Outbreak: Long Road Back

by Van Dusen, Robert

  Frays nodded and sort of half smiled. “So…you found me. Good for you.” Frays said as she stood up and scratched at a mosquito bite on the side of her neck. “What’s going on?” She started out of the office with the private in tow.

  “We’re ready for you over at the range, Sergeant.” Stark said as she followed. The blonde woman frowned a little bit as they walked towards the dirt pile at the far side of the compound. She wanted to say something to the other woman but she could not really think of anything. “Sergeant…I’m…I’m sorry about your son.” she said at last.

  Frays did her best to not roll her eyes. “Yeah.” was all she could think of to say. She struggled to think of something else to talk about. Frays made an odd face as she considered something that she had been kind of curious about. “Hey Private…” she began awkwardly then glanced around to make sure they were not being observed. “What’s the deal with these FEMA meatheads anyways? When did they show up?”

  Stark shrugged. “Maybe a couple weeks after everything really started getting bad.” The blonde glanced around as well. It did not pay to get on the bad side of the Blue Diamond goons or the pencil pushers. “My flight back home to California got rerouted here. We managed to lock down the place pretty good. Then this big C-130 landed and the FEMA guys got out with their gear. Declared the airport a FEMA shelter took everybody’s guns and herded us all into the Wal-Mart over there.” She spat frustrated into the dirt and looked around again. “They took the trailers that were supposed to be for us. I hope the bastards all get fuckin’ cancer from ‘em like those ones they had in Katrina.”

  Frays could not help but feel a little stunned by the other woman’s revelations. The two of them walked along until they came to the area where the engineers had built up the backstop a little over a week ago. When the horde attacked the walls. When… Frays made a point of not looking at the makeshift guard tower where she had helped fight off the zombies shambling towards the walls. Where her little boy her special little guy the little peanut…where he died… Sergeant Hanes grinned when he saw her and Private Stark coming. He met them a little ways off from the little group of trainees. “Go on over there with the others, Stark.” Hanes said and tossed his head towards the overturned earth of the backstop. “Thanks, by the way.”

  The small blonde smiled and nodded as she hustled off towards the gaggle of men and women a few feet away, her carbine bouncing against her back. “Are you sure you’re up to this, Frays?” Hanes asked solemnly once the woman was out of earshot. “Nobody’d blame you if you wanted to be reassigned or something.”

  Frays closed her eyes for a moment and shook her head. “No, I gotta do something.” she said in a low murmuring voice. “I…I couldn’t stand just sitting around in the hospital anymore.” Frays sighed and looked around for a second. “C’mon. Let’s get this show on the road.”

  Sergeant Hanes nodded. “Alright.” A startled look came to the man’s face as he dug out his notebook and flipped to a page. “Right. By the way they’re having a formation at 1400 out front of the TOC. I dunno what it’s about but I was told to make sure you’re there.”

  Frays found herself more than a little surprised by how quickly the trainees had come along in just the few days since she had been with them last. The trainees fell into formation and took orders with little hesitation. None of the little disputes she had seen on the first day seemed present. They set up some silhouette targets about a hundred and fifty meters away and Frays led the recruits through live fire exercises firing from various positions and ranges to get the trainees used to where the rounds fired would hit in relation to where the sights were aimed depending on how close or far they were from the target.

  They decided to take a break a few hours later to police up the steel casings of their expended ammunition and clean up their targets. There was a brief discussion on how to fire on the move and Sergeant Hanes gave a class on room clearing using a bare patch of earth and a stick as a chalkboard. Frays glanced at her watch and tapped her wrist, letting Hanes know it was almost time to go to lunch before the formation.

  They filed into the FDP to get hot chow for lunch, some kind of bland meatlike substance along with mashed potatoes about as appetizing as a pile of child’s white paste and black beans. Frays ended up giving most of her food away. Sergeant Hanes scowled at her but did not say anything as she gave a teenager her plate and smiled as she watched the young man stuff the food hungrily into his mouth.

