“Umm.” Zack panicked. “Yeah, uh—he’s fine.”
“Don’t lie to her, Zack,” Zoe said. “Not on her undeathbed.”
“He’s gone?” Madison screeched, and tears streamed down her cheeks.
“It’s okay, Madison,” Rice said. “We’re gonna find the little guy.”
“Promise?” she asked, and let out a small pathetic cough.
“Yep,” Rice said with resolution and his fingers crossed behind his back. “Just relax.”
“Ugh, I don’t feel so good,” she said. Madison held up her smartphone in front of her face, using the camera like a mirror.
“Fair warning.” Zoe crouched down beside her BFF. “You’re not looking so good either.” Madison scowled at Zoe then gazed at the touch screen and watched her pale skin begin to wither slightly. Dark bags hung under her eyes, and her cheeks began to droop, making her face look jowly, like an old man’s. Madison’s lips quivered as she breathed heavily through her nostrils. She threw the phone on the ground and squealed disgustedly. “This is so not cool.”
“Don’t worry, Madison,” Zack told her. “Once we reach Olivia, we’ll get you back to normal like that.” Zack snapped his fingers.
“Yippee!” Madison flopped backward and landed flat on her back in the snowy mud. She kicked her arms and legs out in a swift jumping-jack motion and began making a snow angel. “Thanks a bunch, Zacky!”
“Oh, man, she’s literally losing her mind!” Rice said as he watched her body suddenly slacken and her head loll to one side.
“Well, she’s not going to be an angel for much longer,” Zack said, crouching beside her. “Zoe, help me flip her hoodie around before she reanimates!”
“Yeah,” Rice agreed. “Like a straightjacket.”
As Zoe leaned in, Madison’s eyes shot open and she gnawed furiously at the air, snapping her teeth viciously together. Zack held zombie Madison’s shoulders against the ground, trying to avoid getting bit by the undead mean girl.
Zoe pulled Madison’s arms out from the sleeves while Rice flipped the one-hundred-percent-vegan sweatshirt on her backward. Zack cinched the drawstrings around the hood now covering her face, and Rice crisscrossed the sleeves behind her and tied them in a knot.
“There,” Zack said, brushing off his hands. Zombie Madison was zombie-proofed and ready to go.
“Nice job, guys, but now we gotta move out,” said Ozzie, strapping on his backpack.
“Wait,” Zack said, and lifted Ozzie’s binoculars to his eyes, peering out across the Niagara River one final time. “I want to make sure Twinkles isn’t still out there.”
They all paused for a moment, except for zombie Madison, who wriggled back and forth in her sweatshirt straightjacket, steamrolling her own snow angel.
“I still don’t see him,” Zack said, gazing through the binocular lenses.
“Poor Twinkles,” Rice said. “What a way to go.”
“Yeah,” said Zoe. “If Rice didn’t throw like a girl, none of this ever would have happened.”
“Shut up, Zoe,” said Rice. “I don’t throw like a girl.”
“Tell that to Twinkles,” she said. “And Ozzie’s nunchucks.”
“Nunchaku,” Ozzie corrected her with a deep hollow sadness in his voice.
Zack wanted to tell his sister to be quiet, too. He needed to think. Things were starting to feel a bit out of control. At least there weren’t a zillion zombies everywhere now that they were in Canada. “Come on, Twinkles,” Zack whispered under his breath. “No Zombie Chaser left behind.” He took one last glimpse out at the river still teeming with zombies but saw no sign of their beloved pet. “I don’t know what else to do.” He turned and shrugged to the rest of them.
“There’s nothing else we can do, buddy,” said Rice. “Except go and find Olivia.”
“I guess you’re right,” said Zack, a single tear streaming down his cheek. “I’m really going to miss that little guy.”
As they hung their heads in a moment of silence for Twinkles, a strong gust of wind squealed with a high-pitched yowl.
“You hear that?” Zack asked, his ears perking up a bit.
“I didn’t hear anything,” Zoe whined. “It’s probably just the zombies.”
“There it is again!” Zack said, listening intently.
The noise now sounded more clearly out of sync with the wind’s powerful howl. “Arf-arf-arf!”
