realistically carry. Red wished for the meal pouches she’d started off with but splitting them with Adam had made them disappear fast, and this was not the kind of grocery store to carry those types of goods.
They collected some more granola and cereal bars and packaged nuts, then hoisted their packs back on. Adam moaned immediately.
“Oh my Christ, it’s so much heavier,” Adam said. “What the hell? Do we really need to carry all this?”
“I just don’t know how many times I have to ask you if you want to eat on a regular basis,” Red said.
“I am never going camping ever again,” Adam said. “Once we get to Grandma’s house I’m never leaving.”
Red didn’t say that when they got to Grandma’s house there would probably be just as many, if not more, tasks to stay alive. Adam was not ready to hear that. But they wouldn’t have to carry their packs every day, and Red could admit (quietly, to herself) that this would be a relief.
She covered her ears and said, “You whine more than a four-year-old without a nap.”
Adam said something that was indistinct because her fingers were pressing into her ears.
“La, la, la, I can’t hear you,” Red said.
He grabbed at her, trying to take her hands away from her ears, and she darted away through the door into the main part of the store, laughing.
She always remembered that afterward, that she and Adam were laughing when she walked out and there was a man holding a rifle pointed at her face.
CHAPTER 11
The Hurlyburly
Before
Trapped, Red thought. After all her plans and all her schemes and all her caution they were caught anyway, pinned like butterflies on a board.
The man was shouting, telling them to get down on their knees and put their hands on the back of their head and Red followed his instructions but everything inside her had gone numb.
Still, some remnant of hope and caution made her tug her shirt hem over the axe hanging off her belt so they couldn’t see it. She didn’t see how she’d possibly be able to overwhelm a man with a rifle with that little blade but if she kept it hidden then maybe, maybe, it would come in useful later.
What do you think you’re going to do, Red—leap up and battle this guy to the ground like you’re a movie superheroine with martial arts skills? More likely he would just break your wrist and take the axe away.
Still, no point in advertising its presence. And having the option to defend herself made her feel better.
He called to someone else—Red wasn’t really paying attention to what he was saying and anyhow the blood was filling her ears now and how could she have been so stupid as to not set one of them out to watch while the other went into the back room?
Because then you would have been separated, and Not Separating is the golden rule.
Why had she indulged Adam’s stupid idea about chest-exploding monsters? Why were they playing around when they came through that door instead of being careful?
She was always careful. She was always cautious. If they had been listening they would have heard the rumble of truck engines outside. It was pretty clear now from the amount of activity that she could see through the window that there was a long line of them, and that they were filled with soldiers—real soldiers this time, with proper uniforms and patches and name tags and all the accompanying gear (which included more guns than she ever wanted to see in her life).
Soon there were three more soldiers around them, each man holding his weapon trained on Red and Adam like they were the most dangerous criminals in America. Nobody spoke after the first guy (and they were all guys, Red noted, not a woman among them and that wasn’t a good sign) called his buddies over.
Red didn’t say anything because she was not volunteering any information to anybody no matter what the circumstances and she was pretty sure Adam wasn’t speaking because he didn’t want to get shot if he startled one of them.