Bruce answered.

Debbie just looked at Bruce with a flat expression. “You’re kidding right?” She asked.

Seeing the expression on Bruce’s face as he replied, “Our bed is kinda full baby with kids all the time. So are other people’s bed’s here. Paul and Cheryl have adopted two, then Conner and Susan I could go on for a while,” Bruce informed Debbie.

“Bruce, surely you don’t think people aren’t having sex here just because they have kids in their rooms?” Debbie enquired. Bruce just shrugged his shoulders afraid to answer. Debbie just looked at him replying, “Bruce, the reason you have that trouble is you are always doing something to protect us. You move nine hundred miles an hour all day. All I have to say is when you go into any shed on the property, knock before you enter.”

“Don’t forget the garage,” Angela smirked.

Bruce looked around the table to see everyone agreeing with Debbie. Debbie grabbed his hand, “Bruce, you spend so much time taking care of everyone else you forget about yourself. That is mine, Stephanie and Angela’s job and it’s why I asked everyone to hint to you not to go out on patrol Monday.”

“I made that decision by myself,” Bruce declared proudly, only to see Debbie smiling at him. Bruce closed his eyes and started playing the last few days through his head remembering several people asking for no patrol on Monday. “Well don’t I feel stupid,” Bruce stated, and then looked at Debbie. “It doesn’t matter anyway. Tomorrow Joe is going to ask that the clan to pressure me if I miss a Monday that another afternoon be given to me,” Bruce said.

Willie stood up, “I love that man,” he said, then he addressed Debbie. “My wife Maggie refused to help you if you needed help, so I’ll offer myself. I look pretty good in a teddy,” Willie said causing the table to erupt in laughter.

Ted stopped laughing long enough to shout out, “Willie, if you wear a teddy, I‘ll bring the whipped cream and join in!”

Carl stood up putting a hand behind his head, “Well, I will just have to bring my sexy ass in there too, because once you go black you never go back,” he said in a lisped voice, causing the table to erupt again in laughter.

When the laughter died down, Bruce looked at Willie, “Tell you what Willie, if you can borrow Nancy’s red heels, you have a deal.”

Mike slammed his hand on the table, “Absolutely not!” Mike shouted looking at Bruce then he grinned, “He can wear them if I can join in,” he said looking at Nancy. “What? You aren’t going to kick me again?”

“Hell no! I’m coming to watch this,” Nancy announced as Conner fell out of his chair laughing.

Susan stood up declaring, “Bruce, Conner is on the floor waiting on you. I don’t think he wants to wait until Monday.” Conner, hearing that, attempted to jump back into his chair only to hit his head on the table, causing the table to jump in the air. Everyone laughed at his mishap as he slunk back down to the floor and Susan kneeled down beside him. Max ran down to lick his face telling Conner it was okay.

The group ate and headed off to bed; well not really bed; but to get ready for Call of Duty. Most had never played but the way the family talked about it, be damned if they were going to miss out.

Chapter 14

The clan was in the hall on Sunday morning with most people showing signs of lack of sleep. Mike was on coffee mug from hell number three. Bruce had just started number two and still just wanted to go to sleep. Bruce smiled remembering last night. Debbie, Stephanie and Angela had put another TV in their room so they could play also. Bruce could only remember Debbie playing games once or twice ever. But, she played hard last night almost till dawn. Bruce started laughing, remembering Debbie yelling at the TV. At the start of the night, she wasn’t very good, so she would just run around with a hand grenade and when someone shot her character, she would drop the grenade and kill her attacker.

Debbie ran into one building, yelling over her headset and everyone on the other team, seeing who it was, ran out, getting gunned down by the rest of the team. Watching Angela and Stephanie, Bruce quickly realized they had played a lot. Stephanie had played with the family when she lived in Shreveport and wasn’t that good then. Angela was pretty damn good, but Stephanie was now in a league of her own. They both killed Mike numerous times, tea bagging him more times than Bruce could count. Then they started giving his kids a run for their money. That’s when Nancy started playing and Bruce’s team had to start worrying about a kamikaze grenadier.

Mike, seeing Bruce chuckling, growled, “You were lucky brother.”

Bruce looked up grinning, “Hey Mike, I think you got something on your chin from all the tea bags you had.”

Mike looked at Angela and Stephanie and interrogated them, “You two just had to play huh? You just couldn’t watch? Were in the hell did you two learn how to play like that?”

Angela looked up, wiping sleep out of her eyes, and stretched. “I’ve always played X-Box,” Angela informed Mike.

“I’ve played with y’all before, Mike,” Stephanie replied.

“No offense Stephanie, but you weren’t that good then,” Mike informed her.

“Well I bought an X-Box and started playing COD. I even formed my own clan, the ‘Wolf’ clan,” Stephanie admitted proudly, looking at Mike. Mike just froze taking a sip of coffee staring at Stephanie with hard eyes. All six kids, along with Tonya, turned to stare at Stephanie with shocked expressions.

“Didn’t y’all fight a wolf clan a lot?” Debbie asked in a sleepy voice, taking a sip of coffee swearing she remembered the kids saying something like that. Debbie looked over at Bruce, wanting to know why he wasn’t answering. Debbie saw Bruce was staring at Stephanie with a mixture of anger, awe and annoyance.

“What was your screen name?” Bruce asked Stephanie, staring a hole through her.

“Red devil,” Stephanie replied proudly.

“What?” Bruce yelled, jumping up, knocking his chair over, causing Max to look around wondering what was up. All six kids, along with Mike and Tonya, jumped up and started yelling at Stephanie. Stephanie just looked around, wondering what the hell was wrong.

Debbie held up her hands, yelling, “Shut up!” and was surprised when they did.

Stephanie looked around at the family with a questioning expression and asked, “What the hell is the problem?”

Bruce looked at her, narrowing his eyes and demanded, “Ever hear of the ‘Edge’ clan?”

Stephanie jumped up out of her chair, narrowing her eyes at Bruce. “What was your screen name?” she demanded.

“Dark Knight,” Bruce growled in reply.

“You son of a bitch! You killed me eleven times in a row in four different games the last time we played!” Stephanie screamed squaring off with Bruce. Emily and Sherry climbed out of their chairs and ran behind Debbie. PJ was trying to get out of his highchair and get to Momma. Max just ran to the other side of the hall.

“You shot me with a fucking rocket launcher twice!” Bruce yelled back.

“I should have known,” Stephanie growled then spun towards the kids looking at Jake. “You’re ‘Dead Eye’ aren’t you?” Stephanie asked in a raspy voice.

“Hell yeah! I sniped down your whole team twice in our last match. I have it recorded if you want to watch,” Jake replied with an evil grin. Stephanie looked at each kid and Mike calling out their screen name and each one nodded at her confirming it.

Danny looked at Stephanie, grumbling, “I don’t know if I like you anymore Stephanie or should I say ‘Red Devil’.”

“Well bring it on ‘Midnight Star’,” Stephanie challenged, crouching down. Angela grabbed Cade and moved from in between them. Danny moved out of her chair, crouching down in front of Stephanie.

“That’s enough!” Debbie screamed causing both of them to jump. Bruce had watched the two square off and felt very confident that Danny would’ve won but he was certain she’d have paid a price for the victory. When both Danny and Stephanie looked at her Debbie commanded, “Both of you put it back in your pants. You’re acting like a couple of boys.”

“Debbie, ‘Midnight’ thought it would be funny to run around knifing my whole team the last time we played. Then I’m having a talk with ‘Dark knight’. Eleven times in a row Debbie, in one game, for a total of nineteen kills. Just on me, the most he ever got me was twice in a row. We aren’t even talking about the other games Debbie. Besides that, the most I’d ever been killed in a row was six. Do you know what that did for my stats?” Stephanie yelled.

Bruce smiled as he stated, “You can thank Debbie for the first eleven in a row streak. For the first time ever, she was acting as my eyes and saw you every time you popped up.”

Stephanie gasped looking at Debbie, “How could you?”

“Stephanie, Steve had just proposed to Tonya and had asked me if they could move in together. The only way I was going to get Bruce to talk to me was to help him,” Debbie shot back, irritated.

“You could’ve made him quit playing,” Stephanie snapped back.

“It’s a game Stephanie!” Debbie yelled at the top of her lungs.

“This coming from the woman who stood up in the bed at 0330 last night yelling ‘If that fucker stabs me one more time. I’m getting my gun, finding his ass on this farm and capping his ass!’ What if I tell you that the person that was stabbing you was Conner,” Stephanie informed her. Debbie narrowed her eyes turning her head toward Conner. Conner tried to hide behind Susan but she kept pushing him away not wanting to get in the line of fire. “It’s just a game Debbie,” Stephanie taunted.

Looking at Conner, Debbie said, “We’ll talk later.” Then turning back to Stephanie, Debbie stated, “Well, I, for one am ashamed of you Stephanie. You didn’t join our clan on X-Box.”

Stephanie furrowed up her face and huffed, “I’m going to be mad at y’all for two hours.” Stephanie marched toward the door, leaving the hall.

“I’m going to spank her,” Danny said turning to leave.

“Freeze Danny!” Debbie shouted causing Danny to stop. Danny knew better that to argue with that tone.

Debbie walked over to Bruce and pulled his shoulder down until she could whisper in his ear. While Debbie whispered in his ear a wicked grin spread across Bruce’s face. When Debbie was finished Bruce turned to her saying, “Oh yeah, I can do that.”

“Get her stud muffin,” Debbie said. Bruce unbuckled his vest dropping it in his chair and headed for the door. When Bruce walked out, the whole family moved toward the door making Debbie yell again, causing everyone to stop. “Y’all really don’t want to see this,” Debbie informed them.

“The hell I don’t,” Danny replied, looking at her mama.

“I really do,” Angela added.

“No you don’t. It won’t be pretty. Bruce will probably have to carry her back in when he brings her back in a few minutes. When she comes back, she will say she is sorry and ask to join our X-Box clan. That will be when she can speak again, of course,” Debbie informed them of her prediction.

“That’s impossible. No woman gives in that easy,” Danny said, looking at her mama. Seeing Debbie just smile with a wicked grin, Danny started to feel sorry for Stephanie as she asked, “Daddy’s not going to hurt her is he?”

Debbie thought before she answered, making everyone nervous. “No, not really,” Debbie replied as the family sat back down.

Bruce had stormed outside looking for ‘Red Devil’. Seeing one of the three man roving guards, Bruce stopped them, “Which way did Stephanie go?” The three just looked at him like he was speaking Greek. “Knock out gorgeous, dark red head woman,” Bruce rephrased and they replied that she was heading toward the barn.

Coming around the hall, Bruce saw her halfway to the barn. Bruce took off running on his toes so she wouldn’t hear him as he closed the distance. When he was almost to her, he stopped running and walked toward her. “Stephanie!” Bruce called, making her jump and turn around.

Stephanie stomped her foot, “I told you I’m going to be mad at you for two hours,” she said as Bruce walked up to her.

Bruce grabbed her arms, pulling her towards him then wrapped his arms around her waist. Stephanie started to struggle until Bruce pressed his lips on hers. All of Stephanie’s motor functions froze with that. Then Bruce started kissing her passionately and Stephanie started getting weak in the knees. Remembering what Debbie had told him, Bruce ran his hands up her back under her ACU top then under her t-shirt caressing her back as he continued the kiss. Stephanie’s legs gave out as she threw her arms loosely around Bruce’s neck as Bruce held her body weight.

Bruce released the kiss and looked at Stephanie’s face. Her eyes were closed and her mouth was still open with her tongue moving back and forth. “Stephanie, are you still mad?” Bruce asked her.

Stephanie struggled to open her eyes and looked at Bruce, “What did you do to me?” she asked blinking her eyes.

“This,” Bruce said as he started kissing her again. Stephanie still had no strength in her legs but it was returning to her arms as she pulled Bruce tight as he kissed her. Releasing the kiss again Bruce asked, “Well are you still mad?”

“About what?” Stephanie asked trying to make her brain work.

“My clan fighting your clan on X-Box,” Bruce reminded her.

“Screw my clan. I’m joining yours,” Stephanie heard herself say, even though that didn’t sound right.

“You want me to kiss you again?” Bruce asked smiling.

“No, I can’t think-, wait yeah I do,” Stephanie said as her head wobbled back and forth drunkenly. Bruce kissed her again.

Releasing the kiss Bruce looked into her face. “Come on Stephanie, let’s go eat breakfast,” Bruce said.

“Okay,” Stephanie replied trying to stand on her feet without Bruce’s help. When Bruce released her, she just crumpled straight down on to the grass. Bruce just looked down at her, shaking his head. Stephanie looked up at Bruce, “Damn, you’re tall,” she stated.

Bruce bent down, picking her up in his arms and carried her back towards the hall. As he walked, Bruce had two thoughts on the event. One, he loved the way Stephanie had just lost all will power, forgetting why she was mad, even leaving her clan. Second, Bruce was unnerved that Debbie had called that play by play almost with the exact dialog. ‘I have to talk to her about that’ Bruce thought as he opened the hall door and carried Stephanie in.

The whole command table watched as Bruce carried Stephanie to her chair and sat her in it. Stephanie looked up at Bruce, grinning, with her head wobbling back and forth, “Thank you Bruce,” she said as Bruce sat down.

Danny came running over to Stephanie, “Stephanie, I’m sorry. Are you ok?”

Stephanie looked up at Danny, smiling. Reaching a hand up, Stephanie patted her face, “Hey Danny, I love you.”

Danny looked up at her Daddy as Angela and several other girls came over to check on Stephanie. “What the hell did you do to her Dad?” Danny demanded with a scowl on her face.

“Nothing sweat pea,” Bruce replied grinning.

“That’s crap! She has grass in her hair, has loose muscle tone, can’t focus her eyes and talks like she’s on drugs. You weren’t gone long enough to give her any drugs and I don’t see any marks on her,” Danny snapped, reading out her observations.

“Sweet pea, I don’t hit women until they put themselves in a man’s shoes. Just tap them,” Bruce told her, smiling.

“Well what did you do?” Danny asked.

“You really want to know?” Bruce asked.

“Yeah,” Danny replied, getting irritated.

“Fine, I’ll tell you. If you remember, your mother whispered in my ear before I left. She gave me permission to use a technique that only works on women. It has something to do with the extra organs women carry. I showed it to her once and she made me promise not to use it ever again, until today. On a woman’s back is a spot no bigger than a centimeter square. If you tap it three times in rapid succession the woman becomes like this. She forgets the last few hours and is completely placid. Chinese emperors used it on their concubines for obedience,” Bruce finished the lie with flair and a regretful expression on his face. Debbie just nodded her head with no expression on her face, knowing if she spoke she would laugh for hours.

Danny looked at Bruce like he was full of shit. Then the expression slowly slid off her face as she glared at her Daddy who had a straight face. Then she turned to Debbie and believed the tale. “Mom how could you let Daddy do that?” Danny gasped, stepping back from Bruce. Angela looked at Bruce and backed up until her back was on the wall.

“Stephanie was acting irrational. I earned those kills,” Bruce replied trying not to laugh, this was too good. The whole command table would just look at Stephanie, who was still acting like she was drunk and happy. This was just how Debbie had told them she would act.

“Mom, do you know how to do this?” Danny demanded, standing well away from Bruce.

“Of course she does. I taught her everything I know,” Bruce replied, not wanting Debbie to spoil his fun. This was fine with Debbie, as it was taking everything she had not to laugh.

“You didn’t teach me that!” Danny exclaimed in an injured tone.

“I haven’t taught you a lot sweet pea. You aren’t old enough yet,” Bruce informed her.

“You better not have taught the boys this,” Danny replied in a harsh tone.

“I haven’t for the same reason,” Bruce replied.

“I mean ever!” Danny yelled as Stephanie looked over her shoulder and just smiled at her, making Danny nervous.

Willie stood up declaring, “I’ll give you a blow job right here and now if you show me.”

Mike jumped up, “Sit down Willie,” then he turned to Bruce. “You show me first,” Mike demanded in a serious tone.

“Michael Collins, you shut your mouth and sit down,” Nancy yelled. Mike dropped down in his chair like someone hit him with a bat. Nancy leaned over the table, looking at Bruce as she informed everyone, “If I see any man tapping on any woman’s back, I’ll shoot ‘em.”

“Then I’ll cut their balls off,” Danny threatened.

“After that, I feed them to the gators,” Mary added.

The command group continued as Marcus and Carroll came in with several of their clan. Bruce had asked them over to coordinate the movements over the next week. They were also going to take Father Thomas back with them for a service at their farm. When they joined the table, Danny filled them in on what was happening. Neither believed any of it at first. Then looking back and forth from each person’s face at the table Marcus and Carroll saw they were convinced. They just looked back and forth from Bruce and Stephanie who was just smiling in a happy bliss.

Carroll shook her head and stared at Bruce as she replied, “Bruce, I love ya with alls my heart and sees ya as one of my own kids but if you shows Marcus that, I’ll have to cut ya.”

“I wouldn’t use it on you Carroll,” Marcus promised.

“Marcus another word about it and we goes to the floor, forget tha switches,” Carroll dictated. Marcus just chuckled as Millie set him a plate down.

Millie walked over to Bruce, “That’s disgusting Bruce,” Millie accused, looking at poor Stephanie.

“Hey Millie come here and let’s talk about you bringing this table food,” Bruce said, scooting his chair back.

Forgetting her spoon, Millie brought up both fist, “You stay away from me with that kung fu stuff. I won fair an square. Don’t you be doing them ninja hits on me,” Millie warned, backing away with her fist up.

Bruce laughed as Millie backed away. Turning away from Millie, Bruce glanced at Debbie who was sitting stone faced staring straight ahead. Bruce knew it was taking everything she had not to laugh. Carroll looked up at Bruce asking, “Why do you wants to kung fu poor Millie?”

“I don’t want her to serve us food at the command table. I think it gives the impression to others we are different and better. We made a bet and I lost so she gets to keep doing it,” Bruce related to Carroll.

“First you are different, not better. This table has to be makin’ decisions that no one else wants to and if they do’s they ain’t qualified to make ‘em. If she wants to make your life a little easier then you lets her,” Carroll informed Bruce. Bruce drew in a breath to reply as Carroll continued. “Bruce, is Millie in charge of this kitchen?” she asked.

“Yes,” Bruce answered knowing it was a mistake.

“I sees you’re sliding back. You and I had this discussion at our farm. A woman can do whatever she wants in her kitchen so you’ll let Millie,” Carroll informed him. “Don’t you agree Debbie?” Carroll asked looking at Debbie.

Debbie was just staring straight ahead clinching her jaw. To everyone, except Bruce, it looked like she was mad but he knew she was just trying not to laugh. Debbie stood up and through clenched teeth said, “I’ll be back in a minute,” as she walked out of the hall.

Carroll looked at Bruce. “She feels bad about giving me permission to do that to Stephanie. She’s going inside to cry,” Bruce explained.

“Well she should feel bad about letting you do that but it’s been done,” Carroll said as Bruce just started shoveling food into his mouth to keep from laughing.

Marcus informed them that they now had almost four hundred, three barracks finished with another two under construction. The fence now went around fifty acres and they had two underground storage areas like Bruce had with containers. They had made a huge underground area to store the cows, goats, sheep and chickens in if they had to move to Bruce’s farm to help face a horde. They were working on a water tower now and all the solar panels were up and the battery house was up and charged.

Bruce told them of the plans at the farm and asked if they could send someone over on Friday evenings to join their meetings. Whoever they sent over could stay the night and head back in the morning to go over with their command group then work out the details on Sunday.  Marcus said he and Carroll would come since they were more or less bosses and teachers. When Bruce objected to them traveling back and forth Marcus laughed.

“Bruce, if something can get us in that Stryker vehicle, it can get us at our farm. When Carroll was showed how to shoot that gun, I ain’t heard her laugh like that in a long time,” Marcus informed Bruce.

Carroll replied smiling, “That thang is fun.”

Debbie returned with a tear blotched face that Bruce knew was from laughing but everyone else thought was from her being mad at herself. As Debbie sat down Carroll grabbed her hand. “You let that go Debbie,” Carroll told her. Debbie just nodded as she sat down trying not to laugh.

Father Thomas came over and asked if he could start the service and Bruce nodded his head. After the service Bruce went to the front. Only he would be speaking today.

Stepping behind the podium Bruce started. “Hello everyone. I hope everyone had a good Christmas and enjoyed their presents,” Bruce said, just wanting to break the ice but he received a standing ovation. Bruce’s shaved head turned red as he motioned for everyone to sit down and stop but they continued. When everyone sat down, Bruce said, “I was just starting up the meeting. I really didn’t want the applause.”

“Well, you and this family saved everyone here. If we want to thank you we can!” someone shouted from the back. This caused another round of applause.

When it died down, Bruce stated, “Will you please stop. I can only blush so much in a day and I’m over quota.”

Joe yelled out, “But you’re so cute when you blush!” making the room laugh.

Bruce went over the work schedules and the new ID bands which some people didn’t like at all. Pausing Bruce explained that it was necessary to keep track of who was working out, showing up for work, trying to eat more than their share and most important. They would be used to identify a non-clan person if a gang tried to get someone inside to look around before they hit. Bruce explained there were, now, way too many people to remember by sight and they were bringing back more if they wanted to join the clan.

For the new people, Bruce went over the rules of the clan. Some had started referring to the rules as the clan commandments. No stealing. Clan rules for each area were to be followed. Your word is your bond; don’t give it unless you mean it. Everyone works; that is how you are judged and rewarded. Everyone fights. Your family is your business until it becomes clan business. Respect others in the clan. Follow command group orders without hesitation. Everyone had to learn until they died and finally no laziness would be tolerated.

Just to clarify Bruce let everyone know Marcus’ clan was part of this clan and was to be treated as such. Then he added that Marcus and Carroll were part of the command group. Anyone not following their orders, Bruce would just unleash Carroll on them.

Looking around at the new people, who were easy to find because of how thin they were, Bruce told them they were being put on a light duty schedule and explained why. Several voiced their displeasure with this. Bruce reminded them that they had to follow the orders. Then he explained that they would be moved up to full work in a week or two, when their bodies could handle it. They accepted that and Bruce moved on, telling Omega team they were training after lunch but would have tomorrow morning off, when they had to sight in new rifles.

Bruce reminded everyone that his students were having class Wednesday and Friday this week and they would teach the first forty that signed up. Only those not currently scheduled to work or have classes could sign up. A young teenaged boy upfront asked if someone could teach a class on Sunday afternoon so he could sign up.

Thinking about it for a minute, Bruce informed the young man if his students didn’t teach the class, then four members of Omega team would. This got a lot of applause. Then Bruce told the crowd that only thirty-nine could sign up because this young man already had a slot. That was when Joe yelled out that he wanted Bruce to have one afternoon a week if Bruce did not get his Monday ‘alone’ time. The clan voted unanimously for it, Jenny Green and her group didn’t vote.

Wrapping up the meeting Bruce walked Marcus and Carroll to their Stryker followed by Father Thomas. Father Thomas said he was going to stay over for a few days and Nancy said it would be fine since Debbie still wasn’t talking to anyone.

After seeing them off, Bruce and Omega team trained until supper. Angela joined them as Stephanie was still just in a happy bliss but was at least walking around now. No one believed her when she replied that Bruce just kissed her. Debbie was still not talking to anyone and took the little kids inside

On Monday, Bruce headed to the shop at 1100 to find Joe and Harry laying out ten SCARs. “Damn if you guys weren’t kidding,” Bruce said, walking over to the table, looking at the weapons and suppressors.

“We’re going to start modifying the M-4s next week. The M-4s we will add full auto and the M-4A1s we will add burst,” Harry informed Bruce.

“Guys, that’s good but we only brought back thirty SCAR’s from Polk. We have over two thousand M-4’s,” Bruce replied.

“Well, we have plenty of work then,” Joe replied then added. “That will be good work for our apprentice’s.”

“They start on your machine shop this week,” Bruce said with a grin.

“It’s not ours. It belongs to the clan,” Joe stated.

“If you let someone in there and they break something because it’s ‘the clan’s’. I’ll shove ground up glass in your ass,” Bruce threatened.

“Damn!” Harry said stepping back with a facial grimace.

“We will run it, take care of it and not let that happen but it belongs to the clan,” Joe explained.

“Right. It’s yours,” Bruce said.

Joe just threw up his hands, giving up, saying “Whatever you say Bruce.”

Bruce looked along the back wall and pointed, asking, “Why is there a bed in here?”

Harry looked at Bruce with a straight face, “We get tired and take naps.”

“Yeah, I really believe that,” Bruce replied.

“Believe it or not, that’s why it’s there,” Joe answered, shrugging his shoulders, gathering his stuff to leave.

“Then why is it made up?” Bruce demanded.

“We haven’t taken a nap today Bruce. It’s just noon,” Harry replied as he to gathered his stuff.

“Whatever,” Bruce replied then asked, “Will you two take these rifles to the hall and give them to the team?”

“Sure,” Joe replied grabbing five rifles, slinging them on each shoulder, as did Harry.

As they walked out Debbie walked in. “Hey Debbie,” Harry said as he leaned down to kiss her on the cheek and hug her as best he could.

After Debbie hugged and kissed Joe, he held her at arms distance. “Debbie, please wear his ass out and stay all afternoon. Take one for the team,” Joe pleaded.

Debbie just gave Joe a distressed look, replying, “You have no idea what you’re asking from me.”

“Probably not. But I now know what my wife is talking about when she tells me I can get ‘some’ just to make me stop bitching,” Joe related.

“I’ll do my best,” Debbie promised, standing on her tiptoes, kissing him on the cheek.

When they left, Debbie walked over to Bruce who was studying something in the lathe. Bruce turned around and smiled as Debbie walked up to him. Holding his arms out to hug her, he was caught off guard when Debbie punched him in the gut. Debbie didn’t hit him really hard but it was enough to let Bruce know he had been hit. “What the hell was that for?” Bruce demanded, rubbing his stomach.

“Mister kung fu master, I spent all day yesterday inside laughing my ass off. The twins think I have lost my mind and PJ just laughed with me. You should’ve warned me of what you were going to do,” Debbie claimed.

“May I ask just how in the hell I could’ve done that?” Bruce asked.

“I don’t know but even Stephanie is convinced you used kung fu on her now,” Debbie admitted then added. “Stephanie also said if that was your kung fu you could do it to her anytime.”

“Speaking of one of the trio, they didn’t want to follow today?” Bruce asked looking at the steel closet in the corner.

“I told them they could and they said it wouldn’t be any fun with permission,” Debbie replied.

“They need to find someone, if for nothing else than a roll in the hay,” Bruce stated.

“Both of them have told you they are happy where they are at,” Debbie replied in a dangerous tone that Bruce did not catch or just ignored.

“I don’t think that’s fair to them,” Bruce answered.

“Well, let me call them down here,” Debbie dared him.

“I have told you, I’m yours alone,” Bruce said.

“Bruce, this is weird. The husband is supposed to be the one requesting this, not the wife,” Debbie replied as she thought about the situation.

Bruce just shook his head. “If you remember, I asked you once long ago. That is when a five foot, hundred pound woman punched me and busted my nose open,” Bruce reminded her.

Debbie stopped, looking at Bruce. “Bruce, I was twenty one years old, we had only been married four years. Every party we went to naked bitches were chasing you around. I was young and a little insecure then,” Debbie replied, defending her actions and change in stance.

“So what’s to say you would feel the same way afterward if we did invite them? I would know something is wrong with you. Because something is wrong with you now,” Bruce informed her.

Debbie’s heart paused as she froze then shook it off, “You know what is wrong. Something is getting close to happening to the clan. That is why you’re starting your war early,” Debbie said, trying to cover any actions.

“No Debbie. This is something different. You acted different when we lost people before,” Bruce told her. Debbie took a step back. ‘How could she cover this’ she thought. Bruce watched her step back, “I think part of you wants to share me with them and the other part doesn’t,” Bruce deducted. Wrong of course but that is what he did deduct from his conclusions.

Debbie smiled, “No baby, I love those two as much as I love those kids we have accepted into our lives. I would die for them just as I would you. Can you honestly tell me you don’t think they love you and you don’t like that?” Debbie asked. Bruce shook his head no as Debbie continued, “You’re right I’m acting weird because I want to accept them into our family as equal parents and lovers but you are acting like a prude. They help with the kids, taking care of us as we take care of them. Bruce they have needs as we do and you are just being mean. How can you base your decision on my actions that happened almost two decades ago?”

Bruce took a step back, wondering how this became his fault. He missed that somehow. Debbie grabbed his hands, looking up at him, “Bruce, neither of them expects it, but I think they’d love it. I’m not trying to pressure you, because if I pressure you to do something you don’t want to do, you whine worse than any woman. I’m just asking you to think about it with an open mind. This is for all of us,” Debbie looked up with pleading eyes.

Bruce sighed, “Debbie, I’d do anything for you. I just don’t want you later to have a change of heart and feel bad, because you’d never say anything. Then I’d feel guilty because I hurt my sugar mama. Don’t get me wrong, I want to. Not because of them but because you to. I really would love to know where this sense of adventure suddenly came from,” Bruce admitted, reaching up rubbing her face.

“Baby!” Debbie whined as she brought out the heavy guns, stomping her foot pouting.

“I tell you what, at the end of April, if you still feel the same way, I’ll go along with it. They will have been with us for six months then. You have my word. They will be in our lives for better or worse,” Bruce promised.

Debbie blinked her eyes in disbelief. ‘I just had to whine to get him to give in. Why didn’t I do that earlier,’ she thought to herself. Well if it worked once, “Baby, that’s a long way off. A lot can happen before then. Isn’t that why we let the kids get married?” Debbie whined more.

“Baby, April,” Bruce said trying to hold firm.

“Okay April then,” Debbie smiled at him. “How about foreplay?” Debbie asked, hopefully.

“Don’t you ever give up?” Bruce asked, laughing.

“No, I learned that from you. Now you can’t say anything about that because we played many times without going all the way,” Debbie pointed out.

“Debbie, we were kids playing house and doctor,” Bruce replied.

“Well, they’re both doctors, in a house,” Debbie responded. ‘Damn that was good’, Bruce thought as Debbie continued sensing Bruce was caught off guard. “I didn’t get mad in Vegas did I?” Debbie reminded him.

“You made a bet that included me without consulting me,” Bruce replied in a flat tone.

“What happened?” Debbie demanded.

“You shoved me into a chair and threw a woman between my legs after I had stripped on the dance floor,” Bruce told her.

“Yeah I won five hundred dollars when she couldn’t do it. That was foreplay and what happened afterwards?” Debbie asked.

“We were thrown out of the damn bar and almost arrested,” Bruce stated.

“No later,” Debbie asked as she started tapping her little foot. Bruce smiled as Debbie asked, “Well?”

“You put me to sleep then woke me up for more,” Bruce smiled at the memories.

“I wonder if that had anything to do with it?” Debbie stated. Bruce grinned and thought there might be something to this.

Bruce looked at Debbie with a serious look, “Foreplay can lead to trouble.”

“This coming from the boy who I went skinny dipping with in tenth grade, who had me so worked up I was ready to jump start a jet engine. Then made me fall asleep with just playing around,” Debbie reminded him.

“I forgot about that,” Bruce admitted.

“I’ll tell you what Bruce. Let’s make a bet here and now. If I last until 1800 I win and we have foreplay and it’s April first. If I call time out you win and I won’t say anything else until April,” Debbie challenged.

Bruce looked up at the clock reading 1224 and smiled. This was a suckers bet. The last time Debbie went for more than three hours was in Vegas. Granted it was Bruce who wanted to call a time out then but this was different. “Deal,” Bruce said.

“Well let’s clear off a table then so I can make you beg,” Debbie grinned.

“Don’t have to,” Bruce said, pointing to the back wall.

Debbie turned around looking where Bruce was pointing. “What the hell is a bed doing in here?” she asked.

“I think they put it here for us,” Bruce replied.

“Well time to take one for the team,” Debbie said as she started undressing Bruce.

“What?” Bruce asked.

“You’re stalling stud muffin. Are you getting scared?” Debbie asked stepping back.

Bruce stripped down in record time and jumped on the bed as Debbie joined him. Bruce gave it a valiant effort but it was Bruce who was glad that 1800 finally came around, though he would never admit it. Lying back, Bruce was trying to catch his breath as he wiped sweat off his face.

Debbie rolled over on his chest, looking down at him. Her hair was soaked, plastered to her head with makeup streaking down her face. “I won. Be ready tonight stud muffin,” Debbie said, kissing him and climbing out of the bed.

“Tonight? Are you kidding?” Bruce cried out sitting up.

Debbie looked at him, “Yeah, if I start, you have to join in. You aren’t trying to get out of our bet are you?”

“Tonight?” Bruce cried again, holy shit he just wanted to sleep.

“Don’t tell me you’re tired, Mr. Wood champion,” Debbie said, smiling as she got dressed.

“Okay, but playing only,” Bruce replied as he crashed back down on the bed.

Debbie came over and kissed Bruce, “I love you baby,” she said as she grabbed her vest and rifle, leaving.

“I love you too baby,” Bruce said. “I’m used and abused,” Bruce said as Debbie walked out.

When Debbie closed the door, she fell back on the building, catching her breath. ‘Holy shit, when is Bruce going to hit his decline’ she thought to herself. Debbie leaned off the wall, fixing to start for the house to at least wipe her make up off but changed her mind and headed to the hall. ‘If they don’t like the way I look, they can kiss my ass’ Debbie said to herself as she walked inside.

When Debbie walked in, she headed to the command table. She saw Joe had pulled up a chair and was talking to Mike. They both stopped talking as Debbie walked over to them. Her hair was matted to her head, makeup was streaked down her face, and she looked exhausted as she dragged her vest behind her. “I took one for the team,” Debbie told them, walking to her chair. Just dropping her gear on the floor, Debbie collapsed in her chair. Everyone at the command table was just staring at her except the kids. They were on the other side of the hall playing.

Angela and Stephanie rounded the table to sit beside Debbie. Angela looked at Debbie, asking, “What the hell did y’all do?”

Debbie lifted her head up and looked at the two, “I never realized until today how much I love you two,” Debbie declared and leaned her head back on the chair, looking up at the ceiling.

“Okay, I have no idea what you are talking about,” Stephanie said as Debbie lifted her head up looking at her. Debbie looked around to make sure nobody could hear. Those at the command table were only glancing her way briefly now. Debbie pulled them closer and whispered the bet she had made with Bruce to them.

“You what?” Angela said out loud.

“Shh don’t tell everyone,” Debbie told her. Stephanie was just looking at Debbie, moving her mouth but no words were coming out.

Angela leaned close to Debbie, “You could’ve at least warned us,” she whispered.

Debbie looked at Angela in disbelief, “Are you kidding me? You were ready to jump Bruce just a few weeks ago. Now you’re chickening out on fooling around. I expected Stephanie to chicken out and we would have to guide her into it, but not you,” Debbie said.

“I wouldn’t chicken out,” Stephanie declared as she finally found her words.

“Okay Stephanie, I’m going to remember you said that,” Debbie replied. “So you’re going to chicken out?” Debbie asked Angela.

“No but-,” Angela started to say but lost her words.

“Good when it happens, it happens. So be ready. Bruce does want to go all the way and have both of you with us forever, but it will take more time,” Debbie told them.

“I thought-,” Stephanie started and Debbie cut her off.

“No, I finally got it out of him. The only reason he hasn’t is because I punched him in the nose almost twenty years ago and he thinks I’ll be hurt later,” Debbie told them.

“Debbie if it will hurt you later, I’m moving out tonight,” Angela said. Debbie just looked at Angela with a flat expression. “Okay I didn’t mean it. Stop looking at me like that,” Angela pleaded.

Debbie looked at each of them and said, “What each of you need to figure out is; can you two live with each other and us forever. This is for the long haul, not experimentation.”

Stephanie looked at Debbie, “Debbie, I’m happier than I have ever been, anything else is extra. As far as adding Angela, that’s double bonus. She makes me laugh when she makes Bruce blush,” Stephanie told her.

Debbie looked at Angela. “Debbie, I thought I was going to die when I lost Alex. You and Bruce took Cade and me in and made me realize that life goes on. I’m happy again and I have to admit I love it when Stephanie makes the boys feel inferior. The answer is, I will be happy with whatever we do as a family,” Angela answered.

“I love you too guys,” Debbie said as Angela and Stephanie wrapped their arms around Debbie telling her they loved her. Debbie silently prayed that she could make it until April.

Bruce came in just dragging his vest behind him and before he could head to the table the kids ran to him wanting to play. Bruce stopped and played with the kids as Joe walked down to Debbie.

“You are one tough, beautiful, elegant woman. I’m going to make you a medal,” Joe told Debbie, kissing her on the head.

“Thank you Joe,” Debbie said smiling.

When Millie announced supper was ready, Bruce grabbed the kids and headed toward the table. After putting the kids in their chairs and telling Max to get down out of his chair Bruce sat down. Bruce stood back up leaning over to kiss Debbie then Stephanie and Angela then dropped back down in his chair as he smiled at them.

Later that night after the kids were asleep the four played long into the night but nothing else ever happened that night or any other that followed. That would be one regret Bruce would have for the rest of his life.

Chapter 15

Bruce woke up the next morning when the alarm went off at 0500 but he didn’t feel like getting out of bed. Forcing himself to sit up Bruce looked around the room seeing the kids laid out on a pallet on the floor. ‘I want to sleep like that’ Bruce thought. Climbing out of bed and careful not to step on kids, Bruce put on his assault gear. Then he woke Buffy up and told her to go get dressed. Grabbing his helmet with the face guard and goggles, Bruce inspected it. The micro cam had a new battery and Jake and Matt had attached a helmet mount for the monocular NVG that would swing down flush with his goggles. That was still taking some getting used to, with the eye piece not next to his eye.

Tucking the helmet under his arm Bruce grabbed his pack then picked up SCAR. Bruce leaned over the bed and kissed Debbie, Stephanie and Angela then moved over to the kids and did the same with the kids. Bruce called Max, then left the bedroom and headed to mission control.

Walking into mission control, Bruce asked the young woman behind the desk, “How cold did it get last night.”

“Fifty two,” she answered.

Oh well, Bruce thought it is going to be an interesting day. Looking around mission control, Bruce noticed more monitors had been added. The other person on duty was another young woman and she was watching the UAV monitors. One was the Gray Eagle and Bruce could not tell where in the hell it was but could see blues moving across the screen. The other screen was a micro UAV and was circling the farm and Bruce did not see anything moving outside the wire.

Looking back at the Gray Eagle monitor, Bruce still saw the blues chasing something. Making a rough guess Bruce figured the number of blues was around fifty. “Where the hell is that picture coming in from?” Bruce asked the girl at the UAV control station.

“North of Monroe,” she replied.

Bruce sighed and asked, “What the hell is it doing that far away?”

“We were checking on a known survivor location. So far they are all still there. Right now we are moving over to check on the areas where recovery patrols are heading out today,” she answered.

“Isn’t that a long time to leave them up,” Bruce asked her.

“We will bring the one that is up now home at 0630 and launch two Gray Eagles. One for your strike group and the other for the recovery patrol. We recover them after they have been up twelve hours, then we wait an hour, then send up another one unless one of the patrols requests one up sooner,” she replied.

Bruce nodded. These guys were getting good. Bruce told them bye and headed outside. Max ran off to do his morning business. Bruce thought about leaving Max at the farm but wanted to train him to sniff out blues so he convinced himself again to take Max. Walking past the hall, Bruce headed toward the two Strykers and the RG-33 his patrol was taking.

The RG was being used to haul fuel and ammo just in case they ran into some serious shit. Climbing up on the first Stryker, Bruce crawled in the hatch and dropped the ramp. Setting his pack down Bruce picked up one of the five messenger bags hanging up in the back of the Stryker. Four of the bags contained thirty magazines each and would be worn by team members with assault rifles. The bags that Steve and Conner were going to wear held five two hundred round belts of ammo.

Bruce looked at Buffy’s bag and thought about taking some of her magazines out but decided not to. As he left his pack in the Stryker, Bruce headed toward the barn. Opening the door of the barn, Bruce was met with a wall of machinery equipment for the new machine shop. Not seeing a way through the equipment, Bruce walked around to the back of the barn and opened the door to see the same thing. Sucking in his gut, Bruce squeezed to the back cabinet and pulled out a nylon dog leash and retreated before the machines tried to suffocate him.

Calling Max, Bruce saw he was trying to intimidate the billy goat. “That’s one you want to leave alone,” Bruce told Max as he came over looking up at Bruce. “Sit,” Bruce commanded and Max sat down. Reaching down Bruce congratulated Max and put the leash on the collar as the Billy goat came over.

Bruce pulled out his pistol aiming it at the goat. “I don’t like you or your pig friends. Your best bet is to leave before we have an accident,” Bruce told the billy goat. The billy goat stopped and looked at Bruce going “Baaa,” as if daring Bruce to pull the trigger. “I’m not playing with you. Leave or die, your choice,” Bruce replied. Whether the goat understood or not, he left as one of the nanny goats bayed.

Bruce put his pistol up as Max growled, looking behind Bruce. Turning around Bruce saw someone walking toward him in the predawn light. Bruce leaned down, telling Max he done a good job. Max looked at the figure and growled some more, so Bruce loved all over him. Then Max stood up and really growled at the approaching figure. Bruce pulled the leash and said, “That’s enough.” Max looked up at him like ‘I thought that’s what you wanted’ and started to whine. Bruce scratched Max behind the ear and was instantly forgiven. Bruce turned around and saw the figure about fifty yards away, “Hey Jim,” Bruce called out.

Jim ran over to Bruce stopping some distance away seeing Max. “I was just seeing who was starting so early Mister Bruce. I didn’t want anyone to think I had fallen down on the job,” Jim replied.

Bruce stood up, looking at Jim. “Jim one thing I can say about you after you rejoined the human race is that you can work, son,” Bruce told Jim, meaning it.

Jim’s face swelled with pride with the compliment, “Thank you Mister Bruce,” Jim replied, smiling.

“How are the congressman, judge, and trooper coming along?” Bruce asked.

“Mister Bruce, I had to ask Millie to scare them again last week. The judge is really trying to get better and I think the congressman will also. But when the trooper’s arm gets healed, I think you will have some trouble with him,” Jim answered.

“Why aren’t they chained to the fence at the pasture?” Bruce asked.

“Mister Paul had me move them under the fort in the front. They are chained to one of the support posts. Well only two are, the congressman and trooper,” Jim stated.

“Where is the judge sleeping?” Bruce asked, wondering why nobody tells him anything.

“She sleeps in the camper trailer with me,” Jim answered.

“You old dog Jim,” Bruce said with a grin.

“Oh no Mister Bruce. It’s nothing like that. Mister Paul said if I thought she was doing good, I could find her a place to sleep. Since you gave me a chance to join the human race again and see the errors of my ways. I’m trying to do the same for the others. Not that the judge hasn’t tried with me but that is another reason I wanted to talk to you,” Jim replied.

“Okay Jim what is it?” Bruce asked making a mental note to look in on the congressman and trooper.

“I wanted to tell you that one of the ladies that you rescued has been talking to me and asked me if I’d join her for New Year’s Eve. I told her I would have to ask you first,” Jim finished like he just unloaded the weight of the world off his shoulders.

Bruce looked at Jim and was glad he listened to his gut and not killed him. Bruce smiled looking at Jim. “Jim you no longer have to ask me for things like this. You are now part of this clan, just don’t ever make me regret this because you will not get a second chance,” Bruce told him.

“Mister Bruce, I can never thank you for what you’ve done for me. I see now what you were talking about living with a group and working to make it better. I never would’ve believed I would be happy shoveling shit and working on a farm but it is the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done,” Jim replied honestly.

“I’m glad to hear that Jim. Now, even though you are part of the clan, I am going to ask that you leave Susan and the kids alone,” Bruce said with a hint of a warning.

“I will never trouble them again Mister Bruce. They are from my past life and I lost them and never deserved them. I only wish that soldier, Conner, would ask her to marry him. I’ve never seen her so happy like she is with him,” Jim admitted with genuine affection.

“Give them time Jim,” Bruce said as Jim turned to leave.

Jim turned back around, “Mister Bruce watch that trooper and that congressman. When they hit me last week the trooper said he was going to hurt you. I don’t think you can save him. Maybe the congressman, but not the trooper. That is just my opinion and I don’t think it’s worth much but I don’t want to see you or your family hurt,” Jim confessed.

“Thank you Jim but why didn’t you tell me they hit you,” Bruce asked as his temper started to rise.

“I told Mister Paul and he talked to them. I don’t like to bother you because you’re so busy taking care of the clan,” Jim replied.

“That’s okay Jim. From now on, if someone hits you or threatens you, I want you to tell Bill, Mike or myself. Now what did Paul do to them?” Bruce asked.

“He talked to them and made them promise not to do it again,” Jim answered.

“How many times have they hit you?” Bruce asked as an afterthought.

“Just a few other times,” Jim replied.

Bruce nodded, “Thank you Jim. I’ll take care of it. I want you to bring the judge to the hall and tell her to kneel beside my chair at 0645. Now remember what I told you. Now let me get my thoughts together. I’m going into battle today to kill blues,” Bruce told Jim.

“You be careful Mister Bruce,” Jim said as he turned and left.

Bruce brought his anger back in check and started working on commands with Max, first verbal then hand signals. They went through the commands almost every day, sometimes twice a day. When they were finished, Bruce gave Max his chew toy, which was just a huge knotted rope.

Looking at the barn Bruce headed to the stairs at the back of the barn and went upstairs into the flight training center, or what he called the loft of the barn. Stepping inside Bruce looked at the three simulators. Two were on moveable platforms while the third was stationary. All of them were for helicopters. The airplane simulator was in storage since they didn’t have room to install it nor did they have an airplane yet.

Walking around the simulators, Bruce was tempted to start one up and practice some but figured he didn’t have the time. It wasn’t that Bruce had not spent a lot of hours in the simulator several times a week. He just wanted some more the closer his flight date got. Sighing, Bruce walked out the front and down the stairs, seeing one of the roving guard patrols heading toward him.

Waving at the patrol, Bruce headed to the hall. It was 0618 when he walked in and everyone was at the command table. Taking the leash off of Max Bruce told him to lie down as he sat down. Bruce looked up at Paul and wondered how to handle the situation when he heard Debbie call his name.

Looking at Debbie Bruce asked, “Yeah baby.”

“You left real early this morning, especially after yesterday,” Debbie grinned.

Bruce smiled and looked over at Stephanie and Angela who were both blushing. “You know you passed out in fifteen minutes,” Bruce told Stephanie.

“I thought my heart stopped,” Stephanie admitted in a serious tone. Angela laughed and snorted, causing Stephanie to grin.

Bruce looked over at Angela, “Well, Ms. Spunky, you didn’t last much longer,” Bruce said.

Angela stopped laughing and replied, “You caught me totally off guard.”

“Well, until the next round,” Bruce challenged.

“You will fall asleep next time,” Angela predicted and Stephanie agreed with her.

“Fat chance on that, I call him stud muffin for a reason,” Debbie replied making all of them laugh.

Bruce looked down at Emily sitting between him and Debbie, “Emily will you sit in mama’s lap for a minute?” Bruce asked her. Emily never turned down mama lap time as she climbed into Debbie’s lap. Bruce heard a groan from his right from Sherry and knew he had made a mistake. Then he asked Sherry to climb into Stephanie’s lap which she did.

The trio had questioning looks on their faces but Bruce just held up his hand and called out asking for Paul to come down there for a minute. As Paul was getting up Bruce turned to Angela and Stephanie and said, “Listen to what I’m about to say.”

As Paul headed down, Bruce pulled out Emily’s chair for him to sit in. Bruce wanted Debbie closer because she would make sure Bruce did not lose his temper. When Paul sat down Bruce cut right to the chase.

“Paul, why didn’t you beat the shit out of the congressman and trooper when Jim reported they had hit him?” Bruce asked in a low voice.

“I yelled at them, threatening to get the cattle prod, and they said it wouldn’t happen again,” Paul replied, also keeping his voice low.

“That was not the first time,” Bruce pointed out.

“I know. I only yelled at them the first time,” Paul replied.

“Paul, they are not scared of you. They have nothing to base their fear on with you,” Bruce replied, making Paul wince.

“They’re terrified of Millie and she is just an old black woman. I’m a full grown man,” Paul said raising his voice.

“Keep your voice down please. Now, they watched Millie carve up the other trooper after we finished with him, also knowing that Millie was risking death to do it. They have reason to fear her. Maybe not in a fight, but when they are restrained,” Bruce pointed out.

Paul nodded his head, “Okay I see what you mean but I just wanted to handle it myself since all I have to do is build and run the farm,” Paul admitted.

“That is why I’m talking to you right now. Alone. First I know you have nightmares about dumping those gang members I tortured into the scrap pond. You carry that guilt around and it is nothing to be ashamed of. I know you can kill. I’ve seen you do it but when you see someone you classify as unarmed it becomes a problem for you. Mike is the same way,” Bruce informed Paul.

“At least Mike volunteered to help you, I just bitched,” Paul replied.

“Now, I’m going to tell you something. I am having the congressman and trooper brought in here. I want you to jump on one of the trooper’s legs and break it,” Bruce told Paul as if he was asking to pass the salt.

Paul gasped turning to look and make sure Bruce was not kidding. Looking into Bruce’s face Paul knew he wasn’t. “If I break his leg he can’t work,” Paul replied.

“Make no mistake Paul, that man dies today,” Bruce answered.

“For hitting Jim?” Paul asked.

“Paul, look at it from a distance. The trooper is building his confidence up, asserting himself and losing his fear of repercussions for doing wrong. Right now, he is very dangerous to the clan. When he comes in here he is going to mouth off. He has already threatened my safety, meaning my family,” Bruce replied as Debbie drew in a sharp breath. Bruce looked at her shaking his head no.

“That’s different Bruce,” Paul said setting his jaw.

“No, the first time he hit Jim, he became a threat. I’m not implying that if you would have beat him we might have been able to turn him but we could lose the congressman because of that. I’m sorry to tell you this, but if you can’t break the trooper’s leg, you’ll have to hit the congressman to show him there are consequences to pissing you off. I’m didn’t want to tell you this, but if you would’ve just gotten me, they would have been terrified of you,” Bruce said putting his hand on Paul’s shoulder.

“I just wanted to be seen as tough like all of y’all,” Paul replied.

“I know Paul. That’s why we’re talking. When I bring the trooper in, I want you to jump up and down on his leg until it breaks. Then pick it up and move it around. Remember that man wants to hurt your family and has raped by his own admission. It’s not a person Paul, just an object, a paper target, like the paper targets you threw away for me. Now can you do what I ask and make peace with yourself?” Bruce asked.

Paul nodded his head and looked at Bruce, “Yes Bruce, I can do it and live with myself. It’s only a paper target,” Paul replied.

“Good. The next time someone in reforming punishment breaks a rule, grab a stick and hit them at least three times really hard. Remember it’s only a box that you don’t want to become a target that you have to throw away. You want to use the box later but never hesitate to treat the box as a target if the need to arises,” Bruce informed.

“I understand and thank you,” Paul replied.

“Now, when they come in, I will talk to them and when I nod at you, get up and kick the congressman in the chest and gut several times. Then yell at him that you tried to be nice and look what it got him because he wanted to threaten the clan,” Bruce told Paul.

“When do you want me to attack the trooper?” Paul asked mapping out his attack.

“Oh, I don’t. I’m going to take care of him. I just wanted to make sure you would do what is necessary to protect the clan. I just want the congressman to fear you. Also for everyone here to know you tuck your dick in you boot.” Bruce replied as Millie handed him a plate and his coffee mug.

“Again thank you,” Paul said and before he stood up Bruce grabbed his arm.

“Now when anyone asks you what we talked about, you will tell them you wouldn’t let me gut the trooper and throw him in with the hogs. No one here will ever say otherwise. In case you haven’t heard these two are also my wives,” Bruce said motioning toward Angela and Stephanie. Both of them lifted their chins up when Bruce called them his wives. Debbie smiled at them as Paul stood up and left.

Jim came through the front door escorting the judge over to Bruce and pointed at the floor and Carla kneeled down crossing her hands on her lap looking down. “Why did you bring her in here,” Millie demanded from Jim.

“I told him to,” Bruce answered for Jim. Millie looked at Bruce trying to study him but couldn’t read his face. “Don’t worry. You’ll understand later but I want you to stay here for now,” Bruce assured Millie.

Bruce keyed his radio, “Roving patrols one or two, whichever one of you is closest to the fort, bring the prisoners to the hall this is Big Daddy One.”

“This is patrol two. We are on our way,” a male voice replied.

The entire command table along with the hall turned around looking at Bruce. Bruce stood up and turned his head right and left popping his neck. Everyone at the table except Willie knew what that meant: a whole can of whoop ass was fixing to be opened.

Bruce looked down at Carla, “Carla you will watch what transpires here. Am I understood?” Bruce commanded.

“Yes sir. I will watch,” Carla replied looking up as Bruce walked toward the door.

Mike just looked at Bruce as Bruce leaned over whispering in his ear. Mike’s face went white then turned red and as Mike tried to stand up Bruce put his hand on his shoulder and continued to whisper until Mike nodded.

Bruce turned to the door and waited for the guests to arrive. He didn’t have to wait long as the door opened. The three man patrol led the two in hand cuffed. “Take those cuffs off. It’s day time,” Bruce told the guards, which they did.

Bruce looked at the two saying, “I think I told you two when you saw me you had better be on your knees.” The congressman, Mitch, just fell hard on his knees. The trooper just looked around making sure the floor was clear before he got on his knees.

Bruce solved the dilemma for the trooper as he took two quick steps palm punching the trooper in the gut dropping him on his back. Only a hundred of the clan had watched Bruce deliver justice. The others gasped, having a hard time believing he could move that fast and that violent.

“When I say on your knees, you fall fast,” Bruce said in a calm voice, smiling.

Looking up at the clan Bruce pointed at the trooper then the congressman and judge, “I know a lot of you weren’t here when I passed sentence on these three. I call it a reformation sentence trying to reform them to rejoin the human race. I already have one success. I want everyone here to know, Jim is now a member of the clan and now enjoys all the clan privileges. That is what I was trying to do with these three. By their own admission, they killed innocent people and these two here have raped.” Bruce paused, seeing anger wash over the clan’s faces. “Will the teachers please take the kids under twelve to school and anyone over the age of twelve who doesn’t want to stay, you may leave also,” Bruce said and waited until they left.

Starting up again Bruce pointed at the trooper, “This one here has threatened the clan. Now this is not a democracy, yet,” Bruce stressed ‘yet’. “But what do you think I should do to him?” Bruce asked.

“Kill him!” someone yelled out. “Takem’ to the shop like the others!” another yelled out. Joe and Harry walked up to Bruce from the crowd and stopped beside Bruce as Joe said, “We will go get the torch, the shop is ours today.”

“You better not even think about it old man,” The trooper said from the floor.

Before Joe or Harry could move towards the trooper, Bruce nodded toward Mike who flew out of his seat and started pounding on the trooper. Everyone in the hall just stared in shock as Mike whaled away on the trooper. None of them had seen this side, as Mike grabbed the trooper’s broken arm and twisted it ripping the splint off. The trooper yelled out as Mike stood up and brought down his hand on the trooper’s shoulder. Everyone heard, over the scream, the bone snapping. Standing up, Mike let the troopers arm fall on him and walked back to his seat, bumping knuckles with Bruce as he walked by.

As the trooper whimpered, Bruce looked at the clan, “That is the beginning of his punishment for threatening the clan. Know this, when you are part of this clan and you are threatened, your aggressor’s punishment is swift but does last a long time. This man is going to die today but it might take a while. For him, it will be an eternity. He has threatened my family with death and vile acts. Now the one’s he threatened are now married and the first choice of defending them falls to their spouse,” Bruce said as he walked to the command table and nodded to Paul.

Paul stood up and walked over to the congressman Mitch kicking him in the chest and stomping on his chest twice yelling what Bruce had told him to yell then Paul turned around and headed back to the table sitting back down.

Bruce stopped and looked at the kids sitting in the middle of the table. They all looked up at Bruce wanting to know who was threatened. Bruce’s gaze fell on David who like Jake and Steve was in full gear for the hunting patrol today.

“David he wanted to hurt and do mean things to Mindy,” Bruce told him.

David jumped up out of his chair, knowing the shortest distance to an object is a straight line. Letting out a yell, David jumped up on the table, taking two steps, jumping over Mike, hitting the floor in a dead run. Continuing his yell, David jumped up in the air and folded his legs with his knees pointing down at his target. The trooper looked up in time to see David in his decent and let out a shrill, high pitched scream until the shin guards covering David’s knees hit his chest.

Rolling off, David just attacked in a savage rage, swinging with everything he had, not even caring where he hit. Bruce looked at the other three boys: Steve, Jake and Matt. “I wanted David to get there first, but he actually threatened all of your wives,” Bruce informed them. As one the three stood up and took off to attack the trooper.

Danny stood up as Bruce yelled at her to sit down. “He threatened me. I can attack him,” Danny replied but still sat down.

“No, young lady. First dibs goes to parents and in this case myself and Mike. We deferred. That means it falls to your spouse to deal with the threat. If they don’t want to, then you can,” Bruce told her as he sat down and started eating.

All four of the sons were striking hard, hitting where it hurt the most. Bruce looked up, taking a sip of coffee, to see Steve push the others away, pick the trooper up over his head and body slam him on the concrete floor. The trooper never got a chance to recover as Jake and Matt dropped down on him with their elbows burying them in his chest. David grabbed the trooper’s unbroken arm and wrapped his legs around it putting it in an arm bar. Then, starting at the wrist David started breaking the troopers arm one section at a time.

Bruce continued eating as Debbie turned to him asking, “Bruce, did he really say that?”

“Millie, go ask Mitch what the trooper said and let Debbie know,” Bruce instructed Millie. Millie strode over, bending down talking to Mitch as the boys continued on the trooper.

Millie stood up and walked over to Debbie “Mitch said that the trooper was waiting on his arm to heal, and then he was going to kill y’all and the boys then rape and kill the girls,” Millie relayed.

Debbie started to get up, “No Debbie, it falls to the spouse,” Bruce said.

“You gave a pass, I didn’t,” Debbie replied with blood lust in her eyes.

“Debbie, sit down please. I want the boys to know what it means to defend your family without remorse,” Bruce said with a slight edge to his voice.

Sitting back down, Debbie looked at Bruce, asking, “What about the girls?”

“Danny, Buffy and Mindy already know. The only one left to learn that lesson is Mary,” Bruce replied as the boys continued the beat down. Not one of them had pulled out a weapon yet, wanting to do it with their hands.

Ted turned toward Bruce, “Hey Bruce, I don’t want to spoil the beat down but three of those men are on our patrol. I really don’t want them to get too tired. Can we at least give them a break?” Ted asked, wanting to help.

Bruce could see he wanted in this bad. “Good point,” Bruce replied, smiling as he stood up. “Freeze now,” Bruce bellowed out.

David was still in his arm bar and had just made it to the shoulder when Bruce let out his bellow. Steve had been leaning over the trooper, pounding his face. Now, he was just leaning over him with his right arm cocked back frozen in place. Jake and Matt each had one to the troopers legs in a leg bar, breaking them, starting at the ankles. Matt had made it to the knee while Jake was working on the femur when Bruce called for the freeze.

“I just wanted to tell you that he hates water and gators,” Bruce told the boys. The boys looked at each other, getting up. “Omega, help your team take out the trash,” Bruce said as the rest of Omega ran over to help drag the trooper outside. “Remember we leave in forty minutes,” Bruce yelled before the door closed.

Bruce looked at the hall and saw many faces that had understanding and only a few that held shock. “Make no mistake. This clan is in this to survive the infection. There are no more slaps on the wrist and all are treated as equal. Even I, along with everyone on the command committee, have to follow the rules here. They are simple. But, try to hurt the clan and you won’t be shown any mercy. So here endth the lesson,” Bruce said, sitting back down.

Nancy looked down the table at Bruce demanding, “How did you find out about this?”

“Jim told me,” Bruce replied and he saw Conner and Susan jump.

“Did these two know?” Nancy asked as her faced turned red.

“Mitch did but they were going to kill Carla. That’s why Jim moved her to his trailer. He wanted to protect her. He even took beatings from them to do that. He believes that she can be returned to the human race like he was,” Bruce responded.

“What are we doing with him?” Nancy asked pointing at Mitch.

“Whatever you want. I do believe you sit on the command council,” Bruce replied.

Debbie spoke up, “Bruce, if I remember correctly you said that any infraction and they would have to work naked again and with their hands again. Let us enforce that today.”

“I don’t care,” Bruce stated as Debbie looked at Nancy, smiling.

Susan looked down the table at Bruce. “You like Jim now, don’t you?” Susan asked.

“Well he has proven his worth and likes his job. He has repaid his debt to the clan. I don’t think he will ever repay you. Susan, he will never bother you again. He calls you his past life and is sorry for what he did. Then he told me one of the new women has asked him to sit with her on New Year’s Eve. I told him I didn’t care and gave him clan status. Jim said his only regret is Conner hasn’t asked to marry you yet. Several times Jim said that was the happiest he has ever seen you is when you are with Conner,” Bruce told her with Jim standing behind him looking down at the floor.

Susan just looked at Bruce in shock as she finally managed to get out, “Holy shit!”

Bill looked at Bruce asking, “Why weren’t you the president?”

“Because, they would’ve put me in jail after my first state of the union address. I would’ve showed up with a machine gun and mowed down both houses,” Bruce answered, standing up, getting his rifle and helmet off the wall.

“What are you going to do with this one?” Millie asked pointing at Carla when Bruce turned around.

Bruce looked at Carla then at Millie, “Millie, I think she can be reformed but I leave her fate up to you. If you want her to die or continue her punishment, tell me when I get back tonight. The only catch is if you want her to die, you have to watch”

“That ain’t fair Bruce,” Millie said.

“That’s why nobody in their right mind wants this job,” Bruce answered, kissing the trio and calling Max then walking outside to wait on his team.

Hearing the door open behind him, Bruce turned around to see the hall empty as people headed off to their assigned area to work. Bruce turned back to the west field and saw his team coming back. The drivers and gunners were already in the vehicle waiting on the team. Motors cranked up as the recovery team headed out.

Mike stopped beside Bruce before he headed into mission control. “You be careful out there today brother. It’s already sixty four degrees and it’s not even 0800 yet,” Mike said, putting his arm around Bruce shoulders.

“I will brother. Keep an eye on the wives,” Bruce replied as he keyed his radio, telling Omega to hurry up.

Mike looked at Bruce. He wanted to tell Bruce so bad about Debbie but couldn’t, knowing Debbie was right. Looking at Bruce’s face, Mike could see something was wrong. He’d seen that look before and Mike suddenly went cold. Bruce felt Mike’s stare and turned to face him, “What’s wrong brother?” Bruce asked.

“You tell me? You’re acting weird again like when Alex was killed and when Mindy’s patrol was wiped out,” Mike verbalized his fears.

“Don’t know, but stay alert,” Bruce said as Omega ran up to him and started climbing into the Strykers. Mike grabbed Bruce’s arm making Bruce look at him. “It’s not going to happen today but it’s getting close. Now, I’m going to war,” Bruce said taking Mike’s hand off his arm as he climbed in the Stryker.

Chapter 16

It was 0830 when Bruce arrived at the first location, a large barn sitting out in a field. Right now they were two hundred yards away from it. Looking through his binoculars again with his goggles on was a chore he was getting tired of. Bruce counted sixteen blues milling around the front door.

Bruce keyed his radio, “Base, this is Big Daddy One.”

“Big Daddy One, this is Two,” Mike responded.

“Can you see any other way out of this barn other than the front door?” Bruce asked over the radio.

“That is a negative One. All the other doors are closed,” Mike answered.

“Big Daddy Two, get ready to light this building up with a hellfire if they ruin our surprise,” Bruce reported.

“Copy,” Mike replied as Bruce keyed his radio to talk to the team.

“Alright, Jake set up fifty yards out in the field. Buffy, you stay with him and watch his back. The rest of the team will form up on me and move forward in a ‘V’ formation. Jake, any one of them look like they see us, take’em out. When we reach the barn move up,” Bruce finished his orders as Jake and Buffy crawled out into the field to set up.

Bruce started moving his team out across the field after Jake was set up. Halfway across, Bruce heard the cough of Jake’s rifle firing several shots. Then a noise Bruce never wanted to hear again came from the front of the barn. A loud, deep throated roar that sent shivers up his spine. Another roar sounded from the front, only to be cut off by Jake. “Pivot left and round the corner in the V,” Bruce called out over the radio.

As the team neared the corner of the barn, Mike called over the radio, “Buffy-,” and stopped.

Then Buffy came over the radio, “Daddy Mike, you’re slow.”

Before Bruce could say anything, a group of blues showed up in front of the team. Raising his barrel up, Bruce cleared his lane and lowered it back down, not seeing any more blues. Rounding the corner, Bruce turned to his right facing the front area of the barn. The area around the front was littered with bodies from Jake’s rifle.

“Sniper team, pull up. My team, hold the front,” Bruce called over the radio. Inside the barn roars and growls reverberated off the metal. Looking at the oversized door, Bruce was so not in the mood to go in and get them.

When Jake called saying he and Buffy were set, the blues inside were still just sitting inside roaring and growling. Bruce was getting tired of listening to their shit when he yelled out, “Hey anyone know where I can find some blue pussy? I hear that’s some weird shit.” The roars intensified like they knew what he’d said. Then several dozen charged out the front, none making it more than ten feet from the door. Bruce keyed his radio, “Form a scrimmage line and pull back fifty yards.”

