Outbreak: Boston (46 page)

Rodriguez glanced from Lacey to Frays and back again as they left the gas station behind. She took off her Kevlar and scratched the back of her head. “So…no more putting shit off, alright guys?” Frannie said with a strange half smile. She winced when the Humvee went over a pothole and grumbled to herself. “We’ve gotta be almost there.
You guys are going to find your families and everything’s going to be just
fine
.” It was pretty hard for Lacey not to miss the resentment in the woman’s voice.

It was late afternoon when Frays steered the truck off of the road and onto a narrow, one lane dirt lane. The branches of the trees on either side of the
dirt road practically blocked out the sun overhead, giving the people in the Humvee the impression of driving into a tunnel. Amy felt a wide grin spreading across her face as she carefully maneuvered the Humvee along the road despite her initial misgivings. She could feel the excitement radiating from the others like heat, as if they could read her mind and knew that they were just minutes away from their destination.

She motored up to a small single story house situated at the top of a hill and killed the engine. There was a barn that she knew contained her
dad’s workshop and garage in its basement on the left hand side, but what kept her attention was the Chevy Impala and an SUV sitting right in front of them. The car belonged to her parents but it took her a minute to recognize the other vehicle: it was the same van that Lacey’s wife had driven away from the supply point in Boston over a month ago.

Lacey jumped out of the truck and started for the front door but Frays caught his arm. “Careful!” she warned, trying to keep her own excitement in check “We don’t know what’s going on. Calm down and we’ll do this by the numbers, alright?”

A tall, fit figure peeked around the corner of the nearest van with a rifle pointed at the Humvee. “Hold it right there!” it shouted in a voice Amy recognized immediately, even though she could not make out the person’s face due to the sun glinting off the vehicle next to him. She slowly got out of the truck with tears already welling up in her eyes.

“Who said you could use my rifle, you jerk?” Amy asked as she came around the front of the truck towards the other person.
The long barreled rifle fell to the blacktop with a clatter as a wiry teenage boy with sandy hair rushed forward and hugged the airman and then ran into the house shouting for his parents. Amy spared a stunned glance at Lacey and Rodriguez and laughed. “Then the pusbag goes and drops it. Jeez.” she sniffed as she wiped her face with the back of her hand.

Rodriguez found herself a little startled by the
number of people running out of the house. There was an older man and woman who she assumed to be Amy’s mom and dad. A scrawny little stick figure of a blonde woman ran to Lacey with tears streaming down her face and pounced on him with a little boy and girl close on her heels, obviously his wife and kids. Everybody was crying, even the big gruff looking guy that she assumed was Frays’ dad (it was kind of apparent to anyone with a brain: Frays had the woman’s build but the same color hair as the man).

Frannie pressed her mouth into a tight line as she watched the scene playing itself out through the windscreen of the Humvee.
She could not help but feel a little sad and lonely watching what was going on right outside the truck. Suddenly Frays’ dad and brother broke off from the group and came to the truck. “Hey there, Army.” the older man said with a small grin as he opened the door “I’m George, Amy’s dad. This is her little brother Carl. You can meet everybody else in a little bit. Let’s get you in the house, huh?”

She could not help but laugh with relief as the two men helped her with the seatbelts and got her out of the truck. Carl and George grasped each other’s wrists and let the injured woman sit on the makeshift seat so they could carry her inside. Amy held the door for them
and shook her head when she saw how red Carl’s face was. He was fifteen, just old enough to start to figure out what girls were all about and Frannie had her arm around his neck. She did not want to think about where her little brother’s hands were right now…

There was a lot more crying and hugging when the lot of them got inside
as everybody got to know each other a little better. George and Carl helped Frannie get comfortable on this enormous blue overstuffed recliner in the corner of what looked like the living room. Once they went off to help unload the truck, the older woman with dirty blonde hair came over and gave Frannie a big hug and peck on her scarred cheek. Frannie could not help but feel a little embarrassed. “I’m Jessica, Amy’s mom.” she said and kissed her other cheek then helped Frannie out of her combat gear. “I’m so glad you’re here. You just get comfy and we’ll start dinner once we get you kids settled in.”

There was little for Frannie to do but put her feet up and take in her surroundings while everyone else brought in their
stuff from the Humvee or rearranged their things in the house. The house seemed to be mainly an open area as George and Carl had brought her through a hall from the front door through the kitchen and dining room to the living room where she now sat. There was a couch across the room and an ancient looking rocking chair next to it. A few feet away on her left was a TV on a stand next to the sliding glass door that looked like it led to a deck on the front of the house, but it was the view out of the big picture windows that caught her attention and held it.

There were tall pine trees like a fence around the
edge of the sparkling blue lake, its surface occasionally curling with tiny whitecaps. The trees swayed in the breeze and Frannie wished that she could get up and go sit on the deck.
Hopefully there’ll be time for that later
she thought drowsily. Even the air drifting in through the open windows smelled like something out of a fairytale or something: thick with piney smells and flowers, real good fresh country air. The tension of the trip melted from her shoulders and into the chair’s soft cushions. Rodriguez fought to stay awake a little longer, anxious to get to know all the new people but she eventually dropped off.

Frays came over a little later and spread a
blanket over the sleeping woman’s lap.

Amy snuck the box containing the pregnancy test out of her rucksack
then opened it and stuck the testing stick in the pocket of her jeans after tucking the blue tank top into the denim trousers. Luckily she had forgotten some things when she had visited last summer. For the first time since it all started she felt safe enough to not only take off her LCS and body armor, but clear her M4 and grenade launcher then put it in the gun cabinet in the back bedroom. She however still had her M9 strapped to her leg as she looked at herself in the mirror and tied her hair back in a ponytail. A wave of nausea roiled around in Amy’s stomach when she saw the condition of her feet: what little skin that did not come off when she peeled off her socks was the color of boiled onions. And the stink…but then it had been well over two weeks since she had taken her boots off let alone changed her socks.

