Rodriguez smirked and chuckled under her breath when she went in to check on Frays. Freddie was lying up on the bed with her friend and amazingly Amy was not shitting herself. Wow, this must be bad… Frannie thought as she walked over, got hold of Freddie’s collar and pulled the dog off of the mattress. “C’mon, Freddie.” she said softly, still smiling at the dog. “Get down off the bed, boy.” If Frays snapped out of it the last thing she probably needed would be to be face to face with the mutt even though she suspected that Freddie’s heart was in the right place.
She checked Frays’ pulse and respiration just to make sure everything was okay. Her heart rate was a little high but her breathing was slow and regular. “Hey, Frays. Sorry Freddie got in here.” Frannie said conversationally as she checked her friend out. “Look…you just knock this off, alright? You’re okay so stop shammin’.”
Frannie sighed when Frays just blinked at her. She eyed the bowl of chowder on the table next to the bed. Rodriguez scowled at the thought of feeding her friend like she was some damn baby. On the other hand, she and Lacey had spent weeks waiting on her hand and foot while she recuperated from her gunshot wound. Frays had even helped her wipe her ass when she had to shit, so she really should not complain too much. “Are you gonna make me spoon feed you?” she asked. Frannie smiled a little bit as she rolled Amy onto her back and propped her head up on the pillows. “Alright, but you’re seriously gonna owe me one.”
Thankfully Amy would swallow the chowder when Rodriguez spooned it into her mouth. Somehow it made Frannie a little sad to do it because she could guess that if Frays was in her right mind she would the whole thing incredibly embarrassing. She finished feeding Frays and frowned at the woman then forced a smile and clapped her friend on the shoulder. “Now I’m gonna have to do your dishes too? Jeez…” Frannie joked as she stood up and wiped a little of the goopy soup off of Frays’ chin before taking the bowl back out to the sink.
Amy pulled her knees to her chest and hugged her legs, numb save for the warmth in her belly from the food. She dozed fitfully and woke a few moments later when she heard somebody else come in the room. Becca climbed up on the bed and laid down with her, the little girl snuggling up until Amy’s chin rested on top of her head. Frays jumped up off of the bed a few moments later and curled up in the corner next to the dresser, hiding her face in her hands and absolutely bawling her eyes out.
Lacey burst into the room and looked from Frays to his daughter and back again. “What happened?” he asked, confused as to what exactly he was seeing. Carl and Rodriguez were behind him. Adam picked up his daughter and set her on the floor by the door.
“I wanted to see Amy.” Becca said carefully, her little chest rising and falling as if she were about to start crying too. “I gived her a hug to make her betterer then she went all sad.” Lacey was grateful when Rodriguez picked up Becca and took her into the living room.
Lacey sat down on the corner of the bed a few feet away from Frays. A wave of helplessness crashed on him. Amy was crying so hard that her entire body was shaking and he could not think of what was wrong let alone any way to make it better. Adam wracked his brains searching the depths of his semester and a half spent as a Psychology major at Bunker Hill Community College trying to think of something… He reached out and caught her hands, holding them tight. “Frays…Frays, what’s wrong?” he asked, hoping that she was going to actually answer him. Adam’s heart sank when Frays looked up at him for a second.
“Oh, God…” Amy sobbed a look of utter horror on her face, the woman’s eyes wide and the color of pickled beets from crying. “I-I killed a little kid, man. I killed a little kid. I…killed!” Frays’ hands squeezed his so tightly that it started to hurt. “OhGodohGodohGod…”
Adam looked at her as if he were trying to tell if Amy was kidding or not. “What?” he said as he slid down off of the bed to sit in front of her, still holding Frays’ hands. “When? How?” It did not make any sense at all. He could not imagine that Frays would ever hurt a little kid…
She sobbed helplessly for a few minutes. “At…Hanscomb.” Frays whispered, pausing to wipe her nose on her sleeve and take a couple deep breaths. Amy struggled to get at least a modicum of control back. “When I w-was on quarantine detail.” Lacey held her hands. He let the woman squeeze them till his fingers ached. “This medic said he got bit, this little boy. H-He was just s-so…tiny and scared.
