by Amanda Ashby
Mia frowned. “So where does Candice come into all of this?”
“She had a spare ticket. Yesterday afternoon I was at the school office trying to get one but they were all sold out. Anyway, Candice was up seeing the nurse and she overheard me. That’s when she said I could have her other ticket.”
“So let me get this straight, you’re only going to the prom to make sure that the zombie virus really has been stopped and not because you and Candice are—”
“Definitely because of the zombies,” he cut her off. “I mean, Candice is nice and everything, but this is strictly work, which she well knows. And why are you smiling?”
“I’m not smiling.” Mia smiled. Chase didn’t like Candice. He was only doing it because of the zombies. Then Mia put her hand over her mouth. Chase was dedicated to fighting zombies, and she was the shallow girl who not only created them but was standing there smiling in the middle of a crisis. Somehow she didn’t think he would be changing his opinion of her anytime soon.
“Come on,” Chase said as he opened a door that brought them back into the hallway. “We’re almost there.” They both stared at the gym door that was only feet from where they were standing, when a group of students suddenly appeared from around the corner.
“Look out!” Mia yelled as she dragged him toward the door, the sound of zombie shuffling not far behind them. She felt her lungs start to burst as she gasped for air before Chase finally put out a hand and pushed open the gym door.
Mia came to a halt as she cautiously looked around, but the place was deserted. Obviously the advantage of being the zombie queen was that even the lazy zombies had probably felt the pull to go out and find her. Of course, the downside of that was it wouldn’t be long before they all came back.
Chase locked the door and hurried over to where she was putting her shoes back on. They were cute shoes. If she was going to be eaten, it was going to happen in style.
“Okay, so if you want to pour the potion into a bowl, I’ll start chanting. But we still haven’t figured out a way to get them to ingest it once it’s done.”
Chase glanced over at the punch cups. “I’m thinking that getting them to drink it will be the best shot.”
Mia shot him a doubtful look. “I know I’m their queen, but won’t they be too busy trying to rip my arms off to bother with taking a break to drink some punch?”
“If we do it before they hit stage four, it should work. Remember they like to follow your every move.” Chase grabbed her hand and pressed the incantation sheets into it, then pulled a bag of sand from his pocket as well as the crystals and amulet. Then he kneeled and marked it all out again before taking hold of her hand and helping her step into the center of it. Mia gulped back her panic. Should work didn’t exactly sound like great odds to her, and, Hey . . . why was Chase Miller putting his arm around her waist?
She looked back up at him in confusion as she heard a clicking noise but before she could make sense of what he was doing, he suddenly hurried over to the stage and picked up some sort of box that had a red button in the middle of it.
“Chase?” She blinked. “What’s going on?”
“I’m sorry, Mia. It’s for your own good,” he said as he pressed the button and Mia felt a small tug around her waist.
“What’s for my own good?” she said as she looked down and discovered there was a fat black belt tightly wrapped around her waist. Then she started to panic as a whirling noise started to come from somewhere. “Chase, I’m not sure I understand what—”
The rest of the words died on her lips as she felt her feet lift up off the ground. Her hands flew down to her waist to try and yank the belt off, but it wasn’t going anywhere. She craned her neck and looked up toward the roof and her worst fears were confirmed. There was a thick piece of wire dangling down and it was connected to the back of her belt.
What on earth was a harness doing in the middle of prom? Then she realized that setting up a hydrogen-cyanide device wasn’t the only thing that Chase had been doing yesterday afternoon. Mia started to scream.
sixteen
“Okay, so I know you’re mad at me, but I promise I’ve only done it for your own good,” Chase shouted out from below. “Besides, you were the one who told me to put the rulebook away and think outside the box.”
“What?” Mia screeched as she tried to force herself not to look down. “This isn’t thinking outside the box, this is a trip to Planet Insanity. Chase, I’m hanging in the air. With nothing to put my feet on. I’m well past being mad at you. I’m furious. Now get me down from here immediately, before I kill you. Or worse, throw up on you.”
