Outbreak: Long Road Back

by Van Dusen, Robert

  Frays closed her eyes, took a deep breath and shoved herself to her feet. “C’mon, Lacey.” she said quietly. The woman stood and walked towards the door smirking just a little bit as she led the private outside. She pointed towards the gate. “Help ‘em keep an eye on things over there, man.”

  Frays walked along the perimeter of her Area of Operations taking a moment to make sure each of her Airmen…or Marines…or whatever knew where their sectors of fire were and briefed them on the Rules Of Engagement. It was right about then that she noticed the black smoke against the blue sky. For some bizarre reason it took her a moment to figure out that the source of the smoke seemed to be the Resettlement Center… Frays raced to where Lacey stood with the others by the gate.

  Lacey glanced over Frays. Again she had to marvel at how the man had a talent for looking exactly like how she felt: queasy, terrified and ready to tear somebody a new asshole. The woman frowned at the smoke as if she were debating a course of action. Frays pulled her little Motorola walkie talkie off of her LCS and thumbed the talk button. “Big Daddy Big Daddy this is Baby Momma. Sitrep, over.” She stared anxiously at the little yellow plastic radio in her hand waiting for a response.

  “This is Big Daddy.” Sergeant Hanes shouted into his radio. There was a brief pause then he keyed his Motorola a few times. “We’ve just about got things wrapped up here, Baby Momma. Looks like we’ve got the last of the bastards holed up in the air control tower. How are things at your end?”

  Frays keyed her radio. “We’ve got the Med Center locked down.” she said as she spared a glance at the others around her. “There’s some that are…expectant…but the perimeter’s secure. What’s going on at the Resettlement Center? It looks like there’s a fire.”

  There was a pause, probably from the man on the other end of the radio trying to see what she was talking about. “We’re busy here. I don’t know what’s going on over there. Take Stark and a couple others and go check it out.”

  A tiny bit of relief made Frays’ shoulders sag for a half second. Finally a guy with a little common sense! she thought as she pressed the talk button. “Roger that. Moving in five.” Frays said quickly as she stashed the radio and moved off to her people. “Alright! Stark, Lacey and…Hubbard on me.

  When the three others gathered around her Frays frowned and motioned towards the smoke drifting across the sky. “We’re going to break off as a fire team and go secure the area around the Resettlement Center. Gather any first aid supplies and fire extinguishers you can find and meet me by the gate in five.”

  Lacey watched the column of black oily looking smoke with growing unease as the four of them made their way towards the Resettlement Center. Every fiber of his being wanted to break formation and run towards the burning building. Paulie and Becca were in there. His little ones, his whole world could be in there right now scared to death and wondering why their Daddy was not there to save them. Why their Daddy had left them with a bunch of strangers…

  The place was absolute bedlam by the time they arrived. The air was thick with noxious smoke and inside the muffled screams of people trapped inside. A lanky teenager came running up to meet the four soldiers and wrapped his arm around his big sister when he recognized her leading them, nearly lifting the smaller woman off the ground in a big bear hug. “What the heck happened, Carl?” Frays demanded when her brother put her down.

  “Dunno, Aim. Me and Frannie got in here before the jarheads locked it down. Everybody started going crazy. There was at least one…um…Bravo Charlie in there. Frannie took care of it.” Carl answered and looked around. He eyed the red fire extinguishers that Lacey and the others were carrying incredulously. “I don’t think those are gonna cut it, guys. Frannie’s helping to take care of the people that got hurt.”

  Lacey rushed forward, the extinguisher falling from his hands with a metallic clank. “Where’s Paulie and Becca?” he nearly shouted. “Were they with you? Did you see them? For the love of God tell me you saw them.”

  Carl looked at the blacktop under his feet. “Um…I swear we tried to find them…” the younger man said quietly. “I…I-I I had Paulie by the hand and I…” Carl’s face tightened and he swallowed hard, tears starting in the corners of his eyes as the realization of what he was trying to say dawned on Lacey’s face. “S-Somebody knocked me over. And…and the zombie jumped on Frannie. This guy shot all these people and some fuckin’ crazy lady…”

  “WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN?!” Lacey roared as he closed the distance between them and caught a double handful of Carl’s shirt. “WHAT THE FUCK?! FUCK!? FUCK!!” He levered the younger man to the blacktop straddling him. Lacey slammed the man against the asphalt with the force of a battering ram, driving the air from Carl’s lungs. “THE FUCK!? FUCKIN’ FUCK FUCK FUCK!!”

