Outbreak: Long Road Back (14 page)

Haskins put a hand on the little girl’s shoulder. “Yeah, sweetie.” she said quietly, her lower lip trembling as she spoke. “Amy’s little baby’s in Heaven right now. Go on in and see Amy, alright?” She gave the little girl’s bottom a pat as the two kids went into the room. Lieutenant Haskins walked quickly down the hall to her office, locked the door and allowed herself the luxury of bawling her eyes out for almost half an hour.

After her initial outburst Frays had fallen asleep again. The shock and rage at everything in sight used up what little energy she had and it took everything she had to keep her eyes open. Frays mumbled something when Tommy came in and asked her if she was hungry. In minutes after that she was snoring away dead to the world.

The door creaked open and Frays lifted one exhausted eye lid. “Hi, Amy!” a quiet little voice called as Becca and Paulie crept nervously inside. Amy was in her tee shirt and there were all these plastic tubes in her arm. After a couple moments Amy smiled at the little ones and motioned for them to come and climb onto the bed with her.

“Ow, careful guys.” Amy said quietly as she let Paulie and his sister snuggle just under her armpit on either side. Paulie had brushed against the IV line in her right forearm making the catheter move. The little boy put a hand on Amy’s stomach and frowned sadly.

“I miss your baby.” he said quietly. The little thing in there was always wriggly and stuff and he wanted to see the little guy. Paulie hugged Amy and buried his face under her chin holding her as tight as he could.

“Don’t worry, Amy.” Becca said after a few minutes. Amy was running her hand through the little girl’s hair. She dug her little notepad out of her pocket and flipped it open to the picture she had drawn of her family. The little girl pointed to the little stick figures near the sun. “Mommy will take care of your baby for you. She’s in Heaven with God too.”

Amy kissed the top of Becca’s head. “What a little sweetheart.” she whispered and kissed her brother too. “What little sweeties.” Tears welled up in her eyes as she hugged the children tight. The kids hugged her back. “Geez you guys are strong. Is your dad here?”

“No the letenedant lady brought us over.” Becca said carefully. She scowled as she was pretty certain that she had mispronounced the word. “She said we could come see you so we did and now we’re here.”

“Thanks for coming to see me, guys.” Amy glanced at her watch and frowned. “Well poop. You guys are going to have to hurry if you want to make it back for lunch.” She smiled at Becca and Paulie as the two kids regretfully extracted themselves and climbed down.

Tommy poked his head in after the kids had left. “Feeling better?” he asked and started easing into the room. It had been quieter in the last few minutes but that did not mean everything was okay either. “Want some lunch?”

“I’d like it if you could give me my son back.” Frays spat at him. She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the medic as he slunk into the room. He took a couple steps towards the bed but she held up a hand. “Come one step closer and I’ll throw something at you.”

“C’mon…Frays…” Tommy said quietly holding his hands up as if he were surrendering. “Please…you haven’t eaten in two days. You gotta have something.” The medic tentatively took a step towards the woman hoping that she would come to her senses and calm down. “Frays…please ju-”

Frays dug for the metal bedpan underneath her and whipped it across the room with all the strength she could muster. It missed Tommy by scant inches and struck the wall behind him with a tremendous clatter and splattering the tile floor with a mixture of blood and urine. “Leave me alone!” she shouted loud enough that she was sure that they could hear her on the street outside. “Go on, get out of here!”

She glared at Tommy as he stooped to pick up the bedpan. “If I give this back you aren’t going to throw it anymore, okay?” he asked as he carefully approached. The medic was not sure what else Frays might have over there but he was in no mood to get hit in the face with it either. He sighed heavily as he crept forward.

“Look…I know you probably don’t want to hear it right now but we all tried our best to save your son.” he muttered as he lifted the sheet over the woman’s lower half, replaced the bedpan and put the blankets back. There were bandages around the woman’s privates that held a catheter in place so she could urinate. “We were all really looking forward to meeting your boy. Please just let us help you get better, okay? Then you can go yell at those kids or shoot somebody or whatever it is you do all day when you’re not in and out of here.”

