Outbreak: Brave New World

by Van Dusen, Robert

  The little boy looked at the woman and hugged her back. “I didn’t like you either at first.” Paul whispered with his face pressed against the hard plastic of Amy’s neck brace. He let the woman hold him for a little while. The little boy made a strange face. “You took Daddy away and made Mommy cry.”

  “I’m sorry, Paulie.” Amy whispered into the little boy’s ear. She gently kissed Paul’s cheek and squeezed him as tightly as she dared. “I didn’t mean to. I thought…I thought it wouldn’t get this bad and I didn’t want your dad to get in trouble for not being where he was supposed to be. Understand?”

  “Airman Frays, this way please.” Lieutenant Haskins called from the hallway leading back to the examination and patients’ rooms. Amy obediently gathered up the child and followed the other woman into an exam room a few doors down from where they were sleeping. “Did you have a good time?”

  “We played with the ball.” Paul told the doctor as Amy set him on the metal table in the corner of the room. There were metal cabinets and pictures of people’s insides on the walls. The boy looked around nervously. “Me and Tommy and Freddie and Amy. Tommy showed us the garden where the plants are. I felt Amy’s baby being all kicky too!”

  Haskins smiled at the boy as she checked his injured hand. “Sounds like you had fun, Paul.” she said as she went to the cabinet and took out some gauze and medical tape. The stumps of the boy’s fingers were healing alright but there was still a little bit of blood oozing out of the scabs where someone had ham-fistedly attempted to cauterize the blood vessels. “Looks like you’re healing well. I’m just going change your bandages, alright?”

  The little boy looked relieved. “No shots?” he asked, making the two women laugh.

  Lieutenant Haskins expertly taped the gauze onto the boy’s hand and helped him down off of the table. “No shots.” the doctor smiled as Frays helped the boy into a plastic chair next to her. “Alright, you’re up Airman.” Haskins took a stethoscope off from around her neck and put it on. “Have a good time this afternoon?”

  Frays frowned slightly and nodded as she hopped up on the exam table and looked a little nervous. “Lie down, please.” Lieutenant Haskins said with a small smile. “I promise I’m not going to give you any shots either.” Haskins pulled up her patient’s undershirt and put the metal disk of the stethoscope on the woman’s stomach. The doctor smiled and pulled the device out of her ears and offered them to Frays. “Listen to this.”

  Paulie looked puzzled. Amy put the little earphone things in her ears and started to cry after a couple minutes. He hopped down off of his chair and went to the woman’s side. “Is something wrong?” he asked and tugged at Amy’s arm. “Amy, is everything okay?”

  Amy wiped her cheeks then took off the stethoscope and indicated that she wanted Lieutenant Haskins to help the boy put it on. He could hear this heavy rhythmic thumping with a lighter feathery sort of noise through the stethoscope. Paulie scowled as he tried to figure out what he was listening to. “That’s Amy’s heartbeat and the baby’s.” the doctor said helpfully. Mesmerized, the little boy took off the stethoscope and tried to climb up on the table. Haskins gave Paulie a boost and smiled as the boy pressed his ear against the woman’s belly. “Looks like you two are out of here tomorrow. I want you to come back in for a checkup and some vitamin shots every two days, alright?”

  Rodriguez grimaced as Lacey climbed back up into the guard tower. He had left a little over half an hour ago to check on Paulie and Frays at the hospital. There had been absolutely shit going on all day so, as ranking person on the detail, she did not see the harm in letting him go visit his little boy for a few minutes. And, truth be told, she was anxious to find out about what was going on with the two of them herself. “How’s the kids, man?” she asked as the man got situated. There was something about the look on Adam’s face that she found a little disturbing.

  “Everybody’s fine.” Adam muttered as he sat down on the folding chair. The guard tower was what looked to be a scissor lift with a makeshift roof overhead to keep the sun off of them and a twenty foot steel ladder connecting the platform to the ground. It afforded them a good view over the top of the twelve foot tall fence. The field on the other side of the fence had seen better days. The grass appeared to be almost knee high and there was a stand of trees some nine hundred or so meters away. “Amy and Paulie went for a walk with this medic guy.”

