Outbreak: Boston (21 page)

“I just went to bed.” Amy answered indignantly. “You saw me.”

“Shit, that was only like half an hour ago.” he said under his breath. Lacey ran his hand over his head and sighed. “How long has it been since you actually had any sleep?”

Amy was thoughtful for a moment. “I…um…think it’s been about three days or so.”

“Tell you what, Frays.” Adam said as politely as he could manage. “Let’s go see if we can find Eamon.”

Eamon sat up in bed when Lacey and Frays came into his room. “What the hell’s going on?” he said as he glared at the intruders. Frays turned red to the ears and spun on her heel to face the door as Eamon tugged on his pants. “What the hell do you want?”

Amy cleared her throat. “Are you decent?” she asked, sniggering as she glanced over her shoulder. Frays turned around slowly, keeping her eyes on her boots until the man finished buckling his belt. “I’ve got a plan for a raid.”

“So…why couldn’t it wait exactly?” he asked irritably as he dug a chunk of something out of his eye with his pinky “It’s twelve thirty in the morning and I’ve got guard duty in three hours.” He motioned them towards a row of beds positioned against the wall nearby.

They down and Amy pulled out her map. “There’s a supply depot wesht” Frays looked confused for a minute “West of here at Fort Devens. It’ll be a log thwip” Amy scowled and grumbled under her breath as she wiped her uncooperative mouth with the back of her hand. “Wesht!” she mumbled and frowned again. Suddenly everything started to get all wobbly, like somebody was playing with the vertical hold of her vision. She glanced from Eamon to Adam, a look of confusion and alarm on her face.

“Sh…sh…” Eamon said as he knelt beside Amy and helped her lie down on the bed as Adam
caught her. “It’ll be alright. Just relax, alright?” He held Amy’s hand and rubbed her shoulder as the woman blinked up at him. She mumbled and thrashed a few times before her eyes slipped shut and her breathing became slow and even.

“Wow, I feel like a shithead.” Adam said as he watched the woman sleep. He smiled uneasily down at her. “There’s gonna be hell to pay when she wakes up. She’s gonna be super fucking pissed.”

“Don’t I know it.” Eamon muttered under his breath. “Not our fault, though. If she’d gotten some sleep on her own we wouldn’t have had to do it for her.”

Jean came in a couple minutes later. She looked at the men standing by the bed and shook her head. “So it worked then?” she asked, pushing her way past the men. Jean unhooked the sling from Amy’s M4 and pulled the
carbine out of the sleeping woman’s hands. After a moment’s thought she also took the woman’s pistol from its holster and stuck it in her pocket. “You guys go on. I’ll keep an eye on things here. Hell, I don’t know if you guys should be here when she wakes up. I mean anywhere near here.”

Once they had left for guard duty Jean unbuckled Amy’s LCS
then took off her boots and Kevlar. She shook her head again and went to the closet where she took down a sheet and rough comforter. Once she had made the younger woman reasonably comfortable Jean checked on Lieutenant Jenkins then settled into a chair nearby. She frowned at the sleeping woman. “Don’t be too mad at them.” Jean told her quietly as she patted Amy’s shoulder and tousled her hair. “They were concerned about you, in their own way. Have a good sleep.”

Jean took a chair and set it up so she could watch both Amy and Lieutenant Jenkins. She shook her head slowly as she watched over her charges. The situation with Lieutenant Jenkins was most distressing: he had not moved a muscle, let alone said anything or eaten since Sergeant Barnes had brought the other soldiers back. Eamon had to give him an IV of saline solution a couple times to keep him hydrated. Of course, Amy was worrying in her own way as well. The poor girl had seemed to not be able to sleep for more than
half an hour or so since they had set up in the school and it only got worse since the funeral. The fact that she kept shoveling those damnable caffeine pills into her face when she thought no one was looking probably did not help matters at all either.

The watch on Jean’s wrist beeped and she pressed the button to turn off the alarm. Eamon wanted Lieutenant Jenkins’ vitals checked every two hours so she went to his bedside. She was about to take the man’s wrist to check his pulse when something struck her hard in the chest. Jean looked down, utterly surprised to see the handle of what looked to be a knife lodged there. Jenkins looked up at her, a maniacal smile plastered all over his face as she slumped to the floor.

