Ozzie took a step and leaped straight up, grabbing the bars underneath a DON’T WALK sign. Hanging by his arms from a street pole, Ozzie swung back and pumped forward with both legs. Pow! He landed a powerful two-footed kick into the chest of a thickset, middle-aged zombie tourist sporting an entire outfit made out of blue denim. The denim-clad zombie flew back into the impenetrable horde.
As the undead mob continued its slow-footed rampage, Zack felt the bass-heavy thump of pop music coming from a nearby nightclub.
The walking corpses began to twitch in unison, closing in on Zack, Madison, Zoe, Ozzie, and Twinkles. The zombies’ feet began to shuffle in step to the beat, and their undead shoulders started to swivel.
The King of Pop’s voice taunted them: “And no one’s gonna save you from the beasts about to strike!”
As the thickly packed zombie flash dancers corralled them tighter into the neon nightmare of Times Square after dusk, Zack felt a kick of panic in his gut. He looked all around, but there was no escape from the undead flash mob homing in on them from all directions.
Ozzie charged into the crowd as two college-age girls in miniskirts and bright yellow-and-lime-green halter tops latched onto his arms. Ozzie raised his nunchaku to take them out, but as he did, their boyfriends stepped to the forefront of the crowd. The two zombie juiceheads wore tight black muscle shirts that hugged their torsos. The Jersey Shore wannabes shimmied forward, protecting their zombified dates, moonwalking simultaneously between Ozzie and the girls and clobbering him with a synchronized pop of their overtanned arms. Ozzie hit the ground with a thunk, but jumped back to his feet in time to retreat to the rest of the group.
“Guys,” Madison said, her lower lip beginning to tremble. “I really, really don’t want to get eaten by these things!”
“We’re not going to,” Zack said. “I’ve got an idea.”
“What?”
“Something about this song makes all people want to dance,” Zack explained. “Even zombies.”
“So?”
“So we just have to groove with the music and maybe we can get to the other side of this crowd while they’re distracted.”
“That might work,” Zoe said. “But there’s just one problem, little bro. . . .”
“What’s that?”
“You’re, like, the worst dancer I’ve ever seen!”
“Forget about that,” Ozzie said. “This song’s almost over. We’ve got less than a minute!”
With that, Zack grabbed the handle of the shopping cart. Zombie Rice wiggled his hips to the beat of the music and bounced his shoulders. As they all busted out their best zombified dance moves, they tried to pinpoint the least congested spot in the most lopsided game of Red Rover any of them had ever played.
Zack carted zombie Rice through the zombie flash mob, keeping his steps in time with the song’s rhythm. On either side of the shopping cart, Madison raised the roof, while Zoe twisted and shouted as the zombified boogie monsters hand-jived around them.
“It’s working,” Ozzie said, shaking his booty at an undead moonwalker gliding his feet across the sludge-coated blacktop.
Suddenly the familiar pop song ended and a different song drifted out from the nightclub. The zombies stopped dancing for a moment and snapped out of their trance. Now the four of them were stuck in the middle of a massive herd of flesh-craving gluttons. But they had made it far enough.
“Look!” Zoe cried, pointing across the street. “The subway!”
And with no other choice but down, they raced over to the steps of the subway station and descended underground, lugging Rice’s shopping cart into the bowels of the city.
The walls of the subway were grime-black and smeared with mucus-y green and yellow driblets oozing through the cracks in the concrete ceiling. The smell down there was suffocating, and Zack covered his mouth and nose, inhaling through the fabric of his shirt. Madison and Zoe did the same, gasping and coughing through the thick, hot underground stench.
As they reached the turnstiles of the subway station, Zack peered over his shoulder and caught a glimpse of the massive throng of undead brainmongers waddling down the subway steps behind them.
Ozzie bounded over the turnstiles and hurled open the emergency door. The alarm shrieked and Zack pushed Rice through. Madison and Zoe ducked under the turnstiles and the four of them halted on the platform.
Twinkles lapped his tongue happily at a puddle of zombie slime.
