The Zombie Chasers by John Kloepfer Read Free Book Online Page B

sofa and kicked up his feet. His face was dappled with soothing pink splotches. “Chicken pox is no joke, man. Not too long ago people died from the pox.”
    “I better open a window.” Madison shot Rice a meaningful glance. “There’s a lot of hot air blowing in here.” She slid open the big window looking over the parking lot and joined Zack at the desk.
    By now Zack had cracked open nearly a dozen capsules, and the small pile of ginkgo was still barely an anthill.
    Rice sighed and found the remote control wedged in the seat cushion. He flipped on the television.
    “This live news report is brought to you by…BurgerDog. The burger that tastes like a dog! ” the commercial voice announced. Then the smirking animated wiener dog waddled on-screen and barked. Its head was shaped like a burger with its ears sprouting out of the bun, and its nose grew out of the flesh-colored meat patty.
    “Are you gonna help us or what, Rice?” Zack hollered.
    The television returned to the eleven o’clock news with breaking reports on the zombie infestation: “Welcome back, Phoenix. This is Cliff Hemmings keeping you updated on what is turning out to be, quite literally,the Night of the Living Dead . And apparently we are not alone. This is happening all over the country!”
    “Did you hear that?” Rice asked. “This is going on all over the place!”
    “Rice, this is taking forever,” Zack complained, tapping out the contents of another pill.
    Madison began to hammer the ginkgo capsules with the heel of her shoe. She kept slamming until the white ginkgo powder puffed up into the air.
    “Stop!” Rice shouted. “Are you crazy?”
    “What’s the problem?” she said happily, displayingthe fresh mound of ginkgo dust, like a perky game show assistant.

    “Don’t you know that zombies have long-range hearing?” Rice scolded.
    “Well, saw-ree,” Madison said, slipping her foot back into her sneaker.
    The news broadcast cut to a red-haired reporter with a microphone.
    “Hey.” Zack pointed. “It’s that news lady from the street.” Madison and Rice quit bickering and looked.
    The red-haired reporter spoke in a frenzied, fast-paced voice: “Here we are at the grand opening of the new fast-food chain BurgerDog. What began as a fun, family, free-burger giveaway has since turned into a wild melee of eat or be eaten. These zombies you are watching appeared out of nowhere….” As she spoke, a teenage boy wearing a soccer uniform bounded out of the zombie mayhem in the background and raced up behind the newswoman, bobbing and weaving. He gave a head-fake in front of the camera and dashed out of the frame.

    “Was that just…?” Zack couldn’t believe it.
    “Greg Bansal-Jones!” Madison gushed.
    Mooowahhhhhaaargghhhhh!
    “Did you guys just hear that?” Rice flipped off the television.
    “Rice, quit messing around,” Zack said.
    “It wasn’t me, dude….”
    Moooowaaaaahhhhhhhaaargh!

CHAPTER 10
    Z ack, Rice, and Madison listened to the hammering of their pulses. Seconds ticked off like slow minutes as they waited, transfixed, in the awful silence that followed the hollow zombie howl.
    Moooowaaaaaahhhaaarrgh! It was the unmistakable zombie battle cry.
    “Where is it coming from?” Zack asked. He ran to the door of the office and looked out into the hallway. Nothing.
    Moooowaaaaaahhhaaarrgh!
    Bang! Crack! Pop! The windows rattled and snapped, and the wind-chime jingle of falling glass drowned out the rabid moans.
    “They’re out front!” Madison cried, racing to the window. The boys followed.
    The zombie horde crowded under the blue awning, filing in through the shattered storefront.
    “Quick! We have to try and go around how we came in!” Zack said.
    They ran out of the office, down the hall, pausing at the slow elevator, and then raced down the cement stairwell instead.
    Down the shadowy aisles of the grocery store, a pack of thirty zombies, maybe more, throttled through the tabloids. A grizzly hand