The Monster Apocalypse Read online

  “You’re right,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

  Brin shook her head and looked out the window. “It’s fine.”

  Mr. Barker turned onto a quiet residential street. Crispin leaned forward and asked, “Are we going to stop for food soon? I’m starving.”

  “We’ve got a growing boy in the car, huh?” Mr. Barker asked.

  “You’ve got that right.”

  Ash looked at Crispin dumbfounded. “We’ve seen a hundred zombies get mutilated today, and you’re thinking about food?”

  Mr. Barker ignored Ash’s comment. “As soon as we get out of Grisly, we’ll find something.” He smiled at the middle school student in the rearview mirror. “What’s your name again?”

  “Oh, uhh, Crispin.”

  “Crispin,” Mr. Barker said with a nod. “It’s nice to meet you. You have any family members you need to get a hold of? A mom, a dad? A brother, maybe?”

  The boy didn’t answer. He just looked down at his feet and started to cry.

  Mr. Barker opened his mouth to say something else, but nothing came out. He looked at Brin. “What’d I say?”

  Brin wrapped her arms around Crispin and let him cry against her shoulder. “It’s a long story,” she said. “I’ll tell you later.”

  Nobody said a word for the next minute. Brin actually found herself enjoying the silence.

  But then she said, “So what’s the plan?”

  “Huh?” Mr. Barker turned onto another residential street.

  “Droz kidnapped Paul and my mom. They’ve probably already made it to Bodie. Are we going to head in that direction, or—”

  “Brin, you’re talking jibberish,” he said, interrupting her. “Paul draws? What?”

  “No. Droz.” She waited for his response, but still didn’t get one. Brin looked at Ash. Then she realized it. “Oh, wait a minute. You don’t know a thing about what happened in Bodie, do you, Mr. Barker?”

  “I know a hell of a lot what happened in Bodie,” he said. “That’s the place where you guys made your movie, where Chace and Sawyer disappeared. That’s what got me fired!”

  “Sorry about that, by the way,” Anaya said from the passenger seat.

  “Yeah, sorry,” Ash added.

  “It wasn’t your fault. It didn’t even occur to me that I could get in trouble over it. It was a mistake on my part.” The teacher picked his nose noticeably, then said, “Now what about Paul drawing something?”

  Brin sighed and gathered her thoughts.

  And then she told him everything.

  Mr. Barker had secrets of his own—he was a werewolf, after all—so Brin thought he would have some knowledge about the underground Bodie clan. Instead, he knew nothing.

  “Whoa.”

  Brin nodded. “I know.”

  “It all makes sense now,” Mr. Barker said. “I wanted to ask you guys more about it, but then I fell through that time portal and I ended up in a vaudeville prison cell, and my priorities changed.”

  “Yeah,” Brin said, “what was with that time traveling scenario again?”

  No one answered her. Instead, Mr. Barker said, “If everything you say is true, Brin, and if this vampire leader kidnapped your mom and brought her to Bodie, then we don’t have a choice. We have to find her, and stop them, every last one of them. Who’s to be sure they won’t keep coming back to Grisly to pick each one of us off?”

  “I agree,” she said. “But the rest of you don’t have to worry. If there’s anyone that Droz is going to pick off first, it’s me. I brought his son Paul to Grisly. He didn’t take too kindly to that. And now he’s taken my mom with him. He’s clearly not a fan of me.”

  Mr. Barker turned onto another street, a wider road with four lanes instead of one. The group was just a minute away from merging onto the 395 freeway.

  “Who was the one who said bringing Paul to Grisly was a really, really bad idea?” Ash asked, before he raised his hand into the air and glanced at every person in the car. “Oh, yeah. That was me.”

  “You didn’t get to know him, Ash,” Brin said. “I did. He was in pain. He needed an escape. It was the right thing to do.”

  “So you just move him into your house and start living with him, like he’s your damn boyfriend?”

  Brin looked away from Ash. “Paul is not my boyfriend.”

  “Yeah, well, you two have something going on,” he said. “I’m not stupid.”

  Brin slammed her fist against the seat in front of her. “I don’t want to argue about this right now, OK? So just drop it!”

