Everyone’s finished playing with their fire extinguishers and have met up in the hallway. We’re all looking expectantly at Ghost. Ghost looks over us like he’s checking to make sure we’re all complete. He turns to me and says, “You’re in luck, Jess. Would you like to check out that hole where Eric’s laundry chute used to be? We turned it into a slide, and you get to be the first to ride it!”
Awesome! That’s the best thing I’ve ever heard! Why don’t other people turn their laundry chutes into slides? I know my nan had a laundry chute when she was little and she used to force her cat to use it as a slide, but a slide inside the house for people? Brilliant! Who knew Eric could be so cool?
“Just move over once you’re at the bottom so no one lands on top of you, then sit tight and wait for us. And don’t forget to take your kit with you.” Sigh. There’s always some safety rules to go with the fun. That’s okay as long as I get to go on the indoor slippy slide again and again I’m happy.
I run right up to it and get ready to zoom down it, but then I stop. It’s all dark and I can’t see to the bottom. Suddenly I’m scared. What’s down there? I don’t want to slide down to a place I can’t see and be alone in the dark! “I changed my mind,” I announce. “I don’t want to go after all.”
“Too late!” I hear KC say behind me, and she shoves me down the slide!
“Moooooooooom!” I howl all the way down. The tunnel starts out big and gets narrow, so narrow I have to squiggle my way out of it because of the split kit on my back, but then I land on something springy. I feel around with my hands and realize where I am real quick.
I’m in a car! Eric’s slide goes through the sunroof of a car! This is even better than the way the Dukes of Hazard get into a car. I hear KC yell, “Move it, Jess. I’m on my way down!” and quickly scoot one seat over. KC bounces down next to me and scurries to the back seat. I join her just as Houston plops down. I hear a yelp as Naked gets pushed down the slide and we pull her to the floor at our feet. Mom gets stuck for a bit in the bottom of the slide and I hear her mumble something I would get my mouth washed out for saying. Ghost follows her and pushes the slide away while he stands in the passenger’s seat.
There’s not a lot of room now that we’re all in here. I don’t think this car was meant for more than four people. I wish I could see what car it is, but there’s no light so far. I hear the tinkling of keys being passed from one person to the next and hear Ghost whisper to my mom “I’m going to have to stand through the sunroof and manually pull the cord to the garage doors to get them open. The parasites won’t expect us to be leaving until the house is in flames, so hopefully there won’t be too many in the driveway. Can I count on you to drive? Can I count on you to run these things over if they get in the way?”
“I’ve done it before,” my mother says grimly. I bet she’s thinking about the time she dragged one of the infected home under her car. I wish I wasn’t thinking about that right now, in this strange car, in a dark garage, with zombies on the other side of the door. My mom’s voice comes right at me out of the darkness: “Jesse, I want you to keep your head down and your eyes closed. Don’t open them until I say so.” I start to protest, but then I remember what that ghoul looked like crawling out from under mom’s car and decide there’s nothing out there I want to see.