Unity: Green Fields book 6 Read online

  We only halted for a few minutes at that five-mile mark before we drove on. Nate’s guess had been right—there were only trees and more trees, with the odd small road branching off, leading to a cabin or resort or whatnot. Under different circumstances I might have gotten tempted to suggest looting, but not now. If we were wrong, this detour might as well do what Nate had suggested—for the trail to go cold for good. In hindsight, it was marvelous that Stanton had managed to track the caravan through the forest—if it even was the right one. But that was an option I’d only start to consider when it was obvious that we’d lost Taggard’s trail.

  The forest around the softly curving road ended abruptly. Nate brought the Rover to a halt at the very edge of the trees, accepting the binoculars from me so he could scan the meadow opening up in front of us. It was obvious that most of the trees that built the stocky, maybe eight-foot-high palisade had been felled only recently—particularly as part of the barrier was still under construction, two heavy construction vehicles at work halfway around the settlement from where the wooden gate blocked the road. Another crew was busy digging up tree stumps, likely to use for fires in the colder months, and to further clear the wide, open field around the settlement. I saw no guards, but several of the people swarming around the machines stopped what they were doing to gawk at us, and one of them gestured for us to approach the gate. Nate glanced at me for a second before he handed me the binoculars.

  “If anything hinky is going on in there—“ he started, but I cut him right off.

  “I’ll run. Happy now?”

  He snorted. “I was about to say, don’t hesitate to gun them all down, but yeah, I guess you running away like a scared chicken will do the trick as well.”

  “You’re such an ass,” I huffed, but didn’t feel paranoid as I grabbed another couple of magazines for my guns to stow in the pockets of my cargo pants.

  “Sheesh, what would I do without your constant reminders,” Nate snarked, but already tension was chasing away the humor. It was all fun and games until I got snatched up again. What had our lives turned into?

  “Romanoff, you have command,” Nate ordered before he let the Rover roll forward from underneath the cover of the trees, the Jeep with Pia and Burns following. I was itching to grab my shotgun, but portraying hostility was likely not a good idea. The guards at the gate looked alert but not overly alarmed, reminding me of our folks back in Wyoming. One of the workers from the deforestation party beat us to the gate, a heavy lumber ax slung over one shoulder. He taxed us with a suspicious, but not downright hostile look. Considering how pockmarked both cars were from the shots fired at them when we’d fled the factory, I couldn’t fault him that. We’d learned that lesson ourselves—zombies were easy to judge, but everything else that was moving on two legs could just as well be foe rather than friend. I’d expected that much.

  What I hadn’t expected was him hollering a, “You the Lucky Thirteen?” at us as we came to a stop several feet away from the gate, his voice holding a low Texas drawl.

  Nate gave me a sidelong glance before he opened his window further, cautious not to make himself too easy a target as he responded.

  “Damn straight we are. You were expecting us?”

  Neither of the guards batted an eyelash, but several of the—eavesdropping, no doubt—workers started talking between them. It was obvious what about.

  “You could say that,” the fellow with the ax responded. “Had a couple of cars over just today.” His eyes flitted from Nate to me, then on to the car behind ours, before they returned to our esteemed leader. “They warned us about you.”

  That was an interesting tidbit, and not one I was sure I was happy about. So far we’d been in the dark about whether Taggard and his men knew that we were in hot pursuit. We’d found not a single campsite or heap of trash that had likely belonged to them, but I knew well enough that most days we were trying not to leave a trail of clues behind, and that was without probable cause of anyone wanting to hunt us down. It could, of course, be paranoia only that had made him inform the settlement about us, but I didn’t buy it.

  Nate didn’t move a single muscle, but the guards would have had to be blind not to see the tension in his pseudo-relaxed posture. “And what do you intend to do about that?” he asked, mostly the guy next to us, but also the group at large.

  One of the guards, a younger guy shy of his twenties, shrugged. “Depends on why you’re here and what you’re intending to do.” His sunglasses-covered gaze turned to the tree line. “Your other three cars are waiting over there?”

