Outbreak: Boston (16 page)

Amy limped into the cafeteria with a tray of beans and rice in her hand. Dana and Josh sat with the rest of the flight at a table across the room, talking excitedly amongst themselves. The room was empty except for them. “Hey, there she is!” Josh exclaimed when he saw her “Our fearless leader!”

“Come on, fearless leader.” Jean said, laughing at the color creeping into the younger woman’s cheeks “Sit down and eat. What did the lieutenant have to say?”

Frays sat down, said her Pater Noster quietly as she crossed herself then shoveled a spoonful of rice into her mouth. Amy paused a moment as she chewed a mouthful of food. “Not much.” she said at last. “Though I just wanna tell you guys while we got a minute that I’m real proud of everybody. We did
real good today. We got about another month’s worth of food and about three months’ worth of medicine. Not bad for a morning’s work.” Amy paused to crack open a bottle of water on the table and take a drink. “Jean and Lacey, Lieutenant Jenkins said we can have the rest of the afternoon off until 2000. Dana and Josh, well, he didn’t say anything about you so I guess you can go about your business.” 

Adam looked at his watch. “Holy shit, that’s like nine whole hours!” he exclaimed as he wolfed down the last spoonfuls of his food. “I think I’m gonna swipe one of those cots for awhile.”

Jean laughed. “That doesn’t sound like a bad idea.” she said. There was something about that statement that made Amy raise a suspicious eyebrow at her. “Get your mind out of the gutter, young lady. What would your mother think?” Everyone laughed at that.

“A couple hours sleep in something similar to a bed does sound good.” Amy said quietly. Now that her stomach was sort of full she decided that she could use a nap. “You two go on ahead. I gotta take care of something real quick. Good night.”

Amy slipped quietly into an empty office down the hall from the one claimed by Lieutenant Jenkins and closed the door. After a brief look around to make sure she was alone, Frays pulled her carbine’s sling over her head and sat down in the nearest chair. It was cool, dark and quiet in here. Amy contemplated just putting her head down on the desk and sleeping here or maybe finding a comfy spot in the corner or under a desk. She picked up the phone from its cradle near her elbow. Amazingly, the handset still had a dial tone.

She briefly considered trying her parents’ cell phones, but rejected it. Her own mobile phone did not have any service, so it stood to reason that her parents’ phones would not either. Frays quickly dialed her parents’ home number, her mouth going dry when the phone actually started to ring. “C’mon, pick up.” she implored as she pressed the handset to her ear. “Please, please,
please
pick up…”

After a couple minutes she regretfully pressed the switch hook and dialed
the landline at the hunting camp. “Thank God!” she whispered when the phone started ringing. “Mom, Dad. Carl…somebody pick up. Come on, just pick up the phone. Come on…come on…
pick up the damn phone
.” Amy felt her cheeks get warm and looked around guiltily even though there was no one there to hear her swear. The phone rang…and rang…and rang.

Amy listened to the handset until the phone switched off and went back to a dial tone. She slowly pulled the handset away from her ear and hung it up, feeling like she had just been punched in the stomach by Brock Lesnar. Amy put her head between her knees and pressed her elbows against the sides of her head; her fingers interlaced behind her head and started taking deep breaths. A sliver of light stabbed into the semi-dark when someone opened the door.

“Is somebody in here?” a voice asked. A figure Amy did not recognize poked its head inside the room. “I thought I heard somebody in here.” The person opened the door and came into the room as Frays sat up sharply. The figure noticed the movement and jumped, pressing a hand to its chest. “Oh! You startled me!”

“Heh. Sorry.” Amy said sheepishly. She noticed that there were a couple tears on her cheeks so she quickly wiped them away with the palm of her hands. “I was…um…just trying the phones.”

The figure revealed itself to be an older woman, one of the refugees. She smiled kindly at the young airman and pulled up a chair. “Hi, I’m Casey.” she said and extended her hand “I don’t think we’ve been introduced.”

Amy pulled off her glove and shook the woman’s hand. “Senior Airman Amy Frays.” She looked nervously at the floor for a minute. “Um, look…er…”

“Were you trying to call somebody, Amy?” Casey asked tentatively. She rooted around in her purse for a moment and pressed a small square of foil wrapped hard candy into Amy’s hand. “Did you get through?”

“My family’s out there.” Amy choked on the words a little bit
, suddenly finding herself on the verge of tears again and hating herself for it. “My mom and my dad and my little brother Carl. They’re like an hour away and I can’t talk to them. I don’t know if they’re alive or hurt or…” She pinched her mouth into a tight, trembling line. “You know Adam Lacey? The Marine? I met his wife and kids in Boston. I told them to go meet up with my parents in Holden. That it would be safe.”

Casey’s eyes started to look a little moist in the dim light. She pushed her chair next to Amy’s and put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. “You couldn’t have known, Amy. You did what you thought was best at the time.” She let the younger woman rest her head on her shoulder for a second. “Don’t you worry so much. I’m sure they’re all just fine. Maybe nobody could get to the phone in time.”

“Maybe.” A few tears squirted out of the corners of her eyes. “It’s just…” Amy let out a few shuddering breaths. “Aw, man…” She pulled away and wiped her cheeks. “I...um…I’m sorry. I don’t even know you and here I am getting your shirt all wet.”

Casey laughed and squeezed Amy’s hand. “It’s no problem. Don’t worry about it.” she said quietly, tightening her grip for a second. “It’ll dry. The way I see it, the good Lord sent you and your friends to save our bacon in our hour of need, so I figure giving you a shoulder to cry on if you need it is the least I can do.”

