Green Fields (Book 4): Extinction

by Adrienne Lecter

  It was still incredibly hard to look away first, and I turned the motion into a jerk of my head toward the cleaning station. “Come on,” I told Nate. “The sooner I’m out of this stinking shit, the better.” He followed me in silence, but not without giving the mayor another look that would have made a smarter man pale.

  Things turned out to be exactly as uncomfortable as I’d expected. If I hadn’t been so livid, I would have laughed at how incredibly awkward thirty grown man, deadly to the last one, could get when they were trying to look at everything at once except for my bare ass and tits. I didn’t bother with being shy about my nakedness, either, but my jaws hurt from how hard I was clenching them. Nate did a great job staring everyone down who happened to glance in my direction, which caused some more uncomfortable shifting and looking away quickly. We showered together, if you could call it that, him trying to block the view at my body wherever possible. As much as I’d looked forward to washing up, this didn’t get anywhere close to how good it should have felt—and that was before they made us scrub ourselves down with bleach. By the time I was done and wearing my backup set of gear—leaving the jacket in the car, because even in the afternoon sun, it was too hot for that if I could avoid it—I wasn’t convinced anymore that it had been worth coming to this town’s rescue.

  Martinez was already waiting for us, the way he kept glancing at the townfolk telling me that he didn’t have good news. He waited until Jason and Charlie had joined us, then talked quickly in hushed tones. “I’ve done what I could. Ahmed’s banged up but he’ll recover in a week or two. But Phil…”

  Jason’s shoulders slumped, but he didn’t make Martinez say what we all knew was coming.

  “How long does he have?”

  “Wound’s not grave enough to kill him, so up to two days from what we know. He’s not in pain, but he’s showing first signs of sickness. They didn’t get anywhere near the cars so I’ve been hiding him in ours. Ahmed helped pretend like he was the only patient. He’s staying in there with him, now that he’s washed up. But it’s only a matter of time until someone notices, and I’m not sure how they’ll react to that.”

  Jason scratched his head, looking around before his gaze focused on Nate and me. “Not sure about you, but I don’t really want to stay here long. Particularly after how they treated you.” He nodded at me.

  “Don’t bother on my account. I can deal with stupidity,” I remarked. Still, the entire situation had been less bad than I’d expected, seeing as Jason’s men had also done their very best to ignore my state of undress. Unlike the townfolk, they hadn’t made a difference in a negative way.

  “It does bother me,” Jason offered, and the way he looked at Nate made it plain that he knew that Nate was with him there. “We lost so much. The least we can do is uphold a modicum of respect. Not sure if I want to sleep inside those walls anymore. If you come with us, we’ll have enough people that some won’t even have to stand watch. I’d feel much safer out there than in here. Unless you think your people will disagree?”

  Nate didn’t hesitate to shake his head. “Don’t think so. There might be some complaining, but nothing serious.” Looking up at the sky, he went on. “We have about five hours of daylight left. If we leave by six, we can get a good distance away from here and find a place to hunker down for the night. Tomorrow morning we can decide if we want to check up on the remaining horde, or just leave them to their own devices and head toward Dispatch. If we scout, the others can remain in camp until we’re done.” What he didn’t say—and didn’t need to—was that this option would give Jason’s people time to say their goodbyes to their dying comrade.

  “Sounds like a plan,” Jason agreed. “You guys got any provisions you want to stock up on? Not sure what they have in this town, but asking won’t hurt.”

  Nate clapped his hand hard enough on my shoulder to make me stagger, earning himself a glare from me. “That’s all up to her,” he told Jason. “I’m just here for the fighting. Bree manages our stocks and provisions.” With that, he walked away, aiming for the Rover. I looked after him for a moment before I turned back to Jason.

  “I’m still not sure why I let him rope me into accepting the short end of the deal,” I said, smiling when Jason gave me a bright grin. “Guess I should talk to the dear mayor about that now. Wanna come with?”

  “Wouldn’t want to miss it for the life of me,” he offered, falling into step beside me.

