The Zombie Zone

  Here’s what kids, parents, and teachers have to say to Ron Roy, author of the series:

  “I think your books are the best, and I am a big fan of you.”—Michael D.

  “Sometimes I don’t even know my mom is talking to me when I am reading one of your stories.”—Julianna W.

  “Your books are famous to me.”—Logan W.

  “I think if you’re not that busy you could do every letter again.”—Abigail D.

  “I credit your books as one of the main influences that turned [my daughter] from a listener to a voracious reader.”—Andrew C.

  “Your letters to the readers at the end of books encourage the children to become part of the writing process.”—Jan C.

  This book is dedicated to Marie O. and Zeke R.

  —R.R.

  To the unsung A to Z art directors:

  Sue, Joanne, and Rebecca

  —J.S.G.

  Ruth Rose’s grandmother set her paint box on the sidewalk in front of their hotel.

  They were in New Orleans, Louisiana. Ruth Rose’s gram was visiting the city to take a painting course, and she had invited Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose to join her.

  “What are you going to paint today?” Ruth Rose asked her grandmother.

  Ruth Rose liked to dress in one color, and today’s color was robin’s egg blue. Everything matched perfectly, down to her blue socks and sneakers.

  “I don’t know yet,” her grandmother said. “Our art teacher will tell us. I’d love to paint one of these charming old buildings with the balconies and creeping ivy.”

  “Thanks again for bringing us,” Dink said. His real name was Donald David Duncan, but ever since he was little, his nickname had been Dink.

  “And thanks for hiring Jack to show us the bayous,” Josh added.

  “You’re very welcome,” Ruth Rose’s grandmother said. “Where is he taking you today?”

  “We’re going on a hike,” Josh said.

  “We’re visiting a community in the woods,” Ruth Rose said. “He said the people there live in huts with no electricity!”

  “That sounds fascinating!” Ruth Rose’s grandmother said. “Oh, here’s Jack’s van. Have fun and I’ll see you for lunch!”

  The kids watched Ruth Rose’s grandmother stride away with her paint box under one arm.

  A van pulled up to the curb. It was painted all over with trees and vines and flowers. On one side was an alligator with the words GATOR GUIDES spilling out of its mouth.

  A tall man in boots, shorts, and a T-shirt hopped out. He had light hair and a deep tan. “Hey, kids, ready for a nice hike?” he said.

  “Hi, Jack!” the kids said. Josh and Ruth Rose piled into the back of the van as Jack climbed into the driver’s seat. Dink sat in the front passenger seat.

  “Buckle up!” Jack said.

  While the kids fastened their seat belts, Jack handed Dink a can of bug spray. “There will be a lot of flying critters where were going, he said.

  The kids sprayed their arms and legs while Jack guided the van through the busy city. Dink saw a lot of people jogging, walking dogs, or eating breakfast at little sidewalk tables. One woman strolled along with a parrot on her shoulder!

  “We’ll be hiking through a beautiful forest today,” Jack told the kids as he drove. “And we’ll meet those people I told you about.”

  “Why don’t they live in the city like everyone else?” Ruth Rose asked.

  “Not everyone likes city life,” Jack explained. “The folks you’ll meet today would rather live the old-fashioned way. They grow most of their own food and hunt or fish for the rest.”

  “But don’t they miss TV and computers?” Josh asked.

  Jack laughed. “The kids go to school in town, so they probably know about that stuff,” he said.

  “But without electricity, how do they cook?” Dink asked.

  “On open fires,” Jack said. “Most of them have simple stoves made from clay and rocks.”

  Dink pictured his parents cooking all their meals outside. He smiled.

  The road became narrower until the van was bumping along over gravel. Tall trees lined the road. Grayish green Spanish moss dripped from the branches. Through the open windows Dink could hear birds and smell sweet dampness.

  Jack’s cell phone started ringing. He pulled the van to the side of the road and stopped to chat for a minute.

  “That was my wife,” he told the kids after he hung up. “We’re expecting our first baby any day now!”

