Among Monsters: A Red Hill Novella (21 page)

“
THE WHITE TOWER
!” Halle said, squinting one eye as she looked upward.

A tall white tube loomed above us, standing as a beacon for Red Hill. We left the highway for red dirt, and our pace naturally quickened.

“It’s not far now!” I said, encouraging my sister. “Just a few more miles to the cemetery, and then we’re practically there!”

We passed a large feedlot. I remembered hundreds, if not thousands, of cows milling about before, but now, there weren’t any. We came across a large pile of dead infected and gave them a wide berth just in case.

After another hour of walking, I stopped and handed Halle the canteen. She took a large gulp and handed it to me. I did the same and then I reached back for the beef jerky. It wasn’t there. I turned around in a circle, as if it would appear if I could just see it.

“It must have fallen out when I scuffled with the infected.”

Halle’s shoulders sagged. “It’s okay. Let’s keep going.”

“I’m so proud of you,” I said to Halle.

“We’re almost there, right? And Mom’s there, right?” she said.

I could hear the exhaustion in her voice.

“Yes, and yes. I don’t know how much farther, but I know we’re going to get there before dark.”

I hoped I was right. The sun was getting lower in the sky, and we had been walking for hours. We had to be close.

“Look!” Halle said, pointing ahead. “The cemetery!”

I grabbed her hand, and we ran toward it before turning left.

“Just a couple of more miles, Halle! We’re almost there!”

“She is going to be so happy! Do you think she’ll cry?”

“Yes. And I will, too.”

Halle teared up, and so did I. Our hair was soaked in sweat, our lips were dry and chapped, our noses and foreheads were both bright pink from the sun, and I’d lost track of how many days it had been since we’d had a real shower. We weren’t as pretty as we had wanted to be, but Mom wouldn’t care.

“My side is hurting,” Halle said.

“Want to get on my back?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No, it’ll slow us down.”

I smiled at her. She was so smart.

After another mile, we hit an intersection. To the right, about a hundred yards away, was a hill, and on the other side of that hill was the ranch. My stomach fluttered, and my heart began to pound. We were almost there.

“There’s the hill,” I said to Halle, pulling her to the west, toward the setting sun.

She dropped the bat as if she were letting go of all the bad things that had happened to us up to that point. “Good thing, too,” she said. “It’ll be dark soon.”

I wanted to run, but I was just too tired, and I knew Halle was, too. So, we held hands as we approached the hill and climbed over. I looked at the farmhouse hoping to see Mom outside. Two people were sitting on the roof.

“I think that’s Mom!” I said. “Look, Halle, on the roof!”

Two men ran out of the house. One climbed up a ladder to the roof, yelling, and the other waved his arms at us.

Halle and I began to run, and the woman on the roof shouted something in an excited, high-pitched voice.

“It’s Mom!” I said, trying not to run ahead of Halle.

They began calling to us. Happy tears streamed down my face. I tightly gripped Halle’s hand, worried I would get too excited and run too fast.

The men began to run toward us and then a woman followed. Mom stayed on the roof and aimed the rifle she was holding.

Something is wrong.

Mom began to panic, shrieking words I couldn’t understand. I slowed down, pulling Halle to a stop, and I looked around. The wheat was swishing. Mom could see something we couldn’t. There were infected in the field. They were heading toward us.

“Run!” Mom screamed.

I looked behind me, tightened my grip on Hall’s hand, and began sprinting toward the farmhouse. The men were running toward us, weapons in hand. They must be friends of Mom’s. They were just as invested as she was to get us to her, just like Joey had been.

The men called to us, motioning for us to run to them. I could run faster, but Halle’s legs were going as fast as they could, and I wouldn’t leave her behind.

Halle began to cry, the sound carrying every bit of her fear and relief, knowing that we were at the end of our journey either way.

A shot popped, echoing across the waving wheat. After a few seconds, I heard it again. It was Mom. She was shooting the infected in the field. The popping came steadily, each time cracking through the air, rumbling like thunder.

The first of the infected emerged from the wheat. I stopped and leaned back so hard that I fell, taking Halle with me.

The gunshots continued while I scrambled backward. A wall of tattered, rotting bodies formed between the men trying to save us and Halle and me. There were so many. It was as if the entire town of Shallot had followed us just to stop us right before we got to Mom.

