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“They’ve got to do something, Jonah. If this zombie epidemic continues to spread, it might take over the entire island, then the state, and then the country!”

“Oh, they’ll contain it, have no fear. They have experience with this sort of thing.”

“How do you know so much about all this zombie stuff?”

“Because I watch YouTube, silly!” he said. “And you should, too.”

Jonah was a conspiracy buff, and liked all those weird conspiracy websites where everything that happened, from the big news stories to the mundane, was turned into a conspiracy. Frankly Libby found the whole thing a little tiring, and had always wondered how Jonah could stand to watch that nonsense. But now, with this zombie thing happening, she had to admit that maybe there was some truth to his crazy theories.

“Too bad we can’t get any reception,” she said as she checked her phone again. “Otherwise we could transmit the footage now, and tell Lionel what’s going on.”

Lionel Noonan was their editor, and would be over the moon when he heard what they’d stumbled into down here.

“Let’s go back to the house,” said Jonah. “Nothing is happening and I’m starving.”

Careful to stay out of sight, they retreated from their position and started making their way back to town. They had to be careful and avoid military patrols, but apart from that it was all very exciting, Libby had to admit. Except for the constant fear that she, too, would turn into a zombie. But if that happened, Jonah had promised her, he’d make sure he got the whole transition on tape. And then bash her head in in a mercy killing.

A very comforting thought indeed.

They arrived back at the Poole house and snuck inside. It was weird walking down streets that were completely deserted, and past houses whose front doors were still open and where toys littered the front lawns. On the streets, children’s bikes lay immobile, and cars haphazardly sat parked in the middle of the road. Almost as if its occupants had all suddenly been beamed up, or disintegrated.

One moment the town had been teeming with life, and the next… nothing.

She walked up to the fridge when she saw a note stuck to it with a pineapple magnet.

‘Going to check out Peppard Pet Food Company. Suspicious activity reported by Clarice. Gran. PS: no one touch my hormone shake (the green bottle). I mean it!’

Libby smiled and saw that, indeed, a green bottle was in the fridge. In fact an entire collection of green bottles, and they all had a warning written on them:‘Do Not Touch! I’m not kidding!’

Yep. Grandma Muffin was not a lady to be trifled with. She took out a bottle of orange juice and took a sip, then wondered how Vesta had managed to escape capture by the military. And what she meant by suspicious activity at the Peppard Pet Food Company.

She vaguely remembered Odelia telling her something about her pets wrangling an invitation to enter some kind of testing program at Peppard’s, and now this.

“Jonah?” she said when her partner in crime ambled into the kitchen. “Look at this.”

Jonah read the note, and shrugged.“So?”

“Why would Vesta find it necessary to go to this Peppard place now, with this zombie thing happening? And who is Clarice?”

“Probably a friend of hers. Who cares? Vesta is obviously a nutcase.”

“I think she’s actually pretty clever. Eccentric, sure, but not a nut.”

Jonah was peering into the fridge and not liking what he saw.

“Wanna go over there and check it out?”

“No, I definitely don’t want to visit a pet food company, Libby. What’s the news value?”

“I’m not sure, but I’ve got this hunch.”

“You and your hunches. Remember you had a hunch Bill Gates was actually a woman named Jill?”

“Okay, fine. I dropped the ball on that one. But this time I’m sure there’s something there. Vesta wouldn’t go off on a wild-goose chase. She’s much too smart for that. I’m sure this is connected to the zombie thing.”

“And I’m hungry and I don’t want to risk going outside and running into a military patrol and getting locked up in that camp. Pretty sure the food is terrible in there.”

“Fine,” she said. “Then I’ll go by myself.”

He looked up.“Are you nuts? You can’t go by yourself. What if you get caught? Then I’ll be all alone out here, without my reporter. You know I can’t ad-lib, Libby.”

“So come with me. If it turns out to be nothing, no harm done. Besides, Vesta is still the main topic of our documentary, and we shouldn’t leave her side no matter what.”

“Yeah, as if that documentary will ever see the light of day.”

She made for the door.“See you later,” she said. “Don’t wait up.”

“Hey, wait!”

And then he was trailing after her. She smiled.“Can’t miss me, can you, pardner?”

“How am I going to win my Pulitzer without my trusty reporter?”

She rolled her eyes.“You’re a real prince, aren’t you, Jonah Zappa?”

“And don’t I know it.”

And then they were off, for another long trek through Hampton Cove. If nothing else, she would have lost at least five pounds by the time this assignment was finally over.

Chapter 35

“Fred Peppard! I had no idea you werethat Fred!” said Gran.