Night of the Zombie Zookeeper

  CONTENTS

  Chapter One: Zoos Are Cool

  Chapter Two: The Last Row1

  Chapter Three: Eat Now. Eat.

  Chapter Four: Hold Your Breath

  Chapter Five: Snakes or Spiders

  Chapter Six: The Dizzies

  Chapter Seven: Peacock Patrol

  Chapter Eight: Bucket of Slime

  Chapter Nine: Sniff

  Chapter Ten: Zoombie

  About the Author and Illustrator

  CHAPTER ONE

  Zoos Are Cool

  Everybody loves the zoo, right? Hey, who doesn’t like cool animals? Who doesn’t want to spend the day hanging out with lions, tigers, bears, and snakes? Okay, maybe not the snakes. They make my skin crawl.

  But the rest of the zoo? Believe it or not, I’m just like every other kid. I love zoos!

  I mean, where else can you see animals from all over the world in one place . . . up close?

  Not to mention the merry-go-round, ice-cream stands, and a train that goes all the way around the park. Want to get from the apes to the petting farm without standing up? Then all aboard the Zoo Choo Train!

  Zoos even have the coolest gift shops. They have huge stuffed animals and stretchy rubber snakes. Oh, in case you didn’t know, I think fake snakes are fine. The gift shop also has T-shirts, magnets, and those key chains with your name on it. Of course, they never have a key chain with “Andres” on it, so maybe I don’t like the key chains so much. But still, the zoo is great.

  I mean, it’s kind of great.

  Well . . . except for the snakes, like I said. Also, the zoo always has peacocks roaming free across the grounds. I have never trusted those peacocks. Why are they allowed to walk around? It’s not like they are here to see the other animals.

  I’ll tell you what they are after: food. I had a bad run-in with a peacock one time. That sneaky bird stole a soft pretzel right out of my hand. And the pretzel was still warm!

  And I’ll never forget the time I spilled bird food all over myself in the bird habitat.

  That did not turn out well.

  Hmm, now that I think about it, once I was feeding a goat at the zoo . . . but the goat ate my video game instead of his real food.

  Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have been playing it while I was feeding the goat, but I was just about to beat my high score!

  It’s no wonder the animals are always looking for something new to eat. Have you seen what the zoo feeds them? Leaves, cold fish, and something called “pellets,” whatever that is.

  But none of that food is half as bad as what the zookeeper is carrying in that bucket now. It looks like something Desmond Cole’s mom would make. Something she has made!

  But that’s not why Desmond and I are tailing this zookeeper. We’re the Ghost Patrol. Maybe you can see us hiding right here. See, there is something odd about this zookeeper.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The Last Row

  It was one of those days all kids look forward to.

  Field trip day!

  How cool was it that our class got to leave school while everybody else was still in their classrooms? And how cooler was it that we got to hop on a school bus while everybody else watched through the windows of Kersville Elementary?

  I’ll tell you: It was very cool! I mean, unless you’re one of those kids who was stuck in class, of course.

  Lucky for me, I wasn’t one of them. And neither was Desmond Cole. We were going to the Kersville Zoo! This was my first field trip since I moved to town.

  When you get on a school bus, everybody knows how important it is to choose the right seat. You have to pick the perfect one for the mood you’re in. If you like bouncing, pick the row over the wheels. If you worry about being carsick, sit in the front row because looking through the windshield will help the puke slide back down. And I should know. My parents say that I’m a pro at being carsick.

  But that morning I felt great . . . and Desmond Cole was making a plan. Everybody knows that when you make a plan on a bus, there’s only one place that will work: the last row.

  “Okay, Andres,” he said. “I worked on this plan last night. If we follow this map, we’ll get to see as much of the zoo as possible. And we won’t miss out on any of the best animals.”

  Desmond had spent a lot of time on this map. It had labels stuck all over it, and a trail highlighted in neon orange ink.

  Desmond pointed. “Here’s where we start, with the giraffes. Then we move on to the rhinos and elephants since they like to come out in the mornings.”

  “That makes sense,” I said. I was impressed so far.

  “Then we move on to the birds in the afternoon,” Desmond said.

  I nodded. “But we can’t feed the birds,” I reminded him.

  “No problem,” he replied. “We won’t have time. Remember, we have to stick to the map.”

  That was when he told me the rest of his plan. As he talked, I got more and more excited. He had actually mapped out the perfect day at the zoo. We would even have time to go on the merry-go-round and buy stuff at the gift shop.

  I was afraid Desmond might have a secret ghost plan hidden up his sleeve, but all he talked about was the zoo.

  I leaned back and relaxed. It looked like we were going to have a normal, fun day at the zoo.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Eat Now. Eat.

  The best thing about the Kersville Zoo and my school is they believe kids should be able to explore and learn—wait for it—on their own!

  I know! Crazy, right?

  Of course, there were teachers and class parents on the trip with us.

