Among Monsters: A Red Hill Novella Read online

  “I know.”

  “It’s getting late.”

  “I know.”

  We walked another two miles, and I wrinkled my nose. “What is that?”

  Halle held her wrist to her face. “Ugh! What is that smell?”

  Dad stopped abruptly. “I don’t believe it.”

  Halle peeked over his shoulder. “What is that?”

  I caught up to him and stood there with my mouth hanging open. On the top of a hill was a rock that said Shallot.

  “We made it. We’re here,” Dad said.

  “Look,” Halle said, pointing to the sky. “The white smoke is from here.”

  Dad’s expression changed from surprise to relief to intenseness. “The hill is obscuring what could be on the other side. I don’t know what the smoke is about. If Shallot has a lot of infected, we might have to run or act quickly. Jenna, don’t shoot unless it’s absolutely necessary. We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves. You have to do what I say, when I say. Understood?”

  Halle and I agreed, and I set her back on her feet.

  I gripped Halle’s hand. “Don’t let go, no matter what.”

  Halle nodded, worry beginning to shadow her face. We had no clue what we were walking into. Shallot was about the same size as Fairview. A stalled car was on the highway, and there was no way to know how many people had stopped here on their way to wherever.

  I hoped that we would run into Brad and Darla right off the bat, and then they could take us to where they were staying.

  Dad walked along the road into town. We had barely reached the other side of the hill with the rock before Dad hissed at us to hide. We retreated behind a tree, standing behind Dad, and he peeked out from behind it.

  “Damn it,” he whispered. “It’s overrun.”

  “Why does it smell like that?” I asked, my face twisting into disgust. It was the worst thing that had ever hit my nose. It was like charred dirty feet, skunk, and musk all rolled into one.

  Dad’s eyes danced around, taking everything in. “Smells like a bloater.”

  “A what?”

  “A decomposed body after it catches fire. They are full of bacteria and built-up gases. When they catch fire, it releases that into the air. I think some of the infected must have either been caught in the explosion or walked into the fire.”

  “Let’s go,” Halle whispered. “I don’t want to stay here.”

  “We can’t make it to Red Hill before dark,” I said.

  “Agreed,” Dad said. “We’ll just walk down this road and try to get into the first house we see. We’ll be sure to sneak in undetected, so that means quickly and quietly.”

  “Okay, Dad,” Halle said in her small voice.

  “Let’s go,” he said softly.

  We stuck to the trees and then went down the back alley of a line of houses.

  Dad hopped the chain-link fence of a two-story house that already had wooden slats on the windows. He tried to open the back door, but it was locked.

  A familiar low moan sent a shiver up my spine, and I pulled Halle closer, looking all around. I couldn’t see it, but it had seen us—or maybe he could smell us.

  Dad went to the next house, also a two-story. The outside slats had been painted dark green, and the windows had hideous brown shutters. The back door opened immediately. He disappeared inside for a bit and then came back out, waving at us. I helped Halle over the fence, and then I hopped over myself. We began to run to the back door.

  A moan sounded from the fence, and I turned. An infected, a man in overalls, was reaching for us over the chain-link. I looked to Dad, who was signaling frantically for me to come inside, but I knew if we left that thing at the back fence, it would alert others to food, and we would be in real danger, real fast.

  I held the bat low in both hands, twisting my palms on the grip, as I walked over to the infected.

  “Jenna!” Dad hissed.

  I took the first swing, stunning the creature. A month’s worth of decay had made him squishier, his skin and muscles not protecting his bones. I hit him again, and he fell.

  “What are you doing? Get your ass in here!”

  I jumped over the fence and hit him two more times until he stopped reaching out for me. I nudged him with my foot and then hopped back over the fence. I ran at full speed to the door as if something were after me. I closed the door behind me, my heart trying to beat out of my chest.

  “What were you doing?” Dad growled. “Trying to get yourself killed?”

  “They call to each other,” I said. “If I had left him out there, he would have drawn others here, and if enough came, they could knock over the fence and get inside the house.”