When the team had pulled back Bruce called out over the radio again, “Danny and David go the front and each of you throw a grenade in. David, you throw far Danny, you to the middle of the barn. After the explosion: two sticks; team one left, team two right. Sniper detail: pull up and join.”

Danny and David ran up throwing their grenades in and dropping to the ground. Seconds later two explosions rocked the barn. The line stood up and broke down into two five man teams and entered the building, turning on weapon mounted lights.

Bruce entered the building on the on the left hand side, in the lead of his stick. As soon as he could, he snapped his weapon up looking down the left hand wall. Standing in front of him was a shit load of blues, all just holding their heads as Bruce opened up. The second person in his stack turned facing the area where he was shooting and joined in the killing. When the third person entered, the area was clear and Bruce reloaded, looking beside him to see Ted. From his eyes, Bruce could tell he was grinning.

It took less than ninety seconds to clear the barn. When Bruce turned around to look at his stick, he saw Buffy’s blond hair sticking out from under her helmet as she stood behind him. ‘Damn we need to put her in front just because we can follow her hair,’ he thought. The team walked around executing the wounded when Mike called over the radio.

“You’re not going to believe this, but two blues are standing right outside the door waiting on someone to leave,” Mike informed the team.

“From the outside, right or left side?” Bruce asked Mike.

“Right,” Mike answered.

“Conner and Steve shoot the shit out of the door,” Bruce said, irritated, and both of them just opened up, running bullets, back and forth on the door.

When they were finished Bruce yelled out, “Team counters start! We’re out in thirty seconds. Remember, we’ve been in contact. No removing any gear unless absolutely necessary.” Bruce headed outside to look at the hide and seekers. One was still moving around as Bruce walked over shooting it in the head. As the rest of the team came out, Bruce radioed the Strykers to come and get them. They were still parked a mile away. Waving his hand forward, the team headed toward the road. Observing the team, Bruce thought they all looked like demented forms of Darth Vader with the protective equipment on.

Ted walked over to Buffy patting her on the back as they stopped and waited on the Strykers. “Don’t worry Buffy, we’ll let you kill one or two today,” Ted laughed, poking fun at her.

With the mask covering her face and blonde hair poking out the sides, Buffy looked up at him through her clear goggles. “Why would I want one or two more?” Buffy asked, not understanding as Danny bent down whispering something real quick in her ear and walked away.

“I don’t want a sweet little girl like you to go through all of this and not get to shoot something,” Ted said, laughing.

“I’ve shot nine, bitch,” Buffy replied pointing at the wood line. Ted looked at where she was pointing and sure enough there were nine blues. Only one had made it onto the field. Bruce was looking at them also, and then looked above them at the trees. The whole area was covered in thick pine trees. That’s why Mike had trouble seeing them with the UAV.

Buffy walked up to Ted and for the first time, the little, pretty blonde girl was giving him the creeps. Buffy looked up at Ted, “Don’t worry Ted, I’ll protect you. There’s some toilet paper in the Stryker so you can squat and pee without getting your panties wet. I pull mine out and pee on the wall,” Buffy told him and walked away.

Carl walked up beside Ted, laughing, with the sound muffled by the face mask, “Dude, you just got tagged by a toys-r-us kid.”

“Hey Buffy!” Ted called out when Jake stepped in front of him.

“I wouldn’t dude. Dad hasn’t talked to her about Ranger banter, so she’s taking it for real. She’s faster than you and if she isn’t, Danny is a lot faster than you are. All I have to say is, if Buffy pulls out her switch blade, just run. Your legs are longer so you have the advantage,” Jake said and turned around as the vehicles pulled up.

“Hey Jake, you’re just fucking with me, right? About the knife?” Ted asked, trying to sound cool.

Jake just turned around with no expression in his eyes, shaking his head, as he starred at Ted then turned back around. “Ah shit, you’ve pissed off one of the children of the corn, brother,” Carl said as he walked past Ted.

Ted caught up with Carl, “Hey Carl, switch vehicles with me, let me ride with team two,” Ted requested.

“Hell no! She might just stab my black ass, just because I know your stupid ass,” Carl said, heading to his Stryker.

Ted ran up to Bruce before he climbed in the Stryker. “Hey Bruce, I made your daughter mad. Can I ride in the RG?” Ted asked.

“Why did you make Danny mad?” Bruce asked.

“Not Danny. Buffy,” Ted corrected.

“Aww shit Ted. What the hell did you do?” Bruce almost shouted which only confirmed Ted’s suspicion that Buffy was psycho, just like Danny. Bruce was just off the chart.

“Man, it was only a little Ranger banter,” Ted tried to sound innocent.

“I haven’t taught her about Ranger banter yet,” Bruce told him.

“Yeah, I found that out after, so it’s not my fault. So can I ride in the RG?” Ted asked.

“Ted, the RG is full of ammo and fuel,” Bruce informed him.

“Fuck it! I’ll ride on the roof,” Ted announced.

“No, the blues have been watched dropping on top of vehicles. It was your first fire fight with them. Why did you have to break out the banter? Especially when both of the girls are on the wave,” Bruce demanded.

“They hit the wave?” Ted almost screamed.

“You can’t tell? How many times have you rode dude?” Bruce asked suspiciously.

“I have ridden plenty but I have never seen it on a girl, much less a twelve year old girl!” Ted squawked.

“Okay Ted, Buffy rides in the hell hole behind the driver. Stay beside me in the back. Whatever you do, don’t make any sudden moves and get me shot. Buffy is faster than you and Danny is twice as fast as her. Now if she pulls out her switch blade, don’t look at her. She’s trying to scare you,” Bruce warned.

“Why would you give a little girl a switch blade and what do you mean trying to scare me. That little girl has me ready to piss dust!” Ted admitted yelling.

“Ted, we can’t take off our helmets so I can’t put on a CVC and talk to her until we get to the next area, but I will. Just stay close to me but no sudden movements. Just for your information we did get her Barbie dolls for Christmas but she cut the heads off and made a small totem pole with them,” Bruce said as he climbed inside.

Ted looked down the road and considered just walking back to the farm but it was over twenty miles away and the temperature was close to seventy now. Stomping his foot, he climbed inside. When the ramp closed he scooted over beside Bruce as the Stryker took off.

Lowering his head, Ted just stared at the floor but could feel the eyes of the psycho girls on him. Looking out of the corner of his eyes, Ted lifted his head up until he could see Danny. Sitting less than five feet away from him, Danny was just staring at him without blinking. Ted unconsciously moved the strap of his SCAR and Danny’s hands flew to her weapon.

‘Holy shit that was fast!’, Ted thought as he just looked down and tried to scoot further behind Bruce. Looking up as he scooted behind Bruce, Ted saw Buffy playing with the switch blade. ‘Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, she has the knife out,’ Ted thought.

Ted leaned over to Bruce’s head and yelled, “She has the knife out and I think she wants to sacrifice me for something.” Ted just looked at Bruce, who was looking down at the floor. ‘What the hell? It may be loud in here but he should’ve heard that’, Ted thought.

Ted leaned forward and looked through Bruce’s goggles to see his eyes closed. ‘He’s asleep!’ Ted screamed in his mind as the fifty caliber machine gun overhead opened up on something. Ted looked up at the gunner’s station to see Danny still glaring at him. Glancing back towards Buffy, Ted almost chewed a hole through the door when he saw she had moved up and was now just on the other side of Jake. Ted pushed Bruce up and slid half his body under Bruce. If these girls were going to get him, they were going to have to take their daddy with him.

That was how Ted rode for twenty minutes up, under Bruce. When the Stryker started to slow, Ted had already come to the conclusion he was walking back to the farm. He’d rather face the blues than the two psycho girls. Looking up at Danny, Ted met Buffy’s eyes behind her goggles. She was sitting two feet away from him, still playing with her knife as the Stryker came to a stop.

When the engine cut off Ted yelled out, “Bruce, your daughters are going to kill me!”

Bruce jumped up, “What the hell are you doing under me Ted?”

“You fell asleep and she’s been getting closer!” Ted screamed.

“I told you not to look at her. If you would’ve done what I said she would’ve stayed in the hell hole,” Bruce informed him.

“You didn’t say she was playing some demonic version of red rover!” Ted yelled as he slid over into the corner.

“Buffy, don’t kill him please. I think he’s a pretty good troop,” Bruce informed her.

“He was making fun of me,” Buffy stated.

“Buffy, it’s called Ranger banter. It’s nothing personal,” Bruce said.

“Yeah, Buffy. It’s just playing,” Ted repeated with a quivering voice.

Buffy tilted her head, looking at Ted, “Daddy, if you cut off a tally whacker, will it crawl around on the ground like a worm?” Buffy asked.

Ted screamed as he lunged forward and grabbed Bruce, pulling him over like a blanket. “Bruce just shoot me before she does it. I can live with another Ranger taking me out but not two demented girls!” Ted yelled out.

“Dude will you chill out?” Bruce said, laughing, trying to get up only to have Ted pull him back down.

“She wants to cut off my tally whacker, how can I chill out?” Ted yelled as Bruce pulled himself off of Ted. Ted looked around to see Jake, Bruce and Danny laughing. Buffy was just looking at him but he could tell she was smiling by her eyes. Buffy closed her knife, putting it back on her vest. “Dude that was so uncool,” Ted said to everyone.

Buffy jumped in his lap, almost giving Ted a heart attack. Ted looked down at her as Buffy looked up at him, both looking through full mask. “My Daddy really likes you so that means I do to. It just hurts my feelings when someone teases me about being a good soldier. I’m trying really hard,” Buffy said, looking up at Ted.

Ted threw his head back against the closed ramp gulping down air like he had just run a marathon. “Buffy, I’m here to tell you now, if anyone ever makes fun of you for not being a good troop, I swear I’ll do everything I can to beat the ever living shit out of them,” Ted promised.

Buffy hugged Ted, “I like him Daddy,” she said. Ted put his arm around her, hugging her back. When he looked back forward he was looking into Bruce’s face.

“That’s my daughter and you better remember that you’re twice her age,” Bruce growled.

“Bruce, before I piss you off, I’ll drown myself in a toilet,” Ted stated as the ramp lowered.

Team two was waiting and wanted to know what the holdup was. Bruce told them he would brief them later as team one climbed out. Looking at his map and compass, Bruce headed toward the next assault point, a small farm house a mile away. Bruce led the team in a fast jog so they could take care of business.

It was 1700 as the team moved onto their biggest hit today. Four buildings at once, in a small village forty miles to the east of the farm. This was the fourteenth assault today and everyone was starting to get tired. Together the buildings were supposed to have about a hundred blues in them; two on each side of the only street through the village.

“Okay, team one will take the left buildings and team two the right. We will run by the windows and throw grenades in. Two people from each team will throw two in each building. Then we center in the street and mow down what comes out. If they don’t, we throw more grenades in. If needed the Strykers will come in behind us to extract us,” Bruce instructed.

Everyone nodded and Bruce moved his team to the left side of the road and stopped them. Buffy walked up to Bruce holding a grenade in her hand, looking up at him with pleading eyes. Bruce just looked at her as Buffy put both hands together over the hand grenade, begging. Thinking it over Bruce leaned down, whispering in her ear. “You better throw that damn thing hard because if you don’t it’ll kill us. Do just like you were taught,” Bruce told her. Buffy just nodded and jumped with excitement.

Bruce waved at team two and they returned the wave. Bruce leaned over and pulled the pin on Buffy’s grenade and pointed forward. Buffy was in the lead of team one followed by Bruce then Ted and Danny followed by Jake. Buffy’s run was a fast jog to the rest of the team as she led them to the buildings. Coming to the first one they confirmed the front door was open. When Buffy reached the door she turned her upper body parallel to the door and threw the grenade with all her might. Bruce was impressed with her throw as he threw his and turned his head forward to see Buffy start to stumble and fall.

Leaning out, Bruce grabbed Buffy’s left arm in mid-stride as she started to fall back. Bruce pulled her upright, lifting her off her feet with his right arm. Bruce was really worried about her arm as he started switching her to his left side as they ran past the door to the second building which was also open but a naked blue woman was standing in the doorway.

Buffy was in the middle of Bruce’s chest as he was moving her to his left side and Buffy was looking directly into the door as they ran past. Her right hand had dropped down to her weapon when Bruce grabbed her, picking her up. The SCAR was pointing at the blue in the doorway as they ran past.

The sight of the blue startled her but she quickly regained her composure as she squeezed the trigger saying, “Your titties are ugly.” Buffy’s SCAR was on burst and two of the bullets removed the naked woman’s head.

As the body fell, Danny threw her grenade in the door where the blue was standing just a split second before, followed by Ted’s grenade. When Jake cleared the corner of the second building, the grenades in the first building, exploded blowing out the windows. The teams ran for twenty five yards and converged in the middle of the street.

“Team two rear security, team one forward, Buffy center, Conner rear and Steve forward,” Bruce yelled, turning and waiting on the mob.

After two minutes Bruce got tired of waiting and started lobbing 40mm grenades in the window of the buildings. He could hear the growls and moans coming from inside but they were not coming out even as Bruce lobbed his last grenade in. “Danny on me. Omega, cover us. We’re going to see why they don’t want to come out and play. Ted run the fire team,” Bruce said as he ran to his building on the left.

Bruce stopped at the corner, pulling out a flash bang. He pulled the pin and threw it around the corner into the open door. Seconds later, he heard the boom and wheeled around the corner into the door. There were blues laying everywhere, groaning. Looking at them as he opened fire, Bruce noted blood, or what passed for their blood, coming out of their noses and ears.

Emptying one mag, Bruce dropped it and before the empty hit the floor, he was already loaded and firing. Danny moved off to his left, firing at the blues who were trying to stand up. Dropping his fourth mag when they reached the back of the building, Bruce yelled out, “Danny run and throw another grenade in the next building!”

Danny took off running back to the front of the building with Bruce close behind. When Danny stepped outside she saw four blues crawling out the door. Grabbing a grenade, Danny pulled the pin and threw it through the blasted out window. Danny and Bruce threw their bodies against the building they had just cleared as Danny’s grenade exploded.

The air seemed to leave Bruce’s lungs as the concussion hit them. Bruce’s ears were ringing as he lifted up his SCAR to shoot the four blues that had crawled out. No sooner than he would rest his sight on a blues head, it would explode. ‘What the hell? I never pulled the trigger’, Bruce thought as he looked across the street and saw a couple of blues stagger out of the buildings and fall down on the street. Flipping his SCAR to burst, Bruce raised it up to shoot them and all of the blues just died.

“David come up here and back up Danny!” Bruce yelled but he could not hear his own voice as he took off across the street pulling a grenade off his vest, pulling the pin and throwing it in one motion through the door of the first building across the street. Then pulling a second grenade, he threw it in the second building as he dove to the ground yelling, “Grenade!”

Before Bruce hit the ground, the first one exploded followed by the second. He felt his eyeballs sink in his skull with each explosion. The ringing in his ears stopped but he still couldn’t hear anything. Getting to his feet, shaking his head, Bruce turned to see David follow Danny into the building. Looking at the second building, Bruce took off running at the door before the blues recouped. Aiming at the first blue he saw, Bruce squeezed the trigger and was surprised with a burst taking the blue’s head off. Switching back to semi he started shooting the crawling mass of bodies.

Dropping his sixth mag since he came into the building, Bruce looked up to see a blue step out from a back room and open his mouth at him. As Bruce slammed the new mag in, the blue took off toward him. Raising the barrel up, Bruce knew he was not going to win this one as the blues head exploded.

“I’m such a badass they just drop dead at the sight of me!” Bruce yelled out, wanting the ringing that had returned, in his ears to go the hell away. Seeing another one step out in the back, Bruce watched as its head explode. Bruce grinned, and then he noticed blonde hair on his left as Buffy moved forward shooting the ones on the floor. “Well I thought they did,” Bruce mumbled.

Bruce joined her, moving to the back of the store, shooting everything that was moving or if it still had a head. Changing magazines, Bruce approached the door to the back of the building as another blue stepped into the doorway.

Bruce’s right foot lashed out kicking the blue in the chest. “I didn’t say Simon says bitch!” Bruce yelled shooting the blue. Bruce dropped his SCAR across his chest and pulled out his P90 as he entered the back room. Blues were everywhere back here and they were moving a lot more than the ones up front as Bruce started snapping off shots.

Glancing down, Bruce saw his first fifty rounds were almost gone and a lot of blues were still moving as he felt Buffy push past him. Changing magazines, Bruce noticed Buffy had pulled out her new MP-7 and was working the room from left to right so he started right to left. When Bruce was almost empty again he looked around and was out of targets.

“Buffy let’s pull back. You cover our back!” Bruce yelled, glad he could finally hear his voice, but just barely, as Buffy ran up to him, grabbing his hand pulling him outside. “What’s the problem?” Bruce yelled as Buffy pulled him outside. Looking at the fire team, they were shooting a mob that was just coming from everywhere out of the south as Bruce and Buffy ran to them.

Bruce noticed that Danny and David came out of the building beside the one he and Buffy had just left. ‘Well that means the buildings are clear’, he thought lifting up his SCAR and joined in on the killing. The majority of the blues were coming out of the woods to their left, hitting the road at a dead run.

“Where are they coming from?” Bruce yelled. Ted looked at him and said something but Bruce couldn’t hear it. “Will you sound off like you have a pair?” Bruce yelled.

Carl grabbed Bruce’s shoulder and shouted into his ear, “Church!”

“That Church is four miles from here!” Bruce shouted as he keyed his radio, yelling “Hey are you saving those fucking missiles for a rainy day?”

Looking up, Bruce saw a streak cut across the sky followed by a small explosion but he felt it so it couldn’t have been that small. Bruce flipped his voice switch so he could talk to Mike while he enjoyed the moment. Raising his rifle up, Bruce started to engage targets as he pointed out a Marine’s short comings in life. “I mean what’s the deal Mike? You have a target rich environment and you want to save ammo all of a sudden. See that’s the difference between a Marine and a Ranger. A Marine sits and wonders how many can he kill with this shot, a Ranger comes along and says yeah I get to kill something with this shot. When a Ranger shows up, he wants to kill something. If he can’t kill it, he will try to fuck it. If he can’t fuck it, he will just try to eat it. The moral of the story: Rangers like moving through the land bringing happiness, killing everything we can,” Bruce told Mike as he changed magazines. Even though Mike was yelling obscenities back at Bruce, he couldn’t hear them. Mike only stopped when Ted told him Bruce was having trouble hearing.

Looking down the road, Bruce noticed the blues suddenly started exploding, not the heads, the entire body. Then he felt the concussion on his back and turned around to see the Strykers roll up behind them with the big Ma Deuce rocking. The team turned to run to the Strykers but Bruce bent down and started picking up magazines off the ground. When the team realized Bruce was not going to leave without them, they joined him picking up the magazines. Standing up, Bruce noticed that he could hear again. It sounded fuzzy, like cotton in his ears but he could hear.

Ted ran over to Bruce and yelled, “We have all the magazines! Are you sure you don’t want to take some pictures?”

Bruce looked around, “That’s a good idea!” he yelled back. Carl walked over to Ted and punched him in the gut. Bruce called over the radio for Omega to form up in front of the Strykers and for the Strykers to stay buttoned up but he wanted a driver out to take some pictures.

With the fifty calibers firing just over their heads, the team posed for photographs. Stopping every once in a while to shoot some blues. The photo shoot ended when Debbie came over the air screaming. Nobody knew what the hell she was saying but everyone agreed it wasn’t good. So Omega team climbed into the Strykers and Bruce ordered the drivers to take them home. The ringing in his ears had finally died down.

Flipping his radio back to switch, Bruce keyed the microphone, “Base, this is Omega. We are returning home and we are contaminated. Tell that foxy red head that’s running around there that she gets to try out her decontamination. Hey base there’s usually two women around the red head and they are just as fine. Do you think you can convince them that they are contaminated so they have to strip down too?” Bruce called out over the radio. Team One was rolling around the floor of the Stryker, laughing at Bruce.

“Hello Big Daddy One, this is Mama One. Did you have a good time?” Debbie asked in a pleasant voice.

“Yeah, up until I had a grenade go off too close. Other than that, it was a fun trip. Buffy tried to make friends but it went downhill. Buffy started making fun of their titties. Needless to say, she didn’t make any friends plus, she shot the girl in the face, Mama One,” Bruce informed her.

“Tell Buffy that it’s okay. She’ll make some more friends Big Daddy One,” Debbie replied.

“Well I have to tell you, I caught Danny in a bar. Danny said she just had to talk to this guy and when I told her I was going to tell Matt, she just went in with David and killed everyone. Now I know we have taught her better manners than that,” Bruce replied smiling. He was enjoying this talk with Debbie.

“That’s ok Big Daddy One. We can work with her on that. Now can I ask you one little question?” Debbie asked in a peaceful voice.

“Shoot Mama One,” Bruce replied.

“WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU DOING TAKING PICTURES IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIGHT WHILE BLUES WERE CHARGING YOU?!” Debbie screamed at the top of her lungs.

Bruce looked around the back of the Stryker as everyone had stopped laughing. “These are some good radios to transmit that without breaking up,” Bruce told them.

“I’M FUCKING WAITING FOR YOUR REPLY!” Debbie screamed again.

Bruce keyed his microphone, “Well Mama One, you always tell me I don’t take enough pictures when I go out with the kids and groups of people, so I changed that,” Bruce replied.

“Big Daddy One we will continue this when you get home,” Debbie informed him.

“How’s Little Foot and Little Red taking this Mama One?” Bruce asked giggling.

“Little Foot is foaming at the mouth and Little Red is chewing on the carpet, waiting on your ass. Myself, I’m going to look for the cattle prod,” Debbie answered in a pleasant voice.

“Debbie, you have such a lovely voice over the radio. Will you make sure there are no kids around and we’re starving,” Bruce told her.

“Thank you, baby. Your drivers are to pull around to the barn. The area is set up, see you soon, ‘baby’ and don’t worry, no kids will be around,” Debbie said with assurance.

“Daddy, you’re in so much trouble,” Buffy told him.

“Yeah, Dad. Why don’t you just admit it and tell her you were wrong,” Danny said.

Bruce looked at both of them, “Do I look like I’m worried?” Bruce asked.

“I don’t know? I can’t see your face with you mask on,” Danny replied.

“Well I’m not, but I won’t pull my mask off to show you. Getting contaminated is the only thing I’m worried about,” Bruce replied. Then they rode in silence the rest of the way home. It was 2100 when they pulled into the farm.

By the barn was an area lit up with lights and a huge tarp laid out. The two Strykers stopped and Bruce told everyone to grab their gear because it was going to be cleaned. When the team was standing together Bruce turned to them. “Watch what I do and only do what I do. First, they are going to soak us in chlorine water with our clothes on. Then they are going to strip us one layer at a time and repeat the process. Keep your eyes closed the entire time until they rinse your face off and hand you a towel. Watch me,” Bruce said.

When Bruce started toward the area, Buffy ran over to him. “Daddy, I can’t! They’ll see me naked,” Buffy said.

Danny walked up beside her, “Buffy, it’s okay. Who cares if they look? Now if they look too much or try to touch, I’ll kill someone,” Danny said.

“That’s easy for you to say,” Buffy told Danny with apprehension on her face.

Bruce looked at Buffy, “BB, I’ll go first and will wait for you. I’ll stand between you and everyone else,” Bruce assured her.

Buffy looked at Bruce with doubt when Danny stepped up, “Buffy, I’ll go after Dad and I’ll stand beside you to,” Danny promised.

“Yo little sis, your brothers will go next and we will shield you,” Jake said with Steve and David nodding.

Then the rest of the team stepped up, “Buffy, girl, you don’t be worrying about nothing. We are a team. You go last and we will form a wall of naked bodies around you. If you see someone looking at you and you don’t like it, point them out. We will hold them down and Bruce can pull their nipples off with pliers,” Ted promised her.

“Buffy, your team will be with you,” Bruce promised as Buffy looked around at her team.

Bruce walked out onto the tarp and was hit by a torrent of water on his head and holy shit, was it cold. Three people walked onto the tarp in hazmat suits with Stephanie monitoring their process. When one of them grabbed his helmet Bruce closed his eyes tight as the helmet, with the goggles, was removed. The torrent over his head maintained a steady downpour as the three took off his clothes and boots. The torrent was turned off as Bruce was lathered down by the three. Then the flood over his head came on again, rinsing him off. A hand, that wasn’t in a suit, grabbed Bruce and led him to the side. “Water for your face,” Stephanie said as a stream of water hit his face and stopped. A towel was pushed in his face and Bruce dried it off.

“Stephanie, tell your crew to tell the others to close their eyes. I knew that, but they didn’t tell me,” Bruce said opening his eyes as Stephanie shouted at her crew.

Bruce opened his eyes to see several pissed off faces looking at him consisting of the trio and Mike. Debbie walked up to him, with her two shadows, fixing to unload when Bruce grabbed her shoulders. “Hold that thought. Buffy is scared that people will look at her when she strips. The team is going first and we are going to stand around her. You can yell at me later,” Bruce promised.

“My baby’s scared?” Debbie asked.

“Yeah, she’s worried someone will see her boobies,” Bruce told her.

“Yeah, she was like that at Marcus’,” Mike pointed out.

“That’s right, I had to get her a sports bra and she was okay then seeing-,”Angela stopped then bent down and started untying her boots.

“What are you doing? What do I need to do?” Debbie asked looking at Angela with desperation.

“Buffy didn’t care when everyone had stripped down,” Angela shouted kicking off her boots.

Debbie started ripping off clothes followed by Stephanie as Bruce walked over in front of the lights and called out to Buffy as Jake was led off to wash his face. Bruce started doing muscle poses making Buffy and the team laugh as Steve went in.

Debbie ran up beside Bruce, yelling, “BB, mama’s here baby and look so is Angela and Stephanie!” Angela and Stephanie jumped up and down waving at her.

“You have done this before girl. Remember at Marcus’ farm. No one looked then,” Angela yelled waving at Buffy.

“See BB it’s all good. You have your family and your team here!” Bruce yelled.

“Buffy, Daddy Mike is here with Mama Nancy!” Mike bellowed out from behind Bruce, scaring the shit out of him and making him jump up in the air.

Bruce turned around, “You scared the shit out of me!” he snapped.

“Pussy,” Mike said with a grin.

“Hey Buffy we are waiting for you girl,” Mary said with Mindy, Matt and Tonya beside her. The only members of the family that weren’t standing naked shouting encouragement to Buffy by the decontamination area were those waiting to go through it.

Bruce looked around and saw the women at the towel table stripping down along with the men running the water tank. By the time Ted entered, the only people wearing something were the three in hazmat suits. Bruce turned around to see Willie and Maggie walking up behind the family. Like everyone else they were butt naked.

Seeing Bruce looking behind them Mike turned around, “What are you doing?” Mike asked Willie.

“One of the DECON crew came running through the hall yelling one of Omega team was scared someone would see them naked, people were stripping to show her she wasn’t alone. They asked anyone who wasn’t shy, to strip and head out here. You are fixing to have a whole slew of naked people back here,” Willie informed them.

“This is a clan,” Bruce shouted causing everyone to look at him. They saw pride on Bruce’s face as he spoke, “This is a clan that will survive. Doing what it takes to help each other, no matter what is required. This is what I can lead and win against any odds.”

Pride swelled in his chest as Bruce threw his head back letting out a loud battle cry and everyone around joined in. Around the front of the hall came several hundred people without clothes as Danny walked in for her turn. The crowd kept yelling encouragement around the area as Danny was stripped down. One of the hazmat crew had to grab Buffy and take her back to wait as she ran out ready to start.

As Danny was led off, Buffy ran under the down pour spout. Buffy’s team ran out turning their backs to her, followed by the family. When the clan saw what they were doing they all ran to shield Buffy but they all kept yelling. When Buffy was finished, the water hose was passed through the crowd along with a towel.

When Buffy opened her eyes, she saw all her mamas and sisters drying her off as she shivered. Looking around Buffy smiled at all the people out there for her. Buffy looked up and saw the back Daddy’s shaved head.

“What are you doing Daddy?” Buffy asked shivering.

“What everyone else is doing, making sure no one sees you,” Bruce answered.

“I’m good now. With everyone else here not wearing clothes, no one will look at my boobies,” Buffy stated then added. “It’s cold out here daddy,” Buffy said as Angela dried her hair.

“BB, for one of your clan and team it doesn’t matter as long as you know you have done everything you could for them. And yes, it’s very cold,” Bruce told her, fighting a shiver.

“Daddy will Ms. Millie fix me some hot cocoa?” Buffy asked with excitement on her face.

“BB, I can guarantee it,” Bruce replied.

“Okay she’s done!” Debbie called out and everyone let out a cheer.

The clan started heading back to the hall, most running because it was a bit nippy. Bruce waited as the family gathered up their clothes and gear, his and the teams were being cleaned. Danny and Buffy headed to the hall wrapped up in towels. Bruce, just being Bruce, just stood there with his arms crossed waiting on the trio.

Angela, Debbie and Stephanie walked over to Bruce carrying their stuff. When Angela and Stephanie saw him just standing there they stopped. “Bruce, put something on,” Stephanie told him.

Shocked, he took a step back. “You’re kidding right,” Bruce said.

Stephanie dropped her stuff and walked over to the towel table and grabbed a towel. Then she wrapped it around Bruce’s waist, “If you remember, you’re part mine and Angela’s now. I really don’t want you flaunting that around unless it’s necessary,” Stephanie said as she went over to pick up her stuff.

“Bruce, we just had a bonding moment with the clan. Do you really want your two newest wives running around shanking women?” Angela asked.

“I see that none of you are covered and since that is part mine. If you don’t cover it up, I’ll start running around doing helicopters,” Bruce informed them.

“What are helicopters?” Stephanie asked with a furrowed brow. Bruce reached for his towel to show her as Debbie yelled.

“Bruce! If you run around yelling helicopter, I swear, I’ll remember I’m mad at you,” Debbie threatened. Bruce thought about it, ‘yeah that was a good trade’ as he took his hand off his towel.

“Well get some towels on your bodies then,” Bruce said. The trio dropped their stuff and went to grab towels as Bruce gathered up their stuff.  When they had towels around them, Bruce led them to the hall. Walking in Bruce noticed several large LED TV’s on the wall. Setting their gear down, Bruce motioned to the TV’s.

“They show pictures we have taken here of the clan when a UAV is not up. When a UAV goes up they show the image in here. It was the second most requests we had,” Debbie said sitting down.

“The first?” Bruce asked as one of the kitchen staff put plates out for those that hadn’t eaten.

“The swimming pool. We turned the heater on this morning after you left,” Angela answered.

Bruce sat down and looked over at Buffy, “Did you get some cocoa?” he asked.

“Ms. Millie said she was going to look but she thinks we’re out and they will have to send someone to storage. But I’ll have some for breakfast,” Buffy said, slightly disappointed.

“You’ll have some cocoa BB and let me guess sweet pea, you want some too?” Bruce asked Danny, who just smiled nodding her head. Bruce stood up, heading to the kitchen.

“Bruce, please don’t embarrass us,” Debbie pleaded, but Bruce just continued toward the kitchen. Mike hushed everyone at the table and pointed at Bruce.

Bruce walked up and stood in the kitchen door with his towel around his waist, “Millie, my girls need cocoa!” Bruce yelled out.

“Bruce, we doin’ the restocking after midnight-. Whatcha’ ya doin’ in my kitchen? Where’s my spoon?” Millie yelled out.

“Hey Millie! Look!” Bruce said standing in the kitchen door. Then Bruce opened up his towel shaking his hips shouting, “Helicopter! Helicopter!-,” Millie let out a scream and everyone heard pans hitting the floor.

Debbie just lowered her head, shaking it. Then Debbie stood up. Walking over to the pile of gear, she grabbed a radio, “This is Mama One. I want all roving patrols to go to storage and get some damn cocoa and have it in the hall in ten minutes or I swear Bruce will not have ‘alone’ time for a month.” The cocoa was there in five.

After they were finished eating and drinking cocoa they headed inside. Danny grabbed Buffy telling her to sleep with her and Matt tonight. Mama was probably going to go off on Daddy and Mama had two helpers now. Danny told Buffy she needed to sleep. Bruce was hurt no one offered him sanctuary. Walking into the room, Bruce found the rest of the kids asleep in the bed. Well he was safe for now because fighting with sleeping babies was not allowed. Awake babies, were a different story.

Bruce climbed into bed and was soon asleep. Later that night, Bruce felt a hand somewhere he usually only felt his own but his hands were under his head. Bruce lifted his head up and opened his eyes to see three faces grinning at him. Looking around Bruce didn’t see the kids and he dropped his head on his pillow.

“You guys need help,” Bruce said.

“We are fixing to get some help,” Stephanie replied.

Chapter 17

Debbie woke up the next morning laying on Bruce’s right side. Debbie raised her head up looking at the clock reading 0455. Jumping out of bed, she ran over and unplugged the clock before the alarm went off. Walking back to her side of the bed, she pulled back the covers and saw everyone was naked. Then she looked down and saw she was as well.

Climbing back in bed Debbie sat on her knees looking at Bruce. She rubbed his face then his shaved head smiling to herself as Bruce snored softly. Remembering all the good times they had together Debbie sighed. Looking down at little Angela lying on top of Bruce, Debbie was reminded of the kids sleeping the same way. Debbie ran her fingers through Angela’s hair and caressed her face. Then Debbie leaned over to Stephanie who was curled up next to Bruce sleeping with a smile. Once again Debbie rubbed Stephanie’s face, smiling.

If anyone deserved Bruce, it was Stephanie, but Debbie knew she would never stand up to him, even when it was for Bruce’s own good. Stephanie would stand beside him as Bruce charged the ocean, no matter how futile. She would encourage him as he fought a hopeless battle. That was exactly what Bruce didn’t need, well maybe some time Debbie thought. Angela was the one to offset that Debbie hoped.

Debbie laughed to herself. Who was she kidding? No one was good enough for her Bruce. A tear ran down her face at the thought of the pain that was in his future and the thought hurt her so much. ‘How could a kind God ask for this kind of pain on anyone’ Debbie thought, wiping her tears away.

The dreams were now so vivid she could smell things in them. Strangely, she wasn’t scared. Her dad’s voice was always there, telling her what would happen if it didn’t happen this way. Some dreams were of her, still with the family, but they all died. Others showed her Bruce and the decisions he would have to make. Debbie knew she was going to get shot outside the house. She woke every time she saw the man fire at her, not gasping for air but just surprise. It was like she couldn’t move, yet she wanted to.

Pushing those thoughts out of her mind, Debbie got out of bed and pulled out her red notebook and wrote another letter to Bruce trying to explain what she thought, her latest dream and what she was told. Then Debbie put up her notebook and woke up Angela and Stephanie. When they got out of the bed Debbie leaned close to them whispering.

“When Bruce snores, he’s really tired. The louder indicates just how tired,” Debbie told them.

Angela looked at Bruce then back to them, “Maybe we should’ve let him go to sleep last night,” she said, feeling a little guilty.

Debbie and Stephanie just stared at her, with expressions that spoke volumes, until Angela quietly stated, “Okay! Gosh, I was just saying.”

“How many did you have last night?” Debbie asked Angela.

“I have no idea,” Angela admitted.

“I made it past ten minutes,” Stephanie stated proudly.

“That’s because you went last,” Angela informed her, letting out a snorting laugh.

“Stephanie, you’ve never made it past one. That’s the joy of being a woman. We can have more than one,” Debbie told her.

“I don’t know how you can live through more than one,” Stephanie admitted with wide eyes.

Debbie snickered quietly, “We have to work on that. Come on let’s get the kids out and let Bruce sleep late. I unplugged the alarm clock.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you unplugged the clock? I don’t feel bad now,” Angela told her.

“You have to learn that,” Debbie said.

“I’ve noticed something. Most men don’t mind to be taken care of but, with Bruce, you have to fight him to take care of him,” Angela deducted.

Debbie smiled, feeling a weight lifting off her shoulders. “You’re learning him fast,” Debbie told her.

Stephanie looked at Debbie. Debbie could almost imagine the gears turning in her head as they just stared at each other. “Yeah, but the fastest way to get Bruce to let you take care of him, is act like you are mad at him. If he thinks you’re mad at him, he acts like it’s his idea but he does what you want, which is for him to stop doing stupid shit,” Stephanie concluded.

“What page was that on? I don’t remember reading that?” Angela asked.

“That isn’t in the book. The book only applies to Bruce sometimes. Now I can take that book and dissect almost every man here but Bruce only follows the rules sometimes,” Stephanie said her conclusion.

“Okay, why did you say that about making Bruce think you’re mad at him?” Debbie asked Stephanie.

“Debbie, come on, you weren’t mad at Bruce; scared, yeah. But you weren’t mad at him,” Stephanie told her.

“You weren’t mad?” Angela asked in disbelief.

“No,” Debbie replied.

“Well now I know how to stop that shit. My heart almost stopped, watching Bruce just play around with blues everywhere. I was ready to tell Bruce we were under attack to get him back,” Stephanie stated.

Debbie smiled, “You two fit this family perfect. Now, I have a surprise planned for Bruce. Y’all want to help?”

“Yes,” they replied together.

“Let’s get the kids,” Debbie said and they got dressed and then grabbed the kids.

It was six thirty as the trio sat in the hall at the command table going over their list as the rest of the command group sat down at the table. All the kids were running around the hall as Nancy sat down beside Debbie, “Can I hang with you guys today please?”

Debbie looked up at Nancy in shock, “Nancy, you don’t ever have to ask. Just come on.”

“Well, y’all look so purpose driven. I didn’t want to interrupt,” Nancy told her.

Angela looked at Nancy, “Nancy, I’ve only known you like a friend for a few months but I love you with all my heart.”

“Thank you Angela,” Nancy told her.

“Hey Nancy, I’m not good enough anymore?” Mike hollered down the table.

“I’m talking with girls Mike, leave me alone,” Nancy replied.

“Where’s Bruce?” Mike asked. All the guys turned and looked down at Debbie.

“I unplugged the alarm clock. I wanted him to get some sleep,” Debbie replied.

“Aw he needs to get some nite-e-nite time,” Ted smirked.

“Let’s find him a diaper and a bottle,” Carl added, sending the table into a laughing fit.

“No, actually we had him awake, gang raping him until 0400, riding him like a cheap bicycle,” Debbie shot back. The laughter stopped immediately. Ted dropped his fork as it was on the way to his mouth hitting his plate with a loud clank. He and Carl just gawked at the trio.

Willie laughed and looked down the table as his wife, Maggie, hit him on the shoulder telling him to stop. “Debbie, I want to ask you something. I couldn’t help but notice the human tripod last night. How do you do it? Take a running jump?” Willie asked, laughing, hitting the table with his fist then picked up his coffee.

Debbie was thinking of a comeback but didn’t have to as Stephanie answered, “Well since you ask, Debbie lays down and Bruce mounts her. Then Angela and I sit on either side of Bruce, slapping his ass until it goes in.” Willie coughed in his coffee, spilling it over his chest. Then he turned to Stephanie, not believing what he heard.

Stephanie continued, “Now with Angela, it’s a little harder. I thought Bruce punctured her liver last night we spanked his ass so hard to let her have it. Me, I like it when they pour candle wax on my nipples as they spank him. It helps cover the pain but it does feel good. Have you ever had those problems Willie, giving or receiving?” Stephanie asked, smiling at him. Willie gawked at Stephanie in pure shock then just stood up, grabbing his plate and walked to put it up. “Hey! I haven’t finished! You wanted to know!” Stephanie yelled out. Willie turned around looking at her as if she were menacing apparition. Then Willie turned back around picking up speed so he could hurry up and leave the hall.

Maggie looked at Stephanie and smiled with genuine pleasure, “Thank you for shutting him up. You’re the first.”

“They are all like that Maggie,” Debbie told her. Debbie noticed Ted and Carl just staring at Stephanie with open jaws. When Debbie looked at Stephanie, she was just returning their stare with a smile on her face.

Angela stood up holding her stomach, “Debbie, I’m not going first tonight, one of you two can. Bruce is a little too rambunctious when we start,” Angela said.

“You passed out Angela. Quit bitchin,” Debbie told her, trying not to smile.

Stephanie was still looking at Ted and Carl smiling. “You two want to come and watch? I’ll let you pour the wax, because, that’s, the only way, I think you two can play with us. We play with the big boys,” Stephanie told them. Ted and Carl just jumped up and left, not even bothering with their plates.

Nancy gasped when they were gone, “How could they say that? Then how could you reply like that? I know we say stuff like that but we’ve known each other for years.”

“Nancy, I put up with that for years and learned how to shut them down fast. It doesn’t mean anything. It’s just playful banter. Remember they are warriors and it’s just their playful way. You really want the banter because you know they accept you and love you. A word to the wise: you’ll have to do the same for Mike one day soon so, be ready and don’t show weakness or anger. They will think you are soft and keep at it to pick at you. I’ve been expecting it but I wasn’t expecting so much back up though,” Debbie smiled at Stephanie and Angela.

“I just followed her lead,” Angela said motioning toward Stephanie.

“Page 281: in an alpha male setting, others will try to show dominance over a rival or equal male’s female by making them show weakness. Weakness shown will be deferred to the male,” Stephanie replied.

“Bruce wouldn’t say that,” Debbie stated with certainty.

“I know, he used ‘meat eater’ but we’re all carnivores, so that’s stupid,” Stephanie replied.

“That sounds like him,” Debbie said laughing.

“I’m staying with you guys. Please don’t make me leave,” Nancy pleaded.

“You’re hanging with us girl,” Debbie told her, putting her arm around her.

It was 0710 when Bruce finally came into the hall. His vest was just hanging on him as was his rifle. Bruce hung them both on the wall and collapsed in his chair. Looking up at the table, Bruce saw Mike sitting at the other end alone. “Who the hell did you piss off now to be sitting down there by yourself?” Bruce asked looking at Mike.

“Nobody,” Mike replied.

“Well come on down here then,” Bruce told him.

“Nope. I’ve watched three grown men castrated this morning, from the women at that end of the table. I’m not about to make it four. They were all hard chargers and I just wanted to warn you. One troop was really embarrassed. Payback is coming at ya. Be ready and let me know if you need back up,” Mike said, standing up, winking.

“Who?” Bruce asked. Mike just looked at Willie’s chair then back at Bruce.

“Thank ya bro,” Bruce said, Mike nodded and left the hall.

Bruce looked at the trio, “What the hell did y’all do?”

“Baby, it was just Rangers trying that gross out the girl routine,” Debbie told him.

“It’s called ‘Meat Eater Domination’ baby,” Bruce said as his coffee and plate were set down.

Debbie slapped the table, “See! I told ya Stephanie!”

“I told you it was meat eater but alpha male sounds better,” Stephanie replied.

“I don’t even want to know what you two are talking about. Just tell me, Debbie, you at least held your ground,” Bruce asked as he started eating.

“Held my ground?” Debbie scoffed. “Oh, I hurt their feeling but Stephanie and Angela made all three leave the table. You would’ve been proud of them,” Debbie said with pride.

“What do you mean ‘would have’? Those boys are seasoned vets. If these two made them run, that’s all that matters,” Bruce said, as he stopped eating, his face filled with pride. Then Bruce looked at Angela and Stephanie, “I’m proud of you two.”

“But Bruce, what we did demands payback. ‘If a trooper’s significant other embarrasses another trooper, he’s held liable for their actions. Payback is a given’,” Stephanie said.

Bruce looked at Stephanie then looked at Debbie, “How can you recite that much about what happened almost twenty years ago?”

“I let her read my journals,” Debbie said quickly, with an alarmed look on her face.

Bruce laid his head down. “Now she knows everything about me,” Bruce whined.

“Baby, it’s already proven a great benefit. Those three ran out of here like whipped dogs,” Debbie pointed out.

Bruce sat up quickly, pointing his index finger at Stephanie. “I didn’t kill her fucking goldfish,” Bruce stated.

“Yes you did,” Debbie replied, looking at Stephanie, letting her know to just go with it.

“Bruce, Debbie outlines it real good in her journal. I have to agree with her,” Stephanie replied very timidly with her lie.

Bruce got up and walked over, getting his gear heading to the door, “Your goldfish just died! How could I have killed a goldfish?” Bruce yelled walking outside.

“He killed your goldfish?” Angela asked when Bruce walked out.

“No, it just died. But I needed something that I could throw in his face,” Debbie informed her then saw a look of shock on Angela’s face. “Give me a break. We’d only been married two years,” Debbie said.

“What about Willie retaliating on Bruce?” Stephanie asked with concern.

Nancy laughed, “Don’t worry about Bruce when it comes to practical jokes. You might get him once if you are lucky but everyone will surrender to Bruce in the end. I have surrendered for Mike several times.”

The group left to start the day’s work as Omega went to grab their cleaned equipment. It was almost noon when the clan started gathering for lunch in the hall. Everyone was sitting down at the command table when Bruce came in. Bruce stopped behind Conner and looked at Willie.

“Are you sure you want to do this? Once you start, I will finish this and will only accept your surrender to stop,” Bruce replied, looking over the table at Willie.

Willie looked up, smiling, “I have no idea what you are talking about. Besides I have never surrendered or been had.”

“I’ve already got you,” Bruce replied. A shocked expression took the place of Willie’s smile. “So you really want to do this?” Bruce asked.

Willie quickly regained his composure, “I’ll accept your surrender in writing.”

Bruce turned and walked to his chair. Grabbing his chair, he lifted it off the floor and held it up, removing small blasting caps off the bottom of the legs of the chair. Willie let out a sigh of disappointment as Bruce put his chair back down, then, hung his gear up on the wall. Sitting down, Bruce just looked at Willie with a shit eating grin. Willie looked around to see if he could find anything out of place as lunch was served.

Thirty minutes later Willie grabbed his stomach. Willie stood up so fast he knocked his chair to the floor and ran for the bathroom at the back of the hall. Everyone at the command table turned to look at Bruce, who just stood up and walked over to one of the large LED TV’s on the wall. Reaching out, Bruce turned the channel. On the screen, the hall could see and hear Willie sitting on the commode. Holding on to it for dear life with his legs held straight out in front of him yelling. Willie’s body shook as his bowels expelled out his soul, holding onto the commode with a death grip afraid he would launch, Willie howled. Bruce turned around and walked back to his chair and sat down.

Stephanie looked at Bruce with amazement, “How did you know which plate of food Willie was going to get?” She asked.

“You don’t go after food like that. Your target might share it with someone and to have collateral damage in a prank war is unforgivable,” Bruce told her as he started eating. The whole command table was just staring at him with open mouths. Bruce looked at Angela and Stephanie, “From now on the door to the bedroom is to be locked and no one can go in until I do, the same for the armory,” Bruce said.

“I’m sure Willie can pick a lock,” Angela stated.

“I know he can but that’s to keep the kids out so they don’t get caught up in this. Also don’t touch anything of mine until this is over,” Bruce replied.

“How did you get him?” Stephanie asked.

“His Camelback mouth piece an hour ago. I put just enough on it for one person,” Bruce replied as he continued to eat.

“What were those under your chair?” Stephanie asked.

“Small caps, they would have gone off when I sat down. It would have sounded like several large firecrackers,” Bruce replied.

“How did you know?” Buffy asked.

“My chair was sitting higher and I had that done to me when I was stationed in Korea,” Bruce answered.

Ted and Carl looked at each other, then at Bruce. “We surrender now,” Carl replied and Bruce just nodded at them.

“Omega team we are guarding the work detail at the north end of the property cutting down trees,” Bruce informed everyone. Those at the table just nodded in silence and went back to eating.

After lunch, Bruce, along with Omega team, left in full gear to guard the work detail expanding the killing zone to three hundred yards. The work group was over a hundred people on the north side of the farm. They had already cleared the trees out to three hundred yards from the farm, to the neighbor’s property. Bruce set the team up here in the neighbor’s field with the Strykers and two micro UAV’s up. Behind them chain saws roared while trucks pulled out the logs. Paul wanted to save the logs that were straight for a fence around the truck depot at the end of the road. Looking around at the area they were going to cut down, Bruce knew that was going to be a shit load of trees.

Bruce was standing on top of a Stryker, looking at the far tree line through binoculars as Ted looked up at him. “Bruce, I just want to say your family is beyond bad ass,” Ted said, making conversation.

“I wanted them to be ready if anything ever happened,” Bruce answered.

“Well they are. The trust you show them is beyond anything I have seen besides the teams,” Ted replied.

“They are my team,” Bruce pointed out.

“Just as they are mine but you have a twelve year old girl covering you that just started her training. Then your kids preform at a level most high level operators would be jealous of,” Carl interjected, joining the conversation.

Bruce jumped off the Stryker and looked at the two, “That is what I expect from everyone here including you two. That is why I was not worried yesterday during the patrol.”

“You take ‘meat eater’ to a whole new level,” Ted acknowledged laughing.

Bruce smiled as his radio went off, “Big Daddy One we have contact moving toward you from the north. Looks to be about fifty, ten miles away running right at you,” mission control called.

“You just found them? Ten miles from us?” Bruce asked with a pissed off tone.

“They were moving through the pine forest to the north and we saw them when they crossed a field,” mission control replied.

“Okay, call the work crew in. Omega will handle this,” Bruce replied then looked at the team. “Jake get out the boom box and turn up the volume,” Bruce said, then stopped, looking at everyone. “Omega, stand down. Buffy, Danny, Jake and David get on top of the Stryker for cover. Everyone else, stay right here. Steve, if anyone tries to help, shoot ‘em in the leg,” Bruce said walking over to the laptop with a UAV image on it. The mob was moving through a hard wood forest now running through the trees.

“What the hell are you going to do?” Conner demanded, more than a little worried.

“Going to give them some motivation to enter the field,” Bruce replied turning to look at him.

Conner looked at Bruce in shock, “Whatever you’re planning, let’s not do it.”

“I’m going to show you the trust I expect and demand from my team,” Bruce said as he unbuckled his vest, dropping it to the ground along with his rifle. Walking into the field armed only with a boom box, Bruce turned around addressing the team. “If more blues show up Steve, deploy the remainder of the team but these are mine,” Bruce told them, then looked up at the four on the Stryker, “Cover me.”

Bruce walked out fifty yards and looked at the far tree line about two hundred yards away. Setting down the boom box, Bruce cranked up the volume, playing loud metal over the open field. Mission control called back six minutes later, informing Omega that the work crew was in.

Steve replied, asking, “Copy that mission control. Do you have sight of anymore moving around us?”

“This is Mama One, where is Big Daddy One?” Debbie asked over the radio when Bruce didn’t reply.

“Big Daddy One is in the field playing an air guitar to heavy metal. Sounds like AC/DC,” Steve replied watching his dad play an imaginary guitar dancing around.

A few minutes later, four buggies with a group of people pulled up to the Strykers. Debbie jumped off one, running over to Steve, “What the hell is he doing?” she asked chambering a round in her rifle as the rest of the family joined her.

“Putting on a concert and Mom don’t engage. Dad is demonstrating trust to the team. He told me not to let anyone else fire but them,” Steve said pointing at the four on the Stryker.

Stephanie moved to join those on the Stryker but Debbie grabbed her arm, “Don’t. He’ll blame Steve. Just trust him, even if he is crazy bordering on stupid,” Debbie advised.

“Four hundred yards until contact,” Conner called, looking at the laptop.

Those who had just joined looked at Mike for an answer. Mike started unbuckling his vest and dropped it to the ground along with his rifle, “Matt and Mary get up on the Stryker with them. Everyone else, play cards,” Mike said as he took off running for Bruce. “I want to play lead guitar!” Mike yelled out as he ran to join Bruce.

When Mike joined Bruce they both started playing imaginary guitars in unison as Danny yelled out, “Contact!” The duo never acknowledged it, as they kept playing and dancing like they were performing for an audience of thousands. Bullets whizzed over their heads and around their bodies into the mob but they never stopped.

The group started getting nervous as the mob started advancing toward the two at a sprint. When the mob had made it halfway, over half their numbers were down but they were starting to converge on the air guitar playing duo. The last one fell less than ten yards from the concert performers. When the song ended, the duo bowed toward their audience of blues. When none of the blues clapped for the concert they had performed, Mike and Bruce mooned them. Laughing, Mike grabbed the boom box as they headed back to the group. Mission control called the area clear and for the work crew to head back out.

As Mike and Bruce joined the group they knuckle bumped as Debbie said with attitude on her face, “I’m sure your audience was pleased even if that was the most idiotic thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Hey! Some of the girls showed us boobies,” Bruce pointed out, grinning.

“I’m thrilled,” Angela said in a flat tone and face.

A small blonde, in a full fury, jumped off the Stryker heading toward Bruce. “Are you fucking crazy!” Buffy screeched at the top of her voice.

Startled, Bruce turned to look at Buffy. All he heard was a screech without words coming from her. On Buffy’s face he could see fear, anger, shock and a few other emotions he didn’t know. “What’s wrong BB?” Bruce asked.

“Are you out of your fucking mind Daddy?” Buffy screamed even louder.

Bruce still couldn’t be sure Buffy was talking but he thought he heard her cussing at him the last time. “What is it and please talk so I can understand you,” Bruce asked.

Breathing hard, Buffy looked at Bruce like she was fixing to hit him. Taking several deep breaths she yelled in a voice he could understand. “Are you fucking crazy?”

“Buffy, you watch your mouth when you talk to me, young lady,” Bruce said with steel in his voice.

“You know I can’t shoot that far at a moving target, Daddy!” Buffy screamed again.

“But you did,” Bruce pointed out.

“I used all ten of my fucking magazines!” Buffy screamed again.

“Watch your mouth last warning,” Bruce warned.

“I don’t care. I’m not talking to you today,” Buffy replied in a normal voice turning around.

Danny grabbed Buffy’s arm, “What’s wrong? That was cool.” Danny told her.

Buffy snatched her arm away, “I’m not talking to you today either,” Buffy told her. Buffy walked over to Jake grabbing his wrist pulling him with her toward the farm, “Bubba teach me how to shoot a long way in case he does that shit again.”

As Buffy pulled Jake back to the farm, Bruce took a step toward her to give her a piece of his mind. Debbie stepped in front of him, “Back off. You had no right to put that kind of responsibility on her. If something would have happened to either of you, she would have felt responsible. The only thing you had to defend yourselves with was a boom box,” Debbie said as her face flushed with anger.

“Hardly,” Bruce replied, lifting up his shirt to show Debbie a pistol on a belly belt. Not seeing the expression change on Debbie’s face Bruce nodded. “Okay, I’ll tell her I’m sorry later but she did great,” Bruce informed her.

Debbie smiled, “Okay, I’ll take that, just to let you know. That’s my child.” Debbie told him then explained, “She still has some semblance of fear and sanity left.”

“You have to admit it was a kick ass concert we put on,” Mike stated.

“Yeah, I’m thrilled,” Nancy said in a flat tone and narrow eyes.

Mike just blew her off as Bruce laughed, “Angela, Stephanie and Mindy go find them and let Jake teach you today. Matt you go help,” Bruce instructed. “Well since y’all are here, you just got recruited for guard duty,” Bruce told the others.

As the work crew started working again the team spread out to guard them. The workers pulled out the straight trees while chopping up the others making huge burn piles. When the weather turned cold again they would burn them in place. Another small pack of sixteen blues was spotted several hours later. Bruce took Omega, with Max, to meet them. Max stayed right beside Bruce and long before Bruce could see the group, Max let out a low growl with his fur standing up on his back.

“Good boy,” Bruce replied patting Max. When the pack was a hundred yards away, they were cut down and Bruce rejoined the others with Omega.

The work crew quit at 1745 and when they were back inside the fence, Bruce and his team crossed the creek in the Strykers and buggies, heading to the hall. Walking inside, Willie never took his eyes off of Bruce. Bruce just smiled at him.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get you back double now,” Willie promised.

Before Bruce could reply Mike responded, “Not likely.”

True to her word Buffy didn’t talk to Bruce for the rest of the day, even after he told her he was sorry. When she climbed into bed, she just kissed him and went to sleep. She did forgive him the next day.

Chapter 18

It was over a week later when Bruce woke up still filling the apprehension in his gut. Today, Bruce was nervous because it was flight day for him, January 6th. Last night he could barely sleep with the knots in his stomach. It had been a long time since he had been nervous about anything but he sure was today. Looking at the clock, reading 0440, Bruce got out of bed and headed to the shower. Instead of working out today, he was going to do some flights in the simulator again. Taking off his clan ID band and setting it on the counter with his watch, Bruce turned on the water.

Sunday they had given out the final bracelets to every member of the clan. They were pieces of a canvas belt that had a buckle, to be worn on the wrist. On one side was a bar code that could be scanned when you ate and worked out. Later this week, you would be scanned when you showed up for work and class. This way everyone had to perform to eat. Your hours were logged at whatever you were doing and the clan had a record of what you could do and what you needed to learn.

Bruce stepped into the hot shower, wanting the tension he was feeling to go away, but it didn’t. After showering and shaving, Bruce stepped out and dried off. Walking into the bedroom Bruce stopped. Everyone was awake, standing beside the bed, looking at him, smiling.

“What?” Bruce asked feeling even more nervous now.

“We have something for you,” Debbie said. Angela and Stephanie turned around, each pulling up a flight bag holding it out for Bruce.

Bruce took them, opening up one to find an olive green flight suit. Pulling it out, Bruce found it had his name tag sewn in, along with a Ranger tab. Over the suit were various other items, sewn in, that weren’t military. Over his heart were three small braided locks of hair, sewn in place, one from each of the trio. On the left sleeve were several one inch square patches of cloth, nine in total, sewn in. Reaching into the other bag Bruce pulled out a flight helmet with ‘Stud’ painted across the back.

Smiling Bruce wrapped his arms around everyone hugging them at once. “Thank you guys,” Bruce said.

“You like it?” Angela asked.

“I love it,” Bruce replied and the kids started jumping on the bed, except PJ. He just bounced as everyone jumped. Bruce pointed to the little square patches, looking at the trio.

Debbie smiled answering, “When each of us cut a small lock of hair off and put it on your suit the twins wanted to do something. So we let them choose a piece of cloth that they had worn to sew on. When the others found out, they wanted to do that as well. We picked out PJ’s of course even after he ate Danny’s first square.”

Bruce looked at the squares running his fingers over them and counting them. Counting nine again, Bruce started going through his mind, to see who he had forgotten. Steve, Jake, Danny, Buffy, Emily, Sherry, Mindy, and PJ, that was eight. Who else had he adopted? Bruce wondered. Angela put her hand on Bruce’s forearm seeing him counting.

“One is from Cade,” Angela said answering Bruce’s thought. “You’re like his Dad now,” Angela replied looking down.

Bruce reached out lifting her head up to him, “I know that girl but with three wives and a passel of kids, I tend to forget my name on occasion now. I didn’t want to admit this, but I forgot all three of your names yesterday,” Bruce told her.

“As long as you remember who we are, I don’t care about the name part,” Stephanie said making everyone laugh.

Bruce got dressed as everyone started showering, then grabbing his stuff, left for the simulator. Stepping outside, the cold air bit into any exposed skin as Bruce tried to cover it up. The weather had gotten cold again even giving them some sleet two days ago. Moving at just short of a jog, Bruce headed to the barn. Opening the bottom door, Bruce walked over to the stairway inside, since all the equipment had been moved into the new machine shop.

Turning on the computers and warming up the simulator, Bruce strapped his flight pad to his leg and climbed inside. Practicing take offs and landings then basic turns for two hours, Bruce felt he was as ready as he was ever going to be. Leaving the simulator, Bruce headed to the hall for breakfast. He didn’t like throwing up on an empty stomach.

Walking inside, Bruce looked his area over and didn’t see anything suspicious so he sat down. Willie hadn’t tried anything in two days and Bruce had a feeling that Debbie was behind that. The last thing Willie had tried was a paint bomb that Willie had put in his Stryker. Bruce had spotted it then returned it leaving it under Willie’s helmet while he was training the new class. When Willie picked up his helmet it went off covering him in yellow paint.

That night Bruce snuck into Willie’s room and filled his boots up with cow shit then put a small sheet of plastic at the bottom to help cover the smell then poured in baking soda. Willie was not happy when he put on his boots the next morning. The years Bruce had spent in the Army had taught him to watch out for pranks because he had been hit with most of them.

As Bruce sat down in his chair Debbie, asked Bruce, “Nervous huh?”

He jerked when she spoke to him. “You could say that and be very accurate,” Bruce replied, then took a sip of coffee.

“You’ll do great Bruce,” Stephanie predicted.

“It won’t do any good, Stephanie. When Bruce is out of his element, he gets nervous. He didn’t sleep for two days before he took state boards for his nursing license,” Debbie told her.

“Well it makes me feel good that Bruce can get nervous about something,” Angela replied.

“Which one are you flying today Daddy?” Buffy asked.

“The Loach,” Bruce replied.

“I like the egg shaped one,” Buffy told everyone.

Debbie grabbed his hand, making Bruce look at her. “Baby please be careful and remember you are just starting out, no stupid shit please,” she reminded Bruce.

“Baby, I’m so nervous right now that if I tried to fart all that would come out would be dust. Don’t worry about stupid shit,” Bruce confided in her.

“Bruce, I know you, and when you see you have the basics, you go crazy,” Debbie replied.

Bruce just scoffed as Stephanie added, “Just do what she asks, please, because I have to agree with her. A helicopter does not offer a huge blanket of security.” Bruce laughed as they ate breakfast.

The two trainers had flown all the helicopters over the last four days. Jimmy was Bruce’s instructor and was a pilot in the Army for the Apache. He had flown every helicopter in the current inventory. The other instructor was Pat and he had learned to fly in the Army as well. Before the fall, he was flying an air ambulance.

After breakfast, Bruce left, followed by the family. Walking to the Loach behind the barn, Bruce climbed in and started rehearsing in his mind what he needed to do. Then Bruce remembered he didn’t do his walk around. Climbing out cussing, Bruce walked around the helicopter, checking the links and blades. Seeing nothing wrong, he climbed back inside.

When the other door opened to the cockpit, Bruce almost jumped out as Jimmy climbed in. “Glad to see you do your walk around. I forgot that my first time,” Jimmy said as he started buckling in.

“Jimmy, you scared the shit out of me. Can’t you at least act a little nervous?” Bruce stated buckling himself in.

“No, I can fly and if I say get your hands off they better get off,” Jimmy replied looking at the helmet beside Bruce. “You aren’t supposed to give yourself a flying handle,” he stated, pointing at the helmet.

“I didn’t. Debbie and the girls did. You can take it up with them,” Bruce challenged putting on his helmet.

“Nah that’s quite alright, I like my testicles right where they are,” Jimmy responded. Bruce laughed and Jimmy stated, “Okay, start it up and let’s do this.” Bruce focused on his task as he went through his check list and started the Loach up. If he would have been paying attention, he would have noticed a lot of people watching him, standing out in the cold.

After start up, Bruce placed his feet on the pedals, grabbed the collective and stick. Bruce raised the Loach up in the air with a shaking gait. Jimmy’s hands never left his controls as he told Bruce what to do. The little Loach rose up into the air, wobbling in place like it was scared because its pilot was. Rising above the barn, Jimmy had Bruce bank right and fly off to the east. Circling around, they flew over Marcus’s farm, then, headed out to the lake. Flying around for an hour, they returned to the farm to refuel and headed back out.

This time out, Jimmy didn’t put his hand on his controls and he called out maneuvers for Bruce to do. When their fuel was at ¼ of a tank, they returned to refuel and headed back out again. Now Bruce could make it hover without so much wobbling around and could bank in a smooth turn. Returning to the farm, Bruce set it down with a soft touch, afraid he was going to break it if he sat it down too hard.

Bruce shut down the Loach as Jimmy looked over at him. “Bruce, I have to say you’re the best student I’ve ever seen. It took me weeks to get where you’re at now,” Jimmy said, smiling.

Bruce took off his helmet. His head and face were covered in sweat. His collar was soaked as was his armpits. He felt like he had carried the damn helicopter around and not flown it. Looking at Jimmy all he could manage was, “Thank you,” in a very dry, hoarse voice.

“Let’s eat and this afternoon, we’ll take a Black Hawk up,” Jimmy informed him.

“What?” Bruce cried out in a parched and cracked voice.

“You’ll do fine. It just has more equipment and the GPS doesn’t work without the satellites of course but I can show you the radar and color map display,” Jimmy responded.

“I thought that was for next week?” Bruce asked trying to wimp out.

“Nah, you’re ready now,” Jimmy said as he climbed out.

Bruce just sat in his seat and watched Jimmy walk away. Feeling exhausted, Bruce was tempted to shoot at Jimmy. Not to hurt him, just scare him, but decided that wouldn’t be cool. Gathering his stuff, Bruce climbed out as several people came over to start getting the Loach ready to fly again. The flight suit Bruce had on was soaked in sweat and even with that he still did not feel the cold as he headed to the hall to eat. Walking in, a lot of people clapped as he headed toward his table hanging his stuff up, he just dropped down. Reaching out, he grabbed his glass of water and drained it.

“Baby, you look like you ran two marathons,” Debbie said looking at Bruce.

“I feel like it,” Bruce replied, after draining her glass of water too.

“What’s it like Daddy, to fly a helicopter?” Danny asked with wonder.

