Outbreak: Brave New World (22 page)

Adam and Carl moved down the hall, stepping over the deactivated zombie. “Don’t look, man.” Lacey said under his breath as he dragged his foot on the carpet in an effort to clean the brains
and other goop off of his boot. He could hear something scratching at the door at the end of the hall. They moved up to the door, Lacey putting a hand on the door.

His hands sweating, Adam glanced over his shoulder at Carl. The two men exchanged nods and Lacey threw open the door, covering the area.
“Holy shit!” he said quietly…
Amy and Frannie sat at the dining room table, half heartily playing a game of spades. Frays made each of them an extra cup of coffee, which they sipped in between hands. The radio hissed very quietly at them and one of them would occasionally switch the station, trying to see if anything would come in. They were both tense and fidgety, worried sick about Carl and Lacey but neither one wanting to say anything about it. Were they okay? Did they run into any trouble? And did they find any toilet paper?

Amy scowled at her cards.
“Do you think it was like this for our folks?” Frays asked quietly after grumpily tossing out the queen of spades, sticking her with sixteen points. Frannie was beating her badly this time around. She was starting to give some serious thought to that jar of pickles in the cabinet next to the stove even though she was not really hungry. “Anybody want a pickle?” Amy asked, waiting for the inevitable smartass comment from Frannie. Rodriguez simply looked unhappily into her coffee cup for a moment then rifled through her cards.

The kids seemed to keep themselves occupied with the stuffed animals and toy cars that they had brought back from their trip into town. Paulie stood up with a couple of the little metal cars in his han
ds and took a seat at the table. The little boy watched the women playing cards for a few minutes then put one of his toy cars on the table. A mischievous little smile played across his face when he pushed the miniature fire engine red Lamborghini Diablo across the table, where it rolled over the discard pile and landed in Frannie’s lap. Rodriguez scowled at the little boy and came around the table as Paulie giggled, hopping out of his chair and running into the living room.

Rodriguez caught the boy
and tickled him. In a matter of minutes Paulie, Becca and Frannie were all rolling around on the floor and horsing around. Frays smiled into the palm of her hand as she watched. She liked the kids but for some reason she just plain could not bring herself to play with them like Frannie did. It made her feel sort of panicky and sick to her stomach and it kind of annoyed her whenever she thought about it. How could she take care of her own kid if she could not even play with Becca and Paulie? How soon would it be until the others started questioning her leadership if they knew she was half crippled and almost constantly on the verge of losing her crap? She clenched and opened her left hand a few times, willing the appendage on the end of her arm to stop shaking.

Amy’s breath caught in her throat. She thought she heard the crunching noise of a car pulling into the gravel driveway outside. Frays and Rodriguez looked at each other, identical expressions of surprise and anxiety on their faces. “Did you hear that?” Frannie asked, hoping that her ears were playing tricks on her.

“Kids, get behind the couch.” Amy said quickly as she stood up with her carbine in her hands. “Time to play hide and go seek.” Rodriguez jumped up then slapped on her Kevlar as she picked up her own weapon. Frannie nodded at the children and gently pushed them towards the furniture, hoping that she was giving them a reassuring smile as she got them hidden behind the sofa. “Don’t worry. Me and Amy aren’t gonna let anything happen to you guys.”

The two of them moved to either side of the hallway leading to the foyer. Whoever pulled up to the house would probably come knocking soon. Frannie and Amy exchanged nervous glances as they focused on the door, waiting for their visitors to come on in. “I wouldn’t want to be the first guy through the door.” Rodriguez said quietly as she flicked her carbine’s selector switch from Safe to Semi. Frays snorted a tiny laugh out of her nos
e then hushed her friend: she thought she heard the sound of a boot heel scraping on the concrete outside.

The two of them nearly shot through the door when someone rapped on it twice then jiggled the handle once. Frays and Rodriguez both let out breaths that they did not realize they were holding as they lowered their weapons. Amy rolled her eyes as she put her M4 back on safe but still advanced cautiously towards the back door. Whoever
was out there knew the signal…but who drove a frigging car up here?

