Zombiefied! (6 page)

‘Did I startle you?' he said. ‘Here, your mum's on the phone.' Mr Knight handed me the telephone, which I hadn't noticed he was holding in his other hand. I guess I was distracted by the enormous knife!

‘Hello?' I croaked.

‘Ben! Where are you? You know the rules!' Mum sounded annoyed.

‘Sorry, Mum, I'm still at Sophie's house,' I said. I almost added,
I'm in the bus with Mr Knight and he has a huge knife!
But I didn't.

‘I know you're at Sophie's,' said Mum. ‘I was just talking to Gerald. You should be home by now.'

‘I'm on my way. Bye.' I handed the phone back to Mr Knight and headed for the door. Mr Knight leant to the side so I could squeeze past him. As I rushed down the steps, I heard his voice behind me.

‘Sorry, Lynn, I thought he'd already gone. No problem. He's on his way now. See . . .'

By then I was out of earshot.

I jumped on my bike and pedalled as fast as I could. My mind was racing. Any doubts that I had seen a secret doorway open inside the janitor's storeroom were gone. And why did Mr Knight have a copy of the school's plan pinned to his wall?

I tore home. The night air was cold against my face, but I hardly noticed. The streets looked different: the yards were full of shadows and the houses seemed to watch me with their blank, dark windows.

It wasn't far to my house, but it seemed to take longer than usual. Finally, I turned into our driveway and glided into the back yard. The shed door was open and, although it was pitch black inside, I rode in and skidded to a stop. I'd done it so many times, I could've done it blindfolded.

I jumped off my bike and headed for the back door. Inside, everyone was already eating dinner.

‘Ben,' said Dad, ‘you're late.'

‘Sorry,' I said, dumping my bag on the sofa. ‘Got a flat tyre on the way back from Sophie's house.'

Mum raised her eyebrows. ‘I thought you were still
at
Sophie's house when I rang a couple of minutes ago. Or was I talking to a ghost?'

‘Oh yeah.' What a rookie mistake! I guess I was still a bit shaky from the shock of
seeing Mr Knight in the bus with that knife. Man! That totally freaked me out!

Dad pointed with his fork at my chair. ‘Sit.'

I sat down and stared at my plate.

‘And I don't want to hear any complaints about dinner,' Mum added.

I eyed the Brussels sprouts piled on one side of my plate. ‘Mmmm! Meatloaf and veggies. This looks great!' I stabbed one of the sprouts with my fork and put the whole thing in my mouth. Trying not to gag, I chewed as fast as I could.

‘Ben got detention today,' Michael said in a happy voice. He smiled across the table at me.

Mum put down her fork. ‘How come?'

I glared at Michael. ‘Dno, glubolem. . .' I tried to speak, but I still had a mouth full of Brussels sprouts.

‘He was beating up another kid,' said Michael.

‘WHAT!' screamed Mum.

I almost choked on the sprout. Finally, I managed to swallow it. ‘I was not! I was late to class, that's all.'

‘Ooohh!' said Michael. ‘So you didn't get detention for the fight, you got it for
another
thing!'

‘What fight?' Mum asked.

‘There was no fight!' I said angrily. ‘I was late to class and Mr Slender gave me a detention. It's no big deal.'

‘So it wasn't you who picked a fight with Tank?' asked Michael. ‘It was some
other
kid called Benjamin Roy who happens to go to our school and who looks
exactly
like you?'

‘Why were you late to class?' asked Dad.

‘I was in the toilets. I wasn't . . . feeling very well,' I said.

‘You mean you were in the toilets crying after Tank beat you up,' said Michael. Bits of meatloaf sprayed out of his mouth.

‘Michael!' said Mum crossly. ‘Don't speak with your mouth full.'

‘Who's Tank?' asked Dad.

‘Just a kid,' I said. ‘Anyway, the good news is that I did all my homework while I was in detention, so I don't have any left to finish tonight.' Ha ha! Take that, Michael!

‘Did you?' Mum looked completely stunned.

‘Yup! And I got a head-start on my history assignment.' Okay, so that wasn't exactly true either, but I was going to start the assignment soon so it wouldn't be a lie for long.

‘Well, that's very good, Ben.' Mum picked up her fork again. ‘I always say: “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”.'

I'm pretty sure I had never heard Mum say that before, but I wasn't about to burst her bubble, so I just nodded. ‘And I think I'll have an early night tonight. Got a big science test tomorrow.'

