red hill - jamie mcguire

“I can,” she said as she walked through the dining room to the back hallway. Her bedroom was
back there somewhere, so I assumed that’s where she was headed.
“That will be so good for her. You have no idea. I can’t thank you enough.” I said the words to
Cooper, even though it was for Ashley. Speaking to one was like speaking to both.
It was odd watching them interact and move about, orbiting each other, like an old couple who’d
been married fifty years or more. If reincarnation was possible, these kids had to have found their
way to each other again, many times over.
After an hour, Scarlet returned inside. She smiled at Zoe. “Do you have horses” she asked.
Zoe held up a tiny horse in each hand. “Just these.”
Scarlet nodded her head, her expression absent of condescension. “Better than that bull out there,
that’s for sure.”
“Butch” Cooper said. “He’s not a bad guy. He’s just sick of being cooped up in that pen. You’ve
been feeding him, haven’t you”
“He has hay,” Scarlet said, “and water. I’m worried he’s going to attract shufflers, though.”
“Attract what” Cooper said, chuckling.
Scarlet glanced at me, and then back at Cooper, clearly taken off guard by the question. “Shufflers.
I can’t call them zombies,” she said, rolling her eyes at the word. “Zombies are from Hollywood.
Zombies aren’t real. Those things need a name that’s real.”
“Yeah, but shufflers” Cooper said, making a face.
“They shuffle!” Scarlet said, mildly defensive.
The conversation had drawn the attention of the rest of the group, and everyone else was
congregating in the living room, too.
“I’ve been calling them sick, or infected,” I said.
“Those things,” Ashley said. Everyone craned their neck in her direction. She shrugged. “That’s
what I call them: those things.”
Miranda crossed her arms. “I can’t call them zombies, either. I call them dead ones.”
“Biters,” Joey said.
“I like biters,” Miranda said, nodding.
“Well, I like shufflers. They shuffle,” Scarlet said.
Joey laughed once without humor. “They also bite.”
Scarlet frowned, but everyone seemed to be amused with the conversation.
“I think we should call them cows,” Zoe said, still playing with her horses. “They sound like
cows.”
I laughed. “They groan.”
“Hmmm . . . ,” Zoe said, thinking very hard. “What about ted It rhymes with dead. ‘Oh, no! There
is a ted! Hide! Run, Cooper! Shoot the ted, Scarlet!’ ” She made all sorts of faces while she acted out
the different scenarios in which we might yell ted. Everyone was smiling, everyone but Scarlet.
“Why me Why do I have to shoot the ted” Scarlet asked.
“Because you’re the best shot,” Zoe said.
“I like you,” Scarlet said, smiling only with her eyes.