  Frays grabbed the Marine by the drag handle on his plate carrier and hauled him to his feet. She stood between him and her brother and hooked a hand around the back of the man’s neck, pulling his face down to hers so that the very tips of their noses were touching. “It’s alright, man. It’s alright. Just calm down, okay?” Frays whispered. She took a couple deep breaths, the man’s fear and grief spreading to her as well. “Look, buddy…there’s a lot of people here. I’m sure they’re alright and we’ll find them, alright?”

  Lacey broke free of the woman and looked down wiping his face with the palm of his hands. “Okay. Okay.” he said quietly. The man took a couple deep breaths and tried to get his shit back together. “What do you want us to do?”

  Frays looked at Stark. “Stark, get to work helping those that need it.” She turned to the two men and pointed off towards the playground equipment on the far side of the parking lot. “Lacey, Hubbard get everybody over there by the trees. I want everybody away from the building and make sure they stay there, alright? I don’t care if you gotta dive tackle some wannabe hero. Everybody stays the heck away, got it?”

  The entire scene seemed like something out of Dante’s Inferno as they worked to get everyone safely away from the building and take care of the wounded. The heat coming from the burning building was stupendous as it raged inside the structure. Frays kept wondering crazily if somebody had called the fire department and what exactly was keeping them. If there was a silver lining to this fiery cloud it was that the blacktop seemed to be keeping the fire from spreading for the moment. If any embers decided to find a nice little place and start making little baby fires remained to be seen.

  Somehow she had to keep Lacey busy to keep him from falling apart. “Lacey! Hubbard! On me!” Frays called out as she helped an older fellow with a broken arm get comfortable under a tree. She spared a glance at the two men over her shoulder. “Take those fire extinguishers and go walk the perimeter of the lot. If anything looks like its burning put it out.”

  Rodriguez came over. “How the fuck are we gonna get these people to the Med Center?” she asked under her breath. “We at least need to get the burn victims some more pain meds, man.” The woman held one arm across her stomach and scratched her triceps as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

  Frays frowned sympathetically at her friend. “I already called for a medivac, Frannie.” she said quietly as she moved a little farther from the collection of wounded people sitting or lying on the grass. The Wal-Mart was pretty much burned to cinders by this point. “I don’t know what we’re going to do.” She paused and scratched an itch on the side of her face. “Did…did you find Paulie and Becca?”

  Rodriguez looked like she was going to cry. “We had ‘em, Amy.” the woman mumbled, her chest hitching as she took rapid shallow breaths. “Carl…he was…I dunno…” Frays put an arm around her friend’s shoulders trying to encourage her to get what she was trying to say out. “I-I…had a flashback…I hurt Carl, Amy. I was going to kill him…” The strength left Rodriguez’s legs and she sat down hard on the blacktop. “I love him and I was gonna choke him…” The woman gasped then started to sob quietly her head hanging.

&nbs
p; “Hey…hey hey hey…” Frays whispered as she sat down next to her friend. “I love him too and I wanna choke him sometimes.” She smiled awkwardly at the woman sitting next to her and was glad to hear her snicker. Thankfully a pickup rolled up to the burning building a few moments later.

  “Hey Amy!” Mike called as he hustled over to her with a stretcher under his arm. “Who’s going first?” Frays flashed a relieved smile at the fat medic then hustled off towards the worst off of the casualties. “Oh! By the way if you run into that Lacey guy let him know that his kids are waiting for him at the Med Center.”

  Frays stopped dead in her tracks, the Gordian Knot of tension and anxiety in her gut coming loose just a little bit. “Thank God!” she whooped joyfully. She hurriedly helped Mike and a couple volunteers get as many of the worse off casualties onto the truck before running off in search of Lacey.

