Apocalypse Read online

  DEDICATION

  Because they have been dropping

  heavy hints for years,

  And because I want Christmas to be peaceful,

  I dedicate this book to my siblings:

  Angela Mary, Marcia Ann and Marcus St John

  CONTENTS

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Acknowledgements

  Books by C.M. Gray

  Copyright

  1

  ‘Trick or treat?’ My voice bounced off the heavy wooden door.

  I was pretty sure no one was home. The house was dark and quiet. The only light came from streetlamps behind me. I stood on the old, faded porch listening for the sound of footsteps or a lock turning. Nothing.

  Thump! I knocked on one of the glass panels that flanked the door.

  The sound rang through the rooms inside. Maybe I should give up?

  I was about to leave when I heard a faint noise from inside the house — drag . . . tap . . . drag . . . tap. . . If I didn’t know any better, I’d think it was a zombie, lurching very slowly along the hallway toward me.

  The footsteps drew closer and stopped on the other side of the door. There was the sound of bolts being drawn back and finally the door creaked open. An old man leaning on a walking frame appeared in the open doorway.

  ‘Trick or treat?’ I said politely.

  The man blinked at me through thick glasses that made his eyes huge. ‘Wha-at?’

  ‘Trick or treat?’ I asked again hopefully.

  ‘NO THANKS!’ he shouted. ‘I don’t want whatever it is you’re selling.’

  ‘I’m not selling anything!’ I said, raising my voice because it was obvious the old guy was a bit deaf. ‘It’s Halloween.’

  ‘What? Stop mumbling.’

  ‘IT’S HALLOWEEN!’ I bellowed.

  ‘There’s no need to shout,’ he said crossly. ‘I know it’s Halloween. And I’ve got candy here for the kids that dress up. But you’re not in costume.’

  ‘YES, I AM.’ I was wearing some dirty old clothes that I usually wore when I helped Dad with the yard work. And I’d painted a scar on my face with some of Mum’s makeup. But I had to admit, the costume hadn’t been a big success.

  ‘What are you supposed to be?’ he asked, peering at my outfit with his huge, magnified eyes.

  ‘A zombie,’ I told him.

  ‘A what?’ He cupped his hand around his ear.

  ‘I’M A ZOMBIE!’ I shouted.

  He eyeballed me in disbelief. ‘Nobody would ever believe you’re a zombie. But I’ll give you something anyway since you’re here.’ He slid his hand into the pocket of his trousers and pulled out a handful of brown lumps that looked like dead cockroaches. ‘Dates!’ he announced. ‘They’re as sweet as candy and they’ll keep you regular.’

  I gulped, but it was too late to escape now. I held out my hand. The dates were warm and covered in dust from his pocket. ‘Aaaahhh . . . thanks?’ I said.

  ‘Next year, you want to put in a bit more effort,’ he added. ‘Zombies look meaner. They’re covered in lots of scars and they’ve usually only got one eyeball.’

  ‘OK, thanks for the tip!’ What a waste of time. Maybe I should have lurched away before he’d opened the door. ‘See you.’

  The old guy shook his head. ‘A zombie!’ he scoffed and shut the door. He dragged and tapped slowly back down the hall.

  I stared down at the fuzzy dates in my hand. What was I going to do with them? I shoved them into my pocket.

  Of course, the funny thing is that even though I mightn’t look like a zombie, I actually am undead. Not that I’m a typical ‘I want braaiinns!’ zombie. Technically, I’m only a half zombie, which is what happens when you get infected but you don’t kill anybody. And I’m planning on keeping it that way, even though my older brother, Michael, annoys the heck out of me sometimes, which makes him a very tempting target.

  I turned and trotted down the front stairs that led from the old guy’s porch to the paved garden path.

  Being a zombie isn’t all bad. I’ve got infrared vision and I’m really fast and strong. The tough part is that I have to keep my powers a secret, because if anyone finds out, I can just imagine what will happen.

  Nope, it’s way too dangerous to let regular folks know there’s a zombie around, half zombie or not.

  If everyone knew my secret . . .