“Like riding a unicycle balanced on a basketball, patting your head, rubbing your belly while reciting the dictionary,” Bruce informed her, grabbing Stephanie’s glass of water. Danny just looked at Bruce in shock. “Let’s just say you have to stay on your toes. The only time I actually enjoyed the flight was the last fifteen minutes. I actually looked outside my side window for nothing but pleasure,” Bruce told her, getting Angela’s water.

“Well, go take a shower and take a nap Bruce. You earned it,” Stephanie told him grabbing his hand.

“Can’t. We’re taking up a Black Hawk after lunch,” Bruce replied and everyone at the table quit talking.

“I thought that was for later?” Debbie asked.

“Jimmy thinks I’m ready, so we’re going up today,” Bruce replied without emotion.

“Bruce, I think you need to rest,” Angela informed him.

“I will be fine but I will be in a coma tonight. I’ve never had to concentrate on something so hard in my life,” Bruce said as he started eating.

When Bruce and everyone at the table finished lunch, Bruce headed behind the barn to fly a Black Hawk. Seeing Jimmy walking around one, Bruce walked over and joined him in the walk around. Getting inside Bruce went over the startup check list Jimmy had given him. Looking over his right side, at the shit load of switches with small displays, Bruce started getting panicked with their presence. Looking to his front, his mood didn’t improve as Jimmy went over the electronic readouts that were manual in the Loach. The simulator for the Blackhawk had them but you were secure knowing you were not leaving the ground.

As Jimmy talked Bruce’s fear died down, realizing that this was just more electronics and fewer dials. When the engine came up to speed, Bruce lifted the Black Hawk up. The first thing he noticed was it handled like a box truck unlike the nimble little Loach. Banking to the west, Bruce flew up to Shreveport, getting there in fifteen minutes. They returned to the farm and with his next flight Bruce was actually enjoying himself until Jimmy came over the intercom.

“Okay, hover over the field to the east. We are going to auto rotate down for an engine failure,” Jimmy said.

“That’s a fucking negative on that, boss!” Bruce shot back.

“Bruce, you have to learn this. A helicopter has the glide pattern of a rock. The only thing you have are the blades,” Jimmy said.

Hovering two hundred feet up, Jimmy cut the engine and Bruce wanted to jump out. Bruce watched as the ground got closer. At the last second, Jimmy flared out and the Black Hawk bounced down. Jimmy restarted and had Bruce do the next one. Jimmy had to grab the controls as Bruce had waited too long. The third time, Bruce flared too early and the chopper came down hard. They got out and checked it then restarted and Jimmy had Bruce do it three more times.

When Bruce was sure Jimmy was not his friend anymore, Jimmy had him fly off to the south and return to the farm. When Bruce landed the Black Hawk and shut down the engines he looked over at Jimmy. “You aged me five years in one afternoon. Why didn’t we do that in the Loach?” Bruce asked.

“Bruce, the Black Hawk is designed to take punishment like that. We would have broken the little Cayuse,” Jimmy answered.

Bruce just growled as Jimmy got out and he gathered his stuff up. Getting out, one of the ground crew came over to Bruce, “That was pretty good. I just don’t understand why you had to keep dropping it to the ground, she’s a good chopper.”

“Ask Jimmy. He thinks she cheated on him and he wanted to rough her up some,” Bruce replied walking back to the hall. Eating in huge gulps, Bruce was finished and out the door, headed to bed in minutes. Checking the door to make sure no one had entered, Bruce just piled on the bed and was soon asleep.

In the hall Debbie went over to Jimmy to talk to him. “Jimmy what was the deal with pushing Bruce so hard today?” she asked him.

“Debbie, Bruce was flying today like he was a machine and that’s not a bad thing. Bruce has a gift, in that he can fly by feel. I just wanted to get him to let go and fly,” Jimmy said.

“On his first flight?” Debbie asked with an edge to her voice.

“First is better. He was starting to move with responses from the chopper before I told him to. He is so far ahead of where I was its not even funny. Even Pat agrees, he said that he’s only seen a few like that,” Jimmy said looking at Debbie.

“Well he’s kind of important around here. I just about died when the engine shut off over the field,” Debbie replied, shaking her head.

“Bruce almost jumped out,” Jimmy replied.

“You be careful with him. It took me a long time to train him and I’m not in the mood to train another one,” Debbie shot back.

“I will Debbie. I promise,” Jimmy answered.

Debbie gathered the others and went to their room only to find Bruce asleep on the bed with his clothes on. With the help of everyone, they stripped Bruce down with very little help from him, and pulled the covers over him.

Bruce woke up to someone licking the side of his face. “Come on guys. Let me sleep,” Bruce said as he opened his eyes to find Max looking at him whining. Seeing that it was 0402 Bruce laid his head back down telling Max, “Hold it for another hour please.”

Max continued to whine and lick Bruce’s face, letting him know that was not an acceptable term. Getting out of bed Bruce took Max outside to take care of business. Stepping outside into the cold air, Bruce instantly came awake. Looking at the thermometer, reading eighteen degrees, Bruce went back inside to wait on Max. ‘Boy is the hunting patrol going to be fun today’, Bruce thought as Max scratched at the door wanting back inside.

“Yeah, it’s cold out there, isn’t it,” Bruce said opening the door for Max. Bruce went back to the room and showered, then grabbed some workout clothes and his gear and headed to the gym. When he walked into the gym, only a few people were there as he started his workout. It was a different story when he finished an hour later, the gym was packed.

Leaving the gym, Bruce went to the hall to wait on breakfast and go over the areas Omega was going to hit today. In Mansfield there was a gymnasium that had several hundred blues in it. After the first patrols, the command group went over the decontamination. At first, they made it mandatory if the team had lots of body fluids on their clothes, they had to be washed down. Now it was if fluids were above the boot line. Otherwise, you were just sprayed down with bleach water.

They had built a decontamination shelter that was enclosed. The DECOM team was twenty people who had studied and trained, with ten on duty at all times. The team went in one end, stripped and showered down. Their equipment was cleaned and returned in five hours, smelling like a dentist office. Another team decontaminated the vehicles they took out on patrols.

Stephanie had gotten a bunch of UV lights to leave inside the vehicles once they had been scrubbed down after each mission. Bruce really thought the inside of the Strykers hadn’t been that clean since they rolled of the assembly line. As for the outside of the Strykers, they were cleaned just as well. The clan had already gathered up enough bleach to float a battleship.

A little before six the trio came in with the kids and sat down. They formed a line going by Bruce for hugs and kisses. When they sat down, Millie brought over some coffee for everyone that wanted it and juice for the kids.

Stephanie looked over at Bruce asking, “Still going out today?”

“Yes, as cold as it is, we’ll stay out a while,” Bruce answered.

“We have seen one or two out when it was cold Bruce, so be careful,” Stephanie warned.

“It was thirty-three when we saw those two and they did run, but not far or fast. One died after they caught that cow sitting there and eating it. It’s below twenty degrees today. We’re gonna get some today,” Bruce replied.

“Stephanie is trying to tell you not to act stupid, Bruce. Omega has been out three times and each time y’all have gone insane. The blues don’t care how brave you act. They’re not impressed,” Angela informed Bruce.

“Little Foot, thank you for vocalizing our actions,” Bruce stated.

“Just wanted you to know what Stephanie was saying so there would be no confusion when we beat the shit out of you for acting stupid,” Angela replied, smiling.

Bruce stood up as the rest of the family sat down, “If you’re on Omega team, get your ass over here,” Bruce yelled out. Those not at the table ran over as Bruce started the briefing.

“We will hit Mansfield today along with fourteen other large packs. The smallest will be roughly fifty. The largest, at Mansfield is over a thousand. I’m thinking we just burn down the buildings, wait outside until they’re an inferno, then head to the next one. As cold as it is we should be able to douse the area real good before we have a bonfire,” Bruce briefed the team and paused for feedback.

“Kind of seems like chicken shit tactics,” Danny replied and Buffy agreed.

Debbie looked at the two girls. “It’s the first smart tactic I have heard yet. If I remember right, you two have gotten a little happy with throwing grenades,” Debbie stated.

“Mom, that’s fun, and besides Buffy has gotten real good at throwing grenades,” Danny informed her.

“Do you really want me to continue on this topic?” Debbie replied with a scowl on her face.

“Not really,” Danny replied.

Debbie looked around the table. “The blues have us at a numerical disadvantage. By current estimates, every single person here has to kill over 200,000 just to break even. At last count, the entire group has not even killed a 100,000 altogether in six months,” Debbie broke down the truth.

The table fell silent as the truth hit home. Bruce brought everyone back as he continued, “Well, that’s why we are going hunting again today. Remember, we leave for Texas on Tuesday for the ammo storage facility. We are still taking forty trucks and will load and return. Carl and Ted have you two found us ten more troops for Omega?” Bruce asked.

“Yeah, we worked with them yesterday while you were flying. Joe and Harry have made them some equipment and we wanted to take them with us today,” Ted answered.

Bruce thought about it, then spoke, “Sounds good to me. I want a breakdown of four, five man teams. I have told the drivers of the Strykers and RG-33 that they are assigned to us but are not to leave the vehicles. Each team of five will have its own Stryker.”

“How are we going to burn them out? Some of those buildings are made of brick. I’m not real keen on walking inside to start a fire,” Steve replied.

“Neither am I son. We’ll put one of the field sprayers on top of one of the Strykers, fill it full of fuel and hose them down, light it and wait, then leave,” Bruce informed him.

“That’s cool,” Steve acknowledged.

Bruce looked up at Paul, “Paul, start working on plans for another gym please. It’s starting to get a little crowded in there.”

“Already did that. We will start on it next week and will empty out two of the big gyms in Shreveport to stock it up,” Paul replied letting Bruce know he was on top of everything.

“How many people do we have here now?” Bruce asked looking at Debbie.

“Our rescue patrols are averaging forty people a day but that won’t last. The last two days we only brought back twenty plus and they are at the hundred mile mark. To answer your question we are at eleven hundred and thirty as of this morning. If we get all those we have found and they want to join that will put us over fourteen hundred,” Debbie replied not even looking at her notebook.

“We had some that didn’t want to join?” Conner asked Debbie.

“Several groups have declined, like several hundred people. We gave them a radio and showed them how to call us but didn’t tell them where we were. They range in size from a family to thirty or so. We’ll make contact with the biggest tomorrow near Bordelonville. They are over a hundred easy,” Debbie replied to Conner.

“We can take another hundred that fast?” Bruce asked.

“Barrack’s nine and ten will be ready today,” Stephanie answered.

Bruce, feeling left out even after the last meeting, was having trouble keeping up with everything. Seeing Bruce digest the information Debbie spoke up, “Bruce, let us worry about the logistics you worry about the war.”

Laughing, Bruce looked around the table, “Mike, I want you to have Jimmy and Pat set up two Black Hawks ready to ferry your Gamma team as back up if the rescue or hunting patrols get hit. They have no actual flight training today, only simulators and classroom. Needed or not, when the rescue patrol turns for home, I want you to run a drill to fly out to meet them and return home,” Bruce instructed. When Mike nodded, grinning, Bruce finished, “Omega, feet in boots in twenty minutes.”

Those on Omega stood up, leaving to get ready as Carl and Ted told the ten new troops they were on the team and to get ready. Bruce kissed his family bye and ran to get ready. Bruce grabbed a Gore-Tex jacket to put on under his vest then grabbed his helmet, putting in a new chip for the recorder. Picking up his pack, he went outside and found the rest of the team at the Strykers.

Joe and Harry were using a backhoe to lift up one of the trailers that held a large tank used for spraying the field. This one was a smaller one only holding a hundred and fifty gallons. Paul had come up with the idea to rig up several of the trailers to hose out fuel if the farm ever came under attack from a horde of blues. The pump could push a stream of fuel over a hundred feet, emptying the tank in under a minute.

When the trailer was on the back of a Stryker, Joe tack welded two bars to it as the rest of the team tied it down. Bruce was only taking one and they would refuel it from the RG-33L, which was carrying eight drums of fuel. When Debbie came out, Bruce told her to make sure the other RG’s were ready because they would just swap them out in the field when their RG was empty.

Hearing vehicles crank up, Bruce turned around to see the rescue team getting ready to leave. They would be heading up almost to Arkansas today while the hunting team was heading west. Bruce still didn’t want to start cleaning out cities of any size yet. There were more than enough blues in the country side and small towns to keep them busy. Truth be told, Bruce did not want to stir up a hornet’s nest.

The blues would just stay inside when it was cold, letting them raid for supplies in a city but he did not know how they would react if they felt threatened. The thought of cleaning out Shreveport terrified him. He had almost talked himself into taking down Natchitoches, which from fly overs revealed around 20,000 blues in the vicinity. That number made him nervous but the hundreds of thousands in the Shreveport-Bossier metro-plex scared the hell out of him.

Shaking his head, Bruce came back to the task at hand as Paul walked up to him. “Bruce we are going to start burning the piles today. I have a team going out removing stumps today and leveling any area that is built up. By this Friday you will be able to see at least three hundred yards in any direction,” Paul informed Bruce, his breath fogging up around him making him look like he was heavy smoker.

“Good job. Now remember we need to keep everyone busy if they are physically able and if they aren’t, get them in a class,” Bruce instructed trying not to think about the chill in the air.

“Will do. Just to let you know, Gimp, sorry, Jim wants to build pits out cross of ties for the manure and compost. With the fifty horses, sixty cows, eleven hundred chickens, a hundred rabbits, quails and pheasants, we are starting to have quite a pile of shit back there. He wants to start harvesting methane from it while we compost it. I figure with that much shit, we can plant a hundred acres with ease,” Paul stated.

“Okay, bring it up at the command meeting Friday. Let Jim know we will talk about it in three days and tell him good job in thinking. Now guard the fort. I’m gonna go kill shit,” Bruce replied holding out his fist and Paul knuckle bumped him.

Bruce walked over to his vehicle to find Danny, Jake, Buffy and Conner waiting on him. Well, this was his squad he thought, then looked at the other vehicles. Ted, Carl, and Steve were each leading a team with David beside Steve. Bruce called Omega over and went over radio frequencies then told everyone to mount up.

It took over an hour to reach Mansfield, stopping about a mile from the school gym that held a huge mob. Bruce radioed mission control for any changes and getting the all clear, he had Omega dismount and form up on him.

Looking at Omega, Bruce noticed that over half the team was female and he started. “Okay, we are going in. Each squad will carry five gallons of fuel. We’ll find stuff to put in front of the doors and wet it down with fuel. Then we will call up the vehicles, knock out a window, pour in a hundred gallons of fuel, light it, make sure it holds, and then leave. Team one, has main entrance. Team two, you have second entrance to the south. Team three, you have the single door on the west side. These are the doors we will block with fire until the vehicles show up. Team four, you will cover our ass while we work and when your vehicle gets here, you will hose down the building. When we pull back to start, team one will over watch the main north entrance with two to our right covering the east side, three the west side and four to our left covering the south forming an L around the building to stop any trying to leave. Watch your fire if it goes hot. Remember two and four you will fire from position to cover your area. Do not break the line and stay safe. Any questions?” Bruce asked. Receiving none, he added, “Squad leaders check your squad, we leave in two minutes.”

The team moved out in two lines toward the school in the cold morning air. When they reached the school, Bruce took the fuel can from Jake as Danny, Conner and Buffy chopped down some bushes around the houses close to the school. The other teams, except four, followed suit. Four got into position to over watch.

Bruce led his team to the front door, which was closed, and put the bushes in front of it and poured out the fuel, which was mixed half gas and half diesel. From the UAV images, the only door that was open was the small door on the west side with team three. The others were closed. When team one’s pile was saturated Bruce pulled them back, waiting on the other teams to finish. When all the squads reported they were done and pulled back Bruce called in the Strykers and reminded them to drive easy toward them.

While the Strykers were en route Bruce asked if any of the teams had seen anything and got a reply from Carl’s team three. “It looks like a huge slumber party in there. They’re everywhere. It was hard to see an area that didn’t have a group lying together. I just want to add, I saw some of them covered up with stuff like boxes, paper, old clothes and blankets. Since this shit has started, I have not seen that kind of intelligence from the blues,” Carl replied.

“Copy that three. Have your Stryker put its Ma Deuce on that door in case they try to flood out of it,” Bruce replied over the radio, then called team four, looking down to make sure Max was staying beside him. “Team four, are you ready to take out a window?”

“Don’t have to. There’s one already open at the top, above the bleachers,” Ted called back.

Bruce handed his flare gun to Jake and called over the radio, “Squads, get your flares ready. At first sign of trouble, fire it up and call it out. Don’t wait for orders to fire if you see movement. Don’t forget to have at least one squad member on rear security.” Bruce could hear the Strykers slowly driving up, then saw his and squad two’s vehicle pull up to them.

Ted left his squad beside squad three to watch the back of the building as he climbed up to the fuel tank and turned on the pump. When he was ready Ted radioed the driver to pull forward next to the building. The Stryker was twenty feet away from the building when Ted radioed for it to stop under the window and turned on the nozzle, flooding the gym with fuel.

Bruce watched as the stream of fuel shot into the window and was thinking this was taking too long. Then he saw the stream suddenly stop and the Stryker pull away, going back to the rest of team four. When team four’s Stryker stopped at their position, Carl called over the radio. “We have movement in the windows and I mean a lot of fucking faces looking at us,” he informed the team.

“Light the blocking fires,” Bruce called out hearing Jake fire the flare gun. Turning, Bruce watched the flare arc the fifty yards to the pile at the front door and ignited it with a whoosh.

Seeing his fire lit, Bruce called out for flares to be shot into the gym by squad three. Squad three launched flares into the open window, followed by a large flash, as the flare ignited the fuel. Screams, yells and roars could be heard inside the gym. Squad three opened up as blues tried to beat out the windows. The Stryker with squad three was armed with a MK-19 and when it opened up lobbing 40mm grenades through the window, they flew through the window going across the gym hitting the far side of the gym.

Hearing fire coming from his right, Bruce turned to see squad two open up. From where he was, he couldn’t see what they were shooting at. Since the gym only had windows on the west and east sides, he figured the blues were dropping out of the windows on the east side. Unlike squad three, who could see the blues in the windows, squad two had to wait until they dropped.

In less than two minutes, Bruce saw flames coming out of the windows and didn’t hear anymore firing. Waiting another ten minutes, black smoke was now pouring out the windows. Bruce called for the team to mount up and they headed toward the next pack. They stopped at a gas station and refilled the spray tank from the main storage tanks. The fuel probably wouldn’t run a vehicle too good but it would start a fire very well.

Omega moved to a large building to the south and Bruce let Jake send in the remote SWORD vehicle to look inside as the team pulled around in Strykers. Seeing it occupied Jake pulled the remote out and the team blocked the exits and hosed it down then set it ablaze. Once again they heard the screams, yells and roars but not as long since this building was not as large and quickly filled up with smoke.

They drove from location to location and burned down all buildings housing a pack. Bruce had set a goal of fourteen locations for the day but they were finished with those before 1100. Bruce stopped deploying the team into squads a mile away after the third fire. When Jake had sent in the remote, all they saw were blues sleeping in groups. Like the ones he found in Buffy’s trailer, Bruce agreed with Stephanie that they were hibernating. If they moved in fast and quiet, they could hose down the building, light it, shoot the few that tried to escape, then move on. It would only take ten minutes after the fire started then they could leave for the next one.

It was noon when Bruce sent the empty RG back to the farm. When its replacement showed up he saw Joe was sitting in the gunners hatch. Followed by a pickup truck with the fuel trailer the family had bought before the fall. Bruce went over to see what the hell he was doing out here, followed by Max. As he got closer he saw a hose nozzle on the gunners mount.

As Bruce came around, Joe opened up the back door and pointed inside. “I threw something together real quick. All eight drums in the back are piped together. You open up two at a time and my pump will throw out a hundred gallons in twenty seconds. Harry is putting one in another RG. You can fill your other sprayer out of the trailer. It holds diesel and there are drums of gas in the back of the pickup,” Joe told him, smiling.

“Thank you Joe but why are you here?” Bruce asked, a little irritated.

“Now, I couldn’t make a new toy and not show you how to use it,” Joe replied, sensing Bruce’s irritation.

Bruce laughed, knowing Joe just wanted to help, “Okay, I’ll send someone over so you can show them how to use it. You can run it until it the other RG is ready but please stay in the RG,” Bruce asked.

“This isn’t a truck. It’s a mobile mountain Bruce,” Joe replied referring to the RG-33. “I wanted to drive through a house just because we can, but the driver wouldn’t,” Joe admitted with sadness.

The team left and with the addition of the new toy, the blues’ sanctuaries were quickly set ablaze. They would just roll up in their L shape line. Team four would circle the structure hosing down the exits and roof then the RG would roll up and blow a hundred gallons through an opening and they would send in a flare. At 1600 the trailer and RG were empty and headed back to the farm to refuel as they were replaced by another RG and pickup with fuel. Bruce looked back across the horizon to see black columns of smoke rising up in the air.

It was 1800 when Bruce ordered the team into Natchitoches to start burning down pack houses. Bruce was not keen on starting fires in a city because they held supplies the clan needed. On the other hand Bruce was not in the mood to clear out the buildings using man power either. Most of the pack dens were in areas that were used for camps and set far away from other areas. Two in Natchitoches did not fit that pattern. One was on the campus, the other was downtown. Each did not have other buildings very close, but close enough.

Staying with the same tactic, they would roll up, hose down a building, torch it, wait until it took hold, killing any that tried to escape, then, move on. At midnight, Bruce called for the team to pull out leaving building number one hundred and sixty-one roaring in flames. On the way back to the farm they stopped to burn twenty two more buildings. Bruce had to admit when the heat from the building hit him, it felt good against the cold night air. The highest temp he had seen that day was twenty-two and when they left Natchitoches, it was sixteen.

Mission control reported the building fires had not spread in Natchitoches as the team pulled into the farm at 0245 in the morning. Almost two hundred pack shelters had been torched on their hunting trip. The team moved in slow motion to the hall to get some food, dragging their equipment.

When Bruce entered the hall, he walked over to the command table and dropped his gear to the floor with his rifle. Bruce took off his jacket and climbed up on the table, putting the jacket under his head and was fast asleep. The rest of Omega, seeing their leader go to sleep, spread out and followed suit.

Chapter 19

Debbie woke the next morning at 0500 when the alarm went off and looked over in the bed and didn’t see Bruce. Jumping out of bed she ran downstairs to mission control. The two on duty reported that the team came back at 0245 last night and went to the hall. The roving patrols reported to mission control that the whole team just crawled up on some tables and went to sleep. Debbie thanked them and ran back upstairs to get dressed.

When she entered the room everyone was awake and she was bombarded with questions. Telling the others what she knew as she dressed, Debbie then helped get the kids dressed and they all left for the hall. Stepping outside into the morning air, the cold bit into their skin as they ran toward the hall. But, they stopped when they noticed a group of people standing outside the main door.

“What are y’all doing standing out here? It’s freezing,” Debbie asked walking up to the group.

“The strike team is on the tables sleeping,” one of the group answered.

“Well move aside and let us through. We will wake them up,” Debbie said as the crowd parted.

Debbie walked into the hall and was hit by the smell of fuel and smoke. Looking around she saw sleeping forms around the hall on table tops and Max running at her. Turning to the command table, Debbie saw Bruce on his back with Buffy beside him at one end and Danny at the other end of the table with Matt beside her. Setting the kids down she told Stephanie and Angela to go around and wake everyone up. Any that wanted to go and get in their bed would be excused from the day’s schedule. Debbie told the twins to take Max out.

Debbie walked over and put her hand on Bruce’s chest, shaking him slightly. “Baby, I need you to get up,” Debbie said in a soft voice.

Bruce groaned, “I don’t want to get up. I feel like I got run over by a truck.”

“Well it smells like you got run over by a fuel truck,” Debbie replied laughing as she shook Buffy awake.

“I believe that. What time is it?” Bruce asked sitting up.

“It’s 0520,” Debbie answered as she moved to Danny and Matt, waking them up.

Buffy sat up, rubbing her face with her blonde hair sticking out like she had put her finger in a light socket. “This table sucks to sleep on,” Buffy stated as she stretched out.

“Well, you should have come to bed,” Debbie said moving off to wake up the rest of Omega with Stephanie and Angela.

“What and leave the team?” Buffy yelled out to Debbie across the hall.

Debbie turned around looking at Bruce, “Have you finished your corruption of her yet?” she asked Bruce.

“Almost,” Bruce replied smiling trying to get off the table. Debbie turned around and went to wake up the others. Every time Bruce moved, it hurt. So he tried to move slowly but that only made it worse, so he just jumped off the table. When his feet hit the floor, his body almost joined them as pain shot through him. “Getting old sucks,” Bruce mumbled.

Walking around in small circles to get his muscles moving and not wanting to venture too far from the table in case he needed to hold onto something, Bruce looked around the hall. The trio had woken up the team and was heading back to the command table. Then Bruce noticed Matt getting off the table and helping Danny get down.

“When did you get here?” Bruce asked Matt.

“When the patrol got back, Mindy, Mary and I waited on y’all,” Matt said as Danny slid off the table.

“Y’all didn’t come down and sleep with me when I got back,” Bruce told the trio as they walked over.

“We waited for you until 0100 and gave up, seeing you had started a scorched earth policy. If we would’ve slept on this table with you, we would be in the same mood you are going to be in later today. Let’s face it, that wouldn’t be a good thing,” Debbie said wiping the table off.

Bruce nodded his head, “Good point.” Bruce looked up and yelled, “Omega team, Thursday morning 0600 we roll out again! At 1300, get the vehicles ready to roll out.” Several weak “Hoorah’s” came back in reply.

“Y’all sound like a bunch of pussy whipped politicians now. I said we roll out for war Thursday at 0600!” Bruce yelled out. This time he was greeted with loud and proud “Hoorah’s” together from the team.

“Bruce, don’t you think the team needs to rest?” Debbie asked.

“No, we will continue this as long as it’s cold. I want Mike’s team to go out on days we don’t. These fuckers may not know how to close a door or window, but they are getting too damn smart too fast,” Bruce said, stretching out as the rest of the command group came in from working out.

Bruce looked at Willie as he came in. “Willie, I want you to get ten men and join the rescue patrol today that is headed to the large group. I want someone that can run a battle in case it goes wrong,” Bruce told him.

“You thinking trouble?” Willie asked.

“No, but expect the worse and hope for the best. Mike will be ready with your backup by chopper,” Bruce told Willie.

“That’s why you had us fly out yesterday?” Mike deducted.

Bruce blew Mike a kiss as he slowly lowered his butt into the chair. “Willie, watch your ass okay? And if you get a gut feeling bug out or call in support,” Bruce informed him as he slowly relaxed his body in the chair.

Stephanie looked at Bruce with concern, “Bruce, you need to get some sleep, then get your patrol ready,” she told him.

“Can’t Little Red. I have flying lessons today,” Bruce informed her.

“You could cancel it,” Angela said hopefully.

“Fat chance,” Debbie told her, cutting her eyes at Bruce.

Bruce laughed at them then said, “I’m not going to fly the Apache today. I’m not in the mood for the optical HUD in my eye but I want to fly over the areas we hit yesterday in the Black Hawk.”

“Okay,” Debbie replied as breakfast was brought out with coffee. Bruce just looked at her, trying to figure out what the game was today.

After Bruce ate, he went to the house to shower and change. When he was showered, he felt a lot better as he put on his flight suit and grabbed his flight bag. Slinging his gear over his shoulder, he headed to the Black Hawks. When Bruce rounded the corner of the barn, he saw the trio standing with Jimmy beside a Black Hawk. Bruce noticed they all had on flight helmets as he walked over.

“What do you three think you’re doing?” Bruce asked.

“Flying with you today,” Debbie informed, daring him to say something.

Not in the mood for an argument, Bruce stowed his gear inside then climbed into the cockpit. Debbie, Angela and Stephanie climbed into the passenger area and closed the door as Jimmy climbed in. After Bruce buckled in, he plugged in his flight helmet and started going through his checklist for startup.

As he was going to through the list, Debbie came over the intercom, “What no argument?”

“It’s not worth it and you wouldn’t listen anyway, so why should I?” Bruce answered.

“It only took you how many decades to figure that out?” Angela asked. Bruce ignored her as Jimmy told them to buckle up.

Bruce started up the engine and when it was up he lifted off heading west. Staying at a thousand feet and cruising at 150 knots Bruce looked out the window. He could still see a lot of black columns over the landscape spread out over an eighty mile area.

“Holy shit! How many places did y’all hit yesterday?” Jimmy asked over the intercom.

“Almost two hundred,” Bruce replied as he flew the chopper lower, checking out the first place they hit. The walls of the gym were still standing but the roof had caved in. Bruce flew around the area and didn’t see any bodies any further out than those that were shot when they jumped out the window. Each place he checked out, it was the same story but most buildings had burnt to the ground.

Inside Natchitoches, most of the buildings were still burning. Bruce stayed between a thousand and five thousand feet. The micro UAVs stayed under a thousand feet and the Grey Eagle UAV’s stayed at the five thousand mark. He really didn’t want to have a midair collision when so much of the sky was open. Flying over the city slowly, Bruce turned and headed back to the farm.

Stephanie came over the intercom, “Bruce, are you flying?” she asked.

“Well yeah, who did you expect?” Bruce shot back.

“Damn you’re good. I thought Jimmy was flying,” Stephanie replied.

“You thought I wasn’t good at this?” Bruce asked getting ready for a fight.

Debbie answered over the intercom, “No baby, she was just pointing out this is only your second day of flying and you’re doing an excellent job.”

Bruce thought about that then decided that was a compliment as he replied, “Thank you guys but I do have over five hundred hours in a simulator.”

“See what I was talking about Debbie,” Jimmy replied over the intercom.

Before Bruce could ask what that was about he saw the rescue convoy heading south. Bruce flipped and keyed the radio, “Mission control this is Big Daddy One. Do you have traffic in my area?”

“Big Daddy One, we have a Grey Eagle at 5,200 feet to your south covering the convoy,” a female voice replied.

Bruce banked the chopper and headed toward the convoy. Lowering the chopper to five hundred feet, Bruce came up behind the convoy of vehicles. Bruce keyed his radio, “Rescue convoy this is Big Daddy One, you stay safe and call us if you need to.”

“Big Daddy One, this is Wild Willie and we copy. If you can, give us a fly over. Let the troops know we have air cover,” Willie called back.

“Roger that Wild Willie,” Bruce replied and lowered to a hundred feet and flew over the convoy. Passing the convoy, Bruce pulled up and banked turning around then flew back over the convoy at two hundred feet then pulled back up to two thousand.

“That was good flying Big Daddy One,” Willie called out over the radio.

Bruce thanked him and headed back to the farm, notifying mission control. Bruce sat the chopper down and started the shutdown. When he was finished, he climbed out to find the trio already out holding his gear. “That was awesome Bruce,” Stephanie told him smiling.

“Hell yeah! That was great!” Angela added as the ground crew came over to get the helicopter ready to fly again.

Bruce left the trio as he went up to the simulator to log some hours on the Apache. The eye piece was giving him fits as he stayed on the simulator for two hours then headed to lunch. Walking into the hall Bruce noticed that Omega team was up and moving around. After Bruce collapsed in his chair, Millie sat down a plate of food. “Bruce you look tired,” Millie told him as she poured him a glass of tea.

“I’m good Millie. I’ll catch up on sleep tonight,” Bruce told her as he started eating.

Millie put her hand on his shoulder and Bruce looked up at her. “Bruce, you give everyone here strength and when theys see you tired, it makes ‘em worried. Your Omega team is the talk of the clan and it be cheerin’ everyone up knowin’ that we goin’ out to hunt the blues down. But they are worried when you are tired that you gonna make a mistake,” Millie told him.

“Thank you Millie, but we have a lot to do before summer. I really don’t want to go too far away from the farm when it turns warm,” Bruce admitted.

“I’m just telling you what’s going around the clan. All these new people that have come in, hear these stories about you and have hope that they can make it,” Millie replied.

“I promise I will get some sleep tonight before I go out tomorrow,” Bruce said, grabbing Millie’s hand and smiling at her. Satisfied, Millie left, heading back to the kitchen.

“Hey Bruce, we are test firing the mortars after lunch today. We have the pits finished,” Mike called out from the end of the table.

“How many rounds?” Bruce asked shoveling his food down.

“Each team will get to fire two rounds from each mortar, the 120mm and the 81mm,” Mike answered.

“Make sure the UAVs are not in the path before you fire,” Bruce pointed out.

“What, you think I was going to use them as targets?” Mike shot back.

Bruce let it slide as he asked, “Have we heard from the patrol yet?”

“Yeah, they made contact but the group doesn’t want to join us,” Mike replied.

“Did they give a reason?” Angela asked Mike.

“They might have but I didn’t ask Willie over the radio. He can tell us when he gets here,” Mike replied.

“Mike, I want you to have your team ready to go out Friday for six hours to do hunting patrols. Omega is heading east then moving north tomorrow and I want your team to head south Friday,” Bruce told him.

“Sounds good, but why is my team only going out for six hours?” Mike asked.

“Your team is only a ten man team,” Bruce replied, then drained his glass of tea.

“Alright but remember I am doing my first flight Monday,” Mike answered.

“Well, you’re a big boy and I’m sure you’ll do fine,” Bruce told him.

Mike sighed, shaking his head. “You know I have lived with you for almost a decade and every time you don’t get enough sleep, I want to drive a stake through your heart,” Mike informed Bruce.

“Won’t work. You have to chop off the head,” Bruce told Mike as he leaned back in his chair.

“I’m not even going there,” Mike said throwing his fork on his plate. Looking up at Bruce he asked, “Why did you send Willie with extra troops to check out the survivors?”

“I have a bad gut feeling,” Bruce replied and the table stopped.

“And you tell us just now,” Mike almost shouted.

“Yes I did. I don’t know what it’s from so what difference does it make,” Bruce replied.

“What do you think your gut feeling is baby?” Debbie asked before Mike started going off.

“Like I said I don’t know. I talked with Marcus just to see if they could hear us from his farm and he said they couldn’t and it’s only fourteen miles away as the crow flies. He told me that they did hear some of the helicopters when they gained altitude but nothing else. Then I talked to some of the members of the survivor patrol teams. They said they have seen areas that have been stripped bare of supplies,” Bruce replied, then just stopped as he thought. Everyone was just staring at him waiting on him to continue almost holding their breath.

After waiting ten minutes, Stephanie spoke, “Okay so what are you getting at?” Debbie almost yelled at her to shut up. Bruce was tired, and, his brain moved slowly when he was tired and it didn’t take much to make him lose his train of thought.

“What?” Bruce asked looking at Stephanie.

Debbie almost wanted to scream as Stephanie spoke again, “You were talking about noise traveling then about areas being stripped of supplies.”

“Yeah, it just seems funny to me. There is a gang operating around here, maybe several, but they’re at least over thirty miles away from us. I know they’re gangs because we have not seen any areas that blues are being hunted down. Survivors, well most survivors, would hunt them down be they normal people or the remaining government just to get the area around their supplies cleaned out. Gangs wouldn’t care. The areas the patrols have been reporting stripped are liquor stores, pawn shops and grocery stores. Stuff only for the here and now,” Bruce replied and just stopped again.

This time, it was Debbie who prodded him, “Keep going Bruce.”

“They can’t be close but what worries me is we haven’t found them with the UAV’s. Granted it’s like looking for a needle in a hay stack but in a world that has few signs of life we should have seen them if they were close. Unless they expect UAV’s to be looking out for them,” Bruce said as he stopped to think again.

“How close do you think they could be?” Mike asked.

“I think between sixty and a hundred miles from us,” Bruce answered still lost in his train of thought.

“Why couldn’t it be a roaming gang?” Conner asked.

“That requires too much thought and planning. All of those, I’m pretty sure, are wiped out or will be by summer. If you don’t have a defensible position when a mob or, heaven forbid, a horde hits you, then you’re fucked,” Bruce told him.

“So what has you so worried then, Bruce?” Angela asked.

“They know we are here and are hiding from us,” Bruce replied.

“How can you be so sure?” Carl asked.

“Think about it. We have found over a hundred areas where survivors are at and four times that many pack dens with the UAVs. Not in any of the searches so far have we found a gang close to us,” Bruce pointed out.

“We found that gang operating out of Oak Grove, two in Arkansas, and three in Texas,” Jake replied.

“They pose no threat to us at the moment. Like I said, not close to us,” Bruce replied.

“Why do you think they are close?” Debbie asked.

“All the places that are stripped are small out of the way villages to our south and southeast. They don’t want to travel in large groups so they can be spotted, so to counter that they gather in the small villages. I think they are to our south or south east and have spotted us before we had long range UAVs,” Bruce informed them of his deductions.

“Dad, they could be in Texas or Mississippi and just make runs into the middle of the state. It’s not that heavily populated but has lots of small villages,” Jake told him.

“True, but that is a long run to make for supplies that are just about everywhere now,” Bruce countered.

“What are you worried about then?” Debbie asked point blank.

Bruce looked at her then turned to Carl and Ted then to Conner. “Carl, Ted and Conner how much noise does a full scale battle make?” Bruce asked them.

Ted answered first, “Holy shit, when I was in the triangle there was a battle forty miles away and you could hear the explosions, tanks firing even the big 50’s if you listened real hard.”

“I could hear a fire fight in the central Stan, over a hundred miles away and twice that if air was used,” Conner reported.

Carl nodded agreeing with both, “Yeah if there are enough troops involved you can hear the sound of a battle forty to sixty miles away easy.”

Bruce just nodded and Stephanie blurted out, “Yeah Bruce, sound travels, we have established this.”

Before Bruce could unload on her, Debbie asked, “Bruce what are you thinking?”

“What I’m worried about is getting hit by a large force. When we fight them it will ring the dinner bell to everything within an eighty, maybe up to hundred and fifty mile radius of us. As of right now, I put that number of blues well over a million. Those kinds of numbers will just roll over us,” Bruce told Debbie. Debbie took a sharp breath as realization set in. If a gang attacked and they beat them off, they would still be overrun by blues.

“Well, we can use the suppressors like we have been doing and cancel the firing of the big weapons,” Stephanie said.

“Our attackers won’t be that kind. They hit and run so they aren’t worried about noise. Plus, in a battle you use everything you have to beat back the enemy or you unnecessarily lose lives,” Bruce told her.

“So what do we do?” Carl asked.

“We kill as many around us as we can, so if we are attacked, fewer will show up,” Bruce answered and everyone agreed.

“What about being attacked?” Nancy asked.

“We can pray that they won’t hit us fast but they will. We need to get cameras on every road leading to us at least ten miles out. That way we have at least a ten minute warning,” Bruce told her.

“That’s easy enough,” Matt replied.

Bruce looked around and realized he had said too much in his sleep deprived state. “Guys this is just the rambling of my mind. You asked and I replied. Don’t pay much heed to it okay. I run through scenarios all the time,” Bruce said trying to drop the topic.

Omega team stood up and left, heading to prep for tomorrow’s patrol, leaving Bruce staring at his plate. Everyone else left the table except the trio, Nancy and Mike. When he looked up, Bruce noticed they were looking at him. “What?” Bruce said looking around the table.

“Nice try brother, but for now, I want just one answer,” Mike said sitting at the end of the table.

“Okay what?” Bruce replied.

“When do you think we are going to be hit?” Mike asked looking at Bruce.

Bruce stood up, returning Mike’s look, then answered, “Mid-Summer.”  Bruce grabbed his gear and went to join the team.

Of everyone sitting at the table, Debbie knew Bruce was wrong, it would be sooner and she prayed that it would not unfold as Bruce described. Debbie stood up and left before she cried.

“This is so bad,” Nancy said out loud.

“No it’s not,” Angela replied.

“And just how can you say that?” Nancy asked.

“We have Bruce. That is the only edge we need,” Angela replied standing up and leaving the hall followed by Stephanie. Mike and Nancy soon followed.

Chapter 20

It was Friday afternoon as Bruce was sitting in the cockpit of one of the Apaches. His hunting patrol had left Thursday morning at 0600 and returned Friday morning at 0500. Bruce walked around the farm in a daze, checking on work details and classes just to be seen by the clan after getting back from the patrol. They took out over two hundred pack locations, going as far as Monroe but the blues had started attacking in temperatures below freezing when they rolled up to their lairs. Granted, it was only a token defense, but they attacked, which they hadn’t done before. Mike’s patrol pulled out after Bruce’s returned. Then Bruce wanted to lay down for a few hours before heading to the Apache but checking out the farm and clan took all morning.

Bruce was in the pilot’s seat and Jimmy was in the gunner’s seat as Bruce started the checklist for startup. The heavy helmet was giving him a headache as the engines warmed up in the cold afternoon. Grabbing the collective, Bruce throttled up and pulled up. The Apache shot up like a rocket leaving Bruce’s stomach behind on the ground.

“What the hell are you doing?” Jimmy cried in panic out over the intercom.

“My bad,” Bruce replied, stunned by the power the Apache had.

“Hey, keep your head in the game, because this bitch is unforgiving,” Jimmy warned as Bruce leveled out.

The only way Bruce could describe the way the Apache responded was like a bird of prey. Bruce could almost feel the chopper wanting to go and kill something. They flew around the area then flew out to Mike’s patrol. Seeing the patrol leaving a burning building, they flew over to Marcus’. After refueling, they flew down to Ft. Polk and looked around, not seeing anything changed from the last time they had been there. Bruce and Jimmy flew the eighty miles back to the farm after practicing sighting in with the targeting system then rode in silence.

Not wanting to admit it but Bruce loved the optical heads up display or what the military called, integrated helmet and display sighting system. It threw a small screen up in front of your right eye that you could see like it was on a TV screen.

When they reached the farm, Jimmy had Bruce go through the weapons system one more time before they landed. After they landed, Bruce went to the den getting in his chair and fell asleep. It was 1900 when Debbie woke him up for the command meeting and handed him a plate of food before she sat down.

Bruce looked over to find Mike sitting in his chair. Bruce was relieved that he was back. Bruce shoveled down his food, almost choking, as the group sat down pulling out notebooks and laptops, getting ready for the meeting. Setting his plate down, Bruce stood up as Marcus and Carroll walked in and sat down.

“Okay first, Debbie, what is our population now?” Bruce asked.

“Twelve hundred and ninety three,” Debbie answered.

“We only pulled in thirty one people yesterday?” Bruce asked in disbelief.

“I told you we were fixing to do that. We have gone a hundred miles in every direction to get the groups we have found. We have found others but they are further out and we will have to take fuel with us to get them,” Debbie replied.

“You mean in thirty thousand square miles we have only just over a thousand people who wanted to join us?” Bruce cried out.

“Well Marcus’ has six hundred and seventy-four people and we left almost five hundred out because they didn’t want to join us,” Debbie replied.

“So in that area we only have two thousand people?” Bruce asked in disbelief.

“I’m sure there are more but they will be in very small groups like two to four people and we have trouble finding groups that small,” Debbie answered back.

“We should have found four times that many and more that wanted to join us,” Bruce said more to himself than anyone else.

“Baby, we are doing the best we can. There are others outside the one hundred mile zone,” Debbie reminded him.

“I’m not saying we aren’t but those aren’t encouraging numbers baby,” Bruce admitted. Bruce looked over at Willie, “Willie, what did the large group down south tell you?” Bruce asked.

“They have a nice set up, nothing like this, but they have the basics. The head family told everyone that if they wanted they could join us but they decided not to. Talking with them they feel they have a good chance to survive this and would rather stay where they were at,” Willie told Bruce with uncertainty on his face.

Bruce looked at Willie and could tell he wanted to add something, “Willie, what are you wanting to say?” Bruce asked.

Willie looked around then back to Bruce, “I know I shouldn’t judge them but I think they are stupid. Granted, they have a shit load of semi-trailers around their perimeter, but they only have one guard on duty at any time. While I was there, I only saw two military weapons and everyone else has different types of civilian weapons. That outpost could be overrun and wiped out with just a few men. They don’t train or do anything. It’s a real waste of man power,” Willie replied.

“We could give them some weapons,” Nancy put out.

“Yeah, we could, but even then I don’t think that would help. They are living day to day and not preparing for down the road. Fields are being turned over but they aren’t making any storage areas or living areas for their people. Most live in small travel trailers,” Willie answered with disgust in his voice.

“Well, let’s pray for them and move on,” Carroll said. Bruce turned to stare at her. Granted, he was cold, but he never expected that from her. Carroll returned Bruce’s stare, “We can’t save everyone Bruce. Only those who want to be and are willing to work for it,” she said.

“I know that. I just didn’t think anyone else did,” Bruce replied.

Carroll laughed as she responded, “Everyone here know’d it, even if they don’t wants to say it.”

Bruce laughed at that, “Marcus, how is your group coming along?” Bruce asked.

“We have barracks built for everyone now. Our solar panels are up and running with two battery houses. The water tower will be finished this week. Right now we are putting up our security cameras and making a mission control underground. We have areas to put the livestock in if we have to move over here to face a large horde. The underground storage areas are done and stocked. Half of our clan can shoot now. The rest should be ready by the end of the month. Next week we will start clearing out fields of fire,” Marcus informed Bruce.

“Marcus will you supply thirty people with at least fifteen that can drive a semi,” Bruce asked.

“Yeah, we can do that but what for? Ft Polk is empty except for artillery and explosives. We emptied every armory and all the small arms ammo,” Marcus asked.

“We are heading to Texas to the ammo storage area there and a Homeland Weapons storage area close by. I want to stop at a warehouse that is an army surplus store outside of Dallas and empty it. Then I want to take ten trucks to Oklahoma to the military base there and empty all the armories there also,” Bruce told him.

“Why do we need more weapons? We have enough M-4s to arm everyone here and so does Marcus. Hell, I bet we could give everyone two,” Willie said.

“Almost give everyone here two but not Marcus’ clan. I want everyone to be able to have three if it is needed. When we are hit by a horde, if our people can’t rotate their weapons out they will melt the barrel of a single rifle,” Bruce pointed out. Many cringed as Bruce said ‘when’ and not ‘if’.

Marcus nodded in agreement then asked, “How much ammo you planning on bringing back?”

“Around forty million rounds,” Bruce answered. Everyone looked at Bruce in shock.

“That would be useful,” Marcus replied.

“We have more than that here now,” Bill stated.

“Well, we are going to add to it,” Bruce stated.

“Don’t you think that’s a little overkill?” Bill replied.

“No,” Bruce answered.

“Do they even have that much ammo there?” Paul asked.

“They have ten times that there,” Bruce informed him.

Angela stood up, “Listen, if Bruce thinks we need it let’s go get it. What’s the problem?” she asked.

“He is talking about trekking over a lot of miles to gather up this stuff, a long way from home,” Bill told her.

“It doesn’t matter. If he thinks we need it we have to get it,” Angela shot back and Bill just kept his mouth shut.

“How long will this trip take, Bruce?” Debbie asked.

“The last group will come back on Friday,” Bruce answered.

“Okay, I’m game,” Mike said.

“We head to the ammo storage first with forty trucks Monday, instead of Tuesday. Load them up that afternoon and night. They leave the next morning, returning here. Ten trucks will head to the outskirts of Dallas, load up that afternoon and night and return. Wednesday, ten trucks will meet us in Dallas and head to Oklahoma. The group then will be a lot smaller so I figure it will take us all day and night Thursday with us pulling out Friday morning and getting back here by evening,” Bruce described his itinerary.

“Why not send the forty trucks here, back for another load of ammo?” Marcus asked.

“I don’t have enough people to guard it when it’s loading up,” Bruce said.

“Hell, I’ll put together a team for that. If you think we need forty million rounds, I want double that,” Marcus said.

“I want more than that but I have to take what I can get,” Bruce told Marcus.

“Will the teams be able to keep in touch that far away?” Nancy asked.

“Yeah we use the UAVs as relays, so, as long as a UAV is overhead they can talk to us,” Jake answered.

“We are talking about four hundred miles away,” Nancy said.

“I sent one to Denver and back, never losing signal from it,” Jake replied. A look of shock filled Nancy’s face. “I wanted to see if they could make it,” Jake said.

“Bruce, I was taking some scavenging teams into town to get more supplies and fuel. We are going through a lot here and more building is ahead,” Paul interjected.

“We have the people now. Willie, put together an eighty man crew for Paul, you run security,” Bruce told them.

“Okay, that’s settled, let’s move on,” Mike said.

“Next, Paul, when is the new mission control going to be up,” Bruce asked.

“We are starting next week and it should be done in six days,” Paul answered.

“Bill, do we have any police problems,” Bruce asked him.

“No, everyone is marching to the drum with only a few minor complaints,” Bill replied.

“How are the committees coming? Morale, barrack and schedule enforcement?” Bruce asked.

“The morale committee has taken requests and we have put most into action. The next biggest one is a bigger gym,” Nancy informed Bruce.

“I’m working on that and will get another one built starting week,” Paul let everyone know.

“The barrack committee has organized each barrack and they do weekly inspections,” Debbie said, laughing.

“What’s so funny?” Bruce asked.

“Jenny Green ran an actual campaign to get elected over barrack three but lost. She did not get one vote, even from her husband or kids,” Debbie stated as she laughed harder.

Bruce smiled, “I bet that chapped her ass.”

Angela shook her head, “You have no idea.”

“The schedule enforcement committee meets every afternoon. Anyone that doesn’t show up to work or class on time is given punishment of pushups or sit-ups. So far they are averaging like two people a day and those are usually kids. One of the guys in that group is an old football coach and only one person has been to that group twice so far. That man ran that boy like there was no tomorrow,” Bill said looking at his notes.

“That’s good. Angela, next I want a health committee formed. It will be responsible for physical exams and monitoring of people going to the gym. Set up a clinic somewhere. Besides this group, I don’t suppose we have any other medical people here do we?” Bruce asked hopefully.

Nancy sighed, “We have one home health nurse, two dentists, a nurse practitioner and a PA. The medical field took a hard hit with the pandemic.”

“Alright, set them up and we will rotate out with them,” Bruce said.

“Bruce, you’re starting to spread us thin again,” Debbie warned reminding Bruce that they were human.

Looking at Debbie Bruce said, “It can’t be helped. We need to know the health of the clan.” Debbie just looked away before she said more.

“What are the daily routine hours y’all have in place,” Bruce asked her fighting off the weary feeling coming over him.

“Right now we have everyone over the age of eighteen working six hours one day, eight the next. Then four hours of class on six hour days and two hour class time on eight hour days. We are trying to keep the clan time at ten hours a day. So far, that is what seems to be the happy medium,” Debbie replied.

Bruce nodded his approval and looked at Danny, “Danny, after we get back I want you to start teaching the rest of Omega to horseback ride.” Danny nodded as Bruce continued. “Okay as of right now, how many here can fight and what is the status of perimeter defense?” Bruce asked Mike.

“We have six hundred that are trained to shoot. If we can keep up the current rate of training everyone here will be trained by mid-February. The mortars are set with one trained crew each. I’m putting a large tower on every corner of the property to be manned by two people around the clock. They will be similar to the fort but not as armored. The other towers will only be manned when we need them. Fighting positions will be put in between the towers. Since Paul dug the trench around the fence the only areas that can be directly attacked are the east, west and south gates. Joe and Harry are making barricades to put in front of the gates on the outside and we have bulldozers to pull up to them on the inside,” Mike said reading his notes.

“In every tower, I want two heavy machine guns at least. On the corner towers, I want four and I want them all to have large ammo bins. And Mike I want the corner towers armored like the fort. You don’t have to do that for all of ones on the side,” Bruce told Mike. Then he looked over at Millie and Lynn, “How is the food holding up?” he asked them.

“At our current rate we have fourteen months if we don’t bring in anything else,” Lynn said.

Millie looked over at Debbie, “Debbie could you assign two more people a day to helps in the kitchen? With the extra mouths, it be startin’ to get a little hectic over there,” Millie said.

“I’ll assign four then,” Debbie said making a note then looked up at Bruce. Millie smiled at Debbie as she elbowed Lynn giggling. “Bruce, our airplane instructor was going to get aircraft this week,” Debbie told him laughing at Millie and Lynn.

Mike looked up, “Ned said he wouldn’t need airplanes till next week.”

“This is next week baby,” Nancy told Mike. Mike started counting on his fingers, wondering how he lost a week.

Bruce sighed and asked, “What is he getting and where from?”

“Two single engine Cessna’s and two twin engine Cessna’s from Shreveport,” Debbie replied.

“Where the hell is he going to land them?” Bruce asked getting irritated with the world.

Paul stood up, “If you remember, I told you last week a runway was being put in on the west side ending at the road. Then we can store the planes in the vehicle storage area,” he said in a pissed off tone.

Bruce looked at an irritated Paul, stating, “Chill out dude.”

“Well, if you aren’t going to remember my plans, what the hell are we doing here?” Paul snapped.

“I’m going on thirty-six hours without sleep. The blue fuckers are getting smarter. We are almost into spring and need to bring in more shit. I’m sorry if my mind has wandered and strayed,” Bruce said in a flat tone.

“Bruce, this is a big project I laid out last week. You were the one who wanted it pushed forward!” Paul yelled out.

Bruce looked at Paul, and then turned to Cheryl, “Cheryl, tonight, I want you to throw it on him. I’m not talking a little roll in the hay. I mean break out the nipple clips and whipped cream. Tomorrow, I want to see Paul walking bow legged. The kids are sleeping upstairs tonight with us,” Bruce instructed her. Cheryl grinned at Bruce then looked up at Paul.

Paul looked at Bruce like he had lost his mind, “What the hell does that have to do with anything?” Then turned to Cheryl, “What are you smiling about?”

Looking at Paul Cheryl replied, “Oh yeah, you need it bad. You’re way too bitchy now.”

“Cheryl, I have way to much stuff to do, so back off,” Paul informed her.

“Keep on and we start right here,” Cheryl threatened.

Paul scoffed, “Yeah like you would do that.” Cheryl stood up and started taking her shirt off and kicking her boots off.

Bruce and Mike starting jumping up and down yelling encouragement “Throw it on him girl,” Bruce yelled out.

“Ride it like you stole it Cheryl,” Mike added knuckle bumping Bruce.

Paul took a step back, “Cheryl, what the hell are you doing?”

“We’re fixing to get it on. I’m not talking about making love, I mean hot nasty pig sex, so strip down,” Cheryl told him as she started on her pants. Now Conner and Willie were in on the yelling encouragement with Bruce and Mike. Paul just stuttered looking at Cheryl as she pulled off her pants.

“Wood run, Wood run,” the cheerleaders started chanting together.

“I’m waiting Paul. If I need to, I’ll rape you here and now,” Cheryl threatened. Nancy, Debbie, Angela and Stephanie stood up joining the boys. Looking at Paul getting very nervous Cheryl added, “I will get them to hold you down.”

“Okay, shit! You win. I won’t do any work tonight. Just put your clothes,” Paul said as sweat started pouring down his face.

“What? You think I’m ugly?” Cheryl demanded. Bruce let out a shrill scream and took off running into the kitchen, returning with a large jar filled with useless dollar bills. Reaching inside he started throwing the useless money at Cheryl. Everyone shouting cheers, ran over, grabbing a hand full of bills, throwing them with Bruce.

“Work him over girl,” Debbie yelled, “we got your back.”

Paul yelled out, “Okay enough!” Everyone quieted down as he continued, “You are more beautiful now than the day I married you baby doll and I love you more than ever.”

“Ewe, she’s going to put some on him now,” Angela said as Paul ignored her and continued.

“I just don’t want you running around naked and I don’t think I could perform in front of a crowd,” Paul said looking at Cheryl.

Cheryl stood in front of Paul in her bra, panties and socks on, smiling a tender smile. “I love you baby. Now, quit bitching unless it’s something important. It’s okay if we forget things from time to time. Just two weeks ago, you forgot half of the meeting because you fell asleep,” Cheryl stated.

Paul laughed, “You’re right baby doll, but please put your clothes back on.” Cheryl laughed grabbing her ACU top and put it on then sat back down on the couch. Paul went over and sat down beside her, trying to cover her up. Cheryl was an average pretty country girl but the workouts and daily work schedule had turned her body into a knock out.

“Dude, if I would’ve been you, I would have dropped on the spot,” Bruce told Paul.

Paul started blushing beet red and wouldn’t look at anyone. “Can we just continue, please?” he asked.

“Okay, so Ned wants planes and a runway is going to be finished this week. Do we already have a group assigned for that?” Bruce asked.

“Yes,” Nancy replied, laughing, looking at Paul.

The meeting went on for two more hours finally ending at 2300. Marcus and Carroll left heading back to their farm as Bruce headed upstairs. Bruce was asleep before the rest showed up for bed.

Bruce was up the next morning at 0600. Grabbing his flight gear and weapons, he headed for the gym for a workout, stopping long enough in the cold morning air for Max to take care of business. The gym was packed as was normal now. It was one of two things the members of the clan could do that improved their odds for survival that depended totally on them. The other was learning as much as they could about how to survive.

Moving from each area, Bruce waited in line like everyone else to get in his workout. When Bruce finished, he went over to the flight area behind the barn. Seeing one of the flight crew, Bruce asked if the Loach could be ready after breakfast. Bruce was told all the helicopters were turned around after they landed. Thanking him, Bruce headed to the hall.

Sitting down in his chair, Bruce pulled out his note book and started going over notes for the week long mission for more supplies. When Max jumped up and ran toward the door, Bruce looked up to see the trio, with the kids, coming in. Debbie sat PJ down and he started walking toward Bruce, only to be knocked down by Max. PJ laughed and got back up, heading toward Bruce, clapping his hands stopping beside Bruce’s chair looking up at him.

“Well, it’s about time you got up boy,” Bruce said reaching down picking him up. PJ just looked at Bruce laughing like ‘Yeah, I know I’m good.’ Everyone came over, kissing Bruce, and then sat down.

As Debbie sat down she asked Bruce, “What are you doing today?”

“I’m going to fly over to Shreveport today. I want to look around some,” Bruce said standing up and putting PJ in his chair as coffee was sat down.

“I thought Jimmy had class all day today,” Angela said.

“I have no idea,” Bruce told her.

“So you’re just going up anyway?” Debbie asked grabbing her coffee.

“Yep,” Bruce answered, sitting back down.

“How much ‘actual’ flying time do you actually have?” Debbie asked.

“Thirty two hours eighteen minutes,” Bruce responded. Debbie just shook her head seeing Bruce had made up his mind and nothing but a raging fight was going to change it, if that even could.

The command group came in slowly over the next thirty minutes until everyone except Cheryl and Paul was at the table. When the food arrived, everyone started eating making small talk as Cheryl came in and just collapsed in her chair.

“He’s still alive isn’t he?” Mike asked.

“Shit if I know. I’ve been married to that man for fifteen years and he has never acted like that,” Cheryl said, grabbing a glass of water draining it.

“Ah, Cheryl, he’s kind of important. You didn’t break him did you?” Bruce asked.

“You have no right to ask that. You were the one who said throw it on him and holy shit Paul went wild,” Cheryl stated as she leaned back in her chair. “I was ready to drug him after the second hour,” she added.

Bruce laughed, “Buffy and Danny, I’m flying to Shreveport after breakfast. Do either of you have something you can’t move?” he asked. They both shook their head no and continued eating.

Mike looked up asking, “What are you going there for?”

“I forgot about the Air Force base there and I want to check the armories,” Bruce said, then amended. “I didn’t forget about it but I forgot that the air force has weapons also.”

Ted looked down the table at Bruce, “Let me get Omega ready and head into town by ground. If there’s something there we can bring it back.”

Bruce thought about it then responded, “Tell you what, let me check them out first. If there is something there, I’ll call and y’all can come in. That way we aren’t wasting diesel.”

“Okay,” Ted replied.

Bruce finished eating and told Danny and Buffy to meet him in twenty minutes as he left the hall. Walking out the door Bruce ran into Paul. Bruce smiled, “Hey big boy I take it you had fun?”

Paul looked at Bruce with a grin, “Oh yeah.”

“Well, next time, tell me you need some and I’ll babysit the kids,” Bruce told Paul as he walked inside.

Bruce headed to the flight area to see Jimmy, walking around the Loach. “How is it going today?” Bruce asked.

“Hey Bruce. So far so good. Are you sure you are ready for solo?” Jimmy asked.

“What do you think?” Bruce asked crossing his arms over his chest.

“Bruce, I think you were ready after your first flight but that’s not what I asked,” Jimmy informed him.

“Fair enough,” Bruce laughed. “Yeah, I’m ready. How close is Mike to being ready for flight?”

“He’s going up Monday,” Jimmy told him.

Bruce threw his gear in the back of the Loach, then walked around it doing preflight checks. Seeing nothing out of place, he crawled inside and started his check list. Buffy and Danny came running around the barn at full speed up to the Loach. Seeing them coming Bruce motioned for Danny to take the copilot seat and Buffy to get in the back. When they were in, he told them to get on their helmet’s as he got out and walked over to the barn coming back with a small acetylene torch set and strapped it in the empty seat. Climbing back in, Bruce started up the chopper and when the engine was up to power he lifted off.

“This is so cool,” Danny said over the intercom as Bruce lifted off, heading toward Shreveport.

Bruce smiled as he brought the chopper up to three thousand feet. “How fast are we going?” Buffy asked looking out the window.

“One hundred and twenty miles an hour,” Bruce replied as Danny watched him moving the cyclic, collective and pedals. Then Danny looked at the moving pedals at her feet.

“Which one’s the gas?” she asked.

“Neither,” Bruce replied. “The throttle is on the collective, the bar moving up and down by your left hand,” Bruce told her. Danny just watched in amazement. Then Bruce dropped the Loach down to a thousand feet then back up to three thousand. Then he started banking right and left. Coming to a hover, Bruce flew the chopper sideways to the left and right, then turned back to Shreveport.

Danny just watched as Bruce moved the controls and when he started back to Shreveport she stated, “It takes all that to do something?” Bruce just nodded his head. “How hard is it to fly a plane?” Danny asked.

“Don’t know, but if it’s harder than this I won’t do it,” Bruce informed her.

“Do you think I can do it?” Danny asked, not sure of herself.

“Yeah, you will learn it easier than I did. Just remember these damn things are unforgiving,” Bruce told her. Danny smiled with relief. If daddy said she could do it, then she could.

“I want to learn too Daddy,” Buffy called out over the intercom from the back.

“You will Buffy, but you just learned how to drive a vehicle. Let’s get you good on that first then move forward,” Bruce said and Buffy let out a dejected sigh.

Bruce circled Shreveport looking around, then headed to Bossier, flying over the air base. The huge B-52s were sitting on the runway looking intimidating, as the little Loach flew over them. Bruce wondered if anyone would ever fly those again. Heading to the MP station Bruce sat the helicopter down and told Danny and Buffy to wait. Bruce ran inside to look at the map of the base on the wall.

Seeing the list of armories and their location, Bruce ran back outside to the running Loach and took off to the biggest armory. Making a slow loop around the building Bruce sat down inside the fence making sure he wasn’t close to it or any power lines. When the Loach settled down Bruce shut it down and climbed out. His breath made huge bellows of fog as he grabbed the torch from the back.

Going to the door Bruce fired up the torch and cut his way inside. It was nothing like an Army armory but there were racks of M-4s, M-9s, SAWs, M-60s, GAU-16 mini guns and even M-2s. Bruce walked back outside and called the farm and told Omega to roll and bring at least four semi’s with them.

Danny stood beside him and asked, “Dad, what were in those bunkers on the back of the base?”

“Shit we don’t need,” Bruce told her.

Danny eyes got wide, “You’re kidding,” she gasped.

“Kidding about what,” Buffy asked.

“Everything in the US inventory is back there,” Bruce told her.

“Bombs?” Buffy asked looking up at Bruce.

“Nuclear, conventional, cruise missiles, laser guided, GPS guided even though we don’t have GPS anymore and other ordinance,” Bruce answered.

“There are nuclear weapons like what we dropped on Japan?” Buffy asked with a shocked expression.

“Yes but a lot bigger,” Bruce answered.

“I want to see one,” Danny said with excitement.

“No way little lady,” Bruce said.

“Daddy!” Danny cried out.

“Sweet pea, I have no idea what kind of precautions they put on those bunkers. I can guarantee you it won’t be as easy as opening up an armory,” Bruce told her.

“Why would they put booby traps on them when you have a whole base here to protect them?” Danny asked.

“I have no idea but I’m not about to find out,” Bruce informed her.

“Have you ever seen one?” Danny asked.

“Yes several,” Bruce told her.

“That’s not fair. I want to at least see one,” Danny whined stomping her foot.

“Maybe another day and after I talk to some other people,” Bruce replied.

The argument continued for forty minutes until Omega showed up. Bruce left the Loach after they loaded up the armory and moved to the next one. It was 1300 when all the armories were loaded up into three trucks. Heading to the Exchange, they loaded up flight suits, ABUs, boots, jackets and supplies. When they were finished, Bruce had Ted’s Stryker drive out on the flight line. There were several large tanker trucks on the line.

Stopping by them, Bruce checked the log to confirm they were loaded with jet fuel and called for two people to drive them back. Looking at his watch, Bruce told Ted to take them back to the chopper. It was 1710 when Bruce lifted off heading home. Bruce flew over the bunkers at the back of the base and just shuddered at what was inside them. These bunkers made the ones the Army used look like small shops and there were over a hundred, easy. Bruce turned and flew over the convoy then pulled up to three thousand feet.

Danny pouted the entire way home as Buffy asked questions about the airplanes they had seen on the runway. When Bruce was halfway home he called for the micro UAV’s to clear a path for him from the west. Bruce circled the farm, seeing several bulldozers working on the area for the new runway. It would run parallel to the farm and not toward it. Easing the Loach down until the skids touched down, Bruce killed the engine and shut down the controls.

