Stark smiled and it drew a good bit of blood someplace south of Mike’s brain. “Yeah, I grew up in Gainesville.” she said quietly as she brushed a strand of hair out of her face and stuffed it back under her cap. “Moved away a few years ago because my husband got transferred.”
There was an uncomfortable silence that was thankfully interrupted by Sergeant Hanes calling for everyone to get ready to move again. Pittman felt like kind of an ass as the group reassembled and started heading off down the road. It did not really occur to him until right then that nobody talked about their families or other little small talk things anymore. Nobody talked about what they did for a living. If they had kids or were married. He did not have much in the way of family or anything so there was little for him to be concerned about back in Tennessee save a brother he had not spoken a word to in ten years.
Hanes marched them past the doctor’s office. That little brown haired lieutenant called out to Sergeant Hanes as the group moved past. Pittman found himself a little envious as the other man signaled a halt and moved towards the woman at a trot. He watched the two of them speaking together out of the corner of his eye.
“Alright, folks! On me!” Hanes shouted as he walked back towards the squad. The man looked around at the trainees as they approached. “Alright, mission change. This afternoon we were supposed to continue training on tactical movement and such. Looks like now Lieutenant Haskins wants our help doing a health and welfare inspection over at the Blue Diamond trailers on the other side of the compound. We’re gonna double time it over to supply, sign for ammo and come right strait back here. I’m not expecting much trouble but everybody just keep your heads. These asshats are going to try and provoke you into doin’ something but don’t you guys fall for it.”
With that Hanes called Frays on the radio and told her what was going on. “Crap.” the woman muttered over the radio. “I’ll be right there. Want me to link up with you guys at Supply or at the Aid Station?”
Hanes was quiet for a moment as the trainees got to their feet. “No, make sure they finish getting the range together.” he said quietly. The last thing he wanted was Frays there after what a couple of the mercs had done to her little brother. “It shouldn’t take that long. I’ll brief you when we get done.”
Frays rolled her eyes and turned back to the ‘range’. The plan was that a couple Engineers would come over and build a backstop with their Bobcat loader. Two guys had come over with the machine and started tearing up the ground building up a giant pile of dirt for them to set their targets against tomorrow morning. She was somewhat glad that Lacey was apparently off doing something else.
She grumbled and turned back to watch the men working. The backstop was already about half done a little bit over a half an hour ahead of schedule. Frays frowned to herself. This is dumb. Frays thought growing frustrated as she dug out a little foil package of peanuts and tore it open with her teeth. I should be there. Those guys don’t know what they’re doing.
The man directing the loader driver kept giving her the eyeball. She did not recognize the guy and it was starting to creep her out a little bit. Frays shrugged it off and turned away from the jobsite. Ideally she was supposed to both supervise the work and provide security since there was a chance of the Bobcat’s engine noise drawing enough of the walking dead for them to pile over the top of the wall some five hundred meters away.
The range was going to be as far away from the structures as they could manage and still have them within the FOB’s protective walls. There were improvised watchtowers every couple hundred meters along the perimeter making her job seem somewhat redundant to her. After all, there were four men with rifles in two different towers right there in front of her and they had not even raised their weapons all morning. The sound of the Bobcat’s motor idling brought her attention back around to the two men working on backstop. The soldier ground guiding the loader was walking towards her at a quick pace.
Frays stole a glance at the man’s nametape as she waddled over to meet him. “What’s up, Sandoval?” she asked. A droplet of sweat slowly started the trek down the side of her cheek and she wiped it away.
The big Hispanic guy tossed his head towards the backstop. “We’re almost done here. Maybe about a half hour more if we can find some more dirt, Sergeant.” he said and turned to face the backstop. The man studied the pile of dirt as if he were examining a piece of modern art statuary in a museum. “Do you want some fighting positions dug? We can knock that out in a couple minutes with the loader if you do.”
