red hill - jamie mcguire

“HEADS UP!” SKEETER YELLED.
We were downwind, and it was easy to smell the rotting corpses as they approached. This time,
though, the smell was exceptionally bad. At first I thought it was because we were nearing the hottest
part of summer, but then I saw them.
Skeeter laughed once. “Blackened and crispy fried. Like Nathan’s fried chicken!”
“They don’t smell like chicken,” Bryce said, revolted.
We hadn’t even reached the highway when we ran into a small herd. They were coming from the
south, and as I was busy slamming down the hatchet into the tops of skulls and the sides of faces, I
wondered why we were seeing so many more of them. We had been clearing for weeks; it didn’t
make sense for there to be more on the road, and that frustrated the hell out of me.
Skeeter and Bryce helped me pull the rotting bodies to the ditch. It was a rule I’d made when we
started. It was too much work to bury them, and too risky to pile them and burn the bodies because of
the heat, wind, and lack of rain in the last month. I just didn’t want the girls to have to walk over them
as they made their way to the ranch.
I stood up, breathing hard and wiping the dirt and sweat from my face. “I think they’re coming from
Shallot.”
“I was thinkin’ the same thing,” Skeeter said. “These guys must have gotten too close to the gas
station fire.”
Bryce jerked his head to the south. “The fire must be out, and they don’t have anything attracting
them to town anymore.”
“And they’re starving,” I said, nodding to another small herd trudging down the highway less than
a quarter mile away. They were skin and bones. I wasn’t sure if they actually needed to eat, or if it
was just the natural state of decay, but they definitely looked starved. “Look at them. Maybe they’ll
eventually fall apart, or their bodies will give out from lack of nutrition.”
“That’s a promising thought,” Skeeter said. “But I wouldn’t count on it. Them ones we just cleared
were burnt to a crisp. They were still walkin’.”
“They’re headed north,” Bryce said. “Let’s just let them pass.”
I shook my head. “Maybe someone saw the one that got Cooper and let it pass. We’re putting them
all down. As many as we can.”
Nathan
I PACED THE LIVING ROOM WHILE dinner cooked, checking the doorway every few seconds for any sign
of them. My emotions bounced from worried, to angry, to frustrated, to panicked.
“They’ll be back anytime now,” Miranda assured me. “Dinner’s burning.”
I ran to the laundry room and out the side door to the grill. “Damn it!” I said, pulling the chicken
off with my bare hands. I licked my burning fingers, and shook my hand, as if that would help.