A proud smirk curled up at the corner of Ozzie’s mouth. “Yeah, that was us,” he said.
“We’re kind of miraculous,” added Rice.
“Wait minute,” Nadie said. “You’re the Zombie Chasers?”
“In the flesh!” said Zack.
“Cool!” Nadie said. “Now I get why you guys are here.” She turned down another dusty dirt road.
“Hey, Nadie!” Ozzie called from the back of the Jeep. “Might want to see if this thing can go any faster.”
“Why?” Nadie asked, checking the rearview mirror.
In the backseat, Ozzie pressed his binoculars to his face and looked behind them. Two zombified ostriches were chasing after them in hot pursuit of their Jeep. Croaking and flapping their big-feathered wings, their long necks bobbed and green patches of diseased skin spread from under their beaks and up the sides of their heads.
“They’re gaining on us!” Ozzie shouted over the growl of the car as Nadie tried to rev the engine.
Without looking away from the steering wheel, Nadie called back. “I can’t go any faster!”
The zombified ostriches were right at their backs, clacking their beaks and trying to snap at the wheels.
“Try the whistle!” Zoe shouted.
Quickly, Zack pulled out the antizombie whistle and blew. Tweeeet! the whistle piped, but the birds were unfazed by the sound.
“It’s not working!” Zack yelled, and Ozzie took out his nunchaku.
“Sorry, Nadie,” he said. “Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.” With a deft flick of his wrist, Ozzie struck the ostrich on his left.
THWAP!
The wooden handle socked the zombie bird in the side of its skull, and the ostrich tripped and flopped to the ground. The Jeep sped on, leaving the foul fowl in the dust.
On the other side of the Jeep, the second zombie ostrich snapped at Madison and Zoe, its sharp beak nearly pecking out their eyeballs.
Zoe shrieked, “It’s got me! Help!”
The bird’s giant beak nipped her by the sleeve and yanked her over the side. “OOF!”
Madison’s reflexes kicked in, and she clutched Zoe’s leg with both hands. “Guys, help!” Madison cried, holding on to her BFF as hard as she could.
Olivia grabbed one of Zoe’s ankles and hung on tight.
“You guys, it’s going to eat me!” Zoe screamed over the loud phlegmy grunts of the ostrich. “Don’t let go!”
If they didn’t pull Zoe back in, the ostrich was going to peck her to death and rip her limb from limb.
“Pull her up!” Zack shouted from the front seat, and started to climb toward the back to help.
“We’re trying!” Madison shouted.
“I can’t hold on!” Madison yelled as Zoe’s leg slipped from her grasp.
Olivia jerked to the side and nearly tumbled over the side of the Jeep, too. Her fingers were hooked in the laces of Zoe’s shoe, the only thing between Zoe living and undying. But her laces were slowing coming undone as the ostrich tugged harder.
In a flash Ozzie scrambled across the backseat and brought his nunchaku off his hip. He threw one end out toward Zoe, and she grabbed it with her free hand. Olivia’s fingers went from red to purple right before Zoe’s shoelaces slipped from her grasp. Ozzie pulled back on the other end of the nunchaku and Zack prayed Ozzie’s weapon wouldn’t snap in half.
SCKRYYCK! Zoe’s shirtsleeve ripped off in the ostrich’s beak, and the zombified bird swerved away for a second with the piece of fabric in its mouth. The ostrich ogled the kids as it ran, gobbling the ripped-off sleeve down its gullet in one long gulp. Zoe’s body flopped over the side of the Jeep, her hair dangling just inches from the ground. Everything sped by at forty miles an hour. She did a vertical sit-up against the outer side of the speeding Jeep, and with one massive grunt, the whole group helped pull her up to safety. She landed back in her seat with a thud and breathed a sigh of relief. The ostrich lashed out once more, but Ozzie knocked it out cold, cracking the big undead bird on the noggin.
“Nice shot, Oz!” Zoe shouted, and pumped her fist in the air.