  Nate nodded, as if that wasn’t anything we’d been trying to hide. Technically, we hadn’t. Anyone with two brain cells would expect us to belong to a larger group, even if they hadn’t known—or guessed—who we were.

  “We’re not looking for a place to stay,” Nate explained. “Mostly, we’re trying to catch up to that other group, if they are who we think they are.”

  “You don’t know?” Ax guy sounded surprised.

  Nate gave him a pained smile. “Once you’re out of sight and going through uneven territory, who can say? Radio’s been patchy as hell, which makes coordinating a real pain in the ass.”

  The three men closest to us traded glances, and I couldn’t help but feel like something in that statement didn’t sit too well with them. Leaning over the center console so I could try to blink out into the bright-as-shit sunlight, I did my best to defuse the situation.

  “Doesn’t help when you’re trying not to advertise your presence unless you have to,” I pointed out. “No need to let us in. Just tell us in what direction they left, and we’ll be on our way.”

  I’d expected more silent debating, but ax guy was quick to reply. “They went east, but doesn’t surprise me that you didn’t run into them.” When he saw my obvious confusion—the road we’d taken was pretty much the only one going in that direction—he scoffed. “Let’s just say we got the sense that they weren’t quite that forthcoming with us in the honesty department.”

  “Cut the crap, Jared!” the younger guard called down before he continued to us. “We only let three of their cars in, the other seven remained outside. These guys were weird, I could tell that from a mile away. As soon as they left, we called in with Dispatch.” His slight smile grew. “Turns out, I was right when I thought I’d heard your group name before. They told us to be cautious about anything anyone said who warned us about you. Oh, and you should probably sign in with them, because that woman sounded mad as hell.”

  “Tamara?” I guessed.

  “Rita,” he offered. I couldn’t hold back a snort, along with a pointed look at Nate, that he, as usual, ignored.

  “Guess we should do so,” I replied. “So, do I get this right? You’re not opposed to helping us out?”

  Ax guy—Jared—shrugged. “Let’s put it this way. We’re a new settlement. Just came up here and dug in like ticks in late spring. That was early enough to miss some of the recent fuckups, but not too late.” He paused, biting down on his heavy work glove to pull it off, revealing an X-shaped mark at the side of the back of his hand. “If you ask me, getting two thumbs up from Dispatch makes you a hell of a lot more trustworthy than a band of soldiers.” He gave Nate a quizzical look. “No offense, I hear most of you have a background in the military, but as far as I’m concerned, we stay out of this shitstorm until it’s blown over.”

  “None taken,” Nate assured him. “I would likely do the same if I were you.”

  “Wanna come in?” the young guard asked. “One of them remained behind. He can likely answer any questions you have. If answers is what you’re after.”

  From one moment to the next, my relative calm at not being shot on sight was blown to hell. Nate hesitated, leaving the decision to me.

  “Did he give a name?” I asked, not sure if I even wanted an answer, let alone if it would be one of use.

  “No,” Jared replied. “Tall fella, a little on the scrawny side. Dark hair, light eyes?”
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  “Ethan,” I murmured my guess, then glanced over to Nate. “I can’t be sure but that sounds like him. At one point I almost had him about to cave. Maybe his bad conscience finally caught up with him?”

  “I doubt it,” Nate voiced his suspicion, but he nodded at Jared. “Mind if we leave the cars inside the gate? No offense, but it doesn’t even take a horde of zombies and we’re back down to hoofing it across the country. Not necessarily something that bears repetition.”

  Rather than answer, the other guard, who’d so far remained mute, disappeared from the palisade, and a few moments later the gate started to swing outward. Nate briefly glanced back to the Jeep, holding his hand out of the window to signal the other car to follow us. I felt my pulse pick up with anticipation, mixed with a hint of dread, as we rolled into the settlement, but it was just as quiet and unpretentious inside as it had seemed from beyond the cleared ground surrounding it. Jared came in with us, soon to be joined by the young guard—Shaun, as it turned out. As usual, our arrival drew some interest from the resident population, but only two more people came to greet us—a woman about my age, and a white-haired elder gentleman, holding himself with enough confidence that I bet he had something to say around here. He introduced himself as Titus, and the woman as his daughter Aurelia. I didn’t really see the family resemblance—her features looked more Latin-American while he seemed mostly African-American—but if the last year had taught me anything, it was that blood wasn’t nearly as thick as emotional ties. The very idea that they’d presumably managed to make it together was enough to make the smile I shook their hands with real.

