Outbreak: Brave New World (17 page)

Adam frowned when he remembered
the spill that Amy had taken on their mission to the grocery store the other day never mind her…other injuries. “Sorry! Sorry!” he said quietly, pulling his hands off the woman as if she were made of hot metal. “There’s some swelling in your neck here. Let’s see if we can find you a cold pack or something.” Lacey stood then helped Frays to her feet. He looked critically at her for a moment. “Have you been taking any of the aspirin we brought back?”

Frays nodded thanks to Lacey when he opened the door for her. “No. I’m afraid it would hurt the baby.”
she said quietly. Amy wandered over to the couch and sat down while Lacey went into the bathroom and rooted around in Eamon’s bag, preparing one of the precious cold packs inside by squeezing it and sloshing the chemicals inside so that they mixed. The children were at the table goofing around with the pieces of the Monopoly game with Rodriguez. Paulie glanced up from the game board and frowned, his face pinched up in anger. He had seen what Daddy and Amy were doing outside.

“Is Amy going to be our new Mommy?” Paulie asked as his dad came back into the dinin
g area with a cold pack and a towel in his hands. Adam stopped and looked at his son then turned to Amy, first mock throwing the cold pack then actually tossing it to Frays when she held up her hand to catch it. The boy looked up at his father, his little face trembling with anger. “I don’t want a new Mommy. I want regular Mommy.”

Adam knelt next to his son and hugged him tight. “Amy…” he started, trying to explain what was going on in a way that the little boy would understand. “I know you miss Mommy, Paulie. I do too.” he said quietly as he held his boy. “
Amy’s my friend and she’s just sad because she misses her Mommy and Daddy too.”

“They went away when the Bad People came, like Mommy did right?” Becca asked, looking for confirmation from either of the adults at the table. The look of
genuine puzzlement on the little girl’s face brought tears to Frannie’s eyes. It was what they had agreed to tell the children even though they were probably old enough to understand what had happened and Amy’s little outburst probably did not help keep up the façade very well. Jessica, George and their mother had gone away when the ‘Bad People’ came. Becca climbed down from her chair and came around the table then climbed up on the woman’s lap. “Right?”

Oh God
…
Rodriguez thought and held the girl. “We’ll see ‘em again someday.” she said quietly, somehow able to sound way calmer than she felt. “Don’t worry.” Frannie and Adam’s eyes met for a brief moment. He nodded gratefully to the woman as he looked like he might break if he had to open his mouth.

It was quiet for awhile, the game forgotten on the table. Amy stood up from the couch and
reluctantly went into the back bedroom, holding the cold pack in place with one hand. She came back out a moment later juggling a large rag and a small wooden box as she tried to get the door shut without dropping anything. The young woman paused on the step between the dining area and living room. Frays glanced at the floor. “Carl…would you come out on the deck with me, please?” she asked, hoping the boy would agree.

Thankfully Carl rose from his seat and opened the door. Frays smiled at him and nodded thanks when he closed the door behind them.
It was warm out and bright, especially as Carl had been inside for the better part of two days. They stood there blinking for a moment, waiting for their eyes to adjust. She set the box and the rag down on the table in the corner of the deck then set up a couple chairs. Amy took one and Carl sat down across from her, regarding the young woman with indifference as she spread the rag on the table in front of her.

Frays reached into the map pocket of her LCS and pulled out Dad’s .45, still in its holster and
crusty with dried blood. She tugged the weapon out of the leather holster and cleared it, ejecting the magazine and racking the slide to remove the round in the chamber then double checked that the chamber was empty with the tip of her pinky finger. “Did Dad ever tell you anything about this gun?” she asked as she released the slide lock, pressed in the recoil spring plug and carefully removed the bushing.

