Z-Burbia: A Zombie Novel (13 page)

“Fuck, Jace,” she sighs. “I don’t want you leaving the gate again.”

“I can’t make that promise. You know that.”

“Leave the outside to Melissa and the scavengers,” she insists, “and to Stuart and his defensive team. Once he’s healed. You’re a brain. And brains need to be kept safe and protected by a hard shell like Whispering Pines.”

I debate telling her. I don’t want to scare her, but the reality of what’s out there can’t be kept secret.

“We made some friends while we were gone,” I say and look at her.

“Oh? Invite to dinner friends?”

“No. More like shoot on sight friends. Killed a few of them before we got away. They’ve got this leader, or I assume he’s the leader, that Stuart calls Wall Street. I like Bullhorn because he kept shouting into a bullhorn, but Stuart likes Wall Street because he looks like that guy from the movie, but younger.”

“Shia LeBouf?” she asks.

“What? No, Michael Douglas.”

“Old school Wall Street.”

“Yeah.”

“Does he
actually look like him?”

“He dresses like him.”

“Then he’s Wall Street. Bullhorn can be any asshole.”

“Thanks for backing me up.”

“Stop stalling. Tell me what’s going on.”

I do. I fill her in on the entire ordeal. Even the pink yoga pants and purple butterfly t-shirt. I could have just left that part out, but there can’t be secrets in a marriage. Especially not in the zombie apocalypse.

Stella is still and quiet for a long time before she stirs and grips my hand.

“You think Brenda knows Wall Street?” she asks.

“I think she knows of him,” I answer. “But whether they’ve communicated? I don’t know. How would they? Brenda never leaves Whispering Pines. Only Stuart and his team and Melissa and her crew do, really. And neither of those two have any true love for Brenda.”

“But you said Brenda gave Stuart the real mission, right? Maybe she gave him something to leave somewhere and he didn’t even know what it was?”

“I think that’s stretching it,” I say.

Stella’s phone chimes with a text. She reads it and laughs. “Charlie wants to know if he can come out of his room.”

I smile. “Yes, he can come out of his…”

“What?” she asks.

“The Wi-Fi,” I say. “It’s strong enough to reach outside Whispering Pines. Landon has it jacked up so no matter where we are in the neighborhood, we always have full signal.”

Landon Chase, a scrawny little fuck of a man. Even after the
apocalypse, he thinks that tech is the answer to everything. He wired the neighborhood and made sure the Wi-Fi was working. He troubleshoots everything tech. Sure, Carl handles the grid and electrical, along with Jon, but Landon makes sure the phones go beep when they are supposed to.

I’m about to elaborate when there’s a loud knock at the door.
Stella starts to get up and answer it, but doesn’t have to as the door opens and we hear someone come stomping in.

“Jace!” Melissa Billings shout/whispers. She’s spent enough time outside the gate that she can make her voice carry like a shout, but only have it loud as a whisper. “Jace!”

“Hey, Mrs. Billings,” Charlie says from the stairs.

“In your room, Charlie,” Stella says.

“Ah, for fuck’s sake, I just came out!”

“Go,” I say.

“Fine. Whatever.”

We all wait until we hear the door close.

“Where is he?” Melissa asks. “Where’s Jon? I can’t believe you left him out there!”

Before Stella can get pissed and try to defend me I dive into the whole story.

“So he’s still out there?” Melissa asks. “Alone? With the Zs? And those others?”

“Yeah,” I say. “But you know Jon, he’s scrappy and resourceful.”

“And a shit shot,” she says. “Man never could hit a damn thing.”

Melissa Billings is a handsome woman. Grey/white hair that she keeps tied back in a pony tail.
She’s lean and muscular, looking exactly like what she is- an ex-farm girl. She is Western North Carolina through and through and grew up not far from Asheville. Knowing the area, having the strength and guts, and always keeping a cool head, Melissa Billings is the perfect choice to lead the scavenger group.

She paces
back and forth in front of us and then sighs heavily, her hands planted on her hips.

