“If we are, we should go soon.” Amy said quietly. She put an elbow on the table, resting her cheek in the palm of her hand. “In another couple of months I’ll probably be having to stop and pee every five minutes.” Lacey and Rodriguez chuckled behind their hands. Carl looked a little scared, probably by the prospect of heading out onto the road. Not that the rest of them seemed all that pleased with the idea either.
“Looks like it’d be an afternoon’s trip in regular times.” Frannie said as Amy opened her road atlas and spread it out on the table in front of them. She traced the most direct route with her finger. “I’d think we should plan on at least two weeks. Maybe more.”
Lacey frowned at the map. “Two weeks.” he grumbled as he tried to puzzle out a different way to the base. “Shouldn’t we start giving Paulie antibiotics or something?” Amy had insisted on giving Frannie antibiotics for weeks while she recovered from being shot last month.
“I dunno.” Amy said as she watched the little boy sleeping on the couch. He looked so pale and tired… A brief fit of shivers ran down her spine and she wrapped her arms around herself to try and contain them. “We don’t have a lot of stuff left.” There were a lot of things that they did not have, come to think of it…
Rodriguez shifted in her chair to look at the kids. “Have you ever given him antibiotics?” she asked, turning her attention back to the others around the table. There was a drug hazed memory of struggling with Amy into the latrine at the country club, threatening to spray watery shit all over the seat of her pants and possibly getting it into the wound on her thigh. Dehydration was a serious thing, especially now that they were going to have to lug their water up from the lake for the foreseeable future. “I mean, if he gets the runs it might not be good.”
The four of them sat around the table, each of them looking at the map in the middle of the table. The sun started throwing long shadows through the boards nailed over the windows. And so ends another action packed fun filled day… Carl thought as he watched the light retreating across the floor in the living room. “So are we going to shit or get off the pot?” the boy said, earning him a scowl from his big sister.
“Okay, let’s get our stuff together and get ready to go.” Amy said with a nervous smile.
Chapter Eight
21 June 2011, 1643 hours Old Trout Lane 10 miles north of Holden, Massachusetts
It was about dinnertime. It was Amy’s turn to cook and thankfully Lacey and Carl had kept their smart remarks to themselves. She was barefoot as she and Becca were busy making a steaming pot of Top Ramen in the kitchen. For some reason her feet were getting so swollen in the evenings recently that she had to take her boots off for a little while. They might have gotten dinner ready faster but an impromptu water fight broke out while Frays was measuring some of the liquid out into a pot, the two of them flicking water at each other and giggling.
Adam grinned at the sight of his Frays and his little girl horsing around in the kitchen. It was good to hear Becca and Amy laughing for the first time in what seemed like forever. He was glad the two of them were getting along so well, even though Lacey could tell Amy was still nervous around the children. Not that he could blame her… He still found it hard to believe that Frays had done what she said she had.
Amy brought the pot over to the kitchen table while Becca carried over the ladle and some spoons. “Here we go guys.” Frays said as she hefted the steaming container into the center of the table. “My specialty, Ramen noodles al Dente!” Adam and Carl set the table while Frannie got some of the soup for Paulie.
Frays said the blessing and they dug in. Amy smiled as she slurped up a mess of the noodles. For a briefest of moments she was sitting in her dorm room, the biggest problems in her life were midterms or the trig test next week or would the guy next door ever turn his dang radio down… She wiped absently at her cheek, a little ashamed to feel dampness there. I want my life back! Frays thought angrily. Amy hid her face in the palm of her hand as she struggled to get back in control of her emotions.
Adam put a hand on Frays’ shoulder, grounding her in the here and now. She smiled gratefully at him and dug into her noodles. They were going to leave in the morning. They had spent yesterday making sure the Humvee was ready to go: checking the oil, lubing the chassis, arranging things in the back of the truck to give them room for the kids and the dog. Becca and Paulie seemed excited about riding in the ‘Army truck’ as they called it.