The zombified ostrich tumbled into a cloud of dirt and the Jeep sped out of danger. As they drove on, the daylight darkened to twilight, and a loud thunderclap banged nearby. Storm clouds blotted out the sun, and the sky opened up. Zack felt the downpour all at once, a thousand drops soaking him to the bone in less than an instant. It was so hot that the rain actually felt good, but the wind picked up, dropping their visibility to zero. The flatlands became a giant muddy muddle.
“We have to take a detour into the jungle,” Nadie said, squinting through the water. “The rain won’t be as bad.” Mud splashed up the sides of the Jeep as she steered off the road and through the trees.
This was going to be a bumpy ride.
The wind and rain calmed down once they drove under the cover of the trees. They plowed through deep tracks of mud, and Zack hoped they wouldn’t get stuck. Rainwater poured off the canopy of leaves like a thousand water faucets on full blast.
The terrain was filling up with runoff from the downpour, and they soon found themselves plunging through half a foot of mud, which was rising by the second.
“We have to get to higher ground!” Ozzie shouted over the sound of the storm. “Don’t want to flood the engine!”
Nadie nodded and spun the wheel. They veered up a steep incline to get above the flash flood. As Nadie straightened out the Jeep, a demonic hiss sounded above them. Another zombified lemur dropped down, landing on Nadie’s shoulder. Its ringed tail was gone, and all of its fur had fallen off, leaving nothing but a wiggling piece of decomposing skin and bone.
The lemur reared its head back to chomp down on her neck. Nadie shrieked and the vehicle swerved. In the passenger’s seat, Zack sucked in and blew into the whistle at the last second. Tweeeeeeeeet!
The undead lemur flinched at the noise and Olivia reached up from the backseat, grabbed the brain-craving critter, and hurled it away from the Jeep.
“Omigosh!” Nadie gripped the steering wheel tightly, but they were spinning out of control. The Jeep tipped forward and slid down a hill and Nadie slammed the brakes. They all jerked to a stop. “Sorry, that thing just scared the heck out of me!”
“You okay?” Zack asked, looking at Nadie’s neck for any wounds. She was free of any bite marks but seemed a little rattled.
“I think so . . . ,” she said. “Thanks for saving me, Zack.”
“No problem,” he said.
“I’m glad everyone’s okay, but can we please get out of this place?” Madison said.
“You got it!” Nadie pushed the accelerator down with her foot and the engine revved.
But the Jeep didn’t move.
Zack peered over the side. The tires were stuck deep in a foot and a half of mud. Nadie revved the engine again. The rear wheels spun and sprayed twin arcs of brown muck up into the air.
Zack had a bad feeling. He wanted to get out of the rain forest as soon as they could. The reek of undead bush meat, mixed with the thick humidity, made him want to vomit.
Nadie jammed the accelerator again with her foot, but the Jeep wouldn’t budge. “Looks like we’re going to have to get out and push,” she told them.
“All right, let’s do this, guys.” Zoe was the first to jump out, not caring if she got dirty as long as they got out of there.
They all followed her lead and leaped out of the Jeep and landed up to their knees in the deep, jungle muck. But as soon as they were out of the safety of their vehicle, zombified animals began attacking from all sides. More monkeys gibbered and jabbered high in the tree branches. Birds flapped wildly above their heads.
“EEEK!” Zoe shrieked as a green and orange tropical bird planted its talons in her hair. She grabbed the zombified bird off her head. WHAM! Zoe flung the bird away and it bonked against a tree and slid down the trunk.
Quickly, Zack and his friends sloshed through the water to the back of the vehicle. Nadie put the gea
rshift in neutral and the six of them gave the back bumper a push.
Nothing. The front tires had sunk too deep in the mud.
Over the sound of the pouring rain, Zack thought he could hear something else coming from the jungle. It was the low moans of despair and yearning for human brains. As he scanned the tree line, thunder and lightning boomed, illuminating four human zombies emerging from the forest.
The grim-faced ghouls had blotches of fungus growing on their cheeks and foreheads. Their teeth were sharp and chiseled to little points from gnawing on bones.
“Glargh!” the four mutants gargled as they staggered toward the seven Zombie Chasers.
“Arf! Arf!” Twinkles yapped nonstop, barking his head off.
