App of the Living Dead

by App of the Living Dead (retail) (epub)

  “It might feel good to unload your conscience,” Willa said, “if you have one.”

  Preston’s chest rose and fell as he took a big breath. He lowered himself down to his chair. “They were real games, everywhere else in the world. The variations were only in the games downloaded here in town.”

  “Variations,” I repeated with disgust. He said it like he’d offered the people of Wolcott a new flavor of Popsicle rather than put their lives in danger. Anger leaked into my voice. “So everyone else in the world got normal games and we got . . . variations.”

  “I needed a testing ground.” He tapped his fingers nervously on the arms of the chair. “It only made sense to do it in the town where we’re headquartered.”

  “You know what would have made better sense?” Willa snapped. “Not doing it at all!”

  He shook his head sadly. The bags under his eyes seemed to sag, and he looked much older than twenty-four. “You kids would never understand.”

  “Try us,” Charlie said. “Tell us why.”

  Preston stood up from his chair and began to pace around the office. “My father gave me a million dollars to start this company.”

  “Rough life,” Marcus said. “The struggle is real.”

  Preston ignored him and continued. “I blew through his initial investment. I mismanaged everything. But I couldn’t go crawling back to him asking for more. I couldn’t shut down the company and admit that I’d failed!”

  “Yeah, destroying an entire town is a great way to save face,” I said.

  “That wasn’t supposed to happen!” He dragged his hands through his gelled hair, making it stick straight up. “I accepted the contract because I needed the money. I never thought anything bad would happen.”

  “What was the contract for, then?” Marcus asked.

  “The variation on Monsters Unleashed was to see if we could get video game characters to affect the real world. They wanted to see if, down the line, they could create video game armies and sell those to governments. Something like that could save human lives! So I ran a small test in town with cute monsters.”

  “Cute?” Charlie snapped. “A SpiderFang nearly killed me!”

  Preston waved his hand dismissively. “I never thought it would work. I thought I’d just take the money and move forward with my regular games.”

  And maybe, if we hadn’t been playing around with that machine in Grandpa Tepper’s attic, it wouldn’t have worked. The old machine belonged to an ex-Veratrum employee and was the catalyst that kicked it all off. But I wasn’t going to volunteer that information to Mr. Evil Genius here so he could figure out why it happened and create more disasters with it.

  “What about Alien Invasion?” I asked. “What secret test was in there?”

  “We were experimenting with teleportation, with a goal of quickly moving supplies or eventually people from one place to another. But the test never worked. I heard rumors that actual aliens got teleported here to town, but I never saw any. I even sent a guy to do surveillance and he said it was a bust.”

  The test did work. But only in combination with an astrophysicist’s work-in-progress alien-contacting machine at the observatory. And that “guy” followed us around in a white van with a fake plumbing logo on the side. Like we didn’t know how to check business names online to see if they were real.

  Preston may have thought he had a handle on his games, but he didn’t count on how they would interact with outside software and hardware. It was like the time my phone downloaded an update and my unrelated weather app started to insist I was in India. He could never have predicted or tested for me to be using a game next to an outdated Veratrum device or the machine at the observatory. He thought he was in control, but he wasn’t.

  “And Zombie Town?” Willa asked.

  Preston gazed at the floor. “This is when I really started to get uncomfortable. They wanted to test mind-control. To see if we could create zombie soldiers out of regular people.”

  “And even though you were ‘uncomfortable,’ you did it anyway,” Willa sneered. “This is all your fault.”

  Preston sat back down heavily in his chair. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this. The test went off too soon.”

  I leaned forward. “Excuse me?”

  “I signed the contract to keep my company afloat. I figured I could keep everything safe here in town. But after the monsters got unleashed, I knew this was the wrong path. I told them I was out. They’d have to find another developer to work with. But they wouldn’t release me from the contract. They wouldn’t let me stop. They said they’d leak what happened to the press. I’d get blamed. My company would be shut down. My career would be over.”