  Dad was taken aback. He thought about that for a moment. “Good call, kiddo. Just…be careful. I’m going to have a coronary before we get to Red Hill. Do you know what your mother would do to me if I showed up without you?”

  “Let’s just not do that, okay?” I said with a smile, still breathing hard.

  Dad hugged me tight. He took in a deep breath and then kissed my hair. “I’m glad you’re with me, kid.”

  DAD IMMEDIATELY BEGAN CHECKING THE LOCKS on the front and back doors, and then he looked for materials to fortify the windows. We searched every room for something, anything to keep the infected from breaking through. We had no luck with wooden slats like the ones on the church or plywood sheets like the ones at April’s. So, we used furniture and made sure all the curtains were drawn.

  “No flashlights or candles unless absolutely necessary,” Dad said. “Keep your voices low. We just need to keep them out for the night.”

  “I don’t like this house,” Halle whined.

  Dad gently touched her cheek with his fingertips. “We’ll just sleep upstairs. I’ll put breakables at the top and bottom of the stairs. If anything knocks into them, we’ll hear.”

  Halle’s bottom lip trembled.

  I went into the kitchen to look for food, and when I opened the pantry door, I gasped. “Dad!” I whispered as loud as I dared. “Dad!”

  He rushed in, dragging Halle with him. Surprise brightened his face. “Whoa!”

  The pantry was stocked with cans of fruit and vegetables, rice, potted meat, potato chips, peanut butter, pickles, and bottled water. There were two loaves of moldy bread and rotted fruit as well, but I couldn’t stop staring at the potatoes. I reached in and gave one a squeeze.

  “They’re still good!” I picked up a package of powdered gravy. “Mashed potatoes and gravy!”

  Dad opened the refrigerator. “I don’t believe it. They still have electricity!”

  “Then, I bet Mom does, too!” Halle pushed up her glasses and showed off her oversized teeth.

  We spent the evening cooking and whispering, discussing how Mom would react when we showed up the next day at Red Hill. Dinner consisted of mashed potatoes and Spam, both drenched in dark gravy, and green beans. We hadn’t eaten this well in weeks.

  “I wish we could take this pantry with us,” I said. “We don’t know what they’ll have left at the ranch.”

  Dad paused. “Maybe I should go get her, along with anyone else there, and bring them back here. We can come back to get you and load up on supplies.”

  “You don’t think they do that once in a while anyway?”

  Halle’s eyes bulged, and her mouth formed an O. “What if they did that tomorrow, and we didn’t have to walk to Red Hill alone?”

  “That,” I said, “would be the best luck we’ve had in a long time.”

  Dad snorted. “If they have a scavenging party, I don’t think your mom would be on it.”

  “Why not? I’m on yours,” I said.

  “Your mom’s not really the type,” Dad said.

  “Neither am I.”

  “Okay, okay,” he said. “I just can’t imagine her bashing in skulls on her way to Shallot to pick up supplies. But you’re right. We’re in different times.”

  Halle’s grin faded. “Is that what we’re going to h
ave to do? Bash in skulls to get to Red Hill?”

  “No, honey. I’m sorry,” Dad said, realizing his mistake too late. “I was just teasing Jenna about your mom. I wasn’t being serious.”

  But that was our reality now, and we all knew it was a possibility even if Dad didn’t want to admit it.

  “There are so many infected in town. Shallot’s even smaller than Fairview. I don’t get it.”

  “I don’t know,” Dad said before shoveling a bite of potato into his mouth.

  After dinner, we all pitched in to clean up, and then Dad and I moved a desk to the bottom of the stairs before covering it with drinking glasses and some jars I’d found on the top shelf of a cabinet. We dragged two nightstands from one of the bedrooms to the top of the stairs before covering it with decorative vases and figurines.

  I looked in all the closets for clothes my size, but I had no luck. I thought I found Halle a pair of shoes, but when I called her in to try them on, they were too big.

  “I don’t want to put my shoes back on,” Halle said, disappointed.

