Z-Burbia 3: Estate Of The Dead (15 page)

“I thi
nk you have that backwards,” she replies.

“You f
uck,” Charlie snaps. “How’s that for backwards?”

“Fair enough,” Lourdes says, cutting Charlie some slack.

They all strap in and Lourdes holds her arm out the window. She watches the Zs moving then drops her hand. Every vehicle in the convoy starts up at once.

“Go!” Lourdes shouts.

The driver punches it and the Humvee shoots across Merrimon, wiping out Zs that stand in its way. Guts and black blood splatter up onto the windshield, but the driver doesn’t care as the Humvee thumps and bumps over rotten corpses. He cranks the wheel and takes a hard left as they get across and race up the hill towards Reynolds Mountain Village, a group of misused buildings that were supposed to hold retail shops as well as residential condos.

Sales kinda went to shit when the dead started walking the Earth.

Lourdes looks back at the convoy and sees several vehicles following right behind. But she also sees that several are still on the far side of Merrimon and not moving.

“Fuck,” she says, causing everyone else to turn and look.

“Why are they just sitting there?” Stella asks, watching as the Zs notice the stationary vehicles. “They need to move!”

“One of them must have broken down,” the driver says
, “it’s blocking the others.”

“Don’t stop,” Lourdes says.

“Wasn’t planning on it,” the driver frowns.

“But what about them?” Greta asks. “We can’t leave them!”

“We’re taking you up to the gates,” Lourdes says. “Then we’ll go back and help.”

The driver barely uses the brakes as he rockets through the twists and turns that take them to the entrance of the Reynolds Mountain estate. When he gets
there, he turns the Humvee in a wide arc so it’s facing back down the hill. Lourdes hops out and starts waving for others to do the same.

“Everyone out except a driver and
shooter!” Lourdes orders. “We’re going back down to get the rest!”

The vehicles empty and the residents of Whispering Pines instantly rush forward towards Stella as she stands there, motioning them to her

“Stay safe,” Lourdes says as she gets back into the Humvee and it speeds off.

“Did she seriously just say that?” Charlie asks. “That lady be loco, yo.”

Terrified eyes look expectantly at Stella and she nods to them all.

“Stay close to each other and don’t let anyone wander off,” Stella says. “Hold tight as I get us inside.”

“I thought Lourdes said there would be PCs here with the Grove Park people,” Greta says. “They were supposed to dig in and be ready for the Zs.” She looks around. “I don’t see anything.”

“That’s because it’s too dark to see,” Charlie says.

“You know what I mean,” Greta snaps.

“Stop,” Stella orders and the kids go quiet. She walks up to the gates and bangs her palm against them. “Hello?”

“Sorry, ma’am,” a man says from above, “but I can’t let you in.”

“It’s me,” Stella says. “Stella Stanford. We had to evacuate Whispering Pines. There’s a huge herd of Zs taking over the city. Please let us in now.”

“I know who you are, Ms. Stanford, but I’m under strict orders not to let anyone in,” the man replies before swallowing hard and continuing. “I’m especially not to let anyone from Whispering Pines in. Particularly anyone named Stanford.”

“That fucking cunt,” Stella mumbles then takes a deep breath. “I’m sure Brenda gave that order, I have
zero
doubt about that, but things have changed. This isn’t about petty squabbles. This is about people living or dying. Please, you have to let us in.”

“Ma’am, I’m sorry, but if I do that then they’ll kick me and my whole family outside the wire,” the man says. “We won’t survive out there.”

“Let us the fuck in, asshole!” someone shouts.

“Open the gates!” another voice rings out.

“There are children!” a woman screams.

“Please! My wife is hurt!”

“Help us!”

“Please!”

“Please!”

“PLEASE!”

The group is lit up by floodlights from the top of the gates and everyone shields their eyes from the glare.

“BACK OFF!” a voice booms. “If you don’t leave we will open fire!
We do not allow bums into Reynolds Mountain!”

“
What did you call us?” Stella replies. “Are you joking? You’ll open fire. Who is that?”

“I’m the deputy head of security while Mindy Starling is away,” the voice says. “That’s all you need to know, Ms. Stanford. I have been authorized by our mayor to kill any threats to the security of this community.”

“Mayor? Mayor! Is that what that Jabba the Hut wannabe cunt is calling herself?”

“Mom,” Charlie cautions, but Stella ignores him.

“Listen deputy in charge of sucking my dick, open these fucking gates! Your precious
mayor
is a psychopathic bitch that’s done nothing but harm since…”

A shot rings out and Stella screams as a spark kicks up in the pavement in front of her.

The gunfire instantly panics the crowd and they rush the gates. Stella grabs Greta and Charlie to her as they are shoved forward.

Then the shots start raining down.

Stella has no idea how many are up there, but enough to steadily keep firing as the refugees are helplessly slaughtered in front of the gates. She pulls her children with her and turns towards the woods that line the lane leading to the community. She cries out in pain as a bullet singes the back of her neck, but it doesn’t slow her. Her only thoughts are on getting her children to safety.

“Get down!” Stella shouts as she shoves Greta and Charlie ahead of her into the darkness of the young pines. “Get behind the trees and stay down!”

“Mom!” Greta yells. “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to get Lourdes!” Stella shouts as she turns and rushes down the road. “Stay down!”

Fighting every instinct in her body, Stella races down the winding road back towards Merrimon. The mother in her is screaming for her to go back, grab her children, and hunker down. But the leader inside her slaps the mother aside and screams that there are other people’s children being murdered and she has to stop it.