Amy wiped her cheeks again. “Thanks. Um…listen...don’t tell anybody, okay?” she asked as she stood and picked up her carbine. Frays looked at Casey, suddenly feeling even more awkward than she did just a minute ago.

“Hey, I’m a priest.” Casey grinned and patted the young woman’s shoulder. “Anything you tell me stays between
you, me and the man upstairs.”

A small ray of hope glimmered in Amy’s mind
before it went out. “Not Catholic.”

“No, sorry.” Casey grimaced at the
crushed expression that came to Amy’s face. “I’m a Baptist. Though we all worship the same God, don’t we?”

Amy laughed a little. “Yeah, I guess so.” she said and started towards the door. “I was hoping that I could at least give Confession.”

“I don’t know about that, but any time you need to talk I’m here.” Casey said, still smiling as they went back out into the hall. “You look exhausted. Go get some rest. Everything looks a little better after a good night’s sleep.”

Amy wandered down the hall towards the female sleeping quarters. She stopped at the intersection where the hall divided off to her right and left. The male dormitories were to her left and the female in the other direction. Frays scratched the back of her neck for a second, took a deep breath, put on a resolute face and set off towards the male dorms.

After a couple tries she found Adam lying on a cot in the corner of the room. “Hey, Lacey” she called from the doorway “Can I talk to you for a minute?” Frays bit her lip as she heard the man groan, mutter something under his breath and pick up his gear.

“What is it?” Lacey grumbled. He held his rifle and plate carrier in one hand and rubbed some gunk out of the corner of his eye with the other. “I just got to sleep, damn it.”

“I’m sorry, Lacey.” she said carefully. Amy nodded towards the room across the hall. “Can I talk to you outside for a minute? It’s important.”

Lacey looked at the woman beside him as they made their way towards the exit at the front of the building. She looked nervous and this, in turn, made him forget all about the fact that she had woke him up. “What’s going on, Frays?” he asked. Amy’s face tightened up but she did not answer him.

Once they were outside she dug her pack of cigarettes out of her pocket. She offered him the open pack which he waved off. “Are you going to answer me?” Adam demanded, nearly knocking Amy’s smokes out of her hand. She snatched her precious tobacco out of the way just in time, pulled one out and lit it.

He almost regretted his tone when she finally managed to look up at him. Amy exhaled a plume of smoke with a sigh. “I haven’t been able to get a hold of my parents.” Frays began carefully, watching the man’s face for a reaction. “So, I don’t know if you’ve talked to your wife or not, but I have no idea where anybody is.”

“What?” he asked, his brows furrowing as he stared at her. “What do you mean you don’t know where anybody is? Your parents aren’t home?” Adam dropped his MOLLE vest and rifle with a clatter. “Where the fuck are my kids? Where’s Laura?” His face twisted up with rage.

“Calm down and listen to me, alright?” Amy said sharply. She continued once the man seemed to settle down a little bit. “Look, do you have some way to call your wife? I’m not sure if the cell phones are working right now.”

“I don’t know if my wife has her cell phone with her.” Lacey ran a hand over his hair and grumbled. “We gotta go find them. Come on, Frays. Don’t you care about your folks at all? What are you waiting for?”

Adam grabbed up his plate carrier and rifle then started towards the parking lot. Amy caught his arm. “Look, let me talk to the lieutenant. Him and Sergeant Barnes are taking their squad out tomorrow.” she said, her voice an intense whisper. She gave the man a brief, compassionate
sort of half hug then held him at arm’s length for a second. “I promise you, we’ll go look for our families first chance we get after they get back, alright? Can you hold out till then?”

Adam’s face did an amazing impression of the way Amy felt: fear and anxiety with a hint of nausea. “Roger that, boss.” he said at last. Lacey put a hand around the back of Amy’s head and gently clunked the rims of their Kevlars together. “We got this, right?”

Amy smiled, making the cigarette dangling from the corner of her mouth flip up. “Dang right, buddy.” She took a long drag then knocked the cherry off the cancer stick and stuck it back in the pack. “C’mon, let’s get some rack time. We gotta be on the roof in eight hours.”

Chapter Four

18 May 2011 0543 hours Walter Raleigh Senior High School Concord, Massachusetts
             

Frays had left her post on the roof for a moment to speak to Lieutenant Jenkins before they left and when she first heard the mission brief she thought it had to be some kind of sick joke.
She stood a few feet away from the group, barely resisting the urge to pull the LT away and scream him stupid. Frays blinked and shook herself.
What happened to me?
Amy wondered absently as she watched the grunts
I used to be such a nice person…

“Alright everybody.” Jenkins had said as he spread the map on the hood of the Humvee. “We’re going to hit up the strip mall east of here on Route 111. Rodriguez, Powers you’re going to clear the Walgreens and scrape the bottom of the barrel. Sergeant Barnes, Evans, Moore you’re with me. Our objective is to clear the Dollar General on the north side of the lot. I only want to spend twenty mikes onsite, so don’t waste time window shopping.”

“Intel indicates that we should expect heavy enemy activity in the area.” Sergeant Barnes added. Amy caught a hint of uncertainty in the man’s voice. “Everybody stay sharp. Remember twenty mikes so once your AO is clear grab whatever you can: food, water, batteries and medical supplies are the priority. If I catch one of you lifting a six pack I will smoke your ass till you look like one of those goddamn things. Hooah?”

A chorus of hooahs answered back as the soldiers broke up and started climbing into their vehicles. Amy hurried to catch up to Lieutenant Jenkins. “Sir, I think the strip mall’s still gonna be too hot.” she said as she walked quickly beside the man. “There was a swarm of them there before and that alarm was drawing more in. Sir, there will be too many. Scrub the mission.”