Outbreak: Brave New World (40 page)

He glanced at the woman. She looked a little tired, but Frays seemed to have enjoyed herself as well. “
Hey Frays.” Adam said and smiled awkwardly. “Glad to see you up and around. When are you getting that thing off your neck?”

“I dunno.” she smiled back at him and picked at the foam and plastic device holding her head still. “I hope it’s soon. Figures I get itches where I can’t scratch them. What they got you and Rodriguez doing, anyways?”

“We’re on a guard tower on the other side of the compound.” He set down his son and let him go over to the dog. There was an awkward moment of silence. “I’m on lunch break. Do you think it’d be okay if I took my squad leader and son to lunch?”

Tom frowned. “I don’t think that would be a problem.” he said and grinned at Paulie then checked his watch. “Just have them back over here by twelve thirty hours. I think Lieutenant Haskins was going to check on you guys.”

“Roger that, sir.” Lacey said as he checked his own watch. He caught a weird look between Tom and Amy. Did she just smile at him? “C’mon, let’s have a seat over here.” He dug around in his rucksack and pulled out three MREs when they got situated on a wooden bench under a tree outside. “Nice duds, Frays.” Adam said, pointing out the woman’s new uniform. He could not help but notice the way the tee shirt showed off her figure, which was only spoiled a little bit by the baby.

Amy smiled a little when Lacey handed her a beefsteak MRE, one of her favorites. “Thanks, man.” she said as she started tearing open the meal packet. Paulie was having a little trouble with his. Lacey cut open the boy’s meal with his pocket knife and handed it back. She frowned ever so slightly when Adam moved closer to her on the bench. Was he going to try and put his arm around her or something?

They were quiet for a few minutes as they ate. “Tom seems like a nice guy.” Lacey said around a mouthful of buttered noodles. Paulie was splitting his MRE with Freddie, who the boy was using as a pillow. He was holding little pieces of ham slice over his shoulder and the dog would ever so gently take them from the boy’s fingers. His first instinct was to take a picture of the scene with his cell phone camera so he could show Laura when he saw her. Then he remembered that he had lost his cell phone somewhere and Laura was dead…

Amy smiled
sympathetically at the troubled expression that ghosted across Adam’s face as she finished off her meal’s entrée. She could only guess at what the man was thinking as he watched his child. “He’s alright.” Frays said and shifted around on the bench. She was pretty sure that Tom was more than alright. Amy glanced at Lacey then turned her attention back to the little boy and his dog in front of her. The woman frowned slightly and scooted ever so slightly away from Lacey. He was giving off that weird vibe again… There was that thing in the foyer back at the cabin and those other times… Amy started kicking herself all over again for letting things get so far out of hand between the two of them. She resolved to have a long talk with Frannie the first chance she got.

“How’s the kid doing?” he asked, turning hi
s gaze towards Amy’s stomach. Lacey could make out the little guy pretty well as her tee shirt looked maybe a size too small. He hesitantly reached out and put a hand on the woman’s abdomen. He jumped and a surprised grin leapt to his face.“It moved! I felt the baby move!”

Amy grinned
back and put her own hand on her belly, feeling a faint almost creepy twitching under her hand. “Paulie, come here quick!” she said and put the boy’s hand under hers. “Feel that? It’s the baby in my belly. Neat huh?”

The look of awe on the little boy’s face almost brought tears to Amy’s eyes. “Cool!” Paulie exclaimed then pressed his cheek against Frays’ belly. “He’s dancing all like crazy!” The two grownups started laughing
as the little boy hugged Amy and danced a little jig with the fetus in Frays’ belly. The young woman ran her fingers through the boy’s hair and smiled down at him then tentatively kissed the top of Paulie’s head.

Adam and Amy let Paulie feel the baby moving for a few more minutes. Lacey grumbled under his breath when he glanced at his watch. “Gotta get back to work, buddy.” he said quietly as he hugged his son. “I’ll
get Becca from the day care and be back when I get off duty. You make sure Amy stays out of trouble, alright?”