Carl held Frannie’s hand for a moment under the table. They would be packed in the truck like sardines but then again he might be able to put an arm around her again. He had to wonder if she would ever let him kiss her. Carl wondered absently what she tasted like…
He hated to admit it but he was terrified about leaving even though he understood the necessity of the whole thing. Amy and Paulie needed a doctor. They were both hurt pretty bad and nobody knew how to deliver a baby...but it did not make him any less afraid of facing what was going on out there.
Were the others scared too? Amy had just cried a little bit, but that was happening more and more often. Carl figured it was mainly because of the whole pregnancy thing never mind all the shit she had been through recently. He had read somewhere that the hormones or something could make a pregnant woman super crazy emotional or whatever. And he still felt bad for her after the sniper attack the other day. She had hid in Mom and Dad’s room all afternoon a couple days ago and had broken down a couple times since when she thought nobody was looking. He found himself hating whoever had done this to his sister, whoever had put her through whatever had fucked her head up so bad…
After dinner they gathered in the living room. Carl watched quietly while the others cleaned their weapons and made last checks of their gear. Amy got up and went to the back bedroom’s door and paused. She took a deep breath and charged inside, rushed over to the gun cabinet where she snatched up the 1014 and made a quick check of the shelves under the larger area where the guns had been stored to make sure they had all the ammo. The room still stank of death to her, even though they had done everything they could to clean up…afterwards…
She sat down on the floor next to Lacey’s feet and dug all of her M4 magazines out of the pouches on her LCS. She frowned at the aluminum mags on the floor between her legs. “Here guys.” Amy said as she passed the ammunition to Lacey and Rodriguez. Adam looked at the magazines she had given him and frowned.
“Actually Frays, why don’t you and Rodriguez divide up my ammo?” he asked. The man looked at the two women and smiled a little bit. “You’re a way better shot than I am anyway. I’ll take that shotgun.” Amy gave him a sly little grin as she passed the weapon up to Lacey. “What?” he asked, making Amy snort a little laughter out of her nose.
Amy shook her head a little and waved the question off. “Nothing. Nothing.” she said as another fit of giggles overtook her. There was something about the puzzled expression on the man’s face that just…struck her…as so…friggin’…funny! Frays curled up and with one hand pressed over her mouth and the other over her baby as if the two of them were sharing some kind of inside joke.
Rodriguez rolled her eyes. “Crazy ass white people.” she muttered under her breath. Becca smiled at her from across the room but did not say anything about hearing the woman say a naughty word. Amy eventually caught hold of herself, at least a little bit even though she had a giant grin plastered all over her face.
“Okay, we’re leaving in the morning.” Frays reminded everyone. She stood up and walked around the room, repressing a shudder as she carefully stepped over the dark stains on the carpet where Paulie had bled all over it. “We’ve got all the food, water, medical supplies and ammo we can crammed into the Humvee. The route’s planned, but we might need to change it once we’re on the ground.”
Lacey, Rodriguez and Carl listened intently to Frays’ briefing. “Under normal conditions, the trip would take about six or seven hours.” Amy said carefully. Paulie and his sister were also listening,
the both of them trying to do their best impressions of the focused expression on their father’s face. Frays ticked off the points she wanted to hit on her fingers as she spoke. “It looks like we might be on the road for at least two weeks. While we are, we’re going to be monitoring the civilian and military radios. Hopefully the air station will have some airworthy birds on hand that can come pick us up.”
Carl smiled a little and looked at the others. “So we might get to ride in a helicopter or something? Very cool.” he said and tousled the children’s hair, trying to sound confident. “Hear that guys? How’s that sound?”
Amy gave her brother a look. Please don’t go getting their hopes up… she thought as she turned her attention back to the briefing. “Now, we don’t know what’s waiting for us. Its Maine so there’s likely less Bravo Charlies because there’s less people there. Hopefully, the squids held out or if they didn’t they fortified an island or something. I wish we knew what the situation was up there, but the radio in the Humvee doesn’t have the range and Carl’s radio’s been quiet for a week or so. And…well…you know what they say about wishes and horses.”
