by Joe Kelly
“has he asked out the woman from the gym yet?” She asked.
“No” Ori said adjusting his glass then ran a hand through his thick blond hair.
“Why am I talking to you? you never say much anyway.”
“don’t have much to say” Ori said with a smile as Jared walked towards them.
“Hey Jared, have you started planning for the fourth” Mark, a former corporal asked as Jared joined the group loading the gear onto the trucks and trailers. Mark had always been popular with the ladies with his wavy dark hair, Deep soulful brown eyes and what Jared jokily referred to as his overly symmetrical looks. Since his army days he had grown a beard that he kept neatly trimmed, the trimming was a rarity in many parts of Tennessee.
“What’s to plan, Beer, brisket and chicken and lots of fireworks. Same thing as last year and the year before that and the year before that.” Jared said. “you folks are easy to please.”
“I may be easy, but I am not cheap” Ronny shot back, finally able to be himself with the customers gone. A week of holding in every jibe, insult and sexual innuendo wore on him.
“Not according to Mary” Jared said with a laugh as he grabbed the end of a canoe and helped Steve lift it on to the rack. Mary was an incredible woman, their non-traditional relationship notwithstanding, she was good for Ronny. Once Ronny had started dating Mary, he had given up his Man whore card and god he had earned that card. But he truly cared for her and despite his graphic talk he had not and would not cheat on her. Mary for her part just tended to slap him on the back of the head whenever he went to far. A move that she used often, and Jared had started calling the Gibb slap.
“Well she likes cheap and easy.”
“Which explains why she dates him” Ori said with a grin.
Ronny suddenly looked serious. “I asked her to marry me.” he said. There was something almost like a plea to not joke about this in his hazel eyes.
“holy shit” Steve said into the silence that had fallen over the group of friends. If pressed they would all admit that they had expected it, but hearing those words from Ronny was still a shock. “and she said?”
“well eventually she said yes.” He said still sounding serious, but the need to twit his friends had reasserted itself.
“Eventually?” Sharon asked. “I know I am going to be sorry for asking that”
“We had a long talk before she would answer.”
“Code for she laid down the rules, spanked his butt then reached her decision.” Steve laughed.
“No she said yes before she took a belt to me.” Ronny replied with a wicked smile. “wanna see the bruises?”
“I knew I was going to regret asking” Sharon said with a mock shudder.
“no really, they are pretty cool looking bruises” Ronny said reaching for his waist band.
“if you drop your shorts I will shoot you” Mark commented as he heaved a cooler into the back of a truck. “shoot you in the jewels.”
Ronny laughed then went to collect the rental packs that the customers had used.
“Rob might want to see them.” Ori suggested evilly.
“Look I’m gay but I’m not desperate.” Rob replied as Jared laughed. Rob was the youngest of the group and had only worked for Jared for two years now. He was only 25, with a solid dependable build and cheerful open features. His light brown hair was short and fashionably spiked that and the stubbly looking beard were his only concessions to fashion, though Jared might argue that it wasn’t fashion at all. He wore fade comfortable shirts and jeans with hiking boots most of the time and dressed down to board shorts and flip flops as often as he could. unlike most of the group of friends his sense of humor while bawdy was far more traditional.
When he had first approaching Jared about working for him, he felt almost intimidated, Jared was imposing at least to Rob not to mention he wasn’t sure how Jared would react to his being gay. So he hadn’t really expected to be hired but he wanted this job and had just taken the risk.
Rob had bluntly informed Jared that he was gay during his interview then waited for the blow up. Jared had studied him for a moment then shrugged those thick shoulders. “I don’t give a damn to be honest” He had said. “just be courteous and professional around our clients and be prepared to take as much shit you can handle from my friends. Trust me they will hit you with every joke they know or can come up with. It will be in fun, they will insult each other just as badly. And they had, Rob thought with a silent laugh. Ronny was usually the instigator and the target for the insult fest and he gave as good as he got most times. Rob had been impressed at the speed Ronny displayed in coming up with and tossing out insults and offhand comments.
Rob had almost been taken by surprise at how close of friend’s he had become with the group. But once you got to know them it wasn’t all that surprising. They were good people all the way around and didn’t seriously hold lack of military service against him or anyone else.
Of the women in the group only Sharon had been in the military and she had served in the “chairforce” as Jared often called it. She and Mark had met at the VA a few years back where she worked, Mark had commented many times that being sick that day had been the luckiest day of his life.
“that reminds me of a joke” Ori said as the others groaned. “Don’t start its funny”
“Ori you manage to screw up knock knock jokes.” Steve pointed out as he loomed over Ori and a grin split his face.