  “Uhh, guys?” Anaya said, softly. She pointed out her passenger window.

  But Ash didn’t pay attention to her. “I’m your best friend, Brin. Can’t you at least be honest with me? You’re in love with a vampire, aren’t you? You’re Bella fucking Swan, aren’t you?”

  “Ash, don’t swear in front of Crispin,” Brin said, pushing her palms up against his ears. “I don’t know how I feel, OK?”

  “You see! That’s not a no!”

  “Guys, look!” Anaya said. She nudged Mr. Barker on the shoulder and pointed toward the sidewalk.

  But Brin still wasn’t paying attention. She stayed focused on Ash like he was the only other person in the vehicle. “Why do you care so much? Say I did love him. Then what? You’ll stop being my friend?”

  “Of course not. But—”

  “I know we’re still in high school. And I know I’m kind of a loner. But I’m still a person, and I have feelings, and if I happen to fall in love with someone—human, vampire, zombie, or otherwise—then that’s my business! It doesn’t concern you. We are not a couple, Ash. We are not together!”

  Ash was on the verge of tears. He crossed his arms and looked out his window. “Forget it.”

  “What? No! You’re not allowed to bring this up, then just sulk and be a little—”

  “Goddammit, you two!” Anaya bellowed from the passenger seat. “Shut up!”

  The two quarreling friends turned to Anaya, and noticed for the first time that Mr. Barker was slowing down the car.

  “What?” asked Brin. “What is it?”

  “Just look at this,” Anaya said.

  Brin looked out her window. She did a double take. It couldn’t have been real—not this. She’d seen vampires and zombies, and now werewolves—but she still couldn’t fathom that the creature standing near the car was real. It was five feet tall, laughably rotund, with sickly purple-red skin. It had a dog-like protruding face, with tiny horns on its forehead and warts on its chin. The creature turned toward the car.

  “Oh my God,” Brin said. “What is that?”

  Anaya shrugged. “Not a clue.”

  Ash said, “It looks like a more feminine version of the villain in Ernest Scared Stupid.”

  Brin rolled her eyes. “Everything’s just a movie to you, isn’t it?”

  Ash glared at Brin, then looked back over her shoulder toward the figure on the sidewalk.

  Everyone glanced at each other, totally stupefied, before Mr. Barker finally said, “I know exactly what that is.”

  Anaya and Brin brought their gazes to Mr. Barker. Ash and Crispin looked up at him, and Dylan and Brent even made an appearance, peering over the top of the back seat.

  “That’s a troll,” he said.

  Chapter Twelve

  Brin pulled on the door handle to step outside, but the door was locked.

  “Mr. Barker, can you unlock the—”

  “No,” he said, interrupting her. “Not just yet.”

  “Why not?”

  “We don’t know if it’s a good troll or a bad troll.”

  Brin never thought she’d ever hear someone utter those words. She looked back out the window. The troll hadn’t approached the vehicle; it was just looking at the 4runner innocently, like he or she wanted to make friends with all the humans inside.

  “Come on, Mr. Barker, look at it. It’s harmless. Let’s see what it is—”

  “No,” he said. “I’m the adult
here. And I say, we keep going. There’s not room for anyone else, anyway.”

  He brought his foot down against the gas pedal, but Anaya unexpectedly leaned over his lap and pressed the button to unlock all the doors. Brin pushed her side door open and stepped outside.

  “Stop! Damn it!” the teacher shouted. “Brin! It’s not safe!”

  As soon as Brin’s feet hit the pavement, the troll turned around, frightened, and walked down the sidewalk, away from the vehicle.

  “Wait! Come back!” Brin said.

  The troll didn’t stop.

  “We’re here to help! My name’s Brin! Brin Skar!”

  The troll came to a complete stop. It turned around and looked Brin in the eyes. The creature was hideous, but in a non-threatening way. Brin kept sight of the vehicle in the corner of her eye, just in case.

  “Can you talk? Do you have a name?”

  The troll tilted its head to the right, then to its left, then back to its right again.

  “My name is Brin. Can you tell me your name?”

  “Touch me,” the troll said, in a voice so deep Brin figured the creature had to be male.