  They moved to the TOC and fell in with the other units of men and women in uniforms in front of the building. Frays stood behind the trainees while Sergeant Hanes stood at the front of the formation. She could not help but wonder what was going on. It was the first time since she had arrived that there was something resembling a real formation with everybody there.

  The subjects of the attack the other day and the airdrop sprung to mind. This was probably a morale meeting or something, the chain of command trying to assure the troops that everything was okay and there was nothing to worry about. A darker thought occurred to her: the brass was going to announce that they were going on the offensive. Made sense since Major Tennyson had asked for more troops from the civilian population. It made even more sense when she considered the contents of the airdrop…

  She came to attention when Major Tennyson and a few others came out of the TOC’s walled in area. A short stocky man with a face like an old bulldog’s butt she did not recognize called the company to attention and after a few moments told them to stand at ease. He was obviously the First Sergeant or Sergeant Major or whatever. “Afternoon, Marines!” the man shouted and waited for the company’s reply.

  “So as you might have heard we got into a little bit of a dustup over on the north side of the FOB last week.” the Sergeant Major said loudly. This drew nervous chuckles from the assembled soldiery. The man paced slightly and slapped what looked like notes on his hand. “Our perimeter guards beat back an assault by well over eight hundred and fifty infected. Eight hundred and fifty minimum in a hour and a half long firefight. Great job, people.”

  There was a chorus of hoots, hollers and hooahs that made Frays smile a little bit. “Now we got a few people we’d like to recognize for their actions the other day.” the Sergeant Major announced once the gathered personnel got the bulk of their cheers out of their system. To her surprise Frays heard her name called out as well as about eighteen or so more names, the people who had apparently been on perimeter guard during the attack.

  Frays stood at the far end of the line. Major Tennyson, Lieutenant Haskins and the Sergeant Major were handing out Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals to the personnel called to the front of formation. Frays watched them out of the corner of her eye as they came closer. When they came to the Navy guy next to her (she recognized him as the guy who had been spotting for the sniper in the nest she had taken over) and gave him his medal Major Tennyson called the group to attention. “Sergeant Frays, stand fast a minute.” he said then turned his attention to the rest of the group. “Right Face! Forward…march!”

  The other Marines and Sailors marched off then joined back in with their platoons. Frays felt a strange nervousness as she stood alone in the front of formation save for the senior officers and enlisted. “Attention to orders!” Major Tennyson said loudly.

  Lieutenant Haskins flipped the page on her clipboard and read aloud: “For wounds received as a result of enemy action, Sergeant Amy Frays is hereby awarded the Purple Heart. Date of action: 4 July 2011. Five months pregnant, Sergeant Frays suffered a stress induced hemorrhage while aiding in the defense of a position on the perimeter of FOB Freedom. Sergeant Frays stayed at her post despite her injuries and was instrumental in keeping a sizable group of infected from surmounting the FOB’s walls. She not only directed reinforcements but supported the position’s sniper with highly accurate fire from her M4 and M203, accounting for well over ninety five enemy KIA in the course of an hour and a half long engagement.”

 
Major Tennyson took a small medal out of his pocket as he and the Sergeant Major walked up to the woman. He smiled awkwardly at her. “I know this can’t even come close to replacing what you lost.” the major whispered as he clipped a small heart shaped gold medal onto Frays’ uniform. “Thank you. I mean that.”

  Frays swallowed hard, unable to find the words. She simply shook the man’s hand and saluted. A thought occurred to her: I wonder what Mom and Dad would say about this. She blinked, snapping back to reality as the sergeant major stood in front of her. Frays numbly took his hand and shook it.

  “I’m First Sergeant Keene.” he mumbled, obviously no more comfortable with the situation than Major Tennyson was. The man was balding, probably in his late forties or early fifties with a pretty prominent beer gut. “Sorry we gotta meet like this, Sergeant.”

  “Me too.” was all Frays could manage to get out. She surreptitiously wiped the palm of her hand on her trouser leg. It occurred to her after she had just shaken everybody’s hand that her hands were damp with sweat. The assembled platoons erupted in a spate of applause at Major Tennyson’s command. After that Frays went to attention, turned smartly and jogged off to rejoin the trainees.

