Outbreak: Long Road Back

by Van Dusen, Robert

  Rodriguez frowned and wondered if she should go find Lacey. The two of them were…close…but on the other hand it was kinda late. Of course she could stay with the kids while Lacey and Frays were talking or whatever. And she had to admit that Lacey was just one of those guys that was good to talk to. “Do you want me to see if Lacey’s around?” Rodriguez asked and started to act like she was going to get up.

  Frays frowned and shook her head after a few seconds. “No…no…” she said quietly. The woman shrugged. “I…how do I put this…I don’t trust myself around him. I like him and everything and he’s a great guy but…I…I dunno…ya know?”

  Rodriguez chuckled. “Strangely enough I think I do.” she said and sat down on Carl’s bunk. She lay down and shifted around into a more comfortable position. Rodriguez’s mind drifted as she started to doze off. While she had been deployed in Afghanistan she had…slept around…a lot. More out of a need to get her mind off the death and boredom than any real need to have a relationship or anything. Hell, she could not even remember a couple of their names. PFC Jason Hendricks had been in the truck with her when the driver rolled over an IED…

  She wiped at a tear of her own. He had been a good guy, one of the few men she had been with on deployment that did not treat her like a total whore. The last time she had seen him was on the Medivac chopper that would take them to Bagram Airfield. They had her flying high on morphine and strapped to a stretcher so fucking lit up that she was barely aware that there was a tube down her throat to help her breathe… Hendricks had been next to her and she reached out to try and take his hand but she could not find it… That sick moment when she realized that she could not find his hand because his whole arm was not there… Panic not for herself but for her friend next to her… A shadowy form doing something to the IV in her arm and then everything went all wobbly and dark…

  ********

  It was hot. Senior Airman Amy Frays could not for the life of her understand why on God’s green and verdant Earth why people came to this part of the world and decided to hang around for a couple dozen millennia. It was always just so friggin’ hot and dry and sandy never mind the giant scary looking camel spiders that always seemed to have a talent for turning up exactly where you did not want them to be: sleeping bag, boots, helmet…

  She leaned against the concrete shelter about a dozen meters from the connex she shared with Airman Sally Watkins the tiny bit of shade put out by the structure making it slightly less unbearable. Frays snorted a chunk of something disgusting out of her nose and fished a pack of nasty smelling Miami cigarettes out of an ammo pouch on her LCS and lit one. She blew smoke out of her nose and glanced at her watch. There was a twinge in the pit of her stomach. The chow hall would be opening for lunch in about an hour…

  “C’mon, Frays! Watkins!” a giant in ABUs called from the doorway of his connex. Frays hid a small smile behind the motion of taking the cigarette out of her mouth and butting it out. A little part of her still wanted Master Sergeant Brian Emery badly…even though he was married with two kids. “Get your shit and let’s go! Chow time!”

  Frays and Watkins gathered their weapons and gear then trotted over to their NCO. She looked startled for a moment. “Crap…Sergeant, I gotta grab my flash drive.” Frays grumbled as she searched through her pockets and pouches. The woman rolled her eyes and frowned clearly upset with herself. “I’ve gotta get my homework emailed off. Be right back.”

  Frays turned on her heel and jogged back to the connex. There was a big flash of light. All of a sudden the world when white and all she could hear was a high pitched whine like a giant mosquito… Cold water snapped the world back to crystal clarity.

  It felt like she was stuck inside a giant washing machine. The current was tearing at her splashing water into her nose and mouth. Frays took a deep breath intermingled with water and dove under the surface trying to catch up to the fading taillights of the Humvee as it sank to the bottom. Her lungs ached and the water was so cold…

  A pallid face appeared out of the depths as groping hands caught hold of her forearms. Frays released a scream in a cloud of bubbles into the frigid water as the creature pulled her towards its gaping maw. She screamed and sucked in a lungful of water, things going dark around the edges nasal passages burning as the strength left her. I’m drowning… Frays realized, her thoughts becoming sluggish from lack of oxygen and thrashed almost half heartedly. Just as the creature was about to bury its jagged broken teeth into her throat she recognized the craggy features of her father’s face…

  ********

  Frays sat up with a scream, pushing and kicking at the green woolen blanket she had over her. The woman shouted still kicking and screaming and choking. Somebody grabbed hold of her and she screamed louder slapping punching kicking spitting… Frays tumbled off of her cot and fell against the wall of the cubicle and somebody cussed and shouted next door.

