“There may be some zombies lurking still in there,” I offered, my memories way too vivid for me to want to go anywhere near that door. “There were four of them. No, five,” I quickly corrected myself. “With one more infected before all hell broke loose. Several personnel got bitten so it might be up to thirty, although I doubt it.”
Nate took that all in with a stoic look on his face before he told Pia and Andrej to advance. The Ice Queen threw a flare in first and we waited for the harsh green light to die down before first she, then Andrej, jumped inside. The rest of us—except for Santos who was guarding the pyre, and Clark who got perimeter watch—followed once we got the all-clear for the first four rooms.
My skin was crawling as I looked around, the view both familiar and completely distorted thanks to the lack of electric lighting, with only our flashlights illuminating the walls. There was blood everywhere, but someone had taken the time to remove the bodies. And that wasn’t the only thing they’d taken, it turned out, as we penetrated deeper and deeper into the facility.
It was all gone. Personal items. Gear. Weapons. Any shred of paper, down to the napkins in the mess hall. What was left was furniture, most of it destroyed, likely by the rampaging zombies. Even those were gone now.
The last place I wanted to revisit were the cells, but something drew me back there, and that had nothing to do with devices of any kind. I ignored the other cells—and the mangled remains of the chair—and went right over to the one on the left side, slightly off center. It looked oddly pristine compared to the rest of the room where it was hard to find a tile not stained with dried blood. I could make out where two puddles of vomit had been, but that was it. No other trace of its former occupant was left.
At the very edge of the cone from my flashlight I caught Nate eyeing me askance, and this time I couldn’t ignore it. “Maybe she survived,” I murmured. “Although I doubt it.”
“Who?” he asked simply.
“Erica.” He continued looking flatly at me, making me frown. “Madeline’s daughter? They shot her up with my blood. Infected her with it.” Doubt crossed Nate’s face, making me snort derisively. “I’m not making this shit up.”
“And I didn’t say you were. But have you considered the possibility that maybe you were hallucinating—“
“I saw what I saw!” I shouted, but shut up before I could blab on. “Whatever. Let’s move on.”
The other room I wanted to avoid like the plague was the lab that we found, to the right of the exit—that dark room where I hadn’t dared venture on my escape. It had likely been a well-stocked, more or less orderly lab, but not much remained of that. All the bottles had been emptied, likely down the drain as there wasn’t much spillage among the broken glass on the floor. I checked the refrigerators and nitrogen tank—all empty. There wasn’t a single note or lab journal anywhere, neither on the desk in the corner nor in any of the cupboards or drawers. We checked. Halfway through the process Pia managed to yank too hard on a drawer and sent it crashing to the floor, making me chuckle despite myself—or maybe exactly because I was tense as hell. “Just like old times, eh?” She sent me a look that reminded me a lot of the madwoman who’d shot at me repeatedly as she’d chased me through air ducts, but that was the extent of our interaction.
I’d had enough trips down memory lane to last me a lifetime, so far was it for me to object.
We were just about done finding nothing in there when Campbell’s voice called us over into the room across from the lab. It was where their electronic equipment had been stored. Now there was only a bank of wall-mounted monitors and a single laptop on an otherwise empty desk. The setup screamed trap from a mile away, but before I could protest, Campbell made a calming gesture.
“I’ve looked it over from all sides. It doesn’t look like it’s rigged to explode.”
Nate mulled that over for a moment. “Turn it on. Let’s see what kind of present they’ve left us.”
It seemed to take forever for the device to boot up, my skin crawling so much that I was tempted to take my shooting gloves and jacket off and start scratching my arms. The moment the display came on, it was mirrored on the screens above, giving us all a good look. There was a single file on the desktop. Campbell quickly checked the hard drive but came up empty.
“That’s all there is on it,” he confirmed after doing some typing in the console. “Unless they’ve hidden something in the OS files, that’s it.”
“Open it,” Nate ordered.
It turned out to be a video file, and one look at it was enough for me to recognize it as a recording from one of the surveillance cameras. “Turn it off!” I said, not quite shouting, but vehemently enough to make Nate’s head snap to the side. At his raised brows, I shook my head. “You don’t need to see this.”
“I think I do,” he told me, turning back to Campbell. “Press play.”
I didn’t need to watch it. Actually, I couldn’t, my eyes immediately zooming away when I glanced at the grainy image. I knew well enough what had happened, and doubted I would forget, ever. I didn’t need to rewatch the whole drama take its course as Taggard first taunted me, then ordered his men to drag me out of my cell and tie me to that fucking chair. The audio was better than the video, picking up every single word. I so could have done with not listening to that again—and for almost my entire group to watch this shit. I tried to distract myself with anything, but my mind was blank, except for the memories running through my head. I forced myself to remain calm and immobile, although it took everything I had not to shoot that damn laptop to bits and pieces
The video ended with the frozen frame of the zombie looming right over me, not even cutting back to the blank screen.