I picked him up to take him into the guardhouse. He was screaming and crying…this lady was yelling, calling me names…I…I guess she was his mom. I dunno…” Frays felt like she was going to throw up. She did not want to talk about this anymore, but for some reason she could not stop either. “The little boy started pulling at my gas mask…I was screaming, trying to make him stop ‘cause I didn’t know how it was spread. T-They had us masked up for a reason, you know?” Amy wiped her nose again, still shaking but no longer crying. “I…I pulled my sidearm and shot him. I shot him right in the head.” She shuddered at the memory of the pistol going off so close that all she could hear was a loud ringing, the muffled sounds of her own screams, the thick red haze spattered across her gas mask’s lenses.
“Oh, my God.” Lacey whispered. If Amy had not told him herself he would have never ever believed what he had just heard. Frays hurting a little kid? If anybody had told him that he would have called them a fucking liar. “C’mere, Amy.” He moved over and sat next to Frays, putting an arm around her and holding her tight to his chest. “You’re alright. Calm down, just calm down and breathe. You’re okay. I gotcha, Amy.”
Amy slowly started to calm down as she sat there with her head on Adam’s shoulder. Frays sighed heavily as she put an arm around the man. She missed Jacob. More than anything in the world she wanted him instead of Lacey with her right now. Her mind wandered back to the few weeks between her return to school and the phone call that sent her to Boston. She and Jacob would spoon and watch bad movies or play video games in his dorm room because Amy could not stand her roommate Janice.
An embarrassed little smile came to her face. Lacey was a good man but kind of a poor substitute for her well… most likely former boyfriend in her opinion. Jacob had been tall with these big thick arms… He had held her tight like this after she had woken from a bad dream and would whisper quietly in her ear until she fell back to sleep. And she could not help but wonder what her parents would have made of the scene…
“Jacob used to hold me like this.” Frays said quietly, startling Lacey just a little bit. He remembered that she had talked about her boyfriend a couple times before but had never mentioned anything this intimate. Adam was quiet, waiting to see if she would continue. Instead she smiled a little at some private memory and shifted around a little bit. “I got into a big fight with my roommate about a week or so after I got back. I was really freaking out… Her boyfriend had popped a trash bag next to my head when I was asleep. I was out front of the dorms sitting on this bench. I was just so…I dunno…scared, angry, embarrassed by the whole thing. They laughed at me, can you believe that? I mean, they didn’t know that I almost got blown up…but still…she knew I just got back. Jacob came down and brought me back to his room…I kinda half expected him to try and…you know…” She smiled a little bit and ran her hand over her stomach. “He just held me all night long till I calmed down enough to go back to sleep.”
Adam rested his cheek on the top of Frays’ head then moved his chin to her shoulder, mindful of the injury to the woman’s neck. He thought about asking what she meant by ‘almost blown up’ but thought better of it. “Want to hear something funny?” he asked, smiling a little at what he was about to say. Amy was quiet. She had more or less stopped shaking but he was a little concerned that she had stopped talking. He rocked her gently as he continued rubbing her back. “Becca said it’s okay if you wanted to be her new mommy.”
She snorted and squirmed against the man’s chest feeling kind of disappointed with herself. Here she was cuddling with this skinny Marin
e who had killed her friends after she told him that it should not be happening. Not that she really had any right at all to look down on him. She had a little boy’s blood on her hands after all… “I’m already gonna be a mommy.” Amy said in a low voice. Adam moved so that she was sitting between his legs and leaning against his chest, his arms draped over her shoulders. “And besides, I’ve been looking after you two for how long now? Two or three months?”
Lacey gave her a troubled smile. “Paulie’s probably gonna need some stitches or something.” he said quietly as he held the woman in front of him. “We need to find you a doctor too.”