The zombies gawped at the kids, bug-eyed, snapping their jaws, clacking their razor-sharp teeth. Zack didn’t like the look of them. They seemed a bit quicker than regular, tubby American zombies. The undead islanders stumbled nimbly through the mud, lashing out with their fingernails, squawking and snarling.
“I thought you said everyone was in the facility!” Zack said.
“Everyone from my village,” said Nadie from inside the Jeep. “Not everyone on the whole island.”
“Well, that would have been helpful information,” Rice said.
“We need to get out of here,” Nadie said. “If there’s four of them, that means there could be four hundred right behind them.”
“This isn’t working!” Madison cried, still trying to push the Jeep along with Zoe, Ozzie, and Olivia.
“Looks like we’re going to have to escape on foot,” Nadie said. “There’s a boat on the riverbank not too far from here. . . . Let’s go!” She hopped out of the driver’s seat and started to lead them deeper into the jungle, away from the zombies.
“Hold on a minute,” Zack said. “The whistle!” He spun on his heel and doubled back for the Jeep.
“Zack, come on!” Madison shouted. “There’s no time. Those things are getting close!”
But Zack didn’t listen. He took off, sloshing through the flood, as the undead natives shambled out of the trees. There must have been more than two dozen of them now, staggering forward along with the insane zombie wildlife.
Zack could see Nadie’s whistle on the passenger seat, right where he’d left it. He stretched his arm across the front seat and snatched it up. The flood was past his knees now and Zack thought he felt something scurry around his calf muscle underwater. He felt the whistle in his hand when Ozzie’s voice rang out behind him.
“Zack, look out!” Ozzie shouted. “Snake!”
“Huh?” Zack swiveled his head from side to side, but all he saw were the zombified locals headed toward the Jeep. He looked back at Ozzie. “Not funny, man!”
“For real, man!” Ozzie shouted, pointing at something above Zack’s head.
Zack glanced straight above him and—ZSSSSSSSSSS—a giant snake hissed and dropped down from a tree branch overhead.
“AHHHH!” Zack shrieked as the zombified snake coiled around his arm and squeezed. It felt like when the doctor checked his blood pressure. The boa constrictor was twice as thick as Zack’s arm and four times as strong. He had to act quickly if he wanted to keep his arm, which he most certainly did. He really liked his arm, especially when it was attached to the rest of his body. The only problem was that the antizombie whistle was now in the clutches of the constrictor. Before the snake could coil around again and squeeze even tighter, Zack flipped the whistle in the air and caught it with his other hand. He blew into it, like a harmonica, but the boa wasn’t even affected by the high-pitched tweet.
Zack tugged his arm back, but the zombie snake’s grip tightened. It stretched its jaws above Zack’s hand and Zack tugged with all his might. Just as the snake lashed out to sink its fangs into him, Zack’s arm slipped through the serpent’s coiled body. The snake’s open jaws barely missed Zack’s hand and took a huge chomp out of its own tail instead.
Zack tucked the whistle under his arm and hustled back to his friends. Without looking back, they all took off into the jungle.
As they hiked through the mud, the rain died down to a sprinkle. They moved slowly, tracking footprints into the moist dirt, and soon Zack could see the river flowing up ahead.
As they made their way toward the riverbank, Nadie stopped abruptly and put her arms out to halt the rest of the group. “Whoa,” she said as a pack of undead devil dogs skulked out of the underbrush and formed a semicircle in front of them.
“What the heck are those things?” Zoe asked.
“Awww,” Madison cooed. “They’re kinda cute. . . .”
Twinkles growled, not liking them one bit. He hated any competition, and always had to be the cutest.
Nadie turned around, saw the pack of wild animals, and gasped, “Fossa!”
The zombified animals looked like a cross between a cougar and a hyena. The pack trod closer, their mouths peeled back to show their razor-sharp fangs.
“Good thing we got that whistle back,” Nadie said. “Play us a tune, Zack, will ya?”
“I don’t really know any songs,” he said.
“Just blow the darn thing!” Zoe yelled at her brother.
Zack raised the panpipe to his lips and blew. The fossa’s ears flattened back at the sound of the tweet and they hissed, scurrying away back into the jungle bracken.