She picked up the towel and washcloth on the bed and went out into the hall to wait for Lacey to get out of the shower. They were go
ing to let Frannie shower first but decided to let her sleep since nobody really had the heart to wake her up.

Lacey had to borrow some of her brother’s clothes while their uniforms were in the wash
, which Amy had found really, really funny. Her brother was like ten years younger than him but Lacey looked like a scarecrow in a pair of her brother’s jeans and a tee shirt. Mom had collected her squad’s dirty clothes and put them in the laundry machine, a luxury Frays had nearly given up on.

Right now Dad and Carl were busy with the grill while Mom and Laura, Lacey’s wife, were making other stuff to go with the meat they were cooking. Becca and Paul were busy building a fort out of couch cushions, folding chairs and spare blankets in the corner so that their mother and father could have a little privacy tonight. There was a strange crawling unease in the pit of her stomach as she watched the children playing like a great mass of ugly, squirming boneless creatures under a rock.

Thankfully Lacey exited the bathroom to rescue her from that train of thought. “Jeez, man.” she said with a small grin as she passed him and went into the bathroom “I barely recognize you with all the filth scrubbed off you.”
The man’s skin seemed to be about two shades lighter after he had gotten through in the shower. She could not help but notice that he had shaved too.

Lacey
blinked, clearly taken aback by the sight of her then laughed and clapped her on the shoulder as he went into the kitchen where he hugged and kissed his wife before going into the living room and plopping down on the couch. He found himself shaking his head in disbelief as he watched Rodriguez snoozing in the recliner across the room. After everything that had happened in the past month or so, here he was sitting in a nice safe little house with his wife and kids about to enjoy what smelled like was going to be a delicious meal…it almost did not seem like it was actually happening. He just plain could not believe it.

Amy stripped and tossed her clothes in a pile by the toilet across the room. She turned on the water extra hot then dug the pregnancy test out of the pocket of her shorts. Frays glanced at the door and double checked that she had locked it then sat down on the pot. She looked at the little plastic stick in her hands and sighed resignedly as she forced herself to urinate.

Frays looked at the little window on the stick, her hands trembling with anticipation as she wondered what was going to happen.
C’mon…c’mon…
she thought, her bottom lip almost disappearing into her mouth and she thought she might be sick. The young woman grumbled and glared at the stick, willing it to hurry the heck up and give her the answer. Having a kid would be great but on the other hand how would she explain it to Dad? Oh, he would be so mad and disappointed…

She blinked at the test when the result finally showed itself.
Amy shook her head and stood on trembling legs as she padded over to the shower. Frays pulled open the stall and climbed inside. The young woman gasped, enjoying the feeling of the hot water on her face and running down her body. She scrubbed herself off and washed her hair then sat down to scour the dead skin off of her feet.

Amy suddenly found herself blinking back tears.
It’s not fair
she thought bitterly
It’s just not fair!
She pressed the palms of her hands against her eyes and sat there snuffling, wishing Jacob was there to hold her. He should be here to take responsibility for his part in…her condition. Lacey got to bitch and moan about his wife and kids, Rodriguez was probably going to be a mess for awhile over Eamon, but
she
could not even grieve or
anything
…

There was a knock on the door a half second before it opened and Amy tried to get herself under control. “Hey hon.”
Jessica said quietly from just outside the shower stall. “Your laundry’s done. Do you want me to leave one of your uniforms out here for you?”

Frays took a moment to respond, still trying to calm herself down. “Yeah. Thanks, Mom.” she said quietly as she pulled her sodden hair away from her face. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

Once she heard the door open and close again Amy got out of the shower and toweled off. She could not help but smile at the neatly folded pile of ABUs, socks, underwear and undershirt stacked on top of the lid of the toilet a few feet from the shower.
My mom rocks socks!
she though as she started to get dressed. On a whim, she stepped on the scale next to the toilet and stood there slack jawed when the dial finally settled on a number. When she last weighed herself after a workout a couple days before she had been recalled Amy had weighed in at one hundred and thirty five pounds. The scale now said she weighed one hundred and eleven. Frays blinked in disbelief then finished dressing and put her hair back up.

Frays shook him awake. “C’mon man. It’s time for dinner.” she said, smiling a little at the way he jumped when she touched him. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving!”
Once they all gathered around the table in the dining room the lot of them all held hands and bowed their heads. Frays felt tears gathering in her eyes for what seemed like the millionth time today as Dad said the blessing. She felt a little bad for Rodriguez, who had to stay in the recliner because of her injury. Carl had, good boy that he was, volunteered to bring her a plate and brought it to her. He looked like he would have set up a TV tray by her chair and eat his dinner with her if he had been given the option.

There was what seemed to Lacey an enormous amount of food heaped up on the table: a platter piled with venison steaks, a huge dish of
mixed greens, bowls of macaroni salad and another filled with baked beans the size of his children’s heads…and a giant pan of cornbread still warm from the oven. “If I had known you guys ate like this every night I would have dragged your daughter here kicking and screaming if I had to.” he joked as he forked a hunk of the meat into his mouth and closed his eyes, savoring the texture and flavor of the juicy tender steak.

“This is a special occasion.” George said with a grin as he put a hand on his daughter’s arm. “Our fa
milies are back together again and our new friend Specialist Rodriguez is here, praise be to God. And somebody had a birthday while she was away.” He glanced at the young woman sitting near him with a knowing little grin.