The harness started to swing and Mia felt sick.
How had Chase managed to do the one thing that scared her more than being eaten by zombies?
“Mia, I can’t do that.” Chase came back toward her and poured the potion into the punch bowl. Then he carefully threw an empty plastic cup up to her, which she found herself automatically catching. “Think about it, this is the safest way. You can do your chanting from up there and then when it works, everyone will see you pretend to have a drink. Simple.”
Simple?
She threw the cup back at his head. However, on account of being too scared to open both her eyes, it missed him and bounced harmlessly onto the floor on the other side of the table.
“Please, Mia, I’m trying to help you.”
“Help me?” Mia tried to see if there was another punch cup she could throw at him, which in turn caused the harness to jiggle and she felt herself sway in the air. “Did you miss the little conversation where I told you I hated heights?”
“That’s why I didn’t tell you what I had planned. I didn’t want you to worry.”
“Well, it didn’t work,” she yelled at him. “Because see this? This is my worried face.”
“Mia, please, can we talk about this later? You need to start doing the incantation because we’re running out of time.” As he spoke, he pointed over to the locked door, which, from the sounds of the fists that were hammering it, wouldn’t be locked for long. Then he shot her a pleading look. “It’s the only way I can keep you safe.”
Mia couldn’t believe this was happening. She hated heights. She hated Chase for making her be up here. And while she was at it, she also hated—
“Zombies!” Chase yelled up to her. Yeah, she really hated zombies as well. . . .
Then she realized Chase was pointing to the gym door, and Mia turned her neck as far as she dared. Mind you, when she caught sight of ten students lumbering in, she almost wished she hadn’t. Their eyes were vacant, there was a lot of drool going on, and most disturbing of all, their mouths looked a lot bigger than they had before. Somewhere in the distance a figurative dinner bell was obviously sounding, and Mia let out a long groan. It looked like stage four was rearing its ugly head.
Chase darted back toward her, and for one blissful moment, she thought he was going to lower her down—but instead he picked up the broom he had brought with him and held it up.
“Mia. You’ve got to start chanting. Right now!”
She started to read the words. The other two times she had done it, she had sort of drifted off into a dream. But now, all she could feel was terror. She dared to peer down and saw Chase punching Principal Keegan in the face.
“Any good news for me?” he yelled.
“I’m sorry, I don’t think it worked. I’ll try again,” she said as she moved slightly and then felt herself sway in the air. The motion made her ears throb and she took a deep breath before commanding herself not to faint.
“Just remember you need to focus.”
“Yes, well, perhaps it wouldn’t be so hard if I wasn’t dangling up in midair,” she snapped. Or if there weren’t quite so many almost-zombies down below her in the gym.
Chase had now jumped up onto a stack of chairs and was trying to kick away a couple of seniors. “Anytime now would be great,” he said through gritted teeth.
Okay. She co
uld do this. Mia took a deep breath and started to chant again. But why was it so noisy down there? And this black belt was really starting to chafe at her skin. Perhaps Candice would know some good cream to put on it—
“Mia.” Chase’s voice boomed in her head. “We don’t have long. And then—”
“Then what?” She gulped and, despite hanging in the air, she couldn’t help but notice the determined gleam in his green eyes.
“I have to release the gas.”
Mia felt sick with horror. She didn’t want to be eaten, but being gassed to death was definitely next on her list of how she never wanted to spend her prom night. Or any night, come to think of it. She used the incantation to fan herself.
“If this reversal spell doesn’t work, then everyone here is going to start trying to eat you . . . very soon. Trust me, my way is a lot more humane.”
“It’s also pretty final.” She could feel tears of panic welling up in her eyes, and her voice wobbled as once again the full enormity of the situation hit her like a rock on the head.
There was only one thing to do. She was going to chant loudly. However, once again, by the time she finished, the punch bowl down on the table didn’t look remotely steamy.
