The Zombie Zone-a to z 26 (2 page)

Jack stood up, brushing red clay from his knees.

“This isn’t a good time for us to be here,” he said quietly to the kids. “Let’s walk down to the water.”

He led them down a narrow trail. It ended in a sandy clearing at the edge of a bay.

“I heard that man say zombies robbed those graves,” Josh said. “But I thought zombies weren’t real!”

“I don’t believe in them,” Jack said. “There must be another explanation.”

“But who could have dug up the graves?” asked Ruth Rose.

“I don’t know,” Jack said.

“Maybe the grave robber is the same person who put up that sign we saw,” Dink said.

Jack nodded. “Maybe,” he said. He waved an arm toward the water. “Nice view, huh?”

The water was blue and still. Across the bay, they could see tall buildings on what looked like islands.

“Who owns those boats?” Josh asked Jack. A few yards away, several wooden boats had been left on the beach.

“The villagers,” Jack said. “They fish and catch crabs out here.”

“Is this the Atlantic Ocean?” Dink asked.

“No, it’s part of the Gulf of Mexico,” Jack said. He pointed out toward some of the islands. “The Gulf joins the Atlantic way past there, at the tip of Florida.”

Jack took the kids on a hike along the water’s edge. They saw long-legged blue herons wading in the shallow water. Small fish darted away from the herons’ shadows. Jack pointed to a deer lying in the shade.

“It’s so beautiful here,” Ruth Rose said. “And so quiet!”

“I agree,” Jack said. “I’d love to buy a piece of this land and build a house here.”

He opened his pack and pulled out four small bottles of water. They all sat on a log and sipped, watching the herons search for fish.

Across the water, the sun flashed gold against the distant buildings.

“How’d you like to camp out here tonight?” Jack asked. “We can cook our supper over a campfire.”

“Excellent!” Josh said.

“I’ll ask my grandmother at lunch,” Ruth Rose said. “But I know she’ll say-yes!”

“Great! After I drop you off, I’ll do some grocery shopping,” Jack said.

After their water break, Jack showed the kids how to identify different birds’ nests. He taught them how to spot poison ivy. He explained how to make tea and medicines from some plants.

Jack looked at his watch. “You guys must be getting hungry,” he said. “It’s time to go back to town.”

“I’m starving!” Josh said. “I don’t know if I can last till we get back to the hotel!”

Dink laughed. “Well, you could always grab a raw fish like that heron,” he said.

A half hour later, the kids met up with Ruth Rose’s grandmother in the hotel’s outside restaurant. She was sitting under an umbrella on the balcony that overlooked the street.

“Gram, can we go camping with Jack tonight?” Ruth Rose asked her.

“Of course,” her grandmother said just as the waiter appeared at their table.

Everyone ordered cheeseburgers and lemonade. While they waited for their food, the kids told Ruth Rose’s grandmother about the zombie sign and the grave robber.

“Who would steal dead bodies?” Ruth Rose asked.

“People have been robbing graves for different reasons all through history,” her grandmother explained. “Sometimes robbers were searching for valuables that were buried with the bodies. Hundreds of years ago, a famous painter stole bodies so he could study the muscles and bones. He wanted his paintings of people to look as real as possible.”

“Gross!” Josh said.

At a nearby table, two men in suits and ties were drinking iced tea. Dink noticed that one of them kept glancing at their table. To Dink, it seemed as if he was trying to overhear what Ruth Rose’s grandmother was saying.

Just then the waiter showed up with their food. No one talked about dead bodies as they ate.

The next time Dink looked up, the two men were gone.

At four o’clock the kids were waiting in front of the hotel. Jack’s van showed up a few minutes later.

Jack opened the rear doors. “I brought a tent big enough for all three of you,” he told them.

“Where will you sleep?” Ruth Rose asked.

“In this.” Jack showed them a rolled-up string hammock.

They all climbed in and buckled up. Jack joined the late-afternoon traffic.

“Where are we going to camp?” Dink asked. He was sitting in the back with Josh, and Ruth Rose was up front with Jack.

“How about near the water?” Jack asked. “Tomorrow morning, I’ll take you to see an alligator nest.”

“They make nests?” Josh said. “Like birds?”

“Not like birds. Mother alligators lay their eggs on the ground and cover them with vegetation,” Jack explained.

Jack parked his van at the head of the trail. Between the four of them, they managed to carry the tent, Jack’s hammock, and two small food coolers.

They took a different trail to the bay this time, and soon came to the clearing at the water’s edge.

“Just dump everything near the boats,” Jack said. “We’ll get your tent set up before it gets dark.”

Josh peeked under one of the upside-down boats. “There are no alligators here, right, Jack?” he asked.

“No, it’s too open,” he said. “But they often hunt at night. When it gets darker, look for two yellow spots in the water. Alligator eyes reflect light, so our campfire will help us see them.”

As Jack and the kids set up camp, their shadows grew longer. Soon the sun was behind the trees.

After the tent was up, Jack hung his hammock between two trees. He gave the kids some containers. “Fill these with water,” he said.

“We have to drink salt water?” Josh asked. “Yucko!”

“No, we’ll need it to put out our campfire later tonight,” Jack explained. “I brought bottled water for drinking.”

The kids walked to the water, which was only about twenty feet from their tent.

As Josh stooped to fill his jug, Dink dropped his hand on Josh’s shoulder. “Is that an alligator?” he whispered. “I see two eyes!”

“Duh,” Josh said. “I guess I can tell a floating branch from a reptile!”

Ruth Rose joined in. “But … but that branch is swimming toward you!”

“Very funny” Josh said. He lugged his container back to Jack.

“Just set the water by that tree,” Jack said as he scooped a depression in the sand. He made a wall around it with rocks and damp sand.

Then the kids helped him find dead twigs and branches. Soon they were sitting around a cheery blaze. The dancing flames made all their faces look ghostly. Dink thought of zombies and alligators. He scooted a little closer to the fire.

“Okay who wants hot dogs, lemonade, and marshmallows?” Jack asked.

“We do!” Josh yelled.

Jack opened the coolers and began pulling out tons of food.

The kids roasted their dogs and ate them by the fire. By the time they had finished their marshmallows, stars were visible. The moon was full and partly hidden by clouds. A few lights flickered way out in the Gulf.

Dink was the first one to yawn. Then everyone else started yawning. They covered the fire embers with sand, and Jack doused the pit with water from the bay.

“Sleep 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.