  “Touch you?”

  “Me. Touch.”

  “Do I have to? Can’t we just talk?”

  “I’m. Me. Not.” It paused. Then: “Human.” It sounded like a robot.

  “Oh, I see,” Brin said. “You’re some kind of computer trapped in a troll’s body?” Brin bit down on her tongue in confusion and whispered to herself, “This is just another average day in Grisly, isn’t it?”

  “Brin, what’s going on?” Ash asked as he and Anaya stepped out of the car, while Mr. Barker, officially now a scaredy-cat, stayed inside the 4runner with his driver’s side door firmly shut.

  “It can talk,” Brin said. “The troll asked me to touch him.”

  “It wants you to what?”

  “Please,” the troll said, this time more friendly. “Touch. Me.”

  Ash stepped all the way up to Brin. He brought his arms behind his back and shook his head at the weird, gargantuan creature. “Maybe it’s just some kind of elaborate Halloween costume,” he said.

  “I don’t think so.” Brin moved toward the troll, but Ash pulled her back.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” he asked, keeping his arms wrapped around her waist.

  “He wants me to touch him!”

  “What? You’re not touching anyone. It might try to hurt you.”

  “I’ll be fine,” she said. “Trust me.” Brin shook her way out of his grasp and walked down the sidewalk toward the creature.

  The troll puts its arms out like it wanted a hug, but this gesture stopped Brin. She wasn’t afraid of the creature hurting her, but she also didn’t feel like snuggling up with something that looked like it hadn’t showered in a decade.

  “Do you have a name?” Brin asked.

  The troll didn’t answer; instead, it started moving its head from side to side again.

  Brin sighed, looked back at the others for a moment, then stepped forward, all the way up to the hair and the warts and the slimy texture of the creature’s skin, and wrapped her arms around it.

  She waited for something to happen. Maybe the troll would change into something else—a human, maybe? Brin pressed herself up against the creature for ten long seconds. Then she backed away.

  “OK,” she said, looking up into a face only a mother could love. “I touched you. Now what?”

  The troll looked down at its mega-belly in confusion. “No. Sense. Makes.”

  “Are you high or something? I can’t understand you.”

  She felt someone marching toward her from behind. She figured it was Ash.

  But it was Anaya. “Get away from her!” Anaya shouted, slugging the troll in the chest and pulling Brin in the opposite direction. Brin and Anaya only made it a few steps toward the car, when the ground started to rumble.

  “What the hell?” Anaya said, trying to balance herself. “What’s going on?”

  “Hold onto me,” Brin said.

  “It’s an earthquake!” Ash shouted near the car. “Brin! Get down!”

  “But it can’t be! Grisly doesn’t get earthquakes!”

  The whole street started to crack, from one end to the other. A big hole in the ground appeared below Ash, but he managed to jump out of the way, onto someone’s lawn, just in time.

  Dogs barked, car alarms shrieked. Brin looked at the troll, who was stomping his feet fiercely against the ground. She thought the zombies meant the end of the world, but it seemed like the giant, slimy troll, of all things, would be the one to take everybody down.

  Brin toppled over on Anaya and closed her eyes, not knowing where to run, or what to do. She just used Anaya’s belly as a pillow and looked up at the sky, ready for some kind of meteor or asteroid to collide against the earth—or the ground to fall out from under her.

  Brin was about to scream for help, when the earthquake noises stopped. A fire hydrant sprayed water all over the street nearby, but the cracking in the ground ceased. Brin stared over at Mr. Barker and his car. Both the man and the vehicle were still in tact. She glanced at Ash—he looked shaken but unhurt.

  “Get off me,” Anaya said.

  “My pleasure,” Brin answered.

  She jumped to her feet, then pulled Anaya up. They waited for the troll to try to hug them again, like Brin and Anaya were sugar-high toddlers and the troll was a chubby version of Barney—but the troll didn’t make himself known.

  The troll was no longer there.

  “What the?” Brin said. She was the first to turn around, before Anaya, and see the girl in front of her.

  Anaya turned to the girl and opened her mouth wide in shock. “Oh my God. Valerie? Is that you?”

