Outbreak: Brave New World

by Van Dusen, Robert

  “Oh, no she’s always done that.” Carl said quietly as he stood up and looked around the room. He smirked, heading off towards the foyer to take the clothes out of the dryer and put the last load from the washer in it. “Drives you nuts, doesn’t it?”

  There was a shuddering WHAMBANG that shook the floor under their feet. Out of instinct, Amy threw herself to the floor using her body to shield Becca from any incoming lateral fragments. Frays held the frightened, squirming girl to the floor for a moment until she got her bearings. She rose to her knees and looked around, a little embarrassed by her response to the loud noise. Thankfully nobody seemed to be paying much attention to her as the others were looking out the picture windows facing the lake. There was thick black smoke drifting skyward coming from the front of the house.

  Amy sprang to her feet and ran out onto the deck coughing as the acrid smoke wove its way through the two by fours under her feet and into her lungs. Lacey and Rodriguez were right behind her as they sprinted across the deck, jumped the gap where the staircase used to be and ran to the generator room door. Frays backed off choking, eyes burning when she pulled open the door. Lacey pushed her out of the way and reached inside the door groping in the miasmal atmosphere in the tiny room. He could not hear the generator running.

  Not knowing exactly where the fire was, Lacey pulled the pin out of the extinguisher as soon as his hand closed around it, took a deep breath and stepped inside. After a couple steps he noticed a flickering light in the black smoke and fired the extinguisher at it until the room became dark again. He loosed all the white foam, waving the nozzle back and forth until it hissed and spat, the flame retardant expelled.

  A hand grabbed the back of his plate carrier and pulled him back through the door into the fresher air outside. “What the hell happened?” Rodriguez asked as she pulled Lacey away from the cloud of smoke oozing out of the generator room. “Did you put it out?”

  “Yeah, I think I got it.” Lacey said in between coughs. He looked around, his eyes red and watery from the smoke. “Hope I got it anyway. Leave the door open to let it air out a little.” The three of them stood there watching the smoke for a long time. Carl came out onto the deck with the kids and Freddie trailing behind him.

  “What happened?” he asked, leaning over the railing and trying to see where the smoke was coming from. Carl coughed and waved his hand in front of his face in an attempt to clear the smoke away. “Is everybody okay?”

  “Carl, bring the kids down here.” Amy shouted as loud as she dared, still gagging a little on the smoke. “I think the fire’s out. We’ll take a look in a few minutes.”

  Chapter Seven

  18 June 2011, 0732 hours Old Trout Lane 10 miles north of Holden, Massachusetts

  After the generator room had aired out it only took a couple minutes to figure out the problem. There was a small pump that drew water out of the lake and put it through a filtration system before it filled the cistern under the house. It looked to Frays like the pump’s motor had overheated and started to catch the soundproofing insulation on the wall next to it on fire. Lacey had gotten the fire out, but until they got the pump fixed they had to walk down to fill water cans at the lake and lug them back upstairs. Without the pump there was not enough water pressure to move the liquid from the cistern through the pipes and out of the taps or shower. The toilet would not work either, which meant they would have to get started on a privy pit…

  Frays grumbled as she gently put her hand against the metal of the pump’s engine. She had unplugged it last yesterday and it had finally cooled down enough to start working on. The young woman squatted over the pump and opened the little toolkit she had found on a shelf in the corner. Lacey stood a few feet behind her, staring worriedly at the woman as she struggled to get the outer case off. The engine had been hot enough to warp the bolts slightly making loosing the nuts difficult.

  “Need a hand?” he asked, throwing a concerned glance at the piece of machinery his friend was working on. “Can you fix it?” The metal was all blackened and the paint on it was blistered. Frays grunted as she put her weight into loosening a particularly stubborn nut.

  Amy shot a dirty look over her shoulder and wiped at her brow. “I can get it.” she muttered and turned back to lean on the wrench. “I’m pregnant not a cripple, Lacey.” Frays grumbled under her breath and tried moving the wrench back and forth. She frowned then got another larger wrench out of the toolbox and slipped it onto the end of the first one, using it to get more leverage.

