Outbreak: Brave New World (16 page)

Chapter
Five

1
5 June 2011, 1523 hours 4 Old Trout Lane, 10 miles north of Holden, Massachusetts

The mood was tense in the house ever since the attack.
Their little sanctuary had been violated and it startled everyone back into combat footing. Without any discussion Frays, Lacey and Rodriguez kept their weapons on them at all times now, locked and loaded. Amy also made sure they had cleaned and loaded the magazines of the two Remington 870s and their new (to them) 1014 twelve gauge shotguns in the gun cabinet, along with her father’s Winchester 1894 .30-30 rifle, ready to go at a moment’s notice if need be. The weight in her LCS’s map pocket reminded her that Dad’s pistol would…probably need some attention…

They also
prepped the Humvee, stocking the back with a few cases of MREs from the attic and putting fresh water from the hose rolled up on the back of the cabin in the water cans as well as two plastic ammo cans packed with shotgun shells, half of the rounds for Carl’s rifle, the Winchester and the .45 automatic so if worse came to worse they could fight their way to the truck and bug out. Their rucksacks were also packed as well as they could with food, spare water and what little clothing they had and staged in the hall next to the bathroom door ready to be grabbed at a moment’s notice.

Lacey and Frays also spent a little time rigging up a surprise for anyone who might think of stealing the vehicle with one of Rodriguez’s flashbang grenades. The metal cylinder was taped
onto the side of the driver’s seat with a thin wire wrapped around the pin then attached to the door, so that if someone threw it open it would pull the pin and detonate the grenade. The noise would alert those in the house and leave the would be thief in a state that would make it easier for them to capture.

Frays and Lacey also checked the generator and boiler in the soundproofed room under the deck. Dad had
stapled heavy baffling insulation to the concrete walls, ceiling and floor so that when they had to run the generator it would not make a lot of noise. Of course, George just wanted a good night’s sleep for his family when they came up to spend a week fishing in the summer or hunting in the fall and was not at all concerned about zombies. In the end the result was the same: the machinery could not be heard much beyond the door.

Amy frowned as she rapped on the generator’s fuel tank
. It was about halfway full, so they would definitely have to do more to conserve gasoline or take a trip out to the road to hunt for stalled cars. The boiler seemed to be okay, but the two of them decided to grab all the manuals they could find for them so they could study the books later. Lacey and Frays tossed a couple logs onto the fire in it just to be on the safe side. The hot showers seemed to be about the only good thing anyone could say about the place right now anyway.

The refrigerator was almost empty of perishables and there was not much left in the freezer
so Frannie thawed out the plastic bags of frozen meat and vegetables and prepared a veritable feast for her friends if nothing else to try and cheer everyone up a little. She could not help but feel horrible for them especially Carl and the kids. At least Frays and Lacey still had each other to lean on. She could not help but smile a little whenever she thought about finding the two of them asleep in each other’s arms the morning after the attack.

With the windows boarded over t
he interior of the cabin was kind of gloomy without the electric lights. However there was still plenty of natural gas in the tank on the side of the house so they could cook and, once winter came, have a little extra heat if they needed it. Amy also came up with a work schedule and posted it on the fridge with a Garfield the Cat magnet. That done, they could at least sort of relax a little bit.

Lacey could not help but keep a close watch on Frays. When they had taken shelter in that high school in
Concord almost a month ago the woman had suffered from a pretty serious bout of insomnia. She seemed okay now at least as long as they had something to do. Of course Frays had managed to find things to do for almost three or four days at a stretch. He could not help but wonder how bad it had been for the baby the first time around, let alone what a repeat performance might do. And then there was what he and Eamon had done which probably did not help the kid at all.

It was a relief to hear his friend’s snoring when they bedded down
that night. Nobody said anything, but they all crashed in the living room within sight of each other with a watch schedule established. Lacey glanced at Frays as he was falling asleep. Part of him wanted to ask if she would like to climb in his sleeping bag with him.

