Z-Burbia Box Set | Books 1-3 [The Asheville Trilogy]

by Bible, Jake

  Maybe twenty minutes go by and we come to the first tunnel.

  “Flashlight?” I ask.

  “No,” Cowboy says, “didn’t get a chance to grab one.”

  “You don’t have one on you? That seems like bad planning.”

  “Wasn’t completely geared out since we were at the FOB,” Cowboy says. “Just had my rifle and sidearm.”

  “Well, live and learn, right?”

  “If you live,” Cowboy chuckles.

  “Ouch,” I say, “that’s harsh.”

  “March it, Long Pork.”

  I take a deep breath and step into the tunnel.

  If I thought it was dark before, I was wrong. This is dark. Super duper, mother fucking dark. Outside the tunnel, I could at least make out shapes and see Cowboy next to me. But in here? Nothing. I wave my hand in front of my face and don’t see a thing. Crazy.

  “Make any stupid moves and I’ll just start shooting,” Cowboy says. “And hitting the ground won’t make a difference. I’ll shoot the ground too.”

  “Damn, you’re brutal,” I say. “What did the ground ever do to you?”

  “Just keep walking,” Cowboy says. “As long as I hear your footfalls then you get to stay alive.”

  “But only until you decide to kill me,” I reply.

  “We’ve already been over this,” Cowboy responds. “I hate repeating myself.”

  “Right. Sorry.”

  I make my way to the side until I can run my hand on the wet rock of the mountain. Our footsteps echo around us, joining the sound of dripping water...and something else.

  “Stop,” Cowboy orders. “Just hold up.”

  I do as ordered since I have no plan on being randomly fired at. I can hear Cowboy breathing, the water drip, drip, dripping and that other sound. It’s like...I don’t know. It kinda sounds familiar, but I can’t quite place it.

  “What the fuck is that?” Cowboy whispers. “Long Pork? If it’s your buddies coming for a rescue, you’re dead.”

  “Maybe it’s Zs,” I say.

  “Doesn’t sound like shuffling feet,” Cowboy answers. “It sounds like...like...tires?”

  “Tires?” I ask. “But wouldn’t there be an engine sound to go along with that?”

  “There should be,” Cowboy says. “There really should-”

  Then we are blind. Headlights illuminate the tunnel, only a couple feet from us. I’m not stupid, I know when I’m supposed to hit the deck. And I do just as the gunfire erupts. Bullets ricochet around the tunnel and I say a small prayer I don’t catch a stray.

  “Fuck you!” Cowboy yells as he unloads his 9 at the vehicle, shooting out one of the headlights.

  I take a peak and it looks like one of the SUVs, but how is that possible? Cowboy’s was toast and so was ours. The only SUV it could have been was maybe... Nah...

  Cowboy starts running towards the SUV, taking the fight to whoever is inside. His pistol clicks empty, but that doesn’t stop him. I can see the driver door open, but Cowboy leaps at it, knocking it into whoever is trying to get out. A brief cry of pain tells me exactly who that is.

  “Stay there, Long Pork,” Elsbeth shouts. “I’ll get you when I’m done.”

  “Fuck you, girly,” Cowboy says, swinging at her head.

  Elsbeth ducks and shoves him away from the SUV. She doesn’t waste any time and goes right for him, kicking the door closed with her foot. Why? Maybe it makes for fewer obstacles? Fuck if I know. I’m just the guy splayed out on the wet ground.

  Cowboy lands a solid punch to her gut and I hear the breath leave her as she falls to a knee. She blocks a blow as he tries to bring his fist down on the back of her neck. Grabbing his arm, she twists as she comes up fast, spinning him around. I know that move! Elsbeth has his arm up behind his back and he grunts as she pushes harder and harder.

  But he’s got a little more size than she does. Instead of fighting back he rushes forward towards the tunnel wall. Elsbeth tries to counter, but before she can, Cowboy has used his momentum to swing her around and slam her against the rock. He closes fast and lands a punch to her gut, her head, and her chest. She drops again and Cowboy is smiling, thinking he has her.

  Until she nails him in the nuts.

