Outbreak: Brave New World

by Van Dusen, Robert

  The boy grinned up at her then turned and joined his mother at the table. Frannie arched an eyebrow at Adam who only shrugged slightly while Paulie climbed into his mother’s lap. Laura scowled at her and flicked another card out of her hand and onto the table. Rodriguez shook her head and turned her attention back to the comic book then she folded the footrest to the recliner and stood up. “What’s the deal, Laura?” she asked angrily as started towards the table. Frannie stopped and leaned against the railing that separated the dining room from the living room. “You’ve been eyeballin’ me and Frays since we got here. I don’t like it.”

  “Nothing’s wrong.” Laura said sharply. Paulie looked uneasily from his mother to Frannie and back again. The boy did not know what exactly was going on but he did not like it. Laura rolled her eyes and exhaled sharply. “I don’t know what your problem is.”

  Frannie clenched her jaw, incensed and struggling to keep back the urge to cross the room and slap the taste out of the bitch’s mouth. “My problem? My problem?!” Rodriguez sputtered once she had enough self control to form words. “My fu-“

  George loudly cleared his throat then frowned and leaned back from the table a little. “Come on, now.” he said quietly, smiling a little to try and ease the tension. “Everybody just calm down.” Amy got up and took a few steps towards the dining room as Becca stood up and hid behind the woman’s leg. Frays glanced from Rodriguez to Mrs. Lacey, trying to figure out what the heck was going on as she picked something out of the corner of her eye.

  Paulie looked puzzled and confused by what was going on. “Mommy, be nice!” he said sternly as he turned on his mother’s lap. The boy put his hands on his hips in a perfect impression of George. “Frannie’s nice and comfy and pretty and she doesn’t have a mommy or daddy or anybody! Be nice!”

  Paulie looked around confused for a moment. The grownups looked at Frannie with strange expressions. Mrs. Frays looked like she might cry and he started to wonder if he had said something wrong. Amy was by Frannie’s side. Frannie stood there next to the recliner looking at the floor leaning against the post separating the living and dining rooms as if she might fall over. Amy put a hand on her friend’s shoulder and frowned. It took a few moments for Frannie to be able to meet her friend’s gaze then she gave a wan smile before plopping back down in the comfy blue chair.

  Amy sighed and shook her head. She headed back towards the couch and paused when Becca’s drawings caught her eye. Despite the childlike scrawling Frays could plainly make out pallid, gray skinned figures chasing after a red SUV that kind of looked like the Explorer in the driveway. The windows of the vehicle were full of frowning faces. Amy shuddered as she stood there staring down at the open notebook on the floor. The little girl looked at Frays then picked up the notebook. “Wanna see my pitchers, Amy?” she asked and gave the woman a prideful smile. “Mommy says I draw good!”

  Frays glanced towards the girl’s mother then nodded and smiled a little. A vague sense of unease flitted around inside her stomach like a bird in a cage. “Sure, kiddo.” Amy answered as she returned to the couch and sat down. Becca closed up the notebook and bounded after her then scrambled up into Amy’s lap. Frays swung her legs up onto the couch and let the girl get situated on her stomach.

  “Your daddy made aaall the Bad People fall down.” Becca explained as she showed Amy the first picture in the notebook with a triumphant wave of her little hand. It was a childish cartoon of a big man with a smoking gun in his hand with three of the grayish stick figures piled up at his feet. Becca smiled and pointed to the man in the picture. “He’s very brave.”

  Amy glanced over at her father and smiled a little as Becca turned the page. Frays shuddered when she saw the next picture the little girl had drawn in the notebook. “Some Bad People eated a lady all to pieces.” the girl explained and scowled at the drawing. It showed more of the grayish figures crouched over a crude stick figure with red and yellow loops and squiggles all around it, obviously meant to represent the victim’s innards. “Mommy told me not to look but I did anyway. She covereded my eyes.”

  Amy started shaking uncontrollably, her arms tightening around the child. “Somebody made all the people go to sleep.” Becca turned the page, showing Frays a bunch of stick figures lying on top of one another in a ditch. A sudden still image of strange people’s faces covered with blood, their blank eyes staring accusingly, flashed inside of Amy’s eyes when she blinked. Frays lifted the girl off of her and set Becca on the floor.