  Frannie smiled but continued to look out over the fence. The long grass made her a little nervous. It was just high enough to conceal snipers or a couple sappers creeping up to blow a hole in the wire. Then again it would be tough to get somebody to go cut the grass. The other side of the service road outside the fence was lined with claymore mines wired to the clacker in the guard tower. “So they’re doing better.” she said and looked over her shoulder at the man. He was fiddling with his kit and looked like he wanted to be somewhere else. Rodriguez shook her head a little and smiled a little bit. It was not like she was having the time of her life either. “You jealous?”

  He rolled his eyes. “Is it that obvious?” Adam asked and chuckled feeling a little heat coming to his cheeks. The Marine sipped water out of his camelbak and grumbled under his breath. “You shoulda seen the way she was looking at that jerk. Just because he’s all I dunno…washed…and…shaved.” The man scowled at the woman then shrugged.

  Frannie laughed and shook her head slightly when she saw the sour look the man was giving her. “Look, sorry but I’ve been telling you she’s not that into you.” Rodriguez said as she dug out the pack of cigarettes she had bought from a guy at the command tent for one of the twenty dollar bills she had taken out of the dead sniper’s wallet. The woman grimaced and scratched behind her ear then tentatively rubbed her wounded thigh. Her leg still ached from climbing the ladder a few hours earlier. “She’s pissed at herself because she’s still mad at you over what happened in Boston, if that makes any sense.”

  Adam squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. “She told you.” he said quietly. There was a sick feeling welling up in the pit of his stomach. Lacey hoped that he was not about to puke. “I...look, please…don’t you ever tell my kids about that. Ever.”

  “Sure, man. No problem.” Rodriguez said. She put a hand on the back of Lacey’s neck and shook him gently. They were quiet for awhile just sitting there and watching the grass between the fence and the tree line. A flock of birds flew by, the little black specks chirping against the blue sky. A woodchuck appeared from its burrow near the outer fence and munched some of the long grass. Frannie smiled at the fat brown rodent as the vegetation disappeared into the animal’s face. Adam thought long and hard about shooting it as he heard roasted woodchuck was pretty tasty. It occurred to him that it might have been a little too long since he had anything resembling fresh meat.

  Luckily they were on the opposite side of the FOB from the city. Sentries on the west side reported sporadic contacts with infected wandering towards them from the city. There was the occasional sound of rifle fire after command cleared them hot on target. The two of them looked anxiously at each other after listening to the conversation on the radio. “We gotta get Frays to show them how to make suppressors.” Lacey said under his breath and shuddered. How many zombies in Sanford heard those shots? He scoured the field before them searching for any Bravo Charlies that might be coming towards their location.

  A rusty old pickup truck towing a water buffalo pulled up to their position. Frannie thought the thing looked like something some ANA troops should be driving: all rust, dents and mismatched paint with a machinegun mount welded to the front of the bed. There were six men with rifles in the back in addition to the man behind the Mark 19. They were part of the base’s QRF who roamed the perimeter ready to back up the personnel in the towers in case of attack.

  Adam scrambled down the ladder to fill up their water supplies and picked up a couple MREs for lunch. Time seemed to drag on as they waited out their shift. There was an old dynamo powered handset that the
y used to check in with the command tent every hour. “Listen, man…” Rodriguez began as she sipped some water from her camelbak and took out her cigarettes again. “Amy likes you. She won’t say so but I don’t think she’d be so torn up over everything if she didn’t. Just…don’t try so hard.”

  Lacey shook his head. “I didn’t mean it and I feel horrible about what happened.” he muttered as he dug around in his cargo pockets for something. The man found nothing but a bit of 550 cord that had somehow ended up in there. It was strange, as he could not remember where he had found it. “Every time I heard her pop her neck or anything…”

  “I don’t know what to tell ya, man.” Frannie said sympathetically. For the first time she really realized how much older she was than the man sitting next to her even if it was only about five years or so. Rodriguez puffed away on a cigarette in silence for a few minutes while Lacey seemed lost in thought.

  It was almost dark by the time that their relief showed up. Rodriguez briefed their replacements in the tower on what had happened during their shift (the two men in Marine cammies chuckled at what she described as ‘precisely dick’). Once they were certain that the men understood what was going on, Adam and Frannie started back towards the ‘refugee resettlement center’…that up until recently had been a Super Wal-Mart.

