GRANDMA? Part 1 (YA Zombie Serial Novel) Read Free Page B

hurried up the shelf next to him, looking at the nest. "Awesome."
    "They're pink and don't have hair yet. Got your phone?"
    "Way ahead of you." I used my phone to take a picture of the mice. Then the door burst inward with a giant BANG!
    "We gotta go," I said.
    "Don't step on the mice."
    We climbed out of the window well, careful not to step on the mice. But once we were in the backyard, I wasn't sure where to go. Run into the woods? It was too easy to get lost. Plus, we didn't know if there were more zombies out there.
    "We should hide," Josh said, "wait for Mom and Dad to get home. Dad will kick Grandma's ass."
    Our father never really liked his mother-in-law.
    "What if Grandma finds us?" I asked. "I think we should run."
    "Where?"
    I had no idea. And my foot was really starting to hurt. I seriously needed to get some shoes on. I remembered my flip flops were on the pier.
    The pier…
    The boat!
    "C'mon!" I said, pulling Josh's arm. We ran to the stairs leading to the dock, me limping because the pain was so bad. The boat was a Bass Tracker, fourteen feet long, with a 40 horsepower Mercury engine. I carefully put on my sandals and we climbed aboard. I told Josh to untie us while I sat in the driver's seat, reaching for the ignition.
    No keys.
    "Josh, you need to stay here. I have to get the keys."
    "Don't leave me again, Randall."
    "I have to. I'll only be thirty seconds. Go ahead and count, like we're playing hide and seek. Go."
    Josh began to count slowly. I jumped out of the boat and hobbled up the pier, heading for Grandma's house. She always kept the keys on the kitchen table.
    I got to the patio door and paused, looking through the window. The kitchen was empty. I eased the door open, slipping inside, heading for the table.
    No keys.
    I began searching cabinets. I didn't find keys, but I did find Grandma's stash of hard candy. I grabbed a handful, shoving them into my pocket, pausing to eat one. (I had to, to get the smell of peppermint out of my mouth, so Josh didn't think I'd been eating candy.) Then I started going through the drawers, until I found one with keys in it.
    About five thousand keys.
    "Damn, Grandma. How many locks do you have?"
    She must have saved every key she'd ever had, going back to World War II. The boat key had a yellow sponge thing on the key ring so I knew what to look for. No idea why it had that sponge thing, but I was glad it did because it made the keys easy to find. Once I grabbed them, I limped back onto the patio, but my way was blocked by Grandma and Phil.
    "You're too young to take the boat out by yourself," Grandma said, wagging a finger at me and she moved closer. "Now give me the keys, and let me eat your face."
    "I thought zombies ate brains," I countered.
    "We do. But you, young man, don't have any."
    Wow. Zombie Grandma was a jerk. And I'd spent $20 of my own money buying her slippers for Christmas.
    "How did you become a zombie?" I asked Phil, purposely ignoring Grandma.
    I was hoping he didn't say, "Jesus bit me." Not because of the religious ramification, but because I didn't want my little brother to be right.
    "Ralph," he said. "Bit my arm."
    I didn't know who Ralph was, and didn't really care. But I had more questions.
    "Why did you turn Grandma into a zombie? You just bit her once. You're trying to eat me, but you didn't try to eat her."
    They looked at each other, and then began to giggle in a creepy, gurgly way. Like they had a secret joke they wouldn't share.
    While they were preoccupied with alienating me, I dashed left and headed for the dock. I managed to get around them, but they reacted fast and were quickly right on my heels.
    I looked ahead and saw Josh in the boat. He shrugged his shoulders with his palms facing the sky.
    "Josh, get ready! I got them!"
    I was jingling the keys in the air, like he would hear them. Josh pointed.
    "They're behind you!" he yelled.
    No duh. I didn't need to turn around to see, because I heard them on my heels. Practically close