Outbreak: Boston (17 page)

Jenkins gave Frays a condescending smile. “You worry too much, Frays.” he said as he climbed into the passenger seat of his Humvee. “We’ll show you how it’s done! Aim high, hope you hit something!”

Frays felt a slow, creeping horror claw its way around inside her gut as she watched the soldiers pull away from the school and head off down the road. She
found herself wondering if she would ever see any of them again.

**********

The trucks squealed to a halt in the middle of the parking lot in the hazy first light of dawn. “Let’s go! Move out!” shouted Lieutenant Jenkins as he, Sergeant Barnes, Specialist Evans and PFC Moore fanned out and crossed the parking lot towards the entrance of the Dollar General store, their M4s at the ready. Specialist Rodriguez shook her head as she spared a glance at the man.

“Come on, Powers.” she said as they exited their Humvee. The two soldiers looked at each other for a long second. He looked as scared as she felt. “We’re gonna be alright. Let’s just get this done.”

Rodriguez and Powers ‘Groucho walked’ the distance, about two hundred meters or so, from their vehicle to the entrance of the Walgreens. They paused and crouched behind the trunk of an abandoned car somebody had parked in front of the building. Rodriguez peeked around the vehicle. They communicated briefly via hand signals. “I’ll go first. Cover me, follow in five seconds. I’ll go right, you go left.” she said.

“Okay. Good.” Powers answered. Rodriguez started out but he caught her arm. “Be careful, alright?” he whispered, giving the woman a nervous smile.

She smiled back and gave his shoulder a slap. “You too, man.”

The two of them entered the building, their weapons at the ready. The store was dark so they activated the illuminators clamped to their rifles as they moved down the aisles. The hollow rattle of an M4 startled both of them. Several low groans came from the back of the store. “Aw, shit…” Powers whispered. Rodriguez was in the aisle to his left. There was a clatter as something fell off the shelves somewhere off to their right. They heard the crunching noise of somebody stepping on broken glass just outside the limits of the white lights.

Half a dozen shadowy figures lurched towards him, their groping hands clawing the air as they came. “AW SHIT!” he shouted as he started walking backwards towards the store’s entrance. He put the red dot of his Aimpoint on the nearest creature’s head and pressed a shot, dropping it in its tracks.

“Powers!” shouted Rodriguez as he heard her M4 go off. “Fall back! Get back to the truck!” The woman’s carbine rattled off two short bursts as they started breaking contact. Powers reached the door first and fired at a form emerging through the storefront window, shattering the glass and splattering the zombie’s brain all over the white shelf behind it. Rodriguez was close behind him, nearly to the door. Powers watched in horror as she turned to exit the store and slipped on something. A zombie crashed through the shelf and fell on her as she scrabbled away, screaming.

Powers flipped the selector lever on his M4 all the way around and started firing randomly into the store as he advanced. The zombie nearly on top of Rodriguez caught a short burst with its face and upper torso as Powers closed. The rifle clicked on an empty chamber as he reached out and caught the drag handle on the back of woman’s plate carrier.

Rodriguez sprayed the storefront with 5.56 rounds as Powers pulled his M9 with his free hand
, firing a handful of barely aimed shots at their pursuers. Several zombies twitched and jerked as they gave chase, the 62 grain projectiles smashing into their bodies. A couple, struck in the legs or spine crumpled to the ground and started crawling after their prey. Two fell and stopped moving.

Once they had some distance, Powers stopped and helped Rodriguez to her feet. She screamed an obscenity and almost fell, but he caught her and started half dragging/half carrying the wounded specialist towards their truck. It was then that he noticed Sergeant Barnes fireman’s carrying someone towards the other Humvee, firing his M4 wildly with one hand at a large group of infected swarming out of the Dollar General. Both teams reached their vehicles at about the same time.

Powers opened the passenger’s side door and helped Rodriguez get inside before sprinting around to the truck and diving in himself and firing up the engine. “Rattlesnake Five, this is Whiskey Bravo Six. We’re bugging out, how copy?”

He saw that there was a lot of blood coming out of a good sized wound on Rodriguez’s right leg when he grabbed for the radio’s handset. Her face was an alarming pale olive color. “Roger, Whiskey Bravo Six.” Powers yelled into the radio. “Don’t wait for us, we’re right behind you.” The PFC threw down the handset, tugged a pressure bandage out of a dump pouch on Rodriguez’s
plate carrier and wrapped it around her wounded leg as best he could.

