Outbreak: Boston (7 page)

She found Major Grossman, a grandfatherly man of perhaps fifty five, crouched over a handful of laptop computers. Information crawled across the screen, reflecting on the man's thick glasses. “Senior Airman Frays reporting, sir.” she said, giving the man a quick salute.

The older man barely acknowledged her, his attention fully focused on the screens in

front of him. “Be quick, Frays.” he said quietly, his hands tap dancing from computer to computer. “I’m busy. What’s your status?”

“I think Sergeant Emery is dead.” Amy said as she locked her trembling hands behind her back and stood at ease. “Airman Jacobson drowned when our Humvee got knocked into the river. The civilians in the quarantine zone overran Checkpoint Twelve.”

“I know, Frays.” he muttered. His hands continued their intricate dance, occasionally clicking a mouse here or there. “Who do you have with you?”

“I found a Marine Private, a Combat Engineer named Lacey and a civilian EMT named Teeling, sir.” Amy said quickly. The man was obviously busy and she did not want to disturb him any more than she already had. “They're getting a Five Ton we found gassed up and resupplying. Where do you need us, sir?”

The man paused in what he was doing. He removed his cap and rubbed the palm of his hand against his
silver brush cut. “Things are pretty bad out there.” he said, sparing the young woman a rueful smile.

Amy's heart sank. “How bad is bad, sir?”

Major Grossman ignored the airman's question. “Go see Chief Walters from Alpha Flight.” he said slowly as he turned his attention back to the monitors. “He’ll give you an assignment.”

“Yes, sir.” Amy said quickly, coming to attention and snapping a salute.

The old man smiled and returned the gesture. “You're a good kid, Frays.” he said as he started tapping again at his computers. “I'll do something for you and that jarhead you got working for you once this all blows over.”

Amy left the Emergency Operations Center and swiped an ammo can filled with loaded M
4 magazines from supply before hurrying back to the medics. Luckily, Lacey pulled the Five Ton up to the medic's tent as she walked up and Eamon was just coming out of the big canvas tent. “Lacey, get down here.” Amy said, waving for the man to join them on the ground.

The Marine threw open the door and hopped down. “What's up?” He looked nervous, excited and scared all at the same time. “We gonna see some action?”

Amy snorted. She had seen enough action for today but they still had a job to do. “Dunno.” she said as she unfolded her map and spread it on the ground to show the two men. “This circle is us.” Frays traced a circle with her index finger. “This dot is Checkpoint Eight and they need reinforcements. We've been tapped.” She gave the EMT a small, apologetic smile. “Sorry, buddy but it looks like you've been drafted.” Frays pointed at the little red grease dot an inch and a half away from the circle. She pointed to Eamon. “I want you up front with me, same as before. Lacey, you're in the back. I'm gonna be haulin' so hold on tight. When we stop I want everybody locked and loaded, ready to kick butt, right?”

Amy tore through the streets, the big Detroit diesel engine belching gray smoke as she swerved to avoid a stalled car or hopped the curb and drove on the sidewalk. Frays struck a mailbox, sending a flurry of letters all over the place. Eamon whooped and pounded on the dashboard, clearly enjoying the ride as he shouted directions over the roar of the vehicle. The heavy ripping thump of a heavy machine gun played back beat to the popping noises of an M4 being fired on full auto as they got closer to the checkpoint.

The Five Ton lurched to a halt, its air brakes squealing like a stuck pig when Frays smashed the pedal to the floor of the cab. “Come on!” she cried as she opened her door and jumped to the ground. The three of them ran to a makeshift barricade formed by two stalled vehicles placed end to end across the bridge. The two soldiers manning the checkpoint parked their Humvee perpendicular to the barricade, one of them firing the vehicle's crew served weapon into a crowd of people and a small group of dogs while the other fired his M4.

Amy was horrified by the sight until she took a second look at the people attempting to cross the bridge. It was obvious that they were diseased and several of them sported what should have been fatal wounds though they were still on their feet. The dogs yelped, barking as they charged forward. Amy flicked the selector lever on her M4 to all the way around and snapped the weapon to her shoulder, triggering a burst.

The lead group of dogs collapsed, riddled with bullets as Amy advanced to the barricade. Their weapons joined the chorus, though their fire seemed to have little effect. The crowd moaned and groaned as they stumbled forward. Amy fired her weapon dry, pushed the M4's magazine release and reloaded with a fresh magazine from her LCS then slapped the weapon’s bolt catch with the palm of her hand. Still the infected kept coming, the closest of them now less than ten meters from the barricade.

“Fall back!” she ordered, hoping the others could hear her over the ringing in their ears. “Fall back!” The barricade's original defenders stayed in place, firing wildly into the infected. Frays ripped off a burst, hurried over to the Humvee and banged on the roof with
her non-firing hand. “Fall back! Would you fall back already?!”

The infected still closed the distance in spite of the heavy .50 caliber rounds chewing the blacktop to bits all around them. Lacey ran to the edge of the river and leaped into the water, hugging his demo kit to his chest. “Oh, Jesus Christ! Lacey!” Amy screamed, spraying the crowd on the bridge before sprinting over to try and see what the Marine was doing. “Lacey! Stop!”

Lacey swam to the nearest pylon supporting the bridge and set about strapping a large brick of plastic explosive to the grimy cement pillar. Amy saw what the man was doing and ran to the Five Ton. “Cover me, Eamon!” she shouted as she leaped up onto the cab, frantically digging through the vehicle's contents. “There's gotta be a rope or something in here somewhere!”

Eamon's weapon boomed. “What?”

