Green Fields Series Box Set | Vol. 2 | Books 4-6

by Lecter, Adrienne

  “Can you shoot?” I asked the girl before she could start babbling something.

  From the corner of my eye I saw her nod. “Not well, but yeah.”

  “Grab the gun from my thigh holster. It’s loaded.” She followed suit. The fact that she had the safety off and was ready to shoot within moments boded well for her continuing survival. While I debated whether I should give the other woman my backup piece, she was already dragging the corpse of the soldier close, pulling his assault rifle out of his limp grip. To the girl she handed his gun, and she in turn put the Beretta back into my holster.

  “Thank you—“ the woman started, but a quick jerk of my head silenced her.

  “We’re not out of the woods yet,” I told her. “You two, try to hide in the grass. There’s a car on the other side of that hill there. If you have to, you can take off with that. Spare keys are below the driver’s seat.” Remembering just what had soaked into the upholstery, I added, “Try not to touch anything directly. Long story.”

  The girl looked ready to protest, but the woman gave her a shove toward the meadow. Within moments they had both disappeared. Knowing where they must be, I could follow their trek, but I doubted that to anyone else it would look like more than the wind rustling through the tall grass leaves.

  Reloading again, I inched myself along the side of the Humvee until I could glance around the back. Two of the traders were hiding behind the next car, one of them jumping as he noticed me. I quickly ducked back out of sight, but when I checked again, his gun was lowered, and he gave me a quick thumbs-up. He paused, then gave me the go-ahead. I hoped that he had a better idea of what lurked beyond the car than I did.

  As soon as I came around the back of the Humvee, I pumped three rounds into the soldiers that were crouching at the other side, by a boulder. One other reared up at that, but Nate took him out with—what else—a perfect headshot. I threw myself into cover by the other trader car, trying to ignore the corpse on the road right next to me. The impact jarred my entire body, but that was next to nothing compared to the kickback of the shotgun. Shit, but that hadn’t felt so good. Now was not the time to dwell on it. I had to stay alive to wallow in all my ouchies later. As soon as I could force my muscles to work again, I made sure that I was well hidden by the car.

  I didn’t dare get up to glance over the roof, but underneath was a good idea, too. The trader SUV's undercarriage was high enough that I could easily glance underneath it—and make out the position of the three pairs of combat boots a few yards beyond the other side of the car. Reaching for my Beretta, I aimed, then shot in quick succession and continued until the magazine was empty. It was very convenient that the three soldiers dropped deeper into cover when I shot their calves and ankles, and consequently gave me great targets. Two of them ended up dead on the ground, but the third got away, helped by the seconds it took me to get a new magazine out of my cargo pants and into the gun. I tried to do a head count in my mind, but came up blank. We’d definitely evened the odds, but I was sure that there must be a few soldiers still alive, besides the one that had just gotten away. Half-assing a mission like this was really not a good idea—and I was sure that Nate would have a thing or two to say about that later.

  I forced myself up into a crouch so I could holster the gun again and reload my shotgun. Across from me, I saw one of the traders check back from behind the other car. I quickly signaled him to duck back into cover, but not quickly enough before shots rang out. None hit him from what I could tell, but they gave me a good idea where more of the soldiers were hiding. I didn’t think, just let my body act as I sprinted out from behind the car and over to one of the Humvees, a barrage of rifle shots following me. As soon as I’d caught my breath again, I inched to the back of the vehicle and around it. I didn’t have clear sight of the soldier that had taken cover behind a bolder, but he made the mistake of rearing up when he saw movement. That was all it took to make him eat lead.

  Apparently my stunt seemed to have instilled some confidence in the traders because when the soldiers tried firing at them again, they shot back. Not very successfully, but it was enough of a diversion that I could get closer to the soldiers that were hiding behind the last Humvee. I killed one of them and Nate took care of the other.

  And then it was silent in the camp, except for my heavy panting and some barely audible whimpering coming from the ditch where that soldier I’d shot but not killed had disappeared into. I still made sure to cover the entire area first as I made my way over there. Movement across the field jerked my attention around, but it was only Nate who had finally vacated his sniping spot and was coming over to us.

  I found the soldier lying on his back, his gun out, but it wavered so much that it was next to useless. He dropped it in favor of raising his arms when he saw me approach, shotgun still at the ready. I kicked away the gun where he’d dropped it and yanked his rifle out of his reach. He still had a knife, but I didn’t expect that to become much of a problem. I had to admit, standing over him, the barrel of my shotgun just a few inches away from his face, made me feel rather vindicated.

  I knew that it shouldn’t have, but high on adrenaline as I was, I didn’t care.

  “Why are you here?” I asked, my voice hoarse. “What did you intend to do with the women?”

  He snapped his jaws shut, looking defiant as hell. I kicked his shot ankle. If not talk, that at least made him scream.

  “I asked you a question. Two, actually,” I corrected myself. “What the fuck did you want with the women?”

  “Screw you!” he hissed between clenched teeth, making me utter a dramatic sigh.

  “Don’t piss me off. You’re not dead yet. And let me tell you, if the past weeks have taught me anything, it’s to be less squeamish about a lot of things. Answer the damn question.”