The men and a woman began yelling to get the attention of the huge group of infected, but they kept coming at us. I could hear the wheat swishing behind us, and I knew we would be surrounded at any moment. I grabbed Halle and held her close.

“Mommy!” A shrill scream I barely recognized as my own emerged from my throat. “Mommy!”

A pop went off, and the closest infected fell, his brain matter spreading out and mixing with the red dirt. Another infected fell, and I knew Mom was taking out anything getting too close.

A man appeared from the field on the other side of the road and grabbed my arm. Halle and I screamed, but then the man pulled us up and pushed us behind him. Mom picked off another infected with her rifle, but there were more behind it. The man shoved one away from us, and it stumbled back, falling to the ground. Then another shot went off, this one much closer.

Our neighbor was standing at the end of the gun that had gone off.

“Go, Nathan!” our neighbor said to the man holding my arm.

Nathan looked down at us. “We’re going into the other field and around, okay? Follow me. Stay close!”

We ran into the tall stalks, hunkered down like before. Nathan stopped for a moment and listened, and then he pulled me as I dragged Halle along.

“Just a little bit farther,” Nathan said, guiding us through the wheat.

We stepped out of the field and onto red dirt again. This time, we were right in front of the driveway. We crossed the road and went through the yard toward the porch. A woman with long blonde hair opened her arms wide and guided us into the house.

Halle reached behind her. “Mommy?”

The woman’s eyes were wide and worried, but she offered a comforting smile. “She’s just going to help the others. You’re safe. You’re safe.”

Two other girls were inside, warily watching us. One was my age, and the other was closer to Halle’s age.

More shots rang out over and over. Halle covered her ears, and I pulled her into me.

She shook her head, sobbing. “Where’s Mommy?”

“She’s right outside. She’ll be here soon. Do you remember me, Halle? I’m Ashley, the doctor’s daughter. We’ve met before.”

Halle nodded, and buried her face into my neck. Now that we were here, the wait was agonizing.

After a few minutes, the crack of gunshots slowed down, and then they stopped altogether, both from the roof and the road.

“I think it’s over,” Ashley said. Then, her shoulders shot up to her ears when two more pops sounded.

Ashley rushed outside, and I followed.

There she was, our mother, standing on the front porch, seeing us but not truly believing. I collapsed into her arms, pressing my face into her chest. Only by hearing her cries did I know that Halle had done the same. We all fell together in a heap on the porch, and Mom’s body began to tremble and then shake as she cried right along with us, like I knew she would.

Mom lifted my chin and then cupped my cheeks, looking into my eyes in awe. She looked down at Halle, too, and then we began to laugh before crying again.

Nathan and our neighbor guided the blonde back to the house. She was bawling hysterically, reaching for the road, until our neighbor finally resorted to forcing her inside. The walls barely muffled her wails.

Nathan watched Ashley and our neighbor until they disappeared behind the door, and then he looked down at us in awe. “You have some incredible kids there.”

“Miranda?” Mom asked.

Nathan sighed. “Bryce was attacked. She tried to save him. I couldn’t get to them in time.”

Mom’s shoulders fell, and then she kissed Halle’s face, which was buried under my arm. Her dirty fingernails dug into my skin. I kissed her head.

“Come on, girls. I’ve got you. Let’s go inside.”

I hadn’t heard Mom’s voice in so long, but it was still as soft and strong as I remembered.

Nathan helped us up, and we walked inside together. Mom, Halle, and I kept looking at each other and smiling.

“We saw your message,” I said, my voice breaking.

Mom shook her head in disbelief. “Where’s your dad?”

“He was bit,” Halle said in her small voice.

“He made us leave him,” I said. “He made us.”

I meant that he’d made me shoot him, but I couldn’t say it out loud. Even if it had to be done, it sounded awful, and everyone in the room was listening.

“Shh…shh…” Mom said, hugging us. Her body slightly rocked, and I instantly felt at ease. “How long have you been alone?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “A week? I think.”

“Wow,” our neighbor said. “Tough like their mama.”

I smiled and rested my cheek against Mom’s chest. “That’s what Dad said, too, when we left him. He said we could do it because we were tough like you.”

