red hill - jamie mcguire

“About what” I asked, noting that Bryce already wore an unimpressed expression.
Cooper crossed his ankles and leaned back against the couch and Ashley simultaneously. “He’s
telling us war stories.”
“It’s classified,” Joey joked.
“Picnic” I asked, noting the small, empty bags of potato chips on the floor, along with a few
empty cans of soda.
“What we need is popcorn,” Ashley said. “Joey is quite the storyteller.”
Joey made an airy sound with his lips in protest, and then glanced out the window.
“Anything out there” Bryce asked.
Joey nodded. “One crossed the intersection earlier. Probably just turned and is making her way to
the highway.”
I shuddered. Whoever she was must have been bitten, otherwise she would have already been on
the highway. “I wonder why it’s different.”
“What’s different” Joey asked.
“How long it takes them to turn. For some it takes days. Some just hours.”
Ashley chewed on her thumbnail. “Jill didn’t die right away after she was attacked, right”
“But she got really sick,” I pointed out.
“Maybe they . . . reanimate after a certain amount of time after they die,” she said. “How long had
Jill been dead”
I shrugged my shoulders. “What about that woman upstairs Anabeth Ana . . . something.”
“Annabelle,” Cooper said, staring at the floor.
“It’s different for everybody,” Joey said, all joking stolen from his tone. “They said on the radio
just before they stopped broadcasting that it had to do with the flu vaccine. Those who had it were
turning more quickly.”
“What about the girl you were with” Bryce asked.
“She’s dead,” Joey said, matter-of-fact.
Bryce didn’t push the subject. Instead, he went to the food stash and picked through it until he
found what he was looking for. After a few minutes, he brought over twin peanut-butter sandwiches
and two lukewarm cans of Sprite.
“I love you,” I said, biting into the sandwich. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until a whiff of
peanut butter hit my nose as I was bringing the sandwich to my mouth.
“Enjoy it,” Bryce said between bites. “Who knows if we’ll eat bread again after this loaf is gone.”
“That’s depressing,” Ashley said. “But not as depressing as chocolate.”
Cooper made a face. “Just wait until we run out of toilet paper.”
We all traded glances.
“This sucks,” Ashley said, and we all agreed.
• • •
JOEY AND I SAT IN the middle of the floor, a few feet away from one another. The house we’d been
staying in might have been the first one built in Shallot. It was older than the rest, and creaked and