Frays glared icily at the man. “Screw you.” she muttered under her breath. Frays found that her little outburst had taken a lot out of her as she looked up at the ceiling, not wanting to even make eye contact with the man. The simple act of slinging the bedpan across the room made sweat spring out on her brow and her breathing labored.

Tommy sighed and reached out for Amy’s hand but she drew it away. He frowned and stood there looking down at her for a moment before walking out of the room. “I’ll be back with a mop.” he said, doing his level best to not slam the door behind him.

She stared at the door boring holes in the wood with her eyes. Frays gave this up after a few minutes and wrapped her arms around her stomach and stared at her now empty womb.
Why’d you have to leave me, little guy?
she wondered absently as she ran her hand up and down the flaccid spongy area where her little boy had been just a few days ago.
I loved you so much and you’re gone, little man. Why did you have to go?

She wanted to cry but the tears ran up against a wall inside her head that held them inside. Frays sighed and now forced herself to try and get a couple tears out but nothing came. Amy sat there staring at her stomach. It was so quiet now and she just wanted to feel her little boy growing inside her again to feel his little feet stomping on her bladder just one more time…

Tommy came back in pushing a mop bucket that smelled strongly of bleach. He barely looked up at her has he wrung out the mop and washed the tiles all the while keeping one eye on Frays in case she decided to lob something else at him. The tired, defeated look in the woman’s eyes made his heart ache for her and he wanted to do anything that would make it go away. He thought about trying to get closer to her again but reconsidered the idea.

She fell asleep for a little while after Tommy left and woke up at some point in the afternoon. There was a knock at the door and Frays was surprised to see Becca and Paulie poke their heads into the room followed by their father. “Two times in one day?” she asked as the little ones climbed into bed with her. “Lucky me.”

“Are you gonna get betterer quick, Amy?” Becca asked as she smooched her friend’s cheek then settled back against the woman’s chest. “We all miss you at story time.” The little girl looked up at Frays and snuggled her shoulder into the woman’s armpit.

Lacey smiled triumphantly and produced a rolled up book from his cargo pocket. “So happens I got something right here.” he said and held the book up for them to see. Frays smiled a little and turned away when she saw that he had a copy of
Goodnight, Moon
. She sort of half chuckled when the man opened the book and started to read to them.

Frays’ chest hitched once or twice as the kids settled in to listen to their dad read them an extra story. All of a sudden she started taking deep breaths and held the children tight. She still could not really cry or anything but her eyes burned as she lay there with the kids listening to the storybook. Lacey stopped reading and took the woman’s hand, feeling his own eyes getting moist as he took in the scene. He loved his kids more than anything and he could not even imagine what she was going through right now.

She swallowed hard and tried to make a half hearted smile. “I’m starving.” Frays said at last as she took her hand away and glanced at her watch before hugging the children to her chest. “Could you see if they’re handing out dinner yet?” Paulie and Becca looked up at Amy then at their dad. She jostled the kids and grinned at the little ones. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep an eye on these two.”

Lacey nodded and ran his fingers through Paulie’s hair. “Sure thing.” he said and kissed the top of Becca’s head. His stomach growled. There was a rumor kicking around that they were going to crack open a case of T-Rats meatloaf for dinner tonight. “I’ll be right back. You guys keep an eye on Amy for me, alright?”

Doctor Haskins was waiting outside the door. “How is she?” she asked as she nodded towards the door. The woman had heard the ruckus her patient had raised a little while ago. Haskins glanced towards the door as if she considered going in. “She won’t let any of the medical staff near her.”

Lacey shook his head slowly. “She seems like she’s okay.” he muttered under his breath. The man glanced through the door and smiled at the sight of Frays cuddling with his children. Lacey shrugged. “Frays says she’s hungry so I was going to go try and find some food.”

Beth nodded thoughtfully. “Sure.” She pulled out her notepad and scribbled something down then handed it to the Marine. “Give this to the supply sergeant if they aren’t handing out dinner yet.”

