Free Green Fields (Book 2): Outbreak by Adrienne Lecter

Bucky.”
    I really didn’t like his fatalistic view, but in that he was right.
    “Then why didn’t they? You knew what was coming. I bet that they did, too. So why take that chance?”
    Nate’s gaze took on a slightly feverish tint as he kept holding mine.
    “Some things are worth fighting for. Dying for. Freedom is one of them. I sincerely hope that you’ll never get to understand the true meaning of that.”
    With that cryptic message, he left me to my own devices, and to once again ponder what exactly I had gotten myself into here.

    True to Nate’s words, we moved out shortly. With the setting sun shining in our faces and the scents of nature around, it could have been an idyllic evening stroll. Sleeping for a few hours might have helped take the edge off the exhaustion, but my feet were still killing me, my pack weighed a ton, and the knowledge that we were barely a mile above a never-ending stream of zombies did its own to keep me jittery and jumpy. Unlike in the woods where things had been a little more relaxed and progress had been fast, our group’s speed slowed down to molasses rather than cheetah. Every couple of minutes, we hunkered down and checked our progress, making my anxiety skyrocket each time. I was sure that the moment we halted, the mob would be upon us, no doubt.
    The problem was, there were stragglers even in the hills, only it took me almost half an hour to realize that—but our sentries were out to dispatch them as quietly as possible. Only when the corpses ended up right next to our path—heads smashed in yet barely bleeding—did I realize what had been going on the entire time. The fact that we had several people out and about to make sure the core group wasn’t attacked was somewhat of a relief; the knowledge that even though I couldn’t see them, there were still more zombies lurking around just made everything ten times worse.
    The farther west we got, the more the valley broadened, opening up into a plateau where two rivers met. In the dusk with no street lights, it was hard to make out the streets between the scattered buildings, but even without binoculars I could still see movement down there, and that scared me shitless. Nate called for another rest to wait and see what would happen after the sun set, but I could tell already from the restlessness of the people around me that things didn’t shape up. Still, sitting in the grass, stretching my feet out was like a moment stolen from paradise—one I intended to get the most of. Somehow I got the feeling that indulgences of all kinds would be hard to come by in the coming days.
    About an hour after the sun had disappeared behind the hills we moved out again, the rising moon providing just enough illumination to make even a well-paved road treacherous footing—and we were still out and about around already uneven ground to start with. I stumbled and almost fell more than once, and I wasn’t the only one by far. We still made it down the slope into a wheat field, the stalks soft and not yet fully grown in late May.
    Not sure how large our group was to begin with—and with however many people around scouting at any time—I still noticed when suddenly it was just me, Andrej, two other guys, and Nate. Looking around, I saw another cluster huddled together about fifty yards away, straying further from us, while up ahead I could see yet more figures move, crouched over to minimize their silhouettes against the sky.
    “We’re splitting up,” Nate whispered to me, explaining. “We won’t make it to the other side as a large group, but maybe in parts we stand a chance.”
    I so didn’t like the sound of that, but who was I to protest? I was well aware that I was only still alive because the others knew what they were doing.
    It still seemed like forever until one of the guys whose names I still didn’t know started forward, followed by Nate and the other. Andrej remained behind me, only needing to give me a gentle nudge once to