Fire.
A dozen red and green water balloons sailed through the air, headed straight for the swarm of brain eaters.
Zack sat on the couch in Madison Miller’s living room.
Next to him, Rice had a plate piled high with cheese, crackers, and salami balancing on his lap.
“Great party, Madison,” Rice said, chewing with his mouth open. “Good snacks.”
“Thanks, Rice,” she said. “Glad you’re having a good time.”
Zack glanced out the window into the backyard. There must have been fifty people all milling around, former zombies, former super zombies. Zack’s mom and dad were talking to R. J. Bunco, the owner of the Fun World amusement park. Rice’s parents were chatting it up with Thaddeus Duplessis, the creator of BurgerDog, who was at the grill, cooking hot dogs and hamburgers for everyone. Zack watched as Madison’s dad tapped Duplessis on the shoulder and swiped the spatula and tongs away from the mad scientist who had started the whole zombie outbreak in the first place.
Twinkles was by the grill, too, and eating a hamburger patty that had fallen in the grass.
At least there won’t be any burgers that taste like a dog at this barbecue, Zack thought with a chuckle. Only a dog tasting a burger.
Zhang Wu couldn’t make the trip. Zack and the gang had received word that the kung fu master had made it out alive. However, he was still in China recovering from his battle with the super zombies. But at least Nigel was there, along with Ozzie and his dad, General Briggs. Greg Bansal-Jones was holding a tray full of appetizers and passing them around to the crowd. Zoe was by his side, flirting with him a little. Nadie and her parents had even been able to make it, and she had a lemur sitting on her shoulder.
Uncle Conrad and Aunt Ginny were eating hamburgers with Ben and Olivia. Everyone was like a big happy family again.
For the most part.
They had some battle scars. And some missing fingers. And even a couple of missing arms and legs. But all in all, they were all just fine and dandy once again. Just everyone hanging out for a late summer barbecue.
Rice nudged Zack in the ribs.
“Huh?” Zack asked, stealing a cracker from Rice’s plate.
“We’re about to be on TV, man. How cool is that?”
“Pretty cool, dude,” Zack said. “Pretty cool.”
“I just hope they get the part right where I saved the world from super zombies almost single-handedly. . . .”
Zack glared at his friend and crinkled his brow. “You did what?”
“Just kidding.” Rice laughed. “Just seeing if you were paying attention.” He chewed another bite of pepperoni. “Did you see Mandy Pitman’s here?”
“Oh yeah?” said Zack.
“I heard she likes you,” Rice said.
“Okay, whatever . . .”
“I bet she’d let you take her to the dance next week,” said Rice.
“I hate dances,” Zack said.
“Just saying,” Rice said. “I heard she likes you.”
“I heard that, too, Zack,” Madison said innocently before getting up from the sofa. She stuck her head out the patio door and called out to the people in the backyard. “The show’s about to start!”
They all gathered inside and piled in the living room with plates of hot dogs and hamburgers. Madison’s mom turned up the television volume.
A special edition of Nigel Black’s Unnatural Wonders: The Zombie Chasers was about to begin.
Nigel’s voice opened over a shot of Zack’s street: “It was the best of days; it was the worst of days when Zack Clarke came home one Friday night to find his sister, Zoe, and her best friends having a sleepover. Little did he know—”
Zoe interrupted: “that he was going to get punked like no one has ever been punked before.”
“Shhhhh, Zoe.” Zack elbowed his sis.
“You shhhhh, twerp!” She elbowed him back.
“I told you first.”
“I told you second.”
“Will both of you shush up?” Rice said. “My part’s coming up!”
“You mean the part where you messed everything up and created super smart zombies that almost killed us all?” Zoe asked.
Rice raised his eyebrows. “Among others. . . . Besides, how many times did I save your butt?”
“Please,” she said. “You’re the one who needed all the butt saving.”
“Hey, guys,” Olivia said. “Stop talking about everyone’s butts. There are people trying to eat here.”
It was good to get back to normal, Zack thought.
At least for the time being.
But Zack had a feeling that nothing was going to be completely normal ever again.
And that was okay with him.
Normal was overrated.
Zack smiled and crossed his arms as he watched their tale unfold on TV. How they had met Nigel Black and tracked down the giant frilled tiger shark. How they had flown to Madagascar and then to China in search of the mayfly larvae and the ancient ginkgo tree root to complete the super zombie antidote. How they had ambushed the super zombies in Florida with their antidote-filled Super Soakers and water balloons and saved Olivia Jenkins. And then how they had traveled back to BurgerDog headquarters, unzombified Duplessis, and remade the popcorn antidote that had reversed the first outbreak. How they had unzombified their families and the air force pilots back in Phoenix. And how they had spent weeks unzombifying the undead masses across the globe. How they had battled the rest of the super zombies and reversed the outbreak completely. How they were heroes who would be remembered forever.
Halfway through the show, Rice turned to Zack and whispered in his ear.
“You know what’s superduper cool?”
“No, Rice,” Zack said. “Tell me.”
“When we’re back at school, sitting in our history class, we’re gonna be studying ourselves!”
