Outbreak: Brave New World

by Van Dusen, Robert

  They ate slowly after Amy said the blessing. Adam was glad to see that the meal seemed to be raising his children’s spirits a little, even if they did not eat much of the two pancakes on their plates. The Spam tasted good and complemented the coffee. He smiled a little bit when he saw that Frays was giving the canned meat a pass. “Aim, are you sure you don’t want any?” Carl asked, holding the last slice of the stuff in front of his sister’s face on his fork.

  Frays gagged on the scent of the processed pork. “No, thanks.” she croaked, choking as the pancakes in her stomach started working their way up her esophagus. Amy pushed away from the table a little and put a hand over her mouth. “Go on, eat it if you want.”

  Once they had finished eating the men cleared the table and did the dishes. The garden needed to be weeded this morning so Rodriguez and Frays would do that before it got too hot later in the day. “Can I help too?” Becca asked as the two women checked each other’s camelbaks and made sure their carbines were loaded before heading downstairs. One would weed while the other stood watch. “I wanna play in the dirt!” the little girl said with a wide grin.

  Lacey stuck his head into the living room a wide grin on his face. “Sure, hon.” he said as he dried a plate with a dishtowel. “You can go if it’s okay with Amy and Frannie.”

  Amy felt a vague sense of unease worm around in the pit of her stomach as she glanced from the little girl to Rodriguez and back again. Frannie was really trying very hard to hide a smile. “Oookay.” Frays muttered with feigned disappointment. “Paulie, do you want to come too? Maybe we’ll dig up a couple worms and go fishing after lunch.”

  The boy scowled at her. “No.” Paulie said grumpily. Amy looked at him, her face pinched up with confusion for a moment then shrugged and started towards the door. Lacey put the plate in the drainer and came into the living room. He crouched over his son and seemed to be whispering something in his ear with a gentle hand on the boy’s shoulder. Paulie did not look happy but still hopped down out of the recliner and glumly followed the others out onto the deck. Frannie tousled the boy’s hair and pressed him against her side for a second before helping him over the gap.

  Amy stood guard on a small cement walkway that went from the stairs which led down to the lake to the room where the generator and boiler were kept while Rodriguez squatted between two rows of radishes, gathering a handful of plant matter. The little garden would not take long to weed as it was only about one hundred or so square feet and fenced in with green beans growing on the chicken wire fence around its perimeter.

  The footprints of the creature that had attacked Laura were still visible where it had apparently dug something out of the dirt. The kids were helping by pulling up handfuls of green plants next to the little patch of onions at the other end of the plot. There were a few squash plants and almost a dozen heads of cabbage, something Jessica might have planned on turning into coleslaw in a few weeks.

  Frays could almost make out where she and Lacey had buried her parents and his wife down by the lake… Pull your head out of your butt! Amy scolded herself as she shook herself back to reality. She kind of wished that the kids had stayed inside but then again they needed a little sun and exercise. Being cooped up in the house all the time was not doing any of them any good… The idea of checking the neighbor’s houses occurred to her again.

  “Hey, Frays.” Rodriguez said softly as she tugged out a particularly stubborn green thorny plant that did not look like any vegetable she had ever heard of and nodded towards the kids a few feet away. “Look.” She paused in her labor and smiled, leaning her forearm on her knee.

  Becca and her brother had apparently given up on helping and were now busying themselves with something on the leaf of an onion sprout. The two children were crouching over something they could not see. Paulie was apparently poking it with a little twig. Intrigued, Amy wandered over to find that the kids had found a praying mantis. She smiled a little watching as the little ones stared at the bug, engrossed in this strange new thing. Frays retook her post once she was satisfied that the children were not playing with anything dangerous.

  The breakfast dishes finished and dry and the two men set about putting them back in the cabinet. Lacey looked at the young man out of the corner of his eye as he put a couple plates away. He strove for something to talk to him about that was not connected to the fucking rotting bastards that had totally fucked up their lives. “You like the Bruins?” he asked, motioning towards the jersey the boy wore. It said ‘Emery’ on the back with the number thirty two on it. Adam thought the name sounded familiar…

  Carl nodded as he sorted the forks and knives into their compartments in the drawer next to the sink. “Yeah.” he said quietly then smiled a little. “Brian Emery’s Amy’s Flight Sergeant.” The young man set about putting the cooking implements back in their places. “He signed his rookie card for me. He’s awesome, a great guy and he’s got like a bazillion medals and stuff. I met him a couple times.”

