Zombiefied!

by C. M. Gray

  ‘After sending you to the toilets to wash your knee, I slipped into the janitor’s storeroom, leaving the door open a crack. I knew you’d notice it and curiosity would get the better of you. I was right, of course. In you wandered and, all the while, I was watching you through a crack between the boards beyond the second secret door. I opened it briefly, hoping you would be silly enough to venture down to the tunnels and into my clutches. But then Slender appeared and I had to abort the plan.’

  ‘But how did you know we would come down here today?’ I asked, trying to keep him talking.

  ‘When I caught you outside Mr Slender’s room after lunch, I guessed you’d figured out there was another secret door, and you were trying to make your move during Slender’s free period. That’s why I made up the story about the whiteboard — to draw him away from his room so you could get into the tunnel. By the time he’d finished poking around trying to get the thing set up, you were well and truly in my trap.’

  ‘But . . .’ I groped around. I had to buy more time so I could figure out a plan. ‘If it’s so great to be a zombie, why don’t you become one yourself?’

  ‘Some day, that’s exactly what I’ll do. But first, the Master wants me to create an army for him. A zombie army!’

  ‘The Master?’

  ‘The one I serve. Shhhhh!’ Suddenly, Crumpet looked frightened. He glanced around wildly. ‘The Master will hear you. The Master hears everything! It’s time we finished this. It’s time you became a zombie!’

  Mr Crumpet lifted the raven off his shoulder. ‘Corvus! Attack!’

  17

  The bird gave a squawk and spread his giant wings. With a couple of huge beats, he had launched himself into the air and was flying straight toward me.

  For the first time, I saw his eyes. They were bright red. I think he was screeching, but I couldn’t hear him. I couldn’t hear anything!

  He swooped at me. I ducked. His wings brushed against my hair, and he was soaring back up and around the roof of the chamber.

  ‘ATTACK! ATTACK!’ screamed Mr Crumpet.

  ‘Let’s get out of here!’ I shouted.

  Sophie didn’t need to be told twice. We bolted toward the door.

  But Corvus was already flying back toward us. I ducked again, but this time the raven was ready for it. He swooped lower and landed on my shoulder. His talons sunk into my skin.

  ‘AAAAGGGHHHH!’ I screamed and crashed to the ground. I tried to tear him off me, but the bird was really strong, like he had some sort of superpower. It was then I realised: Corvus was a zombie too!

  ‘Get off him!’ Sophie was screaming. She tried to push the bird away, but even with both of us trying, we couldn’t budge him.

  Suddenly, Corvus started pecking at my neck. Pain shot through my body. Blood ran down my shoulder.

  ‘CORVUS!’ Mr Crumpet’s voice echoed through the chamber. ‘ENOUGH!’

  The bird tightened his grip on my shoulder, then launched himself upward.

  ‘Aaaggghhh . . .’ I rolled over and tried to sit up.

  ‘Are you OK?’ Sophie’s worried face swam before me.

  ‘He’s better than OK,’ said Mr Crumpet. His voice seemed to come from far away. ‘He’s more than human now. He’s the first of our great army.’

  Something weird was happening to me. It was like I had poked my fingers into a power socket and waves of electricity were rippling through me. I couldn’t move.

  ‘Don’t be alarmed!’ said Mr Crumpet, walking closer. Corvus was on his shoulder again. ‘The virus has been transferred to you from the bird’s saliva. It’s travelling through your bloodstream as we speak. Soon, your body will be ten times stronger than before. You will be able to run faster than any other human being. And, best of all, you will feel nothing for your own kind. No empathy, no guilt. Only hunger!’

  Agonising pain rippled up and down my body. I couldn’t get enough air.

  ‘You will be consumed by your own hunger for human flesh! Nothing else will satisfy you!’

  ‘You’re crazy!’ screamed Sophie, but I could see her looking at me with fear in her eyes.

  I tried to speak. I tried to tell Sophie to run. But all that came out was: ‘Nnnggghhh!’ Something was happening to me. I was changing. Adrenaline was surging through my body. I felt like my muscles were about to burst through my skin.

