Only The Dead Don't Die | Book 4 | Finding Home Popovich, A.D. (any book recommendations txt) 📖

your unit’s deployed to that dude ranch in Z-zone,” a stern voice reprimanded as if Luther was a screw-up.

“Shhh-iiittt!” Luther drawled with deep-fried southern twang. “Them boneheads jacked up our orders again. We ran out of f’n body bags. Dispatch ordered us to the infirmary asap. Said we’re to drop off the Infecteds. And pick up a shitload of body bags.” He went into one of his exaggerated neckrolls and raged on. “Zhetto’s a clusterfuck of rank bodies.”

A long unbearable silence followed. The good news, Mateo was super quiet, not even making his cute slurping sounds.

“Between you and me, it’s been a shit show all day,” one of the Enforcers admitted.

“No one knows what’s going on,” another voice complained.

Tense laughter followed.

A radio in the background chattered, “Be advised. RedDead Alert. All units in Y and X Zones respond to Sector Zulu Niner Six Two. I repeat, Sector Zulu Niner Six Two.”

“Shit, that’s us,” an Enforcers said. “Hurry back. We’ll be needing you next.”

Luther saluted them off. “Catch you on the rebound.”

As the van drove off, Justin squeezed Ella’s hand under the suits. They had BS’d their way through another jam.

“That was some smooth talkin’ back there,” Dean said.

“Ol’ Luther’s nerves be twerking like a pole dancer,” Luther yelped.

Dean handed Justin a slip of paper. “This is the address Zac gave us. Any idea what exit we take?”

So much for his optimism. Justin was at a total loss.

“I know, I know,” Miss Know It All Twila blurted. “It’s on a big green sign.”

“Duh,” Justin exasperated.

Ella’s squinched eyes warned him to play nice.

“I’ll know it when I see it,” Twila retorted. “But I don’t know how to say the word.”

Scarlett burrowed out from under the suits. “Are you sure?”

Twila nodded emphatically. No one else questioned her.

“There’s an exit coming up.” Dean turned back to Twila. “Parsippany Parkway?”

“Yay!” Twila clapped, trying to say the wacky street name.

“And then what?” Luther glanced back at him.

“The safehouse is on Hingle Avenue.” Justin tried viewing it in his mind. But since he hadn’t seen the actual location before, his eidetic memory couldn’t recall it.

“Alrighty then, we’ll just have to wing it,” Dean said with unbelievable coolness.

“Ooh, I see the building in my inner vision,” Twila said. “Can’t you, Mommy?”

“It’s too blurry for me to make out,” Scarlett said meekly.

“But isn’t it in the Forbidden Zone?” Ella’s eyebrows went crooked with confusion.

“Ye-ah. But probably just inside the sealed-off zone. So, Hingle Avenue must run north and south,” Justin theorized. “Straight into the Forbidden Zone.”

“Then we’re bound to run into it sooner or later,” Dean reaffirmed.

“Forbidden Zone . . .” Luther muttered. “Just saying it gives me the heebie-jeebies.”

“Son”—Dean hesitated—“what exactly do you know ’bout this Forbidden Zone?”

“Well, uh, since they don’t have enough Enforcers to patrol all of Last State, they sealed-off most everything within a hundred miles or so of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Except for Zhetto. So, it’s been quarantined off for years. A freakin’ ghost town of—Zs.”

They went super quiet after his last statement and continued searching for Hingle.

“No people. No vehicles,” Luther muttered. “They must still be in lockdown.”

“Ye-ah,” Justin said, “besides a few factories, this Sector is basically used as a thoroughfare to transport food and supplies from the outer zones’ farms, factories, and slaughterhouses to the grocery stores and restaurants in the metroplex.”

“Don’t tell me that!” Twila covered her ears. “I’m a vegetarian. Remember?” Her eyes narrowed to slits.

“It’s all right, sweetie,” Scarlett coddled.

Justin focused intently on the road sign ahead.

“Hingle,” the guys announced in unison.

“Go left,” Justin advised, trying to think logically. “It has to be near the Forbidden Zone’s border wall.”

“Over there!” Twila pointed to the huge Frito-Lay warehouse. “Behind that building. There’s a hole in the fence. Can’t you see it, Mommy?”

Scarlett pressed her hands to her forehead. “I just see a warehouse—”

“Don’t they patrol the border?” Dean asked.

Justin thought hard, unable to forget the heartless acts he had committed while working for the Think Tank. His A.I. algorithm had ended up condemning good cits as dissidents, which had caused them a life of strife in Tent City, or worse, tortured rehabilitation at the re-education camps. “Only drones. But Last State’s probably using them to contain the horde outbreaks.”

“I’ll park in the back. Out of sight,” Luther uttered.

Dean swung open the caged-door, ducking under the bulkhead. “Justin, hot as it is, how’s ’bout you and I slip on those blasted HAZMAT suits. We can recon the area. See if Twila’s right. If a drone spots us, we make like we’re responding to an incident.”

“Awesome plan,” Justin quipped. “Forget the respirator. Just slip on the face shield.” He didn’t think he could handle a respirator in the stifling heat.

After Luther parked the van, Justin and Dean suited up.

Ella’s long-lashed, rounded eyes revealed it all: her fear, her hope—her confidence in him. “Love you, hon,” Ella burst as he stepped out the back of the van. Mateo finally slept. Which was probably the only reason she didn’t protest.

“Love you back.” Justin blew her a kiss through his shield as if he didn’t have a care in the world. But the Forbidden Zone was overrun with Zs!

Chapter 4

Scarlett Lewis fanned Twila while they waited in the back of the stifling hot van for Dean and Justin to return from the Forbidden Zone.

“Shouldn’t they be back?” Ella gingerly patted Mateo with a damp scrub top.

An antsy Luther looked from window to window. “You getting any bad vibes?”

“Nothing at all,” Scarlett assured. She was beginning to feel a bit normal. Still, it bothered her that she could no longer tap into the Akashic Records. That familiar metallic aftertaste warned the Ancient Ones were winning the final battle. According