  “DADDYDADDYDADDYDADDY!!” Becca shouted as she ran towards the two of them, her little legs pumping furiously. The little girl squealed with delight when Adam swept her into his arms and held her tight. She smooched her father’s cheek and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I missed you, Daddy!”

  “I missed you too, kiddo!” Adam said as he set her down after a minute. Becca hugged Frannie and they started off towards the little collection of jungle gyms that someone had set up on the grass next to the Wal-Mart’s parking lot. An older, heavy set white woman named Genny tended the small herd of other children as they seemed to be half heartedly played on the equipment. “Thanks for watching Becca.” Lacey said as he dug his ID card out and presented it to the daycare provider.

  “Don’t mention it, sir.” Genny said with a grin as she dug a notepad out of her pocket, checked his name on the list and gave his card back. The large woman pulled another notepad out and gave it to Adam so he could sign his daughter out for the day. “Becca’s a little sweetheart. No trouble at all.”

  Becca held her father’s hand as they walked back to the Aid Station. Rodriguez followed a little behind, a small smile wrinkling the scar tissue on her cheek as she watched the two of them. Her leg was stiff and sore most likely from sitting still for so long. Lacey noticed and slowed down to keep pace with Frannie. “Did you have a good day, hon?” Adam asked. The little girl frowned at her father and she moved as close as she could to him.

  “It was okay.” Becca mumbled as she kicked at something in her path. It had not been much fun. Miss Genny tried to make it like daycare before but it was different. Miss Genny read them a story and let them play on the playground. Some of the older kids did school stuff like reading and math. A nice man in Army clothes brought a big box of crackers and a plastic cooler of juice boxes for snack time. He looked like he wanted to cry when Miss Genny had the kids thank him for bringing the snacks.

  All the kids were scared and Brian, one of the older boys, kept going pee pee in his pants like a baby. Rachel, this other girl, cried and cried all day long no matter how much Mrs. Genny or her helper, Miss Helen, cuddled her. Nobody really wanted to play. Becca felt bad for some of the kids like Brian and Kelly because they did not know where their Mommies or Daddies were. True, she did not know where her Mommy was but she had Amy and Frannie and her Daddy and Carl. Most of the kids just wanted to hide in the big jungle gym’s tree house thing because somebody said the Bad People could not climb. “I missed you and Amy and Frannie and Carl and Paulie and Freddie.”

  Lacey was quiet for a minute. “Say…what if I asked Lieutenant Haskins if she thought it would be a good idea for Freddie to come play with you and the other kids tomorrow?” he asked as he sort of bumped his daughter with his hip. “Would that make it better?”

  “Where’s Freddie?” the little girl asked, suddenly excited. The soldiers had taken the dog off of the helicopter earlier and she had not seen the animal since. He was a good dog. “Can we see him?” She tugged on her father’s hand and beamed a grin up at him. The two grownups smiled down at her. “Please, Daddy? Please? I wanna see Freddie!”

  “He’s around here somewhere.” Adam said as they neared the Aid Station. He picked the girl up and balanced her on his hip, juggling her for a moment as he tried to get her situated. His rifle was in the way. “Freddie played with Amy and Paulie and their new friend Tommy today.”

  Becca smiled and giggled. “Amy’s a scaredy cat of Freddie.” she said and hugged her father again. “I don’t think she’d play with Freddie.” They made a brief stopover at a tent where the dinner rations were being handed out. Adam presented the civilian with a note he had gotten from Lieutenant Haskins when he visited earlier so that he could collect rations for Frays and his son. Lacey and Rodriguez picked up a small cardboard box of Styrofoam trays with T-Ration spaghetti and red sauce, green beans and a foil packet containing a cake of shelf stable bread on them along with some shelf stable boxes of milk and little packages of Oreo cookies for themselves and their friends. One of the workers put a little extra food on a tray then wrote a big black ‘P’ on the cover with a sharpie denoting that the particular tray of rations was meant to go to an expectant mother.

  Frannie jogged on ahead of them and held the door to the Aid Station open for Lacey. “Why don’t you ask Amy about what she did with Freddie yourself?” Rodriguez asked as she slipped in behind them. The foyer was still full of neatly arranged rows of chairs and dimly lit, probably to save juice. Frannie grimaced when she stumbled into a chair and banged her injured leg against it in the dark.

