by Murray, Lee
“For me? What a kind girl you are, Ava,” Grandma said, taking a pretend sip from Ava’s chewed up straw.
“It’s not working,” Talia wailed.
I dragged my attention back to the zombies. Dad and Jason continued to tap at their screens. Mrs Howard was peering at her phone. The only thing that had changed was that Jason had removed his headphones.
I felt my shoulders droop. “Well, that was a waste of time,” I said.
“Give it a chance,” Darren said. “We have to be patient. It’s going to take a while until the batteries die.”
He was right. Eventually, the computers would run out of juice. What would the zombies do then? Would they snap out of their trances?
Mum came downstairs. I couldn’t have been more surprised if Bigfoot had appeared in our living room.
Talia gasped, and I could see why. Mum could have been Bigfoot, or at least a long lost tramper come out of the forest after days of sleeping rough. Her clothes were crumpled and her hair was a mess. She smelled bad too. Even from here. I didn’t need to feel her toothbrush to know she hadn’t cleaned her teeth for two days.
Ava rushed forward and flung her arms around Mum’s knees.
“Mummy,” she shouted, but Mum pushed her out of the way, gently, as if she were a cobweb, and carried on.
Ava’s bottom lip wavered. I knew how she felt because I was struggling to keep my own lip from wobbling. I strode across the lounge to pick her up, but Grandma got there first.
“Mummy can’t cuddle you right now, sweetheart. She doesn’t want to give you her nasty germs,” Grandma said. “Would a cookie help?”
Sucking on her lip, Ava nodded. Grandma whisked her off to the pantry.
Meanwhile, Mum went to the sideboard and rifled around in the top drawer. It was our junk drawer, the place where we put paper clips and glue and raffle tickets that hadn’t been drawn yet. What could she be looking for in there? I stepped forward for a better look. Oh no. She’d found the solar battery charger we used for camping.
Crossing the room, Mum opened the window and hung the solar charger from the window latch. She plugged her tablet into the socket, then sat on the sofa next to Darren’s mum.
Mrs Howard looked up, a smile on her lips. Dad and Jason did the same. They’d seen the solar charger and they knew they could keep their devices running. I frowned. So, they weren’t your normal brain-dead zombies. These zombies were smart.
“Seb,” said Darren, his voice tired.
“Yeah, I know,” I said, getting a chair so I could switch the power back on.
CHAPTER 15
We all needed some air. Actually, Cody needed a walk, but none of us could be bothered. Darren volunteered to run him around the yard on his leash instead. Ava skipped across the yard to the slide. Grandma went with her, stooping to pluck dandelions out of lawn and muttering, “Weeds! They just keep coming, don’t they?”
Talia and I watched from the deck, our feet resting on the grass.
“What are we going to do, Seb?” Talia leaned against a pillar and sniffed, tears welling. If there was a certificate for Being Emotional, today she would get it. She wasn’t normally like this. Mostly, Talia was pretty feisty. Scary even. This apocalypse-thing must really be getting her down. So turning off the power hadn’t worked. That was no reason to give up. We’d just have go back to the cereal box and try something else.
Out in the yard, Cody switched direction quickly, yanking Darren sideways.
“Hey,” Darren exclaimed.
I had a sudden thought. “Talia, where exactly are your parents?”
She dropped her eyes and made a thing of examining her shoelaces. “They’re overseas,” she said eventually.
“Overseas?”
“Attending a medical conference.”
I felt my eyes widen. “They left you on your own?”
She scrubbed at her face with the back of her hand. “No, silly. Of course, not. They left me with a caregiver, Julia, but it turns out I’ve been the one looking after her. Ironic, huh?”
I reached over and gave her hand a friendly pat. “Hey, I’m sure your parents will be fine.”
“You think so? They haven’t called me.”
“I bet they’re too busy, working on a cure.”
“Probably.”
“Or they might not have heard yet.”
She shrugged, blinking back tears.
“Where are they, anyway?” I asked.
“In France.”
I grinned. “You know, for a minute, I thought you were going to say Greenland.”
The corners of her mouth twitched upwards.
CHAPTER 16
Darren joined us, huffing after his run around the yard. There we were, the three of us, back on the deck, and back to square one.
“Sorry turning the power off didn’t work,” I said.
“At least we gave it a try,” said Darren.
Talia’s eyebrows came together. “Did you see exactly what happened?”
“You mean, my mum setting up the solar charger?”
“Well yes, that, but I was thinking more of everyone else’s reactions.”
“They knew it was there,” Darren burst out. “They registered it.”
“Yes!” Talia said, clapping her hands together. “I noticed that, too. Which means, they’re not entirely zombified. It should be possible to distract them.”
“It is possible,” Darren said. “I wouldn’t have believed it, but we saw it for ourselves.”
“They stop to eat,” I said. I wasn’t exactly sure what they were getting at.
“But their eating is mindless,” Darren said. “They barely look up. The solar charger was something different. Something they wanted.”
“That’s it, then,” Talia said. “We find something they want.”
“Something that moves them,” Darren said enthusiastically.