  The mayor was easy to track down, not having vacated the premises. I was sure that he’d been one of those who’d been staring at me the entire time I’d been naked, but I did my best to ignore the residual blush that made my cheeks burn. The last two of our bunch—Martinez and Burns, making stupid jokes the entire time they slathered and rinsed, creating quite the spectacle—were just about done with getting doused after the bleach bath, so there was no reason for the guards to continue glaring at us. Of course they didn’t disappear, but they seemed to relax somewhat. The fact that the entire spiel had been completely pointless, seeing as we actually had one infected hiding in the cars, just made the situation all the more bizarre.

  The mayor saw us coming and donned his grand smile again, but I didn’t miss how tense he still was. I didn’t delude myself into thinking that I was the one intimidating him, but it didn’t hurt to have a ginger-haired giant with me. With his easy smile, Jason was likely a more effective companion than Nate, who would have just continued to murder everyone with his gaze.

  “Wasn’t so hard, now, was it?” the mayor asked, his smile brightening. Under different circumstances I would have made a crude joke now, but joking? Not really on my agenda. “The food will be done any minute. If you require anything else—“

  “Actually, you owe us,” I said, cutting right through what sounded like an empty offer. “We saved your hides, and we even did the cleanup for you. You’re getting off easy because the sappers didn’t want any part in this, but we have no reason not to ask for what is ours. We’ll even make you a great deal. Rather than you having to put up with us for the five days you’re required to harbor us, we’ll just take the approximate amount of food and preserves that you’d have to feed us, and we’ll leave today. And each of our units gets a tenth of the weapons and ammo you have. That’s twenty percent, ten each, before you get any ideas of calculating the second tenth from the new total after the first due. And that’s non-negotiable.”

  It was rather satisfying to see the mayor’s smile die for good.

  “You can’t do that to us!” he protested, a few of his flunkies quickly echoing that sentiment with their murmurs. “You saw what we went through! Do you know how much ammo we spent defending our walls?”

  “You certainly did a shit job of it,” I noted. “And I don’t care. It’s obvious just how short-lived your gratitude is, so why should we back down from what is rightly our due? You didn’t protest when we showed up to do what we promised we would. Now it’s your turn to pay up.”

  The mayor gave Jason a pleading look, but Jason remained in his relaxed stance that let him flex his biceps and pecs alike. “What she said,” was all he had to offer.

  Gnashing his teeth, the mayor turned around and murmured something to what I presumed was his assistant, who took off running toward the town center within moments.

  “We’re leaving in three hours,” I added. “The sooner you get us our stuff, the sooner you’re rid of us. Deal?”

  He glared at my offered hand but shook it. If he thought that he was hurting me with how hard he squeezed, he’d never tried to arm-wrestle with someone like Burns. Or Bailey for that matter. He really had a mean grip for a somewhat scrawny guy. Jason noticed and made a point of repaying the favor, leaving the mayor flexing the fingers afterward. I was really starting to like our fellow scavenger leader.

  While we waited for the food to arrive, there was still plenty to do for us. We might have cleaned up, but the cars were still covered in gore, and I didn’t feel bad about seeing all that gunk end up in t
he grass inside of the walls as the guys set to washing them. There were also a handful of repairs to do and our extra armor plates and reinforced grilles to stow away, and someone had to inspect whatever the townfolk tried to push at us where ammo and weapons were concerned. Nate and Pia took that task, and I spent a few minutes just listening to her bitch out the offerings. I was convinced that, all misgivings aside, Nate would make sure that we didn’t actually rob them but just took what was our due.

  Then the promised food arrived, and I felt like slapping myself again. Why was I still so naive to think that the people we’d just saved would show even a hint of gratitude? Staring down at several crates full of onions and potatoes—and nothing else—that were dumped in front of our feet, I about had enough of this. Rather than go off in the mayor’s face again, I hopped onto the hood of the next car, turning to the by now considerable crowd of people who’d come to gawk at us.

  “People of Harristown, lend me your ears.” No one laughed, but judging from Burns’s grin, he got the movie reference. A hard crowd to work with, really. Sighing, I forced myself to appear more levelheaded than I felt right now. I was tired, hungry as hell, still embarrassed, and increasingly fed up with this shit. It was hard to make my voice sound even, maybe just a tad humble.

