Cadaver Island (32 page)

“
Stay away from them! Don’t
hurt them!” Dr. Stine said. He aimed the tip of his scepter at a
throbbing swarm of insects on the dragon’s chest and
stomach.

Dr. Stine noticed movement
near the toy store from the corner of his right eye. His head
pivoted slowly on his neck. He gasped and felt paralyzed while he
watched the bloated woman rise from the bench. Ripping sounds
filled the air while the woman’s blouse split at the seams. The
flesh of her legs peeled away from the water-damaged boards of the
old bench. Her green, fleshy eyelids fluttered while her yellow
eyes focused on Dr. Stine. Her jaw flopped open and her black
tongue dangled from between her purple lips. Behind her, the toy
store’s clerk emerged from behind the counter, plodded around a
display of board games, and lurched through the front door of the
store. The woman and the clerk hobbled toward the street while
their fluids and flesh dropped to the ground.

“
They’re coming out of the
buildings! They’re going to surround us!” Angelique
said.

“
We need to get out of the
town! Head toward Thames Keep!” Dr. Stine said.

“
Are you sure? We’ll walk
straight into the cemetery!” Alexander said.

The dragon vomited three
corpses, which landed in deep, muddy puddles. Slimy strands of
stomach residue clung to the zombies, who stirred and moaned as the
energy of Cadaver Island stimulated them. Muscles twitched and
ligaments stretched while the cadavers rose to standing positions
and straightened their legs. More corpses emerged from the front
doors of the church, the lobby of an inn, and the shattered windows
of a barber shop. Dr. Stine used his arms to shield Alexander and
Angelique while he guided them toward the cemetery’s fence. The
dragon roared and Lysette cackled while more cadavers emerged from
sheds and cellars.

“
Now your journey ends, Dr.
Stine! Soon you’ll be a cadaver also!” Lysette said.

Stanley swooped through the
air and wrapped his talons around Lysette’s wand. He tugged and
tried to pluck the weapon from her hand. She dug her heels into the
mud, used her weight, and yanked the wand away from him. Stanley
dived toward Lysette’s face and scratched her eyes with his claws.
She wailed in agony. Huge swathes of dead skin peeled away from her
green face while Stanley attacked her. Green fluid oozed from the
wounds and flowed across her cheeks and nose. Lysette’s free hand
slammed into Stanley’s chest and knocked the bird to the ground.
She raised her left foot and prepared to crush the owl’s head.
Sharp teeth dived into the calf of her left leg. Lysette whirled on
her feet and kicked Razor, who yelped. Stanley flapped his wings
and flew away.

“
Stay away from my pets! If
you hurt them, I’ll kill you!” Angelique said.

“
You’re disgusting,
Princess Bosc! You cry if your animals are injured, but you could
care less about your own mother! You fled from the City of Thyme
and allowed the Eye-Bots to kill her! You’re a disgusting
hypocrite!” Lysette said. She threw her head back, exhaled a shrill
laugh, and allowed streams of green fluid to drip out of her
mouth.

“
Don’t ever question my
love for my mother! I had no way of knowing what would happen to
her! You and Xavier are to blame for her death!” Angelique
said.

“
Ignore her, Angelique!
Don’t let her upset you!” Dr. Stine said.

Alexander interrupted their
conversation when he tugged on Dr. Stine’s sleeve. He spoke in a
frantic voice: “We need to get out of here! The zombies are getting
closer!”

Dr. Stine and Angelique
scanned the village and watched dozens of animated corpses lurch
and plod from within the open doors and busted windows of nearby
buildings. Dr. Stine glanced over his shoulder and watched
Alexander sprint toward the wrought-iron fence of the nearby
cemetery. Razor nipped at Alexander’s heels and barked while
Stanley soared above them. When Angelique broke into a sprint to
catch up with them, Dr. Stine ran across the dirt road. He listened
to Lysette yell commands at the dragon, which plowed through the
grocery store. Wood splintered and glass shattered. The dragon’s
massive feet splattered a horde of slow-moving cadavers in the
street.

“
The warriors of Cadaver
Island will drag you to your graves!” Lysette said.

