Outbreak (8 page)

The front door was unlocked. ‘Mum?!'

There was no answer as I walked through the lounge room and into the kitchen. At this time of day, Mum would be cooking dinner, but today the benches were clear and everything was tidy.

I checked the bedrooms then headed for the study but it was empty too.

‘Mrs Roy?' Sophie's voice echoed down the hall.

‘She's not here,' I said, poking my head into the bathroom.

Sophie was peering into my bedroom. She swung around to face me. ‘Shhhhh!' she hissed, pressing her finger to her lips.
‘There's someone hiding inside your cupboard!'

I slipped past her and into the room. My wardrobe door was shut, just as it had been when I'd left that morning. I stopped and listened. At first there was nothing, then I heard a scraping noise.

Without hesitating, I pulled the door open.

A black shape shot out and flew around the room over our heads.

‘AAAAGGGHHH!' screamed Sophie as she ducked.

‘It's OK,' I said. ‘It's just Corvus.'

Corvus was a zombie raven. A while ago, he'd followed me home. It was kinda cool having a zombie raven for a pet, except that I had to keep him hidden in my wardrobe during the day 'cause he hated sunlight.

The raven gave a loud squawk and landed on my shoulder.

‘Um, does your mum know you've got a bird living in your wardrobe?' asked Sophie, staring at Corvus.

‘Not exactly,' I admitted. It had been surprisingly easy to keep the secret from Mum. I'd just told her that I wanted to be more independent by putting away my own clothes. Hearing that nearly made her cry with happiness, and now, every week she left my clean laundry in a neat pile at the end of my bed.

I tickled Corvus under his chin. ‘Come on,' I said, heading for the door.

‘Keep that creepy thing away from me!' Sophie followed me.

But before we'd gone two steps down the hallway, a familiar silhouette stepped out of the shadows. A voice said, ‘Don't struggle and no one will get hurt!'

The shock made me freeze for a second. Then, before I could recover, Corvus's sharp talons dug into my shoulder as he took off.

The bird launched himself at the figure.

‘AAAAGGHHH!' shouted Mr Slender, ducking down and waving his arms.

‘Come on!' I shouted, grabbing Sophie's arm and dragging her into the laundry.
We raced to the sliding door that led outside. I gave the door a shove and it slid open with such force that the glass shattered.

We leapt through the doorway and took off across the garden. I knew that with my zombie abilities, I could easily outrun Slender, but I wasn't so sure if Sophie could manage it.

Our yard was surrounded by a high fence. We skidded to a stop in front of it.

‘Get on my back!'

‘What?' Sophie wailed.

‘Here!' I leant forward. ‘Climb on. It'll be heaps faster.'

For a second, Sophie looked like she wanted to argue, but she quickly changed her mind when we heard thudding footsteps racing toward us.

‘AAAAGGHHH!' She leapt onto my back, linking her arms together around my neck.

‘Hold on!' I yelled.

I crouched down then sprang upward onto the back fence. Running along the narrow ends of the palings was like balancing on a tightrope. I didn't dare glance back to see where Slender was in case I slipped. Instead, I concentrated on keeping my balance. At the end of the fence, I leapt onto the roof of our neighbour's shed.

‘AAAGGHGHHH!' screamed Sophie.

‘Hold on!' I shouted again.

With a couple of huge strides we were over the shed, but I was going too fast to stop; instead, I swung my arms forward for extra momentum and took a flying
leap toward the metal frame of a kids' swing set. I grabbed the top bar and swung around in a full circle, with Sophie screaming in my left ear the whole time. I let go and we flew through the air, landing on the ground just outside our neighbour's back door. At that moment, he appeared in the doorway to see what all the racket was about.

‘Ben . . . ?' he began.

I didn't even try to explain. Without saying a word, I ducked around the side of the house and jumped over another fence into the next yard. Instantly, a dog came at us, barking its head off. There was nowhere to go but up, so I sprang over it and raced for the front fence. In a couple of seconds, we were back out on the street. I sprinted across front yards, keeping to the shadows.

When we reached the end of our street, I slowed down a bit. For some reason, Sophie had started giggling and crying at the same time. Spit kept spraying onto the side of my face, which was kinda gross.