  “So you made ‘variations’ on two more games,” I prodded.

  “I didn’t see any way out. I couldn’t tell my father what I’d gotten involved in.”

  My hands clenched into fists. I couldn’t believe this was all because of some selfish dweeb and his daddy issues.

  He continued, “I knew the Zombie Town code wasn’t ready, but they said I had to launch the test right away.”

  “Why rush it?” Charlie asked.

  Preston groaned in frustration. “We had a whistleblower. I don’t know who, but one of my employees was feeding information to the cops.”

  Detective Palamidis’s appointment. It all made sense now.

  “The test didn’t go well,” Preston said as a moaning zombie shuffled past the office. “Obviously. But I figured things would course-correct like they did before. I waited in here. But nothing is happening.”

  I held a finger up. “Um, what do you mean ‘course-correct’?”

  Preston shrugged. “Monsters got unleashed into town and then disappeared. Aliens might have been here, but I never saw them; so if they were, they disappeared, too. I figured the zombies would also go that way.”

  Willa spoke through gritted teeth. “You think the monsters and aliens magically went away? It. Was. Us. We saved the town.”

  “You kids?” He gave a dismissive snort. “How?”

  “We caught every single monster,” I said. “One by one. A SpiderFang nearly ate Charlie!”

  Charlie shuddered at the memory and added, “And we captured all of the aliens and transported them back home after a code rewrite.”

  Preston gawked at him. “You’re the one who reversed that line of code in Alien Invasion?”

  “They did it,” Charlie said, pointing to Marcus and me.

  “You’re, what, middle school kids?” he asked, his voice tinged with disbelief.

  Marcus shrugged. “Yeah. And we’ve spent the last few days curing as many zombies as we could while you were hiding in your office.”

  Preston stared blankly for a moment, then his face crumbled. “It should be you,” he said, his voice trembling, “running a company like this. Not me.”

  Marcus and I glanced at each other and smiled.

  “Maybe someday,” I said. Gamer Squad would be a great name for a game development company. “But flattering us isn’t going to get you anywhere right now.”

  Charlie crossed his arms in front of his chest. “We want you to promise, if we make it out of this one alive, that it’s the last mess you create. Veratrum Games is shut down, immediately and forever.”

  I softened my voice. “I know it’s going to feel bad, telling your father that your company is gone. But you have to do the right thing, even if it’s uncomfortable.”

  Preston hunched his shoulders. “You’re right. I can’t go on like this. It’s gone too far this time.”

  “You promise Veratrum is done? No more shady contracts?” Willa asked.

  He nodded. “That company won’t even want to work with me anymore after this disaster. It’s over.”

  I exhaled loudly. I almost couldn’t believe it. We’d meticulously crafted a plan and it had all worked. Our gamer army was out curing zombies. We’d stopped Veratrum forever. Now we just had to get out of here, and we could join our army
and cure zombies until every last person in Wolcott was human again. We could do it. Hope rose in me like an old friend I hadn’t spent time with in a while.

  My phone buzzed in my pocket. Charlie’s started chirping. Then Willa’s, Marcus’s, and even Jason’s phone. People were trying to reach us all at once.

  I slid my phone out of my pocket and scrolled through the panicked incoming texts. “Something’s wrong,” I said. “All the zombies are at the middle school. All at once.”

  “Our gamer army is overwhelmed,” Charlie said, his voice worried. “Why would the zombies suddenly all go to one place?”

  “Ohhhhhh,” Preston said slowly.

  I gritted my teeth. “What?”

  He let out a shaky breath. “There was another line of code in Zombie Town that the buyer requested. They wanted the zombies to be able to assemble.”

  Charlie and I shared a look. “What does that mean?” I asked.

  “It’s a built-in feature that forces the zombies to assemble in one place. To attack an enemy target, let’s say. Rather than having the zombies mindlessly wander, they all descend upon the target at once.”

