Green Fields (Book 2): Outbreak (17 page)

I almost didn’t ask her, but that realization made me feel even more stupid, so I forced myself to go ahead with my initial plan. I still waited until it was just the two of us, and she’d shrugged into her black fatigues again.

“Is there a reason why you are hovering there, or are you just enjoying the view?” she asked as she turned, scrutinizing me with a shrewd look.

“Does it hurt? The bruises I mean,” I started, then cut myself short before I could ramble on even worse. “I mean, of course it does. But I always thought the vests were there to, you know—“

Thankfully, she interrupted me right there before things could get worse.

“Still hurts less than not wearing a vest,” she supplied succinctly, then gave me a somewhat more intent stare. “What do you need?”

At least she wasn’t going to draw this out needlessly. Taking a deep breath, I tried to steel myself, overly conscious of the fact that I was acting absolutely ridiculous.

“I need tampons and a pad.”

If her eyes widened even a fraction, it was probably due to a change in the cloud cover above us. I doubted anything that silly could faze her.

“And you’re telling me this because?”

Her question surprised me.

“Well, you’re the only other woman in the group. If anyone has any, it would be you, I figured.”

“You figured wrong,” she replied, her already cool tone turning sharper than I’d expected. Looking beyond me, she called out a loud, “Martinez!” that made me shy back.

“Whatcha need?” he shouted back, straight across the entire camp. It wasn’t like we were in the middle of a fucking zombie apocalypse.

Pia opened her mouth again, but I quickly spoke up before this could go on.

“Thanks, but I think I’ll ask him myself.”

With that, I beat it, not the least bit mollified when a light cramp made me want to hunch over and roll into a ball around myself. That now everyone was watching me with that bored kind of interest that was born of not having anything else to occupy themselves with until we had to be up and moving just made my day.

Martinez looked more confused than curious as I walked up to him.

“Anything wrong?”

I shook my head. “Nope. Just…” I hesitated, leaning a little closer to try not to let anyone else in on our conversation. “I know that it’s probably a stupid question, but do you have tampons in your kit?”

He looked at me a little cross-eyed, his eyes scanning my face.

“Why, you got a nosebleed or something?”

For a moment, I thought he was joking, but then the realization set in that I was actually traveling with a pack of hostile imbeciles.

“Why the fuck—no, don’t even answer that. What do you think why a thirty-something woman might ask you for tampons?”

If I hadn’t been so annoyed it would have been funny to see the realization dawn on his face.

“Oh.”

“Yes, oh,” I echoed, unable to keep the sharpness out of my voice.

“And you’re asking me because…”

“You’re our medic,” I replied.

He gave a harrump at that and started rooting around in his pack, the fact that he had no easy answer already quenching that last glimmer of hope.

“I have some gauze here,” he offered. “And tape. I guess ear plugs are not quite the right fit?”

And there I’d thought that my irritation couldn’t find new fodder.

“Seriously? Just because I also like the ladies doesn’t mean I have the underdeveloped vagina of a five-year-old!”

And because my day wasn’t bad enough already, Burns took that exact moment to walk by us from where he’d been taking his morning dump, a stupid grin already splitting his face in two.

“Always good to know,” he offered, his teeth shining white in the gloom underneath the trees.

“Not that you will ever get anywhere near said parts of my anatomy,” I called after him—pretty much including the entire camp in our conversation.

Cursing under my breath, I ignored the looks and stupid stares, and instead stalked back to my pack. I figured I could always use one of the used panties that I had in the trash bag at the very bottom and stuff them like a makeshift diaper into the pair I was wearing right now, even if the very thought was disgusting. It still beat bleeding all over my pants, which I only had one backup for and was much harder to come by.

Snickers and weird looks followed me—or at least it felt like that—and about five minutes later I gave up. Stalking over to where Nate and Andrej were discussing the route for today, I barged right in.

“We need to talk,” I told Nate in no uncertain terms, waiting until Andrej had gotten the hint and beat it. Nate looked less than thrilled to get accosted by me, but when he realized that I was actually anxious, he toned down the irritation plain on his face.