  “You don’t have to tonight. Just be sure to keep them together by the bed in case we need to put them on fast.”

  She looked longingly at the bigger shoes. I felt so sorry for her. I pulled off her socks and began rubbing her feet. Her big toes were red and angry. We would have to find her new shoes sooner rather than later.

  She leaned back on her hands and grinned. “You are the bestest sister ever.”

  “You’re not kidding. Your feet don’t smell the greatest, and they’re…moist.”

  Halle giggled, and I giggled with her.

  Dad stood in the doorway, smiling at us. “All right, let’s get showered and in bed before dark. No lights, remember?”

  We stood and made our way to the bathroom. The situation struck me as funny. Five weeks ago, Halle would have pitched a fit and begged to stay up. But without a television or toys to play with, there was nothing to stay up for.

  I scrubbed my body and then helped Halle. We rinsed off a day’s worth of road dirt and sweat and then dried off before getting dressed again. I hated getting clean and then putting on my smelly clothes, but without the windows boarded, it was too risky to try to wash clothes and hang them to dry.

  I collapsed on the queen-sized bed next to Halle. Dad had pulled a twin-sized mattress from the other room and laid it on the floor next to our bed. Dad wanted us all to have plenty of room while we slept, so we would be well-rested the next day.

  We all lay in the dark, waiting to fall asleep. It was too quiet again. The old house creaked and made noises we weren’t used to. Every time something cracked or knocked, Dad would hold his breath and listen before relaxing again.

  Halle was too exhausted to worry, and she fell asleep within minutes. She began to snore, and I turned on my side to face Dad, bunching up the down pillow under my arm. The bed was much more comfortable than April’s couch.

  “What’s the plan for tomorrow?” I whispered. “You’re not serious about going on without us?”

  “I don’t know. What do you think?”

  His question took me off guard. I wasn’t used to him asking for my opinion on anything.

  “Uh…let’s weigh the pros and cons.”

  “Sounds good.”

  I thought for a moment. “You could travel faster without Halle. You could maybe get there and back if Mom has her car and, by some miracle, still has gas.”

  “Let’s not bet on that. We’re talking about you and Halle being here alone for at least one full night, and that’s if everything went perfectly.”

  “That’s a scary thought. We could do it though, especially if we found something to cover the windows.”

  “How important is it to you that we leave tomorrow?” he asked. “If we take the time to prepare, I could fortify the windows downstairs. I might even be able to find a car with gas. We could drive out of here and be at the ranch in fifteen minutes.”

  I sighed. I was frustrated with the choice, but that was only because the smart thing to do meant not seeing Mom the next day. She was only about fifteen miles away. Knowing we were so close was maddening.

  “We have to at least find something to reinforce the windows,” I said, defeated.

  “Your birthday is in five weeks,” Dad said.

  “Yeah? That means we missed the Fourth of July, not that we had fireworks,” I said without emotion.

  Birthdays and holidays didn’t mean what they used to. From now on, it would just signify another year of survival.

  “My daughter will be fourteen. Hard to believe,” he said before taking in a slow, deep breath.

  “Harder to believe than a zombie apocalypse?” I said with a smirk he couldn’t see.

  I could hear him scratching at his beard. “I promise that you’ll spend your birthday with your mom, Jenna. How about that?”

  A smile crept across my face. “That would be the best present you could give me. That, and you shaving.”

  “Done,” he said. “Now, get some rest. We have a lot of work to do tomorrow.”

  I nodded and closed my eyes.

  DAD HAD BEEN GONE FOR HOURS when I saw him. A dirty large man was walking down the road, but he wasn’t shuffling. He was alive. Part of me wanted to yell out from the second-story window, to pound on the glass until he looked up, but I didn’t know who he was.

  This far into a worldwide disaster, people who had once been civil became desperate to survive. That meant stealing and robbing and doing other things that I didn’t want to think about. The man below could be helpful, or he could take all our food—or worse.

