Outbreak: Long Road Back (27 page)

“Textbooks?” Stark asked with more than a hint of curiosity in her voice. This was the longest conversation she had ever had with the mysterious Sergeant Frays and she was not about to let it drop if she could help it. Stark knew there were some rumors going around about Frays and it would be cool if she could find out the truth about them.

“I was trying to finish up my Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering.” Frays said as she glanced at her cigarette. There were only a few drags left. After the conversation with Carl she kind of did not want to talk about much of anything right now. “Stupid contractor in Iraq blew up my homework. I was busting my butt to try and get caught up again before all this happened. You know they weren’t going to give me an extension on my thesis presentation?”

“What a bunch of fuckin’ jerks.” Stark said quietly with a small grin. She gave very serious thought to lighting up another cigarette. There was still almost an entire pack in her shirt pocket. “I only ever got an Associate’s Degree. Couldn’t afford to stay in school much longer anyways. VA kept jerking me around with my GI Bill.”

“I know.” Frays said with a small shake of her head. “My student loan bill looked more like the GDP of a small Caribbean nation. Turns out Ivy League schools aren’t cheap.”

The two of them shared a laugh. “Where did you go to school?” Stark asked. The mention of Ivy League schools set the woman’s curiosity into overdrive. Never mind that Sergeant Frays was probably a few years younger than she was how on Earth did she manage to get into such a prestigious school?
“I was going to MIT.” Sergeant Frays muttered as she field stripped her cigarette butt and dropped it into her cargo pocket. “I probably would be graduating about now if my deployment didn’t screw everything up.” A strange, wistful expression came and went from the woman’s face and she scratched the scar on her cheek for a moment. “Anyways, what about you? What’s your degree in?”
Stark grimaced. “Nothing too useful. Business Administration.” She shrugged and flicked ash off of her cigarette. “I was a secretary.”

“Don’t sell yourself short. You learned how to run an office and stuff, right?” Frays said quickly. In the aftermath of the fight with the contractors and the infected the place was a shambles. Lots of key personnel were either dead or had run off some place. “I think I’ve got the right place to put you. They could use somebody who knows what they’re doing running things up there in the Med Center.”

Stark looked surprised. “No, Sergeant.” she said quickly. The woman frowned at the brace wrapped around her forearm. “I’ll be alright in a couple weeks. Three at the most.” She waved in the direction of the Med Center. “Ask anybody there.”

“It’s not that, Private.” Frays said a little sharper than she meant to. “You’ll do more good there. They only have four people with any medical training and none of them know how to organize anything. You’ll save way more people there than you ever could snatching cans of beans and bars of soap with us.”

“Fine. Alright, Sergeant.” The other woman’s argument did make a lot of sense. It did not mean that she had to like it however. “We left your room just like you left it. I think I’m going to go lay down for awhile.”

Frays watched her subordinate walk away and shook her head.
Freakin’ batting a thousand today, Aim…
she thought as she stuffed the balled up cigarette butt in her hand into her cargo pocket. She rejoined Rodriguez and the kids where she set about putting her gear back on. “Lookin’ good, kiddo.” Frays said with a small grin at the boy.

Paulie had a sour look on his face as Rodriguez clipped the boy’s hair. He blew some of it off of his lip and smiled slightly. “Done yet?” the boy asked the woman snipping and clipping behind him.

“Not yet, buddy.” Rodriguez said quietly as she dusted off the boy’s shoulders. “Only a little longer. Quit fidgeting and it’ll go faster.”

After Paulie’s haircut was finished and Rodriguez gave both the kids a couple pieces of hard candy apiece Frays took them inside so she could wash the hair clippings off of him. Becca grinned mischievously when Frays’ back was turned and she was distracted with her brother. The little girl grabbed a cup of water from the pail they had gotten to wash with and dumped it on Frays’ head.

Frays jumped up with a cry and turned around grinning. “I’m gonna get you for that!” she said as she chased Becca. Paulie stood and, in turn, started after Frays. Frays quickly caught up with the little girl and hoisted her into the air, tickling Becca until she screamed with laughter. The high pitched noise coming out of the girl made Frays’ jaw clench involuntarily. She lowered the girl to the ground and dried the back of her neck with her shirtsleeve. The woman looked at the palms of her trembling hands as she tried to calm herself down.