“Ew, Twinkles, gross!” Madison cried, picking up her pup.
On the other side of the tracks, a mass of zombies tottered on the opposite platform, groping through the air frantically, moaning in agony for a bit of live human flesh.
Standing on the edge of the subway platform, Zack swiveled his head in all directions. “Quick,” Zack said. “We need a plan.”
“Down there!” Madison shouted, pointing toward another exit at the opposite end of the subway platform.
They raced toward the exit, but as soon as they reached the bottom step, a dense bunch of undead cannibals came crushing down the staircase, heading right for them.
The kids retreated and stopped dead in their tracks, trapped between two converging zombie mobs.
“We could take the tunnel . . . ,” Ozzie suggested. “The trains probably aren’t running.”
They peered over the edge, looking down on a stream of dirty garbage water flowing down the train tracks. Near the threshold of the tunnel, a roiling herd of undead rats and cockroaches churned relentlessly in the pit of subway filth.
“Are you kidding?” Madison squealed. “I’d rather get my brains eaten!”
“What other choice do we have?” said Ozzie.
The first zombie mob struggled to fit through the turnstiles behind them, no thanks to a bloated zombie at the head of the pack stuck firmly in the center lane. His midsection was so gigantic that it looked like he had swallowed a wrecking ball, and he wore a blue triple-XL T-shirt that gave him the appearance of a walking piece of M&M’s candy. The sumo-size zombie’s lips retracted back in a broad psychotic smile, showing off a crooked row of chompers blackened at the root.
Zoe ran forward, pushing the shopping cart into the zombified turnstiles. The big blue M&M’s monster man thrashed in a burst of zombie superstrength. Pow! The metal turnstile snapped off, unleashing a surge of undead subway dwellers onto the platform. Zoe jumped back and the shopping cart tipped onto its side. Zombie Rice spilled out, rolling past the yellow caution line and over the ledge to the tracks below.
“Rice!” Zack yelled, rushing to keep his friend from falling, but Rice had already landed in a rank puddle of muck.
Zack and Ozzie jumped down fast and pulled Rice up to his feet, while the girls fended off the oncoming zombies.
“Madison, Zoe!” yelled Zack, standing on the tracks below. “Come on. We don’t have a choice!”
Just then, Twinkles made a little whinnying sound as the tunnel began to vibrate with a distant rumble.
“There’s a train coming!” Madison screamed. “Get off the tracks!”
“Grab his arms!” Zack shouted, lifting Rice up with Ozzie. The girls crouched down on the platform and reached over, gripping Rice by his wrists, while Zack and Ozzie pushed Rice back up to safety.
Ozzie planted the palms of his hands on the platform edge and hoisted himself back onto the platform. He stood up and reached a helping hand down to Zack just as a pair of headlights appeared from the depths of the subway tunnel.
Zack moved forward to reach for Ozzie’s hand, but his foot was wedged between the rusted metal rails of the track.
“Zack!” yelled Zoe. “Come on!”
“I can’t,” he cried desperately. “I’m stuck.”
The subway train screeched its brakes, honking its horn.
“Somebody do something!” Madison shrieked.
Zack pulled his leg up again, but the sneaker wouldn’t budge. He froze like a deer in headlights.
Ozzie jumped back down onto the tracks a
nd crouched by Zack’s feet to loosen his shoelaces. Zack wriggled free of the shoe completely and they hopped back onto the zombifying platform as the train sped toward them. Zack wiped the sweat from his brow and sucked in a long, beautiful breath of rank-smelling air, thankful to be alive.
The train halted and the conductor slid his window open and stuck his head out. “What the heck are you waiting for?” he said. “Get on!”
The doors popped open and Ozzie and Zoe shoved zombie Rice inside. Madison hopped on the train car with Twinkles, holding the door for Zack. “Come on, Zack!” Ozzie yelled.
“One sec!” Zack shouted, and sprinted back to their tipped-over shopping cart. He sneaked between two zombies clawing for his head and snatched up as much of their bootleg weaponry as he could.