“Oh, come on!” I chuffed, glaring at the screen in earnest. “That wasn’t even the best part yet!” But I could see why Taggard had made sure to cut the tape off right there. It was tantalizingly easy to jump to conclusions what had happened next—and as I caught Nate’s gaze once more, I could see that false knowledge sinking in right there, as he fought hard to compose his features. Just seeing that horror there made my blood boil, my barely suppressed anger bubbling right to the surface.
“Want to know what happened next?”
His pause was noticeable, and he sounded very careful as he responded. “Bree—“
“Actually you do,” I talked right over him, seething. “What that abominable fucker didn’t want you to see is that about two seconds later I managed to get one leg free, and that was all it took to kick all hell loose. Literally. I dislocated the zombie’s jaw, which made it decide to go for a target that wasn’t about to maim it, with all that less-infected flesh standing around. Taggard managed to get in a few blows but I bashed his head in. Or almost, which means he’s likely very much alive right now. I should have taken those few seconds to make sure, but I really needed to get out of there.” Taking a much-needed breath, I tried to rally my racing thoughts, but that was impossible. Just as breathing got increasingly harder. I was vaguely aware that I was starting to hyperventilate, the walls of the room suddenly closing in on me.
“I need some air,” I wheezed out before I whipped around and ran back into the corridor, scrambling up the ladder until all I could see around me was the open sky and the prairie. I staggered a few more steps away from the trap door before I bent over, about ready to puke up the trail mix that Nate had handed me in the car earlier. I managed to keep it down, but that wasn’t much of an improvement.
“We need to talk about this.”
I straightened but refused to turn around to face Nate, instead staring at the line of the horizon where the sun was about to set in the west.
“No, we don’t,” I tried to dissuade him again, but this time he wouldn’t let me.
“We do,” he insisted. “Look at me.” I shook my head, still not turning around, which made him reach for my arms and physically pull me around. I stiffened, jerking away when he tried to tighten his grip on me. But the move made me glare
at him, so in the end he won. Not that I cared. His jaw was set and I could almost see the waves of frustration coming off him, the fact that all this was eating him up enough to dampen some of my ire, but absolutely inconsequential in the end—and that realization made me want to cry. Not break down and sob like before, but just weep for all that I’d lost.
“What the fuck did they do to you?” he asked, his tone low and gentle, but he was incapable of keeping a certain edge out of it.
“Nothing,” I replied, my own voice hoarse.
The look I got for that was absolutely insane. I kind of understood that. “What I just saw, on that video, wasn’t nothing, and that was only the very end of it. What happened? You know that you can tell me everything. You know that I won’t judge you. That you’re not responsible for anything that happened to you—“
“They did nothing!” I screamed, loud enough that in the distance a flock of birds took flight. “That’s exactly my point!”
I knew that he didn’t understand but finding the right words was so damn hard that I almost gave up. I realized that I must have been sounding like a raving lunatic, so I tried to explain, my voice shaky with emotion.
“That fucking asshole knew exactly how to get under my skin. You think they raped me? Beat me? They didn’t.” I paused for a moment. “Technically, they did beat me, but only when I put up a fight, and I dealt out a lot more than I got back. I spent days in there, scared out of my mind, without sleep, or food, and not nearly enough water. Sure, I did most of that to myself because I didn’t dare to even doze off, and I wouldn’t give them the chance to poison me with the food, which, I know, is insane because I did drink the water…”
Taking another calming breath, I tried again. “I’m not saying I regret that they didn’t rough me up and beat me to a bloody pulp, like they did with Gussy. But I think I could have dealt with that a lot better than what they actually did. He used the girl to force me into compliance. I held out my fucking arm for them when they drew blood, and then stabbed her with that same needle! Remember when you told me that I’d always play the hero? Well, I did. I tried to. He gave me an ultimatum, and I hurled myself at it. I would have done anything to keep them from raping her. I wouldn’t even have fought back if that meant they’d leave her alone. But that would have been the easy way out. Instead he turned my compliance into her murder weapon. I killed that girl. And they didn’t even rape me after they infected her, so that I could have had something to take my mind off of what I did. So I could feel sorry for myself, or just plain hurt and forget about the world. He left her right there, in the cell opposite mine. So she could thank me, for being pretty much the only person who ever gave a shit about her. All I could do for hours was listen to her cough as she got sick. I couldn’t even take her with me when I escaped. But it doesn’t matter now, does it? Because I got away and I’m still alive, while either way, she’s dead now. And that’s all my fault.”