Paulie caught up with the other two and grabbed Frays’ leg. “Tag! You’re it!” he called then ran away giggling as he jumped down the trailer’s stairs and scooted outside. Becca took off after her brother with Frays close on the children’s heels. The three of them horsed around between the two metal buildings for a little while before Frays finally had to sit down.

“I gotta take a break, kiddos.” Frays muttered as she plopped down onto the stairs of the nearest trailer. She had almost forgotten how not fun running around in body armor could be. The woman wiped her forehead and smiled at the kids.

The little ones scampered up to her and each caught one of her hands. “C’mon! Play with us, Amy!” Becca implored as she tried to pull the woman to her feet. The little girl looked thoughtful for a few seconds. “Storytime! Amy, can we do storytime now?”

Frays frowned slightly. Where was she supposed to find anything the kids would want to listen to her read? The few books they had went up with the Resettlement Center. Eventually she relented and let the little ones pull her to her feet. “Alright, kiddos.” Frays sighed as the kids pulled her along “Let’s see if we can find something to read.”

Frays could not believe her luck as the three of them sat under a tree near the TOC. Of all the things they had found in the mercs’ possessions somebody had found this battered leather bound copy of The Bible. Paulie and Becca had fallen asleep fairly quickly so she sat there absently stroking Paulie’s shoulder as the little boy used her thigh as a pillow while she read. She thought about what Becca had tried to say a little while ago. And…she realized something. She loved these sweet little bitty guys. They needed her and…she…she needed them too.

A shadow caught Frays’ eye. Lacey stood about ten feet away grinning at the three of them as tiptoed over and sat down. “Hey” he whispered as he reached out and put his hand on top of Frays’. “You guys having a good day? Nice haircut by the way.”

Frays beamed back at him as she put aside her book. “Thanks.” She gritted her teeth when Becca stirred and shifted then stuck her little thumb into her mouth before settling back down. The two of them just sat there watching the kids for a few moments listening to the breeze in the leaves overhead. “So…I’ve been thinking…” Frays began nervously.

“Yeah? That’s never a good sign.” Lacey said drawing an anxious little chuckle out of Frays. She scowled as if trying to figure out how to put whatever she was thinking about into words. Or she was not sure of his reaction. “Uh oh. This looks serious.”

“Wh…I…I’d like you and the kids to move in with me.” Frays said quietly. She rubbed Becca’s shoulder and smiled wanly at the sleeping little girl. “It…it’ll be a tight fit but we can make it work. We can find some cots for the kids and set them up in the corner. None of us really have a lot of stuff so it’s not like we’ll need a lot of closets or anything.”

Lacey frowned slightly as he ran his fingers lightly over the back of Frays’ hand. He sighed heavily and looked around. “Is it alright if I think about it for a little while?” he asked. Lacey scooted over a little and put an arm around Frays. “I mean…it’s kind of a big step.”

Paulie sat up a little bit and rubbed his eyes. “Why do you want us to live with you, Amy?” the boy asked as he rolled onto his side and looked up at the grownups. He knew that Amy and Daddy liked each other sort of like how Daddy liked Mommy.
Frays smiled and ran her fingers through the boy’s hair. “I like you guys and I’d like to see you more often. Would you like that?” she asked softly. The little boy put his hand on Frays’ and squeezed her fingers.

“I guess it would be okay.” Paulie said after a few moments. He liked Amy and she was starting to be more fun to be around. She had stopped acting so weird around him all the time…and Amy was a real good tag player. She was almost as comfy as Frannie but not quite. Amy’s leg made a good pillow though and she smelled nice. Plus she
did
know how to make pancakes.

Frays smiled at the little boy. “Don’t worry, kiddo.” she said quietly as she continued running her fingers through the boy’s hair. “It’ll make doing storytime and stuff like that easier.” It really did not occur to her that, in the absence of the caretakers, she might have to take over babysitting duty for Lacey once in awhile. Not that she minded…
“Do we has to read the bibble?” Becca asked groggily as she sat up and scooted against her father’s side. “God’s mean.”

