Outbreak: Long Road Back (6 page)

“Yeah…” Rodriguez muttered quietly. Thames put a hand on her shoulder but she peeled it off and gave him a half hearted smile. “I appreciate it but no, I don’t think I’m interested.” She struggled to her feet and dusted off her rear end. “I have a boyfriend.”

Thames smiled and climbed to his feet as well. “Its fine.” he shrugged and gave the woman a sheepish glance. She was pretty even with the scars on her face and shit. It figures that she had a guy. “I didn’t mean it like that. Bring him if you want. I just thought you might want to come on by is all.”

They got released until the morning about twenty minutes later. Rodriguez wandered off as the other soldiers on the detail with her made their way back to the barracks. It would be too late to go see Carl right now. Thames and the others would probably be having their little party either in Thames’s room or maybe Holtz’s place. They were both so close to her place that would probably be able to smell the booze even over the stink of the Resettlement Center. There were a little over a hundred people crammed in there and no matter how hard they tried they seemed to be fighting a losing battle against the stench of body odor and urine. Of course the toilets did not really work forcing them to use chemical toilets and bathing was kind of a luxury because of the water situation. Rodriguez found that she missed the Frays’ hunting camp with its comfy overstuffed recliner and scalding hot showers…

Rodriguez wandered into the Resettlement Center and shuffled off between the rows of cots, slowly and carefully making her way to the cot in the room she shared with four other female Marines. She paused just outside the door to the cubicle that Frays shared with her brother. It sounded like there was a strange noise coming from inside.

Rodriguez knocked gently on the pole holding the shower curtain up that served as their door. “Hey Frays, you up?” she asked as she tentatively poked her head inside. Frays sat up and looked at her friend and smiled.

“Hey, Rodriguez.” Frays said and motioned towards Carl’s cot. “Take a load off.” It was obvious to Rodriguez what the sound she had heard was once she sat down and got a closer look at her friend’s face. Her eyes were red and it looked like she had been crying. “Carl’s spending the night in the Aid Station so Lieutenant Haskins can keep an eye on him.”

Rodriguez chuckled. “I talked to him earlier.” she explained as she moved a little closer to her friend and leaned forward slightly. “He was trying to get me to come over and…spend the night because you had radio watch again.”

Frays snorted a laugh out of her nose then sat bolt upright on her cot. “You and he…haven’t…you know…” she asked and looked at her friend with all the seriousness of a protective parent. Rodriguez frowned sadly. The expression made her friend look like her mother and she almost said something then thought better of it.

“No, no we haven’t.” Rodriguez said with a small grin. She looked at the floor between her boots and shrugged. “He wants to and I kinda want to but I don’t want to mess this up…” She sighed and looked at Frays. “Um…would you mind if I stayed here tonight?”

Frays nodded. “Sure thing.” she said without a moment’s thought. “Truth be told I’d be glad to have you stay. I was getting weirded out being here by myself. The walls are so thin I can hear the guy breathing on the other side.” Frays grumbled and shrugged. “That’s Carl’s place you’re sitting on there.”

“Are you doing alright, Frays?” Rodriguez asked after she got settled in for the night. The lights had gone out replaced by the shadowy red glow of the emergency lights. She had kicked off her boots and stuffed her plate carrier under the cot. The blankets and pillow was comfortable on the rough canvas of the folding bed. The bedding also smelled like Carl and she found that kind of soothing.

“I…” Frays started followed by the sound of her breathing heavily in the semi dark. “I was just laying here and thinking…” Frays pressed a hand over her mouth and fought back tears “Tomorrow’s the Fourth of July.”

Rodriguez sat up, crossed the cubicle and sat down next to her friend. Frays sat up as well her hands folded in her lap. “I w-was looking forward to…to marching in the Independence Day parade with my Dad. We were gonna meet up at the VFW hall in our uniforms. Me and him and his friends. The old guys from World War Two and Korea…”

She grinned and wiped at her cheeks again. “After the parade was done there was a cookout at the VFW. Me and Carl would go screw around on the midway wasting our money on those stupid carnival games.” Rodriguez put a hand on her friend’s shoulder and rubbed the taut muscle. “After it got dark there’d be fireworks in the park.”