“if he tries Steve pull his tiny arms off” Chris Hardin called out. Like the others Chris had served in the Army with Jared. He was common law married to Shelly, and most agreed that they made an attractive couple. He flashed an impish almost boyish smile at Jared. Shelly only shook her head, it didn’t take a psychic to see the friendly game of insult or cry coming.
Jared smiled fondly at his friends as he organized the gear in the back of the truck. They were good people, he thought to himself. A few weeks ago someone had asked him why he couldn’t seem to be as close to people who had never served in the military. The answer was simple, I can trust my friends to have my back, we’ve bled for each other risked our lives for each other and that’s just not something I associate with civilian life.
He smiled again remembering the conversations he’d had with them in the barracks about starting this business when he got out. Only Ori and Steve had liked the idea from the start, but the others had grown to like it as well. All of them at one time or another had taken leave to go on camping trips with him and his younger brother and had enjoyed themselves immensely. So a year out from his ETS, he had pitched them on working for him.
It had, he reflected made transitioning to the civilian life much easier knowing that his friends were just an hour away from his house and would be getting out and staying in Tennessee to work with him.
He grinned thinking of how hard it had been for Steve to acclimatize to Tennessee after growing up in California. It had been harder for Ronny in many ways, It was slower than he had grown used it, the women not so understanding of his doggish behavior and sense of humor. He had remained a Man whore till he had met Mary. But it was still better than the life he’d hated as a kid. Ronny had grown up in a dry cabin in the backwoods of Alaska and had joined the military more to meet people and see towns with a population greater than fifty and that had running water and electricity.
“Hey Jared,” Steve called out. “I thought Eric was supposed to have come on this trip with us.”
Jared clenched his teeth, the muscle in his jaw jumping. He had hoped that no one would bring that up but leave it to Steve. That he wasn’t happy with his brother’s career choice was no secret amongst the dirty dozen as the band of friends were called. “they are still on mission” Jared replied. “nothing new about that. They have been racing from one hot spot to another for awhile now.”
Eric had grown up first with a father who had served in the Special Forces, and then the last two years of his childhood after their parents had died he h
ad been raised by Jared who had been stationed on Fort Campbell. Like Jared, Eric had wanted to enlist since he had been a kid, unlike Jared, he had also dreamed of being in the SF like their dad. His decision to try for it had strained their relationship, his passing the Q course had led to a knock down drag out that had led to their barely talking.
“So, are you two still not talking?” Sharon asked.
“More or less” Jared replied. “I sent him emails, asked him about coming along on the trip. He replied, said if he was back from deployment.” Jared said then shrugged. “Honestly I had hoped to patch things up between us on this trip.” He paused for a second then sighed.
“Truth is I was an asshole, and ordering him not to try was about as stupid a move as I could have made.” Jared said. “hell our dad hadn’t even wanted us to join the Army, and the first thing I did was to run off to MEPs as soon as I had graduated and all he said about it was that I was a man now and that he was proud that I was taking on that kind of responsibility and duty. So when Eric joins, I act like an over protective idiot and when he goes SF I act like an ass.”
“Never give an order that you know will be ignored” Ronny offered.
“you know, I never understood why you turned down the chance to try for SF. Hell Colonel Watts almost begged you to try and an officer trying to get one of his men to go for the SF is pretty much unheard of.” Mark said as he and Sharon lifted a Canoe onto a rack. It hadn’t been just Jared’s commanding officer either General Reardon had brought up the topic more than once with him. Reardon had believed Jared had that certain special something the SF looked for.
“Watts had been a friend of my dads, and General Reardon had served in the SF with him. I wasn’t going to let anyone pull strings for me.” Jared said after a moment. Pulling strings really wasn’t the right phrase but that’s how Jared had felt about it. No one got into the SF without earning it and no amount of string pulling or favor calling could change that and for a very good reason.
What he had told his friends was the truth as far as it went, he thought but not the whole truth in his refusal to even try for the SF and it wasn’t something he wanted to discuss and never had with anyone including Eric.
“Anyway, Eric did it on his own and he has every right to be proud of it. I just should have been more like dad was with me and supported him.”.
Any one that made it through the SFQC, or Q course had every reason to be proud, Jared thought, or more accurately made it through every phase of training especially the final grueling four week final phase called Robin Sage. Jared had never doubted Eric had what it took. He almost smiled at that, he had asked his dad once what it took, what did they look for in selection His dad had looked thoughtful for a moment then said “Don’t know son, its nothing I can describe or explain but when we see it we know it.”
“You two will work it out” Steve assured him. All of his friends had met and spent time with Eric when on leave and later during their time in the reserves. In fact, they had all been more supportive of Eric enlisting than Jared had. But the truth was, Jared hadn’t wanted his little brother to see and do the things he had done and more importantly he didn’t want to open the door one day to find a chaplain with a letter waiting for him. What he had wanted to tell Eric on this trip was the simple truth, I’m proud of you and you’re a good man. A better man than I am, Jared thought.
