Zombies in the House Read online

  ‘Silly boy,’ hissed Adonis. ‘It’s his blood I want, not him.’

  ‘But you’ve got blood in that machine already,’ yelled Inchy. ‘It’s what you’re using to control the zombies, isn’t it? Why do you need more?’

  ‘That’s old blood,’ said Adonis. ‘And I need it young and fresh. The final ingredient that will make my control of the zombies permanent.’

  Inchy went pale. ‘But you can’t! It’s… it’s –’

  ‘Wrong? Evil? Slightly naughty?’ Adonis sneered, his gold teeth glinting. ‘Well, yes, it is, Inchy. But there’s not much you can do about it really, is there?’

  The twisted DJ snapped out his hand, releasing a bolt of sizzling power. Inchy hurled himself to the left. As he rolled aside, just escaping the lightning, his broken leg shot a wave of agony into his brain.

  ‘Such a shame about your leg,’ gloated Adonis. ‘If you didn’t have that cast, you might have been able to save your little friend. But as it is…’

  Reaching out a long arm, Adonis picked Jim up with one hand. ‘I’m sorry I can’t give you longer to say goodbye,’ he giggled madly, ‘but when I’m finished with little Jimmy here, I think I might just have time to impale you on that crutch of yours. How delicious!’

  With a final insane cackle, Adonis lifted Jim high into the air over the control desk and raised his other hand, blue lightning crackling around his fingertips.

  But Inchy’s mind was faster. As soon as Adonis had mentioned his cast and his crutch, Inchy knew what to do. As the necromancer raised his hand, Inchy sprang forward, grabbing the crutch and using it to propel him into the air like someone doing a pole vault.

  Higher and higher he flew, until he was almost face‐to‐face with Adonis. Then, twisting his body in mid‐air, Inchy kicked out with all his strength. His plastered leg crashed into the side of Adonis’s head with a thwack that sounded like a whale being dropped from a helicopter on to a tennis court.

  With a scream, the stunned DJ dropped Jim to the floor and staggered backwards, clutching his face. Inchy thumped to the ground next to Jim, winded.

  ‘Enough playing!’ screeched Adonis. ‘It is time for you all to die.’

  He clapped his hands sharply and, in a ripple of blue lightning, his body crackled, shimmered and disappeared. A second later, Inchy saw House stagger backwards as the studio door exploded. In the corridor beyond, Adonis reappeared at the head of his zombie army.

  ‘Feast upon them!’ he screamed, his nose squashed into a very odd shape from Inchy’s kick. ‘Tear them apart and feed!’

  Stumbling and gnashing their teeth, the zombies lurched forward.

  ‘We’re done for!’ yelled Spit. ‘We’re trapped!’

  ‘Get that door open, Alex!’ bellowed Cherry.

  CLICK!

  ‘Yes!’

  To everyone’s surprise, the lock opened and Alex fell into the inner studio.

  ‘You lot – in here now!’ called Inchy as Spit, Cherry and House bolted inside. House slammed the door behind them and pinned himself to it, a huge, immovable wedge. Like a tidal wave, the zombies flooded into the outer room. Soon a sea of rotting faces was squashed up against the glass, staring in at them.

  ‘I’m not sure how long I can hold this,’ groaned House, trying to ignore the leering zombies only millimetres away.

  ‘Inchy!’ called Alex, looking at the control desk. ‘See if any of those buttons can break the link between Adonis and the zombies. We need to shut this down!’

  Hobbling painfully, Inchy crossed to the desk, flicking and pushing every switch he could see. ‘It’s not working!’ he yelled. ‘It’s not working!’

  ‘I’m losing it!’ shouted House. ‘I can’t hold on!’

  Suddenly, inspiration struck Spit. If the zombies were all tuned in to the radio, then maybe they could use that against them!

  Pushing past Inchy, he seized something from the control desk. ‘Cherry!’ he shouted. ‘Here!’

  Cherry turned to find a microphone thrust in front of her. ‘This isn’t really the time for karaoke, Spit,’ she fumed.

  ‘It’s just the time,’ said Spit. ‘Now sing!’

  ‘But –’ protested Cherry.

  ‘Sing!’