Pretty cool, Zack thought. Pretty cool indeed.
EXCERPT FROM GALAXY’S MOST WANTED
ALIEN INVASION!
READ ON FOR A LOOK AT JOHN KLOEPFER’S
OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD SERIES
The satellite dish tilted upward, aiming itself at the night sky. Kevin gave the thumbs-up and TJ hit the send button. Kevin felt his stomach clench as the laser refracted through the prism, shot out through the satellite dish, and carried their message to the universe across the black, starry night.
“So what happens now?” Kevin asked.
“We wait for the aliens,” said Warner. “Obviously.”
Kevin settled cross-legged into the grass and started to jot down the sequence of events in his log.
11:30 p.m.: No response yet.
11:37 p.m.: Tara challenges Warner and TJ to a staring contest. Warner blinks first. TJ wins.
11:38 p.m.: Warner challenges Tara to a laughing contest because that’s what he thought they were doing in the first place. Tara laughs first.
11:45 p.m.: My butt is getting wet from the wet grass. Should have brought a towel.
11:50 p.m.: Everybody cranky. Warner regrets not bringing snacks. We all regret the no snack bringing, too.
12:00 a.m.: Galactascope still silent.
As Kevin marked the mission failure into his log, he felt his stomach tighten with panic. Even if there were aliens out there, it could take months for them to get the message, and they only had a few days before the convention.
“Come on, guys,” Kevin said, his face crestfallen. “Let’s pack up and get out of here before we get in trouble. We can try again tomorrow.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to wait a little longer, Kev?” Tara asked. “I could stay up a little laaaaaay-ter.” She yawned, stretching her arms out.
THUNK! Tara’s wrist whacked the device, and the galactascope abruptly began to blip and bleep. The laptop monitor flashed to life, and a long, repetitive jumble of ones and zeroes appeared on the screen.
“What’d you do?” Warner asked.
“I didn’t mean to!” Tara
scowled at Warner then looked at the computer. “What the heck is that?”
“It’s a message,” Kevin whispered, his voice tinged with anticipation.
They watched as the coded message scrolled down the computer screen, stopping abruptly and morphing into English through a neat little translator programming code that TJ had installed. “SOS. Need interstellar coordinates. SOS. Need interstellar coordinates. SOS.”
“Quick,” Warner said. “Send it a map of our solar system.”
TJ typed frantically on the laptop, pulling up a diagram of Earth’s solar system.
“Now give it our longitude and latitude,” said Kevin.
They waited in suspense by the lakeside, hoping for a reply. “I don’t know,” Kevin said, beginning to get discouraged after ten minutes of silence. “Maybe someone’s messing with us?”
“But no one knows we’re even out here,” Warner said.
Alexander, Kevin thought. Is he spying on us?
“Come on, Kevin,” said Tara. “It has to be real. Let’s try it again.” She turned to TJ. “Resend the coordinates, Teej.”
TJ nodded, interlocking his fingers and pushing out the palms of his hands. As his knuckles cracked, the night sky suddenly opened up with a bright neon-blue flash.
“Whoa,” Warner and Tara said together.
Kevin blinked twice, completely speechless. He squinted and watched as a speck of otherworldly light started to grow against the dark backdrop of the sky. At first it looked like a normal star, but as the speck became larger and larger, Kevin could see a UFO hurtling toward them on a billowing trail of gray smoke. This can’t really be happening.
“Get down!” Kevin shouted as the UFO flew right over their heads.
The four of them ducked for cover as the spacecraft crashed into the lake, sending a large wave rippling toward the shore.
“Holy Moley Mother of Cannoli!” TJ spoke for the first time since the beginning of camp. “Did you just see that?”
Tara, Warner, and Kevin all turned their heads to TJ.
“Dude,” Warner said. “I totally forgot you even knew how to talk.”
Kevin swiveled his head back and forth, waiting for one of their counselors to check out the commotion, but the camp was still.
“Omigosh,” Tara cried out, pointing toward the center of the lake. Something had burst to the surface and was flailing frantically in the water.
“It can’t swim,” Kevin shouted, and ran toward the paddleboats that were beached on the lakeshore. “We gotta save it! Come on!”
BACK ADS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR
JOHN KLOEPFER began his writing career at five years old with a one-sentence short story: “And then one day the monsters came.” He lives in New York City, where he is preparing for a massive zombie invasion.
DAVID DEGRAND has been drawing cartoons since he was a kid. When he’s not drawing goofy pictures of gross stuff, he plays video games, watches old cartoons and weird movies, and collects toys and books. His biggest goal is to create something his son will find cool someday. He lives with his wife and family in Texas.
Chase zombies and win prizes at
www.thezombiechasers.com.
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CREDITS
Cover art by David DeGrand
Cover design by Ray Shappell
COPYRIGHT
THE ZOMBIE CHASERS: WORLD ZOMBINATION. Copyright © 2015 by Alloy Entertainment and John Kloepfer. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015943577
ISBN 978-0-06-229027-4 (trade bdg.)
EPub Edition © September 2015 ISBN 9780062290298
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FIRST EDITION
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