“Yeah we will” Jared agreed.
“Oh, Damon mentioned their annual Halloween party the other week. Said they are planning something special this year.” Ronny said changing the subject. Hoping to keep Jared from getting depressed about the whole topic. “I can’t wait.”
“I don’t think I’m invited this time around” Jared muttered. Steve barked a laugh.
“Why not?” Rob asked surprised he hadn’t been able to make the party last year and try as he might he couldn’t imagine Jared doing anything to get banned from a friends party. Even more surprising was that he hadn’t heard about anything occurring before now.
“Someone showed up as a clown last year” Ori said with a grin.
“oh hell, what happened?” Rob asked looking at Jared questioningly. That Jared wasn’t fond of clowns was an understatement on par with Hitler was just mildly maladjusted.
“Well he isn’t in jail or on trial so that should tell you it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.” Ronny offered as the others laughed. Jared’s dislike, some would say pathological hatred of clowns was well known amongst the group of friends. What wasn’t known was why he hated clowns so much. No one, with the exception of maybe Eric his brother knew why Jared’s first impulsive was to smash any clown he saw.
Usually he kept tight control, but there were times like being taken by surprise that things like a clown being punched and thrown through a window occurred.
“it wasn’t as bad as Stuttgart” Ori said with a laugh.
“Oh come on I barely laid a finger on that clown in Stuttgart.” Jared protested.
“Really, you’re going to try that. We were there” Steve said as the others laughed.
“Okay, okay it might have been a slight over reaction.”
“slight, your definition of slight and mine are about a light year apart.”
Jared tuned out the bantering as he finished up what he was doing. These guys were as much family as Eric and his life was richer for it.
CHAPTER 2
Sharon sat down at the table in the cafeteria critically eyeing the food on her tray. It was a good thing she was already at a hospital judging by appearances she might need it after eating this stuff.
The staff cafeteria was almost empty which was odd even for this time of day but considering what was going on she could well understand people not lingering here but heading home. Especially with the patients being packed in almost every hallway. Patients strapped to gurneys that still tried to bite any one that got to close. Picking up her fork she poked at the food for a moment not really hungry but knowing she needed to eat. I should never have agreed to pick up this shift, she thought.
The few people eating, were nurses and other hospital staff clustered together in small groups of two or three whispering quietly to each other. Every one of them looked nervous, some even looked scared and that bothered her a lot. At least it was quiet here, not like the madhouse the rest of the hospital was.
“mind if I join you?” She looked up at the familiar voice and saw Todd Walker standing beside her table. “I hope you don’t mind I just feel uncomfortable eating alone today”
Normally she would have found an excuse to not eat with him unless there were others seated with her, Todd constantly flirted with her despite her being married. But today, today was different. Todd seemed subdued and had a pinched worried look that was not like him at all.
“I don’t mind at all, to be honest I find I want some company.” She said honestly. Todd sat down looking relieved and unlike the normal Todd didn’t make some suggestive comment about her wanting some company.
“I’m surprised to see you here.” Todd said eyeing the gelatinous mess on his plate someone had labeled as food.
“Karen called in.”
“you should have too!” Todd stated. “considering what’s--” He fell silent. Most of the staff didn’t want to talk about the steadily growing number of infected. In three days the numbers hadn’t just doubled they had grown exponentially. Three days ago, there had been three infected patients admitted, all veterans but then two patients in ICU had shown symptoms. Symptoms hell they had a full-blown case and no one knew how they had been infected and the rumors circulating the hospital about those two had been unbelievable.
“I know it’s bad, but they have it under control” Sharon commented. She wasn’t sure of that to be honest. But if you worked for a hospital you didn’t say anything that might undermine trust and confidence in the Doctors.
Todd leaned close and for once didn’t even oogle her breasts, “No they don’t Sharon, Hell it’s all over the i
nternet now and just hitting the major networks big time and the government is still acting like its nothing and that’s because they have no clue what’s going on.”
Nashville was certainly pretending that nothing major was going on, Sharon thought. What little had come out so far was pure speculation, though there had been a bit of stir yesterday evening when it had come out that the CDC was getting involved.
Her mind drifted back to the lab report she had seen earlier. The tests had been run on a patient with a full blown case before both the report and the patient had been whisked away to the CDC Labs in Atlanta within minutes of the reports generation.
But not before I saw it and I wish I hadn’t she told herself.
“Sharon trust me on this you should finish your dinner and go home. More and more of the patients who were bitten have… changed.”