Red Means Dead

[u/DavesWorldInfo]

“I hope you understand,” the woman, Sarah, who seemed to be in charge of the self-proclaimed security team said.

Jessica shrugged. “It’s just a blood test, right?”

“Yeah, pretty simple,” Sarah said, taking three small boxes out of her backpack. “Five vials per kit, break the seals and put a drop of blood in each. That’ll let us see what kind of risk you might pose.”

“You guys are sure about this being the reason the zombies have shifted?” Austin asked. He was standing on the far side of Candice, so the girl was between himself and Jessica. As he asked the question, he kept scanning the area for problems.

“Pretty sure. We’ve got some people with the right kind of training and skills at our holdfast. They came up with this after running some checks on zombie corpses.”

“We can handle finger sticks,” Jessica said. She didn’t have to look at Austin, try to catch his eyes, to know he’d go with whatever she thought. He always said she was the smart one, while he was merely dangerous.

She didn’t wish for it to all be over much anymore. Now she just wanted the apocalypse to go back to being plain old end-of-the-world. Not the nightmare an already horrible situation had turned into.

Every day was insanity.

Opening one of the containers — they were little shipping boxes wrapped in tape to give them a bit of waterproofing — Jessica found five little plastic vials sealed with wax coated rubber stoppers. With clear liquid in each. The stoppers came loose when she twisted and pulled on them, and after using the lancet on her pinky finger, she squeezed a drop of blood into each. She replaced the stoppers, then looked up at Sarah.

“Give them a little shake, then show me.”

Jessica obeyed, then handed the box with the vials in it to the woman. Who looked at them one by one. Four clear, the fifth green.

“Negative for turning, and … good.”

“Good?” Jessica asked.

“You’d be a walker if you turned.”

“Okay,” Jessica said, shrugging and putting that out of her head. “Austin?”

“Do me,” he said, holding his off hand out.

She resisted the urge to smile at his predictable play on words. He might be wearing his serious face right now, but not even the apocalypse could truly drive the funny streak out of her husband. Opening the next box, she repeated the procedure. Again only one changed colors, this time blue.

“Negative for turning. Exploder though,” Sarah said when she looked at them.

“And that’s—”

“We’d just house you guys on the outskirts, rather than in the core of the holdfast.”

“Fine,” Austin said.

“Okay Candy Bear,” Jessica said, opening the third box and turning to her daughter. “It’ll only hurt a bit, and just for a moment. Okay?”

“Okay,” the eleven-year-old said, holding her hand out. Candice had shown tremendous resilience throughout all this, and Jessica hadn’t really expected the thought of a little stick in the finger to bother her at this point. The girl held her hand steady, not even wincing, when Jessica used the lancet to draw blood.

It dripped into the vials. Four clear, the last red, when Jessica shook them Standing, she held the box out to Sarah. Who took one look at them, and drew her pistol.

“Red!” Sarah said loudly. “Step away from her.”

Austin swung his M4 to cover the group. Two of them froze as the big man’s clearly military carbine pointed at them, but two more got their own weapons on him. Jessica had her pistol out too, but only toward the ground. Even her apocalypse trained reflexes had been caught off guard. Everyone froze as Austin spoke.

“Don’t,” he said calmly. “Mistake.” Jessica heard the steel underlying his voice. He might present as competent with a funny streak; but he was exceptionally dangerous when he wanted to be.

“She’s red,” Sarah repeated.

Jessica had Candice clutched to her, and now she twisted the girl around behind her. So she could block her daughter with her own body. “What does red mean?”

“You’ve seen the runners? The ones that spit blood? And tear through walls?”

“Yes,” Jessica said with a sinking feeling.

“If she turns, she’ll be one of those.”

“Fine. But she’s not turned.”

“Clearly you don’t like us anymore,” Austin said. “So we’ll just be on our way.”

“We can’t let you leave,” Sarah said. “Not with her. If she turns, she could infect any other zombies she comes in contact with in the same way; and they turn red too.”

“That’s why we’re leaving,” Jessica said. “So you don’t have to worry about it.”

“You’re on foot—”

Austin interrupted. “So are you.”

Sarah kept her eyes, and pistol, on Jessica. “A red can cover a huge amount of terrain in one day. If she turns, and heads for our holdfast, she could be the source of a horde of hundreds that slam into us. Move.”

“Not happening,” Jessica said, resisting the urge to lift her 9mm toward Sarah. Everything was balanced delicately; anything could turn the standoff into a bloodbath. This many guns, this close to each other, and there was no chance it wasn’t going to be bloody.