  “I don’t know what you think of us, but things are not going to work the way you want them to.” I pointed at the onion crates. “This is your understanding of a fair trade? You were one night away from being dead. All of you. Slaughtered and eaten to the last man, woman, and child. Don’t believe me? Just look closely at how damaged your outer defenses are. If we hadn’t arrived when we did, you would have been toast come tomorrow morning. We are not asking for your thanks. We did what we believe is our duty. We are out there, fighting, so you can live in relative safety in here. Not all of us might have chosen this life entirely without pressure, but we all believe in this. We all are what’s left of humanity. We believe in not giving up yet. We believe in putting up a fight. Not everyone can fight, we all know that. That’s why we pick up the slack for everyone who is too young, old, or frail to defend themselves. All we ask in return is for you to uphold what you promised us—shelter, food, weapons and ammo so we can keep on fighting our fight. This here? This is a joke.”

  I felt kind of stupid, standing up there and yelling at the people, but it got better the longer I went on. At first, only a few looked at me and listened, but when I paused, I realized that I held the attention of the entire crowd. Swallowing to work moisture back into my mouth, I went on.

  “I get that you don’t like having someone in your town that you don’t know. We’re strangers. We’re armed. And I’m not kidding when I’m saying that we’re dangerous. I’m not saying that you should welcome everyone who has an X-shaped mark on their neck with open arms. Be cautious. Be smart. Be on your guard. But if you continue to be assholes, you’ll just provoke getting exactly what you give us back.” So much for diplomacy, but I went on before anyone could start throwing cabbage at me. Although, steamed cabbage would have been nice, but I doubted that it was done growing yet. “Just two days ago, we were barred entry to another settlement. They kept an open call for cows out, and when we brought them some, they didn’t even want to take them. They knew that there was a streak warning active, and they left us out here to die. Good thing for you guys because that got us coming over here, but we likely would have done that anyway, after getting some rest and eating the first proper, hot meal in two weeks. Do you know how that made me feel? Used. And do you know what people do who feel used? They try to avoid that. What does that mean for you? That fewer and fewer scavengers will come to your settlement. Right now you might think that’s a good thing, seeing as we eat your food and take your ammo. But who will bring your mail? Who will bring seeds for you to plant? Who will bring you generators when yours eventually break? Tools, everyday items, batteries—the list is endless. Even weapons and ammo, if you ask for them. The entire world out there is full of things that can still be used and repurposed, even if erosion is wearing them down fast. You can’t just go out there and collect them. But you don’t need to, because that’s what we are here for. You treat us well, you’ll see that a lot of us are ready to risk our lives to help you live a better life. You want that, do you? So stop being fucking assholes and bring us food that we can actually eat, right now and on the road.”

  Glancing at our vehicles for a moment, I pressed on. By now, everyone had fallen silent, the mute crowd watching me. It made my skin crawl, but there was no way around it. “I can’t speak for Jason and his Chargers, but we have quite some cargo stored away that we’re happy to trade for. Trade, as in you give us something in exchange for what you get. That’s how commerce works. We have things like tools. Nails. Clothes and gear. Soap. Shampoo. Tampons. Condoms. Medicine. Coffee and tea. We didn’t plan on coming here so we don’t know what you have on your wish list, but if it’s something not out of the ordinary, we probably have it, or something close. What we need is food, preferably fresh preserves that we can eat straight away, or that only need to be heated up later. Nuts, jerky, all kinds of dried fruit and vegetables. Use this summer to create surplus that you can trade away next year. Be smart. We’ll help you, but only if you help us.”

  I didn’t know what else to say, so I hopped down from the car and turned away. Let the others deal with this. If it was looking like I was hiding by the Rover, pretending to check on the repair progress, that was just plain old coincidence.

  It only took about five minutes for a group of women to approach the cars, all looking uncomfortable, but I saw residual anger on more than one face. I fully expected any one of them to start chewing me out, or spewing profanities at us, but they surprised me. It was one of the younger women, maybe twenty, her thick, black hair bound back with a scarf who spoke up.

  “We are so sorry for how the mayor and the guards are treating you. We’ve had some problems with them in the past, but the recent events made it obvious that we need them, so…” She trailed off, another one taking over.

