Catharsis

by Adrienne Lecter

  Catharsis

  Green Fields #8

  Adrienne Lecter

  Catharsis

  Green Fields #8

  by Adrienne Lecter

  Copyright © 2018 by Adrienne Lecter. All rights reserved.

  http://adriennelecter.com

  First edition: February 2018

  Produced and published by Barbara Klein, Vienna, Austria

  Edited by Marti Lynch

  Cover design by S.Marko

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses, events, or locales is purely coincidental.

  Reproduction in whole or part of this publication without express written consent is strictly prohibited.

  The author greatly appreciates you taking the time to read her work. Please consider leaving a review wherever you bought the book, or telling your friends about it, to help spread the word.

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  Dedication

  To M

  Because you’re the light of my life.

  What happened in the Green Fields Series so far:

  Nate Miller is a man on a mission—and that mission is to find out how exactly his brother died, and who is responsible for it. He recruits Bree Lewis, a virologist, to help him, even if she doesn’t know it yet. They end up destroying the virus that killed Nate’s brother—and turned him into a zombie—but it is too late. The zombie apocalypse is already happening.

  With Nate’s group of mercenaries and a few others who join along the way, they flee the city, barely escaping a mob of zombies that devours everything in its way. Scared and hungry, they start their trek across the country. Their destination: a shelter in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, half a continent away. With rations and ammunition running low, they soon have to resort to looting the dead to stay ahead of the undead hordes. And the zombies are not the only thing out there ready to end their lives.

  After spending the winter in their bunker in Wyoming, it is time for the gang to rediscover the world out there. With a loose trade network emerging, there is always need for someone to go raid a mall. They end up hunting super zombies in Sioux Falls, and take out the cannibal compound in Illinois—but at a cost paid in blood. Bree, grieving for her friend, isn’t sure any longer if the scavenger life is right for her. When they deliver the survivors of the cannibal camp to Aurora, Kansas, she finds out that not only are there efforts being made to find a cure for the zombie virus, but she is also offered to take over as leader of the laboratory. Her enthusiasm takes a hit when she learns just how far the super soldier program went that Nate and some of her friends have been a part of, turning elite soldiers into ticking time bombs. The new world order discriminates against their former hidden weapons, exiling them to a life on the road.

  Forever leaving her calling of science and academia behind, after some kicking and screaming Bree embraces her place in the new world—at Nate’s side, as co-leader of the Lucky Thirteen, merry band of misfit scavengers and zombie killers.

  Only others have different plans for her.

  Ambushed by Nate’s former friend and now head honcho of what remains of the army, Capt. “Bucky” Hamilton, Bree narrowly survives getting savaged by the undead, leaving her with some disadvantages, but also immune to the virus. That unique circumstance puts her on the radar of a rogue faction of soldiers and scientists, who have her kidnapped. Bree survives and escapes her white-tiled prison to swear bloody vengeance on Taggard and his men, but those plans have to be suspended when the better half of what remains of the Lucky Thirteen either die or get severely wounded in an ambush set for them. With no other option, Pia, Burns, Nate, and Bree travel across the country to southern California and the by-now infamous settlement of New Angeles—only to find Gabriel Greene, the very first man to make her kill list, in charge of the city, and in possession of the information they need to plot an end to the headhunt on scavengers all over the country.

  People rally to Bree’s call for resistance, and, hundreds strong, they attack the base in the mountains of Colorado where their adversary has settled down. Fighting soldiers and zombies alike, they win—forcing Bucky Hamilton to agree to a truce that puts an end to the civil war raging between the fronts, bringing peace to the shattered nation just before winter is coming.

  All actions have consequences, and Bree quickly find out that hers aren’t the exception. What she thought was immunity to the zombie virus she got from the bites has festered into a systemic infection, turning her life into her worst nightmare—she’s rotting from the inside out. What started as a casual last run to maybe get some information at the Silo turns into a fight for survival against the snow and cold, wolves, the undead—and all that with her own body having morphed into a ticking time bomb. With hours left to live, they make it to the Canadian base where one of the serum project’s lead scientists has set up shop since before the apocalypse, and Emily Raynor is her last hope for survival. Yet a nasty surprise is also waiting for them: no other than Bucky Hamilton is in charge of the defense of the base, and he wastes no time putting Bree, too weak to fight anymore, in her place. She gets inoculated with the super soldier serum, and against all odds survives the horrific operation required to rid her body of all its decaying parts. Rather than letting her and Nate go, Raynor forces them to accept her proposition: work for her and her soldiers in turn for her doing her very best to fix Martinez’s grave injuries that left him paralyzed. With “no” not being an acceptable answer, they find themselves agreeing to join the mission led by Hamilton—and they are heading to Europe.

  Chapter 1

  “You look like death warmed over.”