I glanced at Ava, sliding down the purple plastic of the slide, her arms outstretched. I wanted to believe that Darren and Talia were on to something, but how could I? Yesterday, Dad had ignored Ava all morning. He’d let her sit in the highchair in a wet nappy and hadn’t even got her any lunch. His little princess! If Ava couldn’t distract Dad, I’m not sure what could.
“Okay, what moves people to action?” Talia was saying.
“Overdue library books,” I said.
“Seb!” Talia rolled her eyes. “We’re trying to be serious here.”
So was I. I had three overdue books. If she ever snapped out if this, Mrs Pike was going to murder me.
“We could entice them with the smell of fresh bread,” Talia suggested. “Everyone loves that smell.”
“Nah,” Darren replied. “We’d have to bake a truckload of bread for the smell to reach everyone.”
Talia nodded. “That’s true.”
“What about a fart?” I said. “Farts always get where they’re not supposed to.”
“Seb!” Talia moaned. “Be serious!”
“He does have a point,” Darren said, backing me up like a good mate should.
“But you just said a smell wouldn’t reach everyone,” Talia protested.
“Depends on the strength of the smell, doesn’t it?” Darren said.
“A stink bomb is strong,” I interjected.
Talia sighed. “Will it attract the zombies?”
I felt my shoulders drop. This conversation was going round and round in circles.
“What about music?” I said as a last resort.
Darren clapped his hand on my back. “You know, Seb, that could work. They say music soothes a savage beast.”
“Who says?”
“I don’t know. Someone famous.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Talia said, clearly excited now. “People lo
ve music. It might work.”
“We’d have to find some music that isn’t online,” said Darren. “Otherwise we risk being overwhelmed by the subliminal quotient ourselves.”
I stood up. I wasn’t convinced they were right, but we couldn’t just sit around and hope someone else would save us.
“Where are you going?” said Talia.
“Inside,” I replied. “I have an idea.”
CHAPTER 17
Lucky for us, my dad was a bit of a hoarder. Not like the people on those TV shows with dead cats buried under piles of rubble—nothing as extreme as that—but he’d been a computer technician before he became a house dad, so he had a thing for hanging on to old gadgets. I went to the cupboard in the hall where Dad kept his stash, opening it carefully in case something fell off the shelves. Even so, a cord tumbled out, like a snake dropping from the trees. I picked it up and squished it back in the gap. The cupboard was crammed with electronics.
“It’s like an emporium in there,” Darren said.
“Yeah.” I had no idea what he was talking about. Beside me, Ava was digging raisins one-by-one out of a packet with her finger.
I found the shelf marked AUDIO, shifted a box sideways, and I uncovered a dusty CD player. The technology was so old, so out-of-date, there was no way it could have been affected by the subliminal quotient in my zombie game. Besides, it hadn’t been plugged in for years. I dug a CD out of a flip-case, slipped it into the slot and pressed play.
The little drawer closed. I waited for something to happen.
Nothing.
Probably the batteries. Slipping open the back, I saw the ends were green and crusty. I searched the bottom shelf for the Tupperware container Dad uses for spare batteries, and replaced them with new ones. I pressed the little triangle: PLAY.
Yes! Faint music sounded. I turned up the volume. It was a song about some girl called Delilah.
“I know this song,” Grandma called from the kitchen door.
Like I said, the technology was ancient.
Grandma started rocking her hips. It was gross. The weirdest twerking ever.
Ava threw her raisin box on the sofa and ran to her. Holding onto Grandma’s index finger, she giggled. “Do dancing, Grandma.”
Still wobbling her hips, Grandma did the honours. I had to admit, the music was kind of catchy. There was nothing like a good tune to get people moving. I carried the CD player to the kitchen bench and increased the volume.
Please, let this work.
The music blared, the singer wailing, why, why, why?
Nothing happened. Dad and Jason didn’t budge. Nor did Mum or Mrs Howard. With glazed eyes, they stared at their screens.
“Maybe it’s the music?” Darren said.
“What about the music?”
“Too quiet?” he suggested.
I turned the volume up as loud as I could. Ava put her hands over her ears. Grandma fiddled with her hearing aid, Jason grimaced, and Dad didn’t move. Nor did Mum or Mrs Howard. Not even a bit.
Talia shook her head, mouthing something at me.
I turned the volume down.
“Maybe it’s the type of music,” she said. “I think we should try something more universal.”
Darren smirked. “You mean, like the Chicken Dance?” Talia frowned, but I think Darren was on to something. It had to be a tune that would get everyone dancing, not just little girls and old ladies.
I flipped through the discs for something dance-y in Dad’s CD collection. There was a disc called Dancing in the Street by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. I didn’t know it, but it had the word dancing in the title. Worth a try. I slipped Delilah out and put Martha in.
The music bopped, calling for people all over the world to get up and dance…
“Hey, this is kind of cool,” Darren said, bobbing his head in time to the beat.
Talia tapped her foot—not the first time she’d tapped her foot today—but somehow this was different.
Would it work on the others?
Grandma and Ava were certainly getting their groove on, dancing up a storm.
Hang on.
I gave Talia a gentle nudge.
“What?” she whispered.
