Outbreak (12 page)

The Knights decided that between Nurse Nellie and Mr Slender, they had enough zombies to deal with. They agreed to leave me and Miss Bumble alone if we promised never to attack anyone.

‘If he hasn't done that already, he isn't going to,' said Mum crossly when she heard this.

‘It's OK, I promise,' I said quickly. I didn't want any more arguments!

Miss Bumble unlocked the door. I slipped out first and shot Mr Slender a couple of times with the Zombie Blaster so we could all get past him safely. I dragged him into sick bay and slammed the door, bolting it behind me.

‘You looked like you enjoyed that a bit too much,' said Mum, carefully taking the Blaster from me as we headed down the corridor.

‘It hurt me more than it hurt him,' I lied. ‘Anyway, he sounds like he's already recovered.'

Sure enough, his voice echoed after us.

‘Nom! Nom! Nom! Oh, no! Not the thermometer! Anything but that . . .'

‘Things would be a lot worse without Nellie the Nurse!' came the echoing reply.

‘Nurse Nellie must've escaped from the handcuffs.' I smiled. ‘She'll love living in a medical facility, especially if she's got a new patient.'

We rounded a corner and their voices grew fainter. ‘We'll contact HAZMAT and they can send a team to collect them,' Mrs Knight said.

Mr Knight nodded. He looked pleased. ‘I don't think anyone's brought in two live zombies at the same time before!'

Sophie and I walked in front, just in case Mr Bill — a.k.a. the Master, a.k.a. the Lurker — reappeared.

‘I'm proud of you,' Mum told me, as we headed downstairs toward the front door of Seabrook High. ‘You saved us all.'

‘So you believe that I'm a zombie now?' I asked, switching between normal and infrared vision so my eyes flashed red.

‘Stop it! Don't do that!' Mum yelped. ‘Well, it does explain the smell coming from your room sometimes.'

‘I don't think that's 'cause I'm a zombie,' I said truthfully. Then I added, ‘But I've got some more bad news.'

‘What?' asked Mum nervously.

‘I forgot my report card.'

Mum and Dad laughed. ‘Hmm,' said Mum. ‘I think we'll let you get away with it this time.'

By the time we stepped out through the front door, the sky was filled with stars and the streetlamps were glowing.

‘Wow! That's bright,' said Sophie gazing at the closest one.

‘You'll get used to it.'

‘Do you think I'm . . . ?'

I nodded. I'd realised the truth when we were leaving. I'd switched to infrared vision and it was then that I noticed Sophie glowing blue like me, instead of orange like normal humans.

She stopped in shock.

‘Don't worry,' I told her. ‘Nobody else will notice that you're now completely brain-dead.'

‘Great! Thanks a lot!'

‘Plenty more where that came from,' I told her with a grin.

‘But why don't I want to attack anyone?' she asked me.

‘I wonder,' I said slowly. ‘I saw Nurse Nellie adding white powder to the medicine earlier. Maybe she mixed sugar in with the formula. Maybe she tweaked it so you'd want lollies instead of brains?'

‘I really could murder a lollipop right now, I know that,' agreed Sophie. ‘But why?'

I shrugged. ‘It could've been accidental. She probably didn't realise it'd make you crave sugar.'

‘What is that
thing
?' Sophie said suddenly, gazing again at one of the streetlamps, where a bright blue shape could now be seen swooping at the insects clustered around the light.

I recognised the shape straight away. ‘Corvus,' I explained. So
that
was why my pet zombie raven always wanted to go out at night!

‘He's beautiful,' breathed Sophie.

A trail of electric blue light followed the bird as he dived and plunged.

Michael jogged up to us. ‘Did you see me blind her with the glitter? I was really fast. Like this . . .' He windmilled his arms around, almost knocking himself off his own feet. ‘I just hate
to think what would have happened to you guys if I hadn't been there. You wouldn't have had a chance!'

‘Absolutely,' I said, trying not to laugh. ‘You saved the day.'

‘When the guys find out my brother is a zombie . . .' he began.

‘You can't tell anyone,' I interrupted.

‘What?!' Michael looked stunned. ‘But why . . .'

'Cause I'll be locked up,' I told him. Then I added, ‘
If
anyone believes you.'

Michael's face fell.

‘Anyway, you're better off pretending to be a Duff,' I said.

‘A Duff?'

‘Someone who doesn't know zombies exist. That way, if you get attacked, they won't expect you to fight back,' I explained.

‘Especially not with glitter,' said Michael, digging around in his pocket and pulling out a handful of glittering specks. ‘They won't expect that.'

‘You're right,' I agreed. ‘
Nobody
would expect you to fight zombies with glitter!'

Zombiefied!

Zombiefied!: Infected

Zombiefied!: Outbreak

Coming later in 2016

Zombiefied!: Apocalypse

First published in Australia in 2016

by HarperCollins
Children'sBooks

a division of HarperCollins
Publishers
Australia Pty Limited

ABN 36 009 913 517

harpercollins.com.au

Copyright © C.M. Gray 2016

The right of C.M. Grayto be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under
Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.

This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the
Copyright Act 1968
, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

HarperCollins
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ISBN 978 0 7333 3423 8 (pbk.)

    
ISBN 978 1 4607 0494 3 (ebook)

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:

Gray, C.M., author, illustrator.

    
Zombiefied! Outbreak / C.M. Gray. (author and illustrator)

    
For primary school age.

    
Zombies — Juvenile fiction.

    
Suspense fiction.

A823.4

Cover design by Sam Williams, based on original design by Hazel Lam, HarperCollins Design Studio

Cover and internal illustrations by C.M. Gray