Z-Burbia: A Zombie Novel (14 page)

“The deadline has passed, Ms. Kelly,” Bullhorn says. “You were warned. Now things have to go my way.” He waves a hand at the road. “And you folks get to go the highway.”

“I haven’t…,” Brenda has to struggle to catch her breath. “We haven’t had time to speak to the HOA. The Board just met last night. These things take time to discuss. I told you that.”

She doesn’t look at any of us as our eyes bore into her. I told you that? What the fuck does that mean?

“Brenda. Brenda, Brenda, Brenda. I was very clear on the time frame of my plans,” Bullhorn shouts. “But for the sake of everyone else up there, and behind that gate, I’m sure, I will explain myself further.”

“My name is Edward Vance,” he says. “Since Z-Day, I have been a very busy man. I have done everything in my power to make a safe place for myself.” He spreads his arms wide, indicating the men and women around him. “And, as long as my safety comes first, I make sure things are safe for those that believe in me.”

“Believe in me?” I whisper. “That doesn’t sound good.”

“I know him,” Melissa says. “I know that man.”

I look from her to Jon. Something passes between them and he nods.

“Oh, shit,” Melissa says. “Shit shit shit.”

“What?” I ask.

“Am I boring you?” Bullhorn shouts. “I hope not. May I continue? Thank you. You see, I have many, many followers. Many of my flock needs more space and resources than the world can provide.”

He grins and lowers his bullhorn. When his voice booms at us
, I realize he doesn’t even need the thing. Shit. Maybe I should call him Wall Street? “Whispering Pines is what community is all about. And I want that for my people. I want that to be our home. So…you have to leave. You leave and I won’t have to make you leave.”

He waves his hand and points at Jon.

“If you don’t leave?” he says as the crowd parts and a man comes forward with a Z secured by a catch pole around the neck. Bullhorn/Wall Street nods and the man shoves the Z at Jon.

“NO!” Melissa screams as the thing’s teeth clamp down on his shoulder, ripping a chunk from him.

Even with the layers of duct tape, we can all hear him screaming. The man yanks the Z away and a woman steps up and puts a bullet through its brain. It crumples to the ground, black blood oozing from its shattered skull. Jon has stopped screaming and is just staring down at the pavement. Stella and I grab Melissa before she can jump off the watchtower. She is ready to leap to her death to get to Jon.

“That was just to punctuate my point,” Bullhorn/Wall Street says. “And my point is that we have thousands of Zs ready and waiting to come into your community and do that to all of you. Husbands, wives, children, grandparents. And you, Ms. Kelly. Especially you. I’d rather not
, since it is a pain to have to corral and clean up after the buggers, but I will do what I need to do to secure the future of my flock. It’s God’s will and the American way.”

He circles his hand in the air and his people start to head out. He lingers for a moment and watches us watching him. “Please know how serious I am. I don’t want to kill all of you, but I will. You have 48 hours to voluntarily leave before I send in the Zs.”

“You’ll never break our defenses!” Mindy shouts down at him.

“Shut up!” most of us
shouts at her.

“Wise advice,” Bullhorn/Wall Street says. “48 hours, Ms. Kelly. That is all. Not a second longer. And those defenses? While they are impressive, one of the many reasons I’d like to acquire Whispering Pines, they can’t stand up to wave after wave after wave of the undead. Nothing can. Until then, I bid you farewell. You have a lot of work to do before moving day.”

He casually saunters off. I look about and wonder why the hell no one put a bolt or arrow between his eyes. Jesus, are we sheep?

“Jace,” Stella says quietly as she looks down at Jon. He’s just laying there in a pool of his blood. “Is he…?”

“I don’t know,” I say. “But I’ve got this.”

I open one of the cabinets in the watchtower and pull out a rifle. I load two rou
nds into the breach and head to the ladder.

“Where do you think you are going with that?” Brenda asks.

“You weren’t authorized to take that weapon,” Mindy adds. Just before Melissa’s fist hits her square between the eyes. Mindy kinda stands there for a second, and then drops to her knees before falling on her face.

