Free Outbreak: Brave New World by Robert Van Dusen Page A

smiled at him. She looked a lot like that Air Force chick from that movie Battle: Los Angeles but with kind of a Tom Berenger in Platoon thing going on. “…can I…”
    Frannie laughed. “No way, man. I got a feeling your old man would have my ass on a stick.” she said, drawing a chuckle out of the young man. Rodriguez sighed and shook her head. “What did they say on the TV?”
    Carl squirmed un comfortably. “I dunno…there was…like…rioting or something.” he muttered, running his hand over the top of his head in an unconscious imitation of his father. “Dad said Amy called from the AFB. Then some of the news guys the next day said it was because of some disease or something. They said the people who had it would bite, like they were rabid or something.”
    “Yeah.” Rodriguez said quietly after a few seconds. She stared off into space for a few moments then concentrated on the burning end of her cigarette. “Or somethin’.” She rolled her eyes and exhaled a plume of smoke through her nose. “If you get bit, you get sick. You get sick…you die…sorta. I dunno. I’m not a fuckin’ doctor or anything.” Carl looked at Frannie with a raised eyebrow. “Hey, I know how it sounds, man. I woulda called bullshit myself if I didn’t see it happen.”
    “No way.” Carl said, fixing the woman with a look of utter disbelief. “Uh uh. Bullshit. No way. Doesn’t happen.” He shook his head and looked at Frannie again. “Nope, sorry Frannie. Bullshit.”
    She frowned, took a deep breath and paused for a moment. The rain was starting to stop finally, dwindling down to a few scattered pings and thumps on the corrugated steel over their heads. Frannie tried to squeeze that last little bit of tobacco off of the end of the cigarette’s filter. “Your sister, Lacey there and…some other people that were working with her got attached to my squad. We got tapped to go look for these supply guys that got lost or something.
    “We were in this little town and your sister broke off from the convoy to pick up this civilian. Once we got out, we circled up and Ea…the medic checked h er out. She’d been bit or something and Lacey shot her in the stomach. LT went apeshit, trying to get your sister to arrest him…the medic to patch her up. She stopped screaming for a couple seconds then she got up… Your sister shot her in the head.”
    “ Geez, he gutshot her? That’s cold, man.” The boy shuddered, obviously thinking twice about making fun of Lacey ever again. “How did you know this chick was dead or whatever?” Carl asked nervously. He found that he was strangely excited by the fact that Frannie was telling him this story. His dad and Amy never talked about what they did in Iraq. They always treated him like a little kid and it kind of pissed him off sometimes. “I mean…did you go up and poke her or whatever?”
    “When she stood up to go after LT some of her guts looked like they were falling out.” Rodriguez said quietly, a small shudder running down her spine. She looked at the charred end of the filter sticking out from her fingers and slipped it into a cargo pocket. “Nobody…just…walks around like that.”
    “Whoa! Disgusting!” Carl said with a wide grin. He scooted a little closer to Frannie and looked at her, the mirth falling away from his face. Rodriguez dug out another cigarette and lit it, an intense scowl crinkling the scar tissue on her face. He had the very familiar feeling that he had said something he should not have. “Shit, I’m sorry. Did I say something wrong?”
    Frannie shook her head, rolling her eyes at the kid. “No, man. Forget it.” she muttered around a plume of smoke. She was starting to wonder what was happening inside and Carl was seemed to be calmed down. Frannie glanced at the half of a cigarette still smoldering between her index and middle finger then flicked the cherry off it and ground the smoldering tobacco under the heel of her boot. “C’mon,