Olivia’s house was at the end of a long gravel driveway flanked by tall maple and pine trees. The house itself was the kind that might appear in a magazine. It was white with black shutters and had a porch that wrapped around the front corner. On one side of the house, a rounded castlelike tower rose up three stories with a weathervane spinning at the point of the cone-shaped roof.

Zack, Rice, Ozzie, Zoe, and Twinkles walked up to the front door. Zombie Madison lumbered behind them wriggling and grunting in her makeshift straightjacket. Zack rang the doorbell.

“The lights are all off,” Zoe said, peering through the windows.

Rice reached down and picked up a pile of mail that had been stacked on the doorstep. “Some of this is from last week.”

“Maybe they’re out of town or something,” said Zoe.

Zack rang the doorbell three more times. “Well, then we have to get inside and see if we can find something that tells us where they are.”

“How do you propose we do that?” Rice replied. “The door’s locked.”

“Why don’t we just break in?” Zoe asked.

“We can’t break into their house, Zoe,” said Zack.

“Listen, little bro, this is a matter of life or zombification!” she argued. “Look at my best friend, will you!”

Zombie Madison sputtered another snot bubble through the backward hoodie and staggered toward them groaning with pure animal hunger. “Blarglesh glarglesh smargle,” she babbled, falling toward Zack, who quickly stepped out of the way and watched his zombie friend tumble headfirst into a rosebush. Zack bent to help her out of the thorns, and as he pulled her to her feet, she kicked a large rock right at his shin and growled.

“Ouch!” Zack complained, rubbing his shinbone. “Can someone get her away from me?” Zack rubbed his leg again while Rice and Ozzie gained control of zombie Madison. Zack rose to his feet and lifted the rock that Madison had kicked at him, turning it over in his hand. There was something strange about it. The rock wasn’t actually made of rock at all. It was some kind of thick painted plastic and had a latch on the bottom. Zack pulled it open. “Bingo,” he said, looking at the house key inside the rock. Grabbing the dusty house key, Zack stepped back onto the porch and unlocked the door.

WHOOP—WHOOP-WHOOP!

The home alarm system blared throughout the house as they all stepped inside. Zack plugged his ears with both fingers as Ozzie started to give instructions. “Everybody spread out and look for clues. We need to find out where they are as quickly as possible. Every second counts.”

Zoe tied zombie Madison with Twinkles’s old leash to the banister at the bottom of the staircase then jogged up the steps while Rice and Ozzie moved through the living room.

Zack hustled into the kitchen and spotted a handwritten note on the table. It was a letter to the housekeeper from Madison’s aunt with details about their vacation at Bunco’s Fun World, Amusement Park and Resort.

“Rice, Ozzie, come check this out!” Zack shouted.

Silence cut through the house as the alarm shut off on its own.

“What’s up, Zack?” Ozzie said, now entering the kitchen.

“It looks like we’re going on vacation, Oz!” he said, showing him the note. “They’re at Bunco’s Fun World!”

Just then a set of thunderous footsteps sounded through the house, and Rice came whirling around the corner into the kitchen doorway.

“Did you just say Bunco’s Fun World?” Rice asked with hopeful exuberance.

Zack nodded with a smile. It was a well-known fact that Bunco’s Fun World was one of Rice’s top three places he wanted to visit in the world.

“Oh, man, this is ridiculous.” Rice did a little happy dance. “This is awesome. No, wait. This is ridiculously awesome!”

“What’s Bunco’s Fun World?” Ozzie asked.

Rice glared at his friend and raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “Are you serious? Do you live on another planet or something? Bunco’s Fun World is like the greatest—”

“Bunco’s Fun World?” said Zoe, coming into the kitchen, too. “Isn’t that in Florida? How the heck are we supposed to get to Florida?”

All of a sudden an emergency siren wailed from down the street. Zack felt a knot form in his stomach when he saw a Canadian police car speed up the gravel driveway and come to a stop outside.

“Yo, guys!” Rice said, looking out the front window. “We gotta make moves. It’s the fuzz!”

“Uh-oh,” Zack said. “What about Madison?”

“Quick,” said Rice as he untied zombie Madison from the banister. “We gotta hide her, or they’ll take her for sure.”

“Over here!” Ozzie shouted, opening a closet off the kitchen pantry.

