CHAPTER 1
ZOMBIEZAPPER #1
Leo yawned and rubbed his eyes. He squinted at his alarm clock until the red blur turned into numbers. He had time to fit in a quick update before school. His laptop was still open on his legs from last night. Leo pressed a button, and the familiar screen of his Web site lit up.
For all your zombie needs, the slogan read. Hmmm. Maybe he needed something catchier. No time to think about that now, though. Leo scrolled over to the “Z-News” section and started typing:
Good morning, zombie geeks! ZombieZapper #1 here with an update. Yes, folks, this is a true story. It’s my own report from the field. My assistants and I are still sorting through the data. But I can tell you this: Z-spotting at Rotfield Mall confirmed yesterday at 12:06 p.m.
Location: In-Between Burger.
Subject: Teenage male, light brown hair, blue eyes.
Skin color: Gray!
Clue #1: When I asked for extra ketchup, he just groaned and pointed at a tub of relish.
Clue #2: Definite zombie halitosis (i.e., breath smelled like fuzzy cheese).
Clue #3: Fingernail fell off while he counted my change. Zombie geeks, I cannot stress enough. Caution!
“ZombieZapper. . . . Seriously?”
Leo slammed his laptop shut. His stepsister Shelly was smirking over his shoulder.
“Shelly, what the—? Get out!” Leo sputtered. He tried to untangle himself from the mess of blankets.
“Leo, you’re late.” She tapped her watch with a sparkly fingernail. “I had planned to get to school early to organize my locker.” Hands on hips, Shelly took in the sight of her stepbrother flailing under his zombie-themed comforter.
Leo finally plopped onto the floor, dragging the sheets with him. When he looked up at Shelly, she had that determined look she got before she had to do something unpleasant. Like flushing a dead fish or cleaning up dog poop.
“Leo, you look like a troll. Did you even sleep last night? Leo—ooooh, gross.” Shelly felt something slippery under her foot. She bent down and picked up a plastic baggie with two fingernail tips. She peered at the bright green blob in the bottom. “Leo, is this a slug?”
“Gimme that.” Leo grabbed the bag. “It’s a sample. For science.”
“You mean for your zombie stuff?” Shelly’s voice was the opposite of impressed.
“I mean for zombie science,” Leo said. “This slug is a decomposer. It’s important to stage four of the zombie life cycle.”
“Don’t you mean death cycle?” Shelly was in the doorway now. She had her trying-to-be-patient look.
“Okay, technically—” Leo began.
“Seriously, Leo. Sweetie.” Shelly cut him off. Leo hated when she acted like his mother just because she was in seventh grade and he was in sixth. “Don’t you think it’s time to lay off the zombie stuff just a bit? Leo, I’m worried about you.”
Gag. “I’m FINE.” Leo got up and shut the door behind his stepsister. He listened to her click-click down the stairs. Even her footsteps sounded in charge.
“I bet I’d like you better as a zombie,” Leo said under his breath. Then he shook his slug out of the bag. He carefully slid it into a jar with air holes and a rotting finger.
CHAPTER 2
ZOMBIE ALERT
“Roger?” Leo called softly into his open closet. He kicked a mound of dirty underwear to the side and waded through a pile of notebooks. “Roger?” He held out the jar in front of him. “Do you have a second?”
With a whoosh, the back of Leo’s closet slid open to reveal Roger’s smiling green face. “My dear boy, what do I have but an endless stream of seconds?” Roger was using his fake British accent again.
Leo smiled. “Roger, you’ve got to be the weirdest zombie on the planet.”
“Half-zombie,” Roger corrected him.
Of course. How could Leo forget? Roger was touchy about his zombie status. As Roger liked to explain, he had barely escaped the zombie attack that wiped out his town back in second grade. He was not bitten by the zombie who’d infected him—only licked.
After that came what Roger called the “unspeakable time.” His parents and both his brothers had been fully bitten. Leaving home was the only way Roger could protect his human side. He drifted from town to town for a while. But then Roger got lonely. He started joining Leo’s T-ball games at the Rotfield Rec Center. Back then, Leo didn’t know anything about zombies. But he noticed that Roger seemed even slower than a regular slow kid at T-ball. And a bit greener too.
Then Roger’s ear got blown off by the wind at third base. Leo was the only one who noticed. But he didn’t freak out. Instead, he brought Roger home and helped glue the ear back on. That day, Leo became a zombie scientist.