Chris Grabenstein - The Smoky Corridor

89

“Don’t befooled by this body,” Pettimore said to his slave. “It is I!”

“Yes, master.”

Pettimore’s neck felt stiff. This child’s body didn’t fit a soul of his size. No matter. In time, it would. The girl would grow. She’d eat all the richest foods in the world, because she would soon be the richest woman on earth!

Still, the captain missed a few of his ghostly abilities.

He could no longer flash into and out of portraits, see whatever he felt like seeing whenever he felt like seeing it. He couldn’t keep his eyes on all those who would rob him of his treasure.

Again, no matter.

McNulty could do it for him.

“Slave, you are hereby granted permission to, for this day only, ignore the talisman at the top of this staircase. You may enter the long tunnel!”

The zombie drooled, sensing that it was feeding time.

“Stay within all the other boundaries I have marked for you, but slay anyone you see sliding down the chute from the root cellar! Slay them and gorge yourself on their brains!”

90

“Hurry!” saidMalik. “I saw Azalea! Something’s wrong with her … and … and … I really think there is some kind of zombie down here!”

Zack heard toenails clicking against wood.

Zipper started grumbling.

Zack felt hot breath on the back of his neck.

He swallowed hard.

Malik was trembling too much to raise his flashlight.

“Is somebody behind me, Malik?”

Malik nodded.

Zack heard another growl.

Deep. Rumbling. Full of phlegm.

It wasn’t Zipper.

Slowly, very slowly, he turned around to see who or what was breathing down his neck.

91

“Hurry!” DaphneDuBois screamed at her brother as they rushed into the school building. “We need to find Zack. He’s trying to steal the gold!”

“Look,” said Eddie. “On the floor. Paw prints.”

“That means Jennings and his dog came in here.” Her tone brightened. “Follow the tracks! Foolish boy! He doesn’t have much of a head start.”

They headed up the hall, eyes glued to the paw prints dotting the floor.

“And, Edward? When we find young Zachary Jennings, will you kindly put one of your bullets in his brain?”

“Why, it would be my pleasure, Daphne. My absolute pleasure.”

92

Zack hadnever seen anything so gruesomely hideous!

Pettimore’s zombie stood nearly seven feet tall and had splotches of scraggly matted hair poking out around vein-riddled islands of scalp. His face was a skull wrapped in drum-tight skin. His fang-toothed smile cut across his cheekbones and crept up toward his ears.

But the worst parts were the bulging eyes. The dead and empty eyes popping out of their sockets.

Zack stepped backward.

“Stay back, Zip,” he said without taking his eyes off the blank eyes staring at him.

Drool dribbled out between the thing’s teeth. A drop splattered on the floor. Zack thought he heard it sizzle when it hit. Like battery acid.

The zombie was dressed in a tattered blue uniform—mostly shreds and threads. Zack could see his rippling leg muscles, the curling claws at the tips of gangly fingers and toes.

The jaw creaked open and Zack smelled sewer gas.

“You are trespassing,” the thing said, his voice deep and rumbling.

“No … I just came … to get my friend.…”

“You came to rob my master’s gold.”

“No, like I said—”

The crouching thing hopped forward.

Zack leapt back.

Suddenly, from the far end of the tunnel, all the way back at the entrance, he heard a thud.

The zombie heard it, too. Hesitated.

“Jennings?”

Snertz .

The zombie perked up his ears.

“Where are you? I’m gonna kill you so bad.…”

One hundred yards away, a flashlight swirled around.

Phlegm rumbled in the zombie’s massive chest. “Slay anyone I see sliding down the chute,” the thing muttered. “Slay them and gorge on brains!”

In a blur of blue, the zombie started running up the tunnel, back toward the root cellar.

93

Kurt Snertzhad to rethink how much he really wanted to kill Zack Jennings.

Because some kind of giant rat-dog with two glowing red eyeballs was galloping up the long, narrow tunnel toward him.

He looked at the hole in the wall he had just tumbled through.

There was something strange burned into the wood above the hole, a black tattoo he hadn’t seen when he’d slid out:

Snertz had no idea what it meant.

He didn’t have time to care.

He just knew he had to scramble back up to the hole as fast as he could, because the thing with the laser-pointer eyes was only fifty yards away!

94

“That’s thezombie!” said Malik.

“Come on, we need to get out of here.” Zack swung the flashlight back and forth. Twenty feet away on either side of the watch wall was the top of a staircase. “Zipper? Keep an eye up the tunnel while we figure which way to go.”

Zipper hunkered down on all fours in his preferred prepare-to-pounce position.

“If that thing comes back …”

“I already figured it out,” said Malik. “The pocket watches on the wall are another code!”

“Numbers for letters?”

Malik shook his head. “Semaphore flags!”

“Huh?”

“A system for sending messages by placing your arms, two flags, or, in this case, two clock hands in certain positions! They use it on ships all the time—to communicate with other ships.”

“Stand watch like a sailor should and your prospects shall be very good!” said Zack, remembering the last line from the stone.

“Exactly.”

“Malik, tell me you already translated this thing.”

“Yes. It took me longer than anticipated, however.…”

“Which staircase?”

“The one on the left!”

Zack whistled; Zipper sprang up.

“Let’s go!”

They raced down the steps, which were quite steep.

“Would you like to know how I figured it out?”

“Sure. Once we get away from that thing.”

“I don’t think the zombie is allowed to come down these steps.”

“Really?”

“So the coded message would seem to say.”

Breathing hard, after clomping down thirty-nine steps, they reached a landing.

“Okay,” said Zack. “Tell me what you figured out.”

“I propose,” said Malik between gasps for oxygen, “that, whenever we’re presented with a choice, we always head left.”

“Really?”

Malik nodded. “Heading left will keep us zombie free.”

Malik started making gestures, placing his left arm in the six o’clock position, his right at seven. “A.” He raised his right arm to nine o’clock, so it was pointing straight out. “B.” He nudged the right arm up and was about to say, “C,” when Zack interrupted him.

“Um, maybe you could teach me the whole alphabet later?”

“Ah. Of course. The message on the wall says …”

“The new me?” said Zack. “That could be Azalea!”

“Huh?”

“Captain Pettimore’s soul somehow got inside Azalea’s body!”

“Well, Zack, we need to get it out!”

95

Kurt Snertzwas clawing and clambering his way back up the chute.