Frays stood with her hands on her balled fists on her hips as she considered the question. “Nah…I don’t think so.” she said quietly and scratched an itch on the side of her nose. The woman cracked a small grin at the Engineer. “Don’t want to spoil them, do we?”
Sandoval chuckled. “Nah, I guess not.” he said and started off towards the loader. The man paused and came back. “We’re gonna get a load of dirt and bring it back over here in a few minutes.”
Frays nodded and a few moments later the Bobcat was trundling off like some kind of mechanical beetle behind Sandoval. She watched them go and then wandered over to the backstop. After a moment’s debate she sat down and leaned back against the dark moist earth. The coolness of the soil felt good on her aching back. She almost started to doze off when the flat hard crack of a rifle bullet breaking the sound barrier made her leap to her feet.
She could see the two men in the nearest watchtower leaning forward looking out over the wall, one scanning the field on the other side with a pair of binoculars. The man pointed at something and shouted followed by the sentry on the rifle raising his weapon and firing again. There was a shot again then he worked the bolt of his rifle and fired again. And again. And again.
Frays threw a glance over her shoulder then hurried over to the watchtower. The man shot two more time and then there was a break in the action. “There’s more coming!” shouted one of the sentries. The panic in the man’s voice was plain to her at the bottom of the ladder leading up to the nest.
Frays scrambled up the ladder as fast as her son would let her, huffing and puffing heavily by the time she had managed to reach the top of the twenty foot ladder. “SITREP!” Frays demanded breathily as she elbowed her way past the spotter. Her heart fell through the floor of the nest into the dirt and finally settled somewhere around China. The woman crossed herself and muttered “God save us.”
There was easily a couple hundred or more infected stumbling purposefully towards the FOB’s perimeter wall. Frays turned to the squid that had been spotting for the rifleman. “Get on the horn and have them send QRF over here TIME: NOW.” Frays ordered as she slapped the magnification module into place on her M4 and took a knee next to the rifleman. He was busy dropping every other round as he tried to reload his M24. “Tell them we’ve got a massive contact. The wall’s holding but I want backup here if they pile up.”
Frays started providing cover fire for the rifleman as he reloaded. “Leave the closer ones to me for right now.” Frays told him as she dropped three that had their faces pressed right against the wall. The man’s face was a pale mask of panic. Frays grabbed the man’s arm and shook him hard enough to make him look at her instead of the groaning dead slowly but surely closing on their position. “You take the ones that are farther out since you’ve got the M24. Just relax, man. Take your time and aim. They can’t get over the wall.”
Now the walkie talkie clipped to the wall of the nest was coming alive with sentries reporting contacts on their side of the FOB. The towers on either side were firing and it took everything Frays had to maintain her focus on her sector of fire. There had to be almost two hundred now just in her little part of the perimeter. Her carbine ran dry for the third time and she dropped the empty magazine, slapped a fresh one in and smacked the bolt release with the palm of her hand. “I’m down to three mags. Tell ‘em we need a resupply!” Frays shouted and hoped that the squid with the radio could hear her. By now the ring
ing in her ears had settled into a constant high pitched whine.
The floor of the nest was now covered with expended brass and empty magazines. Strangely, Frays really did not start to get concerned until she heard the distinctive chattering rip of an M249 SAW nearby. From the sound of the radio traffic it did not seem like the walls had been breached or overtopped anywhere so why was somebody ripping off rounds from a belt fed machinegun?
The man who had been spotting tossed a grenade out at a knot of infected headed towards them. The explosion knocked a handful of them down and sent chunks of innards flying through the air. A shockwave slapped the left side of Frays’ face and shook the watchtower hard enough to make her wonder if it was going to fall over for a second. A fog of smoke hugged the ground in front of the tower to their left indicating that they had detonated the Claymore mines at their position.
A truck pulled up behind the nest and a bunch of men jumped out. Two ran over and climbed up the ladder, sliding a few ammo cans across the floor towards the defenders. Frays put the man who had been spotting to work reloading magazines as she stuffed a HE round into her M203, flipped up the sights and took aim at a mass of infected maybe two hundred meters in front of her position.
