Outbreak: Brave New World (41 page)

A rusty old pickup truck towing a water buffalo pulled up to the
ir position. Frannie thought the thing looked like something some ANA troops should be driving: all rust, dents and mismatched paint with a machinegun mount welded to the front of the bed. There were six men with rifles in the back in addition to the man behind the Mark 19. They were part of the base’s QRF who roamed the perimeter ready to back up the personnel in the towers in case of attack.

Adam scrambled down the ladder to fill up their water supplies and picked up a couple MREs for lunch
. Time seemed to drag on as they waited out their shift. There was an old dynamo powered handset that they used to check in with the command tent every hour. “Listen, man…” Rodriguez began as she sipped some water from her camelbak and took out her cigarettes again. “Amy likes you. She won’t say so but I don’t think she’d be so torn up over everything if she didn’t. Just…don’t try so hard.”

Lacey shook his head. “I didn’t mean it and I feel horrible about what happened.” he muttered as he dug around in his cargo pockets for something. The man found nothing but a bit of 550 cord that had somehow ended up in there. It was strange, as he could not remember where he had found it. “Every time I heard her pop her neck or anything…”

“I don’t know what to tell ya, man.” Frannie said sympathetically. For the first time she really realized how much older she was than the man sitting next to her even if it was only about five years or so. Rodriguez puffed away on a cigarette in silence for a few minutes while Lacey seemed lost in thought.

It was almost dark by the time that their relief showed up. Rodriguez briefed their replacements in the tower on what had happened during their shift (the two men in Marine
cammies chuckled at what she described as ‘precisely dick’). Once they were certain that the men understood what was going on, Adam and Frannie started back towards the ‘refugee resettlement center’…that up until recently had been a Super Wal-Mart.

“DADDYDADDYDADDYDADDY!!” Becca
shouted as she ran towards the two of them, her little legs pumping furiously. The little girl squealed with delight when Adam swept her into his arms and held her tight. She smooched her father’s cheek and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I missed you, Daddy!”

“I missed you too, kiddo!” Adam said as he set her down after a minute.
Becca hugged Frannie and they started off towards the little collection of jungle gyms that someone had set up on the grass next to the Wal-Mart’s parking lot. An older, heavy set white woman named Genny tended the small herd of other children as they seemed to be half heartedly played on the equipment. “Thanks for watching Becca.” Lacey said as he dug his ID card out and presented it to the daycare provider.

“Don’t mention it, sir.” Genny said with a grin as she dug a notepad out of her pocket, checked his name on the list and gave his card back. The large woman pulled another notepad out and gave it to Adam so he could sign his daughter out for the day. “Becca’s a little sweetheart. No trouble at all.”

Becca held her father’s hand as they walked back to the Aid Station. Rodriguez followed a little behind, a small smile wrinkling the scar tissue on her cheek as she watched the two of them. Her leg was stiff and sore most likely from sitting still for so long. Lacey noticed and slowed down to keep pace with Frannie. “Did you have a good day, hon?” Adam asked. The little girl frowned at her father and she moved as close as she could to him.

“It was okay.” Becca mumbled as she kicked at something in her path. It had not been much fun. Miss Genny tried to make it like daycare
before but it was different. Miss Genny read them a story and let them play on the playground. Some of the older kids did school stuff like reading and math. A nice man in Army clothes brought a big box of crackers and a plastic cooler of juice boxes for snack time. He looked like he wanted to cry when Miss Genny had the kids thank him for bringing the snacks.

All the kids were
scared and Brian, one of the older boys, kept going pee pee in his pants like a baby. Rachel, this other girl, cried and cried all day long no matter how much Mrs. Genny or her helper, Miss Helen, cuddled her. Nobody really wanted to play. Becca felt bad for some of the kids like Brian and Kelly because they did not know where their Mommies or Daddies were. True, she did not know where her Mommy was but she had Amy and Frannie and her Daddy and Carl. Most of the kids just wanted to hide in the big jungle gym’s tree house thing because somebody said the Bad People could not climb. “I missed you and Amy and Frannie and Carl and Paulie and Freddie.”

