Red Hill

by Jamie McGuire

  "So what do you think?" I said to Scarlet. She was cleaning out the refrigerator, throwing away uneaten food.

  "This is a goddamn waste, that's what I think."

  "About Kevin."

  "I told him they could sleep in the doctor's bed until we get things figured out. He didn't say if they're staying or going on. I figured you and Zoe could sleep downstairs for now. I didn't really want them down there with all the weapons and supplies. Oh, unless you think that will bother Zoe?"

  "No, no. I'll explain it to her. She'll have plenty of time to prepare." I looked into the living room and saw Elleny sitting alone on the couch. I walked toward the porch to start the process of preparing Zoe for the move, and saw Kevin sitting next to my daughter, side by side, on the top step. He had his arm planted on the porch, a bit behind her.

  "Zoe," I said, opening the door quickly. "I need you inside for a minute. We need to talk."

  Kevin immediately pulled away his hand, but his expression was calm and relaxed. "You got a cute little girl there."

  I nodded, holding the door open for Zoe to pass, and then brought her to Ashley's door and knocked. Ashley opened it and allowed us inside, even though I could tell she was surprised.

  "Zoe," I said, kneeling in front of her. "First, we don't know Kevin, yet, so until I say otherwise, what is he?"

  "A stranger," she said confidently.

  "And what is the rule about strangers?"

  "We don't talk to them."

  I nodded. "Good girl."

  "I told Kevin the rule, but he said he was a nice man, and he had met you, so he wasn't a stranger."

  This made my stomach turn, although I reasoned that Kevin had a daughter of his own, so maybe he just knew how to talk to children. "Meeting someone and knowing them are different. Until I say it's okay, I don't want you to be alone with Kevin. Deal?"

  "Deal," Zoe said.

  Ashley and Cooper were standing next to us in a silent exchange. They would look at each other after certain points of my and Zoe's serious talk, never speaking, but having a conversation, nevertheless.

  "Next, I need to tell you that to make room for Kevin and Elleny, you and I are going to move downstairs."

  Zoe made a face, but I was prepared. "I like our room."

  "I do, too. This is just for a little while, and then we can have our room back."

  The skin between Zoe's eyebrows creased.

  Ashley kneeled beside us. "Zoe, how about you and I bring your things downstairs and I'll help you decorate it just the way you want?"

  Zoe thought about this for a while, and then nodded. She still wasn't happy with the move, but her already agreeing, and without a fight, was momentous. I couldn't hide my appreciation to Ashley, and when we stood, I reached out with one hand and pulled her against my side, pressing my cheek against her hair in a half hug.

  Ashley took Zoe to gather her things, and Cooper and I went into the living room where Kevin and Elleny were sharing a sandwich.

  "You can make another sandwich," I said. Kevin was so thin; I couldn't imagine why he wouldn't. Maybe he thought he might overstay his welcome if they ate too much right away.

  "We share everything, don't we?" he said, lovingly patting Elleny's thigh.

  Elleny didn't speak or react. She just sat next to him, chewing the bite he'd just given her. I wondered if she'd lost her mother or someone else that had made her shut down so completely. Scarlet had been trying to get through to her since they arrived, but Elleny stayed in her own world, blocking everything and everyone out.

  That, I somewhat understood. What I didn't understand was Kevin's dismissal of her behavior.

  Elleny stayed quiet through dinner, although she ate more than she had earlier, having her own plate to herself. She ate slowly, though, making sure to savor every bite. No one discussed anything that we normally discussed. Somehow everyone knew to protect our house, our secrets, and our family from strangers. Even from a waif of a man and his strange little girl.

  Kevin was the first to finish. "Man, I am tired. About what time do you all turn in around here?"

  "It depends," Scarlet said. "You can go ahead."

  Kevin put his hand on Elleny's. "You ready for bed?"

  She took another bite.

  He patted her hand. "Come on, now. I think you've had enough. Time for bed."

  She scooped up more rice. "I'm still really hungry," she said, her voice just a breath.

  Kevin became annoyed. "You're not that hungry. I'm tired. Let's go to bed."

