Outbreak: Boston (40 page)

The two men hesitated, as if weighing their options. Lacey aimed his rifle at the man standing at the back of the truck, sparing the occasional nervous glance at Frays. There was something familiar about the two men but he could not put his finger on it. They both wore a mixture of military kit
and civilian clothes marking them as wannabes, deserters or looters in his mind. He moved his sights higher on his mark’s body until he held right on the center of the man’s head. Adam took a deep breath and flicked his safety off.

The two men looked at each other then raised their hands and did as Frays ordered them to. “Stop. Drop those weapons and kick them away from you.” Amy ordered, which the men obeyed as well. She felt a creeping sensation in her stomach but kept her sights centered on the man’s forehead. Frays could see that the man looked frightened and angry. He looked like he had not shaved in awhile but had been eating well. “Very good. Now, on your knees but keep your hands high.” When the two men had done as she ordered Frays added “Now lay down on your stomachs, keeping your hands out in front of you.”

Once the men had complied Frays moved closer to Lacey. “I’m going to go out there, zip tie their hands and bring them back in here. Keep me covered, alright?” she whispered, nodding towards the men outside. “Keep an eye out. They might have friends in the bushes over there.”

A strange look went across Adam’s face but he nodded. “Roger that, boss.” he muttered as he shifted his weight a little. He could cover both the men and sort of watch the area out of his peripheral vision. He really d
id not want her to go out there but he knew that he would be wasting his breath in voicing his opinion.

Amy took the furniture piled in front of the door out of the way and unlocked the door. She scanned the area around her as she hurried over to the men, hoping her intuition about there being somebody else out there hiding in the trees waiting to take her out was wrong. Once Frays reached them she swung her carbine out of the way, drew her M9 and pressed the pistol to the back of each man’s neck as she zip tied their hands behind their backs and searched the men for hidden weapons.

“Alright, on your feet.” Frays commanded as she snapped her pistol back in its holster and brought her M4 back up. The men struggled to stand up and she wanted to help them but she knew better: both the men easily had sixty or seventy pounds on her and were almost a foot taller. Even with their hands tied, they could with little to no trouble get the better of her unless she was very careful.

Once they men had gotten up Amy moved so that she stood equidistant between them and flicked the safety catch off her carbine, bringing the weapon up to her shoulder. “Walk slowly towards the front door. Don’t turn around. Just walk.
Turn around and I’ll shoot you dead and don’t you think I won’t.” she advised sternly as she marched the two men towards the building.

Once they were inside Amy let the two men sit in the closest chairs and kept them covered while Lacey locked the door again and replaced the barricade. The man on Frays’ left frowned and looked at the man. “Holy shit! Reynolds!” he said as a puzzling expression came over the man’s face. “Look who it is!”

Lacey bit back a groan when he turned around. Now that he got a closer look at the two men, he recognized them underneath a month’s worth of beard growth and grime. It was Lance Corporals Holder and Reynolds from his old squad.
Of course
he thought bitterly as he tried to keep his face neutral
assholes don’t die
. 

Chapter Eleven

1 June 2011 0742 hours Concorde Country Club Concorde, Massachusetts
    

Frays glanced at Lacey behind her. “Lacey, do you know these guys?” she asked incredulously, trying to keep her attention focused on her prisoners. There was something about them that she did not like, something about the look in their eyes as they glanced around the room as if they were sizing up the situation.

“Yeah.” Lacey said reluctantly as he joined them. “Senior Airman Frays, meet Lance Corporals Reynolds” Adam motioned towards the beefy dark haired man with a scraggly beard seated on their right “and Holder” he pointed at the other man, who was shorter with blond hair but looked like he had at least made an attempt at shaving some time ago. “They’re part of my squad. Or they used to be anyway. I dunno.”

She glanced at Adam out of the corner of her eye. “So, what happened to you guys?” Frays asked, noticing the man’s unease at the sight of the two men. She made a mental note to talk to him offline about it.

“Your new friend there’s a murderer, Zoomie.” Holder said with an odd little grin, obviously noticing Frays’ armband. Frays immediately felt somewhat vindicated in thinking these men were trouble. “He shot up a bunch of civilians about a month or so ago in Boston.”

“I know.” Frays said impassively. She kept her carbine casually pointed in their direction: they were not exactly staring down the barrel, but close enough for them to get the idea that if they tried anything all she would have to do is squeeze the trigger. “I was there too. He said it was an accident and I believe him.”

“We’ve been holed up in a little house on the other side of the golf course.” Reynolds said as he almost imperceptibly looked Amy up and down. “Why don’t you come back with us? We’ve got it pretty well secured.”

Lacey suddenly became a more than a little worried. “I don’t think so, guys.” he said carefully, glancing at Frays again out of the corner of his eye. “We’re fine right here.”

Holder chuckled under his breath. “Lookie here!” he laughed, tossing his head towards the smaller Marine. “Chickenshit thinks he’s giving us orders now.” Reynolds started to laugh as well, the two men seeming to find the whole situation absolutely hilarious. Lacey looked like he was about to walk across the room and crack their heads open with his rifle’s stock but Frays caught hold of him with her non firing hand.

The two Marines stopped laughing. “Look, we’re just hungry.” Reynolds said at last as he looked up at Frays, quietly wheedling her with his eyes. “We saw your truck out there and thought it might have something to eat in it or we might be able to use it to go on a supply run.”