Lacey was quiet for a minute. “Say…what if I asked Lieutenant Haskins if she thought it would be a good idea for Freddie to come play with you and the other kids tomorrow?” he asked as he sort of bumped his daughter with his hip. “Would that make it better?”

“Where’s Freddie?” the little girl asked, suddenly excited. The soldiers had taken the dog off of the helicopter earlier and she had not seen the animal since. He was a good dog. “Can we see him?” She tugged on her father’s hand and beamed a grin up at him. The two grownups smiled down at her. “Please, Daddy? Please? I wanna see Freddie!”

“He’s around here somewhere.” Adam said as they neared the Aid Station. He picked the girl up and balanced her on his hip, juggling her for a moment as he tried to get her situated. His rifle was in the way. “Freddie played with Amy and Paulie and their new friend Tommy today.”

Becca smiled and giggled. “Amy’s a scaredy cat of Freddie.” she said and hugged her father again. “I don’t think she’d play with Freddie.” They made a brief stopover at a tent where the dinner rations were being handed out. Adam presented the civilian with a note he had gotten from Lieutenant Haskins when he visited earlier so that he could collect rations for Frays and his son. Lacey and Rodriguez picked up a small cardboard box of Styrofoam trays with T-Ration spaghetti and red sauce, green beans and a foil packet containing a cake of shelf stable bread on them along with some shelf stable boxes of milk and little packages of Oreo cookies for themselves and their friends. One of the workers put a little extra food on a tray then wrote a big black ‘P’ on the cover with a sharpie denoting that the particular tray of rations was meant to go to an expectant mother. 

Frannie jogged on ahead of them and held the door to the Aid Station open for Lacey. “Why don’t you ask
Amy about what she did with Freddie yourself?” Rodriguez asked as she slipped in behind them. The foyer was still full of neatly arranged rows of chairs and dimly lit, probably to save juice. Frannie grimaced when she stumbled into a chair and banged her injured leg against it in the dark.

Lieutenant Haskins appeared in the hallway as they made their way towards Amy and Paulie’s room. “Hello, guys.” she said and smiled “If you’re here to see Airman Frays and Paulie, be quick. They’re being released tomorrow and Frays has to be to work early in the morning. Momma needs her rest.”

To their surprise Carl was already there. “Hey guys!” he said as he crossed the room in three quick strides and took the box from Rodriguez then put it aside and gave her a hug. “Have a good day at work?”

Frannie tried to look
annoyed but could not keep it up. She smiled at the young man and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “You look like hell.” Rodriguez muttered as she brushed off the front of her plate carrier. Carl was covered in dirt and dust from head to toe. She pretended to look irritated but ended up grinning at the man. He looked filthy and tired but happier than she had probably ever seen him.

“Naughty word, Frannie!” Paulie chided from his bed. He was grinning from ear to ea
r and started to try and get up when Rodriguez walked up and held him down, making the little boy giggle. “You owe us a quarter!”

“Oh, put it on my tab!” she said and ticked Paulie’s armpits.
The little boy was laughing hysterically until he bumped his damaged hand on Rodriguez’s arm. Paulie yelped and held his injured hand to his chest, doing his absolute best to keep from crying. Frannie stopped playing with the boy and brushed his long hair away from his face. “Sorry! Sorry! Shh…you’re okay, buddy.” She smiled a little and kissed Paulie’s forehead. “We gotta get you a haircut, little man. It’s hard enough to tell you and your sister apart sometimes.”

Lieutenant Haskins was in the room
in a flash. “Hush, little guy…shh…” she said quietly as she gently elbowed the other woman out of the way. “Let me see. It’s okay. Shh…” The doctor made a gentle clucking noise in the back of her throat as she checked the little boy’s hand. “You shouldn’t play so rough just yet, Paul.” It did not look like he had opened his wounds back up but had just banged the stumps around when he was roughhousing. The boy’s hand would be sore for a long time before it healed fully. However it looked like he would be keeping the rest of the hand which was good. Forward Operating Base Freedom did not have a surgeon.