“Okay, Daddy.” Paulie said and laughed. The boy hugged his father once more and smooched him on the cheek. “Give that to Frannie, okay? I miss her.” Frays and Lacey laughed, especially when Amy pictured Lacey trying to hug Rodriguez and kiss her on the cheek. He set the boy down and looked at her for a second then smiled
.

To her surprise the man took a step closer and pulled her into a tight hug. He felt her tense up in his arms, which made him jumpy as he half expected Frays to knee him in the junk again. “I can’t tell you how happy I am you and the baby are okay.” Adam whispered in her ear and gave her a polite peck on the cheek. She felt her cheeks turn red as she hugged him back. They stood there holding each other for a moment, his hand moving up and down slightly between her shoulder blades.

Amy was unsure of what was going to happen when she finally let go of the man. “You gotta go.” she said quietly into Adam’s chest. After a half second she let her hands drop to her sides and smiled up at the man. She could see in his eyes what he wanted to do… “Time for our check up, buddy.” Frays told Paulie as she backed away.   

Lacey
’s face fell in on itself and he waved goodbye then walked off while Frays took Paulie by the hand and led him into the building. “Were you mad at me or something?” the little boy asked suddenly, making Amy stop just inside the front door. “You didn’t play with me or anything before.”

Amy frowned, knelt and hugged the child to her chest. “No, no buddy…” she said quietly, trying to think of a way to explain what had happened to
her in a way a four year old would understand. “You’re an awesome little guy. I…um…you didn’t do anything, okay? It’s not your fault and I like you very much.”

The little boy looked at the woman and hugged her back. “I didn’t like you either at first.” Paul
whispered with his face pressed against the hard plastic of Amy’s neck brace. He let the woman hold him for a little while. The little boy made a strange face. “You took Daddy away and made Mommy cry.”

“I’m sorry, Paulie.” Amy whispered into the little boy’s ear. She gently kissed Paul’s cheek and squeezed him as tightly as she dared. “I didn’t mean to. I thought…I thought it wouldn’t get this bad and I didn’t want your dad to get in trouble for not being where he was supposed to be. Understand?”

“Airman Frays, this way please.” Lieutenant Haskins called from the hallway leading back to the examination and patients’ rooms. Amy obediently gathered up the child and followed the other woman into an exam room a few doors down from where they were sleeping. “Did you have a good time?”

“We played with the ball.” Paul told the doctor as Amy set him on the metal table in the corner of the room. There were metal cabinets and pictures of people’s insides on the walls. The boy looked around nervously. “Me and Tommy and Freddie and Amy. Tommy showed us the garden where the plants are.
I felt Amy’s baby being all kicky too!”

Haskins smiled at the boy as she checked his injured hand. “Sounds like you had fun, Paul.” she said as she went to the cabinet and took out some gauze and medical tape. The stumps of the boy’s fingers were healing alright but there was still a little bit of blood oozing out of the scabs where someone had
ham-fistedly attempted to cauterize the blood vessels. “Looks like you’re healing well. I’m just going change your bandages, alright?”

The little boy looked relieved. “
No shots?” he asked, making the two women laugh.

Lieutenant Haskins expertly taped the gauze onto the boy’s hand and helped him down off of the table. “No shots.” the doctor smiled as Frays helped the boy into a plastic chair next to her. “Alright, you’re up Airman.” Haskins took a stethoscope off from around her neck and put it on. “
Have a good time this afternoon?”

Frays frowned slightly and nodded as s
he hopped up on the exam table and looked a little nervous. “Lie down, please.” Lieutenant Haskins said with a small smile. “I promise I’m not going to give you any shots either.” Haskins pulled up her patient’s undershirt and put the metal disk of the stethoscope on the woman’s stomach. The doctor smiled and pulled the device out of her ears and offered them to Frays. “Listen to this.”

Paulie looked puzzled. Amy put the little earphone things in her ears and started to cry after a couple minutes. He hopped down off of his chair and went to the woman’s side. “Is something wrong?” he asked and tugged at Amy’s arm. “Amy, is everything okay?”

