Zombie Queen of Newbury High (16 page)

“It’s okay, it’s not your fault,” Mia assured her friend as she tried to hide her mounting panic. “And the important thing now is to translate the rest of the notes and redo the reversal spell. The book is back in my bedroom, so I guess we’d better go back there now. How much time do you think we have?”

“Not enough to get the book,” Chase said in a flat voice.

“But I live only five minutes away,” she protested before noticing that his green eyes were full of worry.

“Mia, this isn’t like last time, when everyone was only in stage two of the virus. If Candice has already been in a coma, then it means they must be just about to hit stage four.”

“Stage four?” Candice howled, and Mia winced as several people glanced over at them. Suddenly she wished the back of her dress wasn’t so exposed because she got the distinct impression that her fellow students were counting her ribs.

“Right, so how about this. I call my mom and get her to look in the book. Candice can tell her where the section is that needs to be translated and then we can go from there.”

“Won’t she think this is really weird?”

“I’ll make up some excuse or something,” Mia said.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Candice demanded as she opened up her purse and pulled out a pen and paper.

“Wow, you’re prepared.” Mia raised an eyebrow.

“If I was prepared I would have my Latin books with me,” Candice retorted as she impatiently tapped her pen against the white tablecloth. “Now call your mom already, Mia. I’m dying here.”

“Okay, I’m doing it.” She made the call and nervously looked around the room as she waited for her mom to answer. To an outside person, it looked like the start of a regular prom with groups of people standing and talking in awkward clusters, but it was only belied by the deadened expressions and the random arm twitching that seemed to going around the room. Finally the phone was answered.

“Hello? Mom, it’s me,” Mia said in a rush. “Look, I know this is going to sound weird, but—”

“Mia, everything that comes out of your mouth sounds weird,” her sister’s voice rang in her ear and Mia groaned.

“Grace, not now, can you put Mom on, please?”

“Er, that would be a no.”

“Seriously, Grace, this is important.” She looked over to where Chase was using his own cell phone to send a text message.

“I’m sure it is,” Grace replied in a disinterested voice. “But Mom’s at the grocery store and she left her cell phone here.”

“What?” Mia yelped as Candice stared impatiently at her.

“You heard me. So whatever your emergency is, it will have to wait. Now if you don’t mind—”

“Grace, stop!” Mia shouted as she realized her sister was about to hang up. “I need your help.”

“Are you insane? Why do you need my help?”

“Because there is something I need you to do for me. Up in my bedroom there is a small black velvet book on the dresser.”

“Oh, yeah, the one with Elvis on the front.”

“What?” Mia was instantly distracted. “How many times have I told you not to go into my room?”

“I was only looking for my magazine,” Grace argued. “Anyway, what was that book? It was all written in some weird language.”

“Latin. The thing is, there is something in that book that I
really
need, so can you please go and get it for me? I’ve got Candice here—she’ll tell you what page to look for, and once you’ve found it, you just need to read it all out to her. Okay?”

“What?” Grace demanded as it sounded like she was walking up the stairs. “Mia, you are at your prom and by some ridiculous freak accident you’ve even been nominated for prom queen, yet you want me to translate something in an Elvis book for you? What’s going on?”

“Grace, please, it’s a very long and complicated story and you probably won’t even—”

But the rest of her words were cut off as Candice reached out and yanked the phone out of her hands with surprising strength (which didn’t bode well if things got ugly).

“Grace, it’s me. Mia turned everyone at the senior assembly into zombies and now we all want to eat her because she smells like the most amazing barbeque chicken that you could ever imagine. We want to eat Chase as well, but right now he still smells a bit undercooked. The point is that in the book is the answer of how to reverse this whole mess so unless you want the senior prom to end in a bloodbath and be canceled for future years, I suggest you do what your sister says.”

Okay, so perhaps it wasn’t so long and complicated, after all.
Candice handed her back the phone, but there was only silence at the other end.

“Grace?” she called out. “Are you still there? I know it’s a little hard to believe what Candice just told you, but—”

“Of course I believe you, Mia. It makes perfect sense. Rob has dumped you and you’d rather pretend that you’ve turned everyone into zombies than admit the truth.”