“He's gonna blow the bridge!” Amy shouted over her shoulder. “Crap!” Frays jumped down and sprinted to the back of the truck, madly climbed into the bed and started searching. By some miracle she found a large ball of discarded 550 cord forgotten under one of the vehicle's bench seats.

A handful of the infected were now a stone's throw from the barricade. Amy raised her weapon to fire, but the two soldiers were in the way. She shook her head angrily and ran to the water's edge, tying a loop in one end of the thin cord as she went. Lacey had finished with whatever he was doing, which was good because some of the infected took notice. They walked off the edge of the bridge and fell into the water,
where they promptly seemed to sink to the bottom.

Frays threw the loop down to the Marine. “Put it around you under your arms!” she shouted while pantomiming the action. When he was secure in the loop Amy ran back to the truck and tied the other end around the front bumper of the Five Ton.

“Eamon!” Amy shouted to the EMT “Get in the truck and back it up when I say!” Thankfully, the man heard her and was scrambling into the driver's seat by the time she returned to the water's edge.

Amy wrapped the 550 cord around the Five Ton's bumper and tied it off as fast as she could and ran back to where the Marine was frantically trying to scramble up the cement retaining wall.
Frays picked up the 550 cord in one hand to keep it from fraying while waving for Eamon to back up the Five Ton. The vehicle's diesel engine roared as the EMT slammed it's transmission into reverse and smashed the accelerator to the floor. Lacey flew over the edge of the retaining wall like a very surprised camo clad jack in the box. Amy screamed as the thin cord quickly cut through her gloves and into her hands, leaving an angry red mark on her palms.

Amy barely dodged the amazing flying Marine and chased him down, hissing and flapping her hands as she went. Eamon dragged the man along the ground before bringing the Five Ton to a stop. Amy stooped and helped Lacey loosen the thin rope around his chest. The guns of the two soldiers on the bridge started to fall silent.

Frays looked on in horror as the infected on the bridge closed on the barricade, started to climb over it. The soldier manning the .50 cal started swinging the red hot barrel of the machine gun back and forth, attempting to ward them off as two of them dragged the other soldier down.

“Oh, God!” Amy whispered, bile tickling the back of her throat. The two men screamed as Frays snapped her M4 up to her shoulder and ripped off a burst at the infected crawling over one another to get at the soldier sticking out of the Humvee's cupola. Eamon's weapon boomed behind her, taking the head clean off one of the infected attacking the soldier on the ground.

The infected lay strewn like discarded puppets across the bridge, on the barricade, across the hood and roof of the Humvee. It seemed eerily silent after the gunfire, the terror. Amy slowly lowered her rifle and flicked its safety back on. All at once she felt like someone had tried to pull the blacktop out from under her feet as the concussion of the blast smashed into her chest. A cloud of dust and water vapor flew in the air, the blacktop cracked as the bridge sank into the river.

Frays spared a glance at Lacey and said “That was amazing, but please don’t do
anything that again. Your wife seems like a really nice lady and I’d hate to have to explain to her why I let her husband blow himself to tiny little bits.”

Eamon wandered over, his ears ringing like a church bell roundhouse kicked by Chuck Norris. “I guess this checkpoint's closed, huh?” he shouted, staring at the destruction before him. Amy snorted and walked over to the barricade. She hauled the soldier out of the Humvee and laid the man on the ground next to his companion.

The three of them gathered around, looking at the corpses. Amy thought she should say something but all the words seemed to catch up in the back of her throat and not want to come out. One of the corpses made a choking noise as its foot twitched. When the one on the right started reaching for her leg Frays made the sign of the cross, drew her M9 and put a single 9mm round in each of their temples.

“Right.” Frays muttered unhappily as she collected the dead soldiers' dog tags. “Eamon, could you be so kind as to collect up whatever gear these two have left?” she looked at Lacey “And could you back that Humvee away from the edge, say about twenty feet or so and pull some overwatch? Thanks, guys.” Amy stuffed the little pieces of metal into her pocket and moved towards the Five Ton. “I'm gonna report in then I'll be right back to give you a hand.”

Lacey shivered as he climbed into the driver’s seat of the Humvee and started the engine. He could make out dozens of figures across the river shambling towards the edge of the bridge, moaning like tortured souls as they walked mindlessly into the river.

Chapter Two

13 May 2011 12:11 hours, Checkpoint Eight, Memorial Drive Bridge Boston, Massachusetts

Amy pulled herself up into the cab of the Five Ton. As soon as she sat down and her ears stopped ringing a little, Frays became aware that the vehicle's radio was screaming at her in a hundred different panicked voices:

“-Six! Checkpoint Four is a free fire zone, re-fr-one.”

“We need reinforcements, over!”

“Where's that air support!? We need CAS time: NOW!”

“Did an-dy fire ison.”

Amy took a deep breath and keyed the radio's handset. “Break, break, break. This is Bravo Three Four at Checkpoint Eight.” she said quickly, sparing a glance all around “Combat Engineer has blown the bridge. Checkpoint Eight is closed. Repeat, Checkpoint Eight is closed. Moving to the supply point to resupply Checkpoint Ten time: now.”

“This is Liberty Six.” said a rough voice. “Good job, Bravo Three Four.”

Now that her hearing was starting to come back, she could hear all manner of gunfire and explosions a little to her west, including the mechanical
WHIRRRRRRP
of A10s working and the familiarly terrifying
CRUMPCRUMPCRUMP
of mortar rounds detonating. Frays took a moment to wipe the frightened look off her face before jumping back down to the street and taking off towards the others at a run. Eamon and Lacey looked both looked like they were scared out of their minds.