1 Be careful! I glanced down from where I was clinging to the wall. Sophie s worried face peered up at me. I m fine, I shouted. It s easy! I swung my leg across to the next grip. You re not supposed to be up there without a harness, Sophie called. We were alone in the school gym, a massive building with windows lining the tops of the walls. Three huge lights hung from the roof. They were surrounded by metal cages, which I guessed protected them from stray balls. 1
Attached to one side was the new climbing wall. It had been installed a few days ago, although we d been banned from using it until the safety gear arrived. But today the PE teacher was late and everyone else was mucking around outside on the oval. I wasn t going to let this chance slip past. I grabbed a grip above my head and hauled myself higher. I can t watch! I ignored Sophie. There was no way I d fall, and even if I did, it wouldn t matter. 2
You see, the truth is I m a zombie. Being a zombie means I m already dead, or undead, if you want to see it that way. So I m pretty sure I can t die again. Not that I ve ever tested that theory, but it seems logical, right? Although, to be fair, I m not a Me full zombie. Sure, I m not exactly alive, but I m not a lurching, eat-yourface-off monster either. Technically I m a half zombie, which means I ve got infrared vision and I m stronger and faster than pretty much anyone else on the planet. It also means that, even though I kind of want to eat brains occasionally, I haven t actually killed anyone to get them. 3 Luckily I don t look like this. Yet.
Yet. I reached up again. I was almost at the top of the climbing wall now I just needed to get to the next grip. But it was too high; I could barely scrape it with my fingertips. The only way I d be able to grab it was if I jumped. I bent my knees. Ben! shrieked Sophie. Don t! Adrenaline flooded my body. That always happened when I was about to use my zombie abilities. I leant back slightly and gazed up at the grip. The muscles in my legs tensed. I let go of the wall and sprang upwards. But just as my hands and feet left the wall, my eyes switched to infrared vision. Man! That was annoying! I mean, having superpowers sounds awesome, but nobody ever tells you how hard they are to control. 4
My eyes felt like they were being burnt by red-hot pokers. I snapped them shut just as my hand closed around the grip. It slipped through my fingers and then I was falling. AAAGGGHHH! Sophie screamed. I hit the floor with a crash and lay still for a few seconds, wondering if I was even more dead than before. BEN! shouted Sophie, rushing over to me. Are you OK? I opened my eyes a crack, but my infrared vision was still active. I shut them again. I m pretty sure Sophie shook my shoulder. I looked like this Ben. BEN! It s OK, I wanted to say, but all I could manage was a groan. Don t move, she said, jumping up and 5
running toward the doors at the far end of the gym. I ll get help! NNNNGGGGHHHH! I tried to stop her. I didn t want to get into trouble for climbing the wall without permission. And, even more importantly, I didn t want anyone finding out about my secret. Nobody knows I m a zombie and that s the way I want to keep it. If anyone finds out, I ll be locked up in a lab somewhere, or worse, grounded! Not even Sophie, who is my best friend, knows the truth. She was with me when it happened, but luckily she can t remember a thing about it. In a few seconds the sound of her footsteps had faded. Great! I was stuck. There was no way I could open my eyes until my infrared vision switched off, but I had no control over that. I d only been infected for about a month, so 6
I still wasn t very good at using my zombie powers. I tried to open my eyes again. AAAGGGHHH! Nope. A bit of dribble ran down my cheek. I tried to close my mouth, but I couldn t move it. Keeping my eyes shut, I felt around my face. My jaw was in the wrong place. I held it with both hands and straightened it up. There was a grinding noise and finally I could open and close my mouth again, though it was still pretty stiff. I wriggled the toes on each foot. Then I opened and closed my fingers. Everything seemed to be working. Now, if only my normal vision would come back. When my infrared switched on and off, it felt like a tiny pair of window wipers sliding across my eyeballs. I was sure there was a trick to controlling it, but I couldn t figure it out. Infrared works by 7
magnifying heat and making it really bright. Super bright. That s why it hurts so much when it switches on unexpectedly during the day. I was about to try opening my eyes again when there was a noise from the other end of the gym. You re blubbering, girl. I m sure he s intact. This is no excuse to stop the star-jumps, people! Hup ninetyone, hup ninety-two, hup ninety-three My heart sank. Miss Guide had arrived. 8