“I can’t do it,” Melissa says.

“I know,” I nod. “It’s because of me. It’s my duty.”

The crowd parts as I step from the ladder and walk to the gate.

“Open it,” I say. The two men manning the gate look up at Brenda. “You want that bitch to be the last thing you see?”

They both look back at me quickly and open the gate. I walk through and kneel next to Jon. I manage to get the duct tape away from his mouth, but he isn’t saying anything. Not anymore. I look over my shoulder and see Stella and Melissa watching me. I shake my head. Melissa wails then buries her head in Stella’s shoulder.

“You need help?” Elsbeth asks, suddenly at my side. I startle at how quiet she is. I didn’t even know she had followed me.

“No, no, I got this,” I say as I stand up. “Farewell my friend.” I place the barrel of the rifle to his head and pull the trigger. No hesitation, no remorse other than the fact that I feel to blame. I won’t regret the shooting, but I will regret everything that led to it.

“Help me carry him,” I say and sling the rifle over my shoulder. Elsbeth looks at me and I nod towards his body. “He was my friend. I won’t leave him out here. Please.”

She shrugs and grabs his legs while I grab his shoulders. We carry him to the gate and everyone moves quickly out of the way. There are murmurs in the crowd, but they are drowned out by Brenda’s hisses.

“You can’t bring an infected body into Whispering Pines!” she snaps at me. “It is strictly against everything in the covenants! No infected past the gate for any reason!”

“He’s dead,” I say. “Dead dead. We’re going to have a service and then burn his body. No burying, no
body left to rot. He’ll be burned and that will be that.”

“I can’t allow it,” Brenda says. “Mindy? Mindy!”

The moron comes waddling up, her hand to her face. She can barely focus on Brenda and me as she tries to play catch up.

“
Mindy, please have your team arrest Mr. Stanford,” Brenda says. “If he doesn’t turn around and put that body back outside, arrest him. This is blatant sedition and cannot be tolerated!”

“You want me to what?” Mindy asks. I honestly think she doesn’t know what is going on. “I can’t do that? Can I?”

“You can and will,” Brenda says and turns to the crowd, pointing at Jon’s body. “This is unfortunate, but the rules are here to protect us! To save us! How many of you had relatives turned outside that we had to put down and leave? Why should this man be held higher than them all? Why risk our lives?”

I look about and see a lot of confusion as people try to decide what to do. But most of all I see fear. And that fear is directed at the corpse in my hands.

“You all knew Jon,” I say. “He helped build this place into what it is today. He deserves some respect.”

I start to move away from Brenda, but
several members of Mindy’s security team block my path.

“Come on, guys,” I say. “You don’t have to do this.”

“Arrest him,” Brenda hisses. “If you disobey the Board and the covenants, then you are guilty too and will be cast out.”

I can see muscles tense and know what is close. I look over my shoulder and see Stella and Melissa coming towards me
. I look across Jon’s body and see Elsbeth staring right at me. She is smiling.

“No,” I say to her. “Don’t.” She frowns, but nods. “Set him down.”

Elsbeth sets Jon’s legs down, but I keep a hold of his shoulders. Stella is at my side.

“What is your plan?” she asks.

“Same as before,” I say. “I just need you to make sure Elsbeth doesn’t hurt anyone.”

Stella stares at me for a moment and then nods, kissing my unwounded cheek. She walks over to Elsbeth and takes her elbow, leading her away from the crowd. I start dragging Jon’s body.

“Mindy,” Brenda snaps, “do your job.”

“Jason Stanford,” Mindy says, trying to sound authoritative, but just sounding loud
, “if you do not stop this moment, you will be under arrest.”

I don’t stop.

Hands grab me and I try to fight, but they overpower me quickly. I’m on the ground, my hands being tied behind my back when I look up and see Brenda smiling.

“You’re wrong about this,” I say
, “all of it.”