“What’s up?”

“We need to make a quick detour,” I started, trying to come up with how to go about this in the most circumspect way. The worst thing really was that—just yesterday—I could likely have gotten everything from the girls’ lockers or the nurses’ station.

“Do we now?” he questioned, the hint of humor in his eyes making me guess that he wasn’t oblivious to my plight.

“Damn right we do,” I hissed, leaning closer to make sure that this stayed between us as much as possible. “I have absolutely no fucking patience right now for playing games. You know that I wouldn’t have come to you if it wasn’t important.”

That he considered that for a moment was bordering on an insult, but he gave a curt nod of acknowledgment. “Shoot.”

Exhaling slowly, I steeled myself for what was to come. “I need tampons.”

A look of doubt crossed his face that made me wonder if he thought that I was jerking him around.
 

“And for that you want to risk your life? Yesterday it was toilet paper, now it’s feminine hygiene products?”

That was not the answer I’d been expecting. A little teasing, yes, but not ridicule. The topic was already uncomfortable enough, and he was making it worse than Burns had with his stupid grin. Of course, now that I was getting defensive, my temper was surging up.

Leaning closer, I fixed him with the most venomous glare that I could muster, which was likely quite formidable considering how my innards were trying to turn themselves inside out right that very moment.

“Listen to me very closely, because I’m not saying this again. First, you in particular should be damn glad that I got my period because it would have been your fault if it hadn’t been so.”

Not quite that surprisingly, my attack didn’t sit too well with him, but I didn’t like how the emotion froze in his eyes.

“I’d say it’s your damn business to make sure you don’t get knocked up,” he shot back, just a little heat in his voice. His reply hit me like a slap in the face, but rather than make me want to back down, it really got my anger roaring now.

“Excuse me? Where are we, in the eighteenth century? I wasn’t the one too fucking stupid to use a condom!”

“But you’ll be the one who gets eaten by zombies when your body takes on the shape of a bloated whale and you can’t run anymore,” Nate replied, sounding not the least bit appalled. I felt heat creep into my cheeks, and my stomach wasn’t the only thing hurting anymore.

“Whatever,” I replied—at my most eloquent—trying hard to quench the emotion that was trying to strangle me. “It’s off the table. But yes, I need tampons, and if I have to, I will risk my life for that. We still don’t have the faintest clue how they find and hunt us. Sharks can smell blood in the water for up to ten miles, I’m not going to be ringing the dinner bell for the entire fucking undead army if I can help it.” The words that I would have taken care of this already had I thought of it before were burning on my tongue but I swallowed them; admitting even partial guilt of finding myself in this situation now was not what my ego would let me do. It took enough not to try to strangle him—or, worse yet, break down and cry.

At least he seemed to understand that I was upset—and quite determined—because after a moment he gave another one of those nods that I was starting to hate.

“We can do that,” he offered. “But I’m not dragging everyone into a potential disaster.”

“Meaning?”

“That I’ll ask for volunteers.”

Just peachy—but what alternative did I have? So I nodded grudgingly.

“But you’re coming with us,” he clarified, his eyes intent on my face. “I’ll not let anyone risk their lives for something only you need while you sit around here in relative safety.”

“I didn’t expect anything else,” I replied, meaning it.

“Very well,” Nate said, turning to the group at large. There were too many grins visible for the whole affair not to be public knowledge by now. “We’re going on a very special supply run,” he explained, looking around. “Who’s up for it? No packs, just weapons and ammo.” It seemed natural that there would be some stupid joking now, but Burns and that other guy—I really needed to ask his name now—got up without much hesitation. Martinez made as if to follow, but Nate shook his head in his direction. “Not you. Until we find someone else who can stitch someone together, I’m not taking both of you on a mission like that. Burns, Bates, you’re with me.”

So it was decided, and less than ten minutes later we set out, our backpacks remaining with the others. It felt strange not to be lugging around part of my body weight with me at all times. I had my bat and knife with me, and still felt fucking exposed as I followed behind Nate and Bates, with Burns bringing up the rear. It took me a while to realize why—I’d so gotten used to Andrej’s quiet presence that now that he was not right there, I was missing him. But that was certainly not what really had me on edge.