  “Hon, I…I g-gotta go to the bathroom.” Amy explained then hurried off towards the latrine with a palm pressed over her mouth. Rodriguez followed after her friend, making it to the door just in time to hear the sound of somebody violently throwing up on the other side. The urge to Exorcist barf all over the place punched her in the stomach, forcing her to pause and put on a neutral face before rapping gently on the doorframe and sticking her head into the room. Frays was on her knees leaning over the toilet and clutching at the porcelain bowl. The airman glanced at her then turned and vomited again. Frannie grimaced then smiled sympathetically as she eased into the little bathroom.

  “You alright, Frays?” she was reasonably certain Frays was finished. Rodriguez filled a paper Dixie cup from the dispenser on the wall by the sink with water and handed it to Amy. She nodded gratefully then flushed the toilet. Frays swished the water from the cup around in her mouth then spat it into the toilet bowl. Rodriguez smiled. “Morning sickness?”

  A sudden wave of nausea sloshed around Amy’s stomach, making her clutch at the toilet as she struggled to contain it. “It’s almost lunchtime.” Frays muttered quietly as she hauled herself to her feet, spearing Frannie with a hard look. My parents are right outside! Amy thought angrily as she started towards the door.

  “C’mon, let’s get a little air.” Frannie said helpfully as she put a hand on Amy’s arm and steered her towards the back door. There was a roof over the walkway that led from the back door to the woodshop, giving them a place where they could go outside without getting wet. Once Rodriguez had unbarred the door the two of them went out. There was an easy grade where the walkway dipped down to meet the backdoor, giving Amy and Frannie a low concrete wall to sit on. Little streams of water poured down off the roof a few feet away where they were collected in plastic barrels.

  Amy put her head between her knees, trying to get the feeling of nausea to go away while Rodriguez ran a hand back and forth across her shoulders. They sat there listening to the rain drum on the corrugated tin above their heads. “Are you okay?” Frannie asked after a little while.

  Frays nodded as she cupped her head in her hands. “Yeah.” she said quietly. Amy glanced at Frannie, looked at the concrete between her boots. “Jeez, what was that all about?” Frays felt queasy all over again, shaking and embarrassed. She shook her head and looked up at the tin above her.

  Rodriguez put a hand on her friend’s shoulder and gave it a gentle shake. Frays smiled a little bit and glanced at the woman next to her, squeezing her hand back. “How are you doing?” Amy asked as she pulled her hand away. Frays felt around absently in her pockets and pouches then frowned when she remembered that she had given Rodriguez the few remaining cigarettes she had left a couple days ago. Never mind that she should not be smoking in the first place… The door opened, making the two of them look up quickly. Frays winced as an electric jolt shot down her left arm.

  “Are you okay, Amy?” Jessica asked as she stood in the doorway. Frannie gave Amy a quick look then hopped down off of the wall and started towards the house. She cleared her throat and nodded slightly towards her friend as she maneuvered around Jessie and ducked inside.

  A few seconds after Frays ran into the latrine Becca stood where Amy had set her, the little girl’s lower lip trembling as a couple tears started trickling down her face. Lacey glanced after Rodriguez as she went after Frays then crossed the room and picked his daughter up. “Daddy, did Amy not like my pitchers?” the girl asked as her father went
over to the rocking chair and sat down.

  Adam smiled a little as he stroked his daughter’s hair. “No…no, it’s not that, baby.” he said quietly as he frowned as he struggled to think of a way to explain what he thought had just happened to a child. “Look, honey…I’m sure Amy loves your pictures. It’s just that…some bad things happened and Amy gets a little…upset…sometimes.”

  “But why did Amy get sick?” Paulie wondered aloud from his mother’s lap. They could all hear Amy retching in the bathroom complete with the sound of her breakfast splashing around in the bowl. The little boy seemed confused and looked up at his mother. She shook her head and held the boy tightly. Frannie came back in and leaned against the wall behind George. A few moments later Jessica came back into the room and whispered something in her husband’s ear.

