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They were leering, licking their lips, and stretching their arms in her direction!

She gulped, but instead of receiving the assistance she needed, exactly no one was jumping out of those bushes to apprehend those two zombies!

“Um, you guys,” she said, raising her voice. “I could use some help here!”

The two zombies were grinning, their dead eyes flashing with delight.

She yelled a startled cry, and then teetered in the other direction. Their fingers twitching, they lumbered after her, moving a lot faster than she had anticipated.

She’d always thought zombies were slow, but these dudes were fast!

They absolutely looked the part, though: their faces were covered with open sores, their skin was veiny and almost translucent, peeling in places, and their hands were clawing the air like nobody’s business. Yup. Zombies. Actual reallive zombies!

So she sped up, and was now drawing even with Chase and Alec’s bushes again.

“Guys!” she said. “Now would be a good time!”

And as one man, the two cops finally sprang from their hiding place and accosted the zombies, who were completely taken by surprise. But instead of complying, one of the zombies hauled off and smacked Chase on the nose, while the other kicked Alec’s shin.

Chase reeled back, and Uncle Alec danced a one-legged jig. The upshot was that when Odelia looked up, the two zombies were gone! Vanished into thin air, like a pair of ghosts.

“I’ll be damned,” said Libby as she, too, emerged from her bush. “Did you see that?”

“Yes, I saw that, Libby,” said Odelia, disappointed by this mission failure.

“Where are they?” asked Chase, sufficiently recovered to ask a pertinent question.

“They went that way,” said Jonah, his camera still pointing in the direction the zombies had disappeared. He now swung it right into Odelia’s face. She pushed it away. She was not in the mood for cameras being directed anywhere near her person.

She looked in the direction indicated, but there was no sign of the zombies.

“Can you walk?” asked Chase in a nasally voice and still clutching his nose.

“Yeah, yeah,” said Odelia’s uncle, looking both annoyed and embarrassed.

“Chase, you’re bleeding!” said Odelia, who only now noticed that her boyfriend had blood all over his face and shirt.

“It’s fine,” he said. “I don’t think it’s broken.”

“Why didn’t you give chase?” asked Uncle Alec.

“With these shoes?” she said.

“Well, you have to admit the plan worked,” said Chase, holding a tissue to his bleeding and damaged snout. “Pamela got one zombie, you got two.”

“And we got the whole thing on tape!” said Libby triumphantly. “So if you post this, we can prove that what the Chief and this Pamela Witherspoon person said was true: There are zombies in Hampton Cove, and they’re attacking innocent women at night!”

“Now if only we could catch them,” said Alec. He’d lost his beard somehow.

“Hey, weirdo!” a man driving past yelled. “Got lost on your way to the North Pole?”

A Coke can came sailing in Uncle Alec’s direction and hit him right in the chest. Coke splashed everywhere, ruining his nice Santa suit.

“Hey!” he shouted, but the guy was already gone, the car speeding up and turning a corner, tires screeching. “No respect,” he muttered as he wiped the Coke from his suit.

Odelia sighed.“Well, I guess we better call it a night, you guys.” She glanced down, expecting to see Max and Brutus. She frowned. “Where are my cats?”

“Oh, I think they went after the zombies,” said Libby now.

“What?”

“Yeah, I saw them chase the zombies.”

This night just kept getting better and better. Not!

Chapter 14

The moment those zombies started running, Brutus gave me a poke in the ribs, and yelled,“Let’s go, go, go!” and then we were running, too.

Unfortunately cats aren’t really built for marathons, more for sprints, and so by the time we came to the end of the street, I was completely exhausted. Brutus, who’s more fit than I am, was still going well. Though, he, too, was clearly feeling the strain.

Lucky for us, the zombies must have experienced the same thing, for they had slowed down, and were now lumbering like before, arms outstretched, and staggering along the street. And then they disappeared into the park.

“Let’s follow them at a distance,” Brutus suggested.

“I thought you wanted to smash their brains in with your secret weapon?” I said.

“Okay. I might as well tell you now. I had actually planned to jump on top of the zombie’s head and dig my claws into his temples, penetrating his brain and rendering it useless. At that point the zombie would simply fall to the ground. Only I hadn’t counted on there being two zombies insteadof just the one. It kinda ruined my super plan.”

“I don’t think you can actually reach into a person’s brains by digging your claws into their temples, though,” I said. “Your claws are too short to reach optimum penetration.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” he said. “I guess I need bigger claws.”