  Lacey felt like he had just been hit in the stomach with a baseball bat. “Oh my God.” he whispered, feeling sick and a little weak in the knees. Of course Frays’ family would know her direct supervisor. Unit Christmas parties, family days… Fuck. he thought, forgetting all about the dishes.

  “What’s up?” Carl asked as he turned towards the Marine. The wide eyed, shameful expression on Adam’s pale face told him everything he needed to know. He took a couple deep breaths and sank into the corner next to the sink. Mindful of the way his sister had handled the news, Lacey tentatively approached the boy and crouched just out to arm’s reach. He tried to think of something to say but…shit what the fuck could he say? The boy obviously looked up to the guy… Where the hell was Frays when he needed her?

  Adam backed off a little bit and sat down, hiding his face in his hands. The two of them sat there for what seemed like a long time until Lacey heard the sliding door open up. Amy and the kids came into the kitchen, Frays carrying two small heads of cabbage and the kids loaded down with onions, green beans and radishes. The green lumps in her hands fell to the floor forgotten as she rushed to her brother. “Carl, what happened?” she asked, trying to keep the rising panic out of her voice. “Carl?”

  “Brian’s dead, too isn’t he?” the boy said quietly. A few tears worked their way out of Carl’s eyes and he wiped them away angrily. He hated crying like a little pussy, especially in front of Frannie. Aim was crying a little too making him feel a little better about it although she was a girl. It was okay for her to cry.

  Things Frays had tried desperately to forget seeped through the cracks like crude oil working its way to the surface through a crevice in the earth. She hugged her brother as the events at the checkpoint tore around inside her head. “Yeah. Yeah, I think so, buddy.” she whispered, squeezing her eyes shut as if that could block out what was going on behind them. Carl was a little shocked to see the self confident young woman he knew replaced by almost a stranger: she looked tired and scared, her mind someplace far away. His big sister held onto him with hands that shook with frenetic strength.

  Lacey took advantage of the Frays’ distraction to take the vegetables from his kids and herd them into the living room. They met Rodriguez in the dining room. She arched an eyebrow at Lacey, who nodded towards the other room. “C’mon kids.” Frannie said with a small smile as she brushed the back of Becca’s neck. “Let’s give ‘em a minute, alright?”

  The two of them sat on the couch with the kids, letting the two little ones sit on their laps. Frannie could not help but notice that Lacey looked like he was going to be sick. “We’re gonna have a salad for lunch.” Rodriguez said as she forced a smile and bounced Paulie on her knee. She got a familiar sense that she was missing something again and made a note to bring it up with Lacey or Frays the first chance she got.

  “Very cool.” Lacey said quietly as he rubbed his daughter’s back. He had not really noticed the fact that they were running low on TP, but if the cabbage had its way he wa
s going to be taking a good long shit tonight. “What did you guys bring in?”

  “We got radishes an’ onions an’ stick beanies.” the little girl told her father as she ticked them off on her tiny fingers. “Amy gots some rabbages.” Becca’s eyes lit up and she grabbed Adam’s sleeve. “We saw a weird buggy too! He was doin’ like this!” The little girl brought her forearms to her chest and did her best impression of the mantis that she had seen in the garden. Frannie and Adam smiled, laughed then looked at each other with a small hint of unease.

  “Hey, why don’t you guys go get cleaned up?” Adam suggested. The kids’ hands were covered in dirt and Rodriguez looked like she could stand to wash her face. He could not tell what Amy and her brother were doing in the kitchen, but it was quiet which he guessed was kind of a good thing. “Use the head, alright?”

  Rodriguez took Becca and Paulie into the bathroom so they could wash up. After he heard the door open and close out of sight Adam took a deep breath then heaved himself off of the couch. Frays and her brother sat in the corner where he left them, their heads swiveling up to look at him. The man swallowed hard, his mouth opening and closing a few times before he could make any noise. “Are you guys alright?” he asked in a timid little voice.