  “Lacey! Lacey, come here!” Frays shouted when she spotted Hubbard and Lacey on the far side of the now smoldering Wal-Mart. “Lacey, you’re not gonna believe this!” she panted, a little out of breath from sprinting the several hundred yards to where she found the two of them absently stomping out embers. “Paulie…Paulie and Becca…”

  Lacey ran over and caught the woman by the shoulders forcing her to stand up straight. “Well! Don’t keep me in fuckin’ suspense!” he shouted as he unintentionally gave her a shake. Behind them Hubbard scowled at Lacey as if the big good ol’ boy was unsure as to if he should punch the man or not.

  Frays held one finger up in the man’s face as she caught her breath. “They’re at the Med Center! Paulie and Becca are at the Med Center!” Frays gasped. Her eyes went wide when the Marine swept her up in his arms and kissed her hard on the lips. She pushed him away with a nervous giggle. Frays gave Hubbard a look that said Don’t you ever dare tell anyone! “C’mon, man. We’ll go over once we’ve got the rest of the casualties loaded up. My guys are over there keeping an eye on things.”

  He sighed heavily and held her at arm’s length. “Can I head over there now?” he asked and when he remembered that one of Frays’ Marines was standing right behind him let her go. “Please? C’mon, Sergeant...”

  Frays smiled a little bit and her cheeks get warm in spite of her best efforts to keep her game face on in front of Hubbard. “No, Private.” she said quietly. Part of her wanted to tell him they would go together but they she still had a responsibility to the people that had been hurt. There was no telling if there were any more Bravo Charlies in the area.

  It took two more trips to get the injured loaded up and over to the Med Center. The last handful sat in the bed of the truck with the soldiers. It was a tight fit and Frays thought they might dump someone out by accident but they made the five minute drive in one piece. The truck eased to a halt and Frays hopped over the side then helped the wounded down and directed them where to go once they got inside. She jaw clenched involuntarily at the sound of two children squealing as they rushed out of the Med Center and hugged their father.

  Lacey swept Paulie and Becca up in his arms and smothered their faces with kisses. “Where did you two run off to?” he asked, trying to sound mad but not quite pulling it off. The little ones squeezed their father for all they were worth.

  “Becca had an owwie.” Paulie said into his father’s neck. He was so happy that Daddy and Frannie and Carl and Amy did not have any owwies or anything. Daddy smelled like smoke and had soot on his face. “Some bad man pushed her and she got cutted so we came here ‘cause it’s where people get fixed.”

  Becca held her forearm up for her father to see. “It’s okay Daddy.” the little girl said as she showed Lacey the band-aid with little cartoon dinosaurs on it then shrugged. “Daryl fixeded my owwie good. I wanted Beth to do it but she wasn’t there.”

  Lacey grinned at his children as he put them down. “I’m just glad you’re both okay, guys.” he knelt and kissed the tops of their heads. The man saw Rodriguez limp over to the stairs leading up to the front door and sit down heavily. He frowned slightly. “I’ll bet Frannie needs your squeezes.” Lacey whispered conspiratorially.

  Rodriguez agreed to watch the kids while the others busied themselves with taking care of the casualties and securing the perimeter. It had been about an hour or more since she had last heard a gunshot so it stood to reason that things were wrapped up. Somehow she could not help but feel a little nervous. If the mercs had won they would be coming for them soon. Even if they did not there was no guarantee that they got all the zombies. The larger question was how did the zombies get inside the perimeter in the first place?

  Frays came over to the three of them a few moments later and sat down on the steps. She smiled at the kids and tousled Paulie’s hair. “The last couple mercs surrendered a couple minutes ago, Rodriguez.” Frays declared with a small nervous smile. “That’s over with. We’re…we’re gonna be busy over the next couple of days.”