  “Cool!” Josh said as Jack continued driving. “Will you take him on hikes?”

  “The baby could just as easily be a girl, you know, Josh,” Ruth Rose said.

  “Either way, he or she will definitely be a hiker,” Jack said, grinning.

  Soon Jack parked the van in a small clearing off the road. Behind them was the sunny gravel road. In front was a dark wall of trees, moss, and thick shrubbery.

  The kids and Jack climbed out of the van. The air felt muggy, and tiny bugs flew around their faces.

  Jack slung his pack over one shoulder. Then he pointed to a brass plaque. The words OLD FOREST TRAIL had been stamped into the metal.

  “Here’s where the trail starts,” he said. “Watch the ground for tree roots!”

  “Are there any snakes around here?” Josh asked, stepping quickly to stay right behind Jack.

  “Probably,” Jack said. “But we won’t see them. As soon as they feel our footsteps, they’ll take off.”

  They walked single file. Jack was first, with Josh on his heels. Ruth Rose followed Josh, with Dink in the rear. The trail was narrow and it curved around trees. Moss hung in their faces and roots tried to trip them. The buzz of insects was everywhere.

  Dink’s skin felt sweaty. He noticed a few narrower trails leading off to the right and left. He was peering down one of these when suddenly he tripped, landing on his hands and knees.

  “You all right?” Jack said when he turned around.

  When Dink looked up, he saw a small sign nailed to a tree trunk. Someone had painted three words in red:

  They stared at the sign. Some of the paint had dripped down, giving the words a creepy look. Dink felt the hair on his arms stand up.

  “Zombie zone?” Josh said, almost in a whisper. “What does that mean?”

  “Beats me,” Jack said. “I’ve never seen this sign before, and I bring hikers out here a lot.”

  Jack moved closer to the sign. “This nail looks new,” he said. “See, it hasn’t had a chance to rust yet.”

  “It looks like they used blood,” Dink said.

  Jack touched a letter. “No, it’s just red paint.”

  “But who put the sign here?” asked Ruth Rose.

  Jack shrugged. “It could be a joke, just something to scare the tourists who hike here,” he said. “I’ve heard rumors that strange things have been happening around the cemetery near the village.”

  Josh gulped. “What kind of strange things?” he asked.

  “Well, some people swear they saw a zombie,” he said. “Zombies are part of the voodoo religion. I don’t know anyone who practices voodoo, but some people still believe in it. Let’s keep walking.”

  As the kids followed Jack, Dink thought about what he had told them about zombies. He felt goose bumps crawl up and down his arms.

  They hiked in silence for another few minutes. The dim trail widened into a sunny clearing. About twenty huts formed a half circle around the edges. Each hut had a porch, a garden, and a fire pit or homemade stove.

  The hut walls were made of logs, branches, and mud. The roofs had been built with sheets of tin, branches, and broad leaves.

  In the center of the clearing sat a larger building. It was at least four times as big as the others. Dink peeked in
side the open door and saw a lot of seats. He figured it was some kind of meeting place for the villagers.

  “Huh, that’s strange,” Jack said. “No one’s here.”

  Dink looked around, seeing no one in the gardens or on the porches. The only sounds were the insects and birds in the trees behind the huts.

  “Maybe the zombie stole everyone,” Josh whispered. He poked Dink in the back.

  “Don’t get creepy” Ruth Rose said.

  Dink tapped Jack on the arm. “There’s someone,” he said, pointing.

  A tall woman had stepped out of one of the huts and stood on the porch. Her gray hair fell almost to her waist. She wore a long dress that looked homemade. Her feet were bare.

  “Hello, Myrna,” Jack called. “I’d like you to meet Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose. They’re here on vacation. Where is everyone?”

  The woman named Myrna nodded at the kids. She pointed toward a small trail to the left of her hut. “They’re all in there, looking at the graves,” she said.

  Jack looked where she pointed.

  “In the cemetery? Why?” Jack asked.

