Chapter
One
2
July 2011 0721 hours NorthCom Forward Operating Base Freedom Sanford, Maine
Senior Airman
Amy Frays sighed and rolled her dark brown eyes before setting back into the
paperwork on the desk before her. She was a short somewhat attractive woman
even though her hips were a little too wide and her legs were kind of short.
The fact that she was also about five months pregnant complete with a good
sized ‘baby bump’ and she had a pinkish scar running almost from the right
corner of her mouth to just under the corner of her eye definitely knocked her
down a couple pegs on the old one to ten scale in her opinion. Not to mention
the dark circles under her eyes too that made her look like a tired twenty five
or even thirty instead of her actual age of twenty one.
However since
she was pregnant and they did not have a uniform top that would fit her she got
to wear a baggy grey MIT tee shirt instead of the blouse of the Marine cammies
she was issued a few days ago. The woman’s LCS was let out almost as big as it
could go and her flak jacket was already too small. She was heavily armed with
an M4A1 5.56mm carbine with an M203 40mm grenade launcher hanging off her
shoulder and a bandoleer with four 40mm HE grenades in the rubberized canvas
bandoleer that hung across her chest. There was also a 9mm M9 pistol in the
drop leg holster strapped to her right thigh. She rolled her shoulders trying
to move the gear into a more comfortable position.
Frays frowned
and grumbled to herself as she tried to concentrate on filling out the stack of
reports in front of her. In addition to the sweat rolling down her back and
stomach the little boy growing in her womb was stomping the ever loving crap
out of her insides again.
“Airman Frays!”
called a voice nearby making the woman jump and look around for a second. A
tall wiry man with blue eyes and a fresh ‘high and tight’ type crew cut in
Marine cammies came up to Frays’ desk. Amongst one of the many surprises since
her arrival Frays was a little stunned to learn that several civilians ran a
makeshift barber and hairdresser’s shop where they still took good old
fashioned American money. Not that she actually had much in the way of cash… “Gonna
need you on radio watch from ll00 to 2300 tonight.” Sergeant Bill Hanes said
with a little bit of regret in his voice. He smiled awkwardly and shrugged
obviously feeling crappy about having to break the news. “Sorry.”
She hid her
disappointment with a smile. Another twelve hour detail was not going to be
fun… “Alright. Who am I working with?” she said then hissed through gritted
teeth. Frays laughed at the startled look on Sergeant Hanes’ face. Frays found
that she liked the man even if he did seem to be a little slow. “Don’t worry,
Sergeant. Little guy just kicked me again.”
The man nodded
knowingly as if he had suspected as much. “Okay. Well…get those morning reports
done.” Hanes said quietly then moved off a couple steps then he paused a couple
steps away from the desk and motioned towards the paperwork. “Once you get
those filled out just make sure you’re at the TOC for watch.”
Frays grinned
and nodded as she took another pen out of her desk then slid the report she was
working on over to the side. “Challenge accepted!” the young woman proclaimed
and started in on the paperwork, filling out a sheet with each hand. Sergeant
Hanes snorted a small laugh and shook his head as he walked away.
Frays wriggled
her fingers after dropping the stack of reports off on Sergeant Hanes’ desk and
walking outside, pausing to put her patrol cap on just outside the door. She
frowned then rolled her head making her neck pop and sending a delicious little
shiver down her spine. Thankfully she did not have to wear the stiff neck brace
the medics had put on her to keep her from reinjuring the bulging disk near
where her neck met her shoulders any more. She had felt like a dog that had one
of those plastic cones around its head to keep it from picking at its stitches
after going to the vet or something. Frays checked her watch then started off
towards the FOB’s medical center at a fast walk.
The morning was
warm and muggy making her shirt stick to her back as she walked the six blocks
to the former cancer treatment center. The air was tinged with the caustic
stench of burning garbage emanating from the burn pits on the far end of the
FOB. Thankfully it did not smell like they were disposing of any infected that
might have wandered up to the perimeter walls yet. It seemed like they did that
every couple of days, the putrefied flesh soaked in JP8 and set on fire making
such a god awful stink that it made her nauseous when the wind was blowing just
right.
It occurred to
her for the millionth time as Frays chewed thoughtfully on a small cake of
shelf stable bread just how similar the architecture was to the FOB she had
been on in Iraq. There were sand colored protective walls around most of the
essential buildings: the TOC, the Med Center, the Security Forces building, the
Logistics Center… It seemed a little odd to her that about the only place that was not in its own little walled off
area was the ‘Refugee Resettlement Center’ where the couple of dozen civilians
lived along with an area set aside for the enlisted personnel and their
dependants if they had any.
A couple guys in green and black Digicam patterned uniforms walked towards her,
each of them packing heavily accessorized M16A4s and festooned with all manner
of electronic equipment and grenades. Their scruffy beards and ‘I’m cool and
you’re not’ swagger not to mention the blue diamond on their sleeve where a
unit patch should be marked them as ‘Private Military Contractors’. They smiled
at her as she approached. “Morning, Airman.” the one of the left said once they
were within speaking distance.
Frays forced a
smile and bit down hard on a harsh comment. “Morning, guys.” she said with as
much politeness as she could manage. Half the paperwork on her desk had been
generated from the Blue Diamond Group guys: three fistfights, two public
drunkenness arrests (despite the fact that FOB Freedom was a dry camp. Where
they were getting the booze from was something of a mystery) and one guy peeing
on a civilian’s belongings for no good reason. And apparently they had friends
in high places as none of them were in the stockade…
Still that was
better than the two suicides. One of the contractors had shot himself last
night and an older woman had apparently stabbed herself in the throat with a
ballpoint pen… The young woman shuddered at the memory of a tired, scared and
hungry young man what seemed like a million years ago… Frays absently traced
the scar on her cheek with the tip of her finger for a moment as she walked.
Several people
stopped her along the way and asked her how her baby was doing a few wanted to
feel him kick. She obliged, a little flattered by the attention and just plain
grateful to see so many friendly faces. For months Frays could not help but
wonder if she and her little band were the only people left on Earth… A nice
young black man had given her a package of beef jerky which she munched on
while she walked. People were always giving her little bits of food and she
felt kind of guilty about taking them although after the first couple of weeks
when things started getting bad Frays found that she could not turn down food
and ate it even if she was not hungry. She also found herself craving anything
even remotely salty: pretzels, jerky, peanuts… Sometimes she would just eat one
of the little salt packets out of an MRE if she could not get her fix.
“Hey Tommy.” Frays
said as she came to the desk inside the waiting area of the squat brick
building. She did her best to hide a small smile as the man grinned back at
her. He was tall and handsome with broad shoulders and scruffy looking brown
hair. He vaguely reminded her of a guy she had seen in a movie but she could
not for the life of her figure out who exactly the medic reminded her of. However
there seemed to be a permanent look of exhaustion in the man’s dark green eyes.