“So when do we go find him?” she asks.

“Uh…”

“Jace isn’t going anywhere,” Stella says. “He just got back and look at him. His leg is in bad shape and he has to keep his cheek clean or it will get infected.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Melissa laughs. “Is that scratch an inconvenience for you, Jace? What a man you must feel like. Your wife telling you what you can and can’t do. She probably makes you piss sitting down, huh?”

“Too far,” I say. “Never insult a man’s pissing style.” Melissa doesn’t laugh. Stella just groans.

“Melissa, I know you are scared and hurt right now,” Stella says. “I understand that. Until Jace showed up at the gate, I didn’t know if he’d ever come back. So I know how you are feeling.”

“You don’t know shit, Stella,” Melissa snaps. “You have your man back. Mine’s still out there.”

“And he’ll make it back,” Stella says. “I’m sure of it.”

Melissa cocks her head and studies Stella. I have a sinking feeling she’s gonna haul off and punch my wife
, so I get right in front of her, ready to take the hit myself.

“He took off to save me,” I say. I swallow hard, knowing what I’m about to say is gonna bring a shit storm down on me like never before. “You get a team together and I’ll go out with you.”

“Like fuck you will!” Stella shouts, grabbing my arm and turning me about. “Are you fucking crazy, Jace? You just got back. Barely.” She points up to the landing. “And you want to leave? When you brought that crazy cannibal twat into my house? You fucking piece of shit.”

I look up at the landing and freeze. Shit. Stella sees the look on my face and turns her head to look also. Elsbeth.

“I ain’t crazy,” Elsbeth says, looking down on us from the landing. “I ain’t. Pa always said I just have different wiring in my head.” She taps her temple over and over. “Different. But not crazy.” The tapping starts to get rougher and rougher until she is smacking the side of her head. “Different! Different! Different!”

“Jesus,” Greta
says and smacks Elsbeth in the back of the head, “knock it off.”

We three adults just stand and stare at this
thirteen year old girl taking on this obviously disturbed young woman.

“What?” Greta asks. “She was losing it. You want her to crack her skull?”

Elsbeth looks at Greta and smiles. “Pa used to have to smack me. Thank you, little girl.”

“Greta,” my daughter answers. “I already told you that. Don’t be stupid. Or crazy. Different is fine. Just no more crazy, got it?”

“Yes, Greta,” Elsbeth nods. “Got it.” She gives a thumbs up and Greta just rolls her eyes before she turns and goes into her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

“Can I come out?” Charlie calls.

“No,” Stella and I say.

“I’ll go,” Elsbeth says. “I can track your man, lady.”

Melissa looks at us and then back up at Elsbeth. A million emotions and responses filter across her face until she says, “Can you shoot a bow?”

“Don’t need to,” Elsbeth smiles and lifts The Bitch up for Melissa to see. I don’t even remember her bringing that
into the house. How did I not notice that?

“Where the hell did she get that?” Stella asks. “It looks like yours, Jace.”

“It’s better,” Elsbeth grins. “I can use this and these.” She taps her eyes, ears, then nose and her grin widens. “Ain’t no one got away from me. Not ever. Pa says that’s part of what makes me different. I don’t lose prey.”

Holy shit, I think I brought home some cannibal savant or something. Rain Man with a taste for people. Great?

“Is she for real?” Melissa asks.

“She killed
about fifty Zs by herself getting me from that truck,” I say. “That’s pretty fucking real in my book.”

“Then we leave in the morning,” Melissa says. “I’ll pick the ones from my team I can trust 100%. We do this and Brenda is going to have a shit fit. She may not let us back in.”

“Are you kidding?” Stella says. “You have got to be kidding! Jace? Don’t even think about it!”

“If Jace was lost out there and you were standing in my living room with me and Jon looking at you, what would you want, Stella? Be honest. What would you want? For us
just to sit on our asses and hope?”

Stella starts to answer then closes
her mouth. “I don’t like this.”