Frays looked crestfallen for a moment. “What do you mean, sweetie?” she asked.

“God took Mommy away to heaven.” The little girl said as she snuggled against her father’s side. “God took your Mommy and Daddy too.” Becca frowned at the book next to Frays’ leg. “God took eberybody only he didn’t take bunches of them all the way and they hurt people. He’s mean.”

Frays looked at the little girl for a long moment as she tried to think of something to say. “God loves everybody.” she began. Truth be told she had found herself wrestling with the same sort of questions for over a year. Why did God spare her in Iraq? She should have died on that bridge in Boston months ago and all the other times since. “It’s…it’s just that sometimes bad things happen to good people. Or bad things happen to bad people. But when bad things happen to good people God takes them to live with him in Heaven forever. Understand?”

Becca shrugged. “But why didn’t God let Mommy stay with us?” She hugged her father and buried her face in his chest. “Daddy? Why?”

Lacey looked helplessly at Frays as he held his daughter. Frays shrugged and scooted closer, the two of them holding the children. “I dunno sweetie.” he muttered into the little girl’s hair. “I miss her too. We all do. But we’re together and Daddy and Amy and Uncle Carl and Aunt Frannie and everybody here we’re gonna do everything we can to keep you guys safe and sound.”

Paulie scowled at his father. “Nuh uh.” The little boy pushed away from Frays and stomped away with his little hands balled into fists. Frays glanced at Lacey then got up and followed after him. It only took her a few seconds to catch up to the little boy and sweep him up into a big bear hug.

“C’mere, buddy.” she whispered into his ear. Frays gave the little boy’s cheek a peck and held him tight as she rocked him from side to side. Paulie’s body felt like it was made out of wood in her arms. The woman’s lower lip trembled as she continued to rock the boy and hold him tight as his tears started to moisten her neck. A snatch of half remembered song occurred to her that Dad would sing to her when she was little. “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are grey…you’ll never know dear how much I love you… Please…please don’t take my sunshine away…”

She walked around with him for a little longer murmuring quietly into Paulie’s ear before meandering back towards Lacey and Becca. “I think its naptime.” Frays said quietly as she gently shifted Paulie’s weight around. The little guy was starting to fall back asleep again and it was kind of hard to keep hold of him and her M4 at the same time.

The two of them took the kids up the stairs towards Frays’ room. She smiled and nodded to a man that she recognized but could not think of his name off of the top of her head and his nametape was covered by his body armor. It was hot and sticky in the former hotel even though everyone had their windows open as the building was meant to have its central air conditioning running. “I shouldn’t have said anything.” Frays said over her shoulder once they were alone in the stairwell and hiking up to the third floor where her room was “I didn’t mean to upset the kids, man.”

Becca seemed to be half awake in his arms. “It’s alright.” Lacey grumbled under his breath. He was sweating like a pig. He had to admit that he did like the view…being a couple steps behind Frays as she led the way inside put her butt at just about eye level. “I guess it’s good that we’re finally talking about this stuff.”

Frays walked into the hall and down to room 312 which was four doors down on the right from the doorway they had just come through. She watched Lacey out of the corner of her eye gauging the man’s reaction as he came into the room and looked around. There was the small bathroom immediately to their right though it was now darkened as the lights did not function with the closet opposite that. There was nothing in there except a couple hangers.

Frays put Paulie down on the bed and smiled at the boy as he squirmed into a more comfortable position on the bed. She sighed heavily as she watched the children on the dingy and stained bedding. It was so long since the poor things had slept on an actual bed… Frays smiled at Lacey then raised her arms to shoulder level and let them fall to her sides. “Whelp! What do you think?”

Lacey regarded the little room. It was the standard low budget hotel room: threadbare carpet on the floor, stuffed chairs and small table in the corner, pressboard dresser opposite the bed with a defunct blank television screen sitting on top of it. The nightstand next to the head of the bed had a chintzy clock radio perched on top which was just as dead as the television on the other side of the room. The slight breeze coming in through the open windows did little save push the hot, fetid air around a little. Frays was right: it would be tight but they probably could make it work if they got rid of some of the furniture… “Moving up in the world, huh?” he asked nudging the woman with an elbow.