Michael Ford - Z

Acting on instinct, Josh pulled the closet door shut as the first zombie staggered into the room. Now the closet was pitch black. Josh could hear himself breathing heavily as he thought frantically for some way out.

“I’m not dying in the dark,” Firecracker said, reaching up and pulling the frayed string attached to the lightbulb.

The light flickered on. A second later the floor fell away beneath them. Josh, Charlie, and Firecracker shouted in surprise as they plunged into darkness. Above them the light continued to burn but grew smaller and smaller as they fell.

A few seconds later, Josh landed with a thud on something soft. Charlie fell next to him, and Firecracker landed on top of them both. He rolled off with a grunt and sat up.

“Where are we?” he asked.

Josh looked around. They were on top of what seemed to be a pile of old mattresses—at least six or seven of them—in some kind of cellar. The mattress they were sitting on was stained, and it stank of mold and dirt. It sagged beneath their weight, and Josh had to roll to the left to get to the side and throw his legs over the side.

That’s when he saw the old ambulance. Large and white, it had a fat, round fender over each wheel and a long front end with circular glass headlamps that looked like eyes. A single red light stuck up from the roof. On the side door was painted a big red cross, and underneath that, in black, the words FEVERFEW ASYLUM.

Firecracker jumped down from the mattress and looked at the ambulance. “This thing must be at least a hundred years old,” he said.

Josh climbed down from the mattress pile and helped Charlie down as well. Once on the ground, Charlie eyed the ambulance doubtfully. “This is the big secret of room 237?” she said.

Firecracker, who had gone around to the other side of the ambulance, called out, “The keys are still in it!” Then the door beside Josh and Charlie opened. “Get in!” Firecracker ordered.

Josh looked at Charlie. “He’s got to be kidding.”

Before Charlie could answer, something fell onto the mattresses behind them. Josh turned and saw a zombie flailing around, trying to turn itself over. A second later another one fell from the hole in the ceiling, and then another.

Charlie looked at the ambulance, then at Josh. “I don’t think we have a choice.”

She and Josh climbed into the ambulance just as one of the zombies managed to roll off the mattresses. It lay on the floor for a moment, then moaned and got up. It turned its head toward the ambulance, where Josh was looking at it through the window.

“Can’t you get this thing started?” Josh asked as the z snarled and spat out strings of bloody drool.

Firecracker was turning the key in the ignition. The engine made choking sounds but didn’t start. More zombies had fallen to the floor, and now, attracted to the sound, they started congregating around the truck. There were half a dozen of them. They stared in the windows with milky yellow eyes, their faces only inches from the glass. Josh looked away.

“I don’t know what to do,” Firecracker said, his voice cracking. “This thing is ancient.”

“The clutch!” Charlie yelled. “Push in the clutch!”

Firecracker looked at her in bewilderment. “The what?”

Charlie pointed to one of the pedals near the floor. “You have to push that in and put the gears into neutral, otherwise you can’t start the engine.”

Firecracker pushed tentatively against one of the pedals with his foot. “This?” he said.

“Switch seats,” Charlie ordered, climbing over him.

Firecracker scooted next to Josh. “How do you know how to drive this thing?” he asked as Charlie fiddled with the pedals and pulled on the gearshift that rose up from the floor.

“My father has an old Mustang,” she said. “It was his father’s, and someday it will be mine. He taught me how to drive it when I was twelve.” She turned the key, and the engine sputtered. A zombie banged on the passenger-side window, which cracked.

“Go!” Josh said as the zombie hit the glass again. “Go, go, go, go, go!”

Charlie turned the key again. This time the engine rattled to life. The zombies began to bang on the ambulance, roaring angrily. The one outside Josh’s window hit the glass once more and it shattered, the pieces falling all over Josh’s lap. A rotting hand came through the opening, reaching for Josh’s hair. He smelled the stench of decomposing flesh.

Suddenly the ambulance leaped forward, knocking a z to the ground. There was a sickening crunch as the tires ran over it. Charlie pulled on the gearshift, and the ambulance shuddered. Something inside made a grinding sound. But a moment later they were moving ahead even more quickly.

“Where are we going?” Firecracker asked as Charlie drove down what seemed to be a long corridor cut through solid stone.

“The only way we can go,” said Charlie. “Unless you want to go back and ask for directions.”

Charlie turned something on the dashboard and the headlights came on, producing two thin beams of weak yellow light that barely cut through the darkness. They could see a little way ahead, but not far enough to see the two wide doors that barred the end of the corridor. By the time they loomed into view the ambulance was headed straight for them.

“Hang on!” Charlie yelled as she urged the car forward.

A second later they hit the door. Wood splintered, one of the headlights went out, and the ambulance shook, but it didn’t stop. Instead they found themselves emerging onto a road. Josh leaned out the window and looked behind them. On a bluff above them Feverfew loomed in the darkness.

“That must be how they took patients in without anyone seeing them,” he said, glancing at the mouth of the tunnel they had just exited. He shuddered as he thought about the possibility of the zombies getting out through it. We’ll get to the police before they can, he reassured himself. They’ll come block it up again.

Charlie steered the ambulance down the narrow, twisting road that led away from the hospital. Unused for decades, the road was falling apart. Pieces of it were gone, and in other places plants grew up from cracks in the pavement. As they bounced along over bumps and ruts, Josh prayed that the old ambulance would stay together.

“If I’m right, this road connects to the Upside Highway,” Charlie said. “We can take that to the police station at Citytop. That’s the closest one.”

“Are you kidding?” said Firecracker. “It will take forever to get through that traffic.”

Charlie scanned the dashboard, pushing and pulling on knobs. The windshield wipers went on, then off. The remaining headlight blinked out and came on again.

“What are you looking for?” Firecracker asked.

A shrieking sound pierced the night, and a red light lit up the dark around the ambulance. “That’s what I’m looking for,” Charlie said as the siren wailed.

As she had guessed, the road did lead onto the Upside Highway. And everyone did get out of the ambulance’s way. Now that they were away from Feverfew, and Clatter, and the zombies, Josh allowed himself to think about Scrawl. Was he okay? Had he trapped Clatter, Seamus, and Finnegan and gotten himself out? Josh hoped so. He’s a smart guy, he reminded himself. He’ll be fine.

He also thought about his family. He knew they were worrying about him. He couldn’t wait to call and let them know he was okay. Even more, he couldn’t wait to see them again. The first thing he was going to do was apologize to his parents for ever thinking the game was harmless fun. The second thing he was going to do was tell Emily what a great sister she was. He hadn’t allowed himself to think about it during the game, but now that it was all over he realized how close he’d come to never seeing them again.