The clock in his room displayed seven thirty. Whew! There was still time to make it to school. He grabbed his bag and patted Shadow on the head. Back in the kitchen, he cut a leg off the chicken and stuffed it in an air tight plastic bag. Better than eating stale cafeteria food.
As he opened the front door, what could only be described as a zombie lunged toward him! Liam pushed and shoved, but the zombie was dead muscle and weight pressing against him. Liam was about to slip away when the zombie latched onto Liam's shoulder with its hand.
"Oww!"
Liam dug in and shoved with all his might, and the zombie stumbled backward. As it fell, its arm ripped off and was still hanging onto Liam.
"Ahh!" he swatted it away and quickly slammed the door. He dropped to his knees. His heart beat so hard he thought an alien would burst out of it. The sound of drums pounded in his ears. Every breath was taken like it was his last.
"What... was that?" It was more of a 'thank God I'm alive' statement than a real question.
Gaining his courage, and his breath, he snuck a peek out the living room window. The zombie who had attacked him was no where to be seen. The street was bare. Did he dream what just happened? Everything was too weird.
Katie coming down her driveway caught his eye. What a welcome sight! Liam flung open the door, kicked the severed zombie arm into the bushes, and rushed over to her.
"What the heck happened? Why does everything look funny?"
Katie said, "You get hit in the head with a baseball?"
Liam stared at her. Her beautiful blonde locks had also been replaced with pixels. He touched her hair.
"Um, why are you acting weird?"
"Do I look funny to you?" He spread his arms so she could get a good look. "Wait, don't answer that. What I mean is, do I look different?"
Katie rolled her eyes and walked down the sidewalk. "I think that shock from your controller affected your brain."
The controller. The shock.
"That's it!"
"What's it?" she asked.
They walked side by side down the tree lined sidewalk. Liam looked around as if he was seeing his neighborhood for the first time. The trees stood tall and still. They didn't sway in the breeze like they normally did. The breeze didn't blow like it normally did either. A bird flew overhead. Its wings moved in a stilted fashion like the ducks in that old duck hunting game.
"That game you gave me. Where did you say you got it?" He watched the bird disappear behind the trees fully expecting a laughing dog to appear out of nowhere.
"Some old guy was selling it at a yard sale."
"Do you know him?"
"No. You know my mom stops for any sale she sees."
"Do you remember where it was?"
They walked up the steps of the school.
"Why so interested in this yard sale?" Katie opened the school's front door and looked at Liam.
"I'm not. I was just wondering if maybe the guy still had the manual to the game, that's all."
"I think it came from a house over on Maple Street."
Katie stood holding the door, but Liam didn't walk through. He looked around the school parking lot. The lot was usually full of cars at that time of morning. It had four.
"Are we going to class, or not?"
"Doesn't something look off to you? Where are all the cars?" Liam turned around in a circle. "Where are the other students?"
Katie let the door shut. She looked around as if noticing the emptiness for the first time. "Ya know, my science teacher was out with the flu yesterday. Maybe it's going around?"
"The whole school?" asked Liam.
"Whatever. I'm going to class."
Liam followed Katie down the main hall. It, too, was deserted. It was like being at school after hours when all the students and teachers had gone home to their families except for that one teacher who was waiting for a parent to show up for a parent/teacher meeting.
They climbed the stairs to the second floor. Liam glanced over each shoulder as if expecting someone to be following them. "I don't like being here. It's creepy when it's this quiet."
A door swung open and Liam froze.
Melanie, an older student jumped when she saw them. "Crap, you scared me!"
Liam muttered, "Scared you?"
Katie asked, "Where is everyone?"
"I dunno. No one's shown up for homeroom. I'm going home," and Melanie walked down the hallway and disappeared into the stairwell.
Liam wondered if they should go, too. He peeked in his homeroom. Empty. It was obvious no one was around to teach school. Was everybody out with the flu?
"What'dya say we head home, too?"
"Skip school?" Katie had never skipped a day of school in her life. That time she had the chicken pox in fourth grade and missed a whole week didn't count. She'd rather give up gum than miss school.
"Sure, let's go see if that guy's home."
Katie opened the door to her homeroom. Her shoulders dropped. "Yeah, guess there's no point in staying here. I just need to grab a book from my locker real quick."
"You're gonna do homework when we don't even have school?" Liam gave her an odd look.
"If I ace my pre-Algebra test, Dad said he'd take me to Gamer Haven." She opened her locker and kept talking. "Besides, a little learning won't hurt you."
Liam loved it when her dad took her shopping. He got to enjoy whatever game she picked out, too.
A door slammed down the hall. Liam jumped. It was just another student leaving. Guess he assumed school was canceled, too. But it wasn't just students in the hallways. Liam looked down the other direction and thought he saw a zombie headed their way.
Liam exhaled. "Just hurry up, would ya?"
Maple Street was only a few blocks away from their neighborhood. Liam was glad Katie agreed to go with him, since she would recognize the old man. He hoped to get the manual and figure out what the game was all about. A game that asked odd questions and then just shut off hardly seemed normal to him. Not to mention the hallucinations he was having of pixels and zombies.
