Outbreak: Better Days

by Van Dusen, Robert

  The man sat down at the desk in the corner and motioned for her to take a seat on the corner of the bed. “Actually, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”

  Chapter Two

  3 July 2011 1912 hours 1225 Main St. Sanford, ME

  Lieutenant Beth Haskins stood with her arms crossed over her stomach and frowned slightly. Eight big green, red and blue connexes had floated down on giant parachutes guided down to earth via GPS transceivers mounted on top of the metal shipping containers allowing the airdrop to land within a few dozen feet of the other box that one of the flyboys set up on the Helipad.

  The woman walked over to the nearest container and leaned against the open doors. Three or four of the Blue Diamond guys carried boxes out of the connex and stacked them outside for transport to their area on the other side of compound. One of them, a short guy that looked like he could dead lift a Buick, glanced at the officer as he passed by. “’Scuse me, Ma’am.” the mercenary muttered as he maneuvered around Haskins.

  The guy was close enough that she could get a good look at the man’s eyes. They were all red and she caught wind of a peculiar odor on the man’s clothes. “Hey, come over here for a minute.” Beth ordered as she waved the man over to the other side of the metal container. “Sir, you wouldn’t happen to have any illegal vegetation on your person, would you?”

  The man gave her a big cheesy grin and chewed loudly on a piece of bubble gum. “Why?” the man asked and glanced back towards his fellows “Lookin’ to score?”

  Haskins sighed heavily and marched back around the connex towards the other mercenaries. “GENTLEMEN!” she announced making everyone stop what they were doing and look at her. “Stop what you’re doing. This is a snap health and welfare inspection. Open those boxes, please.”

  The three other mercenaries looked at the naval officer as if she had suddenly gone stark raving mad. The senior of the four men, Jason Maddox, set down his burden and glanced over his shoulder at her. “No, don’t think so.” He turned around and did his best to not smirk. One of the advantages of not being on Uncle Sam’s payroll directly anymore was getting to tell prissy little shits like this bitch where to get off. “This is company property.”

  “Open those boxes or all of you can spend the next couple of weeks in the brig.” The man was well over six feet so he towered over the lieutenant but she still got within inches of the man and glared up at him. “As chief medical officer I can perform inspections whenever I deem it necessary. Now open the boxes.”

  Maddox glared back at the woman then dipped a hand into a pouch on his plate carrier. The blade of a long knife flicked out with a metallic snick and the big man grinned when the doctor jumped a little bit. He shrugged and cut open the tape around the box at his feet.

  It took Lieutenant Haskins and a couple other people a few minutes to go through the crates and cartons the Blue Diamond men were trying to get out of the connex. There seemed to be little in the way of contraband: a couple cases of beer, some pint bottles of whiskey… Something struck Beth as a little off about a video monitor that was inside one of the containers.

  “Hold on there, Mister Brooks.” Haskins said quietly as one of the civilians was about to put the electronic equipment back in its box. She crouched and looked suspiciously at the monitor until it struck her what seemed wrong with it. It appeared that somebody had taken off the back of the screen and did not put it back together quite right. The doctor made a puzzled face and pulled out the Gerber from the pouch on her belt. “Care to explain this, Mister Maddox?”

  Nestled in between the circuit boards and wires were plastic bags filled with shredded green leaves and others had a very questionable looking white powder. Haskins could not help but feel a little pleased with herself when she watched Maddox gawp and look around, obviously grasping for an answer. Beth dropped the bags of weed into her cargo pockets then broke open the coke or heroin or whatever it was and dumped them out on the ground.

  Haskins walked quickly back to the Aid Station and went straight into the supply closet. Once inside she pulled out her keys and unlocked a steel cabinet bolted to the wall. She secured the bags of marijuana then picked up the phone on her desk. The doctor frowned at the slip of notepaper taped to the particleboard next to the handset then punched in the numbers.

  “Yes, Major?” Beth said quickly then swallowed, her mouth suddenly going a little dry. “I need to talk to you for a moment, sir.” She frowned again and plopped down in chair. “The Blue Diamond guys are smuggling drugs into the FOB. There was some kind of white powder and what looked like weed hidden in a video monitor.”

