Zombie High by Shawn Kass Read Free Book Online Page A

give teachers a
place of privacy away from students during their lunches
and planning periods, now seems like it might hold a place
of refuge for you, too. The curtain definitely won’t hold
back a zombie, but somewhere in your memory you think
you remember hearing from another student that there
was a phone in the room, and you figure if it’s working
you might be able to call for help. After a quick look left
and right to make sure no zombies are nearby, you
approach the door cautiously and try to look inside along
the edges of the window in hopes of being able to see if
the coast is clear or not. It’s at this point that you hear a
whispered voice from inside.
    Figuring that where there are voices there must be
living people, you reach out and try to turn the doorknob
to enter, but find that it’s locked. In a whispered voice
you speak into the frame of the door, “Hey, let me in.”
    From within the room, two voices softly murmur to
each other and while one seems sympathetic in its tone,
the other, a male voice, sounds harsh and threatening.
Trying again, you turn the doorknob back and forth a few
times and say, “Come on, let me in. Clearly I’m not a
zombie. I’m talking to you and working the doorknob.”
    After a moment, the door opens a crack, and you
find yourself looking down into eyes of a freshman girl.
You’ve seen her around but can’t remember her name off
the top of your head. The bigger concern to you,
however, is that the door is only open about an inch,
leaving no way for you to get inside. In a whispered voice,
the girl asks, “You get bit?”
    “No, I’m clean,” you say as you gesture down at
yourself for her to look. “Now let me in.”
“What do you got?” asks the girl.
“What do you mean, what do I got?” you ask. “I
just escaped from Miss Millstone’s class as a zombie
attacked her.”
“Sorry, I can’t let you in if you ain’t got anything
useful. We only have enough supplies for ourselves,” says
the girl.
If you want to force your way in, turn to page ………. 62
If you want to negotiate, turn to page
………….……… 64
Force Your Way In
    Pissed off that safety and a phone call are so close
and yet this little girl won’t let you in, you say, “Screw
this,” and step forward, putting your body weight into the
door to force your way in. As you move, however, the girl
seems to realize what you’re doing and what your intent
is and steps back just before your shoulder makes contact
with the wood.
    You barely register her scream before your eyes
lock onto the gleaming metal surface of a softball bat
being swung at your head from the left. You feebly
attempt to raise your hands out of an instinctual need to
protect yourself, but it’s too late and the bat smashes into
your cheek, shattering the bone beneath and dislodging
more than one tooth. Lucky for you, you are unconscious
before the real pain sets in, and you drop backwards into
the hall.
    An unknown amount of time passes before you
come to, and when you do, you find that you are laying on
the cold floor of the school hallway just outside the
teachers’ lounge. It takes you a second to remember
what just happened, and in that time an overwhelming
pain spikes through your head as the nerves around left
side of your face spark in protest to being crushed by a
bat.
    Somewhere beneath the pain of injury, you also
feel your heart sink as you realize that you’ve clearly
blown the one place that might have proven safe and that
there is no way the girl is going to open back up for you
now. Squeezing your eyes shut tight against the
throbbing in your skull, you try to figure out where to go
next, but the fates seem to have decided for you. To your
right, you hear the tell-tale sound of shambling feet
dragging their way across the floor followed by an all too
close groan of unspeakable hunger.
    You grit your teeth preparing to swear as you sit
up, only to find the pain