Rice had disappeared. A sputtering noise that sounded like the word HELP cackled in the strobe-lit room.
Zack rushed back to find his buddy, but on his first step, someone yelled “BOO!” Rice popped out of the shadows, scaring Zack as the floor shifted.
“Ack!” Zack stumbled and tripped on the bottom step, rolling over his ankle. He then felt a pain he had known only one other time before. It was during gym class last year when he’d sprained his ankle in an intense game of dodgeball. The sharp pain burned up his shin like an electric shock. Zack crumpled to the floor and let out a yowl. “My ankle!”
“Oh, man. Zack, are you all right?” Rice rushed forward out of his hiding spot.
“I’m fine,” said Zack. “Let’s just stop messing around.”
“Sorry, man,” said Rice. “I guess it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt, huh?”
Zack gritted his teeth and growled at his friend, sucking up the pain.
“Come on, ladies,” Zoe called to her little bro and Rice. “Time to peace out of here. We got zombies a-comin’. . . .”
“You sure you’re okay?” Rice asked Zack. “You want a piggyback ride?”
Zack laughed and then winced as he put pressure on his sprained ankle. “No thanks, man. I’ll be good.” He stood up wincing on his gimpy foot and nodded at Rice to keep moving.
“Zack,” Ozzie said, doubling back. “Let me see your bat real quick.”
Zack tossed Ozzie the Louisville Slugger as the undead throng from outside grunted and thrashed in through the fun house exit the wrong way.
Ozzie pushed up ahead, unleashing a flurry of roundhouses and well-placed jabs with the baseball bat on the undead fun house people.
While Ozzie cleared a path for them through the zombie onslaught, Rice trailed Zoe, who was tugging Madison. As they raced through the final passageway out into the hot zombie night, Zack hobbled up the rear with Twinkles by his side.
“Come on,” said Zoe, pointing across the Fun World plaza to the gift shop. “She might be in there.”
They ducked into the Fun World gift shop across the amusement park footpath and shut the door quickly, muffling the zombie moan and wail outside. Once inside, Zack paused for a brief moment to enjoy the zombie-free, air-conditioned bliss. Half of the lights were on, and except for a rotating postcard stand that had been knocked over, the store was mostly intact. There were a dozen circular clothing racks stocked with Fun World T-shirts, and the walls were lined with shelves of all sorts of merchandise: colorful bouncy balls, key chains, mugs, and more attire—from swim trunks, flip-flops, baseball caps, and visors to colored baskets brimming with toys and knickknacks.
“Dude, your ankle is really swelling up there,” said Ozzie, riffling through his pack. “I know I’ve got an Ace bandage in here somewhere.”
As Ozzie wrapped Zack’s ankle, Rice called out from one of the aisles of the shop. “You guys! They have slingshots and—wait a sec, what’s this?” he asked, and then ran back to the group, holding up what he’d just discovered.
“What is it?” Zack asked, looking at the cell phone in his buddy’s hand.
“It must be Olivia’s,” he said, showing them the phone. “It has forty-seven missed calls from Madison Miller!”
“That means she’s been here!” Zoe said with excitement in her voice.
“Olivia!” Zack went to the back room behind the gift shop counter to investigate. “Olivia?”
Zack flicked on the light switch, but before he could step inside, the emergency-exit door flew open in his face and a zombie barreled into him. He raised his arms defensively, and his elbow knocked the flailing zombie girl square in the schnozz. Zack toppled over and scrambled quickly to his feet to face the ghoul.
The zombie girl rose off the ground, clutching her snout, and scowled at Zack. It had dark brown hair, powder white skin, dark hollows around its eyes, and black lips. Zack backed up, ready to take it down.
“What the heck is your problem, dude?” it said suddenly, tears welling in its eyes. “You almost broke my nose!”
“Whoa!” Zack said, squinting at the girl in shock. “You’re not a—”
“A zombie?” the girl said still clutching her nose. “You’re a quick one, eh?”
“Hey, uh, sorry about that,” he said, staring at her more closely.
Right then Rice, Ozzie, Zoe, and Twinkles leading zombie Madison came running up through the gift shop toward the ruckus. They stared at Zack staring at the not-zombie girl.