“Rough night?”
“Nah, pretty
quiet.” he said still smiling at the woman. Tommy glanced at the heavy set man
with the overgrown hedgerow of a beard sitting next to him at the desk. “Mike,
keep an eye on things here for a minute?” Tom asked as he stood up and
stretched. “I’ve gotta stretch my legs for a minute.”
Mike rolled his eyes. “Sure man.” he said quietly and shifted his chair over.
“See ya in a few.”
The other medic
shook his head as Amy and Tom made their way over to the dispensary down the
hall presumably to pick up Amy’s vitamins. The two of them acted like Middle
School kids with a crush.
The woman
glanced at Tommy as she sauntered down the hall and flashed a grin when she
caught him looking at her. “Anything interesting going on?” she asked and
maneuvered the bite valve of her camelbak into her mouth.
The man smiled
and scratched the side of his nose with his thumb. “Nope, not so much.” he said
and stole another glance at the woman, her figure a silhouette in the light coming
in through the window behind her. “How’s work going?”
“I think I’m
getting writer’s cramp.” Frays said with a small grin. A couple conflicting
emotions flitted around in the pit of her stomach as they walked. He was
certainly handsome and seemed interested in her and everything but…well…what
would be the point exactly? “I actually don’t mind that for some reason.”
He snickered.
“Bet you never thought you’d miss filling out paperwork.” Tommy said as he made
a strange little face. His hand brushed against hers as they walked bringing a
little color to the woman’s cheeks.
Frays jumped
back as if he had zapped her with a cattle prod. “Oh, hey…um…” she said with a
nervous little tittering laugh. Frays glanced at her boots and tucked a stray
tendril of her coffee colored hair behind her ear. The woman sighed and tucked
her hands into her armpits. “Look…um…”
“Hey, sorry.”
Tommy said quietly. He gave her a reassuring smile. “I’m sorry.” The woman had
only been in the FOB for about a week or so and had obviously, judging from her
injuries and those of the rest of her squad, been in some pretty serious shit
since everything went to hell. Sure he was tired a lot and such but it was
tough to imagine what it was like out there. Tommy found that he could hardly
blame her for being a little squirrely.
“No…no…” Frays
began as they approached the counter where a bored looking man in ACUs leaned
across what used to be an information desk. “Um…I’ll talk to you later, okay? I
gotta grab my stuff and get back.”
“Oh, okay.”
Tommy said with an apologetic shrug. “I’ll see you later, okay?” The medic
started back towards his desk. “Have a good day. I…I’ll see you later.” The man
stuffed his hands in his pockets and spun on his heel headed back towards his
desk.
Frays sighed as she
watched the man slouch back down the hallway. She could not help but wonder if
she had somehow screwed everything up again. The woman silently kicked herself
and turned towards the dispensary.
“Good morning,
Corporal.” Frays said and gave the short squarely built man a little smile.
“How are you?” The man handed the woman a small paper cup with six or seven
little pills of various colors in it. Frays knocked back her vitamins and
washed them down with a long pull from her camelbak.
“Doing just
fine, Frays.” Corporal Waterman said with a grin. He had administered Frays’
first ultrasound last week. The look on the woman’s face when she first laid
eyes on her little boy was still fresh in his mind. It made him smile every
time he thought about it. “How’s the little guy? Still kickin’ up a storm?”
“Ooooh yeah…” Frays
said as she put a hand on her stomach and smiled, rubbing the lump as if it
were a good luck charm. “My boy’s gonna be a soccer playin’ ninja or
something.” The two of them shared a chuckle as she turned and started walking
away secretly dreading walking past the front desk again.
“Remember
Lieutenant Haskins wants to see you tomorrow morning.” Waterman called after
her. Frays waved nonchalantly over her shoulder as she hiked down the hall.
Frays made a point of not looking at the two medics sitting behind the desk as
she immerged into the bright mid morning light. She sighed heavily and put her
cover back on and glanced at her watch.
“Perfect. Way to
go, Aim.” Frays scolded herself under her breath as she trudged off towards the
fields in the center of the triangle of runways at the middle of the FOB. There
was still plenty of time to go talk to her little brother Carl before her
shift.
Frays walked
south down the street headed towards the runways using the now defunct control
tower to navigate by. A low unpleasant grumble emanated from her chest when she
noticed four more Blue Diamond guys keeping an eye on a group of civilians who
were policing up the trash scattered across the yard of a building nearby. The
group of heavily armed men did not seem to be paying attention to the wall a
couple hundred feet away from them…which was, at least on the surface, the
reason why they were keeping an eye on the work details.
She could hear
the low rumbling noise of a bulldozer’s engine somewhere off to her right. A
small smile spread across her lips and she quickened her pace a little. Frays
grinned and waved cheerfully when she recognized the wiry man perched at the
controls of the heavy construction equipment. Private Adam Lacey glanced up
then waved back when he saw her. Frays stood there watching the man use the
plow on the front of the Bobcat to fill up the big fabric containers along the
FOB’s perimeter for a few moments.
She could not
help but feel a little useless and sort of depressed for a second as she
continued on towards the fields. Lacey was one of the people, along with her
brother Carl and her other friend Specialist Francesca Rodriguez, who had come
north from Massachusetts trying to find a safer place to wait out the virus.
Her friends were busy helping to keep everybody safe while she was only good
for taking up space, eating up resources and filling out paperwork that nobody
was probably going to read anyways. Frays kind of suspected that her reports
ended up either as toilet paper or used to keep the burn pits smoldering away.
Frays glumly
kicked a rock out of her path as she approached the field. As usual the sight
of the orderly rows of green plants growing out of the tilled soil in the
center of the airport’s runways lifted her spirits. The corn seemed to be
coming in well as it was already up to about her arm pit and there was what
looked to be peppers and tomatoes…her mouth watered at the thought of munching
on a handful of those carrots off to her right in a couple weeks.
One of the Blue
Diamond men came ambling over, an easy smile on the man’s face. Like most of
the mercs the man was tall and built like he was carved out of rock however
this guy was clean shaven and a little softer around the eyes. The man looked
to be about her age and he wore a Multi-cam patterned baseball cap backwards.
“Hey there.” the contractor said as he got closer. The man scratched the side
of his head as he looked the pregnant woman up and down. “What can I do for
you, ma’am?”
Frays could not
help but find her mood softening a little bit. “My brother Carl Frays is
working here.” she said and returned the man’s smile. “Blond kid about sixteen?
About this tall.” Frays held her hand a little over six feet off the ground “Is
he around? I’d like to talk to him for a minute.”