If it was just fighting Zs she could have rallied the refugees together; she’s good at that. But fighting other people? Especially when some of those people used to be her neighbors? Well, she needs Lourdes for that
job.

But that’s not in the plan.

Something slams into Stella’s side, sending her tumbling off the road and into the thorny underbrush. A snarl and the stench tell her it’s a Z that’s got her pinned against the trunk of a pine tree. Stella hammers at the thing’s face. It snaps at her, but she is able to get her hand up under its chin and push. She keeps pushing and pushing until she hears the snap of the Z’s neck.

She kicks out from under the thing and scrambles to her feet. The road is just in front of her, but so is a group of Zs. They must have followed
up after the convoy. Stella counts eight, nine, ten, eleven of them and does some quick estimates. She realizes that staying in the woods is safer.

Barely able to make out ro
ots and small bushes, Stella scrambles down the hillside towards Merrimon Ave, praying the whole way she doesn’t fall and snap her neck. And praying that Lourdes and the others aren’t overwhelmed.

***

The snap of a branch makes Charlie and Greta turn their attention from the massacre of their neighbors to the woods behind them.

“What’s that?” Charlie whispers.

“A raccoon?” Greta asks.

But that guess is quickly proven wrong as a Z stumbles from behind a tree and lunges at the two teenagers. Greta screams as the thing falls on top of her. Its jaws snap at her face and she barely keeps it away by shoving her forearm up against its throat. The only problem is that the flesh around the throat is mushy and rotten, meaning that Greta can’t get enough leverage and the Z’s jaws just get closer and closer.

Until its head goes flying off.

“Holy shit,” Greta says as she looks up at her brother standing over her with a hunk of deadwood in his hand. “Thanks.”

Charlie helps her up then looks up the hill. “Come on.”

“Where are we going?” Greta asks.

“The gate doesn’t wrap around the whole mountain,” Charlie says. “There has to be another way in.”

“I heard they razor wired everything,” Greta says. “Like several layers.”

“Yeah, I heard that too,” Charlie says as they make their way in the dark blindly towards the fence line. “But that’s to keep Zs out. We aren’t Zs. Maybe we can squeeze through or climb over.”

They go a few more yards, angling off to the left so they can put some distance between them and the continuing gunfire. It’s a treacherous hike, and both of them slip and nearly fall back down the hillside, but they finally get to the first string of razor wire.

And stare at what’s before them, neither hiding the fact they want to cry.

“What the fuck?” Charlie says.

“Zs aren’t that tall,” Greta says as she looks at the razor wire.

Lines of shiny metal are nailed into the pine trees starting at about six inches off the ground and continuing every six inches up the trunk.

“It goes up like twelve feet,” Charlie says as he cranes his neck to look at the top most row. “Why?”

“Because it’s not meant to just keep Zs out,” Greta says. “These assholes want to keep people out too.”

“What do we do now?” Charlie asks.

The teens can see beyond the first row of razor wire is a second row and then a third, possibly a fourth. Even if they could figure out how to get through the wire that is directly in front of
them, they’d have even more to deal with. Greta walks forward and pushes down on the wire, keeping her hands away from the sharp parts.

“It’s solid,” Greta says, close to tears. “No give at all.”

“Fuck,” Charlie says, “then we stay here and wait?”

“I guess…” Greta trails off.

“What?” Charlie whispers.

“Shhh,” Greta says.

Charlie listens hard and realizes the gunfire has stopped.

“Does that mean they’re all dead?” Charlie asks.

“Shhh,” Greta says again.

Then Charlie hears it. Moans. A lot of them. He grips the deadwood he still holds in his hand, his back to the razor wire fence.

“At least they can’t get us from behind,” he says.

Greta gets on her hands and knees and feels around until she finds what she needs. Slapping her own hunk of deadwood against her palm to test its weight, she looks over at her brother.

“Love you,” she says.

“Love you
, too,” Charlie replies.

Then they see the first shapes coming towards them.

***

Stella nearly falls over the edge of the rock wall that lines Merrimon Ave at the base of Reynolds Mountain Village. Her arms pinwheel and she grabs onto a rhododendron to keep from falling into the street. Dirt and leaves kick out from under her shoes and rain down on the Zs below her. Some look up and start to hiss, their arms reaching for the meal that was delivered above them.

“Fuck,” Stella mutters, seeing that her way is blocked.

She knows the gunfire from above has
stopped which scares the shit out of her, but the gunfire in front of her is still going. She looks down the street and can see a barricade of vehicles at the entrance to Reynolds Mountain Village and the bright flashes from rifles. Not known for her balancing skills, Stella has to use all of her concentration to keep from falling as she tightrope walks the edge of the wall towards the fighting.

“Fuck!” Lourdes shouts as she turns her rifle on Stella. “I almost shot you!”

“They’re killing them!” Stella yells over the gunfire as Lourdes helps her down behind the Humvee and other vehicles that keep the mass of Zs from taking them all.

“Good!” Lourdes shouts. “We were hoping you could take care of the Zs! Sorry they followed us up when
…”

“No! NO!” Stella sc
reams. “They’re killing
us
! The motherfuckers are shooting
us
!”

Lourdes doesn’t say anything, as he
r mind whirls a mile a minute, trying to piece together what Stella has just said.

“Wait…what?” she asks
finally. “Who’s killing who?”

“The fucking Reynolds people!” Stella yells. “They’re slaughtering us! They refused to let us in and when some of the residents rushed the gates they just opened fire!”

Lourdes puts her hand to her mouth. “Jesus Christ…”

“Greta and Charlie are still up there!” Stella yells. “We have to help them! We have to help everyone!”