Chapter 1

THE LAST KIDS ON EARTH and the ZOMBIE PARADE. MAX BRALLIER DOUGLAS HOLGATE.

chapter one OK, so... we are going to be eaten. Devoured. Swallowed whole. Or maybe swallowed in bits. Really, whole or bits? Does it matter? Bottom line: EATEN. 'Cause, see that train-sized beast behind us? It's not a train. It's a humongo worm monster. The Wormungulous. Now, why are we running from a humongo worm monster? A very good question.

With a very silly answer. We are... Questing! Questing heroically. See, about a month ago, I defeated this big evil beast named Blarg. So I was like, "We're heroes! Post-apocalyptic action heroes. And post- apocalyptic action heroes need quests!" We're basically the modern version of old-timey King Arthur-y knights. And old-timey King Arthur-y knights were always questing all over the place.

That's when my best friend, Quint Baker, declared, "We should build a bestiary, friend!" What's a bestiary, you ask? Also a good question! I asked Quint the same thing. Quint looked at me like I was completely brain-dead, grabbed the dictionary, and read, "An illustrative, encyclopedic compendium detailing a myriad of mythical creatures." "That just sounds like a fancy way of saying 'monster notebook,'" I said. "But better!" Quint said. "'Notebook' implies school and study. 'Bestiary' implies BEASTS. A book filled with crinkly yellow pages that smell of ancient history." I was def digging that, so I said...

I am ALL ABOUT building a bestiary! And now we're building a complete bestiary of every single strange creature that has arrived in the town of Wakefield after the Monster Apocalypse began this past summer. You need two things for a bestiary entry: One: a picture. That's my job. You know that's my job 'cause I'm Jack Sullivan, monster

photographer extraordinaire. Two: you need INFO. Like stuff about the monster—strengths, weaknesses, where does it hang, what does it eat, what are its hobbies, does it stink like evil, yadda, yadda, yadda. Now, I realize in terms of, like, all-time ultimate heroic quests, "writing a book" doesn't exactly rank up there with Frodo carrying the ring to Mount Doom, but whatever. I learned that just by calling any random old chore a quest, you can make life a LOT more fun. For example... I'm not picking my nose. I'm on a quest to retrieve a long-dormant hunk of snot heroically