Painted Red

by Kelsey D. Garmendia

  I whistle for Hunter and start to run. “Wait,” I say skidding to a stop. “Your name?”

  She smiles, blood seeping through her teeth and says, “Keturah.”

  Sacrifice

  The snow is relentless. It comes down in sharp jagged sheets. Hunter trots ahead of me, his leg muscles flexing in the freezing air. I can’t hear the fighting anymore over the Fort’s thick walls.

  Keturah. I can’t forget that.

  I zip my jacket up past my face and push my way through the blizzard. Aisley and Hayley are alive. They’re alive and within reaching distance. Sure them being out of the fort’s walls makes my skin crawl, but I can get to them.

  I open up the door to my truck and let Hunter jump in. It’s still pretty warm in the cab, so hopefully the truck will start quick. I turn the key, and the sluggish whir of the engine only crushes my hopes.

  Hunter barks at the window. He scratches wildly at the glass.

  “Hunter, quiet,” I say. I turn the key again, and the engine slurs to a rumbling start.

  A wendigo swings an axe into the side of the door nearly slicing my leg in the process. I click down the emergency brake and slam the truck into drive. The tires skid on the snow before they catch. We shoot off into the forest in a blur.

  Hunter climbs into the backseat and continues barking until the wendigos are out of site. “They’re alive,” I say aloud. Hunter turns his head to the side and lets his tongue loll out of his mouth. “We’re going to find them,” I tell him.

  I’m getting to the hotel. I’m not letting another minute separate us. We trudge through the frozen woods for a good hour in silence. Dawn’s light feels like it’s guiding us to the hotel without much effort on our part.

  The hotel hasn’t changed much. I look at the dilapidated building and feel razors tear apart my chest. It’s like I can feel her skin on mine. I can hear Aisley’s laugh.

  “Come on Hunter,” I say taking the keys from the ignition. He hops into the front seat and pants.

  The snow makes it difficult to get to the front door. Hunter walks by my side—he knows better than to run into an abandoned building without me. I cock my pistol and walk through the opening where the front door was.

  The hallway speaks in footsteps. I don’t smell fresh blood which is good. Hunter seems at ease which loosens the muscles in my back.

  “She probably stayed in our old room if she did come here,” I say.

  He grunts in response.

  The doorway to the second floor is covered in dried blood. Most are the shapes of clawing handprints. I hold my pistol up to chest level and check up the staircase just to be safe. Hunter lets out a bark that makes him jump when it echoes off the concrete stairwell. I laugh and shake my head. Guess if I was a dog, I’d get scared too.

  The second floor is empty as well. I don’t put my gun away—can’t risk it. I make my way toward the room down the hallway closest to the staircase that leads to the back door of the hotel.

  The door is half open. I nudge it with my elbow and check the corners. Hunter runs in ahead of me and sniffs. No one’s here.

  The notes I left are still folded neatly on the table, and my jacket hangs loosely in the closet. They haven’t been here yet. “Do you think they’ll come here Hunter?”

  He turns and tilts his head before sniffing the carpet again.

  I sit on the edge of the bed and look down at the barrel of my rifle. Where would they go? Maybe they didn’t stop here. Hopefully Hayley remembers where I left the weapons stash. I push myself up and whistle for Hunter.

  We jog down the stairs and out the back door. I slide onto my knees next to the tree I carved our initials into. The snow is smooth over where the weapons are buried. I flip out my pocket knife and carve a new message into the tree.

  “I’m still waiting,” I whisper after several minutes of work. “Do you think there’s enough clues here?”

  Hunter looks up and lifts his leg to pee on the pile of snow next to me. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  I push myself up until I’m eye level with my first carvings I made. My fingers trace them absently while I try to think where they could’ve went.

  If they’re running, then that means they’re close. She has Aisley with her, so they’d be looking for shelter. They’d probably look for a car. Which means they went to the highway or deeper into town. No definitely the highway—more of a selection. Aisley would probably be hunting. Hayley would gather.