  The huge, private contractor, military mother fucker, squeaks. Yep. He squeaks. Both of his hands go to his crotch and this time he falls, coming down hard on both knees. He’s pretty much eye to eye with Elsbeth and I think it’s about done.

  Except he head butts her, his forehead slamming into the bridge of her nose. She cries out as blood sprays everywhere; the crack of bone and cartilage echoes in the tunnel.

  “How you like that, bitch?” Cowboy yells, head butting her again. “Nice, right?”

  Elsbeth falls back against the tunnel wall. She shakes her head a couple times, but I can tell she’s pretty dazed by the slow way she brings her hands up to shield her face. She does get them up in time, I’ll give her that. Cowboy tries to finish her off with a punch to the face, but he hits forearms instead.

  “Come on, bitch!” Cowboy yells. “You wanna fight? Let’s fight!”

  He gets up, steadies himself, then pulls Elsbeth to her feet. He grabs her by the hair and slams her face down as he brings his knee up. She screams, he laughs. He tries it again, but then he screams, while she laughs. Well, she sort of laughs; hard to tell with her mouth full of leg.

  Elsbeth spits the chunk of Cowboy’s leg and pants onto the ground. He hops back, screaming at her, his hand trying to slow the blood that is gushing (and I do mean gushing) from the wound. He gets a foot back then slips in his own blood and comes down hard in front of the SUV. Right next to him is his pistol and he grabs it.

  Why? The thing is empty. Oh...

  The tunnel is plunged back into darkness as Cowboy slams the butt of the pistol into the one working headlight. I try to slow my breathing so I can hear what is going on. I hear footsteps and someone sliding around. I’m guessing the footsteps are Elsbeth’s and the sliding is Cowboy. I can’t tell.

  Then I hear them. Something hits flesh, a cry of pain, more impacts, more cries. I’m pretty sure the cries are coming from Cowboy, but I can’t say for sure. Punch, punch, cry; punch, punch, cry.

  Smack! Smack!

  “Please,” Cowboy croaks.

  Smack! Smack! Smack!

  “Okay...okay,” he begs. “You...win.”

  “Not yet,” Elsbeth says.

  I hear dragging sounds and Cowboy choking. Then the dome light inside the SUV comes on. Elsbeth has the driver’s door open and she wedges Cowboy’s head in there. I turn away as she slams the door closed. I keep my eyes averted as the door slams again and again.

  Slam! Slam! Slam! Slam!

  I can tell by the sounds that Cowboy’s head is mush on the third slam, but Elsbeth being Elsbeth gives it one extra just for good measure. Or fun. I don’t think she knows the difference.

  “You alright, Long Pork?” Elsbeth asks.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” I say as I get to my feet. I look at the pulverized head of Cowboy and the brains dripping off the running board of the SUV. “I don’t think he’s coming back a Z.”

  “No,” Elsbeth says, “he’s not.”

  Her face is all blood and shadows and I reach for her. “Let me look,” I say.

  She flinches, but lets me take her head and check out her face.

  “It’s broken,” she states. “I’ve broken it before. It feels broken.”

  She hocks up a gob of bloody phlegm and spits it on the pavement. I look at the SUV and shake my head.

  “I didn’t know you could drive,” I say.

  “Julio has been teaching me,” she says. “But I didn’t really drive. I just steered and used the braking pedal.”

  “Just brake pedal,” I say. The look on her face makes me cringe. “Or braking pedal. Whatever works. All the same in the end.”

  “I let the car take me here,” she says.

  “You just coasted down the road so he wouldn’t hear you
,” I say. “Brilliant.”

  “What? No,” she says, shaking her head. “It’s out of the gas.”

  “Oh,” I say. “Well that works too.” Then it hits me. “Wait, where’s Mondello?”

  She walks to the back and opens the tailgate, showing me a bound and gagged Mondello, blood trickling from several cuts on his face.

  “He’s stupid,” she states. “Car runs out of gas and he orders me to stay in it while he gets out.” She laughs and a blood bubble pops from her nose. “I didn’t stay. Stupid.”

  “How’d you get it turned around without gas?” I ask.

  “I pushed,” she says. “Not that hard.”

  “No, no, not at all.” Damn. “Did you pass the others?”

