Resurgence: Green Fields book 5 (26 page)

“Thanks. That might come in handy,” I offered, not quite sure if I was lying through my teeth or not.
 

Nate, on the other hand, seemed less skeptical. “Might help should we have to pretend to be someone else,” he said. “Switching our radio transponder code out is only so useful if they can still count how many of us are marked up.” He had a point there. Of course he did. When didn’t he?

I would have loved to chat some more with Dave and Sadie—and try to plug up the hole deep inside my chest by assuring her that everything would be all right—but a loud whistle coming from the cars made me look over there. Pia signaled us that they were all but finished unloading. The people that were busy stuffing everything onto the pickup truck that they’d maneuvered through the gate kept eyeing us with unease, but not the outright hostility that Emma had displayed. Their behavior made me wonder if maybe they were simply not used to being outside of their little wall there anymore.

Once the pickup was back through the gate, the string of cars that had been waiting on the other side came rolling out, Jason in the lead. He got out of his SUV as soon as he’d brought it to a halt next to the Rover, grinning brightly as he sauntered over to us. Sadie hugged both Nate and me one last time before she flashed Jason a grin and skipped back toward the gate, looking like a silly eighteen-year-old to everyone who didn’t know her well. Dave followed her at a somewhat more sedate pace. I watched Emma watch them approach, immediately descending on her daughter as soon as she had cleared the gate. They had a brief if heated conversation that ended with Sadie stalking off, sulking. I didn’t buy that act for a moment, but she seemed to do a good job fooling her mother. It was such a display of normal behavior that what Sadie had told us seemed even more surreal.

“Mind if we tag along with you for a day or two?” Jason said, drawing my attention back to him.

“If you don’t mind getting shot at,” I offered, but left the decision to Nate. No surprise there when he inclined his head, telling Jason to have his guys take up position at the end of our column. That settled, I glanced over to Emma, wondering if there was any sense in trying to talk to her. There wasn’t much I could say, and even less that I thought Emma would be receptive to. The fact that none of the guards looked like the soldiers that we’d had our differences with of late put my mind more at ease than any promises of hers could have. They were just regular folks, like us. Or not, I reminded myself, as I saw one of the younger guards fumble with his rifle for a second. A new wave of sadness swept through me as I realized that, either way, it wasn’t my business. It took returning here for the message to finally sink in—this was no longer home. Home, if there was such a thing for me anymore, were the people standing at my back. Turning away felt just a little easier all of a sudden.

Someone clearing their throat at the other side of the once-again closed gate made me halt. Bert was watching us cautiously, a look of worry on his face. “Where are you headed next?” he asked.

I glanced at Nate, almost smirking when I saw him stiffen with what could only be suspicion. “Not sure yet,” he replied, sounding like he didn’t have a care in the world. “Might be heading back to the Silo. Commander Wilkes seems like he has some use for folks like us.” The first part was true, as was Nate’s assessment, but I doubted that we would be heading north again that soon. It was a good answer, though, particularly if he suspected that such information might end up being whispered into the ears of those we didn’t want to cross paths with all too soon again.

Bert nodded. It was impossible for me to guess whether he had bought that excuse. “I expect you will be digging in for the winter there as well? There has been talk of amnesty as long as the roads are covered with snow, but we haven’t decided whether we want to be part of that yet.”

Just that phrasing—as if we required anyone’s pardon—made my hackles rise, but this time I was sure that he was trying to tell us something between the lines. Either someone had indeed brought up the points that we’d discussed with Rita in Dispatch—that, come winter, most settlements would do well harboring a group of scavengers, to take care of minor issues that might arise over the months outside of their gates—or it was just another trap waiting for someone to traipse into. Knowing what I knew now, I couldn’t decide if we could allow ourselves not to expect it to be the latter. That very concept made me feel sick. And there I’d thought last year had been bad. At least with zombies and your random cannibals no one expected to be treated fairly.

A muscle jumped in Nate’s jaw but he sounded pleasant enough as he shouted back. “Good to know. Keep us updated.”

“Will do,” Bert promised.

