by C. M. Gray
‘Neither is jumping out of windows in the middle of the night,’ I said, as we hurried toward the road. ‘What did you bring?’
‘Oh, just some supplies,’ she whispered vaguely as we stopped at the gutter. ‘My parents are heading out to look for the zombie.’
‘Which is only going to make our job harder,’ I hissed back. ‘’Cause now we have to avoid them!’
‘How?’
‘We’ll try and blend in.’ I stepped into the crowd and started walking back along the route we’d taken to Sophie’s house. Then I added, a little more loudly so she’d hear me over the noise, ‘If we head to where we saw it, we might be able to pick up its trail. All zombies leave one behind them. Check out ours!’
I turned around and jogged backward for a couple of seconds, hoping people would be smart enough to get out of my way. Behind us, two long neon blue streaks hovered in the air.
‘I can’t,’ Sophie shouted back. ‘My infrared doesn’t work! You know that.’
I spun back around and jogged a little faster. ‘You can! Remember, you used it after you were first transformed?!’
‘That was only once. And it hasn’t worked again ever since.’ Sophie kept pace with me. ‘That effect was only temporary ’cause I’m not a real zombie!’
‘Yes, you are!’ I said as I overtook her. ‘Being undead isn’t bad. It means we’re kind of invincible, so there’s not much Mr Bill or anyone else can do to us.’
‘I’ve been thinking about that.’ Sophie’s feet slapped the bitumen beside mine. ‘And I’m pretty sure there is more he could do. He could actually kill us, for example.’
‘He could try,’ I said, as we turned a corner into another dark street. There were no streetlights here, but the moon was bright enough to scatter patches of light and leafy shadows across the ground. Kids were taking advantage of the dark by leaping out from behind trees or parked cars to scare their friends.
‘And if he doesn’t kill us, he could maim us or something.’ Sophie was keeping up with me easily.
‘Maim?! Who uses words like that? I don’t even know what that means!’ I slowly increased my speed until we were running fast. No normal human could run this fast, but Sophie kept up easily. Luckily, it was dark enough for people not to realise how fast we were going.
‘It means “to injure horrifically”. You know, so there’s permanent scarring or a limb missing or something.’
She was so busy trying to prove her point that she didn’t notice as I kicked the pace up another gear. Houses zipped by; we skidded from one corner to the next.
‘I suppose zombies can lose limbs,’ I agreed as we zoomed down another street. We were almost at the spot where we saw the zombie already. ‘But it doesn’t seem to slow them down much. I could still lurch even if I had only one leg.’
‘You need two legs to lurch. You’d be hopping if you only had one leg.’ Sophie bounded ahead in a series of enormous hops to demonstrate. When I caught up, she added, ‘It’s just not possible to lurch with one leg!’
‘Maybe not,’ I agreed. ‘And it’s not possible to run this fast if you’re not a zombie.’
Sophie instantly vanished from my peripheral vision. When I stopped and glanced back, she was standing with her hands on her hips, glaring after me. ‘Were you doing that on purpose?’
‘Doing what?’ I asked innocently. ‘Getting us here fast?’
She scowled.
‘Anyway, this is where we saw him. Or her. We still don’t know if it was a boy or girl.’
Sophie narrowed her eyes at me. ‘How can you be sure we’re in the right place?’
‘There’s a pool of blue light here where it picked up the lollies. And then it went this way.’ I jogged across the street then turned and started running back the way we’d come, although on the opposite side of the road. The trail zig-zagged through front yards and between the cars parked along the curb. The zombie had been trying to stay out of sight.
Sophie had caught up to me. ‘Fine. Being able to run fast is handy, but it doesn’t prove anything. And we could’ve taken bikes. That would’ve been even quicker.’
We dodged a couple of kids. One was dressed as a bat and the other was a pirate. He waved his cutlass at us.
‘It’s probably long gone by now anyway,’ Sophie added, sounding annoyed. ‘I guess if you hadn’t been showing off . . . AAAGGGHHH!’
An orange shape leapt out of the bushes. I switched off my infrared as we skidded to a stop.