  The wrench slipped off the nut, smacking to the cement floor with a metallic ping. Frays took a deep breath, biting back a scream. “Ow…ow.” she hissed quietly shaking her skinned knuckles. Amy leapt to her feet and started kicking the pump a few times, muttering angrily under her breath.

  Lacey grimaced. “How fucked is it?” he asked. It looked pretty bad to him, but he did not know much about machines and stuff. Amy sucked on her knuckles for a second and shook her head. Adam let the woman pace around the room for a moment then caught her by the arm. “Is it that bad?”

  “I think it’s pretty much boned.” Frays muttered angrily as she tugged her sleeve out of Lacey’s hand. She sighed, taking a moment to calm herself down. “The pump’s motor burned out so bad I think it has to be a solid hunk of copper inside. If we want the water running again I think it will have to be replaced.”

  “I was afraid you’d say that.” Adam grumbled. He shook his head and started towards the door. “Well, looks like we’re either going to have to go on another shopping trip or get used to getting our water from the lake every day.”

  Amy shook her head and walked out of the room. Lacey paused on the steps while she locked the door to the generator room. “It’s gonna be pretty heavy. I don’t think we’d be able to walk into town and carry it out.” Frays muttered angrily as she struggled to secure the padlock on the door. Frays turned around and started towards the stairs but Lacey stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

  Aw, crap. Here we go… Frays thought nervously as she readied herself. She hoped that she had gotten her point across a couple days ago. She did not want to admit it to him but he had scared the everloving crap out of her. If he had given some kind of warning it probably would not have been that bad, but jeez… Adam smiled uneasily at her as if he could guess what she was thinking. “It’s alright, Frays.” he said and clapped her on the shoulder. “We’ll knock heads and work something out. We got this, right?”

  Frays looked out at the water and sighed, squirming uncomfortably inside her body armor. The flak jacket was getting a little too tight around the middle but she could adjust the straps to make it fit a little better. “I just hate sending you guys out.” Amy admitted as she jammed her hands into her armpits. “I…I hate asking you guys to do something I can’t.”

  “It’s alright.” Lacey said as he leaned against the cement landing where the stairs to the deck used to be attached. He smiled at the young woman and considered trying to put an arm around her but decided that he would really rather not get kicked in the balls again. “We understand, Frays. You’re pregnant. I want you healthy and safe.”

  Amy smiled over her shoulder at the man. “I know.” she muttered, turning towards the stairs. The woman shrugged her chest heaved with a frustrated sigh. “It just bugs me is all. I don’t want anything to happen to my kid, but I don’t want anything to happen to you guys because I wasn’t there.”

  Lacey smiled again as he followed Frays up the stairs. “Well, look at it this way.” Adam said quietly as they rounded the corner of the house and came out onto the driveway. “It’s like I said earlier: you need the mommy practice.”

  Amy turned and scowled at him. “Sure, might as well be barefoot and in the kitchen making you a sandwich as long as I’m already pregnant, huh?” she said, her mouth pressed into a thin grim line. Adam started to gawp and glanced around uncomfortably as the woman glared at him. Unable to keep up the charade, Frays’ face melted into a wide grin an
d she gave him a playful punch on the shoulder. “I can’t believe that I can still get you, man.”

  “Ha ha ha.” Adam grumbled under his breath. An idea flitted across his mind that he could reach out and put his arms around her, maybe play like he was tickling her or something. However he knew that Frays might think it was kind of inappropriate. The thought made him smile a little but still…she might kick him in the junk again. “Very funny, Frays. Very funny.”

  “Look…um…sorry I’ve been such a grump.” Amy said as they came to the back door. She frowned and looked at her boots for a second. “I…um…know I haven’t been…ah…you know…fun to be around the last couple days.”

  Lacey knocked three times then jiggled the handle four times, giving the password for the day. He nodded as they waited nervously for Rodriguez or Carl to open the door. If one of them was in the living room and the other on the head it might take a minute for either one to reach them. “It’s alright, Frays.” Adam said quietly and frowned. “I’ve had a little experience dealing with pregnant women and their hormones.” Lacey suddenly took a deep breath through his nose and held it, letting out slowly through his mouth. He missed Laura something terrible.