  “Just fine.” Amy said quietly, her voice calm and level despite the venomous look she shot at Lacey. Adam’s eyes fell to the floor, unable to meet Amy’s gaze. “We’re just fine, right?” Frays asked turning her head towards her brother. She had her arm around the guy’s shoulders and jostled him.

  “Yeah.” Carl muttered quietly, looking at the floor between his legs. “We’re just fine.” Amy stood then helped her brother to his feet. She gave Carl a tiny smile and clapped him on the shoulder. He hugged his sister then went over and picked up the cabbages off the floor. “Where’s the rest of the stuff from the garden?”

  Frannie frowned as they sat down to lunch. They had the salad made from the vegetables that they had taken from the garden this morning and the powdered Gatorade that Carl had swiped from the Big Y. There had been a weird tension in the house like a rope being pulled taut all morning. Nobody talked to each other all through the meal.

  Carl seemed more depressed than usual and Frays sat in the recliner with her nose stuck in one of those stupid cowboy books, looking pissed off about something. Why am I always the last to know about shit? Rodriguez wondered to herself as she pushed back from the table and burped. Paulie and Becca laughed at the slight embarrassment on Frannie’s face.

  “Hey, Frays.” Rodriguez said as she approached her friend and playfully flicked the spine of her book. “Lemme torture you a minute.” The woman fished her cigarettes out of an ammo pouch on her plate carrier and held them up for Frays to see. She nodded towards the glass doors at the front of the house.

  They sat down and leaned against the warm aluminum siding of the house, quiet for a moment as Rodriguez lit up the half a cigarette that had been in her pack since their trip into town. Frays scowled at her friend, biting down hard on the urge to ask for a smoke. “What’s up, Frannie?” Amy asked her voice tense and strained. Think of the kid. Frays thought, taking a deep breath to steel her resolve…as well as try to get a little second hand smoke in her lungs.

  “What the hell happened this morning?” Rodriguez exhaled a plume of smoke into the air and shifted around a little. The wood of the deck was hot under her ass and it was getting pretty uncomfortable.

  Amy sighed and fidgeted. “Me and Lacey were at the same checkpoint in Boston.” she said quietly, leaning against the warm metal behind her. Frays rubbed at her eye then scratched her nose. The woman took a couple deep breaths, shivering despite the heat as she tried to put the confused jumble of events into something resembling a coherent story. “He…says it was an accident…that he got scared. He shot a fifty cal at a bunch of civilians. Everything went crazy, my flight sergeant got shot in the head. A guy who was riding with us got stuck in our truck. This big truck hit our Humvee…it ran over a bunch of people, knocked us in the water. I almost drowned…”

  “Holy fucking shit.” Rodriguez said after a minute or two. A smoldering finger of ash protruded from the filter of woman’s cigarette. “Holy fucking shit.” This was way, way worse than Eamon’s…misunderstanding. Fuck no, he did not misunderstand shit her boyfriend had sexually assaulted Amy in a hangar at Hanscomb Air Force Base. He had apologized, even cried a little, but fucking shit… Frannie’s thoughts dissolved in a flurry of confusion, grief and directionless anger.

  She licked her lips and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand as she suddenly fought back the urge to go take a couple of pills and nod off or maybe try and find some booze. She never really got to know George that well but he struck her as the type to have a little whiskey or bourbon stashed away in the place somewhere. Even if it was only a little pint bottle or something that and a couple of Percocet would set her up for a few hours…

  “We’re gonna be okay.” Amy said, watching her friend as if she could see the thoughts buzzing around in her head like a swarm of angry bees. She guessed that they were some of the same thoughts careening around her own head. Frays sighed heavily as she watched Frannie out of the corner of her eye. “Just calm down. Everything’s gonna be okay.”

  “Would you just fucking shut up, you bible thumping bitch?” Rodriguez shouted, suddenly furious with the woman sitting next to her. Frannie was on her feet, pacing from one end of the deck to another, spewing a mile long string of obscenities under her breath. “How the fuck can you even stand to be in the same room with that asshole?”