Amy
crept to the door then pushed her M4 around to her back and drew her pistol then pulled the bars out of their brackets. She stood off to the side and slowly opened the door, pointing her weapon at the opening. “Lacey, why the heck didn’t you say anything?” she asked as she let the man inside. There was a shiny new black SUV sitting in the driveway. “I could have shot you, you jerk! And where did that truck come from?”

Lacey seemed to deflate a little. “Glad to see you too, buddy.” he muttered under his breath as he pushed past her into the foyer. “
I…think we…um…found your neighbors.” Adam said quietly. The tone of the man’s voice told her everything she needed to know about that subject. Amy nodded and sighed, letting the man into the house. Carl was right behind him.

“What else did you find?” Amy asked. Rodriguez was in the living room getting the kids out from behind the couch. Becca and Paulie ran across the room and latched onto their father’s legs the second they laid eyes on him.
“Anything good?”

Carl and Adam exchang
ed a conspiratorial look which immediately made Frays suspect that something was afoot. “Why don’t you guys come help us get the stuff inside?” Lacey asked smiling down at his kids. “C’mon guys. Come and see what we got.”

Everybody filed out to the
SUV. Something big and black leapt out of the car when Carl pulled open the back door of the vehicle. Amy yelped and stumbled over her own feet, abject terror freezing her muscles as she fell on her butt. She sat on the ground shaking like a leaf and staring at a scrawny half starved black Labrador Retriever that stood there wagging its tail and panting happily a few feet away, its long pink tongue lolling out of its mouth. Becca and Paulie ran to the dog and started speaking in baby talk to the animal as they rubbed its neck and scratched behind its ears. Frays could not believe that even Rodriguez started petting it too. The bony old dog seemed to be in seventh heaven as it was at the center of attention.

Lacey looked from everyone playing with the dog to the trembling woman
half pointing her M4 at the dog, her eyes as big as saucers. “Hey, Frays.” he said softly as he quickly put himself between her and the dog. Adam crouched next to her, feeling really shitty because their little surprise had scared his friend so badly…even if it did strike him as kind of funny. He put her arm over his shoulders and helped Amy up, who was shaking so badly she could barely keep her legs under her. “C’mon inside, Zoomie. It’s alright. C’mon.”

Carl and the others brought the do
g inside a couple minutes later along with a big bag of dry dog food and his food and water bowls. A couple more trips brought in cardboard boxes filled to the brim with cans of corn, string beans and tuna as well as homemade pickles and beets in mason jars. There were even a few jars of spaghetti sauce, something that Carl was secretly looking forward to. Carl had also found a ten pound bag of rice, four case sized variety packs of Top Ramen, eleven boxes of dry pasta and a half dozen boxes of generic Mac and Cheese. There was more laundry soap, a handful of tubes of toothpaste, razor blades and an electric hair clipper and other assorted personal hygiene gear (including a dozen rolls of toilet paper). Lacey had found a snubnose Bulldog revolver chambered in .44 Special in the nightstand of the master bedroom as well as two speedloaders and a box of ammunition for the pistol. The other cabin’s garage proved a goldmine as well: a search turned up a couple axes, a hatchet and a pair of Louisville Sluggers in addition to more nails, screws and various hand tools. 

Amy had recovered after her initial fright before the dog came inside. Now she sat at the edge of the couch, close to the sliding glass door and looking like she was doing her level best to keep her fear in check. Paulie and Becca were playing with the filthy animal a few feet away and letting it slobber all over their faces. It occurred to her that she might have shot the stinking thing if the kids were not there. Becca noticed
that Amy was looking pale and was breathing heavily a few feet away so the girl took the dog’s collar and led it over to her friend. “Amy this is Freddie.” she said as she gave the big dog’s furry neck a pat, sending ripples through the animal’s flesh. Frays noticed that there was a mustache of white fur along the front of the dog’s muzzle above its long sharp teeth.

“F-Freddie.” Amy stammere
d as she tried to concentrate on not hyperventilating “Hi Freddie.” The dog took a couple steps towards the woman and rested its head in her lap, its brown eyes almost looking apologetic as it slowly wagged its tail. Frays glanced from the girl’s smiling face to the dog then slowly, tentatively reached out and scratched the dog behind its ear. “G-Good boy, Freddie.”