‘Great idea!' Mum looked like she was going to explode with happiness.

‘I heard Tank's pretty ticked off about this morning,' said Michael.

‘That'll be twenty cents into the swearing jar, Michael!' Mum's idea of swearing started at words like ‘darn' and ‘jeez', so ‘ticked off' was hardcore cussing to her.

‘I'm just saying Ben had better watch his back.' Michael seemed really annoyed. He shoved the last bit of his meatloaf into his mouth and chewed hard.

‘You're his big brother. You should be looking out for him,' Dad said.

‘It's OK, Dad,' I said in my bravest voice. ‘I'm used to looking after myself.'

Round one of the night to me.

I was pretty quiet for the rest of dinner. I was too busy coming up with a plan to talk. I had to get into the cupboard in Mr Slender's room somehow — but first I needed supplies.

After dinner, I waited until Dad was busy with the washing-up and Mum was talking on the phone in her bedroom. I could hear the shower running so I guessed Michael was in the bathroom.

I yawned and stretched. ‘Think I might head off to bed. Got a big day tomorrow.'

Dad was whistling along to the radio, so I don't think he even noticed.

I slipped down the hallway. Steam was creeping out from under the bathroom door. It looked just like the mist that always appears in old zombie movies, which kind of suited my mission. Michael always spent ages in the shower — not that it made him
smell any better — so I knew he wouldn't interrupt me anytime soon. The last thing I needed was someone asking awkward questions about what I was doing!

I held my breath and sneaked into the laundry. Mum always adds this smelly stuff to the washing machine so the whole room stinks like flowers. It was a relief when I opened the back door and stepped outside. I crept past the washing line and into the shed, then I felt around on the bench for the torch Dad always keeps there for when the power goes off. I pressed my palm over the end of it and switched it on. Then I arranged my fingers so that just enough light shone through for me to see what I was doing.

Against the wall was an old cupboard where Dad kept what he called ‘emergency supplies'. We'd never had an emergency
worse than the water getting turned off for an hour or two, so I'm not sure what sort of thing he had in mind. Inside the cupboard I found some spare batteries for the torch and on one of the shelves was a coil of rope, but when I tried to lift it, I almost fell over — it was too big and heavy to be of any use to me. There wasn't much else in the cupboard except for an old radio and a fire extinguisher. So much for Dad's ideas about surviving an emergency. We wouldn't last five minutes in a zombie apocalypse! I slipped out of the shed with the torch and batteries.

Back inside the house, Michael was still in the shower. Hopefully, he would use up all the hot water so I wouldn't have to have one.

Feeling relieved I'd made it back inside without anyone noticing I'd gone, I went into my bedroom. And almost screamed.

All my soft toys were hanging around the edge of my bed from bits of string. It was so creepy!

Now I don't have that many soft toys. Mostly they're from when I was little. I got them as gifts so I can't really get rid of them
without offending a lot of people. Anyway, they're usually lined up along my pillow during the day and I throw them onto the floor at night.

I stared at them. It was easy to guess who had done it. ‘MICHAEL!'

Mum's head appeared around the doorway. ‘What's the matter?'

‘Look what he did!'

‘Hmmm.' She didn't look all that annoyed. In fact, I think she actually smiled a bit.

‘Michael!'

‘Yes, beloved Mother?' Michael wandered in. He had a towel wrapped around his waist and his eyebrows were up in their usual ‘innocent' expression.

Mum pointed at my bed. ‘Did you do this?'

Michael slapped his hands
to his cheeks. ‘Why, those poor little toys!'

‘Michael . . .' said Mum in her warning tone.

‘Mother, I'm shocked that you would accuse me of this terrible crime!'

Mum was definitely trying not to smile. How did he always get away with this stuff? ‘You can help take them down. Go and get some scissors.'

‘Maybe they need to be resuscitated,' said Michael. ‘Stand back! I shall give them mouth-to-mouth.' He opened his mouth like a vampire and walked toward the bed. ‘Come here, little teddies! This won't hurt a bit!'

‘Michael!' Mum was laughing now!
Openly laughing!

‘Get out!' I pushed him back toward the door. ‘Never come into my room again! Never!'

It took me ages to untie them, but finally all the toys were in a pile beside my bed. I bundled up the string and threw it in my bin. I was going to toss it into Michael's room and let him clean it up, but I knew he'd probably tell Mum and I'd have to pick it up
all over again
! He was so spoilt!