  Of course he didn’t, so I had to kick him again. He screamed, I asked, he spat at me. I considered shooting him in the knee when the two traders showed up next to me. Behind them, the woman and the girl were just coming back out of the field, both still looking scared as hell but no longer panicking. It was only when I turned back to the soldier that I noticed the venomous glare one of the traders was taxing him with.

  “You fucking asshole killed my brother!” he shouted, delivering a much harder kick than I would have. The resulting scream didn’t exactly make me want to stop, but it got me rethinking my methodology. It was then that finally the connection clicked inside my head—this wasn’t just any soldier following orders, but the commander who had shot the first trader. Any sympathy I had still left for him skipped merrily toward the horizon.

  Leaning closer, I smiled into his face, knowing damn well that it could, at best, be a grimace. “How about I let them have a go at you first before I ask you again? They look like they have something to work out with you. Can’t fault them. Last time someone shot one of my guys, I ended up mowing several of you lowlifes over with my car.”

  I had no idea what about that statement tipped the guy off, but suddenly his eyes were huge as saucers, and he all but forgot about sneering up at the traders. “It’s you,” he mumbled, his lips barely moving. “But that’s impossible! You’re dead! I heard that status report myself. You’re dead!”

  Shifting my weight off my aching hip, I snorted. “Well, guess the reports about my demise have been exaggerated, because I’m very much alive, aren’t I? You know who I am? Then you know what I’m capable of. And should I get too squeamish, you know what the people that I run with are capable of.”

  Sadly, my grandstanding was rewarded with yet more spittle flying, but no real answer. “You fucking cunt won’t get a single word out of me!” He went on like that, but I chose to ignore him, instead looking over to Nate. He was still out of earshot, but the grim expression on his features I could clearly see, sunshiny glare or not.

  A shot coming from right next to me scared the crap out of me, and when I looked down at the soldier, he was dead, the left side of his head decidedly decimated.
The trader who’d shot him stood there, panting, rage slowly leaking from his posture. Shock, followed by horror, crossed his face, and was still there when he looked at me.

  “I’m sorry, but he shot my brother,” he whispered, his gun hand already starting to shake. I could have chewed him up now, but didn’t really see the sense in it. It wasn’t like I’d planned on leaving that asshole alive.

  “It’s okay,” I said, letting my own weapon slide to my side. “You two okay?”

  They both nodded. The women joined them, both staring at the corpse in front of us with revulsion for the most part. The elder woman softly touched the shooter’s shoulder, and at her silent prompting he let her divest him of the gun. “I had to,” he explained to her, his gaze latching onto her face. “He shot Bill!”

  She didn’t quite manage a smile, but her grim nod held the compassion and sympathy that he needed. “I know. You did the right thing.” She then turned to me, a flicker of unease crossing her face. “Thank you. If you hadn’t showed up when you did…”

  Nate cleared his throat behind my shoulder, alerting me to his presence without startling me. I quickly glanced at him but he ignored me, instead stepping up to the corpse. A muscle jumped in his cheek, making his disdain obvious—but from what I could tell it wasn’t because I hadn’t gotten any answers out of the soldier. He would likely have jeered about my interrogation techniques—or lack thereof—if that had been the case.

  “Recognize him?” I asked, going for the next possible point that might bring that frown to his forehead.

  A curt nod confirmed my guess. “Max Hillson. They called him ‘Mad Max’ in basic training.” His eyes flitted from the corpse to me. “One of Bucky’s flunkies.”

  Now that tidbit made me feel almost sorry that I hadn’t shot him in the face, and certainly rue that he’d died in a lot less pain than I could have inflicted on him.

  “Was he there at—“

  “Yes,” Nate confirmed. That kind of answered one of my questions. Whatever they’d planned to do with Gussy had likely been the same reason why they’d tried to take the trader women. It also opened up a new avenue of questions, mostly about why they’d been after me. I didn’t need to check the necks of the traders to know that all of them only had a single mark, and neither the girl nor the woman looked like the kind who would socialize much with the likes of us, unless they couldn’t help it. Maybe it really had just been coincidence. But that still didn’t explain why they were collecting them. As much as I was ready to accuse any asshole of wanting to gang rape the lot of us, the methods of acquisition seemed a little extreme for that.

  The woman shifted uncomfortably. “You… knew him?”

  I looked at her, but Nate was quicker to reply. “Last time we met the people he was with were directly responsible for the death of two of our friends. That, and several others we were with at the time. Trust me when I say that there’s no love lost between us.”

  Nate turned back to the corpse and started going through his pockets before he pulled him over. I was confused for a moment before I realized that he was checking his neck. No mark at all. The look he gave me made it plain that there should have been three. I tried to remember if I’d seen any marks on any of the soldiers at the factory, but I honestly hadn’t paid any attention to that.

  None of those here had any, it turned out. We checked. We also picked up their weapons and remaining ammo. The traders didn’t go anywhere near them, but then they had their own dead to take care of. Four—half of their group. I watched them from afar, not sure whether I should intrude or not. Nate did a quick check on the Humvees, but returned to me with a shake of his head. No information, no further valuables. I was surprised when he started dousing the vehicles in diesel. There would likely never be any new ones produced. When he saw me looking, Nate shrugged. “Whoever sent them will send a new round to investigate. The least we can do is leave nothing for them to repurpose.”

