Green Fields (Book 2): Outbreak by Adrienne Lecter Page B

should have kept my entire system on high alert, now that the immediate danger seemed to be gone, I felt exhaustion claim my body. I had been up and moving for more than thirty hours now, and those hadn’t been uneventful, downtime hours, either. I couldn’t remember what I’d eaten since yesterday morning, but it wasn’t much; the damn coffee that had scalded my hand; some energy drinks and a sandwich later, but that was it. I suddenly regretted not taking that apple from Martinez earlier. No wonder that my muscles started to feel jittery with low blood sugar, but the very idea of eating something made me ever so nauseated. Even though the air was clear here, away from the city, I felt like there was that acrid smell lingering—too faint to actually pinpoint, but omnipresent in every breath I took—that made me want to clean my mouth rather than gobble down anything. And I still hadn’t forgotten what had happened to Nate’s guy who’d eaten that chocolate bar… or Smith.
    “That we don’t really have a patient zero is one thing, but is there at least a region or city where the infection started?” I asked Martinez when he glanced my way again.
    “Nope. And from what little we heard from outside, it’s the same everywhere, too. A lot of people got sick, most of them died, and that’s by far not the end of the story.”
    Influenza had a way of hitting highly populated areas like that, but usually it took longer for a wave to start—and those who died of it remained dead. But then I knew all too well that this wasn’t just your average flu strain. Before watching the video of Raleigh’s death and reading his research, I would still have protested vehemently, but there wasn’t really anything left to fuel doubts.
    “They’re actually dead? The zombies, I mean. Or whatever they actually are,” I replied.
    Martinez shrugged. “Again, you’re the scientist. I just say, if it howls like a zombie and shambles like a zombie—“
    “Yeah.”
    Looking away, my gaze fell on Nate. I still couldn’t believe that he was up and walking, but he did not only that, but was in deep conversation with the Ice Queen whenever no one was near them to report back on what they saw ahead. Their hushed conversation was animated enough that even without hearing a single word, I could tell that they were arguing between them. On the bridge, I’d been concerned that he wouldn’t be able to keep up with us, but he looked almost normal—if a little winded—now.
    “Who is that guy, anyway?” the third soldier—Cho, his tag read—who had joined Martinez and Smith asked, making me wonder just how transparent my frown had been.
    “Miller?” Martinez asked, as if anyone else but Nate might have drawn anyone’s attention. Cho gave him just the look that question deserved, but Martinez wasn’t fazed by that. “He was my lieutenant on my first tour in Afghanistan. Hell of a guy.” That explained their banter when they’d met.
    Cho clearly didn’t share Martinez’s enthusiasm. “Army kicked him out after that, or what? Hurts to see one of us turn traitor.”
    Martinez opened his mouth, clearly in objection, but it was Burns who replied.
    “I know what they told us in that briefing, but I’ve been serving long enough with him to know that he’d never turn against his country. There’s more to this than they told us. As usual. And there’s a good reason why they promoted him to captain, too.”
    He looked at me then, as if to get confirmation. I just held his gaze but tried not to betray any emotion. As it was, I was soaking up the news same as Cho.
    “Yeah, I get that,” Cho grumbled under his breath, and joined the inquisitive staring that Burns and Martinez now both did in my direction. “What’s your place in this, anyway? There was no mention of you in the briefing, but they emailed us your picture just before we got the ‘go,’ telling us to look out for you, and neutralize you if we perceived you as a