“Where are we going?” Firecracker asked as Charlie drove down what seemed to be a long corridor cut through solid stone.
“The only way we can go,” said Charlie. “Unless you want to go back and ask for directions.”
Charlie turned something on the dashboard and the headlights came on, producing two thin beams of weak yellow light that barely cut through the darkness. They could see a little way ahead, but not far enough to see the two wide doors that barred the end of the corridor. By the time they loomed into view the ambulance was headed straight for them.
“Hang on!” Charlie yelled as she urged the car forward.
A second later they hit the door. Wood splintered, one of the headlights went out, and the ambulance shook, but it didn’t stop. Instead they found themselves emerging onto a road. Josh leaned out the window and looked behind them. On a bluff above them Feverfew loomed in the darkness.
“That must be how they took patients in without anyone seeing them,” he said, glancing at the mouth of the tunnel they had just exited. He shuddered as he thought about the possibility of the zombies getting out through it. We’ll get to the police before they can, he reassured himself. They’ll come block it up again.
Charlie steered the ambulance down the narrow, twisting road that led away from the hospital. Unused for decades, the road was falling apart. Pieces of it were gone, and in other places plants grew up from cracks in the pavement. As they bounced along over bumps and ruts, Josh prayed that the old ambulance would stay together.
“If I’m right, this road connects to the Upside Highway,” Charlie said. “We can take that to the police station at Citytop. That’s the closest one.”
“Are you kidding?” said Firecracker. “It will take forever to get through that traffic.”
Charlie scanned the dashboard, pushing and pulling on knobs. The windshield wipers went on, then off. The remaining headlight blinked out and came on again.
“What are you looking for?” Firecracker asked.
A shrieking sound pierced the night, and a red light lit up the dark around the ambulance. “That’s what I’m looking for,” Charlie said as the siren wailed.
As she had guessed, the road did lead onto the Upside Highway. And everyone did get out of the ambulance’s way. Now that they were away from Feverfew, and Clatter, and the zombies, Josh allowed himself to think about Scrawl. Was he okay? Had he trapped Clatter, Seamus, and Finnegan and gotten himself out? Josh hoped so. He’s a smart guy, he reminded himself. He’ll be fine.
He also thought about his family. He knew they were worrying about him. He couldn’t wait to call and let them know he was okay. Even more, he couldn’t wait to see them again. The first thing he was going to do was apologize to his parents for ever thinking the game was harmless fun. The second thing he was going to do was tell Emily what a great sister she was. He hadn’t allowed himself to think about it during the game, but now that it was all over he realized how close he’d come to never seeing them again.
Suddenly the tiredness that had been growing all night began to overtake him. He leaned back and closed his eyes. Maybe it’s all a bad dream, he thought. Maybe I’ll wake up in my own bed.
He dozed for a few minutes, until the jerking of the ambulance coming to a stop woke him. “We’re here,” Charlie said.
When they walked into Precinct Number 42, Josh felt safe for the first time since leaving his house that afternoon. They were in a police station. They would tell someone their story, Clatter would be arrested, and they could go home. Someone else could worry about the zombies roaming around Feverfew. His career as a Torcher was over.
As they walked to the front desk, they were surrounded by a sudden flurry of excitement. Uniformed policemen ran past, paying no attention to them. There was frantic talking, and the buzzing of com units filled the air as invisible voices shouted directions.
“What’s going on?” Charlie said. “Where are they going?”
Josh turned around to see what was happening. Outside, dozens of police vehicles were starting to pull out of the station lot, their lights spinning. Then he noticed the screen above the door to the building. It was tuned to a local news channel, and although Josh couldn’t hear what the reporter was saying, he saw the word zombies scroll by on the news ticker running below the picture.
He, Charlie, and Firecracker looked at one another. “No!” Josh said.
He looked back at the screen. This time he saw the whole headline: ZOMBIES SIGHTED IN OLD TOWN. GET TO SAFETY. MORE INFORMATION TO FOLLOW. The picture showed a street in Old Town. Half a dozen zombies were lurching down the street. The camera zoomed in on one of them.
Charlie gasped. Then she sobbed. “It can’t be,” she said. “Josh, no. It’s not—”
“It’s Scrawl,” Josh said.
A man approached the zombies. He was wearing a black uniform with a familiar logo on it. He pointed his flamethrower at Scrawl.
“No!” Firecracker shouted.
As fire burst from the flamethrower, Charlie buried her head in Josh’s neck and sobbed. He held her close, telling her that everything would be all right.
But it won’t be, he thought. It will never be all right again.
About the Author
MICHAEL THOMAS FORD
is the author of the teen novel SUICIDE NOTES as well as several essay collections and adult novels, including JANE BITES BACK. He lives in San Francisco with his partner and their five dogs. Visit him online at www.michaelthomasford.com.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
Also by Michael Thomas Ford
SUICIDE NOTES
Copyright
HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Z
Copyright © 2010 by Michael Thomas Ford
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, 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.
EPub Edition © NOVEMBER 2010 ISBN: 978-0-062-04313-9
www.harperteen.com
* * *
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ford, Michael Thomas.
Z / Michael Thomas Ford. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: In the year 2032, after a virus that turned people into zombies has been eradicated, Josh is invited to join an underground gaming society where the gamers hunt zombies and the action is more dangerous than it seems.
ISBN 978-0-06-073758-0
[1. Science fiction. 2. Role playing—Fiction. 3. Games—Fiction. 4. Zombies—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.F7532119Zab 2010 2009044005
[Fic]—dc22 CIP
AC
* * *
10 11 12 13 14 CG/RRDB 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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