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

asked.
    “Four,” Elsbeth said. “Man, woman, two kids, just staring at us.”
    Elsbeth rolled her head on her neck, but I could tell she was trying to be casual as she nodded towards the windows in the building to our left. I stretched and turned that way, making sure I studied the whole building, not just the windows on the second floor. It was a nice building, I’ll give it that. Probably from the mid-Fifties, built of brick and stone. Part of it had some serious damage, so I couldn’t say what the building had been used for pre-Z, but what still stood looked solid.
    The building wasn’t all that looked solid. I caught a glance at the four faces that peered down at us from the shadows of the second floor and I would have been more than surprised if they weren’t stiff as boards. Stiff being the operative word.
    “More corpses,” I said.
    “Really?” Elsbeth asked then turned and looked directly at them. “Huh. I didn’t catch that. It’s probably because you got to sleep all night and I didn’t.”
    “Hey!” I snapped. “I said I’d take turns!”
    Elsbeth just grinned.
    “You’re fucking with me, aren’t you?” I asked.
    “Yep,” she said.
    “You knew they were dead the whole time, right?”
    “Right,” Elsbeth nodded. “So fucking with your shit.” She clapped me on the shoulder and drew one of her blades. She pointed it at the building. “Let’s go see what’s going on up there.”
    I stared at her for a second, but she only stared back.
    “Fine,” I shrugged. “What else have I got to do?”
    “Where the fuck are you two goin’?” Critter asked as he looked down at us from the haul truck’s cab.
    I pointed up at the dead faces in the windows.
    “Oh,” he replied. “Have fun with that.”
    “Watch your step!” Stuart yelled at me. “The building could be rigged as well!”
    “Got something!” John announced as he pulled his hands back from a corpse just as Elsbeth and I stepped into the shadows of the building’s broken entrance.
    I could hear them all talking hurriedly, but their voices were too muffled to make out as Elsbeth led us down a hallway and over to a set of less than safe looking stairs. She tried the first step then the second.
    “The wood is feelin’ good,” she said, giving me a thumbs up. “One at a time and all will be fine.”
    “Are you talking in rhyme now?” I asked.
    “Maybe,” she replied. “Baby.”
    “Yeah, don’t do that anymore,” I said, “and especially don’t call me baby.”
    “You’re no fun when you’re scared, Long Pork,” Elsbeth said.
    “I’m not scared,” I replied as I started up the stairs after her. “I just don’t need to hear you talk in rhyme while we go and look at the corpse family.”
    “You don’t know they are family,” Elsbeth said. “Maybe they hate each other.”
    “They don’t do anything, El,” I replied once we were on the second floor landing. “They are dead. I was just making a joke.”
    “Dumb joke,” she said as she walked down the hall towards the door we assumed led into the room with the dead peepers.
    Elsbeth pushed the door open with her blade and we waited for an undead rush. We doubted there were any Zs in there, since we didn’t hear anything or see any movement when we were down on the street, but it is the zombie apocalypse, so better safe than sorry and all that happy stay alive shit.
    No Zs were in the room, which was large and open and had a set of stairs leading up to a loft where I assumed the bedroom was. The place looked like it had been renovated into a swank condo. And from the massive amount of University of Tennessee orange that adorned the walls, tables, couches, and chairs, my guess was that out of towners rented it to go to Vols football games on the weekend since we were so close to campus. Sucked to be the away team and get stuck in the eye-searing orange of that condo, let me tell ya.
    “Don’t stink,” Elsbeth said. “I bet they was put here after