Danny got out without saying a word, closing the door and walking off. Bruce laughed as the trio walked over. Debbie watched Danny walk off and she asked, “Let me guess you didn’t take her into one of the B-52s?”

“No, she wanted me to break into one of the nuclear storage bunkers so she could see a nuke,” Bruce let her know.

Debbie just looked at Bruce in stunned silence, then spoke, “And you didn’t?” Bruce shook his head no and Debbie started laughing, “I find that hard to believe. First, it’s a toy you don’t have and second, your little princess wanted to see one,” she said.

“They scare the shit out of me. I like weapons I can actually use. I don’t think the blues will back down from a nuclear deterrent,” Bruce informed her.

“It’s okay baby, you have enough toys. Let’s get some food,” Debbie told him leading him inside the hall.

Omega showed up and a crew was assigned to unload the trucks after supper. The fuel trucks were driven back to the flight area for the helicopters. The command group ate and headed to bed. Once again Bruce was asleep as his body tried to make up for his long hours.

The next morning Danny was still not talking to Bruce and acting pouty. Getting up from the table Bruce went over to talk to Ned since he had some time in the Air Force. Coming back over to the table, Bruce sat down and looked at Danny. Letting out a sigh, Bruce said, “Okay Danny, when we get a chance, I’ll take you back and let you look at one.”

“Thank you Daddy,” Danny said with glee.

Debbie looked up at Angela, “Told ya it wouldn’t take her more than three hours if she was still pouting.”

“Damn, I thought my Dad was a push over,” Angela said, looking at Bruce.

“I hardly ever saw mine,” Stephanie said.

“That’s okay you can help me spoil these kids,” Bruce told Stephanie. Stephanie looked up, gave a weak smile and continued eating.

After the service Bruce went up to the podium to start the clan meeting. “Good morning everyone is it cold enough for you,” Bruce asked getting a lot of replies.

“Okay, first, tomorrow we are heading out on a major trip. Over a hundred from us and thirty from Marcus’ clan are heading to the ammo depot in Texas to bring back more ammo. Then we go to Dallas to get more supplies, then, Omega will go with a small detachment to Oklahoma to bring back more weapons. Those staying here will be making runs into Shreveport to gather supplies as well. Lists will be put up today but are already up on the servers so you can check on our intranet. We are coming along real good here and I want it to continue. We have a few more weeks of cold weather so let’s use them wisely and not waste any time. We have a lot to get done before it warms up so let’s get it done,” Bruce told the clan and looked down at his notes.

“Our hunting patrols have wiped out packs of blues all over north Louisiana and we will continue that when we get back. The rescue patrols are suspended until then,” Bruce announced and heard a lot of moans.

“We will be spread thin enough as it is. Patrols will start back up when we get back, but as many of you have noticed, we are only bringing in small groups now. That’s all that’s left in our area. To go any further out we will have to take fuel, just to get back,” Bruce informed them.

“Now before I turn this over to the rest of the command group, any questions?” Bruce asked.

The oriental man named Henry raised his hand. Bruce looked at him, “Henry, I know I’m doing a lot and I’m missing my Monday, but we have no choice. I do appreciate your concern and when we get set up for summer, I’ll take time off ok,” Bruce told him. Henry looked down dejected and sat back down.

“Don’t worry Henry, he will do it, I can promise you that,” Debbie yelled from the back of the room. Henry cheered up after that.

A young boy in his teens raised his hand. Bruce remembered him asking about classes on Sunday and always saw him there. “Yes son, what is your question and name please,” Bruce told him.

“Mark Green sir and I want to be assigned to another barracks,” Mark told Bruce.

Bruce felt sorry for the boy as he asked, “Why is that son?”

“My mom won’t let me keep the weapons I was trained on in my room with me,” Mark said lifting up his pin on his shirt. “I have been trained and have the right to carry them.”

“Mark you sit down this instant!” Jenny shouted.

“Jenny, I’m not in the mood for you today,” Bruce told her and looked back at Mark. “Permission granted. See Nancy for your room assignment,” Bruce told him.

The girl sitting beside Mark jumped up, “I’m going with him,” she told Bruce. Bruce looked at the girl who was a little younger than Mark.

“And you are?” Bruce asked, looking at the girl.

“Kris Green, his sister,” she replied.

“You two sit down this instant or I will spank both of you!” Jenny yelled out.

“Jenny, if you hit either of these kids for wanting to learn how to defend themselves, I’ll give you twenty lashes with a bullwhip,” Bruce threatened.

“You can’t tell me how to raise my kids!” Jenny yelled out.

“I know I can’t, but when they want to learn how to survive, you can’t stop them. That I can intervene in,” Bruce told her.

Jenny’s husband Merle stood up, “Kids you don’t have to move,” he told them, then he looked at Bruce. “I request Jenny be moved to another barrack. We are divorced as of now,” Merle stated.

“You can’t do that!” Jenny yelled at him.

“Yes I can. I am ashamed I have not done this sooner,” Merle told her, looking at her.

“The kids could be hurt if there is fighting!” Jenny yelled out.

“Then they can at least stand a chance. Otherwise they die defenseless,” Merle told her. Looking back to Bruce, Merle said, “If that’s unacceptable, then, throw me and Jenny out but take care of the kids. Without her they stand a good chance. They’re both smart and hard workers.”

A lump caught in Bruce’s throat that Merle was ready to die with Jenny just to make sure the kids were given a chance. “That won’t be necessary Merle. Jenny, you are to move your stuff to the room Nancy tells you to and I wouldn’t make her mad. She hates you with a passion as it is. She could assign you to a tent by the chicken house. From this moment forward, your parental rights are severed. Merle, you are solely responsible for your two kids from now on,” Bruce announced in a calm voice.

“You don’t have that kind of authority!” Jenny yelled out.

The emotion fell off of Bruce’s face as he was staring at Jenny. Those in his path started clearing out of his way. Bruce closed his eyes and massaged his temples. “Jenny another word out of you and you lose clan status and will be assigned to shit detail until further notice. Refuse and I won’t even waste my time trying to teach you a lesson. I will throw you out,” Bruce told her with his eyes closed, fighting the headache that was trying to come on. Every time he stopped the wave now, it was always the same. It felt like a spike was being driven into his skull.

“This is America and since you are the one in charge you have to provide for me. I have not done anything to earn punishment. It is your duty to give me protection, shelter and food. That is what you are supposed to do. Unless you aren’t following the constitution,” Jenny replied with a sneer.

Bruce looked up and dropped his hands down. Those even close to Jenny started climbing over tables to get away from her. Merle left her and went to stand beside his kids. Seeing Bruce’s face, the sneer fell of Jenny’s face.

“First, you were warned. Second, you have never read the constitution or the bill of rights. Nowhere in there does it say the government has to provide for you and I’m not the government. What you and those like you don’t understand, the government is the people. The people don’t want to provide for those that don’t want to provide for themselves. Because of people like you, this country lost a lot of people we shouldn’t have. Making stupid gun laws that say you can’t defend yourself. The criminal has rights too when they attack you. What others like you don’t realize is that those of us who fight and own guns, made it possible for you to bitch. Our founding fathers didn’t put the right to bear arms in the constitution so we could go hunting. They gave that to us so we can defend ourselves from our own government if need be,” Bruce told her, then looked at Merle and the kids.

“Neither of you have to listen to her again,” Bruce told them and looked out at the clan. “I hereby declare Jenny Green no longer a member of the clan. She no longer will enjoy its protection, status or privileges that are bestowed on those here. Until further notice, her name is Skanky Whore. Bill, remove her from this hall. Tell Jim her new name and she is assigned to him, effective immediately. Any breach by her not to preform her punishment will be viewed as a threat. Bill, any breach in conduct will be met with lashes of the bullwhip. After three times, she will be stripped naked and thrown out of the farm. Any member of the clan that does not follow these orders will be subject to the same punishment. I will only allow her kids to call her by her birth name. This is my judgment,” Bruce finished, his voice echoing across the hall.

“Skanky Whore, you must earn your way back into the clan and prove that you are human. It’s all up to you skank when you rejoin the human race. Any person that sees skank doing something she is not supposed to will report it unless it is going to bring harm to a member of the clan. Then kill her. Bill, take her away and skank if you yell out, you and I will go behind the barn. I promise you, if that happens you will know fear and pain that you never thought possible,” Bruce told her as Bill grabbed her arms.

As Bill led the stunned skank out of the hall Bruce looked at Merle and the kids. “I wish she would have just shut up,” Mark said, looking down at the floor.

“I know you and your sister care for her, that’s why she’s still alive. Make no mistake, she is a danger to this clan and don’t fool yourself, she would sacrifice each one of you, just to make a point,” Bruce told them.

Both the kids jerked their heads up looking at Bruce. “I don’t think she would do that,” Kris said.

“When your family ran to the shelter, who was the first one in?” Bruce asked.

Both the kids looked at Bruce in shock as Merle answered, “Skanky Whore.”

Bruce looked back at the clan, “How many people are here because a parent died for them?” Bruce asked the hall. A lot of hands rose up over the hall. Turning back to the kids, “That’s what a parent is supposed to do. Just like your father did just a few minutes ago. He was willing to give his life and leave with her so neither of you would have to deal with the danger she places you in. That is a parent. This clan will be here for you as long as you are here for it,” Bruce told them.

Turning back to the hall, “I’m not in the mood for any more questions. Ask one of the others,” Bruce said, then headed out the door as Max jumped up and joined him. Stepping out in the cold air, Bruce unzipped his vest to dry the sweat off on him. Taking deep breaths, Bruce walked over to his shop to find something to work on, hoping his headache would leave.

A few hours later Mike came into the shop with a scowl on his face. Bruce was not in the mood because his head still hurt like hell. Turning off the lathe Bruce turned to Mike. “What is it?” Bruce asked.

“Why am I not going? Debbie, Angela, and Stephanie are going,” Mike almost yelled.

Bruce sighed replying, “Mike, the days of both of us being away from her are over unless something bad happens. One of us needs to be here at all times. Besides you have first flight Monday.”

“Screw that, I can move it, you need me out there with you,” Mike told him.

“I know that but I need you here more. There are a few here that would like for both of us to get killed and do whatever they want,” Bruce said putting his hand on Mike’s shoulder. “Mike some of the people here are going to question you about what I did today while I’m gone. Most will want to know why I didn’t go medieval on her ass, others why I did anything. A few are going to ask you to take charge when I leave. I need to know who those are,” Bruce said entrusting Mike with what he knew was coming.

“I would’ve shot the bitch. Screw her kids, she’s going to get someone killed or kill them herself,” Mike shot back. “When and if someone does say that, I’ll shoot ‘em.”

“You can’t. We have to know where our dangers are brother. We have over eleven hundred people here. I really only believe that we need to worry about less than a dozen but we need to know which ones,” Bruce told him.

“So I’m staying to be a spy?” Mike almost shouted.

“No you’re finding out who doesn’t belong here and is going to pose a threat,” Bruce told him. Bruce looked at Mike, “There is one other thing.”

“What?” Mike asked.

“When I leave, skank will try to test you. You will have to use the whip on her just to show the others that you agree with the penalties,” Bruce told him.

“I can do that,” Mike said.

Bruce chuckled, “It’s not as easy as is seems brother. When it happens, you will understand what I mean. Just remember, you aren’t hitting a person, it’s only a burlap sack. Each time you hit her you tell that to yourself with each hit and show no weakness. Take no joy from it and show no joy. It’s only the law of the clan and everyone must follow the law,” Bruce told him. Mike just nodded in mute silence, looking at Bruce.

“Is it really that bad?” Mike asked with apprehension.

“You have no idea, but you’ll understand,” Bruce told him. “I’m sorry, but the clan has to see you as the law like me. You have to be ruthless and kind. Ruthless will be a little hard on you, but they can’t just see me as the leader, they have to see you also,” Bruce finished.

Mike let out a sigh, “I’ll do it. Nancy and I will watch the kids while you’re gone,” he promised.

“Thank you brother,” Bruce told him.

Mike turned to leave but stopped and asked, “Bruce are you ever sorry we brought all these people here? We were pretty set up with just us and a lot fewer headaches.”

“Sometimes I am but we have to rebuild and we can’t do that with just our families. I do believe in America and what the founding fathers were after. We are going to make a small piece of America right here. I doubt it will go any further once we are set up with our safe zone but at least there will be a little of it left,” Bruce told him. Mike gave Bruce a hug and left Bruce alone in the shop.

Bruce had forgotten that he had put his small micro recorder attached to his boonie hat on the table and it recorded the whole conversation for future generations to see. A group believed in America and was willing to fight for it. Like always he turned it on at the start of the day and today was no exception.

Chapter 21

It was Friday, 1730 in the afternoon as Bruce drove one of the heavy haulers they had loaded up at Ft. Sill. They had grabbed four more Strykers and four more Bradleys. Bruce was glad they had gone to a Marine base so he could get some LAVs. Then they visited several other bases until they had no more room. They had ten semi-trucks loaded with weapons and ammo, stored everywhere it could be put. This was one of the longest weeks of his life. Starting to doze off again, Bruce shook his head to wake up. Grabbing a bottle of water, he poured it over his head. ‘Almost there only ten more miles’ he told himself as he looked in the mirror at the convoy following him.

Bruce had pushed Omega and the drivers to their limit of endurance not to mentation the trio. Thinking of them, Bruce looked around the cab at all three, sleeping. They did a great job over the week. At Ft. Sill they had found several hibernating packs and quickly fixed that. Several of the females in the packs were visibly pregnant which only made Bruce more determined to grab as much shit as they could.

Grabbing his radio and keying it, “Base, this is a tired Big Daddy One, open the gate,” he called out.

“This is Big Daddy Two glad to have you back,” Mike called back.

“Hey Two, get the command group ready. We are having our pow-wow and then I’m going to sleep for at least two days,” Bruce called back.

“We can do it tomorrow,” Mike called back.

“Daddy two, I’m sleeping,” Bruce called back.

“I copy. Will radio everyone. Marcus and Carroll are both here,” Mike reported.

“Is anything wrong?” Bruce asked, getting worried.

“No they just got back with a load,” Mike informed Bruce.

Bruce shook his head, thinking he just saw an elephant cross the road, then it dawned on him what Mike had said. “They are still making runs into town?” Bruce called back.

“No, I’ll fill you in when you get here. How many vehicles do you have?” Mike asked.

“Twenty semis and four are heavy transport trucks. Ten more MRAPs and a few Hummers,” Bruce replied back.

“Oh damn. It’s going to be tight, wasn’t expecting you to add so many extra vehicles. We will figure something out,” Mike called back.

“Negative, we will leave the large haulers on the road. Send someone to take them down to the depot,” Bruce told him then asked if the rest of the team caught that and he got halfhearted replies all the way around. Bruce eased past the gate and stopped the truck and turned to wake the trio. “Hey guys, we’re home. Let’s get the hell out of this truck,” Bruce told them.

Stephanie stretched out yawning, “Damn this truck beats the ever living shit out of you. Don’t go to war with a group of people. Make them ride in this damn thing and they’ll surrender.”

Bruce laughed, “It’s by no means the worst Little Red,” he replied as Angela and Debbie sat up.

“Why are we on the road?” Debbie asked.

“Mike said there are a lot of vehicles in the back and I’m not in the mood to wait. So someone else will take the heavy haulers to the depot,” Bruce told her.

“Call them back and have someone come get us,” Debbie said laying her head back down.

“Quit being a sissy. You three slept since we hit Texas,” Bruce told her grabbing his stuff and opening the door.

“Yeah, until you yelled out ‘Hippo in the road’ and almost went into the ditch,” Angela stated opening the passenger door.

“Well, I swear I saw one,” Bruce told them honestly.

“Bruce, when you start hallucinating, you are way past tired. What else did you see?” Debbie asked.

“Nothing,” Bruce lied. Debbie just stared at him not blinking. “Oh, okay. I saw an elephant, a baboon, that little man who hollers ‘The plane boss, the plane.’ Then the entire cast of the 1970 ‘Planet of the Apes’,” Bruce replied.

“I was wondering why your head was wet,” Debbie stated as she got out of the truck.

Bruce climbed out and followed them into the farm as several people came out to move the trucks. Walking through the gate, Bruce heard the Bradleys start up. ‘Well they are going to unload them then they will move the trucks’, Bruce thought not caring either way. “Just to let you three know, we are headed right to the meeting, then I’m going to sleep,” Bruce told them as they walked to the house.

Debbie stopped and turned around, looking at Bruce like she was fixing to stab him. “Are you insane? In the past five days you haven’t had more than eight hours of sleep!” Debbie yelled as Bruce walked right by her.

“Yeah, I know and I’m not getting up early tomorrow for anyone. The kids better know how to get ready and feed themselves,” Bruce said as Debbie fell in beside him.

“Okay then, as long as you get some rest we’ll do that,” Debbie stated.

“I’m taking a shower first. My clothes can walk around by themselves right now,” Bruce told her.

“No argument here. The only one that doesn’t think you stink is Stephanie,” Debbie said as Stephanie turned around.

“Bruce always smells good,” Stephanie said over her shoulder.

“I worry about you Little Red. I can’t even stand the smell of myself right now,” Bruce said as they walked to the front of the house.

They noticed three large shipping containers were sitting in the ground in front of the house. Walking around them they ran into Mike, Nancy and the kids. Bruce knew he stunk when even the twins didn’t want hugs and PJ covered his nose. The trio had taken sponge baths so they were not quite as bad and the kids went to them. Little Cade almost knocked Angela down when he ran up to her wrapping his arms around her. Then he went to Debbie and Stephanie but stopped before getting to Bruce.

“It’s okay. I stink, Cade. You won’t hurt my feelings,” Bruce told him.

Mike looked at Bruce in shock. Bruce had dark circles under his eyes and stubble on his head with a partial beard. When Mike saw Omega team get out of their vehicles he thought they looked like warmed shit. Compared to Bruce they looked like they were ready to run a marathon. “Brother you leave my site for one week and fall apart,” Mike said as he hugged him. Stepping back Mike asked, “Dude, what the hell did you step in?”

“Ode of Bruce,” Bruce replied.

“Get rid of it,” Mike suggested as they headed inside.

Walking into the house Bruce passed the living room and headed right upstairs. Dropping his clothes and gear he jumped in the shower and basically burnt the top layer of skin off. Drying off Bruce wrapped a towel around his waist. Then he grabbed his razor and shaving cream as he headed back down stairs. Walking into the game room, still wrapped in a towel, Bruce collapsed in his chair.

Holding up his razor and cream Bruce asked, “Will someone please shave me? I can’t because I see two of me in the mirror.”

Millie got up and went into the kitchen and came back out with a bowl of water. She lathed up Bruce’s head and face and started shaving. Bruce looked up at Millie, “You’re so sexy right now,” Bruce told her.

“Bruce, you be needin’ help,” Millie said laughing as she shaved his head.

Bruce looked over at Mike, “Well how many days did it take till you used the whip?” he asked Mike.

“Eight hours after you left,” Mike replied.

“And the other?” Bruce asked.

“The same one I used the whip on. One other hinted at it but didn’t come out and say it. I have it on video from my micro cam. We’ll talk about that later, when you have more than two brain cells working,” Mike answered.

Bruce nodded and looked at Marcus. “What did you get from Shreveport that you had to put over here?” Bruce asked him.

“Nothing, my team hasn’t been to Shreveport,” Marcus replied.

“It took you four days to come back from north east Texas?” Bruce asked.

“Well, we went back,” Marcus replied smiling.

“You what?” Bruce asked trying to make his mind work as Millie continued to shave him.

“We went back to the ammo storage area,” Marcus replied.

“So you made another trip?” Bruce asked smiling.

“No, they made four more to the storage area and one to the mason jar company,” Mike answered.

Bruce’s eyes widened with awe as he asked, “You mean to tell me you brought back two hundred truckloads of ammo?”

“Yeah, we left some of the artillery shells,” Marcus answered.

“We can’t put all that shit here,” Bruce said as Millie lifted up his head to shave his neck.

Mike coughed, “Well actually we can. Two truckloads will fit in one storage container and Paul went shopping again. I don’t think there are any forty-two foot containers left in the area. We now have twenty-six underground storage areas.”

“Well, all of it doesn’t need to go here!” Bruce exclaimed.

“Oh it’s not all here. We put sixty tons at Marcus’s farm. He has two more storage areas,” Mike replied.

“So we have another- what- three thousand tons of ammo,” Bruce asked not believing what he was saying.

“No, we put it closer to another five thousand five hundred tons of ammo and that’s just here,” Nancy answered.

“Fuck me,” Bruce said.

“Backwards,” Debbie added in shock.

“Riding a red tricycle,” Angela exclaimed.

“With a monkey playing a harmonica,” Stephanie completed.

“I think we have enough ammo now. Tell him the rest,” Carroll said, smiling at the comments.

“Several of Marcus’ clan went down south to the ammo company down there and hauled it up here. We have three industrial reloaders with several tons of propellant, brass and lead,” Willie told Bruce.

Bruce just looked at everyone, “Hell, I’m going on trips more often,” he declared.

“No you are not,” Debbie told him. “You drove everyone into the ground.”

“I now know what they are capable of,” Bruce replied looking at her. Turning back to Mike, “What the hell else did y’all do?”

“We had Jimmy fly five of us new pilots and Pat down to Polk and came back with six more choppers. We brought back more spare parts also. We put four of them at Marcus’, they’re sending over six to learn to fly,” Mike told him then continued.

“Paul and Willie went and emptied Shreveport of lumber and concrete. Not to mention shipping containers. They also came back with truckloads of steel for the machine shop. Paul also brought back more fuel tanks and treated the fuel storage at the Air force base. We also have airplanes now with four pilots. The depot is almost fenced off using the trees we cut down. It is one hundred acres and let me tell you there is a lot of stuff down there. They just started dropping off trailers going and grabbing an empty one loading it up and dropping it off,” Mike told him.

Bruce just looked at Mike, “I was only gone five days,” he whined.

“Uh, you told us not to waste any time,” Bill said.

“Wh-,” Bruce tried to talk.

“He’s not kidding Bruce. When you left, everyone here started moving in over-drive since you wanted a lot of stuff completed fast. Like Bill said and everyone is repeating it ‘let’s not waste any time. We have a lot to do and not much time’,” Nancy told him.

Millie finished shaving Bruce but he still couldn’t speak. Mike looked at Bruce, “Bruce the clan is moving with purpose because you asked them to. I believe that they think, you risking going that far away, we are in for a shit storm. I hope you are proud of them because I am,” Mike said.

“Yeah, I’m proud,” Bruce finally managed to get out.

Paul stood up, “I also brought another sixty-four horses and eighty-eight cows. We are building a thirty acre holding area beside the depot with the trees also. With a twenty foot wall and with one of those remote machine guns that you drive by remote control we can cover them,” Paul said.

“A SWORD,” Jake helped him out.

“Yeah, one of those. We now have over a hundred horses and one hundred fifty six head of cattle. We need two hundred and fifty but it’s a start,” Paul replied, smiling.

“If I go to sleep for a week, will y’all have everything done when I wake up?” Bruce asked hopefully.

“No, I doubt it. You think of something new every day. Sometimes I think you do it just to irritate people,” Paul disclosed.

“How much fuel can we store now?” Bruce asked Paul. Paul just looked away.

“We aren’t going to talk about that right now Bruce,” Mike growled. Bruce looked at Mike and saw irritation on his face.

“Oh, someone got in trouble?” Bruce asked. Mike just waved his hand up in the air.

Mike looked at Bruce smiling, “Well how many weapons did y’all get and what else did you find?”

“Let me see now, I’m just guessing but about 4,000 M-4s most A1’s, about 250 SAW’s, 100 M-240, 80 M-2s, 30 mini guns, 40 MK-19s, I have no idea how many pistols, about 2,000 M-16A2s, half a truck full of M-67 frag grenades, the other half is filled with 40mm, about forty of each sniper rifle that is in current military use. More UAV’s, thermal scopes, goggles-. I don’t know what else. I can’t think straight,” Bruce said trying to get his brain to work.

“You got all that from one base?” Willie yelled out.

Debbie jumped up yelling. “Hell no! Mister, ‘We can sleep as we move and we drag our genitals when we walk’, went up into Kansas then back down into Texas. We stopped at four Army bases including two National Guard bases, a Marine base and three Air Force bases. We haven’t stopped moving since we left Dallas Tuesday night and let me tell you the numbers he just gave you are low, by a lot!” Debbie finished, giving Bruce a stern look.

“Hey you got to sleep, so quit bitching,” Bruce told her.

“Well do we now have enough guns?” Susan asked.

“If we don’t, we’re fucked because we aren’t getting anymore,” Debbie told her.

Mike looked at her, “He went crazy again didn’t he?” he asked.

Debbie looked at Mike, then turned to Bruce, with a scowl covered her face. “I almost had to pull a gun on him at that damn super army surplus store. He wanted everything in that whole damn store and then his kids were just as bad. Jake wanted to take one of the shopping carts that looked like a tank. Then Bruce wanted to go to one more base after we left one. Then coming back through Dallas, he wanted to stop back by the surplus store. I told him after we loaded up ten trucks from his other stops, there was not much left and we had no room for anything anyway,” Debbie said shaking her head.

“I’m sorry Debbie,” Mike said with total sincerity and understanding.

“We now have enough shit for a little while anyway,” Bruce announced, wanting Debbie to drop it.

Angela giggled and snorted, “We can fight three wars with the crap we have here now.”

“I just want to survive one,” Bruce told her and Angela stopped giggling.

“Bruce what is it that you feel?” Debbie asked.

Bruce looked at her trying to focus his eyes on her, “This year is going to be much worse than last. We need over two thousand people to fight these coming battles with another thousand in reserve. Marcus needs to train his people to load up and be over here in forty-five minutes. That is what two of the Bradleys are for. Then we need to start drilling here with assigned fighting positions. Running drills once a week until they can move to their spot in minutes. This farm must be ready for an attack in ten minutes. We need the kids in the main underground storage area loading magazines and running back and forth from each position getting empties. Mike’s Gamma team will be the rapid reaction force for breakthroughs. In the underground main storage, we will have a pool of fighters to send to weak areas of the perimeter. On the road, we need to bury drums of fuel and wire them with explosives to block the road with fire. That will need to be done along the perimeter as well to break up mass attacks,” Bruce said as his head started bobbing from side to side.

“What’s going to hit us, blues or a gang?” Stephanie asked quietly.

“Both, I keep playing out the battle but without enough people we get overrun. They want what we have,” Bruce told her as his eyes closed. His body demanded rest.

“Who wants what we have?” Carroll asked.

“The blues and gangs,” Bruce said with his eyes closed.

“What do we have that they want?” Debbie asked softly.

“Happiness,” Bruce said cracking his eyes open.

“Why haven’t you told any of us this?” Debbie asked, afraid of the answer but needing to know. This was the only time when you could get Bruce to really tell you what was on his mind, when he was exhausted.

“It’s going to be bad,” Bruce said, forcing his eyes open.

Debbie got up and walked over to Bruce and pulled on his arm, “Come on mister, you need to sleep.” Debbie turned around and saw Matt, “Matt take Bruce upstairs and make sure he gets in the bed.” Matt grabbed Bruce’s arm and led him upstairs and Debbie watched them go. Turning back around Debbie looked at everyone, “Whatever you do, never tell Bruce what he told us.”

“Why? We know it’s only a matter of time until we get hit. He’s just playing out the scenarios,” Bill told her.

“No, Bill, he feels it. He’s trying to cover every contingency. He feels it’s going to be a large gang, followed by a horde of blues,” Debbie told him.

“He didn’t say that,” Paul said.

Debbie shook her head, “No, he told us that over a week ago.” Debbie said as she turned to Angela and Stephanie, looking at them and told them, “When Bruce is tired and sleepy, he’ll tell you what’s on his mind.”

“It makes sense,” Willie said.

“What makes sense?” Paul asked, looking at him.

“How Bruce has directed us to do certain things at a time. It would have been easier to just build everything then train. Then what we go out after, if you sit and look back at it he has been holding part of the clan here as soldiers getting ready to fight all along. He never advances everything at once, like not everyone training or all construction,” Willie said.

“You can’t feel an attack,” Bill told him.

“I beg to differ. You, being a civilian, wouldn’t have had study military history. Generals like Sherman, Grant, Lee, Patton, MacArthur, Attila the Hun and Caesar, just to name a few, could feel an attack months away and could almost tell you how the enemy was going to do it. Bruce, like most of the great generals, has ridden the wave. He has felt the rage push him on the wave and unlike most I have seen, Bruce doesn’t let it take control of him. Don’t get me wrong, when he’s on it, he gives me the creeps, but damn is he good,” Willie told Bill.

Carroll cleared her throat and everyone looked at her, “It don’t matter. We all be believin’ in him and I for one be grateful that he hauled his hind end along with his group out that swamp. Then Paul led him to our farm. We’d already be dead if it wasn’t for him. Them silencers he made for us and that pistol he gave Marcus that day when he left saved our lives. You can say it be luck, but I believe the Lord guided him to us.” Carroll told everyone. Then looking around, Carroll continued, “Now Debbie said don’t be tellin’ Bruce nuthin’ and nobody better. Next, what be the fastest way we can move six hundred plus over here fast?”

Paul snapped his fingers, “The semi-trucks, I bet you could get a hundred and fifty in each one. It might be a little cramped but they would only have to stay in them for fifteen minutes, twenty at the most. Have five on standby. When the alarms go off, have people assigned to each truck. Then come in a convoy with the Strykers and Bradleys.”

“Why not go to Marcus’? His fence is twice as tall as ours,” Bill pointed out.

“No I believes Bruce has been told we must fight from here. That’s why he wantin’ us to make an area to store the animals where they couldn’t be heard,” Carroll answered.

“No offense ma’am, but your farm wouldn’t stand up to a major assault. The fence can be rammed very easily. If someone tries to hit the fence here with an eight foot earthen berm weighing tons, they would just bounce off. You don’t have good fields of fire because you would have to build a walkway around your fence and wood is not a good bullet stopper. Then you don’t have an area for a prolonged siege-,” Willie stopped as Marcus held up his hand.

“Son, I was Special Forces in Nam. I know what my locations weaknesses are. That is why I’m here but more importantly, I believe in Bruce and that he is being guided. He has rode the elephant, and hasn’t lost his humanity,” Marcus told Willie as he stood up beside Carroll.

“When did Dad ride an elephant Mom?” Danny asked, not understanding.

“It’s another name for the wave,” Debbie told her.

“I like the wave better,” Danny stated, stretching out. “It is a great ride,” Danny claimed, smiling.

Marcus looked at her with a sad face, “You be careful Danny, you can fall in love with the elephant. It’s too big to control and has no love in it. It will eventually claim a price. When you fall off the elephant you get trampled. You might live, but you will lose part of yourself. The elephant is powerful, but also dangerous.”

“You’ve ridden the wave?” Danny exclaimed, looking at Marcus.

Marcus nodded his head sadly, “Yes and in the last few months I have jumped back on the elephant. Too many memories I thought I had forgotten came back. It gives you power but the price is dear,” Marcus replied as Carroll grabbed his hand and squeezed, letting Marcus know he had her for support.

“Yeah, Dad has been telling me that,” Danny told him in a solemn voice.

“You listen to him well,” Marcus warned her. “Did Bruce ever say numbers?” Marcus asked Debbie.

Debbie turned to Stephanie. Stephanie closed her eyes for a minute then opened them. “He just kept saying the gang was going to be large, no numbers,” Stephanie replied.

“What about blues?” Willie asked.

Stephanie looked down at her lap as she spoke, “Around one million, are the references he has used but he’s worried about more.”

Marcus dropped down on the couch, “There aren’t that many people around here,” Marcus declared trying to find a hole in Bruce’s fears.

“I’m bettin’ when it comes, he’ll be pretty close,” Carroll stated.

Mike looked at Debbie stating, “Well, I wish I could tell him I was sorry about getting mad at him for acting like a dweeb when we went to gather the guns. Now I know why he has been so adamant about everyone having multiple weapons to fire.”

“Doesn’t matter. Just let him think you’re worried about his obsession with guns. If you tell him what we have found out, it would really shut him down. He’ll think he has scared us and that we will freeze up. He will tell us eventually, but only when he thinks we’re ready,” Debbie replied.

“We need to get some heavy equipment inside the fence,” Marcus said.

“There’s heavy equipment inside the fence,” Paul pointed out.

“No, it needs to stay inside the fence, so we can dig our way out. I’ve seen wave attacks of thousands. The bodies were piled up several feet high in places. With this many, we’ll have to dig our way out. We are talking about piles yards tall and many yards deep, all the way around us,” Marcus informed them.

“Okay what else?” Debbie asked.

“We could get the choppers up,” Conner said hopefully.

Marcus shook his head, “No, once they got up they couldn’t land to refuel and rearm. This area may be big, but not that big. Bullets will be flying high and everywhere, not to mention the mortars. If one hit our chopper it might crash on our fence and that would be bad. The pilot would have to set down outside the fence with a countryside that would want to eat him,” Marcus told him.

“We could put mines out?” Willie suggested.

“That would incapacitate some but not enough. Even the ones it took the legs off of would still crawl toward us. The mines would pose a greater danger to us than the blues,” Stephanie replied.

“We have to shoot them just like Bruce has been preparing us to do with piles of weapons and tons of ammo,” Debbie stated as she looked around.

“Well we have plenty to do until then,” Mike said as he stood up. “Let’s get some food and put our weary travelers to bed,” Mike said, leading the group out to the hall.

Debbie stayed on the couch after asking Angela and Stephanie to take the kids and feed them. Debbie was lost in thought and it was several minutes until she noticed Carroll was sitting across from her. Everyone else had gone to eat, leaving them alone.

“He don’t be knowin’ if that’s what you be thinkin’,” Carroll said.

“How can you be sure?” Debbie asked her.

“You’re still here. If he be thinkin’ that, you and them kids be in Antarctica by now,” Carroll pointed out.

“That’s true,” Debbie said, nodding in agreement.

“Each week we talk, you seem more at peace with this Debbie,” Carroll stated.

“I’m feeling more at ease,” Debbie informed her.

“Which one do ya think he goin’ to choose?” Carroll asked, leaning back on the couch.

“I have no idea. I don’t even know if he will choose either. Just as long as they keep some spark of life in him and not let him succumb to the hate, I don’t care. Don’t get me wrong, I love both of them dearly, but my motive is to make sure Bruce has a life after I’m gone,” Debbie revealed.

Carroll just studied Debbie, “I have thought and prayed long and hard on this Debbie. I’m not trying to figure out what God has planned but I’m thinkin’ you and Bruce be a sacrifice for mankind. Because you be right about one thing,” Carroll said. Debbie looked at Carroll, waiting on her to finish. Carroll stood up and walked over to Debbie, sat down beside her, and held Debbie’s hand. “Without Bruce being a whole person we not gonna make it through this. If he falls into despair, we falter or if he wallows in the hate we die,” Carroll said looking at her.

“I know,” Debbie replied, squeezing Carroll’s hand.

“You are the greatest and bravest person I ever know’d or heard of Debbie,” Carroll told her.

“Thank you,” Debbie said smiling but shook her head, “but before this is over, you’ll say that to Bruce.”

“I doubt that,” Carroll said. “You walks with your head held high and no fear,” Carroll let her know.

“Oh I’m scared but as long as my family and friends are protected I’m okay,” Debbie told her. “Besides, you have no idea what he’s going to face,” Debbie added but would not say anything more.

Chapter 22

It took Bruce three full days to recuperate from the scavenger hunt but he felt so much better when he walked around the farm. Seeing the containers full of ammo and weapons gave him hope. The hunting patrols went into high gear as they just burnt the packs out. When the temperature increased they would set up ambushes for them.

Over the next few weeks the clan started practicing the call out drills. The alarms would sound off through the farm and everyone would run to their fighting position or assigned duty area. The drills were practiced twice a day the first week and once a day the next. Now they were random and the alarm rang in short breaks letting people know it was a drill. Marcus started running drills once a day on people running to their assigned truck that would take them to the farm. Others would seal up the livestock then pile in the vehicles. Every other day they would drive to the farm. So far they could get everyone there in fifty minutes but Marcus assured Bruce that they could do it in forty. Bruce didn’t have the heart to tell Marcus he was thrilled with fifty minutes.

They now had twenty-two helicopter pilots and ten airplane pilots, so they could now fly to check on some survivors that they had found. Bruce did take those that didn’t want to join the clan a few weapons and ammo as a measure of good will. The rescue patrols started up again and were now having to carry fuel with them. Bruce wouldn’t let them go too far to the east because of the gang they had found in the northeast corner of the state. More gangs were found in southwest Arkansas, east Texas and west Mississippi and Bruce stopped the rescue patrols in those areas also. The gang Bruce feared to the southeast still could not be found. He just knew it was in the southeast part of the state but little did he know that he had guessed wrong.

They had brought in another two hundred and eighty-two survivors in the last weeks of January but they were looking more starved than the ones they had found earlier. The survivors always reported they were scared to go out because of blues and gangs waiting until the last minute before making a run for supplies. When pressed, most admitted fearing the gangs more. Bruce feared many were just starving to death.

One of the older ladies that cooked with Millie had passed away last week of natural causes and was buried in the clan cemetery. Bruce thought to himself, ‘to die of natural causes now was an accomplishment’. The clan gathered for the service as they always did when laying one of their own to rest.

Bruce had taken Danny to the Air Force base and let her see a nuke, even taking her picture with it. Taking Omega team aside Bruce had them each go to the storage area and get two sets of each style of ACU or BDU in inventory. Now when they went on patrol they changed uniform patterns daily. With the teams doing that, Bruce hoped that if they were being watched, it would confuse the numbers.

On the construction side the farm was getting added on more and more. The new mission control was now underground. They had taken three storage containers, dug a huge hole in front of the house and poured a concrete pad at the bottom. Then the containers were put in, after loading the four trailer modules for the UAV flight control into one of the containers. The second container was going to be video monitor and radio. Container number three would be used for a command area until they need it for something else. Next, they dug a hole under the house, knocking out the floor for a small stairway into mission control. A pad of concrete was poured over the top but not blocking the doors. Bruce wanted the doors to be accessible. That way, if they needed to get something big into them they just had to dig down until they could use the container doors. That had taken three days. They were still running the lines down for the cameras mounted around the property with a lot being added further out. Jake assured everyone it would be finished Monday.

The new gym was opening Monday as well. This was the first common area that Paul put underground. Paul said, if he could, he was putting everything else underground so it would not take up precious space above ground. A new green house was being built on top of the gym. The gym was ten thousand square feet with Jacuzzis and steam rooms and the place was loaded with equipment. Bruce could not wait because he was tired of waiting in line to use a machine. Mike and he actually moved their workouts to 1000 just so they could finish in an hour. There were still people there in the gym but you could at least move. Compared to the old gym of two thousand square feet the new one was going to be great.

The private gag war between Willie and Bruce continued with Willie on the losing side, big time. The last one Willie tried to pull was two days ago. Leading the family upstairs Bruce stopped, looking at the door. The hair he had wedged in the door was gone. Leaving the others in the hall Bruce went to Mike’s room and climbed out on the balcony. Opening his window he climbed in very easily then he started the search.

After Bruce found it he left it in place and let the family in and instructed the trio and Buffy to look for it but be careful because it was a good one. It was Stephanie who found it only because she used the same closet as Bruce. Willie had snuck in hanging a zip lock bag of yellow paint between two of Bruce’s uniforms and had a small blasting cap wired to the bag. If Bruce would have pulled down the hanger it would have covered the closet with paint. Shaking his head, Bruce wondered why Willie had a thing for paint bombs, this being the third one Bruce had found. Bruce disarmed it and the whole time he was doing it, all three women were threating to go after Willie with pitchforks.

Bruce sat them down and told them, no, this was his battle. Debbie looked at Bruce and told him ‘the gloves come off now’. The next morning, sitting at the breakfast table they heard a loud ‘pop’ outside the hall. A few minutes later, Willie came in covered in yellow paint after opening his rucksack and the paint bomb from Bruce’s closet exploded in his face. As Willie stood at the end of the table covered in paint, Bruce told Willie, he lost it in Bruce’s closet, of all places, and he was just returning it. This contest of pranks was not going well for Willie. He had already put his feet in boots filled with cow shit, brushed his teeth with Ben Gay, had the ever living shit scared out of him when he went to the bathroom in the middle of the night and had pictures of him with stretched out legs when he was on the toilet holding on for dear life, put up all over the farm. Willie was actually having trouble remembering all the things Bruce had done to him now.

The day he came in covered in paint for the third time was the day Bruce told Willie, Debbie had said take the gloves off. Willie was fixing to surrender when he heard Debbie had declared that ‘the gloves come off’ and Bruce asked for his surrender. Willie told Bruce it would be a cold day in hell before he surrendered.

Bruce just replied, “I feel a cold front moving in on hell,” making Willie shiver.

It was the Saturday, the first week in February that found the clan enjoying some down time. It was seventy degrees at 0800 and Bruce had cancelled work for the day and told everyone at breakfast that the pool was open. Since the pool was heated, it only mattered about outside temperatures. Everyone let off a cheer with the news. After breakfast Bruce walked over to the flight area.

Approaching the flight area Bruce saw the tent that was put over the choppers so they could be worked on out of the weather. Looking around at the other birds, all were covered with cammo netting. Bruce couldn’t figure out why because any satellite or UAV would see the armored vehicles and know they were in for a world of shit but he didn’t say anything. Walking over to one of the ground crew Bruce asked where Jimmy was. When Bruce was told in the flight class room upstairs he headed for the barn.

Walking into the class room Bruce saw Jimmy going over notes. “Hey Jimmy,” Bruce said.

Looking up, Jimmy responded, “Hey Bruce.”

“You’re going to come swimming today right?” Bruce asked him.

“Yeah, later today,” Jimmy said looking back down.

“Which one is ready to be my gunner?” Bruce asked him. Debbie, Angela, Stephanie and Buffy had been training on the simulator to be a gunner on the Apache. In the military, the gunner was also a pilot but the clan couldn’t afford that luxury right now.

Jimmy laid down his pen. “To be honest with you, each of them does a real good job,” Jimmy said looking up.

“So which would you recommend?” Bruce questioned.

“Bruce, any of them. I don’t want to piss them off any more than you do. From a military stand point, I would take Buffy. The others are in our high chain of command, like you are. If your chopper goes down, we lose you and them,” Jimmy answered.

Thinking it over, Bruce nodded his head, “They could live with that,” Bruce said more to himself than Jimmy. Bruce smiled as he said, “I heard Danny, Stephanie, Debbie and Jake are in the next class.”

“Yeah, they scored really well on the entrance test,” Jimmy replied. The command group, well more Nancy, Debbie, Angela and Stephanie, had told Jimmy to come up with a test for people to take so they could determine who could start classes. There were hundreds that wanted to fly, but they could only teach twenty at a time and they couldn’t afford to waste a lot of effort on someone who couldn’t pass.

“Well, will they do satisfactory?” Bruce asked him as he headed for the door.

“I know they will do great and Bruce, I will come swimming today, I promise along with the ground team,” Jimmy said.

“Jimmy if you don’t mind me asking, were you married?” Bruce asked.

“No, never took the time or never found the right one,” he answered.

Shaking his head Bruce replied, “Jimmy you need to find someone. You’d make a good Dad.”

“Thank you Bruce, that means a lot, but I’m glad I didn’t have kids. I don’t think I could take that loss,” he replied.

“You can’t look at it like that Jimmy. That means you’re living in fear and a life lived in fear is not a life. You have a lot to offer and teach a kid,” Bruce told him.

“Never looked at it like that Bruce, but you’re right,” Jimmy told him after thinking about it.

“Just my two cents but don’t wait too long and have regrets,” Bruce said as he walked out.

Bruce headed to the house to get changed and could hear people at the pool. Rounding the hall Bruce was shocked to see just how many people, as he walked onto the patio, stopping. Looking around at all the people swimming and having a good time Bruce smiled. ‘Just hope it lasts’ he thought fixing to head inside and change but stopped. Laying out on four lounge chairs were Debbie, Angela, Stephanie and Nancy all wearing bikinis. Bruce walked over to stand behind them and looked down at them. “This is what I call a buffet,” Bruce said grinning.

Debbie looked up at him replying, “You can’t even handle three, so don’t talk shit with four.”

Bruce took a step back, hissing like a cat. “Ow, let’s have you declawed,” Bruce told her.

Debbie laughed, “Go get changed,” she said.

Looking at them, Bruce growled, raising his eyebrows, “Wear those tonight and let’s see,” Bruce challenged knowing he wouldn’t go through with it.

“You wouldn’t. At least not yet,” Angela stated. Apparently they knew it also.

“Like you could handle it, what’s the longest you’ve lasted? Fifteen minutes,” Bruce stated.

Angela bit her lip, grinning, then looked back at Bruce, “Good point,” she admitted.

Bruce leaned over kissing all three then leaned over and kissed Nancy. Bruce continued to lean over her as he said, “I’m serious. The next time you wear the red shoes, I want to watch, how about tonight?”

Nancy leaned up and kissed Bruce, laughing, and said, “No, you couldn’t handle it.”

Bruce picked her up in his arms. “I’m serious. I’ll even take pictures so we can show future generations,” he offered.

“Hey, if you are going to do something kinky, I’m coming,” Mike said as he walked outside.

Bruce looked up, with Nancy still in his arms, as Mike walked over. “Dude, I asked her to wear the red heels tonight so I could watch and she’s holding out on me,” Bruce declared.

“Brother, she’s stingy with those shoes,” Mike informed him, frowning.

Bruce looked down at Nancy, “Come on, I want to see Mike go crazy. When he starts thinking of you in those shoes, his motor starts running. Last week I saw him molest a tree to the ground then chase a cow and that was just from a memory. I want to see the reaction at the source,” Bruce tried to persuade her.

Laughing Nancy kissed Bruce on the cheek, “I’ll think about it,” she said as Bruce put her back down in the chair.

Turning around Bruce saw a smiling Mike, “If she does, I’ll call for you,” Mike said winking.

“You’ll have to move fast. I usually can’t make it but a few steps until I’m attacked but I do have to admit, the attack does last a long time,” Nancy said as she laid her head back down.

Mike and Bruce knuckle bumped as Bruce headed inside to change. Bruce walked toward his room. The door was open and he stopped. ‘Shit, how do I know if Willie has been in there?’ Bruce thought as he eased toward the door. Stepping inside the room, Bruce didn’t notice anything out of place. Stopping just inside the door, Bruce heard soft crying coming from the bathroom. Dropping his rifle on the bed, he ran to the bathroom. Entering the bathroom, Bruce saw Buffy sitting on the floor in her little swim suit with finger nail polish all over her toes and fingers, crying. Bruce kneeled down beside her, wrapping his arms around her. “What wrong BB?” Bruce asked, wanting her to stop crying.

Buffy looked up with tears running down her face. “Danny said if you wear a bathing suit you have to have your fingers and toes painted. I’ve been trying and I just keep messing it up and now look at me. I look deformed!” Buffy wailed.

“We can fix it BB,” Bruce said as he stood up, taking off his tactical vest and dropping it on the floor. Reaching under the sink, Bruce took out the finger nail polish remover. Grabbing a rag, he started rubbing off the polish on her right foot. Buffy had painted the entire end of each toe, along with the nail bed, so it took him a while.

When he was done, Bruce got the red polish and carefully panted each nail. Bruce had done this for both Debbie and Danny but he was by no means a master. It had taken him twenty minutes just to get the polish off and he only had three toes painted when his radio went off.

“Big Daddy One, this is Mama One. I know you can dress yourself. What’s taking so long?” Debbie called out over the radio.

Bruce grabbed his handset keying it, “Mama One, I need you, Little Red and Little Foot up here pronto,” Bruce replied.

“It better be worth it,” Debbie responded.

Bruce continued his task as he heard the three coming down the hall. “Bruce,” Stephanie called out in the bedroom.

“In here,” Bruce replied, concentrating on his task.

The trio walked into the bathroom to find Buffy’s finger tips and the toes on one foot covered in polish. Her other little foot was in Bruce’s hand as he tediously tried to paint her little nails without touching the skin.

Looking at Buffy’s face, seeing she had been crying Debbie asked, “What’s wrong BB?” Bruce answered, telling Debbie what Buffy had said and how he found her as he started on Buffy’s little toe. All three women dropped down, hugging little Buffy.

“Hey! I’m working here!” Bruce yelled out as they smothered Buffy with hugs moving her around.

“We got this Bruce,” Stephanie said as she picked up Buffy and sat her on the counter. “When you need help like this, you come to us. If you want to kill something or blow something up, talk to Daddy,” Stephanie told Buffy as she took the polish out of Bruce’s hands.

“Hey, I was doing a pretty good job here!” Bruce bellowed in his defense, still sitting cross legged on the bathroom floor.

Debbie looked at Bruce as he stood up, “Yes, you were baby, but I know how long it takes you to do this and as you have probably figured out so do Stephanie and Angela. You act like you are painting a Picasso when you do nails. The last time you did Danny’s, if I’m not mistaken, it took you almost two hours,” Debbie stated.

“Yeah, but they looked great!” Bruce said proudly bobbing his head back and forth accentuating his words.

“Yes they did baby,” Debbie said, reaching up, patting Bruce’s cheek. “But we want to spend some time outside today. We’ll take care of it, okay,” Debbie stated.

Bruce reached down, grabbing his vest and leaned over kissing Buffy on the cheek. “Daddy was fixing it but Mama is on a time line,” Bruce told her and leaned in again to kiss her on the cheek. “Just between you and me, they are better at this that me. I mean just look at my hair,” Bruce whispered but everyone heard it.

Buffy wrapped her arms around Bruce, “Thank you Daddy,” Buffy said letting go of Bruce and rubbed his shaved head. “I love your hair,” Buffy said laughing.

“Really! It took me forever to fix it,” Bruce teased, looking in the mirror, acting like he was adjusting hair on his shaved head under his boonie hat.

Bruce walked out of the bathroom as the trio went to work. Angela sat down on the floor and started getting the polish off the other foot as Stephanie started on the hands. Debbie started on Buffy’s hair. Watching the three work on Buffy, Bruce was reminded of a NASCAR pit crew. Suddenly all three stopped and turned toward Bruce as he observed from the bedroom. What unnerved Bruce was, they did it in unison.

“Yes?” Debbie asked, looking at Bruce.

“Nothing,” Bruce said, smiling, not wanting them to evil mojo his ass.

“Well then, get your shorts on and get outside. You’re bothering us,” Debbie told him.

Bruce stripped down, throwing his clothes on the bed, then put on his swimming trunks, grabbed his rifle and small tote bag of magazines and headed outside. Walking outside, Bruce saw Mike and several others sitting at the large picnic table between the house and pool. Sitting down in an empty chair, Bruce joined them.

“What was the emergency?” Nancy asked sitting on Mike’s lap.

“Had a daughter crisis,” Bruce stated and Mike nodded his head in understanding. Emily and Sherry came running over to Bruce out of the pool, followed by Cassandra. The twins ran over to Bruce wrapping their wet arms around him, giving him kisses then ran back to the pool. Cassandra wasn’t having any of that. She climbed over Nancy into Mike’s lap, giving him big hugs and kisses then did the same to Nancy. Leaving both of them soaked. Cassandra climbed down and ran back to the pool. Looking around, Bruce saw Danny and Matt playing with PJ in the pool.

“Hey Bruce, how much did an Olympic swimming pool cost?” Conner asked.

Bruce turned and looked at Conner sitting on the other side of the table with Susan in his lap. “More than the house and property,” Bruce answered.

“Are you shitting me?” Conner asked sitting up fast. Susan who was sitting on his lap had to wrap her arms around him so she didn’t fall off.

“No, that’s one thing we were still making payments on,” Mike answered. “We had another three years left on payments,” he added.

“Wait. With two doctors and two nurses living here and it wasn’t paid off? How much did it cost?” Willie asked.

“Five hundred and twenty thousand dollars,” Bruce answered.

Paul let out a low whistle, “I coulda’ bought a real good tractor with that,” he said.

“I said the same thing,” Mike replied, looking at Paul.

Nancy slapped her hand on the table, “That was the only thing I wanted!” she snapped.

“And you got it,” Bruce told her and Nancy smiled.

Willie leaned over the table, “Nancy, when are you going to wear these red shoes I have heard so much about?” Willie asked, getting ready to embarrass her.

“I can only wear them in the bedroom because Mike tries to pound me through the floor. We used to stay on the bed but we kept having to replace the whole damn bed frame and mattress. That was just getting too expensive. If I’m lucky, before Mike sends me into an orgasmic coma and tries to beak my pelvis, I hit the wall with my fist. Then Debbie runs over and we tag out. I just don’t think the other two are ready for a red shoe pounding,” Nancy replied with a relaxed attitude, leaning back on Mike, who was blushing.

“You got owned on that one boy!” Bruce yelled out throwing up mock gang signs with his hands.

Willie coughed, “I’m going to play basketball with the kids,” he said getting up and leaving the table.

Watching Willie walk away, Bruce chuckled and saw the trio with Buffy walking over to them. “Who got owned?” Debbie asked walking up.

“Willie,” Bruce answered. Then Nancy told her what was said and the trio gave Nancy high fives.

Buffy ran over and jumped in Bruce’s lap, “Look Daddy,” she said holding up her hands and feet.

“They look beautiful BB,” Bruce said hugging her then pulled her back. “You’re wearing makeup,” Bruce stated with a frown and cut his eyes at the trio.

“Yeah, Mama, Mama Angela and Mama Stephanie said it was time for me to but only when I get fixed up,” Buffy said, proudly smiling. Buffy kissed Bruce on the cheek then slid off his lap headed toward her idol, Danny, and jumped in the pool.

Bruce looked up at the trio and once again they moved in unison, each throwing one hand up for Bruce to stop and Stephanie spoke first. “Bruce it’s only make-up, not crack. Jesus, you let her throw hand grenades without training her fully. She carries fully automatic weapons, goes into battle, drives tanks and plays with explosives, so ease up,” she proclaimed.

With a look of shock on his face, not believing that had come from Stephanie, Bruce just sat there with his mouth open. Seeing Bruce disarmed, they lowered their hands, together, as Debbie said, “We talked it over and we decided that it was time.”

“What about me?” Bruce whined.

“You would’ve been out voted, so it didn’t matter,” Debbie pointed out.

“That’s not fair. There are three of you. I’ll always be out voted,” Bruce declared.

“Well, get you a husband then,” Angela simply stated.

Bruce looked at Mike in disbelief. Mike held up his hands saying, “Don’t look at me brother, you would look like shit wearing red high heels for me.”

“Mike, this isn’t fair!” Bruce exclaimed.

Mike looked at Bruce, “Bruce, I’m not taking your side when they are standing right there and Nancy is in my lap,” Mike told him.

“Traitor,” Bruce said as the trio piled in his lap.

“But you love us,” Debbie said and all three kissed him.

“Yeah, I do and that’ll be my downfall. One of you take my balls off and go put them inside since I’m not allowed to wear them,” Bruce said.

“Na, they look good on you,” Debbie replied kissing him on the cheek.

“Bruce, you know you love it, so quit acting like you don’t,” Conner said, laughing.

Bruce looked across the table at Conner then looked at Susan, addressing her, “Susan when are you going to throw him down and rape him until he starts crying?”

Susan’s face turned beet red as she blushed. Susan turned her face away, then, looked back at Bruce. “I do that once or twice a week, but I feel guilty later for making him cry,” Susan claimed.

Bruce smiled at her, “Good girl. That was good,” Bruce told her. Susan smiled and Conner wrapped his arms around her, hugging her.

“That reminds me,” Debbie said, “how much longer is this joke war going to last? I’m getting real tired of checking out anything to do with you for booby traps.”

“We are getting good at that though,” Stephanie pointed out proudly.

Bruce laughed, “Oh, it will be over by the end of the day,” Bruce stated with confidence.

Suddenly, Bruce had the whole table’s attention. “What have you done?” Mike asked with a wicked grin.

“No, I want it to be a surprise,” Bruce told him.

Mike sighed, “You have to give it to the boy, he has heart. I would’ve surrendered after trying to shit out my brains.”

“Yeah, I do respect his heart, but he never stood a chance. He is way too predictable in his routine, like all officers,” Bruce said, turning to look at Willie playing ball with a group of kids. Bruce saw him adjusting his trunks and grabbing his crotch. Bruce just smiled.

Debbie, Angela and Stephanie looked where Bruce was looking when he turned his head then looked back at him. If Bruce would have been paying attention, he would have noticed the trio moving in unison again but he was too busy giggling to himself. “What have you done?” Debbie asked.

“My coup de gra,” Bruce announced with an evil grin.

“Willie won’t have any lasting injuries will he?” Stephanie asked, feeling sorry for him.

“It won’t be permanent,” Bruce assured her.

Angela turned around kissing Bruce and said, “Bruce, upstairs, that was great what you were doing for Buffy. I don’t know many dads that would’ve done that.”

“You haven’t lived around here,” Bruce told her. Nancy and Mike were just staring with questioning looks and Debbie told them the story.

When Debbie was finished, Nancy laughed. “Angela, you see these two big bad asses here? I have a video of them sitting and having a tea party with two twelve year old girls, with all of them wearing bonnets. Then they played Barbie dolls with them,” Nancy told her. Mike and Bruce both groaned.

“We can’t leave the tape out because they want to get rid of it,” Debbie said with an evil grin. “But I have a surprise for Bruce,” Debbie said, turning to look at Bruce. “Stud muffin, I just wanted to let you know, when you went upstairs and found Buffy, your micro recorder was on and you just left it on still recording. I picked it up and popped it in my laptop and it caught you scrubbing nail polish off and painting the little toes of one of your princesses,” Debbie informed him. Bruce just stared straight ahead, in horror and realized it was true. Bruce started to get up, but Debbie stopped him. “I already took the card out and hid it,” she said making Bruce groan again.

Stephanie looked at Bruce. “Bruce, that was precious. I didn’t know why Debbie hid it but now that I do, I’ll be on the lookout for that,” she said.

“You know, if y’all keep talking like that, I’m going to start lactating,” Bruce informed them turning back to look at Willie. Everyone at the table except Stephanie turned toward Willie.

Stephanie rubbed his chest, “That’s ok, I’ll help you breast pump,” she offered, then she too, followed Bruce’s gaze. Bruce grunted as he watched Willie moving his swimming trunks around on his waist and was now shrugging his head sharply like he was experiencing mild discomfort.

“It won’t be long now,” Bruce said with a wicked grin, not taking his eyes off of Willie. Everyone at the table turned and looked at Bruce then turned back to Willie.

Willie kept shrugging his head and shoulders like he was trying to get rid of something and was uncomfortable. Reaching inside his trucks Willie tied them tight as he left the basketball game heading toward the swimming pool. The closer he got the more Bruce started laughing. Willie jogged over to the diving board and did a cannon ball into the pool. The last thing he saw before going into the water was everyone at the table looking at him and Bruce laughing. As his butt hit the water he started to wonder what Bruce had set up for him. ‘It could be in my towel or my bottle of water’ he thought as he went under the water.

Before Willie made it to the side of the pool, he knew he’d been had. His groin started burning as if flames were on them. Trying to fight the pain, Willie reached the edge of the pool, dragged his body out and just rolled across the concrete. Then the burning became more intense as Willie let out a loud shrill scream grabbing his crotch which only made the burning a thousand times worse.

Still screaming, not yelling, screaming, Willie rolled back toward the pool and started splashing water on his groin, which only seemed to make it worse. Struggling to stand up and only stopping his scream to take a breath, Willie took off running to the center with a wide waddle screaming the entire way. Maggie took off running after him, wanting to know what the hell Willie had done now.

If Willie would’ve looked back he would have seen Bruce rolling on the ground laughing but he didn’t care. His balls felt like they were on fire, soaking in lava. Everyone at the table was just watching Bruce roll around laughing but they weren’t. They were just staring at Bruce with a little fear on their faces. It was several minutes before Bruce realized he was the only one laughing. He tried to stop but wasn’t very successful. As he stood up, he looked back at the table to find shocked faces looking at him. “What?” Bruce asked, giggling and tears running down his face.

“What the fuck did you do to him?” Mike asked with anxiety in his voice and trepidation on his face.

“My masterpiece,” Bruce replied, proudly extending his arms out in praise as he chuckled.

“Bruce that was pain I heard, way above what I heard with Mike,” Debbie said. “What did you do?” she demanded.

“Well, since it was time for this war to end and I didn’t want anyone else to try and start another one with me to prove they were better-,” Bruce stopped as Stephanie spoke to Debbie and Angela.

“Page 204 if you challenge and defeat the alpha male in any area you become the alpha male in that area,” Stephanie told them.

Both Angela and Debbie leaned toward Stephanie and together said, “Meat eater.”

Bruce just stopped and stared at them with suspicion then continued, “Well, I’m not in the mood for another round, so I wanted all to know what they were up against. Two weeks ago, I got the most ingenious plan. Sneaking into Willie’s room one night-,”

Bruce stopped as Debbie held up her hand, “Wait, you snuck in their room? While they were asleep? You could’ve been shot!” Debbie cried out.

“Baby, I move very soft and I have to say I’m good. How do you think I always got Mike and the boys? What about all the people while I was in the Army? I set my trap when they least expect it. Anyone that is remotely good will set up little tattle tale markers to check for disturbance every day. Just like I do. So how do you get around it? Set your trap before the markers are put in place. Your target never expects it,” Bruce explained.

“Well, I snuck in and took Willie’s swimming trunks and snuck back out. I turned the shorts inside out and saturated the webbing in pepper spray, nine ounces of OC-17, the strongest stuff we had. Then, I let them dry out and sprinkled just a little baking soda to take up some of the smell. Next I turned the shorts back in and sprayed the outside with a 1-9 mixture of bleach and water to also cover the smell. Then, all I had to do was wait for Willie to get wet,” Bruce declared proudly.

The entire group just started at Bruce with awe and dismay. “You mean to tell me you made a swim day just to get him?” Conner asked with a touch of idolization.

“No, I wish I could say I did. That would’ve been great. But I really thought Willie wouldn’t swim today,” Bruce admitted. Then Bruce smiled, stating, “I did mention to Paul that I would really like to have Jacuzzis in the new gym. That’s where I thought I’d get him. Then, low and behold, I come out here today to see him wearing my weapon. If I would have known, I’d have brought my camera.”

“That is the most diabolical, evil, cold blooded and sadistic thing I’ve ever heard of,” Mike declared with a grave expression. Bruce looked back at Mike with a pained expression. Mike just shook his head, “Brother, the fire you set on my balls is still too recent in my memory for me to comply with that,” he informed Bruce.

“Bruce don’t you think you went just a tad overboard this time?” Debbie asked, pleadingly.

Bruce scoffed, “No! It’s over now. There is not one son of a bitch here that will want to get in a prank war. I don’t use them unless the situation calls for it.”

“You did it to Mike,” Susan pointed out as a crowd started to gather.

“I broke a man code Susan and yes payback was called for. Not trying to sear off my balls though,” Mike said. Debbie put her hand over Stephanie’s mouth before she could recite page and verse.

“Is he going to be ok?” Nancy asked with a worried expression.

“Yeah, in a few hours. The only thing that makes it better is time,” Bruce told her.

Debbie walked up to Bruce putting her hands on his shoulders, “Bruce, I did say ‘take the gloves off’ and that was a good one. People will talk about it for years but after he surrenders, will you tell him you’re sorry?” Debbie asked.

“Absolutely not and if you demand it and try to make me pay for not doing it, I’ll get a pack and I’m gone,” Bruce proclaimed. Everyone’s mouth fell open at Bruce’s threat except Stephanie’s who was fixing to recite. Angela put her hand over Stephanie’s mouth before she could recite the verse and page dealing with this man code.

Debbie raised her hands, in mock surrender. She knew she was way too far in testosterone territory. “Okay Bruce, I wasn’t going to demand it. I just thought it might be nice of you since his balls are trying to crawl up into his chest cavity,” Debbie stated.

“I gave him many chances to back out so I have no regrets or guilt and just for the record. The next time someone starts a prank war with me it will be a lot worse,” Bruce announced.

Conner stood up. “Bruce, let’s get something straight right here. If I break the man code let me know I will drop to my knees and give you a blow job,” Conner declared.

Susan stood up beside Conner, “He surrenders now and I’ll help him,” she said, putting her arm around Conner. Bruce laughed at both of them.

“Well let’s swim and enjoy the day. The prank war is over and it should be my last,” Bruce said to the group.

Everyone ran and jumped in the pool and had fun all day. Well, except Willie, who kept putting ice in his balls. Lunch was served outside and the laugher did not stop outside until supper. Then it only moved into the center as the clan filed inside to eat. Bruce sat down in his chair, tired from swimming and playing all day. The rest of the command group slowly filed in, taking their seats as Willie waddled through the door. Moving past his seat, Willie came down to Bruce and eased down on his knees.

“Dude, I surrender. I should’ve done it long ago but I didn’t. I’m begging you, if you have any other surprises, please take them. Your antics escalate on a scale I have never seen or heard of. Physically, I don’t think I can take the next one,” Willie begged and pleaded.

