Green Fields (Book 4): Extinction by Adrienne Lecter Page A

go.”
    Sounded like someone we would get along with. I tried to remember if I’d ever talked to someone on the open com channel Dispatch ran for all of us out there whose name was Jason. Likely not. We’d been quiet most of the time since leaving Aurora, except for bragging after our mall hit.
    “And you’re not the only ones around that’s likely true for,” Mike said, agreeing. “To everyone in the general area: run, duck, hide, whatever works for you. Jason’s guys lost sight of the main streak so there’s no telling where they’ll end up next, but we have a report from another group that a smaller horde has ended up in Iowa, about an hour east of New Town. We have no way of telling if it was from the same streak and some of them were much faster than the main horde, or an independent group altogether. But if you’re in west Missouri or Iowa right now, think about retreating to the territories further west.”
    Burns gave a brief bark at that. “Think he means us with that?”
    Nate glanced at him for a moment but didn’t reply, instead listening to Mike repeating the facts once more. When the bulletin was over, Nate reached for the mic, but left the transponder off that would signal our current position.
    “Dispatch, can you open us a line to Jason? Thirteen Alpha, copy.”
    A brief pause, then Mike gave us the okay, if with a serious note of hesitation in his voice. “Hope you guys know what you’re doing. You’re live.”
    “Thanks, Mike. Jason, you copy?”
    “Loud and clear,” came Jason’s confirmation. “You guys in the area?”
    “Yeah, we’re the ones who found the smaller group in Iowa,” Nate confirmed. “What was your last intel on the main group? Question is, if we try to reach you, do we go north or south of them.”
    Jason gave that some thought. “They weren’t moving more than twenty miles during the day but sometimes managed up to fifty overnight. You’re in Iowa right now?”
    “Missouri, about twenty miles south of the border.”
    “Go south then,” he advised. “If they’re not north of you yet, they might be passing by you right now. You may have to deal with some stragglers if you cut east too soon, but that’s still better than heading straight into the main horde. How many vehicles do you have? And how are your ammo stores? Because if you’re running low, don’t bother.”
    Nate hesitated for a moment, prompting my paranoia to rear its ugly head, but he replied before I could ask him what that was about.
    “Five cars. Probably enough ammo to pick apart a substantial part of your estimate of what’s crowding Harristown, but I’d rather not spend it all on a single mission.”
    The radio picked up Jason’s whistle. “You folk former military or something? We’re not exactly badly equipped, but we don’t round up that kind of firepower.”
    Neither did we, I felt like saying, but it had been a while since I’d done a good inventory of how many boxes of ammo we were lugging around with us—and that was counting on every shot being a kill shot, which not even Nate and Pia could guarantee.  
    “Something like that,” Nate replied, not without mirth.
    “What was your group’s call sign again?” Jason asked.
    “Lucky Thirteen.”
    A pause, then, “You’re the guys who took care of that scum in Illinois, right?”
    Ah, so much for our fame not spreading. As always, when something reminded me of how events had gone down with the cannibals, I felt my bile rise. If Nate still felt any resentment, it didn’t show in his tone. “You bet.”
    “Can’t say I’m not glad to have someone like that for backup. Think you can make it over here by tomorrow morning? Depending on how far south you have to go, might be about two hundred miles. Missouri’s not as quiet as it used to be last summer. We’ve had a lot of traffic, and half of the bridges are collapsed from the beginning of tornado season. You think you guys are up for this?”
    “Haven’t met