  I squinted at Burns, trying very hard to think of a witty reply, but came up blank. Every single cell in my body hurt—some more, some less; some that weren’t even attached to me any longer. The harsh sunlight did a number on my already mushy brain, even though my eyes stung somewhat less than I was used to. That was one small reprieve, compared to…

  I forced that train of thought to grind to a halt and focused on the most important thing: to not just stand there like a brain-dead zombie. I’d managed to get through the brief ride on the truck. I hadn’t screamed my head off when I’d slid out into the snow, my feet having to bear my entire weight again. I was not going to let this get me down now.

  “Gee, you say the sweetest things,” I finally replied. The words came out just a little garbled, although the cold had helped bring down the swelling in my jaws. Nate gave me a cautious, sidelong glance, but remained silent.

  Jason and Charlie were still busy eyeing the truck behind us with distrust, while Tanner stepped up to Burns, Gita hot on his heels. All of them looked beat up from the fight with the wolves and zombies, but hypothermia seemed the greater concern. I had a solution for that either way. Maybe.

  “Just telling it like it is,” Burns pointed out. “We’re between a rock and a hard place again, aren’t we?”

  I would have shrugged under different circumstances, but simply cocking my head to the side was hard enough. “What gave it away? Our little entourage, or the fact that they didn’t give us our weapons back?” To be honest, I had my Beretta back in its sheath on my right thigh, all the good that it did me without ammunition—among other issues. I was still surprised that Red—Lt. Richards to those bothering to remember names—had only brought ten soldiers with him on our little trip outside the heavily reinforced fence of the base. Apparently, my ability to simply take off running into the snow-covered hills had been deemed nonexistent, and they knew that Nate would never leave without me. For once, I could have done with more of that usual underestimating of me going on, but that assessment wa
s sadly very accurate.

  “Some things never change,” I offered, feeling the irony of that statement bite all the sharper. “We’re heading to Europe.”

  Burns’s eyes widened infinitesimally, but he took it in stride. The others, not so much, but after another round of staring at the soldiers no one spoke up.

  Exhaling forcefully—and my, didn’t that cause some nice spikes where my right kidney used to be… and half of my liver… and gallbladder… and other things—I went on, speaking in low, hushed tones now, trying not to make my voice carry back to our entourage.

  “I should tell you that this is goodbye. We’re caught up in this, but you’re all free to go. And you should. Just turn around, hunker down for the winter, maybe pray for us if that’s your thing.” No one laughed. I hadn’t really expected them to. “Fact is, I can’t. We desperately need some backup because this is going to devolve into the shit storm of the ages. And I’m very likely going to be the one stirring it up. Even without that, I have a feeling it won’t be pretty and will resemble a suicide mission more than anything else. They wouldn’t be recruiting the heavy hitters if it wasn’t.”

  Burns didn’t bat an eyelash. “When are we leaving?”

  I hesitated after opening my mouth to reply, having to shift onto my right leg to keep the pain in the left from becoming too overwhelming. A frown crossed his forehead, but Burns did a good job ignoring my obvious… issues. “Today.”

  “Where exactly in Europe?” A pause. “And how.”

  “Plane. Ship. Need to know, and we don’t.” My cut-off response clearly conveyed both my annoyance with the latter, and the fact that any further questions were futile. If not for the agony pushing away every other sentiment, I would have choked on my frustration.

  Burns gave another nod, understanding. “I’m good to go.”

  I glanced at the others, not bothering to ask. Every word I didn’t need to enunciate was a small blessing right now. Gita looked scared—smart girl—yet tried to hide it. The guys, mostly determined. “You’re not getting rid of us again,” Jason said, clearly speaking for the lot of them.

  “Yeah, we never claimed to be very smart about this,” Charlie agreed, trying for levity but failing.

  I offered the most infinitesimal shrug I could manage, likely lost in the heap of winter clothes I was bundled up in. “Like attracts like.” Glancing back toward the truck, I couldn’t keep from adding, “And we’ll be in stellar company.”

  Red didn’t sneer back at me as I had hoped, still seeming way too relaxed about his babysitting duty. “Are you done being a drama queen yet?” he asked, his tone level. “We still need to select and pack your gear. The longer you spend standing around here uselessly, the less time you have for that.”

  There was no recognition in Burns’s gaze, and bless him for the neutral look he regarded Red with. “He in charge?” he presumed.

  I shook my head, hard-pressed to keep down the half-hysteric laugh that wanted to escape me. “Nope.”

  “Someone we know?” Burns asked, a hint of caution sneaking into his tone. The way Nate tensed next to me likely already gave the answer away.

  “Yup.”

  “Who?” Bless him, but Burns wasn’t yet tired of my singular answers.

  “Bucky.” No need to expand on that. They all knew who I was talking about.

  The fact that Burns didn’t react at all told me that he could easily read the clues right off Nate and me, no further explanation needed. The others didn’t know us quite that well—and likely lacked a lot of background knowledge that even I hadn’t been privy to until very recently—so their obvious confusion was only understandable.

  “Why would you want to work with that damn bastard?” Gita voiced her obvious objection.

  My snort came out wryer than I’d aimed for, my voice dipping into almost toneless territory. “Trust me, I really don’t want to.” That much had been true even before we’d reached the base. Now, it was like a creed, set in stone. Gita’s mouth snapped open, obviously to ask why we still were, but I cut her off before our conversation could dip into dangerous territory. “I won’t hold it against you if you’d rather not stay. You’re still free to leave. All of you.”