  ‘The virus only does half the job,’ said Mr Crumpet matter-of-factly. ‘You may not have noticed, but I’ve marked the cages. Some of the beasts have been infected, but haven’t made their first kill. They are only half-zombies. They still have the powers of a zombie — strength, speed, infrared vision — but they haven’t got the mindless killing instinct of a full zombie. That only happens when a zombie breaks that final taboo and kills one of its own kind. Only then do they become full zombies.’ He swung his pale gaze onto Sophie. ‘That’s why you are so important, my dear. That’s why you’ll be making the ultimate sacrifice.’

  Sophie screamed. She turned to run, but Corvus was flying through the air toward her. Without warning, he landed on her back. Sophie toppled forward. I heard something hit the ground with a sickening thud.

  And then she lay still.

  The room spun around me and everything went black.

  18

  When I woke, the weird feeling was gone. I sat up and looked around. Where was I? Who was I? Stone walls surrounded me. A man with a bird on his shoulder stood at a distance. For some reason I felt like I should know who he was. But I couldn’t remember anything.

  Power rippled through my body. I felt incredibly strong.

  The man stared at me.

  ‘Eat!’ he hissed, pointing at something on the ground nearby.

  I suddenly realised how hungry I was. I was starving! I had to eat right now! And the only thing I wanted was meat.

  I crawled toward the thing on the floor. I could smell it was meat. I could smell everything. The scent of fear hung thickly in the air. A waft of excitement drifted in a stream from the strange man with the bird. I could smell hunger too; the hunger of dogs and the hunger of rats.

  But mostly, I could smell my own hunger. It was so strong! I could almost taste the meat in my mouth. I could feel the juices running down my chin. I had to have it now!

  ‘Eat!’ urged the man again.

  I drew closer. The meat was so warm and fresh! I could smell it was still alive, but I didn’t care. Eating it would take care of that problem!

  I leant forward to take a bite, but suddenly it moved. I jumped back. The meat groaned and rolled over. I could see its face now. Its skin was pale and blood was seeping out from under it. Suddenly, I wasn’t hungry anymore.

  ‘EAT! EAT!’ screamed the man.

  I gazed at the meat. ‘Sophie,’ I said. Where had that word come from? I wiped the blood off its face.

  I didn’t want to eat this meat. In fact, this wasn’t meat at all. This was my friend!

  ‘EAT HER! YOU MUST CONSUME HER FLESH!’ The man had gone red in the face and was dancing from one foot to the other.

  ‘No!’ I said. ‘She’s my friend!’

  ‘No?’ asked the man. ‘You don’t say no to me! You are a minion in the Master’s army now. A slave! Nothing more! Now eat!’

  ‘No,’ I said again. I could smell the man’s anger now.

  ‘She cannot leave the chamber alive,’ said the man. ‘So if you don’t kill her, something else will.’

  He strode over to a metal bar attached to the back wall, grasped it with both hands and pulled down. There was the sound of metal grinding and then another sound: the scratching of claws against stone.

  And then a pack of zombie bulldogs burst through the door.

  Their smell was like a river of blood and hunger and fury. But, somehow, I knew they wouldn’t hurt me. They could sense I was one of them now. They were only interested in Sophie.

  ‘No!’ I rushed forward and knelt over her. How could I stop them? There were too many for me to kill!

  ‘Ge
t back! Let them have her!’ said the man.

  I stared at him. Suddenly, it all came rushing back. Mr Crumpet! He had trapped us down here, deep underground. He had made his bird attack me and infect me with the zombie virus. And, after this was over, he would go back upstairs and pretend that nothing was wrong, that he had no idea where we were. And meanwhile, Sophie would be dead and I would be locked down here in a cage. Forever.

  I looked back down at Sophie. Her Fuzzil had come unstuck from her shoulder and was sitting in a little puddle of blood beside her head.

  I grabbed the blood-soaked Fuzzil.

  I stood up and bowled it along the ground. It rolled across the chamber, leaving behind a faint trail of blood. Without the extra strength in my arms, it probably wouldn’t have made it. But it did. Just. It hit the back of Mr Crumpet’s shoe, then bounced up and stuck to the leg of his trousers — exactly where I’d been aiming.

  I turned back to the dogs. They had almost reached us. I could see their bared teeth and their mad red eyes. Quickly, I slid my arms under Sophie. As I lifted her above my head, the dogs fell upon us.