Amy slowly opened one eye. Her head felt funny, like it was a cork floating on the water. “Wuh?” she said carefully and smacked her lips. Her mouth was full of cotton or like it had been shot full of Novocain. Somebody had tucked her in with the utmost care, as if she was a child but the blankets were wet and sticky. When she tried to move she noticed that there was someone lying in the bed with her, but on top of the blankets and curled up against her side.

Jenkins stirred slightly then snuggled tighter against her. For some reason she did not shout, even though the sight of the man startled her. He was trembling like a frightened child, so after some effort, she freed one arm from under the blankets and stroked the man’s hair. It was wet to the touch. Amy studied her fingers in the gloomy light filtering through the boards bolted over the room’s windows. “Oh, God…”

Her hand had come away tacky with semi-dried blood. Fear, surprise, shock and the need to projectile vomit all over the place all competed in her mind.
Please, God let somebody come quick!
Amy thought nervously as she continued to run her hand through the man’s hair. “Shh…shhh…” she whispered as she comforted the man as best she could “It’ll be alright…shhh…shhhhh…”

Eamon and Adam crept up to the
nurse’s office. Eamon took down the sign he had taped to the wall that read
QUIET PLEASE BY ORDER OF THE MEDIC
on his way by. “Man, she’s gonna put a foot up our asses.” he said as they stood outside the door. The two of them had told everyone they met on their way to the roof why the sign was there. There seemed to be much rejoicing: Amy seemed to be well liked, but a good number of the others seemed at least mildly worried about her behavior. Something made Adam think that Frays would be moved by their concern.

“Tell her everybody was worried and they’re glad she finally got some rest.” Adam said as he opened the door. “I’ll bet she’ll forget all about killin’ us.”

Eamon snorted. “Maybe for about two minutes.” he said as he pushed open the door. “Keep your voice down. It might buy us some time.”

The two of them stopped right inside the door. “Oh, my God...” Adam whispered as they surveyed the scene inside the nurse’s office. A badly used body lay across a bed a few feet away, looking like a ragdoll filled with corn syrup that had been hit by a lawnmower. The smell of blood and offal punched the two men in the forehead as they crossed to the bed where they had left Amy just a few hours ago.

“Shhh...” Amy said her voice barely above a whisper and still thick with sleep “You’ll wake him.” She stroked Lieutenant Jenkins’ hair and smiled nervously. “He’s asleep. Poor guy…I was too hard on him.”

Eamon crept forward and checked Jenkins. The man was clearly dead, his wrists slashed to ribbons
, probably by the scalpel clutched in his hand. “Adam, would you help me take Amy outside please?” he asked quietly as he gently started peeling the blankets away from the woman.

“No, you’ll wake him!” Amy protested. She looked fretfully from Adam to Eamon and back again. “Shh! Just leave! You’ll wake him up!”

“Frays, Frays look at me.” Adam said as calmly as he could, holding the woman’s face in his hands, their noses only millimeters apart.
She’s got really pretty eyes
Lacey thought crazily and smiled a little. “He’s gonna be fine. We’ll just slip away quick and let Eamon take care of him, alright?”

He pulled Amy out of the bed and slipped her arm across his shoulders as he walked her out of the room. “Come on, it’ll be alright.” he said encouragingly as they made their way down the hall. A couple people started poking their heads out into the hall as they passed.

“What the hell, guys?” Dana demanded as Adam burst into the first female dorm room he came to and laid Amy down on the nearest empty bunk. Josh propped himself up on an elbow and looked blearily from a tangle of blankets, drawing a confused look from Adam.

He frowned hard, trying to decide on a course of action. “Me and Eamon snuck some sleeping pills into Frays’ water.” he said as he laid Amy on the cot. The woman scowled drunkenly at him as he covered her with a green wool blanket. “Looks like Lieutenant Jenkins killed Jean and then offed himself.” He glanced over his shoulder at Dana and Josh. “Can you guys take care of her? There’s…some cleaning up to do.”

Dana sighed and looked forlornly at Josh. He smiled and pecked her on the cheek. “I’ll go see if I can find her stuff.” Josh said as he disentangled himself from the blankets and put his pants back on. “Everything’s going to be okay, baby. Don’t worry.”