  Frays put a hand on his arm. Their eyes met for a brief moment…then the door pulled open behind Lacey. “C’mon inside, guys.” Carl said as he pulled Lacey into the house. Amy let out a breath she did not realize she was holding as she followed then barred and locked the door behind them. Frannie and Carl were had been keeping an eye on the kids while they were looking into the source of the fire yesterday afternoon.

  Frannie looked from Lacey to Frays as they walked into the dining room. There was something about the looks on their faces that made Rodriguez cock an eyebrow at Frays. Amy scowled slightly in return and gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head as she took a seat at the table. “So, what’s up?” Carl asked as he went to the fridge and pulled out the gallon jug of Kool-Aid and brought it to the table. “Noticed that the water still isn’t running.”

  Amy took one of the prenatal vitamins and washed it down with a little of the Kool-Aid. “The pump’s motor burned out.” Frays said as she looked around the room. “It’ll have to be replaced. I don’t know if I can find something around here or if we’ll have to go find a whole new pump or what.”

  “Looks like we’ll need to bring up some more water until then.” Lacey said quietly and grumbled under his breath. “Me and Carl can get the water.” He glanced towards the younger man in the living room.

  “Thanks for volunteering me, man.” Carl said, smirking sarcastically as he stood up. “Where’s the water cans? Let’s get some buckets or something too.”

  Amy nodded. “Alright, sounds good.” she said quietly and glanced at Rodriguez for a second. “Me and Frannie will be on overwatch. Just be careful and stay where we can see you, alright guys?”

  They gathered up all the empty water cans as well as a couple soda bottles and brought them out onto the deck. Carl and Adam started carrying them down the stairs to the lake while Amy and Frannie took the kids out on the deck. The process of filling the cans would hopefully only take an hour to an hour and a half at most.

  Once they had the receptacles at the bottom of the stairs, Lacey and Carl took turns filling them up. “Can I ask you something?” Carl asked as he bent over the dock and filled a five gallon water can. “Are you trying to fuck my sister or what, man?”

  Adam looked at the boy as if he had just punched him between the eyes. “What? Geez!” Lacey said quietly then glanced up at the deck then towards the spot where he knew Jessica and George Frays as well as his wife Laura were buried. “C’mon man. It’s not like that at all.”

  “Then what is it like?” Carl asked angrily as he tugged the water can out of the lake and set it down on the dock hard enough to make a little liquid splash out of it. He screwed the lid over the plastic container’s mouth. “I fucking saw you two in the laundry room. You couldn’t wait, could you?”

  It took everything he had to not punch Carl’s lights out. “My wife had just died.” Adam said through clenched teeth. Every muscle in his body felt tight as piano wire. “I shot her in the face because she had ripped your mother’s throat out while my kids MY KIDS hid under the bed. Your sister and I had just buried them so don’t you FUCKIN’ DARE be pissy with me because you were too busy pissing yourself to be there for her.”

  Carl swung for Lacey’s jaw and missed by a mile. The Marine dodged it easily then caught the boy’s arm, folding it at a painful angle. “Carl, ease off.” he whispered in his ear as he put pressure on the limb “Carl, calm down. I don’t want to hurt you.” Carl lurched in his grasp, managing to somehow twist around and elbow Adam right in the eye.

  Lacey released his grip on Carl’s arm, involuntarily putting a hand over his eye as he fell on his ass. Carl was on top of him in an instant his hands grasping for Adam’s throat. Adam struggled, the boy much stronger than Lacey suspected probably fueled by anger as much as anything else. Carl tried to knee him in the groin and Adam launched himself upward, the two of them suddenly rolling off the dock and into the water.

  The two of them rolled and splashed in the water, throwing wild haymakers. Somebody came splashing through the shallows and grabbed Adam’s shoulder. Unthinking, he lashed out with an elbow sending whoever grabbed him away with a splash. A heavy blow struck him in the ear, knocking him sprawling. “Fuck’s sake, man!” Rodriguez screamed, soaked to the bone and fuming at the man “That fuckin’ hurt! Will you two assholes knock it off?”