“Not for you to say,” she says.

They haul me up and drag me away. Brenda barks orders and a couple sentries gingerly pick up Jon’s body and carry it to the gate and they are lost from sight.

Chapter Five

The “jail” is just an empty house that sits next to Brenda’s house. The room I’m in is what would be called the “media room” on the developer’s floor plans. Ground floor room with double windows looking out onto the back yard and double doors leading to the living room. Same exact floor plan as my house. Other than the guard sitting outside the double doors, it’s not really very secure. I could probably crawl out the windows if I want.

I’m actually thinking about doing this when I see the first rays of dawn start to pierce the early morning fog. Sleep didn’t come at all in the night, but my situation has my adrenaline up and I just lie on the carpeted floor in the bare room, watching the sky go from deep purple to slightly pink to bright orange. My eyes actually begin to close when there’s a knock on the door.

I twist around and see Stella and Melissa standing over me, the guard in the background.

“We’re leaving,” Stella says. “The Board met last night, called an emergency HOA meeting and it was overwhelmingly in favor of abandoning Whispering Pines.”

“What?” I say, getting to my feet. “Why the fuck would everyone go along? We can fight this out!”

“We can,” Melissa says. “Most of my team and a few others, sure. We have guts. But the rest? They’ve only survived because of the strong in the community. They’d be slaughtered sheep if left on their own. And sheep only know how to follow.”

“Brenda was very convincing,” Stella says.

“So that’s it? We abandon Whispering Pines? And go where?”

“I said we’re leaving,” Stella frowns. “Not abandoning Whispering Pines. We’ll be back.”

I look from Stella to Melissa.

“I’m not following,” I say. “What’s going on?”

“While everyone is packing up and figuring out the next move,” Melissa says. “I am taking your family, my team, that cannibal girl, and a few others on a trip. We’re going to get reinforcements.”

“The Farm,” Stella says.

“Seriously?” I laugh. They don’t. “Oh. What makes you think they’ll take us in? Or help us in anyway? Brenda has rejected them time and time again when they’ve come to trade. She pissed them off last time pretty bad. They haven’t been back for a year or so. Why would they give a shit?”

“Tell him,” Stella says to Melissa
, “you’ve kept it secret long enough.”

“The Farm is my home,” she says
, “it’s where I grew up. My daddy and brothers run the place with those they took in.”

“Your home?” I ask. “
What the fuck? Why are you here?”

“Because of Jon,” she says. “He wanted to live close in
to town. That’s why we bought a house in Whispering Pines. We always knew the Farm was a back up if things went to hell here.”

“They’ve now gone to hell,” Stella says. “We’re leaving and coming back with our own army.”

“It’s thirty miles away,” I say. “It’ll take longer than 48 hours to get there and back.”

“We know,” Melissa says. “Those fucks will have moved in and taken over by the time we show up. And be busy figuring it all out. They won’t see us coming.”

I shake my head, rubbing my tired face. “This isn’t going to work. First, do you honestly think you can convince your family to help us?”

“We have tech they need,” Melissa says. “
Landon is coming. So is Carl. They’ll share what they know with Daddy and he’ll see what we have to offer. We should have done this a long time ago, but that Brenda cunt was always in the way.”

I look past the women at the guard standing there, his eyes wide and mouth open. “Are you going to be a problem?”

The women turn around. He looks from them to me and back. “We’re really being forced to leave?” he asks.

“Yes,” Melissa says.

“Can I go with?”

“Yes,” Melisa nods. “Kirby, right?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he nods, leaning his rifle against the doorjamb. He takes a bandana from his back pocket and wipes the fear sweat from his face. “When do we leave?”

“Good question,” I say.

“We leave now,” Stella says. “We have provisions packed. Everyone is meeting at the gate.”

“Brenda isn’t going to like this,” I say. “She hates it when people disagree.” I wave my hands at the room. “Case in point.”

“We’ll be taking problems off her hands,” Melissa says. “The less people to deal with, the less variables she’ll have to calculate. And Brenda may be devious, but she isn’t smart enough to calculate variables.”

