Outbreak: Long Road Back

by Van Dusen, Robert

  Thankfully it did not look like she was the only one trying not to puke their guts up. Grimes was looking a little paler than usual off to her left and Buckley looked like he was going to be sick at any moment. Something reached out of a tuft of long grass and grabbed Grimes around the ankle, its strong pale hand nearly tugging her foot out from under her. The woman screamed when she finally lost her fight with gravity and tumbled onto her ass.

  About a quarter or so of a zombie dragged itself towards Grimes trailing the tattered remains of its lungs and digestive tract behind it as she kicked at the creature’s face. In a flash Buckley sprang into action pinning it to the ground with the bayonet as it still struggled to reach for Grimes’ calf. “Help, goddamnit!” Buckley screeched as he tried to hold the squirming abomination in place.

  Stark rushed up and stabbed downward with her bayonet aiming for the creature’s skull. The sharp blade cut a narrow gouge in the creature’s scalp. A second try buried the blade deep in the back of the zombie’s neck and Stark twisted the weapon making a sick popping noise as the steel separated the vertebrae just below the base of the skull, the thick metal blade scraping against cartilage and bone when she gave it another twist just to make absolutely sure the spinal cord was well and truly severed.

  Grimes regained her feet as she pulled her leg free of the creature’s nerveless fingers. “Oh holy fuckin’ shit.” the woman muttered under her breath. The zombie was apparently paralyzed but its jaw still snapped hungrily and the one eye that she could see was locked onto hers like a laser. “Holy fuckin’ shit. Thanks guys.”

  Buckley smiled weakly as he withdrew his blade and stabbed it through the zombie’s ear and into the brain just like Sergeant Hanes had shown them. “No problem.” The man’s stomach did flip flops when he could feel the thirteen inch blade scrape against the fetid grey matter and half rotted bone.

  Stark wiped off her bayonet with a handful of grass. “C’mon guys.” she muttered. The area smelled like a dead skunk’s asshole that had been fermenting in turpentine all summer long. The woman dug a paper painter’s mask out of her pocket and rubbed the inside with a little mentholated petroleum jelly. This helped cut down on the smell considerably. “Let’s finish our sweep.”

  Pittman stomped out a little fire by his foot. He grinned slightly and started ambling along keeping line with the rest of the squad. He started to think that there was a lot more to that little blonde chick than she was letting on. The mask thing was a really smart idea. He kind of wished that he had thought of it.

  Thankfully there was only a few hundred more yards to go before they could double back and finish up. Part of him wished that they had been allowed to go out and finish off the slouches. You could hear the gunfire and explosions all over the base so there was no telling how many of those things would be turning up. Every single fuckin’ creepy crawly in the county had to have heard those goddamn grenades and mines going off.

  “Hey guys did you hear about Sergeant Frays?” asked Hubbard as he speared a corpse through the eye with his bayonet, flicked some goo off the blade and kept walking. It looked like it was down permanently but it never paid to take chances these days. “Heard she was up in one of the towers.”

  “Holy shit.” Rowe grinned as he kicked a severed arm out of his way. “Pregnant chicks and their hormones, huh?” Something moved in the grass and he slashed at it. A great big black rat ran off with its prize clutched in its jaws. It took a moment to recognize that what he had somehow thought was a sausage link or something was a severed human finger.

  Sergeant Hanes regarded the squad of trainees from his position behind them. He was impressed with the way Stark and Buckley had come to help Grimes when she hit that little rough spot and the others did not break formation but let the three of them work it out. They were learning fast and coming together as a team much quicker than he thought. Maybe in a couple more days he would bring up the idea of starting to search the housing tract off to the east for more supplies and some more survivors to Major Tennyson.

  If nothing else Hanes found himself expecting a little trouble between those big Southern good ole boys and Buckley. Of course it was not like stupid shit like that seemed to matter to anybody anymore. There were still a few boneheaded motherfuckers around but for the most part all that stupid shit seemed to fall by the wayside.