  The girl didn’t answer. Instead, she ran up to Anaya and wrapped her arms around her, a tear rolling down her right cheek. “Thank you,” the girl said. “Oh, thank you. You saved me.”

  “Who saved you?” Brin asked. “What just happened?”

  “A zombie touched me. Turned me into what I really am. I was only able to transform back into a human when another human touched me.”

  “Weird,” Anaya said. “I mean, I’ve heard and seen a lot of strange things today. But that’s weird.”

  “You look… familiar,” Brin said.

  “Yes. Hi Brin. We’ve never officially met.” The tiny Armenian girl, only five-foot-one, with short red-dyed hair and a polka-dotted dress, shook Brin’s hand. “I’m Valerie Rose. We’re in Film class together.”

  “Valerie?” Ash said, from the adjacent driveway. He walked up to the scene and wiggled his way past Brin and Anaya. “Hey. It’s Ash.”

  “Hi Ash. How are you?”

  “How am I? You were a troll who just caused a 6.5 earthquake, and now you’re… well… you. I’d say I’m confused, is what I am.” Ash turned to Brin, who was still shocked and amazed at the girl’s unexpected transformation. “Remember that movie I was acting in for Film class? That werewolf musical?” Ash stopped mid-thought and looked at Mr. Barker, who was finally exiting his car. “Come to think of it, we should have had Mr. Barker play the werewolf. It would’ve made the film more realistic—”

  “Get to the point,” Brin said, fast.

  “Oh! Well, Valerie was the camera operator on that movie. We worked on it together.”

  “Cinematographer,” Valerie said, condescendingly.

  “Huh?”

  “You just called me the camera operator. That’s like calling Steve Jobs a computer builder. Or Picasso a guy who draws things.”

  Ash and Brin stared at the girl incredulously, but Anaya stepped forward and smiled real big. “I know exactly where you’re coming from, Valerie. I’m a director myself. And Brin kept trying to take my job away when we were making our movie, like it meant nothing to me.”

  Valerie shook her head and wrapped her arm around Anaya’s back. “Finally! Someone who understands me.”

  Nobody said a word for a
moment. Brin didn’t know how to react to this conversation. Finally, she put her hands up in the air and screamed.

  “Whoa!” Anaya said. “Calm down—”

  “I will not calm down! What are you guys talking about? We just escaped getting ripped to pieces by a thousand zombies, we find you on the sidewalk as a troll. Is talking about your respective roles on movie sets really necessary right now?”

  Anaya and Valerie both looked at each other and shrugged. “You see?” Valerie said. “She doesn’t get it.”

  Brin rolled her eyes and stomped her way back to the vehicle. Mr. Barker stayed put beside the car, and Crispin had his head peeking out the right side window. She didn’t see Dylan and his boy toy, so she naturally assumed they both thought it was the end of the world and were going at it in the back.

  “What happened?” asked Mr. Barker. “Is everyone OK?”

  “Fine. It was just Valerie. From class. Turns out she’s a troll. And an egomaniac.”

  Brin opened the side door and went to step into the car, when she looked to her left to see a zombie turn the street corner and start stomping toward the car.

  “Oh shit,” Brin said.

  “What?” Mr. Barker stepped toward her.

  “We haven’t escaped them, after all.”

  One zombie didn’t seem like a threat to the growing amount of humans—now numbering eight—but lots of them did. As soon as the zombie neared the sidewalk, a mass of undead creatures appeared behind the first, all marching together as a big jumble of flesh-hungry fiends.

  They were coming.

  Hundreds of them.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Oh God,” Brin said.

  “What’s wrong?” Crispin asked.

  Brin turned around, waved her arms real high, and shouted, “Get in the car! Everybody get in the car!”

  Ash stepped toward Brin. “What?”

  Brin sighed. Ash, Anaya, and Valerie were chatting nonsensically on the sidewalk, like there was no urgency to be anywhere but here.

  “You numbskulls! There’s zombies coming! Hurry!”

  Ash heard that. His eyes opened wide, and he waved at Anaya and Valerie to run to the car.

  “Mr. Barker!” Ash said. “Start the car, start the car!”