“Sounds like it was fun.” Rodriguez said quietly. The only fireworks in her neighborhood growing up had been when some of the local gangbangers shot each other up. She sighed heavily and took her hand back.

“I miss Mom and Dad so…so much, Frannie.” Frays said quietly. Tears leaked out of her eyes again and she wiped them away. “I was terrible to them. Mom wanted everything to be like it was but it wasn’t and…Dad… I know he loved me and didn’t mean what he said...h-he was just scared for me ‘cause I’m his little girl.”

Rodriguez frowned and wondered if she should go find Lacey. The two of them were…close…but on the other hand it was kinda late. Of course she could stay with the kids while Lacey and Frays were talking or whatever. And she had to admit that Lacey was just one of those guys that was good to talk to. “Do you want me to see if Lacey’s around?” Rodriguez asked and started to act like she was going to get up.

Frays frowned and shook her head after a few seconds. “No…no…” she said quietly. The woman shrugged. “I…how do I put this…I don’t trust myself around him. I like him and everything and he’s a great guy but…I…I dunno…ya know?”

Rodriguez chuckled. “Strangely enough I think I do.” she said and sat down on Carl’s bunk. She lay down and shifted around into a more comfortable position. Rodriguez’s mind drifted as she started to doze off. While she had been deployed in Afghanistan she had…slept around…a lot. More out of a need to get her mind off the death and boredom than any real need to have a relationship or anything. Hell, she could not even remember a couple of their names. PFC Jason Hendricks had been in the truck with her when the driver rolled over an IED…

She wiped at a tear of her own. He had been a good guy, one of the few men she had been with on deployment that did not treat her like a total whore. The last time she had seen him was on the Medivac chopper that would take them to Bagram Airfield. They had her flying high on morphine and strapped to a stretcher so fucking lit up that she was barely aware that there was a tube down her throat to help her breathe… Hendricks had been next to her and she reached out to try and take his hand but she could not find it… That sick moment when she realized that she could not find his hand because his whole arm was not there… Panic not for herself but for her friend next to her… A shadowy form doing something to the IV in her arm and then everything went all wobbly and dark…

********

It was hot. Senior Airman Amy Frays could not for the life of her understand why on God’s green and verdant Earth why people came to this part of the world and decided to hang around for a couple dozen millennia. It was always just so friggin’ hot and dry and sandy never mind the giant scary looking camel spiders that always seemed to have a talent for turning up
exactly
where you did not want them to be: sleeping bag, boots, helmet…

She leaned against the concrete shelter about a dozen meters from the connex she shared with Airman Sally Watkins the tiny bit of shade put out by the structure making it slightly less unbearable. Frays snorted a chunk of something disgusting out of her nose and fished a pack of nasty smelling Miami cigarettes out of an ammo pouch on her LCS and lit one. She blew smoke out of her nose and glanced at her watch. There was a twinge in the pit of her stomach. The chow hall would be opening for lunch in about an hour…

“C’mon, Frays! Watkins!” a giant in ABUs called from the doorway of his connex. Frays hid a small smile behind the motion of taking the cigarette out of her mouth and butting it out. A little part of her still wanted Master Sergeant Brian Emery badly…even though he was married with two kids. “Get your shit and let’s go! Chow time!”

Frays and Watkins gathered their weapons and gear then trotted over to their NCO. She looked startled for a moment. “Crap…Sergeant, I gotta grab my flash drive.” Frays grumbled as she searched through her pockets and pouches. The woman rolled her eyes and frowned clearly upset with herself. “I’ve gotta get my homework emailed off. Be right back.”

Frays turned on her heel and jogged back to the connex. There was a big flash of light. All of a sudden the world when white and all she could hear was a high pitched whine like a giant mosquito… Cold water snapped the world back to crystal clarity.

