Read Z-Burbia 3: Estate Of The Dead for Free Online

Elsbeth says. “That means you want to say something. Most people it means they need to pee. Not Long Pork.” She shakes her head. “Means he has something to say, but is too much of a pussy to say it.”
    “Well, now that you’ve buttered me up, I guess I’ll spill it,” I say.
    “I didn’t put butter on you,” she frowns. “I don’t eat people anymore. Why are you being so mean?”
    “Whoa, whoa, it’s just an expression.”
    “Stupid expression.”
    “Yeah, I guess it is,” I say. “Wonder where it came from? Who was the first person to decide that you should put butter on someone? What the hell is that …”
    “Long Pork!” Elsbeth shouts.
    I can hear a few hammers close by stop. People get twitchy when Elsbeth shouts. Not without reason. She is one badass cannibal savant even if she has given up her taste for thigh meat.
    “Sorry,” I say. I set the hammer down by the stack of fence boards. “I do have something to say.” The impatient way she looks at me hurries my ass up. I think she’s actually ready to pop me one. “You’ve been going off on your own a lot lately. Just wondering what’s up. In fact, I’m not the only one wondering.”
    “I’m looking for cannies, like you all want,” Elsbeth says quickly. She had that one planned. I don’t buy it.
    “We’ve cleared out all of North Asheville as well as downtown,” I say. “There are still random survivors in West Asheville, as well as out in East Asheville. But you’re going south.”
    Elsbeth just stares.
    “And I think Lourdes and her people have South Asheville covered,” I continue. “They’ve said so. So, still wondering where you’re going.”
    “How do you know I’m going south?” Elsbeth asks, her head tilting to the side. You know, like a curious lioness just before she pounces on some poor, wounded animal.
    “Um, well… I guessed?”
    “You’re a bad liar, Long Pork.”
    “So are you.”
    Ooooh, she doesn’t like that.
    “Who says I’m lying? I’m looking for cannies. That’s what I said. It’s true.”
    It’s my turn to give her a “look .” It isn’t anywhere close to as effective as her look.
    “Where are you really going, El?” I ask bluntly. No time for the Jace and Elsbeth dance. I’m tired.
    Her face scrunches up and I tense my entire body, not sure where she’s going to hit me. Then she relaxes and sits down on the stack of fence boards. They shift and slide out from under her and she falls on her ass. Before I can even think to laugh at the slapstick, she shoots me a death glare that takes about eight years off my life expectancy.
    I do not laugh. No laughing.
    Once she has her embarrass rage under control, she shakes her head and sighs.
    “I’m following the girls,” she says.
    I have a feeling she expects me to know what this means.
    “Not following you,” I say.
    “Yes, they are,” she replies.
    Shit. Now I’m really lost. I grab a seat next to her.
    “Start over,” I say. “What the fuck is going on?”
    “The girls that have been following me and watching us,” Elsbeth says, her voice intoning that I’m a complete moron. “I follow them. They don’t know.”
    Too many questions go through my head.
    “Okay, we’ll get to the ‘watching us’ part later,” I say. “Where do you follow them to?”
    “That big house,” she says , “with all the fields and woods around it.”
    “Going to have to narrow it down for me,” I say. “That describes a shit ton of houses around Asheville. Every douchebag that had Biltmore envy built one of those.”
    “Yes, that place,” she smiles. “You’re smart, Long Pork.” She punches me on the shoulder. My confusion is what distracts me from the pain.
    “El, I love you like family ...”
    “Because I am family,” she says, looking at me out of the corner of her eye. She has trust issues.
    “Yes, exactly, you know that,” I say. “Stella and me and the kids, we all think of you as one of us. Hence the ‘love you