Free Z-Burbia 3: Estate Of The Dead by Jake Bible Page A

my ankle. I scoot back over the curb and smile. He doesn’t smile back. “You are such a pain in my ass, Stanford.”
    Oh, the last name treatment. He’s mad.
    “Sorry,” I mumble.
    “Get down there and make sure Brenda doesn’t do anything stupid. It’s only her, Mindy, and Melissa with Lenny.”
    “Who?”
    “The wounded PC!” Stuart snarls.
    “Oh .”
    I can never remember their names.
    “Get going!” Stuart orders. “Who knows what idiocy is going through that woman’s brain.”
    “What could she do?” I ask.
    “Do you really want to find out?” Stuart says as he resumes firing. “Go!”
    Once last glance at Elsbeth and the Super Chick Fighting Force, and I’m sliding (again!) down the hill, past the truck, and into the pines. Thorns, thorns, thorns, and free.
    Dammit, I hate it when Stuart is right about bad things.
    “What the fuck are you doing?” I yell at Brenda as I watch her holding a pistol on Melissa. “Have you lost your mind?”
    “Look in there!” Brenda screeches, pointing at the fields beyond the iron fence. “She wants us to go in there! Look at the Zs! They’re everywhere!”
    “You stupid cow,” Melissa snarls, her eyes locked onto the pistol. “You heard what Stuart said. The Zs don’t move! Look at them! They’re staked or something to the ground!”
    I look past Brenda’s bulk and see the hundreds of Zs spread out across the overgrown field. Melissa’s right, they are swaying and reaching and moaning, but aren’t moving from their spots. It is like they’re glued in place.
    “I think we should listen,” Mindy says quietly. “Stuart is a smart man, Brenda. He knows Zs.”
    “And I don’t?” she yells. “I’ve been in this apocalypse just as long as he has! I’ve fought Zs! I know how to survive! And you don’t survive by going into a field that’s filled with Zs! That’s suicide!”
    The gunfire behind us stops and I start to look back that way. So does Brenda. That gives Melissa her chance and she takes it. Lunging forward, Melissa smacks Brenda’s hand, pushing the pistol down.
    Bang!
    “Oh!” Brenda yells as the gun barks in her hand.
    Melissa grabs her wrist and tries to take the pistol, but Brenda actually has some fight in her. I never knew. Not that I’m impressed. I’m not. The woman could fart the Star Spangled Banner out her tight ass and I’d still think she was a worthless blob of shit. But I didn’t know she could fight.
    Brenda’s heel slams down on Melissa’s foot, then her elbow slams back into Mel’s gut. It gives her the space she needs as Melissa stumbles back just a fraction of an inch. Brenda raise s the gun and fires. But Mel is faster. Years of being in charge of the scavengers and having to go outside Whispering Pines on life and death runs has made the woman’s reflexes top notch. The bullet whizzes past Melissa’s shoulder as she dodges to the side. Without wasting a millisecond, she lets loose with a haymaker that makes my teeth rattle just from watching it connect with Brenda’s jaw.
    The fat cow spins about, staggers a foot or two, and then goes down on her hands and knees. Melissa kicks her in the ass, sending her forward onto her face. I rush forward and snag the pistol, tucking it into my waistband as I step away from the beached whale.
    Don’t get me wrong, I’m not making fun of her because of her weight; I’m just trying to make it known how little humanity the wildebeest has in her.
    Which is insulting to wildebeests and whales I guess. My apologies to all wildebeests and whales. If they still exist.
    “I should kill her right now,” Melissa says as Brenda rolls onto her back, her eyes wide with a mix of fear and absolute hatred.
    “Jace?” Mindy says behind us. “Melissa?”
    We both turn and our eyes go as wide as Brenda’s.
    “Oh, shit,” I whisper as Melissa quickly covers the ground between Mindy and us. “Oh, shit.”
    Mindy is on her knees, her hands clutching her belly, dark red blood