“Coming through!” Zack yelled, elbowing his way through the zombies and diving between the closing doors. Madison and Zoe jumped out of the way as Zack landed on the floor of the train. He breathed a sigh of relief as the cadaverous brain hounds smacked the outside of the moving subway car.
As the train accelerated into the underground tunnel, the headlights cast a pale yellow glow through the darkness. Zoe hitched Rice’s leash to a pole and pointed at him. “Stay right there, you bad little monkey.”
Zack, now missing a shoe, took one off Rice’s foot and put on the mismatched sneaker. They walked through the connecting door into the front of the train, where the conductor sat at the controls.
“Up to Eighty-first, sir,” said Zoe. “And step on it!”
“Now just wait a minute, little lady,” he said, turning around. “This train ain’t making no more stops. You’re lucky I picked you up at all. Thought you were a couple of zombies until I recognized you little rascals from the TV.”
“You know who we are?” Zack asked.
“Course I do,” he said. “You’re those kids I keep seeing on the news who killed all them zombies!”
“Not killed,” Madison said. “Saved.”
“Whatever,” said the conductor. “You’re all kinds of famous.”
“Hear that?” Zoe said, nudging Madison excitedly. “We’re still famous. . . .”
“You got a name, sir?” Ozzie asked the man.
“Cecil,” he said, pronouncing the name “see-sill.”
“Well, thanks for saving us back there, Cecil,” Zack said.
He looked at them sincerely. “Old Cecil’d do anything to help out a couple of national heroes, any day of the dog-garn week.”
“Then you have to drop us off at Eighty-first Street, sir,” said Zack. “It’s our only hope of getting the antidote to stop all this mess!”
“Oh, all right,” he said. “I think you’re crazy, but I guess you have your reasons.”
“Great,” Zack said. “How much farther?”
“Just about three more stops after this one,” Cecil said, pointing out the window as they whizzed past another zombified subway platform.
“Thanks, Cecil!” Madison and Zoe said together.
“Oh, don’t thank me. If it wasn’t for you little rascals, Old Cecil’d still be a zombie.”
“You were a zombie?” Zack asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “Until I ate that popcorn I was.”
Before Zack could process the dark realization creeping into his brain, the conductor retched and flopped forward, hitting the controls.
The train accelerated at a breakneck pace. Zack punched the buttons, and Ozzie yanked back on the handle, but the lever snapped off from the control panel and the subway topped max speed.
“Blaaarghhh!”
Cecil reanimated from his slumped position, craning his neck and jutting his jaw. The muckle-mouthed fiend hissed demonically and stared blankly at them with its white pupil-less eyes.
“Ahhhh!” Zoe, Zack, Ozzie, and Madison all screamed and retreated out of the subway cockpit, piling back into the train car where Rice was tied to the pole.
The zombie conductor clambered out of the subway cockpit, raking his claws through the air, swiping for their heads.
Zack unknotted the leash and pulled Rice toward him while Ozzie and the girls all grabbed their weapons. As the train zipped past the next subway stop, the zombie conductor rushed toward them in a frenzied outburst of deep-throated growls and belly-bumped Zack with the sack of blubber hanging over his waistband. Zack held Rice up like a zombie shield before backing farther to the middle of the subway car.
“Whoa, Nelly!” Zoe shouted, looking down at the other end of the train. The doors split open and a horde of zombie passengers crushed up the aisle and staggered toward them leeringly.
Zoe opened up one of the umbrellas and charged forward, slamming it into the zombies, pushing them back.
In the middle of the train, Ozzie and Madison wedged their fingernails in between the doors of the subway car, trying to pull them apart manually.
The too-fast train rocked back and forth violently, and Zack had to plant his heels to steady himself, riding the floor of the subway car as if it were a surfboard.
The light in the subway brightened as they zipped past another platform. “Two more to go!” Ozzie shouted.
A zombie old-timer with a long beard lumbered down the moving train car. He wore Bermuda shorts with suspenders over a T-shirt, and New Balance sneakers with high dress socks pulled up to his knees. The undead senior citizen snatched Madison by her forearm with both hands and clamped his slobbering maw down onto her flesh.