“No one does,” Melissa nods. “But I have to go get Jon. There is no point in any of this for me without that man.” She glances up at Elsbeth and then at me. “Are you in?”

“I am,” I say, looking at Stella. “I have to.”

“Your leg is shit,” Stella says. “How are you going to run? If the Zs swarm they’ll take you down.”

“I’ll watch him, lady,” Elsbeth says. “He won’t fall behind. And if we get trapped and I can’t kill our way gone, then I’ll put a blade through the back of his neck and then through my heart so we don’t get ate and turned.” Elsbeth is smiling as she says this last part like it’s a wonderful plan.

“Oh, sweet Jesus,” Stella says. “This is all shit.”

Our phones chime as a text comes in. We all pull them out and frown, then Stella and I look at Melissa. Her face is white, but her eyes blaze.

The text is from Mindy and says, “We need all security and defensive personnel to the gate now! We have a situation! And someone go get Jason Stanford! This is his fault! Oh, and no one tell Melissa Billings. She doesn’t want to see this.”

“Fucking dumb bitch sent it to the whole neighborhood,” Stella says. “That stupid cow.”

“It’s Jon,” Melissa says. “He’s back.”

The way she says it chills my bones. She is assuming the worst. And I can’t blame her.

“We better get down there,” I say. “Are you staying here?”

Stella shakes her head. “I’m coming with you. The kids will stay.”

“What about…?” I nod up at Elsbeth.

“She comes. I’m not leaving her with the kids alone.”

“I won’t eat ‘em,” Elsbeth says.
“I don’t eat friends.” She turns to the stairs and her words become muffled. “Never had friends. Good rule. Don’t eat friends. Rules is good.”

“Jesus,” Stella says, shaking her head. “Weapons?”

“Bows,” I say. “I’ll have to take Charlie’s until I get a new one.”

“He’s dead,” Melissa says quietly as we walk to the garage for the bows.

“Maybe not,” Stella replies as I push up the garage door. “It may not be that bad.”

“It may be worse,” Elsbeth says. “He could be turned.”

“Fucking A!” Stella snarls. “Just stay quiet, okay? No more talking unless I say so.”

Elsbeth nods, her eyes wide with fear. Yep, my wife can scare the shit out of a cannibal savant.

It takes us longer than it should because of my leg and we have to push our way through the crowd at the gate to get to the watchtower. The whole neighborhood has turned out thanks to Mindy’s incompetence. I look around, but don’t see Brenda anywhere.

“This is quite ridiculous,” a voice blares from the other side of the gate. My belly clenches at the sound. “All I need to do is speak to your leader. A Brenda Kelly, I believe. A simple request that should not be taking so long!”

I know who is at the other end of that voice before I get up into the watchtower. Stella, Elsbeth, and Melissa are right behind me.

“Who told her?” Mindy snaps as she sees Melissa. “I said not to tell her.”

“You sent a blast text to the whole neighborhood,” Stella says. “You moron.”

“I did?” Mindy asks, pulling out her phone and looking at the t
ext. “It wasn’t supposed to be.” She taps at the screen a couple times. In a second, every phone in the crowd chimes. So does one outside the gate. “Oh, poop.”

I push Mindy out of the way and look down into the road. Bullhorn. Or Wall Street.

“See,” I say to Stella, “he has a bullhorn. That’s why I think Bullhorn is a better name.”

“Shut up,” Stella says.

The man is looking at his phone and shaking his head, laughing. Surrounding him are at least twenty heavily armed men and women. And kneeling in front, his hands and feet bound, and quite a few wraps of duct tape around his mouth, is Jon.

“JON!” Melissa shouts.

“Oh, you must be Missus Smart Ass,” Bullhorn says. “Your husband has quite a mouth. I had to close it for him.”

The bullhorn comes down and slams into the back of Jon’s head. He crumples to the asphalt, but a woman reaches down and yanks him back up onto his knees.

“Now, where is Ms. Brenda Kelly?”

“Here, here,” Brenda says as she steps from the ladder and onto the watchtower platform. “I’m here!”