Bruce smiled, “Surrender accepted. Don’t use the chap stick in you pack because it’ll burn and turn your lips green, throw your camelback away or you will know what goat piss tastes like, don’t open your can of shoe polish or you’ll wear it, the leather gloves you wear, don’t until you wash them. Let’s just say you would have smelled bad with yellow hands. In your backpack, the plastic box you keep in there for soap, don’t open it, just throw it away. It can’t be disarmed,” Bruce told Willie and continued for several minutes.

When Bruce finished telling Willie the things he needed to get rid of, Willie just stared at him. “I never had a chance did I?” he asked with amazement.

“Not much of one,” Bruce admitted.

“If I break a man code, tell me please. I’ll kill someone for you,” Willie proclaimed.

“That won’t be necessary but thanks for the offer,” Bruce told him as Willie stood up and waddled back to his chair.

“I thought you weren’t going to apologize,” Stephanie said. Bruce snapped his head around looking at Stephanie with suspicion.

Angela looked at Stephanie wondering what she was talking about. “Bruce didn’t apologize. I heard everything he said unless he used a hand gesture or something,” Angela pointed out.

“Yes he did,” Stephanie said, looking at Angela.

“Your brain is in overdrive and hearing things, Bruce never apologized,” Angela repeated as Debbie just chuckled to herself.

Buffy looked over to Stephanie agreeing with Angela, “Daddy never did say he was sorry.”

“I never said he did. I just said he apologized,” Stephanie clarified.

Angela looked at Stephanie with irritation before asking, “Page and verse.”

“Page sixteen, when a man offers something or a service that is invaluable for pissing off someone and the offended party turns it down that is an apology to a man. If the offering man does not push the invaluable offering he accepts and all is forgiven,” Stephanie said pleasantly. Then Stephanie slapped her hand on the table and snapped, “Like offering to kill someone even jokingly!”

All the men at the table were looking at Stephanie with something close to fear while the women looked at her with reverence. Bruce just had a blank, slack-jawed stare. Debbie was still just giggling to herself as Angela looked at her. “I guess you knew that too,” Angela accused and Debbie nodded her head.

“Of course she knew it,” Stephanie said.

Angela looked up at Bruce, “You men are entirely too motherfucking complicated!” she spat out.

Bruce didn’t say anything. Stephanie had some book that gave her great insight to men. He had finally realized that, with all her reciting of page numbers and verses. Bruce wanted to get his hands on the son of a bitch that wrote it. Only when plates of food were put down did Bruce take his eyes off of Stephanie.

Buffy looked up. “Daddy, you’ve never lost a prank war have you?” she asked.

“Of course he hasn’t,” Stephanie said as Debbie busted out laughing.

Bruce looked at Buffy then at Stephanie. He was scared to speak because he might reveal something about the man code. Buffy just looked at him, waiting on his reply. Bruce finally spoke, “No BB, Daddy lost a lot. My fifth year in the Army, it was me bowing down before a sergeant that had been in a long time. Granted, I started most of my prank wars, but after him I was through unless it was called for,” Bruce replied waiting on Stephanie to tell him he really wanted to rape a penguin, complete with page number and verse. Bruce turned and looked over at Stephanie. Sitting there with a shocked expression was Stephanie. “What? That damn book you keep reciting didn’t reveal that?” Bruce asked and Angela started her giggle snorting.

“You’re good at everything. How could you lose?” Stephanie more accused than asked. The whole command table had stopped eating to follow the conversation.

Bruce shook his head. “Stephanie, there were very few days in the service that I wasn’t hit with a prank of some sort. Everything Willie tried on me, I’ve had done to me already. I’m good because I have experience and the know how to do something,” Bruce answered.

“Okay then, I bet you can’t name one person now that could beat you in a prank war,” Stephanie challenged.

“Nobody would be stupid enough to try,” Willie called out, getting a lot of laughs, including Bruce.

Seeing Stephanie waiting, Bruce answered, “As a matter of fact, I can name one.” All the laughter stopped wanting to know who this demon of hell was.

“Well who is it?” Stephanie demanded.

“It’s Marcus,” Bruce answered, then started eating.

“Right Bruce,” Stephanie scoffed. Bruce looked up at her to show he was not kidding. “That’s not possible,” she proclaimed.

“If that man declared a prank war or what he would call it, ‘shenanigans’, I would fall down and surrender before it ever started just to save myself some grief,” Bruce enlightened her. Seeing doubt on Stephanie’s face, “Sunday when they come over, ask to see his tattoo. Then if you have been listening you’ll understand,” Bruce told her.

The clan finished eating and headed to bed after all the playing during the day. Before going to bed Bruce called Marcus over the radio and told him to bring people over tomorrow to swim if the weather was not too cold. Waking up Sunday morning was hard on everyone but it was going to be a nice day. When Marcus and Carroll came over Stephanie ran out to Marcus.

When Marcus lifted up his shirt and showed her the tattoo on his shoulder blade Stephanie almost fell down. Thanking him, Stephanie hugged him and Carroll and walked with them into the center. Marcus brought over several hundred people and after the service and meeting Bruce told his clan only kids could swim today. Marcus’ clan had the pool. It was another day of joy.

That night as they started getting ready for bed Stephanie walked over to Bruce. “The reason you know Marcus could beat you in a prank war is he has more experience at it,” she told him.

“That’s right and if Marcus was ten years younger, I’d be very scared of him in a fight,” Bruce admitted and Stephanie accepted that.

Buffy was sleeping in her room with a friend she had made the day she went swimming. The twins were with Jake the only person they really wanted to stay with. Cade and PJ were with Danny and Matt so the room was strangely quiet as showers were taken and everyone finished getting ready for bed.

When Stephanie walked by Bruce he grabbed her. “Stephanie, I don’t know how I got put on this pedestal you put me on but I’m not all that great. So don’t hold me to high expectations,” Bruce told her.

“You’re great to me,” Stephanie replied with a meaningful stare. Bruce just looked at her not knowing what the hell to say to that. Turning to Debbie, Bruce looked to her for help.

“Don’t look at me. I think you are the best thing since sliced bread,” Debbie replied to his stare.

Bruce turned to look at Angela. “Hey don’t implicate me, I know you’re great. The only person that doesn’t know that is you,” Angela said.

Bruce just looked down at the floor and gave up on that. Bruce raised his head up with narrowed eyes and grabbed Stephanie and led her to the bed. Pushing her on the bed, Bruce sat on her belly, keeping his weight off of her.

Stephanie looked up at him with iron in her eyes. “Go ahead do whatever, I’ll still think you’re the greatest,” Stephanie stated proudly.

“This has nothing to do with that,” Bruce said then leaned over her. “Who wrote that damn book and where is it at?” Bruce demanded.

A look of panic crossed Stephanie’s face; then it was replaced with resolve. “I’ll never tell,” she said, smiling at Bruce.

“Bruce don’t you dare,” Debbie said, moving toward the bed to come to Stephanie’s aid.

Bruce looked up at Debbie, “She has information I need,” Bruce replied.

“That is girl stuff. It falls out of your domain,” Debbie stated flatly.

“Like hell! She knows stuff that only guys should know and the thing is, she’s read it, then recites it. I want to know who wrote that damn book. Then I’m going to find him and kick his ass if he’s still alive,” Bruce told her.

All three started laughing. “Oh the source is alive,” Angela remarked.

Bruce leaned back over Stephanie, “Tell me,” he said.

“Never,” she shot back.

Having no alternative, Bruce started tickling her. Debbie and Angela both ran to her rescue but Bruce just threw them on the bed and started on them. When Debbie realized that Bruce was starting a tickle torture, she almost told him everything just to get him to stop. Then she realized that neither Angela nor Stephanie had faced the full torment before and they needed to know this about Bruce. Debbie bit her lip and took another one for the team.

Holding the three down, Bruce was relentless in his attack. It took an hour but Stephanie finally yelled out she would talk. Bruce stopped and had to carry each one to the bathroom to pee. When they were finished Stephanie grabbed the binder of her typed book. Bruce leafed through it and looked up.

“Where did you get this?” Bruce asked in disbelief.

“From you,” Stephanie answered.

Stephanie told Bruce how, for three days he sat on a roof top shooting blues, he just started spilling out the man code. Without looking at the book, Bruce wouldn’t have believed it but he knew it came from him. Bruce vaguely remembered talking to Mindy but that was it. Bruce closed the book and looked at the trio. “My girls need this,” Bruce told them, handing the binder back to Stephanie.

All three stepped back, “You’re not mad?” Stephanie asked, worrying about another round of tickling.

“No you three need this. My girls are the best so I want them to know as much as possible,” Bruce said looking at them with love in his eyes. They all three hugged him tight.

When they started getting back in bed Bruce stopped them, “Will you three do something for me?” Bruce asked.

“What do you want baby,” Stephanie asked catching Bruce off guard.

“Come on stud muffin what is it?” Angela asked making Bruce smile. Debbie looked at both smiling and hugged them. Then they all turned to Bruce.

“I want all of y’all to snuggle up to me, I just want to feel y’all next to me,” Bruce admitted.

Stephanie looked up when she took off the boxers she had on. “We aren’t playing are we?” she asked with some alarm in her voice.

“No, I just wanted to feel y’all next to me,” Bruce said as he climbed into the middle of the bed. Debbie took off her shirt, “What are you doing?” Bruce asked.

“So you can feel us snuggle with you,” she replied and Angela took of her shirt.

“Bruce, please don’t tickle me like that again,” Stephanie pleaded as she took off her shirt.

“I can’t promise that,” Bruce replied as Stephanie climbed into bed.

“Bruce, you aren’t supposed to laugh that hard, that long. It can’t be good for you,” Stephanie proclaimed as she curled up under his left arm Bruce just smiled.

“You can hang it up Little Red. I have pleaded with him my entire life not to do that and you see where that has gotten me,” Debbie said as she curled up under his right.

“Come on, it wasn’t that bad,” Angela said as she laid on Bruce’s chest and pulled up the covers.

“Like hell,” Stephanie said as she rolled over and turned out the lights, then curled back into her spot, feeling all tingly again being next to Bruce. Then Stephanie felt Bruce shake.

“Angela, be still,” Bruce said.

“I’m trying to get comfortable,” Angela said as she moved around.

“Well, you don’t have to move that part of your body to get comfortable,” Bruce told Angela and Debbie started to giggle.

“That’s the part that’s uncomfortable,” Angela complained.

“Well quit moving it so- effectively,” Bruce told her, making her giggle along with Debbie. “Debbie quit with the feet!” Bruce barked. “Debbie- Debbie--- Debbie, I’m not playing,” Bruce replied with a trembling voice.

Stephanie seeing where this was heading, “Come on guys, I can’t handle ‘one’ tonight. I think it would kill me,” she whined.

Like a snowball rolling down a hill, the playing mood only intensified. It didn’t bother Stephanie that much because she was out in five minutes and she didn’t die either.

Chapter 23

It was Thursday, February the twenty-sixth, and the clan had marched along the past two weeks preparing and training to fight for their survival. The rescue patrols and the hunting patrols had resumed, and they both had started racking up some numbers. The clan was now well over two thousand survivors. All the defenses were completed along the fence. The towers had gun emplacements, and drums filled with fuel and wired with explosives were out in the fields and along the road.

Jake and Matt had set up several cameras on the one road leading to the farm. The cameras were seventeen miles away by road, but were actually less than nine miles away. The spook team set up solar panels and battery banks well off the road and away from the cameras. Then they set the cameras to transmit via radio frequencies. Now they always had eyes on the road that fed into the road leading to the farm. Driving at a very high rate of speed, you could make it from the cameras to the farm in fourteen minutes.

Bruce was sitting in the center eating breakfast when his radio went off, “Big Daddy One and Two, mission control now,” a male voice called out. Jumping out of his chair, Bruce grabbed his rifle and took off at a dead run out the door with Max at his side.

Grabbing his microphone, Bruce called out as he ran to the back door of the house, “Mission control, is an attack coming?”

“Not right now, but you have to see this,” came the reply as Bruce slammed the back door open. Bruce ran down the stairs into mission control. A young man met them in the command room and pointed at one of the four 60” LED screens.

Bruce stopped suddenly, causing Mike to run into him. “Fuck me with a wet noodle!” Bruce yelled, rooted to the floor.

“Fucking move so we can get in,” Bruce heard Debbie yell.

Mike moved around Bruce and looked up at the monitor. “You got to be fucking kidding me!” Mike yelled, looking at the monitor.

“I’m fixing to put my foot up someone’s ass if they don’t fucking move!” Angela yelled from the stairs.

Mike grabbed Bruce’s shoulder and pulled him from in front of the door, never taking his eyes off the screen. The monitor showed a view from a UAV of an Interstate highway. On the Interstate were blues all the way to the horizon. They filled the entire area between each tree line. There were three Interstates that they had to worry about, and only two that were close. The rest of the command group filed in and everyone just stared at the screen after letting out several choice words. “Please tell me that’s I-10?” Bruce asked.

“No sir, that’s I-20. The leading edge just cleared Monroe,” the young man on duty informed Bruce.

Bruce just stared at the monitor. Taking a deep breath, he grabbed his microphone, “This is Big Daddy One to all personal. All rescue and hunting patrol are cancelled. No engines are to be run unless cleared by One or Two. Gather all personal into the center in five minutes.” Bruce finished then walked over and grabbed the radio to call Marcus.

“This is Bruce. Get me Marcus,” Bruce said into the radio.

A young kid’s voice came back over the radio, “That’s not how you’re supposed to talk on the radio.”

“Kid get Marcus on the radio,” Bruce said, turning back to look at the monitor.

“Not till you give me the code words,” the little voice demanded.

“Listen, you little shit, get Marcus before I come over there, bite your head off, and use it for a chew toy for my dog!” Bruce yelled into the radio. Bruce turned expecting to get yelled at for doing that to a kid but everyone was just looking at the screen. “Jake, you, Matt, and Stephanie get into flight control and start taking measurements. Get me some numbers. I want at least two more UAV’s up and one of them armed,” Bruce barked out and the three took off.

“It’s a fucking shit load,” Willie told Bruce, staring at the monitor.

“What’s wrong, Bruce? Why did you make little Blake cry?” Marcus asked over the radio.

“Marcus, we have a UAV over Monroe and a horde is heading to us,” Bruce told him.

There was a long pause, and Bruce knew Marcus was saying a prayer. Then his voice came over the radio. “How many?” Marcus asked.

“Marcus, we just found them, and we don’t have numbers yet. They fill the entire path of the interstate, tree line to tree line, and it looks like the line goes back, I’m guessing twenty miles. Just looking at the monitor and taking a wild guess, I would say five to eight million,” Bruce told him.

“Are you fucking joking?” Marcus yelled over the radio.

Bruce looked at the speaker in shock, never expecting that response from Marcus. Marcus hit the transmit button on his side, and Bruce could hear Carroll yelling and a lot of other voices around. Then Marcus again shocked Bruce. “If everyone doesn’t shut the fuck up, I swear I’m fixing to start shooting mother fuckers-.” The transmission ended as Marcus dropped the microphone.

Bruce waited a minute then called Marcus, “Marcus, I’m not joking. I wish I was.”

“Bruce, sorry about that, but everyone over here wants to play ‘ask a fucking question’ when I don’t know shit,” Marcus informed him.

“Tell your clan we are starting to gather data and will keep you informed. I have put us on lock down and noise discipline. They are less than seventy miles away but moving steadily along I-20 heading west,” Bruce told him.

“We will do the same here. Do you think we need to start moving over there?” Marcus asked.

Bruce thought for a minute, “Is there anything going on over there that’s so urgent that it can’t wait?” Bruce asked.

“Bruce with eight million sons a bitches that close, I don’t care if I was in the middle of harvest. I would drop everything and run over there,” Marcus stated.

“Then gather your clan and head this way. The front will be open just like we planned. See you in an hour,” Bruce called out.

“Twenty bucks says we see you sooner,” Marcus bet.

Bruce turned around, “Willie, make sure the area in front of the barn is clear for the Marcus clan. I want all their armored vehicles on the east perimeter. Debbie, gather up a crew and get barrack ten ready for people-“

Paul interrupted, “Bruce, we can put double in there if we put in extra cots in every room and in the halls, then put cots in the halls of the other barracks. Barrack nine is only a quarter full so more can go there also.”

“Got it,” Debbie said as she left.

Bruce looked at Paul, spitting out orders, “Paul, make the animals shut up. Get ready to pull the livestock in here if we need to. Danny, get Omega and Gamma teams. Tell them I want them outfitted war heavy, and I want that in ten minutes. Have someone grab Jake and Matt’s war bags and bring them here. Bill, get some people and get some folding tables and chairs and make one big table in here,” Bruce barked out.  Danny took off with all the team members and Bill. Bruce looked at Mike, “Well, it looks like it’s game time.”

“I hope it’s going to be a no show so we can cancel the game. I’m not in the mood to play against them,” Mike replied, turning back to the monitor.

“No shit, brother. I agree with you. Those assholes cheat. I mean just look at the size of that team,” Bruce said.

Mike just stared at the monitor before replying, “Bruce, if that group turns toward us, we’re fucked. All this preparation will have been for shit.”

“Don’t look at it like that, brother. If we can put up a wall of lead, the bodies will pile up, forming another barrier for them to get over. If we can survive the initial assault wave, which I think will last eight to ten hours we can make it,” Bruce told Mike.

“If we get a breach?” Mike asked, looking at Bruce.

“Bend over and grab your ankles, because we are going to get fucked without lube,” Bruce replied.

“Well, since dry hurts, let’s not let them breach,” Mike replied.

Bruce laughed. “I’m going to get my heavy gear. Is yours in your closet? Stay here. I’ll bring it to you,” Bruce asked.

“My side of the bed, by the wall,” Mike answered and turned back to the monitor.

Bruce nodded his head and took off to his room with Max in hot pursuit. All the team members had made four bags for rapid deployment with general guidelines for each one. There was the assault bag, which had the full face guard with helmet that Bruce had designed along with other hard equipment for CQB. Next was the light bag. It would be used for chopper insertion, designed for mobility. Then, there was the war bag. It was for being outside the fence for long periods of time, and it was the heaviest gear and most bulky. Finally, there was the heavy bag. Having the gear in a bag just allowed them to grab it and move, putting it on later. When the team needed to move out fast, all the team leader had to say was: assault, light, war, or heavy. Then each member knew what gear to have.

The ‘heavy’ bag was the only one Bruce had not made a second vest for yet. All the other load outs he had made a second vest for and put them in the closet so he would not have to use his deployment bag. Bruce just never got around to making a backup for the heavy load out. The team member’s bag held everything they needed except for their rifle. The bags held pistols, suppressors, submachine guns, packs, ammo, explosives, and everything else to survive in this crazy new world they now found themselves in.

Walking into his room, Bruce started stripping down. Then Bruce walked to the closet and pulled out the ‘heavy’ gear bag. Throwing it on the bed and opening it, Bruce pulled out his tiger stripe and put it on followed by his boots. Reaching in the bag, he pulled out the ‘heavy’ vest. It was heavy, but he named it that because unlike the other vest it held ammo and lots of it. The only other equipment was a radio and grenades. He put on the vest and locked both drop downs on his legs. Arranged over his vest and left drop were eight- six magazine pouches for a total of forty-eight. Then, on Bruce’s vest came ten 40mm pouches, six grenade pouches, four pistol magazine pouches, and a double magazine pouch on his right thigh for his P-90. Bruce put on his knee and elbow pads then pulled out his goggles, gloves, and boonie hat. Reaching back in the bag, Bruce pulled out the last item, a small assault pack with a camel back. The pack held his thermal monocular, thermal scope, and binoculars, along with boxed ammo.

Bruce looked over at Max, who was sitting and watching him with his tongue hanging out, “You need to get a backpack too,” Bruce told Max. Seeing Bruce was talking to him, Max came over and sat down in front of Bruce. Patting his head, Bruce told Max, “You help me protect the family, boy.” Max barked, and Bruce took that as an ‘okay’.

Walking over to his ACU’s on the floor, Bruce grabbed his micro recorder and extra memory cards then put it on. Bruce left his room and headed to Mike’s room. Walking in, Bruce saw the four bags on Mike’s side of the bed. Picking each one up, he put the two heaviest on the bed. He opened the first and saw it was Mike’s war bag. Opening the other, just to be sure, Bruce confirmed it was the heavy bag. Putting the war bag back, Bruce grabbed the heavy bag and turned to leave, noticing a pair of red high heels at the foot of the bed. Smiling, Bruce picked them up, put them in Nancy’s closet, and headed down to give Mike his heavy bag.

Walking into the mission control command area, Bruce put Mike’s bag on one of the tables Bill had set up. “Well, anything?” Bruce asked Mike who was still staring at the monitor.

“Yeah we know the horde stretches for twenty three miles and is moving at four miles per hour,” Mike replied, not turning around.

“Dude, you’re watching that screen like it was a porn show!” Bruce bellowed.

Mike spun around. “I can watch blue porn if I want to!” he yelled back.

“Nothing is happening yet. This porn sucks!” Bruce yelled at Mike, his face turning red.

“We saw close ups and most are already naked, so it won’t be long until they drop in a mass orgy!” Mike screamed, squaring off against Bruce.

Throwing his rifle on the table, Bruce squared off with Mike, “It won’t matter if they do. We won’t have close ups worth a damn, so it will be a soft porn, which is just a waste of hope, time, and effort!” Bruce yelled in Mike’s face.

Standing nose to nose and with their chests touching each other, Mike yelled out, “What the fuck does it matter? You can’t even make it past the opening credits and previews!”

The people in the command area started to scatter away from the two colliding giants as Bruce yelled out at the top of his lungs, “That’s because I pick out good fuck flicks, unlike you!”

Mike pushed Bruce back with his chest, screaming, “The last one you picked out had fucking midgets in it!”

“They were hot fucking midgets!” Bruce screamed, pushing Mike back with his chest.

“How would you know, assbag? You didn’t make it half way through the damn movie!” Mike yelled, pushing Bruce back.

“I watch porn for the sex, cockmonkey, not the theme!” Bruce yelled and shoved Mike back with his hands.

Mike walked back over to Bruce. They both just stood eye to eye, breathing hard and waiting on the other to move. Looking into Bruce’s eyes, Mike growled, “Some of them have good storylines.”

Bruce clinched his fist, “Like the last one you got? Why the hell would a man, surrounded by naked horny women, run around waving a cock ring?” Bruce grumbled, shifting his weight to angle his body toward Mike.

Mike clenched his teeth, making his jaw muscles ripple on his face. Through clenched teeth, Mike snarled, “It was a magical cock ring, and he was looking for his dream girl.” They both bent their knees, getting ready to lunge at each other.

“Nancy, I swear, if they go broke back mountain, we’re going lezzie right beside them,” Debbie said to Nancy, both standing in the doorway, watching to the two.

“That would be cool and fun. I’m game,” Nancy replied, watching the two still looking at each other.

“Mike, don’t pinch Bruce’s nipples, okay? It really turns him off. Just spank him on the ass,” Debbie instructed Mike.

“Bruce, Mike likes it when you talk dirty,” Nancy counseled Bruce.

Mike and Bruce both turned their heads slowly to look at the wives standing in the doorway. They both glared at the wives, then turned back to glare at each other. They both straightened up their stance as Bruce grumbled, “I get to be on bottom first.”

“I wanted bottom first,” Mike replied. He squinted his eyes and stated, “You damn well better talk dirty then.”

“I’ll make you blush,” Bruce said, grinning.

“You know the whole clan saw that right?” Jake said, walking into the command area from the flight area.

“What?” Mike asked with a startled expression. Jake pointed to the corner behind them to a camera.

“Why in the hell is there a camera in here?” Bruce demanded, looking up at it.

“The morale committee, Dad,” Jake replied. “That was one of the things everyone wanted. When the clan sees people on duty, it makes them feel better.”

“Why would they watch us and not the horde?” Bruce asked.

“That hasn’t been transmitted yet,” Jake replied.

“First, why not? And second, who said a camera could go in the command area?” Bruce demanded.

“You on both accounts,” Jake answered. “You were the one who said any transmission of a large horde had to wait until you talked to the clan. Your exact words were ‘The first mother fucker that starts a panic, I will shoot them in the chest.’  So, I’m waiting for permission. Next, you said you don’t care where we put cameras, as long as the clan feels safe.”

“Son, if there’s a camera in my room, I’m going to break your legs,” Bruce threatened. Jake just smiled at his Dad.

“They can’t hear us can they?” Mike asked with sudden alarm.

“Yes they can, in surround sound,” Jake answered with a devious grin.

Mike’s face was filled with shock as he looked up at the camera. Mike forced a smile, “Hey, I just want to say I only said that about storylines to make Bruce mad. I watch it just for the action,” Mike told the camera.

Nancy jumped in front of Mike, “He’s lying his ass off. Mike is the only man I’ve ever heard of that can watch an entire porn movie at one time,” Nancy shouted at the camera.

Jake walked over to one of the other 60” LED’s, turned it on then turned the channel. A view of the center came on with people laughing. Jake turned up the volume so to they could hear it. “Damn, that’s not even right,” Mike said, looking at the monitor.

A young woman came out of the monitoring area saying, “Marcus’ clan just left.”

“Okay, Jake and Mike change. Everyone else, let’s go outside,” Bruce said, heading outside.

Buffy saw Bruce and came trotting over to him when he walked outside. Bruce looked down at her with her little tiger striped fatigues and blonde hair poking out from under her boonie hat. Debbie had found Buffy four tactical vests small enough to fit her. On her left hip was an MP-7 and on her right was her compact Glock, both in drop holsters. When Bruce gave out the order for what had to be carried on each load out, only Buffy was given an exclusion. On the heavy load out, Bruce called for 1,200+ rounds of magazine ammo of 5.56 on the tactical vest. That alone was over thirty pounds. Bruce had helped Buffy with her vest, making her carry half of what the other team members carried. Bruce’s vest was 68lbs where Buffy’s vest weighed 26lbs, just a little over a quarter of her body weight.

“You good, BB?” Bruce asked her as they waked toward the barn.

“Yeah,” Buffy answered, sounding unsure.

“What’s wrong?” Bruce asked, stopping and looking down at her.

Buffy stopped beside Bruce and looked up at him through her little goggles. “Daddy, that many scares me a lot,” Buffy admitted as Debbie moved over beside her.

Bruce smiled at the little storm trooper. “Buffy, it’s ok to be scared, but when the time comes, don’t let it take control of you,” Bruce told her.

“Are you scared Daddy?” Buffy asked.

“Hell yeah, but I can’t show it because fear is contagious,” Bruce said, then pointed at his belly. “My balls have pulled up in my stomach,” Bruce told her.

“Mine fell off and I had to put them in my pocket!” Buffy exclaimed in a serious voice.

Bruce laughed. “Well, you keep them in your pocket. Just as long as you have them,” Bruce said, turning toward the barn.

Buffy saw Danny and ran to her as Debbie fell in beside Bruce. “Bruce, you’re starting to get hard on Buffy again. She’s a little girl and not a Ranger. I know we have to get her ready, but please try to control the blood lust,” Debbie told him.

Bruce sighed, “Debbie, I know and I have talked to her along with Danny to help her understand. What else do you want me to do?” Bruce asked.

“I know you’ve talked to her, Bruce,” Debbie told him.

“You didn’t answer the question,” Bruce told her.

Debbie looked up at him as they continued to the barn. “Can you put her on Mike’s team? They rarely go out,” Debbie asked.

“Okay, you tell her,” Bruce said.

“It’s your team,” Debbie replied.

“Debbie, Buffy was a skinny, terrified, pretty little girl when I found her and brought her here. Now look at her. She’s put on almost twenty pounds of lean muscle. She can shoot dozens of weapons, run half a day and drive a tank. Danny has gotten her to a black belt in kenpo and is now on kung fu. Buffy has done all that in six months. If the rest of the clan tried that hard, we would have no problems,” Bruce told her.

“I know that, Bruce. She has become a small Danny running around here. Bruce, what I’m trying to tell you is, you eased our kids into this world. Explaining before teaching. You do the opposite now. Our kids know right and wrong. I really think that line is blurred for Buffy,” Debbie explained.

“Baby, we do have time constraints here,” Bruce let her know.

Debbie stopped, “Bruce, I’m talking about the gas station. You haven’t addressed that,” Debbie snapped.

Bruce stopped, looking down at Debbie. “There is nothing to talk about. I agree with what was done and that is settled,” Bruce said as he walked away from Debbie.

Debbie ran to catch up to Bruce, “Okay, I’ll let that one go. But, Bruce, she has a friend now and they actually talk. It’s Julie, one of the girls you rescued from the school in Haughton. I just want her to be able to be a little girl every now and then. Buffy is constantly surrounded by pure meat eaters,” Debbie tried to explain.

“Why do you think Buffy likes being around me?” Bruce asked.

“She feels safe no matter what. She has a Daddy,” Debbie replied.

“That’s right, and she knows I will teach her how to fight. Buffy doesn’t want what happened to her mother to happen to anyone else in her family or her. She wants to be empowered to stop it,” Bruce answered.

“I’m not saying don’t teach her, but Bruce, she follows you into battle even when you have told her not to,” Debbie cried out.

Bruce stopped away from the group standing in front of the barn. “Debbie, if you want her off my team, you tell her. I’ll carry it out, but it will be your decision, not mine. Now let me tell you something. Buffy is going to start doubting herself because Mama thinks she’s not good enough now to fight. Did she do something wrong? When doubt enters your mind, you’re already dead. You just don’t have dirt on you face yet,” Bruce replied harshly.

“That’s not fair, Bruce,” Debbie replied.

“Neither is life,” Bruce shot back.

Debbie just looked up at Bruce then replied, “Alright, I see your point.” Debbie smiled at him, “Is that why whenever the kids found something stupid to do, for the most part, you did it with them,” she asked.

“Debbie, I have only turned down two adventure requests from the kids, and yes, that is why. If you put doubt in their minds or let them doubt themselves, they give up and that will stay with them forever. Our kids, and this includes Mike’s, have no doubts. Now, they’re not stupid and think they are unstoppable, but if they think they can do something, they can. If they don’t succeed the first time, they brush it off and keep trying until they do succeed,” Bruce replied.

“Okay, Bruce, I see your point, and I can agree with you but how can you be so sure?” Debbie asked.

Bruce looked away from her, and Debbie thought she had hurt his feelings until he spoke. “You know my Dad was in Nam right,” Bruce asked.

“Yeah, Thomas was in the airborne,” Debbie replied.

“It was about the time I started coming over to your house. I told my Dad I was going into the Special Forces one day when we were bailing hay and asked him if I was good enough. He looked down at me and said I didn’t have a prayer because I wasn’t good enough,” Bruce told her, reliving his biggest disappointment.

Debbie scoffed, waving her hand across her face, “That’s bullshit. You could’ve done that with ease and made the teams. Did Martha jump his ass?”

“No, I never told mom,” Bruce said, and then he turned his head back to look at Debbie and leaned over putting his face inches from hers. “And did I join the Special Forces?” Bruce snapped and walked off, leaving Debbie just staring straight ahead in shock.

Bruce walked over to the group waiting on Marcus’ clan. Bruce heard an engine in the east field and turned to see a UAV lifting off. Watching the plane bank south as soon as it lifted off, Bruce saw four Hellfires under the wings. Mission control called over the radio that Marcus was ten minutes out.

Debbie had just stood rooted, not moving as Bruce’s words washed over her. Snapping out of her trance, she ran to Bruce and wrapped her arms around him. With all the gear Bruce had on, that was a challenge. Looking up at Bruce, “I’m sorry, baby. You’re right. I wish you would’ve told me that the day he said it to you. I would have pushed you to do it,” Debbie said with conviction.

“I doesn’t matter, baby. Doubt was allowed to take a hold, and it breeds like cancer. That is the power a parent holds over their kids. They can push, challenge, and force them to make decisions, facing consequences to make them strong. Or knock them down, shelter, and shield them from the world, believing they are keeping them safe so the child will not try anything and succeed at nothing. Putting a child in a glass cage, hurts them in the end. They must get the scrapes and cuts of life,” Bruce answered, putting his arm around her.

“Why didn’t you tell me? I can see it in you. That was a dream!” Debbie demanded, making those close turn toward them.

Danny, Jake, Steve, and Buffy looked at Mom and Dad and could see it was a private conversation. Together with Mike’s kids, they formed a circle around them so others couldn’t hear what they were saying.

“I knew I was going to fail, so why try. Even if I would have convinced myself, I would be expecting failure. When you expect failure, that bitch always shows up,” Bruce told her.

Debbie reached up, rubbing Bruce’s face. “You’re too stubborn to fail,” Debbie told him.

Bruce chuckled, “No, that is my one failure, and it was also the last time I asked anyone if I could do something. The funny thing is, even now, I know I couldn’t do it. I have accepted that failure and swore I would have no others. If I tried, putting everything into something and couldn’t do it, that is not a failure. I tried,” Bruce told her.

“You better be damn glad the world ended, because I would be calling a recruiter now. I would make you at least try,” Debbie told him.

“Too old now, baby,” Bruce told her.

“Like I give a shit. I would have every congressman in the nation on my side,” Debbie said with determination as mission control called that the gates were opening.

Bruce smiled, looking down at Debbie, “That is why I have no doubt now. A little five foot woman pushes this 6’4” man through her will alone. With you at my side, I have no fear or doubt,” Bruce told her as the vehicles carrying Marcus’ clan pulled around, stopping in front of the Barn. Debbie almost wanted to scream but turned to wait for Marcus and Carroll.

Bruce walked up to the first Stryker and saw Marcus and Carroll climb out. Marcus had on his overalls and boots. The holster that Carroll made Marcus for holding the .45 Bruce had given him was hanging off his belt. His M-4 was slung over his shoulder with a pouch hanging off his side holding magazines. A radio was in his back pocket with the microphone clipped to his chest. Carroll was in jeans and a flannel shirt, an M-4 was slung across her shoulder. Both of them carried a small backpack. Turning to see the people get out of the trucks, Bruce noticed none had on military clothes or gear for carrying equipment.

Most everyone had an M-4 and a pistol on their hip but spare magazines were in pockets and small bags slung over their shoulders. Then Bruce noticed a lot of the people were wearing tennis shoes. Bruce walked up to a smiling Marcus. “Marcus, why aren’t these people in military gear?” Bruce cried out in shock.

Marcus looked around at his clan then turned back to Bruce. “What do you mean? They have their weapons,” Marcus stated.

“Marcus, they can’t be carrying but five or six magazines and running around in tennis shoes,” Bruce told him.

Marcus shook his head, “Move fast, strike hard, travel light, use what’s available,” Marcus said.

“Marcus, think about what you just said. Our enemy moves faster than we can. You can’t out run them, I tried that. You can strike hard when they are in small groups, but they can come at you in numbers that are beyond imagination. Then the blues don’t care about losses. Traveling light is playing with death. The only way to stop a mass attack is overwhelming firepower that is constant and unyielding. Remember your enemy, Marcus,” Bruce said with a grave expression.

When Bruce first started speaking, anger flashed across Marcus’ face. Then as Bruce continued, the realization of what Bruce was getting at hit Marcus. “Okay, Bruce, you’re right. But you’ve been over to our farm at least once a week, why didn’t you say something sooner?” Marcus asked.

“Marcus, I thought you just let people stay casual,” Bruce answered him.

“Well, I wish we would have grabbed some stuff from Polk, but it’s too late now,” Marcus said mentally kicking himself.

“Marcus, we have more than enough shit here to outfit your clan. You don’t even have to ask,” Bruce told him.

“Bruce, that is your clan’s gear,” Marcus told him.

“Marcus, we don’t get a prize it we don’t use this shit,” Bruce replied. Carroll raised her finger and pointed at Bruce, “Carroll, butt out,” Bruce told her. Carroll dropped her hand to her side, not believing that Bruce talked to her like that.

“Bruce-,” Marcus started.

“Stop right there, Marcus,” Bruce said as he handed his rifle to Debbie. Then taking out his ear bud, Bruce unzipped and unbuckled his vest and shrugged it off. The vest hit the ground with a very heavy thud. “Marcus, there is no my clan, your clan. We are in this together, for better or worse. We are family here. Hell, your wife has threatened to switch all my kids and me. I will lie down and die for you, now, that is family. You just let your needs be known. Let’s say Carroll is being real bitchy to you and withholding on the lovin. You get on the radio and call over here. You say, ‘Hey Bruce, Carroll is getting out of hand and holding the lovin hostage. Can you send Debbie over here and let me borrow her for a day or two.’ I respond, ‘Hell yeah, just remember, she won’t kiss you in the morning until she brushes her teeth’,” Bruce finished his role play.

Marcus let out a holler as he started laughing, slapping his thigh. Those around joined in with Marcus. Carroll walked over and shoved Marcus out from in front of Bruce. Carroll stood in front of Bruce looking him in the eye, “So that be meanin’ when Marcus is actin’ like an asshole, I can call Debbie,” Carroll asked.

“Hell yeah, you call her and tell her, ‘send that horny, shaved head man over here’,” Bruce told her.

Carroll turned her head, looking at Debbie, “Debbie, Marcus is bein’ an asshole,” she told Debbie.

“Well, get you some,” Debbie told her smiling, pointing at Bruce.

“Come on girl, let’s roll around and get dirty,” Bruce said, unbuttoning his shirt.

Carroll threw her hands up in the air letting out a cackling laugh then threw her arms around Bruce. “Lord Bless you, Bruce. We do love you so,” Carroll said as she pulled his head down and kissed him. Letting Bruce go, Carroll wrapped her arms around Debbie.

Marcus moved back beside Bruce, wiping tears from his eyes, “Thank ya, Bruce. It’s good to know that some of the younger generation knows what friends and family are. I do have a favor then?” Marcus asked.

“Well, alright, but I get Debbie tomorrow,” Bruce told him.

Marcus started laughing and pushed Bruce back until he could breathe again. “Not that,” Marcus said then asked, “Those tiger stripes you wear. Can I have a pair? I haven’t worn them since Nam.”

“Oh hell yeah, how about Carroll? I think she’d look hot in tiger,” Bruce said, motioning to Carroll with his head.

Marcus looked at Carroll raising his eye brows with a mischievous grin and copied Bruce, “Oh yeah.”

“Who is over your personnel assignment?” Bruce asked.

“Darrell,” Marcus replied.

Bruce leaned over. Grabbing the microphone on Marcus’ chest, Bruce called out, “Darrell, come to the front of the barn please.”

Bruce turned around and started to shout, “Ange-,” but stopped to find her standing right behind him.

“I know I’m little. You don’t have to rub it in,” Angela replied with a tight-lipped expression.

“I’m sorry, Little Foot. I need you to coordinate with Darrell and get every adult here two sets of ACUs, a tactical vest with our common load out, and one pair of boots for now,” Turning to Debbie, Bruce was greeted with her hand up for him to stop.

“Don’t tell me what to do. I know what needs to be done?” Debbie told him.

Bruce smiled his apology and called Buffy over, “Buffy, take Carroll and Marcus’ bags up to your room, and tell Mary that Darrell and Eric will be staying in her old room,” Bruce told Buffy.

“Bruce, she can’t carry our stuff. That vest she’s be wearin’ looks like it weigh more than she do,” Marcus said.

“It weighs 41lbs and I weigh ninety-six,” Buffy said, raising her chin up. Bruce looked at her with a scowl on his face when he heard that. Buffy knew Daddy was staring at her but waited to turn toward him. Finally Buffy spun around looking at Bruce. “Yeah, I added more magazines. I’m not running out of bullets again if I can help it. That shit sucks,” Buffy told Bruce, shaking her head back and forth to emphasize her words, sending blond hair everywhere.

“Buffy! Mouth,” Debbie warned.

“You weren’t there, Mama. Daddy can go ahead and start yelling. I’m carrying more ammo. When I run out of bullets, I can’t pull a tomahawk and machete and wade into them talking smack. The best I can do is hope they’re not hungry, and Daddy scares them off,” Buffy told her.

“Just do what Daddy asked. If you want to carry more, that’s fine. It’s your back and pain,” Debbie told her. Bruce almost walked over and slapped Debbie for that response as Carroll spoke.

“We can sleep where everyone else is,” Carroll stated, looking around.

“Oh, now I see. You can set the rules but not follow them!” Bruce yelled out. Carroll just looked at Bruce like he has lost his mind, again. “I want y’all to sleep in my house and you want to say no?”

Carroll smiled, “You be right, Bruce. I’m sorry.”

“I ought to make y’all sleep in our bed with us now,” Bruce threatened.

“You’d throw us out. She farts all night long,” Marcus said, pointing at Carroll.

“Marcus!” Carroll snapped.

“We’ve had two dogs die at the foot of our bed. Don’t know if it was from the smell or the shockwave. You don’t know how many doors I’ve had to replace. She just blows them right off the hinges,” Marcus told Bruce with a serious face.

“This coming be from a man that snoren so loud we gets throw’d out of hotels,” Carroll said.

“I don’t snore,” Marcus replied.

“You sound likes a cow dyin’,” Carroll exclaimed.

The two kept at each other as Bruce led them to one of the storage areas and grabbed both of them a set of tiger stripe fatigues, boots, knee and elbow pads, a small assault pack, and two of Bruce’s tactical vests. Bruce liked his vest more than the ones the military issued because they had more adjustments, could carry more gear, fit better, and the carbon armor was lighter, stopping the same bullets. Then Bruce led them down in the basement to his armory and pulled out a compact Glock with a threaded barrel for Carroll. Then Bruce got both of them holsters to fit their pistols.

When Bruce told them he was going to take them upstairs so they could change, Carroll stopped Bruce and asked where the washing machine in the house was at. Bruce led them to the laundry room past the kitchen and pointed at it. Carroll grabbed the fatigues and threw them in the washer. She told Bruce that stiff new cloth irritated her skin and made Marcus break out in a rash. Bruce was fixing to tell her that was too much information but stopped.

Carroll grabbed the rest of the gear, filled the sink up, and hand washed both vests. Then she rolled them up in towels until they were dry. Bruce turned to find Marcus had found a shoe shine kit and was sitting at the table, shinning his and Carroll’s boots. After Carroll put the clothes in the dryer, she sat down and asked Bruce to show her the pistol he had given her.

For an hour, Bruce showed Carroll how to run the Glock. When the clothes were done, Carroll grabbed them and asked where their room was. Bruce showed them and came back down stairs. Ten minutes later two very different looking people came down the stairs. Bruce led them down into mission control for the first time, where Marcus and Carroll got to see the horde.

Marcus just stared at the monitor, not believing what he was seeing. “Well, ain’t that some shit,” Marcus declared.

Carroll didn’t say anything and just watched the monitor as the UAV made circles around the group. After fifteen minutes Carroll finally spoke, “Yep, just spank me and take away my toys. This’s some shit.”

Bruce just nodded thinking, ‘yeah that pretty much sums it up.’

Chapter 24

The rest of the command group, along with Marcus’ command group, came into mission control to join Bruce, Marcus and Carroll. Sitting down around the table, they started going over the threat. After the threat, they talked about the set-up of Marcus’ clan. By 1610, they had a plan in place, at least for the placement of Marcus’ clan, and they headed to the center to address the group.

Bruce walked into the center and just stopped at the door and stared in amazement. The hall was packed with people. Bruce was fighting off the urge to run over and kiss Paul for expanding it bigger than he wanted. With both clans here, there were over two thousand people all together. Looking at everyone, Bruce felt something he had not felt in a long time: hope.

Walking over to the command table, Bruce couldn’t help it. Reaching Paul, he leaned over and put a big wet sloppy kiss on his cheek. Paul pushed Bruce off. “Hey man, that’s getting a little too friendly. What the hell did I do to deserve that?” Paul asked, wiping his face off.

“Just thanking you for building the hall bigger than I asked for,” Bruce told him as he went to his chair.

“A hand shake would have suited me,” Paul said dryly.

Bruce stood up, “Marcus, you ready to do this?” Bruce asked him.

“Na, you talk. I’m still mad at some of them,” Marcus answered.

“Why are you mad at them?” Bruce asked, wanting to know who pissed him off.

Marcus looked up at Bruce. “When you called this morning, first, everyone was mad that you made the little boy cry. I told them you had a good reason and boy was I right. Then when you started telling us what was going on, everyone started yellin’, wantin’ answers. What pisses me off is they were asking me, but they had just heard you tell me everything I knew. They was panicking bad. I tried to calm them down, but they wouldn’t shut up, so I had to get ugly,” Marcus said with irritation.

Bruce laughed saying, “Yeah, we heard some of that. Then I heard Carroll yell at you about getting’ a switch.”

“Carroll didn’t yell at me. She was yellin’ at ‘em. Her language was worse than mine. When they wouldn’t shut up, she pulled out the switch and just started whoopin’ anyone standing in her way. I was just cheering her on. When they shut the hell up, I talked back at ya,” Marcus informed Bruce.

“Well, okay. Let me know if you want to say something,” Bruce said as he headed to the front. Stepping behind the podium, Bruce tapped the microphone to get everyone’s attention.

When the hall got quiet, Bruce started, “Hello everyone. I wish we wouldn’t have had to bring both clans together under such dire circumstances, but we will deal with it.”

Several people jumped up and started asking questions, then more. Bruce raised the microphone to his mouth and bellowed out, “SHUT THE FUCK UP!” with the speakers plus Bruce’s voice, to say it was loud would be a big lie. Many people’s ears were ringing. The center became instantly quiet, except for several small kids who were crying, thinking the world was ending.

Bruce smiled at the group as he noticed Marcus walking toward the front. “Sorry, I can tell some of y’all aren’t from this clan. We don’t just stand up and start yelling like dumbass pieces of shit. I know for a fact that Marcus and Carroll don’t put up with that either.” Bruce said as Marcus walked over to him, holding his hand out for the microphone.

When Marcus had the microphone he turned around, “People, pull another outburst like that again, and we will work for fifty hours straight when we get back. Keep your fear in check or get the hell out of here. I’m sick and tired of it. We are way past Carroll’s switch,” Marcus said, handing the microphone back to Bruce.

“Thank you for those kind words Marcus. Love ya, brother,” Bruce said, clicking his tongue pointing at Marcus. “When I get interrupted, I get angry. That leads to someone getting their ass kicked and thrown out. Now if I can start without interruptions. You may ask questions but please hold them until the end. As y’all have seen on the monitor, we have a shit load of blues heading toward us. Now, if they stay on their present course, they will pass us, but I don’t ever try to figure those shits out. Worst case scenario is they turn and hit us. For those of you that are stupid, that would be bad,” Bruce stopped as a hand went up. Bruce pointed at it.

A middle age man stood up stating, “You don’t have to talk to us like we are kids or stupid.”

“Yes I do, because that’s how some are acting. Let’s be clear here. If you threaten the safety of others, you will be dealt with harshly. Stand tough or at least act like it. Fear breeds and it’s highly contagious. If you’re scared, go outside and slam your nuts in a car door to remind yourself that you’re alive. I’ll treat you like adults and warriors if you act like it. Keep acting like this and I’ll feed you to the blues myself,” Bruce said as Henry raised his hand up.

“Henry, you speak at every meeting. Keep on and I’ll let you give them,” Bruce said as everyone in Bruce’s clan laughed. “Henry, don’t talk about me doing too much, I’m not in the mood today. If you call me Mr. Bruce, I’ll lick your face and spit in your ear,” Bruce warned.

Henry stood up smiling, “No, Bruce, this is why we don’t want you wasting your energy on things we can do. Now is when we need you in top form and I see we have it. I just wanted to address our sister clan. I have met Marcus and Carroll and like them very much. I know they can’t yell like Bruce, but they have structure and discipline. Please remember what you have been through and what those who lead us have been through and go through every day. If we don’t have order, we might as well just all die now,” Henry said and sat back down.

“Thank you, Henry,” Bruce said, smiling as another hand shot up. Bruce was getting tired of this, “Okay, this is the beginning not the end of the meeting. I will recognize this question, but if someone interrupts me again and it’s for something stupid, one of my kids will disembowel you,” Bruce said as all the kids raised their hand to be picked. “No, I will pick one by straws,” Bruce said as the group turned to see all the kids standing up to be picked to disembowel someone. That did unnerve several members. Bruce pointed at the man who had his hand up.

A middle age man stood up, “Thank you, Bruce. I just want to apologize for several members of our clan’s actions. They have never acted like that before, and I don’t know why they are doing it now except they are scared. Please continue and tell us about our ‘friends’.” The man said and sat back down.

Bruce smiled, “Okay, I’ll treat you like adults. The horde that is now past Monroe and entering Ruston contains approximately six point four million blues. They are moving at three and a half miles per hour. Their column length changes between twenty-two to twenty-eight miles. This’s because they have to filter across the bridges. They will reach Shreveport tomorrow morning but they will be the closest to us at 2300 at twenty-two miles away. Yes, that means if they turn towards us, we will start fighting them before the last of the horde is even off I-20. For you math junkies, if this horde attacks us, every person here will have to kill about thirty-seven hundred blues, give or take a few hundred. I’m happy to say we do have the ammo and weapons for that now.” Bruce paused and looked around the room. Yep, he had their attention.

“Now, there will be no use of any engines with the exception of the UAVs. If you start a vehicle without permission, you’ll be shot, with a suppressed weapon of course. Noise discipline is now enforced for the entire clan. A normal voice only outside. The blues hearing has improved, and they can hear stuff from a long way away. For example, the blues used to only hear the UAVs at fifteen hundred feet. They can now hear them at three thousand feet. That’s a significant increase people. Half of this group will be up tonight and the other half will be up tomorrow. We will rotate like that until our guests leave or attack,” Bruce informed them.

“Those from Marcus’ that were assigned to kitchen, you will be assigned to the kitchen here also. Our kitchen can serve over three thousand meals at meal time, but we have not increased our staff to do that. Carroll, before you ask, no you can’t cook here. I already have one cook who threatens to beat the hell out of me with a wooden spoon daily. I can’t take the thought of two wanting to beat me,” Bruce said as the clan laughed.

“Now to our sister clan, we have two gyms that are open around the clock. For the kids, we have set up some video games, and for the adults, we have the library open and classes for you going around the clock. Our classes list is a bit more extensive than Marcus’. Not because he won’t. It’s because he can’t. This farm had double the buildings he did when this hit. Then you throw in my crazy family, especially my husband Mike back there. Isn’t he cute? Then my four wives,” Bruce joked, waving at them and lots of people laughed.

“On the serious side, if they turn toward us, it will be a fight to the death. As everyone here knows, they don’t surrender, or give up. So, we will have to kill every one of them, and yes we can do that. We have to kill them at distance. If we get breached, we die. It’s that simple. Our goal will be to kill them at the two hundred yard mark. They will advance through sheer numbers to the hundred yard mark. If we kill enough blues, their dead will build a wall that they will have to climb over to get us. That’s the trick. If we can hold the first few hours, we can win. Right now, the projection is we have to kill one and a half million in those first few hours. Again, for you math junkies, that’s over thirteen thousand a minute. Our defense is simple. The towers will start cutting them down, hitting them in the legs. The armored vehicles will pull up to firing positions and engage the same. It is the individual that will have to kill each and every one with well controlled shots. Take your time and don’t just waste ammo. Those in our sister clan, you have been assigned positions here. Learn where they are. Walk around the farm to learn where everything is at. Home clan, please show them around and help them learn the alarm.” Bruce said. “Questions?” Bruce asked and hands shot up everywhere. Sighing, Bruce just pointed.

“Can’t we bomb them?” a man asked.

“If you have a heavy bomber in your pocket, we’ll use it,” Bruce replied.

“You have helicopters,” he said.

“Sir, they don’t carry the kind of tonnage of explosive we need. The attack helicopter or Apache carries a max of one ton of ammo. The Black Hawk is a transport, but it can haul five tons. I guess we could just throw bombs out, but it’s not enough. The B-52 carries twenty-five tons of bombs, and we would need twenty of them to wipe out this horde as long as it is. Plus I don’t know how to fly the big BUFF,” Bruce said and the man sat down, not believing what he heard. A woman raised her hand, and Bruce nodded.

“You have cannons out there in pits, use those,” she said.

“Ma’am, first those are mortars not cannons. Contrary to what you’ve seen in the movies they don’t blow up a city with one or two shots. Each shot only spreads out roughly seventy yards and they can only average about eight shots a minute or you over heat them and they blow up,” Bruce said and she just sat down. A man raised his hand and Bruce nodded.

“You have a tank,” he said.

“A- as in singular. Hey, if you have the balls to jump in a tank and take on six million blues, go right ahead, man. Just let me warn you, there are soldiers here that can tell you about blues swarming tanks. They clogged up the tracks so they couldn’t move and starved the engines for air, over heating them. Yeah, the blues can’t get in but the crew can’t get out either. Those tanks became their tombs,” Bruce answered, and the man sat down visibly shaken. Another man raised his hand and Bruce nodded.

“Let’s run,” he said.

“The gate is to your south and don’t say ‘let’s’. You want to leave, haul your ass. Those that joined my clan were given that option when they got here. Everyone has stayed, and they took an oath to stay and fight. They can leave the clan when we aren’t under a threat, but if they try to leave while we are under threat, they will be shot. If it seems drastic to you, I’m sorry. It just means that person used the blood, sweat, and tears of the clan to hide and never had any intention to stay and defend those that provided for them. Another word I could use would be coward and cowards die eventually and always alone.” Bruce told the man and then continued.

“Sir, don’t think I’m being an asshole, because I’m not. I can be, but I’m not right now. I’m being honest. If you leave where will you go? Then you aren’t taking my shit. Just how much can you carry? I can’t carry the amount of ammo I would want. The only reason we can use vehicles around here is because we have been slaughtering blues close to us. The latest estimate is over a hundred and fifty thousand. That may not seem like a lot but we are in the country. Eighty six thousand rounds of 5.56 is one ton. I have trouble carrying two thousand rounds on me, and I can carry very little else. So if you want, leave,” Bruce said, and the man sat down. A woman raised her hand.

“So we just wait for them to attack?” she asked.

“Well, I’m not going to attack them first,” Bruce told her. “Ma’am, I would be so happy if those assholes just keep right on going. I really don’t want to play with them,” Bruce added.

After the questions, Bruce went and sat down in his chair. “I feel like I gave birth,” Bruce announced.

“Fat chance on that. Shit a bowling ball and talk to me,” Debbie told him as plates were set around the table. Bruce just grinned at her sarcastically.

Marcus smiled as his plate was put down then turned to Bruce, “Bruce, we will need to give you some food to replace what we ate,” Marcus said. Bruce just gave Marcus a blank look. Marcus shook his head, “Bruce, I know how much food is eaten by six hundred and seventy four people per day.”

Bruce closed his eyes, “About one point seven tons a day,” Bruce told Marcus. Marcus looked at Bruce flabbergasted. Bruce returned the stare and said, “On average, a person needs five pounds of food a day. Now if you use those nasty calorie packed bars, you can say three pounds.”

“Okay then, that’s what I mean. If we stay here for three days that will be-,” Marcus thought.

“Five point one tons of food,” Buffy answered. Stephanie patted her student on the back, and Marcus smiled at her.

Marcus turned to Bruce, “That’s a big hit, so when this is over, we will bring some over here.”

“Marcus, how much food have you got over there?” Bruce asked as Millie poured him another glass of tea.

“I don’t know, a lot. Darrell has us up to six months,” Marcus told him.

“Okay, so you have about two hundred and twenty-five tons of food. Stephanie, what’s our food in tonnage?” Bruce asked her as he looked at Marcus.

“Two thousand two hundred tons or four hundred days’ worth,” Stephanie answered.

Marcus just gawked at Bruce as Carroll turned to look at Bruce, “Where the hell is it at?” she asked.

“Carroll, remember we have over thirty storage areas back there. Each one has twenty 42’ containers in it just like the ones y’all have. That is eighty thousand cubic feet of storage per site. We are averaging about forty tons per container. So we can store a lot,” Bruce told her.

“Bruce, how’d y’all get that much food?” Carroll asked.

“Went shopping,” Bruce replied.

Marcus gave Bruce a solemn look when he spoke, “Bruce, again I have to say thank you. If you, Mike and Paul hadn’t come over and dropped off those containers, we wouldn’t have the room to store the food. I’m just a simple farmer, Bruce, and I had no idea just how much room a ton of food took up. Then Paul came over and helped us set up those barracks. Not to mention the solar panels and water tower that y’all helped us put up. This has really hit me hard. I thought I knew how much a group used but was way short.”

Bruce smiled, “Marcus, none of that matters. We keep dropping shit off over there because of that reason. Very few people have any idea of the space that is need for long term survival. In a few years, it will be you who will carry us. We will have to grow our own and as of right now, Paul tells me we need ¼ to ½ acre to grow enough food for one person a year. Right now that means a thousand acres, and if you ask Paul, we aren’t that good at farming,” Bruce said.

“I never said that!” Paul shouted.

“You said we didn’t have the garden planted right,” Bruce replied.

“I told you that you had too much space between your plants and that you took that out of a book,” Paul answered.

“Don’t listen to him. He said we sucked,” Bruce told Marcus.

The clan ate and those on night duty stayed in the hall or headed to the gym. Bruce had Omega stay in the game room in the house, while he stayed in mission control. The horde marched through the night. Watching the monitor, Bruce saw some chase down animals and tear them apart. At 2300, Bruce could feel his ass pucker up, watching the horde only twenty plus miles away. Several times that night Bruce had fought off the urge to kill all the farm animals so they wouldn’t make any noise.

By 0600, the blues had reached Shreveport as Bruce headed to the center to get breakfast. Sitting down in his chair, Bruce looked at the members of Omega at the table, all fighting sleep. Seeing Buffy fixing to fall in her plate, Bruce called her name, waking her up.

Buffy looked at Bruce, “Thank you, Daddy,” Buffy said, smiling weakly.

“You’re welcome, BB. Now, tap Danny before she drowns in her food,” Bruce told Buffy.

Buffy tapped Danny on the arm, waking her up. Buffy turned back to Bruce, “Waiting and doing nothing for a fight sucks,” Buffy said, and Debbie slapped the table looking at her.

“Mouth Buffy,” Debbie warned her.

Marcus laughed, “Yes it does, but the alternative is worse,” he told her.

Bruce grabbed his glass of tea and took a drink just as Buffy asked, “Daddy, what’s a porno?”

Bruce sprayed tea out his nose and mouth over the table. Wiping his face off, Bruce looked at Buffy, “What?”

“A porno. You and Daddy Mike were getting ready to fight about them yesterday,” Buffy stated with an inquisitive look.

Bruce stuttered, and then looked at Debbie. Debbie reached down pulling a knife off her boot, then drove the tip in the table. “I swear to God! If you say ‘ask your mother’, we go to the floor right now and only one of us will come up!” Debbie yelled at Bruce with a wild look in her eye.

Turning his head toward Angela and Stephanie, Bruce saw Angela laying a knife on the table and Stephanie laid her pistol on the table. With his eyes the size of saucers, Bruce just stared at the gun as Stephanie said, “I’m not that good with a knife yet so I’ll just have to shoot you. Just a little.” Bruce didn’t even want to ask what getting shot ‘just a little’ was.

Danny stood up as Bruce looked at her, “No Dad, not this time,” Danny said as she left the center.

Taking a deep breath, Bruce told Buffy just what a porno was, making everyone else at the table blush. Debbie almost told him to stop and she would do it, until Buffy started to ask questions. “Why would you want to watch that?” Buffy asked. Debbie looked at Bruce in shock as he told Buffy why adults watch them. Laying her head on the table, Debbie covered her ears with her hands.

When Bruce finished, Buffy looked at Bruce with a grave look. “Daddy, I don’t want to grow up. Adults are weird, and I don’t think I want to be one,” Buffy told Bruce.

“BB, if you figure that out let me know,” Bruce told her as he stood up. Turning to the table, “If anything changes, wake me up,” Bruce said and left the hall with Buffy and Max following.

When they were gone, Debbie raised her head up, looking at Stephanie and Angela. “Don’t ever let Bruce answer any questions one of our daughters asks again,” Debbie commanded.

Stephanie looked at Debbie. “Why? He said stuff I didn’t know,” Stephanie told her.

Carroll cleared her throat. “I have ta agree with Stephanie. I didn’t know that and I be almost twice Bruce’s age,” Carroll said, standing up and leaving with Marcus.

Debbie stood up, “Well, since we have to be up while Bruce sleeps, let’s be productive,” Debbie told the other two.

Angela looked up at Debbie. “Hell, I want to watch a porno now,” Angela told Debbie, grinning.

Debbie just collapsed down in her chair and laid her head back down on the table. “It’s bad enough that we are on the day shift and Bruce is on the night shift. Now I have two horny spouses,” Debbie moaned then looked at Angela.

“Ah, Debbie, would you be, like, real mad if I said I want to watch one too?” Stephanie asked. Debbie just dropped her head back to the table.

Bruce walked into his room and saw Danny in the bed. “Ah, what are you doing here?” Bruce asked as he dropped his gear to the floor.

“Duh, Matt is on the day shift, Dad,” Danny said, as if that explained everything. Max jumped up on the bed to tell Danny hi as Bruce went and showered.

Coming back out, Bruce found Buffy in bed with Danny and Max. It wouldn’t have bothered him, but they were lying across the bed. “Max, get down. I can throw you out,” Bruce said, pointing at the floor. Max lifted his head up staring at Bruce like, ‘dude, you’re kidding, right’.

Seeing Bruce was serious, Max climbed down with his head held down, trying to make Bruce feel guilty as he lay down on the floor. Bruce picked up the girls and put them in the bed the correct way. Climbing under the covers and snuggling up in the blanket, Bruce was almost asleep when Buffy rolled over, throwing her legs over him. As Bruce drifted off to sleep, he knew the battle for the bed was fixing to start, and he had a bad feeling both daughters were going to win.

Chapter 25

It was Saturday at 1700 when the alarm clock went off waking Bruce up for his shift as. Bruce woke up, cracking his eyes open to find a leg across his head and a foot on his chin. Reaching up, he grabbed the leg across his head and realized it did not belong to the foot. Reaching up with the other hand to grab the foot was when he came to the conclusion they were too small to belong to Danny or Buffy. Bruce opened his eyes up all the way to find Emily and Sherry sprawled across him and the bed.

Sitting up, Bruce was amazed that the two littlest people were touching every person in the bed and each other. Sliding out, Bruce started doing stretches, and then noticed a note on his dresser. Bruce grabbed it and opened it up.

Dear Bruce

Debbie wanted me to leave you a note telling you the twins were throwing a fit to sleep with Daddy. I put them in the bed with you at 0900 and I rolled both Danny and Buffy off of you. Debbie said when you get up wake the twins.  They are to stay with you tonight until they fall asleep.

Love you,

Stephanie.

As Bruce put the note in his top drawer, Max started to whine. Bruce told Max to hold it as he woke up everyone in the bed. Heading to the bathroom, Bruce laid out the twin’s tooth brushes and brushed his teeth. When Emily and Sherry came in, Bruce helped them brush their teeth. Brushing their hair, Bruce led them back into the bedroom. Looking at the bed Bruce only saw Buffy curled up in a ball, Danny was already gone.

Bruce kicked the bed, “Buffy get up baby,” Bruce said as he went to his closet. Bruce heard the bathroom door slam as he pulled out the twin’s ACUs that Millie had made for them.

When Bruce walked over holding up the little uniforms, the twins started jumping up and down. Looking at the empty bed, Bruce dressed the twins tying their little combat boots and then he got dressed. When Bruce lifted his vest he was beginning to hate the ‘heavy’ vest. Bruce went to the door of the bathroom and tried to open it only to find it was locked. “Buffy, open the door. I have to pee,” Bruce said with urgency.

“Go to another bathroom. I’m using this one!” Buffy yelled back. Then, Bruce heard her just screech out.

“You’ve been in there for fifteen minutes, your bladder isn’t that big. I need to pee,” Bruce told her.

“I have time limits now? Go away and leave me the hell alone!” Buffy screeched at the top of her lungs. Then another torrent of garbled screeches came out of Buffy’s mouth.

“Buffy, are you ok baby?” Bruce asked softly.

“Leave me alone!” Buffy screamed out. Then, Bruce heard the shrill scream and he caught some of the words and the ones he caught shouldn’t be coming out of her mouth.

Bruce stepped away from the door, expecting the demon to come out that had possessed his daughter. Looking down, Bruce saw Emily and Sherry hiding behind his legs and Max was hiding behind them. “Some guard dog you are, hiding behind the kids when a demon is possessing Buffy,” Bruce told Max.

“I heard that, damn it! Just leave me alone!” the demon screeched.

Bruce looked around, grabbed the Crucifix off the wall and opened his top dresser drawer, pulling out a roll of duct tape. Easing to the bathroom door, Bruce taped the Crucifix to the door. ‘Well at least it’s trapped in there until I can find Father Thomas’, Bruce thought. Picking up his rifle from the rack, Bruce led the twins away from the demon he had trapped in the bathroom.

When Bruce stepped outside, he headed to the far side of the patio so Max could take care of business. Stepping up to the same tree Max was using, Bruce started peeing with Max. Max looked up at Bruce wanting to know what the hell he was doing.

“Not today Max, I’m getting in a bad mood,” Bruce said and Max went over to the twins, who were leaning over playing in the pool with their hands. “Emily, Sherry get away from the water,” Bruce told them as he finished.

Bruce grabbed the twins and headed to the center for food. Walking in, Bruce saw the trio, Marcus, Carroll, Susan, Willie, Maggie, Paul, Cheryl, Nancy and Mike. Bruce didn’t see any kids at the table and for a second wondered if more kids had become possessed. The twins ran over to hug the trio as Bruce followed them and kissed the trio.