He gave Rodriguez a wry grin as he put the vehicle in gear and mashed down on the accelerator. “I’ve always wanted to get my hands on you.” he said, drawing a weak laugh from his passenger.

Rodriguez shifted a little and winced when she banged her ankle on the vehicle’s transmission hump. She felt a nervous twinge when she saw the way Powers was looking at her. “I have a boyfriend.” she said carefully, then looked at the floor. “Or…had…or…you know…”

The static coming over the radio stopped a couple times. “Rattlesnake Five, Whiskey Bravo Six.” said Sergeant Barnes. “What is your status, over?”

“Codename Rodriguez is wounded, Whiskey Bravo Six.” Powers said after he managed to find the radio’s handset. “Codename Powers is unhurt. How are things on your end, Whiskey Bravo Six? Over.”

The radio hissed, clicking three or four times as Sergeant Barnes keyed his handset. “Codename Moore is KIA. Whiskey Bravo Six Actual is…break.” There was a long pause before the static went away again. “Whiskey Bravo Six Actual is inopp. Codename Evans is uninjured as is Codename Barnes. We are returning to base.”

Powers and Rodriguez looked at each other, their mouths hanging open. Powers swallowed hard and keyed his hand mike. “Roger, Whiskey Bravo Six. Good copy.”

They were silent most of the way back to base except for the occasional radio check between them. Powers was a little surprised to see Frays and her squad waiting for them. As soon as they stopped Eamon, the fat medic, came puffing over to their truck with his kit in his hand. “What happened?” he asked as Powers helped Rodriguez get out of the truck and make her way towards the school. Frays
ran over to meet Sergeant Barnes by his truck.

“I think she might have got bit.” Powers said loudly as he hustled Rodriguez inside. “I think she might have got bit!” They struggled through the front doors with the medic in tow.
A scared, confused look came to Rodriguez’s face as the three of them left the foyer.

“No I wasn’t!” she shouted hysterically as they made their way to the nurse’s office. “Why th
e fuck would you say that? What the fuck is wrong with you?” Rodriguez pushed away from the man and hobbled over to the nearest bunk, barely keeping in a scream every time she put even the slightest amount of weight on her left foot. She scowled angrily at Powers as Eamon entered the room.

“Right.” Eamon said as he crouched beside Rodriguez. “Powers, was it? Why don’t you go help the others. I’ll take care of this.” He smiled at the woman as he carefully started to untie her boot. He snapped on a pair of rubber gloves. “Hey there. What happened?”

Rodriguez bit down hard on a yelp as Eamon removed her boot and examined her foot. “I twisted my ankle and fell down.” she said carefully. It hurt like hell when he started squeezing her foot and ankle. “I think I cut my leg on a piece of glass or something.”

Eamon carefully removed the pressure bandage and cut Rodriguez’s trouser leg up to her knee with a pair of shears then rolled the fabric out of the way. “Oh, yeah.” he whispered as he examined the gash in the woman’s calf. “That’s a pretty nasty cut. It’s gonna need a couple stitches. I’ll clean it out and get you sorted, alright?”

Frays watched Eamon and Powers take Rodriguez inside. “What happened out there?” she asked as she approached Sergeant Barnes. The big man climbed out of the truck and started hurrying towards the school. Amy felt sick when she noticed that there was one less person in the convoy.

“Ask the lieutenant.” Barnes practically growled as he blew by her. The man disappeared inside, leaving Frays alone
on the sidewalk. Jean peered down at her from the roof, standing there making an exaggerated motion like she was scratching her head. Amy shrugged back.

It took her a moment to notice that Lieutenant Jenkins sat in the front seat of the Humvee Sergeant Barnes had just gotten out of. She approached tentatively, wondering why the man was not getting out. “Sir? Are you okay?” Amy asked as she reached out and rapped on the vehicle’s window. The man stared ahead through the vehicle’s windscreen, seemingly completely oblivious to her presence. When she got a better look at the man through the glass Amy immediately tugged the door open and pulled a pair of latex gloves from her Combat Life Saver kit.

“Sir? Are you okay?” she asked again as she pulled the man’s Kevlar off and dropped it into the driver’s seat. Frays gently examined the lieutenant, starting at the top of his head and working her way down. She looked over her shoulder and shouted, hoping to catch the attention of the roof sentries.