“That’s no zombie.” Zack moved toward the bushes along the riverbank in the direction of the yips. He pushed a few branches aside and peered over the underbrush.
“Ruff!” Twinkles came trotting out of the brambles and leaped off the ground into Zack’s arms.
“Twinkles!” Zack shouted, clutching the little pup to his chest. He spun around to his friends.
“Twinkles?” Ozzie, Rice, and Zoe all gasped, triple-jinxing one another.
“Blarghles!” Madison echoed.
“Arf!” Twinkles barked at his zombified owner. The little pup was shivering nonstop and whimpering a bit, but other than that he seemed perfectly all right.
“I think he’s okay,” said Zack, drying him off with a spare T-shirt from Rice’s backpack. “We just have to get you warm and dry before you catch a chill, don’t we?” he asked Twinkles, and ruffled the frost out of his fur.
Now reunited with their canine pal, they climbed up a small slope to get back to the roadway along the riverside then strolled down the Canadian street. Madison followed them like a demonically possessed mummy, lumbering slowly and growling behind the hood covering her zombified face. The sweatshirt fabric was now soaked with excess drool, and bubbles of slobber bulged and popped off the hoodie when she grunted.
A ways up the road, the five of them took shelter at a metro bus stop, piling into the enclosed glass waiting area and huddling together on the cold metal bench. “Hopefully a bus will come soon and pick us up,” Zack said, trying to stay positive.
“Here’s hoping!” Zoe said as she tied up zombie Madison to a signpost.
“Well,” said Rice, peering at the posted schedule, “it says there should have been a bus here like five minutes ago.”
“Aw, man,” Zack said. “We just missed it!”
“No, wait,” Ozzie said, pointing down the silent, empty road. “Check it out.”
The kids squinted their eyes to the end of the street as a city bus rounded the corner. The bus rolled to a stop at the curb, and the kids hopped off the bench ready to board.
The passenger door opened and the bus driver looked down at them from behind the steering wheel. “What stop?” he asked.
“We don’t know, really,” said Zoe, and took out Madison’s phone to show the bus driver the address. “We’re just trying to get here.”
“You’re going to want the Maple Ridge stop. Then it’s just a couple blocks away,” he said. “You going to hop on or what?”
Ozzie climbed up the staircase first, then Rice boarded the bus holding Twinkles. Behind them, Zack and Zoe struggled to push Madison up the staircase next.
“What’s the matter with your friend?” the driver asked as he raised his eyebrow at the snarling weirdo concealed by her backward-sweatshirt straightjacket.
“She’s an escaped mental patient,” Zoe said about her undead BFF. “She goes a little crazy sometimes.”
“Well, is there any way to make her stop? I can’t be having her making a ruckus on my bus.”
Zack winked at his sister as he pulled out a small bottle of ginkgo biloba from his pocket. “She just needs to take her medicine,” he said, shaking the bottle.
The driver rolled his eyes and waved them aboard as the mechanical door closed behind them. “Next stop: Niagara Falls!”
A little while later, the bus jostled over a set of railroad tracks as they drove up Clifton Hill. Both sides of the street were lined with restaurants and nightclubs, arcades and mini-golf courses, and haunted houses and wax museums.
“Ooh!” said Rice. “There’s a haunted house called Nightmares
? Can we stop?”
“Sorry,” the bus driver called back. “This isn’t a tour bus, and these places don’t open until the nighttime.”
“What a bummer.” Rice pouted in his seat.
Zoe elbowed Rice in the shoulder. “Dude . . .”
“What?”
“We have more important things to do than go to a haunted house,” Zoe said. “Get your head in the game.”
As they drove onward, Zack felt a surge of urgency rushing through him. They had to find Olivia and soon.
Olivia’s house was at the end of a long gravel driveway flanked by tall maple and pine trees. The house itself was the kind that might appear in a magazine. It was white with black shutters and had a porch that wrapped around the front corner. On one side of the house, a rounded castlelike tower rose up three stories with a weathervane spinning at the point of the cone-shaped roof.
