Outbreak: Boston (15 page)

“Shoot the lock off!” Lacey shouted as he emptied the shelves of toothpaste, razors and other personal hygiene supplies into a shopping cart. “Keep your muzzle an inch or so from the door so you don’t blow up your barrel!”

Two loud booms followed as Eamon fired his shotgun at the deadbolt securing the door, pulled it open and started scooping armloads of prescription drugs into a plastic shopping basket. The Humvee’s crew served weapon started firing with alarming frequency. Amy stood at the front of the store and cupped her hands to her mouth. “Two minutes, people!” she shouted, sparing a glance around the building “Come on, let’s go!”

Eamon, Adam, Josh and Dana filed past her and tossed the contents of their carts into the back of the truck. Amy spared a glance at the counter nearby, grabbed a couple plastic baskets and sprinted over to it. She nimbly hopped over the counter and started filling the baskets with cartons of cigarettes from the shelf behind the register. Frays paused, scribbled a note apologizing for the damage on a piece of paper on the counter then took out her wallet. She folded her debit card inside the note and stuck it under the corner of the register before heading back towards the exit. Once outside, she slung one basket into the bed of the Five Ton then sprinted over to the Humvee. A half second after that the convoy was pulling away and leaving the strip mall behind. Amy saw a half dozen figures chasing after the trucks as they pulled back onto the highway.
The figures stopped and stared after them once they were about a quarter mile or so down the road.

Jean dropped down into the truck and moved to the back seat behind Lacey. “Take over, will ya, mate?” Adam carefully wriggled into the back and climbed up into the cupola. She thanked him and glanced at Amy. She was slapping a pack of cigarettes against her thigh as she drove then tore open the cellophane. “Spare a fag?”

Amy looked over her shoulder with a startled expression on her face until she realized that Jean was asking for a cigarette. She smiled and handed the older woman a pack out of the carton she had just opened. “How many were there?” 

Jean looked thoughtful as she lit a cigarette. “Dunno.” she said around a plume of smoke “I think maybe five or ten before we finally scarpered.” The older woman frowned and took another drag. “Thought I saw maybe fifteen or twenty more in the other stores.”

Amy felt a cold shiver run down her spine. “Twenty.” she said quietly as she crossed herself. “Jesus Christ.”

Jean gave the young airman a grave look. “Somehow, I don’t think He’s taking requests today.”

Frays shot her a look in return. “No smoking in military vehicles.”

The few buildings they passed by looked deserted and they only found a handful of stalled vehicles along the road. Amy wasn’t actually that surprised because, while Massachusetts was not exactly the Hindu Kush, they were pretty far off the beaten track. She thought again of the bloody, shot up trucks on the highway and shuddered. “This is the United States of America.” she whispered, gripping the steering wheel. “That isn’t supposed to
happen
here.”

“Did you say something?” Jean asked. Amy spared a glance over her shoulder before turning her attention back to the road. She became aware of the fact that she was gripping the steering wheel so tightly that her fingers were aching.

“Sorry.” she said as she slowly loosened her grip “I was just thinking out loud I guess.”

Something caught her attention alongside the road. “Hey, I recognize this intersection.” Frays announced as she pulled the Humvee over to the shoulder. “There’s a gun store about five miles down the road.” Amy saw Eamon coming in the Humvee’s side view mirror. “Do you guys want to check it out? We might be able to find more ammo and weapons.”

“How far is it?” Adam asked. He shifted to see what Frays was looking at. “If it’s only a little ways I don’t see why we shouldn’t check it out.”

Amy pinched her face up as she tried to recall the way. “If I remember right, it’s only about four miles or so out of our way.” she said slowly as she opened the Humvee’s door. “I’ll see what Eamon and the rest think. Back in five.”

Eamon watched the way the young woman walking towards him: she looked at him then turned a little, keeping an eye on the surrounding landscape with her carbine at the low ready. He did his best to imitate her. “What’s up?” he asked as he approached the Humvee. “Why’d you stop?”

“I think there’s a gun store about four or five miles from here.” Amy said quickly, letting her eyes flit across the ditch across the road, the bushes and long grass just beyond that. “You guys up for going to check it out?”

