Outbreak: Brave New World (25 page)

Frannie smiled awkwardly
and nodded. “So, Amy just got back before everything went to shit. It…can really fuck your head up.” She shook her head, still scratching at her neck. Rodriguez licked her lips and shrugged. “For a long time you’re either bored or scared out of your fuckin’ mind. It’s hot, you’re tired, there’s shit blowing up, snipers. And that’s just the shit the hajjis are doing to you. The next thing you know you’re home and everybody expects you to be normal, whatever the fuck that is.”

All of a sudden he felt even worse than he did before. “What do you mean?”
he asked, curious and not wanting to know at the same time. There were classes and stuff like that, the sexual harassment briefings and shit. Goddamn. Another bit of realization struck him: Amy had probably come the closest she had ever been to being raped only a few weeks ago. Small wonder she flew off the handle like she did… He felt like a top contender for the crown of World’s Biggest Asshole.

“The guys start l
ooking at you.” Frannie mumbled her eyes fixed on the floor between the toes of her boots. “It gets worse. The comments, the jokes. Maybe a guy ‘accidentally’ cops a feel. Every shit for brains on the FOB and his brother hits on you. If you say yes, you’re a slut and if you say no you’re a bitch and nobody talks to you. It goes on for months. And if you complain, you’re a whiny bitch with sand in her cunt, understand?”

“Yeah.” he said quietly and forced himself to his feet. Adam took Rodriguez’s arm a
nd hauled her to her feet. “So…how pissed is she?” The man grimaced and looked down the hall. “I mean…it wasn’t just what I said. She was chewing me out and…I kissed her.”

Rodriguez
found that she could only laugh and shake her head. “Wow, man.” she said quietly and started out into the hall. “When you screw up you don’t half ass it, do you?” No wonder Frays looked so pissed off. Frannie stopped him in the doorway and frowned at the floor for a second. “Look...I don’t want to talk out of class, but…she’s just not that into you.”

“I figured it out pretty quick.” Adam said quietly. He was trying to do his best to walk normally even though his balls hurt like hell. “You wouldn’t know it from looking at her, but she
kicks like a damn mule.”

Rodriguez rolled her eyes and sighed, moving off toward the kids at the table. Carl was sitting on the couch while
Amy was pacing back and forth on the deck. “Is Amy mad at Daddy?” Becca asked when Frannie came close. She stood there for a moment then held out her hands, scooping the children up and carried them over to the recliner.

“Yeah, but she’ll get over it.” Frannie confided as she rocked the little ones. Rodriguez glanced over at Carl when the washer dinged in the foyer. She was grateful when the guy got up and went to take care of the laundry without being told. “Don’t sweat it, kiddos. Amy and your dad are friends
. They get mad at each other just like you guys probably get mad at each other. We all care about you guys very much and we’re all gonna do everything we can to keep you guys safe.”

Lacey paused in the dining room then took a deep breath and crossed the living room and went out onto the deck. Frays stopped her pacing long enough to stare at him
for a second then continued, jamming her hands into her armpits. He could only watch her for a little bit. “I was out of line, Airman.” he said, feeling like there was a hot slimy snake flopping around in his guts “I…don’t know what else to say…”

“It’s as much my fault as it is yours, Lacey.” Frays said, finally halting in her pacing and looking at the man. “I think things
have gotten a little too…personal…between us.” She sighed, her eyes flitting from Lacey’s face to the trees behind him. “We’re all stressed out and grieving… And don’t get me wrong, I really appreciate that night in the laundry room…but that shouldn’t have happened.”

Lacey nodded. “I
guess.” he said quietly and gave Frays a rueful smile. Adam rubbed the back of his neck, scratched behind his ear. “I just miss Laura so much, Frays… I…I’m not used to being alone. I want her back and I want you and Carl to have your mom and dad back. I want my shitty jobs back…” He took few deep breaths and looked at Frays with an odd little smirk. “Want to hear something funny? Paulie’s trying to talk me into asking Rodriguez to be their new mommy. I dunno where Becca stands on the subject.”

Amy chuckled and glanced through the glass door, seeing Frannie rocking the kids in the recliner. “They do like her, huh?” she said with a wry grin. Her heart felt a little heavy. Becca and
Paulie were good kids… She hoped the little guy or gal growing inside her was half as considerate and brave as those two little ones cuddling her friend in the living room. Frays took a couple steps towards Lacey and gave him a light tap on the shoulder, pushing him towards the door. “I think Paulie was against me having the job anyways.”

Lacey pulled open the door for her. “Yeah.” he whispered in her ear, flashing a grin as she passed by “I think
he thinks you’re mean something. I think those chocolate chip pancakes the other day went a long way in winning him over though.” Frays snorted into the palm of her hand as a laugh got lost trying to find its way out of her mouth. She sat down on the couch as Lacey settled into the rocking chair a few feet away.

Rodriguez gave the children a ‘see-I-told-you-so’ sort of a look and let the little ones go see their dad.
Amy was a little surprised when Becca climbed up onto the couch and sat down next to her while Paulie went to his dad. The little girl leaned against Amy’s side, squirming until she had Frays’ arm around her. Frays felt an awkward little smile come to her face as she squeezed the little girl. Becca put her arms around Frays’ forearm and squeezed her back.

Amy felt a yawn building in her chest.
Why am I getting so tired all the time?
Frays wondered absently as she squirmed into the couch cushions. She guessed that the pregnancy combined with the adrenaline rush of the ambush followed by the subsequent crash and hot shower on top of the stress over everything else that had just happened were conspiring to try and pull her eyes shut. Frays covered her mouth with a fist and yawned. “I need a nap.” Amy mumbled, running her free hand over her face then looked at her watch. “I’m sorry, guys. We’ll finish planning after lunch, alright? I can barely keep my eyes open.”

