Zombie Queen of Newbury High (7 page)

Mia stared at the screen and let out a long groan. “Chase, this isn’t proof. It’s a YouTube clip.”

“That’s right. Some idiot filmed us while we were trying to fight. We keep shutting these things down, but someone keeps posting them again. Still, at least I can show you what a zombie looks like.”

“You don’t expect me to believe that this video is—
gross
, what is that girl doing?”

He leaned in closer to the screen and Mia tried to ignore the way his shoulder brushed hers. For a psycho, he sure smelled nice. “That’s what happens when the virus reaches stage four and the person becomes a zombie. The heart is effectively killed and the body is controlled by muscle spasms, which is what makes them walk funny.”

“I’m not talking about the walk. It looks like blondie there is eating someone’s arm.” Mia pulled a face. Whoever had made this thing was a total sicko but brilliant with special effects.

“Yes, that’s what zombies tend to do. Eat flesh. Though not brains. That’s just an urban myth.” He waited until the video had finished before playing another one. This one was equally bad, and Mia felt her eyes widen as she watched a group of ten so-called zombies attack some salesclerks at a mall. Those guys could really scream. And they sure must’ve blown their budget on ketchup.

Then she caught sight of Chase and a few other men suddenly come in and drag the zombies away. Okay, so this was starting to creep her out a little, and Mia shuddered as she saw a link to another clip.

“What’s that one?” She pointed, but Chase just covered the keyboard with his hand.

“You don’t need to see that one.”

“That’s right, because you know it’s not going to change my mind about this. I mean, yes, I admit that my spell might’ve done something, but whatever it was, it’s all good. I’ve been nominated for prom queen and you should see all the booty I’ve got in my locker. They love me. Rob loves me. It’s a win/win.”

“No.” Chase sighed as he looked at her sadly. “I’m afraid that’s not the reason they’re being so nice to you.”

“Oh, really?” She bristled. “I might not be the most popular girl at this school, but it’s not like everyone hates me, either—well, apart from Samantha Griffin, of course. But the point is, why would you think it more likely that they are zombies than that they just like me?”

“Because I’ve seen it happen before.” He clenched his fists into two tight balls. “The reason you’ve become the focus of everyone’s attention is because they want to fatten you up.”

“Excuse me?” Mia’s hand automatically flew to her stomach as she tried to remember the last time she had done some crunches. She had a prom dress to fit into still, and three days of misery eating to combat. “I’m not sure I follow.”

“Mia, you unleashed the zombie virus, and that makes you the queen.”

“Great, so I’m queen of the zombies. What does that even mean? Will I be able to command them all in their zombie quest to take over the world?”

“Not exactly.” He hit
play
on the final YouTube clip, and she watched hundreds of slow-moving freaks rip apart a middle-aged woman—limb by blood-soaked limb. “I’m sorry, Mia, being a queen isn’t a good thing. It just makes you first up on the menu.”

six

M
ia let out a jagged breath as the YouTube clip ended. “You’re not lying, are you?” she finally said as she tried to keep her panic from rising.

“I’m sorry.” Chase shook his head.

“How did this even happen?” She blinked at him. “I mean, one minute I was doing a love spell and the next minute I’m turning myself into an all-you-can-eat zombie buffet? Maybe Grace is right and it’s because I tried to go against the forces of nature to date Rob? After all, she’s been popular since she was born, but no one’s ever tried to eat her before.”

“That’s the part I don’t understand,” Chase admitted as he ran a hand across his smooth jaw. “Normally to work a spell like this, you need incredible focus and concentration, which comes from years of training,” Chase said in a soft voice, which somehow managed to calm her down a bit. “Which is why I’m not sure how you managed to achieve it.”

“Well, Candice and I did do yoga for a few weeks. Mind you, that was a little boring so we swapped to Tae Bo. Oh, though I am a Taurus, and we’re pretty stubborn—maybe that was it?”

Chase didn’t look convinced.

“The thing I still don’t understand is, if zombies are real, then how come we don’t know about them? I mean, those YouTube clips for a start. Why is it never reported in the news?” Mia wrinkled her nose.

