Free Z-Burbia 4: Cannibal Road by Jake Bible

interference was gone since we had no mountains and ridges between us anymore, but the signal sounded weak and I had to wonder how long we could rely on the walkies for communication.
    The convoy came to a slow stop and Critter began barking orders for his men to go up and down the line and take inventory of the damage. We may have made it out of the mountains alive, but it didn’t mean we hadn’t taken some bad hits.
    “Come on,” I said to Elsbeth. “I want to see what the problems are.”
    “You need me to come with?” Elsbeth asked, her feet propped up on the dashboard as she relaxed back into her seat. “Why you need me, Long Pork? You’re missing an arm, not a leg.”
    “I’ll go with you,” Stella said.
    “Cool,” I grinned. “Charlie can get in the driver’s seat in case we have to take off fast.”
    “Charlie drives just fine,” Elsbeth agreed. “Get your butt up here and take the chair.”
    Stella and I got out of the Explorer and smiled at each other.
    “She’s in a funny mood,” I said.
    “I think she’s glad to be back in the action,” Stella said. “It keeps her mind off Julio.”
    “True,” I agreed. Losing Julio had been hard for her no matter if she wanted to admit it or not. “Nothing like killing some crazies and Zs to keep one’s mind off tragedy.”
    We walked along in silence the rest of the way as I studied the damage to the trucks and SUVs from the Zs and the rocks. People were out of their vehicles and doing the same while also taking the time for bathroom breaks along the side of the interstate. Supervised bathroom breaks, of course, since the grass was pretty high and no one wanted to accidentally squat on a Z and have their ass bitten off.
    Critter’s people had things pretty much under control until we reached the last two vehicles. Eight men and women had their rifles up and pointed at a double cab pickup and Volvo station wagon.
    “What’s up?” I asked, wishing I had brought a pistol with me. I looked over and saw Stella held hers down to the side of her leg and could see she was ready to bring it up and start firing if anything fucked up happened.
    “Folks won’t roll down the windows or step out so we can make sure they’re okay,” a man named Gary Wilkes said. “We been knocking and they just say they’re fine.”
    “Hello in there!” I shouted. “Could you roll the windows down please?”
    The driver’s window on the double cab truck rolled down a fraction of an inch.
    “All good here!” a man said. “Just ready to keep rollin’.”
    “Who’s supposed to be in these?” I asked Stella. “Do you have the driver list?”
    “Didn’t bring it with me,” Stella said.
    I looked at Critter’s folks and they all shrugged.
    “Great,” I sighed as I looked at the truck. “What’s your name?”
    “Uh...Bob,” the guy said.
    “Okay, Bob. Can you hop on out so we can just do a quick health check?” I asked nicely. “We need to make sure no one in the truck was bitten by a Z. You understand, right?”
    “We’re good,” Bob said as he rolled the window back up.
    Fucker.
    “Bob!” I yelled. “Open the fucking truck, please!”
    “Nice use of please,” Stella smirked.
    “Thanks,” I said as I started to step towards the truck.
    I made it all of a foot before the door swung open and the road erupted into gunfire.
    Three of Critter’s people went down hard, their bodies riddled with bullets. I instinctively dove at Stella and covered her with my body as I shoved her towards the side of the road and into the high grass. We rolled and rolled down an embankment and came to a painful stop against a group of pines.
    “You okay?” I grunted.
    “Yeah. You?”
    “As good as can be,” I replied.
    The sound of the truck engine roaring back to life reached us as we scrambled back up to the road. The driver’s window was shattered and blood dripped down the side of the door as the truck roared past us. Two wheels were on the road and two were