Green Fields (Book 3): Escalation by Adrienne Lecter Page A

too.”
    Nate shrugged. “Unlikely. A few here and there, yes. But over there in that ditch are at least twenty skulls. I doubt that out here in the middle of nowhere they found that many of us, and in one place. It’s much more likely that once food ran out, they started culling the herd. That way, the strong would survive, with no weak to slow them down.”
    Just one more fact about zombies that endeared them to me so much more—but at the same time, it kind of was good news.
    “Do I get this right—this means that we basically just have to wait them out until they have eaten the last shambler out there?”
    “Not sure it would work quite that smoothly, but yeah. If this continues, sooner or later it’s a problem that will take care of itself. Likely not in our lifetimes, considering that with less human predation, the wildlife will explode all over the country, thus further feeding the zombies. But eventually, they’ll be so few and far between that they’re no longer the scourge of the Earth. We just have to keep them from generating more along the way.”
    It was strange to see such a bleak idea as a glimmer of hope on the horizon. But we were easily decades away from that point, so what sense was there in dwelling on that?
    “There are signs of scavenging here, too,” he noted as he got back in the car and signaled me to drive on.
    “Like what?”
    “Someone’s been disassembling stuff. There are also tire tracks that are less than a week old. My guess is, someone’s building a fort or something.”
    “And where?”  
    Nate gave me a look as if I’d asked a rather stupid question. “How the fuck should I know? I can only tell you that something between three and ten heavier cars drove by here since the last heavy rainfall, which was likely sometime during the last week. They didn’t leave us cute little notes with where they’re staying.”
    I didn’t reply, too used to being chided like that. It had been a rather inane question, true. Still.
    We drove on for another five miles or so until I stopped again, this time to take in the view in front of us. We’d been driving through prairie most of the day, but now we’d reached the beginning of the Badlands, reddish rock formations rising in front of us. Of course I’d seen them on TV before, but from up close they were even more stunning. It was easy to imagine the water runnels carving valleys into the softer layers until nothing but the harder parts were remaining, erosion at its best. Even now, the light wind blowing tendrils of my hair into my face made it easy to imagine how the forces of nature were continuing their work.
    But what was even more impressive was how utterly congenial the rocky hills turning to mountains were for hiding, particularly from foes that weren’t the most agile in navigating the terrain. All that constant up and down left a million places to hide and take cover, or simply disappear in a nearby valley. A whole horde of zombies could likely pass by just a hundred feet away and never be the wiser of someone crouching there, scared shitless yet safe. Bo’s explanation why so many people had fled to the national parks all around the western part of the state suddenly made a lot more sense. If I’d been living in the city and had known this existed, I’d have made my way here, too.
    Yet as beautiful and terrific the terrain was for hiding, even here at the outskirts it was obvious that the area the Badlands spanned was gigantic, at least in a world where walking on foot was a viable option of transportation.
    “Just how shall we find someone in here who doesn’t want to be found?” I asked, still scanning the hills for signs of human habitation.
    “We don’t,” Nate explained. “They will find us.”
    “And if not?”
    He gave a noncommittal grunt. “Would you tolerate a bunch of armed strangers on your doorstep?”
    I shook my head. “No way.”
    “I bet you a bag of jerky they won’t either.”
    I wasn’t