Bruce looked around the hall, “Where is Father Thomas?” Bruce asked.

“He’s talking to a couple from Marcus’ clan that wants to get married,” Debbie said.

“Get him. I need him,” Bruce told Debbie grabbing a glass of tea as he remained standing.

“What do you need him for?” Debbie demanded.

“He’s a Catholic priest, he can do an exorcism,” Bruce enlightened Debbie.

“Bruce, you’ve been possessed for too long. It won’t work,” Debbie stated, laughing.

“Ha-ha it’s not for me. I don’t want to throw holy water on me. It’s for Buffy,” Bruce said as his plate was set down.

Debbie jumped up, “What’s wrong with Buffy?” Debbie demanded.

“Hello! She’s possessed. Can’t you hear?” Bruce asked as he picked up his plate and started eating, still standing up. The twins saw how Daddy was eating and stood up in their chairs doing the same thing.

“What do you mean possessed? Is she ok?” Stephanie asked, standing up.

“Well she is speaking in tongues that I don’t understand. Letting out high pitched screeches trying to make us deaf and I think she levitated to the bathroom,” Bruce told her.

“You didn’t check on her?” Debbie shouted.

“Hey! I wasn’t getting green shit spit at me,” Bruce told Debbie, bobbing his head ghetto style. If Bruce would have been paying attention he would have noticed two little girls emulating his every move.

“What the hell do you know about possession?” Angela yelled at Bruce.

“Hey, I saw the movie,” Bruce let her know.

Closing her eyes, Stephanie pinched the bridge of her nose trying to stop her headache. “Bruce, you got your knowledge from a movie?” Stephanie accused.

“It’s not an action movie and it was a documentary. They follow what really happened,” Bruce proclaimed.

Stephanie shook her head as Debbie said, “This is the second time you’ve accused one of our kids of possession.”

“She fuckin’ was possessed,” Bruce said in a growling lisp. His two mimes were still standing up in their chairs, copying his expression without words.

“I’m so going to kick your ass,” Debbie said as she ran for the door.

“I’ll be joining her,” Angela added as she took off running following Debbie with Stephanie.

Stephanie spun around, running backwards, yelling out, “When they jump your ass, I’ll have that damn cattle prod!” Stephanie spun back around and went out the door.

“Bring your shit on Little Red!” Bruce yelled out, throwing his plate on the table, spreading his arms out. Looking at the door, Bruce neither saw nor heard two little plates hit the table as the twins copied him.

“Bruce, sit down please?” Carroll asked. Bruce gave Carroll a dark look, getting ready to release a torrent himself. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Marcus shaking his head ‘no’.

“Fine,” Bruce said as he dropped in his chair. The twins dropped down into their chairs and noticed Bruce looking at everybody mean. They squinched their faces up, trying to look mean, eyeing everyone. Bruce was alone with the twins on either side of him and everyone else at the other end of the table. They were trying very hard not to laugh at Bruce and his two mimes, knowing that would only add fuel to the fire.

Bruce slapped the table, scaring everyone, and pointed his finger at Mike as two little slaps followed his and Mike now had three index fingers pointed at him. “Mike, let’s get something straight. I’m trading someone from Omega for Matt,” Bruce snapped, shaking his finger at him.

Mike was holding the laughter in as he looked at Bruce with a twin on each side of him pointing their finger at him. Clearing his throat, “Why do you want to do that?” Mike asked.

Bruce leaned back in his chair throwing his hands up in the air followed by the twins. “Danny is beating the shit out of me. Now I have a demon in my room and the twins think I’m a trampoline. I can’t do anything about them. But I can do something about Danny and Buffy. I’ll trade you someone and get Buffy’s demon thrown out and my life will be good again,” Bruce said.

Mike was letting out little snorts the entire time Bruce was speaking. Bruce’s hands were just waving around as he spoke and the twins were moving their arms just like Daddy. “Bruce, I thought we agreed not to have both Matt and Jake on the same team,” Mike reminded him in a breaking voice.

Bruce leaned forward putting his elbow on the table pointing his finger at Mike again. The twins couldn’t sit and put their elbows on the table, so they stood up and put their elbow on the table pointing a finger a Mike. “Mike, I don’t care. I want to sleep,” Bruce said.

Mike couldn’t even say anything seeing all three pointing their finger at him. Willie saved him, telling Bruce, “Bruce, you haven’t even asked about the horde.”

“Fuck’em!” Bruce shouted, slapping the table followed by two little table slaps and throwing his hands in the air followed by four little hands. “I’m in the mood to go over there and just kick their ass!” Bruce yelled.

Susan jumped up, “I have to go,” she said, trying not to laugh. When she went out, Danny came in. Danny’s vest wasn’t zipped or buckled and it was just hanging off of her. Reaching her chair, Danny looked at Daddy and saw a pissed off look on his face with his arms crossed over his chest. She was fixing to say something until she noticed Emily and Sherry giving her a mean look with their arms across their chest. Clenching her teeth so she wouldn’t laugh, Danny just sat down.

Bruce looked around the table at everyone as did the twins. Paul was shaking in his chair with tears on his face and Cheryl was turned around looking at the far wall. Marcus and Carroll just looked straight ahead and both had tears rolling down their cheeks. Nancy had her head on the table and Mike’s body was shaking. Bruce stood up and the twins stood up in their chairs. “Something funny?” Bruce asked menacingly.

Marcus scooted his chair back. “I’m going to the bathroom,” he said, walking away.

“Yeah, I tried that and had a demon in mine. A man can’t even take a leak without a demon from hell possessing his little girl!” Bruce shouted after Marcus and dropped back down in his chair, as did the mimes.

Danny dropped her head to the table and raised it back up, but didn’t look at Daddy. “Where’s Buffy possessed at? Her bathroom or yours?” Danny asked looking at Carroll.

“My bathroom,” Bruce growled. Danny got up heading to the door, “You’ve been possessed once that does make you more vulnerable!” Bruce yelled at her jumping out of his chair, followed by his mimes.

Danny spun around, “I wasn’t possessed!” she screamed.

Bruce put his hands on his hips as did the twins. “The hell you weren’t, but I fixed you,” Bruce said proudly.

“You tried to drown me in holy water!” Danny screamed, then, spun away after seeing the twins and Daddy. Danny ran the last few steps to get out before she laughed.

“A demon is going to get her again,” Bruce said to no one and sat back down as did the twins. Bruce looked around the hall noticing a lot of people looking at him, “Y’all have a problem? We can go outside? One at time or all together makes no difference to me,” Bruce told them, holding out his arms. Everyone looked away not from fear but two little girls were still copying his movements. Looking around the hall to see if there were any takers, Bruce saw Marcus talking to Father Thomas.

“Hey Father Thomas!” Bruce called out heading across the hall followed by the mimes. Marcus and Father Thomas shook hands and Marcus headed towards Bruce and Father Thomas headed toward the kitchen.

“I told him what you needed Bruce, he’s getting some,” Marcus said as he headed to the table.

Bruce walked back to the table and sat down with his mimes. A few minutes later Father Thomas came over, handing Bruce a one liter bottle of water. “This should do it Bruce,” He said.

“Thank you Father. Do you want to come?” Bruce asked.

“No I have others I need to see,” Father Thomas said, noticing the mimes copying Bruce.

Bruce looked at the bottle and the twins looked down at their hand like they were holding one. “Will this be enough?” Bruce asked looking up at him.

Father Thomas was fighting the laughter, “It only takes a drop Bruce,” he replied.

“Okay and thanks again,” Bruce said.

“I will pray for Buffy and for you,” Father Thomas said as he spun and speed walked away. Bruce did not catch that Father Thomas emphasized ‘you’. “Don’t worry Bruce, she’ll be ok,” he hollered back.

“I’m going to tell you something now. I’m tired of Satan going after my girls. I have two more and he fucks with them, I- WILL- find a train to hell, kick his ass, then skull fuck him!” Bruce yelled across the hall as the trio walked in.

“See! I told you she was possessed,” Bruce said, crossing his arms over his chest in triumph.

The trio stopped in their tracks when they noticed the twins do it, taking Bruce’s pose. Looking down for a second, to hide her grin, Debbie looked up at Bruce without the grin. “Bruce she is stat-,” Debbie stopped as Bruce started to yell and point his finger at her.

“Hey,hey,hey! Don’t say it! That’s a lie and you know it!” Bruce yelled shaking his finger and the twins did the same at Debbie.

Stephanie started to say something as Angela put her hand over her mouth. Brue looked over at them as Angela said, “She was going to insult you but if we fight, we can do it later. We don’t want witnesses to this beating.”

“I got your number Little Red,” Bruce said as Debbie walked over to him. As Bruce spoke using his hands the mimes did to, “Don’t say it, I have what I need here,” Bruce said holding up the bottle of water. Debbie just stared in amazement at the twins following Bruce’s movements.

“Bruce you almost drowned Danny,” Debbie reminded him.

“I had to deal with his minions trying to stop me from saving my baby girl!” Bruce bellowed as he kicked his chair back, knocking it over. Bruce glared at Nancy as he walked over to get his rifle. The twins got out of their chairs, grabbing the back of them and pulled them over, knocking them on the floor. The twins ran over behind Bruce like little ducklings. “Don’t worry she’ll be ok,” Bruce told Debbie. Debbie couldn’t talk at the sight of Bruce and his ducklings as she just waved him away. Bruce walked out and when the door closed, the laughter erupted.

“What is he going to do?” Stephanie asked.

“Pour holy water on Buffy,” Debbie replied. Stephanie ran toward the door to stop Bruce. “Stephanie stop! Let him go. Buffy will just get a little wet and Bruce won’t think he’s losing a little girl. Besides if you spill his water, he just goes back with more,” Debbie told her.

“A lot more,” Nancy clarified.

Stephanie and Angela were looking at them like they were stupid so Debbie explained, “When Danny started her cycles it was on a night I was working and it was almost midnight. She was sleeping in our bed and locked herself in the bathroom and, like Buffy, started yelling and screaming. Bruce thought she was possessed and got in his truck, drove to the church. Woke the father up and brought back a cup of holy water for Danny to drink. Well, Nancy tried to save her by knocking the cup from Bruce’s hand. Now Bruce thinks Nancy’s possessed as he drives back to the church and this time comes back with a bucket.”

“A five gallon bucket,” Nancy corrected.

Debbie laughed and continued, “Well, by that time Nancy had given Danny some Motrin and Danny felt better. Danny got back in our bed and Nancy went to hers. Well Bruce came in and saw his possessed daughter asleep. Now you can ask him this too. He told me when they are asleep the demon can’t hear you. So very quietly Bruce crept up to the bed and poured five gallons of cold water over Danny. So this little girl hears her Daddy tell her, she was possessed but he saved her. It took me a whole year to convince her otherwise.” Debbie finished.

“Awe that’s sweet,” Angela said.

“Yeah it’s sweet, weird, but sweet,” Stephanie agreed.

“He tried to drown my baby,” Debbie replied with a bland expression.

“Well he thought he was saving his princess,” Angela replied gleefully.

“Debbie do you really think Bruce believes his delusion?” Stephanie asked.

“No, I think he just wants to keep them in his mind as little girls who think he’s super Dad,” Debbie related.

“Ah Debbie, Danny does look at him like he is super Dad,” Stephanie pointed out.

“Gee ya think,” Debbie gave her smart ass reply.

“I still think that’s cute, he’s saving his little girl,” Angela repeated.

“No Angela, when the blues leave I will get Bruce’s ducklings to ask him to have a tea party. Then you will see a sweet Daddy,” Debbie told her.

Willie stood up, “What was with the twins copying Bruce?” he asked Debbie.

“To each generation a new Daddy’s princesses shall be born,” Debbie spouted out the changed theme. “They are getting ready to become insane. That’s the only way I can describe it. You know Danny cried for a week when she realized that she was never going to pee standing up,” Debbie stated.

“I’m sorry Debbie, I love it. My Dad never went as far as teaching me to hunt, fish, beat the hell out of people, douse me with holy water when I started cramping to get the demons out,” Angela let Debbie know.

“I’m not saying I don’t love it and think it’s nice,” Debbie said, “but nobody copies me!”

“Ah Debbie I hate to say this but you’re Mama,” Carroll told her. “They don’t try to really copy us because they thinkin’ we close to heaven and they can’t, but they do try,” Carroll explained. “Now I haven’t been around you a lot in times of a fight. But the ones I’ve seen, your kids do become insane to protect their Mama,” Carroll pointed out.

“Yeah but I wish they would copy me like they do Bruce,” Debbie admitted.

“Oh they dos but never in front of us. All of ‘em do. You can ask Bruce and he’ll be able to recite examples,” Carroll told her. Debbie looked at her in disbelief.

“She’s right, every kid we had and grand kid we raised,” Marcus told Debbie and that made her feel a lot better.

“I can’t believe that Bruce tries to delude himself about his daughters growing up. That’s crazy,” Paul said.

“Yeah, I can’t see many doing it. I don’t think I would,” Willie agreed.

“More do it than you believe,” Nancy said looking at Mike.

“I didn’t try to get demons out of Mary,” Mike stated.

“No you didn’t baby. When she had her cramps and a headache, you rushed her to the hospital. Then got a CT of her head, chest and abdomen followed by what? Seven thousand dollars in labs,” Nancy disclosed.

“Well there could have been any number of things wrong with her,” Mike said, defending his actions.

“You took her back the next month and done it again. You call me on the floor in the middle of rounds!” Nancy yelled.

“I thought you wanted to know,” Mike replied sheepishly.

“I wish you would have called me before you filled my baby full of radiation and not after! I gave her two Motrin and in thirty minutes she’s better. You are a board certified ER doctor, where was your brain?” Nancy yelled.

“Well I had Bruce draw her labs and he agreed with me,” Mike stated proudly.

“He thinks Mary’s his daughter too. Of course he would. I am proud of you for at least not calling surgery,” Nancy admitted. Mike just turned his head away.

“You didn’t?” Nancy accused.

“I just called them down to look at her,” Mike said.

“You better be glad they didn’t take my baby to the operating room,” Nancy threatened.

Mike scoffed, “Well they wouldn’t.” Then he realized that was a mistake.

If looks could have killed, Mike would have died three times over as Nancy glared at him. “Explain! You have sixty seconds. It had better be the truth because Debbie will verify with Bruce,” Nancy delivered her ultimatum.

“I asked them to do just an exploratory laparotomy. She could have had a ruptured appendix, incarcerated bowel, tumor, hernia thousands of things but they wouldn’t do it,” Mike told her.

“Those surgeons love to cut. What reason did they use?” Nancy asked in a monotone.

“They didn’t do it because Bruce made her drink some holy water to get the demons out. Since she had drunk something, they couldn’t do it,” Mike told her.

“You give my baby enough radiation to kill a cock roach-,” Nancy stopped as Mike interrupted.

“Come on baby, it’s not that bad,” Mike said.

“Mike, two full body CT’s within thirty days. I had cancer kids that didn’t get that kind of radiation exposure. She could grow a third arm out of her back,” Nancy predicted.

“I didn’t think about that,” Mike said, worried. “I bet that clinic down the road has an ultrasound, x-ray machine and lab equipment,” Mike said making a list to his self.

“Mike, if you do any test on my baby, I swear I will cut it off and kick it around on the ground in the dirt,” Nancy said with menace.

“Baby, this is important. Last week she said she didn’t feel good,” Mike said, getting up and leaving.

Nancy pulled her pistol out and laid it on the table. “I love him but I’m going to have to kill him. I love him with all my heart but I still have to kill him,” Nancy said to herself.

“It’s not worth it. You may need him to carry heavy shit later. If he tries anything, I’ll have Bruce prank his ass,” Debbie assured Nancy.

“It better be a thousand times worse than what he did to Willie,” Nancy required.

“I guarantee it,” Debbie promised as Buffy walked in and headed toward her.

When Buffy got closer, Debbie noticed that she was soaking wet and shivering a little. “I take it Daddy got rid of the demons?” Debbie asked with a dejected tone.

Buffy smiled ear to ear, nodding her head yes, with water dripping off her head. “Mama it was cool. He poured that water on me, hugged me tight, said a prayer and when I quit coughing, my belly didn’t hurt no more,” Buffy reported in amazement.

“That’s good baby. When you feel the demons next time, take two of the tablets every eight hours for three days. They will keep the demons away. If the demons somehow break through the holy pills, get Daddy to pour holy water on you,” Debbie told her with no expression on her face and in a flat tone.

“Can’t Daddy just throw water on me?” Buffy asked, not wanting to bother with the pills.

“The holy pills work longer and they can get used to the water, so you have to save it,” Debbie supplied in the same manner.

Buffy wrapped her arms around Debbie squeezing her tight. “Thank you Mama, I thought I was going to die but you saved me first. The holy pills did work a lot,” Buffy told her, then kissed Debbie on the cheek. “I love you Mama,” Buffy said, burying her wet head in Debbie’s neck.

Debbie wrapped her arms around Buffy, squeezing her hard. “Thank you so much for that Buffy. Mama needs to hear that every once and awhile,” Debbie said.

Willie busted out crying. “Y’all got to stop that. I’m crying like a bitch! How can I go around anybody with my face blotchy and snot to my knees?” Willie stood up tears running down his face, “Couldn’t y’all have done that somewhere else. Damn, I’m going to kill something,” Willie said walking outside, bawling, as everyone in the hall watched him leave.

“Men are so weird,” Angela said, staring at the door that Willie walked out of.

Buffy turned to Debbie. “Mama, I don’t want to grow up. Grown-ups are abnormal,” Buffy declared.

Debbie smiled, “Baby, I’m sorry but we all have to grow up, but I’m going to tell you a secret. You can only tell this secret to your little sisters and your daughters okay?” Debbie asked for her secrecy. Buffy nodded her head. “I want you to look in the mirror when you go to bed tomorrow and study it. That is what Daddy will see for the rest of his life. You never grow old in his eyes. Daddy doesn’t see Danny as a young married woman. That picture on his bed side table of Danny when she was twelve years old with pig tails and braces. That is who he sees when he looks at her, even today,” Debbie told Buffy.

“Why can’t I tell other people?” Buffy asked.

“That will break the magic. As long as Daddy sees a twelve year old little girl, you are always young and his little princess,” Debbie explained.

“That’s strong magic,” Buffy said amazed.

“It’s the strongest,” Debbie assured her.

Buffy looked at Debbie. “What about the boys?” Buffy asked.

“Daddy loves them just the same, but Daddy will remember them as young men. When they get in their twenties, that is when Daddy will lock them in his memory. Only girls get to stay kids forever,” Debbie explained.

“Why?” Buffy asked.

“Because the princesses think Daddy is a hero,” Debbie told her.

“Oh Mama, Daddy is a hero. He rescued me from bad men, stood up to the mons-,” Buffy stopped when Debbie put her finger on Buffy’s lips.

“That’s what I mean. That’s the magic. Ask Danny. She sees Daddy as the hero to top all heroes,” Debbie told her smiling.

“Why doesn’t Daddy have pictures of me?” Buffy asked.

“He does, you haven’t looked on his night stand lately. Then he has some he carries on him and I will tell you a super-secret. Look on the back of Daddy’s watch. He has a picture of all of us on it,” Debbie told her.

Buffy looked at Debbie with a serious expression, “Mama, can I say something and you won’t get mad.”

Debbie prepared for the worst and replied, “I promise I won’t get mad at you BB.”

Buffy took a deep breath, “Daddy is the best Daddy but that’s only because you are Mama. When he does stupid stuff that scares us or that can hurt him, you make him stop. When he is out with us, you are the one that comes up and tells us to keep going. But most of all, you make him happy. Because when Daddy isn’t happy, he’s a pain in the butt,” Buffy told her.

Paul let out a long wail, scaring everyone as the table turned to the source. Paul had tears pouring out of his eyes and snot on his face. “Willie asked y’all to quit. Now come on, shit!” Paul wailed standing up wiping his face with his sleeve. “I feel like someone just stomped my puppy to death!” Paul wailed as he walked out the door.

“I don’t know that man, I’ve never seen him before,” Cheryl said, looking at the door, after her husband left.

All the radios in the center went off at once, “This is Big Daddy One. I want all command group here in ten minutes. Big daddy is getting restless and pissed off,” Bruce called out over the radio.

“See what I mean mama. I think he is going to do crazy stuff again,” Buffy told her.

Debbie leaned back in her chair, “Buffy, I’m going to tell you something I have not even told Danny. That’s why I got two more mamas as back up,” Debbie confided in her.

Buffy looked up at Stephanie and Angela, “That was smart mama and I love them both.” They all headed for the door to see what the ridiculous plan Bruce was thinking.

In mission control, Bruce was standing in front of the monitor with his arms crossed, looking at the three different views of Shreveport. Behind him were two small mimes with their arms crossed, looking at the monitors. The blues were everywhere in the city like they had been since Friday morning. What worried Bruce was they were dispersing. There were several hundred thousand fanning out in every direction.

Jake walked over to stand beside his Dad and noticed the twins miming him. It was on the tip of his tongue to tell him about the twins but he decided not to. This could be fun. “Well, what do you think?” Jake asked.

“They’re scattering. We need to give them bait. Turn the armed UAV to the state line weight station and circle it. What’s the status of the other UAVs?” Bruce asked.

“The other three are armed,” Jake said as he went to flight room to tell them the orders.

The command group started filing in as Bruce continued to stare at the monitor with his mimes. When Willie and Paul came in sniffling and wiping their faces off, Bruce turned around watching them. “What the hell happened to you two?” Bruce demanded.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Willie said, walking up to Bruce and wrapping his arms around him, hugging him. “I want to be just like you,” Willie said, crying.

Bruce never uncrossed his arms as Willie hugged him. “Okay Willie, but I have to say, you’re like- really freaking me out,” Bruce told him, looking at him, very unsettled.

Willie let Bruce go and hugged Danny, then walked over and hugged Buffy. “I’m glad he got those demons out. It they come back, I’m getting on that train to hell with him to rape Satan,” Willie told her and stood up, hugging Debbie.

Willie turned to Paul, “You didn’t have to tell me what was said after I left,” Willie bawled.

“Attention everyone!” Bruce yelled. When all eyes were on him Bruce stated, “Willie is having a crisis, let’s bow our heads in respect.”

They all bowed their heads as Willie moved to his chair and sat down wiping his face. “Okay, I’m good,” Willie said.

Bruce turned to the monitors, “If you notice, they are not moving out. We have already seen several hundred thousand break off, heading in every direction. We are going to have to lead them away,” Bruce said.

Willie stood up slamming his hands down on the table. “Hell yeah! Let’s kill something! I’ll take a bat an beat the sons of bitches to death!” Willie growled almost foaming at the mouth.

“Willie, until further notice, you’re assigned to Omega,” Bruce told him.

Willie let a rebel yell along with the rest of Omega. The rest of the team, not in the command area, were at the head of the stairs in the old mission control, yelling with them. Debbie just dropped her head to the table in surrender.

“I thought you didn’t want to attack them?” Carroll reminded him.

“It will be diversionary and I don’t know if it will work. On screen two, you will see a fuel truck at the state line on I-20. We are going to blow it up to see if that gets their attention. If it does, then we will continue firing missiles in the distance in front of them. We can’t wait any longer to see if they leave. They’re spreading out. We already had too many here to play with and they brought friends,” Bruce told them.

“Fire!” Bruce yelled, frightening everyone. Bruce grabbed his mic, “All outside personnel listen and tell me if you hear an explosion in five seconds.” Everyone was watching the screen as the fuel truck disappeared in a flash. Omega let a loud yell and giving high fives. On the other two screens, it was like someone had asked everyone to leave Shreveport. When they entered Shreveport they walked. Now the horde was running and that was a terrifying sight. The interstate was filling up as the horde ran toward the explosion and more yelling came from Omega.

“This is patrol one, we heard an explosion,” came a reply over the radio. Several others reported it also.

“Flight, fly to next target and hit it in one hour from now!” Bruce yelled out.

When the cheering stopped Mike asked, “What if they stop or turn around?”

Bruce looked at Mike grinning, “I will load up Omega. We will launch super heavy in a convoy, get in front of them, kill a few hundred thousand then lead them off. We will break off, head up to Oklahoma, over to Arkansas then home. If they get close to here, then we load up the Apaches, blow up bridges leading to us if they get close.”

“Kinda risky,” Bill pointed out.

“We spent too much time clearing this area out. I’m ready to kill shit. My butt itches,” Bruce said, heading out of mission control. When he was in the stairwell, Bruce yelled out, “I hear blue pussy is good!”

“How good?” Omega yelled back.

“Real good!” Bruce yelled going thought the house.

“Umm good!” Omega yelled back.

“I need some!” Bruce yelled going through the house.

“Gimme some!” Omega yelled back as they left the house.

Nancy was staring at the door, “I was so proud of him just a few minutes ago.”

Marcus stood up, “If y’all don’t mind, I’m going to assign myself to Omega,” Marcus said running up the steps yelling.

Nancy looked at Carroll, “Aren’t you going to stop him?”

“I’d be just wastin’ my breath,” Carroll said.

Mike stood up. “Sorry baby,” he said as he ran up the stairs.

Debbie sat up and took her pistol out, throwing it on the table, saying, “I love ‘em but I have to kill him.”

Chapter 26

It was Sunday evening when Omega pulled back in after hitting a mob of several thousand that were heading toward them on Highway 71. The horde was now on the outskirts of Dallas. The UAVs continued to fire missiles from through the night, and the horde just kept running along the interstate all the way to Dallas, two hundred and forty miles away. For some reason, the mob didn’t follow the horde but turned south toward the farm.

Omega pulled up to the barn, disembarked from the assault vehicles, and headed toward the center for food. The group was excited and full of energy from the assault as they walked inside. When they walked inside the hall, they were met with a thunderous cheer. The clan had watched the annihilation of the mob from the UAV. The team raised their arms in triumph, smiling. Then Bruce and the others from the command group headed to the command table.

“Now was that some fun or what?” Bruce yelled out as the rest of the team cheered.

Buffy ran over to Debbie, hugging her. “Mamma, I was shooting them from over a hundred yards away,” Buffy told her, smiling.

Debbie smiled at her then turned toward Bruce as he sat down. “I’m glad y’all stayed in the vehicles to shoot them,” Debbie told him with a hint of attitude.

“I wasn’t in the mood to get in a foot race with those assholes,” Bruce told her, smiling.

Stephanie looked at Bruce, telling him, “I hope your butt doesn’t itch anymore.”

“Nope. The itch got scratched,” Bruce replied, grinning.

Debbie laughed and let the attitude go, replying, “Well at least the blues are good for something.”

“Hey, how big was that mob?” Mike asked from the other end of the table.

“Around nine thousand plus or minus a few hundred,” Stephanie answered, shaking her head.

“That can’t be right. It only took us a little over an hour to kill all of ‘em,” Danny said as Matt put his arm around her.

“Y’all were averaging three hundred kills a minute. With that kind of kill rate, you tend run out of targets fast,” Debbie informed her.

“No shit!” Willie exclaimed. “Hey Bruce, you are the man. I’d have never thought of getting in front of a mob and making them follow us. Or to open the back hatch and have the squad fire out behind them and rotating the Strykers to keep up continuous fire. That was brilliant brother,” Willie told him.

“Just doing what I can with what I got to lead the blues to slaughter,” Bruce admitted, grinning.

Willie turned to Jake and Matt, “You two are off the chain. I timed y’all twice. You each went through a thirty round mag in thirty-two seconds with thirty kills. I mean damn!” he exclaimed.

Jake laughed, “They were only fifty to hundred yards away. We could have used slingshots dude,” he replied.

Ted pointed at the two, saying, “When they raise up a weapon and shoot something dies. If you don’t see it, then it was out of visual range.”

Carroll put her hand on Marcus’s hand, “I’m glad you had fun, but you need to remember that you are not a young buck anymore,” she told him.

Marcus scoffed at her as Bruce said, “He may not be a young buck, but he can sling some lead down range.” Carroll leaned over, kissed Marcus, and whispered something in his, ear making him smile.

“Well, what is the status of Shreveport?” Bruce asked.

“Looking at the images from the UAVs of the horde that left, they left about half a million there,” Stephanie answered.

The table became quiet with that as Bruce asked, “So did any of the blues from Shreveport leave with them?”

“I’m sure some did but the horde that left was smaller than the one that entered,” Stephanie replied.

Mike sighed, “So we have close to a million up there now,” he asked.

“Yeah, that’s not counting the ones that stayed in Ruston and Monroe,” Stephanie answered.

Bruce let out a breath saying, “Those assholes just don’t give you a break.”

Debbie stood up, “I would like to call a command meeting, now, in the house.”

Fear shot though Bruce, “Are we in trouble for acting stupid?” he asked.

“Hardly. We can’t blame you for acting like boys,” Debbie answered.

“Hey, there were girls with them also,” Danny answered.

Debbie smiled at her, replying, “Danny, you have a lot of boy in you as do your little playmates.” Debbie looked at Buffy, Mary, and Mindy, “I really wouldn’t be surprised if all of y’all pee standing up at times,” she admitted.

“How do you do that?” Buffy asked Debbie.

Debbie looked at Bruce and he threw his hands up. “Hey, that’s on you. Don’t look at me. You made me explain a porno to her,” Bruce told her.

Debbie shook her head at him and looked at Buffy, “I’ll explain later,” she promised then turned back to Bruce. “Will you come outside so I can talk to you before the meeting?” Debbie asked Bruce.

“I haven’t eaten yet,” Bruce told her with a worried look.

“Angela and Stephanie will bring you a plate,” Debbie told him.

Bruce looked at her, unsure, as he stood, “Y’all make sure to bring a big plate,” Bruce told them as he followed Debbie outside. Taking deep breaths and clearing his mind, Bruce was sure he was fixing to get his ass removed by the wrath of Debbie.

When they reached the patio, Debbie looked up at him, saying, “Bruce, I want to ask a favor of you?”

“Baby, we needed to attack that mob coming at us before they dispersed. I really didn’t want to chase them down in small packs,” Bruce said, trying to explain the hunting trip.

Laughing, Debbie replied, “I know, baby. The only problem I had with that is you were a little too eager to pop caps. I want to know if Conner is good enough to be a Ranger.”

Shaking his head, Bruce was sure he did not hear her correctly, “What?”

“Bruce, Conner is very remorseful that he didn’t get to go to Ranger school. He wants to be seen like Ted and Carl. Susan told me this when y’all went off to play. So do you think he could have been a Ranger?” She asked, crossing her arms.

Without hesitation, Bruce answered, “Hell yeah, he would have passed. That boy has the streak in him. It just needs to be nurtured.”

“I’m going to act like I didn’t hear the last part,” Debbie replied. Then she asked, “So will you make him one?”

Grinning, Bruce answered, “I will if I can make a few more.”

Taking a step back, Debbie gasped, “Are you crazy? They’re just kids.”

“Yeah, kids that can kick ass and have been training their whole life,” Bruce answered, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Buffy is too young for the tab,” Debbie shot back.

“I wasn’t going to make Buffy one. She’s not ready, yet,” Bruce laughed as he stressed ‘yet’.

“Okay, who then?” Debbie asked.

“Steve, Jake, Danny, Matt, David, Mary, Nancy, Mike and you,” Bruce answered, smiling.

With a look of shock, Debbie replied, “You want to drive a Ranger pin in my chest?”

“It’s tradition, and it’s not like you can’t say you haven’t gone through the training. You bitched a lot, but you went through it,” Bruce pointed out.

“Do you think Angela and Stephanie will get there also?” Debbie asked.

“Oh yeah, those two are crazy and have learned a lot. I figure by the end of the year they could be one also,” Bruce replied seriously.

“Does it hurt a lot?” Debbie asked, putting her hand on her chest.

“Don’t act like a pussy for Christ sakes. You had kids. I watched them come out, and this is nothing like that,” Bruce told her, not believing she had asked that.

Letting out a sigh, Debbie answered, “I will do it, and I’m very honored that you think I’m that good.”

Chuckling, Bruce said, “Good! I know many that wore the tab that you could take with ease.”

Debbie hugged him, “I love you, stud muffin.”

“I love you too sugar mama. Just to let you know, you’ll go first. My woman will be the first female Ranger,” Bruce told her. “Don’t worry, you’ll have it easy. There are only four Rangers here to pound your tab in. Those that follow will have it a lot worse,” Bruce informed her as he picked her up in his arms.

“I can live with that,” Debbie said. She kissed Bruce as he took her into the game room to wait on the others. Calling over the radio, Bruce told Ted and Carl to come to the command meeting also.

When the command group gathered, Bruce called Ted, Carl, and Willie outside and told them what he wanted to do. Ted was the first one to speak when Bruce finished, “You want me to drive the tab in your wife’s and daughter’s chest? Are you fucking mental?”

“They’re tough enough,” Bruce shot back.

“No shit, they are tough enough. I just don’t want them to rip my balls off,” Ted replied with Carl and Willie agreeing.

“You haven’t even seen Debbie go insane yet,” Bruce told him.

“Bullshit,” Ted answered then gave examples. “I’ve seen her in firefights and I saw her try to whoop your ass by the pool. Let me tell you, if that would have been me, she would have beat my ass like a bitch.”

“It’s the tradition. Are you a Ranger or not?” Bruce asked.

“Okay, but I want a pass when Buffy is ready,” Ted told him.

“Only if you’re dead,” Bruce replied, grinning.

“Then I will shoot myself. That girl is going to be a total bad ass, and I just want her to remember me as a friend,” Ted told Bruce with a serious face.

Carl laughed, “Yeah, she pulled out her knife coming back and Ted almost got out of the Stryker and walked,” he told them.

“It’s not funny, dude. That girl can throw hate down range and has no fear,” Ted replied.

“So we are in agreement?” Bruce asked them. They all nodded at him as Bruce told them, “From now on, this is the Ranger council. We will determine who is ready and who needs testing.” They all bumped fists and headed inside.

When they were back in the game room, Bruce asked those that were selected to stand up. “I want to tell you that you have been determined to be good enough for the ranger tab. If you accept this honor, you will be pinned tomorrow morning. Tonight you will learn the Ranger creed and motto. This group consists of my family, so you will be pinned twice. Once with my tab, then your own. You must wear it with pride and always remember that you are part of a select few. This will also be the first time for women to be pinned as a Ranger. I have watched each woman here hump a sixty-pound pack through the mountains. Survive for a week with nothing but a knife, lighter, map, and compass. Train in combat and jump from planes, I feel that you have balls that drag the ground,” Bruce told them.

Those standing, except Debbie, looked at Bruce in disbelief then at each other. Willie stepped in front of them, “This is not showing favoritism. This group has shown the qualities of a Ranger. Each of you perform at or above the code,” Willie informed them.

“Where is the creed so I can get started?” Mike asked grinning.

“Let’s get the meeting over first,” Debbie said.

“Well, are there any here that do not want the tab?” Bruce asked. They all agreed that they wanted the tab.

Bruce told them to sit down and asked for someone to start the meeting. To everyone’s surprise, Carroll stood up. “I want to ask this group something that Marcus and I have talked about,” Carroll said. “We want ta know if we can moves our group over here with yours?” Carroll asked them, looking around.

“Well, hell yeah,” Bruce told her, as did everyone else.

Marcus stood up beside Carroll. “We see that this takes a lot of forethought. We can run a farm, and a long time ago I ran a village to fight, but it was never on this scale,” he told the group.

Debbie went over to them, hugging them both. “We would love it, but let’s get something clear, y’all have to stay on the command group,” she told them, and they both agreed.

Bruce looked at Paul, “How long to build enough barracks to hold them?” he asked Paul.

Paul thought about it for a minute then answered, “We can have it done in thirty days. We will have to put up the rest of the solar panels and this will pretty much wipe us out on lumber and concrete.”

“Well, we can get more from Natchitoches since it’s almost empty of blues,” Mike supplied.

“Okay, tomorrow is March 1st, let’s make the move for April 1st,” Bruce said.

“Why not just leave them here?” Bill asked.

“We are packed in like sardines now. If we don’t have to live that way, let’s not,” Bruce answered.

“Hold on now. We have a lot of lumber and stuff over there that we can use. We were fixing to start three more barracks and we can help build them here. Y’all can’t be carrying our weight,” Marcus stated.

“That was not what was meant brother,” Bruce told him. “If you could leave a hundred here to help, April 1st will be a sure thing.”

“That won’t be a problem,” Marcus replied.

“Now, Carroll, if I could please ask you not to cook. I need someone to teach food preservation that is not tied to the kitchen,” Bruce pleaded.

“I get to cook sometimes,” Carroll replied.

Sighing Bruce replied, “I’ll take it.”

The meeting went on for two more hours then everyone headed to bed or to learn the creed and motto. When Bruce entered his room, Angela and Stephanie were helping Debbie memorize the creed. Smiling, Bruce said, “See? That is why they will be one someday. Always help out a teammate.”

Angela and Stephanie looked at Bruce in shock. “You think we are good enough to be Rangers one day?” Angela asked.

“Oh yeah, you both do what is needed, train hard, and never once have either of you said ‘I can’t do that, I’m a girl’,” Bruce told them.

“That doesn’t work around here Bruce. I never knew how big my balls were until I met you,” Stephanie said.

Laughing, Bruce replied, “Yeah they are pretty big.”

“What about me, Daddy?” Buffy asked.

“Without a doubt,” Bruce told her and Buffy just grinned. “You should go and help your sister and brothers learn their creed,” Bruce hinted and Buffy was out the door in a flash. Bruce grabbed PJ and Cade as they tried to follow.

As Bruce put them on the bed, Debbie asked, “Bruce, do you have enough pins for everyone?”

Bruce grinned, walked over to his closet and pulled out a small duffel bag. Reaching in, Bruce pulled out a bag of ranger pins and a bag of ranger tabs, then a stack of ranger berets. “I think I have it covered,” he told her.

“Were in the hell did you get those?” Debbie demanded.

“The army surplus store we visited,” Bruce told her as he put the stuff back in the bag. Then Bruce went to his dresser and opened the top drawer. Grabbing a small velvet box, Bruce turned around, “Just to let you two know, when you get pinned it will be three times. My tab, Debbie’s tab, then yours,” Bruce told them.

“I don’t care as long as you kiss it later,” Stephanie told him, grinning.

Bruce took a step back, not expecting that from Stephanie, “That could be weird. One Ranger kissing another Ranger’s chest,” Bruce said.

“How about another Ranger kissing something else?” Angela asked with an evil grin.

Bruce laughed, “Help her study,” he said as he went to shower. After his shower Bruce went to sleep with the trio still at work on the creed.

Bruce woke up at 0400 and grabbed his gear. He looked at the bed to see the trio still in clothes, asleep in the bed. Going back to the bed, Bruce kissed each on the head and headed to the gym. Walking into the kitchen, Bruce found Mike and Nancy heading to the gym.

“Up early,” Bruce told them.

“Hell yeah! I’m more excited today than when I got my MD,” Nancy told him, grinning.

Mike grabbed Bruce’s shoulder, “Thank you, brother for thinking that much of us,” he said.

“Dude, this is not given. You two earned this. These seven years have shown me that you two will try your best at anything,” Bruce told them. Then Bruce grinned, “Even if you won’t let me watch Mike attack you with the red shoes,” Bruce said.

“Stop by tonight then. Just no clapping, commentary, or video,” Nancy said.

Mike grinned, “Oh yeah!”

Bruce laughed as they headed to the gym. The workout was fast and furious and when Mike and Bruce were finished they were drenched in sweat. Grabbing some towels they headed into the steam room then the Jacuzzi. They sat in the Jacuzzi longer than they had planned. It was not until the wives came in that they realized just how long they had been in.

“You were asleep, Bruce,” Debbie told him as she climbed in.

“No I wasn’t. I was thinking with my eyes closed,” Bruce replied defiantly.

“Bruce, you and Mike were both snoring,” Angela said as she leaned over and kissed him.

“And you wonder why I never wanted one of these Mike,” Nancy said.

“They’re great,” Mike mumbled.

“You have to have a babysitter when you get in one, Mike,” Nancy pointed out.

“Don’t care,” Mike mumbled again.

Bruce got out, telling the three recruits to wear their t-shirts under their ACUs today as he left to tell the others also. Going back to his room, Bruce got the duffel bag and headed to the center for breakfast and the ceremony. Sitting down at the table, Bruce drank his coffee as the rest of the command group and clan showed up. When Bruce’s plate hit the table he inhaled his food and walked to the front of the hall.

Grabbing the mic, Bruce turned it on and tapped it to get everyone’s attention. “I have a couple of announcements please,” Bruce said.

“First, the command group met last night, and it was decided that Marcus’ clan will move over here on the first of April. It was discussed and decided that having two areas so close did not make sense. We need everyone all together when we are hit, and make no mistake we will get hit and probably more than once. Notice I said more than once, because we will survive each attack,” Bruce told the clan which erupted in applause. When the applause died down, Bruce laid out the rules that had to be followed, which were no different from Marcus’. No one had any objections and all welcomed the move.

“Second, I am proud to announce that there will be ten new Rangers added today and I want the clan to be witness to the ceremony,” Bruce told them. Putting the microphone back, Bruce yelled, “Recruits, forward!”

The ten lined up behind him, and Bruce told them to strip to t-shirts as Willie, Ted, and Carl walked up to stand beside Bruce. When they all dropped their ACU tops, Bruce walked over to Debbie and asked for the creed and motto. She recited the creed and motto then Bruce moved down the line to each one, asking the same. When they had all recited Bruce walked to Willie, Ted, and Carl.

Bruce reached into his pocket, pulled out his pin and removed the two caps off the back to expose the pins. Then he moved in front of Debbie, placed the pin above her heart with his left hand and hit it with his right. When he drove the pin in her chest, Debbie yelled, “Rangers lead the way!” Bruce pulled the pin off, moved to Mike and repeated the process.

As Bruce moved down, Willie took a new pin and drove it in each recruits chest. Then Carl followed, placing two Ranger tabs in each ones hand then hit the pin in their chest. With each hit, they would yell ‘Rangers lead the way’. Ted followed, placing a beret on their head then hitting the pin on their chest. Ted barely hit the pin on Debbie’s chest, and when he got to Danny, he only tapped it.

Danny looked him in the eye mumbling, “That was a bitch hit.” Ted tapped the pin again as hard as he hit Debbie, then moved down the line.

When they were finished, Bruce turned to the hall and announced that ten new Rangers had entered the world. The clan stood up, clapping for the new Rangers, then Bruce dismissed them.

Sitting back down at the table, Debbie pulled the pin out of her chest. A little blood was on her t-shirt as she put her pin on her ACU top, and Buffy asked, “Did that hurt, Mama?”

“Hell no! What I don’t understand is my husband hit me harder than anyone else?” Debbie replied.

Carl looked at her. “Ah well, we didn’t want you pulling our nuts off,” he admitted.

Debbie just looked at him, not understanding as Willie told her, “You’re willing to go toe to toe with Bruce, and I can’t think of many that want to do that.”

“What about me?” Danny asked.

“You are your Daddy’s child, and the insanity streak is strong in you like your father. Not to mention that Buffy looks up to you as an idol,” Willie told her, making Danny smile.

The clan finished breakfast and they saw the ones off that were going back to Marcus’ until the new barracks were built. Picking up where they left off, the clan started building the new barracks, continuing the current projects and classes. That night, Buffy decided to sleep with Danny and Matt. As Bruce and the trio got the kids ready for bed, there was a knock at the door.

“Come in,” Debbie called as she put on a pair of Bruce’s boxers.

The door opened, and Nancy stood in it, wrapped in a housecoat with red high heels on, “Well Bruce, are you coming?” she asked.

Bruce chuckled as he told her, “I was just messing with you, Nancy.”

“Oh I see. You’re a pussy,” Nancy said as she left, heading to her room. Bruce put Emily in the bed and followed Nancy down the hall.

“Boys can be kind of easy to manipulate sometimes,” Angela stated as she climbed in the bed, the kids already asleep.

Ten minutes later, Bruce came back to the room, white as a ghost, with a look of shock on his face. Debbie sat up in bed, “Well what happened?” she asked. Bruce just looked at her with wide eyes, not saying anything.

Stephanie looked from Bruce to Debbie then back to Bruce, “Well, tell us,” Stephanie told him.

Bruce just looked at her then back to Debbie before he spoke, “None of you are allowed to wear heels around Mike or red shoes of any kind,” he told them.

“Oh, it couldn’t have been that bad. You were back in ten minutes,” Debbie replied.

“You have no idea. Nancy barely made it into the bedroom before he attacked her. They never even made it to the bed,” Bruce told them with the look of shock on his face.

“Ten minutes, Bruce,” Angela replied.

“Oh they are still going at it. I got the hell out of there. I didn’t want Mike attacking me like that. His motor is running at high speed. I now know why Nancy only wears the shoes every now and then. Her body has to recuperate,” Bruce informed them.

“Now you know what it’s like when you are that way, ‘Mr. Rambunctious when I’m horny’,” Debbie told him.

The shock fell off Bruce’s face as he replied, “There is no way I’m that bad.”

Debbie smiled and pulled the covers back lifting her leg out, “Look Bruce, I need polish on my toes,” she said. Bruce looked at her foot and darted to the bathroom, closing the door to take a shower.

When Bruce came out he saw the four kids were on the floor covered up in blankets. Looking on the bed, Bruce saw the trio had painted their toes and were lying on top of the covers. Feeling like a lamb walking into a lion’s den, Bruce climbed in the bed.

When Bruce lay down, Debbie and Stephanie sat up rubbing his chest with their feet, joined by Angela rubbing his belly. Bruce closed his eyes trying to maintain control.

Debbie leaned over and whispered in his ear, “They were playing with my feet when they put on the polish.” Not able to take it anymore, the roles suddenly reversed. The lions became the lambs as Bruce attacked.

The next morning Bruce met Mike at the gym. Bruce put his hand on Mike’s back, “Dude you scare me,” Bruce told him.

Mike grinned, “You should have stayed. Every time I thought I was done Nancy got up and put ‘em back on.”

“Mike, they’re shoes,” Bruce told him.

“This coming from the man who looks at Debbie’s feet like he is watching a porno,” Mike pointed out.

Bruce nodded his head in agreement with that then said, “But they are part of her.”

“Okay, I’ll give you that. You don’t look at other women’s feet but I have noticed you looking at Angela and Stephanie’s feet by the pool here lately,” Mike informed Bruce of his observations.

“Hey, Debbie said they were now my wives too,” Bruce told Mike, defending himself.

“You didn’t see how hot Nancy looked in those shoes?” Mike exclaimed.

“I wasn’t taking my eyes off of you in case you thought I was wearing red heels,” Bruce told him.

“Just like Debbie and your other wives’ feet. It’s not the same,” Mike told Bruce. Mike then grinned at Bruce, “I would like to see you in a pair though. It could get interesting,” he added.

“Forget it. You’d break my pelvis,” Bruce told him grabbing a pair of dumbbells, starting the workout.

As Bruce finished his set, Mike grabbed the dumbbells and asked, “Well have you gone past foreplay yet?”

“Ah, no,” Bruce told him.

Mike finished his set and dropped the bells to the floor. He would help Debbie anyway he could so he looked at Bruce. “Dude, Debbie has all but demanded it and you want to play shy,” Mike said.

Bruce leaned over to Mike so no one could hear, “Man you have no idea how hard it has been. Last night I thought I was going to die. I’m not going into details but I almost threw all three down and started going to town. But I told Debbie I wanted to wait until April the first just in case she changed her mind.”

Grabbing another pair of dumbbells, Bruce started another set as Mike spotted. When Bruce dropped the weights, Mike said, “Well I’m glad you at least set a timeline.”

They finished their workout, and when they were leaving the gym, Mike walked over to Debbie. “Whatever y’all did to him last night, he almost went all the way. Bruce told me that he barely maintained control. Just wanted to let you know in case you wanted to push it,” Mike told her under his breath as he hugged her.

“Thank you,” Debbie told him as they left.

Angela and Stephanie stepped closer to her as Stephanie asked, “What?”

Debbie smiled at them, “Bruce almost caved last night. We will be doing that again.”

Stephanie looked at Debbie in shock, “Debbie, I don’t know if I’m ready. Shit, this has just been foreplay.”

Angela elbowed Stephanie’s side, “Come on, you finally had two.”

“Because y’all woke me up after I passed out. Holy shit, I was not ready for that. Your body is not supposed to stay tingling and numb that long,” Stephanie told her.

“So you’re scared?” Angela threw out.

“I didn’t say that,” Stephanie replied.

Debbie grinned at Stephanie, “Well then let’s do it again.”

“I’m not going first but ok,” Stephanie told them.

Debbie grabbed her hand, “Don’t worry. I will go first but to warn you, the ones you are having now are nothing compared to the real ones,” Debbie informed her.

Panic spread across Stephanie’s face, “Oh shit.”

Chapter 27

March 12th and fifty plus miles to the southwest.

Ed was sitting with Carl in the houseboat that Warren had made his office. They were waiting on Warren and Scott. Scott used to be a soldier and Warren had taken a liking to him. Scott never challenged Warren and always put forth ideas as requested, so Warren never got mad. They both admitted to each other that they liked having Scott around because Warren rarely hit them like he used to. Neither one would admit that Scott scared them almost as much as Warren did.

The door opened, and Warren and Scott walked in. “How is it going, brothers,” Warren asked.

“We’re good,” Ed replied.

“You took care of that woman I sent you last night, didn’t you?” Warren asked looking at Ed.

“You know I did,” Ed answered, faking a grin.

Warren laughed, slapping his leg, “Yeah, you’re making a good man. Even Carl is joining in now,” Warren shouted, slapping Carl’s back. Carl just forced a grin.

Scott sat down at the table with them. Ed looked over at him. Scott was 6’2” 220lbs and all muscle. He kept his face clean shaven and his brown hair in a buzz cut. It was his eyes that scared Ed. They were so brown they looked black. “You going to propose,” Scott asked Ed, who was staring at him.

“Nah, not my type. Just wanted to say Warren and you come up with a good plan to hit that compound two days ago,” Ed replied as he got up and walked over to the fridge grabbing a beer. If he had to be this close to both of them, he wanted to be drunk.

Warren reached up in the cabinet, taking out a bottle of whiskey, “Yeah, they never knew what hit them,” he said, taking a long drink.

“When are we heading north?” Carl asked, reaching over grabbing a beer. He had the same opinion that Ed did.

“Before the end of the month, that’s for sure,” Warren replied.

“What about the helicopters we’ve seen? Not to mention the explosions,” Ed asked.

Warren just shook his head, “Will you quit being scared. They haven’t found us yet and they won’t. Scott showed us how to set up to fool the thermal cameras,” Warren told him.

“How do we even know that the Bruce farm is still there? The military burned down a lot of places just a few weeks ago,” Carl stated, draining his beer.

Scott pushed back from the table. “I will ride in or send in one of my other scouts after the sniper teams get in place. Then I will take a look around for our recon like we have done on the last sixteen hits,” Scott said as he looked from Ed to Carl. Scott really liked Warren but his brothers were real wimps. They did have their uses, but to him they were dead weight. But, Warren wanted them around so he tolerated them.

“What if the military is there?” Ed asked Scott.

“So what if they are. Each of us can escape any camp they have. The team Warren and I put together is not like these stupid bitches here, just walking around without being locked up. Hell the only way you can keep me in a place I don’t want to be in is to chain me to something that won’t move,” Scott said.

Warren started laughing, “What? These bitches want to be here. If they wanted to leave, all they have to do is leave. They love us showing them what whores they really are,” Warren explained as he laughed. Ed forced a chuckle, thinking, ‘yeah stay here and be raped at will, or leave and be torn apart by blues. Some had even climbed the fence and jumped into a pile of blues just to end it’.

“Let’s be just a little cautious heading north. I want Bruce and Mike almost as bad as you, but I don’t want the military coming down here taking what we have,” Carl told Warren.

Sitting up, Warren smiled at Carl and grabbed his shoulder. “That is why I’m proud of you, Carl. You want to keep our little kingdom. To answer your question, if the military is close we won’t hit the Bruce farm, but we have over three hundred and forty soldiers now. Leaving the home guard behind, we attack with three hundred strong. If we can get some surface to air missiles, then we won’t even have to worry about the military. I won’t make a bad decision to head up if it will take what we have,” Warren assured him.

“Alright then, let’s start laying it out,” Carl said, turning toward the table.

Warren smiled, “Well, I want to enjoy some of the prizes we just got. Let’s say Scott goes up in ten days, then if it’s clear, we hit them five or six days later,” Warren told him.

“That sounds good,” Carl replied as a new woman in her early twenties came into the kitchen totally nude and kneeled down in front of Warren.

Warren laughed as silent tears rolled down the girl’s face. Ed turned to Warren, “Hey Warren, can I have her? You already broke her in, and when they listen is when I like them,” Ed asked.

Warren grinned, turning to the girl, “You belong to him now. If he tells me you don’t do what you are told, I’m going to retrain you.” The girl stood up and walked over to Ed.

“Get a six pack out of the fridge. I’m going to drink while you suck,” Ed told her, as she did what she was told, grabbing the beer.

Ed stood up and left with the girl, then Carl stood up saying, “Well I’m going to enjoy the new guest. If you need me, I will be in our houseboat.”

When he left, Warren turned to Scott, “Well they’re getting better.” Scott scoffed as Warren shrugged his shoulders. After alll they were family.

Carl walked into the houseboat he and Ed shared. Ed was sitting on the couch putting a shirt on the girl, then gave her a glass of water. The girl just looked at him not knowing what to think. Carl went over to the cabinet and grabbed some food and brought it over to the girl.

“This is the fourth one you’re protecting,” Carl told him.

“You’re protecting two,” Ed replied making the girl eat.

“You’re being dangerous. Warren is going to start getting suspicious,” Carl said.

Ed called the other girls out of the back, told them to take the new one back and asked them to explain the rules. Before they left, one hugged Ed then followed the others back. “I don’t care. He will hit me some then, I will beg to keep them and he will let me. I just have to keep them away from the others,” Ed said, looking up at Carl.

“He could just give them to Scott,” Carl replied.

A shiver went through Ed with the thought of what Scott does to the women and kids. “That man scares the shit out of me,” Ed admitted.

“Yeah, no shit, he calls out a battle plan perfectly. That last one had over a hundred people, and we didn’t lose one man,” Carl said, sitting down in a chair across from Ed. Carl looked at Ed, “Ed, you know we are going to hell right?” he stated.

“Absolutely, we have helped him and never tried to stop him,” Ed replied, looking at Carl.

“We are just like the others here. No one is locked up, but nobody leaves because there’s nowhere to go,” Carl said.

“Well, while I wait on my trip to hell, I’ll try to save a few from this hell on earth,” Ed said, looking to the back of the houseboat.

“I don’t think it will make any difference,” Carl said.

“What else can I do?” Ed asked, and Carl just looked at him not having an answer.

Chapter 28

It was March 14th and Bruce’s watch read 0415 as he raised up his arm and let it drop to the bed. Cade was trying to burrow under him. Bruce pulled the covers over him as he got out of bed. Looking at the bed Bruce was so glad the kids slept with them last night. The trio had been working him over big time the last few days. More than once, he almost said ‘screw it’, but stopped at the last second. If Debbie still wanted this on the first, she was going to get it. Bruce was toying with the idea of taking a day off just for the occasion.

Heading to the bathroom, Bruce showered and shaved his head, then went and woke everyone up so he could help get the kids dressed. As usual, the twins didn’t want to get up until Bruce told them he was going to the gym. They jumped out of bed, running to the bathroom to brush their teeth followed by a less than energetic Cade. PJ just sat up in bed with his hair going everywhere and looked at Bruce like ‘yeah, so what’.

Bruce picked up PJ and took him to the bathroom. It was torture time. “All right, PJ, be a man and let me brush your teeth,” Bruce told him. With the mention of ‘brush and teeth,’ PJ went berserk, throwing arms and legs everywhere.

When Bruce set PJ down so he could grab the toothbrush, PJ took off in a fast walk, back to the bed to hide. Grabbing the toothbrush Bruce yelled out, “Oh no you don’t,” and took off after him. Catching PJ before he made it to the bed, Bruce sat down on the floor wrapping his legs around him, and laying him back as PJ screamed, “Mama!”

The trio sat up in bed in unison at the cry and looked toward the sound to find Bruce doing the morning fight with PJ. Stephanie leaned over the bed, “PJ, just let him brush your teeth,” she pleaded.

Bruce looked up at her, “Will you just grab his arms?” Bruce asked Stephanie. Slowly Stephanie started to crawl out of bed, not wanting to have to do this again like every morning. Angela and Debbie jumped over Stephanie, grabbing PJ’s arms and holding his chest so he couldn’t squirm so much.

“Tender heart. Remember, Bruce,” Angela told him.

Bruce was trying to chase PJ’s mouth down, “Damn it, Stephanie, grab his head. Tender heart my ass. This can piss off the pope,” Bruce predicted.

Stephanie grabbed PJ’s head as Bruce forced his lips open and started brushing his teeth. Several times PJ tried to bite the toothbrush and Bruce would gag him with it so he could do the back. After five minutes, the four adults were worn out and let PJ go as they just collapsed on the floor. PJ got up, went over to the nightstand, and grabbed the picture of Buffy, throwing it on the floor as he yelled out “Ahh.”

Bruce raised his head up. “Boy, you better pick it up,” Bruce warned. PJ walked over and hit Bruce on the leg. Bruce came off the floor and slapped PJ on his leg. PJ started to cry as he sat down on the floor.

Bruce grabbed him and put him by the picture, “Pick it up,” Bruce said. PJ hit the picture, still crying, Bruce popped his other leg. After two more pops, PJ picked up the picture and handed it to Bruce. “Good boy. Do that again and you will get a real spanking,” Bruce said taking the picture and putting it on the nightstand.

“Bruce-,” Stephanie started to say, but Angela and Debbie both put their hands over her mouth as Bruce turned around.

“Stephanie, don’t start. He is over a year and a half old. He knew that was wrong. That’s why he did it. I could care less what some dumb ass piece of shit wrote in some book. That is why all those supposed ‘expert’s’ kids are on drugs and kill themselves, because their parents have no balls. We are the parents, not his buddy or friend. That is our first job. Being a parent. If you do a good job, buddy and friends come later,” Bruce said, picking up PJ’s toothbrush and walking back to the bathroom.

Walking back out of the bathroom with toothpaste back on the brush, Bruce looked at PJ. “This ends today, buddy. For the rest of your life, you will want to brush your teeth,” Bruce said as he picked up a screaming PJ. Putting him on the bed, Bruce straddled him with his legs, forced his mouth open and brushed his teeth again.

Mike opened the door, wanting to know who was killing PJ to find Bruce handing the toothbrush back saying, “Reload it.”

“Damn, I thought you were pulling toenails out,” Mike said.

“That’s next,” Bruce said as PJ screamed and Angela handed back the toothbrush. “Resistance is futile,” Bruce said as he started brushing and Mike left.

The trio climbed on the bed, along with the twins and Cade holding PJ down. Two hours and twenty-one brushings later, PJ was standing up in the bathroom letting Bruce brush his teeth. Just to make sure it was over, Bruce let everyone else brush his teeth. Each time PJ let them, everyone loved on him, giving him lots of kisses. That was the last time PJ threw a fit over getting his teeth brushed. That night PJ even let Debbie floss them. He didn’t like it, but he did it.

After the dental class from hell, they just headed to the center to get some food. Stephanie carried PJ, telling him he did a good job and making PJ laugh. Walking over to the command table, Bruce just dropped in his chair, realizing the day was just starting and he was already tired.

“Big Daddy One and Two, you are needed in mission control,” came over the radio.

The center became quiet as Bruce keyed his radio, “Is it an attack or a horde?” Bruce asked.

“Negative. Several survivors’ camps to the south look like they’ve been overrun,” came the reply as Millie handed Bruce his mug of coffee.

Bruce stood up, “Millie, save us something to eat,” Bruce moaned heading for the door.

“Don’t be worryin’ Bruce, I wills,” Millie assured him. Debbie gave the kids to Susan and left with the others of the command group, to head to mission control.

Bruce walked into mission control, saying, “Alright I’m here. What is it?”

A young woman pointed at the monitors, “These are the three camps to the south of us that didn’t want to join, and no one is there,” she said.

Bruce looked at the monitors, “Is a UAV over the large camp now,” Bruce asked.

“Yes sir,” she answered.

“Do circles and get me some close ups,” Bruce told her and she turned around heading to flight control.

Bruce, along with everyone else, watched the center monitor as the UAV zoomed in and flew in a circle. Several of the trailers were knocked over and they could see what looked like body parts lying around.

“Shit, blues got’em,” Willie said, sitting down at the table.

“It took a shit load of them to turn over that many trailers and push them that far back,” Mike said.

Bruce sighed, “They were hit by a gang, not blues,” he said, looking at the screen.

Willie pointed to the screen, “Bruce, those are body parts laying around there,” he said.

“Affirmative, but not enough for the whole camp. Look at the trailers. They are dented like something hit them and look where the dirt piled up behind them when they were pushed back. On the entrance, you can see where someone used a rocket launcher to take out the lone guard. Whoever hit them did it fast in a coordinated attack. I’m sure the attack lasted less than thirty minutes. The body parts we see are from wounded, more than likely men, left behind. The blues came to see what the noise was,” Bruce said, never taking his eyes off the monitor.

Bill looked at the monitor trying to piece together what Bruce was saying. Connecting the dots, Bill looked at Bruce, “How the hell could you make that call that fast?” he asked.

“It’s what I would do,” Bruce told him, still looking at the monitor. “Show me another one from a replay,” Bruce yelled back to flight control. The next camp showed a two-story house with a brick wall around it, but the gate was open. On one view the front door could be seen open.

“How many were there?” Bruce asked.

“Nine,” Debbie answered.

Bill looked at Bruce, “Can you tell what went on there?” he asked.

“They were infiltrated,” Bruce said, watching the screen.

“Oh come on! How can you say that?” Bill demanded.

Bruce turned to Bill, then back to the screen, “The wall and house are intact and not a lot of people. It would be easy to get inside, become trusted, then at night when they’re asleep, open up the door and gate. Tie everyone up and leave,” Bruce told him.

“Why not do that at the large camp?” Bill asked.

“Too many people to account for. A small group can be watched. They are clustered together, but with a large group, there are too many variables with them spread out. Someone taking a leak could sound the alarm seeing the gate opened,” Bruce told him.

“That’s how you would do it?” Bill asked a little frightened.

“Yep,” Bruce replied as he turned around and sat down at the table. “Jake and Matt, I want two UAVs south of us looking for them at all times. All survivor patrols stop now. Hunter patrols will stay in the twenty mile circle and no further,” Bruce said.

“Ah Dad, I have a feeling they know we have UAVs and have taken precautions,” Jake said.

Bruce put his face in his hands. “I know, son, but we may get to see one traveling and follow him back.” Bruce said, looking up at Jake. Jake and Matt went to flight control to make it happen.

Bruce looked up, “Listen up people, we know they are there. Let’s hope we get lucky.”

Bruce called Marcus and brought him up to date, and they all just clustered around while the UAV’s scoured south Louisiana for the next two days. During that time, Debbie kept her promise and had the twins and Cassandra ask Bruce and Mike to have a tea party with them, which they did, and the wives recorded it.

On the seventeenth, after his workout, Bruce was sitting at the table emptying his micro cards from the past week when the rest of the command crew came in.

“Hear anything?” Mike asked as he sat down. Bruce just shook his head no as he continued to down load his cards.

“Why don’t you let mission control do that like they do everyone else’s?” Ted asked.

“I know what’s important; they don’t,” Bruce replied as he put in another card.

“How much do you download in a week?” Carl asked.

“About a hundred hours,” Bruce answered.

“There is no way we can store that much data from all the cameras,” Ted stated.

“Want to bet,” Jake replied, smiling. “With the system I have in place, storage won’t become a problem for years,” Jake told him.

Knowing better than to take the bait, Ted shut his mouth as Paul spoke, “Bruce, we are going to have to get electrical wire for the barracks. We have everything else except that.”

Bruce looked up at Paul, “If we don’t see nothing by the twentieth, Omega will go out and get it,” he told Paul.

The whole table just looked at Bruce as Stephanie grabbed his hand and squeezed it tight. “What is it, Bruce? You’ve been walking on egg shells,” Stephanie asked.

Bruce looked at her with a blank stare, “Don’t you get it? They know how we operate,” he told her.

Everyone felt fear with his words. “Do you think we need to get Marcus and them over here?” Mike asked.

“I don’t know. They could be waiting for that and hit them in the transfer, knowing we would come for them,” Bruce replied.

“Bruce, we have UAVs all over us. Maybe they may can hide in south Louisiana but not around here,” Angela said.

“You can hide from thermals, Angela. It’s not that hard, especially if you are staying in place. Thick foliage overhead, a thermal blanket thrown over a foxhole, you can even make a suit to cut down on your body’s thermal signature. I can say this, whoever it is, they have military training and its current,” Bruce told her.

“He’s right, it’s not that hard,” Willie agreed.

“Well, what are we going to do?” Stephanie asked.

“Exactly what we are doing, waiting. It’s easy to hide, and avoid detection when you are staying still but not while you are moving. Unlike those other places, we’re prepared. They know we have UAVs, but I can tell you for sure, they don’t how many of us there are,” Bruce said.

“How?” Ted asked.

“They would’ve hit us already. When we left going on patrols,” Bruce replied.

“Then how could they know about Marcus coming here,” Stephanie asked.

“A sniper watching the road. They would know the comings and goings but not the strength left. They can’t see in here,” Bruce said.