  The two men stopped and looked at each other then at Frannie. There was a little bit of blood oozing out of a cut on her eyebrow and her eye was already starting to blacken. “What the fuck brought this shit on?” Rodriguez grumbled angrily as she dabbed tentatively at her eye with the tips of her fingers. The woman shook her right hand and glared at the two of them. “Jesus Fuckin’ Christ. Get the fuck back upstairs you two. Shit, like a couple of fuckin’ high school kids or some fuckin’ bullshit. Grab the fuckin’ cans, too.”

  Frays’ jaw dropped when she got a closer look at Lacey and her little brother. The two of them had managed to pretty much beat the tar out of each other before Frannie got to them. The kids got scared and she had hustled the little ones inside to keep them from seeing anything more than they already had. Adam had a black eye and a fat lip, Carl’s nose was swollen and he was bleeding from a couple cuts on his cheeks along with bruises and scrapes and busted knuckles aplenty between the two of them. Frannie’s right eye was an ugly shade of blackish purple and there was a little cut over it. All three of them were absolutely soaked to the bone.

  Amy and Frannie exchanged glances and shook their heads. “Sit down out here you two.” Frays said quietly as she started inside. “I’ll be right back with the first aid kit. Frannie, try to keep these two knuckleheads from smacking each other around again.”

  Frannie looked sodden and furious as she leaned against the railing, carbine slung at her side with her arms crossed over her chest when Frays came back out onto the deck. “Okay, listen.” Rodriguez grumbled as she dug out a cigarette and lit up “I’m getting really damn tired of this horseshit. I mean seriously am I the only fucking adult around here? The fuck!?”

  Carl gawped. “Look, Fran-“

  Rodriguez silenced him with a look. “Shut the fuck up for a minute. I’m talking.” she spat harshly and pushed off the railing, expelling a plume of smoke into the air “After all the shit we’ve been through you two dipshits beat the hell out of each other? Come the fuck on. And Frays, Lacey…what the shit, alright?” Adam and Amy looked at each other, seeming to endure their friend’s tirade with good humor until the woman looked like she was choking on whatever she was going to say for a moment. “I…lost Eamon. I miss him so bad and a little part of me wants to die just so I won’t anymore…” She started to choke up again. “I’m so sick and tired of all this shit… I might have done it already but Eamon died trying to save my worthless
cripple ass. If I did, then he died for nothing and I’ve lost enough people I cared about over worthless bullshit.

  “I dunno if it’s too soon or some shit, but Jesus Fuckin’ Christ…” a few tears leaked out of Frannie’s eyes. She glared at Lacey and Frays and shook her head. “Spare us all the fuckin’ junior high bullshit, alright? Anybody who’s been around you two for like ten minutes knows you want to, so just fuckin’ go for it already! ‘Oh I got trust issues’… ‘I knocked this chick up so I gotta stay with her bitchy ass’…get the fuck over it!”

  Frays and Lacey stared after Rodriguez when she shoved off the railing and stomped off into the house. The kids ran out onto the deck after Frannie had stormed past them in the living room, seemingly terrified by the sight of an angry Francesca Rodriguez. Amy was surprised when a trembling Becca scrambled into her lap and wrapped her arms around her neck. She glanced awkwardly at Carl and Lacey, who had Paulie. “It’s alright, Becca.” Frays whispered as she uncomfortably put her arms around the little girl.

  Carl left the others after taking a couple seconds to collect himself. “Hey, Frannie?” he asked quietly as he went inside and started tiptoeing through the house. Carl had no idea where she was and after her little revelation he could not help but be a little concerned and afraid of what he might find. “Are you alright?”

  He found her sitting on the landing out by the driveway, silent tears coursing down her cheeks. “Hey…Frannie…you okay?” Carl asked as he looked around. He smiled at her and hopped up onto the concrete next to her. After a brief moment of hesitation he took a deep breath and followed Frannie’s advice: he went for it, draping an arm around her waist and pulling the woman to him.

  Frannie buried her face in his shirt sobbing quietly while he held her as tight as he could. He could not help but feel a little frightened at first and…a little aroused by the warmth of her body pressed up against his. The excitement faded as quickly as it had come. After what seemed like about ten minutes or so Carl leaned down a little and gently kissed the scars on Frannie’s cheek, making the woman smile the least little bit. “C’mon, let’s get inside.” he whispered into her ear. “We shouldn’t be sitting out here so long.”