  ‘Come on, Ben!’ called out a voice.

  My best friend, Sophie Knight, was standing at the end of the garden path, stuffing lollies into her mouth. She’d just been to the house opposite and it looked like her visit had been more successful than mine.

  I closed my eyes for a second. I felt a now-familiar sensation as something slid across my eyeballs, and when I opened my eyes again, the world had been transformed into dull grey shapes broken up by patches of bright colour.

  I jogged toward Sophie. Using my infrared vision made my eyes glow red, but I didn’t care if Sophie noticed. She already knew my secret, and since she had a few secrets of her own, I guessed mine was safe. And hopefully anyone else who saw my eyes would think they were part of my costume.

  ‘How did you go?’ I asked.

  ‘Good,’ she replied, her cheeks bulging. She was dressed as a skeleton and carried a long, thin stick attached to a toy dog. She’d painted the dog to look like a skeleton too, and she held it out in front of her so it looked like it was pulling on the lead. Her costume was way better than mine and it had worked like a charm: she had at least twice as much candy as I did.

  We headed back toward my house. The streets were packed with kids and most of them were so hyped up on sugar they barely looked where they were going. We dodged a group of life-size Lego figurines and almost ran straight into a boy who’d somehow managed to make it look like he was carrying his own head in his hands.

  ‘Gaaaaaggghhhhh!’ he groaned at us.

  ‘This way.’ I grabbed Sophie’s arm so I could drag her off the crowded street and onto the grassy verge. Trees blocked out the bright glow of the streetlights here, which made it harder to see, but at least there weren’t as many people.

  Suddenly, my infrared vision flooded with blinding light. ‘AAAGGGHHH!’

  ‘Oops! Sorry!’ said Sophie, flicking off her torch.

  ‘That thing must be a thousand watts!’ I moaned, rubbing my eyes.

  ‘Yup,’ she said happily. ‘It’s the brightest torch you can buy that fits in your pocket.’

  ‘Oh, I figured that out!’ Tears were streaming down my cheeks. ‘You don’t need it, anyway. Just use your infrared. No one will notice.’

  Not long ago, Sophie had been infected too. She hadn’t been attacked by zombies — instead, she’d been injected with zombie serum.

  ‘I’m pretty sure I’m not a real zombie,’ she muttered, sliding the torch into her pocket.

  ‘Yup, you are,’ I told her. Under infrared, most humans glow orange but zombies have a cool blue light. In my infrared vision, Sophie shone like a freshly snapped, electric blue glowstick.

  ‘But I don’t crave brains,’ she said, her mouth full of lollies again, ‘so how can I be a zombie?’

  I shrugged. I didn’t know exactly how it worked. But I guessed that the serum hadn’t affected her much, or else the formula had been a
ltered. Whatever had happened, Sophie was technically a zombie, even if she didn’t crave brains.

  We stopped in front of my house. ‘I’ll let Mum know I’m walking you home,’ I said.

  This year, Mum had agreed to let us go trick-or-treating on our own if we stuck together and stayed in the streets around my house. I didn’t know what she was worried about: sure, I was only twelve, but if anyone was stupid enough to attack us, they’d regret it.

  There was a noise in the tree above us.

  ‘Corvus!’ With a squawk, the bird circled down and landed on my shoulder. I tickled him under his chin. ‘You gave me a fright!’

  Corvus was my pet raven. He’d been infected for even longer than I had, and technically he was a full zombie raven. During the day he stayed in my wardrobe, where I’d set up a little perch and kept a bowl full of beef jerky. I usually let him out after school each day, but last night he hadn’t come back.

  ‘C’mon, little guy. Let’s get you home.’

  ‘I’ll wait here.’ Sophie leant against our letterbox and tossed more lollies into her mouth.

  I headed toward our front door. Mum’s car was parked on the driveway, but I couldn’t see Dad’s anywhere. I guessed he was working late.

  I deactivated my infrared, which made everything go dark. Shadows hung over the house. In the distance, there was a scream followed by the sound of balloons popping.

  Suddenly I felt uneasy as I hurried onto the porch. Was I being watched? I tried the knob but the front door was locked, so I raised my hand to knock.

