The Girl in Red

“Sam,” Red said. “This is disgusting work, and I’m already covered with blood. There’s really no need for you to be involved. Besides, the first thing anyone will do when they find the bodies is check nearby houses. Let’s not leave any clues for them, right?”

“That guy—the one who had the monster come out of him?” Sam said, pointing at Toothpick. “He said he knew I was around because he’d found my unicorn on D.J.’s lawn.”

“Your unicorn?”

“Yeah, I had this dumb plastic unicorn that I carried in my pocket. I’ve had it since me and Riley left the house. It fell out of my pocket, but I couldn’t remember the last time I saw it.”

That was what Red had seen Toothpick picking up. It was satisfying to have at least one mystery solved.

Sure, even if you don’t know where the monsters came from or why or what caused the Crisis and the Cough, then at least you know why Toothpick was so interested in D.J.’s house.

Red didn’t have any idea how long it would take for an alarm to be raised, but she had to assume that Pretty Quickly was the answer.

The men were all stupidly heavy to move—even Toothpick, and he’d had most of his insides blasted out of him by the Thing That Should Not Be.

Despite the chill in the air Red was sweating and out of breath by the time she’d pushed all the men into the ditch. She’d mostly kicked the last one, because it was exhausting to hunch over and try to roll the bodies.

Sam sat on the lawn of the brick house, her arms wrapped around her knees. Red fell to the ground next to her, legs splayed out. She knew they should move, but she was tired down in her soul. The adrenaline surge and all the physical activity left her head nodding.

“What about the monster?” Sam asked

The thing’s head had finally stopped whirring, but Red didn’t feel confident that it was no longer a threat just because it seemed to be dead.

“Maybe I better just leave it where it is,” Red said. “What if I pick it up and an egg gets implanted in me or something?”

Sam wrinkled her nose. “How is that even possible?”

Red shrugged. “I don’t know. It looks like an alien, doesn’t it? It seems like the sort of thing that would implant an egg just when you think you’re safe.”

It wasn’t an alien, though, not if Sirois was to be believed. This thing had been created in a lab with government funding. But why? Biological terrorism? It didn’t seem like an awesome idea to make something that would terrorize friend and foe alike. This creature didn’t appear to pick and choose its hosts with any discrimination.

“So you’re just going to leave it there?” Sam asked.

“Yup,” Red said. “Maybe when the next patrol comes along it will confuse them.”

Actually, if they were lucky there would be more of these monsters and they would wreck the whole militia. That would be ideal.

“Um, Red,” Sam said. “There’s someone coming.”

She pointed down the road in the direction of D.J.’s house. There was “someone” coming—there were many someones. A whole line of trucks and jeeps that looked far more official than any militia. They were driving very fast.

“Shit,” Red said. “Can’t I sit down and rest for a damned minute?”

She struggled to stand again, but her body was worn to pieces and wouldn’t cooperate. Not even the fear of getting caught by the military was enough to force her legs to stand and run. The cavalcade would be upon them in a minute. She and Sam had certainly been spotted by now, so even if they did hide in the house the soldiers would just come and drag them out.

Well, there was nothing for it. Red would have to brazen it out. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t done it before. But she couldn’t stand up anymore. Her body was done, at least for the moment.

The head jeep pulled to a halt a short distance from where Red and Sam sat on the lawn, and through some kind of magic all the vehicles behind it managed not to run into one another’s bumpers.

Sam huddled close to Red’s shoulder. Red expected to be surrounded by barking men with rifles, but only the two men in the jeep got out and walked toward them. One of them was very tall—the tallest person Red had ever seen.

“Sirois,” Red said as he and his companion stopped by Red’s feet.

“That’s Lieutenant Sirois to you,” he said, surveying the scene.

“Got a promotion, did you?” Red said, and gestured at the two pieces of the Thing That Should Not Be in the middle of the road. “Found one of your ‘tapeworms.’”

He looked at the corpses in the ditch, then at the axe in her hand. “And something else, I see. Does your grandma live around here?”

“Nope,” Red said. “I’m still on my way there.”

“Not traveling alone any longer, either,” Sirois said, smiling at Sam. He turned to the man who hovered at his elbow and gave him a muttered order. The other man dashed away.