red hill - jamie mcguire

Bryce walked around us with his eyes to the ground, checking the tires.
“Did I break her” I asked.
“No, but you have to be more careful.”
“I was scared. I wasn’t sure what was behind the hill. Did you see those ruts in the field”
“Yeah,” he said simply, his eyes moving from the tires to our surroundings. Once he was satisfied
that we weren’t in immediate danger, he noticed my struggle with the gas pump. “Not working”
I glared at the nozzle plugged into the Bug. “I was all excited because this thing is ancient. It
doesn’t even have a place to run a credit card.”
“I’ll run in. Maybe there’s a switch to trip.”
He gave me a quick peck on the lips and jogged across the small lot to the station. He pushed open
the door and jumped over the counter. He searched the register and surrounding area with a focused
frown, and before I could register a thought, my legs broke out into a sprint toward the station.
“Bryce!” Our eyes met, and I was sure his reactive expression matched mine. He turned to face the
dead one that had walked up behind him.
Just as I opened the door, the word no erupted out of me. Bryce pressed his forearm against the
man’s chest to keep the snapping teeth at bay, and then reached across the counter to a pen that was
attached to the cash register with twine. He yanked it away from its anchor, and in the next moment
stabbed the man in the face. The man kept coming at him, so he stabbed him again; this time the pen
went through the corner of its eye, and he collapsed against Bryce.
Movement on my left caught my eye, and dead ones, two females, one adult and one child, were
slowly shuffling toward me. She was obese, her skirt dragging the floor around her ankles, and she
was covered in dark, dried blood and dirt. The skin on her face and her lips were all gone. She’d
been chewed on before she’d come back. I couldn’t see a wound on the girl, but her eyes were milky
white like the woman’s.
“Bryce!” I screamed.
He pushed the man off of him and jumped back over the counter, yanking my arm as he pushed the
door open and pulled me toward the Bug.
“Go! Get in!” Bryce swung his free arm around wildly as he commanded everyone standing around
the Bug.
Everyone scrambled to get inside the car but me. I stood on the driver’s side with the door open,
watching the dead ones claw at the glass on the double doors of the station.
“Miranda!” Ashley screamed.
“Look at them,” I said softly, my voice calm and full of wonder.
They couldn’t get out. Even though the doors would open a little when they pushed against it, they
weren’t coordinated enough to continue pushing and walk. The doors would come back against them,
so they clawed at the glass like it was a wall.
The woman’s swollen belly bumped the door, and I recoiled, realizing she wasn’t fat, but heavily
pregnant.
I sat in the seat and closed the door, still breathing heavily. “Did you find a switch”
Bryce shook his head. “We can’t make it to your dad’s”