  Myrna shook her head. “You go see,” she said. “Very bad voodoo.” Then she turned and walked back into her hut.

  “What’s going on?” Dink asked.

  “I don’t know, but let’s go find out,” Jack said.

  Jack led the kids past Myrna’s garden. They left the sunlit clearing and entered the woods on the shady path.

  A few minutes later, they came to a small cemetery. It was enclosed by an old iron fence. Moss from a tree branch covered part of the fence. Inside the cemetery, about thirty people were clustered in a bunch. Some of the people were shouting. A few were crying.

  “What’re they doing?” Ruth Rose asked.

  “I’ll find out,” Jack said. He walked over to the group, with the kids following. Jack knelt on a pile of red dirt next to an old man. In front of them both were two deep holes in the ground.

  “Two graves have been robbed this week,” the old man said to Jack. “My wife and I are afraid. She wants us to leave here now. She says we can’t stay near zombies.”

  Jack stood up, brushing red clay from his knees.

  “This isn’t a good time for us to be here,” he said quietly to the kids. “Let’s walk down to the water.”

  He led them down a narrow trail. It ended in a sandy clearing at the edge of a bay.

  “I heard that man say zombies robbed those graves,” Josh said. “But I thought zombies weren’t real!”

  “I don’t believe in them,” Jack said. “There must be another explanation.”

  “But who could have dug up the graves?” asked Ruth Rose.

  “I don’t know,” Jack said.

  “Maybe the grave robber is the same person who put up that sign we saw,” Dink said.

  Jack nodded. “Maybe,” he said. He waved an arm toward the water. “Nice view, huh?”

  The water was blue and still. Across the bay, they could see tall buildings on what looked like islands.

  “Who owns those boats?” Josh asked Jack. A few yards away, several wooden boats had been left on the beach.

  “The villagers,” Jack said. “They fish and catch crabs out here.”

  “Is this the Atlantic Ocean?” Dink asked.

  “No, it’s part of the Gulf of Mexico,” Jack said. He pointed out toward some of the islands. “The Gulf joins the Atlantic way past there, at the tip of Florida.”

  Jack took the kids on a hike along the water’s edge. They saw long-legged blue herons wading in the shallow water. Small fish darted away from the herons’ shadows. Jack pointed to a deer lying in the shade.

  “It’s so beautiful here,” Ruth Rose said. “And so quiet!”

  “I agree,” Jack said. “I’d love to buy a piece of this land and build a house here.”

  He opened his pack and pulled out four small bottles of water. They all sat on a log and sipped, watching the herons search for fish.

  Across the water, the sun flashed gold against the distant buildings.

  “How’d you like to camp out here tonight?” Jack asked. “We can cook our supper over a campfire.”

  “Excellent!” Josh said.

  “I’ll ask my grandmother at lunch,” Ruth Rose said. “But I know she’ll say-yes!”

  “Great! After I drop you off, I’ll do some grocery shopping,” Jack said.

  After their water break, Jack showed the kids how to identify different birds’ nests. He taught them how to spot poison ivy. He explained how to make tea and medicines from some plants.

  Jack looked at his watch. “You guys must be getting hungry,” he said. “It’s time to go back to town.”

  “I’m starving!” Josh said. “I don’t know if I can last till we get back to the hotel!”

  Dink laughed. “Well, you could always grab a raw fish like that heron,” he said.

  A half hour later, the kids met up with Ruth Rose’s grandmother in the hotel’s outside restaurant. She was sitting under an umbrella on the balcony that overlooked the street.

  “Gram, can we go camping with Jack tonight?” Ruth Rose asked her.

  “Of course,” her grandmother said just as the waiter appeared at their table.

  Everyone ordered cheeseburgers and lemonade. While they waited for their food, the kids told Ruth Rose’s grandmother about the zombie sign and the grave robber.

  “Who would steal dead bodies?” Ruth Rose asked.