  But before I could rap my knuckles against the wooden panel, there was a rustle beside me, and out of the corner of my eye, something barrelled toward me.

  Hands grabbed my shoulders. ‘Gotcha!’

  2

  Corvus gave a squawk and took off as I spun around. Behind me, his hands still clutching my shoulders, was my brother Michael. He was wearing a lame vampire costume, but even with fangs, he didn’t look scary. ‘That freaked you out, zombie boy!’

  My brother was such a pain! He’d only learnt my secret a few weeks ago, but somehow he’d managed to be even more annoying since. Sometimes I wondered if he was jealous that I was so much stronger and faster than him. Knowing I was a zombie sure hadn’t stopped him from teasing me.

  ‘Are you mad, zombie boy?’ His expression suddenly changed as he broke into a sly grin.

  I ground my teeth. I was mad! And the longer I looked at his smiling face, the madder I got.

  I grabbed him by the front of his shirt and shoved him up against the porch wall. ‘I could’ve attacked you!’ I hissed.

  Michael gave a grunt. He suddenly wriggled downwards, and in a second I was holding thin air. He disappeared around the side of the house screaming, ‘Catch me if you can!’

  I rolled my eyes. We both knew I was way faster than him! But apparently he needed a reminder.

  I took off.

  ‘Ben?!’ Sophie called, but I ignored her.

  I tore around the side of the house and into the back yard, where Michael stood in front of the laundry door. Good! Now he was trapped.

  I advanced slowly.

  ‘Hah! You can’t hurt me, zombie boy!’ he snarled.

  I wasn’t really going to hurt him, but scaring him would be kinda fun. I curled my fingers into claws and reached toward him . . .

  Suddenly, the laundry light flicked on.

  ‘AAAGGGHHH!’ I snapped my lids shut. My eyes were still a bit sensitive from using my infared all night. I clutched my face.

  ‘Ben! What are you doing?’ Mum slid the laundry door open.

  ‘He was trying to get me!’ cried Michael, his expression quickly changing from smug to scared as he darted in and ducked behind her.

  ‘He started it!’ I said. He was such a faker. And as usual, I was going to be the one to get into trouble!

  ‘Ben! You can’t attack your brother. Especially now.’

  I knew what she was getting at: along with Michael, my parents had discovered my secret. They’d done their best to deal with it, but I guess they were worried. They knew I could easily hurt Michael. ‘He attacked me!’ I cried.

  ‘I was just joking!’ wheedled Michael. He grimaced triumphantly at me from behind Mum’s shoulder.

  ‘You shouldn’t tease your brother,’ Mum told Michael, his face contorting with fake fear as she rounded on him. Then she turned back to me. ‘And you need to learn to control your temper. How would you feel if Michael got hurt?’

  ‘It would serve him right!’

  ‘That’s not a good attitude.’ Dad appeared at the laundry door. I hadn’t heard his truck pull up: I guessed I was too mad to notice. He stood beside Mum, and suddenly it was the three of them facing me.

  ‘You need to control yourself, Ben.’ Dad looked worried. ‘This is all new for us. I’m not sure what we’re going to do if we can’t live together peacefully.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ I hadn’t really been going to hurt Michael. He’d made a big fuss about nothing, as usual.

  ‘Go inside, Michael,’ Dad turned to him.

  ‘Aawwww, but . . .’ my brother began.

  ‘No “buts”,’ said Dad. ‘Go.’

  Michael reluctantly headed into the house. The last bit of him I saw was his eyes, disappearing around the corner.

  Mum and Dad stepped outside. Dad looked serious. ‘We’re worried, Ben. You are a lot stronger than you used to be. You could easily hurt someone, even if you didn’t mean to.’

  ‘But Michael—’ I whined.

  ‘This isn’t about Michael,’ Mum interrupted. ‘It’s about you. We don’t know what you’re capable of.’

  I stared at her in shock.