The grenade thumped out of the launcher and sailed through the air before detonating about ten feet off the ground smashing several infected to the earth. Frays reloaded and sent another grenade out to similar effect. The numbers were thinning out but there were still dozens and dozens wandering around and pressing against the walls.
Finally it looked like the defenders were starting to whittle down the numbers of infected to the point where it no longer looked like there was a danger of them surmounting the walls. The sentries took their time dropping the stragglers however there still seemed to be some too close to the barrier for the people in the watchtowers to easily get a shot at. Frays sat down on the floor of the watchtower and leaned back against the wall her breath coming in panicky little gasps. She noticed that her hands were shaking so she hid them from the squids by stuffing them into her armpits. “See if they’re going to send some QRF out to mop up or whatever.” Frays ordered, her eyes fixing on a single wispy little cloud as it drifted across the blue sky. She started to feel strange…kind of detached, like the entire engagement had just been some horrible dream. “Provide overwatch for them.”
One of the Navy guys yammered into the radio then tapped his friend on the shoulder and motioned towards Frays. “Ma’am?” he asked cautiously as he leaned in close to Frays “Are you okay? Don’t worry. Medivac’s on the way.” The man swallowed hard and tried to look reassuring as he took Frays’ hand and held it. “You’re gonna be fine. Don’t worry.”
It took her a few seconds to realize what had the man so upset. There was this dampness around her groin that she made her think that maybe she had wet herself out of fear at first. However it did not smell like she had peed in her pants…not that she could really smell anything over the burned cordite, smoke and atomized zombie in the air. She touched her groin and stared wide eyed at the sticky dark red blood on her fingertips.
“Ma’am? Can you put this…um…down there for me?” the Navy man handed her a roll of gauze the size of a child’s fist. “We’re just gonna try and get the bleeding stopped. Just hold on, ma’am. The corpsman are coming.”
Frays nodded and unbuckled her LCS then loosened her belt. “Yeah. Yeah, okay.” she said quietly. She was amazed by how calm she sounded as she stuffed the gauze inside her then tightened the belt back down tight to hold it in place. Her thoughts started to race despite the Navy guy’s best efforts to keep her calm Oh God please no not my baby not my special little guy no please God whywhywhypleasenopleaseGodsavemybaby!
She felt like she was sinking and it took her a moment to realize that they were lowering the lift. “Amy? Amy are you okay?” a familiar voice called out. Frays smiled a little bit when she recognized who it was. Lacey’s voice was all strained and anxious sounding. “Amy what’s going on?”
A couple people came into the nest. “Hey, Frays.” Tommy said and smiled at her as he knelt and looked at the woman. “How you doin’?” He somehow managed to keep the smile on his face but he started to get really worried as examined the woman. Her clammy skin was pale and there was a glassy look in her dark brown eyes. The medic wiped the sweat off of her brow. “Handed those things their asses, huh?”
Frays smiled weakly. “We gotta stop meeting like this.” she joked as she tried to stand up. Everything got all wobbly for a second there and Tommy put a hand on her shoulder. “My baby…”
Tommy patted Frays on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll get you over to see Doc Haskins lickety split.” There was a good bit of blood soaking the groin of the crotch of the woman’s pants. He fought back the pity and fear he felt for this woman as he helped her lie down on the floor. “Mike, get the stretcher in here. Call the Aid Station and let them know we’ll be there in two minutes.”
Frays squinted in the sun when Mike and Tommy carried her out into the light. Somebody came up and took her hand. “Amy, are you okay?” Lacey asked as he walked alongside the stretcher. Amy smiled and squeezed his hand. The poor guy looked so worried and scared. His eyes were so big it almost struck her as funny.
The two medics loaded Frays onto the back of a battered old four by four pickup and tied the stretcher down. Mike scrambled into the cab and Tommy leaped into the bed to sit beside Frays. Lacey practically dove into the truck beside her as Mike started pulling away. The Marine took her hand again and rested his cheek against her shoulder as he sat in the bed of the truck.
