red hill - jamie mcguire

When we reached the bedroom, the kids were pulling the dresser in front of the bedroom door, and
Joy was pulling a long, wooden stake from the bottom of the sliding door. She stood up and
immediately panicked.
“Walter Walter!” she screamed.
Walter was standing at the other patio door, trying his damnedest to slide open the glass. He had
somehow gone one way when we went the other, and, unlike us, he had no one with him to barricade
the bedroom door while he tried to escape to the backyard. A group of infected appeared behind him.
His eyes grew wide as they tore into him, but he kept trying to claw at the door, realizing too late that
he’d failed to remove the wooden block they’d placed there for protection.
Joy was right behind me, and her loud screams for her husband made my right ear buzz. The
infected mashed him against the glass, biting into him. He screamed, and the sound, although muffled,
made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
“Walter!” Joy bawled, tears streaming down her face. She clawed at the glass, and then yanked the
door open. She ran to the adjacent door, working in a panic to free her husband.
“Joy! Joy! Joy!” Zoe bawled, reaching for her friend. Her words bounced as each of my feet hit the
ground. I held on to my daughter tight, afraid she would wriggle free.
Joey opened the back fence gate, and led the kids to the Bug.
I watched them squeeze in, and then Bryce shut the door.
It was then that I recognized our fate. “Please, take her,” I said, standing at the passenger door.
Miranda started the car.
Bryce looked past us to what was sure to be a mob of infected headed in our direction. “We don’t
have room. I’m sorry.”
“Daddy, no!” Zoe screamed. She balled up her fists, gripping my shirt in her tiny hands so tightly
that her arms shook.
“Please!” I said, staring straight into Miranda’s eyes. “I have no way to get her out of here. She’s
small. She’ll fit.”
Miranda looked to Bryce. He shook his head. “Let’s go, Miranda. Go! Go!”
She pulled the gear into drive, and then Cooper shoved Bryce forward and reached for the handle.
As soon as he reached it, he pulled the door open and jumped out.
“What are you doing” Ashley cried.
“She can have my seat,” Cooper said to Bryce.
“Coop, no,” Bryce said, his eyes widening at whatever was happening behind us. “We don’t have
time for this, let’s go!”
Cooper tore Zoe from my grip with one hand and pulled Bryce’s seat forward with the other,
pushing Zoe into the seat. She was fighting him, but Joey grabbed hold of her. Cooper shut the door.
“I can help Nathan get to Red Hill.”
“It’s ten miles from here, Coop! No!” Ashley said, squeezing between the front seats to reach for
him.
“Daddy!” Zoe said, leaning away from Joey.
“I’ll see you soon, honey. It’s okay. Daddy will see you soon.”