  I’ve gotta get back to the house. I’m sure everyone is freaked over the explosion last night. “Come on Hunter,” I say. “We gotta go back to camp and then, I’m gonna find my family.”

  Back To You

  Doc draws my blood in silence. He’s the only one who met me at the gate. Everyone else was either too scared to leave their rooms or packing what little they had so they could run. He takes the blood into the back room.

  Hunter lays his head on my lap and sighs.

  “Things are about to get way more complicated here,” I say rubbing behind his ear.

  He groans and leans into my hand in response.

  “You’re clean.” Doc closes the lab’s door behind him and sits across from me. “How bad was it?”

  “Completely destroyed.” I pull my legs into my corduroys and cinch my belt tight. “It was just rubble by the time I got there.”

  “No luck on your family?”

  “No,” I respond. “But they’re out there. I know they are.”

  “How do you know?” Nikia’s voice makes both of us jump. Doc and I look over toward her. I let out a long sigh and shake my head. “There was a soldier there that told me—”

  “Oh right, the same soldiers that told you to go screw yourself,” she says throwing her hands in the air. “Now you trust them?”

  “I trust the only one that was left. She was on her deathbed when I found her. Having nothing to lose makes you do some pretty crazy things.”

  “Right,” she says. “So I’m assuming she didn’t make it?”

  “No,” I respond. “Shrapnel wound to the stomach. But she held off the wendigos who were after Hunter and I. Her name was Keturah.”

  Nikia’s face goes white in an instant. She grips the doorframe leading into the main hall. “Keturah.”

  Doc and I exchange looks before returning our gaze to her. “Yeah,” I say. “She—”

  Nikia lunges at me from the doorway sending me flying backwards onto the wood floor. She grips around my throat and squeezes until it’s hard to breath. “How could you just leave her there!”

  Doc grips Nikia around her torso and lifts her off of me. I gulp in air and sit up on the ground. “What the hell is the matter with you?”

  “You could’ve helped her!” She kicks her legs wildly trying to break free from Doc’s grip. “You could’ve saved her!”

  “I couldn’t move her, Nikia! She was bleeding out. Wendigos would’ve killed us both if I tried—”

  “That’s so like you isn’t it?” she shouts. “Always thinking of yourself. Gotta find Hayley, gotta find Aisley. You screw me and then dump me because you’re indecisive, and you left my girlfriend to diealone!”

  Her voice echoes off the walls in the tiny foyer and then there’s a heavy silence. “Nikia, I didn’t know—” She wrenches free from Doc’s grip and stalks away from us. The slamming of her door leave both Doc and myself speechless.

  “This is—” Doc says shaking his head. He rubs the back of his neck and lets out a sigh. “She’s not coming back from that one for a while.”

  “I think I should go,” I respond pushing myself to my feet.

  “Don’t be ridiculous Xavier. You couldn’t have possibly known that soldier was her girlfriend. Hell, I didn’t even know. She never spoke her name.”

  “I’m not leaving for good,” I respond. “But I have to find my family. The girl Keturah told me they made it out safely. That the explosion was because of them.”

  “You know how bad things are o
ut there now, Xavier,” Doc says stepping within inches from my face. “If you die out there, this entire house will crumble. What’s left of it anyway. Nikia, Two, You and I are the foundation. But we’re all a bit broken. We all are weak in one way or another. Don’t force going against the grain. It won’t end well.”

  “I know,” I respond. “But I’ve gotta find them.”

  * * *

  I grab a handful of ammunition and fill my water pack to the top. Hunter chows down on some leftover eggs and bear meat. “Be good Hunter,” I say closing my bedroom door behind me.

  “Xavier!” Two’s voice calls from the ground floor. I hop down the stairs.

  “What is it?”

  “People are at the gates. People from the fort!”

  “What?! Who!”

  “I don’t know,” he responds jogging toward the front door.