She was asleep on the couch a few moments later
. Becca climbed up with her and squirmed against the woman’s side. The little girl grinned when Amy lay there with her mouth half open and snoring loudly or made funny little noises in the back of her throat. Becca dropped off with her ear pressed against Amy’s chest a few moments later. Lacey looked at the woman’s brother on the opposite end of the couch and smirked.

“Has Frays always snored like that
or is this a new thing?” he asked. It was nice of his daughter to snuggle with Amy. He knew that Becca missed her mother even if she was not as vocal about it as her brother. Adam found that he was a grateful to Amy for letting his daughter cuddle with her because he knew there was something off about how his friend was acting around the children.

Frays
would not say anything about it but he had seen how she looked sort of sad when the kids were playing with Rodriguez. Then there was how freaked out she had gotten when she was roughhousing with the kids and how she reacted to Becca’s pictures… It was weird...Frays had played with the kids on the way to the supply point in Boston but now she was acting like she was scared of them for some reason. He decided that he should probably try to get her to talk about it soon.

“Oh, no she’s always done that.” Carl said quietly as he stood up and looked around the room.
He smirked, heading off towards the foyer to take the clothes out of the dryer and put the last load from the washer in it. “Drives you nuts, doesn’t it?”

There was a shuddering
WHAMBANG
that shook the floor under their feet. Out of instinct, Amy threw herself to the floor using her body to shield Becca from any incoming lateral fragments. Frays held the frightened, squirming girl to the floor for a moment until she got her bearings. She rose to her knees and looked around, a little embarrassed by her response to the loud noise. Thankfully nobody seemed to be paying much attention to her as the others were looking out the picture windows facing the lake. There was thick black smoke drifting skyward coming from the front of the house.

Amy sprang to her
feet and ran out onto the deck coughing as the acrid smoke wove its way through the two by fours under her feet and into her lungs. Lacey and Rodriguez were right behind her as they sprinted across the deck, jumped the gap where the staircase used to be and ran to the generator room door. Frays backed off choking, eyes burning when she pulled open the door. Lacey pushed her out of the way and reached inside the door groping in the miasmal atmosphere in the tiny room. He could not hear the generator running.

Not knowing exactly where the fire was, Lacey pulled the pin out of the extinguisher as soon as his hand closed around it, took a deep breath and stepped inside. After a couple steps he noticed a
flickering light in the black smoke and fired the extinguisher at it until the room became dark again. He loosed all the white foam, waving the nozzle back and forth until it hissed and spat, the flame retardant expelled.

A hand grabbed the back of his plate carrier and pulled him back through the door into the fresh
er air outside. “What the hell happened?” Rodriguez asked as she pulled Lacey away from the cloud of smoke oozing out of the generator room. “Did you put it out?”

“Yeah, I think I got it.” Lacey said in between coughs. He looked around, his eyes red and watery from the smoke. “Hope I got it anyway. Leave the door open to let it air out a little.” The three of them stood there watching the smoke for a long time.
Carl came out onto the deck with the kids and Freddie trailing behind him.

“What happened?” he asked, leaning over the railing and trying to see where the smoke was coming from. Carl coughed and waved his hand in front of his face in an attempt to clear the smoke away. “Is everybody okay?”

“Carl, bring the kids down here.” Amy shouted as loud as she dared, still gagging a little on the smoke. “I think the fire’s out. We’ll take a look in a few minutes.”

Chapter Seven

18
June 2011, 0732 hours Old Trout Lane 10 miles north of Holden, Massachusetts

After the generator room had aired out it only took a couple minutes to figure out the problem. There was a small pump that drew water out of the lake and put it through a filtration system before it filled the cistern under the house
. It looked to Frays like the pump’s motor had overheated and started to catch the soundproofing insulation on the wall next to it on fire. Lacey had gotten the fire out, but until they got the pump fixed they had to walk down to fill water cans at the lake and lug them back upstairs. Without the pump there was not enough water pressure to move the liquid from the cistern through the pipes and out of the taps or shower. The toilet would not work either, which meant they would have to get started on a privy pit…

Frays grumbled as she gently put her hand against the metal of the pump’s engine.
She had unplugged it last yesterday and it had finally cooled down enough to start working on. The young woman squatted over the pump and opened the little toolkit she had found on a shelf in the corner. Lacey stood a few feet behind her, staring worriedly at the woman as she struggled to get the outer case off. The engine had been hot enough to warp the bolts slightly making loosing the nuts difficult.

“Need a hand?” he asked, throwing a concerned glance at the piece of machinery his friend was working on. “Can you fix it?” The metal was all blackened and the paint on it was blistered. Frays grunted as she put her weight into loosening a particularly stubborn nut.

Amy shot a dirty look over her shoulder and wiped at her brow. “I can get it.” she muttered and turned back to lean on the wrench. “I’m pregnant not a cripple, Lacey.” Frays grumbled under her breath and tried moving the wrench back and forth. She frowned then got another larger wrench out of the toolbox and slipped it onto the end of the first one, using it to get more leverage.

The wrench slipped off the nut, smacking to the cement floor with a metallic ping. Frays took a deep breath, biting back a scream. “Ow…ow.” she hissed quietly shaking her skinned knuckles. Amy leapt to her feet and started kicking the pump a few times, muttering angrily under her breath.

Lacey grimaced. “How fucked is it?” he asked. It looked pretty bad to him, but he did not know much about machines and stuff. Amy sucked on her knuckles for a second and shook her head. Adam let the woman pace around the room for a moment then caught her by the arm. “Is it that bad?”