Mom looked at Nathan, who was holding the other two little girls close. I could tell Mom was unhappy that we had been alone.

“If you hadn’t cleared the way for them, it would have been tough for them to make it past Shallot alone, if not impossible,” Nathan said. “You were right. It wasn’t for nothing.”

Her eyes glossed over, and she hugged us again.

I was wrong. She was more slender than I remembered, but she was still our mom. She hadn’t changed so much. I hadn’t realized how afraid I was that she wouldn’t be the same person I knew. But now, in her arms, the past months fell away. It felt like a lifetime since she had dropped us off at school, but at the same time, it also felt like yesterday.

“Come on, babies. Let’s get you cleaned up,” Mom said. Halle whined, but Mom kissed her hair. “You’re safe now.” She looked to me. “When is the last time you’ve eaten? Or slept?”

My eyebrows pulled in, thinking about the small bit of rice we’d eaten two days before. “It’s been a while.”

She hugged me. “Okay. Okay, that’s all over now. Nathan?”

“I’m on it,” he said, leaving the room.

After a couple of minutes, he returned with two sandwiches. Halle and I grabbed them from his hands before immediately chomping into them. I thought that I would have to ask for another one, but by the time I took the last bite, I was full.

Nathan handed us each a glass of water, and we gulped it down. Halle wiped her mouth with her wrist.

“Okay,” Mom said. “Time to wash.”

We stood outside and peeled off our clothes. They were so dirty that they were stiff. Mom was on her knees, using rags and a basin to scrub Halle, and I washed myself. I was more concerned with getting clean and washing the awful summer off of me than being undressed outside.

Several graves were under the tree, and Mom glanced behind her.

“Dr. Hayes, his girlfriend, and our friend Cooper,” she said. “He was Ashley’s boyfriend. Remember her? She’s Dr. Hayes’s daughter.”

“Her boyfriend died?” I asked.

Mom pulled her mouth to the side. “Saving Zoe. That’s the little girl in there. She’s Nathan’s daughter. And Elleny is the other little girl.”

“Is she Nathan’s daughter, too?” Halle asked.

Mom poured a little water over Halle’s head and then lathered bar soap in her hands. She scrubbed Halle’s hair until it was blonde again. She shook her head. “She found us.”

“The big guy was our neighbor in Shallot,” I said, pulling an oversized but clean T-shirt over my head

“Skeeter?” Mom said, her eyebrows shooting up.

“That’s Skeeter? I wish I’d known. He lived a few houses down from us in Shallot.”

She paused. “Wait. What do you mean?”

“I saw you,” I said as I dried off. “Your whole group, the day you left with Skeeter. I didn’t know it was you though.”

Mom shook her head, her eyes falling to the concrete patio we were sitting on. “You were right there?”

I nodded.

She closed her eyes tight. “So, you were there this whole time? And last night when we spent the night?”

“Joey came into our house,” Halle said. “When he found out it was us, he was going to bring us to you, but he got bit, so we stayed inside.”

Mom covered her mouth and listened while Halle recounted our entire ordeal—from the moment Dad had picked her up from school until we’d reached the top of the red dirt hill.

“Jesus,” Mom said, shaking her head, her hand trembling. She closed her eyes and then took a deep breath, willing it away. “Joey was a good man. It makes sense that he tried to save you. I’m so sorry about your dad.”

“Mom?” I said. “We didn’t leave him.”

“What do you mean?”

“He was bitten. He got really sick, and…” I trailed off, unable to say the words.

“Oh no. No, no, no…”

At first, I thought she was disappointed in me, and then she wrapped me in her arms and squeezed.

“I’m so sorry you had to do that, Jenna. My God, you are so brave.” She sucked in a faltering breath. “You’re here now, and we’re together. I know that your dad would be so proud of you for that.”

Once Halle was dressed in her own oversized T-shirt, Mom walked us to the table and let us eat again. This time, it was canned peaches. We practically inhaled them, and then we each drank another glass of water.

With full bellies, we were guided into Mom’s room, and she turned down the covers.

“You’ve had a long day.”

We climbed into bed and settled in.

Halle gripped her fingers tightly around Mom’s wrist. “Don’t leave, Mommy.”