  “Yes, they are on the way,” she says. “Stuart said not to slow down and keep going until I find you. He was right. I found you.” She nods at Cowboy’s corpse. “And killed him. Asshole.”

  “Yeah, tell me about it,” I say.

  We stand there, looking at each other for approximately forever.

  “Listen,” I start, “I owe you an apology.”

  “Yes,” she says.

  “Right...so, I’m sorry,” I say.

  “For what?”

  “Not going to make this easy for me, are you?”

  “No.”

  “Okay, fine, I deserve the rough treatment,” I say. “I’m sorry I let you down. I didn’t want to betray you, honestly. It’s just, well, I was...I was...”

  “Scared?” she asks, cocking her head.

  “Yes,” I agree. “Scared. Scared I wouldn’t ever see my family again. Scared they would be killed once I did see them again. Watching Zs go after your family in a cage makes you do things you didn’t think you’d do.”

  “I don’t know,” she says.

  “Don’t know what?”

  “Don’t know if it would make me do strange things,” she says. “Maybe.”

  “Yeah, well it makes me do strange things,” I say. “But I came for you.”

  Elsbeth looks around. “No. I came for you.”

  “What I mean is we were chasing you,” I say. “That’s why we’re up here. To get you from Mondello. To save you.”

  “Oh, I was fine,” Elsbeth says. “I just wanted to hear what he had to say.”

  “What? What does that mean?” I ask.

  “He told me that if I wanted to know more about Foster I should go with him,” she says. “I did want to know more. That lady is in my dreams.”

  “Yeah, you said that. You said she was singing. What does she sing?”

  Elsbeth shakes her head. “I don’t know the song.”

  “You don’t remember your dreams?”

  “I don’t remember the song,” she says quietly. “I remember my dreams. I don’t want to, but I do.”

  “What did Mondello say?” I ask. “About Foster?”

  She shrugs. “Not much.”

  “Well, he had to have said something,” I push. “You two were in the car for a while together.”

  “He was driving fast,” Elsbeth says. “Because we were being chased. He didn’t say a lot. I asked questions, but he told me to be quiet. I don’t think he was a very good driver.”

  “Huh, okay,” I nod. “Hold on. You did want us to come after you? You did, right? You wanted us to rescue you, right?”

  She shrugs again.

  “Elsbeth, come on,” I snap. “You can’t be telling me you actually were planning on going with him all the way to Charlottesville.”

  “I don’t know,” she says. “Nothing for me here.”

  “What about me? What about Stella and the kids?” I ask. “We’re here!”

  “You gave me up,” she says. Ouch. That smarts.

  “Okay, true, you get that one,” I say and hold up my hand before she can speak again. “But what about Julio? He would have thought you were kidnapped or worse. If you hadn’t come back we would have all assumed you were dead.”

  “Maybe it’s better to be dead,” she says.

  “No, it’s not!” I shout, my voice bouncing up and down the tunnel. “It’s better to be alive!”

  “I don’t know that,” she says. “The dreams I have...”

  “What about them?”

  “If that lady that sings to me is real, then what else is real? What if my dreams are real?”

  “Dreams are just our subconscious exercising itself,” I say. “That’s all. Some can be real, in a way, but it’s mainly just symbols and stuff. It’s how our subconscious stretches its legs.”

  “Sub...sub...subconscious? I don’t know that.”

  “You know how you are thinking right now?” I ask.

  “Yes,” she nods. “I’m thinking of hitting Mondello in the face. Because I don’t want to hit you in the face, but I want to hit someone’s face.”

  “Okay, well thanks for not hitting me,” I say.

  “I still might.”

  “Great. Well then thanks for the warning. Can we get back to the subject?”

  “You asked what I was thinking. I told you. That’s the subject.”

  “Not gonna argue that,” I say. “The subconscious. It’s the part of your mind you can’t hear thinking. If you are thinking about punching me, then the subconscious is what put that thought there. It’s the deep part of your brain.”

  “Deep? Like a hole?”

  “Yes, kinda,” I reply. “People do say they bury things deep in their subconscious so they don’t have to think about them.”

  “That’s dumb,” she says. “You don’t bury anything in your mind. Your mind is in your head. If you bury something in your head, like a shovel or a knife, then you die. But you don’t come back, so maybe that is what the people mean? Bury something in your head so you die and don’t come back?”