  With a shrug, Cherry opened her mouth and shattered the air with a note so wrong, so twisted and broken, that it cut through the wall of zombie noise like the shriek of nails down a blackboard. Outside, the zombies hesitated.

  ‘What are you doing?’ shouted Alex.

  ‘Seeing just how destructive Cherry’s singing really is!’ Spit yelled back. ‘But we need more volume! Crank it up to ten!’

  Inchy reached across and turned everything up full. Cherry took a deep breath and let out such a screeching chorus that Spit thought his brain would melt. Inside the studio, a light bulb and two glasses of water exploded.

  ‘They’re backing off!’ called House.

  ‘Keep going, Cherry!’ encouraged Spit. ‘Your voice is driving them back!’

  ‘You saying I can’t sing?’ snapped Cherry angrily.

  ‘Don’t stop or we’re all dead, got it?’ Spit replied.

  ‘But –’

  ‘SING!’

  ‘Fine!’ yelled Cherry. ‘I will!’

  Cherry’s next note was like the sound of a thousand cats being slowly strangled. The studio window cracked. The walls shook. Alex and Inchy fell to the floor, hands wrapped round their heads, trying to shut out the din. House stared as the glass door he’d been holding disintegrated.

  Through the doorway, he saw the zombies staggering and falling over each other, all desperately trying to cover their ears. And then, with a series of gunshot‐loud cracks, their heads exploded.

  Silence.

  For the next few seconds, bits of zombie fell like rain, covering the floor in a corpse carpet. Then, with a sound like water draining down a plughole, the bodies started to crumble and dissolve, until all that was left was dust. Then that vanished too. A moment later, nothing was left of the zombies at all.

  15

  Discharged

  ‘Well, that I wasn’t expecting,’ said House, staring around incredulously.

  ‘How’s Jim, Inchy?’ asked Alex, looking over to where the smaller angel was supporting the boy.

  ‘He’s still unconscious, but I think he’s going to be OK. Hopefully he won’t remember anything.’

  Cherry gazed at their surroundings in a daze. Daylight could be seen through a wide crack in one of the walls, and a large section of the ceiling had collapsed. ‘Did my voice do all that?’

  Alex nodded. ‘I’m afraid so. You’ve got a unique voice, Cherry. I don’t think you’ll be winning any talent shows, but it certainly came in handy today!’

  ‘Erm, I hate to rain on your parade, guys,’ interrupted Spit, ‘but where’s Adonis? Cherry’s singing destroyed the zombies because they were connected up to the radio transmitter, but Adonis wasn’t. He might still be out there!’

  Alex slapped a hand to his forehead. ‘You’re right! We’ve got to get after him!’

  At that moment, Mr Kowalski’s head popped round the door. ‘No need, no need. Ve heff everything under control, see?’

  Out in the corridor stood Adonis, bound head to toe with bandages and plaster‐tape, and surrounded by a group of very awake and very angry patients. Lily was standing guard, furiously knitting a pair of handcuffs.

  ‘Ven I had finished off ze zombies in ze kitchen, I came looking for you,’ said Mr Kowalski. ‘Zen I found Lily fighting off some other zombies in my old ward, so I joined ze struggle. Ve had almost lost, but zen ze zombies suddenly start exploding! Zen ve ran up to ze studio and here is Adonis trying to get avay! So ve grabbed him!’

  Adonis looked across to the gang, eyes dark with hatred. ‘Don’t think this is finished, children. You’ve won a battle, that’s all. But this is a war, you understand? A war. And my master will wreak revenge on you, the like of which you could never imagine in your worst nightmares.’


  ‘Come on, you,’ snapped Mr Kowalski. ‘Ze police are waiting to ask you a few questions.’ And with that, he hauled Adonis away.

  ‘He doesn’t look happy, does he?’ chuckled House.

  ‘No,’ agreed Spit. ‘But then I’m guessing that his plans for taking over the world with an army of zombies didn’t include the bit about him getting arrested.’

  The gang were standing outside the hospital watching a bedraggled Adonis being led away by some very confused policemen. Everywhere was chaos. Fire engines were spraying water into the third floor, trying to put out the small fires started by Adonis’s lightning. In the car park, doctors and nurses milled about, trying to help the confused patients.