I slowed to a jog. ‘You can get off now. He's gone.'

Sophie slid from my back and crumpled to the ground.

‘
Never
do that again!' she almost shouted.

So much for gratitude! But I decided to ignore it: we had bigger things to worry about.

‘C'mon,' I told her. But her face was this weird greenish colour and when I tried to help her up, she couldn't stand. I pulled her to her feet and slung one of her arms
around my shoulders then half-dragged, half-carried her through the streets.

Soon we were standing outside the school gates. By the time we got there, Sophie seemed much better.

‘I guess the plan is to find our families,' she said as she let go of my shoulders and drew the bolt to unlatch the gates.

‘Mmm.' I nodded even though she was only half right. Sure, I was planning to find my family, but I was going to try to
avoid
hers.

‘Looks like the janitor hasn't locked up yet,' I whispered as I pushed open the front door of Seabrook High. It creaked loudly.

‘I'm pretty sure that half the town heard that!' snapped Sophie.

I shrugged helplessly. Not even a zombie can control squeaky doors!

We slipped stealthily inside. The main hallway that ran between the rows of classrooms seemed even longer than usual in the dim light.

‘This place is creepy after hours,' whispered Sophie as we walked past the empty classrooms.

I glanced around, hoping nobody was watching us. I wondered if Slender would guess where we'd gone. Was he on his way to the school right now? The thought made me break into a sweat.

I led Sophie through the corridors and soon we were standing at the bottom of the back stairs. I figured that the best place to start looking for Michael was the place where I was pretty sure he'd been kidnapped.

‘This way,' I said and started up the steps. The staircase was just as steep and narrow as I remembered.

At the top, I stopped at the heavy wooden door. But before I could raise my hand to try the knob, a voice echoed faintly from behind the door. ‘Is someone there?'

‘Who was that?' hissed Sophie. Then she suddenly clutched my arm. ‘Look!' Sticking out from under the door was a piece of paper.

I picked it up. On one side was a handwritten note.

Sophie's eyes widened. She stared at the door in alarm. ‘Who's in there?' she whispered.

‘It's OK,' I said, reaching for the handle. ‘I know who it is. We'll be safe.' Hopefully, I added silently.

Sophie grabbed the doorknob before I could touch it. She clutched it tightly. ‘How do you know?'

‘Well, it sounded like Miss Bumble, the librarian,' I told her. ‘She must've been kidnapped too.'

‘Help! Please open the door!' came the voice again. It
was
Miss Bumble!

‘Somebody locked her in there. And they did that because she isn't safe! Maybe she's a zombie too!'

‘Like me?'

Sophie narrowed her eyes. ‘Not all zombies are like you! Most of them eat brains. Most of them can't think!'

She was right. I couldn't blame her for not liking zombies. Nobody liked us.

‘Wait a minute . . . this is my dad's handwriting!' Sophie said. ‘He must've written the note as a warning so people
wouldn't go in there. Maybe Miss Bumble isn't just any old zombie. Maybe she's the Lurker!'

‘Miss Bumble?' I couldn't believe it. She'd been so nice to me. But perhaps that was because I was a zombie too! It would certainly explain why the zombie dogs living under the school hadn't attacked either of us.

‘Maybe I should go in by mysel—' I started to say. But before I could finish the sentence, there was a noise from downstairs.

A loud creak echoed through the corridor. Then everything fell silent.

‘That was the front door! Someone's coming!' Sophie whispered frantically.

‘It'll be Slender,' I whispered back. ‘We have to keep going!'

Sophie shook her head. ‘If Miss Bumble's a zombie,
you
might be safe, but
I'll
be eaten!'

‘You cannot run, Ben!' suddenly Mr Slender's voice cut through the silence. ‘Unless you want to leave your little friend behind!'

‘He knows we're here,' I hissed. ‘We have no choice!' Moving at lightning speed, I shoved Sophie to one side and clutched the doorknob. ‘We're going in,' I said grimly, as Mr Slender appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

Sophie gave a short scream. For a few frantic seconds, I didn't think we'd make it, but the lock wasn't strong enough to stand up to a panicking half zombie. It broke with a splintering crack. The door swung open. I grabbed Sophie's arm and dragged her inside then slammed the door in Slender's face. Using my foot, I held it shut.

