Chapter 13

chapter thirteen I sit up. Squinting in the darkness, I see a figure, creeping across the room. I hear the door unlock, then watch the figure step out into the hall. In the dim light, I can make out that it's June. Hey, I just used "make out" and "June" in the same sentence. Go me! Anyway, what is she up to? I kick my way out of my jacket-blanket bed and tiptoe out into the hallway. June is pulling open a door and stepping into the stairwell. I know that stairwell. It leads to the roof. I follow her. The roof is well-lit by the moon. June is standing near the ledge. Next to her is a large plastic trash barrel.

Hey, June. June spins, startled. "Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you." "You didn't," she says. That's a lie. "What are you doing up here? It's four in the morning." June reaches into the trash bin and pulls out a tennis ball. I peek inside the barrel. It's filled with hundreds of tennis balls. Other empty trash barrels are scattered across the roof. "This is how I let out frustration," June says, hurling a tennis ball toward the crowd of zombies below. The tennis ball nails a zombie— our gym teacher, Mr. Perkis—in the back.

"It's a game I play," June says. "Ten points for hitting a zombie in the head, five points for the body, twenty points if I call it. Like if I say, 'Jess Aronesty, in the head' and I actually hit Jess Aronesty in the head, that's twenty points." "Like my Feats of Apocalyptic Success! Are you copying me? Don't be a copycat, June," I say, grinning. June laughs. That makes my heart swell. Great, now I have a swollen heart. I hope the swelling stops before it kills me. I reach into the bin. "OK, I'm calling it. Mr. Winik, in the face," I say. I cock back my arm and fling the tennis ball. I miss Mr. Winik by about forty-six and a half feet. "Lame," June says as she reaches down into the barrel. "Lame and zero points."

So, how long have you been here, in the school? Since Ihis aLL Started. I left one time, to get food—but it was too scary out there. "I saw you," I say, "running inside, when it was happening. And you saw me." June nods. "Our eyeballs," I say, sounding very suave and European. "Our eyeballs shared a moment." June rolls her eyes in the cutest way possible. "You are weird, Jack. Annnyyyhoo, yeah, I ran to the newspaper office first. Oh, that reminds me! We were going to put one of your pictures in that issue. The one you took of band practice." "Ugh," I groan. "That pic was lamer than a one- legged zombie." June laughs softly, barely. "You just wanted to

take photos of adventure stuff, right?" I shrug. "I'm just an adventuring kind of guy." "Well, you got your chance now," she says with a sigh. I nod and sigh with her. "Anyway, yeah, I went inside. I thought I'd wait a little while and then the police would show up and my parents would come get me. Never happened. Zombies came, clawing at the door. I hid in the closet—didn't come out for two whole days. And when I did come out there was... just... some monster—big as a house! Eating people! And the other people, they were—well, you know." "Yep. I know. Undead." "So I locked doors and did my best to keep the things trapped downstairs, in the rear of the school. And now it's just me here." "What about your parents?" June gulps and grimaces, like it hurts to swallow. Maybe I shouldn't have asked. "I saw them on the fifth day," she says. "A big bus rolled by, pulled by a tank. There was a soldier on a microphone, saying anyone who was not a

zombie should come with them. My parents were in the bus. They were looking out at the school. I banged my fists on the window and I screamed and I shouted until my throat was sore. But it worked. They saw me." "Wait—really? They saw you?" June nods. "My dad tried to run out. But the soldier wouldn't let him off the bus. And I couldn't go out there without the zombies getting me. Then the bus turned the corner, and they were gone. Just... gone." I pick at my hangnail, uncomfortable, not sure what to say. "At least they're safe, somewhere...." June shrugs. After a moment, she says, "Jack, I'm sorry I freaked at you guys before. But you see why I can't leave the school. My parents know I'm here. They're going to come for me. And I can't have you guys messing that up." "But, June, when your parents come back, everyone will come with them. No matter where you are, they'll find you. Even if you're, y'know, like, maybe, hanging out in my tree house..." June glares at me.