Eamon looked at the young woman. “Sure.” he said carefully. Something about the way Frays was acting made the hair stand up on the back of his neck. “Shouldn’t take that long, so let’s get going.”

The two of them piled back into their vehicles and the convoy started rolling down the road. After a couple minutes Adam pointed out a hand painted sign nailed to a telephone pole ahead of them. “Bubba’s guns. Next right.” he announced happily. “Looks you were right, Frays.”

The convoy swung to the right and drove down the road. Amy could not get over how strange it felt to be leading a combat patrol down a road she had driven with her dad and brother on their way to deer camp every fall. All of a sudden she felt very small and very scared and, just for a second there mind you, she really really wanted her Daddy or the comforting bulk of Sergeant Emery in the Humvee’s cupola. Amy shook herself as the road curved and revealed a familiar two story building amongst a stand of trees on the right side.

Frays slowed and picked up the radio’s hand mike. “Just hang back, guys.” she said carefully as she brought the truck to a stop. “I don’t know if there’s anybody here, but let’s not make a scene if we don’t have to.”

“Alright, Amy.” Eamon said over the radio. Even over the radio Adam could tell the man sounded worried. The building seemed quiet, with no cars parked in front or any lights on inside. Still, something did seem a bit off about it.

Amy turned in the driver’s seat to look at the other people in her vehicle. “I’ll go up and knock on the door.” she said quietly as she motioned towards the store’s heavy wooden door. Amy guessed that it might even have a steel core with a thin veneer of wood laminated onto it. A gun store in the middle of nowhere would be a tempting target for burglars… “If somebody’s there I’ll try to convince them to go with us. If not, I’ll signal for you” she motioned to Adam “to join me on the porch. We’ll try and get in and sweep the building. Once we’ve got it cleared we’ll do like we did at the Walgreens, alright?”

Frays took a couple deep breaths before swinging open the Humvee door and climbing out of the truck. Her throat felt tight as her boots crunched on the gravel, her eyes searching every shadow and ready to dive for cover and return fire at a moment’s notice. Half way across the parking lot Frays spotted a shadowy figure crouched over something inside the center window of the second floor. She stopped immediately, raising her non-firing hand as Adam swung the Humvee’s fifty caliber machine gun around and pointed it at the building. He had obviously sensed something was wrong and moved to back her up.  

A rifle shot rang out, the bullet whining off the parking lot. Amy flinched, but she was som
ehow able to keep her cool. “Hi there, sir!” she said as calmly as she could manage. “Stand down, Lacey. Look, we don’t have a lot of money but we’ve got some stuff we can trade. Antibiotics, first aid stuff. A lot of food, too.”

“Stop fucking around, Frays
!” Eamon shouted out the window of the Five Ton. “Lacey, shoot that asshole!”

Amy half turned towards the convoy of trucks behind her. “Lacey, you will do no such thing!
Eamon shut the heck up!” she snapped angrily “This is his stuff and if he doesn’t want to share that’s his business. I don’t know about you, but I’m not
robbing
anybody.”

She turned back towards the rifleman in the window. “Come on, sir.” Amy said cautiously. Frays became keenly aware of the fact that she was probably going to get shot in the next few minutes. She wondered if it would hurt as much as everybody said it did. “I just want to talk. Let me come inside and we’ll see if we can’t work something out, alright?” She took a tentative step forward when a second shot rang out. This one whined off a largish rock a foot or two away from Amy’s left boot. She bit down hard on a scream. “Alright, sir. Message received. Have a nice day.”

Amy hurried back to the truck and climbed into the driver’s seat. Jean glared at her as the younger woman fired the engine up. Once they were all safely on their way back to the school she slapped Amy on the back of the head. “Are you stupid?” she shouted “You could have been
killed
you fuckin’ muppet!”

Amy felt a small, nervous little smile come to her face. “Gee, I didn’t know you cared Mom.” 