  Rodriguez and Lacey exchanged nervous glances when George nodded and stood up from the table without saying a word to anyone. Frannie crossed the room, took the pack of cigarettes off of her Kevlar and went out onto the deck. Lacey had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as he stood up and put his daughter down in the chair. He glanced at his wife. “Don’t worry, hon. Lemme just talk to Rodriguez for a minute.” Adam said as he tried not to run after the woman.

  Frannie plopped down into the first plastic chair she found, thumbed open the pack then jammed a cigarette into her mouth and lit up. She hid the cancer stick from the weather with the palm of her hand as the rain drummed and patted on her head and shoulders. She barely looked up when Lacey came out and closed the door behind him. “What happened? Is everything alright?” he asked after a moment. The Marine glanced towards the house then frowned, his eyes searching Rodriguez’s face.

  “I think Frays kinda wigged out a little bit.” Frannie said as she exhaled a plume of smoke and scratched her nose with her thumb. She shook her head and took another drag off of her cigarette then turned a little to face Lacey as she squirted smoke out of her nose. “What the hell did those fuckers do over there, man? I mean…Eamon told me he saw people get shot.”

  He shook his head and studied the toes of his boots. “Dunno, Rodriguez.” Lacey muttered under his breath. When he, Frays and a few others that had been with them at the time arrived at Hanscomb Air Force Base they had been assigned to work at the main gate. “I was on the gate searching cars and stuff…things were crazy enough there. I don’t know what the fuck happened at the guardhouse. I mean…I thought I could hear shots sometimes. I dunno…I didn’t really see anything.”

  The two of them were silent for a long time. Rodriguez finished her smoke and flicked the butt over the edge of the balcony. “Private, you’ve got some goddamn explaining to do!” George shouted as soon as the two of them were inside the living room. “Start…” the big man bit down hard on a stream of obscenities “talking right now, mister!”

  Lacey and Rodriguez blinked at each other then looked awkwardly at the man. “Sir?” Adam asked, dreading what was about to happen. Somehow, he knew that it was going to happen just like he had been dreading it would. “What’s going on?”

  “Why the…heck is my daughter pregnant?” George demanded, taking a few steps closer to the man. Adam went cold inside when he saw that the man’s meaty paw was curled around the grip of the .45 on his hip. The children looked like they were going to burst into tears at any moment. Rodriguez’s hand eased slowly from her hip down to her own pistol.

  Laura stood up, practically spilling Paulie onto the ground. “I knew it! I fucking knew it!” she shouted as she stormed out of the room. The woman knocked into her husband then stormed out onto the deck. Adam glanced at George then took off after her.

  “Sir, he’s not the daddy.” Rodriguez said quietly. Her finger pressed down on her holster’s retention device. “Listen, just calm down alright? Where’s Frays?” Frannie shook her head and let out a frustrated growl as she stalked out of the room towards the front of the house. She found Amy more or less where she left her and her mother a few minutes ago. Frays was sitting on the wall a few feet away from her mother, sort of hunched over with her hands in her armpits.

  Rodriguez stopped dead in her tracks when Frays turned her head to look at her. The woman’s cheek was covered by a large angry welt and Frays looked ripshit pissed about something. “Fuck.” Rodriguez whispered. She could guess how well George had taken the news. Jessica frowned at her and scowled. “Frays, what’s going on? You alright?”

  “The test was positive, Frannie.” Amy said then sighed and looked away, watching the water running off the roof a few feet away. “I’m gonna be a mommy.” She turned to try and hide the welt on her face from her friend. “I’m gonna be a mommy.” Frays repeated, as if she had a hard time believing it herself.

  I fuckin’ knew it! Rodriguez thought as a nervous smile crept onto her face. Her mouth went dry and it was hard to think of something to say. She turned to Jessica. “So, you’re gonna be a grandma. Awesome.” she said quietly then flicked her eyes towards Amy. “Do I get to be an aunt?”

  A small smirk played across Frays’ face. “Sure. Of course, Frannie.” Amy said as she hopped off the wall. She brushed the dirt off of her butt then looked at her mother. “Let’s go inside.”

  George and Carl looked up when the three of them came back inside. Amy glared at her father and did not say a word to him but stalked past the man then threw herself down on the couch. Jessica and Frannie stood in the kitchen, the two of them looking uneasily at the two of them then Frannie went to sit in the rocking chair by the couch while Jessie joined her husband at the table.