  “I’d like everyone to observe a moment of silence.” the Major said solemnly once the noise died down. There was no need to state the reason. Everybody knew by now about how Frays had lost her son after the attack. After about a minute he raised his head and looked slowly around the assembly area. “On to other business.

  “There’s been a rumor kicking around that we’re going on an offensive soon.” Major Tennyson said in a loud, clear voice. He took a couple steps and cleared his throat. “Well…that isn’t exactly so. There is an offensive scheduled for the spring. I have it direct from the Secretary of State himself that a counter offensive going to start pushing Zed into the sea come March. Since we’re so far from the safe zone it might take awhile for our brothers and sisters to reach us but trust me, they’re coming. But that doesn’t mean that we’re going to be chilling out waiting to be rescued.

  Every one of those rotting bastards we put down is one that won’t be putting our friends and family in harm’s way until they show up.” Tennyson motioned towards Sergeant Hanes and the ten trainees standing behind him. “In a week Sergeant Hanes tells me we’re gonna have a new batch of Marines.” There was a sporadic clatter of applause and oorahs from the soldiery “We’re going to start foraging operations in the area soon after. Once we got a few blocks secured we can start moving people out of that piece of shit FEMA calls a ‘Resettlement Center’ and into some decent housing.”

  This met with a thunderous chorus of hooahs. Nobody really liked the Resettlement Center so he knew that would motivate the troops. “We’re doing well as far as preparing for winter but we’ve still got a lot of work to do. We’ve got plenty of firewood thanks to the crews clearing out the trees inside the perimeter. The crews going out foraging are going to be tracking down cold weather gear to be handed out to those that don’t have any before we actually really need it. By Fall we’re going to have lots of food ready to get preserved for winter so be ready for that. Some of the civilians are going to be giving classes so we can start canning and stuff like that in shifts so we can get it all put up before it goes bad.

  “It’s been a pretty hairy couple of weeks here.” Major Tennyson said loudly, pausing to look as many of the Marines around him in the eyes as he could. There was the attack the other day. Sergeant Frays losing her child. He knew there were a great many people here that had been looking forward to the birth. There had even been a couple pools going on her son’s length, weight and time of birth…. “So I think it’s high time we had a little R and R. Since we missed celebrating Independence Day I think tomorrow’s as good as time as any. There’s going to be hot dogs and hamburgers for lunch chow and, as the guard schedule allows, a baseball tournament starting at 1000 hours. The uniform is civilian clothes or if you don’t have any you’re allowed to take off your MCCU tops. Platoon verses platoon. Winners stay losers go sit in the stands. The post champs get two days off.”

  Sergeant Hanes felt a small smile tug at the corner of his mouth after they were released. By dumb luck he had just enough people to fill out a team. “Okay privates.” he said conspiratorially after the other platoons had gone back to work. “Who knows which end of a bat to hold? A two day pass would be pretty fuckin’ sweet.”

  Frays sat in the grass next to the makeshift baseball diamond, leaning against a tree and watching First and Second Platoon play. There was a hollow pinging noise and the horsehide sphere went sailing through the air. The groups of spectators huddled around the sidelines whooped and hollered as they passed around bottles of soda and shared food. The others were off closer to the field getting ready to take on Headquarters in the next round. Half asleep, she started when somebody nudged her thigh with the toe of their boot.

  Carl smiled down at his sister. “Hey, Aim.” he said quietly as he sat down next to his big sister. He sighed heavily. He had not seen much of her since she had woken up in the hospital about a week ago. “Congratulations on your promotion.”