“That’s why she’s always needed you,” Stella says
to me. “So let’s get you out of here and get gone.”

“Here,” Melissa says as she hands me a
handled, carbon steel pole. “I keep these on hand when we are out scavenging. Good weapon plus helps you move when you got a bum leg. These things have saved more than a few of my team out there. They’ll keep your gimp ass moving.”

“You sound like Jon,” I say.

“Thank you,” she smiles.

We step out of the house and Charlie and Greta rush towards me. Hugs all around and we are off.

I’m surprised, since we were right next door, that Brenda didn’t see us and try to figure out what we were up to. When we get to the gate, I see why.

“I will not allow this,” Brenda says, standing in front of Mindy and a dozen of the security team. “You are valuable members of this community and wherever we end up
, you will be needed.”

“You can’t stop us,” Carl says, at the front of the group that is facing off against
Brenda and her lackeys. “You voted that we are leaving. This shit is over, Brenda. You aren’t the Board Chair of us any longer.”

“I am as long as you’re inside these gates,” Brenda says. “And even when we leave these gates. That was the resolution
passed last night. We maintain our HOA structure and covenants even when we leave. It is for the good of the group as a whole.”

“We’re leaving,” I say as we get closer. “Just move out of the way, Brenda. Like Carl said, you can’t stop us.”

”I can and will,” Brenda says, puzzled. “And you are supposed to be locked up. Whoever let you go will be tried for sedition.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, it’s over
, you overbearing twat,” Stella snaps. “Just move your fat ass out of the way.”

Brenda raises her hand. Mindy raises hers and the security officers raise rifles to their shoulders. Then Elsbeth is in the mix. She has The Bitch shoved up against Brenda’s windpipe. Brenda is trying to protest, but all that’s coming out of her mouth is a strangled wheeze. Drops of blood start to trickle down her throat.

“These people want to go,” Elsbeth says. “I want to go. We’re gonna go now.”

“Goddamn she’s fast,” someone says.

Elsbeth looks over her shoulder and finds me. She cocks her head and I shake mine.

“Take the rifles,” I say to the others. They look at me and back at the security team. “Go ahead. They won’t shoot. Right
, Brenda? Right, Mindy?”

Mindy looks to her boss. “Should we shoot?”

Brenda starts to answer and Elsbeth presses harder. Brenda shakes her head, careful of the spikes puncturing her skin.

“Take ‘em, team,” Melissa says as her scavengers rush forwar
d and snatch the rifles. The security team is shoved out of the way and Melissa gets the gate open. “Ready?”

“Elsbeth,” Stella says
, “let the ugly troll go.”

Elsbeth jumps back, startled. “She’s a troll? Like in the story books?” She rubs her hands on her pants. “Yuck.”

And this is the girl that can kill a horde of Zs without batting an eyelash. It’s a fucked up world.

Clutching her bloody throat, Brenda rasps, “You’ll be dead out there. You’ll never make it with such a small group. How will you survive? Where will you go?”

“Home,” Melissa says.

“The Farm,” Stella adds.

Brenda’s eyes go wide and I can see she didn’t even think of this possibility.

“Wait!” a voice yells. “Wait!” Tran and his wife and three kids are hurrying towards us
. “You take us with!” Stubben is right behind them.

“Not a problem,” Melissa says, smiling at Tran
and Stubben then over at Brenda. “You’ll fit right in on the Farm.”

We all slip through the gate and turn to the left. A few miles up the road is a bridge that will take us over the French Broad and towards Leicester, where the Farm is. Just as we are about to go around the bend and up the short hill
, I look back and see Brenda and Mindy looking at us from the watchtower. I can see on her face that Brenda knows she fucked up. She never even thought of the Farm as a refuge. Her suburban, bigoted mind just couldn’t even go there.

Tough shit for her.

