Outbreak: Long Road Back (9 page)

“Hi Amy!” Becca shouted and smooched her friend on the cheek then wrapped her arms carefully around Amy’s neck. Amy had an owwie on her neck so she knew to be careful about not hurting her.

“Oh! Hi, sweetie!” Frays said quietly as she squeezed the little girl then lowered her carefully to the ground. She knelt, scooped up the boy and gave him a great big hug as well even though it made her heart beat like a jackhammer in her chest. “How’s my favorite kids doing?”

“Freddie came and played with us after you left.” Paulie said and looked up at Amy’s face there was something strange in how she looked at Daddy and there was something different about how Daddy looked at her too. The little boy backed away and stood protectively between Daddy and Amy.

“Very cool.” Frays said and tousled the boy’s hair. She found that she was glad that she had missed the dog’s ‘visit’ to the children as she was scared to death of dogs. She had kind of gotten used to the bony old black lab while he had stayed with them at her parents’ camp but still she could not help but be more than a little terrified every time the thing tried to get her to pet him or whatever.

“What time are you done tonight, Frays?” Lacey asked as the line moved forward a little. The man herded his children in front of him towards the tent flap. “You could come by later if you wanted. You guys don’t want to see Amy do you?” He grinned, put a hand on each of his children and gently shook them.

Frays felt her gut churn. “We gotta eat and take the trainees back over to the barracks.” she said quietly as she glanced at the line ahead of her then the toes of her boots. “I was pretty much planning on hitting the sack after we get done.”

Becca caught Amy’s hands in both of hers and got a tight grip on her index fingers. “Please, Amy?” the little girl pleaded. She missed Amy even if she was a little weird sometimes. Amy was her friend and took good care of them all after the Bad People came. Plus whenever she was around Daddy stopped looking so sad in his eyes and she liked it when Amy read with her. “Come and play with us!”

Frays glanced up at their dad then feigned an exasperated sigh. “Oh, alright.” she grumbled under her breath then grinned at the little girl. “I can’t stay long though. I have to get up early in the morning for work.”

“YAY!” Becca cried and wrapped her arms around Amy’s leg. Amy reached down and ran her fingers through the tangled mess that was the little girl’s hair. Frays stiffened a little bit when Becca made a tiny pained noise after her fingers worked out a particularly dense tangle on the top of the girl’s head. The girl looked at the two adults. “Maybe we could have a sleepover! Daddy, can Amy sleepover?”

Frays and Lacey looked at each other for a long moment. “Um…I don’t think that’s a good idea, hon.” Frays said, feeling like a couple of squirrels all hopped up on Red Bull were chasing each other around in her stomach. She glanced at Sergeant Hanes as they moved a little closer to the tent. Whatever they were passing out for dinner tonight smelled pretty good. “I don’t think there’s room for me in your place.”

The little girl’s face wrinkled up thoughtfully making Amy smile. “You and Daddy could share.” Becca said obviously proud of herself for coming up with the idea. It seemed logical enough to her because she shared a cot with her brother. They shared a room with Mr. and Mrs. Barrows and they both slept on the same cot so, naturally, Amy could share Daddy’s cot with him because that’s what grownups apparently did.

“Hey, Sergeant Hanes!” Frays said quickly glad to find a way to change the subject “Did I introduce you to Private Lacey and his kids?” She waved towards the little boy and girl. “That’s Paulie and Becca. We came up from Massachusetts together.”

“Pleased to meet you, Sergeant.” Lacey said as he extended his hand. Frays noticed the look he gave her out of the corner of his eye. She swallowed hard and glanced toward the tent. The last of the trainees was inside and they would have their food soon enough. Her stomach growled at the smells coming from inside. “Been keeping Frays busy?”

“We’re training up the first batch of volunteers.” Hanes said as he shook Lacey’s hand. The man’s face hardened when he nodded towards the woman standing next to him and added “That’s Sergeant Frays, by the way.”

Lacey blinked. “Hey! Congratulations!” he said and shook Frays’ hand. The man gave her a good natured punch on the arm. “I was kind of wondering if they were going to promote you or not. You earned it. Really.”

Frays felt her cheeks getting a little warm. “Thanks, man.” she said, smiling shyly as she returned the gesture. One of the Blue Diamond guys elbowed past her with a grunt and all of a sudden Frays tensed her breath coming in short angry bursts. There was a high pitched whine in her ears… Somebody grabbed her elbow. “What?”

“You okay?” Lacey asked. The line moved forward a few more paces and Frays smiled over her shoulder at the concern on the man’s face. Now they were inside the tent and Sergeant Hanes handed out little plastic bags of cutlery and condiments to everyone. “When are you done for the day?”

Frays looked at Sergeant Hanes and shrugged. “Whenever he says.” she said quietly and collected her Styrofoam tray and cup. “What do you say, Sergeant? Twenty minutes for them to eat?”

“You’re a soft touch, Frays.” Hanes said as he accepted a scoop of something that looked like it was trying to be mashed potatoes. He nodded when man on the other side of the table held up a ladle full of this snot colored gelatinous substance that claimed to be chicken gravy. “Alright, sure. After we get them back to the barracks you can pack it in for the day.”

“Okay cool.” Frays turned back to Lacey and the kids. “I’ll see you guys in like an hour. I gotta go see Carl too.” She had the man slather her food with the goopy ‘chicken’ gravy. It looked like something she blew out of her nose but it was salty and therefore freaking awesome in her book. There was a foil tray of rolls so she grabbed a couple and slipped a box of shelf stable milk into her cargo pocket.

Lacey nodded. “When’s Carl getting out of the hospital?” he asked as he got the kids their food then got a tray himself. He had not gotten a chance to go over and talk with Frays’ brother himself but Frays and Rodriguez seemed to make regular visits. “Want company?”

