Zombiefied!

For Jasper and Lucas

*MWAH! MWAH!*

(Yes, you both just got a kiss

from Mum in public.)

‘Watch out! Behind you!'

The zombie came out of nowhere. It launched itself at me with blinding speed. I spun around, pulling up my weapon. Moving fast, I aimed the crosshairs at the zombie's chest and pulled the trigger.

‘Gotcha!' I shouted. Green zombie guts sprayed everywhere.

‘Nice one,' said Sophie. She was standing beside me on the roof of the abandoned building. ‘Oh no! Here comes another wave!'

The undead creatures vaulted over the edge of the roof. There were dozens of them! Where had they all come from? Three of them sprinted straight toward me. Their zombie eyes glowed bright red. Their mouths hung open, and I could see their razor-sharp teeth glinting in the sunlight. Their arms were outstretched, their hands grasping at the air.

I loaded up and fired a couple of shots at the nearest zombies. Suddenly, everything went red. I'd been hit from behind! I crumpled to the ground.

Zombie laughter filled the air.

I flung the controller down onto the sofa, even though I knew my character would respawn. Man! I hated those guys!

‘Don't rage-quit on me now!' said Sophie. She was battling the horde alone. I knew she'd never survive by herself. Sure
enough, it didn't take long; in less than a minute, the zombies were laughing again. ‘We'll never get past this level,' she complained, slumping down beside me.

‘Yeah. It's rigged,' I said. ‘Let's watch a movie instead. How about
A Zombie Ate My Homework
?' That was my favourite zombie movie. It's about this kid who finds a baby zombie and looks after it, sort of like a pet. Except the zombie ends up following him to school one day and scaring all the kids.

‘Nah,' said Sophie. ‘We watched it yesterday.'

‘Got any better ideas?' I asked.

‘Nope,' she said.

Sophie could be annoying sometimes. But I have to put up with her because she's been my best friend ever since her parents moved to our town two years ago. Some of the kids at school think it's weird that we're friends, because she's a girl. But she can beat all of them at arm wrestling and
running, so who cares, right? She's also taller than all the other girls in our year. She's even a tiny bit taller than me, although I'm kind of short and skinny for my age. I wear my hair sticking straight up to add a couple of inches.

‘OK,' I said. ‘Do you wanna watch a different movie?'

‘How about
American Zombie
?'

I groaned, but she ignored me and slid the DVD into the player. Old-style credits rolled up the screen as the opening music kicked in. A zombie lurched out of a house and across the street. Even though it didn't look very scary, people screamed and ran away from it.

‘I can see a bit of the guy's real hair sticking out from under the wig,' said Sophie, squinting at the TV. ‘And is that a zip up the back of his neck?'

‘Yup!' I said. I was kind of getting into it. The thing is, I love zombie movies. Especially old zombie movies. I love new zombie movies too, although sometimes they actually are scary, unlike the ones that were made ages ago.

The zombie limped slowly after people, who hid behind cars and ran into houses. I didn't know why they bothered running; it's not like the old-style zombie could move very fast.

I yawned.

Sophie lives only a couple of blocks from me so we ride home from school together every day. Usually, we hang out at my place; I hardly ever go to her house, because Sophie's mum works all the time and Sophie's dad is a writer so he always wants us to be quiet. We're supposed to do our homework, but most of the time we do other stuff, like read comics. Reading is part of our homework anyway, so I'm only half-lying when I tell Mum we
are
doing our homework.

The zombie reached the end of the street. It looked around, then started slowly up a path toward a house. Of course it was the house where the kid who ends up killing all the zombies lived.

‘Don't choose that house, zombie,' I said to the screen, even though I knew the zombie couldn't hear me. ‘Choose another one. There's an old lady living next door. Go and eat her brains.'

‘Nom, nom, nom,' said Sophie. That was our zombie-eating-brains noise. Sometimes we say it when we're eating ice cream or chocolate or something delicious.

Thinking about that made me hungry.

‘Mum, I'm hungry!' I yelled.

‘There are biscuits in the jar,' Mum shouted back from the other end of the house.

‘Why do I have to do everything around
here?' I groaned. That's the problem with having parents — they're always trying to make us do things for ourselves.

‘I'll get them,' said Sophie, rolling off the sofa.

I settled back and relaxed. The zombie was lumbering through the kid's house. The little kid was alone, hiding in a cupboard in his room. Didn't he know he should make a run for it before the zombie got too close? I mean, it's completely obvious that a zombie can't catch you if you're running away. But if you get cornered, you're a sitting duck!

‘Here,' said Sophie, tossing me a couple of biscuits.

‘Thanks,' I said.

The zombie was in the boy's room now. It was heading toward the cupboard. It lurched forward to open the door.

Suddenly, something shot past my face and landed on Sophie's back just as she bit into her biscuit. ‘Nom, nom, n— AAAAGGGHHHH!'