  “…ays! Chill out!” Rodriguez said in as calm a voice as she could manage. Frays had smacked her around a good one while in the throes of her nightmare. Rodriguez held her friend tight until she calmed down whispering reassuring words in her ear. All of a sudden she understood why Carl would come visit her when his big sister was like this. “It’s okay…shh….it’s okay…” After a couple minutes Frays started to calm down a little bit. “Look…just wait here, okay? I’m going to go get Lacey.”

  Rodriguez hustled as fast as her gimpy leg would let her out into the area of the Resettlement Center set aside for families. Lacey and his kids had to be around here somewhere… After the first couple of tries she almost gave up and went back to Frays’ room. She tiptoed into the little room and smiled down at the sleeping children. “Sorry guys.” Rodriguez whispered as she slipped past them and went to their father’s side. “Need to borrow your daddy for a minute, alright?”

  Rodriguez patted Lacey’s shoulder and winced when he woke up. “Hey, Lacey…sorry about this. Sorry.” she said quietly as the man sat up and blinked wearily. “Frays needs you, man. She’s having a major freak out.”

  The scrawny Marine wiped at his eyes and took a deep breath. “Okay.” He frowned sleepily and collected his M16 and plate carrier from under his cot. He stretched and threw on his gear. “Where’s she staying at again?”

  “In the barracks.” Rodriguez said quietly and nodded towards the kids. “Third door from the latrines on the right. Don’t worry I’ll stay with them.” Almost as an afterthought she asked “When do the kids go to the daycare?”

  “0700.” Lacey grumbled as he shrugged into his plate carrier and slung his rifle across his chest. He looked sheepishly at the floor and grumbled under his breath. “Make sure they get something to eat before they go if I’m not back.”

  Lacey followed Rodriguez’s directions and found Frays curled up on her cot with her blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She looked up at him when he came in. “Hey Frays.” he said quietly as he ducked inside. It was a minor shock when the woman stood up and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his chest.

  It took a couple moments to get Frays back over to what he assumed was her cot. It occurred to him that this was the first time he had actually been in her quarters. Lacey rubbed her back and held her, waiting for her to calm down. He unbuckled her LCS and helped her shrug out of the vest…

  He took off his own armor and nudged it under her cot to rest with Frays’ gear. A little thrill went through him as Frays snuggled against his chest. “It’s alright, Frays.” Lacey whispered in her ear as he squeezed her tight. “I gotcha. It’s alright…shh…” After a few moments Adam gently leaned against her getting Amy to lie down next to him on the cot. It was a tight fit but they somehow managed to make it work.

  Frays rolled onto her other side putting her face to face with Lacey. She smiled shyly. “I’m sorry Frannie woke you.” Frays whispered. Conflicting emotions ran through her as she lay there in this man’s arms. Anger at Frannie. Shame. Rage…and…she did not really want to admit it but sh
e was kind of attracted to this scrawny little Marine.

  There was strength in the man that she found herself drawn to. Not a physical strength mind you…Frays was fairly certain that she could beat him two out of three in an arm wrestling contest. No…more like the mental strength to do what had to be done. Lacey’s wife as well as Frays’ father had been bitten by zombies and turned but Lacey had…dealt with them. Somehow Frays knew she did not have it in her to shoot what used to be her parents. If she had been there in the cabin instead of him she would have died, eaten alive by her own parents because she could not do what needed to be done.

