Free My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish by Mo O’Hara Page A

tubes and glass pipes carrying glowing green liquid. The liquid was bubbling up in a beaker at the end and when it reached the top it would spill over—onto Frankie.

    The camera turned to Sanj, sitting at his laptop. He was looking straight into the lens. “I’ve now set the countdown clock. In exactly five minutes the BBEDLAM Zombie Fish Virus will upload onto the Internet. Then it will spread to every computer worldwide and everyone will see that I’m more gifted than anyone at that stupid gifted school.” He did his sinister wheeze. “Just try and stop me, little moron!” he added.

 

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    Just then some kid fish zombies staggered into the hall, and Pradeep was one of them.
    As they got closer I could see he had a zombified Darren Schultz on his left and the zombified Mackenzie twins on his right. There was no way I could take them all. If only I had a mirror … I ran to the door and headed to the boys’ bathroom. The zombies followed me. I stood in front of the mirrors as the zombies got closer. Darren was the first one to stand still, stunned. Then the Mackenzie twins stopped too. Pradeep looked to his left and right.
    â€œOh, I see you reversed the effects of the zombie stare by forcing eye contact with the opposite mirror reflection. That’s cool, Tom,” Pradeep said.
    â€œIs that what I’m doing?” I said. “Hey, wait, you’re not a fish zombie after all.”
    â€œNo, I was looking for you to warn you about Sanj putting the virus on the Internet when Darren and the twins followed me. I couldn’t blow my cover or they would have taken me prisoner.”
    â€œWe have to get up to the science lab, Pradeep,” I said. “They’ve got Frankie and Sami!”
    â€œOn the double,” Pradeep said, already heading for the stairs.
    When we got to the science lab, I looked over at the countdown clock on Sanj’s laptop: 02:43. There were only two minutes and forty-three seconds left to stop them.
    Pradeep winked at me outside the door and then put on his zombie stare. He grabbed me by the arms and pulled me into the room.
    â€œSwishy little fishy,” he droned.
    â€œMoron!” Mark yelled. “Awesome. And you’re too late. Ha! The fish is about to be toxic toast.”

    â€œAnd you get to see my computer virus released on the world in two minutes and eleven seconds,” Sanj said.
    Pradeep staggered nearer to Frankie, holding me tight like I was his prisoner. I pretended to struggle.
    Sami looked over at us as she tried to squirm out of the trash can. She smiled at me and then stuck her tongue out at Pradeep, blowing a raspberry. “Ptbbllllllllbbbbbbbbllllbbbbbb! Naughty Pradeep,” she said.
    Sanj grinned at me. “I think it’s so fitting that my stupid little moron brother, your little moron best friend, is the one who turned you in. It’s just so sad. I mean, he didn’t even put up a fight or anything.…” Sanj babbled on and didn’t even notice that Pradeep was zombie-walking over to the laptop cord, which was hanging over the other side of the table. Pradeep slowly reached out and yanked the cord, pulling the laptop out of Sanj’s reach and into his own hands.
    â€œStupid little moron, huh?” Pradeep said and started typing. “Then how come I memorized your super-long ‘un-hackable’ password just by watching you type it? Now I can shut this thing down.” Pradeep’s fingers flew over the keyboard. Mark and Sanj both raced to stop him.
    I grabbed Frankie’s plastic jug and threw it at Mark. It clocked him right on the side of the head and knocked him off balance. He turned back to me. “You just did my job for me, moron, getting rid of the fish! Now I’ll get rid of you.”

 

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    Sanj snatched the computer from Pradeep’s hands and pushed him to the floor. You know, it is so unfair that no matter how much we