  My heart races behind my ribcage. Could Hayley and Aisley have found us? We’re nearly eight miles from Fort Ticonderoga. How in the hell could they have travelled that fast? Before I can stop my train of thought, I hear a gunshot.

  “No!” I sprint from the foyer into the front yard. A small group of people stand like zombies at the front gate. A youngin’ holds his rifle up to the people at head level. “Stop!”

  The youngin’ turns and looks at me, fear making the muscles around his eyes twitch. “One of them attacked Zachariah,” his shaky voice calls out. Two kneels down on the ground next to another body. I look on the other side of the fence and see a man writhing in pain on the ground.

  I grip the barrel of the rifle and point it down. “Joshua, it’s all right,” I whisper. “You did good. Go get Doc ok?”

  The youngin’ nods and takes off to the backyard. I turn and scan the crowd of dirtied faces. “Where did you come from?”

  “Where do you think?” a man in front spits. “We came from the fort.”

  “I don’t think now is the time to get smart with me,” I respond, tightening my grip on the rifle. “You’re outside with the wendigos and we’re in here, remember?”

  “Not for long,” the same man growls. “We’ve got more people than you—”

  “We’re the only ones that you can see.” I knew he was right. I could at least make out fifteen people in their group. Our numbers were so low now from the people who fled when Georgia died. But I stiffen my jaw for good measure and glare at him. “We’ve got two sharpshooters pinned on you right now. All I need to do is radio them.”

  The man’s eyes dart around the woods. Fear creeps past his cocky exterior in seconds.

  “Can we have a normal conversation now?”

  He nods.

  “Good. I take it the one with the gunshot attacked my friend.”

  “He stabbed him,” the man responds. “The boy had six rabbits attached to his belt loop. We’ve been wandering for hours. We just wanted one—”

  “So you stab him?” I say staring at the shot man.

  “He ran,” their spokesperson responds for him. “We were hungry.”

  “That’s not how things work out here—”

  “You know damn well that’s how things are out here,” he growls in response. I let my finger lick the trigger of the rifle. The man eyes my hand and then returns his gaze to me.

  I glance over at Zachariah on the ground. His leg never fully healed after getting caught in that trap. I knew he was stupid for going outside the fence, but I also know why he did. Too much happened in here. Too much that he had to remember on a daily basis if he stayed within the perimeter. I look down at his belt loop and only see the remnants of the rabbits.

  “Where’s his game?” I say returning my attention to the group’s ring leader.

  “We have it,” he says. “And we’d like to discuss a trade.”

  “Oh yeah, and what’s that?”

  “Let us in and we’ll give you back your food. Or else we keep it and you starve.”

  I tilt my head and pretend to contemplate his proposition. Then, with a smirk on my face, I reply, “No.”

  “We have what you need—”

  “You steal from my friend, stab him, and then try to strike up a deal with armed,dangerous, strangers,” I respond lifting my rifle. “Sounds to me like you have food for your group, and nothing else to offer.”

  The man’s face flashes with anger, and he lunges at the fence. I let the tip of the rifle’s barrel hit his forehead and flick the safety off.

  “Do it.” The man grabs the barrel of my rifle and presses harder into his forehead.

  “Clarence no!” a woman cries out. She moves from behind him and tries to pull his hands from the rifle. “Stop!”

  “If you don’t kill me now,” the man called Clarence says. “We’ll just come back later for you all.”

  “Sir, let me fill you in on something,” I respond. I tug the rifle from his hands and flick the safety back on. “You’re not a killer. From the looks of it, you’re not a survivor either. You were probably in that fort waiting for the day that the military told you everything was all right and you could go back to your normal life.

  Now, that tiniest bit of safety you thought you had burned to the ground. You’re back out in the real world where people like myself and my friends have been waiting and surviving. We know things much better than you do. When you threaten us like that, you’re the one who will be hunted.”

  The man swallows and looks behind him at the group of people. His bottom lip trembles and all of his facade comes crashing down. “Please,” he whispers. “We’re desperate.”