  We ended up stripping the dead soldiers of most of their gear for that very same purpose, throwing what couldn’t be put to any use by us or the traders into the flames. Nate offered to help them with digging graves, but they declined. “We’ll take them with us, and cremate them once we feel we are a safe distance away from here,” the woman explained. Suddenly, the look on her face turned hopeful. “Won’t you come with us, at least until we reach our destination? We’re heading for Dispatch.”

  Before I could come up with a good reply, Nate shook his head. “We have to be on our way. We did all we could.”

  She nodded, her disappointment gone almost as quickly as it had appeared. “Of course. Thank you again. Will you at least tell us your names?”

  I couldn’t help but snort. “Names are not important.” It wasn’t like I was downright paranoid or anything, but the longer it took for the news of my continuing existence to spread, the better. I had a certain feeling that it was a moot point. The moment they told anyone in Dispatch what had happened here, Rita would start asking questions, and even if they didn’t get a good look at us, it was probably sufficient to identify us.

  “Is there anything else we can do?” she offered, looking somewhat quizzical but then visibly disbanded whatever concern had crossed her mind.

  I started to shake my head, but then thought better of it. “Actually, there is something.” When she gave me an eager look, I cleared my throat. “Do you have any food to spare? We’ve tried to scrounge up something today but didn’t find anything edible in any of the towns we hit.”

  The traders looked at us as if both of us had sprouted a second head, mistrust plain on their faces. That unnerved me, but Nate defused the suddenly volatile situation with a self-deprecating laugh.

  “We got ourselves in kind of a bind. For the past two weeks we’ve been living off rations that were intended for one person for maybe five days, with the odd can of beans we found far off the beaten track. Anything you can spare will get us to where we need to go. We have absolutely no intention of leaving you with just enough so you will starve to death.”

  It hadn’t even occurred to me that their concern could be hailing from fear that we would do something like that after keeping them from a more sudden kind of harm, at least those that had survived. It took them a few moments to decide, but the woman was actually looking guilty when she agreed with a nod. “I’m sorry. It’s just so hard to know who you can trust these days.”

  She and the guy who had shown less of a temper rooted through their vehicles until they returned to us, carrying cans and several containers full of nuts, rice, and what turned out to be a pre-cooked pasta dish, likely leftovers from their lunch. Nate tore into it without bothering with a fork, and only sent me a brief, warning look. I wasn’t stupid enough to let my lack of working taste buds make anyone suspicious, and did my best to decimate the second heap of noodles. What had remained of the traders’ distrust dissipated as they watched us wolf down the food, Nate’s stomach doing some impressive growling and gurgling along the way. I was just glad that it had been days since I’d last puked up anything.

  As soon as we were done eating, we tried to hand the dishes back to them, but they declined, clearly antsy to get going. The sun was dipping toward the horizon already, and while food might have been scarce, food containers were not. If we could have sustained ourselves on plastic, we wouldn’t even have had to raid a single town.

  “One more thing,” Nate noted when the traders were done storing everything away. “We don’t have confirmation for this, but we think they hunt us via the radio signals. If you want to stay off the radar, you better unplug your gear.”

  What little relief our rescue operation had brought the traders was quickly wiped off their faces by that message.

  “Seriously?” the girl asked, while the guy who hadn’t shot before scratched his chin.

  “How are we supposed to find a secure way back to Dispatch if we can’t call in with them?” he wanted to know.

  The look Nate gave him was one I was
all too used to seeing. It was usually reserved for some of my brighter moments. “What would you rather encounter—a few zombies that might kill you, or a bunch of gun-toting lunatics that will kill you? Your choice,” Nate responded. The trader seemed to see the truth in that, but his unease was quickly infecting the others. I was starting to wonder what they’d been doing out here in the first place, and how they’d survived that long.

  “It’s not that hard to avoid the zombies,” I offered, not quite sure why I was even trying to alleviate their concerns. “Drive slowly, try to stay either well covered or out in the open where you can keep watch all around you. Keep a window cracked so you can smell their reek before you get too close. If you’re careful and stay away from former population centers, you should be fine.”

  A muscle jerked in Nate’s temple, making me guess that he was hard-pressed not to roll his eyes at my babysitting attempts. “What are you even doing out here?” he asked. Not an unwarranted question, considering that there wasn’t really much of anything to be found here, and as today had proved, most of what little had been here had long since been carried away.

  “We’ve been up in Canada since spring,” the woman explained, ignoring the cautioning looks her companions were giving her. “Then we got the news over the radio that everyone is rallying in Dispatch, and we decided to return. We haven’t had problems so far, until…” She trailed off, but there was no necessity for her to explain.

  Still, her story was getting sketchier by the minute. “Why don’t you go to the Silo?” I asked. “Depending on where you started out, you’d probably already have gotten there if you’d headed straight for it. And it’s only a few days’ drive from here.”