  Scarlet leaned her elbows on the table. "I realize you don't know us, but Nathan and I are parents. We wouldn't let anything happen to Elleny. Once she's finished, we'll send her that way."

  Kevin's coolness left him for just a moment. "I'll wait." Elleny took another slow bite, and we all tried not to give in to the ensuing awkwardness.

  After another ten minutes, Kevin stood and pulled Elleny up by the arm with him. "You're finished. Let's go."

  Elleny went with him, but reluctantly. "I'm . . . still . . . ," she said, but he shushed her before she could finish.

  They disappeared into the bedroom. Kevin shut the French doors and we all stood up to clean up after dinner.

  "That was weird," Joey said, turning on the faucet.

  We all agreed, and tried our best to continue as usual, even with our strange houseguests. Scarlet was scrubbing the plates and pans as if she were trying to work off nervous energy. At one point, the dish she'd just finished crashed into the others. She put the sides of her fists on the counter, took a breath, and then began again.

  "Slow down, would ya?" Joey said as he rinsed and dried. "I can't keep up."

  "Sorry," Scarlet said, still scrubbing with subdued fury.

  "What's up?" I said, walking up behind her. My chin was just above her shoulder, but she didn't seem to mind.

  "I don't know."

  "You know."

  "There's something off."

  "I agree."

  I walked Zoe downstairs and pulled down her covers while she changed into pajamas. She crawled into bed, and I tucked her in.

  "Hum, Daddy."

  One corner of my mouth pulled up. I hadn't hummed to Zoe since before everything went to hell. One reason was that we'd had such full, tense days, she usually fell asleep immediately. The other was because I couldn't carry a tune to save my life. I never hummed anything in particular, I just let my voice go up and down, and somehow that was relaxing enough for Zoe that she'd fall asleep.

  I began to hum, and Zoe closed her eyes. I don't know why I kept referring to this time as when the world went to hell. It had its good points. I got to spend all day with my daughter without worrying about work or bills, and I'd met Scarlet. Granted, there were frightening things beyond the perimeter of the ranch, but it could be much, much worse. Some days I thought it a fair trade.

  Zoe's breath evened out, and I leaned down to kiss her button of a nose before heading up the stairs. Joey was at the top, sitting on the washing machine. "Scarlet made me a pallet in the living room. I'd feel weird sleeping down there with you guys."

  "Okay," I said, shaking his hand once. "Sorry, man."

  "No problem." He jumped off the washer and followed me into the living room. Covers and pillows were spread across the floor, and Scarlet was outside on the porch. Joey sat in the recliner.

  I crossed my arms. "I want to go out there with her, but I feel like I crowd her. That's kind of her time, isn't it?" I asked.

  Joey smiled. "I think she likes it when you're out there. Maybe that's one of the reasons she keeps going."

  "No," I said, shaking my head. "She goes out there because she knows one of these days they'll come walking over the hill."

  "You really think so, man? I don't know. It's been a while."

  "It took me and Cooper all day to get here from Shallot, and we were trucking it. It's not flat ground. There are creeks, and rocks, and hills, and abandoned buildings, and old farm equipment . . . and zombie
s."

  "Psh . . . ," Joey teased, waving me away. "You act like that's hard."

  Scarlet came inside, her face white and her eyes full of tears, but she didn't look sad. I was stunned by her expression, and immediately thought it had something to do with the girls. She hadn't spent a fraction of the time she usually spent outside waiting.

  "What is it?" I said quietly, taking a step toward her. I didn't want to alarm the pair in the doc's room.

  Scarlet's jaws worked, and a tear spilled out over her cheek. "I'm going to kill that motherfucker."

  She walked quickly across the room, grabbed her rifle, and before I could stop her, she barged through the French doors. I began to yell for her to stop, but at the same time I saw her point the gun at the back of Kevin's head, I saw that he was in a totally inappropriate position, hovering over Elleny, without a shirt on.

  Elleny was whimpering quietly. It still took me a moment to process what was going on, as if my brain didn't want to believe what my eyes had seen.

  "Get up!" Scarlet yelled. "In the front room! Now!" Her voice broke when she screamed the last bit.