“Thank you, Ma’am.” Lacey said as he took the note and stuffed it into his pocket. “I’ll be right back.” He turned and left, hurrying out of the medical center and towards the nearest tent where the rations were to be handed out. Lacey sighed heavily as he walked the enormity of the whole thing really starting to sink in. Despite their best efforts and traveling across a couple of states in the middle of a fucking zombie apocalypse Amy had lost her son. The entire journey was now just one big fucking waste of time. And to make matters worse those brutal assholes had kicked the shit out of Amy’s little brother. Then again, if Amy had gone into labor back at her family’s hunting cabin she likely would have died too since none of them would have been able to stop the woman from bleeding out…

To his surprise he saw Rodriguez and a couple other Marines dumping cases of shelf stable milk into a big green plastic cooler near the entrance of the tents. She chucked the piece of cardboard in her hand into a trash can and came towards him at a fast hobble. “How is she?” Rodriguez asked when she came within a few feet of him. The look on his face gave the woman all the answers she needed. She swallowed hard and gave him an awkward sort of half hug before leading him into the tent. “C’mon man. Let’s get you guys some dinner.”

Rodriguez looked longingly after the man after she sent him off with trays of food for himself, his children and Frays. She sighed heavily and turned back towards the interior of the tent. Rushing off the other day had put her pretty deeply in shit with Sergeant Wilcox. There was endless hours of spooning portions of canned corn onto Styrofoam trays…her mind started to wander a little bit as she doled out the soggy vegetables.

Frannie found herself sort of regretting ever coming here. Sure it was a little scary being on their own but on the other hand it was not like some unrelenting fucktard was giving her shit because her friend’s baby died. If it was not time to keep watch at night or make dinner or whatever then the day was more or less hers to do as she pleased with.

A little of the corn dribbled off the tray when she tried to hand it to a Navy guy. She caught something that sounded like a mumbled insult over the din of the people crowding through the tent and all of a sudden a white hot rage made her vision flash and spark with little white and red lights.

Rodriguez lashed out with the serving spoon smacking the Squid upside the head and sending his cap flying across the tent. The man tried to lunge across the serving table at her but the men on either side caught hold of him. Thames put himself between Rodriguez and the struggling cursing Squid. He caught hold of Rodriguez and physically carried the smaller woman out of the tent leaving a trail of cusswords in their wake.

Once they were outside and well away from the tent Thames set Rodriguez down. “What the fuck was that?” he demanded, breathing heavily. It had taken just about everything he had to keep a grip on the woman. Rodriguez sank onto one of the green coolers and hid her face in her hands. “Well?”

It took him a moment to realize that Rodriguez was shaking. “Shut the fuck up, Thames.” she muttered quietly running trembling hands over her face, tracing the scars on her cheek. She pulled off her Kevlar and set it on the cooler next to her. “Shut. The. Fuck. Up.”

Thames stood over her making a strange face. He was not quite sure what to do. He liked the woman but it was obvious that she was losing her shit. Sergeant Wilcox came out of the FDP and looked around then strode up to them like an oncoming storm.

“What the shit, Rodriguez?!” Sergeant Wilcox demanded as he glowered down at the woman seated on the cooler. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Wilcox was a heavy set man in his mid thirties with a thick bull neck and a pretty pronounced beer gut. “Well? You gonna fuckin’ answer me or what?”

“I don’t fuckin’ know.” Rodriguez muttered into the palms of her hands. It felt like there was a whirlwind tearing around inside her head and she felt like she was going to throw up. “I dunno.” She was breathing heavily and a couple tears tracked down her cheeks, running through down the channels created by the old shrapnel wounds.

Thames looked at Sergeant Wilcox and shrugged. “Should I take her to the medics, Sergeant?” he asked, turning his gaze towards the woman. This was a sort of confusing thing to him. He did not quite know how to handle a psych casualty or whatever you call them. In Iraq he had handled his share of ‘real’ casualties -bullet wounds, shrapnel wounds, etcetera- but he had never seen somebody’s mind breaking. It left him a little confused and frustrated because his friend was obviously hurting but he had no idea how to go about fixing it.