“Take a picture,” the girl said to Zack. “It’ll last longer.”
Could this really be her? Zack thought. She doesn’t really look like Madison, but she sure does talk like her.
“Is it her?” Ozzie asked.
“Olivia?” Rice said, walking toward her to get a better look.
“How do you guys know who I am?” Olivia said, backing up slightly.
“It is her!” Rice leaped an inch off the ground. “Wait, are you still on the same Vital Vegan diet?” Rice asked.
“Uh, yeah,” Olivia said. “I practically invented it. Why?”
“That zombie right there is your cousin,” Zoe said.
“Madison?” Olivia gasped at her zombified relative.
“But why are you dressed like a zombie?” Zack asked.
“I’m not dressed like a zombie,” Olivia said in her raspy voice. “It’s called Goth.”
“What’s wrong with your voice?” Zoe asked.
“I screamed so much when everything went zombie, I lost my voice,” Olivia said hoarsely. “Now I have a couple questions of my own. Like, how did my immune cousin even become a zombie anyway?”
“Long story short?” Zack explained. “Pepperoni pizza.”
Olivia gasped in total shock and disgust.
“Now we’re pretty sure you’re the only one who can help us,” Zack said.
“OMG,” said Zoe, pointing at Olivia. “Your nose is bleeding.”
Before Olivia could even touch her nose, Rice had taken out an empty test tube from his bag and was already collecting a sample.
“What is this nerd doing?” she asked as Rice caught the blood in the vial.
“Samples, baby. Samples,” Rice said, showing her the test tube filled with red fluid. Suddenly, Olivia’s eyes rolled back in their sockets, and she fainted in a heap on the ground.
“What’s going on?” Ozzie said, trying to rouse Olivia. “What’d you do to her?”
“Nothing,” Rice said. “I just showed her the blood and she passed out.”
BAM BAM BAM! The Fun World zombies were outside the gift shop, half of them wearing nothing but their swimsuits, bombarding the windows and doors with their decomposing fists.
“Come on, Olivia,” Zack said, gently tapping her face. “Wake up. We gotta go!” But Olivia’s head only slumped to one side as the Fun World zombies smashed their way inside the store.
The snot-strangled grunts of the walking dead filled the air as a nonstop onslaught of delirious, phlegm-gurgling brain-guzzlers rampaged through the gift shop.
Rice crouched down and jostled her shoulders. “She’s not waking up!”
Zack ran over to the beverage cooler and grabbed an ice-cold bottle of water. He cracked off the cap and doused Olivia’s unconscious face.
Olivia gasped and shot up from the floor, looking at Zack and the gang curiously. “I just had the weirdest dream,” she said. “There were zombies everywhere. and I was trapped in this amusement park, and then these nerds showed up and told me I was the zombie antidote, and then my cousin was a zombie, and—” She glanced over at zombie Madison, who looked back at her crazy-eyed in her princess dress and astronaut helmet.
“Ahhhh!” Olivia shrieked.
“Blargh!” Madison growled at her cousin as the rest of the zombies staggered thrashing through the gift shop.
“Snap out of it, Olivia. You’re at Bunco’s Fun World with your family. There are zombies trying to eat our brains,” Zack said. “We�
��ll explain everything else later. Right now we need to get out of here. Do you know any places that are safe to hide out in?”
Olivia thought for a moment and then said, “Yeah. The food court was pretty safe.”
“Okay,” Ozzie said. “Lead the way. Everybody move out!”
In a flash, Rice gathered up their supplies, and Zack and Ozzie helped Olivia to her feet. Zoe grabbed Madison by her leash, and Twinkles followed behind. Zack shoved open the emergency-exit door and ushered his pals outside into the night.
With Olivia in the lead, they scurried single-file down a darkened alleyway between the gift shop and the fence of the Fun World go-kart track. Even though it was well after sunset, the night air was still humid and thick with the hot stench of undead decay.
“How far is the food court?” Zack asked as they turned out of the alley and into the heart of Fun World. His wrapped ankle was aching badly and he was dying for a few minutes of rest.
“It’s on the other side of the plaza with the gumball hotel,” Olivia replied.