“That we’d all be eating steak?” Adam volunteered. He liked horses as much as the next guy but the thought of grilling up a nice plate of horse steaks made him a little hungry. Amy and the others laughed at his joke. Becca looked horrified when she realized what her dad had just said. He smiled and hugged his daughter, trying to reassure her that he was just kidding about eating a horsey.
Amy rolled her eyes, shaking her head for a moment. “Okay, well…” she continued once the others calmed down “Main threats: of course there’s the Bravo Charlies and other survivors. How we’re mitigating that: by avoiding civilization where we can. Maintain noise/light discipline at all times. No white lights, no talking loud. The truck’s gonna be making enough racket, but it’s either drive or walk all the way.” She cleared her throat and sipped a little water from her camelbak. “There’s a danger of traffic accidents, but we’ll be alternating drivers and keeping speed to a minimum as the roads might be clogged with stalled or wrecked cars. We’ll go around where we can. Offroading it for a bit shouldn’t be a problem. Weather: if it starts to rain, whoever’s driving slow down. It’s been kind of hot lately, so make sure you’ve got plenty of water and drink up. Saline solution is on the list of things we need and don’t have, so keep hydrated because we won’t be able to give anybody an IV if they need it. We’ve got lots of food, but keep your eyes open. Eating MREs every day for two weeks or more will cause some um…problems…so we’re going to try and vary our diet if we can.
“Remember to maintain good personal hygiene while we’re out there. Some of us are still hurt and we’re low on antibiotics so getting an infection or anything will be very bad. We don’t have much in the way of cold or flu meds either so be careful, okay guys? Frannie, I’m counting on you to help take care of Paulie. We’ve gotta keep him clean and change his bandages as often as we can. I’ll keep taking the prenatal vitamins that Carl grabbed for me because he’s awesome. I think the baby’s alright but it’ll be a load off my mind if the squids have an ultrasound machine or something.” Amy looked at her hands for a second and nodded almost imperceptibly. “Okay, that’s all I got. Anybody else got anything they wanna add?”
Frannie looked at the others. She could tell Carl was scared shitless of what might happen out there but to his credit he was trying to hide it. For that matter, Lacey looked like he was more or less crapping his pants too. It was still safe here for the time being anyways. However, yeah, it was only a matter of time until dozens or maybe hundreds of those things found them. It was the fear of being trapped and slowly starving to death (again) that made her agree with Frays and want to take their chances on the squids being alright. That was even before poor little Paulie got mutilated by that fat douchebag…
After the briefing broke up everybody started heading towards their beds. Becca and her dad curled up on the floor near the couch so that Lacey could be nearby if his son needed him. Amy went into her parents’ room and threw herself down on the bed. Carl was taking the recliner tonight. Frannie broke out Carl’s radio and put in an earbud, rotating through the different stations as she had first watch.
The boy tossed and turned uneasily, unable to get to sleep. He decided to settle on watching Frannie. She really was a hottie in spite of how messed up her face was and stuff. She seemed half awake as she fiddled with the radio, hoping to hear the sound of another human voice. After awhile she stood up and slipped the little plastic box into the cargo pocket of her ACUs, stretched and headed for the sliding glass doors. Carl quickly closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep so the woman would not catch him staring at her. She picked her way around Lacey and Becca and slipped out onto the deck. Carl hesitated for a moment then got up and quietly followed after her.
He found the woman sitting on the deck, her back against the railing and smoking a cigarette. It was reasonably well lit due to the clear skies and three quarter moon high overhead. She smiled at him as she hid the cherry of her cigarette behind her hand. “Get down, Carl.” Frannie whispered motioning with her other hand for him to join her. “If there’s anybody watching they might see you.”
Carl did not need any prodding even with the threat of surprise amateur performed express mailed lobotomy. He sat down next to Rodriguez and scooted as close to her as he dared. “You scared too?” he asked after a couple uneasy moments. Frannie slipped an arm around his waist and rested her head on Carl’s shoulder.