Mia sighed. “Look, you can believe whatever you want, but right now I need your help. So if I hand you back to Candice, can you please tell her what it says?”

“Fine,” Grace agreed.

“Really?” Mia couldn’t hide her surprise.

“Yes, really,” Grace said in a saccharine-sweet voice. “If you admit that Rob dumped you and has hooked up with Samantha, then I will help you.”

“What?” Mia blinked before she realized her sister was serious.

“You heard me.”

“Okay, fine.” Mia gritted her teeth. “You were right. Rob dumped me and I was too embarrassed to admit it. I never should’ve tried to go against the laws of nature. Happy?”

“Of course not, because your actions could still have serious repercussions on my future social status,” Grace retorted. “Furthermore, let this be a lesson to you to not do anything so stupid again, because—”

“Grace, please,” Mia cut her sister off.

“Okay, geek-head. Don’t get your panties in a twist. Put Candice on the phone so I can do whatever the stupid thing is she wants me to do.”

“Thank you.” Mia quickly handed the phone over before turning to Chase and shooting him an urgent look.

“Do you really think this is going to work?” she said in a low voice as Candice awkwardly held the phone up to her ear and started to scribble something down into her notebook.

“I don’t know. I’ve just sent a message to my boss, and they are going to get a team out here as quickly as possible—but until they arrive, we’re on our own.”

“But even if we get the translation, what about all the ingredients?” she said, and Chase pulled a brown bottle out of his pocket along with the original incantation.
Oh, thank God.
Mia felt so relieved that she could’ve quite happily leaned over and kissed him.

“Got it.” Candice looked up and handed Mia back the phone. “Now I just need to get this baby translated. By the way, do you think they have any food around here?”

Mia didn’t like the way her friend was looking at her arm, but before she could comment, Samantha suddenly descended upon them in her horrible gown.

“Did you say ‘food’?” the cheerleader demanded. “Because I’m starving. I mean, it seemed like a good idea to not do a sit-down dinner for the prom, because seriously most of the seniors at this school could afford to lose twenty pounds, but now I’m starting to regret that we didn’t get the three-course menu. I swear I could eat about four cobb salads.”

“Jeez, you know that those things are full of hidden cholesterol, don’t you?” Candice blinked, and Mia tried not to notice that her skin was now tinged with gray. If her eyeball fell out or her skin ripped away from the bone, Mia could promise there would be some serious screaming.

“They are? Gross. Well, maybe I should just have some fingers instead and . . .
Did I just say I wanted to eat some fingers?
” Samantha turned to them in alarm and Candice shot her a sympathetic smile.

“Yes, you did. You see, we’re turning into zombies and soon we’re going to want to eat Mia and Chase,” Candice explained matter-of-factly as salvia dribbled down her face. “But not yet. Apparently we have to wait until we hit stage four.”

“Well, that’s not fair.” Samantha pouted. “First I can’t eat any more cobb salads, and now I can’t eat Mia Everett?”

“Of course you can’t eat Mia Everett,” Candice retorted in a disgusted voice. “You don’t even like Mia. You tried to steal her prom date. Besides, I’m her best friend, so if anyone gets to eat her, it will be me.”

“Um, Chase.” Mia coughed. “I’m not sure I like the direction of this conversation.”

“Okay, so how about this?” Samantha was telling Candice. “Do you remember that cute blue top I was wearing the other day? Well, if you let me have one of Mia’s kidneys, I’ll totally let you borrow it for a week.”

“Make it a month and we’ve got a deal.” Candice licked her lips and Mia gulped as Chase got to his feet and reached for her hand. Mia felt his fingers lace into hers, and she followed his gaze to where at least fifty seniors, all clad in their prom clothes, were laboriously walking toward them.
And was that Mr. Haves in there, as well?

“I think we might have a problem,” he stated unnecessarily.

“Is this the zombie-queen thing and they are going to start copying me again? Or maybe sniffing me?” Mia unconsciously inched closer to Chase. “Because this doesn’t really look like last time.”