Nate kept staring at me all through my rambling—my confession—not moving a muscle as he listened to every word I said. I could tell that more than once he was tempted to interrupt me, but he didn’t, probably realizing that it was hard enough to tell him all this as it was, without having to resume and gather my thoughts. I didn’t know what I had expected—not that he’d laugh at me; we were beyond that. No scorn, because if he didn’t do one thing it was judge people for the tremendous fallout they produced, as long as it wasn’t all coming from the most blatant stupidity possible. He also didn’t offer any empty words aiming to console me, because he must have realized that, right now, I was inconsolable.
What I hadn’t expected was that he’d just step up to me, embrace me, ignoring whether I tensed up or not, and hold me, like a silent pillar that I could both lean on and glean any emotional support and strength from that I wanted—but that’s exactly what he did. I stood there, stiff as a stick, for several seconds before I allowed myself to relax against him. I didn’t cry, because all the tears I was going to spill had already run down my cheeks. I didn’t ask for his absolution because we both knew that he couldn’t give me that. He was simply there for me—and that was exactly what I needed.
The sun had set by the time I pulled away from him, my body still shaking slightly with emotion, but my mind starting to clear up.
“What are we going to do now?” I asked, low enough that my voice didn’t carry over to where the rest of our crew stood loitering between the cars, desperately trying to give us some privacy. “This here, this is a bust. We haven’t found a single scrap of paper. No leads, no maps, no anything. The only connection that we have are the idiots guarding the settlement, but I doubt any of them even know any names, let alone who else is connected to this.” I paused, thinking. “Ethan, from the Aurora lab, was here, too, but it was obvious that he wasn’t working with them anymore. Said he got a promotion. I guarantee you, if we get anywhere close to Aurora, they’ll be waiting for us. They’ll kill us. Except for that, we have nothing.”
Nate considered my words for a second, the fact that he wasn’t protesting my assessment not exactly comforting. Frustrated, I let out my breath in a harsh sigh, staring up into the darkening sky. A falling star streaked overhead, almost making me laugh. Yeah, not even that would grant me my wish.
“Maybe there’s another option,” Nate said. When I glanced at him, I saw him still staring up into the sky where that small meteor—or more likely, failing satellite—had found its end in the earth’s atmosphere.
“The satellites,” I muttered, realizing what must have crossed his mind just then. “Didn’t they tell us at the Silo that they’re constantly recording every feed that they manage to get?”
Nate nodded, the hint of a smile appearing on his face, if a grim one. “They did. Cleaning out a complex this large takes time. And people.”
“And vehicles,” I jumped ahead. “Vehicles that need to come here, stop to be loaded, and then they leave.”
“Traceable for days, if you can check the recordings,” he agreed. “We have the coordinates, and we have the approximate timeframe. And except for us coming up from the south to reach Halsey from the strategic point in the east, no larger convoy has likely crossed this part of the country. They may be gone for days, too long for us to catch up to them immediately, but they won’t be able to just up and disappear without leaving us the exact route that they took.”
I knew that there was still the possibility that we were grasping at straws—but it was a lot more than we’d had just moments ago. It certainly was enough for me to cling to, and that was all that I needed right now.
Turning around to face our group, I couldn’t help but feel a glimmer of hope ignite deep inside my chest. “Get ready,” I called out to them. “We’re going to hunt us some assholes!”
To be concluded in Green Fields #6 - Unity
Acknowledgments
As much as I love reading these end-of-book notes, it can be tantalizingly hard to write them. Promise, the last book in the series will have a more extensive one. ‘Resurgence’ has been a wild ride for me, and I hope the same is true for you, dear reader. So much has happened, and now I need to gather up all the many plot strings and tie them up within the space of a single book. No pressure, right?
It means the world to me that there are so many of you out there, reading my books, loving my characters. If you have a moment to spare, why not drop me a line to let me know what your favorite moments were so far, and what you’re still yearning to see? Or just chat for a bit. If you want to help and support me (or any other Indie author out there) please spread the word about my books, and if you’re so inclined, leave an honest review.
As always, I have my share of people to thank. Foremost, the guy in my life, who never complains when I end up looking more like a zombie than human at wrapping up a book. Again. This is a thing now. You better get used to this!
Also my editor and cover designer, because they make this madness look downright professional. Tanya and Susan, for he
lping me pick out the last remaining flaws. But most of all, all the great people who love my books and let me know via email, facebook, and all the other ways they manage to track me down. Thank you for hanging in with me. I hope you’re chomping at the bit for the last book in the series!
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Unity: Green Fields #6
Dedication
Green Fields Series Box Set | Vol. 2 | Books 4-6 Page 74