No, she would never be so careless, even if she was in a hurry. Adam might be careless like that but not Red. Still, her heart seemed to beat a little faster in her chest as all three men turned to scan the field where she and Adam were just barely hidden.
Red could see now that none of them wore a matching uniform—rather, it looked like each man had collected any clothing that looked close enough to a real military uniform so that they would present a somewhat unified appearance.
None of them had name tags or badges that would indicate—well, she didn’t know exactly what they would indicate because Red knew about as much about the military as she did guns, but she was fairly certain that there were usually patches showing what group you belonged to—what unit, or some other kind of indicator.
So these were not Official Representatives of the U.S. Government. They were individuals who’d collected together and decided to act like they had authority. That scared Red more than any patrol of soldiers looking to take them to a camp. This group would not be answerable to anyone.
One thing Red had learned from years of reading and movie watching was that people were far scarier than any disease or zombie or alien or face-eating monster.
There was one scene in 28 Days Later when Jim and Selena and Hannah met up with Christopher Eccleston’s remnant-of-the-army group and the three survivors thought they were in a place where they would be safe and then Eccleston said, “I promised them women,” meaning he promised the men under his command.
Whenever Red watched that movie her whole body came over freezing because she knew what that meant, everyone knew what that meant for Selena and Hannah and their future, and the calm collected way he said it was far more frightening than the infected were in that film. Red thought it would be better to be bitten by a fast-moving zombie.
These men who were moving in and out of the station now, running about in their TV-copying formations with their camouflage hunting gear (because that was what it probably was, probably overpriced shirts and pants that they bought online at Cabela’s or Bean’s or Outdoor World so they could shoot deer without being spotted). They believed they had power because they had guns and the imprimatur of authority.
Red bet that most people who bumped into them gave them what they wanted. She also bet that there were more groups like them around, because this was America and the two things Americans liked to stockpile in case of emergency were canned foods and guns.
All the men had entered the building while Red spaced out thinking about movies and other things that she shouldn’t be thinking about when they might have to run for their lives. She really did not want it to come to that because running in a prosthetic not specifically made for that purpose would equal Red getting caught by whoever was chasing her. She just couldn’t move fast enough.
“Should we try to get away now while they’re inside?” Adam said. He whispered it, barely moving his mouth at all, but it sounded incredibly loud in the deep silence all around them and it made Red wince.
She scooted closer so she could talk directly into his ear. “There are probably still men in the front. And the ones inside could appear at any moment. We’d better wait.”
Adam’s mouth twisted. “The front of my shirt is all wet.”
“Better water than blood,” Red said darkly.
That shut him up.
A minute later one of the men came out again. It appeared that he was in charge of this crew because he shouted for the rest to come around. Boots pounded on the pavement as six more men joined him in the back.
“Remove anything from the store that’s edible or useful,” the man said.
“Damn,” Adam said, a little louder than he ought to have, but it was easily covered by the sound of all the fake soldiers shouting “Yes, sir!”
Red knew that Adam was thinking they could have gone back into the shop after the group left and perhaps collected more food. That was all over now.
As they watched the men carrying boxes and bags out of the store, Red was forcibly reminded of the Grinch taking the last can of Who Hash. They weren’t leaving a single item behind for anyone else to find. Apparently it was now the Apocalypse and screw anybody who couldn’t keep up.
Finders keepers and all of that, but Red thought it was a pretty shitty way to be. If they were scouring every store in the area like locusts, then Red and Adam would have to get ahead of them somehow. That wouldn’t be easy, since Red wanted to avoid roads and they were walking and these jerks had a giant truck to roam around in.
It seemed like they were in that culvert forever waiting for the men to finish emptying the store. The sun was much higher in the sky and Red felt it beating down on the back of her neck. Her mouth was parched but she was afraid that the slightest movement would draw the attention of the Locust Militia.
Yes, a militia, that’s exactly what they are, she thought. And how many more of them are there? Is this group part of a larger group? And just when the hell are they going to leave?
Red had hoped to cover the seven miles to that campground during the day, and their long delay here meant that wasn’t going to happen. She was sturdy and she had trained up but she could only walk so fast, no matter how much she might want to go faster.
The last thing the men carried out of the shop was the body, wrapped in plastic sheeting. She hadn’t noticed them carrying the sheeting inside, so they must have found it somewhere in the store supplies.
For a second Red thought that they were going to dispose of the body in the field, maybe burn it there, and she had a full-fledged panic attack at the prospect of trying to outrun a burning field, possibly while being shot at by pretend soldiers.
But two of the soldiers (she couldn’t help but think of them that way even though she knew they weren’t real soldiers, and that was the dangerous thing, the way a costume change and certain accessories presented a particular idea to those who looked on) carried the body around the front of the gas station.
One last man came out of the door, then ducked back in—perhaps to do one last check, though for what exactly Red couldn’t imagine. It didn’t seem that they’d left behind a single crumb. Then he returned to the truck and a moment later Red heard the engine start up.
Neither she nor Adam moved until the sound of the truck had receded into the distance. When she did try to stand up Red found that every muscle was stiff and sore, and she realized she’d been holding her body in a state of clenched tension.
She also realized that the water they’d been lying in did not smell so great now that it had soaked into her shirt. She was still wearing the mask and gloves that they’d put on when they entered the shop, and the combination of the culvert water and her own sour breath made her momentarily nauseated. Red took off the mask and inhaled the smell of dirt, grass, and the lingering scent of gasoline and exhaust.
“Those weren’t real soldiers,” Adam said.
Red was surprised that Adam had been observant enough to notice that, but she didn’t say so. The presence of immediate danger seemed to have thawed the ice between them, at least for the moment. Red also didn’t mention that she’d been right to be cautious, that if they had been walking along the road when that truck came along Lord knows what would have happened to them. She didn’t say it but she did feel a little smug because it wasn’t just Crazy Red being paranoid. Her worry had been completely justified.