Amy noticed that Carl sat up a little and leaned forward slightly as she removed the slide stop and set it on the rag. “Our
Grandpa Joe bought this pistol when he was an Army private in the infantry when he got sent to Vietnam.” she said quietly, noting the boy’s interest as Amy flipped the pistol upside down and removed the slide from its frame. She swiveled the barrel bushing around and removed the barrel then set about scrubbing all the little metal parts with a piece of fabric and solvent from the kit. Carl had never met their grandpa and she vaguely remembered a kindly old man with a white beard that gave her candy. He had died when she was about the same age as Lacey’s kids. “He gave it to Dad when he joined the Marines.” Frays said quietly, finishing with getting the…organic matter…off of the writing engraved into the slide then started in on the frame. “Dad carried it with him when he went to go fight in Desert Storm.”

Carl’s eyebrows scrunched up. “Did you take it with you
too?” he asked. He honestly could not remember if she had or not. It felt like a million years had gone by since then and Dad had kept the pistol in his sock drawer at home, so Amy very well could have had it in Iraq and he would never have known.

Amy chuckled as she used
her fingernail to get a bit of stuff out of the checkering on the grip panel. “No, Dad wouldn’t let me.” she said with a wry smile. She had tried to get Dad to suggest that she put the pistol in the bottom of her rucksack. “Besides, they checked all my stuff before I got on the plane and I probably would have gotten in trouble if I got caught with it.”

“Oh.” Carl said quietly. He watched his sister push a wire brush through the barrel to loosen any carbon or debris that might be inside it. “Dad let me shoot it a couple times. It was fun.” He smiled at the memory.

“I smacked myself in the face with it the first time Dad let me shoot it.” Frays admitted, making her brother laugh. “I was like seven and he had accidently put a couple of +P loads in it. I put the safety off, lined up my sights and POW! Right in the kisser.” Amy mimed the recoil of a handgun rocking back and smacking her in the mouth. The two of them laughed almost to the point of tears at the image of a skinny little girl with a fat lip being fussed over by her daddy. “Dad felt soooo bad! He bought me a banana split on the way home from the range to make up for it.” She finished cleaning the pistol and put it back together then wiped the holster, magazine carrier and the magazines off.

Frays held the weapon out to Carl butt first. “Go on, buddy.” she said, waiting for him to take it. “I think Dad would want you to have
this. Just take good care of it. It’s an antique.” A look of awe came over the boy’s face as he accepted it then locked the slide to the rear and inspected the chamber, just as Dad had always taught him to do when picking up a gun. Amy smiled so widely it kind of made her cheeks hurt a little.

“Hey, it’s better than that little nine mil popgun you got.” the boy said as he stuck the pistol into the waistband of his jeans. Amy only shook her head, went to
the boy then pulled him to his feet and gave him a big hug. The siblings held each other for a moment, a few tears leaking down their faces. Carl finally broke off the embrace then wiped his eyes and smiled. “Aw, c’mon! Aim! Stop!” he said half heartedly.

Frays laughed then her face became serious. “Look…Carl, I’m so sorry about before.” she said as she held him at arm’s length. The woman looked sheepishly at her little brother and sighed. “The last time I ever talked to Dad was when I told him I was pregnant. He slapped me and called me a…
um…anyway…and I didn’t speak to him since. He was
right there
and…and I was so mad at him that I couldn’t bring myself to even talk to him…”

Carl was quiet
. It explained why Dad and Amy were so pissed at each other ever since the news broke that she was pregnant. He smiled and hugged her, careful to avoid touching anywhere near her neck. “C’mon, let’s go back inside.” he said quietly as he gathered the rag, cleaning kit and the pistol’s accessories. Amy picked up the cold pack and rested it on the back of her neck and followed after him, smiling a little to herself.

Rodriguez and Lacey were slowly getting the kids to settle down for bed. Carl was finishing putting away the dinner dishes after they had dried in the rack next to the sink. It had been Amy’s turn to make dinner and
now she was in the bathroom doing personal hygiene. Half of them used the shower before dinner and the other half did so later in the evening so that they all had enough of hot water since Lacey had to wash the kids individually, exhausting the supply in the tank under the deck fairly quickly.

“
Holy crap!” Amy shouted, her voice muffled by the bathroom door. The three of them hustled into the hall and ran into each other, all trying to get at the handle. Lacey rolled his eyes when Frays opened up, holding the bottom of her undershirt up. She smiled uneasily at her friends. “Sorry, guys. Look!” Frays pointed to a small, distinct lump in the middle of her stomach. “I got a baby bump.”