The man gave her
a playful, cockeyed grin. “Seen Kyle?” he asked and raised his hand in an
approximation of the Nazi salute making Frays roll her eyes and shake her head.
“Wait right here, Ma’am. I think I saw him weeding the radishes over on the far
end.” The man turned his back and whispered into the microphone hanging off of
his ear.
Frays found that
she was still more than a little nonplussed by the sight of armed guards
standing watch over people like they were prisoners or something never mind the
fact that one of those people was her baby brother. Not for the first time she
started to feel a growing concern start gnawing on the corners of her mind. She
could not help but feel a little relieved when she saw a gangly sunburned teenager
in dirty coveralls picking his way towards her, being careful to not step on
any of the plants.
“Hey, Aim!” he
called as he approached. Carl looked a little worried for a moment. They had
seen each other earlier this morning but now she was back only a few hours
later. Was something wrong? Whatever it was it hopefully did not have anything
to do with the baby… No, if his nephew was in trouble one of the medics or Adam
or Frannie would come and get him. “What’s shakin’?”
“Just wanted to
let you know that I’m gonna be on radio watch again ‘til eleven o’clock tonight.”
Frays informed her brother. The look of relief on her brother’s face was almost
comical. “So don’t expect me for lunch or dinner. I’ll be over at the TOC if
you need anything.”
Carl nodded.
“The kid doing alright?” he asked and took a step closer. Amy had trouble
sleeping on a good night and the little guy had been giving her some grief
lately. The two of them shared a cubicle in the Resettlement Center and Aim
kept him up sometimes with her tossing and turning. Sometimes she yelled and
flailed around or woke up crying (and then tried to hide it) probably fighting
her way out of Boston in her sleep and it broke his heart to see it. Carl would
end up going a few doors down and visit Frannie if she was around after waking
his sister or he would just go for a walk.
“Yep. The little
guy’s doing just fine.” Frays said, giving her tummy a light pat. “He’s been
kicking the crap out of me all morning.” She already knew what Carl’s next
question was going to be before he asked it. “And I just came from the Medics.
I was a good girl and took my vitamins.”
Carl snickered.
“Alright, Aim.” He gave his sister a quick hug filling her nose with the scent
of old sweat and dark, loamy earth. “I gotta get back to work. Be quiet when
you come back, alright?”
“Sure thing,
Farmer Jim.” Frays said and smiled as she hugged her brother back. “Go on, get
outta here. I’ll see you later.” The woman started walking away, waving goodbye
over her shoulder. “Keep an eye on that corn, mister.”
Frays glanced at
her watch as she walked away and was surprised to see that she still had well
over an hour until it was time to go back to work. She made a thoughtful face
and scratched the back of her neck as she debated a course of action. After a
little bit of internal deliberation she decided to hoof it up to the
Resettlement Center and pay Lacey’s kids a visit. The thought of being
surrounded by kids made her guts churn and boil and her hands tremble just the
slightest little bit as she resolutely made her way towards the building.
Paulie and Becca were so adorable and sweet but still…
Frays wiped her
hands on her trousers as she stood a few dozen yards from the edge of the group
of children huddled in the shade of a leafy maple tree on the edge of the
former Wal-Mart parking lot. A fleshy older woman with a kindly face read to
the kids from a copy of what sounded like Winnie
the Pooh as the little ones sat on blankets on the grass. Frays felt a
sudden stab of grief and she sucked her lower lip into her mouth doing her best
to keep from falling to her knees and sobbing her eyes out right there on the
blacktop. Memories came flooding back of her own childhood when her mother
would hold her on her lap in this old rocking chair and read that same story to
her before bedtime…
A little brown
haired little girl glanced at the woman standing on the edge of the group and leapt
to her feet. “Amy! Hi Amy!” Becca cried happily as she rushed over and took Frays
by the hand. “It’s story time. C’mon Amy! You’re missing it!” Frays sighed,
smiled at the girl and let Becca drag her over to sit on a fuzzy blanket with
Paulie, her twin brother.
Genny Carver,
the child care provider reading to the children, smiled at the younger woman as
she sat down with Becca and Paulie Lacey and gathered the two little ones close
to her. Rachel, a little orphan girl with dirty blonde hair and a look of
perpetual lost sadness in her red rimmed green eyes scooted over and put her head
in Frays’ lap. Genny frowned slightly, her heart breaking just a little bit at
the troubled pained look in the young airman’s eyes as she held the children. Genny
could not help but guess why the children’s friend always looked so out of it
around the kids. She had seen the videos people put up on the internet back
when the internet still worked, after all.
After about
fifteen or twenty minutes Frays checked her watch. “Oh, jeez!” she exclaimed as
she gently started trying to extract herself from the children. “I’m real sorry
kiddos but I gotta get going. I have to get back to work. Have a good day,
kiddos.” Becca and Paulie each grabbed one of the woman’s legs and gave it a
squeeze. Frays’ mouth pinched up and she tousled the children’s hair before bending
and kissing the tops of their heads. “Be good for Mrs. Carver alright guys? And
say hi to your dad for me.”
Frays shuddered
as she hustled off towards the TOC. Twelve hours sitting there hoping that
somebody was going to call them up on the radio was not going to be fun… She
hoped that whoever she was going to be on the detail with would be interesting
at the very least. It could be a very long twelve hours if you were stuck in
there with the wrong person. She had heard a few times that somebody had actually
talked to a base in southern Canada checking up on them. Major Tennyson, the
post commander, had ordered the people manning the radio to leave the room so
what exactly was being said was a matter of debate.
The radio room
was set up inside the old hotel manager’s office behind the front desk. Frays
stopped and showed her ID card to the two Navy guys sitting behind the front
desk and after they checked their list went into the room. “Hey Frannie!” Frays
said with a wide grin as she sank into the nearest rolling chair.
The Latina’s
scarred face brightened visibly. “Amy! How the hell have you been?” she asked
as Frays rolled her chair up to the table next to her. “Long time no see!” It
was easy to see why Carl had taken up with the young woman while they were
holed up in the Frays’ hunting cabin west of Boston. She had long shiny black
hair that was coiled into a bun at the base of her skull and a figure that
could make a man drive his car straight up a light pole even when wearing
Marine cammies and bulky combat gear. However the right side of her face and
neck was covered with pockmarks and thick scar tissue, the result of a roadside
bomb during a deployment in Afghanistan.
As much as she
liked her friend Frays could not help but find the idea of her and Carl as a
couple kind of unsettling. She was easily a decade older than her little
brother and…well...Rodriguez was on some kind of happy pills for PTSD or
whatever. But then…she did not have much room to talk being a single mother and
all. And as long as she and Carl made each other happy then she should stop
being such a stick in the mud especially since there was so much to be
miserable about these days.