Frays found a spot on the ground and plopped down next to a broken down car. She looked at the two little ones and nodded. “Sure. You guys wanna go say hi to Carl?” she asked and started wolfing down her food as Lacey and the kids leaned against the vehicle.

“Carl got owwies too?” Becca asked. She started eating the grayish stuff that looked like meat a puzzled look on her face. Why did all the grownups keep getting owwies? Did one of the Bad People get him? “He’s okay, right?”

Frays smiled at the little girl. “Yes, honey.” She paused to lick a little of the gravy out of the corner of her mouth. Frays downed her cup of watery Kool-Aid in two swallows. “Don’t worry. Doctor Haskins took really good care of him. He should be out tomorrow.”

This seemed to be enough to satisfy the little girl and the four of them ate quickly. Lacey collected their garbage and took them over to the garbage can so Frays and Sergeant Hanes could take the trainees back over to the Resettlement Center. Lacey and his children started walking slowly towards the Aid Station. He held his kids hands as they strolled along hoping to give Frays time to catch up to them.

“Is Amy going to be our new mommy?” Paulie asked suddenly. A grasshopper leapt into the air at the boy’s feet and Paul’s eyes lit up. He let go of his father’s hand and chased after the insect, hopping after it as it tried to escape. Paulie cupped the bug in his hands then eventually managed to pinch it between his thumb and index finger. Lacey’s heart ached for his son: he had the bug in his left hand because his right index and middle fingers were nothing but little fleshy nubs sticking off of his hand.

The grasshopper spat out a gob of dark brown liquid and Paulie tossed it down in disgust. Lacey went to his boy’s side and put a hand on his head. “I dunno, buddy.” he said softly. The loss of his wife was a pain in his chest and he had no idea how his kids were dealing with it. Becca seemed to be bonding with Frays while Paulie stuck to Rodriguez like glue whenever he saw her. Of course Paulie had said he felt bad for Rodriguez because she did not ‘have a Mommy or Daddy or anything’. “That’s up to her. Do you think she should be?”

The boy looked thoughtful for a minute then put his hands up, indicating that he wanted to be picked up so of course his dad obliged. “Amy’s weird but nice.” Paulie said at last. “She has the baby in her belly that makes it all wriggly.”

Lacey chuckled as he picked up Becca as well and started walking towards the Aid Station. “It’s wriggly, huh?” he asked as he bounced his kids. He could tell that it was starting to get close to bedtime by the way the little ones were leaning against his shoulders.

“All like wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle.” Paulie said he demonstrated his point by gyrating against his father’s side. This made his dad laugh and so did Becca so he grinned. “Wiggle wiggle wiggle!”

He set the children down outside the Aid Station’s walls. “What did you guys do at day care today?” Lacey asked as he plopped down on a bench. Becca and Paulie climbed up onto it and sat next to their father.

“Miss Genny read us the Pooh book.” Becca said as she snuggled against her father’s side. “Amy came and sat with us. We shared her lap with my friend Rachel.” Lacey smiled at the thought of Frays surrounded by the children. He could not imagine how hard it was for her but she did it anyway because his children missed their mother.

“Freddie came and played with us too.”  Paulie added, his little feet swinging back and forth over the edge of the bench’s seat. “I frew the stick for him. He gave everybody kisses.” The little boy grinned at his father. “He licked Miss Helen on the eye.”

Lacey hugged his children. “He did!?” Miss Helen was a short stern woman with curly salt and pepper hair that helped run the child care program for the few dependants and orphans that lived on the FOB. He laughed at the thought of seeing the bony old dog lick her face.

“Yeah!” Paulie said and laughed. “It was funny and we all laughed.” A look of alarm came to Becca’s face as she hopped down and dug a little notepad out of the pocket of her jeans. Amy and Daddy and Frannie carried notepads so she thought she should have one too.

“I drewed some pitchers, Daddy!” the girl said as she leafed through the pages of the notepad and held them out to her father. One was of a group of stick figures drawn with pencil. There were two little ones and four taller ones, two of the four taller ones with what looked like helmets on their heads and crude rifles in their hands. The third one had a tiny stick figure across its stomach and what might have been a patrol cap on its head.

“Whoa! Very good, baby!” Lacey crowed as he stared at the picture. It took him a minute but he eventually spotted a couple more stick figures hidden near the childish pictogram sun in the sky. Curious, he pointed them out. “Who’s this?”

“That’s Mommy and Amy’s Mommy and Daddy.” the girl said innocently as she pointed each of them out to her father. “Miss Genny said they’re with God in Heaven. That’s where the sun is.” Lacey felt his eyes getting moist as he squeezed his children tight.

Lacey looked up when he sensed someone coming. Frays stood there a few meters away with an awkward smile on her face. “Hey Frays…” he said quietly as Lacey tried to gently push the children to their feet. “C’mon guys. Let’s go say hi to Carl and get going. We gotta get washed up and ready for bed.”

Chapter Three

4 July 2011 11:35 hours NorthCom Forward Operating Base Freedom Sanford, Maine 

The ten recruits walked down the street in two columns, five of them on either side of the road. They looked like they were headed off on some kind of hunting trip: Wolverine hunting boots, Realtree pattern camouflage trousers and tops with Chicom chest rigs to hold ammunition for their carbines. Some had camouflage boonie hats while others had baseball caps perched on top of their heads as they walked. Hide waterskins hung from straps across their chests.

They had backpacks with personal hygiene kits, spare clothes, socks and weapon cleaning kits. They also got knives and a few of them even got sidearms although that was somewhat potluck. Stark, Sharpe and Rowe got .357 Magnum revolvers of varying barrel lengths, finishes and overall condition.