“Shit yeah.” she admitted as she snuggled a little closer to Carl’s chest. “If you’d have been out there…” It was warm out but thankfully there did not seem to be much in the way of insects. Carl moved a little closer and put an arm around her shoulders. The two of them sat there quietly for a little while simply holding each other tightly and listening to the night noises around them.
“I hope we’ve got enough food. We were starving to death in this shitty little town east of here. There was like thirty or forty of us…not enough food, never knowing when the water was going to go off…” Frannie shuddered at the memory. “Everybody started going crazy. One of my soldiers totally flipped out…raped this female, shot himself…”
Carl held her tight, running the palm of his hand up and down her arm. “It won’t be like that this time, Frannie.” he said trying to sound reassuring. “We’ve got like a billion tons of food crammed into that truck.”
She smiled up at him and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. He looked so startled that she might have slapped him instead, making Frannie smile and actually blush a little bit. Another awkward silence filled the air as the two of them looked at one another… It happened so fast that neither one of them really could figure out how it exactly came about. They were mauling each other, frenetically trying to tear each other’s clothes off as fast as possible like a balloon filled too much and bursting in a confusion of nervous sexual energy.
Lacey woke to muffled noises out on the deck. He carefully extracted himself from his daughter and crept to the door, M16 at the ready as he slowly slid the door open. Adam flicked the tac light on and off the Marine turning red to the ears. “Ah…er…” Lacey stammered, his voice catching in his throat as he lowered his rifle and looked away his cheeks burning. Frannie and Carl came apart in a tangle of semi-naked limbs, falling over one another to cover their bare. “Um…carry on.”
“What is it, Lacey?” Frays asked. She was standing in the dining room, her M4 held at low ready. He had almost forgotten how light a sleeper she could be. A stricken look came to the woman’s face. “Where’s Frannie and Carl? She’s supposed to be on watch!”
She started to rush past him, almost tripping over the dog and stepping on Becca. “Whoa, whoa Frays!” Lacey said as he tried to intercept her. Amy stopped when the door slid open and the others slunk guiltily into the house. It only took her a second for her to figure out what had been going on out there. Frannie’s hair was half
out of the bun on the back of her head and Carl had his tee shirt on backward. Adam was just as surprised as the rest when Amy just shook her head and chuckled on her way back to bed.
Becca and her brother looked at the grownups with bleary eyes. “Daddy, what’s going on?” Paulie asked from the couch. He became very scared when he saw that Dad and Amy and Frannie were standing around looking nervous with their guns in their hands. “Are the Bad People here?”
Amy froze next to the kitchen table and turned on her heel and turned to watch Frannie kneel next to the couch. A small smile crept to her face as she went over to lean against the little fence separating the living room from the dining room, watching Rodriguez and Lacey as they comforted the children. Her hands slowly drifted towards her stomach feeling for the little lump under the layers of Kevlar. She could not help but feel kind of small and lonely.
“You okay, Aim?” Carl asked as he ambled over towards her. He glanced at Frannie and grinned. “Um…she’s good with the kids, huh?” He frowned and looked guiltily at the floor, the ceiling, anywhere but his big sister’s eyes. “Um…”
“Hey, I’m the last person here who should have anything to say about you fooling around with my friend.” Amy said and gave her little brother a playful punch on the arm. “However, you are pulling everybody else’s watch for the rest of the night since you’ve got so much energy. Wake us up if the radio says anything.”
Lacey could not help but watch Frays for a minute. The woman was what his grandfather would have called ‘sturdy’ with ‘good child bearin’ hips’. She was snoring quietly (for her anyways) on the bed, her dark brown hair an unruly mess under her head. The woman’s face was seemingly untroubled. Adam was glad to see that she seemed to be sleeping peacefully for once. When things had first started to get bad she had been plagued with nightmares for weeks, bad enough to keep her from getting any real rest. He still could not help but feel incredibly guilty over any role he might have played in that.
Outbreak: Brave New World Page 23