“I’m doing good,
Frannie!” Frays answered happily and clapped the woman on the shoulder. “Little
guy’s been kicking the crap out of me but well…I can’t say that it doesn’t make
me happy.” After everything that happened to her before she even knew she was
pregnant she could not help but relish every single strange little sensation of
the life inside her. She loved her little boy so much already. “Whatcha been up
to?”
Rodriguez
frowned a little bit and shrugged. “Pulling perimeter guard mostly.” she said
quietly as she rubbed her thigh. The woman had been wounded in a firefight with
some locals over in Concord a few weeks after the failed attempt of quarantine
in Boston. “Handing out MREs and stuff. Winning hearts and minds and all that
horseshit. How’s Carl and everybody?”
“They’re great.”
Frays said and fidgeted a little. “Just stopped by and said hi to them between
getting done with my work and coming here.” She made a strange face and sent a
flittering look towards the door. “How’s perimeter guard been working out?”
Rodriguez’s face
darkened. “Took down a couple Bravo Charlies the other day.” she whispered,
casting a nervous glance at the door herself. She tried to give her friend a
reassuring look. “Don’t worry though. That can you gave me worked really good.”
Frays smiled
wryly. She had worked out a way to build a suppressor for their M4s out of scrap
metal while they took shelter in a high school at the start of the current
crisis. Frays had shared her secret with the guys working in the Motor
Pool/Machine Shop a couple days ago and now there were folks churning the
homemade ‘cans’ out by the dozen. The steel wool stuffed inside them was
starting to become a high value item. “Hey, no problem.” Frays muttered and
started looking around in the drawers of the desk. “Is there a deck of cards in
here?”
The two of them
sat there playing a game of Spades as they listened to the squawky white noise
coming out of the radio set up on the desk in front of them. Frays turned the
volume up on the radio just a little bit. “How…how’s everything going,
Frannie?” Frays asked with a conspiratorial glance at the door.
Rodriguez gave
Frays a wan smile. “I’m doing fine, Frays.” she said and shrugged as she
suddenly found the keypad on the radio very interesting. Rodriguez leafed
through the three ring binder she found on top of the radio, rediscovering a
list of frequencies and procedures for using the equipment. “I’ve been getting
my meds. My leg’s still kinda crappy but I get by. How about you?” Carl had
come down to visit her in the middle of the night a few times because his
sister kept waking him up with her night terrors.
Now it was Frays’
turn to shrug. “I’m okay. My back aches a little bit but Doc Haskins gives me
some aspirin when I get my vitamins in the morning.” Frays frowned. The
more…colorful…symptoms of her pregnancy were none of Frannie’s business. “I still
get nightmares sometimes but not as bad as I used to.” She smiled slyly at her
friend and played a card. “Don’t tell me you mind Carl coming over to visit
you.”
Rodriguez looked
a little startled. “How did you know?” she asked. Carl had only come to visit a
couple times and they had gone out to sit on the benches out front of the Wal-Mart.
They would hold each other and look up at the stars. It was weird because they
were near a big city but they could clearly see the flickering little lights in
the inky blackness overhead.
“I’d hear him
get up in the middle of the night.” Frays explained and stretched then
scratched the side of her nose. “You’re a couple doors down from us and I hope
for his sake that he’s not smoking.” Frays grinned and took a trick. As a
matter of fact she had smelled Rodriguez’s cigarette smoke in her brother’s
shirt when they got up for work this morning.
Rodriguez smiled
and shook her head slightly. She discarded sticking Frays with the queen of
spades. “How are you and Lacey doing?” Rodriguez asked as she watched Frays
pick up the cards and start to deal again. She could not help but feel like
kind of an ass for bringing it up when a confused and irritated expression came
and went from the woman’s face.
“I’m not sure.”
she said quietly as she finished dealing the cards. Lacey had lost his wife in
the same attack that had taken her parents. He had…helped in all the…stuff…that
came after… Lacey had held her tight and told her that everything was going to
be okay… Sometimes, late at night, as much as she hated to admit it she kind of
wished that he was around after waking up on her cot in a pool of sweat with
tears drying on her face. “I haven’t seen him much. Haven’t really gotten to
talk to him.”
Rodriguez nodded
thoughtfully and flipped down a card. “Say…has Carl talked to you lately?” she
asked still rifling through her cards. A million bad things started flying
around inside Frays’ head as she waited for her friend to continue. What was
wrong with her baby brother? Why did he not come to her with it? Rodriguez
could not help but smile a little bit. “He’s thinking of enlisting.”
Frays felt the
bottom fall out. “WHAT!?” she demanded as she fought down the urge to march out
to the garden and confront Carl with the information. Out of everything that
could have been going on she absolutely did not expect that. “I mean…what? No!”
Frays threw down her cards suddenly shaking with frustration. “Why? Just…just
no!”
“He wants his
dad’s gun back, Amy.” Rodriguez said quietly. By order of the FEMA guy running
the camp the only people allowed to be armed in the FOB were military personnel
and the Blue Diamond guys. Major Tennyson, the FOB’s commanding officer, had
put out a call amongst the civilians looking for volunteers to enlist in the
Marines. “I told him that we’d be going outside the wire soon too. Stupid kid.”
She snickered at her friend and gave her a light punch on the arm. “I think
we’re a bad influence on him or something.”
Frays pinched
the bridge of her nose, shrugged and shook her head. “You’d think that but like
in the other direction.” the woman said quietly. Rodriguez walked with a limp
because she had been shot in the leg and was on meds for PTSD and his big
sister woke up screaming every other night. Neither one of them were exactly
recruiting poster material. “Stupid kid. He’s not even old enough. The big dummy’s
only fifteen.”
Rodriguez looked
stricken. “What? He’s fifteen?!” She started scratching at the scar tissue on
her throat then caught her wrist with her other hand and forced it into her
lap. “Goddamn! I thought he was like at least seventeen!” It looked to Frays like
her friend seemed to shrink inside her plate carrier like a turtle hiding in
its shell.
“Well…he is big
for his age.” Frays said, trying to comfort her friend. She suddenly snickered
then clapped a hand over her mouth to try and hold the laughter in. Rodriguez
rolled her eyes and snorted. Before too long both of them were laughing so hard
that their bellies ached. They stopped laughing immediately and looked at each
other in disbelief when the radio squealed and a tinny little voice called out
to them from the ethers.
“Say again!” Frays
said urgently after she scrabbled for the radio’s handset. “This is…” Frays
snapped her fingers, motioning for Rodriguez to pass her the clipboard with the
radio’s procedures and call signs on it. “Region One Bravo. Send traffic,
over!”
Rodriguez was
out of her chair and over to the door as fast as she could manage. “Guys! We
got somebody!” she called and then returned to the desk. Her hand started
clawing at the scar tissue on her throat her fingers flicking back and forth
over the jagged ridge where a piece of shrapnel had almost severed her carotid
artery.