Frays was bustled inside the Aid Station as soon as they arrived. Lieutenant Haskins met them in the lobby, the woman hustling alongside as Mike and Tommy carried her towards the exam rooms. She elbowed Lacey out of the way. “Sorry, Private.” Haskins said without looking up as she checked Frays’ vitals “You’ll have to wait out here for right now. I promise I’ll let you in to see her as soon as she’s up to it, okay?”
Lacey stood in the lobby shaking and sweating as he took off his helmet. He tossed it into the nearest chair and ran his fingers through his hair. There was a brief moment where he thought he was going to throw up so he sat down next to his Kevlar and put his head between his knees taking a few deep breaths.
“What’s going on with Amy?” Carl asked. He stood in the doorway they had just taken his sister through. The man glanced down the hall and looked back at Adam. His face was still black and blue but the swelling was pretty much gone. “Is she okay?”
“The perimeter got attacked.” Lacey said quietly as the man stumbled towards him and sat down. “It looked like she was bleeding. They didn’t get over the wall so don’t worry it’s not…that…” Lacey took a drink of water from his camelbak and ran his hand over his head again. “I don’t know what’s going on but she’s conscious and was talking when we got her here.”
“Thank God.” Carl mumbled under his breath. He saw how pale and sweaty his sister’s face was in the two seconds that he had actually seen her before the doctor rushed her off. “What about the kid? Is he okay?”
Lacey sighed and looked uncomfortably at the man. “I dunno, dude.” he said finally. He shuddered at the thought of the blood on Amy’s crotch. His stomach boiled and churned. Was she going into labor early? She was only about five months along…no way the baby would make it. Not like it was now. Maybe if everything was normal and they could put the kid in an incubator or whatever…
Rodriguez came limping in a few minutes later. “What the fuck’s going on?” the woman demanded. Lacey looked a little puzzled by the woman’s presence as she got closer. Rodriguez raised an eyebrow at him. “It was all over the goddamn net. There’s only one fuckin’ pregnant chick here.”
Carl went across the room and held Frannie tight. “She’s in with the doctor right now.” he said quietly as he breathed in the smell of her hair. A little part of him liked it when she put the smooth side of her face agai
nst his neck. “She was bleeding a lot.”
Short angry puffs of breath tickled his throat. “How much is ‘a lot’?” Rodriguez demanded and squeezed him tight as she wrestled with the anger that was starting to make her head start to throb. Rodriguez closed her eyes and continued holding her man. She smiled ever so slightly at the thought. Her man. “She’s gonna be okay, Carl. Don’t worry. Doc Haskins knows her shit.”
Time turned to winter molasses. Lacey sat there staring at the digital clock mounted on the wall next to the hallway leading to the exam rooms. Because of the power outages it blinked 12:00 over and over again. Rodriguez and Carl sat next to him clinging to one another. He sighed heavily and was trying not to think of his grandparents. He had sat in a room like this waiting for word then too…and they died on him. C’mon, God… Lacey thought. He felt like he wanted to cry. Let everything be okay. It’s all my fault. She doesn’t deserve this. C’mon…please let Amy and the baby be okay…
It was hard to tell how long they had all been waiting. It seemed like hours until Lieutenant Haskins left an exam room down the hall and walked toward the foyer. Carl started breathing heavily and squeezed Frannie hand tight. There was this look on the woman’s face that made him think that she did not have much in the way of good news.
**********
Nausea rolled in ever greater and greater waves as the ten of them walked shoulder to shoulder across the area where the zombies had tried to rush the wall. There were shattered bits of bodies everywhere and small fires burned where the grass had ignited. The squad’s job was to do a police call of the area and deactivate any crippled infected so that the disposal crew could come in, pile them up and cremate the remains. PFC Joanne Stark had no idea if the virus or bacteria or whatever could get into the ground water but huge heaps of decomposing bodies were a definite health hazard.
Outbreak: Long Road Back Page 8