  The bulldogs swarmed around me, snarling at me, but not attacking. In fact, some of them cowered away from me, as though they sensed I was more powerful than they were.

  They smelt the ground where Sophie had been lying only a second ago. Instantly, they found the small puddle of blood. There was a flash of teeth and a yelp and it was gone. Then they sniffed around until one of them picked up the faint trail of blood.

  After that, it all happened very fast.

  As one, the pack of hounds followed the trail. By the time Mr Crumpet realised, it was too late. The dogs leapt on him and he vanished beneath the pile of wriggling, growling fur.

  19

  While the dogs were distracted, I carried Sophie through the large metal doors, stopping for a moment to put her down and shut them behind us. I drew all the bolts, just to be sure. The next set of doors — the ones we couldn’t budge before — opened easily this time. At first I couldn’t understand why, and then I remembered: I was super strong now.

  It was darker in this room so I moved carefully. Weirdly, the rats were silent as they watched me carrying Sophie past their cages. At first I thought it was because I was one of them now, and somehow they could sense it. But then I realised that we weren’t alone. Something had followed us out, slipping along behind us, unseen and silent, as we made our escape. Carefully, I put Sophie down again. Then I turned to face it.

  It was Corvus. I waved my arm at him.

  ‘Go away! Get lost, you creepy thing!’ I hadn’t forgot how he’d torn at the skin on my neck. I felt around under my t-shirt, but I couldn’t find where the bird had pecked me. The wound was gone. Did being a zombie mean I had some sort of healing ability? That would be handy! There was still a little blood on my neck so I wiped it with the inside of my shirt.

  Corvus soared around the roof, squawking down at me. I ignored him and picked up Sophie again, then pushed through the last pair of doors into the tunnel. The bird slipped through before I could stop him. He flew ahead and vanished into the darkness.

  In the tunnel I groped my way along slowly. I didn’t want to trip and drop Sophie.

  I had walked only a few steps when it happened: a bright-blue light suddenly flashed around me. It flickered a few times, and then everything was glowing! The brick walls on either side of the tunnel were blue. The stone roof was purple. Sophie glowed with a bright-yellow light that seemed to come from somewhere inside her. It was amazing! But where was the light coming from?

  I thought about what Mr Crumpet had said just after Corvus had bitten me. I was a half-zombie now, which meant I had speed, strength and infrared vision!

  For a while my eyes kept jumping back and forth between ordinary and infrared vision. I’d need to practise before I’d be able to control it. But finally the infrared vision stayed on and I began to jog, and then to sprint. Sophie felt as light as a feather as I zoomed through the tunnels. It only took a couple of minutes before I reached the stone staircase that led to Slender’s cupboard. I raced up, two at a time. At the top, I could see an outline of daylight around the secret door. I put Sophie down and felt around the edges for a latch or handle, but couldn’t find anything.

  I was just about to try to break it down, when I realised I could smell something. Human skin. I sniffed around and traced the smell to a small latch on the wall beside the door. That must be how Mr Crumpet opened it from this side, I realised. I poked my fingers into the latch and pressed. Something clunked inside the wall and the door creaked open. Lifting Sophie carefully, I stepped into the cupboard.

  The light was intense! I had to close my eyes. There was a weird feeling behind my lids, like something was sliding across my eyeballs. Then, when I opened my eyes again, my normal vision was back. But now everything was so dark I could hardly see at all.

  The cupboard door stood wide open, and moonlight flooded in through the windows of the classroom. I guessed that with infrared vision, even the tiniest bit of light was super bright. I was going to have to get better at controlling my new abilities.

  I carried Sophie through the cupboard and put her down on the floor of Mr Slender’s room. As I lowered her, she stirred.

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘It’s OK,’ I said. ‘We got away.’

  She rubbed her head. ‘Ouch! Away from what? Where are we?’

  ‘You banged your head,’ I told her. ‘Don’t worry, I carried you out of the tunnel. We’re safe now.’

  ‘The tunnel?’ Sophie glared at me. ‘You’re not still going on about that, are you? We’ve already searched for the tunnel, remember? It wasn’t there!’

  Oh man! Where was the gratitude?