“Keep it tight and quiet, people,” Melissa whispers once we are well away from Whispering Pines. “Team? You know what to do. Eyes up, ears open, nothing for granted.”

There is a murmur of agreement and then all are quiet.

I look around and take stock of who is with us:

Stella, the kids, and Elsbeth. Melissa, of course.

Carl Leitch and his partner Brian. Brian is a quiet fellow. I haven’t spoken with him much over the years, but when I have, he’s always been warm and funny.

Tran and his family.

Landon Chase, the punk ass.

Stubben with a large walking stick and a pack the size of Greta. The guy is used to manual labor, so I guess he knows what he can carry and what he can’t.

That Kirby guard. I don’t even remember seeing him around before. It’s strange who you mix with and who you don’t.

The rest of our crew is made up of Melissa’s scavengers:
Alison Woods, Tony White, Lanny Smithfield, Tara Johnson, Steven Grimes, West Bullock, and her right hand, Andrew Crespo. None of them have families, which is why Melissa picked them for the scavenger crew. She was the only one with a spouse, but no longer.

I don’t see any of Stuart’s defensive team with us, which sucks, but I guess they stayed back with their boss. I am glad for that since I know Stuart is in no shape to travel. Forcing him to move in 48 hours is going to be rough enough.

We’re a motley crew, but nothing unusual in this day and age. The zombie apocalypse makes for strange bedfellows.

A true fact of human nature: you can only keep a group quiet for so long. Doesn’t matter if their lives are on the line or not, get more than four or five people together and someone is going to feel the strange pull to start chattering. Of course, Landon is the one that starts it off.

“What if they reject us?” he asks. “They just turn us out. Leave us to the Zs.”

“
They won’t,” Melissa says. “Now hush.” She points to the dump truck I abandoned. “There are going to be extra Zs around here. Shut it.”

“I was just asking,” Landon says. “I have a right to speak.”

“No, you don’t,” someone says.

“Shut the fuck up, Landon,” another whispers.

“We aren’t in Whispering Pines anymore,” Landon says. “I don’t have to answer to you.”

“Should I kill him?” Elsbeth asks. A few heads turn to look at her. Some seem to be eager to see what I have to say while others look appalled at the question. “Should I? He’s stupid.”

“That may be true,” I say.

“Hey,” Landon protests.

“But the first rule of survivor club is you only kill Zs,” I say. “Unless you have to kill humans. Then you kill humans. But stick with Zs.”

“That really cleared things up,” Stella says. She looks at Elsbeth. “Do not kill anyone living unless I say so, got it?”

Elsbeth nods, but her eyes bore holes in Landon’s head. Stella smiles at Landon and he cringes and shuts up. Good man. Not the day to piss off my wife.

We’re maybe ten yards past the dump truck when the first few
Zs come at us. There’re ten of them, all fairly new looking, with all limbs attached. They come from the riverside of the road, stumbling and crawling up from the old railroad tracks. Melissa holds up her hand and we stop. The scavengers circle around us.

“Lanny. Tara. West.
Keep everyone moving,” Melissa says. “We can’t lose daylight. The rest of you with me. We’ll take these down and catch up.”

But it isn’t needed. Elsbeth walks right up to the Zs, The Bitch gripped firmly in her hand. The closest
one hisses and reaches for her and get’s a spike through the brain for his effort. The next two lose their heads as Elsbeth goes all batter up on them. By now, the other seven have gotten up to the road and are converging on her fast. She doesn’t even seem to care.

She takes out the legs of one, slams another back a few feet w
ith a hard kick, decapitates two more with well placed swings, shatters the face of one, spins about and jams the butt of the handle through the gut of the sixth, snapping its spine in half, then reaches out and literally rips the head off the seventh.

We all just stare.

The couple she hasn’t killed die quickly under some well placed and efficient bashes. She stands over the last one, the one with shattered legs, and looks down on it. Honest to God pity is on her face. We all watch her mutter something then she lifts her foot. The thing gnashes its teeth and groans at her just before she squishes the undead life from its skull.