“Oh, no,” Ozzie muttered. “Not good.”
“What’s wrong?” Zack asked, turning his attention back to Ozzie.
“We’re not stopping!” Ozzie shouted as the vegan food truck slid wildly on a patch of black ice. “Hold on!”
Zack stiffened in his seat as they glided toward the massive cement staircase at the foot of city hall. Ozzie spun the wheel as they swerved a hundred-eighty degrees and then jumped the curb with a loud thump.
Zack heard the two zombies detach from the side of the truck with a sound like Velcro ripping. The undead couple rose to their feet and tottered toward them again, pawing the air, their arms red and raw from where their skin had adhered to the freezing metal.
“Go!” Zack shouted, but when Ozzie pressed the accelerator, the back wheels just spun in place.
More undead snow dwellers appeared on the staircase and began to wobble in the truck’s direction.
Ozzie floored the pedal again, but the truck still wouldn’t budge.
“We’re caught on something!” Ozzie yelled. He looked at Zack then at Rice. “You two gotta go out there and get us unstuck.”
“Fine,” Rice said. “But only if you let me use your nunchacku.”
Ozzie grunted.
“Please!” Rice begged as Zack grabbed one of the umbrellas he’d kept from New York City.
“Fine.” Ozzie sighed. “Don’t break them.”
Zack and Rice opened their doors and hopped out onto the icy steps of city hall. A gust of frigid wind blasted Zack in the face and stung his eyes.
“Zack, look out!” Rice shouted as a rezombified teenager lurched out from behind a stone pillar. He hollered a kamikaze battle cry and swung the nunchacku at the frostbitten freak, knocking the undead hooligan flat on his back. “Dude, did you see that?” Rice asked. “I was like, Whaa! Come get some! Whaa!” Rice swung the nunchacku again, emitting a string of kung-fu sound effects.
“Ozzie will be proud.” Zack smiled.
When they rounded the back of the truck, Zack saw that the black iron banister they had crashed into was half ripped out of the concrete staircase and had hooked the rear fender, lifting the back wheels a few inches off the ground.
Zack grabbed the metal bar with both hands and tugged hard, but it wouldn’t budge.
“You need help, Zack?” asked Rice.
“No, I think I can get it,” said Zack, hooking the railing with the umbrella handle. “Just watch my back.”
Rice turned toward the growing horde of abominable snow zombies. “Ya’ll better back up!” he warned.
“Okay, let’s give it a try!” Zack shouted up to Ozzie. “On the count of three, hit the gas!”
“One! Two!” With all his strength, Zack yanked back on the umbrella and pried the handrail off the fender. “Three!” The engine roared and the food truck shot down the steps and into the street. The brain-hungry truck vandals flew off the sides of the vehicle and landed splat on the sidewalk.
Down in the street, Zoe threw open the truck’s side door and stuck her head out. “Hurry up, dorkbrains! We got cousins to find!”
Zack and Rice sprinted to the truck and hopped in. Ozzie hit the accelerator, and the food truck skidded into motion, spraying up icy slush into the zombie faces behind them.
Many thanks to Emilia Rhodes, Rachel Abrams, Sara Shandler, and Josh Bank for all their impeccable zombie-writing advice. And thank you to my fellow New Yorkers for being such great people to zombify.
—J. K.
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.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
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Credits
Cover art by David DeGrand
Cover design by Ray Shappell
Copyright
The Zombie Chasers: Empire State of Slime
Copyright © 2013 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 hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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ISBN 978-0-06-223095-9
EPUB Edition MARCH 2013 ISBN 9780062230973
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FIRST EDITION
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