Angela had an idea. “Where would you set up to watch us?” she asked hopefully.

“I went there last night and nobody was there,” Bruce replied.

“By yourself?” Debbie yelled.

“Absolutely,” Bruce replied like he was talking to a simple mind.

“Are you fucking crazy?” Debbie said, standing up.

“If I would have taken more, we would’ve been spotted. How many people here can say they can sneak up on a sniper? I can. I have done it four times,” Bruce told her. Debbie sat down, finding the logic in what he was saying but still not liking it.

“How will they hit us?” Mike asked.

“They will try to breach us through the fence,” Bruce replied.

“That’s stupid,” Paul said.

Bruce looked up at Paul, “Paul, from the outside it looks like we just put up plywood. It looks easy to knock down, unless they get someone inside to tell them different. That’s why we aren’t bringing in survivors now,” Bruce informed them.

“How many you figure?” Willie asked.

“A couple of hundred at least,” Bruce answered.

“That’s no problem. We have over a thousand,” Bill replied.

“Unlike blues, these fuckers shoot back. I expect half our force to hunker down for the initial assault. Then when the fear gets manageable, they will get up and fight. I’m thinking for the first twenty minutes it will be Omega and Gamma holding the fight,” Bruce said.

“That’s manageable,” Willie replied.

“I don’t want to get in a war of attrition. I want to hit them before they hit me or at least on the way here,” Bruce snapped.

“This is a war, Bruce. Losses are to be expected,” Willie stated.

“Not in those kinds of numbers,” Bruce replied.

Carl cleared his throat, “Bruce it can’t be helped,” he affirmed.

“Let’s get something straight. You are forgetting that after we beat off the gang, I figure in twenty-four maybe forty-eight hours at the most, a horde will be here. These guys have military weapons with explosives and rockets. The battle is going to make a lot of noise and everyone here remembers what blues do to loud noises,” Bruce said, looking around the table then standing up. “I’m going to play with myself. At least it listens to me,” Bruce said walking out.

“Damn, are we that bad,” Cheryl asked after Bruce left.

“No, he’s trying to make us mad so we aren’t afraid,” Stephanie said as Debbie stood up.

“He certainly has a good idea on how they are going to attack. He will let us know. Mike, call mission control and have them start doing hourly radio checks with Marcus and bring them up to speed. Come on you two, let’s go help Bruce,” Debbie said, leading them out of the center.

When they were outside Angela said, “Bruce was lying, he thinks it’s more than a couple of hundred.”

“Well, look at Little Foot,” Stephanie said smiling at her making Debbie laugh.

“How could you tell?” Debbie asked when she stopped laughing.

“His eyes,” Angela replied. Then she clarified, “I saw it in his eyes once with you when he’s hiding something. But I never saw that look in his eyes when he looked at Stephanie and me until then.”

Debbie stopped, looking at both of them, smiling, “That’s because he is in love with you two,” she said.

Stephanie started getting light headed when she heard that. Debbie and Angela grabbed her arms, steadying her. “Are you ok?” Angela asked.

“Wow. That’s the greatest thing I’ve ever heard,” Stephanie said with a dreamy smile.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, Stephanie, but I’m glad you and I didn’t meet Bruce at the same time. That would’ve been a hard battle,” Debbie stated.

“You would have won, but even if you wouldn’t have. I would do the same as you are doing. After I made sure you just didn’t want him all for yourself, like you did me,” Stephanie told her.

Debbie stepped back, shocked but grinning. Stephanie reached out and hugged her saying, “You are a lot like Bruce. When you love someone, they can read you like a book.”

“Damn, you two make me feel all left out,” Angela said a little disappointed.

Stephanie and Debbie looked at her as Debbie spoke, “Angela, you had happiness but you had to find it again.It fills me with so much joy to see you alive and happy again. Next, you love Bruce in a very special way and can make him laugh when no one else can, but more importantly you can make him blush on command. That is something no one has ever been able to do, and I never thought it was possible.”

Angela thought about it then looked up at Debbie, “Damn, you’re right,” she said proud of herself.

“You’re not going to try to steal him are you?” Stephanie kidded.

“There is no way on this earth I would tackle that man alone. I would go insane the first year,” Angela predicted.

“No, it took three or four,” Debbie said.

Angela laughed, “Let’s get Bruce.”

As one, they all turned and ran toward Bruce’s shop. They stopped at the door as Stephanie asked, “I want to be the bad one this time.”

“As pretty as you are, it really doesn’t come off well,” Angela told her.

“I watched some more dirty movies. I can do it,” Stephanie told her.

“Can’t you call them pornos and where did you get some?” Angela asked.

“That sounds really vulgar and I can’t say,” Stephanie told her.

“You want to be bad but can’t say porno. There is something wrong with that. You better tell me where you got them from,” Angela said.

“I can’t, I promised,” Stephanie said.

“You got them from all the kids,” Debbie gasped.

“No I didn’t. Tonya threw all of Steve’s away,” Stephanie said then covered her mouth.

Shaking her head, Debbie asked, “How did you get the boys to tell you that they had some, and then give them to you?”

“They didn’t give them to me. They gave me copies, and it wasn’t just the boys,” Stephanie informed her.

Not really stunned but still shocked, Debbie shook her head. “I don’t want to hear any more,” Debbie said.

“I do, where are they?” Angela asked.

“Under our bed,” Stephanie answered. “So can I be the bad one?” she asked.

Debbie and Angela looked at each other and nodded at her as they walked into the shop. Bruce was at his workbench, sharpening his push knife. Stephanie took the lead heading toward Bruce. “Hey Bruce, I have to tell you something, but it’s going to make Debbie mad,” she told him.

Bruce looked up at the three, “What is it?” he asked.

“She hurt her foot this morning when she dropped a weight on it while we were working out. She won’t let us look at it. We don’t know which one because we weren’t looking and she won’t tell us,” Stephanie told Bruce.

Bruce got up and walked toward Debbie. “She won’t let you look at it,” Stephanie told him.

“Bullshit, she won’t,” Bruce said. Debbie acted like she was pulling away as Bruce picked her up sitting her on the table. He grabbed a rolling chair, pulled it over, and sat down, “Which one?” Bruce asked.

Debbie just looked away. “See, told you,” Stephanie said as she leaned over Bruce and started rubbing the back of his neck. Sighing, Bruce untied and pulled off one boot and sock. He looked at Debbie’s foot, feeling over it and did not feel anything so he started on the other one.

Stephanie pushed the chair closer so Debbie’s bare foot was on Bruce’s leg. Preoccupied, Bruce didn’t notice it but other parts of his body did as he took the other boot and sock off, looking at her other foot. Reaching around Bruce, Stephanie pulled Debbie’s foot closer to Bruce rubbing it back and forth. When Bruce realized it, something was already up.

Looking up at Debbie, Bruce frowned. “You got owned on that one,” Debbie told him, smiling.

“That was coldblooded,” Bruce said fighting to not blush, but losing.

“Ah come on, Bruce. I can tell you liked that. Well at least I can see it,” Stephanie said as the other two giggled.

“Admit it. She got you good,” Debbie told him as she lifted her foot out of his hand putting it on the side of his face.

“Oh, I’m not denying that,” Bruce said trying to adjust.

Stephanie reached over and unzipped his vest, “Now take off Angela’s boots it’s only fair,” Stephanie told him.

“What the hell did y’all do to her?” Bruce asked as she stripped his vest off and top off.

“She watched some skin flicks and took notes,” Angela said, hopping up on the table and smiling.

“Oh, shit,” Bruce said, knowing it was going to be a long morning.

After play time, Bruce and Debbie left Angela and Stephanie passed out on the bed in the shop. When they got outside, Bruce looked at Debbie. “This is not fair,” Bruce told her.

“Well you can fix that,” Debbie replied, grinning.

“I told you, the first. It’s less than two weeks away,” Bruce told her.

“Nothing will change between now and then,” Debbie assured him.

“That is my piece of mind. If you change your mind, I can at least feel confident that I gave you the time to be sure,” Bruce said, hugging her.

When Bruce let her go she smiled at him, “I’m still going to try,” she said. Bruce laughed and walked away. Debbie watched him walk away. “Because, I don’t have long,” she said out loud to herself. The time was getting near. She even knew how from the dreams. Now she knew it would be near the house and bullets would hit her in the head. That’s when she always woke up. Closing her eyes, she said a silent prayer to watch over Bruce and help him with what he is going to go through. Wiping the tears from her eyes, Debbie moved off to work in the here and now.

Chapter 29

It was March 20th when Omega rolled out, heading to Natchitoches to get wire for the barracks. Bruce had expanded Omega Team to twenty-five, but not by choice. When Mary and Mindy had heard that Matt was being assigned to Omega Team, they wanted to be assigned to Omega as well. So, instead of trading with Mike’s Gamma Team, he took the three, did not give Mike any replacements from Omega, and on top of everything, assigned Willie to Omega Team permanently. The trio and Nancy had found replacements for Gamma Team, but Mike was not happy.

They rolled out with three Strykers and two LAVs with a five man squad each, plus two crewmen for each vehicle, then the big RG-33L. Two Apaches were on standby, along with four black Hawks to ferry in Mike’s Gamma team in case things went to shit.

All the UAV fly overs were showing very little blue activity in Natchitoches and for the first time, Bruce wished they would not have been so thorough in dealing with the blues. They did make great guard dogs even though they wanted to eat everyone.

When they were ten miles out, Bruce called over the radio, “We are rolling in fast. Squads one and two, front security. Three and four, clear the hardware store and squad five, grab the shit. I don’t want this to take all day. I don’t want to be there longer than twenty minutes. Remind your drivers and gunners not to fire until ordered to do so unless they have a suppressed weapon. Squad leaders, how do you copy?”

“Two copy,” Ted called back.

“Three copy,” Carl replied.

“Four copy,” Willie answered.

“Five copy,” Steve called back.

Bruce took a deep breath, waiting on mission control to tell him what the UAVs saw as the convoy rolled into town at 50mph. When they pulled in front of the hardware store, Bruce opened the cargo hatch and his team jumped out, fanning out as the others went to their assigned task. Squad one and two formed a semi-circle around the front of the entrance with vehicles behind them. The other teams breached the door and moved inside.

“Company coming from your right!” Mike called over the radio.

“Game time!” Bruce yelled out, bringing up his rifle. He was holding center and had no targets yet, but he was sure that problem would be solved shortly.

“Contact right,” Danny called and started firing. The LAV behind her was one Joe had welded a SAW mount to the turret, as he did the other. Good ole Joe had also put suppressors on them. Looking down the street to the right, the gunner saw a mass of bodies running at him and opened up into their legs.

“You’re fixing to get it everywhere. Center contact in thirty, left contact in ten, and watch your flank, they’re moving up the side of the building,” Mike called out over the radio.

Mike no sooner finished than Ted yelled out, “Contact left!”

Looking forward, Bruce saw a mass of running bodies coming at him at two hundred yards. Taking aim, he started sending burst down range. In less than fifteen seconds, he was changing mags and reengaging. When Bruce slammed in his fifth mag, he flipped to single shots now that they were close to the hundred yard mark. Swinging his rifle side to side, Bruce was snapping off shots when his dot crossed a head.

Ramming in his eleventh mag, Bruce heard someone on his right yell, “Gun down.”

Hearing the call for a weapon malfunction, Bruce flipped the voice switch on his radio and opened up with his SCAR. “Shift fire to the right!” Bruce called out over the radio to cover the area where someone’s weapon had malfunctioned.

“Danger close on the left!” someone called out over the radio, meaning the blues had advanced to the fifty yard mark. “Gun up!” Bruce heard on his right.

“Squad three, get out here! These fuckers are determined today. Buffy pull to the left,” Bruce yelled out over the radio. Bruce felt Buffy run behind him as he slid home mag eighteen. “Getting low ammo center,” Bruce called out, followed by calls on the right and left as his bolt locked back.

Grabbing another mag, Bruce slammed it home and raised his rifle up, but didn’t see any targets running at him. Looking around, Bruce called out, “Center clear,” as he felt something hit his ankle as one of the drivers dropped a bag full of magazines at his feet and ran to the rest of squad one, doing the same thing.

“Right clear!” Danny yelled out. Bruce turned to the left and could see about forty blues still running, at the line but they were quickly mowed down.

“Left clear,” Ted called out as Bruce kneeled down and started shoving magazines in his empty pouches.

“Squad five, what the hell are you doing? We are not here to shop. Get the shit and let’s go,” Bruce said over the radio.

“This shit is heavy, and we’re almost done,” Steve called back.

“Mission control, what do you see?” Bruce asked then turned off his voice switch.

“A shit load of mowed down blues,” Mike called back.

Bruce keyed his mic, “No shit, Sherlock, I see them too. Do they have friends coming our way?” Bruce asked as the driver came over, grabbing the empty magazines around Bruce that he hadn’t gotten, throwing them in a bag, and heading back to the vehicle.

“They have quite a few friends, but they’re not moving towards you. You should be able to hear them. They’re roaring,” Mike reported back.

Keying his mic, Bruce yelled, “Mike, I have six diesel engine’s running beside me. I can’t hear shit!”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Am I irritating you?” Mike called back. Then Bruce heard yelling in the back ground as Mike cut the switch.

“I hope they are chewing you a new asshole,” Bruce said over the radio.

“No, as a matter of fact, they are telling me to piss you off more,” Mike replied.

Looking at the mass of bodies around him, Bruce keyed his mic, “What’s the estimate in our kill zone.”

“We are putting it close to four thousand. Why, do you want to take pictures?” Mike asked.

“Already have some. My recorder is always on,” Bruce told him. “Is Debbie in mission control?” Bruce asked.

“That’s a big affirmative. She said if you fuck around again, she’s taking an Apache up to shoot at you,” Mike called back.

“Debbie, I’m changing the date to November the first. Omega out,” Bruce said, reaching down to pick up the bag of magazines.

Debbie came over the radio screaming, “We had a deal, you son of bitch! Now quit playing and get your ass home!” Bruce looked up in the sky and held out his arm, giving the sky the finger. “I see that. Your ass is mine!” Debbie yelled as Bruce walked around checking on everyone.

“Dad, why do you intentionally make Mom mad?” Jake asked, looking around through his scope.

Putting his hand on Jake’s shoulder, Bruce told him, “In a few years, you will do the same thing. Every now and then, we have to let them know we aren’t afraid of them. So we just piss them off for no reason.”

“I heard that Daddy Bruce, and I’m telling the Mama’s,” Mary yelled out.

“I’m glad you did,” Bruce told her. “Jake, moon the sky,” Bruce told him.

Jake turned, looking at his dad, “Forget that,” he told Bruce.

Bruce shook his head. “Danny!” he yelled.

“I love you, but no!” she yelled back.

Bruce turned to Buffy. Buffy shook her head, “No way. You said I have to respect my commanders and Mama outranks you. Now I have three mamas, so even in a democratic republic, you’re outvoted. So I can’t risk my standing by taking your position in an impractical power struggle that will yield me nothing,” Buffy told him in a matter of fact tone.

“Holy shit! It’s a small Stephanie,” Jake said, looking at Buffy.

“We are done,” Steve called over the radio.

“Mount up. We are leaving!” Bruce yelled and called out over the radio.

When all the squads reported, Bruce told the driver to pull out. The driver gunned the engine, plowing over the bodies. “Mission control, what are the guest doing?” Bruce called out over the radio.

“They are hiding around corners. If I didn’t know better, it looks like they are trying to ambush you,” Mike told Bruce.

“Numbers?” Bruce asked.

“About a hundred,” Mike answered.

“Fuck’em! We’ll run over ‘em,” Bruce replied.

“Bruce, I’m not worried about that. It looks like they are coordinating,” Mike said, and Bruce could tell by Mike’s voice he didn’t like it.

“Driver, take the long way home,” Bruce called over the CVC. Keying his radio, Bruce relayed instructions, “Mike, when we are fifteen miles out of the city launch a Hellfire into a group. Then send another UAV down here to watch.”

“Copy that. Tell your driver to gun it now,” Mike said over the radio. Bruce felt the Stryker lunge forward as the driver gunned it, not waiting for Bruce to relay the instructions. The Stryker lurched as it hit bodies of blues as the driver called out, “Contact front.”

The convoy plowed through the blue’s attempt to swarm them, then they headed thirty miles east before turning north. Bruce was riding in silence as they turned north. Looking around, Bruce saw the rest of the team asleep as the Stryker bounced along.

When they turned on the road leading to the farm, a voice yelled over the radio, “Omega, you have a motorcycle following you.”

“This is Big Daddy One, how close?” Bruce yelled back over the radio as everyone came awake.

“About four feet from the last vehicle,” mission control replied.

“Convoy, continue past me. When I say stop, I mean on a dime. Driver pull to the left and let them pass then catch up to the last vehicle,” Bruce called out over the radio.

“Bruce, what are you doing?” Mike asked over the radio.

“Sound the alarm and get more UAV’s up now. Tell the choppers to stand by,” Bruce said as the Stryker slowed.

When the Stryker sped up, the driver yelled out, “I see him.”

“Omega, stop!” Bruce yelled out as all the vehicle’s locked up their brakes. When the dust settled, the convoy had come to stop a hundred yards from the entrance to the farm beside the east field. The motorcycle almost collided with the back of the Stryker but swerved out of the way as he locked the rear tire. The rear of the cycle slid out from under rider, dumping him on the road.

Bruce jumped out of the rear hatch yelling, “Security 360.” Running toward the man who was trying to stand up, Bruce leveled his SCAR at the man’s chest as Omega formed a circle around the vehicles. Stopping five feet from the man, “You move and you die,” Bruce told him.

The man froze in place as Bruce looked him over. He was about 6’ and 285 lbs. with a gut. It was hard to tell where his hair ended and his beard began. It all hung down past his chest. “Slowly raise your hands,” Bruce told him and the man complied.

“Name,” Bruce asked, his SCAR never leaving the man’s chest.

“Milton,” he replied with a quivering a voice.

“Well Milton, what the hell do you think you are doing?” Bruce asked.

“I heard some vehicles, and when I caught up to ya, I seen y’all were military, and I wanted to get some place safe,” Milton replied.

Bruce knew he was lying but something wasn’t right, “Why didn’t you flag us down instead of trying to sneak in?” Bruce asked.

“I didn’t want y’all taking my drugs,” Milton answered, his body was shaking, but his eyes were scanning the tree line around them.

‘Oh shit’ thought Bruce. “Milton, if you reach for that gun on your back, you will die. Now put your hands on your head. I’m going to ask permission if you can come inside,” Bruce told him as Milton put his hands on his head.

Taking four steps backwards, Bruce put his hand over his mouth, whispering in his mic, “Omega get back in the tracks and stay low. We have snipers around our perimeter. Mission control, if you hear me, don’t put anyone in a tower except the fort and corner towers. Snipers are on our perimeter.” Hearing an engine in the field Bruce said, “Don’t launch anymore UAVs.”

Bruce walked back to Milton, who was watching the UAV gain altitude, peeling off to the north. Milton turned to Bruce, “Damn, y’all have UAVs. Is that how y’all spotted me?” he asked.

“No,” Bruce lied. “We have a sniper team on over watch on this road, and they spotted you. Well Milton today is your lucky day. You’ve been granted permission to enter,” Bruce told him.

“Hey man, I changed my mind. This group is wild. I’ll just be on my way,” Milton said, fixing to move.

“I told you, if you move, you will die. But first, I’ll cut your balls off and make you eat them,” Bruce told him. Milton froze again and broke out in a sweat. Bruce kneeled down by the Stryker, putting his right shoulder against the side. “What’s really weird, you will do it, just to stop the pain,” Bruce told him.

“Hey man, just let me go, and you’ll never see me again,” Milton begged.

Bruce looked over at him, smiling, “How many snipers do you have out there, and where are they at?” Bruce asked.

Milton started to stutter as his left arm exploded. Bruce dropped down on the ground as Milton fell down, screaming. “Sniper fire. Did anyone see where it came from?” Bruce called over the radio. Everyone reported negative.

Watching Milton, Bruce thought about the shot and the lay of the land. Keying his radio, Bruce said, “Look in the north field where Mike and I performed our concert. Right outside the tree line is a knoll. They have to be on that.”

“Bruce we don’t see nothing there,” Mike replied.

“They are there. At least one team. Shoot them with a Hellfire before they disperse,” Bruce fought to keep from yelling.

A few seconds later, Mike came back on the radio, “The Hellfire won’t lock.”

“Shoot at them with the fucking mortars then,” Bruce told Mike.

Feeling like it was taking an eternity, Bruce finally heard the thump of the mortars firing. “Two targets north field fire,” Mike yelled over the radio. Bruce thought he heard the muffled sound of suppressed shots but couldn’t be sure as the mortar rounds impacted. “Two down,” Mike called out.

Looking at Milton, Bruce saw him reach back with his right hand, “Milton, don’t do it,” Bruce warned, but Milton kept reaching so Bruce shot him in the chest.

“I want to let everyone know, I’m in deep shit out here. The road is shielding me while I lay down, but I can’t stand up,” Bruce said, trying to think of a way out of this.

“The sniper team is dead, baby. Get your ass in here,” Debbie yelled over the radio.

“You don’t understand ‘baby’. There are at least two more teams out there. My guess is the west and south side,” Bruce said as he looked at Milton’s body. Poking out from under his vest was a microphone, with the transmit button tapped down. “Oh that’s good,” Bruce said, sighting in on the mic and pulling the trigger, blowing the mic apart. Then Bruce looked at the motorcycle to see if there were anymore. In the saddle bag was a black dish sticking out, Bruce just shook his head.

“You’re not going to believe this, but I think they heard everything I have said. So driver, I’m grabbing the hitch, and I’ll just have you drag me home. Don’t go more than ten miles per hour,” Bruce said as he crawled under the Stryker the moved to the back. “Take me home now,” Bruce said as the Stryker pulled away. Fighting to keep his grip, Bruce hung on to the hitch as the Stryker dragged him the hundred yards to the farm.

When they were through the gate, Bruce let go of the hitch and jumped up, running to the house. Keying his mic, “Jake, Danny, and Buffy, meet me in my room now.” The front door opened as Bruce neared, revealing the trio. “Follow me,” Bruce told them as he went by.

Running upstairs, Bruce ran to his closet and pulled out a small pack, threw it on the bed, and started shedding his heavy vest. The trio just watched, wondering what the hell Bruce was doing. Grabbing the small pack, Bruce opened it, throwing leaves everywhere. Reaching in, he pulled out a ghillie suit. Then he pulled out a light weight vest and slid it on as the kids ran in the room.

“Get your sniper gear on. Danny you will carry back up for Jake, don’t care what it is. Buffy get your suit I gave you for your birthday and only bring your MP-7 and five clips. Meet me in the command bunker when you are ready,” Bruce told them, and they ran to their rooms.

“Bruce, what the hell are you doing?” Debbie demanded.

“We have sniper teams around us, and we can’t let them get close enough to see our defenses,” Bruce told her, grabbing the XDM 45 from his heavy vest, making sure the suppressor was seated, and putting it in his holster. “The motorcycle was a plant. He had a radio on him so they could hear everything around him.”

“You’re going to hunt them?” Stephanie cried out.

“Abso-fucking-lutely, it’s time to get some,” Bruce said as he walked over to the wall and took down his AR-10.

“Bruce-,” Debbie started as Bruce held up his hand for her to stop.

“Listen, tell Matt to get his best long range rifle, get outfitted, and climb up to the top of the new water tower. Have Mary spot for him. They are not to come down until we get back, and it will be a long time. You’ll have to throw about a dozen smoke grenades over the west and east fence line to give them a chance to get up,” Bruce told them as he went over his rifle and scope.

“What about the rest of your team?” Debbie yelled out.

“This is a sniper war, and they are not up for it,” Bruce said as he walked out the door, heading to mission control with the trio in hot pursuit.

Bruce met Mike in the mission control stairway as he was coming up. Before Mike could say anything, Bruce passed him by, going into the command room and looking at the map of the farm and the land around it. Studying the map, Bruce said, “I’m sorry I yelled at you about the Hellfire and mortar.”

Mike was taken aback by the apology and couldn’t speak, so Bruce did, “Call Marcus, tell him we are going to be attacked. The road between here and there is probably mined now so they will have to stay put. Then tell him they probably have sniper teams around them. They can’t be seen with infrared as long as they stay down,” Bruce told Mike as he continued looking at the map as the rest of the command group came in.

“That’s what I wanted to tell you. Marcus called and reported seeing a lot of motorcycles on the road with the cameras they put out. He thinks they are looking for them,” Mike finally managed to get out.

“We can’t be that lucky, but if we are, tell him to rabbit down. We might need him,” Bruce said as Danny, Jake, and Buffy walked in.

“Here,” Bruce said, pointing at the floor between him and the wall.

“Remember all the times we played track Dad being the sniper? Well it’s for real. The teams that are out there are good. I know there are at least two more but my guess is four to six more. They should have one on each wall with a command team and back up teams. Expect mines, and the bodies of the two we killed will be booby trapped by now, so leave them. Understand,” Bruce asked them.

“Sure,” Jake said nonchalantly.

“I got it,” Danny said, grinning.

Bruce just shook his head then reached out, grabbed the front of Jake’s ghillie suit, slamming him into the wall, scaring everyone, especially Jake. “Son, they are here to kill, get your head in the game,” Bruce told him nose to nose. Then Bruce moved his head to Jake’s ear, “They are going to rape and do things to Mary you can’t even begin to imagine. Then your mothers and sisters. Let it go and push off onto the wave. It’s ok. Just remember, they are targets. You will move like smoke,” Bruce told Jake. Jake closed his eyes taking deep breaths. His face became a featureless terrain when he opened his eyes.

Bruce smiled, and before Danny knew Bruce even moved, he had slammed her into the wall. “You think this is fun and it can be. But not that way. They are targets, nothing more, pieces of cardboard that are hiding out there,” Bruce said to her with his eyes closed. “No that’s fear. Let that go,” Bruce told her. “You know what you need to feel. Remember it. The targets are here and they want to hurt us. There it is. Feed it. Breathe slowly and bring it closer. Remember, you are just a soft breeze and won’t make any more sound than that,” Bruce said, opening his eyes. Danny had a glassy haze over her eyes as Bruce backed away.

“Look at the map and remember you have been over this area a thousand times,” Bruce said then pointed out locations on each side of the farm. “This is where they should set up, find them and kill them. Take no prisoners,” Bruce commanded them.

“Yes sir,” they replied together.

Looking at his watch, Bruce then grabbed a face paint kit out of his pocket and called Buffy over. As he painted her face, Bruce laid out the instructions, “Radio checks are at the top of the hour for you, at the bottom for me,” as he continued, Jake and Danny started painting each other’s faces. “We go over the northwest corner of the fence and crawl to the creek. I head west. You head north. It’s 1300 I don’t expect us to be back until tomorrow morning. Each of you will take four claymores and set them up to take out snipers. Make sure you have water and batteries.” Bruce finished the briefing and Buffy’s face.

“Do something with her hair,” Bruce said as he started painting his face.

Debbie came over with Angela and Stephanie and started braiding Buffy’s long curly hair, “Bruce, let’s just wait them out,” Debbie said.

“We can’t. They will close our perimeter down on us. See how we laid out our defenses, then attack,” Bruce told her.

“Bruce, if we set off explosions, Blues will come,” Angela told him.

“Danger for all,” Bruce replied, painting his bald head.

Debbie took it from him and painted his head. “Bruce, you’re taking our kids out against trained snipers,” Debbie pointed out, painting his ears.

“They aren’t kids anymore, baby. They are warriors, and if they don’t go, I have to do it alone,” Bruce told her.

Steve stepped forward, “Dad, let me get my suit and go with you. I have been at this a lot longer than Buffy,” he said.

Bruce turned looking at Steve. With his face paint on, he was looking a lot like a demon. “No,” Bruce replied.

“Why, dad?” Steve asked.

“You will die and probably get me killed as well. This is not your type of war,” Bruce told him as Debbie finished. Bruce grabbed his boonie hat with his camera rolling.

“So you’re saying Buffy is better than me?” Steve challenged.

“At moving quietly, yes she is, because she is smaller,” Bruce answered as he zipped up his jacket and checked himself over. Then he moved to Danny, Jake, and Buffy.

Steve stepped up to his dad, “What else?” he asked.

“Your father told you, Steve, drop it,” Debbie told him.

“Dad,” Steve said.

“We will talk about it later,” Bruce said, heading for the door. “Debbie has more instructions,” Bruce said as the three followed him out.

Everyone turned to Debbie, “Matt and Mary, suit up. Matt get ready for long range shots, Mary you are spotting. You’re going on the water tower. We will throw smoke out to cover you. Don’t shoot until mission control clears you. David, look through your electronic books and tell me what a super boom microphone can hear. Mike, you are to stay in mission control and guide this invisible war. Tell Marcus what is going on. We go to level five, half asleep and half wake at all times,” Debbie said, looking at the monitors. “How many micro UAVs do we have now?” Debbie asked.

“Close to a hundred,” Mike answered.

“Get ten up and keep them up at all times. Have them fly in circles over the farm out to one mile,” Debbie said.

“David when you get through, put up some monitors,” Debbie said.

“Ted and I can do that,” Carl said, heading to the storage area.

“Mom, you know what Dad was going to say. Tell me?” Steve asked.

Debbie nodded, “It’s not important,” she said.

“Mom!” Steve whined.

Debbie looked at her oldest and put her hand on his face, remembering all his childhood. “You feel guilt, you see them as people and not targets. What they are going to do is up-close and personal. The shots may come from a long way, but they will be able to see their eyes. You can’t do that, you can’t ride the wave. You like the rush of fast paced combat where you convince yourself you had no choice when you kill. There’s nothing wrong with that, you’re still a good warrior like your Dad told me and I have seen. He just can’t live with you living with guilt for what he told you to do if he can avoid it. He told me you feel some guilt for the cop you shot when this started and that eats at him,” Debbie told him.

“What about Buffy?” Steve asked.

Angela laughed, “She’s like the others. If Bruce says it’s a target, it dies. Sometimes it dies screaming with a little blond headed girl laughing, holding a switchblade,” Angela told him.

“As long as he doesn’t think I’m a coward,” Steve said.

“He knows you are not and will only put you in the combat you will survive. He really wants you to see your baby,” Debbie said.

“Will they be alright?” Nancy asked with a worried expression.

Debbie looked at her, “Physically, yes. It’s the mental I’m worried about.”

Conner walked over to Debbie, “It’s all good, they were on the wave when they left this room. They didn’t even have to wait until they got in the shit.”

“I know they were,” Debbie told him.

“Then what’s wrong?” he asked.

“Bruce knew they could just get on the wave without anything. Like him, they turned it on and he knew they could do it,” Debbie answered Conner.

“Well, that’s not so bad,” Conner said enviously.

“You have no idea,” Debbie said.

“What about Buffy? Bruce never coached her,” Nancy pointed out.

Debbie laughed, “When Bruce hits the wave, she’s right there with him. I just hope Bruce realizes that she loves the wave, before it takes her away.”

Chapter 30

Bruce and Buffy had made it two hundred yards along the creek. The creek was at the bottom of a small ravine, ten feet below ground level. On the way to the tree line, Bruce had to push two gators out of the way so they could get past. Now he was looking at a claymore mine. ‘These guys are good. They knew this was the only way to get to them so they put mines out to warn them,’ Bruce thought.

Keying his mic, Bruce whispered, “Be careful, mines.”

“Already disarmed two,” Jake whispered back.

Bruce looked at the claymore, and sure enough there was a secondary or boobie trap to discourage tampering. Bruce motioned Buffy up so she could cover him. Ten minutes later, they were moving again after Bruce turned the mine around and rearmed it. It was 1530 when they reached the wood line, and Buffy called in their radio check. Smiling, Bruce was glad she was there so he could concentrate on other things.

Looking at the top of the ravine, Bruce saw the grass moving with the wind coming out of the north. Motioning to Buffy, they crawled slowly to the top of the north bank. Turning his head slowly to the left and right, Bruce looked, listened, and smelled. Bruce froze and squeezed Buffy’s arm for her to be still. He slowly eased her back down in the ravine making no noise. When they were at the bottom, Bruce tapped his nose, and Buffy reached down, grabbing a pinch of dirt and let it go as she turned to Bruce.

Nodding his head yes, he smelled freshly dug dirt. They moved further into the woods to get behind the sniper location as Buffy did another radio check. Climbing out of the creek a hundred yards further down, they both laid on the forest floor listening and smelling. Not seeing, hearing or smelling anything, they eased up into a crouch.

Bruce leaned over, putting his mouth beside Buffy’s ear and barely whispered, “Only radio with clicks now. We’re close.” Bruce took the lead, easing back toward the tree line to find where the fresh dirt smell came from.

When Matt’s voice came over the radio into the ear bud in their ears, Bruce froze and lowered down to the ground slowly as did Buffy. “Mission control, do we have friendlies at the end of the runway? Eighty meters south then twenty meters in the tree line,” Matt asked.

A minute later, Mike came over the radio, “Negative, both teams are north of departure line.”

Bruce didn’t like that they were both on this side of the creek as Matt came back on, “I have tree cancer with a second growth.”

“Are you positive on your sighting?” Mike asked him.

“I wouldn’t have called otherwise,” Matt shot back.

“Range to target?” Mike asked.

“Seven hundred and thirty two meters,” Matt answered as Bruce wanted to know why Mike asked that.

“You’re clear to engage. Closest friendlies are eighteen hundred and seventy six meters to your left,” Mike replied, clarifying to Bruce why he wanted to know range.

Seconds later, Matt came over the radio, “I have two targets down.”

“Copy that. We can see them now. You blew their tarp off, and son, you didn’t need to bring a cannon,” Mike told him.

“Daddy Bruce said bring a big stick,” Matt fired back.

“Clear eagle’s nest, keep watch,” Mike said chuckling.

As he started to get up, Bruce froze, hearing something out of the background of the forest. Not turning his head, he looked out of the corner of his eye at Buffy, who was frozen in place. ‘Well, she heard it too,’ Bruce thought as he moved his hand slowly to turn up his hunting hearing aid. Many years ago, Bruce started wearing them when he hunted so the gunshot wouldn’t hurt his ears but fell in love with the bionic hearing.

Closing his eyes and opening his mouth a little so he could hear better, he could hear very faint whispering and his heart started racing, targets were near. Slowly, Bruce lifted his rifle up and scanned the area in front of them. It took fifteen minutes, but he found them when one moved slightly under their ghillie blanket. Bruce slowly extended the bipod legs and raised the rifle to his eye.

Bruce ranged the targets at eighty-one meters. Not even caring about the wind, Bruce controlled his breathing and slowed his heart rate, putting the cross hairs on the first lump he knew was the head of one of his targets. Taking a few practice adjustments by moving the crosshairs between the two, he calmed down and slowly squeezed the trigger. Quickly readjusting his aim, he fired again a split second later. He hit both lumps and nothing moved. Buffy started to move, but Bruce looked at her, stopping her. He motioned her over with slight motions with his head. When she was close, Bruce whispered, “They might have friends, it’s called an ‘over watch’.”

Buffy nodded and eased back down as Bruce kept listening. Unlike the suppressor on his SCAR, the one Joe had made that lowered the sound to hundred decibels, the one on his AR-10 brought it down to eighty-four decibels. But, holy hell was it heavy. Unless they were within fifty yards, they wouldn’t have heard it. Waiting for fifteen minutes, they eased up to the site and Bruce eased the tarp off of them. While the top looked like a forest floor, the bottom was a shiny metallic color. Bruce knew this was a thermal blanket sewn to a ghillie tarp. ‘Damn, that’s smart,’ Bruce thought.

Inspecting the two, Bruce motioned Buffy to call it in. “This is big daddy’s team, we have two down,” Buffy whispered in the radio.

“We copy and see you, be careful,” Mike responded.

The first one Bruce shot was the gunner, which was who he wanted. Bruce eased up and rolled over the headless corpses dressed in ghillie suits. Seeing something, Bruce took off the gunner’s jacket to find he was wearing a thermal jacket under his ghillie suit. Throwing the jacket back over him, Bruce reached for the packs at their feet and dug around until he found what he was looking for.

The thermal jacket had a hood on it that Bruce did not notice. Bruce grabbed the spares and the ghillie tarp, rolled it up with the grass side out, and slung it across his back. He led Buffy back to the ravine and climbed in. Taking off his ghillie, he put on the thermal jacket and pants, then put his suit back on. Pulling out his knife, he cut the other one to fit Buffy.  When they climbed out of the ravine, Mike called over the radio.

“Big Daddy One, where did you go? We lost you,” Mike asked. A few seconds later, “Wait, I see your feet. What the hell did y’all crawl under?” Mike wanted to know.

Buffy keyed her mic, “Daddy found us special clothes,” she whispered to Mike.

Mike let it go as Bruce led Buffy deeper into the woods looking for more snipers. It was 2118 when Danny came over the radio, “This is J and D, we have two down,” she reported.

“Copy that. We see them and like your father, I’m now having trouble seeing you also,” Mike said.

Danny didn’t reply as Bruce called Buffy close since it was completely dark now. “Put on your monocular. Move real slow, step where I step. If I go to the ground, you follow and lay behind me. It’s your job not to let anything get close to us from behind,” Bruce whispered his instructions, putting on his monocular.

They moved out slowly, averaging a hundred yards an hour, but they were quiet. Danny came over the radio at midnight and reported two more down as Bruce found another old sniper hide. They now had four teams down. Mike asked if Bruce wanted to come in, and he told him no. It was 0220 when Mike notified them eight blues where heading to Bruce and Buffy’s right, moving fast. Bruce grabbed Buffy, sat down with her against a tree, and covered them up with the tarp. They only had to wait ten minutes before they heard the running towards them through the woods.

Holding his pistol ready to engage, Bruce saw the group of blues stop thirty yards away and look around. The smell hit them like a Mack truck. Bruce felt Buffy move slightly but not enough to be seen. Several looked right at them and turned away. Keeping the pistol down, Bruce was wishing them away when he heard soft thumps then blues were dropping as their heads exploded. In less than ten seconds, all eight were down.

They were a hundred yards back in the tree line, but Bruce knew those shots came from in front of them. Bruce watched the area where he thought the shots came from when he saw a man stand up and walk over to the blues, checking them. Then he walked back over, laid down beside another man and covered back up.

“Damn, son. That was good shooting,” Mike said over the radio. Bruce just squeezed Buffy’s arm not to answer.

“Hey big daddy, I can’t see you but have an idea where you are. Y’all ok?” Mike asked. Bruce squeezed Buffy’s arm twice, and she keyed the mic twice.

“One for yes, two for no,” Mike said. Again Bruce squeezed twice, as did Buffy.

“How close? One click for every ten yards,” Mike asked. Bruce squeezed Buffy’s arm three times, and she keyed the mic three times.

“You need help?” Mike asked. Bruce squeezed then Buffy keyed twice.

“Be careful,” Mike said.

Bruce leaned forward and barely whispered in Buffy’s ear, “Stay here. Something isn’t right. They are too far back in the woods. Don’t get out from under the tarp.”

Easing up, Bruce headed deeper in the woods to come from behind them. It took him forty minutes to cover the distance to the snipers. Bruce was standing ten yards behind them. Looking through the trees, he could barely see the front fence of the farm four hundred yards away but could make out the fort through his thermal monocular.

Gradually getting to his knees, Bruce searched the forest floor in front of the sniper team that had killed the blues. Suddenly he noticed the other sniper team a hundred and fifty yards to the front and right of the over watch team. Moving closer to the over watch team, Bruce noticed one side of the tarp moving up and down at a regular rhythm on the right.

Strapping his push blade to his arm, he crept closer until he was just feet away. Then Bruce kneeled down beside the hidden sniper team. Placing the tip of his blade by the lump that was the spotter’s head, Bruce steadied his breathing as he cocked his arm back. His arm moved in a flash as Bruce drove the blade in the target’s skull and twisted it. The man just went limp, not even waking the gunner. Leaning over, Bruce quickly sent the gunner with his spotter.

Bruce went over to Buffy and motioned for her to follow. Easing up to the next sniper nest, Bruce counted three lumps. This totally freaked him out. Bruce pulled out his pistol and motioned for Buffy to shoot all three lumps. Buffy put a burst into each lump. Then Bruce pulled back the tarp to, indeed, find three targets under it. Moving back to where they left the tarp, Bruce told Buffy to report what happened. Picking up the tarp, he rolled it back up and then stopped at the two he took out with the push blade. Leaning down, he picked up the man’s weapon, a SCAR heavy. It was the big brother to his SCAR. It fired 7.62.

Looking down at his watch, Bruce couldn’t make out the time, and be damned if he was using his watch light. They moved forward and when the false dawn started breaking, Mike came over the radio. “Be easy now, y’all are getting real close to each other. Less than three hundred yards,” Mike reported.

Bruce stopped and waited on Jake and Danny. They were younger, so they could come to him. Two hours later, Jake bird called, and Bruce answered. Bruce watched two bushes walk toward them. When they got close, Bruce motioned for them to follow, leading them home. They called for the gate to open at 0610. When they walked through the gate, the trio met them on electric buggies.

“You look like you need a ride,” Debbie said.

Buffy looked at Debbie like she was the best thing since iced tea. “I love you, Mama,” Buffy said as she sprawled across back seat. Bruce sat her up so he could sit beside her. They had run out of water at 0100, and he knew she was dehydrated.

They drove them right up to the center’s door, and the four got off and headed inside to be greeted by applause. Bruce wanted to tell them to shut up, this wasn’t even a prefight, more like a sparring match but kept his mouth shut. Their ghillie suits were beyond filthy and their bodies were not much cleaner. Bruce laid his AR-10 and new SCAR heavy on the table. Next Bruce stripped off his ghillie and his shirt, which was drenched in sweat from the thermal suit he had added.

“Damn, I think you can actually wring sweat out of that,” Stephanie said. Bruce took his top off and could indeed wring sweat out of it.

Millie came over, carrying plates of food for them and cold wash cloths. When she handed Bruce his, he laid it on his head and kissed her on the mouth. “Millie, will you bring my troops each a bottle of sports drink. They need electrolytes bad,” Bruce said as he unbuttoned his pants.

“What about you?” Millie asked.

“I’m good,” Bruce said, but Debbie nodded her head at Millie. “I want you three to strip down and cool off,” Bruce told them.

“Daddy,” Buffy whined.

“Buffy, you can keep your t-shirt and panties on, but the rest comes off. We were walking around in thermal suits and have paid a price for that,” Bruce told them as they all stood up stripping. Bruce saw a disappointed look on Matt’s face when Danny took off her suit. He almost said something but stopped, not in the mood.

Buffy looked up at Bruce asking, “Daddy, what’s tree cancer?”

“What?” Bruce asked.

“Tree cancer? Matt said he saw tree cancer with an extra growth,” Buffy asked as she crawled back in her chair.

“A sniper that lies at the base of a tree disrupts the natural pattern of the tree’s edge. It’s a mistake an inexperienced sniper makes because an experienced sniper can find them,” Bruce told her. Looking down at his boots, Bruce was not in the mood to untie them and pulled out a switchblade. When he leaned forward to cut, Debbie stopped him.

“Bruce, those are your Matterhorn’s. The same ones you have five extra pairs of, don’t do it,” Debbie told him.

“Screw it, I have more,” Bruce said as he leaned back down. The trio rushed over to take his boots off, after taking the knife from him. Standing back up, Bruce looked at Willie, “Willie, take Omega out today and bring in the bodies of the ones we killed, leave the blues. Do not touch the bodies of those taken out by the mortar. See if they can tell us anything, and if you find any magazines for a SCAR heavy, they’re mine,” Bruce told him as the trio pulled off his boots and pants. Bruce took off his shirt and was fixing to take off the boxers until Angela slapped his hands.

Mike came in and walked over to Bruce, “Well the area is clear for now. What do you make with that many snipers?” Mike asked.

“I can tell you that was not all their snipers,” Bruce told him.

“Damn, are you sure? That was a lot of snipers,” Mike told him.

“Absolutely, they pulled some out. We found too many sniper pits for those we took out,” Bruce told him as he just crashed in his chair.

“So, what do we do now?” Mike asked.

“Get some sleep. Then we wait to see what their next move is,” Bruce told him.

The same day 0900 on Toledo Bend.

“I’m telling you, they aren’t coming. They have military there,” Carl told Warren and Scott.

Scott looked at Carl wanting to hit him, “It doesn’t matter. I found out all I need to know,” Scott said.

“You had our own man shot!” Carl shouted.

“He knew the risk and fucked up getting caught,” Scott replied fighting the urge to hit Carl.

Ed, trying to diffuse Scott, asked, “Now what do we do? We lost half of the sniper teams.”

Scott laughed, “It doesn’t matter. We found out what we needed to know. We outnumber their fighters,” Scott stated.

“How did you come to that conclusion?” Ed asked.

“Nobody got in the towers until the convoy returned. That convoy would have transported roughly sixty maybe seventy troops. That means they didn’t have enough to man the twelve towers. I put the population at six hundred based on what we’ve seen. It takes fifty men just to man those towers. I put the man power at 200. Women outnumber men three to one at least with all the places we have hit so far. The only reason they have lasted this long is the armor and UAVs,” Scott replied.

“Yeah, they have tanks. We don’t,” Carl snapped.

“Those aren’t tanks. They are infantry assault vehicles, and we can take them out with our AT-4s, though I wish we wouldn’t. We could use them,” Scott said, putting it out on the table.

Warren just looked at Scott, “What are you getting at?” he asked.

“Think about it, Warren. If we hit them fast at night, we can kill off half the men before they can mount any resistance. Especially since you got that gang from Texas to join us. We now have almost six hundred men to attack with. Use the rest of the snipers to keep the towers out on the side we hit. If we can take it, look at what we can gain. That farm is producing. I bet they have ten acres of greenhouses alone not including the livestock. We get a steady supply of food, armor, and UAV’s, and a shit load more women. All we will have to do is repair the fence,” Scott told him.

“What, leave here?” Carl asked.

“Hell yeah,” Scott said.

“How do you propose we do this?” Ed asked again.

“We get the three semi-trucks that have the armor to ram the fences. Come on. It is ten foot cyclone with razor wire and plywood so you can’t see in. Follow those with the dump trucks and regular trucks, then we pour in one side and move through like a plague of locust,” Scott told them, smiling.

“Where do we punch through?” Warren asked, shocking ED and Carl.

“Through the east side, between the runway and the road. We can’t use the gate because it’s boobie trapped. We know that from the sniper teams. The gate at the runway will be too. They leave those open, wanting to funnel the enemy there to grind them up and wipe them out. I have to give it to them, they set the gates up well. Most people would go after the gates and get wiped out,” Scott said, trying to impress the stupid idiots.

Ed just shook his, “How many do you think we’ll lose?” he asked.

“If we don’t have them down in the first two hours, our losses will be high, like a hundred,” Scott admitted.

“You think we can take them if it goes over two hours?” Carl asked doubtfully.

“That’s a fact. All we have to do is isolate them in small pockets and wait them out. Control their perimeter, not allow for resupply or movement. If we can hit them real fast, I put our losses around thirty, but we will have to catch them off guard and half asleep,” Scott told Carl.

Warren just listened, glad his brothers asked all the questions, because he would have attacked the gates. “Okay, we attack in five days, hitting them at four in the morning. That will give them the time to get tired of staying on alert, and we hit them at four in the morning because most of them will be asleep. We make sure our route is clear with the super microphones listening for the UAVs. Ram the fence followed by the dump trucks with three hundred men, then push a hundred and fifty more when the breach opens, holding fifty in reserve. Snipers and the twenty heavy machine guns in the tree line to cover the attack. Any man that surrenders can join us after he proves himself. Women are divvied up by rank. Let me just tell all of you. Pam, Bruce, Mike, and their families are mine, no questions asked. Any questions?” Warren asked, happy with his plan.

“Hey boss, it’s not a question. More like an offer we can make. Any of those that surrender that know how to operate those UAVs, we allow right into the gang,” Scott asked.

Warren thought a minute, “That’s good, but we also tell them those that can work on them. Then offer the same for those that operate the infantry assault vehicles and helicopters,” Warren stated.

“Hey, that’s real good boss,” Scott said, inflating Warren’s ego.

“When do the snipers move in?” Carl asked.

“We drop them off when we attack,” Warren told him.

“That means we attack blind,” Carl said.

“It’s too risky. They will have anti-sniper patrols out now, but you can only keep those out for a few days,” Scott said, backing Warren.

Warren looked at Carl, “Come on, Carl. How many people are awake in this camp at four in the morning if there’s not a party, besides the four guards? Maybe ten,” Warren told him.

Carl almost told Warren that was only because he was stupid, “Okay, then, if we are committed, I’m in.”

“Of course you’re in. I said so,” Warren growled. Warren looked at Ed, “Ed, you’re staying here with the home guard,” Warren told him, grinning.

“Warren, that’s not fair. I want some more toys,” Ed acted like he was whining, but inside he was jumping for joy.

“I know. I’ve heard the screams coming from yours and Carl’s boathouse. I thought I was rough with women,” Warren laughed, glad he could reign in Ed with his increasing appetite. Warren looked at Ed’s faked disappointed look, “I tell you what. If you hold the fort here, I’ll bring you one,” Warren proposed.

“I want her fresh. I never got to have one first until I’m done with her,” Ed said.

“Ed, nobody wants one of yours. They hear the screaming too and know they are way too damaged, but I will bring you one untouched by any of us. It might be a few days till we get back, but I will save one for you,” Warren told him, laughing. Ed nodded in agreement.

“We aren’t coming right back?” Carl asked a little worried.

“No, I want to start on those assholes ASAP. We will also need to fix the fence in case the blues come. I figure you can join us in a few days. We will send a team down to move everyone here up there then,” Warren told him.

“Brief your teams. I don’t want no drinking or drugs after tonight. The men have to be ready to fight,” Warren said, looking around. Then he added, “We are getting a new place to live.

Chapter 31

It was March 25th as Bruce and the trio were sitting on the patio in the swing watching the kids play with Max in the afternoon sun. The clan was still on half on, half off cycles, at level five so they all had on vests and weapons. Debbie had made sure Bruce was on the same schedule as them this time, along with half of Omega team.

“I can almost forget we are under a threat doing this,” Stephanie admitted watching the kids play.

Bruce shook his head, “Don’t do that. Always expect it or you get surprised and dead.”

“That’s not really possible,” Stephanie told him.

“Yes it is, just think of the alternative if you lose. What will happen to the kids and women,” Bruce told her, making a shiver run up her spine.

Angela sat up and looked down at Bruce, “Bruce, we are well protected here. How many men would it take for you to take over this farm?” Angela asked.

Bruce didn’t even look at her. “I could do it with Omega team now,” he informed her.

Angela scoffed, “Come on. Aren’t you being a little over confident?”

Still never looking over at her, Bruce continued to watch Max play chase with the kids. Then Bruce explained how he could do a multi prong stealth attack, then a linear assault if he had the helicopters, a fast assault over running the perimeter with speed and violence. Then continued for an hour on the different ways he could over run the farm until Debbie stopped him.

Angela had sat back long ago, as Bruce listed the different ways they could get hit. “Damn that sucks,” she said, feeling hopeless.

Debbie laughed, “Watch this,” Debbie said then asked Bruce how to defend against each attack he had listed and he did for another hour.

“We’ve done almost all of that,” Angela said.

“I know,” Bruce told her, putting his arms behind them.

“So what are you worried about?” Stephanie asked.

“The unknown foolish stuff they could come up with. An attack that makes no sense and follows very little planning,” Bruce told her.

“Those should be easy to wipeout,” Stephanie said.

“You would think that, but that’s not true. If their forces spread out too much, it’s like trying to stomp ants with your foot: futile and worthless. It turns into a war of attrition which no sane commander wants to fight. Equipment can be replaced but it takes a lifetime to grow a soldier and a fortune to train them,” Bruce explained.

Angela sitting on the other side of Debbie laid down in all of their laps, “That’s why we have you. I can’t tell you how many times I thought I was going to die, just to have this Mr. Clean come in and whoop some ass. I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but I speak for Stephanie also. You two are stuck with us. We make the greatest family,” Angela said, smiling.

Bruce grinned looking down at her, “No argument here, I have to admit I can’t even begin to think of life without you two,” Bruce told her. They both kissed Bruce then Debbie. Debbie was just smiling away, she was on cloud nine hearing Bruce say that.

Bruce looked over at Stephanie, “I want to ask you a question.”

Stephanie smiled at Bruce, “Sure.”

“When did you fall in love with me?” Bruce asked just wanting to know.

“The first day I met you. Here this big nurse just went out of his way to help me. He never ogled over me, was always polite and talked to me like a real person,” Stephanie related.

“Who was the nurse?” Bruce asked as all three slapped his arms at the same time.

“Bruce how could you say that?” Angela demanded.

“Sorry, but that’s how I treat everyone. You treat someone with respect until they show you otherwise,” Bruce said.

“That’s what I mean Bruce. You treat everyone with respect, unless they piss you off of course. The first time I saw you body slam a drunk, I almost fainted. I just couldn’t fathom how you could do that, until I dealt with my first drunk,” Stephanie replied.

“That was the second one you saw someone body slammed wasn’t it?” Debbie asked grinning.

“Oh yeah, that man grabbed me, throwing me up against the wall, telling me what he was fixing to do and did I yell for the cops? No, I yelled for Bruce. He ran from the other side of the ER, grabbed the man and bam,” Stephanie said, slapping her thigh.

“Yeah I remember that. I had to go to anger management classes for that one,” Bruce told her.

“No,” Stephanie said.

“Yep and I failed it,” Bruce told her.

“How?” Stephanie asked.

“Four times,” Debbie added.

Stephanie just looked at Bruce, “They kept telling me if a violent patient attacks, you don’t fight back and if they choke you, call for help,” Bruce told her.

“What did you tell them?” Stephanie asked.

“You try to kill me, I’ll try to kill you right back,” Bruce answered making them laugh.

When she finished laughing, Angela looked at Bruce and Debbie, “I can’t believe y’all left us in the shop.”

“You were asleep,” Bruce told her.

“Asleep hell, she passed out,” Debbie said, giggling.

“I out lasted Angela,” Stephanie said, proudly.

“Oh come on one time and that doesn’t count anyway. I wasn’t expecting that,” Angela admitted.

“It didn’t look that good on the dirty movie,” Stephanie told them.

“Hold on,” Angela said as she jumped up, and ran over to Susan then came back. “Come on, let’s go upstairs and throw Bruce down,”

“What about throw Angela down?” Bruce asked, grinning.

“Y’all did that already,” she replied.

Debbie stood up as did Stephanie and they looked at Bruce grinning. “I want to know, why do all of you move in unison now?” Bruce asked.

“Debbie has shown us how to handle you. You have your mimes, she has hers,” Stephanie told him.

Bruce stood up laughing and they walked inside. For the last time they all played together and unlike any other times no one passed out. They all just lay in bed holding each other until it was time to get the kids fed and put them to bed.

As the sun set on the farm only one felt the threat approaching as she wrote in her journal. Pain in a world gone mad was getting closer. A soul mate’s life, her partner’s soul, her family’s belief, heart, and sanity, and her clan’s hope were all threatened by the evil in their path. How much pain can a family endure before all hope is lost, while the evil reigns, if their heroine falls?

Chapter 32

It was March 26th and Bruce jumped out of bed at the sound of the attack alarm blaring in the hallway. The trio and the kids all sat up in bed, wide eyed with fear on their faces. Bruce looked at the clock, which read 0335, as he rushed to put his clothes on. Seeing Bruce move, the trio got out of bed, grabbed clothes and yanked them on. PJ was crying and the twins latched on to him, trying to quieten him down as Cade came over and joined the group hug.

When Bruce put on his vest, he keyed his mic, “This is Big Daddy One. What’s the attack?”

Mike came over the radio, “Bruce, we have a huge convoy of trucks heading to us. They will be here in eighteen minutes.”

“Shoot some Hell fires into them!” Bruce called back.

“Nothing up is armed right now. We landed the last armed one twenty minutes ago. I just gave the order to put the barriers on the runway. There’s not enough time,” Mike relayed as Bruce started grabbing kids and throwing clothes on them.

“It’s all good, brother. We will still wipe them out,” Bruce said, grabbing PJ and asking. “Are they military vehicles?”

“Negative, several semis that have steel on them, dump trucks full of people, and a shit load of pick-up trucks,” Mike said.

Debbie was trying to control her breathing as she listened. The time was now. She could feel it in her soul. Then calm spread across her that she could not explain. Closing her eyes, she could hear her dad, “It will be okay, tadpole. I’m here with your mom, waiting. Be strong, you know what’s at stake,” he told her. Opening her eyes, she knew she had done what she could to get everyone ready and had written her last entry in her book. When she wrote it before she went to sleep, Debbie knew that would be the last time.

“Mike, we are heading to the main storage to drop off the kids. Then I’m going to the east fence. I’m sending Angela and Stephanie to the mission control stairway. They will guard it,” Bruce said, running for the door with PJ in his arms.

They met the kids running down the stairs then out the back door. People were running everywhere, getting to their positions and dropping kids off at the main storage. Bruce had picked it because it was close to the living areas, underground, and two hundred yards from the west fence. The guards were already in their foxholes Bruce noticed as he ran down the ramp. Reaching the area, he saw Millie, with her M-4 across her shoulder, taking kids and motioning them to the back where older kids were watching with some adults.

Bruce looked at Millie as he handed PJ to her. “Don’t worry, I be dead before anyone harms the youngin’s,” Millie told him.

Bruce nodded and kissed each of the kids then turned and ran over to a stack of crates. Opening them, Bruce took out four AT-4s and headed out. Bruce stopped when Debbie yelled for him as he was slinging the AT-4s across his shoulder. “You be careful,” Debbie said kissing, him a long time. Then she kissed Angela and Stephanie.

Bruce kissed Angela and Stephanie, “Each of you be careful and remember your vests don’t make you bullet proof so stay under cover. Remember what you were taught. If you two need back up, call me,” Bruce said as he left, followed by Debbie, both of them headed to the east fence. Angela and Stephanie looked at each other and headed to mission control.

As Bruce and Debbie ran to the fence, he noticed he didn’t see anyone running through the farm. Bruce radioed Omega telling them where to meet him.  When Bruce reached the fence, he set his radio to stay on Omega’s frequency and the command frequency. Each area had its own frequency so they could talk to mission control.

Climbing up on the berm, Bruce kneeled down. He saw Omega running toward him as Debbie kneeled down by him. Taking the AT-4s off his shoulder, Bruce laid them on the ground. The team ran up to him, kneeling down. Bruce looked at them, “When you see them, start firing. Don’t wait for an order. We have to get everyone here shooting fast before they get close. Now line up. Stay safe,” Bruce said, handing Willie and Conner each an AT-4. “They will try to breach the fence,” Bruce told them. Bruce keyed his mic, “Mike, how far out,” Bruce asked.

“They are on our road, and two vehicles stopped just at the end of the road. I bet that’s the command group,” Mike replied.

“Stay calm and remember to direct the fight, not react to it. Have the mortars open up as soon as they show where they are attacking. I feel it will be the east fence so when you see us fire, start the pits up, moving between three hundred and two hundred yards,” Bruce told him.

“I got it, brother. You stay safe,” Mike called back.

“You too,” Bruce said patting his vest down and tightening it up.

Hearing the whine of diesel engines coming, Bruce let his SCAR hang down on his strap and picked up the AT-4. Knocking the caps off the end, he flipped up the sights and said a prayer. Looking out across the field, Bruce saw three semi’s turn into the field then start toward the farm. Omega opened up on them at three hundred yards.

Only Omega was shooting when the trucks turned into the field at the tree line. The fire steadily increased as the trucks picked up speed, bullets ricocheting off them. Then the towers opened up with the big 50’s and mini-guns as Bruce lifted up his AT-4. “I have left,” Bruce yelled out.

“Center,” Conner yelled.

“Right,” Willie yelled.

Bruce slowed his breathing and sighted in on the center of the plate covering the grill. Bruce yelled, “Clear behind,” and pushed the fire button. The rocket launched with a thump, speeding across the two hundred and fifty yards. Slamming into the ¼ inch plate, the warhead detonated in the engine block, sending shrapnel into the cab and shredding the legs of the driver and passenger.

The semi coasted to a stop as Willie and Conner yelled clear then fired. The center truck was hit in the front, but the truck on the right swerved, making the rocket hit on the right wheel well. It blew out the wheel and killed the passenger, but the truck pushed on.

Bruce looked up and saw dump trucks pulling into the field and yelled out to shift fire. Turning back to the semi, Bruce watched it coming at the fence. Letting out a yell he lifted his rifle aiming at the cab and started squeezing off shots. The truck hit the ditch in front of the fence at 50mph and bounced up, slamming into the fence and coming to a bone crunching stop in front of a tower.

Turning back to the dump trucks, Bruce saw the tree line along the east field suddenly fill up with flashes of light as the attackers’ covering fire opened up. “Mike, mortars!” Bruce yelled into his radio, dropping down.

The tower to Bruce’s right suddenly exploded, throwing out two bodies. Then Bruce saw the same thing happen to the tower right in front of where the semi hit the fence. Then Bruce heard the thump of mortars behind him as the pits opened up. Crawling up to the top of the berm, Bruce brought up his rifle and started shooting between the two feet of fence and the razor wire.

Eight dump trucks were coming across the field as Bruce heard yelling to his right. Turning to the yelling, Bruce saw three dump trucks with men pouring out the back. The attackers were using the wrecked semi as a ramp and jumping over the fence into the farm.

“Omega, shift right! We have a breach!” Bruce yelled out as he shot a 40mm grenade, hitting the top of the cab of the truck and dropping a small group of attackers.

Bruce suddenly realized that they had trained and set up for an infected attack. They had people evenly spaced around the perimeter to keep up a constant volume of fire from everywhere. They had very little to call on for reserves, no fighting positions inside to fall back to. The fighting positions did not have anti-armor capabilities. He had never rearranged the defenses along the perimeter to fight off a fast assault force. They needed more people on this side to plug the breach.

Keying his mic, Bruce yelled over the gun fire, “We have a breach. Start pulling half the groups from the west and south. Get all the mortars to fire in the east field!”

“I already sent the relief force to the gap Bruce. They have contained the breach so far, forming a firing line from the east side of the house. The enemy has a penetrated about two hundred yards into the farm around the green houses up to the orchard,” Mike yelled back over the radio.

Looking back out into the field, Bruce saw the dump trucks were stopped and men were pouring out of them. ‘Holy shit, how big is this group’ Bruce thought as he opened up. The head of an Omega team member that was firing a SAW into the group heading to the make shift ramp suddenly exploded.

“Snipers!” Bruce yelled then keyed his radio, “Mike, concentrate the mortars on the tree line. They have snipers, heavy machine guns, and rocket fire teams there. We can’t repel with them active,” Bruce yelled out as he tried to stem the tide of men pouring over the fence.

Debbie just kept firing as she listened to Bruce and heard the explosions of the mortars in the field. The amount of men pouring over the wall was alarming, but she was shooting as fast as she could along with everyone else. Dropping down to replace her empty magazine, she started firing prone as she saw several clan members go down by the house.

Then she heard Stephanie call over the radio, “Contact in the hall.” Jumping up, Debbie ran for the back door of the house as bullets whizzed by her. Buffy saw Debbie take off running and jumped up, following her.

“Squad four, pull to the back of the northwest corner of the house and form a defensive line. Squad two, circle the house and do the same on the front,” Bruce yelled out, having never seen Debbie take off.

Bruce looked back into the field to see the far tree line light up as the mortar rounds exploded. Then he saw a shit load of trucks enter the field. “Squad one, shift. We have more trucks. Squads three and five, stay on the breach,” Bruce yelled as he loaded a 40mm round up, sighted in on a truck, and fired.

The round exploded on the left front tire blowing it out. The truck continued forward for a few yards until the axel dug into the ground causing the truck to flip over and catapult the men in the bed out. Flipping his selector to auto, Bruce sighted in on another truck’s front windshield and emptied the magazine, raking the front seat and killing everyone in the cab.

“Mike, light up the east field. There are more coming!” Bruce yelled over the radio.

Inside mission control, switches were thrown, blowing up the drums of fuel with soap buried around the field. Then Bruce heard a Bradley pull up behind him on the ramp twenty yards to his left and it opened up with its 25mm auto cannon, blowing up trucks as it swept the field. Like the LAVs, they had mounted machine guns on the turrets but on the Bradley’s they had put mini-guns.

The commander of the Bradley was raking the field, sending out streams of red and hosing down wrecked trucks. “Squad one, back to the breach,” Bruce yelled out, hoping they heard him.

Debbie crossed the patio and saw two men wearing jeans and t-shits in the kitchen through the back door. Bringing up her AUG and flipping to auto, she emptied the magazine into them, shattering the glass out of the door. Still running across the patio, she dropped the empty magazine and slammed in a new one. Jumping through the blown out window then over the bodies, she stopped on the right side of the door going into the den. Not seeing anything, she moved over to the other side of the doorway to clear the rest of the room and saw the front door open.

Just then, two men came in not wearing ACU’s, and Debbie shot both in the chest before they got in the house. Running to the front door, Debbie closed it, throwing the dead bolt. The door was a security door made of steel, and they never locked it. ‘Smart’ Debbie thought as she spun around. Looking in the theater and game area, she didn’t see anyone. Hearing a grenade go off at the east end of the house, she moved forward and eased across the room, looking down the hallway.