  Adonis pushed and pulled against the police and managed to turn to face the gang. ‘You meddling kids!’ he yelled, foaming at the mouth with fury. ‘You’ll regret what you’ve done here! When my master –’

  His voice was cut off as a particularly large and tough‐looking policeman bundled him into the back of a police car.

  ‘There it is again,’ muttered Alex quietly.

  ‘There what is?’ replied Cherry.

  ‘Well, first we have to deal with Dante the demon, then it’s Adonis the necromancer. And we heard both of them talking to someone they called “master”. And what about the other fun stuff like Dante’s imps and the zombies! There’s definitely something majorly demonic going on in this town.’

  ‘But why would demons want to come to a quiet little town in the middle of nowhere?’ asked House.

  ‘Perhaps because it seems so unlikely,’ suggested Inchy. ‘Green Hill is the last place on Earth you’d expect to find agents of the Other Side – so that’s precisely why they’ve come here. To get the element of surprise.’

  ‘But what are they doing here?’ mused Alex.

  Before any of them had a chance to respond, a figure appeared at their side, quivering with rage.

  ‘Tabbris!’ said Alex. ‘Er, hi. How are you?’

  ‘How am I?’ Tabbris snapped. ‘I am fine. Which is more than can be said for these poor people whose hospital you have almost single‐handedly destroyed!’

  Everyone stared hard at the ground.

  ‘So what exactly has been going on?’ Tabbris continued.

  ‘Well,’ said House, wondering where to begin, ‘it all sort of just kicked off –’

  “Kicked off”?’ interrupted Tabbris. ‘Kicked off! Was this something to do with football again?’

  ‘No,’ replied Alex hotly. ‘It was to do with Aubrey Adonis – he’s a necromancer!’

  Tabbris’s eyes bulged. ‘What rot. I’ve spoken to the policeman in charge and he says that five children – you – have apparently caused some sort of explosion in the hospital radio studio. He didn’t mention anything about the Other Side.’

  ‘He was building an army of zombies!’ shouted Alex.

  ‘Don’t raise your voice to a superior officer,’ growled Tabbris. ‘That’s insubordination! So where is this army of zombies, then? Hmm?’

  Alex’s heart sank. ‘Cherry made them explode with her singing,’ he mumbled. ‘Then they, um, sort of vanished.’

  Tabbris’s scowl deepened. ‘“Sort of vanished”?’ he repeated scornfully. ‘How very convenient.’

  ‘But you can ask anyone –’

  ‘Enough!’ shouted Tabbris. ‘I have no intention of talking to any of these humans. They’re already suspicious of us. And you’re in enough trouble as it is, without making up fantastical lies about exploding zombies. I might have known your recent behaviour was too good to be true. Well, you can forget about playing in that silly football tournament for a start. I’m certainly going to have a long discussion about all this with Gabriel. Now, let’s get out of here before we attract any more attention.’

  The gang groaned and fell in behind Tabbris as he turned to leave.

  ‘Inchy!’

  Jim was approaching them, accompanied by Lily and Mr Kowalski.

  ‘Mr Kowalski says you saved my life,’ said Jim, shaking Inchy’s hand. ‘I don’t remember much, but I wanted to say thank you.’

  Lily smiled absently and handed Inchy a brown paper bag. ‘And I thought you might like these,’ she said. ‘Something to remember me by.’

  ‘Thanks,’ said Inchy, pulling out a knitted bunch of grapes.

  ‘They’re better than the ones you got from House, at least,’ smirked Spit.

  Finally, Mr Kowalski stepped forward and saluted smartly. ‘It has been an honour to do battle alongside you,’ he said. Then he turned to Tabbris. ‘You must be very proud of your grandchildren, yes?’

  Tabbris’s eyebrows shot skywards. He looked as if he was choking on a boiled sweet. ‘Grandchildren? These young insubordinates are no relation to me, sir,’ he barked. ‘No relation at all.’

  ‘They’re angels,’ beamed Lily. ‘Wonderful, brave little angels.’

  ‘If only she knew,’ murmured Spit to Alex, who grinned in return.

  As Tabbris turned away, though, the gang were surprised to see Lily’s dotty expression vanish. Catching their eyes, she winked knowingly.

  ‘Good luck, little angels,’ she whispered. ‘You’re going to need it…’

  * One of these things might not be entirely true.