Zombie Field Day Read Free Page B

sense—”
    UUUUhhhhhhhhhhhnnnnnnnn.
    “Did you hear that?” Chad whispered. The boys shot to their feet and stood behind Leo’s closet door. They heard heavy footsteps, and then—
    CRAAAAAAAAAASH!
    Leo pushed the door open. There was Shelly, sprawled out on the floor of his room. One of her legs was bent weirdly around his desk chair. She was clawing the air in front of her in slow motion.
    “ Aaaaaaaaaaaah!” Shelly moaned.
    “Shelly!” Leo said, running to her. “ You ate the pizza?” She’d never touched a bite of school food in her life.
    But as Leo walked closer to his sister, he noticed something that made him catch his breath. The dread grip in his throat tightened so fast that he gagged.
    “Oh, Shelly,” he whispered.
    The sleeve of her blue T-shirt had been ripped off. Instead, oozing strips of skin hung down to her elbow. Blood streaked down her arm and onto her hands. There, between two lines of blood, was a sight that confirmed the worst: teeth marks.

CHAPTER 6
GREEN GLORY
    “That means the zombies have started biting,” Leo said. He was panting a little now. “The Z. coli will spread even faster. We need the antidote now. ” He placed both hands defiantly on his hips. “I’m turning into a zombie right this minute!”
    Leo bolted for the lab, but Chad grabbed him by the back of his pants. “Think, Leo,” Chad said, dropping his friend on the floor. Chad nodded toward Shelly and waited for Leo to catch on.
    Leo sat stunned for a second before Chad’s message sunk in. Of course. His stepsister, Shelly. She was a ready-made zombie specimen.
    “MMMMMMnnnnnnn,” Shelly moaned, now nibbling on the inside of her elbow.
    “I’m sorry, Shell,” Leo whispered. If he could, he would have hugged her to show her how much he meant it. Instead, he stuffed her mouth with the cleanest pair of socks he could find. Certain that she couldn’t bite him, he circled duct tape around her wrist. Then he kept on circling the tape around the leg of a lab bench. It was official: He’d taken his zombie stepsister prisoner for the sake of medical research.

    Leo and Chad had a full night’s work ahead of them. First thing was making sure no parents messed things up. That was easy in Chad’s case. He called his mother to inform her that he was spending the night at Leo’s. As usual, she just said, “Un-huh, un-huh.” And Leo and Shelly’s parents had some ballroom dance contest that would last well past “bedtime.”
    Leo, Chad, and Roger worked late into the night. They tried extra-strength antibiotics, then laser therapy. They performed infrared shock, intestinal readjustment, and cardio echolocation. Now Roger was cradling Shelly’s head in one arm. He spooned a yellow liquid into her gaping mouth. “Buttercup nectar,” he explained.
    “What about Principal V’s plant?” Leo asked. He was online, scrolling through a site called 101 Zombie Home Remedies. “Do you have any idea what it could be yet?”
    “Sadly, I do not,” said Roger. He picked up the sample from Principal V’s plant. “So strangely green,” he said, twirling it in the four fingers of his right hand. “Green like—” Roger stood up at almost human speed. “ Mucinus maximus! ” He grabbed the jar with the slug and held it next to the plant.
    “The exact same shade of green,” Leo said slowly.
    “Very curious.” Roger reached for Leo’s open laptop. His face became even greener as he opened the screen in front of him. “Very curious indeed.”

    At 5:02 a.m., Leo’s eyes popped open. He found himself lying on top of a pile of dusty ferns. He must have fallen asleep while conducting the mucus extraction. Chad’s head was nestled in Leo’s right armpit.
    “Ugh.” Leo shot up and pushed Chad off and into a stand of crashing beakers.
    “I’m up! I’m up!” Chad shouted, sitting upright.
    Leo sat up too and rubbed his eyes. Then Chad rubbed his eyes. Then they rubbed them again.
    Chad and Leo had seen a lot of