Adam, Carl and Frannie finished bringing everything inside and put away.
The three of them stopped in the dining room, all of them doing their best to keep from laughing at the sight of an obviously terrified Amy squished into the corner of the couch. Carl walked into the living room and knelt down, his hands spread wide. “Come here, Freddie.” The dog limped over to the boy and licked his face.

After she was reasonably convinced that the dog was going to bite her or anything, the sight of it limping after her brother kind of moved her to pity
the poor beast. It did not stop the tremors running through her limbs but she did feel kind of bad for the old thing. Becca and Paulie scampered off to help Carl feed the dog as Lacey sat down next to her. The man had a barely repressed grin on his face. “So I take it you’re more of a cat person.” he said quietly.

Amy smiled weakly, interlocking her fingers and running them over her hair. “Yeah.” she said quietly as she leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. “Dunno why, but dogs scare the crap out of me.
Puppies are…you know…sort of okay, but dogs? Uh uh. No way.” Frays chuckled and shook her head, glancing at the man sitting next to her. “I’ve never been bitten or anything. Weird, huh?”

“Yeah. Weird.” Adam agreed. He smiled, listening to his kids feeding the dog in the foyer with Carl and Rodriguez. “I’m sorry, but the poor thing was starving.
We couldn’t just leave him there. His owners left him shut up in a bedroom without any food. Luckily they left the bathroom door open. Looked like Freddie there was drinking out of the toilet.”

“Uhhh!
Ew!” Frays said under her breath, her face wrinkling up in disgust. “That filthy thing was licking the kids’ faces!” Amy shuddered and squirmed in revulsion. The woman started flapping her hands around a little bit, a look of utter revulsion on her face. “It licked my hand! Ick! Ew! Ew! Ewww!”

That did it.
The dam burst and laughter erupted out of Adam. She scowled at the man for a second before snorting and cracked up herself. The others in the foyer heard the laughter coming from the living room. It spread slowly amongst them at first. Carl snorted and grinned. Rodriguez tittered as she scratched Freddie behind his ear. Becca and Paulie smiled up at the grownups as the children poured food in the dog’s plastic bowl. It grew and grew until they all sat on the floor clutching their stomachs and laughing. Puzzled by the humans’ behavior, Freddie wandered around the foyer and looked at the little boy then licked his face.

It
was something that had been missing from the house for a long time: genuine mirthful laughter, the kind that made your face red and your stomach muscles cramp up and your eyes water and made it just plain impossible to catch your breath. Once she finally could breathe without cracking up again Amy glanced at her watch. “It’s time for lunch.” Frays said quietly. She stood up and brushed a couple stray strands of hair away from her face. “Did I see that you guys got some spaghetti and stuff?”

Amy boiled up some elbows and mixed them up with a jar of tomato sauce
while Lacey, Carl and the kids were giving Freddie a bath outside after, at Frays’ insistence, the two men stashed the Jeep and the other civilian vehicles in the trees across the road. They drained the fuel from them to use in the generator.             

She frowned, wishing for a little meat to put in the pasta
sauce. They had eaten the last of the venison and such in the freezer after she and Lacey had buried their families… All of a sudden she did not really want meat anymore. Becca, Paulie and Carl were setting the table while Adam was getting the pitcher of Gatorade out of the fridge. “Okay, guys.” Amy announced as she stirred the pasta one last time and took it off the heat. “Lunch is ready. Carl, could you set the table please? Ooop!” She turned around to see Freddie smiling up at her. Somehow Frays was able to keep from spilling the pasta all over the floor when the animal’s sudden appearance made her nearly jump right out of her skin. The young woman scowled at the dog, lifting the pot up as she scooted nervously past the animal.

They wolfed down the food after the blessing. Becca kept slipping Freddie a little of the pasta when she thought nobody was looking.
Amy smiled a little as she ate, pleased that everyone seemed to like the food she made. Granted, elbows and tomato sauce was not exactly rocket science but still it was nice to see everyone eating. “Aim, I’m sorry.” Carl said after he finished a mouthful of the hot food. He sighed and looked a little upset with himself. “I completely forgot you don’t like dogs.”