  “We stay,” Tanner insisted before anyone could say otherwise, his quiet confidence lending me a hint of hope. “We’re in this together. You can explain the details later.”

  “You’re not getting rid of us,” Gita insisted, switching course. “You know that you’ll need me. Us,” she quickly corrected. The blank look on Tanner’s face underlined that her slip was just that. My tongue burned with the need to question her about what exactly she knew, which, of course, was just another way of asking what Gabriel Greene had known when he’d deliberately sent her with us. I knew that her fangirl act wasn’t just that, an act, but she might as well have proclaimed her mission statement right there. Instead, I nodded, the idea of having at least a hint of an extra security net in place a strangely comforting one. That was settled then, or so I’d thought.

  “Actually, we’re not done yet.” Nate’s voice was hard, raspy, and it took me hearing him say that to realize those were his first words since we’d left that conference room. His expression gave nothing away, but his body was singing with tension—never a good thing, but considering that I still remembered all too well how he’d shut down when they’d shot him up with that changed version of the serum, I’d take quietly stewing any day.

  Of course, I always preferred no-nonsense, no-bullshit Nate to Broody McBroodface. The corner of my mouth twitched at that thought, sending pangs of pain up to my temple and all along my jaw. Still, worth it.

  Once he was sure he had everyone’s attention, Nate turned to Jason and Charlie. “You’re not coming with us.”

  “Like hell we won’t,” Jason started to object immediately, but the look he cast my way was cautious rather than annoyed. Not quite sure where Nate was going with this, all I could do was stare back neutrally.

  Nate grimaced, but his tone was far from apologetic. “I’m asking you not to, actually. I have a favor to ask of you. We struck a deal with them, for their head surgeon to try to help Martinez. They will try to get him up here as soon as possible. I would be much obliged if you would tag along and make sure that everything happens according to plan.”

  Jason looked mostly confused while a dash of hope crossed Charlie’s face, but was quickly replaced by a frown. “From what he told me, that strut went right through his spine. Even before the shit hit the fan, that was usually a sentence for life. Their surgeons may be good, but that good?”

  Jason cleared his throat before either of us could reply. “And not sure he’d appreciate you dooming yourselves for him.”

  Even though it hurt, I allowed myself a mirthless grin. Nate provided the answer, chuffing. “That was the carrot. Don’t ask about the stick.” I didn’t miss how Burns scrutinized our entourage once more. Oh, I was sure that he could take a guess.

  “And you trust them?” Jason nodded toward Red. “Not to hold Martinez hostage, or shoot us all the second we’re out of sight?”

  “Like hell,” Nate grunted, but shut up when Richards finally abandoned his pretense that he wasn’t listening to our every word and joined us. The difference between him in his perfectly maintained, camo-patterned fatigues and our ragtag assortment of gear couldn’t have been starker.

  “You can trust us,” he insisted. He briefly glanced in my direction but continued to talk to Jason. “Contrary to what some may believe, we’ve never had a quarrel with any of the traders or scavengers. You’re from the Utah settlement? If you want my superiors to get on the radio with Minerva to make additional assurances, that can be arranged. Or we can play this via Wilkes at the Silo. Your choice.”

  Jason looked at Nate instead, who shrugged. “I believe that he thinks he’s telling the truth. That doesn’t change my assessment in the least.” He and Red did some staring that would otherwise have made me crack up, but my first impu
lse was to try to silently communicate to Nate to maybe not piss off the one guy who was trying to act diplomatic before we had a chance to get our weapons and ammo back. That offer about new gear had sounded genuine, and way too good to ignore.

  Nate seemed to come to a similar conclusion, pretending like it was coincidental that he looked away first, not quiet acquiescence. “Besides, I need someone with Martinez who I can trust to have his best interests at heart. I have a feeling that whatever their first assessment will be, someone will stress that shooting him up with the serum is the best option. If he’s had one objection all these years, it was that he’d never want that to happen. With us gone, that leaves you the perfect person for that.”

  Charlie slowly inclined his head, the look on his face solemn. “He mentioned that, once,” he agreed.

  Even trying to keep my face straight, my confusion must have been plain for everyone to see, making Nate smirk for a moment. “His faith. He made me promise him a long, long time ago to never elect him for a possible candidate because when it was time to go, he wanted to die only once, for good. Guess how great it must have been for him to come to grips that the entire world had gone to hell and now a single bite or scratch could easily destroy that notion for good.”

  I didn’t know what to say, not that it was necessary. Jason still didn’t look happy but finally gave his assent. “We’ll take care that no one gets the chance to screw with his head. Might not hurt to have someone along who can give a firsthand account of what happened up here.”

  Red looked suspiciously pleased with that answer, but at least he kept his gloating at bay. “We are happy to either give you a ride with our next troop transport, or help you find other options.”

  Jason unabashedly grinned at the line of Humvees parked beyond the base fence. “Those come with heating?”