Frannie smiled as she watched the children playing with the toys she had brought back from town for them
the following morning. It was good to see them starting to do stuff on their own again. For the last couple of days Paulie and Becca would get upset if they were not within sight of one of the grownups. She could not help but think that it kind of strange the way the little ones seemed to take to her. After she had gotten out of the hospital Rodriguez could not help but notice the way kids clung to their parents or people quickly looked away as she passed them on the street.

A bitter memory sprung to mind from about a year
and a half ago: she was out at the bodega down the block from her mother’s apartment to get some stuff to make dinner for her mom when she got home from work. She was supposed to be spending the day combing the neighborhood looking for a new job but pickings were slim. Mom had been a little pissed because she had not left the apartment in a couple days to go look. Frannie could not bring herself to explain that this camel jockey had set up his falafel cart or whatever the fuck it was on the corner.

Frannie had almost pissed her pants in the building’s foyer when she saw the guy throw something in the trash can outside the front door, go back over to his cart and pull out his cell phone.
There was something in the man’s eyes that made the hair stand up on the back of her neck, every single nerve in her body screaming that it was a trap that there was an IED in the trash can despite how fucking stupid she told herself she was being. He might have been looking at her like that just because
she
had been staring at
him
but still…

She had been so freaked out and terrified that she had spent a couple hours locked in the bathroom crying her eyes out
, so scared that she was puking her fucking guts up and shaking like a leaf fighting the urge to call the police or something while she waited for an explosion to take the façade of the building off. She ended up washing down some Percocet with a pint of cheap brandy and watching trashy daytime talk shows for most of the day. There was a hazy memory of an argument sometime yesterday but she was too high and drunk to really remember the details very well. Having a hot meal on the table when Mom got home would at least get the woman out of her asshole for a little bit.

So she had been out looking for a job
all morning that day and stopped off to get stuff so there’d be dinner on the table when Mom got home. She noticed this cute Dominican guy she had seen around the neighborhood come in and they made eye contact briefly, just long enough to exchange smiles. The guy tried to make it look like he was being nonchalant about it, but he was coming towards her with a purpose. Frannie remembered snickering a little as she put a loaf of bread and a jug of milk into her basket. She had been stalked by professionals and this guy was definitely an amateur by comparison.

The guy worked his way over to her, coming from the left. “Hey, mamacita.” he began, getting into his ‘rap’ strait away. Frannie could feel his eyes on her ass, checking out her rack as he pretended to search the cans of dog food on the shelf in front of him.
She was wearing a pair of kacki colored slacks and a snug fitting deep red polo shirt. The top three buttons of the shirt were open showing the hint of cleavage. Not terribly professional attire for a job interview but well…anything to draw attention away from her face. “Do I know you?”

The cocky little grin on his face disappea
red when she turned to look at him replaced by an almost cartoonish expression of abject horror. She left her stuff in the middle of the aisle and marched out of the bodega and right into a bar a few blocks away where she got absolutely shitfaced on the money meant to buy food plus what little extra cash she had in the bank at the time.

Frays tapped her friend on the arm, startling Rodriguez out of her thoughts. Amy smiled a little and nodded towards the table. “
You guys feel up to playing a little Risk or something?” Frays asked as she crossed to the little cabinet next to the table and started poking around inside. Lacey was sitting on the couch watching his kids playing on the floor. Carl barely seemed to notice. The boy seemed stuck in a funk ever since the morning after they had gotten back and had thrown up a couple times yesterday. Frannie could tell by the perpetually cheery way Amy kept suggesting activities she had to be worried sick about her little brother.

“So, what’s it gonna be?” Frays asked as she stood up with a couple different board games in her hands. “Monopoly? Risk?
Trivial Pursuit?” Amy set the boxes on the table and looked around at the others.