  I move within an inch from his face. Hot, sticky breath meets the skin on chin. “This is the way the world works now,” I respond. “Take your stolen food and get the hell outta here.”

  The group walks away one-by-one when the growling starts. “Run!” one of them says. They disappear through the trees in an instant, but the growling doesn’t dissipate.

  “Xavier, I need your help,” Two says. I lay the rifle on the ground and slide over to Two and Zachariah.

  “Is it bad?” Zachariah’s voice comes out as a whimper. Two’s hands are soaked in blood with more coming through his grip.

  “Where the hell is Doc?” I press my hands down on Zachariah’s wound. The warmth of his blood makes my stomach lurch.

  Tears stream down from the corners of his eyes. His bottom lip trembles while he turns his head towards me. “I deserved this,” he wheezed.

  I swallow and look away from his gaze. The growling makes it hard to focus. The sound of footsteps forces my eyes open; Doc and the other youngin’ sprint toward us. “Hang on, Zachariah,” I say. “You’re gonna be fine—”

  “Xavier,” Two says, gripping my shoulder. I look back at him and then down at Zachariah. His eyes are open staring at the empty blue sky above us. “He’s gone.”

  * * *

  Another youngin’ dead. That’s leaves us with ten people living within the house’s walls. We went from upwards of twenty five to ten. So many of the one’s who didn’t make it have somehow left blood on my hands.

  “What’s going on?” I turn to see the three young faces that remained with us through it all. The kids too young to hold a rifle have been tucked into a room with Two.

  “We need to talk to you all,” Doc says.

  I close my hands into fists. The three of them stare at me—my arms are still covered in Zachariah’s blood. I clear my throat. “If you want to leave, we won’t stop you.”

  The oldest one, Joshua, steps forward. “I don’t want to leave.” His white T-shirt is soiled. The fabric clings to stiff muscles under his shirt. His hair is cut short—he buzzed it yesterday by rigging the cigarette lighter in my truck to supply enough power. The skin on his face and hands are darker than than rest of his mocha-colored skin from hours in direct sunlight. His eyes show days of exhaustion but also a calmness that someone much older than him would have.

  “Now, Joshua—”

  “Don’t talk to me like I’m a kid, Doc. We’re not kids any
more. We’ve watched people die enough to kill off thechild in us.”

  “I don’t want to leave either.” The youngest girl steps forward. She’s fourteen. Aisley’s age. The kinky curls in her hair are tangled from hours of watch. I think her name is Madison. Her younger sister is in the room with the other kids and Two. “I have nothing out there for me. My parents are gone. I have to watch out for Ava.”

  The third one is quiet—his parents were found slaughtered at a gas station. Nikia assumed his parents locked him in the bathroom before looters killed and robbed them. He hasn’t spoken since Nikia found him there. Judging by the rifle in his hands and binoculars around his neck, he’s not planning on going anywhere either. He nods once and a lock of brown hair falls in front of his face.

  “Things are going to be a lot harder. I don’t want you all to feel like this is your only option—”

  “Guys!” Footsteps barrel down the stairs. I spot Two’s hat before he appears fully in the entryway of the living room. “There’s a new broadcast. There’s a broadcast on the radio!”

  Two places his handheld crank radio on the coffee table in between all of us. We inch closer to the device as Two adjusts the fine tuner.

  “The President of the United States has issued a national state of emergency. Please find shelter now. Stay where you are and wait for instructions.”

  We all look around at each other. What does this mean? The government is still existent? Why did they wait five, almost six years—and right after the fort exploded? Something’s not right.

  “And now, the President of the United States.”

  Joshua, Madison and no name sit on either side of me. My heart pounds so hard in my ears that I feel a nosebleed coming.

  “Men and women of the United States, I come to you during this time of great duress to tell you that order is being returned. Nearly six years ago—” The radio crackles. I hold my breath while Two fiddles with the tuner. “The virus is deadly. Initial reports say nearly seventy percent of the population of the United States is gone. However, there have been designated safe zones set up across the country by our military.