Free Outbreak (Book 1): Emerald City by Jay K. Anthony

scream,” a muffled voice called out. “Don’t draw any more attention.”
    Tasha turned to look up the road and watched a man in black battle fatigues, some kind of combat soldier, moving toward her. He was wearing a black mask and carried a very large and very long black rifle. Tasha sat in the road, sweat running down her face, thinking she might throw up, but did not scream. The soldier looked around as he took a knee on the road beside her. He took off his helmet and lifted his mask. He looked very young. “Are you injured?” he asked.
    “One more,” Tasha said, gasping for air and pointing down the road.
    “Oh!” the soldier said and looked over his shoulder at where she was pointing. Seeing the creeper, he turned, stayed on his knee and sighted through his rifle. Tasha looked past him and saw the third creeper was trying to stagger up the road. It had caught its sleeve on some of the barbed wire and the cloth of its filthy brown shirt was snagged. The creeper ignored the wire and kept pulling forward even though it was stuck.
    “Hold still,” the soldier whispered to the creeper and fired the rifle. Thwip! Tasha expected the creeper’s head to disappear like the first, but the creeper still stood in the road, pulling at its shirt.
    “Shit,” the soldier said and aimed down the rifle again. There was an enormous scope on top of the thing and the soldier looked through the glass. Thwip!
    This time the creeper’s head exploded in a red mist and the body crumpled to the ground. The soldier flipped a switch on the rifle and turned to Tasha. “Sorry about that,” he said. “I can only hit them when they are running.” He smiled at her so she knew he was joking. “So,” he said. “You okay?”
    Tasha could only stare at him.
    “I meant, have you been bitten?” the soldier asked.
    “No,” she answered. Thank God!
    The young soldier reached for a radio on his shoulder and pressed a button. “Broken Top, this is Tanner,” he said. “We have a live one. Over.”
    “Any more vegetables?” came a reply. “Over.”
    “Negative,” the soldier said. “Just one female. I’m guessing … sixteen?” The soldier looked at Tasha and raised his eyebrows.
    “Eighteen,” Tasha said, a little perturbed.
    “Correction. Eighteen,” the soldier said into the microphone. “Over.”
    “Who gives a shit how old she is?” came the reply. “Make nice later. Get your ass back up the mountain. Bring the survivor too. Over.”
    Tanner stood up and looked down the road again. Satisfied that there were no more creepers coming up, he held out his hand to help Tasha to her feet. “Private Tanner,” he said.
    Tasha looked at Tanner. He was armored from head to toe, with a helmet, fatigues, boots, canteens, pockets of extra ammunition, and a grenade belt over one shoulder. She estimated he was a bit taller than her and he looked lean and fit. She could not help but notice his eyes were very blue. Maybe underneath all of that gear he is kind of cute, she thought. Her eyes wandered to the gun he carried. It was enormous.
    Tanner saw her staring at the rifle. “Sniper rifle,” he said. “Really it’s just a converted competition M4. We found an extended barrel and bored it out to handle a larger round.” He held it in both hands like he was presenting it for her. “The 7.62 caliber round travels faster and makes a larger impact. We outfitted it with a silencer so that we don’t attract the vegetables. It’s pretty effective.”
    Tasha did not understand half of what he had said and held her hand up to show that she was not interested in taking it from him. All she really wanted was to get untangled from all the barbed wire and move somewhere out of the open. “Can you help me out of this?” she asked, waving at the barrier.
    “Oh, yeah, right,” Tanner said and slung his rifle over his shoulder. He pulled at the wire to free her, but it only seemed to make it worse. “Shit, sorry.”
    “Ouch!” Tasha