  And as much as she claimed to be a Christian this man had always treated her with kindness and warmth no matter how little she might have deserved it. He had endured every harsh word she had ever said every time she had lost her temper and hit him... Even though he had lost his wife the mother of his children Lacey went out of his way to see to her needs and make sure she was okay. That night in her parents’ laundry room would always hold a special place in her heart when the two of them had curled up against the wall and held each other tight listening to the thumping of the dryer until she fell asleep…

  He had held her tight and whispered in her ear when she was in the middle of a nervous breakdown even though, as a father, he was the one person she expected to think of her as the worst kind of monster. But he did not. Instead he did his best to comfort her and take care of her…the exact opposite of what she herself had done when Lacey had confessed…what he had done in Boston…

  “It’s okay, Am…Frays…” he shifted a little, slipping an arm very carefully under the woman’s neck. “Rodriguez is going to watch the kids for me.” Lacey brushed a couple locks of hair away from the woman’s face and maneuvered just ever so slightly closer to her. He noticed the flush in her cheeks, the heat of her breath on his face…

  Lacey’s eyes went wide when Frays scooted up a little bit and kissed him, gently at first then a little harder. His tongue found its way into her mouth as his hand slid up and down her back, slowly working its way towards her butt. He found the bottom hem of her tee shirt as they separated. He pulled her shirt off and stared up at her as she pushed him onto his back. Amy kissed him again, his hands moving down her sides caressing the lump where her child grew in her womb…

  He lay awake after they had finished feeling strange and listening to Frays snore contentedly into his chest like a Harley Davidson with its muffler missing. The loss of his wife still gnawed at him like biting insects in his mind and somehow he could not help thinking that he had betrayed Laura. The hurt in her eyes when Mister Frays had accused him of doing what he had just done… He realized that Laura was dead and she would want him to find someone else…but…still… Lacey propped himself up slightly on an elbow and looked down at Frays’ face as she slept.

  God, she’s beautiful… he thought and gently caressed her cheek. His finger gently traced the scar from the bullet wound just below her eye. The woman stirred and squirmed up against him, a slight smile flitting across her drowsing face. Guilt boiled to the surface. As much as he did not want to think of it that way he could not help but feel he had taken advantage of her. Then again, Frays had proven in the past she was more than capable of letting him know if she was not interested in him…

  It was late. Lacey looked around in the gloom, trying to figure out a way to extract himself from the situation. He would almost certainly wake Frays trying to get up and he did not want to do that. She seemed so peaceful despite the noise rumbling out of her chest that it seemed a shame to wake her. Still, he had to get back to his kids and if anybody caught him coming out of her room in the morning it would raise all kinds of questions…

  He bit the bullet and as gently as possible tugged his arm out from under Frays’ head. She stirred and rolled onto her back as he sat up. “Sorry.” he said quietly and smiled down at her in the reddish haze of the emergency lights. “I gotta get back. The kids will be worried if I’m not there in the morning.”

  Frays yawned and stretched, vaguely reminding him of a cat. “Alright, Adam.” she mumbled her voice still thick with sleep. To his surprise the woman rose up on her elbows her face mere centimeters from his. She gave him a quick peck on the lips and smiled. He kissed her back, letting his hand run through her long brown hair and savoring the taste in the woman’s mouth for a long few seconds before regretfully disengaging from the situation.

  Lacey threw on his gear and slipped out into the hall in a haze. It was almost like a dream or something. He never actually suspected that Frays even seriously thought of him that way. It still struck him as kinda weird though. Sure…he knew that she had obviously slept with at least one guy before… He just never suspected that she could be so frenetic in the sack especially seeing as how she was pregnant and all.

  Lacey snuck back into his room and nudged Rodriguez. “Hey.” he said quietly. Lacey smiled awkwardly in the gloomy dark as he helped Rodriguez collect her gear. “Thanks for watching the kids.”

  There was a big shit eating grin plastered all over Rodriguez’s face when he turned around and handed the woman her plate carrier. “You totally fuckin’ did it, didn’t you?” she asked and gave the man a good natured jab in the ribs with her elbow. When Lacey just stood there gawping at her like a landed fish Frannie just shrugged and started off towards the door. “I guess I’ll have to ask Frays in the morning.”

