Outbreak: Long Road Back (11 page)

Now the walkie talkie clipped to the wall of the nest was coming alive with sentries reporting contacts on their side of the FOB. The towers on either side were firing and it took everything Frays had to maintain her focus on her sector of fire. There had to be almost two hundred now just in her little part of the perimeter. Her carbine ran dry for the third time and she dropped the empty magazine, slapped a fresh one in and smacked the bolt release with the palm of her hand. “I’m down to three mags. Tell ‘em we need a resupply!” Frays shouted and hoped that the squid with the radio could hear her. By now the ringing in her ears had settled into a constant high pitched whine.

The floor of the nest was now covered with expended brass and empty magazines. Strangely, Frays really did not start to get concerned until she heard the distinctive chattering rip of an M249 SAW nearby. From the sound of the radio traffic it did not seem like the walls had been breached or overtopped anywhere so why was somebody ripping off rounds from a belt fed machinegun?

The man who had been spotting tossed a grenade out at a knot of infected headed towards them. The explosion knocked a handful of them down and sent chunks of innards flying through the air. A shockwave slapped the left side of Frays’ face and shook the watchtower hard enough to make her wonder if it was going to fall over for a second. A fog of smoke hugged the ground in front of the tower to their left indicating that they had detonated the Claymore mines at their position.

A truck pulled up behind the nest and a bunch of men jumped out. Two ran over and climbed up the ladder, sliding a few ammo cans across the floor towards the defenders. Frays put the man who had been spotting to work reloading magazines as she stuffed a HE round into her M203, flipped up the sights and took aim at a mass of infected maybe two hundred meters in front of her position.

The grenade thumped out of the launcher and sailed through the air before detonating about ten feet off the ground smashing several infected to the earth. Frays reloaded and sent another grenade out to similar effect. The numbers were thinning out but there were still dozens and dozens wandering around and pressing against the walls.

Finally it looked like the defenders were starting to whittle down the numbers of infected to the point where it no longer looked like there was a danger of them surmounting the walls. The sentries took their time dropping the stragglers however there still seemed to be some too close to the barrier for the people in the watchtowers to easily get a shot at. Frays sat down on the floor of the watchtower and leaned back against the wall her breath coming in panicky little gasps. She noticed that her hands were shaking so she hid them from the squids by stuffing them into her armpits. “See if they’re going to send some QRF out to mop up or whatever.” Frays ordered, her eyes fixing on a single wispy little cloud as it drifted across the blue sky. She started to feel strange…kind of detached, like the entire engagement had just been some horrible dream. “Provide overwatch for them.”

One of the Navy guys yammered into the radio then tapped his friend on the shoulder and motioned towards Frays. “Ma’am?” he asked cautiously as he leaned in close to Frays “Are you okay? Don’t worry. Medivac’s on the way.” The man swallowed hard and tried to look reassuring as he took Frays’ hand and held it. “You’re gonna be fine. Don’t worry.”

It took her a few seconds to realize what had the man so upset. There was this dampness around her groin that she made her think that maybe she had wet herself out of fear at first. However it did not
smell
like she had peed in her pants…not that she could really smell anything over the burned cordite, smoke and atomized zombie in the air. She touched her groin and stared wide eyed at the sticky dark red blood on her fingertips.

“Ma’am? Can you put this…um…down there for me?” the Navy man handed her a roll of gauze the size of a child’s fist. “We’re just gonna try and get the bleeding stopped. Just hold on, ma’am. The corpsman are coming.”

Frays nodded and unbuckled her LCS then loosened her belt. “Yeah. Yeah, okay.” she said quietly. She was amazed by how calm she sounded as she stuffed the gauze inside her then tightened the belt back down tight to hold it in place. Her thoughts started to race despite the Navy guy’s best efforts to keep her calm
Oh God please no not my baby not my special little guy no please God whywhywhypleasenopleaseGodsavemybaby!

She felt like she was sinking and it took her a moment to realize that they were lowering the lift. “Amy? Amy are you okay?” a familiar voice called out. Frays smiled a little bit when she recognized who it was. Lacey’s voice was all strained and anxious sounding. “Amy what’s going on?”

A couple people came into the nest. “Hey, Frays.” Tommy said and smiled at her as he knelt and looked at the woman. “How you doin’?” He somehow managed to keep the smile on his face but he started to get really worried as examined the woman. Her clammy skin was pale and there was a glassy look in her dark brown eyes. The medic wiped the sweat off of her brow. “Handed those things their asses, huh?”

