The Zombie Next Door (4 page)

For a while, it looked like he was eating his own hand. Leo half expected to see an oozing stump when Mr. Smith yanked his arm out of his mouth. Instead, he held out his glistening, dripping fingers.

“AAaaaaaaaaargh,” he said, and the wet fingers clenched around Leo’s elbow. Leo shook his arm hard and slid out of Mr. Smith’s slobbery grip.

“He’s gone over!” Roger said.

“Run!” Chad yelled.

The boys took off across Mr. Smith’s yard, up the stairs to his porch, and into his house.

“Leave the door open,” Chad said, panting. “He’ll follow us. In the meantime, let’s find the basement door.”

But Leo already knew where it was. He could hear the sounds coming from the kitchen. “This way!” he called out.

The boys didn’t have to wonder if they were right. The basement door was creaking at the hinges. Zombies on the other side were pushing and scratching and pounding against it.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh.

But the moaning was the worst. The sound climbed inside Leo’s brain and erased any useful thoughts. It snaked inside his stomach and grabbed at his throat from the inside.

“How?” Chad said simply. Both Leo and Roger knew what he was asking. How on earth would they get Mr. Smith on the other side of that door without becoming zombies themselves?

By now, Roger had taken the violin out of Leo’s limp hand and was sawing back and forth with the bow. But as Mr. Smith had predicted, the squeaks didn’t do anything. They only added to the symphony of moans, scratches, and knocks.

Think!
Leo yelled inside his brain. Was there another way into the basement? Another safe place to lock up Mr. Smith? Leo thought of every zombie movie he’d ever seen. Could they trick the zombies? Beat them off?

CRAAAAAAASH!

It was too late. The basement door ripped off its hinges and slammed onto the floor. Standing on it were at least six green-faced zombies in bonnets and top hats. They were waving their arms and rocking on top of the door. Together, they looked like a mutant, rotting, surfer octopus dressed up for Pioneer History Day.

“Aaaaaaaaaah.” Slowly they came forward. Arms outstretched. Sliding a little on the blood that oozed from the gashes in their arms and legs.

One kid zombie in a bonnet tripped on the torn pieces of her long dress. She crashed facedown on the floor.

“Hnnnnnnnnn.” She crawled forward, lifting one arm at a time. She came at Chad like a crocodile in puffy sleeves.

“Run!” Leo said. He spun around blindly and charged for the kitchen door, but it was blocked. Mr. Smith had caught up with them. Leo’s face smooshed against Mr. Smith’s bloody sweater. Leo twisted to find another escape when he realized Mr. Smith was holding him under the armpits. The old man’s bloody, slobbery hands held Leo on either side as if he were a giant sandwich.

“Uuuuuuuuungh,” Mr. Smith moaned.

Leo felt his feet lifting off the ground. His eyes were level with Mr. Smith’s blood-smeared chest. Then the folds of Mr. Smith’s glistening neck swayed an inch from Leo’s nose. Soon Leo was staring at the old man’s dripping yellow teeth getting bigger and bigger. Leo closed his eyes.

AHHHHHHH-EEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-ooooooooooooo!

Leo was dropped back onto his feet all at once.
Chad,
he realized.
Not a zombie.
That was Chad’s scream. Chad’s most frightened, high-pitched scream. Squeakier than even Mr. Smith’s worst violin playing.

Leo listened for a second. Silence. He looked up. Mr. Smith was watching a fly going in circles over Roger’s head. The zombies in top hats and bonnets were standing in place, as if the whole thing had just been a game of zombie freeze tag. Chad looked smug. He was already dreaming up a design for a “Zombie Whisperer” T-shirt.

Leo didn’t have much time to be impressed before a new zombie stepped slowly into the kitchen. She was wearing a clean pair of jeans and a soft pink sweater. Her brown hair was brushed back into a neat bun, and her glazed zombie eyes were hidden behind a pair of giant purple glasses.

“Mrs. Smith!” Leo said.

Mrs. Smith smiled slightly at nothing as she held both arms in front of her. She slowly made her way around the other zombies.

“NNNNNnnnnnn.” Her moan sounded a bit like a cat’s purr. She stopped when she got to Mr. Smith. Gurgling slightly, she rested her head against his bloody arm.

Still staring at the fly by Roger’s head, Mr. Smith wrapped his arm around his wife’s waist. “NNNNNnnnnnn,” he said.

Chad was the one who thought of it first: the monument. It was the only piece of Mr. Smith’s yard they had left to clean up from the vandals.

Roger and Leo grabbed brushes and scrubbed “DIE, ZOMBIE” off the plaque that very night. Meanwhile, Chad stayed in the kitchen just in case he’d have to scream again.

With the monument fixed, the zombies seemed much less mad. It was easy to lead them back to their graves. Chad squealed, and they followed. They burrowed into the soft ground like happy green gophers. Zombie hands pushed out of Mr. Smith’s yard like rotten flowers. The undead members of the Adams party smoothed the dirt over their graves and settled in for a long, long sleep.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith solved a question that Leo and Roger had often thought about. It turned out that yes, zombies could have feelings. The Smiths were definitely happy together in their house. In fact, they spent the next eleven days hugging in that very same spot in the kitchen doorway. Then Mr. Smith moved into the cozy zombie home he’d created for his wife so many years ago.

Every night, Roger would come and check on them. He liked having a safe place to go outside of the secret lab. Roger learned to play Mr. Smith’s violin. He discovered some pieces with just the right kinds of squeaky sounds to keep all the zombies happy.

As for Leo, he was a lot more careful about what he posted on his Web site. Plus, he just didn’t post as much. He didn’t have as much free time as he used to. It was up to him and Chad to keep up the Smiths’ farm.

“You boys amaze me,” Leo’s mother told them. “Helping out that kind old man. He is so lucky to have you.”

Was that really true? He guessed so. Leo thought of everything that had happened since he posted that ill-fated Z-News update. Life was so weird. Now Leo’s next-door neighbor really
was
a zombie.
Cool.

About This Electronic Book:
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Higgins, Nadia.
The zombie next door / Nadia Higgins.
p. cm. — (Zombie Zappers ; bk. 3)
Summary: “What if your next-door neighbor were a zombie? The Zombie Zappers return to find out exactly why Leo’s neighbor is acting so strange in this suspenseful book. Leo learns a valuable lesson in the process”— Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-1-62285-010-5
[1. Zombies—Fiction. 2. Neighbors—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.H5349558Zon 2013
[Fic]—dc23
2012028664

Future Editions:
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-62285-011-2
EPUB ISBN: 978-1-62285-013-6
Single-User PDF ISBN: 978-1-62285-014-3
Multi-User PDF ISBN: 978-1-62285-145-4

This is the EPUB version 1.0.

Cover Illustration:
Daryll Collins

Come to
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for more information!

Zombie Camp
Zombie Zappers Book 1

Get to know Zombie Zappers Leo, Chad, and the rest of the gang as they try to solve the mystery of the Smellerd zombies at summer camp. What nightmarish surprise will they find waiting for them at Lake Moan?

ISBN: 978-1-62285-003-7

Zombie Field Day
Zombie Zappers Book 2

Join the Zombie Zappers back at school for the next round of zombie mayhem. When Rotfield Middle School students start turning into zombies, Leo and his friends are the only ones who might be able to save them. Can they discover the cause of this outbreak before it’s too late?

ISBN: 978-1-62285-005-1

The Zombie Next Door
Zombie Zappers Book 3

What if your next-door neighbor were a zombie? The Zombie Zappers return to find out exactly why Leo’s neighbor is acting so strange in this suspenseful book. Leo learns a valuable lesson in the process.