Then there was nothing left to do than get back into our cars and drive off—and that was exactly what we did.

I spent the next thirty minutes gnashing my teeth in silence. Lightning forked across the sky, momentarily blinding me, but the rain that followed turned the day so dark that I gladly shed my sunglasses. Within minutes the soil washed onto the road by previous rainfalls turned it into a mud slide, forcing me to slow down to a crawl. Nothing moved out there except for us and the wind-swept vegetation. I hesitated for another minute but then reached for the radio, keying it to our team frequency that I presumed Jason and his guys had tuned into as well.

“Anyone wanna stay out in this, or do we look for shelter?”

The answer was unanimous, and when Nate pointed out an abandoned farm to the south, I sent the car onto the access road leading there. The summer heat had done its own to kill the high grass growing everywhere, but if I could avoid getting stuck in the sudden mud, all the better. It took us a good half hour to clear out the two barns and the farm house itself, a total number of five zombies, two badgers, and an entire horde of raccoons getting displaced. There was some debate whether we should chance leaving the cars in the barns rather than out in the open—with the land this flat around here, lightning might strike and burn down the barn—but in the end comfort won out over paranoia. It was dark as night by the time all of us assembled in the main house, dragging in enough mud that it made me wince even though I had no intention of cleaning up after us.
 

I volunteered for guard detail, but Pia had already called out the rotations, leaving both Nate and me, but also Jason and Charlie suspiciously out of it. She made as if to join us in the small office where Nate directed the leaders of the Chargers to, but at the shake of his head she remained in the kitchen, taking care of distributing provisions. I followed Nate into the room, settling my ass against the desk as Nate remained standing and Charlie and Jason sat down on the sofa.

“Guess you’ll be wanting to know what you missed,” Jason said, getting more comfortable as he leaned back. A cloud of dust rose, making Charlie cough, but Jason took it with an easy smile. “No offense to anyone, but if all you’ve had to rely on are the squints up at the Silo, you’ve been missing out.”

I noted that Nate didn’t glance at me as he nodded. “Would be great to be all caught up, thanks.”

“Well, where to start…” Jason mused. “Radio transmissions and Tamara’s bulletins make it sound as if Dispatch has turned into paranoia central, but it’s still business as usual there. Lots of people, lots of booze, and you can’t take a swing without hitting someone who declares how independent and unafraid they all are. Lots of bullshit, of course, but I think you already got that the time you were there.” We both nodded, Nate smiling faintly.

“It’s not just talk,” Charlie interjected. “People are suspicious, and the rift between the settlements and the scavengers is getting wider. Not everyone’s out there to do the right thing, or to play hero for the people, and you only get burned so many times before you decide that it’s not worth it. Not saying your speech back in Harristown kicked off a revolution, but you’re not the only one who wasn’t afraid to voice their grievances. And in that town it actually helped.”

Jason nodded. “Last we heard they kicked out the asshole of a mayor and his flunkies who thought it was such a good idea to police us in good ol’ TSA style. Turns out, they used similar scare tactics to keep their own people quiet. After we left, they started talking, and there’s only so much a handful of people can do against the masses, even if they have the guns. Rita sent three scavenger groups down there when she heard that the assholes left the settlement almost without any defenses. They still say they don’t want any trouble with the government so they won’t declare themselves neutral, but I bet that if you need a place to lay low for a week or two, they’ll gladly let you in.”

That was a lot more than I had expected. Nate looked impressed as well, but his features darkened a moment later. “On the way over to the Silo we ran into a band of soldiers—as you know, that’s where we got our wanted posters from. We almost ran into another group as we were passing by a mall on the way down south. Looks like they’re out there, scouring the abandoned buildings and towns for anything useful. Got any intel on that?”

Jason and Charlie traded glances that mirrored the anxiety I felt at Nate’s recount. It was one thing to boast that we were all happy to be out on the road, far removed from what nowadays counted as civilization, but a lot of that was based on the fact that it was easy for us to find virtually anything that we might need out there. Bringing loot in was one of very few trump cards that we had to make settlements harbor us in times of need. Lacking that, things weren’t looking quite that rosy anymore.