“Because the department always covers up. Trust me, it’s in no one’s interest to know the truth about what is really out there.”

“But how do they even do it? I can barely hide it from my mom when I miss my curfew by ten minutes.”

“It really depends on the situation. Sometimes it’s blamed on fires, natural disasters, or occasionally a pandemic—which, when you think about it, isn’t really too far from the truth. As for people who have survived attacks and the families of those who have been killed or infected, the department uses memory-adjustment techniques. It’s sort of like what they do in that movie
Men in Black,
but without the electronic gadgets.”

“But that’s impossible.” She stared at him. This day was getting more surreal by the minute.

“You’d actually be surprised at how easy it is. Who really wants to believe that there are zombies or dragons out in the world?”

“There are dragons?” Mia blinked, and Chase raised an eyebrow as if to prove his point.

“See, people believe what they want to believe.”

“So why didn’t that work on you?” she asked.

“I guess I don’t believe the same things as everyone else.” He shrugged, but before she could say anything else, there was a pounding noise, and Mia looked up to see about twenty faces pressed up to the glass panel in the door.

“W-what are they all doing?”

“At a guess, I’d say they’re looking for you,” he said in his matter-of-fact voice as she suddenly realized why he had locked the door.

“Oh my God.” Her alarm turned into blind panic as she reached out and instinctively clutched at his arm. It felt oddly reassuring and she edged closer to him. “It’s started? In the movies these things always happen at night. Night is a much better time. Now is not so good.”

“It’s all right. They’re not here to eat you—not
yet
, anyway. You’re the zombie queen, which means you’re like a magnet for them. As the virus progresses, the pull will get stronger. They’re here because you’re here. Apparently you are giving off some sort of pheromone. I’ve heard it smells like chicken.”

“Chicken? So that explains why Rob and Samantha both were trying to smell me.” Mia shut her eyes for a minute and tried to imagine she was somewhere else. Preferably in a place where she hadn’t turned everyone into zombies and they weren’t now looking at her like she was a drumstick. Unfortunately, when she opened them again, she was still in an empty classroom with twenty seniors drooling at her from the other side of the door. Popularity definitely had its drawbacks.

“Okay,” she said in a low voice as she realized she was still holding on to Chase’s arm. She quickly let it go. Smelling of chicken obviously made a person react strangely. “So I think it’s probably time we did that reversal spell. Just tell me what you need to do and I’m there. One hundred percent. Because the sooner I stop being on the menu, the better.”

Chase seemed to be fixated on something on the wall. “Um, well, it’s a bit more complicated than that.”

Mia jumped up and stood in between him and his wall viewing so that he could concentrate on what she was saying. “What do you mean?”

“Remember I explained to you yesterday about how the virus worked? Well, it’s moved into stage two, and unfortunately, it’s now impossible to reverse.”

“What?” Mia yelped as she looked at the faces that were still pressed against the glass. She swore that one of the guys from her IT class was drooling. “But if you really are from the zombie department, you must know how to fix this. Right?”

“I’m from the Department of Paranormal Containment, which means exactly that. We can’t always stop it, but we can contain it.”

Mia blinked. “I still don’t have any idea what you’re talking about. Isn’t it the same thing?”

Chase shook his head and stood up just inches from where she was standing. “No.
You
want to stop the virus before your friends all turn into zombies. I just want to stop the zombies from getting out into the greater area.”

“A-and how do you intend on doing that?” Mia croaked.

“I have to kill them all.” His voice was blunt and cold.

“Please tell me you’re joking.” Mia couldn’t control the horror in her voice as Chase grimly shook his head.

“I’m not joking.”

“But . . . you’ve got to be.” She lowered herself back down onto the seat. “I mean, there must’ve been at least two hundred seniors at the assembly—”

“Not to mention teachers,” he interjected.

“Right.” Mia started to fan herself with her hand. There was a fair possibility that she might faint very soon. “Not to mention teachers.”

“Killing them is the only way,” he assured her, and Mia pressed her back against the table and stared at him.