Angelique and Alexander
sprinted under the arched gateway of the cemetery, ran across a
moss-covered, cobblestone walkway, and paused next to the
vine-covered walls of a mausoleum. They watched Lysette climb onto
the dragon’s back while Dr. Stine raised his scepter above his
head. Gusts of wind, caused by the dragon’s flapping wings,
propelled Dr. Stine backward until his buttocks pressed against a
leaning section of the cemetery’s fence. Lysette cackled wildly
while the dragon hovered in the air, opened its mouth, and lunged
toward Dr. Stine. Python-sized maggots surged out of the dragon’s
esophagus, dropped to the ground near Dr. Stine’s feet, and
slithered toward him.

“
Call off the dragon,
Lysette! I don’t want to hurt you, but we’re running out of time
and you’re slowing us down!” Dr. Stine said. Bright sparks radiated
from his scepter.

“
Ha! Did you expect me to
make it
easy
for you? Xavier didn’t tell me to roll out the
red carpet and offer a tray of appetizers! He told me to kill all
of you!” she said.

The dragon’s head lunged
toward Dr. Stine. Chunks of decayed flesh dropped from the beast’s
body while its teeth clicked and gnashed. Dr. Stine strafed to the
left and avoided the attack. Bone and metal grinded against each
other when the dragon’s teeth impacted the cemetery’s rusted fence.
The impact caused the bottom of the fence to lift out of the
ground. Beetles scurried and earthworms squirmed. The ruined
section of the fence toppled, but two granite headstones broke its
fall. Dr. Stine fell to the ground and shielded his eyes when a
bolt of lightning zigzagged between the swirling, low-hanging
clouds and the cemetery’s grounds. The dragon’s head emerged from a
curtain of falling rain and dense mist. Its yellow eyes glowed
while it exhaled a deep roar.

Dr. Stine aimed the tip of
the scepter at the dragon’s chest. A spiral of yellow energy
whirled from the scepter and penetrated the dragon’s chest. Maggots
and larvae erupted from the beast’s throat while it exhaled a wail
of agony. It bucked and thrashed in the air while the scepter’s
energy spread throughout its ribcage and carcass. The stench of
burnt flesh and decayed organs throbbed in the air. When the dragon
tried to fly away, Lysette slipped of off the beast’s back and
plunged through the air toward the tall fence.

Angelique screamed and
Alexander gasped when Lysette landed on top of the cemetery’s
fence. The sharp tips of the fence’s posts impaled her neck, upper
torso, and left leg. Black, decayed blood oozed from her mouth
while she tried to heave herself off of the fence with her weak
arms. The lean, defined muscles in her forearms twitched and
strained while Lysette grunted and heaved. When she realized that
she wasn’t strong enough to lift herself off of the fence, she
exhaled a deep sigh and slid back onto the rusted fenceposts. She
uttered a spell when she located her wand, which rested next to the
front steps of a nearby mausoleum. The wand slid through a
neglected rose garden, floated in the air, and flung itself into
Lysette’s hand. She grinned and laughed.

“
I’m not done with you yet,
Dr. Stine! I have one more surprise for you!” she said.

Spider webs of green light
radiated from the tip of Lysette’s wand and spread across the
cobblestone walkways, neglected grass, granite headstones, and
towering mausoleums of the cemetery. Lysette glanced toward the
dirt roads of the village and smiled. She watched the undead
citizens of Cadaver Island gather in a wide semicircle around the
cemetery’s arched gateway. Clerics, peasants, and commoners lurched
slowly toward Dr. Stine, Angelique, and Alexander. White foam and
slobber oozed from the corners of their mouths while they growled
and moaned. Lysette grimaced in pain when she tried to heave
herself off of the fence again. She succumbed to her fate, felt the
metal posts slide through her body, and smiled. The ground in the
cemetery throbbed, ruptured, and split.

“
The ground is shifting,
Dr. Stine! We need to get out of here!” Alexander said.

“
Run to the other side of
the cemetery! Run as fast as you can!” Dr. Stine said.

“
Ha! It’s all over, Dr.
Stine! Tonight, you’ll sleep with the dead!” Lysette
said.

