Outbreak: Better Days (6 page)

“No, no we haven’t.” Rodriguez said with a small grin.
She looked at the floor between her boots and shrugged. “He wants to and I kinda want to but I don’t want to mess this up…” She sighed and looked at Frays. “Um…would you mind if I stayed here tonight?”

Amy nodded. “Sure thing.” she said without a moment’s thought. “Truth be told I’d be glad to have you stay. It was getting weirded out being here by myself.” Frays grumbled and shrugged. “That’s Carl’s place you’re sitting on there.”

“Are you doing alright, Frays?” Rodriguez asked after she got settled in for the night. The lights had gone out replaced by the shadowy red glow of the emergency lights. She had kicked off her boots and stuffed her plate carrier under the cot. The blankets and pillow was comfortable on the rough canvas of the folding bed. It smelled like Carl and she found that comforting.

“I…” Amy started followed by the sound of her breathing heavily in the semi dark. “I was just laying here and thinking…” Frays pressed a hand over her mouth and fought back tears “Tomorrow’s the Fourth of July.”

Frannie sat up, crossed the cubicle and sat down next to her friend. Amy sat up as well, her hands folded in her lap. “I w-was looking forward to…to marching in the Independence Day parade with my Dad. We were gonna meet up at the VFW hall in our uniforms. Me and him and his friends. The old guys from World War Two and Korea…”

She grinned and wiped at her cheeks again. “After the parade was done there was a cookout at the VFW. Me and Carl would go screw around on the midway wasting our money on those stupid carnival games.” Frannie put a hand on her friend’s shoulder and rubbed the taut muscle. “After it got dark there’d be fireworks in the park.”

“Sounds like it was fun.” Frannie said quietly. The only fireworks in her neighborhood growing up had been when some of the local gangbangers shot each other up. She sighed heavily and took her hand back.

“I miss Mom and Dad so…so much, Frannie.” Amy said quietly. Tears leaked out of her eyes again and she wiped them away. “I was terrible to them. Mom wanted everything to be like it was but it wasn’t and…Dad…
I know he loved me and didn’t mean what he said...”

Rodriguez frowned and wondered if she should go find Lacey.
The two of them were…close…but on the other hand it was kinda late. Of course she could stay with the kids while Lacey and Frays were talking or whatever. And she had to admit that Lacey was just one of those guys that was good to talk to. “Do you want me to see if Lacey’s around?” Frannie asked and started to act like she was going to get up.

Amy frowned and shook her head after a few seconds. “No…no…” she said quietly. The woman shrugged. “I…how do I put this…I don’t trust myself around him. I like him and everything and he’s a great guy but…I…I dunno…ya know?”

Frannie chuckled. “Strangely enough I think I do.” she said and sat down on Carl’s bunk. Frannie lay down and shifted around into a more comfortable position. Frannie’s mind drifted as she started to doze off. While she had been deployed in Afghanistan she had…slept around…a lot. More out of a need to get her mind off the death and boredom than any real need to have a relationship or anything. Hell, she could not even remember a couple of their names. PFC Jason Hendricks had been in the truck with her when the driver rolled over an IED…

She wiped at a tear of her own. He had been a good guy, one of the few men she had been with on deployment that did not treat her like a total whore
. The last time she had seen him was on the Medivac chopper that would take them to Bagram Airfield. They had her flying high on morphine and strapped to a stretcher, so fucking lit up that she was barely aware that there was a tube down her throat to help her breathe… Hendricks had been next to her and she reached out to try and take his hand but she could not find it… That sick moment when she realized that she could not find his hand because his whole arm was not there… Panic not for herself but for her friend next to her… A shadowy form doing something to the IV in her arm and then everything went all wobbly and dark…

********

It was hot. Senior Airman Amy Frays could not for the life of her understand why on God’s green and verdant earth why people came to this part of the world and decided to hang around for a couple dozen millennia. It was always just so friggin’ hot and dry and sandy never mind the giant scary looking camel spiders that always seemed to have a talent for turning up
exactly
where you did not want them to be: sleeping bag, boots, helmet…