As she moved to clear the hall, Debbie saw a man laying prone and aiming a shotgun at her. Trying to sight in on him, she saw the end of his weapon flash as she squeezed the trigger and felt burning pain and a hard push on her left side, which knocked her down. Debbie heard suppressed shots coming from the hallway as she tried to bring up her rifle, only to have it kicked away.

Looking up, Debbie saw a man standing over her. “Oh, I’m fixing to have me some fun,” he said, bending down and grabbing her vest.

Buffy entered the den and saw the man grabbing Debbie. Pulling her switch blade out and letting her M-4 drop to hang by its sling, she ran toward the man, yelling, “That’s my Mama!”

Buffy jumped on the man’s back and started stabbing him in the neck as fast as her little arm could move. The man screamed as he stood up, trying to get her off his back. He reached up with his right hand and grabbed her head. Buffy raised her knife up, dragging the blade across his bicep and sliced it in two. The man screamed louder as blood shot out of his neck and bicep. When he let go of her hair, Buffy went back to stabbing him in the neck. Getting weak from blood loss, the man dropped to his knees then fell forward. Rolling off when he hit the ground, Buffy turned around with her knife up as Debbie shot him in the head. Buffy ran over to Debbie, “Are you okay, Mama?” she asked.

“Hallway, Buffy,” Debbie told her.

Buffy spun around, dropping her knife and grabbing her rifle. Side stepping slowly across the room so she could clear the hallway, Buffy saw a lot of bodies in front of the door going into mission control. Kneeling down, she eased out further until she could see all the way down the hall and out the open door on the east side of the house. When she saw a man run in the door who didn’t have on the clan uniform, she fired a burst into his chest, and he just collapsed in the hallway.

“Hallway is clear, Mama,” Buffy said, keeping her rifle pointed down the hall.

“Keep it clear, BB,” Debbie told her as she reached down, feeling where she hurt. When her hand reached her side, she felt blood. Forcing herself to sit up, Debbie looked down and saw a big ass hole in her left side. It was an inch from the top of her pelvis and about an inch from her side. Reaching around, she felt the exit wound.

“That fucker shot me with a slug!” Debbie shouted out.

“You need me, Mama?” Buffy asked, not taking her eyes off the hallway as more explosions sounded off the east end of the house.

“No, Buffy, keep that door covered. We left the damn doors unlocked, and they just walked in,” Debbie told her as she reached down and pulled out her bandages. Pulling them out, Debbie stuffed them in the wound to stop the bleeding. The pain almost made her pass out.

‘I can do this. This is not how I go’. She thought to herself as she packed the wound, looking up when Buffy opened up again then changed magazines.

“Did you get them?” Debbie asked as she struggled to stand up.

“Yes, I got two, Mama,” Buffy told her as Debbie moved to the game room door and locked it then joined Buffy, watching the hallway and seeing the pile of bodies in front of the door going into mission control.

‘The girls have been busy,’ Debbie thought, looking at the bodies. “Angela, Stephanie, we are in the den so watch your fire,” Debbie told them over the radio.

“We copy,” Angela said as they all waited for more targets to come inside.

The Bradley behind Bruce had pulled back to reload and was replaced by another one as Bruce pulled Omega off the berm. Half of Omega was off the berm when the Bradley was hit with a rocket, blowing it up and knocking the team to the ground. Sitting up, Bruce saw the shooter sixty yards away, inside the fence, dropping his empty AT-4. Bruce brought up his rifle, squeezing the trigger and hitting the man in the stomach and hip which made the man fall down screaming. The attackers had formed a large perimeter inside the farm but they were contained.

Bruce looked at where the semi hit and saw a different group of attackers run through, which make his blood cold. Bruce keyed his radio, “Blues are coming through the breach!” he yelled. All of Omega swung their weapons to the breach and opened up, cutting down those trying to get in. Bruce fired a grenade and joined in the fire to try to fight this new attacker.

Debbie heard Bruce yell over the radio and leaned to Buffy, “Cover me and remember the back door has no glass. I have to close and lock that door,” Debbie told Buffy as she stood up, fighting the pain.

“I’ll close the door, Mama,” Buffy told her.

“No, Buffy. I will. You stay here,” Debbie told her, and then told Angela and Stephanie over the radio.

Debbie slowly moved down the side of the hallway. Every time she moved her left leg, she wanted to puke. She continued to ease closer to the door, stepping on the pile of bodies and keeping her rifle aimed through the open door. When she saw a figure run past the opening, she fired, knocking it down as she continued moving down the hallway.

Reaching the open door, Debbie saw two more men and shot them both in the chest. As she changed magazines it occurred to Debbie that she had a great place to hit the attackers. Lowering her stance, she eased outside, saw a man run towards the front of the house, and shot him. Swinging her weapon to the back of the house, she shot four more. Then seeing something out of the corner of her eye, Debbie dropped to the ground as someone shot at her.

The bullets hit the house where her head was only a fraction of a second ago. Debbie rolled to her right and stopped, shooting the man who had shot at her. Changing magazines, Debbie turned around, looking at the holes in the side of the house. ‘They missed. That was supposed to be it. I made it’ she thought. Ignoring the pain, she got to her knees and started shooting at the attackers.

‘I’m going to live’ she wanted to scream as she swung from target to target. She thought about Angela and Stephanie, ‘Oh well, I get to stay with them after all, they make great wives’. Debbie saw five men dart from the orchard, running to the front of the house. Spinning around, Debbie dumped her full magazine, cutting them down. Then she felt fire on the back of her right arm, making her cry out.

She tried to pull her arm away from the fire but couldn’t. Turning her head, Debbie saw a woman who was about twenty with blue skin. She was latched on Debbie’s arm, shaking her head, driving her teeth through the sleeve into Debbie’s skin. The blue pulled back, taking a chunk of Debbie’s triceps with her.

Raising her right elbow up, Debbie drove it into the blue girl’s face knocking her down. Debbie let her AUG drop on its sling, grabbed her pistol, and emptied the magazine into the girl’s head. Grabbing her arm, she ran for the door, slamming it shut and locking it. Yelling to Stephanie and Angela, Debbie stumbled into the old mission control.

Angela and Stephanie saw Debbie enter with her left side covered in blood and blood on her right arm, and they ran to her. “Debbie, what happened?” Stephanie yelled, trying to get to Debbie’s arm, but Debbie turned away from her.

“I was bitten by a blue. Put a dressing on it, but nothing else,” Debbie told her as Angela grabbed her bandages and wrapped them around Debbie’s arm to stop the bleeding. They looked at Debbie with tears pouring out of their eyes.

“Debbie, you knew,” was all that Stephanie could say.

“What?” Angela gasped.

“She can tell you another day. Please help me to the couch and call Bruce,” Debbie told them. As they helped her to the couch, Buffy came running over.

“Mama, why didn’t you let me go?” Buffy cried out, hugging her.

“I had to go, Buffy. Besides, you saved me already,” Debbie said, rubbing Buffy’s head.

“Bruce, Debbie’s hurt. We’re in the den,” Angela called out over the radio, her voice breaking as she cried.

Bruce froze when he heard that. It was getting hard for him to breathe and his vision was getting fuzzy as he dropped to his knees. Shaking his head, Bruce yelled to Willie that he had command and took off to the house. Running across the patio, Bruce saw the window gone in the back door and jumped through it. Bounding through the kitchen, he stopped in the doorway to the den.

Debbie was lying on the couch with Angela, Stephanie, and Buffy beside her. Running to her, he noticed that blood covered her left side and right arm. The others moved as Bruce dropped to his knees beside her.

“Baby, what happened?” Bruce asked unzipping her vest but she stopped him.

“How is the battle going?” Debbie asked.

“They knocked out another Stryker and just reinforced with another group,” Bruce told her, trying to see her wounds.

Debbie closed her eyes, “How is the battle going?” she asked again.

Sighing, Bruce told her, “Not good. We have around two hundred still inside the fence, and they keep knocking out any vehicle we send. The tank is useless at that range, and every time we try to collapse their line, they reinforce.”

Tears came out of Debbie’s closed eyes, “Can we lose?” she asked.

“Easily. And some blues got in the breach. We stopped some, but some got through. I expect we will have a flood of them soon,” Bruce told her.

“I know. One bite me,” Debbie said, holding up her arm.

Bruce’s heart stopped when she said those words. He fell over her, hugging her tight and crying. Debbie hugged him back and asked him to sit up as she released him. Bruce sat on the edge of the couch, tears rolling down his face. Debbie looked at Bruce, smiling, then became serious, “I want to ask you to do something just for me,” she told him.

“Anything, baby,” Bruce told her.

Debbie smiled, “I want you to kill, Bruce. I want you to go on the wave and show me what you can do when you unleash everything, with no regrets. I want to feel the rage and hate on those that hurt me. Lying here, I want to hear their screams, yelling out, begging for mercy. I don’t want them to receive any mercy. I want them to feel pain, fear, and hate as hell comes for them. I want you to kill them all, unleash your hate. This I want just for me,” Debbie asked, grabbing his hand.

Bruce leaned forward and kissed her, then sat back up, “It will be done,” he said, standing up. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his face paint and smeared black over his face and head. Adjusting the sword on his back and taking the magazines from Debbie’s vest, he looked down at her. “Listen for your music. Buffy, lock the door when I’m through,” Bruce said, then turned and headed down the hall.

Keying his radio, “This is Big Daddy One to all units, hold positions. Do not advance, and check your targets before you fire. Mortar teams, keep your fire on the tree line. Hell has come and it’s time to see what it can do. No one is to shoot a wounded man until cleared to do so,” Bruce called out over the radio then turned it off. Bruce unlocked the door and grabbed the handle, going outside.

Stephanie looked at Debbie who was crying, “You said that you shouldn’t use hate on the wave,” she stated.

“You shouldn’t. Now I know why Bruce was fighting to stay sane in my dreams. I had to ask him that. It’s the only way we stand a chance. He has to unleash the hate and survive it,” Debbie said, crying.

“He’ll be okay,” Stephanie said, kneeling beside Debbie as Angela joined her.

“Yes, physically, he will,” Debbie said then looked at them. “I asked both of you to promise me something remember,” she asked them.

“To watch your family and take care of Bruce if anything happens to you,” Angela said, crying and Stephanie nodded, crying also.

“Will both of you do it?” Debbie asked.

“Yes,” they said together. “Until I die,” Stephanie added. “I’m with her,” Angela said.

“That red notebook you see me writing in is what I want each of you to read, but only the first ten pages. Then after Bruce reads it, I want you two to read it. Inside the front it is an envelope for each of you. When Bruce reads the notebook, I want you to give the other envelopes out in the back. The ones in my nightstand, you will know when,” Debbie said, hearing screams from outside over the gunfire. Closing her eyes, more tears rolled down her cheeks as Bruce moved, carrying out her wish.

“Okay,” Angela promised.

“You can’t do this. How do I know what to do? You’re still teaching me about Bruce and the family,” Stephanie said, falling over Debbie, bawling.

“Stephanie, in the cedar chest in my closet are the journals I have written over my whole life. In those, you will learn everything you need to know,” Debbie told her, hugging her as Angela hugged both of them. Buffy ran over and joined them as Mike ran into the room.

“Debbie, what the hell is going on? Bruce is running around in plain view, literally wading in blood,” Mike said as everyone moved off of her. Mike saw the wounds and looked at Angela. “Get the med kit from mission control and work on Debbie,” Mike told her. Angela got up, running downstairs as Mike looked back at Debbie.

“I unleashed Bruce. I’m sorry, but I just made your job of saving him a thousand times harder. In my nightstand drawer is your first letter, Mike,” Debbie told him and just looked at him with tears in her eyes. “I unleashed hell on earth. Tell our people to stay out of its way. It will kill indiscriminately until it’s saved,” Debbie finally said. More screams started to join the others outside. The difference between a hero and a villain was faith and love, and Bruce was losing both.

Chapter 33

When Bruce stepped out of the door, he broke into a dead run, heading to the fence. Seeing movement on his left, he snap aimed and fired, dropping two men. His skin was tingling as he watched them hit the ground as he continued to run for the fence. In front of him, he saw four men standing together. Bringing his rifle up, Bruce cut them down as he reached the fence. Turning slowly, he started dropping the attackers with gut and chest shots.

Changing magazines, Bruce headed south to the front of the farm until he found the enemy’s line, killing and wounding as he went. The sky was getting light when he found the base of their line and changed mags. They were spread out through the orchard, forming a line to the house and shooting into the farm. He snapped up his rifle, shooting them in the back with one shot apiece, until his thirty rounds were gone. He replaced his mag, repeating it again until the bolt locked back. Letting the SCAR drop, he pulled out the P-90 and continued moving up the line, dropping eighteen more. Then he put up the P-90 and pulled out his sword. Moving to the edge of the orchard at a full run, Bruce came up behind them, slashing and hacking.

No one ever turned around, the thought of them being attacked from behind never crossed their mind, as they continued to fire at the clan. With all the firing they had done without suppressors, all of the attackers’ ears were ringing, and they couldn’t hear the screams of the wounded around them. Bruce would run by one, chopping off an arm or leg. Others he slashed across their back, severing the spinal cord. When he reached the house another fifteen were down from his sword. Wiping the blade on his leg, he put it up and reloaded his weapons.

Bringing up the SCAR, he remembered this feeling from Africa, but this was much more intense. Looking out across the farm, he could feel where they were at. ‘Why didn’t I do this sooner’ he thought and smiled, hearing the screams coming from behind him. He was close to ecstasy as he moved forward and found the line at the corner of the house.

Kneeling down, he memorized where the enemy were hiding and shooting from. Bringing up his SCAR, he snapped off quick single shots, rapidly moving from body to body. Once again, Bruce only gave one shot apiece, in the center of the back. Feeling his bolt lock, Bruce dropped and replaced. Standing up, he ran right behind them shooting them, getting point blank on most, until his bolt locked back. Letting his SCAR hang, Bruce pulled the P-90, snapping off shots as he continued to run. Reaching the fence, Bruce knelt down and changed mags, then holstered the P-90 and reloaded the SCAR.

Listening, Bruce only heard sporadic gunfire from inside the farm, but did hear a lot of screaming, which made him smile. ‘That will make her happy’ he thought, hearing gunfire from the field. Bruce stood up, headed to the breach point, and jumped onto the truck to find six men talking into a radio at the base of the fence. None of them looked up as Bruce let his SCAR hang and pulled out his sword.

Jumping off the truck and landing beside them, he started swinging, slicing several in half. When they were down, Bruce took off to the north, heading to the creek. Seeing a group of blues in front of him that were coming from across the field where he was heading, Bruce reached across his back and pulled out his tomahawk. Running right at the blues then darting to one side, he chopped down seven with the tomahawk or sword, never losing his stride. The blues were spread out in a loose line as he ran forward and took out many more that came at him, which caused the others to stop.

Bruce was still running at the blues when they started letting out loud high pitched yelps and turned around, running away from Bruce. Other blues in the field heard the yelps and repeated them as they too ran away from the farm. Bruce tried to catch the blues, but they left him in the dust, jumping the twenty foot ravine and running across the field into the tree line. Stopping, Bruce pulled out a handkerchief to wipe the blood off his tomahawk and sword. Dropping the handkerchief, he broke into a run to the creek then followed it to the tree line.

On the berm, Paul lowered his M-4 in disbelief. He was fixing to help Bruce by clearing a path through the blues, but they ran away from him and he was chasing them. Paul headed to the house to check on everyone there. The rest of his family was in the mortar pits, still firing rounds into the far tree line. “Mike, tell the mortars to stop firing. Bruce is heading to the tree line,” Paul called over the radio as he headed inside. Walking into the house, everyone stopped and looked up at Paul, who looked scarred by what he just witnessed. Looking around at the crowd in the den, Paul saw Angela wrapping up Debbie’s arm and a large dressing on her side.

“What, Paul?” Nancy asked.

Paul shook his head, “I just watched Bruce charge a group of thirty plus blues with a sword and tomahawk. He cut down over half of them, and then the others stopped. They started yelping and ran away from him. Other blues in the field that were not even heading to Bruce started yelping and ran away also. What the fuck is going on?” Paul asked as Jake came in.

Mike looked at Jake. “I thought you were clearing out the tree line from the water tower?” he asked.

“Don’t have to. Dad is doing that and all the blues ran off,” Jake said, heading to his Mama.

“See, told ya,” Paul said.

Mike walked over to Jake, “Son, I know you want to stay with her, but I need you to get Omega and round up their wounded in one place. Tie up those that surrender who aren’t wounded, then kill all of their wounded. We will decide what to do with the prisoners later.” Mike directed. Debbie told Jake to go, and they would talk later.

Mike looked at Angela and Stephanie, “I need you two to go with Nancy and start tending our wounded. Buffy, stay with your Mama. I’ll send Danny in here. I have to get back to mission control then go help our wounded,” Mike said, watching everyone leave.

Mike looked at Debbie with tears in his eyes, “Debbie-,” was all he could say.

“Mike, it’s okay. Don’t say you wish Bruce would have taken me away, because everyone would be dead now or worse. Did you see him on the monitors killing them?” Debbie asked.

Mike nodded his head, “Yes, from the time he stepped out the door, I watched him shoot almost a hundred men. I lost count on the ones he got with his sword. I swear he was trying to wound them all and not kill them outright. The entire time he was smiling,” Mike admitted.

“I asked him to make them scream before they died as a gift to me,” Debbie told him.

Gasping, Mike replied, “Debbie-,” was all he could say.

“You see what you are up against, but you have to help save him. Give him some time first. You will know when. Remember your promise and just to let you know, Bruce can save humanity. You and the others have to save him first. It might cost you some lives, but you have to do it. Now, go Mike and take care of the clan. I have time,” Debbie said as Buffy laid down beside her. Mike walked back down to mission control as Debbie started talking, giving instructions to Buffy.

Two miles to the east.

Warren just looked at the radio, wanting to know why no one was answering him. Scott looked at him, “That is why you send in more than four radios,” he told him.

“I told you they can track you with them,” Warren growled, looking out at the dawn’s light.

“We are attacking them, who cares if they track us now. The mortars quit, and we took the main house early. They reported taking out Strykers and Bradleys. The heavy guns and snipers quit shooting and they reported blues leaving,” Scott said, leaning back. They were at the end of the road, sitting in the back seat of a Suburban.

“Then why aren’t they answering?” Warren asked, looking at Scott.

“Radio trouble I guess. We had twenty-seven men left on the covering force at last report. You just can’t wipe out that many without them getting a message out. Hell, they might have just went to the farm for the celebration,” Scott replied.

“They damn well better not have,” Warren said, throwing down the microphone.

Warren just leaned back till he heard a scream outside. He sat up and turned around to see a group of blues take down the five men on command guard. The he heard a bang on the passenger side as another group of blues hit the truck from the woods.

“Get us out of here, Carl!” Warren screamed.

Carl started the truck up, stomping on the gas as several blues climbed on the hood. Carl yelled as he stomped the brakes and turned the steering wheel. Then Carl stomped on the gas, spinning the vehicle around to leave, but the blues on the hood were still there. Then the group that had taken the guards joined the other group, charging straight at the vehicle.

Trying to see through the small gaps between the bodies, Carl spun the wheel back and forth as the blues piled on the vehicle. The mass of bodies was slowing them down. Carl continued pressing the gas, and the vehicle started to high center on the bodies it was running over. Letting off the gas, Carl pushed the 4-wheel drive button and stomped the gas down, but the vehicle was aimed at the ditch from all his weaving.

The front tires pulled the vehicle forward with a jolt. Feeling them moving, Carl tried to put his foot through the floorboard. When the back tires grabbed, the truck shot forward into the ditch, slamming into the bottom and lifting the back off the ground, throwing everyone into the windshield.

Warren shook his head, looking out the side passenger window and seeing the blues coming toward them. “How many you think there are, Scott?” Warren asked, pulling out his pistol.

“About forty,” Scott replied, pulling out his pistol also. “When the first window goes, we will start shooting them through it. I will shoot. When I empty, you shoot, and we continue that,” Scott said as Warren nodded. Just then, the back passenger window shattered, and Scott started shooting.

Bruce slowed his jog through the woods, hearing the shooting up ahead and smiling. The command group was still there, and the blues had found them. Breaking into a dead run, he heard the gunfire continue as he got closer. He slowed down when he could see the area.

A dark blue Suburban with antennas on the rear bumper was stuck in the ditch across the road. The front end was at the bottom of the five-foot deep ditch, and the back was almost pointing up. The blues were circling the vehicle, trying to get in the broken out window. A large pile of bodies was lying on the ground that they had to climb over, but they did not care. They wanted to kill.

Thinking for a minute, Bruce could only see about a dozen left. Bringing his rifle up, Bruce shot out the back window, and someone inside shot at the window as it shattered. Then Bruce took out a flash bang, pulling the pin. He waited until four blues were left, then took off running to the vehicle. When the last blue went down, Bruce let the spoon pop off, let the grenade cook then threw it in the window he shot out. Bruce dropped down, covering his ears and opening his mouth as a loud ‘BANG’ sounded as the flash bang went off inside the truck, blowing out the side windows.

Jumping up, Bruce ran to the driver side and pulled the driver out, then the other two, all unconscious. Bruce zip tied their hands and feet, then dragged them to the road. That was when he recognized Warren. “Well, buddy, I can tell you I’m going to play with you for a long time. Before you die, you will curse God for letting your mother give birth to you,” Bruce told the unconscious form loudly. Feeling something behind him, Bruce dropped and spun around, aiming down the road. Not seeing anything, Bruce moved to the ditch.

Bruce waited and watched for thirty seconds then he heard a voice, “Bruce, where are you at? It’s Marcus.”

“Advance to be recognized!” Bruce yelled out.

“Okay, coming out, hold fire,” Marcus yelled and stepped out of the woods. He was wearing his tiger strip uniform, but he had tied small branches to it.

Bruce lowered his rifle, “What the hell are you doing running around?” Bruce demanded.

“Coming to see if we could help. Y’all were making some serious noise. I’m sure it could be heard for a hundred miles,” Marcus said, crossing the ditch. He was followed by twenty others, who like Marcus had leaves tied to their uniforms.

Bruce looked at his watch then at Marcus, “You mean to tell me you made it fifteen miles from your farm to here in two and a half hours,” Bruce asked, feeling he had to work on his running.

“Shit no, we left last night at midnight to make sure the road was clear. We were five miles out but couldn’t speed up because we kept running into blues or they ran into us, heading for the noise. Then they started running away, yelping,” Marcus told him.

Feeling better, Bruce turned around, pulling his plastic survival box out of his back pocket. “Well round one is over, and it was a doozy,” Bruce said, taking out fishhooks and fishing line.

Marcus looked at Bruce’s face, and a tear rolled down Marcus’ cheek. Bruce was on the white elephant, feeding it the hate the white elephant demanded as it took part of your soul. Not looking up as he worked, Bruce asked, “Is the road clear, and did y’all call mission control telling them you were on the way?”

“Yeah, it’s clear, and we called Mike about an hour ago. He told us you were out killing attackers and blues, not caring which,” Marcus replied as Bruce tied five feet of string to three fishing hooks.

“That’s not true. I have a special prize. These are the commanders,” Bruce said, pulling out his knife.

Marcus watched Bruce laying out his stuff then asked, “Bruce, why are you feeding the white elephant? The price is high, I know, I’ve rode that bitch.”

Bruce looked up, and Marcus could feel a wave of hate hit him. Not directed at him just the hate that was demanded. “Debbie is going to die. She asked me to kill them, make them suffer to save the clan. This is just for her,” Bruce told him. Marcus could see Bruce’s jaw muscles tighten as he looked at him.

Marcus looked at his team, “Fire team, circle us and let us work. I don’t want to be disturbed,” Marcus said as he kneeled down. He laid his rifle down, pulling out his knife as the feeling he had not felt in over fifty years washed over him. Closing his eyes, Marcus climbed on the white elephant with Bruce. Hate that it demanded flooded his body, coursing through him. “What do you want me to do?” Marcus asked, holding up his knife, willing to ride for his friend. Bruce smiled, looked into Marcus’s face, and told him.

Chapter 34

Mike walked into the den to find Buffy and Debbie still talking. They stopped and looked up at him. “Well, what did that cost us in lives?” Debbie asked.

Sighing, Mike replied, “Forty-five dead, one hundred and sixty-eight wounded.”

“Anyone else bit?” Debbie asked.

Mike shook his head no, “We had everyone strip down to make sure.”

“Bruce?” Debbie inquired.

“Fixing to come through the front gate with a patrol Marcus led over here to check the road out for ambush or mines. Bruce got the commanders. They are just following him like dogs, butt naked,” Mike told her, looking at Buffy.

Debbie saw the look and told Buffy to get her a glass of water when she left Debbie asked, “What?”

“Debbie, I will mix up something so you can ease out,” Mike told her.

“Mike, if you remember, Stephanie said they shoved a bunch of drugs into the blues and at most they could only knock them out. I’m not taking chances, I’ll have Bruce do it,” Debbie said.

“He can’t kill you Debbie,” Mike told her.

“Yes he can, because he loves me that much. I really don’t trust anyone else. I want every second, so it will be him,” Debbie replied with certainty as Buffy brought her a glass of water and Debbie thanked her. Danny came in and ran to her Mama, dropping her rifle on the floor as she wrapped her arms around her.

“Marcus told his clan to head over. I’m going to help with the wounded,” Mike said, leaving them.

Bruce led his toys through the gate with Marcus beside him and the team behind them. Walking down the driveway to the house, Paul ran up to them and stopped seeing the naked men behind Bruce. Looking at them closely, Paul saw they had tears on their faces and were crying but not making a sound. Then Paul found the reason for their tears. Each had a fish hook through a testicle, tied to fishing line held in Bruce’s hand.

“These are the commanders,” Bruce told Paul.

Paul felt better, then told Bruce, “Hey, I know him. That’s Tonya’s dad, Warren.”

“Yeah, I know,” Bruce replied.

Paul looked at Warren, smiling, “Warren, you asshole. I just have to say you have a pure treat coming to you. Let me warn you, though. If you fight it, Bruce will keep you alive for weeks,” Paul told him, then turned to Bruce. “I really hate him even more now, but the enemy’s wounded have all been killed, and the prisoners are tied up.”

Bruce nodded then asked, “Who killed them? How many prisoners and where are they?”

“Omega took care of the wounded on Mike’s order. Twenty-six prisoners and they are behind the barn. We wiped out the last pocket of attackers fifteen minutes ago,” Paul answered, then noticed that Marcus had the same expression on his face that Bruce did.

Bruce smiled, proud of his team. Max ran over to him and growled at the three men, “Bring the prisoners to the side of the shop. Paul, get crews up now to get the east field clear and the fence repaired. You have two hours, so move fast then get the damaged vehicles out of here. For that, you have another two hours. By nightfall I want to be ready for another attack,” Bruce told him as he petted Max.

Paul stood rooted to the ground. “We’re going to get hit again?” he asked.

“Oh yeah, we will have to play hard with all the noise that was made. I can feel them coming,” Bruce told him.

“Get more heavy equipment in here also. My clan will be here shortly, and we’ll help you,” Marcus told him.

“Meet you by the shop with the prisoners then you can start,” Bruce said, yanking the string and leading his prisoners.

Bruce took his human toys into the shop and tied them to the metal tables with zip ties. Then Bruce, with Marcus’ help, tied their strings to a piece of metal and hung it off the table, keeping them taut. Walking to the fridge, Bruce grabbed three bottles of water and made his human toys drink them down. Making sure Warren they were put up and taken care of, Bruce walked over and grabbed two five gallon jugs of gas. Then he grabbed four metal stakes, two pieces of chain, a sledgehammer and two bags of eighteen inch zip ties. Marcus helped him carry the stuff outside.

Setting the cans of gas down by the shop, Bruce came around the corner and saw the group of prisoners. A large crowd of clan members were standing around them with expressions of hate on their face. Walking over to the prisoners, Bruce stood in front of them. “Let me have your attention, please. Your wounded are dead. They were weak and had no place here. Just to let you know, I am the one that wounded the majority of them, so she could hear them scream. It was great but I found they were all weak and have no place here. I am here to offer each of you a chance to join us but you have to pass a test of pain first,” Bruce told them as a member of his clan stepped forward, raised his hand, and pointed at Bruce, fixing to say something.

Before the words came out, Bruce had pulled out his pistol, aiming at the man. “One word and you will die,” Bruce told him. The man lowered his hand as the color drained from his face, and he stepped back into the crowd.

Bruce put his pistol up and looked at the prisoners, “Now, since I was interrupted, you can see what kind of discipline I demand here. Your test of pain will be for those that want to try to join. You will be staked out in the sun for three days. If you say nothing, don’t cry out at any time, and of course survive, you will be allowed to join. Those that don’t want to, you will be tortured the same three days around the clock, and those that survive will have to kill you slowly,” Bruce told them and pointed to a spot in front of him. “Those that want to try and join us, lay side by side here with three feet between each of you,” Bruce said.

They all moved one at a time to the spot and laid down side by side as he had instructed. Bruce grabbed the metal rods and the sledgehammer. Bruce started driving the first rod into the ground as Marcus went back to the shop, giggling, and came back with another sledgehammer. Marcus grabbed another rod, knowing what Bruce wanted and started driving the rod in the ground. With both of them working, it only took minutes.

Next, they ran one chain connecting the rods above the prisoner’s heads then did the same at their feet. Then Bruce and Marcus had the prisoners sit up, with a gun to their groin, as the ties around their hands were cut. Then they told the prisoners to lay down with their arms over their head, with their wrists on the chain above their head about a foot apart. Then they tied their feet to the bottom chain with their legs spread apart three feet. Bruce looked at his watch, seeing 0745 when he heard the vehicles from Marcus’s clan pull in.

They were just finishing when Carroll came over to Marcus, smiling with relief that he was okay. When she saw his face the smile fell off hers. “Marcus, don’t,” Carroll begged him.

Marcus looked up at her, “Carroll, Debbie is going to die because of them,” Marcus told her.

Hate filled Carroll’s face, “Where Debbie be at?” she asked with tears running down her cheeks.

“In the den,” Bruce told her.

Carroll turned to the house but stopped and walked over to Marcus, kissing him on the cheek, “I better be hearin’ them scream inside, and they screams better be filled with the pain,” Carroll told him as she walked away saying a prayer for forgiveness.

“I can guarantee it,” Marcus told her.

Bruce looked at Marcus, “Where have you seen this?” he asked.

“VC. How about you?” Marcus asked.

“Islamic Front in Africa,” Bruce replied, heading to grab the gas cans. Bruce opened the cans and walked down the line, pouring gas just on the prisoners’ pelvis. The prisoners started to scream and yell when he started pouring the gas, but they couldn’t even turn over with how they were tied. He didn’t get any on their chest so they could breathe or on their feet so the plastic ties wouldn’t melt.

As Bruce put the can down, the prisoners were still screaming and begging for mercy. Bruce patted his vest and remembered his heavy vest didn’t have a lighter. As he turned to head to the shop, Marcus pulled out a zippo, “You can have it,” Marcus told him, grinning.

“Thank you,” Bruce said as he stepped up to the line. “See, y’all failed. I wasn’t going to light it,” Bruce lied, making them feel worse. “Now I have to,” Bruce told them, and then they all started screaming louder. Lighting the zippo, Bruce threw it, and the screams filled with pain as he and Marcus headed to the patio.

Mike was waiting on them, wiping his hands on a towel and listening to the screams, enjoying them. “I hear you took care of the prisoners,” Mike said when they came over.

“This is only the beginning,” Bruce replied, grinning. “I have Paul clearing the field and repairing the fence. We need to get the towers repaired and ammo spread around to the east side. Every heavy machine gun we have needs to be put on the fence. Mike, when I say spread the ammo, I mean piles,” Bruce told him.

“You’ve been to mission control already?” Mike asked.

“No, I know what’s coming. It will be an adventure to remember,” Bruce told him, smirking.

“You haven’t asked about our people,” Mike said, and Bruce just shrugged his shoulders. “Listen, these are our people. They fought just like you wanted them to. The held the line and a lot died,” Mike said loudly.

Bruce thought about Mike’s words and replied, “You’re right, I’m sorry. That was uncalled for,” Bruce said, feeling bad. Then the hate flooded through his body again as Mike reported the dead and injured.

Watching Bruce’s reaction to his words, Mike felt a lot better. Then Mike asked, “How many you figure will show up?”

“Over a million,” Bruce replied, making Mike step back. “How’s Debbie?” Bruce asked, feeling his heart die.

“Angela dressed her wounds, stopping the bleeding. Then she and Stephanie helped the other wounded. They just went back to her. All the kids are in there with her, and I’ll be there shortly,” Mike told him, with the prisoners still screaming in the back ground.

The congressman, Mitch, came running over. When he reached them, he bowed his head and got to his knees, “Mister Bruce, I heard your wife was bitten. I just want you to know I am sorry. If you want me to, I will take care of it for you before she turns,” Mitch offered. Looking up, he saw Bruce’s hand move so fast it was just a blur as Bruce pulled out his pistol, shooting Mitch between the eyes.

Mitch fell over on his side as Bruce holstered his pistol, “Yeah and I didn’t vote for you either,” Bruce told the corpse. Mike looked at the body and shrugged his shoulders.

“I will be in the den in about fifteen minutes, brother,” Mike said, heading back to the center to tend the wounded.

Bruce and Marcus walked inside. When Bruce stepped into the den and saw Debbie, the hate subsided. Bruce could feel his heart hurting as he hung his rifle up. Debbie looked up at him. He was covered in dirt and blood, the black face paint had sweated off, leaving his face gray looking. “You’re filthy,” Debbie said as Bruce turned around.

“I have been playing. Did you like your present?” Bruce asked with a grin.

“Yes I did, and I can still hear them,” Debbie told him, making Bruce smile. Debbie smiled at him, asking hopefully, “Can you turn the hate off now and just stay on the wave?”

“Not yet, baby. I still need it please. It’s going to get bad,” Bruce told her.

Debbie sighed, “Well, your other wives might worry about you if you don’t let it go in a week or so,” she told him, knowing the hate would be with him a long time. Looking at Bruce, she smiled and prayed he would make it through this personal hell.

Talking off his gloves and glasses, he dropped them to the floor as he walked over to Angela and Stephanie and kissed them. Debbie wanted to shout triumphantly when she saw how Bruce looked at them. He cared and loved them. When he leaned to kiss Debbie, she stopped him. “I can’t, baby. I’m infected,” she told him and the pain in Bruce’s chest increased. Slapping her hands away, he kissed her on the forehead because she wouldn’t let him kiss her on the mouth.

Bruce stood up as Debbie asked, “Baby, don’t take this the wrong way but will you shower please, but make it a fast one.”

“Be right back,” Bruce told her as he took off running upstairs.

Debbie looked at Angela and Stephanie. “I saw it,” Stephanie told her.

“I did too,” Angela added.

“Okay, you two have to take care of our family. Bruce sucks at the finer details as you’ve seen. Remember what we have talked about, and I love both of you, it was a blast,” Debbie told them. Then Debbie turned to the kids, hers and Nancy’s. “Y’all have to help them, and you better show them the respect they deserve. I have told them the secrets I have kept from your fathers about each of you. They can’t kick your ass, but they can tell your fathers and they will. Love and respect them. You help them with the kids also,” Debbie told them, and they all promised they would. “Watch your father. This is going to hurt him more than you can imagine. Stay strong for him and listen to him. Always remember, I love you and will always be with you,” Debbie added.

Danny kneeled down by Debbie. “Mama, I’m sorry I was bad,” Danny said, crying.

Debbie laughed, “You weren’t bad, Danny. You are a great daughter, and I couldn’t be prouder of you. Just to let you know, everything you did, so did I with my mother, but I did a little more.” Debbie told her as Danny leaned over, hugging her. Debbie had to stop Danny from kissing her.

“Danny, will you go get the digital picture frames off my dresser and put them on the coffee table,” Debbie asked, and Danny took off like a bolt of lightning upstairs. Danny grabbed them and flew back down, putting them on the table for her mama.

Bruce jumped out of the shower, grabbed a new pair of tiger stripes and his other boonie hat, and put his camera on it changing the card out. It was now second nature and he did it automatically, without thinking. Grabbing the other heavy vest he had put together, but not putting it on, and grabbing his other two SCARs, he headed downstairs.

When he walked into the den, everyone was laughing. Several people were in the hallway and den cleaning up the blood on the floor. Debbie looked at Bruce as he dropped his vest on the floor, “Bruce, I want you to go with Angela and Stephanie to explain to the twins and Cade, then bring them over with PJ,” Debbie asked as Jake snapped a picture. “Jake, I really look terrible,” Debbie told him as Angela and Stephanie stood up.

“No, you don’t Mama,” Jake told her as he took another one.

Buffy looked at Debbie, “Mama, how many pictures do you have of me?” she asked.

Debbie smiled at her, “I don’t know, but I’m sure it’s at least a couple of hundred,” Debbie told her, making Buffy smile. Then a picture came up on one of the digital picture frames of Buffy by the swimming pool followed by several more. “You’re one of my babies, too,” Debbie told her.

Bruce led Angela and Stephanie to the school to tell the twins. The screams of the wounded had died down to moans as they passed them. The fire had died out. As they walked by, Angela ran over and started kicking one, then stomped on his face, joined by Stephanie. Bruce let them continue for a few minutes, then walked over.

“We need to move along. I would really like to spend our time with Debbie,” Bruce told them, and they turned and followed Bruce. When they were almost at the school, Bruce stopped, “I’ll tell them. Angela, I will not ask you to tell our children this again. Stephanie, you’re still new to being a parent,” Bruce told them. They both hugged him then went into the school.

Gathering the kids around, Bruce explained to them, and they just broke down. Cade didn’t understand when his dad died, but he had come to understand. He just stood like a statue as Bruce told them about Debbie. Emily and Sherry just collapsed in Bruce’s arms. PJ came over because his family was there. Picking up the kids, they carried them over to the house. Meeting Mike on the patio, they walked in together.

Throughout the morning, they talked and laughed, and Millie brought food over. Bruce fed Debbie, telling everyone he did this in each pregnancy for Debbie. When he was finished, Debbie asked him to go to mission control and get an update.

Walking into flight control, Bruce saw a view of Shreveport-Bossier. Blues had gathered on the Bossier side of the river. Looking around, he saw the blues from Ruston were heading toward them. Bruce left, heading outside and checking in with Marcus. Finding Marcus had the situation in hand, Bruce went back to the house.

Bruce just nodded at Debbie when he walked into the den and sat down, putting her feet in his lap. The room was quiet as Bruce asked, “I take it your burial wishes are to be carried out?”

“Hell yes,” Debbie shot back, then said, “I want to make one change. I want to add Angela, Stephanie, Buffy, the twins, Cade, and PJ.”

Bruce nodded as Danny asked because she did not hear her name, “What are your wishes, Mama?”

“Your father and I agreed to be cremated and have our ashes mixed as our last request. When we pass, we wanted to give each child a small cylinder with a pinch of our ashes in it so they could wear it if they wanted to. Knowing we are always with them, physically and spiritually,” Debbie told her.

“What about us, Mama Debbie?” Mary jumped up crying, “We love you too!”

“Debbie-,” was all Nancy could get out.

Debbie looked at her other family then to Bruce, “Add them too.”

Nancy came over to Debbie, “I want to ask you. Mike and I agreed the same about being cremated. Can you and Bruce agree to put some of your ashes in a vase with mine and Mike’s? That way we are always together.”

“Of course,” Debbie told her, not knowing the tradition they were starting.

Father Thomas came over, the family prayed, and he gave Debbie last rites. Then he left to go help tend the wounded. Debbie looked at Bruce when Father Thomas left, then to Stephanie. “Stephanie, how much time do I have and don’t bullshit me?” Debbie asked her.

Stephanie grabbed a pair of gloves and looked at Debbie’s wounds then her eyes and mouth. Taking off her gloves, Stephanie sat back down on the floor, and Emily climbed in her lap. Looking at the floor, “Morning,” was all Stephanie said.

“When will I start forgetting?” Debbie asked.

“About an hour before the change is complete,” Stephanie said, still looking at the floor and hugging Emily.

“How can you be that sure?” Mike asked.

“She has new tissue forming at the wound sites, and her gums are getting a bluish cast to them,” Stephanie said crying.

Debbie looked at Stephanie, “Don’t be mad for telling me the truth, thank you.”

“This sucks!” Stephanie screamed out, scaring a few people. Stephanie looked at Debbie, tears pouring out of her eyes, “I wish it was me there instead of you. You’re the best person in the world, and I have never been so happy. I didn’t know I could be this happy, and it’s because of you. I would give anything, including my soul, to trade places with you,” Stephanie spilled out.

“Don’t say that. You never know when evil is listening,” Debbie warned her.

“I don’t care. If Satan gave me the offer, I would take it. I got to feel just a little true happiness that you gave me. You are too important to this world,” Stephanie told her.

Debbie looked at the crying red headed princess, “There is one too many souls at stake here already for you to offer yours for a foolish request. You have a promise to keep and let me tell you something. There is a heaven, I know it. My Daddy came to me in my dreams and told me. I will wait on each of you and until then I will watch over you,” Debbie promised.

Stephanie stood up, holding Emily and walked over to hug Debbie, “I will keep my promise no matter what,” Stephanie assured her, making Debbie smile. Emily left Stephanie and laid by Debbie. Sherry ran over and joined them, both crying on Debbie’s chest as Debbie rubbed their heads.

Debbie turned to Bruce and he said, “No.”

“Yes Bruce, I want you to do it. I want to wait until the last possible second, and I won’t be able to do it myself. I can’t take drugs, so will you, for me?” Debbie asked.

“No, I will not,” Bruce told her.

“Bruce, I can’t ask anyone else because they would try to keep me after I change. The thought of me hurting someone I love and care about hurts my soul. Then to be on this earth and not remember my family and friends, that is worse than hell. At least there I could remember,” Debbie told him.

“You know I will, Debbie,” Bruce said, feeling his world crashing down.

“I knew you would, baby. I just needed to hear you say it. I would do it for you so put your mind at ease,” Debbie informed him.

“No, Mama,” Danny told her.

“So, Danny you want me living a hell on earth. Trapped in a shell, not able to remember my family for who knows how long since these damn things heal fast,” Debbie asked.

“I’m sorry, Mama,” Danny replied, realizing what she had asked.

“It’s okay,” Debbie assured her then looked at Steve. “Where’s Tonya?” Debbie asked.

“She doesn’t want to be around us right now because she thinks she is to blame for Warren,” Steve told her with Nathan in his lap.

“That’s horseshit,” Bruce told him.

“I told her the same thing, Dad, but she put her head under a pillow, telling me not to look at her,” Steve replied then looked at Debbie. “He’s not her father. Pam had an affair with an old high school flame and got pregnant,” Steve informed the family.

“I wondered, because she looks nothing like Warren or his family,” Debbie pointed out.

“Tonya introduced me to her Daddy, and she looks just like him,” Steve told Debbie.

“Tell her to get down here,” Debbie ordered Steve.

“Mom, she throws shit at me, and she throws hard. What she throws at me, hits me, and it hurts,” Steve informed her, showing the bruises on his arms.

Bruce stood up, “She in your room, son?” Bruce asked, and Steve nodded his head.

Bruce walked to Steve’s room upstairs and knocked. “Go away!” Tonya yelled.

“Tonya, its Bruce. Open the door please,” he said to the door.

“Go away! I’m a traitor, and I brought death here!” She screamed.

“That’s not true. Now open the door. I asked the first time, now I’m telling. Yell at me again, and you get a spanking,” Bruce let her know.

“Leave me alone, damn it!” she yelled out.

Bruce gripped the door handle and squeezed the knob as he turned the handle, breaking the lock and opening the door. Tonya lifted her head up, holding a pillow over the back of her head and yelled, “Leave me alone!” as she slammed her head back on the bed.

Bruce walked over and popped her on the butt, hard. Tonya sat up, rubbing her butt and looking at Bruce in shock. “I warned you,” Bruce told her.

“You hit me,” Tonya said in shock.

“Yep, sure did. I spanked you, and if you keep it up, you’ll get another one. Now Debbie wants to see you and rub your belly,” Bruce told her.

Tonya just stared at Bruce in shock, rubbing her butt as Bruce walked over and picked her up in his arms. “I can walk,” Tonya told him.

“You had your chance,” Bruce told her as he carried her downstairs to find Pam in the den talking to Debbie.

Bruce let her down, standing her beside the couch. Pam looked at Tonya, “I told them the truth,” she told Tonya.

“Great, so now I’m known as a bastard child, raised by an asshole,” Tonya snapped at Pam.

Bruce leaned forward and popped her butt twice, this time harder. “Quit it,” Bruce warned, pointing at her.

“He spanked me again,” Tonya said, looking around.

“I couldn’t reach you,” Debbie told her.

Nathan ran over to stand beside Tonya, “Don’t you spank my Mama,” he warned with an angry look.

Bruce leaned down and the angry look fell off Nathan’s face, but he stood his ground. “Let me tell you, Nathan. I’m proud you want to defend your Mama, but I’m the Daddy of your Daddy, and I told your Mama she was allowed to call me Daddy. That makes her my child also. That means no matter how big you get, if you act bad, I will tear your ass up,” Bruce told Nathan who moved back some.

“Nathan, come here now,” Steve told him, and Nathan ran over to him.

Bruce turned to Tonya, “If you degrade yourself once again, I’ll get a belt. You are part of this family and I expect more than that. Now, I’m proud of your Mom for her roll with her old flame. It makes what I’m going to do so much easier. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t going to let him go but I might have felt a little guilt when I looked at you from time to time,” Bruce told Tonya. From the look on his face, no one believed he would have felt guilty.

“You spanked me,” Tonya said, again in disbelief.

“Buffy, get my black leather belt hanging off my closet door!” Bruce yelled, and Buffy shot upstairs as Tonya backed toward Pam.

“Don’t come near me. I’m using the belt on you when he’s finished,” Pam told her as Buffy ran back down and handed the belt to Bruce.

“Now apologize to yourself, your husband, your son, and my grandbaby for degrading yourself,” Bruce told her. Tonya did what Bruce said, and he sat down. Debbie rubbed Tonya’s small pooch of a stomach.

Tonya stayed by Debbie as she continued to rub her belly and talk to her grandbaby. When she was finished, Tonya leaned over, kissing Bruce on the head, but Debbie didn’t let Tonya kiss her. Tonya told Bruce she was sorry and went to sit by Steve and Nathan. Bruce helped Debbie to the bathroom then went to check on the farm. Debbie sent everyone but Angela and Stephanie to take a shower.

“Why isn’t Bruce crying?” Angela asked Debbie.

“He will when he lets the hate go,” Debbie assured her.

“Will he be the same?” Angela asked.

“Is he still treating you the same?” Debbie asked her.

“Yeah, he wouldn’t let us tell the kids. He did it, to protect us,” Angela told her.

Debbie smiled and thanked God for that, “He will be different because I’m gone, but he will love you. Just stand beside him and try to rein him in when he starts going a little too far,” Debbie told her.

Angela looked at Debbie. “If Bruce decides to attack hell, I’ll be by his side, and you know Stephanie will,” Angela proclaimed.

They sat and talked until the others and Bruce came back. Bruce went down to mission control and came back with a laptop and handed it to Stephanie. When she opened it, Stephanie saw a view of the horde in Bossier slowly moving toward them. Bruce asked her for a count as Conner ran through the den down to mission control. When Conner ran back by, Bruce got up and followed him outside. A few minutes later, Bruce came back and sat down, shaking his head.

Stephanie looked up at Bruce, “One point two million give or take fifty thousand,” Stephanie told him. Then Bruce told her to look at the other UAVs over the Ruston, Monroe, and Alexandria areas where hordes were heading to them.

Studying each picture, Stephanie put the Ruston and Alexandria hordes each at fifty thousand, Monroe at a hundred and seventy thousand. Bruce told everyone that the hordes had stayed in place, getting larger, and then they started moving slowly towards them. The UAV’s video showed the blues roaring like they were communicating to others over long distance. Some actually looked like they were relaying information between hordes. There were small packs everywhere between the hordes, and they would hear a roar from one direction then turn toward the horde that did not start the roar. The pack would roar and the next pack would roar until it reached a horde. Then the process would reverse back to the original horde but also move to another horde.

Everyone took that information and just thought of the meaning, except PJ, who was getting tired and started throwing a fit. Debbie held out her arms and he walked, over getting in her arms and laying on her chest. Rubbing his head, Debbie hummed him to sleep as tears rolled down her face. Watching Debbie, Bruce’s heart started to hurt more, which he couldn’t believe. Max slowly stood up off the floor where he was laying with the twins and looked at Debbie, Max started growling. Baring his teeth, Max moved in front of the twins. Bruce pulled the pistol from the small of his back, aiming at Max. His vest was still on the floor.

Lifting her foot up, Debbie pushed his hand. “Bruce, put it away, he’s protecting family. Isn’t that what you are training everyone here to do? Don’t shoot Max. In your battles to come, you’ll need him a lot,” Debbie told Bruce as Carroll came inside. Debbie asked everyone if she could have a few minutes alone with her.

Everyone left and Bruce took Max out Debbie looked up at Carroll as she sat down on the coffee table beside her. “I’m sorry Bruce pulled Marcus on the wave,” Debbie told her.

Carroll scoffed, waving her hand at Debbie. “Baby, Marcus got on the white elephant to show Bruce he had someone with him that’s been on it. To help Bruce and to show him you can get off and remain sound,” Carroll told her.

“Bruce has ridden and got off, but it hurt, claiming a piece of him,” Debbie told her.

“Debbie, I can’t blame either of them. If it was me there, Marcus would be out there chewing down trees as I would for him. Bruce will fight this battle, either winning it or losing it. I believe with God, he will win,” Carroll told her.

“I’m praying for that,” Debbie whispered, rubbing the sleeping PJ’s head.

“Me to, we can’t lose Bruce to evil,” Carroll stated.

“Carroll, tell me what you think about what I’ve told you?” Debbie asked for her opinion.

“I don’t try to interpret Gods will and that be what this is,” Carroll told her.

“Please Carroll?” Debbie begged.

“I believe the first trial is over. What you did, willingly sacrificing yourself for your love, family, and mankind is the first trial. The second trial is that Bruce’s soul is up for grabs. This trial is to test his steel. If he chooses God, we have a chance to save humanity. If he doesn’t, then humanity loses and goes the way of the dodo. I believe this is just the first of many he will face. Losing you, his rock, is the first step in what has been set forth for him,” Carroll told her.

Debbie nodded. “Thank you, Carroll,” Debbie said.

“Now can I ask you why you wanted my two cents?” Carroll asked.

“I think you’re right. Bruce has a lot of pain and difficult choices in his future,” Debbie told her.

“I wish we would have come over here sooner, but it was hard leaving the homestead,” Carroll told her, smiling as she patted her leg.

Debbie looked down at PJ, “This is when y’all were supposed to come over,” Debbie informed her.

Carroll froze, “How do you know that?” she asked.

“You had to bring the last in to the ark as it faced its first flood of a different kind. There will be others, but this is the first,” Debbie told her.

Carroll stood up, leaning over to kiss Debbie and pushed her hand out of the way when Debbie tried to stop her. After she kissed her head, Carroll stood up, “I will see you soon, Debbie. Then we can sit an talk while waitin’ on the others,” Carroll informed her as she turned to leave.

“It won’t be that soon,” Debbie let her know. Carroll turned around with a startled look. “You and Marcus have a lot to do. Don’t worry, you won’t have to wait on Marcus, and you won’t have to wait long to be with him again,” Debbie let her know.

Carroll smiled at Debbie, “Thank you, Debbie. I promise I’ll do everythin’ I can,” Carroll assured her.

Carroll left and told everyone to go back in. They continued to sit around and talk reliving the past until Millie brought supper over for everyone. Again, Bruce fed Debbie, this time with a sleeping PJ on her chest. When they were finished, Bruce left to tell Marcus to bed the clan down and just keep small groups awake on patrol. It was 2100 when Conner came running through again then left.

“What’s he doing?” Debbie asked.

“Fixing to shoot the MRLS at them,” Bruce told her.

“Why?” asked Stephanie.

“Why not?” Bruce answered.

“It will just affirm where we are,” Steve said.

“Trust me, they know where we are. If you walk outside, you can hear small groups roaring off in the distance all around us. There are several hundred blues less than a mile all the way around us, just sitting and roaring. Telling the others where we are,” Bruce said.

Conner ran back in, stopping by Bruce, “Fixing to launch,” he said then ran down to mission control.

Outside, they heard a loud ‘whoosh’ followed by others as the rockets left the tube one at a time in rapid succession until all twelve were gone. Stephanie opened the laptop so everyone could watch. They didn’t have to wait long, as right in the center of the horde heading to them small explosions erupted as the rockets released their bomblets. From mission control, they heard loud cheers. Conner ran back to the quiet den, “Did you see it?” he asked, adjusting the bloody bandage on his forehead. Everyone in the living room nodded not very excited.

“What did that do?” Stephanie asked.

“Are you kidding? Putting a whole pack together, we wiped-out one square kilometer. I bet we killed ten to twenty thousand,” Conner said proudly.

“Great. So instead of fighting 1.2 million we fight 1,190,000 to 1,180,000,” Stephanie said, bursting Conner’s bubble.

Conner thought of those numbers, and the joy left his face, “Why not just blow some bridges?” Danny asked.

“Doesn’t work. They just cross on the rubble. Some even getting a little wet, we tried that,” Conner told her.

“You did good, son. Did y’all find replacements for Omega for those we lost,” Bruce asked.

Conner smiled at the comment as he replied, “Yes sir, we will bring them in the team after we wipe out this horde.”

“What happened to your head?” Debbie asked, liking his attitude.

“Fragment from one of the Bradley’s that blew up,” Conner told her.

Bruce smiled, he liked the positive attitude as well. “Get some sleep troop,” Bruce told him. Conner left and the family started talking again until Millie brought some coffee in. Bruce grabbed his mug, fixed Debbie a cup, and set it on the coffee table. Leaning over and kissing her head, he slapped her hand away and buried his face in her hair, breathing deeply. Bruce could smell the smell he associated with Debbie but smelled something else too.

“I know, Bruce,” Debbie told him as he sat down. Debbie asked everyone except Stephanie, Angela and Bruce to wait out on the patio so she could talk to the family one at a time. It was 0245 when she was finished and everyone came back in. Once again, the camera on Bruce’s head caught everything as they talked and laughed through the early morning.

It was 0505, and Bruce still had her feet in his lap rubbing them as they started feeling cold. Debbie noticed Bruce’s actions and asked Tonya and Pam to take PJ and the sleeping kids to the underground storage area where all the kids were sleeping tonight. Debbie kissed PJ on the head as Pam lifted him off her chest. Tears ran down Debbie’s face, knowing it was getting close. She was looking at the digital picture frames on the coffee table. Running through her mind, some of the pictures she couldn’t remember.

“I love you all. It’s time for you to leave now. Always remember that I love you and look for me in your dreams. I’ll be there,” Debbie said, closing her eyes and trying to remember the picture that was showing now. Then it popped in her mind; it was her dad. Everyone ran to her talking at once.

Debbie held her hand out for them to stop. “Kiss me on the head and leave. We had a chance to say goodbye which is more than most can say. I love you. Please hurry. I’m starting to forget. I want to go before I do forget. I won’t have my pictures in heaven,” Debbie told them. They kissed her head one at a time and left crying.

When they were gone, Debbie looked at Bruce, who had a sad broken-hearted look on his face. “Bruce, promise to watch over Angela and Stephanie. Don’t let them go act stupid over me. You have to protect them like you always did for me,” Debbie asked.

“You know I will my love,” Bruce promised her.

Debbie looked at Bruce, “Bruce, promise to always love them because they love you and will stand beside you like I did,” She asked.

“I promise I will my love, even if they change their mind about me. I will always love and protect them,” Bruce told her with regret on his face.

Seeing the look, Debbie asked, “What is it, baby? We will see each other again.”

“Let me come with you?” Bruce asked with desperation.

Debbie’s heart froze, “You can’t, baby. You have to save them and everyone else. I wish you could. The only time I haven’t had you by my side was when I was a toddler. I’ll be with you, believe that, not physically, but I will be there. At times, you will know it,” Debbie promised.

“I don’t want to stay here without you,” Bruce told her as his eyes misted up, but the tears wouldn’t run down his face.

“The love Angela and Stephanie have for you is worth staying for. You have to save them, and all of the others everywhere. The fight will be hard and long, but only you can do it. Without you, the kids die fast and it’s not pretty,” Debbie told him.

The mist in Bruce’s eyes disappeared when she told him that. “Okay, baby. I will stay, but I want you to talk to me sometimes when you are near. Let me know you are okay. Promise me,” Bruce begged.

“I will talk to you several times, if you take the right path. I know you will see me at least one time before you join me, no matter which path you take,” Debbie told him. “What’s today’s date?” Debbie asked.

“March 27th,” Bruce told her.

“Not many can say they know what day they die on. Bruce, if you leave here, take me with you,” Debbie asked, trying to remember her past.

“I promise you, my love,” Bruce told her.

“I’m sorry I asked you to let the hate flow, but I had no choice. That’s the start of your battle-,” Debbie said and stopped concentrating. “Get ready, Bruce,” she told him.

Bruce stood up, grabbing the push dagger and strapped it to his arm. “Baby, rest easy. I will watch over the kids, keeping them safe, and I will save all I can. I will love Stephanie and Angela with everything I am. Don’t worry, my love. You will be my one and only true love always, nothing will ever replace that or you. I feel many bad things coming, and I’m sorry if I disappoint you, but I will do my best at what you have asked. I will love them, but they will never take your place,” Bruce told her, kneeling down beside her and brushing her hair back with his hand.

Debbie smiled at him, “Thank you my love. Don’t fall apart without me. Let Angela and Stephanie help you. Don’t worry about the April 1st deadline now, just let it happen.”

“Okay, baby,” Bruce told her, just looking at her.

“Bruce, my Daddy wanted me to tell you he was sorry for calling you a foot freak and he loves you. He still thinks you’re weird though,” Debbie told him.

“I can live with that,” Bruce said as he felt pressure in his chest, killing his heart.

They talked for a few more minutes then Debbie grabbed his arm, “Bruce, my babies, I can’t remember my babies. Do it, Bruce. Hurry, it’s taking my babies away! I love you please don’t let it take me!” Debbie cried out as Bruce leaned over her, kissing her forehead.

“I won’t, baby. I will protect them and save them. I love you always, my love,” Bruce told her. As Debbie’s breathing slowed, Bruce brought up his hand. The dagger entered the base of Debbie’s skull and Bruce twisted it once, looking at Debbie’s face and watching her mouth form a smile. He saved her babies in her memory.

Bruce tried to stand, but the room was moving too much. Yanking the blade out, Bruce grabbed the table, knocking over the coffee pot as he got to his feet. With the room spinning, Bruce told Debbie bye and he loved her to her face for the last time. He stumbled to the window, yanked down the curtains, and used them to cover Debbie up. Staggering out of the living room to the patio door, Bruce opened it, falling to the ground on his knees.

Everyone saw Bruce at the door and started crying. Bruce didn’t notice the crowd as he fought to stand up. Then, slowly he felt a coldness fill his chest and mind, bringing him peace as the pain of loss was replaced. A cold pure hate filled him as the fiery rage consumed him. Bruce closed his eyes, feeling the rush and warmth wash over him. The wave would save him, and Bruce slowly grinned at the thought.

Mike, along with everyone else, was watching Bruce and saw the instant hate consumed him as the wave washed over Bruce. As Bruce grinned, he had drool coming out the side of his mouth, and his eyes fluttered as the rage continued to fill him. Mike could feel the waves of hatred boil off of Bruce like an unseen force, bringing a strange peace to Bruce.

Bruce opened his eyes and for the first time, he could hear the roars of the horde around the farm. Bruce turned around, throwing a kick at the patio doors and shattering it off its hinges. The door fell down in the kitchen as Bruce walked over it and grabbed his gear off the floor. Bruce looked at his ‘everything’ lying under the curtain on the couch. All the good in his life had come from his ‘everything’ and it was taken away from him. Turning around, Bruce walked outside and put on his vest, buckling and zipping it down. Slinging all three rifles over his shoulder, Bruce turned to the group.

“Get your gear and two extra rifles,” Bruce told them, adding, “Debbie is covered, now move.”

They all ran inside as a light shower started coming down. Bruce just looked up at the grey sky, and the hate took him to another level. “Mother Fucker! Is that the best you got? I loved and worshiped you! This is what you do to me, my reward from you for trying to save others? Watch me now as I slaughter those that you can’t, so fuck off! I am death now, and I will move across this land like a second plague! I will bring fear and pain to those that hurt and enjoy it!” Bruce screamed at the sky. Several people made the sign of the cross as Bruce finished yelling.

The kids, Angela, and Stephanie ran back out to Bruce as he finished yelling at heaven as the rain became a little heavier. Bruce looked at Angela and Stephanie, “Stay on my ass and don’t leave it. I can’t lose another one, or I swear I’ll eat a bullet,” Bruce told them, and they moved closer. Looking at Mike, Bruce said, “Get to mission control. I will relay instructions,” and Mike ran down into the house. “Omega, east wall. Now. I will be there soon,” Bruce called over the radio, heading to the underground storage.

Walking down the ramp, Bruce walked through the open bay door and up to Millie, “If we have a breach, close the door and stay quiet. You know where our other farm is at. When the blues leave, load up and get away from this fucked up place. If you see an angel, flip ‘em off and tell them that’s a message from me that they can deliver,” Bruce said, leaving.

Walking to the east wall, Bruce keyed his radio, stopping where the prisoners were tied up, but they were gone, “What is the picture outside the wire? Besides fucked up.”

“They are filtering around us, massing in the tree line around the entire farm. In places, the crowd is a mile deep. The Ruston horde has already joined, Monroe will be here in thirty minutes, and Alexandria in about an hour,” Mike reported.

“Have the armor pull up to their firing positions. Send the M-1 to the west wall and remind them we have fuel tanks buried out there, so no unloading into the ground. Now relay that and I will get back to you,” Bruce said, seeing Marcus walk up. “Where did they go?” Bruce asked, pointing to the ground where the prisoners had been.

Marcus pointed to the trees, “I hung them up in the trees around the perimeter about fifteen feet off the ground,” Marcus told him.

“Live bait. I like it. Let’s wade in the blood, brother,” Bruce said, shaking Marcus’s hand and continuing to the east fence.

“Mike, put me over the alarm speakers,” Bruce called over the radio.

“Okay,” Mike said.

Bruce keyed his radio and heard the click around the farm, “This is Bruce. It’s time to fight or die. If you want to die, please run out into the field to at least slow them down. If you stand tall and keep your fire steady, we will survive. If you don’t, you will die as well as many others. Think of all your family and friends that have died. The reason is all around us. Avenge your family and friends with me! Now listen to Mike’s orders. I’m getting ready to kill!” Bruce told the clan.

“Bruce, now try to focus. Take it down a notch,” Mike said over the radio.

“Fuck that. I’m taking it up a notch. When I tell you, have the mortars fire into the tree line. Then when they attack, the mortars need to drop back, firing two hundred yards from the fence line and fire until they run out ammo. Use the Hellfires at any concentration point,” Bruce told him.

“I will,” Mike told him.

“Tell everyone to take off their suppressors if they want, but everyone puts hearing protection on. When it starts, plug my flash drive in and play the first folder,” Bruce said as he walked up the east berm.

Looking across the field, he saw a few burnt areas but nothing else to tell him they had fought for their survival yesterday. Buffy walked over to him and looked up at him. “Daddy, I’m scared,” Buffy told him with tears in her eyes.

Bruce laid down his weapons on a bag full of magazines. Then he turned and picked up Buffy by the front of her vest, lifting her off the ground. “They have taken two mothers away from you. Human pieces of shit want to hurt you and your family. Don’t fear them. Hate them. Feel the joy when they bleed and feel the pain that you give them. Let it out and destroy them with your hate,” Bruce told her, then yelled the same thing to his team. He put Buffy down, wiped her face, and hugged her tight.

“Daddy is here, let’s play. When you feel the wave, start to hate and let it flow. Remember what has been done to us and hate your enemy for it. I am your father and your sins pass to me for my commands,” Bruce said, and Buffy gave him a wicked grin. Bruce walked over to Steve, Jake, and Danny. “Show them pain and enjoy this. To show your enemy pain is the greatest feeling in the world. It puts fear of you in your enemies’ hearts. All your sins pass to me for I am your father. Make me proud,” Bruce told them with the hate coursing through his veins.

Turning to Angela and Stephanie, Bruce grinned. “Help me deliver pain and retribution. Know I will always be beside you,” Bruce told them and let out a loud rebel yell. Omega joined in, then it spread around the perimeter. Over two thousand voices, yelling defiance, could be heard over the roars surrounding them.

The clan could feel his energy of hate as the rage filled them, giving them goose bumps on their arms with the rush. “Mortars,” Bruce yelled into the radio over the yelling clan. The four pits holding two mortars each came alive as the crews started dropping death down the tubes.

Explosions started rocking the tree line. They could see blue bodies flying through the air as the shrapnel tore them up as it lifted them in the air. Seeing the blues die, the clan yelled louder as the pits continued to fire. As one, all around the farm, the blues charged. Raising up his rifle, Bruce yelled, “Fire!” and lead poured out from the farm into the horde as the clan opened fire.

Table of Contents

Copyright

Acknowledgement

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34