Colonel Briggs led them quickly through the central corridor of the upper level. The hallway walls gleamed and sparkled, and Zack was glad to finally be someplace germless and sterilized.
The colonel stopped before another futuristic-looking entrance and inserted his key. The high-tech stainless-steel doors separated, and Colonel Briggs ushered them single file into the air traffic control room.
A large flat-screen was mounted above a giant control board. The monitor displayed six different squares, recording various angles from security cameras around the base.
Behind the digital console and video display, a curved prism of slanted glass overlooked the military complex. Outside, two enormous spotlights panned across the zombie-filled landscape. The undead hordes marched like drones across the desert flatlands, limping and staggering toward the security fences around the base. Zombies climbed over zombies, clawing at the crisscrossed metal barrier.
“All right, listen up!” Colonel Briggs bellowed from the doorway. His voice sent a shiver up Zack’s spine. “This room is impenetrable. Do not even think about leaving without my say-so. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir!” they replied.
“And don’t touch anything,” Colonel Briggs said brusquely. He turned and walked out of the room. The double doors slid automatically closed, and the kids were alone. The control room was quiet. NotGreg picked his nose.
“Your dad’s mean,” Zoe said, breaking the silence.
“He’s just strict, that’s all.” Ozzie leaned over the console, peering at the security monitors.
Rice jumped into the seat behind the controls. “This place is sick! Just like in the movies.” He twirled in the whirly-chair.
Just then, something buzzed, and Zoe jumped straight up. Her hip pocket was vibrating. “Ooh, goody! Texts!” She pulled out her cell phone. “I forgot all about you,” she said, and gave it a kiss. “Excuse me, la-hoo-zers. I have to go be popular now.”
Whoop-whoop-whoop!
All of a sudden the room lights dimmed. Red warning sirens blared and flashed in the top corners of the room.
“Uh-oh,” Ozzie said. “That’s not good.”
“Wha-wha-what’s not good?” NotGreg bit his fist.
“That!” Ozzie pointed at the security monitors.
Zack and Rice peered over Ozzie’s shoulder, watching the display screens. A ferocious throng of zombified civilians piled up outside the barbed wire fences. Gray, flaking hands gripped the chain-link, shaking it violently. Eyeballs and fingertips littered the gravel.
“OMG, you guys!” Zoe called from the other side of the room. “Samantha Donovan ate Rachel Schwartz’s face off!”
“Nobody cares!” Zack snapped at his sister.
Zack turned his attention back to the surveillance screen. Colonel Briggs and Sergeant Patrick were down on the runway with Madison, waiting for the chopper. Ozzie tapped a couple of buttons on the keyboard. The image zoomed and enhanced. The colonel screamed orders into his walkie-talkie. Madison was wailing, trying to limp away. Sergeant Patrick snatched her with one arm and tossed her over his shoulder. She kicked the air and beat the sergeant’s back with her fists, yelling something at the top of her lungs.
Zack strained his eyes, trying to read her lips. It looked like she was saying…
“Twinkles!” Rice shouted, pointing at the other split screen. The security fence bent and toppled, and the tiny pup darted heedlessly into the desert through a treacherous gauntlet of shuffling feet and bouncing eyeballs.
The warning siren continued to flash and blare throughout the control room.
Zoe stepped behind the boys, scrolling through her in-box. “Jamie Dumpert has no eyeballs…Hah!” She let out a goofy guffaw, clicking through her zillionth text message. “O…M…G!”
“Zoe, I swear if you even say one more—”
“This one’s from Mom and Dad, turd breath!” Zoe cut Zack off.
“What? What does it say?” Zack asked.
“Oh, I see.” Zoe paused. “Now you’re interested in my popularness.”
“Zoe!”
His sister cleared her throat. “It says: ‘Dearest daughter, we love you so. We always will. It’s time for your brother to know the truth. Zack…is adopted.’”
“Shut up, Zoe,” Zack grumbled.
She clicked another button. “It’s a video text, dweeb-azoid….”