I nodded in Mum’s direction.
Talia’s eyes widened. “Oh wow. It’s working.”
Mum was tapping her feet. A tiny movement, but it felt like scoring a winning goal in extra time. Smiling, Talia took Mum’s hands, and pulled her off the sofa. Mum put her tablet down. She started dancing, doing a grapevine and rolling her hands about each other. I was too excited to be embarrassed. Mum was dancing! Talia laughed, the sound filling the room.
It was the best thing. Talia should get the certificate for Best Laugh, too.
Darren was pulling Mrs Howard up. She was saying no, but she was smiling, so I could tell she didn’t really mean it. Dad got up then, and jived towards Mum.
Ava wheeled away from Grandma and grabbed Jason’s hand.
“Danc-ing, danc-ing,” she said.
Of all of them, I was most worried about Jason. He was a bit of a snob when it came to music. Especially music he called commercial, which was anything not written and performed by him and his band. But Jason had slipped off his chair and dropped to his knees. I thought he’d fallen. That he was too weak to stand after days of inactivity.
No, wait. He’s…he’s playing his air guitar!
I couldn’t believe it. We’d done it! Darren whooped, punching his hand in the air. Ava climbed on the sofa and jumped up and down, clapping her hands. I moved towards the sofa, ready to catch her in case she fell off. That’s when Talia turned and gave me a smile. She was so pretty. I felt like Superman.
“I think they might be feeling a bit brighter,” Grandma said.
Suddenly, the music stopped, the machine holding its breath in the pause between the songs. A slow croon-y number came on. The air shifted and all the energy slithered from the room. You didn’t have to be a genie to know the magic was broken.
Mum dropped her arms. Dad did the same. Blinking, Mrs Howard sat heavily on the sofa, clutching for her phone. Jason was already on his feet and staggering back to the table.
My family were zombies again.
I wanted to cry.
CHAPTER 18
“Don’t you kids have to be at school soon?” Grandma said.
Aargh. I’d been hoping she’d forget.
“We…um…ah…”
“Now, you’re not to worry, Seb,” Grandma said, smoothing her skirt and patting her hair after her twerking demo. “Everything’s going to be just fine. Ava and I will hold the fort until you get back, won’t we, darling?” Ava didn’t answer. She was busy pushing her hand down the back of the sofa between Mum and Mrs Howard, looking for something.
Both Darren and Talia gave me a look. They probably expected me to come up with an excuse for us not to leave, but my brain was exhausted from all the brainstorming earlier and nothing sprang to mind.
I made a show of picking up my backpack. “Yeah, we’d better get going or we’ll be late. Come on, you guys.”
“Bye-bye, Seb,” Ava mumbled. She’d found her raisin box and was trying to work the last of the raisins out with her tongue.
A few minutes later, we were traipsing along the footpath—me, Darren and Talia—heading nowhere in particular.
“I don’t get it,” Talia said. “The music worked. They were dancing.”
“Yeah, for two whole minutes.”
“We should give it another go,” Darren said.
“What for?” I moaned. “As soon as the music stops, they’ll turn back into zombies.”
“We don’t know that,” said Darren. “Maybe it needed more time.” He sighed. “I keep thinking there has to be something more to all this.”
“Like what?”
“Like the fact that the three of us aren’t affected.”
“I thought that was obvious,” Talia replied. “It’s because we’re not hooked up to the Internet, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but it’s not the whole story because we were on the Internet,” said Darren. “Seb uploaded the game onto the school server, remember?”
Not this again.
I swung around to face them. “How many times do I have to say I’m sorry?” I thundered. “I didn’t know this was going to happen, okay!”
“Hey, no need to get your knickers in a twist,” Darren said, pulling me about by my t-shirt. “No one’s asking you to apologise.”
Talia rolled her eyes.
Darren went on, “What I meant was, you were connected to the net, and yet you weren’t affected. Why not? Why aren’t you a zombie, too?”
“It was only for a second. I wasn’t connected that long.”
“Hey, look!” cried Talia, grabbing my arm and forcing me to stop. We were close to school. I hadn’t even realised that’s where we were going. Talia squinted at the cluster of people near the school gate.
“It’s the kids from our class. Andrew, Penny, and some of the others. I can see a couple of girls I know from Room 12, too.”
“I can’t see any laptops. It looks like they’re all still okay!” Darren whooped.
We hurried forward to join them.
When we got there, everyone was talking. Complaining mostly.
“It’s crazy,” Penny said to me. “My parents never let me spend more than an hour on the computer. They’d shoo me outside. ‘Go on, off you go outside and get some fresh air,’ they used to say.”
I nodded. Mum and Dad used to say that too.
“Yeah,” Andrew said. “My olds are hanging around inside like a pair of vampire bats, sucking the juice out of their laptops.”
Penny put her hands on her hips. “It’s like they’re breaking their own rules. Mum didn’t even bother to cook dinner. I had to make sandwiches.”
“Someone has to do the cooking, don’t they?” one of the girls from Room 12 said. “My twin sister over there was on her tablet until midnight. I hardly got any sleep. This morning I felt like death warmed up, but I still had to make breakfast.”