  “What Keisha is trying to say is that not all of us think like they do. Tell us what you need, and we’re happy to give it to you if we can spare it. Without anything in exchange. Although there are some things we’d need.”

  That I hadn’t expected, but it wasn’t an unwelcome surprise.

  “Sure,” I replied. “As I said, food, mostly. Something that holds up for at least a few days. But we still haven’t eaten anything today. Puking all over yourself when you have to stay sharp in a fight isn’t the way to come out at the other end. And, please, take those fucking crates back with you. If you want to do us a solid, cook it up, or just bake something. Bread’s nice. We haven’t really had much of it since we went back on the road in April. Anything that’s better than cat food will do. We’re all sick of eating that crap, even if it keeps us fed.”

  A few of them looked appropriately disturbed by that revelation—always a favorite moment for me with the townies—and Keisha was already rallying the others, telling each woman what to do, and to take the crates. In short order, half of them were gone, promising to be back within an hour or two. The rest kept eyeing me hopefully, making me a little antsy.

  “Just tell me what you need,” I offered. “Now’s not the time to get self-conscious.”

  And, just like that, I had my work cut out for me until baskets full of bread and several pots of thick, spicy soup arrived, making everyone crowd in to finally get something to eat. A lot of what they were looking for was predictable, but a few other things went straight onto my ever growing list of items I had neglected on our last raids but would take with me next time. I couldn’t help but grin at the tampons and pads finding a lot more interest than the crate full of condoms that the guys insisted we needed to keep lugging around with us. Also diapers and baby powder, spices, everything that could be used as a natural remedy and they hadn’t managed to plant yet. Clothes weren’t in high demand, but one of the women mentione
d to me that it was probably a good idea to stock up on them now before they could all rot away out there, left for animals to make nests out of them. Only a single woman asked about makeup, and she wasn’t surprised when I had to tell her that unless she ordered it, she wouldn’t get any. She did look like she had an idea how to repay the lucky guy who would in the future drop by with a bag full of lipsticks. Not that I felt like judging her—much. If not for the stale taste the memory of Madeline had left I wouldn’t have felt like scowling at her, and she seemed like a genuinely nice, bubbly kind of girl who wouldn’t spend all her time being a backstabbing, manipulative bitch.

  When it became apparent that I had spoken the truth and none of the women returned from the cars empty-handed, a few of the men showed up, too, but most seemed to prefer to send their wives and girlfriends. Some of them couldn’t even look me in the eye. I had a certain feeling that if the next scavenger group had female members with them, they wouldn’t get gawked at quite so much. Good deed for the day accomplished—never mind all the zombies I’d killed today.

  It was getting awfully close to our declared time to leave when a group of people came toward us, carrying baskets and crates or rolling them toward us in wheelbarrows. Most of it were edibles—bread, muffins, dried fruit, jerky, and what one woman assured me would turn into soup if I just let it sit in hot water. The crates held some things that they’d produced on their own and figured we could trade to other settlements, mostly wool and seeds. Apparently, the people who had started the settlement had been quick about trying to turn it into an autonomous town even before the winter, and my speech had been enough to remind them of that.

  With the food, a few familiar faces came, too, making me let out a relieved breath that I hadn’t known I’d been secretly holding. I only vaguely remembered Elaine, her sister, and their group, but I had spent two entire months on the road with Skip and Steve, two of the three college kids that we’d picked up in Lexington before our timely flight from the city. My first impulse was to think that they’d grown fat, but that shouldn’t have come as a surprise. We’d all been starving last summer, cat food or no cat food. While we’d spent the entire winter actively guarding our hideout—and, in my case, learning all the many, many skills I had never thought I’d need—they had likely passed the time sitting on their asses, indoors. The settlement might not have had the abundance of food that all of us had been used to before the zombies had shoved us off our throne as apex predators, but none of the people looked particularly malnourished. I couldn’t help the flicker of resentment that came up inside of me, but it wasn’t envy—it was contempt. Realizing that made me smile. Not that I had much doubt that I’d made the right choice, time and again, to stick with Nate and the guys, but it was good to get confirmation, particularly as the last weeks had been full of experiences that might have swayed my mind at least somewhat. With not a little bit of mirth I realized that the two boys were regarding me pretty much the same way. I wondered what they saw in me.