Amy frowned and nodded. That was still true and besides staying here curled up in a ball and crying her eyes out all day was not helping anybody. And besides keeping busy always helped her keep her mind off things. “And we’ve gotta get the pump up and running.” she added as she stood up, wiping her cheeks with the palms of her hands. Her body was kind of stiff and achy from not moving for so long. “I must look like crap.”
“You look fine to me.” Adam said as he stood up as well, earning him an uneasy smile from Frays. At least she didn’t kick me in the junk this time. he thought with a wry grin. Lacey put a hand on her shoulder and ran it up and down her arm a few times. “Are you sure you’re up to it? I put your stuff in the corner there.”
“How is the little guy?” Frays asked as she threw her flak jacket over her head and fastened the Velcro straps. She grimaced when she turned her head to look at Lacey. Her hair had come loose a little bit and gotten caught in her body armor, making her neck bend at a funny angle and sending little lightning bolts down her arm.
Lacey made an odd face. “He lost the ring and little fingers on his right hand. Lost a good bit of blood.” he said quietly as he sort of half watched Frays getting back into her gear. Adam licked his lips and glanced at the woman when he remembered how she had reacted when the generator had gone tits up the other day. “You got the guy, by the way. I figured he might do us some good, so I rigged about two or three ounces of C4 to his body. So…you know…there might be a loud boom soon. Just so you know.”
A horrified expression came to Amy’s face. “What?” she asked, her voice strained as she tried to keep her voice down. Frays shook herself and blinked as if the man had spoken to her in Chinese. “Why on Earth did you do that?”
“If that jackwagon had friends, then they’ll come looking for him.” Adam said softly as he struggled to keep quiet. Paulie was sleeping in the living room and he did not want to wake him or upset Becca if she happened to be close enough to hear. “And if any of…them…heard the shots and come poking around…well…” The man frowned with a shrug.
She shook her head. “No. That’s wrong.” Frays said sharply, looking at the man as if he had lost his mind. Amy bent and picked up her LCS and shrugged into it. “It’s sick. What the heck where you thinking doing that?” Frays took her M4 from the corner and loaded it with a magazine from a pouch.
“That the bastard nearly killed my son.” Lacey hissed, suddenly furious with the woman. “He almost killed you or me or Rodriguez or Becca or Carl.” The Marine clenched his fists so hard that his arms shook. “He fuckin’ deserves it.”
Frays forced herself to take a deep breath and a half step back. “Look, Lacey.” she said quietly once she had her temper in check. “Violating the dead like that isn’t right. It’s just not. I’d like it if you wouldn’t do that anymore, okay?”
Lacey looked into Frays’ eyes then shook his head and chuckled, his expression softening. “Yep, I think you’re alright.” he said, giving the woman a sidelong glance. “C’mon. By the way, Becca and Carl will be glad to see you up and around. They’re really worried about you.”
Amy smiled wryly as she lifted her carbine’s sling over her head and followed Lacey out into the kitchen. Rodriguez smiled a little when she saw Frays. “Hey. Good to see your lazy butt outta bed.” she said as Frays made her way over to the table. Becca hurried over and intercepted her, wrapping her little arms tightly around Amy’s leg. Freddie looked up from near the couch then decided Frays was not worth his time and went back to nuzzling Paulie.
Frays smiled weakly and ran a hand over the little girl’s hair. She bit down hard on the urge to run back into the bedroom and curl up in a ball again. “Hey kiddo.” Amy said quickly and, mustering her courage, knelt to give the girl a hug. “Left that in there.” The little one would not let go of her neck making Frays grunt and squeeze her eyes shut when she tried to stand up. Amy shifted her weight and picked up the girl. “Please, hon, don’t grab my neck like that.”
“You have a owwie too?” Becca looked concerned then kissed the side of Amy’s neck with the little girl’s lips making a loud smacking noise. “Did that make it better?” she asked making Frays smile as she moved her carbine to the side and took a seat at the table with the little girl in her lap.
Amy grinned and hugged the little girl. “What a little sweetie.” The more she thought about it, she might need a doctor for more than the little kid in her belly. Eamon had said she probably had some nerve damage which would explain why her stupid arm hurt every time she turned her head too quickly or whatever… She bounced the little girl on her knee a little. “Is your brother doing good?”