Frays smiled weakly. “We gotta stop meeting like this.” she joked as she tried to stand up. Everything got all wobbly for a second there and Tommy put a hand on her shoulder. “My baby…”

Tommy patted Frays on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll get you over to see Doc Haskins lickety split.” There was a good bit of blood soaking the groin of the crotch of the woman’s pants. He fought back the pity and fear he felt for this woman as he helped her lie down on the floor. “Mike, get the stretcher in here. Call the Aid Station and let them know we’ll be there in two minutes.”

Frays squinted in the sun when Mike and Tommy carried her out into the light. Somebody came up and took her hand. “Amy, are you okay?” Lacey asked as he walked alongside the stretcher. Amy smiled and squeezed his hand. The poor guy looked so worried and scared. His eyes were so big it almost struck her as funny.

The two medics loaded Frays onto the back of a battered old four by four pickup and tied the stretcher down. Mike scrambled into the cab and Tommy leaped into the bed to sit beside Frays. Lacey practically dove into the truck beside her as Mike started pulling away. The Marine took her hand again and rested his cheek against her shoulder as he sat in the bed of the truck.

Frays was bustled inside the Aid Station as soon as they arrived. Lieutenant Haskins met them in the lobby, the woman hustling alongside as Mike and Tommy carried her towards the exam rooms. She elbowed Lacey out of the way. “Sorry, Private.” Haskins said without looking up as she checked Frays’ vitals “You’ll have to wait out here for right now. I promise I’ll let you in to see her as soon as she’s up to it, okay?”

Lacey stood in the lobby shaking and sweating as he took off his helmet. He tossed it into the nearest chair and ran his fingers through his hair. There was a brief moment where he thought he was going to throw up so he sat down next to his Kevlar and put his head between his knees taking a few deep breaths.

“What’s going on with Amy?” Carl asked. He stood in the doorway they had just taken his sister through. The man glanced down the hall and looked back at Adam. His face was still black and blue but the swelling was pretty much gone. “Is she okay?”

“The perimeter got attacked.” Lacey said quietly as the man stumbled towards him and sat down. “It looked like she was bleeding. They didn’t get over the wall so don’t worry it’s not…that…” Lacey took a drink of water from his camelbak and ran his hand over his head again. “I don’t know what’s going on but she’s conscious and was talking when we got her here.”

“Thank God.” Carl mumbled under his breath. He saw how pale and sweaty his sister’s face was in the two seconds that he had actually seen her before the doctor rushed her off. “What about the kid? Is he okay?”

Lacey sighed and looked uncomfortably at the man. “I dunno, dude.” he said finally. He shuddered at the thought of the blood on Amy’s crotch. His stomach boiled and churned. Was she going into labor early? She was only about five months along…no way the baby would make it. Not like it was now. Maybe if everything was normal and they could put the kid in an incubator or whatever…

Rodriguez came limping in a few minutes later. “What the fuck’s going on?” the woman demanded. Lacey looked a little puzzled by the woman’s presence as she got closer. Rodriguez raised an eyebrow at him. “It was all over the goddamn net. There’s only one fuckin’ pregnant chick here.”

Carl went across the room and held Frannie tight. “She’s in with the doctor right now.” he said quietly as he breathed in the smell of her hair. A little part of him liked it when she put the smooth side of her face against his neck. “She was bleeding a lot.”

Short angry puffs of breath tickled his throat. “How much is ‘a lot’?” Rodriguez demanded and squeezed him tight as she wrestled with the anger that was starting to make her head start to throb. Rodriguez closed her eyes and continued holding her man. She smiled ever so slightly at the thought. Her man. “She’s gonna be okay, Carl. Don’t worry. Doc Haskins knows her shit.”

Time turned to winter molasses. Lacey sat there staring at the digital clock mounted on the wall next to the hallway leading to the exam rooms. Because of the power outages it blinked 12:00 over and over again. Rodriguez and Carl sat next to him clinging to one another. He sighed heavily and was trying not to think of his grandparents. He had sat in a room like this waiting for word then too…and they died on him.
C’mon, God…
Lacey thought. He felt like he wanted to cry.
Let everything be okay. It’s all my fault. She doesn’t deserve this. C’mon…please let Amy and the baby be okay…

It was hard to tell how long they had all been waiting. It seemed like hours until Lieutenant Haskins left an exam room down the hall and walked toward the foyer. Carl started breathing heavily and squeezed Frannie hand tight. There was this look on the woman’s face that made him think that she did not have much in the way of good news.

**********

Nausea rolled in ever greater and greater waves as the ten of them walked shoulder to shoulder across the area where the zombies had tried to rush the wall. There were shattered bits of bodies everywhere and small fires burned where the grass had ignited. The squad’s job was to do a police call of the area and deactivate any crippled infected so that the disposal crew could come in, pile them up and cremate the remains. PFC Joanne Stark had no idea if the virus or bacteria or whatever could get into the ground water but huge heaps of decomposing bodies were a definite health hazard.

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.”