“But that’s ridiculous. There can’t be any killing. What about Candice? I mean, sure, she’s been having a binge-fest on beef jerky, but normally she’s, like, a total white-meat girl. Plus, she’s the only real friend I have. We’re going to college together. I’m doing film studies, and she’s doing pre-med. It’s going to be our time to shine. How can we shine if she’s a dead zombie with her head chopped off?”

“Who said anything about head chopping? We prefer more humane means. Like gas.”

“Oh, well, that makes it all right then. Anyway, why are you even telling me this?” Mia demanded. “If you’re so intent on killing everyone, why did you need me to know?”

Chase flushed and ran a hand through his short hair. “Actually, I probably shouldn’t have done that—it’s against protocol. It’s just if I don’t manage to deal with this virus properly and if even one infected zombie gets out, they’ll head straight to you. I guess I just wanted to give you a heads-up so you could get out of here.”

Mia shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere. Look, I watch a lot of TV and the one thing I’ve learned is that there’s always a way. We just have to figure out what it is,” she insisted. “When Samantha started flirting with Rob, did I just give up and let her get her false nails into him? No, I did something about it.”

“Hence our problem,” Chase pointed out.

“Okay, so perhaps that wasn’t the best example.
But
,” she continued, “there has to be a way to reverse this thing. I don’t want everyone writing in my yearbook that I was the girl who turned them all into zombies. And what about the prom?”

“Zombies don’t exactly have great motor skills. They can hardly hold up their heads, let alone write anything, so I think you’re safe on that front,” Chase informed her. “Though you might have problems filling your dance card.”

She shot him a mutinous glare. “You’re not funny.”

“I’m not trying to be,” he said in a grim voice, his face devoid of emotion. “Look, if I knew of another way, then I would’ve done it.” He gripped his hands, and she couldn’t help but notice his knuckles had turned white. “I don’t like killing innocent people any more than you do.”

“Well, obviously you do, since you were the one who suggested it in the first place.” She folded her arms and glared at him, but his face remained impassive. “And it seems to me that you need to start learning to think outside the box.”

“When the virus is still in stage one it’s reversible,” he repeated in a tight voice. “But once it reaches stage two, not only do I need the original incantation but also the person who did it, as well as the original ingredients that were in the spell.”

“Well, there you go, Mr. Glass Half Empty,” Mia said as a rush of relief raced through her. “It is reversible, after all. We’ve got the original incantation, and I was the one who did it, so now all we need are the ingredients.”

“That’s where the problem lies. It’s impossible to ever find out the original ingredients.”

“Really? Because I don’t care if we have to strangle it out of her—if getting them will fix this thing, then I say we should do it.”

“What?” Chase stared at her in astonishment.

“Oh please, you’ve got no problem with killing everyone, but you won’t let me strangle some evil old hag who—”

“No, I mean, are you seriously saying you remember where you got the spell?”

“I paid a hundred bucks for it; I’m not likely to forget.” She snorted before frowning. “Why?”

He rubbed his jaw in bewilderment. “Because normally when anyone does one of these, they suffer short-term memory loss. It’s always built into the spell to protect the maker from being discovered. That’s why we’ve never been able to reverse stage two before.”

“Really?” Mia was surprised. “Maybe she has evil-old-witch dementia? Anyway, the important thing is that I totally remember everything about her. Her name is Algeria. She has a shop down at that old strip mall over by Moonlight Avenue, and she’s about seven hundred and eighty-six years old with a squishy wrinkled face.”

Chase pulled out his BlackBerry and typed in the information. “Ah, here we go. Algeria Chen. She’s a low-level Chaos Maker.”

“Do I even want to know what one of those is?” Mia shot him a dubious look.

“They sort of cause trouble on a freelance basis. She’s probably been concocting and selling these spells for years on the off-chance that one of them might work.” Chase looked up from the screen.

Mia frowned. “Yes, but what does she get out of it?”

“It’s sort of like pyramid selling. The more zombies and other things her virus creates, the more . . . benefits . . . she gets from certain businessmen whose interests it suits to have the world in a state of . . . unrest.”