“Yeah.” Becca said as she leaned against Amy’s chest. “Freddie’s making him all betterer.” Adam smiled at the sight of his daughter and Amy together as he sat down too. The little girl hugged Frays, pressing her cheek against the thick fabric of the woman’s flak jacket. “You’re awesome. You made the bad guy stop.”
Amy felt a cold ball in the pit of her stomach. Frays had strangely almost forgotten about killing that man yesterday. If I ever find a priest I hope he doesn’t have any plans for the afternoon… the young woman thought dejectedly. Come to think of it, it had been at least four or five months since she had last given Confession. She pasted a smile onto her face as she returned Becca’s hug then lowered her to the floor. “Thanks, sweetie.” Amy said quietly and patted the girl’s cheek. “Go help Freddie take care of your brother, okay? Your Daddy, Frannie, Carl and me gotta talk for a minute.”
Amy glanced at Becca as she walked over to the couch and helped her brother pet the dog. “So okay, guys.” Frays said carefully. She kept her voice low to try and keep the kids from hearing her. “I think the neighbors might have a similar set up, even if they only come up in the summer or whatever. We can see if there’s a pump there.”
Adam nodded. “So how would we get it back?” he asked. The man regarded Frays and Rodriguez for a minute then looked at Carl out of the corner of his eye. “You’re pregnant and Rodriguez, how’s the leg? Seems like its better but we can’t leave one person here with the kids either.” He was looking forward to getting running water back if they were going to stay. There was a bucket lined with a trash bag that served as a toilet for now. After use, they had to bury their shit in the garden.
“Why don’t we take the Humvee over?” Frannie said quietly. She liked the jarhead but he was a little thick sometimes. “On the other hand, why don’t we get outta here before more of those things show up? We gotta get Paulie to a doctor. The bleeding’s pretty much stopped but I can’t do much more for him. If it gets worse he might lose the whole hand.”
Carl looked disturbed. He frowned and started fiddling with the odds and ends in his pockets. “Where would we go?” the boy asked sharply. He scowled at the others and shook his head. “Anybody work that out? How do we know it’s safe?”
Amy put an arm around her brother’s shoulders. “We don’t know it’ll be safe.” she whispered in his ear. “But we do need a Plan B, buddy. I don’t really wanna leave either but we may have to do it soon.”
“I don’t want you having my nephew in a ditch someplace, Aim.” Carl said angrily as he pushed away from the table and flung his sister’s arm off him. “It’s safe here. We’ve got food. You’re super smart. You’ll fix the water. I know you will. Maybe there’s a doctor in
town or something. We can search around in there.”
Rodriguez shook her head. “What about the Bravo Charlies?” Frannie said slowly, glancing towards the kids. She was not sure if the little ones were on to their code phrase for the walking dead and they were upset enough as it was. “Town’s gotta be crawling with them, never mind the freeways and interstates. And like you said before Frays, the ones from the big towns are gonna start wandering out at some point.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that we’ve gotta find help soon.” Lacey repeated his voice an urgent hiss. “Paulie needs a doctor to stitch up his hand. Am…Frays needs a baby doctor.” He looked across the table at Amy. “I mean…did you even have a checkup or something before everything went to hell?”
“The last time I saw a doctor was the post deployment stuff at Fort Dix.” Amy said, squirming in her chair a little bit. “I told you that before.” A doctor had given a class explaining the ‘effects of long periods of stress on the female reproductive system’ before she left the states and again while she was waiting in Kuwait for a flight back. During a six month long deployment she had only had her period once so it did not really strike her as odd that she missed a couple times after she got back, especially under current circumstances.
“So are we going to Maine?” Lacey asked. He glanced over to check on Paulie then turned his attention back to the others. There was the naval bases there that they were looking at as they were the closest military instillations that they could guess had not been either overrun or destroyed by airstrikes. “It’s a long trip.”
Outbreak: Brave New World Page 22