Good Night, Zombie by James Preller

Author:James Preller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

9

“THEY’RE COMING!”

Esme tossed the key ring to Arnold. He rocketed down the hallway on his skateboard. In seconds, Arnold was hunched by the front door, feeding key after key into the lock.

“Come on, come on,” he urged.

Esme stood in the main lobby, a frayed bundle of nerves. She bit her lip, sucked on loose strands of hair, searched for any sign of Carter. Nothing. “Something must have happened,” she worried. “He should be here by now.”

Arnold kept working his way through the keys. One by one.

Carter appeared out of nowhere, running at full speed. He slammed into the door. “Open up!” he cried. “Now!”

He still clutched the field-hockey stick in one hand, but it had been broken in half.

“Arnold!” Esme screamed.

“I’m trying!” Arnold shouted back.

Carter pounded at the door. His chest heaved, and Esme saw, for the first time, pure terror in his face.

A hand plucked the key ring from Arnold’s fingers. “I believe these are mine,” Van Der Klemp said.

All eyes turned to the ancient man. The night janitor held the keys high in front of his face. He fingered the keys, as if counting the beads on a rosary. “Hmmm,” he murmured. “Where are you? Where … are … you?”

Carter cried out as he pounded on the door,

“THEY’RE COMING!”

“Ah, yes!” Van Der Klemp whistled. Humming softly, he selected a key, inserted it into the lock, and turned. CLICK. It opened. Arnold and Esme unwound the huge chain from the handle … Carter pushed … and the door flew open!

In the span between two heartbeats, Carter slammed the door shut behind him. Whew.

Carter looked from one face to the other: Arnold, Esme, and Van Der Klemp. After a few moments of stunned quiet, Carter reared back his head and laughed—a wild, unhinged whoop of relief and joy: “I’ve never been so happy to be in school in my life!”

Esme wrapped her arms around Carter, squeezed him tight, then quickly pulled back. Arnold pumped a fist in the air. Carter was back. Van Der Klemp did not celebrate. He simply wrapped the chain back around the handles, pulling it tight. He closed the lock and returned the key ring back to its familiar place on his belt.

“You came to help us,” Esme said.

He waved a hand as if swatting away a fly.

“Why?” Esme asked.

The ancient man looked into the mist. “I am the night janitor,” he said, as if that explained everything.

“You knew this was going to happen,” Esme said. There was a new tone of anger in her voice. “You warned us. You told us they were gathering outside.”

Van Der Klemp coughed into his soggy, red-tinged handkerchief.

Esme picked up Carter’s splintered hockey stick from the floor. It was a sharp, dangerous weapon in her hands. A spear. “Tell us everything you know,” Esme warned, “or else.”

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