The door burst
inward an indeterminate amount of time later. “Outside, Airman.” a middle aged
Hispanic man who looked sort of like a bulldog in a Marine Corps uniform said
as he barged into the room. He glanced at Rodriguez as he took the handset out
of Frays’ hand. “You too, Specialist. Close the door please.”
Frays and Rodriguez
looked at each other once they had the door shut. Major Tennyson, the post
commander, had just thrown…well…politely insisted that they leave him alone to
talk with whoever was on the other end of that phone call. “Hey…Rodriguez…”
Frays said quietly as she glanced at the two squids sitting behind the desk.
The woman’s hand went inside her LCS to rub her son growing in her womb.
“Did…did that just happen?”
Rodriguez let a
little smile grow on her face. It made her think of that guy Carl had found on the
radio that night in the cabin. “Yeah…Yeah…Frays, I think it did.” she muttered
quietly and looked at the Navy guys. “This happen a lot? What’s going on?”
The Navy guy whose
name tape said Simons shrugged. “I dunno.” he said quietly and looked at the other
man next to him. “Like once maybe?” The man glanced at the door like he would
like nothing better than to press his ear up against it.
Major Tennyson
cracked the door. “Simons, call up the airfield and have them set up the GPS
transceiver.” he said loud enough for them all to hear. The four enlisted
people exchanged nervous, excited glances. “Tell them to have a detail on
standby to receive an airdrop around 1800 hours tomorrow. Frays, pass the word
to the people on perimeter guard. Anybody with a pulse out there that sees those
‘chutes is going to be curious and they might not be friendly. Tell ‘em to keep
their eyes peeled.” The man left the radio room and marched purposefully
towards the door to the hallway. Major Tennyson poked his head back into the
room. “Get Lieutenant Haskins over here. I need to talk to her too.”
The former hotel
lobby turned into a flurry of activity as the enlisted personnel hurried to follow
the major’s orders. Frays’ hands trembled excitedly as she relayed the
instructions to the dozens of makeshift guard towers set up on their side of
the wall. There was a maelstrom of speculation buzzing along the wires. Frays
grinned at the radio.
The two of them
listened excitedly for awhile, hoping to get another call from whoever that was
on the other end. Eventually Frays and Rodriguez started playing cards again
and waiting for their shift to end. Frays dug a notepad out of her hip pocket
and started sketching something, concentrating on the paper with the tip of her
tongue sticking out of her mouth. Eventually Rodriguez’s curiosity got the
better of her.
“Whatcha drawing,
Frays?” Rodriguez asked as she tried to peer over the woman’s shoulder. The
picture looked like a weird combination of chicken scratches and Egyptian
hieroglyphics or something. Her face scrunched up and she glanced at her watch.
She had to be over to the Aid Station in an hour to pick up her afternoon dose
of mood stabilizers…
“I’m drawing up
a schematic.” Frays explained as she erased part of her drawing and changed a
few of the strange little squiggles. “I was just thinking…ever gone coyote
hunting?” Frays studied the paper for a moment and added a couple zigzags to
the squiggles.
Rodriguez
smirked. Fuckin’ hick. she thought
good naturedly. “I never been outta South Boston before I joined the Army,
Frays.” Rodriguez said as she continued to try and puzzle out what the picture
was. It looked kind of like one of those Magic Eye puzzles she had seen all
over the place when she was a kid. “Not many coyotes there.”
Frays snickered
and shook her head. “Well…you play animal sounds like a wounded rabbit or
something to get the coyotes to come so you can shoot them.” Frays added a
couple more little boxes next to the squiggles and zigzags. “I was thinking
that something like that might work since the Bravo Charlies are drawn by
noises. Might actually work a little better because they don’t seem that
bright.”
Rodriguez nodded
thoughtfully. “But what after that? I mean…so you’ve got a bunch of those
things standing around in the open.” She scratched at the scars on her cheek
then slapped her palm down on the desk hard enough to make Frays jump a little
bit at the sound. “Drone the dog shit outta the motherfuckers! Frays, you’re a
genius!”
“I have my
moments, anyways.” Frays said once she had recovered from the surprise. The
smaller woman shrugged and tugged at the sleeve of her tee shirt for a moment
as the garment had gotten bunched up under the shoulder strap of her LCS. “If
they don’t have a drone flying around or anything I guess we could always just
kind of find safe places and snipe them. Then again that would take up a heck
of a lot of ammo.”
A slow, devilish
grin spread across Rodriguez’s face. “Or we go talk to our friend who can make
things go boom.” she said. She snapped her fingers and jumped to her feet. “Or
maybe we ask Major Tennyson about getting one in the next care package!”
Frays frowned
and shrugged. “I don’t think that they can really like…ya know…stuff one in a
connex or whatever.” Frays said quietly. She thought back to the other FOB
Freedom on the other side of the world. There had been an airstrip there and
she had seen a couple UAVs flying around but had never gotten near where they
were kept because that place was behind its own fenced off area surrounded by
signs that said things like ‘Classified’ and ‘Trespassers Will Be Shot On
Sight’ so she had never really been curious enough to go look. “Did you ever
get a close look at one? They seem pretty big to me. At least the ones that
we’d need.”
Rodriguez shivered
despite the humidity. For a brief moment she was far, far away lying on her
back and gagging on her own blood. She had drifted out of consciousness for a
moment only to be rousted by the earth shaking beneath her as a shockwave
slapped her in the face and pelted her with grit and small rocks. Someone threw
their body across her to try and shield her from the worst of it… “Nope.”
Rodriguez muttered as she absently wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
The woman squirmed in her seat. “Hey…mind if I go grab a smoke?”
Rodriguez went
to the bench outside the door and plopped down. She dug out her cigarettes,
thumbed open the pack and jammed one into the corner of her mouth with
trembling hands. “Hey, Rodriguez!” a voice called cheerily, making her look up
then jump to her feet and pull the cigarette out of her mouth. A tall,
attractive woman in Multi-Cam trousers and sand colored tee shirt with brown
hair grinned as she approached. There was an M9 in a shoulder rig under the
woman’s left arm though it looked to Rodriguez that the lieutenant would be
more of a danger to herself than anyone else if she ever actually tried to use
the weapon. “Geez! Calm down, Rodriguez. How are you doing?”
Frannie grinned
uneasily. “I’m doing great, Doc.” she said and lit her cigarette. Rodriguez
could sense the other woman’s dark brown eyes searching her face, staring at
the latticework of scars covering the right side of her face. Rodriguez looked
at the ground and turned slightly in an attempt to hide her damaged face.