  “And you didn’t think that was important information for us to have after we told you we’ve built up a gamer army?” Willa screeched. “Our army is the enemy target!”

  Preston raised his hands into the air. “I didn’t think it would happen. The code was in there, but it wasn’t finished. I didn’t fill in the trigger variable so I figured it wouldn’t work.”

  “You figured,” I repeated, seething. “And this is why you shouldn’t be making games. You push out unfinished code without testing and are shocked when something unexpected happens.”

  “They made me run it before I was ready!” he yelled.

  “Oh, sure, it’s all their fault,” I snapped back.

  “Guys,” Marcus said. “Arguing about it isn’t helping our gamer army.”

  “He’s right,” I said, standing. “We have to go help them. Now!”

  Charlie glanced at the office door. “Quick question. How do we get out?”

  Marcus peered through the small window beside the office door. “I see only a few zombies milling about on this floor. We could take them.”

  Willa chewed on her thumbnail. “Yeah, but there are a lot more downstairs. Plus the parking lot.”

  Preston’s forehead scrunched up. “How did you manage to get through all of the zombies to get up here?”

  “A little firecracker distraction,” Jason explained. “But we don’t have any more.”

  Charlie was suspiciously quiet. He paced the room, checking out every nook and cranny with his thinking face on.

  I sidled up next to him. “Any ideas?”

  “Just because the firecrackers are gone, that doesn’t mean we can’t find another distraction.” He stopped at Preston’s desk and pointed at a small box. “What’s this?”

  “It’s an intercom,” Preston said. “I can use it to talk to people in conference rooms.”

  “So you speak into this box and the voice comes out in the conference room?” Charlie asked. “Which one?”

  “Whichever one I want,” Preston answered. “Even all of them.”

  My heart sped up. We’d passed a couple of conference rooms on our way that had their doors open. I wondered . . . “How loud can you make it?”

  Preston shrugged. “I don’t make it a point to yell at my employees, but I suppose I could be really loud if I tried.”

  Charlie and I shared a look. Willa, Marcus, and Jason moved closer.

  “This is how we escape,” I said. “We lure the zombies into conference rooms and then walk right out the east side door. The parking lot zombies will still mostly be around the west side of the building.”

  “One problem,” Charlie said. “Someone would have to stay behind to keep talking into the intercom.”

  I closed my eyes. Of course. I didn’t think of that.

  “I’ll do it,” Preston said.

  My eyes snapped open. “What?”

  He nodded quickly like he was convincing himself. “You kids go. I owe you at least this much.”

  “Are you sure?” Marcus said. “We can’t have you chickening out halfway through and getting us all zombified.”

  Preston stuck his chin out confidently. “Yes, I’m sure.”

  “Once we help our gamer army with the horde, we’ll send some people back for you,” I promised.

  “Sure,” he said, but almost like he didn’t believe it. Like he didn’t think we’d survive.

  “We have to go now,” Charlie said, looking at his phone. “They need us.”

  “Don’t worry,” Preston said. “I can talk for a long time.”

  I believed it.

  He took a deep breath and pressed the button on the intercom. Then he yelled at the top of his lungs, “Good day, zombies!”

  I cringed and Willa put her hands over her ears. Preston was right. He could get loud.

  He continued at a frenzied pitch. “Today, in your nearest conference room, we have a sale on brains! Yummy, yummy brains! Don’t you want some! You have no idea what I’m saying so I’m just going to yell anything! I’M NOT AFRAID OF YOU, DAD! I’M DOING THE RIGHT THING NOW!”

  While Preston began his own personal therapy session with the intercom, we peeked out the office door. The zombies on this floor seemed to be in a big rush to get to the far corner, where an open door led to a suddenly noisy conference room. It was working!

  We slipped out of the office and strode down the hall to the stairwell. At least we already knew that was clear. Jason pulled open the gray metal door and we hustled inside.

  “One floor done,” Charlie said.

  “Yeah, the easy floor,” Willa said worriedly.

