Free The Zombie Chasers #4 by John Kloepfer Page A

it rezombified. Including you. Madison can’t unzombify anything anymore, and the Band-Aid you ate was the last drop of antidote on the planet. But despite all that, it’s great to have you back, even though you messed everything up. No offense.”
    â€œWell, then,” said Rice. “We just gotta make a new Madison!”
    â€œWell, that’s obviously going to be impossible,” Madison said. “I’m one of a kind.”
    â€œBut maybe you’re onto something,” Zack said. “Duplessis did say we had to find more vegans.”
    Madison pointed to her new Bio-Wear shoes from Macy’s. “Oooh, look up Bio-Wear! Their company is based in Brooklyn. They advertised that everything from the material to the employees handling the shoes were vegan. Maybe that will give us a lead.”
    Rice pulled out his phone, did a quick Google search, and found that Bio-Wear also owned an Organic Food Warehouse in Brooklyn that hosted a vegan meet-up group nearly every night.
    â€œOMG,” Madison said. “I’ve totally heard of that.”
    â€œGood call, guys,” Ozzie said. “But can we continue this conversation somewhere else?” Ozzie pointed to a humongous throng of zombies moving across the park grounds. The undead creepazoids stalked through Central Park as if they were wading through a knee-deep pool of Jell-O.
    â€œRun!” Zack shouted.
    They took off into the park until Madison came to a halt. “You guys hear that?” she asked as everyone stopped alongside her.
    They looked in the direction of the noise and saw a black-and-white horse attached to a carriage. The horse struggled to pull the carriage between two trees, but the big wheels were too wide to make it through. The poor horse whinnied desperately as a quartet of zombified bird-watchers staggered toward the creature. The undead bird-watchers moaned and wailed with binoculars around their putrid, flaking necks.
    â€œCome on, guys!” Madison shouted. “We’ve got to save him!”
    â€œAre you kidding me?” Rice asked.
    â€œShe’s right, Rice,” said Ozzie. “If we help him, we won’t have to get out of the park on foot, and I can ride.”
    â€œHurry up,” Madison said. “They’re going to rip out his little horsey brains!”
    They all ran over to where the horse and buggy were wedged between the trees. Zoe walloped the zombie bird-watchers one at a time, while Madison and the boys guided the horse backward, dislodging the carriage from the tree trunks.
    Zack, Zoe, Madison, and Rice hopped into the carriage, and Ozzie jumped up in the driver’s seat with Twinkles perched anxiously on his lap.
    â€œGiddyap!” Madison yelled.

    Ozzie slapped the reins and the horse began to trot, pulling the carriage away from the zombie onrush.
    As they rode in the buggy, Rice looked off into the zombified park, pinching the air in front of his eyeball. Every time his index finger touched his thumb, he made torpedo noises.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” Zack said.
    â€œI’m pretending I can crush the zombies with my fingers.”
    Zoe lined up Rice’s head and pinched the air in front of her own eyeball. “Pow!”
    â€œHold on, guys!” Ozzie yelled as zombies started to stumble onto the pathway, flailing their arms at the carriage. Ozzie slapped the reins and the horse began to pick up speed.
    The carriage flew along the walking path that curved around the bank of a pond. As they galloped ahead, Zack recognized one of the zombies from earlier that day. The zombie stilt walker must have been thirteen feet tall, and it was lumbering into their path.
    â€œWatch out!” Zack yelled.
    The horse and buggy were going too fast to swerve, and the undead street clown toppled into the carriage, spooking the horse. The carriage shook and bounced as the animal neighed and veered off the path full steam ahead toward the pond.