“This thing is awesome,” Zack said, amazed at the antizombie whistle.
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Ozzie said. “This place is swarming.”
Nadie guided them to the riverbank, where they spotted a long canoe tipped over on its side, resting on the shore. “See, here it is. My dad used to use this boat for some of his expeditions.”
“Everybody in!” Zack said and hurried to flip it over.
The seven of them dragged the boat into the water. They hopped in and paddled upstream. About a half mile upriver, Nadie guided the boat toward the right-hand bank. “Here we are. This is where the mayfly larvae hatch,” she said. “Just a short bit more up that way.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Zack thought that rippling water seemed to be following them. The surface glugged with a few bubbles and then went still as the water settled. Zack squinted, trying to see below the surface, and then something huge lurched out of the murky river with a great splash.
“Growwrgh!” A crocodile head reared out of the river with a vicious cackle and snap.
The group quickly paddled to shore and sprang out of the boat, but the crocodile was right on their heels.
The crocodile jumped out of the dark water with a mighty splash. It looked like it was smiling, happy to have just found its next meal. All seven of them ran back, keeping their distance. Twinkles scurried away and hid behind Madison’s leg, whimpering, as the gigantic reptile scuttled up onto the riverbank. It stretched open its V-shaped snout and let out a vicious hiss.
“Whoa, cool!” Rice announced. “An alligator!”
“That’s no alligator,” Nadie corrected him. “That’s a Crocodylus niloticus. . . .”
“A what-a-dillus?” Zoe asked, backing away from the beast.
“A crocodile,” Nadie said. “Doesn’t appear to be zombified, but that doesn’t mean anything. These guys are very aggressive.”
“He’s a big guy, ain’t he?” Olivia said, keeping her distance.
“Pretty big,” Nadie agreed. “But I’ve seen bigger.”
Bigger than that thing? Zack thought. The crocodile must have been at least eight feet long from the tip of its nose to the end of its tail.
“Come on, I’m going to need help wrangling this sucker. Too big to do alone,” Nadie said, pulling out a coil of rope from her utility belt and pointing at Zack and Rice. “You two get behind him and grab him by the tail.”
“Are you crazy?” Zoe said. “Zack, don’t go near that thing!”
“If you want the mayfly larvae, their breeding grounds are right over there.” Nadie pointed up the riverbank, past the crocodile. “
These guys are very territorial. If we’re going to collect a sample, we have to tie him up. Now come on, grab him by the tail. . . .”
“Excuse me, little miss crocodile hunter girl.” Zoe put her hands on her hips and cocked an eyebrow at Nadie. “But I’m not about to stand here and watch my little brother get eaten by an alligator.”
“Chill out, Zoe. It’s not even zombified,” said Rice, pushing up his sleeves. “And besides, it’s a crocodile.”
Zack swallowed a big, fearful gulp. “Yeah, Zoe, take a chill pill.”
“Fine,” she said. “Suit yourself, but don’t blame me if your arm gets bitten off.”
“Here, here.” Nadie waved a stick in front of the crocodile’s face, distracting it. “Over here, you big old nasty thing. . . .”
“Come on,” Rice whispered, and Zack followed his buddy as he edged behind it. They waded into the water, doing their best to sneak up on the beast. Zack and Rice positioned themselves behind the reptile, which snapped its powerful jaws as Nadie waved the stick back and forth. The two boys stood on either side of the crocodile’s tail, their backs to the river.
“Okay now, you two are going to grab it and drag it backward up the shoreline,” Nadie instructed them as fast and as calmly as she could, dodging the crocodile’s clacking, razor-sharp snout.
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Madison asked.
Ozzie looked a little skeptical, too. “Yeah, have you done this before?”
“Not personally,” Nadie said. “But I’ve seen my dad do it, like, a dozen times. All I have to do is jump on its back and clamp its mouth shut while one of you ties this rope around the snout.”
“One of us?” Zoe asked. “Now I know you’re crazy.”
“Their bite is really powerful, but their jaw muscles are weak, so once you have their mouth shut, they can’t open back up again,” she explained, giving them a crash course on crocodiles.
World Zombination Page 2