  “No, no, that’s not it,” I say. I can see her getting frustrated so I back off. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll get to the bottom of it all later. Just know that your dreams are just dreams; they aren’t real.”

  “They feel real,” she says. “They make me cry sometimes. I don’t like to cry.”

  “I know. I don’t like to cry either.”

  We stand there a little longer then she grabs me and hugs me so hard I’m actually afraid she’s cracked a rib. I take the discomfort and hug her back, glad to be on her good side again.

  “I’m family?” she asks, finally letting me go. “You came to get me because I’m family?”

  “Yes, that’s exactly why I came to get you,” I say. “It’s why we all came to get you. You’re our crazy canny girl. Life would be boring and suck without you.”

  “I’m not crazy,” she states, fire in her eyes. “And not a canny anymore.”

  Fuck.

  “No, you’re right. Sorry. I just meant that you are who you are and we love you for it. It’s all good. When the others get here, we’ll hop in this SUV and roll on down the mountain back home. How does that sound?”

  “Sounds good to me,” Stuart says from back in the tunnel, Critter thrown across his shoulders. The man doesn’t look too good; too pale, even taking into account the dim light.

  “Daddy!” Greta yells and rushes into my arms. Stella and Charlie are right behind her. We all hug and it’s the best feeling in the world.

  Greta pulls away first and jumps at Elsbeth, wrapping her arms around her. Stella smiles at me and we all give her a huge hug, wrapping her up with Stanford love.

  “Sorry to cut this love fest short,” John says, “but we aren’t out of the woods yet.”

  “We aren’t in the woods,” Elsbeth says. “We’re in the mountain.”

  “That is both true and observant,” John nods. “But what I mean is, do you hear that?”

  We all go quiet and listen.

  Yes, I think we do hear that.

  The shuffling of feet and the low moans of Zs reach our ears. It sounds like a lot of feet.

  “The tunnel amplifies the sound, right?” Charlie asks. “There aren’t a
s many as it seems? Right? Hello? Right?”

  Man, I wish I could tell him he’s right. But as the things start to reach the dim circle of the SUV’s dome light, I realize he’s wrong. Very wrong.

  “Tell me you brought guns,” I say to John and Stuart.

  “We brought guns,” John says. “But it’s gonna get close in here. We’re just as likely to shoot each other.”

  “Fuck,” I swear. “So we crush skulls?”

  “We crush skulls,” Stuart nods, setting Critter down against the SUV.

  “He going to make it?” I ask.

  “Maybe,” Stella says, “he’s lost a lot of blood.”

  “Shit,” I reply.

  “Help me get him inside,” Stuart says.

  I grab Critter’s legs as Stuart crawls into the backseat of the SUV. He pulls, I lift and push, and we manage to get Critter settled. Damn, for a skinny guy that’s leaking blood, he’s fucking heavy. It’s that dead weight thing.

  Speaking of dead weight...

  “You guys got Sleeping Beauty taken care of?” John asks.

  “Good to go,” Stuart replies. He has a rifle in his hands and he turns it around like a bat as he ejects the magazine, letting it clatter to the ground. John does the same thing. I look at them and frown.

  “Have an extra?” I ask.

  “Here,” Elsbeth says, handing me a tire iron. “It was in the car.”

  “Great,” I nod. “Thanks. What are you going to use?”

  “Me,” she says then walks towards the Zs.

  “Right,” I say. “How stupid of me.”

  The Zs see her first and they groan and hiss, all closing in on her. Elsbeth takes two down with well placed elbows then kicks out, knocking one back into the others, creating a domino effect. None are hurt, but they get tangled in a knot of undead arms and legs.

  “Get in the SUV,” I yell at Stella and the kids.

  “But, Jace!” Stella cries.

  “Do it!” I shout. “We’ll be fine!” But I don’t really know that; there are a lot of Zs and more and more seem to be coming.

  How? I thought Mondello said they had cleared the Parkway. Or maybe he said they were clearing the Parkway. Damn, I need to listen better. Which is something Stella is always saying, so I’ll just keep that self-admission to myself. No need to let her score spouse points. She’s already way ahead.