Katie's voice snapped him out of his daze.
"You've been acting really weird today," she said.
Liam wondered was it all a dream. Or if his vision was going bad. He rubbed his eyes, but it still didn't help. "I guess I didn't sleep good."
A tree branch that was stretched across the sidewalk snagged Liam's shirt.
"Ouch!"
He looked down and saw the crimson blood trickle down from under his sleeve. He wiped it with his fingers. "This is no dream. It's too real."
"What's real?"
Katie had a natural interest in knowing about what was going on around her. As much as he wanted to tell her, Liam was afraid she would think he was crazy. He wasn't sure he wasn't crazy.
"You didn't see anything weird when you walked outside this morning?"
He hated it when she gave him that look. The one that said he had read too many scary comics and they were going to his head.
"Let's just get this over with," he said.
The two walked on in silence for a few minutes. Liam didn't understand what was going on, but he was willing to go along with the notion that something had changed. But what?
"I think this is it," said Katie.
Liam stared up at the gray two story house that loomed overhead. The big tree that overshadowed the second story window hardly had any leaves on it even though it was spring. Flowers in the pots weren't blooming and paint was flaking off the big columns that stood guard on the front porch. Life didn't appear to live at that house.
A man too young to have been the one who sold Katie the video game answered the door.
"Hi! I'm Katie, and I bought a game from a yard sale here yesterday. I was wondering if you still had the manual that goes with it."
The man rubbed his unkempt beard. "I don't know of any game."
Katie scratched her head. "I know I'm at the right house. You did have a yard sale here, right?"
/> "Yeah, yeah. Yesterday, I think."
Liam looked at Katie and shrugged. Was this guy for real? He couldn't even remember he had a yard sale the day before?
"There was an older man. He sold it to me. Is he home?"
"Eh, there's no old man here. Sorry."
The man stepped back and tried to push the door closed, but Katie slammed her hand against it. "Wait! Please! Did a neighbor maybe sell some things in the yard sale?"
"No, it was just me." The guy's tone changed. "Look, I gotta go." He tried again to push the door closed, but Katie was persistent, and she stuck her foot out.
"Look, mister."
Liam grabbed her arm. "Let's go." He pulled her down the driveway and out onto the sidewalk.
"Why did you do that?"
"Because the guy was weird and you were about to tick him off."
Katie said, "Who does that guy think he is? How rude!"
Something moved above them. Liam stared at what appeared to be an old man standing in the upstairs window. "And a liar," he pointed up.
"That's him!" She stepped forward, but Liam grabbed her arm again.
When she turned around with fire in her eyes, Liam knew he'd better have a good reason to do that a second time. "Look."
The curtains closed and the old man disappeared.
"Maybe he's coming downstairs," said Katie.
"I don't think-"
Liam was cut off by an unfriendly voice. "Well, if it isn't the little peewee and his girlfriend. Hey, maybe your girlfriend can teach you how to bat so you can join the girl's team."
"Oh, shove off, Thomas." Katie didn't like Thomas or his friends because of how they treated Liam.
"She your bodyguard, too?" Thomas teased. His friend, Caleb was with him.
"No."
Thomas got in Liam's face. He was bigger, stronger, and better than Liam could ever hope to be. "You're gonna need one after that stunt you pulled at the field."
Liam wanted to run. He saw Katie looking at him, and he couldn't do it.
"You think you're tough now, huh?"
Thomas nodded at Caleb, and Caleb grabbed Katie.
Liam took a step back, his fatal mistake. He fell back and landed butt first in a mud hole.
Laughter erupted from the two bullies. How could they not laugh at a clumsy boy who couldn't even stand up for his girlfriend for tripping over a bump in the sidewalk?
Thomas bent down in Liam's face. "Payback's still coming." He swiped the mud with his finger and then smeared it down Liam's nose. "See ya 'round, loser."
Katie rushed to Liam's side. "Are you okay?"
"Fine." Liam carefully climbed out of the mud desperately trying to not slip.
On their way home, he said a silent prayer that she wouldn't mention anything about what Thomas had said. She knew the two of them did not get along, mainly because Thomas picked on Liam every chance he got. But he didn't want her to know that he had, in fact, stooped to his level and punched him.
By the time they reached their driveways, he thought he was home free.
"What was that all about?" she asked. "He seemed pretty mad."
Busted.
"He's just a jerk," Liam said hoping to brush it off.
"What payback was he talking about?"
"Nothing, I said!" and Liam walked away.
3
After Liam yelled at Katie and they went their separate ways, he spent the afternoon in his room tinkering with his HoriZon. Was it a coincidence that things had gotten weird at the same time he got the new game?
Various pieces of the console lay strewn about on his desk. Everything appeared to be in normal working condition. No visible signs of a defect. He grabbed the hard drive and secured it back into place. Next, he replaced the cover.
The case that Katie's game was in sat beside him on the desktop.
Katie.
He had been rude to her, just like the guy at the yard sale house. Only, she was his friend, his best friend, and he felt bad that he acted how he did. Should he message her? Nah, he didn't want to bug her. She was probably studying. Or still mad.
