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

they died.”
    She walked quickly over to the family of four that were set close to the windows so they could watch the gawkers stare at the invitation to what I could only guess was the kegger from hell.
    “No wet stuffs,” she said as she felt around the hardwood flooring under their chairs. “No yucky stains. They’d been dead a long time before they got put here.”
    “The windows are open,” I said. “Maybe all the gunk dried up.”
    “But no stains,” Elsbeth said.
    “Could be someone cleaned those up,” I replied as I looked about the condo. “This place looks spotless.” I walked to a bookshelf and ran my finger across a shelf. “It was just dusted.”
    Elsbeth stood up and frowned. For being quite the weird bird herself, Elsbeth wasn’t too keen on things being weird and unexplained. She liked for there to be simple answers to all problems. Usually for Elsbeth, all problems were easily broken down to their barest simplicity.
    “Why clean a house for the dead?” she asked out loud. “Why put that poor family there to watch the street? Why?”
    I didn’t have any answers, so I stayed quiet as I checked out the rest of the condo. No personal photos, so my guess that it was a rental was probably right. No clothes anywhere, no food, no water. No sign that anyone had tried to survive in the condo post-Z. It reminded me more of a storefront display window than an actual living space.
    “Let’s go,” I said. “The place gives me the creeps.”
    “Long Pork!” John shouted from outside.
    I went to one of the windows not blocked by a corpse, but it wouldn’t open, so I was forced to shoulder between the two corpse kids in order to see John.
    “What?” I called.
    “Every corpse is loaded with explosives,” John said. “Some impressive chemical shit. If we’d even nudged these billboards with the haul truck this whole thing would have gone up.”
    “Great,” I said. “Glad you could share that with me.”
    “That means we have to turn here and follow the detour,” Stuart said. “We need your help to spread the word. The walkies aren’t working right.”
    “You need me as a messenger boy, is that it?” I asked. “The privilege is overwhelming.”
    “We’re all helping too,” Stuart said as the haul truck slowly backed up then stopped so he could climb down to the street. “So stop whining.”
    “I wasn’t whining-.”
    “You were whining,” Elsbeth said behind me.
    “Shut up,” I snapped as I looked over my shoulder at her. “You are not helping.”
    Elsbeth shrugged. I turned back to the street and nodded at Stuart then eased out from between the dead kids.
    “See anything we could use?” I asked as I took one last look about the condo.
    “Too much orange,” Elsbeth said.
    “Then we’re outta here,” I replied.
    We got back out on the street and I could see several people standing about their trucks and SUVs as they chatted with Stuart, John, and Reaper. Critter was still up in the haul truck’s driver’s seat and he gave me a dismissive wave as I looked up at him.
    “Tell McCormick she’s drivin’ my baby!” he yelled down at me.
    “Will do!” I said.
    I walked past the haul truck to Critter’s Jeep and found Dr. McCormick already in the driver’s seat.
    “Yeah, I heard him,” McCormick said. “Hard not to.”
    “Not arguing with ya there,” I said as I moved on to the Explorer.
    “Find anything in that building?” Stella asked.
    “Nah,” I said. “Other than the freaky corpse diorama. Some people get into their crafts way too much.”
    She laughed and started to reply, but a shout from Buzz got my attention.
    “Go see what’s up,” Stella said. “We’ll be here.”
    I kissed her quickly, and then jogged down to where Buzz, Melissa, and Reaper all stood around an old Toyota 4Runner. There should have been a family known as the Wilfreds in there, but the vehicle was empty and coated in blood.
    “Arterial spray,” Reaper said. “Whoever did