“Uh uh. Not Trivial Pursuit.” Rodriguez said quietly as she sat down at the table and looked into the living room, hoping that Carl would join them. “You always kick my a
sh….butt.” Lacey smiled at the way Frannie had kept herself from swearing in front of the kids. He still had to remind her to watch her language in front of Becca and Paulie once in awhile but she was getting better about it. It made him think of Frays’ mom scolding her son… “How about Monopoly? I get to be the shoe.”

Amy snickered. “Alright, fine but I
call dibs on the racecar.” she said and glanced at the others in the living room. “Who else wants to play? Lacey? C’mon, Carl. Want to be the top hat?” She seemed to deflate a little when the boy barely acknowledged that his sister had spoken to him. Frannie gave her friend a sympathetic look as she opened the box and started setting up the game.

All of sudden Frays pushed away from the table and leapt to her feet, crossing to her brother in the recliner in two or three quick steps. “Look at me
, you little punk!” Amy shouted her face flushed with anger as she grabbed a double handful of Carl’s Dropkick Murphys tee shirt and started shaking the boy like a ragdoll. “Mom’s dead. Dad’s dead. They’re gone, alright? I’m not losing you too, so just snap the heck out of it!”

She stopped suddenly aware of what
had just happened. Becca and Paulie left their toys on the floor and scurried into their father’s arms, staring at Frays with wide frightened eyes as if she had suddenly lost her mind. Amy frowned at her brother and shook her head disgustedly, slowly releasing him and turning to go out on the deck. Rodriguez and Lacey looked at each other for a moment after Frays threw open the door and closed it so hard that it banged into the frame and bounced open a couple inches.

“It’s alright, guys.” Lacey said reassuringly to his children as he extracted himself from them. “Daddy’s just gonna check on Amy. Don’t worry. Frannie’s right here.”
He glanced over at Frannie, who nodded uneasily. He found Frays sitting on the deck leaning against the house’s aluminum siding with her head in her hands. The Marine stood there a moment, shifting his weight from foot to foot. He could see that she was breathing heavily, on the verge of tears. “You alright, Frays?”

Frays sniffed and wiped her nose on her sleeve. “Fine.” she muttered sharply. He sat down next to her, resting his forearms on his knees. They had not been alone together since the incident in the foyer. Part of him wanted t
o put an arm around Amy’s waist, to hold her close and give her comfort. He wondered if she would get mad at him if he tried.

Adam glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. Frays was trembling with her face in her hands so he could not tell if she was crying or not. He really, really hoped not. “My parents are dead, my brother hates me…”
Frays grumbled quietly her chest heaving as she struggled to not break down.

Adam’s face wrinkled up in a quick little smile as he slipped an arm around her shoulders, moving his hand up and down Amy’s arm soothingly. “I’m sure Carl doesn’t hate you.”
he whispered in her ear. Frays was shorter and more solidly built than Laura but her shoulder seemed to fit just right inside his armpit. He squeezed Frays and grinned slightly when she put her arm around him. “It’s probably more of a mild dislike at worst.”

She snorted and glanced at L
acey, shaking her head for a second then pinching the bridge of her nose. Frays squirmed, as if she was unsure if she was entirely comfortable with the situation or not. She hissed when Lacey moved his hand to the base of her neck. “I just want him to be okay.” Amy muttered quietly then she smiled awkwardly. “Stupid hormones.”

Adam laughed as he stood up, grabbed a plastic chair and
plopped down in it next to her. The man smiled and motioned for her to lean against his shins. The woman complied, a look of mild reluctance on her face. Frays gasped when Lacey put his hands on either side of her neck and started kneading, beginning at the base of her skull and slowly working his way down to her shoulders. Adam frowned when he felt an alarming bulge in the base of her neck. “Gah!” Frays shouted as a lightning bolt shot through her shoulder and down to the tips of the fingers of her left hand when Lacey’s hands got near it. “What the heck did you do?” she asked, staring at her hand as she tentatively wriggled her fingers. Her arm felt sort of numb and tingly at the same time as she opened and closed her hand and tried to shake the strange feeling out of her limb. She glanced from her hand to Adam then scowled at her hand.