Charlie was the one to answer. “We’ve heard of groups disappearing, but with everyone and their mother staying off the long-range frequencies at the moment it’s hard to say sometimes. There have been cases of groups turning up days later, unscathed, not even aware that they gave everyone the scare of their lives. We know of more than one group that has decided to drop off the grid to maybe check in once fall forces us all to make plans for the winter. And the streaks have taken care of at least five groups that we know of by now. With people anxious to stay offline they get the warnings too late—“

“Or there simply isn’t anyone to warn them,” Jason interjected.

“That, too,” Charlie agreed. They traded glances, and he sounded dejected as he continued. “There’s also talk that some townies plain out shot a number of scavengers that refused to leave, or might have gotten too pesky with their demands. Rita went ballistic when she learned of that, and she’s started blacklisting settlements because of suspicious behavior. Not sure I agree with the method, but she’s getting a lot of backing for it.”

Nate didn’t comment on that, so I did. “Sounds like she’s establishing herself as the general of the resistance.”

Jason snorted, shaking his head. “People talk to her. She listens. Ever since Tamara sent out the emergency bulletins about the settlements no longer being safe, it’s chaos on all fronts. No one knows who to trust, mostly because there is no one to turn to. The government would like to establish itself as some such, but so far they haven’t even managed to let us all know whether we still have a president, and how they intend to govern us, except for the clean divide they’ve established. Or tried to, but look how well that worked. Yet both the settlers and the nomads have Dispatch to turn to, and Rita’s as close to a person in charge there as it gets. And with so many extra people making the town burst at the seams it’s in everyone’s best interest if she sends groups where they might be needed, rather than have to feed them on top of everyone else. Last I talked to her she snapped my head off for suggesting we drop by even for a single day. They’re trying to scale up food production as much as possible, but there’s only so much you can do late in the season.” His grin widened as his eyes skipped to Nate. “She might make an exception for you. Then again, probably not, now that you got hitched.”

Nate didn’t look too amused by that remark, but that one he deserved. “I wouldn’t know why we should go to Dispatch right now, unless they need us there. You said so yourself—everyone’s there. I usually make a point not to follow the crowds.”

“Better not to tempt anyone,” Charlie agreed. At my raised brows he shrugged. “I don’t think anyone would rat you out for money, or food, but there are people who might decide that gaining favor with the government is in their best interest. If I were you, I’d try to lay low. No one will recognize you in any of the settlements if you don’t advertise who you are. If they haven’t done that yet, ask the guys at the Silo to set you up with a few fake group identities. We did so last week. Turns out, traders are still welcome if they aren’t armed to the teeth.”

That didn’t sound like the worst idea, and came pretty close to something Clark had brought up on the way south. With the fake transponders it was easy to mask our identity. Add to that the patches that Sadie had given us, and it might even work.
 

“Dave gave you that same list as us, the one with the settlements that might opt to be neutral?” I guessed. I got twin nods.

“We can likely add a few more,” Jason offered. “Our folks back home aren’t on there, same as a few other towns they’ve been keeping in contact with. I’m sure that Utah’s not the only place where local trading has picked up since the spring. It’s the larger, more isolated towns that seem the most reluctant to trust anyone.”

As interesting as all that was, I was starting to get antsy. I felt like a fucking hypocrite for this, but I kind of wished I could just step outside and let Pia do the talking so that later I could complain again that I hadn’t been involved. Things had been so much easier in the spring.

Nate seemed to pick up on my increasingly worsening mood, clearing his throat to draw everyone’s attention back to him.

“We have a favor to ask,” he started, glancing at me to resume once Jason nodded.

“Sure. What you need?”

“Not us, directly,” I said. “And it probably doesn’t even concern you, but it would likely be the safest if you could broker the deal.” Jason and Charlie both looked alarmed, so I was quick to explain. “It’s about Sadie. You know, Emma and Bert’s daughter? She’s pregnant. And as things are right now, we agree that it’s the best that she doesn’t have the kid back in Wyoming.”