“Are you sure
you’re alright?” Lieutenant Haskins asked, leaning forward a little and
lowering her head so she could look the younger woman in the eye. Daryl, the
night nurse, had found a bottle of pills stashed in Rodriguez’s plate carrier
and brought it to her the night they arrived. She had started dialing down the
dosages on people’s medications since there was currently more people than meds
to go around…
“I…I just had a
flashback.” Rodriguez admitted and looked around to see if anyone was listening
in. The younger woman sank onto the bench and took a long drag on her
cigarette. “First time in ages.” She let out the smoke in a shuddering breath. Holy fuckin’ shit I need a goddamn drink
right now. Frannie thought and gritted her teeth against the urge.
Beth sat down
next to the woman and put a hand on her shoulder. “I have to go talk to Major
Tennyson for a minute. When I’m done I’ve got some time if you want to talk
about it.” She smiled at the woman and stood up. The expression faltered when
Rodriguez sort of shrugged and nodded. “I’ll see you in about twenty minutes or
so, alright?”
Rodriguez
glanced after the doctor and took another drag off of her cigarette, held it
for a moment then let a plume of smoke squirt out of her nose. An unexpected blood
boiling rage built up in her chest as she watched that smarmy little squid go
inside so intense it made her vision go white. Who the fuck do you think you are? Rodriguez thought angrily at the
woman’s back, shaking her head and snorting out another blue grey cloud like a
pissed off bull You think you fuckin’
know me or some shit?
Her hand closed
tightly around the pistol grip of her M4. For a half second Rodriguez saw
herself walking in and blasting that dumb stick up her ass bitch’s pretty
little face right off her head. She jumped and looked around then wiped her
face with the palms of her hands. “Holy fucking shit.” Rodriguez whispered as
she took a moment to try and collect herself. She glanced at her watch and felt
for the bottle of pills in an old ammo pouch on her plate carrier, her breath
coming in little hiccup gasps. “Shit. Holy fuckin’ shit…”
Once she was
reasonably certain that she could go through the door without fragging a
superior officer Rodriguez returned to the radio room. “Hey Frays…I gotta go
pick something up from the Aid Station.” she said quietly and shot a glance at
the two Navy guys nearby. “I’ll be right back, okay?”
“Sure thing,
Rodriguez.” Frays said with a knowing expression. Her friend was self conscious
about her medication and she noticed the guys on Staff Duty trying to act like
they were not listening to their conversation. “Hey Frannie…get some pads for
me too.” She added in a stage whisper and barely kept herself from bursting out
laughing at the looks of distaste on the squids’ faces.
Frannie
snickered and shook her head as she walked out of the TOC. After a few steps
Rodriguez was shaking with laughter. She found it a little hard to believe that
Frays had actually mentioned maxi pads in front of the squids. The goody little
two shoes who she had never even heard swear and seemed unable to even say the
word ‘sex’… It was the funniest goddamn thing she had seen in awhile.
She gimped along
as fast as she could manage towards the Aid Station. They were dialing back on
her meds and Rodriguez found that it was fucking with her brain hardcore. There
was this jittery sort of feeling in the pit of her stomach like spiders
crawling around in her belly and it was getting hard to sleep. And at the
bottom of everything there was a deep fear: that she was going to fuck up and
get somebody hurt. That she was going to start drinking or taking pills again.
That she might start sleeping around again. Worst of all was the fear that she
was going to do something to fuck up things with Carl and his sister.
While they were
holed up in the school she had nearly run out of her medication and she had
come on to Lacey. Shit, she had practically thrown herself at him but
thankfully the goddamn Boy Scout had turned her down. Rodriguez chuckled to
herself as she hobbled along on her bad leg. The Boy Scout and Goody Two Shoes.
That was something else entirely. A completely different type of animal all
together… Actually it was more like a love/hate relationship that had been
smoking pounds of meth and chugging Jack Daniels by the gallon. She swallowed
hard, wishing for that delicious burn of hard liquor as it went down…
“Hey,
beautiful!” a jovial voice called startling her out of her thoughts. Carl came
towards her at a quick walk a big grin plastered all over his face. “Where you
off to?” The younger man gave her a big hug and a peck on her scarred cheek
when he got within range.
“Gotta go to the
Aid Station real quick.” Rodriguez said and returned the favor. She quickly
disentangled herself from his arms and gave Carl a sheepish grin. “Um…wanna
walk with me? I mean if you got time.”
“Yeah, sure!”
the blond man exclaimed and moved closer to the woman’s side. “We got the rest
of the afternoon off ‘cause of the airdrop.” He added conspiratorially “I heard
there’s gonna be a hundred Spec Ops guys dropping in.”
Rodriguez rolled her eyes. “Nah, man.” she said and bumped her hip into the
man’s side. “It’s just food and shit. Meds hopefully.” Carl frowned and slipped
an arm around Rodriguez’s shoulders, holding her to him as they walked. She
shrugged into his armpit for a moment and leaned her head against his shoulder then
pushed off. “Look…um…”
“Heh…” he
muttered awkwardly and moved into a more comfortable distance. Frannie was
weird about holding his hand and stuff while she was in uniform or on duty or
whatever. “How you doing? I mean really.”
She snorted and
turned her face away rolling her eyes. “Scared shitless.” she admitted. The
woman shrugged inside her plate carrier and made an odd face. “My head’s a
scary place to be right now, man.” Her hand dipped into her ammo pouch and
pulled out her cigarettes, lit one and put them back. “I…I almost flipped shit
on Lieutenant Haskins. She just asked how I was doing and I…I wanted to shoot
her in the face for a second there.”
“It’ll be okay,
Frannie.” He stopped and caught her arm, pulling the woman into a tight
embrace. Carl put a hand on the back of Frannie’s neck and put his forehead
against hers, the very tips of their noses touching under the rim of her
Kevlar. “It’s gonna be alright, right? We got this shit. This ain’t shit.”
She grinned and
pecked the tip of his nose. “Right, man.” Rodriguez let her hands slide down
the man’s sides, enjoying the way color crept into the man’s face as his breath
ticked her cheek. “I don’t want to fuck this up. I don’t want to fuck this up.”
“I know…” Carl
said as they came up to the building. He paused outside the Aid Station’s
perimeter wall and let his hand run down her arm. She smiled at him and, just
for a moment, he saw what she must have looked like five or ten years ago. Before
she got hurt and whatever else might have happened to her… “Amy’s got duty over
in the TOC until like…eleven o’clock or whatever…”
Frannie laughed
and stood on her tiptoes to peck Carl on the lips. “I know. I’m sitting on the
radio desk with her.” Carl’s face seemed to fall in on itself and it only made
Rodriguez laugh harder. “Bring us some dinner later, please?” She wheedled him,
looking up at Carl with her dark brown eyes. The woman grinned and could feel
his desire for her like heat.
“Oh, alright!”