  She could practically hear Major Tennyson roll his eyes over the phone. “Damn.” the man muttered under his breath. There was a long awkward silence. “Alright. Did you confiscate the dope?”

  “Yes, sir.” Beth glanced at the stainless steel cabinet over her shoulder. “Well I disposed of the powder. There was some alcohol as well though…I left that with them.” She smiled a little bit at her own ingenuity. “I thought that would give us probable cause to have the security forces search the mercenaries’ barracks.”

  Frannie shrugged after watching the little spat between Lieutenant Haskins and the mercs. There were still several connexes to be unloaded, the contents inventoried and stashed away safely in the Supply Depot. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight of the booze and she absently wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Her throat felt like it was lined with sand when she swallowed then turned on her heel and screwed a hard look onto her face.

  “C’mon, guys.” Rodriguez growled at the three other soldiers on the detail with her. “This shit’s not gonna fuckin’ unload itself.” Her leg ached and she wanted some of that whiskey just a swig or two to knock it down a little… The fact that she was still tired from sitting on that radio watch and worried sick about Carl did not help her willpower at all.

  “Hey, Rodriguez…” Private Holtz, a skinny black kid with a Bronx accent, stood at the back of the connex with his head cocked like a curious bird. “What the hell is all this shit?” There was a pile of wooden crates stacked at the far end of the shipping container.

  Frannie pulled her flashlight out of its pouch on her plate carrier and joined Holtz. All the crates were painted green with funny yellow writing stenciled on it. It took a moment to catch on but the numbers 7.62x39 jumped out at her. “It’s guns, man.” Rodriguez grinned and clapped Holtz on the shoulder “A shitload of guns.”

  The crates contained dozens of SKS carbines. Frannie gave the old rifles a puzzled look and shoved her end of it into the back of a truck. There were also tons and tons of ammunition, not just for the new weapons but also for their NATO standard rifles. 5.56mm Green Tip, 7.62x51mm, 40 mike mikes, M67 fragmentation grenades…every damn thing. Rodriguez could not help but wonder what Lacey would make of the bricks of British Semtex and Claymore mines too. Somehow she could picture the combat engineer grinning like a kid on Christmas morning over all the explosives and what looked like detonator parts.

  Part of her started to get a little anxious as they finished loading the last of it into the trucks. All the new toys from Uncle Sam (or, as she gathered from the French writing on the connexes, Uncle Canuck) gave truth to the rumor of an offensive. She felt a little queasy. If they started combat operations that meant that Carl would be going outside the wire as soon as he got out of the hospital and completed training. She could not go with him seeing as how she could barely walk across the compound. It would not be so bad if Amy would be there to keep an eye on him to make sure he was alright…

  All of a sudden she wanted Carl’s arms around her more than anything in the entire world. Rodriguez glanced at her watch. It had been almost thirty hours since she had last slept between being put on radio watch and getting tasked out to help unload all the care packages. Frays was probably off by now and probably sitting with her brother over at the Aid Station. Lacey…where the hell would Lacey be about now? He would most likely over
with his kids over at the Resettlement Center. Goddamn my fuckin’ leg hurts… Frannie thought as she sat down on the curb and started trying to massage some of the stiffness out of her thigh.

  “Hey Rodriguez” PFC Thames, this big strong kid that sounded like he was from Nebraska or some shit flashed a grin and crouched next to her. “Holtz has one of those portable DVD players. We were all gonna get together later.” He showed her the cap and neck of one of the bottles of whiskey sticking out of his cargo pocket. “Sound like fun?”

  She was quiet for a moment suddenly torn in two. It would be just like old times huddled around a little flickering LED screen passing a bottle around, feeling like kids sneaking a taste from dad’s liquor cabinet. Old friends and good times… Frannie wrapped her arms around her torso and held herself tight for a moment. Thames sat down next to her with a look of concern on his face. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah…” Rodriguez muttered quietly. Thames put a hand on her shoulder but she peeled it off and gave him a half hearted smile. “I appreciate it but no, I don’t think I’m interested.” She struggled to her feet and dusted off her rear end. “I have a boyfriend.”

