Z-Burbia 4: Cannibal Road by Jake Bible Read Free Book Online Page B

all,” I replied.
    “Yes, you were.”
    “No, I wasn’t,” I said. “Not in those exact words.”
    “Don’t be an asshole,” she sighed.
    I took her in my arms and kissed her. Okay, I took her in myarm. Singular. “You love me being an asshole,” I said between kisses. “Makes you look better.”
    “Well, tell that to Critter,” Stella said as she gently pushed me away. Which was pretty easy since a one armed man can’t exactly hold on tight. “I’ll find him and apologize.”
    “Don’t bother,” I said. “He’s probably already over it. Just go get done what you need to. I’m going to make sure the kids are all packed and ready. We’ll have plenty of loose ends to deal with before leaving. I don’t want any of those ends to be our kids.”
    “Good idea,” Stella said.
     
    ***
     
    I was pleasantly surprised to find my kids’ stuff fully packed and ready to go. I was not so pleasantly surprised not to be able to find my kids.
    “Have you seen Charlie and Greta?” I asked Melissa as she carried a crate of medical supplies from the infirmary and out to the haul truck. “I can’t find them anywhere.”
    “Check at the far end of the holler,” Melissa replied. “They were heading up one of the dead end walkways with a group of kids the last time I saw them.”
    “A group of kids? What for?” I asked.
    “Not a clue. I’ve been a little busy,” Melissa replied as she kept walking.
    “Thanks,” I said as I turned and hurried towards the end of the holler.
    Critter’s Holler was actually a valley about the size of three football fields laid end to end, and about as wide as a single football field, with sheer cliffs on both sides. A bubbling creek ran straight down the middle, coming from a trickle of a waterfall at the far end of the valley. Along the cliffs on either side, and almost halfway up, were platforms with buildings made from various materials, mostly retrofitted trailers and modular houses. Walkways of wood and steel connected the buildings, but there were quite a few unconnected walkways due to the fact we took down some buildings and put them in the haul truck’s bed.
    I looked up at one of the unconnected walkways and saw my two kids with about ten others. The kids were busy sparring with various melee weapons while Greta and Charlie looked on. I was quite a ways away, but I could hear the distinct voice of my daughter shouting at the kids that weren’t doing so well. Charlie just stood there and shook his head.
    “Hey!” I yelled up at them as I took a set of stairs that led to a walkway just across a gap from theirs. “What are you guys doing? There is shit that needs to be done! Now is not playtime!”
    “We’re not playing, Dad!” Greta snapped. “We’re training! Half these kids coming with us don’t even know how to fight! They’ll be dead before we even get to Knoxville if shit gets rough!”
    “Greta, knock it off!” I shout. “Not everyone has had to go through the shit you two have! Be nice and leave them alone!”
    “It’s okay, Mr. Stanford,” a boy about Greta’s age said. “We need to know how to hold our own and how to help if the convoy gets overrun by Zs.”
    “Overrun by Zs?” I asked. “Who said the convoy will be overrun by Zs?”
    Everyone looked over at Charlie and he raised his hand. It stretched his chest wound and he winced, but he recovered quickly and just smiled.
    “Charlie Stanford, get your ass over here,” I ordered.
    It took him a while to get from his walkway to my walkway and I could see by the look on his face that he had his argument ready to go.
    “Dad! They have to learn how to…” he began.
    “I didn’t call you over here to talk about you and Greta training the kids how to fight,” I interrupted. “My issue is that you are telling these kids they are going to die when the convoy is overrun by Zs.”
    “First, I never said the convoywouldbe overrun, justif it was overrun,” Charlie countered. “And Greta