all big. “Nuh-uh! I’d get suspended until twelfth grade. Except I’d never get to twelfth grade!”
ZOMBIE TIP
Jermaine’s priorities are wrong here. If you are in possession of a weapon that could save you from having your brains eaten by ghouls, and the ghouls are at your school, you are well advised to break school rules about bringing forbidden items. Despite what school authorities may tell you, suspension is better than becoming a drooling zombie. Also, no running in the hallways. (Unless the zombies are after you.)
The bus ride was about normal. Nothing happened. Not a zombie anywhere. Maybe they didn’t like rain, either.
I was ready for trouble when we pulled up in front of Brooks Elementary, but everything seemed fine. No, that wasn’t true. Everything was silent, pretty much. The kids weren’t chattering or pushing in the hallways. The only noise was made by teachers, yelling and ordering us around, like always.
Adults, y’know? No clue. All the kids knew about the zombies. In fact, there really weren’t too many kids there. I guess a lot of them had faked sick, like I’d thought about doing.
But they weren’t zombie hunters. Francine, Jermaine and me—we had a job to do.
Francine met us by the entrance. “It’s quiet,” she said.
“Too quiet,” said Jermaine. He gave me a wink, ’cause we both know that in old western movies that’s what someone always says before an arrow knocks a sentry off the fort wall.
It
was
too quiet.
The bell rang, and we went into homeroom. I stashed my bag with the coats and stuff in the closet at the back.
Miss Scoffle was about the same as usual. There was maybe half the normal number of kids in class. Did they all ditch today? Or did they get turned into zombies since Friday?
After a while, Miss Scoffle needed someone to take a message to the office. Usually she picked Missy Wrangel, but she wasn’t there. Miss Scoffle looked around. She had to pick someone else. There were people she never picked ’cause they couldn’t be trusted with messages, and people she never picked ’cause she could never remember their names. I smiled at her.
“Gary Mulliss! Will you take a message to the library for me? And one for the cafeteria?”
The cafeteria? Maybe to say how many kids for lunch today? Not many …
Still, it got me out of a spelling test. Cool.
All the same, I wished I could take the Slugger with me.
38
The hallways were real quiet. I pretty much tiptoed along, in case a zombie reached out at me from the janitor’s closet. It didn’t. Good.
The library was upstairs. As I went up the steps, I thought about how it’s good to have a safe upstairs place to defend against zombies. I’ve seen it in the movies. You could put, like, obstacles on stairs to slow ’em down, and then thwack each one as it gets to the top. It’s also a good idea to have a safe room with a strong door and no windows. Zombies get in through windows, no problem. Doesn’t matter if you close ’em or anything. So, when I got to the library, I looked around to check if it was a good place to hold off the undead horde. Yeah, not bad. It had windows, but they were small and high up, and this was the second floor. The doors looked about the sameas others at school, but there were all kinds of heavy bookcases you could shove against them to stop zombies getting in. This was pretty good. The only place I could think of that might be even better was the janitor’s closet, which had no windows at all. But it’s tiny and stinks of chemicals.
While I was looking around, Ms. Ostertag saw me. “Well hi there, Larry! What brings you up here? I have a great new baseball book you might want to check out.”
She’s real nice and knows all the kids, even the ones like me who aren’t big reading types. I handed her the message.
Now I knew where to come if the whole zombie thing got way out of hand here at school. Plus, Ms. Ostertag keeps a whole drawer full of candy, so we’d
ZOMBIE TIP
Jermaine’s priorities are wrong here. If you are in possession of a weapon that could save you from having your brains eaten by ghouls, and the ghouls are at your school, you are well advised to break school rules about bringing forbidden items. Despite what school authorities may tell you, suspension is better than becoming a drooling zombie. Also, no running in the hallways. (Unless the zombies are after you.)
The bus ride was about normal. Nothing happened. Not a zombie anywhere. Maybe they didn’t like rain, either.
I was ready for trouble when we pulled up in front of Brooks Elementary, but everything seemed fine. No, that wasn’t true. Everything was silent, pretty much. The kids weren’t chattering or pushing in the hallways. The only noise was made by teachers, yelling and ordering us around, like always.
Adults, y’know? No clue. All the kids knew about the zombies. In fact, there really weren’t too many kids there. I guess a lot of them had faked sick, like I’d thought about doing.
But they weren’t zombie hunters. Francine, Jermaine and me—we had a job to do.
Francine met us by the entrance. “It’s quiet,” she said.
“Too quiet,” said Jermaine. He gave me a wink, ’cause we both know that in old western movies that’s what someone always says before an arrow knocks a sentry off the fort wall.
It
was
too quiet.
The bell rang, and we went into homeroom. I stashed my bag with the coats and stuff in the closet at the back.
Miss Scoffle was about the same as usual. There was maybe half the normal number of kids in class. Did they all ditch today? Or did they get turned into zombies since Friday?
After a while, Miss Scoffle needed someone to take a message to the office. Usually she picked Missy Wrangel, but she wasn’t there. Miss Scoffle looked around. She had to pick someone else. There were people she never picked ’cause they couldn’t be trusted with messages, and people she never picked ’cause she could never remember their names. I smiled at her.
“Gary Mulliss! Will you take a message to the library for me? And one for the cafeteria?”
The cafeteria? Maybe to say how many kids for lunch today? Not many …
Still, it got me out of a spelling test. Cool.
All the same, I wished I could take the Slugger with me.
38
The hallways were real quiet. I pretty much tiptoed along, in case a zombie reached out at me from the janitor’s closet. It didn’t. Good.
The library was upstairs. As I went up the steps, I thought about how it’s good to have a safe upstairs place to defend against zombies. I’ve seen it in the movies. You could put, like, obstacles on stairs to slow ’em down, and then thwack each one as it gets to the top. It’s also a good idea to have a safe room with a strong door and no windows. Zombies get in through windows, no problem. Doesn’t matter if you close ’em or anything. So, when I got to the library, I looked around to check if it was a good place to hold off the undead horde. Yeah, not bad. It had windows, but they were small and high up, and this was the second floor. The doors looked about the sameas others at school, but there were all kinds of heavy bookcases you could shove against them to stop zombies getting in. This was pretty good. The only place I could think of that might be even better was the janitor’s closet, which had no windows at all. But it’s tiny and stinks of chemicals.
While I was looking around, Ms. Ostertag saw me. “Well hi there, Larry! What brings you up here? I have a great new baseball book you might want to check out.”
She’s real nice and knows all the kids, even the ones like me who aren’t big reading types. I handed her the message.
Now I knew where to come if the whole zombie thing got way out of hand here at school. Plus, Ms. Ostertag keeps a whole drawer full of candy, so we’d
Similar Books