  Kevin's bare, bony back was visible above the sheets as he lay frozen above the young girl.

  Joey walked in behind me. "What the actual fuck?"

  I stood in place, stunned, as Kevin jumped out of the bed with his hands up. He was completely nude. It was then that my stomach turned, threatening to expel my dinner right there on the floor.

  Kevin scurried into the living room, and Scarlet followed him, her rifle pointed at his chest.

  "You're a monster. Worse than those things out there. Get the fuck out so I don't have to clean your blood out of this carpet," Scarlet said.

  "Was he . . . ?" Joey said, looking at Kevin, and then back toward the bedroom.

  Miranda, Bryce, Cooper, and Ashley had wandered out of their bedrooms by that point, shocked by the noise and the scene in the living room.

  "Whoa! What the hell is going on?" Bryce said.

  "You don't wanna know," Joey said. "Shoot him, Scarlet."

  "I'll leave!" Kevin said, his arms still high in the air.

  "You're damn straight, you will."

  Kevin glanced past Scarlet to the bedroom. "But I'm not leaving without my daughter."

  "The fuck if you're not," Joey said. "She's safer with us than with you."

  "Come on! At least let me get my clothes!" Kevin whined.

  "Boohoo, you sick son-of-a-bitch," Scarlet said, incredulous. She cocked her gun, pressed the end of the barrel against Kevin's stomach, and pushed him backward out the door. She watched him for a moment, and then went into the bedroom. "Watch where he goes," she said to Joey.

  Joey stood guard at the door.

  Scarlet stood at the end of the bed. "Elleny, is that man your father?"

  Elleny, clothed only in the sheet that she had pulled up to her neck, shook her head.

  Scarlet nodded. "That's what I thought. I'll be right back."

  "Scarlet," I warned.

  She ignored me and walked to the front door, pausing in front of Joey.

  "He's headed south," Joey reported.

  Scarlet pushed out the door and we all looked at each other, unsure of what to do.

  "Should I . . . follow her?" I asked, looking to Bryce and Joey. No one had an answer. It was difficult to even form words.

  A scream echoed from the south, followed by a single gunshot. We all jumped at the noise. A few seconds later, another shot was fired.

  I ran out the front door, followed by everyone else, stopping when Scarlet came into view.

  She stopped, letting the barrel of her gun tilt toward the ground.

  "You killed him?" Ashley said, her voice high and nervous.

  Scarlet didn't flinch. "I wasn't going to let him walk away with my daughters out there." She stomped past all of us to the house, and slammed the door behind her.

  After a few seconds of stunned silence, we all followed. Scarlet was inside the bedroom, talking to Elleny, whose whimpers turned into wails.

  "What do we do?" Miranda said.

  "Looks like it's taken care of," Bryce said. He tugged on her hand, and she followed him back to their bedroom.

  Cooper and Ashley did the same, even though Ashley was still upset and asking questions.

  Joey and I stood in the living room alone, listening to Scarlet speak calmly to Elleny. After an hour, she emerged from the bedroom.

  "She's asleep."

  "That was . . . I've never seen anything like that in my life, have you?" Joey said.

  "No," I said, a little shocked that he'd even had to ask.

  "They should all get the same end." Scarlet propped her rifle against the wall by the door, and then fell onto the couch, on top of her covers. "Better get some sleep. It's too late to bury him tonight, so we're going to have work to do in the morning."

  "You shot twice," I said. "So did you make sure he wouldn't come back?"

  Scarlet nodded. "I shot him in the dick, first."

  Joey shook his head, satisfied. "Bastard. What did he do, take her in the chaos?"

  Scarlet took a deep breath. "Her parents were killed. He lived down the street. She thought she had no other choice, even after he . . . she's safe now. She's going to be okay."

  I kneeled beside her. "That is a freak occurrence. You know that, right? Andrew is with Halle and Jenna, and they're safe."

  Scarlet nodded. "Everyone's a little safer now."

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Miranda

  ELLENY FOLLOWED SCARLET AROUND LIKE a scared child, even after she helped bury Kevin's body. We were all stunned for days after. I wasn't sure if I was more shocked about what Kevin had done, what he was caught doing, or that Scarlet had killed him. The house didn't feel the same, and I wasn't sure if it was because of the new, awkward addition, or because we realized that it wasn't just teds that we had to fear.