  And yes, we would still have to write a report about what we saw and learned at the zoo. But it was pretty cool that we didn’t have to stick together the whole time. Instead, we had to stick with our buddy.

  That was easy because my buddy was my best friend, Desmond.

  While most of the kids headed for the bears, tigers, and lions, Desmond and I took off on our own adventure. We headed straight for the giraffes, just like we planned.

  At the giraffe exhibit, there was a wooden platform surrounded by thick trees. It was hard to see anything other than the leaves. Then we spotted the giraffes. They were eating breakfast, if you could call a bunch of leaves “breakfast.”

  “Can you believe nobody else is around?” Desmond asked. “The last time I was here, it was packed! I couldn’t even see over all the grown-ups. Some of them even had little kids on their shoulders. That was not fair.”

  We stood there and watched the giraffes. There were four adults and three young ones that were playing like a bunch of human kids.

  Suddenly, I got an eerie feeling. It felt like somebody was on the platform with us. We weren’t alone anymore!

  That’s when I heard a deep voice speaking slowly from behind me. “Eat now. Eat.”

  Desmond and I whipped around and nearly hopped onto the nearest giraffe’s long neck! The voice belonged to a zookeeper, and he looked . . . different. Yeah, he was wearing the regular zookeeper uniform. He had the khaki shirt and shorts, and even a hat. But his eyes were big, and his skin was a weird greenish color.

  Maybe he’s not really green, I thought. Maybe it’s just a reflection from all these trees.

  Then the zookeeper said it again: “Eat.”

  I swallowed hard and froze in place. He wants to eat us!

  That’s when I noticed he was holding branches of leaves.

  “Cool!” Desmond said, taking one of the branches from the creepy zookeeper. “Thank you.”

  I didn’t move a muscle.

  “C’mon, Andres,” Desmond said, nudging me. “We can feed these leaves to the gir
affes!”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. Sure, the zookeeper looked a little bit . . . green, but that didn’t mean he was going to eat us. I took the other branch from him and tried to smile.

  “Thanks,” I managed to say.

  The zookeeper stayed quiet. He just looked at us with an empty gaze.

  Then Desmond and I waved the leaves as the giraffes came over to chomp the branches in our hands. I couldn’t believe how close we were to them. It was amazing!

  When all my leaves were gone, I noticed Desmond wasn’t feeding the giraffes anymore. He was staring at the zookeeper, who was now walking away.

  “Hey, Andres,” he said. “How do you feel about changing our zoo plan? I think we should go see the seals and penguins next.”

  That was where the zookeeper was headed. Desmond wanted to follow him!

  Oh no, I thought. The Ghost Patrol had found another case.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Hold Your Breath

  Desmond and I pushed open the double doors to the seal area. The smell was like getting hit in the face with a bag of stinky cheese and rotten eggs . . . all soaked in vinegar.

  “Oof!” I said, covering my mouth with my hand.

  “What’s that smell?” Desmond asked. His face was scrunched up.

  “Seals,” I answered. “They spend a lot of time in water, but they smell like they need a bath!”

  The doors closed behind us, and we were swallowed up by the darkness. I held my breath. The only light was a murky blue-gray one from down a long corridor. Cold air blew on us as we walked toward the light.

  Finally I asked Desmond, “What are we doing here?”

  He whispered, “It’s the zookeeper. There’s something funny going on with him.”

  I shook my head. “Hmm, he looked a little scary, but he was nice. He gave us the giraffe food.”

  “I know,” Desmond said. “But I still want to follow him, just in case.”

  I hadn’t known Desmond all that long, but it was long enough to know that when his spooky alarms go off, he was always right.

  When we got closer to the light, we saw that it came from a large window that looked out onto a murky blue world. The glass was covered in dirty smudges though, so it was kind of hard to make out what was inside.

  But then there was a splash. It was water! Suddenly, we could see seals swimming and darting around! It was pretty awesome.

  Desmond and I sat there alone. We couldn’t take out eyes away from the seals.

  SPLASH!

  A seal swam around for a little while and then jumped back out onto the land above. Another seal followed and did the exact same thing. Maybe they were playing a game. It was fun to watch.

  Desmond was still looking for the zookeeper, but he was nowhere in sight.

  “Maybe we should go,” Desmond said. He seemed disappointed.

  Before I could answer, we heard—

  SPLASH!

  This time it wasn’t a seal diving into the water. It was the zookeeper! He swam all the way to the bottom and stood in front of the window, looking right at us with the same blank expression he had before.

  Then he pulled out a sponge and started cleaning the dirty window. After only a few wipes, the view was crystal clear!

  “See, Desmond,” I said. “He’s just doing his job. There’s nothing to worry about.”

  “Yeah, he’s doing his job,” Desmond said. “But he’s doing it underwater . . . and he’s doing it without any air!”

  I gasped. Desmond was right. We both stood with our mouths hung open in horror. I started to panic. The zookeeper was spending too much time underwater without any scuba gear or anything!