  “People have been robbing graves for different reasons all through history,” her grandmother explained. “Sometimes robbers were searching for valuables that were buried with the bodies. Hundreds of years ago, a famous painter stole bodies so he could study the muscles and bones. He wanted his paintings of people to look as real as possible.”

  “Gross!” Josh said.

  At a nearby table, two men in suits and ties were drinking iced tea. Dink noticed that one of them kept glancing at their table. To Dink, it seemed as if he was trying to overhear what Ruth Rose’s grandmother was saying.

  Just then the waiter showed up with their food. No one talked about dead bodies as they ate.

  The next time Dink looked up, the two men were gone.

  At four o’clock the kids were waiting in front of the hotel. Jack’s van showed up a few minutes later.

  Jack opened the rear doors. “I brought a tent big enough for all three of you,” he told them.

  “Where will you sleep?” Ruth Rose asked.

  “In this.” Jack showed them a rolled-up string hammock.

  They all climbed in and buckled up. Jack joined the late-afternoon traffic.

  “Where are we going to camp?” Dink asked. He was sitting in the back with Josh, and Ruth Rose was up front with Jack.

  “How about near the water?” Jack asked. “Tomorrow morning, I’ll take you to see an alligator nest.”

  “They make nests?” Josh said. “Like birds?”

  “Not like birds. Mother alligators lay their eggs on the ground and cover them with vegetation,” Jack explained.

  Jack parked his van at the head of the trail. Between the four of them, they managed to carry the tent, Jack’s hammock, and two small food coolers.

  They took a different trail to the bay this time, and soon came to the clearing at the water’s edge.

  “Just dump everything near the boats,” Jack said. “We’ll get your tent set up before it gets dark.”

  Josh peeked under one of the upside-down boats. “There are no alligators here, right, Jack?” he asked.

  “No, it’s too open,” he said. “But they often hunt at night. When it gets darker, look for two yellow spots in the water. Alligator eyes reflect light, so our campfire will help us see them.”

  As Jack and the kids set up camp, their shadows grew longer. Soon the sun was behind the trees.

  After the tent was up, Jack hung his hammock between two trees. He gave the kids some containers. “Fill these with water,” he said.

&n
bsp; “We have to drink salt water?” Josh asked. “Yucko!”

  “No, we’ll need it to put out our campfire later tonight,” Jack explained. “I brought bottled water for drinking.”

  The kids walked to the water, which was only about twenty feet from their tent.

  As Josh stooped to fill his jug, Dink dropped his hand on Josh’s shoulder. “Is that an alligator?” he whispered. “I see two eyes!”

  “Duh,” Josh said. “I guess I can tell a floating branch from a reptile!”

  Ruth Rose joined in. “But … but that branch is swimming toward you!”

  “Very funny” Josh said. He lugged his container back to Jack.

  “Just set the water by that tree,” Jack said as he scooped a depression in the sand. He made a wall around it with rocks and damp sand.

  Then the kids helped him find dead twigs and branches. Soon they were sitting around a cheery blaze. The dancing flames made all their faces look ghostly. Dink thought of zombies and alligators. He scooted a little closer to the fire.

  “Okay who wants hot dogs, lemonade, and marshmallows?” Jack asked.

  “We do!” Josh yelled.

  Jack opened the coolers and began pulling out tons of food.

  The kids roasted their dogs and ate them by the fire. By the time they had finished their marshmallows, stars were visible. The moon was full and partly hidden by clouds. A few lights flickered way out in the Gulf.

  Dink was the first one to yawn. Then everyone else started yawning. They covered the fire embers with sand, and Jack doused the pit with water from the bay.

  “Sleep tight,” he said as the kids crawled into the tent.

  “You guys can sleep near the opening,” Josh said. He crawled to the farthest end of the roomy tent.

  “Why?” Dink asked. “You usually like to sleep by the door.”

  Josh pulled off his shirt and used it for a pillow. “Yeah, but this way if an alligator crawls in here,” he said, “he’ll eat you and Ruth Rose first!”