  Because Elleny stayed so close to Scarlet and so far from the rest of us, it was hard to get to know her. I didn't know how to talk to her, anyway. I'd never known anyone that had been through something like that. I didn't want to say the wrong thing, so I didn't say anything at all.

  Nathan and Zoe had returned to the front bedroom, but Scarlet moved downstairs with Elleny, leaving Joey the couch. That made it easier for me to stay up and talk to him at night, and I felt more like we were just hanging out as friends instead of sneaking around in the basement like . . . nonfriends. I couldn't even say the word, that's how wrong it felt.

  Whatever it was, I couldn't deny that I liked being around Joey. I more than liked it. Even if a moment had to be stolen when no one was looking. Bryce would get so angry to even see us chatting about nothing in particular, so I took what I could get because going too long without a moment with him made me feel like I was suffocating.

  Everyone seemed to be suffocating. We were surviving, but every passing day felt less like living.

  Every morning and night, Scarlet would stand out on the porch my father built and watch the red hill for her daughters. Nathan would wait with her, assuring her that they would come. Ashley pretended to be a teacher. The guys tried to keep themselves busy with upkeep of the house, and taking shifts to patrol the perimeter, and Joey and I pretended to ignore each other, but what was supposed to be our safe haven was beginning to feel like a prison.

  Nathan, though, didn't seem to feel the weight like the rest of us. He and Scarlet would spend hours talking. Once, I walked by the door and saw them holding hands while they waited together on the porch. After that, they seemed to steal more moments alone, sharing secrets and whispering jokes that only the two of them found funny. Joey and I were sitting up late one night, talking in the darkness of the living room, and were both startled when the French doors opened, revealing Scarlet.

  "Hi," she said, looking caught. "We were just talking."

  I shrugged, and so did Joey. "So are we," I said.

  Scarlet nodded before retreating downstairs to join El
leny.

  Joey looked at me. I was barely able to see his eyebrow rise in the dim light. "Think they were . . ."

  "No. Zoe's in there."

  "So?"

  "No," I said, shaking my head, disgusted in Zoe's honor. "I remember walking in on my parents, once. It scarred me for life."

  "My parents split up when I was four," Joey said. "I don't remember what it's like to have them both in the house."

  "Your mom never dated?"

  "Once or twice. I did a pretty good job of scaring them off. I was a hateful little shit."

  I smiled. "I can see that."

  Nathan

  I DIDN'T MEAN TO KEEP making comparisons, but Aubrey was the first woman I'd ever loved. So I had to wonder, now, feeling the way I did about Scarlet, if I just loved her differently than I ever had Aubrey, or if it meant I'd never really loved Aubrey at all.

  My life went from one disappointing day to another, to keeping track of time by how much was spent with Scarlet, and how much time was spent between the moments I spent with her. We would sit on the porch and wait together, and she would tell me about her girls, how funny and smart and talented they were, and what it was like to bring them into this world. She talked about her marriage, and her decision to leave. I'd already thought she was maybe the strongest, bravest woman I'd met, but to listen to how alone she was in that decision, with no support, I couldn't help but be in awe of her.

  Each night was a buildup to when I would finally have enough balls to touch her. Sometimes I would play it off with a nudge, or a playful smack on her leg, and she wouldn't mind if I left it there. Childish, but she was nothing if not intimidating . . . and distractingly beautiful. I found it difficult not to stare at her, and was glad for the dim light after the sun went down, and that the darkness gave me an excuse to concentrate on her mouth while she spoke.

  It felt strange--this happiness I'd found in such a dark time. But with Zoe content in our new home and the routine we'd found, and finding Scarlet, the only thing that bothered me was what life would have been like without death descending on the world. What did it mean that I'd had such good fortune when so many had lost everything?

  Sitting on the top step of the porch next to Scarlet, it was easy to forget the nightmare that was just beyond that hill, and that she wasn't just outside spending time with me, but passing the time while waiting for her children, the true loves of her life.