Carl exclaimed with mock frustration and patted Frannie on the butt as she
hobbled through the front gate. It was
no trouble at all. After all, the place where they handed out rations was like
way on the other side of the place. It hurt him to watch Frannie limp along
even if it was barely noticeable. He suspected that she knew he felt bad for
her so she tried really really hard to not limp as much when he was around. And
well…his little nephew was getting pretty big. It would not be long now…
Unsure of what
to do with himself Carl started ambling over towards the Resettlement Center.
He kicked a stone through the grass ahead of him as he walked with his hands
jammed into the pockets of his filthy jeans. He could not help but be a little
worried about his sister. It was the third time since they got here that some
asshole made her stay up so late. Aim was not sleeping good as it was and
Frannie was coming apart at the seams…
“Yo! Frays! Get
your ass over here!” A big black man in one of the Digicam uniforms shouted
from off to Carl’s left startling the boy out of his thoughts. The man’s voice
was heavily accented almost to the point of being unintelligible. The guy
sounded like he was African or Jamaican or some shit. “Where the fuck did you
go?” There were two more guys with him, one of them dressed in kacki trousers
and a black polo shirt. “Who the fuck told you you could leave?”
“You did, Johnson.”
Carl grumbled under his breath eyeing the man angrily. It was right about then
that Carl noticed a Colt 1911 in a familiar holster on Kacki Boy’s hip. He took
a couple quick steps towards the man, pointing at the weapon. All of a sudden Johnson
and his little butt buddy were the farthest thing from his mind. “Hey where the
fuck you get that?”
“It’s none of
your business, son.” Kacki Boy said, giving the boy a cocky little grin that
shifted his fashionable Aviator sunglasses on his face slightly. He had a
highfaluting accent, probably British. “And watch your mouth.” This drew little
titters of laughter from the two Blue Diamond guys.
“Lemme see it!”
Carl demanded, pointing furiously at the man’s hip. “That looks like my dad’s
goddamn gun! Where the fuck did you get that, you thieving piece of shit?” He
walked up to Kacki Boy, his face a mask of absolute rage. “Gimme my fuckin’
gun!”
Johnson slugged
the boy in the side of the head, stopping Carl in his tracks. Carl lashed out
with the toe of his boot catching the mercenary in the groin. The next thing
Carl knew he was on the ground and the two mercs were kicking him. White light
exploded behind his eyes when a blow slammed into the back of his head. Red hot
lances stabbed through his chest. Carl coughed choking on coppery tasting
liquid.
Carl blinked and
opened his eyes…or rather tried to open his eyes. They were swollen so much
that he could barely crack his lids. “Oh, thank God!” Amy cried, wiping at her
cheeks. She took her brother’s hand and held it tight. It took him a couple
seconds to realize that he was on a bed in the Aid Station. “Thank God! Thank
God!”
Another voice
interrupted his sister. “I think we deserve a little credit here too, guys.”
Lieutenant Haskins said quietly. Carl’s world twisted and spun like a
kaleidoscope on acid then slowly settled into the woman’s face. That other
medic dude, the black guy, was standing next to her. “Somebody kicked the crap
out of you, Mister Frays.”
Carl made a
strange sound in his throat that might have been an attempt at a laugh. Amy was
shaking in her chair next to his bed but he could not tell if it was because
she was scared or angry or whatever. “Who did this, Carl?” Amy asked in a low
quiet voice as she squeezed her brother’s hand.
Lieutenant
Haskins made a face behind their backs. “He…he won’t be able to talk for awhile,
Airman.” the doctor muttered. She had gotten to know Airman Frays and her
brother pretty well in the short time they had been here. “His jaw was
partially dislocated.”
Frays dug into
her cargo pocket and came up with a pen and a small spiral bound notepad. She
flipped the little book to a blank page and put it on the bed. “Who did this,
Carl?” Amy repeated as she put the pen in her brother’s hand. Carl scribbled
something down then pushed the pad of paper towards his big sister. It took her
a couple minutes to decipher Carl’s shaky chicken scratches but Amy felt like
someone had dumped a bucket of ice water on her head when she figured out what
he wrote.
A short skinny
man in Marine cammies met Frays as she stormed into the hall. “Frays! Frays,
what’s going on?” Lacey said as he tried to catch the woman by the sleeve. The
woman ignored him and kept right on going. “Frays, is Carl alright? Frays?!
Stop!”
Lacey’s throat
constricted when Frays turned to face him his friend’s eyes a roiling sea of
anger, pain and confusion. “They beat him, man.” Frays choked out at last, one
hand going over her mouth. “They beat him half to death. My baby brother, man.
They…h-he…th…his friggin’ jaw is busted…”
Lacey put his
arms around her. “He’s gonna be okay, Frays.” he whispered in her ear as he
held her tight, gently rocking her from side to side. “He’s a tough kid. Don’t
worry. He’ll be up and around being a pain in your ass in no time.”
Frays hugged him
back then sniffed and wiped her cheeks. “Yeah.” Frays muttered as she extracted
herself from the man’s arms. “Look…I gotta go get the report on this and then
get back to the desk.” She looked horrified for a second. “Oh, jeez...Rodriguez
has gotta be going nuts. This guy just came in and told me Carl was in the Aid
Station…”
“I got the rest
of the afternoon off.” Lacey volunteered as the two of them went outside and
headed towards the gate. He glanced over his shoulder at the woman and
shrugged. “I’ll head over there so Frannie can come over and see Carl.”
The two of them
went their separate ways, Lacey sprinting off towards the TOC while Frays went
towards the Security Forces building. Sergeant Hanes stopped her a few feet
inside the door. “Don’t worry, Frays.” he told her with a reassuring pat on her
shoulder “You just go back to the desk over there. The investigation’s already
underway. Don’t get all stressed out, alright? We’re gonna catch the guys.”
Frays fumed.
“Look…Sergeant…” she said through clenched teeth once she felt like she could
open her mouth without shouting “It was Blue Diamond guys. Carl told me. I
brought him here because it was gonna be safe. We’re here barely a week and
he’s in the hospital.”
The man frowned
concernedly. “Frays…listen to me, alright?” he asked quietly as he hooked the
woman’s arm and dragged her outside. Sergeant Hanes closed the door behind them
and glanced back through the pane of glass. His face became the very picture of
seriousness. “Listen. Just keep quiet. Let me handle it. Don’t do anything
stupid, alright?” When the woman did not respond he put a hand on her shoulder
and squeezed. “Alright?”
“Yes, Sergeant.”
She snorted and pressed her lips into a thin line, suddenly realizing how
similar this conversation was to one she had with her Flight Sergeant back just
before everything went crazy in Boston. “I’m cool. I’m cool. I have to get back
to the TOC. Rodriguez…Carl’s girlfriend she was working the desk with me. Jeez…she’s
gotta be going insane. I’ll get back over there.”