  He still mulled over the best way to tell the recruits that Sergeant Frays was in the Aid Station. It could wait until they were all safe inside the FOB again and he had a little more concrete information. Insofar all he knew was what had been put out on the net: the squids had called a medivac for her because she was bleeding. Of course nobody said bleeding from what but since the wall was not breached it stood to reason that it might have been some kind of accident or something. From the looks of things there had certainly been enough shrapnel flying around for somebody to accidentally pick up a piece or two…

  It was mid afternoon by the time they finished. They had put down maybe two or three dozen cripples without much in the way of excitement save for Grimes’ little close call. No stragglers showed up to the party which made the work easier. After the sweep the squad had pulled security for the cremation detail. Their uniforms…such as they were…reeked of the smoke from the charred corpses.

  Once they were inside Hanes called a halt and had everyone take a break in the shade outside the Resettlement Center. It had been a pretty busy, stressful day for them all so packing it in a little early seemed reasonable. “Excuse me, sir?” asked a pudgy older woman as the squad settled in. It took him a minute but Hanes recognized her as the lady that took care of the kids. “Can I ask you something?”

  Hanes grinned. “I’m not an officer. I work for a living.” he said quietly. The puzzled expression on the woman’s face told him that she did not get the joke. Hanes looked at her for a minute before shrugging. “Sure. What’s up?”

  “I wanted to bring the kids over to meet your soldiers.” the woman said, glancing towards the children standing under the trees on the other side of the parking lot. The little ones seemed to be talking excitedly to each other. “Is that okay?”

  “I think that’d be just fine, ma’am.” Sergeant Hanes found that his grin widened. It might be just what his Marines needed. Today was the first time that any of them had left the safety of the FOB since they first got here and it was pretty plain that some of them were a little shaken up. Grimes, Stark and Hubbard were passing around a little pencil thin cigar like stoners sharing a blunt. Even that icy little sociopath looking guy, Robles, seemed to be a little more off than usual.

  The kids charged across the parking lot. There were lots of excited chatter as the little ones asked the Marines their names and about their guns and a million other questions. There were hugs and kisses exchanged. The whole thing kind of made Hanes wish he had a camera. Then come to think of it he wished he had a lot of things these days.

  “Alright, good job today people.” Hanes said after the children had gone back across the parking lot. He watched the little ones for a moment as they horsed around on the playground equipment and smiled. He looked down at the blacktop for a moment with his hands on his hips. “I got a couple of announcements. First thing: As you probably heard Sergeant Frays was involved in the attack. She got taken away by the corpsmen but it looks like she’ll be okay. I’ll get more information on that out to you as soon as I can. Second: I think by the end of the week I’m going to schedule a little field problem for you guys. We’re gonna go out to the housing tract and practice clearing a few buildings, searching the area, shit like that. So be ready. Last thing: I’m releasing you guys early today. We’re gonna be up and at it at zero five thirty tomorrow morning so get your chow, do your personal hygiene and get some sleep. Be in front of the Resettlement Center with all your shit and in uniform. Don’t make me come fuckin’ lookin’ for ya. That’s all I got for now so get outta here.”

  With that Hanes turned and left them, ambling off in the direction
of the TOC. He fingered the radio clipped to his vest and after a few moments consideration pushed the button. “Baby Momma Baby Momma come in Baby Momma.” he said into the mike, grinning a little bit at Frays’ codename. He glanced around as he walked hoping that he was going to hear the woman’s voice over the radio. “Baby Momma this is Big Daddy. Come in, over.”

  The radio was silent. It was a long shot that Frays would have answered anyways if she was still with the corpsmen. If they had released her then she would have tracked him down. “Well shit.” Hanes muttered as he looked around for a moment. He was currently smack in the middle between the TOC where he was headed and the Aid Station. After a moment’s thought he headed off towards the Aid Station.

  Frays’ friend, that Lacey guy, was in the lobby with a tall blond kid and that Hispanic girl with the face like a GI Joe that had been partly chewed by the family dog when he arrived. It took everything he had to keep his face still when the girl turned to look at him. “Hey, Lacey how’s Frays doing?” Hanes asked once he could speak to them without having to shout to be heard. There was a tension in the air that you could cut with a knife.