  Thames smiled and climbed to his feet as well. “It’s fine.” he shrugged and gave the woman a sheepish glance. She was pretty even with the scars on her face and shit. It figures that she had a guy. “I just thought you looked a little lonely is all.”

  They got released until the morning about twenty minutes later. Rodriguez wandered off as the other soldiers on the detail with her made their way back to the barracks. It would be too late to go see Carl right now. Thames and the others would probably be having their little party either in Thames’s room or maybe Holtz’s place. They were both so close to her place that would probably be able to smell the booze.

  Rodriguez wandered into the Resettlement Center and shuffled off between the rows of cots, slowly and carefully making her way to the cot in the room she shared with four other female Marines. She paused just outside the door to the cubicle that Frays shared with her brother. It sounded like there was a strange noise coming from inside.

  Rodriguez knocked gently on the pole holding the shower curtain up that served as their door. “Hey Frays, you up?” she asked as she tentatively poked her head inside. Amy sat up and looked at her friend and smiled.

  “Hey, Rodriguez.” Frays said and motioned towards Carl’s cot. “Take a load off.” It was obvious to Rodriguez what the sound she had heard was once she sat down and got a closer look at her friend’s face. Her eyes were red and it looked like she had been crying. “Carl’s spending the night in the Aid Station so Lieutenant Haskins can keep an eye on him.”

  Frannie chuckled. “I talked to him earlier.” Rodriguez explained as she moved a little closer to her friend and leaned forward slightly. “He was trying to get me to come over and…spend the night because you had radio watch again.”

  Amy snorted a laugh out of her nose then sat bolt upright on her cot. “You and he…haven’t…you know…” she asked and looked at her friend with all the seriousness of a protective parent. Rodriguez grinned sadly. The expression made her friend look like her mother but she almost said something then thought better of it.

  “No, no we haven’t.” Rodriguez said with a small grin. She looked at the floor between her boots and shrugged. “He wants to and I kinda want to but I don’t want to mess this up…” She sighed and looked at Frays. “Um…would you mind if I stayed here tonight?”

  Amy nodded. “Sure thing.” she said without a moment’s thought. “Truth be told I’d be glad to have you stay. It was getting weirded out being here by myself.” Frays grumbled and shrugged. “That’s Carl’s place you’re sitting on there.”

  “Are you doing alright, Frays?” Rodriguez asked after she got settled in for the night. The lights had gone out replaced by the shadowy red glow of the emergency lights. She had kicked off her boots and stuffed her plate carrier under the cot. The blankets and pillow was comfortable on the rough canvas of the folding bed. It smelled like Carl and she found that comforting.

  “I…” Amy started followed by the sound of her breathing heavily in the semi dark. “I was just laying here and thinking…” Frays pressed a hand over her mouth and fought back tears “Tomorrow’s the Fourth of July.”

  Frannie sat up, crossed the cubicle and sat down next to her friend. Amy sat up as well, her hands folded in her lap. “I w-was looking forward to…to marching in the Independence Day parade with my Dad. We were gonna meet up at the VFW hall in our uniforms. Me and him and his friends. The old guys from World War Two and Korea…”

  She grinned and wiped at her cheeks again. “After the parade was done there was a cookout at the VFW. Me and Carl would go screw around on the midway wasting our money on those stupid carnival games.” Frannie put a hand on her friend’s shoulder and rubbed the taut muscle. “After it got dark there’d be fireworks in the park.”

  “Sounds like it was fun.” Frannie said quietly. The only fireworks in her neighborhood growing up had been when some of the local gangbangers shot each other up. She sighed heavily and took her hand back.

  “I miss Mom and Dad so…so much, Frannie.” Amy said quietly. Tears leaked out of her eyes again and she wiped them away. “I was terrible to them. Mom wanted everything to be like it was but it wasn’t and…Dad… I know he loved me and didn’t mean what he said...”