  “Thanks.” Frays smiled weakly then cast a glance towards Sergeant Hanes and the trainees a few dozen feet away. They were all busy getting ready for their game in a few minutes. Between not knowing how to play and still feeling a little anemic she had opted out of taking a spot on the team. “Look…um…I know I don’t say it often enough but…you’re my little brother and I love you. I don’t mean to get angry with you or anything…”

  Carl grinned and put a hand on Amy’s shoulder. “I know, Aim.” he said quietly. The young man’s eyes scanned the other Marines standing around the baseball diamond. A strange thought occurred to him. Was Amy a Marine now or was she still in the Air Force or what? She wore parts of like two or three different uniforms from three different military branches so he sure as fuck could not tell. “Is Frannie around here? I haven’t seen her.”

  “I think she’s up at the Aid Station.” Amy looked around now suddenly a little curious where Frannie was herself. “I don’t think I’ve seen her today. I’d check up there if you’re looking for her.”

  They exchanged worried glances. Frannie had been going through a rough time of it lately since they had started running low on her medications. They had all been going through a rough time lately… “I’ll head up there in a little bit.” Carl said quietly. He pretended to watch the game but he was really keeping an eye on his sister out of the corner of his eye. She was starting to look like the she did when she first showed up at the cabin like a month ago: her face sort of sunken in and her cheekbones showing, the new scars under her eye showing pink against her pallid skin. He wondered if she was feeling okay. He had heard about the shitfit she pitched at the one medic dude and come to think of it he had not seen Amy eat in days. “Aim…are you sure you’re okay? You don’t look so good.”

  Frays looked at her lap and shrugged. “I dunno.” she muttered as she ran a hand over her stomach. “I miss my special little guy so much, Carl.” Frays swallowed hard and shrugged again, studying the grass in front of her as she continued to absently rub her belly. “When I was getting my medal yesterday all I could think about was what Mom and Dad would have to say about their little girl getting a Purple Heart…” Frays kind of half chuckled and plucked a blade of grass, rolling it between her thumb and forefinger. “I almost started crying like a baby right there in front of everybody.”

  Carl could not help but smile just a tiny bit. This was the most his sister had spoken to him since the miscarriage. “Is Lacey around?” he asked. There had been a rumor going around that the guy had been seen coming out of their room in the middle of the night while he was in the hospital. “I…heard you guys were really hitting it off.”

  Frays rolled her eyes and groaned. “Where did you hear that, huh?” she asked and gave Carl a playful slug in the arm. Was what passed for her love life everybody’s business or what? “H
uh? Who told you?”

  “I just…you know…heard it…” Carl grinned as he deflected his sister’s fist. Frays feigned another blow to his shoulder then slapped him on the back of the head. He laughed eyes wide then reached out and lightly slapped his sister’s cheek. A pair of small arms wrapped around Carl’s neck and Becca piled on, the two little ones climbing on the bigger man. In moments Carl and the kids were goofing around on the grass.

  Lacey sat down next to Frays and grinned at his children. “How have you been, Sergeant?” he asked tentatively. His heart ached for her every time he looked into those dark brown eyes of hers. It was plain to see that she was hurting so badly inside and to make matters worse it looked like she had not eaten in a week. Lacey slowly snaked his hand through the grass and put it on top of hers.

  “Alright, I guess.” Frays said quietly as she let the man’s hand linger on top of hers. As per usual part of her wanted to lean against his chest and let him hold her close. Maybe the kids would get bored of goofing around with Carl and come sit with them. Just an all American family watching a baseball game on a lazy summer afternoon… Another, admittedly much smaller part of her still wanted to wring his neck… “You?”

  Lacey interlaced his fingers with hers still grinning like an idiot. “Better now.” he said whispered, just loud enough for her to hear. Lacey was glad to hear the woman snort a tiny laugh out of her nose as she looked away, pretending to watch one of the men out on the field hit a pop fly and the centerfielder easily snatch it out of the air. And was that the tiniest bit of color he saw in her cheeks?

  The man was keeping an eye on his kids and hoping they did not hear his little remark. They were just now beginning to come to terms with their mother’s death and starting to accept that he was…what was the right term…dating again? They had screwed each other’s brains out that night a few weeks ago but it was not like they had ever exactly done the dinner and a movie thing or whatever.