I replaced the batteries in the torch with fresh ones and put it in my backpack, then pulled on my PJs and climbed into bed. I was starting to get nervous about tomorrow. What if the plan didn't work? What if I got caught? The more I thought about it, the more worried I became.

‘BENJAMIN!' screamed Mum right beside my head. ‘You are going to be late for school!'

I groaned and tried to open my eyes. Surely it couldn't be morning yet? I couldn't even remember going to sleep!

I rolled out of bed and found the clothes I'd worn yesterday in a heap on the floor. They were clean enough — only a few stains here and there — so I pulled them on.

Mum eyed me suspiciously as I walked into the kitchen. ‘Isn't that what you were wearing yesterday?'

‘Yup,' I said. ‘Just trying to cut down on the washing.'

‘Hmmmm,' said Mum, raising an eyebrow.

I gobbled down a piece of toast and sculled a glass of milk. ‘Can I have a coffee?'

‘No,' said Mum. ‘Here's your lunch.'

I shoved the lunchbox in my bag, keeping my back to her so she wouldn't see the
torch. Trying to act casually, I headed for the door.

‘Ben?' she called, just when I thought I'd got away with it. ‘Come back here for a second.'

My heart sank. What had given me away?

I trooped back into the kitchen. ‘Yeah?'

Mum leant down. ‘Good luck on your science test today,' she said and planted a kiss on my forehead.

‘Thanks, Mum.' I felt so relieved, I didn't even mind that she'd kissed me! I also felt a bit guilty. Technically, there
was
a science test, but we took one every week so it was no big deal. It's not like I'd ever study for it or anything.

Outside it was warm and sunny, but for once I actually wanted to go to school. On
the way to Sophie's house I pulled a few wheelies and did some bunny-hops. I'm already pretty good at doing tricks on my bike, but you can never have too much practice, right? I turned into her street and did a massive skid as I pulled up outside her house. Even Sophie's parents would have been impressed by that one!

Sophie was already waiting for me on the front steps. The Fuzzil was stuck to her shoulder again. She jumped up and grabbed her bike from where it was leaning against the house. But instead of getting on it, she walked it down to the end of the driveway.

‘What happened last night?' she asked before she'd even reached me.

‘What do you mean? Oh, with your dad?'

‘Yeah, he said he caught you in the bus. He said we weren't allowed in there and
then he went out and put a lock on the back window. What were you doing?'

I glanced across at the bus. Sure enough, there was a chain with a big padlock wrapped around the handle on the back window. That guy sure didn't waste any time!

Suddenly, I wanted to get out of there.

‘I'll tell you on the way,' I said, pulling my bike into a U-turn. We rode to the park in silence.

Henderson Park had all the usual stuff: swings, a merry-go-round, a slide. There was even a flying-fox. We pulled up beside the swings and jumped off our bikes. I took an old wooden swing while Sophie sat on one of the new plastic ones. That's the good thing about being best friends: sometimes you do things without having to talk about it. You just know what to do.

We didn't swing much as I explained what had happened last night. When I got to the bit about the photos and maps, she wrinkled up her nose and said, ‘That's weird!'

‘Yeah,' I said. ‘It was definitely creepy.'

‘And you're sure it was a map of our school?' she asked.

‘Positive. And when I looked at the map, I saw the janitor's storeroom was marked with a red cross. So was the cupboard in Mr Slender's classroom. What do you think that could mean?'

But Sophie didn't answer the question. Instead she dug the toes of her shoes into the sand. ‘It's kind of strange that these things keep happening to you, don't you think?'

‘What do you mean?' I asked.

‘Well,' she said as she stared at something behind me, ‘it's just weird that only
you
see these things. First there was the secret door under the stairs and now this. Dad's a writer, so maybe he has stuff in his office that isn't normal.'

‘Pictures of zombies? Maps of our school?'

‘Yeah. So you say.'

‘It's true! Why don't you look for yourself?' I was getting mad now. What was the point of having a best friend if they didn't believe you? ‘Oh hang on a minute, you can't 'cause it's locked! Why
does he keep people out if he's got nothing to hide?'

‘I don't know.' Now Sophie sounded upset. ‘Maybe it's just private stuff. My dad's not a bad person.' Suddenly, she jumped off the swing and ran over to her bike. She threw her leg over it and in a couple of seconds she was riding out of the park.

‘Fine,' I said out loud, even though no one was listening. I didn't need her to believe me! I knew what I saw and I knew what I was going to do. Now, I'd have to do it alone.