  Frays woke up and stretched. The lights had not come back on yet so she figured that there must be a little more time before it was actually time to wake up and get to work. She squirmed on her cot trying to get comfortable again. Frays noticed that Rodriguez had settled in to Carl’s cot a few feet away and pulled her blanket tighter around her shoulders.

  This is gonna screw things up so bad… Frays thought ruefully as she tried to get back to sleep for however little time she still had. There was a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. “Frannie…Frannie wake up.” Frays called softly as she sat up and started getting herself together for the day. The other woman yawned and stretched, sitting up and digging something out of the corner of her eye. “Did you talk to Lacey at all?”

  “Not too long.” Rodriguez mumbled drowsily. She started trying to work some of the stiffness out of her thigh and shrugged. “I watched the kids for a minute while he was over here with you.” A mischievous glint shone in the woman’s eyes as she tied her boots and tucked the laces inside. “Did the two of you have a good time?”

  Frays felt a little sick and it had little to nothing to do with the child growing in her womb this time. “Yeah, I guess.” she admitted, hoping against hope that her friend would not press the issue further. Frays quickly twisted her hair into a haphazard knot at the back of her head and held it in place with a rubber band she had found on the floor in the office.

  Rodriguez giggled. “C’mon you can’t just lead me on like that.” she grumbled as she produced a little treasure from a pouch on her plate carrier: a little plastic thing of some off brand baby wipes. Rodriguez took a couple then tossed the container across the room to Frays.

  Frays took one and scrubbed her face, turning the white sheet of damp heavy duty paper into a brownish mess in her hands. “We…you know…” Frays mumbled. She looked around the room guilty and gave Frannie back her baby wipes. “I…I dunno… I guess we just got kinda carried away or something.”

  Rodriguez smiled awkwardly at her friend. This is something she should be talking about with her mom… Frannie thought regrettably. Somehow she thought that this almost would have made Mrs. Frays’ day to have this kind of talk with her daughter. And Frays would love to talk to her mom again… Rodriguez kind of half shrugged. “I know you two care about each other.” she said quietly as she finished getting her stuff together and stood up. “And the two of you got your problems. Just…I dunno…give him a chance, Frays. He’s a great daddy.”

  The haunted, tired look in Frays’ eyes struck a chord deep in Rodriguez’s guts. She had seen that l
ook in the mirror too many times to count. “I…I don’t know if I can be what he needs, Frannie.” Frays mumbled, her hands spread wide before letting them fall into her lap. “I-I can’t be around his kids without thinking of that…that little boy…”

  Rodriguez sighed heavily. She knew her friend was still wrestling with whatever demons were running around inside her head, the things she had seen and done since the world went to shit on them. She hugged Frays and held her at arm’s length for a minute. “Don’t be late for your checkup.” Rodriguez reminded her friend and made an attempt at a smile. “You know how Doc gets when you’re late.”

  Frays slouched towards the Security Forces offices after saying goodbye to Rodriguez. She could not help but feel the sting of her father’s palm making contact with her cheek hard enough to make her see a flash of white. An alarming thought put an extra spring in her step as she trudged along.

  “Good morning, Sergeant.” Frays said as she walked into the office and looked around. There were about ten or twelve other people in there, mostly either filling out paperwork or getting ready to go out on patrol. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

  “Hey, Frays.” the skinny man grinned then stopped. Sergeant Hanes pulled a small notepad out of his pocket and leafed through it. “Oh, right. You’ve got your appointment this morning. Hurry up and get breakfast get over there and get back. I got a new job for you.”

  This news immediately snapped Frays out of her funk. “What do you mean new job?” she asked and looked around. What could be going on? She found that lately anything new made her suspicious and more than a little anxious. Frays glanced around the room again and slowly stuck her hands into her armpits. “Doing what?”

  Sergeant Hanes gave her a cryptic little smile. “You’ll find out when you get back.” the man said, clearly enjoying making his subordinate uncomfortable. He could almost see the questions whizzing around inside that pretty little head of hers. “Don’t worry I didn’t volunteer you to dig latrines or anything. Go on now.”