  In a single-file line, we raced down the steps, then huddled around the door to the first floor. I reached a hand out toward the cool metal. Anything could be waiting on the other side. That cool zombie chick. Or all the first-floor zombies, gathered around like hungry dogs at dinnertime. I hoped the intercoms were working down here, too. I threw my weight against the door, and we emptied out into the hall.

  Nothing.

  Preston’s voice carried from a nearby conference room. “Remember, zombies, this sale on brains is today only! Fifty percent off! Left brain, right brain, eat your favorite!”

  “I think he’s losing it,” Willa whispered.

  “As long as it works,” I said.

  We ducked for cover inside a nearby cubicle. Marcus peeked his head over the top to take a look.

  “One or two stragglers are still making their way toward the conference room,” he said, “but all the others are already inside looking for the source of the noise.”

  “Do we have a clear path to the east side exit?” Charlie asked.

  Marcus nodded. “Just try to keep your heads lower than the cube walls.”

  We hurried toward the door, heads down, mouths shut. So far, all the zombies were attracted to Preston’s voice. We needed to not make any sound that would lure them toward us.

  When we reached the east side exit, Charlie pushed the door open and held it until we were all out. I held up my hand against the bright sunlight until my eyes adjusted. The zombies had moved on from the firecracker distraction and were clamoring at the fence on the west side. They were trying to get to the school. That assemble code did one good thing. It gave us a clear path back to the car.

  Jason even drove better on the way to the middle school. He only hit one mailbox. I guess practice does help.

  But when he slammed on the brakes at the entrance to the school lot, we all gasped at the sight before us. It was even worse than I’d imagined. Our gamer army was surrounded by more zombies than I could count.

  And even more zombies were pouring in—from the street, the woods, the spaces between houses. The parking lot looked as packed as a football tailgate party. There were so many zombies that they were even tripping on one another and falling into zombie
pile-ons, like a strange undead version of wrestling.

  It was an actual, living nightmare.

  And we had to go help them.

  The five of us hopped out of the SUV and immediately started tossing cures. Some of our gamer army people were still standing, fighting in the middle of the growing pack. But many of them had been turned back into zombies already.

  It was chaos. Three zombies came at me. Marcus pushed one away while I tossed cures at the other two. But a fourth came up behind me, grabbing my shoulder. I twisted and turned. Willa and Charlie tossed cures to save me. Somewhere in the scrum, I got hit in the nose with a flying elbow. My eyes watered, making everything blurry.

  “We need a strategy,” Jason said.

  “He’s right,” Charlie called out. “Fan out in a line. Don’t move forward. Let the zombies come toward us and cure them one at a time. If everyone stays focused and clears the zombies in front of them, this may work.”

  It was a good plan. Most of the undead were huddled toward the center, surrounding our gamer army and closing in fast. If we busted into that crowd, we’d get overwhelmed just like they were. This way, we could pick them off one by one from the outside, dwindling their numbers, like a shark does to a school of fish.

  “Remember,” Charlie yelled. “No distractions. Focus on the zombies right in front of you.”

  I checked the battery life on my phone. Over 50 percent. I was in good shape. A zombie lumbered toward me, a guy about my dad’s age, wearing jeans and a flannel shirt. I hit him square in the head with my first shot. He blinked a few times and immediately fell to the ground. He didn’t even have time to get confused before he took his big nap.

  As long as the zombies kept coming little by little like this, we’d be in good shape. I cured another zombie, then took a moment to let my eyes wander and check out the status of our gamer army who were struggling in the middle of the big horde.

  But I saw something else instead.

  The ground seemed to tilt and sway under my feet. My parents were here. They were at the edge of the big zombie horde, trying to get at my friends in the middle. At the sight of their familiar faces, even if they were dirty and zombified, my heart rose up into my throat. I’d missed them so much the last few days. And now that longing—to hug them, to talk to them—was so strong that it almost hurt.