‘That chair! Give it to me!' I waved toward a small wooden chair just out of reach.

‘I can't see a thing!' Sophie cried out.

‘Over there!' I yelled, then realised I'd switched to infrared vision without even noticing. Of course Sophie wouldn't be able to see it!

I reached across and managed to grab the edge of the seat. Moving fast, I dragged it into place, positioning it so the back of the chair was propped under the doorknob.

Thump! Thump! Thump!
Slender hammered on the door but he couldn't get in. We were safe. For now.

‘People are in danger!' Miss Bumble's voice came from somewhere in the distance. ‘Please! They may not have much time!'

I glanced around. We were at the end of a long hallway. Barred doorways stood at intervals along one wall. I inched forward with Sophie creeping along behind, clutching my shirt.

Miss Bumble was in the first barred room. Her light glowed bright blue instead of orange like normal human beings, which meant that Sophie was right: Miss Bumble
was
a zombie!

‘Where is she?' Sophie was peering left and right. She was breathing fast.

‘It's OK,' I said, remembering she couldn't see a thing in the dark room. ‘She's locked up.'

‘So . . . she
is
a zombie?'

‘Yup.'

‘I'm not a bad zombie, though!' called out Miss Bumble. I could
see her walking cane on the floor beside her. ‘I haven't attacked anyone. Not yet.'

‘Are you a half zombie, like me?' I asked, already knowing the answer.

Miss Bumble nodded.

I rattled the gate; I wanted to open it and release her. The old librarian had worked at the school for years. She would have had plenty of opportunities to attack students, but as far as I knew, she hadn't started cracking skulls and snacking on brains. But the gate was locked, and even if I did manage to open it, Sophie would probably freak out.

There was another, louder
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
on the door.

‘It's Mr Slender,' I explained to Miss Bumble. ‘He's chasing us.'

‘What are we going to do now?' asked Sophie.

‘Well, you could always start by helping me get out of here, dear,' said Miss Bumble.

‘I don't think so!' said Sophie quickly. Then she added, ‘I can't even see where you are.'

A pair of glowing red eyes appeared. ‘Here.'

‘That doesn't help!' squeaked Sophie.

‘Hang on!' I said, reaching for a light switch I'd spotted beside the door.

I closed my eyes and changed them back to normal vision as rows of ancient gas lanterns on either side of the hallway flickered into life.

We all squinted and blinked as our eyes adjusted.

‘This must've been from the old days, when the school was a hospital,' breathed Sophie, staring down the hallway.

‘Maybe one of these will unlock the gate.' I grabbed a bunch of keys hanging on a nail next to the door and pushed them between the bars before Sophie could stop me.

But Sophie didn't seem so scared now that she could see. ‘Who locked you in there?' she asked Miss Bumble.

‘Somebody who knows a lot about zombies!' said the old woman with a slight smile. ‘There's no way out of here. The walls are double brick and the floor's insulated. I doubt anyone would hear you scream unless they were very close!' she gave a shaky laugh.

‘Was it HAZMAT?' I asked her.

‘Humans Against Zombies: Mobile Assault Team? Yes, I've heard of them, although I've never had the pleasure of meeting anyone from that particular organisation until today,' said Miss Bumble.

‘My parents,' mumbled Sophie, looking embarrassed.

‘You two keep going before Mr Slender catches up with you,' said Miss Bumble. ‘Take the torch.' She nodded toward a large metal torch that hung next to the light switch.

Sophie strode back and grabbed it.

‘Are you sure?' I was keen to keep moving, but I felt bad about not helping her find the right key.

‘I can manage,' she said. ‘Now go! Just be careful. They overpowered me and I'm stronger than I look.'

Sophie and I started down the corridor. As we went further along, the lanterns that lined the walls ended and the hallway darkened once more.

I switched to infrared vision while Sophie used the torch which cast a faint, red beam.
‘And I thought the
ground
floor was creepy at night,' she muttered, lifting her feet high so she didn't trip on the uneven boards.