  The three people just kind of looked at him for a minute. “Doc…Lieutenant Haskins thinks she might lose the baby.” Lacey said quietly. The man swallowed hard and looked like he was struggling with something inside. “Frays is…resting…right now. She lost a lot of blood and she said it’s going to be kind of touch and go for now.”

  Hanes nodded solemnly. Even after two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan he still had a hard time understanding how and why somebody could go from healthy and happy one minute to being on death’s door the next. “I’ll come by tomorrow and see if she’s doing better.” he said quietly and stood there for a moment, unsure of what else to say. “Thanks for the info. I’ll pass it along to the rest of the squad.”

  There was an awkward silence. “What happened anyways?” the scarred woman said, her hand the blond guy was not holding raking up and down her cheek. “What the fuck was a pregnant woman doing out there anyways?”

  “She was supposed to be supervising the engineers while they built up a backstop for us.” Hanes said a little bit louder than he really meant to. He took a couple steps towards the woman and almost started to order her to go to parade rest, maybe even start doing some pushups or whatever. Hanes took a deep breath. “Don’t ask me what happened after that.”

  “Everybody just take a breath folks.” Lieutenant Haskins called from the hall that led down to the exam rooms. The woman scowled at everyone with her hands on her hips. “Or at least take it outside if you’re going to yell at each other.”

  The woman looked absolutely dead dog tired as she strode forward. “I gave Sergeant Frays a sedative so nobody can talk to her right now.” the doctor said, intentionally lowering her voice to hopefully get the others to quiet down “The good news is I think she’s out of the worst of it. She needed two units of blood but her pulse and blood pressure are looking good.”

  “What about the baby, ma’am?” Lacey asked anxiously. He searched the doctor’s face hoping to see some reason for him to stop worrying so much. “What’s going on there?”

  Lieutenant Haskins closed her eyes for a moment and sighed heavily. “That…that’s the bad news.” she said at last. She bit down hard on the grief the crushed and absolutely desolated look on the young man’s face caused. “He…He didn’t make it. Frays went into labor and…and there was nothing I could do.”

  Hanes clenched his jaw and counted to ten in his head. “What’s that supposed to mean, ma’am?” he asked sharply. He sucked on his teeth and grumbled to himself. “I gotta go tell Major Tennyson something here.”

  “You can tell him what I just told him.” Lieutenant Haskins said starting to get a little angry herself. She had just spent almost forty five minutes trying to find some way to make Sergeant Frays’ son stay where he was and then trying desperately to get the bleeding to stop after… “I did the best I could. I tried to save the baby. I got the hemorrhaging stopped but it’s going to be pretty iffy over the next twenty four to forty eight hours.”

  The news hit Carl like a sledgehammer between the eyes. His big sister had almost died? Her little boy was gone? He sat down heavily in the nearest chair trying to catch his breath. “Can…Can I see her? I need to see her.” Carl mumbled loudly. Frannie put an arm around his shoulders and held him tight. “I need to see Amy. I need to know she’s okay.” He looked up, suddenly insistent “I need to see her right now.”

  Haskins frowned at the boy and put a hand on his shoulder. The pained look in his eyes took away what little resistance she had left. “Alright. Five minutes.” the doctor said quietly as she crossed her arms across her stomach. “She’s still sedated so she won’t be able to talk. Your sister might open her eyes but that’s about it. If she does come around for a minute don’t tell her about her son, okay? Just hold her hand and let her know you’re there.”

  Frannie started to follow Lieutenant Haskins and Carl down the hall. The brown haired doctor dissuaded her with a shake of her head as the two of them walked down the hall and into an exam room. Carl stopped in the doorway, shocked by how small and pale his sister looked as she lay in the hospital bed. A couple IV bags hung from the stand next to her bed connected to her arm by plastic tubes with needles taped in place on her forearm.

