Better Off Undead

  “I almost forgot, Zander,” Ms. Fjord said, tapping the side of her head to signal forgetfulness. “I received some great news yesterday about your application. It’s not official yet, but a friend of mine on the committee told me that you’ve been selected as the winner of the Young Beekeeper Award.”

  “What? Really?!” An enormous smile was plastered across Zander’s bandaged face. He impulsively hugged Ms. Fjord, almost lifting her off the ground. “Thank you, thank you!”

  “It wasn’t me,” she said, laughing. “It was you, Zander. You did all the work—you deserve it. I’m so proud of you. And I’m happy for the honeybees, too.”

  “Looks like you’ll have your own hive soon,” Gia said to Zander, patting his back. “As long as there are people like you around, the honeybees have a chance.”

  “Yes,” I added, “but no Twizzler is safe.”

  GIA

  We’d hiked for an hour when I paused, sniffing the air. My sense of smell was back. I leaned against a rock, unshouldered my pack, and pulled out a water bottle. “Want some?” I asked Gia.

  She took it and drank deeply.

  “How much did you know?” I asked her.

  She handed the bottle back to me, raised a quizzical eyebrow.

  “You know what I mean,” I said. “The fight outside Leo’s, the train derailment, even hiring Talal in the first place. You know things before they happen.”

  Gia shrugged. “It’s hard to explain.”

  “Try,” I said.

  “I always loved nature.” She leaned back and opened her arms wide. “It’s always been my happy place, ever since I was a little girl. But that day with the bees, when I got stung so many times …

  “Something in me changed that day.”

  She fell silent, head tilted to the ground. After a long pause, she looked back up at me. “Sometimes I can feel events coming together. Most aspects about the future are blank, just darkness and silence. It’s not like I can predict when we’re going to have a math quiz.”

  “What about me?”

  “You?” Gia smiled. “I could foresee our paths converging. Maybe that’s just a girl thing.”

  “Intuition,” I said.

  Gia smiled. “Like the queen bee said, it all connects.”

  I looked around. We were on a loop trail in a small forest preserve. I’d never been to this place before, though it was only a long bike ride from my house. Maybe Gia knew where we were going all along—I couldn’t be sure.

  “Gia Demeter,” I said. “That’s an interesting name.”

  “I’m glad you think so.”

  I said, “Demeter is a name in Greek mythology—she’s a goddess of the earth. She created winter, or so the story goes, by grieving the absence of her daughter, Persephone.”

  “You’ve done your homework,” Gia said. “It was also said that she had the power to give life after death to those who learn her mysteries.”

  “The name Gia threw me,” I said. “Then I stumbled upon Gaia, the great mother of all, according to Greek myth.”

  “Interesting,” Gia said. She took another swig of water.

  “You like this place, don’t you?”

  “I love it,” she answered, raising her eyes to take in the tall trees. “I feel connected to the earth in a deep way.”

  “I can see that.”

  She sat beside me on the rock. “The Japanese have an expression, shinrin-yoku. It means ‘forest bathing.’ I believe in it.”

  “Like sunbathing?”

  “Exactly,” she said. “The idea is that it’s healthy to spend time in the forest, surrounded by the natural world. Forests are magical places.”

  Two birds swooped overhead, darting into the branches. Not drones, not spies, but real birds.

  “Cave swallows, I think,” Gia identified them, again seeming to read my thoughts. “Not from around here, but climate change affects us all.”

  “I wish I knew you before … you know, this.”

  “Before you died?” Gia asked.

  I nodded, looking away. “This isn’t who I really am.”

  Gia laughed, one short burst: “Ha! That’s ridiculous, Adrian. Nobody knows who they really are! It’s a journey. We discover ourselves along the way.”

  “Yeah, but…”

  “Nature adapts,” Gia said. “Nature survives. The earth is something worth fighting for, just like you.”

  “Thanks,” I said, hoisting up my pack. “You ready?”

  “Almost,” Gia said.

  She placed her hand on my chest, leaned in, and pressed her lips to mine.

  “Sweet Adrian,” she said.

  I felt the sting from her fingertips. A short, sharp injection, followed by a tingling sensation. Blood pumping in and out, in and out.

  Tu-tump, tu-tump, tu-tump.

  A magical thrum.

  My heartbeat.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Special thanks to Jen Ford—for help with the bees. And to my oldest son, Nicholas, who read and commented and cautioned me throughout the process. The fine work of Bill McKibben, both in his writing and in his activism, has long been an inspiration and source of light. And to my editor, Liz Szabla, who let this book happen in its own sweet, agonizing time. I began taking notes, writing scenes, and sketching character studies back in 2010. Liz has encouraged me unfailingly throughout, including during the long silences of rumination and self-doubt. This book doesn’t happen without Liz.

  Thank you for reading this Feiwel and Friends book.

  The Friends who made

  possible are:

  JEAN FEIWEL, Publisher

  LIZ SZABLA, Associate Publisher

  RICH DEAS, Senior Creative Director

  HOLLY WEST, Editor

  ALEXEI ESIKOFF, Senior Managing Editor

  RAYMOND ERNESTO COLÓN, Production Manager

  ANNA ROBERTO, Editor

  CHRISTINE BARCELLONA, Associate Editor

  KAT BRZOZOWSKI, Editor

  ANNA POON, Assistant Editor

  EMILY SETTLE, Administrative Assistant

  STARR BAER, Production Editor

  CAROL LY, Designer

  Follow us on Facebook or visit us online at mackids.com.

  OUR BOOKS ARE FRIENDS FOR LIFE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  James Preller is the author of numerous books, including the acclaimed novels Bystander, The Fall, and The Courage Test, and the Scary Tales and Jigsaw Jones series. He lives in Delmar, New York, with his wife and their children.

  Visit him online at jamespreller.com, or sign up for email updates here.

  Thank you for buying this

  Feiwel & Friends ebook.

  To receive special offers, bonus content,

  and info on new releases and other great reads,

  sign up for our newsletters.

  Or visit us online at

  us.macmillan.com/newslettersignup

  For email updates on the author, click here.

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  Mirror, Mirror

  How I Died

  Drink Plenty of Fluids

  Our Super-Normal Dinner

  Middle School Blues

  Zander Donnelly

  Trouble in P.E.

  Sticks and Stones

  The Girl Who Could Read Minds

  Dead Bat on the Side of the Road

  Fight

  Not Really

  Actually

  Hamburgers and Gas Masks

  Talal Mirwani, Private Eye

  Drone Above

  Morning Announcements

  Talal Clues Me In

  Under a Hologram Sky

  Gia’s Story

  A New Day, a New Me

  Tin Man

  Crows

  Working the Case

  Hive Mind

  Daryl Bites Back

  Zander’s Revenge

 
; Man with a Thin White Scar

  Kristoff and Kalvin

  The Hunger

  Setting the Trap

  A Real, Flesh-Eating Zombie

  Talal Pays a Visit

  Then, Suddenly, Gone

  A Secret Revealed

  When It Rains

  Fire

  By the Clear Morning Light

  Gia

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Text copyright © 2017 by James Preller. Illustrations © 2017 by Andrew Arnold.

  A Feiwel and Friends Book

  An imprint of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC

  175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010

  mackids.com

  All rights reserved.

  Feiwel and Friends logo designed by Filomena Tuosto

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

  Our eBooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at (800) 221-7945 ext. 5442 or by e-mail at [email protected].

  First hardcover edition, 2017

  eBook edition, October 2017

  eISBN 9781250066497