  Mum shook her head. ‘That didn’t come out right. What I mean is that we don’t know exactly how strong you are, and—’

  Suddenly, there was a scream from inside the house. We stood frozen for a second as a voice yelled, ‘SPIT IT OUT! SPIT IT OUT RIGHT NOW!’

  I moved first, darting around my parents and bolting through the laundry door. I sprinted down the hallway with Mum and Dad right behind me.

  When we reached the dining room, we all stopped in our tracks.

  ‘What the . . .?!’ I stammered.

  3

  Sophie stood in the middle of the room. She was holding Michael upside down and shaking him violently. ‘SPIT IT OUT! I saw you take some!’

  ‘What are you doing?’ I gasped.

  ‘Oh, hi!’ She suddenly looked embarrassed. She spun my brother around and stood him upright. ‘Oops a daisy! There we go.’ She gave him a little push and he staggered toward my parents, collapsing into their arms.

  ‘What . . .’ began Dad.

  ‘He took some candy,’ said Sophie quickly. ‘He grabbed some out of my bag and ate it before I could stop him.’

  There was a stunned silence. Was that really the reason she was shaking my brother up and down like a pepper pot?

  ‘Umm,’ I said. ‘Does it matter if he has some?’

  ‘I feel sick,’ muttered Michael, his face grey. He turned and reeled down the hallway. ‘I think I’m gonna go lie down.’

  ‘Sophie,’ Mum began uncertainly, ‘I realise it must be difficult being so strong, but—’

  ‘Me? Strong? No, not really.’ Sophie blushed bright red. ‘I was just joking. Hahaha!’

  ‘Haha,’ I joined in as convincingly as I could. Mum and Dad knew Sophie was a zombie too, but nobody talked about it. Nobody wanted to face the truth. I had to get her out of there. ‘How about I walk Sophie home?’

  My parents didn’t say anything. I think they were in shock at seeing super-strength up close in their own living room.

  ‘Righto! I’ll be back soon!’ I shouted, grabbing Sophie’s arm and bolting toward the front door. In a couple of seconds we were outside and hurrying along the front path toward the street. My infrared slid on again and suddenly all the trick-or-treaters glowed bright orange. Up above, I could see warm spots of light where bird
s roosted in the trees, ignoring the noise and chaos below.

  ‘What was that all about?’ I asked Sophie.

  ‘He really did steal some lollies,’ said Sophie. ‘When he opened the front door for me, he shoved his hand into my trick-or-treat bag and grabbed them. He managed to get them into his mouth before I had the chance to—’

  ‘Who cares about the lollies?! Why would you attack him like that? I mean, you were holding him upside down and shaking him, Soph!’

  ‘I didn’t really attack him! He just got a bit . . .’

  ‘Shaken up?’

  ‘Yeah. You could say that.’ Sophie’s words trailed away miserably. ‘I knew coming out on Halloween was a bad idea! There’s way too much candy around tonight!’

  After she was transformed into a zombie, Sophie hadn’t wanted to eat brains like a normal undead person. Instead, she’d craved lollies. It was hard enough for her to resist temptation on a normal night, let alone Halloween.

  I was silent. In the distance, I noticed a couple of small kids were wandering along by themselves. One was dressed as a witch and carried a straw broomstick. The other was draped in a sheet, which I guessed meant the kid was supposed to be a ghost.

  ‘This isn’t about the lollies!’ I said finally. ‘You . . . you can’t go around turning people on their heads!

  ‘I know.’ Sophie sighed. ‘I don’t know what happened to me, but when I saw him putting the lollies into his mouth, I just snapped.’

  I understood how she felt. Sure, having special abilities sounded good. And sometimes it was good. Since I’d been transformed, I could run faster than anyone at school, including the bigger kids. And I was really strong now. Nobody dared pick on me after I caught Tank Trotter’s hand in my Grip of Iron when he tried to give me a dead arm.

  But it was easy to forget how strong we were. Maybe my parents were right to be worried. Maybe some day one of us would accidentally hurt someone.

  I swallowed hard. Dad had said he and Mum didn’t know what they were going to do if we couldn’t live together peacefully. Did that mean they were going to kick me out? Where would I live if I was all alone? How would I live if I was all alone?