Amy wiped her cheeks then took off the stethoscope and indicated that she wanted Lieutenant Haskins to help the boy put it on. He could hear this heavy rhythmic thumping with a lighter feathery sort of noise through the stethoscope. Paulie scowled as he tried to figure out what he was listening to. “That’s Amy’s heartbeat and the baby’s.” the doctor said helpfully. Mesmerized, the little boy took off the stethoscope and tried to climb up on the table. Haskins gave Paulie a boost and smiled as the boy pressed his ear against the woman’s belly. “Looks like you two are out of here tomorrow. I want you to come back in for a checkup and some vitamin shots every two days, alright?”

Rodriguez grimaced as Lacey climbed back up into the guard tower. He had left a little over half an hour ago to check on Paulie and Frays at the hospital.
There had been absolutely shit going on all day so, as ranking person on the detail, she did not see the harm in letting him go visit his little boy for a few minutes. And, truth be told, she was anxious to find out about what was going on with the two of them herself. “How’s the kids, man?” she asked as the man got situated. There was something about the look on Adam’s face that she found a little disturbing.

“Everybody’s fine.” Adam muttered as he
sat down on the folding chair. The guard tower was what looked to be a scissor lift with a makeshift roof overhead to keep the sun off of them and a twenty foot steel ladder connecting the platform to the ground. It afforded them a good view over the top of the twelve foot tall fence. The field on the other side of the fence had seen better days. The grass appeared to be almost knee high and there was a stand of trees some nine hundred or so meters away. “Amy and Paulie went for a walk with this medic guy.”

Frannie smiled but continued to look out over the fence.
The long grass made her a little nervous. It was just high enough to conceal snipers or a couple sappers creeping up to blow a hole in the wire. Then again it would be tough to get somebody to go cut the grass. The other side of the service road outside the fence was lined with claymore mines wired to the clacker in the guard tower. “So they’re doing better.” she said and looked over her shoulder at the man. He was fiddling with his kit and looked like he wanted to be somewhere else. Rodriguez shook her head a little and smiled a little bit. It was not like she was having the time of her life either. “You jealous?”

He rolled his eyes. “Is it that obvious?” Adam asked
and chuckled feeling a little heat coming to his cheeks. The Marine sipped water out of his camelbak and grumbled under his breath. “You shoulda seen the way she was looking at that jerk. Just because he’s all I dunno…washed…and…shaved.” The man scowled at the woman then shrugged.

Frannie laughed
and shook her head slightly when she saw the sour look the man was giving her. “Look, sorry but I’ve been telling you she’s not that into you.” Rodriguez said as she dug out the pack of cigarettes she had bought from a guy at the command tent for one of the twenty dollar bills she had taken out of the dead sniper’s wallet. The woman grimaced and scratched behind her ear then tentatively rubbed her wounded thigh. Her leg still ached from climbing the ladder a few hours earlier. “She’s pissed at herself because she’s still mad at you over what happened in Boston, if that makes any sense.”

Adam squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. “She told you.” he said quietly. There was a sick feeling welling up in the pit of his stomach. Lacey hoped that he was not about to puke. “I...look, please…don’t you ever tell my kids about that. Ever.”

“Sure, man. No problem.” Rodriguez said. She put a hand on the back of Lacey’s neck and shook him gently. They were quiet for awhile just sitting there and watching the grass between the fence and the tree line. A flock of birds flew by, the little black specks chirping against the blue sky. A woodchuck appeared from its burrow near the outer fence and munched some of the long grass. Frannie smiled at the fat brown rodent as the vegetation disappeared into the animal’s face. Adam thought long and hard about shooting it as he heard roasted woodchuck was pretty tasty. It occurred to him that it might have been a little too long since he had anything resembling fresh meat.

Luckily they were on the opposite side of the FOB from the city. Sentries on the west side reported sporadic contacts with infected wandering towards them from the city. There was the occasional sound of rifle fire after command cleared them hot on target. The two of them looked anxiously at each other after listening to the conversation on the radio.
“We gotta get Frays to show them how to make suppressors.” Lacey said under his breath and shuddered. How many zombies in Sanford heard those shots? He scoured the field before them searching for any Bravo Charlies that might be coming towards their location.