  “I-I don’t know.” Frays said quietly. “I…I dunno, Frannie.” She was still sitting on the deck, looking at the ground through a gap between the two by fours. “I get so mad it scares the crap out of me…so I just don’t think about it. I liked him…you know…before he told me. He’s one of my guys…so I look after him. And…well…I want to forgive him, but…goddamnit” an embarrassed expression came to Amy’s face making Frannie smile a little. Frays grimaced and quickly made the sign of the cross “I want to forgive him because he begged me to and he’s such a nice guy but I can’t I just can’t do it and I hate myself for it…” A few hot tears leaked down Frays’ face and she batted them away with the side of her hand “He’s been so good to me…trying to…I dunno…make up for it or something. I mean…I’m not stupid. I really want to but I can’t…” Amy looked up at her friend, a lost sorrowful expression on her face. “Then my mom and dad and Laura… I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

  Rodriguez found that she could only stand there a foot or two away from her friend, shaking her head. She crouched in front of Frays knowing that she should not but still offering the woman her cigarettes. Amy waved them away with a hint of a grateful smile. Rodriguez chuckled under her breath. “C’mon.” Frannie said after a long and somewhat awkward moment “Let’s get inside. All this Doctor Phil shit’s starting to annoy the shit outta me anyways.”

  Amy kind of half smiled and chuckled then blew her nose then made an effort at slapping her game face back on as she looked at the floor. Frays’ dark brown eyes met Rodriguez’s for a brief moment. They were friends, sure, but in their own way closer than Amy and her brother. Amy extended her hand and Frannie took it, helping Frays climb to her feet. They clapped each other on the back, an awkward half hug. “Yeah.” Frays grumbled, wiping at her cheeks. Amy started towards the sliding glass door. “You done? I think we need to have another group meeting.”

  Chapter Six

  17 June 2011, 0844 hours 4 Old Trout Lane, 10 miles north of Holden, Massachusetts

  The six of them sat around the table, lingering over the bowls of the oatmeal Carl had fixed for breakfast. There was a little brown sugar in a plastic Ziploc bag, which they sprinkled into the lumpy hot cereal to make it somewhat more appetizing. Amy tried to look like she was not nervous. “Well, I hate to say it, but I think you guys should get going.” she said quiet
ly over the rim of her coffee cup. Her heart settled into the pit of her stomach. “It looks like it’s going to rain later, so don’t be too long, alright?”

  Lacey and Carl stood up and stretched then collected their backpacks and other gear. Frays checked their gear in the dining room, making sure the two men had enough water, spare food and ammunition. “Okay, guys.” she said as she gave Lacey one of the M4 magazines out of her LCS. Frays gave the man an intense, warning look as he secured the ammunition in a carrier. “You’re just going to the Drakes’ cabin about a mile or so north of here. If you follow the lakeshore, you’ll come right up to it.”

  Carl had his father’s Remington 870 shotgun in his hands. The forest was pretty thick around where they were going and the twelve gauge shotgun would do better in the brush than the long barreled Mosin-Nagant the boy usually carried. He smiled nervously at his sister as she took the weapon from him and made sure it was loaded. Frays tugged on the bandolier of twelve gauge shells thrown over the boy’s shoulder then shook his canteen and checked the contents of his backpack. “Be careful, guys.” Amy said, returning Carl’s awkward smile. “If nobody’s there grab what you can find and come back.” Frays counted the items on her fingers “Canned food, flour, sugar, first aid supplies, TP…Frannie, am I missing anything?”

  Rodriguez frowned thoughtfully. “I don’t think so.” she said quietly. The little ones looked nervous. Frannie found that she could not blame them. “C’mon kiddos. Give your daddy a hug then help me with the dishes please.” Becca and Paulie squeezed their dad and kissed him then took their bowls to the sink. “Be careful, guys. See you in a few.”

  Amy lightly punched Carl on the arm. “Go on, get out of here.” she said with a small smile. “Watch yourselves. Remember, when you get back knock twice then jiggle the door handle once so we’ll know it’s you.”