The Girl in Red

A minute later one of the men came out again. It appeared that he was in charge of this crew because he shouted for the rest to come around. Boots pounded on the pavement as six more men joined him in the back.

“Remove anything from the store that’s edible or useful,” the man said.

“Damn,” Adam said, a little louder than he ought to have, but it was easily covered by the sound of all the fake soldiers shouting “Yes, sir!”

Red knew that Adam was thinking they could have gone back into the shop after the group left and perhaps collected more food. That was all over now.

As they watched the men carrying boxes and bags out of the store, Red was forcibly reminded of the Grinch taking the last can of Who Hash. They weren’t leaving a single item behind for anyone else to find. Apparently it was now the Apocalypse and screw anybody who couldn’t keep up.

Finders keepers and all of that, but Red thought it was a pretty shitty way to be. If they were scouring every store in the area like locusts, then Red and Adam would have to get ahead of them somehow. That wouldn’t be easy, since Red wanted to avoid roads and they were walking and these jerks had a giant truck to roam around in.

It seemed like they were in that culvert forever waiting for the men to finish emptying the store. The sun was much higher in the sky and Red felt it beating down on the back of her neck. Her mouth was parched but she was afraid that the slightest movement would draw the attention of the Locust Militia.

Yes, a militia, that’s exactly what they are, she thought. And how many more of them are there? Is this group part of a larger group? And just when the hell are they going to leave?

Red had hoped to cover the seven miles to that campground during the day, and their long delay here meant that wasn’t going to happen. She was sturdy and she had trained up but she could only walk so fast, no matter how much she might want to go faster.

The last thing the men carried out of the shop was the body, wrapped in plastic sheeting. She hadn’t noticed them carrying the sheeting inside, so they must have found it somewhere in the store supplies.

For a second Red thought that they were going to dispose of the body in the field, maybe burn it there, and she had a full-fledged panic attack at the prospect of trying to outrun a burning field, possibly while being shot at by pretend soldiers.

But two of the soldiers (she couldn’t help but think of them that way even though she knew they weren’t real soldiers, and that was the dangerous thing, the way a costume change and certain accessories presented a particular idea to those who looked on) carried the body around the front of the gas station.

One last man came out of the door, then ducked back in—perhaps to do one last check, though for what exactly Red couldn’t imagine. It didn’t seem that they’d left behind a single crumb. Then he returned to the truck and a moment later Red heard the engine start up.

Neither she nor Adam moved until the sound of the truck had receded into the distance. When she did try to stand up Red found that every muscle was stiff and sore, and she realized she’d been holding her body in a state of clenched tension.

She also realized that the water they’d been lying in did not smell so great now that it had soaked into her shirt. She was still wearing the mask and gloves that they’d put on when they entered the shop, and the combination of the culvert water and her own sour breath made her momentarily nauseated. Red took off the mask and inhaled the smell of dirt, grass, and the lingering scent of gasoline and exhaust.

“Those weren’t real soldiers,” Adam said.

Red was surprised that Adam had been observant enough to notice that, but she didn’t say so. The presence of immediate danger seemed to have thawed the ice between them, at least for the moment. Red also didn’t mention that she’d been right to be cautious, that if they had been walking along the road when that truck came along Lord knows what would have happened to them. She didn’t say it but she did feel a little smug because it wasn’t just Crazy Red being paranoid. Her worry had been completely justified.

“They definitely were not soldiers,” Red said. “More like some kind of homegrown militia.”

“Well, that was inevitable,” Adam said. “Probably collected all of those supplies for their camp full of crazies. They’ve probably got five wives each and intend to have a full standoff with any real government patrol that comes to take them to quarantine.”

“Adam, that is downright fanciful,” Red said.

“Sounds like something you’d come up with, doesn’t it?”

Red hit him hard in the upper arm and he said, “Ow!” but grinned at her.

“It does sound like something I’d say,” she admitted.

“But why did they take the body?” Adam said.

Red’s mouth twisted. “I don’t know. Maybe for quarantine?”