‘Oh, great,’ muttered Sophie. ‘As if we haven’t got enough problems.’
7
Tank Trotter. The biggest bully in Seabrook. Creeping out from the bushes behind him was his friend, Muzza. The two boys grinned at us evilly, their eyes glinting in the dark.
‘What do we have here?!’ Tank strolled up to us. ‘A skeleton and a . . . a . . .?’ He raised his eyebrows. ‘A beggar?’
Muzza sniggered.
‘What do you want?’ I muttered.
Tank’s orange light proved that he wasn’t the zombie we were looking for, although the guy didn’t need to be transformed into one of the undead to act like a brainless idiot.
Tank’s small, pale eyes darted toward Sophie’s backpack. ‘What’s in the bag?’ He suddenly lunged at it.
‘Nothing.’ I grabbed the bag and skipped backward. Had he and Muzza also been prowling around, stealing Halloween lollies?
‘Give it to me, shrimp.’ Muzza shoved his face up to mine. ‘Little kids get hurt when they play with the big boys.’
‘Waaaahhhh! WAAHHHH!’ Tank pretended to cry like a baby.
‘You might wanna put some ice on that burn!’ Muzza sniggered.
They doubled over laughing.
A sudden idea struck me. If they’d been lurking around the streets ambushing little kids, maybe they’d seen something. ‘Have you guys noticed anyone acting weird tonight?’
‘Or have you seen Mr Bill?’ added Sophie.
Tank’s beady eyes were still fixed on the bag in my hand. ‘Who wants to know?’
‘Me,’ I told them.
‘We’re not dumb, you little freak!’ he snapped.
‘Yeah. We’re not D. U. M.,’ Muzza scoffed. ‘Mr Bill left. He’s been gone for ages.’
‘So, you haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary?’ These idiots were wasting our time.
‘What’s in it for us?’ demanded Tank.
I unzipped Sophie’s bag and dipped my hand inside. Sure enough, the thing was full of lollies. I tossed each of them a toffee, which they snatched out of the air.
‘Yeah, we’ve seen some weird stuff tonight,’ said Muzza, pulling the twisted paper on either side of the lolly so the wrapper opened. He stuffed the caramel square into his mouth. ‘All these little kids keep hitting their heads against my fist.’
‘Yeah. And they keep making me take all their lollies,’ added Tank.
‘Nothing else?’ I pulled some mints out of the bag and held them up.
‘Nah,’ said Tank, then he snorted, ‘except some idiot who tried to rob us! What a nutjob!’
‘I guess that’s what happens if you go to The House,’ added Muzza. He glanced around nervously.
For the first time, I noticed he had a bruise on his cheek. Tank had grazes on both hands. Suddenly, they looked uneasy.
‘Gimme.’ Tank tried to snatch the bag but I was too quick. I threw the bag high above his head, then leapfrogged over him, using his shoulders as a springboard.
By the time he had turned around, I was standing behind him with the bag in my hands again.
He seemed a bit stunned but he recovered fast and swung a roundhouse punch at my head. I dodged and his fist connected with the side of his own skull.
Muzza charged. Just before he reached me, I crouched down and flung out my arm. He somersaulted over it, landing on the bitumen.
I turned, dropping Sophie’s bag to deal with the counterattack I was sure was coming from Tank, but the guy was standing, frozen to t
he spot, his mouth gaping open. ‘He’s . . . he’s one of them!’ he wailed. Then he turned and ran.
Before I could move, Muzza leapt to his feet, snatched up the bag and tore down the street after him. In seconds we were alone again.
‘My bag!’ screamed Sophie. For a second, I thought she was going to give chase, but instead, she stood glaring after them with her hands on her hips.
‘Why would they run?’ I asked as their orange shapes vanished around a corner. Tank never ran away from anyone.
‘Your infrared is on,’ Sophie explained crossly. ‘Your freaky eyes scared them!’
Sure enough, everything was now a blurry greyish green. Quickly, I deactivated it. ‘Oops!’
‘But did you hear what Tank said?’