“Ahhhhh!” Madison screamed, anticipating the sharp pain of pierced skin and the prospect of her perfect face undergoing zombification. But all she felt was the dull clamp from the zombie’s toothless gums.
She pried her arm out of the chomperless zombie’s mouth and knocked him in his noggin with her elbow.
That was a close one! Zack thought as he tightened up the slack on Rice’s leash.
The subway shot through the tunnel like a bullet. The train car jostled and jerked, bumping the zombies off balance as it hurtled by the last subway stop before Eighty-first street.
Madison lifted her leg and kicked another zombie coming down the center of the aisle, while Ozzie pried at the door.
“It’s not opening,” Ozzie yelled.
The Central Park subway stop was fast approaching. The zombies inched closer and closer. Twinkles barked and yipped ferociously, circling their rotting feet.
Zack took the metal tip of the umbrella and jammed it between the doors like a crowbar. He jerked the umbrella to one side and the doors flung open on the moving train.
“Everybody jump!” Zack grabbed zombie Rice by the leash and the five of them leaped off the train at the last second. They hit the subway platform and rolled as the zombified train flew roaring past.
“Everyone okay?” Zack asked, brushing himself off.
“Where’s Twinkles?” Madison cried, and they all looked out at the train hurtling forward. Twinkles was still perched in the open doors of the subway car, too timid to jump.
Madison scrambled to her feet, racing after the runaway train. “Twinkles!” she called. “Come!”
Twinkles barked and wiggled his rump, then took a flying leap as the train shot into the tunnel. The little pup landed on the platform unscathed and pranced toward Madison. She clutched Twinkles to her chest and pressed her cheek to the little Boggle, who was now happily licking her ear.
“You okay, Mad?” Zoe asked her BFF.
“Mm-hmm,” Madison lied, biting her bottom lip to stop it from quivering.
Twinkles made a little whimpering noise and barked twice at his master.
“Uh-oh,” Zoe said, examining her friend.
“What?” Zack and Ozzie asked simultaneously.
“You might want to back up,” Zoe said. “She’s gonna have a meltdown.”
“Well, what do you expect?” Madison broke into tears, sobbing. “We almost just lost Twinkles. And Rice is a zombie and I’m not the antidote anymore, and I just almost got bitten by that weirdo, and if he had ha
d just one tooth, I’d be a goner right now, you guys!”
“Don’t worry, Madison,” said Zoe, trying to comfort her friend. “Because the creepy weirdo didn’t have any teeth and you’re not going to turn into a zombie, okay? I promise.”
“We just gotta keep going, Madison,” Zack said, trying to be encouraging. “We’re almost there!”
“Are we?” Madison pouted. “Because it seems like all we’re doing is buying time. Face it: We’re done for!”
“Madison, I know you’re scared,” Ozzie said. “We’re all scared. But right now we all need to be tough and stick together. We’re only as strong as our weakest link.”
Zack looked at Rice trying to chew through the mouth hole of his gorilla mask. Nom-nom-nom.
He hoped Ozzie was wrong about that.
New York City’s Upper West Side was a flash of red-white-and-blue ambulance lights. Police sirens blared their shrill whoops through the crisp night air. The whole street reeked like the gunk beneath a grungy toenail. Zack almost gagged on the pungent fumes as they hurried up to street level, now dragging Rice by the leash up the staircase one step at a time. Fresh off the subway, they found themselves on a familiar block. Zack looked up and noticed that they were back at the museum where the zombie exhibit had opened earlier that morning.
“Hang on, you guys,” Zack said, and raced up the stone steps. “I’ll be right back.” He burst into the museum and looked around the entrance hall. Zombie moans resounded throughout the building, but Zack had a clear shot to the human brain sample, a part of the exhibit. Zack cranked back his arm and struck the display case with the butt end of his umbrella. The glass shattered to pieces and Zack picked up the human brain, then raced back outside.
Zack walked down the stone steps, holding the brain specimen in his hand.
The Zombie Chasers #4 Page 5