  But then a thought crept into my mind: maybe it was better if she couldn’t remember. Maybe if people knew I was a zombie — even just a half-zombie — it would totally freak them out!

  ‘Yeah,’ I said slowly. ‘You’re right. You fell over in the . . . cupboard while we were searching for another secret door.’

  ‘I knew it!’ She peered at me. ‘Your eyes look really red, like you’ve been crying. Were you upset that I got hurt?’

  As if! I blinked and looked away. I hadn’t even thought about my eyes! Hopefully they weren’t glowing as red as the zombie animals’. How was I going to explain that?

  ‘It’s OK,’ said Sophie, smiling a bit. ‘You can admit it! You were totally upset that I got hurt, weren’t you?’

  I had to force myself to say it. ‘Yes,’ I muttered.

  Sophie looked pleased. Then she winced. ‘Ouch! I must’ve fallen hard!’ She rubbed her head. ‘How did you manage to pick me up?’

  ‘Well . . .’ I thought fast. ‘I didn’t exactly pick you up, I just kind of dragged you out here.’

  ‘That’s why I’m all dirty!’ Sophie dusted her knees.

  ‘Yeah,’ I said. Then, because I was pretty keen to change the subject, I added, ‘Let’s get out of here.’

  I helped her to her feet, being careful not to reveal my new strength. With her arm draped over my shoulder, we reached the door. Just as I was about to turn the knob, it swung open. A figure loomed over us.

  ‘Aha! I’ve found you!’

  20

  ‘Everyone’s been searching for you,’ said Mr Slender, as he peered down at us. ‘I hope you haven’t been in any trouble?’

  ‘Umm . . .’ I said, wishing I had time to think up a reason for our disappearance and wondering when people would notice Mr Crumpet was missing.

  ‘I fell,’ said Sophie. ‘Look.’ She reached over and flicked the light switch. Mr Slender gasped.

  Sophie’s hair dangled in clumps around her face and dried blood was smeared down her cheek. Suddenly, her knees seemed to give way. She moaned weakly.

  ‘I think I need some help here,’ I lied, pretending to struggle under her weight.

  Mr Slender grabbed Sophie by her other arm, and we steered her into the corridor.
‘Everyone’s been worried about you both. What happened?’

  ‘We were looking for something,’ I said, thinking fast. ‘But we couldn’t find it so we were checking the cupboard in case it had been put away. Sophie climbed up the shelves, and that’s when she fell.’

  ‘But . . .’ said Mr Slender.

  ‘Is that Mum and Dad?’ I interrupted. I didn’t want to answer any more awkward questions!

  ‘Yes. Everyone’s here,’ said Mr Slender. His lips were in a thin line. I could see he didn’t believe my excuse.

  ‘Benjamin!’ Mum rushed up to us and flung her arms around me. I tried to wriggle free. I couldn’t breathe.

  ‘Mum! Need air!’ I gasped.

  She crushed me tighter against her bosom. ‘My little Benny! I was so worried about you!’

  I took a quick gulp of oxygen before I was buried in the folds of her dress again.

  ‘Where have you been? What happened?’ she asked.

  ‘Nuublthindg. We’bre obay. Honeslhhtlky, id’s ndo big deal.’

  ‘What? I can’t understand a word you’re saying!’ Mum finally let me go.

  ‘We’re fine, Mum!’ I said.

  ‘Well! If that’s the case, you are in so much trouble, young man!’

  What? How did that work? ‘Actually, I think I’ve hurt my ankle,’ I said quickly. I limped a bit.

  Mum looked worried again. ‘Which one?’

  ‘Don’t fall for it, Mum.’ Michael appeared behind her. ‘It’s Sophie who looks like she’s had a run-in with Tank!’

  ‘What happened to her?’ asked Dad.

  ‘SOPHIE!’ screamed another voice as Sophie’s parents came running down the hall.

  ‘I’m OK,’ said Sophie. Then she added, ‘I fell, but Ben looked after me.’

  Mrs Knight gazed at me with teary eyes. ‘Thanks, Ben! You’re a good friend.’

  ‘It was nothing,’ I said. I almost felt guilty; if it hadn’t been for me, Sophie wouldn’t have got hurt at all.