Lacey was at the boy’s side. “It’s alright, buddy.” he went over to the box and took out a tray. “Hey, look what me and Frannie and Becca brought you.” Adam brought his son one of the trays along w
ith a milk and package of Oreos. Lacey gave the boy a little bag that had a napkin, plastic silverware and condiments in it.

“Oh boy! Pasgetti!”
Paulie said gleefully as he tore the package of eating utensils open with his teeth. The boy struggled with the word written on the little white packet in the bag with the fork and knife. “Ssssa…alt.” he frowned slightly and smiled when realization struck him like a bolt out of the blue. “Salt!” Adam held out his hand and his son gave him a high five. “Salt! Daddy, give Amy this.”

Amy smiled broadly at the little kid, deeply touched by the gesture. “Aw! Thank you, Paulie.”
she said as caught the little paper packet that Lacey tossed to her. He smiled and winked at her then turned back to his son. Frays tore one end of the salt packet open and dumped it onto her tongue, relishing the way the white crystals made her mouth pucker. Rodriguez grimaced and shuddered before turning her attention to the box.

“Okay, guys.” Frannie said as she distributed the trays of food. She gave Paulie a look when she was giving Becca her dinner. The little boy was already starting to dig into his spaghetti. “Wait, little man. Let me get everybody else their food and everything, alright?”

Once everybody had their food Amy bowed her head and said the blessing. Amy made a face after she had taken her first bite. “Oh, yeah. T-Rats spaghetti.” Frays muttered and grinned wryly. “Good stuff. Good stuff.”

Lieutenant Haskins wished everyone a good night and left
them to eat. She went down the hall to the nurse’s desk where she made sure that Daryl knew what should be going on during his shift. Not that there was much that should be happening anyways. The place was going to be empty again barring another dire emergency tomorrow morning. Airman Frays and Paulie were in pretty good shape and in good spirits. The two of them would be getting a couple Tylenol and a sleep aid if they wanted it, but that should be about the extent of their medication. Specialist Rodriguez was to get her meds one dose at a time from the dispensary in the morning and after dinner.

Antidepressants were starting to become pretty hard to come by and supply containers, if they came at all, were needed for more important drugs: painkillers, anesthetics, antibiotics. There were others on the FOB that were on them too, no cases that seemed too serious yet but things were probably going to get pretty interesting here in a month or two. She made a note to bring up gradually weaning the people on psychotropic drugs off their meds to try and mitigate the worst of the effects
at the staff meeting tomorrow morning. The last thing they needed on top of everything else was somebody flipping their shit because they ran out of Paxil…  

Once she down the ha
ll and out of sight of the desk Lieutenant Haskins let out a terrific yawn and stretched then rolled her shoulders. It had been one long, long fucking day. Up at zero dark thirty, half an MRE while filling out requisition forms for supplies that probably would never arrive then an hour and a half meeting with Major Tennyson and that fucking letch from FEMA, Mike Bouchard, the other half of the same MRE then nine hours working at the first aid tent until coming back over to the Aid Station for a couple hours. Thankfully it had been reasonably quiet. The worst she had to deal with all day was some blisters, a busted thumb from an accident with a hammer, a couple spider bites and a woman with the runs. 

The woman glanced at her watch as she unlocked her office and tugged the door open.
As the only doctor in the area, her office in the Aid Station doubled as her living quarters. It was kinda cramped and stuffy but at least she had the place to herself. Everyone else was either on cots in the resettlement center or in tents pitched on lawns of the various plots not designated for agriculture in the compound except of course for the FEMA guys and their contractors. They were living pretty high on the hog in what used to be the airport’s terminal building. Still, she had to admit that the little faux leather couch felt like a feather bed after a long day and the place had its own head with a shower in it.

Haskins flicked on the light for a minute and
stifled a yelp when she saw the sallow faced man sitting on her desk. “Hey, Beth.” the man grinned and hopped down off the desk, adjusting the way his khakis hung on his brawny legs. He was built like a side of beef with a stylish beard and Oakley sunglasses that somebody had dressed up in a black polo shirt and dress pants. He also had a Springfield XDM pistol strapped to his hip with a couple spare magazines opposite it. “Thought I’d stop by and talk about the new arrivals for a minute.”