  Chapter Seven

  23 July 2011 0943 hours NorthCom Forward Operating Base Freedom Sanford, Maine

  Sergeant Amy Frays stood over the small patch of overturned earth staring down at the grave. She looked over both shoulders to see if anyone else was around. There were rows and rows of newer graves all dug to inter the remains of those killed in the fighting or the fire a couple weeks ago. Most of them had markers at the head with the person’s name and, if it was known, their age. The tiny grave Frays was standing near did not have a marker. “Hey kiddo.” she mumbled as an unforeseen wave of emotion crashed down upon her. “I…I’m sorry I didn’t come visit sooner…I just…didn’t…

  Her chest heaved and she knelt next to the grave. Frays ran her fingers through the loose soil on top of the makeshift coffin. “I…I…” Her mouth opened and closed a few times. “I miss you so much, little guy.” A few tears leaked out of her eyes and she blinked them away. “I hope you’re happy and safe… God, I wish I could have gotten to hold you just once.”

  She sighed heavily and sat down Indian style next to the grave then took off her helmet. It was one of the new skateboard helmet looking things with rails for lights and stuff that she had seen the Special Forces types wearing over in Iraq and a new plate carrier that fit reasonably well. The carrier and the boron carbide plates inside it were obviously designed for a man (relieving herself while wearing it was a chore) and a little uncomfortable at first but over the last few days she had gotten used to the weight.

  They had found a sizable cache of supplies when they cleaned out the trailers that the mercenaries had been living in. Amongst the piles of smutty magazines, booze, drugs and trinkets stolen from the civilian population they had found tons of weapons, new Digicam uniforms and lots and lots of ammunition. It seemed like whoever was smuggling the drugs in for the mercs had sent in a load of dirty needles…which explained the small number of Bravo Charlies inside the Blue Diamond Group’s area.

  The most important thing as far as she was concerned was that she got to return Carl’s battered M1911A1 to him. He had cried like a baby when she handed it over to him…

  “We finally got things under control here. Major Tennyson says us National Guard and Reservists can get demobilized soon and there’s actually going to be elections this Fall. What do you think of Mommy running for sheriff?” Frays asked the grave. The woman felt more tears and she wiped her face with the sleeve of her uniform. “This is gonna be a good safe place, sweetie. We can build a new life here. There’s plenty to eat and the walls are…” She took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of her nose between her middle finger and thumb.

  “God…what was I thinking? I was five months pregnant for God’s sake!” A low strangled sound came out of the woman’s throat, the mewling of a wounded animal. Frays sat there taking deep breaths as she wiped at the tears on her cheeks. “There were plenty of people around. I didn’t have to…” She felt her nose starting to run so she blew it on a handkerchief and sat there staring at the grave. “I’m so sorry, little guy. I love you so much and I…” Frays sat there
finally losing herself in giant racking sobs. It took her what felt like ages to get some semblance of control back.

  Frays smiled wanly at the grave as she plucked a blade of grass and absently toyed with it. “We’re going out this afternoon.” she said quietly. With a nervous little laugh she flicked the blade of grass away. “I’m taking part of the squad to try an experiment and I won’t be back for about a day or so. Don’t worry though. Adam’s going to be with me.” She chuckled and smiled just a little bit “You should see him, kiddo. He’s so excited.”

  She noticed the form of Sergeant Hanes standing a respectful distance away. “Well…looks like I gotta get back to work, buddy.” Frays murmured as she gave the overturned earth a gentle pat. She stood and shouldered her rucksack. “Don’t worry. Mommy’s gonna be back as quick as she can, alright?”

  Frays gave the Marine a discomforted little smile as she approached. He frowned and put an arm around her shoulders for the briefest of moments, an attempt at a sort of half hug. “We’re about ready, Frays.” Hanes said as the two of them walked towards the TOC. He glanced at the woman out of the corner of his eye. She looked sad and a little shaken up but ready for whatever was going to happen. He had to respect her for that. “The trucks are gassed up and Lacey’s got the kids loading up those contraptions.”

  The ‘contraptions’ as Sergeant Hanes put it was home stereos wired to run off of motorcycle batteries and connected to a half pound of Composition B wired to a timer. The stereo could, in theory, run for a couple days or more to lure in the infected then the plastic explosive would detonate taking them out. There were also about a half dozen other charges that would be daisy chained to the main charge to inflict more damage. The noise would also send any late arrivals wandering off far away from any known settlements.