  “You’re the guys the others were warning us about?” Titus said, looking us over critically. His eyes remained on Burns a moment longer than the rest of us, but he seemed to dismiss us collectively after giving a curt nod. “Don’t look that dangerous to me.”

  I didn’t need to check his neck to know that it would be bare. Part of me wanted to brag about the three tattooed marks across my neck, but I refrained, seeing as Nate already gave him that belligerent smile that set my teeth on edge whenever he directed it at me. Titus, of course, didn’t know my dear husband that well and likely took it for a token of reserved affection.

  “Anyone’s dangerous with a loaded gun in their hands,” was all Nate had to supply to that. Taking a look around, he let his eyes return to Titus. “Your man here said that the group we’re looking for left someone behind?”

  Aurelia nodded. “He asked for a room, and hasn’t come out since. We didn’t bother with disturbing him so far. He looked kind of sick. Twitchy and tired, I mean. Not, you know. Infected,” she explained.

  “Mind if we take a look?” I asked, trying to keep the eagerness out of my tone. Better than apprehension, sure, but I didn’t want to raise any red flags unnecessarily. If I was honest, I wasn’t sure what I’d prefer—for it to be Ethan, who might answer my questions willingly, or one of the other flunkies, who I could beat to a bloody pulp to get the same results.

  “Of course,” Aurelia said. “He’s over at the lodge. I can show you the way.” She paused when she realized that all four of us made as if to follow her. “Our rooms aren’t large. We’ve converted all available free space into storage. Maybe the rest of you would like to grab a cold beer at the bar instead?”

  My paranoia immediately jumped to the conclusion that she was deliberately trying to separate us—and quite possibly drug us—but I forced myself to hold on to my semblance of calm. Nate beside me tensed, and his jaw continued to stand out when he replied. “We’ll make do, but thanks for the offer.”

  Jared looked mighty amused by our rebuke, but he held his tongue. Titus took his leave, but Shaun and Jared remained with us, whether as guards or babysitters I wasn’t sure. As Aurelia turned around and started walking toward one of the few buildings inside the settlement, I couldn’t help but check her neck as well. Bare, and easily accessible as she wasn’t wearing a jacket that could be zipped up to the neck. Sweating as they must have been, all of the workers we’d seen had been swathed in layers of protective gear.

  “You’re quite the mixed bunch, I see,” Burns noticed from where he was strolling along behind me.

  Jared gave a noncommittal grunt. “Some of us are from Texas initially. Stayed in Dispatch over the winter, then went north. The others we found along the way where they’d hunkered down and had tried to start a town, but it burned down when someone forgot that cooking over open fire isn’t the same as using a microwave. So we banded together, decided to find us some nice spot in the wilderness where none of those undead fuckers could get to us. You’re only the second group we’ve met since then, and I can already tell that you’re a massive improvement over the first.”

  It was hard to hold back on offering up my opinion about the people we were after, and even Burns didn’t manage to sound as jovial as before. “You keep mentioning that they were a bunch of weirdos? What makes you say that?”

  “Just a feeling,” Jared tried to deflect the question, but Shaun was only too happy to answer.

  “Because that’s exactly how they were behaving,” he explained. “Not all of them, but enough to give me the creeps. They just didn’t look right, you know? Like they were stoned, just not in a happy, relaxed way. I get that exhaustion can wear a man down eventually, but they didn’t act right.”

  “Like what?” I wanted to know, although I could guess the answer already.

  Jared shrugged. “Like they were puppets. Or robots, trying to act like people but not quite getting there. But they were all human, no question. Just not quite right.”