Zack hobbled down the street trying to keep a low profile from the ghoulish fiends stumbling in all directions. He hid for a moment behind one of the metal supports holding up the monorail overhead. VROOSH! The monorail train zoomed overhead, and all the zombies in the vicinity craned their necks up to the noise.
“Guys!” Zack whisper-yelled over the noise. “Slow up for a sec.”
“I know your ankle hurts, buddy,” said Ozzie, “but we need to keep moving.”
“It’s not my ankle, Oz,” Zack retorted. “We gotta get off the main street.”
Out from behind the on-ramp to the Ferris wheel, gaming booths, and snack stands, a dozen packs of undead amusement park freaks began to move toward them all at once, as if they were all operating with the same diseased-BurgerDog brain.
“Olivia!” Zack cried over the undead groans. “Watch out!”
Olivia spun around to face Zack.
“Behind you!” he shouted.
Olivia whirled back into a stampede of sunburned ghouls shuffling out from the back of the fun house. “Ack!” Olivia screamed as the flock of infected flesh-eaters nearly trampled her over.
One of the brainsick psychos frothed at the mouth and seized Olivia by the collar, pulling her farther into the undead bedlam. The reanimated ghoul lifted Olivia by the cranium with one hand like it was palming a basketball and salivated right onto the top of her head.
Ozzie took off in a high-speed blur as Olivia shrieked at the top of her lungs. On reflex, Zack limped after Ozzie as fast as he could on his sprained ankle.
Ozzie vaulted into the air and jump-kicked, flying toward the chomping zombie behemoth about to feed on Olivia’s brain. But at the same instant, something seemed to click in Olivia’s head and she went into survival mode, swinging her elbow backward right into the beefy, muscle-bound zombie’s solar plexus. The ghoul doubled over, but Ozzie’s kick had missed its intended target and he went flying into the growing zombie mob.
Olivia then pulled a spin move and collared the zombie with one arm and yanked back on the beast’s hair from behind. Zack heard a sound like a piece of paper being torn quickly in half and the middle-aged zombie’s hairpiece ripped clean off. Olivia stood there holding the thing’s toupee in her hand and shrieked as another zombie stumbled toward her out of the crowd. She kicked the bald-headed brute in the rear end and it went flying back into the mob.
Meanwhile, Ozzie was struggling to get his footing on account of all the slime coating the pavement. “Help!” Ozzie cried as one of the zombies reached down and grabbed him with its sunburned paw.
Zack dashed as best as he could on his bum ankle and leaped into the brawl, ducking through the zombie footslog. He could see Ozzie attempting a reverse grappling maneuver, but Ozzie lost his footing again and the large zombie fell on top of him with all its weight.
“Ozzie!” Zack shouted as the zombie lowered its scruffy chin and opened its jaw wide, ready to clamp its toothy, bloodstained maw onto Ozzie’s wrist.
“Nom nom nom!”
Zack jumped off his good foot and reached out, sacrificing his own hand to the zombie’s mouth before it could zombify their most valuable Zombie Chaser. He howled in pain as the zombie bit into the meaty flesh on the side of his left hand.
The undead fiend’s weight shifted, and Ozzie freed himself, hopping back to his feet. He clocked the zombie biter with a stunning roundhouse karate kick to the back of its noggin, sending it face-first into the mass of roiling brain-chomping fiends.
Up ahead, Rice and Zoe knocked out a trio of pus-slobbering brutes, clearing a path for them to escape. Olivia took off, leading the way, dragging zombie Madison by her leash.
“Thanks for taking one for the team,” Ozzie said to Zack, following Olivia, Rice, and Zoe.
“No sweat.” Zack clutched his zombie-bitten hand. “We can’t afford to lose the one and only Ozzie Briggs.”
“That’s true,” he said. “But that’s gotta hurt.”
“It’s killing me,” Zack said, almost laughing. “But it won’t zombify me. You, on the other hand, need to be more careful.”
“Over here!” Olivia pointed the way to their safe haven.
She lifted the pull-down gate, which barricaded the Fun World food court against zombie infiltration, and they moved inside. Now in the confines of the locked-down food court, Zack could finally catch his breath and take a load off his sprained ankle.
