Green Fields (Book 2): Outbreak Read Free Page A

how hollow that came out. I was sure that I would have gotten a glare for that, but Nate just seemed sad.
    “If you say so.”
    “If this really is the end of the world, I’m sure I’ll be much more useful with the guys who still have electricity, and likely a working internet connection,” she offered, but had to look away. “I’m sorry. I did what I could, right? I helped you avenge Raleigh.”
    Nate just kept looking at her blankly now, but a muscle jumped in the Ice Queen’s cheek. Contrary to Nate, she looked the opposite of broken up with losing their tech wizard.
    “You did,” Nate finally replied. “And I thank you for that.”
    “You’re welcome. And good luck.”
    Her goodbye sounded final, and once the mumbled words had left her lips, she quickly turned around and ran after the soldiers, joining the huddle of scientists in their midst. Nate looked after her for a moment longer before he tore his gaze away and addressed the group around him. Altogether, I counted nineteen heads now—a bare fraction of the people who had made it out of the collapsing building.
    “I think on one thing I can agree with that asshole—let’s get out of here.”
    He looked at Pia, who immediately started calling out names, the designated people swarming out to build a loose guard team around the core group of the rest of us. Andrej was busy typing away on his phone, but after a moment he put it away, cursing.
    “Signal’s down. Paper maps it is from here on out.”
    Nate acknowledged that with a quick nod.
    “We need maps then. Provisions, and gear.” Looking around, he absentmindedly pressed the hand that wasn’t carrying the gun against the wound in his side. “But most of all, we need to get the hell out of here before things get worse.”
    That this was even possible seemed like a stretch to me, but judging from the grim faces all around me I was still too optimistic, even with doom and gloom whipping each other into a panic attack at the back of my mind. Nate looked at Pia and Andrej, then to Martinez, but when he just got shrugs back, his eyes found me.  
    “Do you know where the next mall is? Sport or camping supplies stores is what we’re needing to hit first.”
    I was surprised that he asked, but then it made sense. Just because I’d run into him in a park a few weeks ago didn’t mean that he or his people had been living in the city for long—or had time for shopping when they were busy infiltrating the corporation and plotting their mission. Not that my knowledge of this side of town was much better, but my addled brain finally came up with something.
    “There’s a kind of mall by the interstate close to the edge of town,” I offered. “I think they have a sports supplies store there.” I certainly knew that they had no less than three coffee shops, one right next to the makeup store Sam always dragged me through—
    And that was when my mind snagged on a detail that I had successfully ignored for the past estimated half hour, but now that I’d thought of it, there was nothing else that I could think about. Grief so visceral that it made my chest hurt gripped me, but I just couldn’t quench the small flicker of hope that came with it. Looking in the opposite direction from where the mall lay, I stared sightlessly back toward the city center, and the part of town around the university campus beyond it.
    “Sam…”
    I hadn’t realized that I’d fully turned around until Nate suddenly stepped into my field of vision, reaching up to grab my arms and still me, his gun now holstered. The look on his face was unreadable, but he didn’t put effort into chasing emotion out of his gaze, looking at me with understanding.
    “Bree, listen to me,” he started, squeezing just a little harder until my eyes focused on his face rather than continue to stare off into nothing. “When was the last time you saw her?”
    The girlfriend I hadn’t thought about for a second although the world seemed to be