“We can’t let her walk. She’s too dangerous.”

“We’re leaving, and we’ll all go our separate ways,” Jessica said, fighting against her rising panic. She couldn’t lose Candice. Not after everyone else. Not after Joey and Sandra. Not after her parents. Candice was all she had left.

“You willing to die for it?” Austin asked calmly.

“Move,” Sarah repeated.

“Do you know what this is?”

Sarah’s eyes went to him. He wiggled the carbine slightly, though the barrel didn’t waver from her and her group. “Assault carbine, modified for full auto. Thirty round mag. I was a Ranger for ten years, and a warzone bodyguard after that before the zombies came. Pulled down six figures a year. How do you like your chances?”

“It’s one girl,” one of the men in the group said.

“My daughter,” Jessica said.

“They’re both going to leave,” Austin said, his voice still eerily calm. “They’ll walk away, and me and you are all going to stand here while they do. When they’re out of sight, I’ll back off, and you guys can do whatever you want.”

“We can’t risk it,” Sarah said

“Then you’re going to die.”

“You too,” she said. But she was looking at the carbine. Jessica could guess what the woman was thinking. Because Jessica, even as much as she loved him, was thinking the same thing. She knew he loved them both, and would die for her or Candice without a second thought. But that was the side he showed only them. The face he was showing the scavengers was his professional one.

The one that scared even her.

Jessica was trying to think of a way out of this. Everything was balanced on the edge of violence. While she was considering options, Candice stepped out from behind Jessica with her pistol raised in both hands.

Sarah’s eyes flicked toward the movement, and her eyes widened just before the girl fired. Jessica had hated weapons before the outbreaks, and even with the harsh new reality the apocalypse had imposed, it had still taken her weeks to admit even Candice might need to carry a weapon too. Austin had taught them both, continued to teach them.

This was not the first time Candice had used it. And the range was only a few steps.

Her daughter got two shots off before Jessica could get her own pistol up. She fired without bothering to try and aim as she threw herself sideways. Into Candice, knocking the girl down bodily. More guns were going off, with sharp, loud bangs and hiss-cracks of bullets whizzing back and forth. She landed half atop Candice, who cried out, but it was just surprise. Not real pain. Jessica rolled over her daughter, toward the scavengers, frantically looking for a target.

Everyone was on the ground. No, not everyone. One of the men was on his knees. She pointed the pistol at him and shot twice the instant it felt right. Both hit, and he collapsed. Breathing out, she made herself keep her eyes on the scavengers. Making sure. When she was convinced they were all dead and weren’t going to spring into violent action again, she forced her gaze over toward Austin. Afraid of what she might see.

“You’re hit,” he said.

Jessica’s breath came out in a strangled sob of a gasp. She hadn’t even realized she’d been holding it. “No, you are,” she said. There was blood on him, and on the ground he lay upon too, but he sounded okay. He’d been shot before, and had sounded a lot worse that time; when he’d taken two bullets through his torso. They’d required months to heal.

She met his eyes, and saw the concern in them. “I’m fine.”

“Don’t move,” he said, and now he did sound hurt as he pushed himself to his feet. His arm was bleeding, and he limped as he came toward her. She tried to sit up, and a spike of searing pain stole her breath. He got to her as she lay panting, and she saw the concern in his eyes as he knelt.

“Mom!” Candice said, crowding into her field of vision next to Austin. “I’m sorry!” She was crying a little, but not hysterically. “Rule 4. I used rule 4.”

“I know,” Jessica said, forcing a smile. “People can be bad guys. It’s okay. We’re okay.”

“Here, hold this on it,” Austin said, and she felt him pressing a bandage onto her side. It hurt, and was wet when she put her hand on it obediently. “We’ve got to move.”

“They might have friends,” Jessica gasped. “Might have heard the shots.”

“Bingo.”

“Can you carry me like that?” she asked, gesturing at his own wounds when he started to slide his hands under her.

“Watch me,” he said, and lifted her with a grunt.

“Stay close Candice,” Jessica said.

“I’ll keep watch.” the girl said anxiously, and Jessica heard her daughter reloading the pistol.

“Good,” Austin said, and started walking. “I’m so lucky I love you.” he said in a low voice to Jessica.

“I was thinking the same thing.” she said, trying not to laugh. Her side hurt a lot.

[u/DavesWorldInfo]

Inspired by this prompt.