“So, yeah,” Olivia said, walking around her zombie-free haven. “This is the spot. Luckily, the food court was closed when everything rezombified. Those gates keep the stinkers out. This is only day two, so the food’s still pretty good. We have electricity, running water, and refrigeration.”
“Nice.” Ozzie nodded his head in approval.
As everyone inspected the premises, Zack patched up his zombie bite with gauze and tape from a first aid kit behind one of the counters.
“Here, let me help you, Zack,” said Rice, unrolling some more gauze. “You should really be resting with an ice pack on your ankle, too. The four rules of sprained ankles are rest, ice, compression, and elevation. R-I-C-E,” he said. “Like me.”
“Thanks, man. I’ll try it out,” said Zack. “Hey, can I see your phone?”
“Who are you calling?”
“Duplessis.”
“But isn’t he a zombie now?”
They hadn’t heard a word from him since right after Rice rezombified on top of the Empire State Building. Duplessis was telling them to find other vegans to help with a new antidote, but their call had been cut short when his rezombified factory workers stormed his laboratory.
“I don’t know,” Zack said. “I’m hoping he got away in time. Besides, he said to call him if we found an alternative antidote, so we’ll see.”
“Did you just say you were calling Thaddeus Duplessis? The man responsible for zombifying everyone the first time?” Olivia asked.
“Uh-huh.” Zack nodded.
“I, like, totally hate that guy,” Olivia said. “When I heard what he did to those poor cow-pigs, I cried.” She frowned and shook her head. “I’d really love to give him a piece of my mind.”
“Don’t do that,” Rice said. “If he’s a zombie, he’ll probably eat it.”
Olivia furrowed her eyebrows and gave Rice a look to say, You can’t be serious.
“Never mind him,” Zack said, ignoring his pal, “I know Duplessis is a little kooky, but he might be the only one who can help us.”
“Wait,” said Rice. “Don’t call him yet. First we need to make sure we’ve actually got the antidote.”
“Yes, can we puh-lease unzombify Biff already?” Zoe snipped. “She’s starting to chew her own lips off.”
Rice pulled out a pair of latex gloves from his backpack and then uncapped the vial of Olivia’s nose blood. He tapped a little onto a cotton ball and removed the astronaut helmet from Madison’s head. Immediately, she snapped her rotting teeth in Rice’s direction
and almost took off one of his fingers.
“Easy, girl,” Rice said, like he was making nice to a wild animal.
“Snarghle-glarghle.” Madison snorted and slurped down the cotton ball from Rice’s palm in one disgusting gulp.
Here we go, Zack thought. The moment of truth.
Within seconds, zombie Madison’s eyeballs rolled back into her head and she started to choke on her own tongue. Her princess costume flared out as she began to turn in circles. She whirled around and around, spinning herself dizzy until she lost her balance and toppled to the ground, knocking her head on the cool linoleum tiles with a clunk.
“Did it work?” Olivia asked, standing over her unconscious cousin.
A few seconds later, Madison’s eyes flicked open and she lifted her head off the floor. “Oww,” she groaned. “What happened?”
“Biff!” Zoe squealed with delight, and threw her arms around her unzombified BFF. “You’re okay!”
“Who is Biff?” Madison asked groggily.
“You are,” said Zoe. Madison looked confused. “It was your zombie name, because you’re my B-F-F.”
“Aw,” Madison cooed, and gave her BFF a hug. “You’re my biff, too!”
“Good to have you back, Biff!” Rice said, patting Madison on the back.
“You—” Madison raised her eyebrows and looked down at Rice as if he were a speck on the floor. “You don’t call me that.”
Yep, she’s back, thought Zack with a smile on his face.
“Arf!” Twinkles trotted out from behind Zack’s leg and leaped into his owner’s lap. Madison gasped at the sight of the pet she thought she’d never see again.
“Oh, Maddy, I’m so glad you’re alive!” Olivia leaned down and gave her cousin a hug.
“Maddy?” Zack repeated as a smile crept across his face.
“No one call me that either,” she said.
“I can’t believe you hang out with these nerdmongers,” Olivia whispered in Madison’s ear.
The Zombie Chasers #5 Page 6