Zack, Rice, Ozzie, Zoe, and Twinkles walked up to the front door. Zombie Madison lumbered behind them wriggling and grunting in her makeshift straightjacket. Zack rang the doorbell.
“The lights are all off,” Zoe said, peering through the windows.
Rice reached down and picked up a pile of mail that had been stacked on the doorstep. “Some of this is from last week.”
“Maybe they’re out of town or something,” said Zoe.
Zack rang the doorbell three more times. “Well, then we have to get inside and see if we can find something that tells us where they are.”
“How do you propose we do that?” Rice replied. “The door’s locked.”
“Why don’t we just break in?” Zoe asked.
“We can’t break into their house, Zoe,” said Zack.
“Listen, little bro, this is a matter of life or zombification!” she argued. “Look at my best friend, will you!”
Zombie Madison sputtered another snot bubble through the backward hoodie and staggered toward them groaning with pure animal hunger. “Blarglesh glarglesh smargle,” she babbled, falling toward Zack, who quickly stepped out of the way and watched his zombie friend tumble headfirst into a rosebush. Zack bent to help her out of the thorns, and as he pulled her to her feet, she kicked a large rock right at his shin and growled.
“Ouch!” Zack complained, rubbing his shinbone. “Can someone get her away from me?” Zack rubbed his leg again while Rice and Ozzie gained control of zombie Madison. Zack rose to his feet and lifted the rock that Madison had kicked at him, turning it over in his hand. There was something strange about it. The rock wasn’t actually made of rock at all. It was some kind of thick painted plastic and had a latch on the bottom. Zack pulled it open. “Bingo,” he said, looking at the house key inside the rock. Grabbing the dusty house key, Zack stepped back onto the porch and unlocked the door.
WHOOP—WHOOP-WHOOP!
The home alarm system blared throughout the house as they all stepped inside. Zack plugged his ears with both fingers as Ozzie started to give instructions. “Everybody spread out and look for clues. We need to find out where they are as quickly as possible. Every second counts.”
Zoe tied zombie Madison with Twinkles’s old leash to the banister at the bottom of the staircase then jogged up the steps while Rice and Ozzie moved through the living room.
Zack hustled into the kitchen and spotted a handwritten note on the table. It was a letter to the housekeeper from Madison’s aunt with details about their vacation at Bunco’s Fun World, Amusement Park and Resort.
“Rice, Ozzie, come check this out!” Zack shouted.
Silence cut through the house as the alarm shut off on its own.
“What’s up, Zack?” Ozzie said, now entering the kitchen.
“It looks like we’re going on vacation, Oz!” he said, showing him the note. “They’re at Bunco’s Fun World!”
Just then a set of thunderous footsteps sounded through the house, and Rice came whirling around the corner into the kitchen doorway.
“Did you just say Bunco’s Fun World?” Rice asked with hopeful exuberance.
Zack nodded with a smile. It was a well-known fact that Bunco’s Fun World was one of Rice’s top three places he wanted to visit in the world.
“Oh, man, this is ridiculous.” Rice did a little happy dance. “This is awesome. No, wait. This is ridiculously awesome!”
“What’s Bunco’s Fun World?” Ozzie asked.
Rice glared at his friend and raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “Are you serious? Do you live on another planet or something? Bunco’s Fun World is like the greatest—”
“Bunco’s Fun World?” said Zoe, coming into the kitchen, too. “Isn’t that in Florida? How the heck are we supposed to get to Florida?”
All of a sudden an emergency siren wailed from down the street. Zack felt a knot form in his stomach when he saw a Canadian police car speed up the gravel driveway and come to a stop outside.
“Yo, guys!” Rice said, looking out the front window. “We gotta make moves. It’s the fuzz!”
“Uh-oh,” Zack said. “What about Madison?”
“Quick,” said Rice as he untied zombie Madison from the banister. “We gotta hide her, or they’ll take her for sure.”
“Over here!” Ozzie shouted, opening a closet off the kitchen pantry.
Zack sprang into action and hoisted her up by the underarms. Rice grabbed her behind the knees, and they lugged her into the closet.
“Now, stay in there and be quiet,” Ozzie said to Madison, and closed the closet door.
