Panting heavily, I looked up at where Nate was standing above me, a shotgun braced against his torso, his fingers white around the black metal and plastic of the weapon. Behind him, Andrej and the Ice Queen lowered their rifles, while Martinez put his pistol away.
At the shots, several of the soldiers had come running, Bucky among them. If he’d looked grim in the atrium before, his face had turned to stone now, and he glared at the body of the girl for a moment before he glanced at our huddle of people.
“Everything in the green over here?”
Nate nodded. I thought he was trying to relax, but his fingers were shaking even now that he’d let go of the gun and let it dangle from its shoulder strap. Sweat stood heavy on his brow, but his eyes were clear, belying the pain he must have been in.
“A-okay,” he ground out.
“Get ready. We’re moving out in five,” Bucky told him, about to turn away, but stopped when I called after him.
“Care to tell us what the fuck is going on?” He shot me a long look, then glanced at Nate, what little emotion there still was on his face closing down. “Don’t bother with any bullshit! Where are the first responders? Why aren’t there even any people? And what the fuck is going on with these maniacs?” I didn’t need to point at the corpse close to us to indicate what I meant.
Bucky gave me a humorless grin that made me even more uneasy.
“Just how long have you been holed up inside that lab?”
I shrugged, not sure what that had to do with anything. “Since yesterday morning when I went to work. Why?”
His snort was dismissive in a way that made my hackles rise, but I could keep my tongue if it meant finally getting some answers.
“So you missed the whole fun of when the shit hit the fan?” Bucky jeered and laughed, a hard, short bark. “You’re a smarty-pants scientist, right? Just what does this look like to you?”
He walked over to the corpse and lifted it by the back of the nightshirt the girl had been wearing, thrusting the ghastly thing in my face. I jerked away, trying to put as much distance between me and that as I could. Death really didn’t become her. And from up close, it was impossible to ignore the blood stains on her teeth and lips that were way too massive to just come from bleeding gums.
“Exactly what does this look like to you?” Bucky repeated, and when I still didn’t reply, he was only too happy to fill in the blanks for me. “Like a fucking zombie.” Taking a step back, he dropped the thing in front of me and spread his arms wide.
“Welcome to the fucking zombie apocalypse.”
To be continued in
OUTBREAK
Green Fields #2
About the Author
Adrienne Lecter has a background in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, loves ranting at inaccuracies in movies, and spends increasingly more time on the shooting range. She lives with the man and two cats of her life in Vienna, and is working on the next books in the Green Fields series.
You can sign up for Adrienne’s newsletter to never miss a release and be the first to know what other shenanigans she gets up to:
http://www.adriennelecter.com/newsletter
Email: [email protected]
Website: adriennelecter.com
Twitter: @AdrienneLecter
Facebook: facebook.com/adriennelecter
Books published
Green Fields
#1: Incubation
#2: Outbreak (late 2015)
#3: Escalation (Winter 2015/16)
Books 4 - 6 expected 2016
Acknowledgement
Like so many other things, writing a book takes a village. Or at least a bunch of very patient souls, some of them needing relentless badgering to dip their toes into the zombie / post-apocalyptic horror genre (or simply a gentle nudge because they are awesome like that.)
Foremost, I’ll be forever grateful to my guy for keeping me hooked on an infinite caffeine drip, and listening to me rave and rant about the idiosyncrasies of made-up characters.
Shayla and Jaana, you’re the best beta readers anyone can wish for.
A round of applause goes to all the people who slogged through this manuscript one time or another in any of the stages. Thank you!
Thank you!
Hey, you! Yes, you, who just spent a helluva lot of time reading this book! You just made my day! Thanks!
Want to be notified of new releases, giveaways and updates? Sign up for my newsletter:
www.adriennelecter.com/newsletter
If you enjoyed reading the book and have a moment to spare, I would really appreciate a short, honest review on the site you purchased it from and on goodreads. Reviews make a huge difference in helping new readers find the series.
Or if you’d like to drop me a note, or chat a but, feel free to email me or hit me up on social media. I’ll try to respond as quickly as possible! If you’d like to report an error or wrong detail, I’ve set up a separate space on my website for that, too.
Email: [email protected]
Website: adriennelecter.com
Twitter: @adriennelecter
Facebook: facebook.com/adriennelecter
Green Fields: Incubation Page 28