  I tried to school my features but must have done a shit job of it, as Shaun latched right on. “You know what I’m talking about, right?”

  I hesitated, but then nodded. “Yes, I think I do.”

  “What is it?” he asked, excited at first but that quickly turned to apprehension. “It’s nothing contagious, right? With the virus, it’s kind of hard not to get paranoid. They kicked me out of the settlement for a week when I caught a cold just after we got here. Dropped in on me to ask if I’d turned into a zombie yet every couple of hours, but still. Not exactly how you want to start your new life.”

  “Be happy they didn’t shoot you on sight,” Nate drawled, holding Shaun’s wide eyes calmly.

  “Seriously? You’d have done that?”

  He gave a shrug that was way more ambivalent than I knew he felt about the subject. “Just how do you think we dropped from thirteen people to ten?”

  Before that could get any worse, I cut Nate’s answer off. “Only after he actually died, and that was last year. Last time I checked, you didn’t do me that honor when I was about to bite it.”

  “Only because I wanted to see if your biting humor would survive you,” Nate retorted. That he refrained from stressing the “biting” part was only a small mercy. He needn’t have bothered. Shaun obviously got the message, but his chuckle didn’t do a thing to bring color back into his cheeks. As expected, Burns found that pun hilarious, his laughter doing its own to make heads turn toward us. I shook my head, giving up. It stood to reason that if we continued like that, we’d get kicked out before we made it to that inn, or whatever it was supposed to be.

  “Who exactly are these guys that you’re after?” Jared asked, likely to keep Shaun from running off scared.

  I tried to come up with an answer that wouldn’t leave me foaming at the mouth, and eventually settled on, “Trouble.” Jared took that with a stoic nod, but continued to regard me in particular with curiosity. It wasn’t hard to ignore him in favor of scanning the village. By now more people had stopped to watch us, but still none of them looked alarmed. I wasn’t sure what to make of that. If anything, the least I’d expected was someone telling me they’d expected me to be taller.

  We finally arrived at what Aurelia had called the lodge, which turned out to be a rather accurate description of the two-story building, one of two newly erected wooden houses on the opposite side of t
he road that bisected the settlement. The other nine or ten buildings had seen better days, but they had already been zombie proofed and reinforced. Between them and all along the road sat a train of SUVs and campers, some of them ready to be boarded at a moment’s notice. Isabella looked like a new settlement all right, and one that had not yet succumbed to the idea of the buildings rather than the people making up the community.

  The scent of freshly cut wood still hung in the air as we entered the lodge, the room beyond resembling an armory rather than a reception area, with gun racks and ammo boxes everywhere. Aurelia nodded at two men busy cleaning rifles before she led us up the stairs. As soon as we made it onto the landing of the upper floor, her hesitation became obvious. The already narrow hallway had yet more boxes stacked along both walls, barely leaving room for one person to squeeze through, let alone harbor the seven of us.

  “It’s the last room on the left,” she explained as she pressed herself into a shelf to let us shimmy past her. Nate took point, and while I noticed his fingers curling into a loose fist, he didn’t draw his gun. I did. Then I followed him before Burns could temporarily bar the entirety of the corridor for me, with Pia trailing behind. If this really turned into a fight, I’d probably be the only one slight enough to move. The chance was slim to none that Nate would let anything past him, so I didn’t stress it. Much. It was impossible to keep my rising anxiety in check, but I forced myself to keep breathing evenly.

  Stopping at the door, Nate rapped his knuckles against the wood, loud enough that even the guys downstairs must have heard him. “Open up!” He flattened himself against the wall next to the frame, not giving the occupant a chance to shoot him through the door.

  Nothing answered, not even the telltale rustling of clothes as someone slid behind cover. Or tried to take us out with a well-placed but likely futile shot. Like the wooden walls, the door looked sturdy enough to withstand a battering ram, let alone bullets or slugs. Nate nodded for me to take position on the other side of the door, mirroring him, but I halted in my tracks. There was something in the air. Something that tickled my nose. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it with the overpowering scent of pine irritating my nostrils.