Zack sprang into action and hoisted her up by the underarms. Rice grabbed her behind the knees, and they lugged her into the closet.

“Now, stay in there and be quiet,” Ozzie said to Madison, and closed the closet door.

“Grumph!” zombie Madison grunted in response.

“What do we do now?” Rice asked as the doorbell rang. Zombie Madison thrashed and banged ferociously inside the closet.

“Police!” shouted two voices from outside. “Open up!” The cops began to bang on the front door.

“Hold your horses!” Zoe shouted at the top of her lungs.

Zack elbowed his sister in the side and looked at her bug-eyed.

“What?” She shrugged. “I don’t care who you are. It’s rude to knock more than once.”

The four of them rushed to the front door, and Ozzie unlocked the dead bolt with a click and opened up. A thirty-something-year-old man in a Canadian police uniform stood on the porch next to his partner, a fortyish-looking woman wearing an identical police outfit. They both flashed their shiny silver badges and stayed outside, looking in at the kids through the outer screen door.

The female police officer spoke up first. “You kids live here?”

“Uhhh . . . uhh . . .” the whole group stuttered.

“Are your parents around?” the male police officer asked, glancing suspiciously inside the house.

“Umm,” Rice started to say. “That’s kind of a tricky question.”

“This is our friend’s aunt’s house,” Zack chimed in. “We’re, uhh, visiting. . . .”

Just then a glimmer of recognition flashed in the woman’s eyes, and she punched her partner in the shoulder. “Hey,” she said with what seemed like a hint of awe and recognition in her voice. “You know who these little rascals are?”

“No,” he said, glaring at them. “Not ringing any bells.”

“Oh, come on,” she said. “These are those little whippersnappers who fought off all the zombies.”

“Well, I’ll be—” He squinted at Zack and Rice and Zoe and Ozzie, then Twinkles. “You’re right! They’ve even got the little dog with them, too.”

“Twinkie!” the female officer said in a high-pitched voice and crouched to dog level. “Come here, girl.”

“Actually it’s Twinkles,” Rice corrected. “And, uh, it’s a he not a she.”

Zack rolled his eyes and sighed.

“Blarghity-blarghle-glargh!” A loud zombie noise resounded from inside.

“What the heck was that?” The male officer asked, stepping past the kids and into the house.

“Uhhh,” Zack uttered, turning around, too. They followed the police to the kitchen and stopped behind them in front of the doorway.

Zombie Madison had broken out of the closet and was now Weeble-wobbling her way across the kitchen, still snarling through the gray fabric of her backward hoodie straightjacket.

Zombie Madison shook her head violently, and the hood of the sweatshirt came undone to reveal her hideous, undead face. Her eyes were rolled back into her head, blank bloodshot orbs twitching in their socket holes, and her once-beautiful skin was beginning to chap and prune.

“Is that?” The female cop asked in stunned disbelief. “But it can’t be . . .”

“Madison Miller,” said Zoe, shaking her head. “I know, she used to be way prettier.”

“Wait a sec,” the guy cop said. “I thought she was the one who couldn’t turn into a zombie.”

“She used to not be able to,” Rice chimed in. “But now . . . I mean, just look at her.”

“Look, officers, we’re in big trouble,” Zack said. “We came all this way to find Madison’s cousin Olivia Jenkins, who we think could help us make a new antidote.”

“This is her house?” said the policewoman.

“Yeah,” Ozzie said. “But they’re on vacation in Florida.”

“So you guys need a ride, then.”

“You can drive us to Florida?”

“No, better,” the policewoman said. “We can get you a plane.”

“You can do that?” Zack asked.

“I got a cousin in the Air Force who flies fighter jets,” said the male officer. “He’s a piece of work, but he owes me one. Let’s go.”

They all squeezed into the back of the police car and Twinkles sat on Zack’s lap. Even though Madison was snarling psychotically in the trunk, Zack started to feel as though the tables were finally turning in their favor.

The policewoman hit the sirens and stepped on the gas.

“How far away is the base?” Zack asked as they cruised through the Canadian suburbs.

“Not too far from here, eh?” said the policewoman. “We’ll get you all where you need to go. I’m Gladice, by the way. And this guy here is Andy.”

“I’m Zack. Zack Clarke.”

“I know,” Gladice said. “You’re famous, remember?”