As we slogged through the dripping wet grass, it occurred to me that today really was a bad day for this undertaking. Not only was visibility still crap, but the rain and mud made moving at a quick pace kind of a pain in the ass—and we were only miles away from the town where we’d lost two of our own, and leaving two more wounded. Then again, I doubted that I could have swayed Nate if he’d actually thought we were in higher danger than we always were. Still, my paranoia was on high alert again, which was probably just as well—considering that the alternative was acting like a hurt, stupid girl.

We reached a road eventually, small enough to be free of zombies, with houses visible in the distance.

“So what exactly is it that we’re looking for?” Burns asked, taking a moment to grin in my direction. “I don’t buy the excuse that this is just a tampon run.”

Nate gave him an amused look which was still enough to make me want to punch him in the face.

“The usual. Food, mostly. But first, we should take care of the really important things,” he said, staring directly at me. I couldn’t help but glare back, but bit down on my tongue to swallow the acerbic reply I was really itching to slam in his face. “So, where to?” he asked when I didn’t open my mouth.

It took me a moment to realize that he actually was asking me to select a route or possible target. Looking around, my gaze kept snapping to the houses, but so far we’d done our best to avoid buildings that were potentially full of locked-in zombies.

“We could try one of the cars,” I suggested. “Even if there’s nothing in the luggage, women don’t leave their houses without purses.” Burns eyed me as if that was a complete non-sequitur, so I explained. “And one thing any woman has in her purse are tampons. I know, I’m completely destroying the mystery for you right now.”

As usual, my remark left him unfazed. “Any woman except you, huh?”

Apparently, today was one of those days.

“Well, I would have thought about running through half of the building to get my purse from the lab except that there were zombies streaming inside through the holes you fucking idiots left in the walls. Oh, and the fact that it was about to blow up on all of us. So excuse me if I was a little preoccupied with surviving this shit rather than grabbing my lipstick.”

Nate didn’t react at all to my grumbling, and Bates did a good job appearing completely disinterested.

“Pick a car then,” Burns suggested. “Or want me to? That blue one over there looks good.”

Looking in the direction he was pointing, it was hard to miss the little bright cyan hatchback.

“What makes you pick that one?” I asked.

“Because it looks like the kind of car that the ladies dig.”

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at him. “Just because it’s small and economic it must be driven by a woman? Not everyone’s ready to sink their entire paycheck into a gas guzzler.”

Burns opened his mouth to reply, but Nate cut him off before he could get there.

“The chip on your shoulder aside, wouldn’t you for once agree that if you were looking for a car that was driven by a woman, you’d pick that one over the other two over there?”

I glared at him, but considering options two and three were a sleek sports car that screamed midlife crisis and an abused looking Jeep that had seen better years, I had to agree that he was right.

“Maybe?”

Nate let out a pointedly loud sigh and jerked his head toward the blue car. Silently, we moved out again.

Unlike with some cars, it wasn’t hard to guess what had happened to this one. There were dark tire marks in a swerving pattern across the road leading right to where the vehicle had ended up halfway across both lanes, the door on the driver’s side open. There was a huge dent in the front bumper and the airbags had been deployed. A look inside revealed no purse, and when Burns sprung the hatch, there was only the usual detritus that all cars accumulated over the years. Nate filched the first aid kit while I checked the glove compartment, my hope already sinking. I found a pair of oversized aviator glasses there, nothing else. On second thought, I slid them into my pocket; my wrap-around sports glasses were getting kind of boring.

But no purse.

Leaning back out of the car, I was ready to admit defeat, when my gaze fell on the lump a few feet away from the car. I’d been ignoring at as I’d checked the front—it wasn’t the first lump that I’d seen on the roads, or even the hundredth—but now something else occurred to me. Walking closer, I kept checking the fields around but there was nothing moving in there, except for the grass that still got pelted by the rain.