  Lieutenant Haskins appeared in the hallway as they made their way towards Amy and Paulie’s room. “Hello, guys.” she said and smiled “If you’re here to see Airman Frays and Paulie, be quick. They’re being released tomorrow and Frays has to be to work early in the morning. Momma needs her rest.”

  To their surprise Carl was already there. “Hey guys!” he said as he crossed the room in three quick strides and took the box from Rodriguez then put it aside and gave her a hug. “Have a good day at work?”

  Frannie tried to look annoyed but could not keep it up. She smiled at the young man and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “You look like hell.” Rodriguez muttered as she brushed off the front of her plate carrier. Carl was covered in dirt and dust from head to toe. She pretended to look irritated but ended up grinning at the man. He looked filthy and tired but happier than she had probably ever seen him.

  “Naughty word, Frannie!” Paulie chided from his bed. He was grinning from ear to ear and started to try and get up when Rodriguez walked up and held him down, making the little boy giggle. “You owe us a quarter!”

  “Oh, put it on my tab!” she said and ticked Paulie’s armpits. The little boy was laughing hysterically until he bumped his damaged hand on Rodriguez’s arm. Paulie yelped and held his injured hand to his chest, doing his absolute best to keep from crying. Frannie stopped playing with the boy and brushed his long hair away from his face. “Sorry! Sorry! Shh…you’re okay, buddy.” She smiled a little and kissed Paulie’s forehead. “We gotta get you a haircut, little man. It’s hard enough to tell you and your sister apart sometimes.”

  Lieutenant Haskins was in the room in a flash. “Hush, little guy…shh…” she said quietly as she gently elbowed the other woman out of the way. “Let me see. It’s okay. Shh…” The doctor made a gentle clucking noise in the back of her throat as she checked the little boy’s hand. “You shouldn’t play so rough just yet, Paul.” It did not look like he had opened his wounds back up but had just banged the stumps around when he was roughhousing. The boy’s hand would be sore for a long time before it healed fully. Howeve
r it looked like he would be keeping the rest of the hand which was good. Forward Operating Base Freedom did not have a surgeon.

  Lacey was at the boy’s side. “It’s alright, buddy.” he went over to the box and took out a tray. “Hey, look what me and Frannie and Becca brought you.” Adam brought his son one of the trays along with a milk and package of Oreos. Lacey gave the boy a little bag that had a napkin, plastic silverware and condiments in it.

  “Oh boy! Pasgetti!” Paulie said gleefully as he tore the package of eating utensils open with his teeth. The boy struggled with the word written on the little white packet in the bag with the fork and knife. “Ssssa…alt.” he frowned slightly and smiled when realization struck him like a bolt out of the blue. “Salt!” Adam held out his hand and his son gave him a high five. “Salt! Daddy, give Amy this.”

  Amy smiled broadly at the little kid, deeply touched by the gesture. “Aw! Thank you, Paulie.” she said as caught the little paper packet that Lacey tossed to her. He smiled and winked at her then turned back to his son. Frays tore one end of the salt packet open and dumped it onto her tongue, relishing the way the white crystals made her mouth pucker. Rodriguez grimaced and shuddered before turning her attention to the box.

  “Okay, guys.” Frannie said as she distributed the trays of food. She gave Paulie a look when she was giving Becca her dinner. The little boy was already starting to dig into his spaghetti. “Wait, little man. Let me get everybody else their food and everything, alright?”

  Once everybody had their food Amy bowed her head and said the blessing. Amy made a face after she had taken her first bite. “Oh, yeah. T-Rats spaghetti.” Frays muttered and grinned wryly. “Good stuff. Good stuff.”

  Lieutenant Haskins wished everyone a good night and left them to eat. She went down the hall to the nurse’s desk where she made sure that Daryl knew what should be going on during his shift. Not that there was much that should be happening anyways. The place was going to be empty again barring another dire emergency tomorrow morning. Airman Frays and Paulie were in pretty good shape and in good spirits. The two of them would be getting a couple Tylenol and a sleep aid if they wanted it, but that should be about the extent of their medication. Specialist Rodriguez was to get her meds one dose at a time from the dispensary in the morning and after dinner.