Rodriguez sat in
her chair rolling forward and back, one hand scratching at the scars on her
throat. “Rodriguez….” Lacey said as he reached out and caught the armrest of
the woman’s chair. “Don’t worry. I’m sure he’s fine.”
Rodriguez
exploded out of her chair. “How the fuck do you know that?” She paced around
inside the office, still scratching at her throat. She felt this strange sticky
warmth on her fingertips and frowned. It took her a moment to connect the blood
on her fingers to the burning sensation under her chin. “Fuck…”
Lacey leapt up.
“Jeez, Rodriguez…take a seat.” He put a hand on the woman’s shoulder and gently
guided her back into her chair. Lacey started pawing through the desk drawers
frenetically searching the contents while trying act like he was not in the
least freaked out by Rodriguez clawing her skin off in front of him. “Damn…not
even a fuckin’ Band-Aid or whatever. Hang on. I’ll be right back.”
“It’s…it’s cool,
man.” Rodriguez muttered as she reached out and caught the man’s arm. She blew
out a long shuddering breath and licked her lips, her throat and mouth drying
out and filling with cotton. She found a thing of toilet paper from an MRE in
her pocket so she unfolded it and used that to stop her bleeding.
Rodriguez sat
there taking long pulls of lukewarm water from her Camelbak and wishing it was
filled with beer or maybe a strong mixture of Jack and Coke….a fifth of bourbon
or so to two liters of Coke would do the trick about now.
Lacey felt his
eyes getting watery as he watched Rodriguez sitting there. She had lost Eamon,
her boyfriend or whatever, like a couple of months ago and oh God Laura…
Rodriguez was taking this pretty hard but Carl was going to be okay. He just
got hurt or whatever… He jumped a little bit when the woman mumbled something
under her breath. “I’m sorry, what?”
Rodriguez sighed
and made a strange face. “I said I need a goddamn drink.” the woman sighed
again and shrugged. She scratched an itch on the side of her nose and let a
breath out slowly through her nose. Now’s
as good a time as any, I guess… Rodriguez looked the man in the eye. “I’ve
been sober for seven months or so. Used to have a little problem with the
bottle and pills. Gave me all the morphine I wanted in the hospital. Bastards
threw me out on my ass as soon as I could walk again.”
It took him a
second but all of a sudden he realized at least part of the reason why
Rodriguez had been so moody and depressed while he and Frays were helping her
recover from her gunshot wound… They had kept her pretty well doped up on
whatever they could dig out of Eamon’s bag of tricks. “Oh, Christ…” Lacey
muttered and wiped his mouth with the palm of his hand “Shit…I’m so sorry,
Frannie.”
The woman
shrugged. “It’s okay. You guys didn’t know.” Rodriguez turned back towards the
radio and leafed through the manual on the table. “It isn’t like I told you.
And well, the drive to the cabin wouldn’t have been fun… And I don’t really
like to advertise it.”
Lacey loosed a
small nervous laugh. “Yeah, I guess so…” he muttered and absently scratched at
the back of his neck for a moment. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anybody if you
don’t want me to. Your secret’s safe with me.”
Rodriguez smiled
a little bit and put a hand on his shoulder. “Thanks.” She squeezed his upper
arm and took her hand back. Just then Frays burst into the room. The three of
them looked at each other for a moment, the woman’s eyes shifting from Lacey to
Rodriguez and back again. Frays looked as if she was not sure if she was
interrupting something or not.
“Um…Frannie…”
Frays said awkwardly as she took a couple steps farther into the room. “Carl’s
gonna be okay. Somebody kicked the crap outta him pretty good but he’s gonna be
okay.” She smiled at the relieved look on Rodriguez’s face and she walked over,
put a hand on her shoulder. “He wants to see you.”
Frays sank into
the empty chair after Rodriguez had left. She glanced at the radio then picked
up the binder on the desk and started reading. Lacey opened his mouth to say
something a couple times but could not think of anything to say. He could tell
from the way the woman was sitting and the way she kept running a hand over her
son she was obviously upset. He longed to be able to say or do something that
would make her feel better.
The door opened
and Lacey leapt to his feet. “Officer on deck!” he shouted and snapped to
attention. He bit down hard on laughter when Frays followed suit spilling the
binder onto the ground with a loud slap.
Major Tennyson
stood in the doorway, the middle aged man wearing an amused expression on his
usually stony face. “At ease, son.” he said as he took a step inside the room
and closed the door behind him. “Airman Frays, I want to speak to you for a
minute.”
Frays glanced at
Lacey as she put the binder back. The man felt a strange sinking feeling in the
pit of his stomach at the slightly worried look in the woman’s eyes. “Yes,
sir.” she said as she checked to make sure she had her patrol cap in her cargo
pocket. Frays could not help but snatch surreptitious glimpses of the area
beyond as she followed Major Zachariah Tennyson back into the lobby and down
the hall. She had worked in the radio room a couple times but had never been
beyond that before. It was kind of busy and cramped with people going here and
there like some kind of beehive or something…if bees wore uniforms.
“I heard about
your brother, Airman.” the compact, muscular Marine said over his shoulder as
the two of them walked quickly down the hall. The two of them dodged an Asian
man dressed as a Blue Diamond contractor. Tennyson glared at the man for a
second as if he were trying to start the man’s head on fire with his mind.
“Hope he gets well soon.”
“Thank you,
sir.” Frays said, rolling her eyes at the mercenary as she continued following
the major. Almost plowing into a pregnant woman was one thing but a friggin’
senior officer? Some people had no respect at all. “I…I guess he was thinking
of enlisting.”
Major Tennyson
let her into a large room at the end of the hall. It looked like it had been
one of the hotel’s higher end rooms once upon a time: there was a large bed in
the middle of the room along with a Jacuzzi filled with water. Frays glanced
inside the open door that looked like it led to the latrine with its private
toilet, sink and combination bathtub and shower. The latrine looked like it was
about the size of her cubicle at the Resettlement Center. There was a large
flat screen television mounted to the wall and a desk in the corner that was
piled high with papers and binders.
The man sat down
at the desk in the corner and motioned for her to take a seat on the corner of
the bed. “Actually, that’s kinda what I wanted to talk to you about.”
So! There you go! There's the first chapter of Outbreak: Long Road Back. If you like it be aware that it's coming this Friday and get ready to snatch that bad boy up. If you are so inclined take a moment to write a review on the various books' Amazon pages. I'm a one man operation here so I rely heavily on word of mouth to advertise my stuff. I appreciate it and I give shout outs to all the awesome people who do so here on my blog. I wish I could do more but I can't quite figure out how to get in contact with the individuals who do so... Sorry.
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