CHAPTER SEVEN

Book Beast

In the choir loft, Jordan threw another book at a zombie. The zombie stared up toward the roof. Jordan followed the creature’s gaze and glanced upward. “Who’s that?” she cried.

A small boy dangled on a thin rope high in the air above them.

Mary Shelley squinted at the hanging figure, shielding the rain from her eyes with her hand. “It’s your friend,” she said.

High above, Baru didn’t look down. There were too many things that could go wrong. The rope could come loose. The keys could lose their charge. Lightning could strike him at any moment. Swinging back and forth might make him throw up. The zombie monks could eat the authors’ notebooks—or worse, his friends.

Baru held the crackling keys away from his body as Ben Franklin lowered him down to the choir loft. When his shoes touched the wet floor, he was relieved. Carefully Baru moved both tongs to one hand and loosened the knot. The rope dropped from around his waist. With a smile, he glanced skyward and gave Ben Franklin a thumbs-up.

Confused, Ben returned the gesture.

Time to move, Baru thought, racing through the maze of rickety shelves. He splashed through puddles and slipped past wandering zombies until he found the book monster. The others were nowhere to be seen, but he was thankful that someone had pounded a large nail into each side of the creature’s neck.

“Nice neck bolts,” Baru whispered. “Let’s hope this works!”

As he stood above the head of Mary’s creation, a footstep shuffled behind him. Without a moment to spare, he used the tongs to touch the keys to the makeshift neck bolts.

There was a muffled hum as the electricity jumped from the keys into the book monster’s body. Immediately, the creature stirred. The covers of the dictionary head opened and shut.

“It’s alive!” Mary shouted from atop a nearby shelf. “It’s alive!”

The other two authors cheered as the creature sat up. It clambered off of the table just as a couple of zombies drew near.

“Get those guys!” Baru shouted.

The book monster wobbled on shaky legs and walked headfirst into a bookshelf, nearly knocking it over.

Oh, perfect! Baru thought. Our fighter is blind!

The first zombie lumbered over to the creature and sank its yellowed teeth into the book beast’s leg.

Baru climbed up onto the table and leapt onto the book beast’s back. He had dropped the keys but still held the tongs. He used them—one in each hand—to grasp the neck bolts.

“C’mon, Booky!” Baru cried. “We have to fight them off!”

With a twist, Baru turned the monster around so that it could face the monkish foes. Tightening the tongs’ grips on the bolts made the monster’s arms quiver with energy. One arm flailed out in a powerful punch. With the force of a semi truck, Booky knocked one of the zombies to pieces. The other was launched over a shelf and out of sight.

“Yes!” Jordan shouted from a nearby shelf. “Knock out!”

“Put these library invaders out of circulation!” cried Kelly.

Baru steered Booky toward the approaching mass of zombies. With Baru’s help, the creature punched and swung its heavy arms. The menacing zombie monks fell, one by one. One of them was launched into the bookshelf that Cal sat atop. As the shelf teetered, Cal leapt to another. The heavy bookcase behind him fell, flattening the zombie beneath its weight.

“Guess that zombie just couldn’t help its-shelf,” Kelly joked from her perch atop another bookshelf.

Charlotte shook her head. “Awful,” she said.

Baru watched as three more zombies approached. One of them slammed into the bookshelf that Mary was crouching on. The shelf wobbled, knocking the author off-balance and nearly throwing her into the mass of the undead. A rotten hand grabbed the hem of Mary’s dress. As she struggled, her notebook slipped from her fingers.

One of the zombie monks lunged. It snapped up Mary’s beloved notebook and opened its mouth full of decayed teeth.

“No!” Baru shouted. Gripping the tongs tight, he steered Booky toward the literary attackers.

The zombie’s teeth cleaved through one part of the notebook as the book beast wound up to strike.

I’m too late, Baru thought. It’s going to eat Frankenstein!