Dana shook her head as she got dressed as well. “No, I don’t think anything will ever be okay again.” she said flatly as she tugged a tank top over her head. “Take a look around you, Josh. Jesus Christ! Do you think we’ll ever go to back to college or…see a new movie…or do any of the shit we used to do? People are dropping like fucking flies! Three people in less than a week!”

Josh sat down next to Dana and put his arm around her shoulders. “I don’t know, but…honey, it’ll get better eventually.” he said, giving her a gentle squeeze. “We’ll get through this. We’re going to be okay.” Josh kissed Dana again and stood after a few moments.

After about ten or fifteen minutes of searching, Josh returned not only with a rucksack slung over his shoulder, but Amy’s carbine and other gear as well. Dana sat in a chair near the bunk washing Amy’s hands, face and arms with a damp rag and a bowl of warm water after removing her ABU top. “I found her stuff.” Josh said as he set his burden down at the foot of the sleeping woman’s bunk.

Amy woke with a shout, sitting bolt upright in bed and scaring Dana so badly she fell out of her chair. Josh could not help himself: he burst out laughing, earning himself a look that would have curdled fresh milk from Dana. Amy looked at both of them as she pressed a hand to her chest as if she were trying to keep her heart from popping out. “What happened?” Frays asked as she felt the damp skin of her face with the other hand.

Dana and Josh looked at each other cautiously. “There…was an…um…” Dana began, her eyes shifting from Amy to Josh and back again. Her mouth opened and closed a couple times, absurdly reminding Frays of a landed fish.

“There’s no good way to say this.” Josh said quietly. He paused, trying to prepare himself for what might happen. “That lieutenant guy killed Jean.”

Amy felt like she had swallowed a big ball of ice. “That’s not funny, Josh.” Frays said quietly. She was more than a little alarmed when she realized that she had somehow ended up partially undressed in a different room than she remembered falling asleep in. Amy shook her head to try and clear it as she lay back down. “Seriously, it’s not funny. You’re making Dana cry so just lay off, alright?”

Dana stood and hurried out of the room. Josh stood there, looking pitiably at Amy for a long uncomfortable minute before going after her. Frays stared at the ceiling, one hand playing with the stiff patches on her undershirt. Little brown flakes kept sloughing off the fabric and onto the blankets. She scowled at the few pieces of the stuff she held between her index finger and thumb, trying to figure out what exactly it was.

Amy eventually felt well enough to try and sit up again. There was a small dish of pinkish water and a damp rag on the floor near the chair where Dana had been sitting. Frays scowled at it, trying to puzzle out what this meant as she found her boots and pulled them on. She noticed that there was bloodstains on her pants as her uncooperative fingers struggled with the laces. Amy dug the fresher of her three uniforms out of her pack then finished getting dressed and went out into the hall. “I know what I need.” Frays said aloud to herself as she finished securing the buckles and straps of her flak
jacket and LCS. “Coffee.”

Frays dropped the small plastic jar containing the last precious spoonfuls of instant coffee into her cargo pocket and headed off to the cafeteria in search of some hot water. Presently she saw Alex coming in from outside. “Hello, sir!” she said as she pulled the jar of coffee from her pocket and held it up for him to see “Buy you a cup of coffee?”

The old man smiled, but not wide enough for her to see his gold tooth. “Sure, Airman.” Alex said quietly and fell in beside her. There was an uneasy silence as they walked into the cafeteria, where Amy disappeared into the kitchen and put a pot of water on the stove to boil. Once it started to steam she filled her canteen cups and brought them out to Alex.

The two of them stirred spoonfuls of freeze dried coffee into the hot water. “I’m sorry about Jean.” Alex said at last. Amy simply stared at him over her cup. “I liked her. She was a good woman.”

Frays furrowed her brow as if she did not understand him. “What do you mean?” she asked after she finished a swallow of the tepid stuff in her cup. “Don’t tell me you’re in on it too. I didn’t think it was funny when Josh pulled that same joke, sir.”

Alex
’s mouth started to quiver. “He…he wasn’t joking, Airman.” he said as levelly as he could manage. “Lieutenant Jenkins stabbed her to death then killed himself yesterday. We just buried them both a few hours ago.”