Read Online Running Red by Jack Bates - Free Book Online Page A

Bethany more than his stony glares. She looks to Leslie and the other younger woman for support.
    “If what you told us outside is true,” Auntie Alice says, “then maybe it’s getting a little more complicated.”
    “Living or dead, they’s still the enemy,” Sledge says. He slaps a hand down on his bald head and rubs the bare scalp. He yawns. “Think it’s time to call it a night.” Sledge stands. Scarecrow stands along with him.
    “I think it’s time everyone got a little shut eye,” Denny says.
    Bethany stands and holds out her hand. I think she’s reaching for Aubrey’s, but then the other woman, the one with the long, straight black hair, holds up her arm. Their hands fold around each others’.
    “Come on, Tessa,” Bethany says.
    They walk like that to the stairs, holding hands, Bethany practically pulling the other behind her. Bethany glares at me over her shoulder. Her friend only gives me a thin smile that frightens me. As they go up the steps, Tessa reaches up and scratches at something on her scalp. It’s perfunctory. She probably doesn’t even realize she’s just given herself away. Not every itch is an indication you are infected with Balzini’s Rash, and I hope that it was just an absent gesture. It isn’t until she wipes her fingertips on her clothes that I know my suspicions are real. As if to check and see if anyone noticed her, Tessa turns and looks over the railing at us.
    “Come along, Leslie,” Bethany says.
    Leslie tucks her blond hair behind her ears. She glances sideways at me without looking at me directly. I frighten her. I frighten all of them. They think I am something I’m not. All I am is a girl who never got to graduate from high school because the world went bat-house crazy. I lower my eyes. That was something my dad always said when things like this happened in the world. “That guy who shot up his office was bat-house crazy…What are those people thinking? Are they bat-house crazy? If you think I’m going to let you go camping with that Lane doofus, then you are…’
    “Robbie? You okay?”
    Aubrey’s question snaps me back to my immediate reality. I bring my attention back to the people in the room. He, Auntie Alice, Denny, Sledge, and the scarecrow stare at me.
    “It’s been a long—” I stop. My smile is tired. “It’s just been long.”
    “Right on, Sunshine,” Denny says. “A little rest will do you good. We’ve got an extra room upstairs—”
    Before I can decline the invitation, Auntie Alice has rescinded the offer. “Not tonight, Denny. Not tonight.”
    Denny laughs. His eyes squint behind his round, wire-rimmed glasses. His face goes pink and scrunches behind a thick, curly brown beard. He says goodnight and goes up the stairs. All Auntie Alice can do is stare at me.
    “Can I take my things?” I ask.
    “Absolutely not. Sledge and Jimmy will put them away for safe keeping.”
    Sledge looks a little irritated. I think he wants to get to his sleeping bag up in his tree fort. Jimmy the Scarecrow whistles some nameless tune and picks up the weapons, lighters, and matches.
    “What about the rest of it?” he asks.
    “She can take it,” Auntie Alice says.
    I pick up the picture of Lane and the tennis ball. “Be careful with the rest of my gear,” I say. Scarecrow Jimmy gives me a salute. I want to snap his wrist.
    It is Aubrey who takes me out to where I will bed down for the night. Some of the tents still have a flickering inside of them from lanterns. The yard is quiet. I can hear some people whispering as we pass. At one point I think I hear someone whimpering. We walk alongside a tent where a guy strumming a guitar sits on an upside down milk crate. He sees me and his eyes go flat. He stops strumming. As pass, I hear him whisper to someone inside his tent.
    “Yeah, it’s that girl,” he says. I look over my shoulder and he’s staring at me. There’s a face watching me from behind the fine mesh screen of the tent window. Because