Gantsuke sat shotgun, cranking the AC to full blast. The midday sun blazed down from a cloudless sky, turning the city into a giant oven.
The electric pickup was Izzy's idea. She'd told Limo it made sense: quiet, bulletproof, and perfect for a world full of hyper-aware zombies and psycho insurgents. Limo had agreed, though he still wasn't sold on the idea that zombies had good hearing.
"There. That's the entrance to my neighborhood," Meenda said, pointing left at a wide four-lane road leading toward a gated residential area.The sheer size and style of the fence already screamed money—a line in the sand separating the real world from whatever utopia lay behind it.
"How's the sky looking?" Gantsuke asked over the radio, connected to his earpiece.
The house they were heading for was just a few hundred meters away. He squinted at Meenda's reflection in the rearview mirror. Her face glistened with sweat.
Last night, she'd crashed the moment dinner hit her stomach—relieved, exhausted, and finally close to home. She'd missed the full horror show outside. But now, surrounded by wrecked cars and scattered corpses, reality was starting to catch up.
"All clear," Limo replied, watching a top-down drone feed of the sleek black truck rolling under a grand, Greco-Roman-style archway.Not so much a guard post as a damn sculpture.
Within a 500-meter radius, Limo saw maybe twenty mansions. Massive lawns, towering trees, Olympic-sized pools, and garages big enough for yachts.The homes of hundred-millionaires. Fortresses in disguise.
"Can you drive any faster?" Meenda snapped. Her voice cut through the cabin like a blade.
Izzy glanced at her through the rearview mirror, squinting behind her shades. She didn't answer—and didn't speed up either.
Gantsuke didn't even look up. He was too busy checking the Barrett rifle resting between his knees.
"Pull over, Izzy," Limo said in her earpiece.He took a sip of the ice-cold cola Mari had just brought him, briefly glancing away from the screen—rare for him in a moment like this. But it was hard not to when she was wearing that short black maid dress with the white lace apron.
"I found it in Minnie's closet," Mari said, blushing when she caught Limo staring.
"Looks better on you anyway," Limo grinned.He remembered the neighbor girl wearing it once—came to his door on Halloween asking for candy.
"Alright, tiger. What've we got?"
Limo watched the Hummer roll out from behind a row of overgrown hedges, parking beside the massive wooden gate of a mansion with a pool.A Tesla pickup jutted halfway out of the garage nearby. Clothes were scattered all over the lawn.
"No movement. No one's shot at us… yet," Gantsuke muttered, peering through the Barrett's thermal scope at the mansion's glass-panel front windows.
"See that white sedan up ahead?" Limo asked."Someone's hiding behind it."
He zoomed the drone camera in.
There was a man slumped against the trunk of a white Toyota Vios, all four doors flung open. The guy sat with his legs stretched out, head bowed.
"He's got a shotgun on his lap."
"Molly, scan the area for nearby cams," Limo said.She nodded from her spot at the multi-monitor setup. Guns weren't her thing—but when it came to surveillance gear, Molly was a natural.
"Hold up, tiger. Something tells me he's not alone…"
BANG!
The sudden gunshot made Meenda and Izzy jump. Gantsuke didn't even flinch.
"What just happened?" he asked.
"I… don't know," Limo said, eyes narrowing as he zoomed in again. "But it looks like the bastard just blew his own head off."
The man's skull had caved in, blood and brain matter sprayed across the car trunk. The image was so vivid, Limo swore he could smell it.
Gantsuke flipped the safety on his SIG MCX, switching to single-shot mode.He looked calm. Like a priest standing over a coffin.
"You should keep this."He handed a sleek, silver .357 revolver to Meenda in the backseat—custom-built by Limo with lightweight alloys to fit a woman's hand.
She took it reluctantly. Her eyes kept drifting to the house just meters away. She clearly wanted out of the truck.
"No working cams in the area," Molly said, frustrated. She scanned the zone twice—nothing was online.
"Nothing at all?"Limo leaned over her shoulder. A few front-door cams showed nothing but empty driveways.
"Mom!"
Before anyone could stop her, Meenda flung the door open and sprinted.
"Hey! Where the hell are you going?!"
Gantsuke's eyes went wide. He scrambled to get out, but the Barrett between his legs slowed him down.
"Goddamn it!"
He gritted his teeth and chased her toward the house. As pissed as he was, there was no way he'd let someone like her get eaten alive.
"You idiot!"Izzy growled, clenching her jaw. She glanced over—and saw the revolver Meenda had dropped on the backseat.
Furious, she chambered a round in her AK and flipped the safety off.She watched Gantsuke vanish past the gate behind the girl.
The gate was massive. Big enough for a truck to roll through.