Jean came back. “What’s up, Amy?” she shouted down as she shaded her eyes with her hands to see what was going on.

“Get Eamon out here!” Amy yelled as she continued checking Lieutenant Jenkins over. “I think Lieutenant Jenkins is hurt!” Frays patted the man’s shoulders down and checked her hands, looking for blood. “You stupid fool. I warned you.” Amy muttered angrily as she focused her efforts on his torso and legs.

Eamon put a hand on her shoulder. “What’s wrong?” he asked as he leaned over Amy’s shoulder and watched her work. “Where’s he hurt?” There was an awful lot of blood all over the front of the man’s plate carrier.

Amy frowned as she finished checking the man over. “I dunno. He doesn’t look like he’s hurt at all.” she said slowly as she stood up “I don’t think this blood is his.” Frays scratched her nose with the back of her wrist and looked down at the lieutenant. “I’ll hold onto this for you, okay sir?” she asked as she dug the lieutenant’s M9 out of the holster. He did not say anything as Amy checked the weapon’s safety and tucked it away between her LCS and stomach.

“Help me get him inside.” Eamon said as he took hold of the lieutenant’s arm and started hauling him from the vehicle. Amy put Jenkins’ other arm over her head, put her arm across his back and shouldered part of the lieutenant’s weight. Together they started dragging him towards the school.

“What happened to Rodriguez?” Amy asked as they got Jenkins into the nurse’s office and on an empty bed. Frays cast a glance at the other woman lying on a bed at the other side of the room. She had her hands folded behind her head and stared at the ceiling.

“That Powers guy said she might have gotten bit.” Eamon said quietly as took off Lieutenant Jenkins’ boots and started unbuckling the straps on his plate carrier. “It looks to me like she just
sprained her ankle and got a pretty bad cut on her leg.”

Amy frowned. “So you don’t think she was.” She helped Eamon get the lieutenant’s armor off and put it next to his bunk. “Is she gonna be okay?”

Eamon nodded. “I had to give her a couple stitches and she should keep off that foot for a couple days.” he said quietly as he stole a glance at the woman. “I gave her some pain meds to sort of keep her quiet. I didn’t know what we were gonna do.”

Frays crossed her arms across her stomach. “I think that we should try and get Rodriguez into that quarantine room, just to be safe.” she said quietly. There was something about the situation that she did not like. “I’m going to talk to Sergeant Barnes and see what he thinks about this when we’re done here.”

Amy walked over to Rodriguez’s bunk. “Hey, Rodriguez.” Frays said as she crouched slightly and put a hand on the woman’s shoulder. “Look…um…would you come with me? We’re gonna put you up in the quarantine room for a little while.”

The color drained from Rodriguez’s face
. “He’s lying, goddamnit!” she shouted as she half rose from the bunk. “I didn’t get bit! Powers is fuckin’ lying!” Amy noticed that there was a small crowd gathering outside peering in through the tiny window set in the door.

“Take it easy, Rodriguez.” Amy said, intentionally lowering her voice. She moved to the side, allowing the specialist to see the faces peeking in the window. “I know there’s something fishy going on. Eamon knows there’s something going on. But they don’t, alright? It’ll just be for like twenty four hours so everybody will feel better.”

The woman looked unhappy. “Oh, alright!” she eventually grumbled, drawing a tight little smile from Amy as she helped the woman stand up.

“Look on the bright side.” Amy said as she helped Rodriguez walk down the hall towards the former teacher’s lounge. “You get twenty four hours off. Think of it as a vacation. Heck, somebody’s even going to bring your food
so you won’t even have to wait in line for chow. You just relax and get healed up, alright?”

The teacher’s lounge was a relatively small room with a few round tables set up in the middle. Upon entering the room, there was a row of scratch and dent countertop with a sink in it next to an archaic fridge on the left hand side. There was a large two pot coffeemaker as well as a toaster oven on the counter along with about a dozen coffee cups dangling from hooks over the sink. Directly across the room was a sofa of indeterminate age and color, followed by a couple dinged up and scratched lockers along the right hand wall. The paint on the walls and dingy tile on the floor completed the ‘this is where dreams come to die’ aura that the room seemed to radiate. The room’s only redeeming feature seemed to be an LCD television mounted to the wall in the corner next to the refrigerator.