  “Five minutes.” Haskins whispered and left Carl alone in the room with his sister. She paused just outside the door and took a couple deep breaths. After watching so many people die over the past few months it had been a refreshing change of pace to see someone getting ready to enter this world rather than leave it. She had been so excited by the possibility of getting to deliver Sergeant Frays’ little boy. Getting to hold the tiny little pink wriggly baby and now because of some stupid fucking goddamn accident…

  Carl went to his sister’s bedside and gently took her hand. The skin of her palm was rough against his and kind of chilly. The woman stirred briefly, her eyes fluttering open for a half second before she murmured and settled back into the mattress. Amy’s other hand went over her stomach almost as if she were still trying to somehow hold her son inside her. Whatever the doctor had given his sister was obviously keeping her out of it as she did not even seem to be having any nightmares or whatever. It occurred to him that this might be the closest thing Amy had gotten to a good night’s sleep in days. He smiled at his sister and smoothed her hair away from her face then knelt and kissed her forehead. “Just relax and get better, Aim.” he said quietly into the semiconscious woman’s ear. “I’ll be back to see you later, okay?”

  Sergeant Hanes was still there when he came back out. “She’s gonna make it.” Carl said as he walked back into the lobby. Frannie put her arms around him and he held her tight for a moment then pecked her on the cheek. “But…oh fuck…the…the kid…oh holy fuck…”

  Lacey stood and put a hand on Carl’s shoulder. “Damn straight.” he muttered and grinned, wishing he had as much confidence. Then again by his count Frays should have died at least twice by now…not counting the thing at the bridge in Boston. Lacey smiled a little wider. “Hell, your sister’s too damn stubborn. She isn’t going anywhere.”

  A tall dark haired man in Marine cammies walked in and approached the group tentatively. “What do you want, Thames?” Frannie asked as she held Carl. Her stomach soured, sensing that she would be in no mood to hear the answer.

  “Sergeant Wilcox wants you back at the FDP.” Thames said quietly. The sorrowful looks on everyone’s faces made him feel like the world’s biggest shithead for even bringing it up. What was wrong? Rodriguez had up and split as soon as they heard about the attack and CasEvac. The man licked his lips. “What happened?”

  “My best friend…Sergeant Frays…just lost her baby.” Frannie said quietly. She let Carl squeeze her just as hard as he needed to even if it made it kind of hard to breathe. “She almost bled to death. It’ll be a day or two before we know if she’ll pull through
or not so tell him I said fuck you if he thinks I’m leaving.”

  Chapter Four

  5 July 2011 06:35 hours NorthCom Forward Operating Base Freedom Sanford, Maine

  Frays stirred and stretched then blinked as she tried to get her bearings. Her thoughts were a strange jumbled confused mass for a few minutes. She was wearing only her grey MIT tee shirt and what felt like some kind of adult diaper or something with a sheet covering up to her armpits. The view of the wall surrounding the building and the sticky heat made her wonder if she had somehow ended up in Kuwait waiting for the plane to take her and her friends back home from Iraq.

  The sight of Carl asleep in a plastic chair next to the bed cured her of that and Frays’ befuddled brain slowly started to put the pieces back together. She became aware of the fact that she was pretty groggy and her mouth felt like it was full of cotton. A cough exploded out of her chest startling her brother awake and she smiled at how surprised he looked.

  The smile came off her face by inches when she looked down at her feet. Her stomach looked a little deflated like a beach ball with half of the air let out of it. “Oh…oh no…oh no nononono…” she whispered, poking and prodding her stomach hoping and praying that this was all a hallucination or maybe just a bad dream…. “My little guy! What happened?! Where’s my little guy?”

  Carl put a hand on his sister’s shoulder. She pressed her hands on it and looked up at him with wide, frightened eyes. “I…I-I... They tried to save him, Aim.” he said quietly. Carl took a couple deep breaths the start of tears in the corners of his eyes. “I’m so sorry…”

  Frays shook her head slowly and swallowed. “No.” she said and scowled at her brother. All of a sudden she felt absolutely bone dead tired and her brain felt like it was doing somersaults in her head. “No…he was just right here.” She prodded her belly again hoping to discover the hard little lump, her special little guy…