  Adam caught up to his wife as she raced down the stairs to the lake, the rain drumming on his head as he ran. “Honey, wait!” he shouted once they were down by the lakeshore. “Hon, c’mon!”

  The woman stopped and spun on her heel. “Go back to your little whore!” Laura hissed her face the very picture of rage. She walked up and shoved Adam back towards the stairs, nearly knocking him over. “Go on, get!”

  “I didn’t do anything, Laura!” he shouted back, now starting to get angry himself. After everything that he had gone through to get back safe to her and their kids this is how she was going to treat him? How could Laura even think that he would ever fool around on her? “I-I never…I love you, Laura. You’re the mother of my children. I could never, ever betray you like that. You know that!” the skinny man shouted. He shook his head. “I killed people, stole, did a lot of things that I never thought I’d ever do just to get here!”

  “Please!” Laura spat then shook her head, quaking with fury. “I see the way you keep looking at that little slut! Don’t try to deny it, you fuckin’ bastard!” The water streamed down her face, washing away her tears as it pooled in her tennis shoes, soaked through her clothes but the woman was just too furious to notice.

  “Hon…” Adam sighed and took a half step towards his wife. “I-I…” he tried to start then grumbled, struggling to find the words. It took a few minutes for him to get up the nerve to look his wife in the eye and continue. “When I first got to Boston we were manning a checkpoint on Harvard Bridge. An Air Force Humvee showed up eventually, but there was all these people…hundreds of them, shit maybe thousands trying to get by us.” Lacey shook his head and shivered “My hands slipped and I shot a machine gun into the crowd. I jumped down out of the truck and ran… Frays was there, in the Air Force truck. Two of her friends died and she nearly got killed herself because of what I did, honey. She doesn’t want to let on…but I think she got hurt pretty bad and now her little baby… God, if there’s problems…”

  Laura stared slack jawed at her husband. “God, baby.” she said quietly and put her arms around him. “It’s alright. I’m sorry...” The woman shook her head, suddenly feeling foolish. Adam took his wife in his arms and held her tight as she returned the favor. “I’m sorry.”

  The figure lurched along, stumbling down the sodden hillside. What was left of its nose said there was food nearby and it could occasionally hear food noises over the
rain. Its foot slipped in the mud, sending it to its knees where it crawled for a few paces then clumsily climbing back to its feet. It lurched drunkenly from tree to tree as it made its way towards the source of the noise and towards the small house that came into view.

  There was a smell like food coming out of the ground under the front part of the house that was held up by poles. The figure stooped and pawed at the damp earth. A few minutes of work turned up bits of viscera and bones which it shoved greedily into its maw despite the clumps of dark dirt sticking to the remains of the fish it uncovered. Shards of bone splintered into its cheeks as it chewed on the fistfuls of gritty food. Something else caught its attention and it dropped the last bits of guts in its hand. The figure struggled to its feet when it heard more food coming nearby and forced itself to stand and lurch onward. Mashed up innards tumbled out of the hole in its throat as it moved towards the new food.

  The skinny food screamed when it plowed into the two of them. The three of them went off the hard steps then over the side, through trees and off rocks down the side of the hill. It had touched the food so it knew they had to be close as it crawled along, its legs not working.

  It found the food still mewling in the long grass as it dragged itself along hand over hand towards it. The food must have heard it coming because it started screeching and wailing as it sank its teeth into its leg. It crawled along the food, grasping at it, longing to sink its teeth into its warm flesh…

  There was the faintest hint of a scream outside. Frays and Rodriguez looked at each for a half second then leapt to their feet, Amy pulling her M9 out of the holster strapped to her thigh. She glanced at Frannie and briefly considered running into the back bedroom for her M4. “Mom, stay put. Me and Rodriguez got this.” she said as she hurried onto the deck outside.

  Now that they were outside, they could hear the screaming a little better. It seemed that Laura was screaming down by the lake. Frays and Rodriguez looked at each other then hopped across the gap and started moving towards the sound. “Holy shit!” Frannie shouted when they reached the landing. There was a stranger on top of someone, seeming to try and attack them. Frays sprinted down the stairs then took a good isosceles stance, centered her weapon’s sights on the target, took a deep breath and let it out slowly…