“Chase,” she cried. “It’s no good. I’m so sorry. This was the worst idea ever. And it’s all my fault. I’ve never had a good attention span, and if only I hadn’t tried to be so controlling. I mean, so what if Rob had dumped me? I should’ve just let it happen instead of trying to . . . Chase . . . where are you?”
“I’m over here,” he yelled, and she swiveled around, this time not even noticing how much she was now rocking in the air. All she could see was that Chase was cornered by about a dozen zombies and one of them had Chase’s arm in their mouth and—
“No!” Mia screamed at the top of her voice and the whole gym went quiet. Then without even looking at the paper again, she began to chant. Over and over she said the words. Over and over she refused to let the image of Chase being used as a zombie snack take hold in her mind.
Finally, after what seemed like hours—but was probably only a couple of minutes—she felt her leg tingle, and she looked down at the punch bowl, where the potion now had wisps of smoke rising up from it.
“It worked.” She blinked as she looked around. “I did it. It worked. It felt exactly like it did the first time. Oh my God. I did it.”
“Mia.” Chase’s voice sounded faint as he lashed out at everyone who was trying to attack him. “That’s not enough. Remember, you need to pretend you’re drinking from a cup, so that they can all copy you.”
“Oh.” Mia felt her face go pale. “I guess it probably wasn’t such a good idea to throw it at you before then.”
Well, she hadn’t come this far to have it all fall to pieces now. She was just going to have to improvise. While hanging from the ceiling. No pressure then.
“Drink,” she called out to them all. “I’m your queen and I say you should drink.”
“Drink your blood maybe,” someone heckled and suddenly what seemed like a million eyes all turned upward to where Mia was still dangling in the air. Hmmmm. That probably wasn’t such a good idea. She cupped her hands into the shape of a small bowl and held them up to her lips.
“Boy, this punch is good stuff. Really delicious.”
Chase, who had managed to wriggle free during the distraction, made a groaning noise and if she wasn’t mistaken he was rolling his eyes. Hey, at least she was trying.
“Yum,” she hollered, as they stood rooted to the spot, still staring at her. She pretended to gulp some more from her imaginary cup. “Don’t you all want to get yourself a nice lovely drink? Anyone? Hey.” Mia suddenly felt herself sway in the air again and an uneasy feeling lodged itself in her stomach as she glanced over to the harness controls.
They were now in Mr. Haves’s hands. She was fairly certain that it wasn’t ethical for a biology teacher to feast on the bones of any of his students, but the way his eyes were gleaming at her, she had a feeling that zombies and ethics weren’t two words that were often heard together. Unfortunately.
“Chase,” she yelled, but it was no good. He was being held over at the far wall and even she could tell it would be virtually impossible for him to get to her in time.
“What’s wrong, Mia?” Mr. Haves yelled out to her as she felt herself slowly being lowered to the ground. She tried to ignore the way the saliva was dribbling down his face. If he thought she was going to say nice things about him in her teacher-evaluation form, he had another think coming. She felt herself start to wobble as the harness continued to get closer to the almost-zombie crowd who were eagerly waiting for her with outstretched arms.
Mia lifted up her legs so no one could grab at her ankles and for a moment wished she hadn’t worn heels, because they were making her a good two inches closer to the hordes of hungry—
Heels.
That was it! And before she could even remind herself of just how expensive her adorable peeptoe shoes had been, she stretched out and ripped one from her left foot. Then she forced herself to open both eyes, take aim, and throw it as hard as she could at Mr. Haves’s head.
“Not so fast,” she yelled as it hit him right in the middle of the forehead. For a minute he looked a bit stunned as he rubbed the red mark on his forehead, and then he started to laugh.
“You know that didn’t hurt, right?” He grinned and revealed his wide mouth. “And furthermore . . . Ouch.”
