I was watching the minivan, and I spotted this one kid leap out of the back hatch and run like heck across the parking lot toward the highway. This other kid was after him, but he was chasing with a jerky kind of step, so he couldn’t catch up. I squinted so I could see better. Yeah, it was Alex. He picked up something. It looked like a helmet. Maybe the other kid dropped it.
Nick Walker’s mom was last out of the van, and she was yelling at the kids. I couldn’t hear her, but she was waving, so I guess it was more of a “Have a good game and don’t get hurt!” kind of yelling, not a “Hey! How come you kids are staggering forward with your arms out?” kind.
Grown-ups!
I guess I was expecting the kids to walk toward the crowd and start, you know, grabbing and biting. But they didn’t. They trooped toward the dugout like they were a baseball team.
“They retain a residual sense of normalcy,” said Jermaine.
I stared at him.
“Like in Dawn of the Dead. In that movie the zombies all went to the shopping mall because they were conditioned to go there. It was, like, the normal thing to do. The Pirates came to play baseball, so that’s what they are going to do.”
“Well, yeah,” I said, trying to figure this out. “I guess they had their uniforms on ready for the game. So what happened?”
“Obviously Nick’s mom picked up Alex, and he got in the van and just started biting everyone. You saw the kid who ran? That was Jeff Wasileski from our school. I bet he was right at the back and managed to roll over the seat into the cargo area with the bats and gloves and stuff.”
Right, I thought. I remembered what Alex was like on the school bus. Maybe he had a hard time getting back into the cargo area to bite that last boy. Jermaine was thinking the same thing.
“Jeff Wasileski’s pretty smart, so maybe he used his mitt and his catcher’s mask to keep from getting bitten.”
ZOMBIE TIP
The baseball catcher’s mask, gloves, leg guards, and chest protector offer excellent defence from zombie bites. Ask for a set for your birthday. It’s pretty expensive, so yard sales, online discounters, or maybe eBay are your best bets.
A Google search for zombie armor for sale brings up almost two million hits. I’m not kidding.
I thought about this for a moment. But then it was time to play baseball.
We were up to bat first. I’m fourth in the batting order, so I got to watch for a while. Jermaine’s number five.
Will Naylor batted first. He’s pretty good. He can really hit a ball when it comes at him fast and high. But the Pirates’ pitcher—that’s Nick Walker, the kid with the mom and the minivan—seemed like he couldn’t get any power behind the ball. He’d pitched against us before, and he was usually okay. That day, not so much. First pitch barely reached the plate. It just rolled the last few inches. Will shook his head. Second pitch was even worse ’cause it was nowhere near the strike zone. I mean nowhere at all near.
Nick was getting this weird, messed-up action in his arm. Third ball went up, like he was trying to hit a bird or something, but it dropped toward Will, who stepped back and swung. The ball took off toward left field, and Will made it to first base. He looked around, saw the Pirates hadn’t got the ball back, and stole second.
I’m pretty sure he could have gone all the way round, but Will didn’t know that half the Pirates’ outfield was infected with the zombie-bite. They weren’t fully into grabbing and biting yet, though.
“It seems like it takes a while,” said Jermaine. “Like the little girl in Night of the Living Dead.”
I thought back. There was a sick kid in the movie who turned into a zombie and started eating her dad. He’d been pretty much a jerk through the whole thing, I have to admit, so I didn’t feel bad for him. But Jermaine was right. Earlier in the movie she was just sorta ill.
Our second batter was up. John Walters could hit ’em hard. But Nick’s pitching was getting super-crazy now, and John walked. Same thing happened with the next Tiger at bat, Gary Peavyhouse. Gary just laughed as Nick’s pitches came at him like he was a kindergarten kid playing T-ball.
Some of our guys were jeering at Nick. Some of the Pirates were booing their own pitcher. I’d have felt bad for him except for three things:
First off, you never feel bad for the other team. Not while the game’s on, anyway.
Second, the whole zombie thing. Hard to feel sorry for a zombie who can’t pitch.
Third, I was up to bat. I was gonna hit a home run.