She leaned against the concrete shelter about a dozen meters from the connex she shared with Airman Sally Watkins the tiny bit of shade put out by the structure making it slightly less unbearable. Frays snorted a chunk of something disgusting out of her nose and fished a pack of nasty smelling Miami cigarettes out of an ammo pouch on her LCS and lit one. She blew smoke out of her nose and glanced at her watch.
There was a twinge in the pit of her stomach. The chow hall would be opening for lunch in about an hour…

“C’mon, Frays! Watkins!” a giant in ABUs called from the doorway of his connex. Frays hid a small smile behind the motion of taking the cigarette out of her mouth and butting it out. A little part of her still wanted Master Sergeant Brian Emery badly…even though he was married with two kids. “Get your shit and let’s go! Chow time!”

Frays and Watkins gathered their weapons and gear then trotted over to their NCO. Amy looked startled for a moment. “Crap…Sergeant, I gotta grab my flash drive.” Frays grumbled as she searched through her pockets and pouches. The woman rolled her eyes and frowned clearly upset with herself. “I’ve gotta get my papers emailed off. Be right back.”

Frays turned on her heel and jogged back to the connex…there was a
fffffffhhhhth
noise that made her stop and look around. All of a sudden the world when white and all she could hear was a high pitched whine like a giant mosquito… Cold water snapped the world back to crystal clarity.

It felt like she was stuck inside a
giant washing machine. The current was tearing at her splashing water into her nose and mouth. Frays took a deep breath intermingled with water and dove under the surface trying to catch up to the fading taillights of the Humvee as it sank to the bottom. Her lungs ached and the water was so cold…

A pallid face appeared out of the depths with groping hands catching her forearms. Frays released a scream in a cloud of bubbles
into the frigid water as the creature pulled her towards its gaping maw. She screamed and sucked in a lungful of water, things going dark around the edges as the strength left her.
I’m drowning…
Frays realized, her thoughts becoming sluggish from lack of oxygen and thrashed almost half heartedly. Just as the creature was about to bury its jagged broken teeth into her throat she recognized the craggy features of her father’s face…

Amy sat up with a scream, pushing and kicking at the green woolen blanket she had over her. Frays shouted still kicking and screaming and c
hoking. Somebody grabbed hold of her and Frays screamed louder, slapping punching kicking spitting… She tumbled off of her cot and fell against the wall of the cubicle and somebody cussed and shouted next door.

“…ays! Chill out!” Frannie said in as calm a voice as she could manage. Amy had smacked her around a good one while in the throes of her nightmare. Rodriguez held her friend
tight until she calmed down. All of a sudden she understood why Carl would come visit her when his big sister was like this. “It’s okay…shh….it’s okay…” Finally Amy started to calm down a little bit. “Look…just wait here, okay? I’m going to go get Lacey.”

Frannie hustled as fast as her gimpy leg
would let her out into the area of the Resettlement Center set aside for families. Lacey and his kids had to be around here somewhere… After the first couple of tries she almost gave up and went back to Frays’ room. She tiptoed into the little room and smiled down at the sleeping children. “Sorry guys.” Rodriguez whispered as she slipped past them and went to their father’s side. “Need to borrow your daddy for a minute, alright?”

Frannie patted Lacey’s shoulder and winced when he woke up. “Hey, Lacey…sorry about this. Sorry.” she said quietly as the man sat up and blinked wearily. “Frays needs you, man. She’s having a major freak out.”

The scrawny Marine wiped at his eyes and took a deep breath. “Okay.” He frowned sleepily and collected his M16 and plate carrier from under his cot. “Where’s she staying at again?”

“In the barracks.” Frannie said quietly and nodded towards the kids. “Third door from the latrines on the right. Don’t worry I’ll stay with them.” Almost as an afterthought she asked “When do the kids go to the daycare?”

“0700.” Lacey grumbled as he shrugged into his plate carrier and slung his rifle across his chest. He looked sheepishly at the floor and grumbled under his breath. “Make sure they get something to eat before they go if I’m not back.”