“Grumph!” zombie Madison grunted in response.
“What do we do now?” Rice asked as the doorbell rang. Zombie Madison thrashed and banged ferociously inside the closet.
“Police!” shouted two voices from outside. “Open up!” The cops began to bang on the front door.
“Hold your horses!” Zoe shouted at the top of her lungs.
Zack elbowed his sister in the side and looked at her bug-eyed.
“What?” She shrugged. “I don’t care who you are. It’s rude to knock more than once.”
The four of them rushed to the front door, and Ozzie unlocked the dead bolt with a click and opened up. A thirty-something-year-old man in a Canadian police uniform stood on the porch next to his partner, a fortyish-looking woman wearing an identical police outfit. They both flashed their shiny silver badges and stayed outside, looking in at the kids through the outer screen door.
The female police officer spoke up first. “You kids live here?”
“Uhhh . . . uhh . . .” the whole group stuttered.
“Are your parents around?” the male police officer asked, glancing suspiciously inside the house.
“Umm,” Rice started to say. “That’s kind of a tricky question.”
“This is our friend’s aunt’s house,” Zack chimed in. “We’re, uhh, visiting. . . .”
Just then a glimmer of recognition flashed in the woman’s eyes, and she punched her partner in the shoulder. “Hey,” she said with what seemed like a hint of awe and recognition in her voice. “You know who these little rascals are?”
“No,” he said, glaring at them. “Not ringing any bells.”
“Oh, come on,” she said. “These are those little whippersnappers who fought off all the zombies.”
“Well, I’ll be—” He squinted at Zack and Rice and Zoe and Ozzie, then Twinkles. “You’re right! They’ve even got the little dog with them, too.”
“Twinkie!” the female officer said in a high-pitched voice and crouched to dog level. “Come here, girl.”
“Actually it’s Twinkles,” Rice corrected. “And, uh, it’s a he not a she.”
Zack rolled his eyes and sighed.
“Blarghity-blarghle-glargh!” A loud zombie noise resounded from inside.
“What the heck was that?” The male officer asked, stepping past the kids and into the house.
“Uhhh,” Zack uttered, turning around, too. They followed the police to the kitchen and stopped behind them in front of the doorway.
Zombie Madison
had broken out of the closet and was now Weeble-wobbling her way across the kitchen, still snarling through the gray fabric of her backward hoodie straightjacket.
Zombie Madison shook her head violently, and the hood of the sweatshirt came undone to reveal her hideous, undead face. Her eyes were rolled back into her head, blank bloodshot orbs twitching in their socket holes, and her once-beautiful skin was beginning to chap and prune.
“Is that?” The female cop asked in stunned disbelief. “But it can’t be . . .”
“Madison Miller,” said Zoe, shaking her head. “I know, she used to be way prettier.”
“Wait a sec,” the guy cop said. “I thought she was the one who couldn’t turn into a zombie.”
“She used to not be able to,” Rice chimed in. “But now . . . I mean, just look at her.”
“Look, officers, we’re in big trouble,” Zack said. “We came all this way to find Madison’s cousin Olivia Jenkins, who we think could help us make a new antidote.”
“This is her house?” said the policewoman.
“Yeah,” Ozzie said. “But they’re on vacation in Florida.”
“So you guys need a ride, then.”
“You can drive us to Florida?”
“No, better,” the policewoman said. “We can get you a plane.”
“You can do that?” Zack asked.
“I got a cousin in the Air Force who flies fighter jets,” said the male officer. “He’s a piece of work, but he owes me one. Let’s go.”
They all squeezed into the back of the police car and Twinkles sat on Zack’s lap. Even though Madison was snarling psychotically in the trunk, Zack started to feel as though the tables were finally turning in their favor.
The policewoman hit the sirens and stepped on the gas.
“How far away is the base?” Zack asked as they cruised through the Canadian suburbs.
“Not too far from here, eh?” said the policewoman. “We’ll get you all where you need to go. I’m Gladice, by the way. And this guy here is Andy.”
“I’m Zack. Zack Clarke.”
“I know,” Gladice said. “You’re famous, remember?”
The Zombie Chasers #5 Page 3