Liam left the console sitting on his desk unplugged and went into the kitchen. He poured a glass of water and then returned to his room. The chicken leg he had brought to school for lunch was still in his backpack. The sun had set and he was starving. He'd been working on the console all day and didn't even stop for lunch.
Shadow sniffed the chicken.
"No," said Liam. "Come on, I'll get your food." Liam sat down at the kitchen table and they both gobbled their dinner.
The kitchen had a big sliding glass patio door that led out into the backyard where there was an inground pool. Liam stood in front of it and was tempted to pull back the curtains and look out, but a pang in his gut made him hesitate. Would one of those zombies be at the door like before? He didn't have the guts to find out. Everything was still too weird. Between everything looking different, fighting off a zombie earlier that morning, and school being deserted he wasn't sure what to think.
He looked around the kitchen. Where was his mom? Her car wasn't in the driveway when he came home earlier and she still hadn't arrived home. An uneasy feeling washed over him. He didn't like the idea of spending the night alone.
Shadow nudged Liam's hand to pet him. "Come on, boy."
Liam plugged his game console into the TV again and turned it on. He didn't even get the chance to load a game to see if the graphics had improved because a message popped up on the onscreen dashboard.
It was from Katie. The knot in his belly loosened a little. However, upon opening the message, that knot quickly retightened.
The word "Help!" appeared on the screen.
Liam almost stepped on the controller he jumped up so fast. He flung back the curtains to look across the street. It was dark, but he could make out movement around the front of Katie's house.
Her house was surrounded by zombies!
Liam quickly put on the headset and sent her a chat invitation.
"Come on... Pick up." He clinched his fists repeatedly and paced back and forth in front of the TV.
Finally, she picked up. "Liam, help me! These things are banging on the windows and I'm freaking out!"
"I know, I know! One attacked me this morning coming out of my house!"
"What? What are they?"
He scratched his head. She wasn't gonna like his answer. "Call me crazy, but I think they're zombies."
She didn't argue. "I don't care what they are, get them away from my house!"
He paced faster. "Okay, okay, let me think."
He spotted his wooden baseball bat across the room. "I've got an idea! Stay inside, I'll be over there in a sec!"
He could hear her yell "Hurry!" as he snatched the headset from his head. He grabbed the bat and bolted to the front door. "Stay here, Shadow!"
Liam darted across his lawn to her house. As he got closer, he counted three zombies gathered in the flower bed in front of her living room window. Bum-rushing them would not be the wisest move, so he used the tree in her front yard to his advantage.
"Hey!"
A zombie looked his way.
"Oh, boy." Liam stayed close to the tree and gripped the bat tight. "Just like at the batting cage."
Liam was grateful for the zombie's slow speed. When it finally got within reach, Liam brought the bat over his shoulder and swung hard with all his might. The bat hit the zombie's torso with a thud but didn't stop it.
"Oh, crap."
Liam swung again, but the zombie continued to advance. Then he made contact with the bat against the zombie's knees.
Crack!
The brittle, decaying bone shattered under the impact of the swing. The zombie collapsed to the ground. Liam raised the bat high overhead and came down hard multiple times against its head.
Gooey gunk splattered all over Liam's face.
After a few more hits, he wiped a big blob of goo out of his eyes and slung it on the ground. "Yuck.
"
It smelled like rank sewage mixed with rotten eggs. Liam gagged. There was no holding it back. He blew chunks all over Katie's front yard.
He wiped his mouth with a tiny clean spot of his shirt.
Two more to go. He yelled out for a zombie again, but he wasn't as lucky. Neither zombie heard him, so he had to move closer. When he yelled a second time, both zombies turned around and started towards him.
"Uh-oh." Liam needed to get closer to the house. He waited until both zombies had reached the tree and he backed up as they followed him around it. Then, he took off toward the house.
Katie had opened the window just enough to yell through it. "Be careful!"
"Are you here alone?"
"Yeah!"
"Where are your parents?"
Katie was at the window watching the action. "I don't know. They haven't come home."
That was really weird. The only adult-looking person he saw all day, other than the zombies, was at the yard sale house.
"Pack your bag. You're not staying here alone."
"Okay, I'll be right out!"
The two zombies bumped into each other as they tried to circle around the tree. Liam never took his eyes off them. He hoped their disorientation would buy them enough time to get back across the street without another encounter. The thought of that messy goo splattering in his face again wasn't appealing. The smell was awful, and he had to fight back the urge to throw up again.
Finally, Katie came out the garage door. She was carrying enough luggage to go on a month-long excursion into the wild. For five people. "Here," she said.
"You're just staying the night," Liam reminded as he grabbed the biggest bag and slung it over his shoulder.
"I know, but if we get holed up in your house, we're gonna need food."
She was always thinking ahead, something Liam didn't know how to do.
"Stay close."
Katie covered her nose as they passed the tree in her front yard. "What is that smell?"
Liam glanced over at the dead zombie lying in the grass. "Uh, that would be rotting flesh and guts."
"Gross."
They quickly made their way to Liam's house dodging the two tree zombies on the way.
"Quick, inside."
Zombie Boy: Press Start (Adventures of Zombie Boy Book 1) Page 2