I nodded. ‘They must’ve tried to rob the zombie.’
‘And they got beaten up in the process,’ added Sophie. ‘Maybe that’s where the zombie got the idea to steal other kids’ lollies.’
‘Tank always was a bad influence,’ I agreed. ‘And now we’re back to square one.’
‘Not quite. Didn’t you hear Muzza? He said, “I guess that’s what happens if you go to The House.”’
The House was a rundown mansion that stood on an overgrown corner in the oldest part of Seabrook. It would have been grand in its day, but it had been vacant for as long as I could remember. People said it was haunted and sometimes kids dared each other to go up and peek in the windows.
‘Do you think the zombie might be there?’ I asked.
‘Maybe. Or maybe that’s where the person went before they were transformed into a zombie. Maybe that’s where they were transformed.’ Sophie took a deep breath. ‘Whatever happened, there’s only one way to find out.’
This time, Sophie led the way. The crowds were finally starting to thin out as younger kids went home. But there were still enough older kids out trick-or-treating for no one to notice us. My shabby zombie outfit was only looking worse as the night wore on, and even though Sophie didn’t have her little stuffed dog anymore, she was still wearing her skeleton costume.
A few minutes later, we turned into the street where The House stood. In this part of town, big old trees lined the road. Most of the lawns were neatly tended and the cars parked in driveways looked new and expensive.
The House stood at the end of the row, surrounded by overgrown gardens. It obviously hadn’t been lived in for years and now looked unkempt. We stopped beside the letterbox and gazed up. The place was just as gloomy as I remembered, with its red brick walls and chimneys sprouting from the pointy roof. But for the first time ever, the front door was wide open. A light shone out from inside.
‘It looks like a trap,’ said Sophie.
Despite the light inside, The House still seemed deserted. There were so many darkened windows facing the street. If someone was watching us, we’d never see them.
I shuddered. Was Sophie right? Were we walking into a trap?
8
We crept up the overgrown path to the front steps then onto the porch. We stood nervously in the open doorway, peering into a wide hall. On one side, a grand staircase led up to the first floor, but it was blocked by a velvet rope. Whoever owned The House was making it clear we weren’t meant to go upstairs. On the other side of the hall stood an ornate table and on top of that was a large bowl. Above it, hanging on the wall, was a sign.
TRICK OR TREAT!
HELP YOURSELF AND TAKE SOME TO SHARE
WITH YOUR FRIENDS!
‘There are only two left,’ whispered Sophie, as we peered into the bowl.
My stomach dropped — the lollies were shaped like miniature brains.
Suddenly, Sophie’s hand darted in and picked them up.
‘No!’ I grabbed her wrist as she tried to pop the candy into her mouth. ‘We don’t know what’s in them. Maybe Mr Bill has figured out how to transform people into zombies by putting the serum into food! Why else would these lollies be shaped like brains?!’
Sophie gazed at the candy longingly. ‘But all my lollies have just been stolen!’
‘I think we both know that’s not true,’ I said, glancing at her bulging pockets. ‘And anyway, we’ve got bigger problems than where your next hit of sugar is coming from.’
I wondered how many kids had eaten the lollies. The thought of Seabrook kids being turned into zombies made me shiver like a spider was tap-dancing along my spine.
Sophie gazed at them sadly and handed them to me. ‘You’d better look after them, then.’
I slipped the lollies into my pocket. There was no way we could leave them lying around where anyone could get them.
CREEEAAAKKK!
The eerie sound came from above us. We froze, straining to listen. But there was nothing more.
‘Someone’s upstairs,’ I whispered to Sophie. ‘It might be Mr Bill.’
Her eyes gleamed in the dim light. ‘If he’s here, perhaps we’ll be able to catch him right now!’
I nodded. If he could turn people into zombies simply by using lollies, we had to find him. ‘Let’s go for it!’ I hissed.
We ducked under the velvet rope and slipped up the stairs, tiptoeing to avoid creaking the floorboards. At the top, a long hallway branched away in either direction. It was lined with heavy wooden doors and all of them were shut.