Tombstones toppled while
coffins erupted from the ground. The stone lids of above-ground
crypts slid to the side, revealing skeletons dressed in three-piece
suits and elegant gowns. Mummified hands pushed the front doors of
mausoleums open, allwoing Dr. Stine and Angelique to watch corpses
climb out of their crypts. Reanimated skeletons and bloated
cadavers lurched toward them while they scampered across the
narrow, cobblestone walkways of the cemetery. Alexander screamed
when an elderly woman’s skeleton grabbed his feet and knocked him
to the ground. He reached for his Bible, which slid across
moss-covered cobblestones and landed next to the base of a
heart-shaped tombstone. Alexander lunged toward the Bible, seized
it with his left hand, and rolled over on his back. Razor exhaled a
burst of fire and incinerated the old woman’s skeleton seconds
before it would’ve gnawed on Alexander’s jugular vein.

“
Follow me!” Dr. Stine
yelled. He sprinted toward a gap in the fence on the other side of
the cemetery. On the other side of the fence, the walls of Thames
Keep towered above a cluster of oak trees. Dr. Stine spotted the
castle’s open drawbridge for the first time.

Thick grass and moist soil
flew through the air while mahogany coffins emerged from deep
graves. The stone lids of crypts tottered and fell to the ground
while skinless corpses used unnatural strength to heave themselves
out of their tombs. The phalanges and skulls of toddlers and
children emerged from an isolated section of the cemetery, where
deflated balloons and mildew-covered pinwheels littered a garden of
weeds.

Razor lifted his back, left
leg and sprayed gasoline on the cobblestones of the central path.
He barked and wagged his tail while he watched Dr. Stine,
Angelique, and Alexander reach a jagged gap in the fence. Razor’s
mouth opened wide and a plume of fire surged from the back of his
throat. The fire ignited the gasoline, which oozed down the steep
slope of a small hill. Dr. Stine, Angelique, and Alexander cheered
while they watched the fire engulf a group of five cadavers. They
hissed and snarled while the fire blistered their green skin and
melted black, maggot-infested flesh off of their bones.

“
Good job, Razor! I don’t
know what we’d do without you!” Dr. Stine said.

Yellow eyes glowed in the
gloom of the forest. To the south of Thames Keep’s drawbridge,
dozens of cadavers emerged from a dense cluster of oak trees. They
plodded toward a deep moat, which surrounded the castle. Behind
them, Lefty and Righty plowed through waist-high foliage and fallen
trees. The long, red cloak of Reverend Stark slid behind the priest
across the forest’s floor.

“
Reverend Stark found us!
We’re not going to make it!” Alexander said.

“
Run to the drawbridge!
Seek shelter inside Thames Keep!” Dr. Stine said.

Sheets of rain caused them
to shield their eyes with their hands. They struggled to lift their
feet out of deep, mud-filled holes while they hiked toward the
drawbridge. Quarter-sized balls of hail fell from the low-hanging
clouds and stung their skin upon impact. A bolt of lightning sliced
an oak tree in half and ignited dead leaves and pine needles, but a
downpour of rain stifled the blaze quickly. Angelique screamed when
the ensuing crack of thunder caused her eardrums to throb. Dr.
Stine glanced over his left shoulder and watched a tornado drop
from the clouds and spin into the heart of the cemetery.

“
Don’t look back! Just keep
running! We’re almost there!” he yelled.

Dr. Stine, Angelique, and
Alexander sprinted toward the moat and grimaced when they noticed
bloated corpses floating in the green, murky water. Lightning
flashed and thunder rumbled. Water splashed when the corpses
stirred in the moat and crawled toward a pile of jagged rocks,
which bordered the edge of the forest. Dr. Stine glanced over his
shoulder and gasped. Dozens of cadavers strolled toward the
drawbridge.

A cold, slimy hand grabbed
Alexander’s left ankle. He squealed, glanced down at his feet, and
watched a partially decayed girl crawl out of the moat and open her
mouth extremely wide. Her teeth chomped and gnashed. Moments before
she bit his left calf, Alexander kicked her in the face. He was
shocked when his foot dived into the soft tissue and weakened bones
of her face. Decayed brains, rotten tissue, loose teeth, and bone
fragments dropped to the ground after he removed his foot from her
head.

A dizzy spell seized
Alexander while he stared at the gaping wound in the girl’s head.
When Angelique’s fingernails dived into the flesh of his left
forearm, he snapped out of the trance and followed her onto the
wide, sturdy, interconnected planks of Thames Keep’s drawbridge.
They paused when they heard Razor’s shrill, excited
barks.