“It’s not like last time. Like I said, they are almost at stage four, which means we’re running out of time.”

Mia felt her knees start to buckle. Chase put a protective arm in front of her, and she found herself clutching at it for dear life.

“Oh, crap.” Candice awkwardly got to her feet and shot Mia an apologetic look. “Chase is right; stage four isn’t too far away, because I’ve sort of got this overwhelming desire to eat you.”

“How strong is this feeling?” Chase demanded.

“Oh, you know.” Candice gulped. “It’s pretty strong. Actually, Mia, I think you’d better run.”

fifteen

B
efore Mia could even answer, Chase grabbed her hand and dragged her along with him as he pushed through the students who were all closing in on them. “Let’s go.”

“But what about Candice?” She gasped as felt his fingers entwine in hers.

“I’m sorry, but we need to get you somewhere safe . . . quickly.” Chase suddenly pivoted and started running in the other direction as a group of cheerleaders all wearing different-colored strapless dresses blocked their way.

Mia panted as she tried not to think about how terrified she was. The cheerleaders had now decided to run after them, along with everyone else, though thankfully they were moving at little more than a shuffle as Chase led her out through the side door that connected to the boys’ locker room. Mia followed him and heard a crunching noise on the other side as the door swung shut.

The faint smell of chlorine and damp towels caught in her nose as Chase continued to drag her along the tiled floor, past the rows of lockers. Behind them, the almost-zombies seemed to be having a bit of trouble trying to fit through the narrow door as they all tried to shuffle through at once. Mia dared to let out a sigh of relief that they really were a bit brain-dead. They hurried out through the other door with Chase stopping only long enough to kick a trash can to help slow the others down.

“Come on,” Chase urged as they once again began to run. “We need to find somewhere to keep you safe.”

“What about the school basement?” Mia panted, trying her best to keep up with his fast pace. Running in high heels certainly wasn’t making it any easier.

“There is no basement,” Chase said just as a group of tuxedo-clad chess-club geeks appeared at the top of the hallway.
And were they waving at her like this was a game?

“What?” Mia yelped as they spun and headed left toward the library. “But there’s always a basement. In
Buffy
, Sunnydale High has a basement bigger than a mall.”

“I’ve studied the floor plans of this place enough to know that there is definitely no basement. Especially not a mall sized one.”

“Well, that’s a flaw,” she said, just as there was a shouting noise from behind them. Mia spun around to see Rob clumsily making his way toward them, closely followed by the others.

“Mia!” Rob yelled as he held out the limp and battered pink corsage. “Babe, stop with the running so I can hold you.”

“In here.” Chase pushed open the door of a janitor’s closet and slammed it shut just as Rob’s fist went crashing into the wood. Chase quickly locked the door and nodded for Mia to stand at the far end of the closet. She tried her best to look away from the small frosted-glass windowpane in the door that showed the shadowy dark silhouettes on the other side.

“Mia, come on. Let me in,” Rob howled, and Mia felt a sense of doom go racing through her. This was it. She was going to get eaten. By her prom date.

Chase seemed to be searching around for something before he grabbed two brooms. He handed one to her before heading back to the door and pressing his full weight against it, as if to hold off what seemed like an impossible force on the other side.

“If anything comes near you I want you to belt them as hard as you can in the eyes, mouth, or groin.”

Mia was just about to protest that she wasn’t really the belting sort of girl, when all of a sudden she saw Chase’s body shudder as someone kicked the door.

“So how long do we have before—”

“I’d say about an hour at the most.” He face was grim as the door shook again. Oh, to be back in the steel-reinforced biology closet.

“An hour?” Mia clutched at the broom. “But that’s not enough. How can we get it translated in time? Especially now that Candice isn’t exactly on our side. Can we do just redo the old reversal spell? I mean, you’ve got it all there and it worked last time. Well, it did for a day. Maybe it would buy us some more time?”

“It’s too risky. We got lucky then; this time it could backfire on us and make it worse.”