‘He could be in any of these rooms!’ whispered Sophie desperately.
I knew better than anyone that there was no good way to sneak up on a zombie. If we did stumble across the room where he was hiding, he’d sense us coming long before we saw him.
‘I’ll look for the blue trail again,’ I whispered, quickly switching to infrared.
Sophie nodded wordlessly, her face white.
The hallway was full of the glowing blue mist. The zombie must’ve been here, and not very long ago, either. But the mist was everywhere, which meant it was impossible to see exactly which room the zombie was hiding in now, if it was still here at all.
I sighed. Why was it always so difficult?
‘Let’s get closer,’ Sophie whispered as she crept onto the landing.
I followed. The doors were all identical. There were five on one side of the hall and four on the other. At one end of the corridor an antique hall table and mirror were set against the wall. The mist hugged the side of the mirror and hovered like faint fog around the floor, even though Sophie and I hadn’t yet reached that spot in the hallway.
Had Mr Bill stood at the mirror, gazing at his own reflection? I moved closer. There, on the side of the mirror, was a blue smudge, as though an icy hand had touched that particular spot over and over again, leaving a permanent mark.
I ran my hand along the edge of the heavy gold frame until my fingertips caught on a tiny latch. I flicked it up. There was a heavy clunk and the wall — including the mirror and the table — opened into the room.
I froze. When I spoke, it was in a whisper. ‘I think we’ve found Mr Bill!’
9
Sophie and I edged closer, listening carefully, but all was silent. Not a single sound came from the hidden room behind the mirror.
‘Maybe it’s empty?’ Sophie whispered.
I nodded, but I wanted to make sure. We stood at the opening for a couple more seconds. ‘I don’t think anyone’s there,’ I said at last.
‘What is in there, do you think?’ asked Sophie, examining the edge of the mirror frame.
‘Something somebody doesn’t want anyone to find, which means I really want to find it.’ I pushed the door further and a large room appeared before us. At the far end stood a wooden desk and chair. Behind them, hanging on the wall, was a painting of Mr Bill.
Seeing his face again brought back nothing but bad memories. I shivered.
‘I can’t see much,’ Sophie complained.
‘Use your zombie eyes,’ I told her, even though I was pretty sure she wouldn’t. ‘If we turn on the light, someone outside might notice.’
Large sheets of paper were pinned all over the walls.
I moved closer to one of them and examined it. ‘It’s our town,’ I said, suddenly realising I was staring at a map of Seabrook.
Sure enough, I could make out the familiar streets and shops and school. Some of the buildings had been circled with a black felt-tip pen. The school had a thick black line around it. And so did the house where we stood. So did Sophie’s house. And so did my mine.
I gulped. There were other circled buildings too, scattered here and there over the map. Did they mark the places Mr Bill was watching? Or the places he was going to attack? Or the places where zombies lived?
‘Look at this!’ Sophie’s excited voice interrupted my thoughts. Her eyes now adjusted to the dim room, she was pointing to a glass box attached to the wall. In it was a dart gun loaded with a vial of blue liquid. On a hook beneath it was a second vial of the liquid. ‘Do you think it’s real?’
I shook my head absently. Something else had caught my attention.
‘It’s probably fake.’ Sophie agreed, leaning over my shoulder. ‘If they had an antidote, I’m pretty sure HAZMAT would be using it. What is that?’
We were both silent as we gazed at a hand-drawn poster hanging on the wall.
I stared at the little stick-figures. Was Mr Bill going to hijack Seabrook so he could turn everyone into zombies? If he could now infect people with lollies, it wouldn’t be difficult, especially if he isolated the town first by taking out the bridge to the mainland.
‘He’s still trying to create his zombie army,’ said Sophie.
‘And if he’s still trying to create an army of zombies,’ I said slowly, ‘that means he’s still trying to bring about the apocalypse.’
‘I thought the “apocalypse” was something invented for movies and video games.’
‘So did I,’ I told her. ‘But I’m starting to think we should’ve considered those movies and games as a warning, ’cause I have a feeling we’re about to see it all happen right before our eyes.’
