The Zombie Zone-a to z 26 Read Free

tight,” he said as the kids crawled into the tent.
    “You guys can sleep near the opening,” Josh said. He crawled to the farthest end of the roomy tent.
    “Why?” Dink asked. “You usually like to sleep by the door.”
    Josh pulled off his shirt and used it for a pillow. “Yeah, but this way if an alligator crawls in here,” he said, “he’ll eat you and Ruth Rose first!”
    Later, Dink suddenly sat up in the tent. A noise had wakened him. He listened, then peered out through the zippered opening.
    Moonlight through the trees cast shadows on their campsite.
    Then Dink saw a tiny light moving in the woods. Dink’s first thought was that he was seeing fireflies. But he knew that fireflies didn’t travel in a straight line. He woke Josh and Ruth Rose.
    They both rubbed their eyes, then joined Dink on their knees at the tent opening.
    The light was still there, bouncing along in the trees.
    “What do you suppose it is?” whispered Ruth Rose.
    “A flashlight,” Dink answered.
    “Who would be sneaking around in the middle of the night?” Josh asked.

    Dink put out his hand and silently unzipped the tent flap. “Let’s go find out,” he said.
    “Maybe we should wake up Jack,” Josh said. “It could be the zombie!”
    “I have a feeling that zombies don’t carry flashlights,” Dink said.
    The kids stuck to a narrow path as they moved slowly toward the light. The moon played hide-and-seek with the clouds. One moment it beamed down on them, the next it was gone.
    As they watched, the distant light would disappear, then glow again, only to vanish once more.
    The kids came to a spot where three trails crossed each other. They could turn right or left or go straight forward.
    “Which way?” asked Josh.
    “The middle one seems to head where the light was,” Dink said.
    “Guys, that path goes to the cemetery!” Ruth Rose said.
    “OMIGOSH!” Josh croaked. “Maybe we’re following the grave robber!”
    “And if we hurry, we can catch him!” Ruth Rose said.
    “I’m not catching anybody !” Josh said.
    “Let’s keep moving,” Dink said. “If we find anything out, we’ll go back and wake up Jack. He’ll call the cops on his cell phone.”
    The kids crept forward. Ruth Rose had been right. At the end of the trail, Dink saw gravestones glinting in the moonlight.
    The kids stopped in the shadow of a giant oak tree, thirty yards from the graveyard. The moonlight touched the fence and the gravestones. The two empty graves were black holes with mounds of dirt piled next to them. Nothing moved.
    “I guess I was wrong,” Dink whispered. “I thought for sure—”
    Suddenly Josh slapped his hand over Dink’s mouth. Then Dink heard Ruth Rose gasp.
    One of the empty graves was glowing! As the kids watched, two hands emerged, grabbing at the edge of the hole.
    Then a head appeared. Whoever it was held a small flashlight in his mouth. The beam jumped crazily as a dark figure pulled himself up and out of the grave.
    Silently, Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose dropped to the ground.

The man standing at the grave’s edge was tall. He wore dark clothing. His face was in shadow, but his hair looked silver in the moonlight. Dink felt there was something familiar about him.
    The man wiped red clay from his pant legs. Then he shone the flashlight on his wrist, causing his watch to gleam briefly. He turned and disappeared into the trees.
    “Wh-who was that?” Josh asked.
    “It sure wasn’t a zombie wearing a watch and carrying a flashlight,” Ruth Rose said.
    “I wonder what he was doing down in that grave,” Dink said. “Should we go look?”
    “No!” Josh hissed. “It’s bad enough we’re creeping around cemeteries. We’re not crawling down into some grave!”
    “Let’s go tell Jack,” Ruth Rose said.
    The kids retraced their steps back to the campsite. Dink was relieved to see Jack’s tall form lying in the hammock.
    “Let’s not wake him,” Dink said. “We can tell him in the morning.”
    The