The convoy came to a halt in the bus loop in front of the school. Eamon waved at the three soldiers on the roof. Sergeant Barnes and a couple of the others came out to meet them as they started lowering the tailgate. “Hey, guys!” Josh cried happily as he climbed up into the bed of the truck and started stacking cases of water where people could get them. “We got all kindsa good stuff! Water, food…all kindsa stuff!”

Dana looked at the others for a minute. “What’s wrong?” she asked. An alarmed look crashed onto her face like a wave. “What happened?”

“You know that skinny little white girl, Jane something-or-other?” Barnes said quietly as he took an armload of supplies from the back of the truck. “She drank some shit she found in the janitor’s closet.”

“What?” Frays asked as Eamon ran inside. “Oh, no. That’s terrible! Is she…” She could not quite bring herself to complete the statement. Amy stood there for a moment,
paralyzed with the feeling that she should do something but she was not exactly sure what it was.

“Whatever she drank it wasn’t enough to do the job.” Barnes said disgustedly as he stomped off towards the front door of the school. “Come on! This shit isn’t going to unload itself. The medic’s gonna take care of it.”

It took them about forty five minutes or so to get the supplies unloaded and stored in their proper places. “Okay, folks.” Barnes said as Dana and Amy put the last boxes of medical supplies on the shelf in the nurse’s office closet. “It’s getting close to lunchtime, so go line up for chow. Frays, go report to the lieutenant first.”

Amy stuck her Kevlar’s chinstrap over the cap of her canteen. “Where is he? Down at the mayor’s office?” she asked as she stretched her neck. The base of her neck made little popping noises as she pulled her head to the side.

“No, last I saw him he was setting up in his office.”

“OOOO!” Eamon chided from his place beside Jane’s sickbed. “Have to go to the Principal’s office? Have you been bad?”

Amy looked offended and shook her head disgustedly. “Grow up.” she muttered as she turned and stomped out of the room. Somehow she managed to not slam the door behind her.

Frays
grumbled to herself all the way down the hall. A couple of the refugees smiled and said hello to her as she passed them by. Amy returned the gesture but she couldn’t remember if she knew their names or not. She shook her head and took a moment to collect herself before knocking on the lieutenant’s office door.

“Come on in!” said a muffled voice on the other side. The short man greeted her with a smile. “What do you think, Frays? Starting to shape up, yeah?” he asked as he motioned towards the desk. There were a couple maps and three or four clipboards piled on top of the desk.

Amy found herself wanting to grab the lieutenant by his plate carrier and shake him until his nose bled.
I come back from risking my butt to find that somebody tried to commit SUICIDE and you want to show off your office?
Frays thought angrily. She stood at attention, her hands suddenly trembling with barely suppressed rage at her sides. “Very nice, sir.”

Jenkins nodded and sat down in the plush red leather chair behind the desk. “Have a seat, Airman.” He motioned towards a low backed chair on her side. “I’m told you found some cigarettes.”

Amy produced her pack of smokes and offered him one. The man accepted with a grin as he dug a brass Zippo and an ashtray out of his desk. “Would you believe I found these in the bottom drawer?” he said as he lit his cigarette. “Go ahead, smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.”

Amy quickly gave him the rundown of everything that happened after the convoy left the school. “We found maybe an additional month’s worth of canned goods and water if we’re careful.” Frays said as she lit up. “Eamon, the medic, managed to snag a pretty good supply of meds. Enough to treat the folks here that need ‘em and deal with emergencies for a couple months or so. No casualties taken on our side, maybe ten or twelve infected KIA. Jean Ann, the person I had pulling perimeter security, reported to me that there were an additional estimated twenty or more infected converging on our location. I wouldn’t recommend another mission in that area for awhile, sir.
The infected seem to be attracted to loud noises. If that alarm’s still going off there’s no telling how many it’ll draw from the countryside.”

The lieutenant listened intently to everything Frays had to say and waited for her to finish. “Very good, Airman.” he said and butted out his cigarette. “Your squad has the rest of the afternoon off. Report for guard duty on the roof at 200
0 hours. Dismissed.”
“Roger that, sir.” Amy said and stood up. She saluted and took a step backward before exiting the office in two quick strides. Halfway down the hall she kicked a half open locker and bit back a scream.