Carl smiled nervously. “Can I?” he asked, tentatively reaching out towards his sister’s
belly. Frays nodded and the boy ran his fingers over the tiny bulge, making Amy giggle and back away. Carl crouched, smiling at his little niece or nephew. “Cool! Hey little guy, I’m your Uncle Carl.” he said quietly to his sister’s stomach, a big goofy grin plastered all over his face.

Adam shook his head.
In addition to the lump, he could not help but notice that Frays’ breasts were a little bigger than the last time he had seen her in a tee shirt. “Jeez, Frays.” he muttered, glancing towards the dining area and was not that surprised to see two little heads poking around the corner. He smiled a little, remembering when Laura had first started to show. The first ultrasound had only shown one fetus, but much to their surprise a second one appeared at the next doctor’s visit… All of a sudden two competing emotions sprung to mind: grief for his wife and concern that his friend might be in a similar situation. What if there were
two
or even
three
little people growing in there?

“I was kinda hoping that I was starting to get some weight back.” Amy said as she leaned against the doorframe.
She smiled a little bit and glanced down as she tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “Looks like somebody else had other ideas.” Frays patted her belly and snickered.

Rodriguez
snorted then looked a little startled. She turned and rushed out into the living room, coming back with Carl’s backpack. “Carl, did you show your sister what you grabbed at the store the other day?” she asked, thrusting the bag into the boy’s arms.

“Um…no.” Carl muttered,
surprised that he had forgotten all about it. He tugged open the zipper and held it open so Amy could see the contents. Frays grinned and hugged her little brother when she pulled out the diapers, baby wipes and vitamins. He tried to look embarrassed and pulled himself away.

“Thank you, Carl.” Amy said as she set the gifts on the sink. Frannie and Adam exchanged little smiles at the scene then backed away from the door a little. Rodriguez put a hand on Carl’s shoulder, indicating that he should follow them.

“Uncle Carl’s on top of shit, Frays.” Rodriguez said quietly. She glanced at the little lump still visible under her friend’s shirt then backed away a little more. “Taking care of our nephew.” She smirked at the red creeping into the boy’s face. “C’mon, guys. Let’s let momma here get her shower taken.”

Amy snickered and sighed as soon as he had the door shut.
She ran her hand over the bump on her belly, glad that the little person seemed to be coming along okay but also starting to get scared too. It would not be long until her flak jacket would not fit. How long would it be before she could not even get up out of a chair without help? A wave of queasiness ran through her when she thought about how she had fallen on her face the other day. She could have miscarried right there in a ditch by that stupid rusted out railroad track. What then? Carl and Frannie would have had to try and carry her all the way back to the truck. Or one of them would have to stay with her and the other go get the Humvee. Heck, what if she got tore up inside or whatever when the baby came?

She thought about what Lacey had confided to her about his family, how his mother had died in childbirth
and his father had abandoned him as a baby. At the time, Amy could not understand why a father would turn his back on his son. There was a wave of self loathing. She had been so ticked off at her dad…and now she would never have the chance to at least try and explain to him…to make it right somehow…

She put a hand out and leaned against the wall
, taking a few deep breaths choking on tears. “Stop it right now.” Frays told herself sharply as she turned on the shower then stripped and got inside. The young woman squirted a little shampoo into the palm of her hand and started washing her hair. She squinted, trying to keep the soap out of her eyes. “Everything’s alright right now. There’s a way around if you calm down and look.”

After a nice hot shower and having a go at hacking down the almost freakishly long hair on her legs (and
shredding herself pretty badly) Frays had to admit to herself that she felt better. Carl was talking again. She had to remind herself that she had a full belly and a dry, reasonably secure place to sleep as she toweled off and dressed. The generator was in good working order and it had a decent amount of fuel left and the boiler was in good shape. There was the water pump and filter too, giving them a virtually endless supply of fresh water from the lake not to mention hot showers.