Chapter 22

chapter twenty-two Aqua City is massive. It's, like, truly a city: a city of wave pools, waterslides, log flumes, and lazy rivers. As we enter the park, we discover the slides are glowing green. The whole place is covered in the all-natural vine-killing substance we now refer to as Ultra-Slime. Not just covered—the place is half-sunk. In some spots, I bet it's deeper than ol' Blargus. The green goo is flowing down the slides, running through the wading pools, spilling across walkways, dripping from the snack shacks—it's EVERYWHERE. "Werbert wasn't kidding," I say. "There's a lot of Ultra-Slime here." "That's good news!" June chirps. "The skeleton army can't follow us. They touch that slime, and..." June makes a sizzle sound. "But bad news, too," Dirk adds. "The BoomKarts. We'll have to leave 'em here."

"Perhaps not..." Quint says. He's stepping out of his BoomKart and eyeing our surroundings. He scoops up a handful of slime —and, after watching it slowly drip through his fingers, announces: "I have a solution!" Then, looking back in the direction of the skeleton soldiers: "But we will need to work quickly." And we do. We finish just as the skeletons are streaming into the park. Dozens of mindless bone-baddies climb over turnstiles, scramble across awnings, and squeeze through rusted fences. "Gotta hurry, gang," I say. "Ready!" Quint calls out. I grin, impressed. Our BoomKarts are now rafts—each one mounted atop one of the inflatable donut floaties used for the lazy river. My zombies retrieve four shovels from a nearby supply shed, to be used like paddles. "Push 'em!" Dirk says, and we each shove our rafts down into the slime. We leap on, just seconds before the army reaches us. Thousands of skeletons come to a sudden sliding, skidding

halt—so sharp and fast that I can almost hear their bones screeching against the asphalt. The point where the Ultra-Slime washes up on the walkway is like the shore of a beach—and they can't go in. The skeletons in the rear don't get the message right away, and they slam into the mass, sending the front line of skeletons tumbling into the slime. Even as they sink and sizzle, the slime-soaked skeletons are reaching for us, bone-fingers clawing. But they've lost—for the moment....

Soon, we're floating down a lazy river of Ultra-Slime, deeper into Aqua City. "So how do we find this slime-secreting creature thing, anyway?" Dirk asks. "Good question," June says. "Like, where is all this slime coming from?" Just then, we turn the corner—and we see it: the Double Trouble Dynamo waterslide—the

biggest waterslide in the world. Slime pours down it. "It's coming from there," I say. "No question. Now kick up your feet, and let the lazy river take us there...." After all, this makeshift lazy river is our best mode of transport, and at the moment, it's only going one way. Besides, with the skeleton army unable to follow, we've got time—for once. Our rafts drift slowly through Aqua City's main drag. The place is less like a water park and more like a full-blown metropolis—a metropolis that was abandoned and left to rot. Every single day, this place was filled with thousands of families, slipping and sliding and soaking up sun. Now it looks like a neon-green nightmare. We pass entrances to cracked, dented slides. Snack shops filled with melted ice pops and rotten hot dogs. Gift shops with broken windows and caved-in roofs. Plush sharks— Aqua City's goofy mascot—float upside down in the slime.

As we float downriver, I notice that one of the snack shacks has been ripped from the ground and now lies on its side. There are jagged holes in the shack's roof, each the size of a manhole cover. Even though the rest of the place is in shambles, that is different. Like it was done intentionally. Trying to lighten the mood, I say, "Hey, um. Question. Is it true that some pools have a special chemical in them that'll turn the water around you a bright red color if you pee in them?" Dirk says, "One hundred percent true," at the exact same moment June says, "Absolutely not." Quint just chuckles. "That urban legend is older than .e...c....." Suddenly, the river curves, and we pick up speed. Behind me, I hear Alfred groan. I wonder if zombies get that stomach-flip feeling when they go down a steep dip or if that's just us living folks. "Hang on!" Dirk shouts as the slime river drops, carrying us around a collapsed