This time he really did look stunned as a second shoe hit him in the head. Mia blinked, since it hadn’t occurred to her to try again, and this time the culprit appeared to be a tattered-looking Vans sneaker.
“Hey, stop it,” he yelled as a third and a fourth shoe all went flying in his direction. Mia swiveled her head and realized that everyone below her was now reaching for their shoes and throwing them directly at Mr. Haves’s head.
Oh, great. So they have no problems copying her when it came to shoes, but they wouldn’t drink a lousy glass of punch?
Still, at least she had the consolation of seeing Mr. Haves fall in a heap to the ground. But her happiness was short-lived as Rob picked up the controls and started to fiddle with the buttons.
“No,” Mia yelled at him. “You so don’t want to do that. Why don’t you have a nice glass of punch instead? Drink. What a great idea. Go on, you know you want to,” she urged them as once again she cupped her hands and held them up to her mouth. But it was no good, and the only response she got was that a few of those closest to her started to lick their lips.
Rob grinned as he pressed a button and once again Mia felt the harness lowering her slowly down to the waiting crowd.
She was so totally screwed that it wasn’t even funny, and for the first time in her life, she wished that she could stay higher up in the air. As it slowly lowered down, she caught sight of Candice laboriously trudging across the room, her red hair wild and frizzy from the fire sprinklers and her makeup running all the way down her cheeks.
“Candice,” Mia shouted, and was relieved when her friend looked up to the ceiling. Of course it would help if she was looking in the right direction. “Turn around, I’m over here.”
However, Candice continued to just look blankly the other way. Whatever Candice’s ridiculous health ritual had done to slow down the virus had obviously stopped working. Then she realized her friend had probably been too brain-dead to remember to take whatever her latest supplements were.
“Candice, open your purse, get out your vitamins, and swallow as many of them as you can.”
For a minute she didn’t think her friend had heard, but finally she unzipped her purse and pulled out a large white jar. Her hands shook as she tried to get the lid off, but eventually she managed it and Mia watched in amazement as Candice swallowed pill after pill in what had to be some sort of Olympic medal display.
Mia was so engrossed that she hardly realized the harness was slipping closer to the ground until she felt fingers tightening arou
nd her ankle. “Candice, please, you’ve got to get them to drink the potion. It’s in the punch bowl,” Mia yelled as she tried to kick the hands away.
“Hey, you dumb-ass zombies,” Candice suddenly yelled, her mouth still smeared with the remains of what looked like Vitamin C supplements. “If your queen tells you to do something, you do it. Now drink the punch.”
“But why can’t we just eat her first and then have a drink?” someone demanded, and Candice spun around and raised a straggly eyebrow at the dissenter.
“I’m sorry but am I hearing things?” Candice demanded as she picked up a chair and threw it at the person. Then she turned back around, dusted her hands on her slightly worse for wear midnight-blue dress and held her glass into the air. “Now, I’m going to have some of this fine punch. Cheers, Mia.”
For a moment there was silence before another student shuffled forward and started to drink. “Hey.” He nodded at Candice in approval. “This stuff is pretty good.”
“And apparently it has no calories in it,” Samantha added as she awkwardly tottered over to the bowl and followed suit.
For a moment Mia watched in stunned amazement as one by one everyone drank the reversal potion. In fact, they were all rushing toward the table, determined not to miss out.
“That’s it, buddy.” Candice handed a cup to the next person in the line. “No, don’t try and lick my hand, just finish drinking.”
“Candice,” Mia called down. “Do you feel any . . . different?”
“Well, I still think I might have leprosy, but I’m pretty certain that the Viral Zombaticus has left the building.” Her friend looked up and grinned, and Mia let out a huge sigh of relief as she saw that Candice’s skin was now only covered with smeared makeup and not zombie drool. “Which means you managed to do the spell. Yay, you.”
“Yay, all of us,” Mia amended with a grin as she caught sight of Chase over on the stage holding up the controls to let her know he was going to lower her down. It had worked. They had really done it.