It felt like she was stuck inside a giant washing machine. The current was tearing at her splashing water into her nose and mouth. Frays took a deep breath intermingled with water and dove under the surface trying to catch up to the fading taillights of the Humvee as it sank to the bottom. Her lungs ached and the water was so cold…

A pallid face appeared out of the depths as groping hands caught hold of her forearms. Frays released a scream in a cloud of bubbles into the frigid water as the creature pulled her towards its gaping maw. She screamed and sucked in a lungful of water, things going dark around the edges nasal passages burning as the strength left her.
I’m drowning…
Frays realized, her thoughts becoming sluggish from lack of oxygen and thrashed almost half heartedly. Just as the creature was about to bury its jagged broken teeth into her throat she recognized the craggy features of her father’s face…

********

Frays sat up with a scream, pushing and kicking at the green woolen blanket she had over her. The woman shouted still kicking and screaming and choking. Somebody grabbed hold of her and she screamed louder slapping punching kicking spitting… Frays tumbled off of her cot and fell against the wall of the cubicle and somebody cussed and shouted next door.

“…ays! Chill out!” Rodriguez said in as calm a voice as she could manage. Frays had smacked her around a good one while in the throes of her nightmare. Rodriguez held her friend tight until she calmed down whispering reassuring words in her ear. All of a sudden she understood why Carl would come visit her when his big sister was like this. “It’s okay…shh….it’s okay…” After a couple minutes Frays started to calm down a little bit. “Look…just wait here, okay? I’m going to go get Lacey.”

Rodriguez hustled as fast as her gimpy leg would let her out into the area of the Resettlement Center set aside for families. Lacey and his kids had to be around here somewhere… After the first couple of tries she almost gave up and went back to Frays’ room. She tiptoed into the little room and smiled down at the sleeping children. “Sorry guys.” Rodriguez whispered as she slipped past them and went to their father’s side. “Need to borrow your daddy for a minute, alright?”

Rodriguez patted Lacey’s shoulder and winced when he woke up. “Hey, Lacey…sorry about this. Sorry.” she said quietly as the man sat up and blinked wearily. “Frays needs you, man. She’s having a major freak out.”

The scrawny Marine wiped at his eyes and took a deep breath. “Okay.” He frowned sleepily and collected his M16 and plate carrier from under his cot. He stretched and threw on his gear. “Where’s she staying at again?”

“In the barracks.” Rodriguez said quietly and nodded towards the kids. “Third door from the latrines on the right. Don’t worry I’ll stay with them.” Almost as an afterthought she asked “When do the kids go to the daycare?”

“0700.” Lacey grumbled as he shrugged into his plate carrier and slung his rifle across his chest. He looked sheepishly at the floor and grumbled under his breath. “Make sure they get something to eat before they go if I’m not back.”

Lacey followed Rodriguez’s directions and found Frays curled up on her cot with her blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She looked up at him when he came in. “Hey Frays.” he said quietly as he ducked inside. It was a minor shock when the woman stood up and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his chest.

It took a couple moments to get Frays back over to what he assumed was her cot. It occurred to him that this was the first time he had actually been in her quarters. Lacey rubbed her back and held her, waiting for her to calm down. He unbuckled her LCS and helped her shrug out of the vest…

He took off his own armor and nudged it under her cot to rest with Frays’ gear. A little thrill went through him as Frays snuggled against his chest. “It’s alright, Frays.” Lacey whispered in her ear as he squeezed her tight. “I gotcha. It’s alright…shh…” After a few moments Adam gently leaned against her getting Amy to lie down next to him on the cot. It was a tight fit but they somehow managed to make it work.

Frays rolled onto her other side putting her face to face with Lacey. She smiled shyly. “I’m sorry Frannie woke you.” Frays whispered. Conflicting emotions ran through her as she lay there in this man’s arms. Anger at Frannie. Shame. Rage…and…she did not really want to admit it but she was kind of attracted to this scrawny little Marine.

There was strength in the man that she found herself drawn to. Not a physical strength mind you…Frays was fairly certain that she could beat him two out of three in an arm wrestling contest. No…more like the mental strength to do what had to be done. Lacey’s wife as well as Frays’ father had been bitten by zombies and turned but Lacey had…dealt with them. Somehow Frays knew she did not have it in her to shoot what used to be her parents. If she had been there in the cabin instead of him she would have died, eaten alive by her own parents because she could not do what needed to be done.