  I let him walk by, and then I searched the streets again for my dad, letting my eyes skip over all ages of infected ambling about.

  “I’m hungry,” Halle said, tugging on my shirt. “And I’m mad.”

  “Why?” I asked, turning to see the sour look on her face.

  “We were supposed to see Mom today,” she said, trying to keep the whine from her voice and the tears from her eyes.

  “I know. I wanted to see her today, too. But we were surprised to see this many of those things in Shallot, and it made us wonder how many might be between here and the ranch. We have to have a plan, Halle. We’re almost there. We don’t want to make a mistake when we’ve come this far, right?”

  She pulled her mouth to the side. “I guess.”

  “I’m disappointed, too. It’s hard being this close and not just going to see her. But she is going to be so happy to see us. We have to concentrate on that.”

  Halle could no longer keep the tears from her eyes. “I’m going to be happy to see her, too!” She threw her arms around me, and I hugged her. “I miss her so much, Jenna! I want Mom!”

  “Me, too,” I said, feeling my own lip quivering. “We just have a few more things to do, and then we can go. But for now, let’s scrape up some lunch. Dad will be really hungry when he gets home.”

  Halle lifted her glasses and wiped her eyes. I looked out the window again, and I saw the man walking back by. He had a bag with several gun barrels sticking out of the top. He wasn’t searching. He knew exactly where he was going. I watched him until he disappeared under the awning of the house on the next block. It was the last house on the road. I swallowed and then let Halle pull me down the stairs.

  As I put a pot of ravioli on the cooktop, the back door opened and closed. I scrambled for Dad’s rifle and stood in front of Halle, cocking it at the same time.

  “Good girl,” Dad said. “Don’t waste time asking who it is.”

  I blew out a breath of relief. “You scared the crap out of me.”

  Dad raised an eyebrow, putting down all the plastic sacks in his hands. “The undead are walking around outside, and I scared you?”

  “A guy was walking around outside,” I said.

  “Lots of guys are walking around outside,” he said, absently digging through his sacks.

  “No, like a real guy, an alive guy. He walked down to that brick
house we couldn’t get in, and then he walked back down the street to the house on the end of the road by the pasture.”

  Dad froze. “What did you do?”

  I shrugged. “I did nothing. I didn’t recognize him, and Halle and I were alone. What took you so long?”

  “He’s living at the end of the street? What was he doing in the brick house?”

  “He was packing a lot of guns. I think he found them at that house. He didn’t see us. I don’t think he knows we’re here.”

  Dad let the air escape that he’d been holding. “Good. That’s good. We should be more careful. I’m glad I have smart kids.”

  “Are you going to answer my question?”

  “Oh, I had to find something to carry back the plywood. I found a lumberyard and a tiny general store that was mostly empty.”

  “You have blood on your shirt,” I said, looking at him more closely. “And your face.”

  Dad looked down and then reached into his pocket. He handed me a piece of paper. It was my note to Mom that I had given to Darla.

  “Where did you get this?” I asked, excited. “Did you see Brad and Darla?”

  Dad lowered his eyes, his face solemn.

  My hand went up to my mouth. “No. Oh no! Both of them?”

  He didn’t answer. He didn’t have to.

  “What about Logan and Maddy?”

  “That’s what took me so long. I wanted to make sure they weren’t alone somewhere.”

  “Did you find them?”

  His eyes lost focus, the image in his mind troubling him. “Yeah.”

  I took in a staggered breath and covered my face. I sat down hard onto a chair next to the kitchen table.

  “What?” Halle said, not understanding.

  I shook my head, got myself together, and wiped my eyes before smiling at Halle.

  “I’m just glad they got to where they were going,” I said, turning to walk over to the stove. I stirred the ravioli in the pot, forcing the sadness away.

  Dad walked up behind me and kissed the crown of my head. “You can give your mom the note yourself.”

  I nodded.

  “I found the keys to a Taurus with gas, but it had a bad alternator. I’ll look again tomorrow. I’m going to put up these boards this afternoon. I need you to watch my back.”