“When did they send it?” he asked.
“Half hour ago,” Zoe replied.
They’re still alive…, he thought.
The video took a few seconds to load. Zack watched over his sister’s shoulder as their parents’ grainy faces appeared on the tiny digital screen. They were huddled under a desk, half in shadow. The video message settled on a shaky handheld close-up of Mrs. Clarke’s face. Her voice was hushed and difficult to hear through the low-quality audio.
“…Is it going?…I don’t know…. Kids? We’re still at school…. We want you to know that we love you…and if we make it out of here, this will definitely be our last parent-teacher night.” A loud crash sounded in the background. “Did you hear that?…Shhhhh…”
The screen went black.
A feeling of dread expanded in the pit of Zack’s stomach. Were his mom and dad okay? There was only one way to find out….
But just then, a bright dazzle of light beamed down through the windows. “What is that?” Zoe asked as the spotlight passed overhead.
“It’s here!” Ozzie shouted. “The chopper!” They leaned over the console, watching the monitors.
The jet-black helicopter hovered above the zombie-laden runway. A rope ladder dropped into view, swaying a few feet over the center of the landing pad. Madison scanned the zombie-infested landscape for her lost puppy as she climbed shakily to the top rung, where two men in dark suits and sunglasses pulled her safely aboard. The chopper lifted into the black, star-spangled sky.
“Yay!” NotGreg shouted. He jumped onto one of the whirly-chairs, zooming around with his arms out, pretending to be an airplane. Zack watched as the rolling chair suddenly tipped backward, and NotGreg bashed his chin against the control board before landing on the floor with a thud.
Another loud buzzer sounded, and a woman’s calm, digitized voice came over the air force base’s alert system. “Three minutes until automatic lockdown. Repeat. Three minutes…”
“You moron!” Ozzie cussed, tapping frantically at the keyboard.
NotGreg’s head tilted to the side. His eyes shut and he conked out on the floor. Zack knelt down, trying to shake him awake.
“Ozzie,” Zack said. “Do that thing you did to me with the smelly salts.”
“Those were all I had….” He grimaced.
“Whoa!” Rice pointed at the security cams. On-screen, Sergeant Patrick and Colonel Briggs were still down on the airstrip. They were surrounded, trapped in a thick ring of converging zombies. The colonel and the sergeant fought bravely, throwing punches, side by side.
Ozzie gulped, his eyes widening.
Zack felt nauseous, thinking about his own mom and dad trapped in a school full of zombies.
Just then, the sputtering sound of gunfire muttered through the walls. “What was that?” Rice asked. They whipped their heads around and scanned the surveillance monitors.
A massive pack of zombie freaks stormed through the military complex, clogging up a four-way corridor. Private Michaels knelt in the intersection, scrambling to reload. He smacked in his last ammo cartridge, but the thick crowd of zombies mauled the private before he could get a shot off.
“Dang!” Ozzie swore. “They’re on our floor.”
“How’d they get up here so fast?” Zack asked, a slight panic in his voice.
“I don’t know,” Ozzie said. “But they’re here.”
Zack’s eyes wandered back to the display screen that showed the helipad. A dense swarm of mutated lunatics filled the monitor. No sign of the colonel or the sergeant.
“Two minutes until automatic lockdown,” the robot voice warned.
“You guys, we have to get out of here….” Zack replayed the video over again in his mind. “We’ve got to get back to Phoenix and save our parents.”
“What about NotGreg?” Zoe asked. “He’s too cute to get eaten.”
NotGreg sucked his thumb, knocked out on the cold, hard floor.
“He’ll be safe here. You heard what my dad said,” Ozzie told them.
“Then what are we waiting for?” Zack asked.
“But we do things my way. Got it?” shouted Ozzie.
“Got it!” Rice yelled.
“Got it,” Zack mumbled.
“Whatever you say, hotness.” Zoe smacked the automatic button on the wall, and the doors opened. “Let’s go!”
