Zombiefied! (9 page)

I didn't need any convincing. I turned toward the big metal doors where we'd entered the chamber. Then stopped.

‘I can't remember closing the doors,' I said. Even to my own ears, my voice sounded small and scared.

‘Me neither,' said Sophie. She grabbed one of the wooden door handles. ‘It's locked!'

‘Get out of the way,' I said. I was really starting to freak out. I closed my fingers tightly around the door handle and pulled as hard as I could. Nothing happened. I put one foot up on the other door for extra leverage. I tried pushing instead of pulling. Still the door didn't budge. ‘Holy cow!' I said finally. ‘It's locked.'

‘That's what I said.' Sophie sounded annoyed, but I knew she was freaking out too. ‘We're locked in a secret chamber deep underground. Nobody knows where we are. Nobody will ever find us.'

‘It's not that bad,' I said, trying to sound brave. ‘Whoever has been looking after the dogs will have to come back to feed them. They'll find us then.'

Sophie looked at me with her mouth
hanging open. ‘Great! We'll be found by a madman who turns animals into monsters! That's exactly the sort of person I'd like to avoid!'

‘Hey, I'm just trying to make you feel better!' Girls! No matter what you did for them, they were never grateful! ‘Anyway, there must be another way out of here.'

It didn't take us long to find it. Another pair of metal doors, even bigger and stronger-looking than the ones we'd just walked through, stood at the other end of the room. There were at least a dozen big bolts around the latch, which again had an old key sticking out of it.

‘What does it say?' I asked, pointing my torch above the doors.

We squinted upward through the darkness. Visible faintly in the dim light was another sign.

‘That sounds familiar,' Sophie said uncertainly. ‘I'm not sure if we should go in there.'

‘We don't have much choice,' I told her.

It took us ages to draw back all the bolts and, the whole time, my heart was thumping. Finally, it was time to turn the enormous key.

I looked at Sophie. She gave a little nod. Whatever was inside the room, we would meet it together.

Side by side, we turned the key and pushed the doors open.

Before us lay a huge chamber. Flaming torches were dotted around the walls and a stone platform stood at the far end. Along the walls were more cages, bigger than the
ones used for the dogs. Luckily, they were empty.

‘What is this place?' whispered Sophie.

I walked closer to the cages. There were a dozen altogether, each standing taller than a man. A chain was attached to the bars at the back of each cage. These chains were connected to sets of shackles.

At first, I thought all the cages were identical, but then I noticed one that was different. This one stood a little apart from the others. Above its door was a sign.

As I read the words, my knees went weak.

The sign above the cage had my name on it. That could only mean one thing.

‘It's meant for me.' My voice sounded like it was coming from some other place.

Sophie made a choking sound. ‘Why would anyone want to put you in a cage?'

Suddenly, there was flash of movement in front of us. A figure strode onto the stone platform.

‘Welcome! I've been expecting you.'

I could feel my face turning white with shock.

‘You!' gasped Sophie.

It was Mr Crumpet. As usual, Corvus sat on his shoulder, but for the first time the bird wasn't wearing his usual hood.

‘Welcome to my little experiment! Don't look so surprised — surely you must have figured it out by now.'

‘What . . .? Why . . .?' I stuttered.

‘Dear oh dear! We are slow off the mark.' Crumpet strutted up and down like a performer on a stage. ‘Don't tell me you
still haven't got a clue what's going on. Good grief! And to think that, at one point, I thought you might be on to me.'

‘You? How can it be you?' Sophie said. She looked as stunned as I felt.

‘Who else could it be?' snapped Mr Crumpet, glaring at her. ‘Nobody else around here could pull it off. Nobody! Do you know how difficult it was? How many rats I went through before I stumbled across the key ingredient that made everything work together? But the chemistry is perfect now! It reads like a masterpiece. And you,' he said as he pointed at me, ‘you are the lucky one.'

‘Me . . .?' I stammered.

‘Oh, I know you don't deserve it — I mean you're nothing special, are you? You're small for your age and not very smart, as it turns out. You're really not much good at
anything at all. But that's exactly why you've been chosen! I wanted someone who could disappear easily. Someone who wouldn't be missed.' He waved his hand dismissively. ‘Sure, your parents will be a bit upset at first. But after a year or two, you'll fade from everyone's minds. People will think you were just a runaway.'

‘You chose me? For what?' My knees felt like they were going to collapse under me.

‘To join the ranks of the immortal,' said Mr Crumpet, staring at me with his pale blue eyes. ‘To become
more than human
!'

‘To become a zombie, that's what you mean!' shouted Sophie. ‘If you want to
experiment, do it on yourself and leave him alone!'

Mr Crumpet turned his icy stare on her. ‘Oh, but it's not just him, young lady. You have an important part to play too. A very important part. In fact, some might say it will be you making . . . What do they call it? Oh yes,
the ultimate sacrifice
! You will make the ultimate sacrifice for the good of science.'

Sophie opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

‘Don't look so upset!' cried Mr Crumpet. ‘This is a great day for science and it's a great day for you. Oh, how I worried that it wouldn't happen at all!'

‘You won't get away with this,' I said, hoping I sounded braver than I felt. Could this really be happening? Maybe I'd played one zombie game too many and was stuck in some weird zombie dream!

‘I won't?' Crumpet raised his eyebrows at me. ‘Does anyone know you are here?'

‘Yes!' I lied, my heart sinking. Why hadn't I told anyone else about the secret door?

‘I doubt that,' said Mr Crumpet with another of his thin, sharp smiles. ‘I doubt that very much.'

‘It's true! Mr Slender knows we're down here.' I was pretty sure Mr Slender had no idea where we were, but I was prepared to try anything.

‘Slender?' snapped Mr Crumpet. ‘Yes, he's been a bit of a complication. He's been poking around ever since I set up
that little trap under the stairs. You don't know how disappointed I was that it didn't work!'

‘What trap?' I said.

‘After sending you to the toilets to wash your knee, I slipped into the janitor's storeroom, leaving the door open a crack. I knew you'd notice it and curiosity would get the better of you. I was right, of course. In you wandered and, all the while, I was watching you through a crack between the boards beyond the second secret door. I opened it briefly, hoping you would be silly enough to venture down to the tunnels and into my clutches. But then Slender appeared and I had to abort the plan.'

‘But how did you know we would come down here today?' I asked, trying to keep him talking.

‘When I caught you outside Mr Slender's room after lunch, I guessed you'd figured out there was another secret door, and you were trying to make your move during Slender's free period. That's why I made up the story about the whiteboard — to draw him away from his room so you could get into the tunnel. By the time he'd finished poking around trying to get the thing set up, you were well and truly in my trap.'

‘But . . .' I groped around. I had to buy more time so I could figure out a plan. ‘If it's so great to be a zombie, why don't you become one yourself?'

‘Some day, that's exactly what I'll do. But first, the Master wants me to create an army for him. A zombie army!'

‘The Master?'

‘The one I serve. Shhhhh!' Suddenly, Crumpet looked frightened. He glanced
around wildly. ‘The Master will hear you. The Master hears everything! It's time we finished this. It's time you became a zombie!'

Mr Crumpet lifted the raven off his shoulder. ‘Corvus! Attack!'