Aw...Goddamnit, Frays!
Lacey thought angrily as he looked from her to the man seated a little distance away from her
Don’t fuckin’ fall for it!
There was little doubt in his mind that Reynolds was trying to run some sort of game on them. The other man knew that Lacey knew them too well to really trust them, but they might be able to trick the ‘little woman’.

Frays looked at the two men for a minute. “Listen.” she said at last. “We’re going to be out of here in a couple days. There’s other houses and stuff to scavenge from, so don’t come back here. If I catch either one of you so much as even looking at us funny I swear
by Jesus Christ and all his saints I’ll end you, hear me?”

Lacey could not help but shudder a little bit. The woman had the same look on her face that she had yesterday after the gunfight
in town. There was little doubt in his mind that Frays meant every word she just said. The question was would Holder and Reynolds? His money was on no. “Frays, lemme talk to you a minute.” he said, nodding over his shoulder.

The two of them backed off a little ways, still keeping their weapons pointed in the direction of their prisoners. “Look, Frays.” Adam whispered, casting suspicious glances at the two men across the room “These guys aren’t going to let this slide. There’s no way this is gonna end well.”

Amy gave the man an uneasy look. “They’re no threat right now.” she said quietly, glancing from Lacey to their prisoners and back again. “I’m not gonna shoot a defenseless person, Lacey. And neither are you.”

Adam could not help but roll his eyes. “Frays, you don’t know these guys. I do.” he said heatedly in a low voice. He frowned and actually considered just shooting both of them right now in spite of what Frays had just said. If he did, what would she do? “These guys are a danger. Maybe not right now, but real soon. Get me?”

“We’re letting them go, Lacey.” Frays said in a tone that would brook no further argument. Lacey shook his head and backed off a couple steps, noticeably not best pleased but he looked to be willing to abide by his squad leader’s decision. Amy turned her full attention back to their captives. “Okay, you two! On your feet!”

The two larger Marines got to their feet, the pair of them looking uneasily from Frays to Lacey and back again. “Come on, at least untie us.” Reynolds said quietly, a slightly pitiable beseeching look coming to his face. “You can’t send us out there like this! You might as well shoot us right now.”

Frays motioned for Lacey to follow her. “You two stay still.” she said as she circled around the two men, making sure to give them a wide berth and keeping them covered with her weapon. She pulled the furniture away from the door and unlocked it then waved the muzzle of her carbine towards the door. “Okay. Forward, march!”

“Come on, Senior Airman!” Reynolds balked. He tried to turn and look at the people behind him. “Seriously! What the fuck’s wrong with you? We ain’t gonna do nothin’! Just untie our hands. Those things are out there! You want to keep our guns, fine but untie our hands, please!”

Frays looked somewhat uneasily from Holder to Reynolds and back again. She was just about to take a couple steps back when all of a sudden Holder leapt at her. The next thing Amy knew Holder was behind her, his unshaved cheek crushed against hers and something sharp pressed against the soft flesh of her throat. The man’s other arm was across her stomach, pinning her carbine to her body and holding her tight. She tried to struggle but Holder pressed the knife harder against her throat but not with enough force to break the skin…yet. Frays went limp in his arms to make it harder for the man to move around.

“Chickenshit, put that fucking rifle on the deck right the fuck now.” Holder ordered, a cruel smile coming to his face. The woman’s tight little ass was rubbing against his groin as he shifted
her weight to try and get a better hold on her. An idea occurred to him. “Me and Reynolds are going to take your friend here for a little walk. We’re gonna take your truck and whatever else you’ve got out there.”

“Not gonna happen, Lance Corporal.” Lacey said as he centered his sights on Holder’s forehead. He was more than a little surprised by the iron in his voice. “Put the knife down or I’ll kill you and your boyfriend there.”

The four of them stared at each other cautiously, none of them seeming to want to breathe too hard. The air got thicker around them until all Frays could hear was the blood pounding in her temples. She shot Lacey an insistent look then flicked her eyes towards the man holding her hostage. Both Holder and Frays fell to the floor in a heap when a shot from Lacey’s rifle cracked as Reynolds threw himself at his former subordinate.

Lacey caught the bigger man coming in with the butt of his
rifle squarely on the jaw, knocking him sprawling to the carpet. Reynolds tried to struggle to his feet but his hands were still bound. Adam leveled his rifle at the man and snapped off three quick shots into the man’s chest. Lacey stared at the man as he choked and struggled for a few seconds and collapsed with a gurgle. There was a mesmerizing expanding pool of red soaking into the carpet…

Frays struggled out from under Holder’s corpse and sprang to her feet. She delivered two fierce kicks to the dead man’s groin then stood over the body, shaking and panting for a moment then spared a glance at Lacey. The skinny man stood there pale and trembling, staring down at the corpse at his feet. A lazy trail of smoke rose from the muzzle of his weapon.

“It’s alright, Lacey.” Frays said in a low and comforting tone as she slowly went to the man’s side. “It’s alright, buddy. It’s cool.” She took his arm and gently guided him towards the nearest chair. “You just chill out for a minute and let me take care of this.”

Frays went to the bodies and hesitantly started searching through the dead men’s pockets and gear. She found a handful of 12 gauge shotgun shells in Holder’s gear and not much else save a wallet, some candy bars and the jackknife that he had held to her throat. It was not much longer than her finger when it was unfolded. She took the stuff and put it on a nearby table then returned to the dead man’s side. “Sorry.” she muttered under her breath, wishing he could think of something better to say as he grabbed the dead man’s ankles and pulled him off into the bushes.