Free Z-Burbia 4: Cannibal Road by Jake Bible Page A

on the overgrown shoulder as it dodged past the convoy. People still taking care of their business had to dive this way and that, pants down around their ankles, to keep from being run down.
    “That’s not one of ours!” I shouted, but I think people figured that out.
    “JACE!” Stella yelled as she shoved me back into the grass.
    The Volvo zipped past only inches from us as we fell back on our asses. All of the windows had been shot out and I could see only two people inside, one of which I’m pretty sure was no longer living.
    “What the fuck?” Stella shouted as she got to her feet, lifted her pistol, then lowered it again as she realized she was just as likely to hit one of our people as she was to hit the Volvo.
    “They must have hijacked the cars when we were stopped back on the detour,” I said.
    “Ya think?” Stella snapped. “We should have been prepared for that.”
    “Well, doesn’t look like they’re getting far,” I said as the truck reached the haul truck, swerved one way, then the other before slamming into the giant rear tire of the huge machine. I could see John standing on top of the haul truck, his sniper rifle to his shoulder. He gave a quick wave and I waved back. “Yay for snipers.”
    The Volvo only went a little farther before taking a sudden lurch towards the left and drove off into the grass. We lost sight of it, but then the sound of crunching metal and glass filled us in on the car’s fate.
    A bunch of us raced up to it and found the car smashed into a large oak tree, its front crumpled. Steam and smoke hissed from under the mangled hood, but that wasn’t what got our attention.
    “Damn,” Greta said from my side. “I guess that one turned fast.”
    “Hey, why are you out of the Explorer?” I snapped. “It’s not safe out here!”
    “Not safe in there,” Greta said as she pointed at the Z that was busy munching on the driver of the Volvo. “Sucks to be that guy.”
    “The one being eaten or the one doing the eating?” Buzz asked as he came up to us, his pistol out. “Wouldn’t want to be either of them.”
    He moved past and put a bullet in the head of the Z, then in the head of the dead driver, who would have come back in just a few minutes anyway.
    “The passenger turned fast,” I said. “That’s not good.”
    “Turning times have gotten weird lately,” Buzz said as he holstered his pistol and walked back to us. “Whatever makes us turn is accelerating the process.”
    “How very unfortunate,” Kramer said. “That does not bode well for the survival of the human species.”
    “What the fuck are you doing here?” I asked. “You’re supposed to be up in the haul truck?”
    “Oh, am I?” Kramer said. “I figured since my guards left that I was free to come out and see what all the commotion was.”
    We could hear Critter cursing and shouting. Then he joined our large group of looky-loos. His arms gesticulated this way and that as he frothed at the mouth.
    “YOU POSSUM ASS SUCKING MORONS!” Critter yelled at a pair of men that tried to duck away, but just weren’t fast enough. “YOU HAD ONE FUCKIN’ JOB! ONE JOB!”
    “Someone’s getting fired,” Greta smirked as she turned and walked away. “I’ll be waiting in the Explorer. Let me know when it’s time to get moving again.”
    “Come on,” Buzz said as he grabbed Kramer’s arm. “Back to your cage.”
    “You realize you are talking to a man with seven PhDs and over two thousand patents?” Kramer snapped. “I do not need to be manhandled like a child!”
    “Do you realize you are talking to a man that doesn’t care whether you live or die?” Buzz replied. “Personally,y your science crap doesn’t impress me. These days, all I need is God and I’m good.”
    “You’re one of those religious nuts, are you?” Kramer sneered.
    “Nope,” Buzz said. “Just a man of faith that has been tested again and again since the dead started to walk the Earth. And that faith has gotten me a