  Rodriguez frowned and wondered if she should go find Lacey. The two of them were…close…but on the other hand it was kinda late. Of course she could stay with the kids while Lacey and Frays were talking or whatever. And she had to admit that Lacey was just one of those guys that was good to talk to. “Do you want me to see if Lacey’s around?” Frannie asked and started to act like she was going to get up.

  Amy frowned and shook her head after a few seconds. “No…no…” she said quietly. The woman shrugged. “I…how do I put this…I don’t trust myself around him. I like him and everything and he’s a great guy but…I…I dunno…ya know?”

  Frannie chuckled. “Strangely enough I think I do.” she said and sat down on Carl’s bunk. Frannie lay down and shifted around into a more comfortable position. Frannie’s mind drifted as she started to doze off. While she had been deployed in Afghanistan she had…slept around…a lot. More out of a need to get her mind off the death and boredom than any real need to have a relationship or anything. Hell, she could not even remember a couple of their names. PFC Jason Hendricks had been in the truck with her when the driver rolled over an IED…

  She wiped at a tear of her own. He had been a good guy, one of the few men she had been with on deployment that did not treat her like a total whore. The last time she had seen him was on the Medivac chopper that would take them to Bagram Airfield. They had her flying high on morphine and strapped to a stretcher, so fucking lit up that she was barely aware that there was a tube down her throat to help her breathe… Hendricks had been next to her and she reached out to try and take his hand but she could not find it… That sick moment when she realized that she could not find his hand because his whole arm was not there… Panic not for herself but for her friend next to her… A shadowy form doing something to the IV in her arm and then everything went all wobbly and dark…

  ********

  It was hot. Senior Airman Amy Frays could not for the life of her understand why on God’s green and verdant earth why people came to this part of the world and decided to hang around for a couple dozen millennia. It was always just so friggin’ hot and dry and sandy never mind the giant scary looking camel spiders that always seemed to have a talent for turning up exactly where you did not want them to be: sleeping bag, boots, helmet…

  She leaned against the concrete shelter about a dozen meters from the connex she shared with Airman Sally Watkins the tiny bit of shade put out by the structure making it slightly less unbearable. Frays snorted a chunk of something disgusting out of her nose and fished a pack of nasty smelling Miami cigarettes out of an ammo pouch on h
er LCS and lit one. She blew smoke out of her nose and glanced at her watch. There was a twinge in the pit of her stomach. The chow hall would be opening for lunch in about an hour…

  “C’mon, Frays! Watkins!” a giant in ABUs called from the doorway of his connex. Frays hid a small smile behind the motion of taking the cigarette out of her mouth and butting it out. A little part of her still wanted Master Sergeant Brian Emery badly…even though he was married with two kids. “Get your shit and let’s go! Chow time!”

  Frays and Watkins gathered their weapons and gear then trotted over to their NCO. Amy looked startled for a moment. “Crap…Sergeant, I gotta grab my flash drive.” Frays grumbled as she searched through her pockets and pouches. The woman rolled her eyes and frowned clearly upset with herself. “I’ve gotta get my papers emailed off. Be right back.”

  Frays turned on her heel and jogged back to the connex…there was a fffffffhhhhth noise that made her stop and look around. All of a sudden the world when white and all she could hear was a high pitched whine like a giant mosquito… Cold water snapped the world back to crystal clarity.

  It felt like she was stuck inside a giant washing machine. The current was tearing at her splashing water into her nose and mouth. Frays took a deep breath intermingled with water and dove under the surface trying to catch up to the fading taillights of the Humvee as it sank to the bottom. Her lungs ached and the water was so cold…

  A pallid face appeared out of the depths with groping hands catching her forearms. Frays released a scream in a cloud of bubbles into the frigid water as the creature pulled her towards its gaping maw. She screamed and sucked in a lungful of water, things going dark around the edges as the strength left her. I’m drowning… Frays realized, her thoughts becoming sluggish from lack of oxygen and thrashed almost half heartedly. Just as the creature was about to bury its jagged broken teeth into her throat she recognized the craggy features of her father’s face…