Outbreak: Better Days Read Free

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 about on her cot 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.” Amy 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 e ye on that corn, mister.”
    Amy 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. Amy 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 Mom 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 th e 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 Amy’s lap. Genny frowned slightly, her heart breaking just a little bit at the troubled pained look in the young airman’s eyes.
    After about fifteen or twenty minutes Amy 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. Amy’s 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.” 
    Amy shuddered as she