  I could tell that Desmond and I were both wondering the same thing.

  This isn’t possible. How is the zookeeper breathing?

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Snakes or Spiders

  It didn’t take Desmond and me more than a few seconds to decide what we had to do. Run!

  The problem was that I thought we were running away from the zookeeper. It turned out Desmond Cole was running after him.

  Before I knew it, we were on the topside of the seal area. The seals were resting on rocks in the sun. Everything seemed really normal.

  “Over there!” Desmond said, pointing to wet footprints on the ground that led toward the lion area. “Let’s follow the zookeeper.”

  “But, um,” I said, trying to change the subject. “What about your map? Maybe we should forget about the mystery and stick to your zoo plan.”

  Desmond grabbed my arm and pulled me. “We need to go now!”

  The next thing I knew, Desmond and I were running toward the lion exhibit. It looked like a forest with trees and huge rocks for the lions to rest on. We found a spot where we could spy on the zookeeper. He was inside the enclosure . . . right next to the lions!

  First, we watched him feed raw steaks to the lions. The crazy thing was that he fed them with his bare hands! I almost passed out whenever a lion snapped at the meat. And each time the zookeeper pulled his hand back, he still had all his fingers!

  Next, we followed the zookeeper to the hippopotamus area and watched him brush a hippo’s teeth. Weird, I know. And then he flossed the hippo’s teeth too. Gross!

  Then we tracked him to the snake house and watched him go into the section with all the deadly snakes and collect their venom. It was terrifying! I would have fainted right there, but we were too close to the spider exhibit. I did not want to wake up wrapped in spiderwebs. Now I couldn’t decide which to be more afraid of: spiders, snakes, or this zany zookeeper. Ugh!

  “I’m worried he’s going to get hurt,” Desmond whispered. “There’s definitely something strange going on here.”

  Then I had a brilliant plan on how to make my escape. “We better go warn somebody,” I said.

  Desmond nodded. We ran out of the snake and spider areas and found another zookeeper. She was dressed exactly the same as the creepy zookeeper, but she wasn’t green.

  “Hey, kids,” she said. “I’m Peggy. Are you enjoying the—”

  “Wait! This is important,” I cried, interrupting her. “We have to tell you something!”

  And that’s exactly what we did. We told her everything we had seen—every single detail. Then we waited for her to tell us she was going to get to the bottom of this mystery. But that’s not what happened.

  All she did was reach into her pocket and pull out a pair of tickets. “You boys don’t need to worry,” she said, smiling at us. “Here are two free passes for the merry-go-round. Go have fun.”

  “But—” Desmond began.

  “Run along,” Peggy said, pointing us in the direction of the merry-go-round. “Just have fun. It’s easy!”

  Fun. Something told me having fun wasn’t going to be as easy as it sounded.

  CHAPTER SIX

  The Dizzies

  We found the merry-go-round. Nobody is too old for the merry-go-round at the zoo. Why? Because they have every kind of animal you could possibly want to ride. They don’t just have horses. They have cute panda bears and wild tigers.

  Desmond Cole, of course, wanted to ride the weirdest animal they had: a praying mantis.

  Me? I rode the skunk because nobody messes with skunks, not unless they want to walk away smelling worse than a bunch of seals!

  Desmond and I were the only people on the merry-go-round. The man operating the ride gave us a nod, and then the ride started.

  Desmond sat up on his praying mantis and looked out onto the park. “I wish this ride would go faster,” he said. “We’ve got to find that zookeeper. I’ve got a hunch about him. Have you ever heard of zombies?”

  I had to clutch the neck of my skunk just to keep from falling off.

  “Z-z-zombies?” I asked. “Zombies that eat brains? They’re real?”

  “Maybe,” Desmond said. “I think we may have found a zombie zookeeper.”

  “In that case, I think we should let him get away,” I told Desmond. />
  But I knew Desmond wasn’t the kind of kid who let mysteries like that go unsolved. Nothing stopped him. Not even zombies.

  Desmond was on the case. There was nothing I could do.

  So I tried to relax and enjoy this unzombied merry-go-round.

  Everything was great at first. It was a nice, slow ride. Then we started picking up speed.

  I gripped the pole tighter and held on for dear life as we spun faster and faster.

  And faster!

  When we zipped past the control booth, guess who was operating the merry-go-round?

  The zombie zookeeper!

  The ride picked up even more speed, and Desmond and I had to wrap our arms around our poles just to keep from flying off!

  What is the zombie zookeeper up to?

  We had only one chance to save ourselves! Still clutching our poles, Desmond and I jumped down from our animals and grabbed on to the animal next to ours. Then we grabbed the animal next to that one. Pretty soon we reached the safest, most normal-boring place on the merry-go-round: the sleigh.

  The sleigh didn’t go up or down. It just stayed put. Plus, even when the merry-go-round was spinning fast, being in the sleigh felt like you were barely moving. It’s the place where all the parents and newborn babies sit.