Lacey followed Rodriguez’s directions and found Frays curled up on her cot with her blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She looked up at him when he came in. “Hey Frays.” he
said quietly as he ducked inside. It was a minor shock when the woman stood up and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his chest.

It took a couple moments to get Frays back over to what he assumed was her cot. It occurred to him that this was the first time he had actually been in her quarters. Adam rubbed her back and held her, waiting for her to calm down. He unbuckled her LCS and helped her shrug out of the vest…

He took off his own armor and nudged it under her cot to rest with Amy’s gear. A little thrill went through him as Amy snuggled against his chest. “It’s alright, Frays.” Lacey whispered in her ear as he squeezed her tight. “I gotcha. It’s alright…shh…” After a few moments Adam gently leaned against her getting Amy to lie down next to him on the cot.

Amy rolled onto her other side, putting her face to face with Lacey. She smiled shyly. “I’m sorry Frannie woke you.” Frays
whispered. Conflicting emotions ran through her as she lay there in this man’s arms. Anger at Frannie. Shame. Rage…and…she had to admit it she was getting a little hot in here…

“It’s okay, Am…Frays…” he shifted a little, slipping an arm very carefully under the woman’s neck. “Rodriguez is going to watch the kids for me.” Adam brushed a couple locks of hair away from the woman’s face and maneuvered just ever so slightly closer to her.
He noticed the flush in her cheeks, the heat of her breath on his face…

He kissed her and tensed up, remembering the last time he had slipped up like this but not being able to help himself. The woman went stiff in his arms then relaxed, kissed him back with a fierceness that surprised him. He pulled her shirt off and stared up at her as she pushed him onto his back. Amy kissed him again, his hands
moving down her sides caressing the lump where her child grew in her womb…

He lay awake after they had finishe
d feeling strange and listening to Frays snore like a Harley Davidson with its muffler missing. The loss of his wife still gnawed at him like biting insects in his mind and somehow he could not help thinking that he had betrayed Laura. The hurt in her eyes when Mister Frays had accused him of doing what he had just done… He realized that Laura was dead and she would want him to find someone else…but…still… Adam propped himself up slightly on an elbow and looked down at Amy’s face as she slept.

God, she’s beautiful…
he thought and gently caressed her cheek. The woman stirred and pressed her back up against him, a slight smile flitting across her drowsing face. Guilt boiled to the surface. As much as he did not want to think of it that way he could not help but think he had taken advantage of her. Then again, Frays had proven in the past she was more than capable of letting him know if she was not interested in him…

It was late. Adam looked around in the gloom, trying to figure out a way to extract himself from the situation. He would almost certainly wake Frays trying to get up and he did not want to do that. She seemed so peaceful despite the noise rumbling out of her chest that it seemed a shame to wake her. Still, he had to get back to his kids and if anybody caught him coming out of her room in the morning it would raise all kinds of questions…

He bit the bullet and as gently as possible tugged his arm out from under Frays’ head. She stirred and rolled onto her back as he sat up. “Sorry.” he said quietly and smiled down at her in the reddish haze of the emergency lights. “I gotta get back. The kids will be worried if I’m not there in the morning.”

Amy yawned and stretched, vaguely reminding him of a cat. “Alright, Adam.” she mumbled her voice still thick with sleep. To his surprise the woman rose up on her elbows her face mere centimeters from his. She gave him a quick peck on the lips and smiled. He kissed her back then almost started in
again before stopping himself.

Adam threw on his gear and slipped out into the hall in a haze. It was almost like a dream or something. He never actu
ally suspected that Frays even seriously thought of him that way. It still struck him as kinda weird though. Sure…he knew that she had obviously slept with at least one guy before… He just never suspected that she could be so frenetic in the sack especially seeing as how she was pregnant and all.

Lacey snuck back into his room and nudged Frannie. “Hey.” he
said quietly. Adam smiled awkwardly in the gloomy dark and helped Rodriguez collect her gear. “Thanks for watching the kids.”