Zombie Surf Commandos from Mars! (2 page)

Suddenly, the lake's surface broke in a rush of smoky air. It wafted into Liz's nostrils. “Pee-yew!” she cried, backing up.
“That's
the smell!”

But that wasn't the worst part.

When the bubbles broke, the water immediately erupted into a tall wave, frothy white on top and deep blue-black in the middle.

But even
that
wasn't the worst part.

The huge wave built up and up and began to fall, thundering forward from the middle of the lake and heading right for shore!

But even
THAT
wasn't the worst part.

What Liz saw next struck ultimate terror in her heart.

“Ahhhhhhhhh!”
she screamed.

3

Surf's Up!

Coming out from the crest of the giant wave were the tips of the teenagers' surfboards. Each board was jammed with five or six figures.

Boy, were they good surfers! They nosed under the crest, swaying back and forth on the boards like experts!

“What—!” cried Holly.

“Whoa—!” cried Jeff.

“Weird—!” cried Liz.

These surfers were not normal everyday teenage surfers. They had even worse skin problems! Their faces were horrible and gray. They had bald scalps with stringy wisps of white hair flying back in the breeze and ears that drooped and sagged to their shoulders. And their foreheads bulged.

Some had big gaping holes instead of noses!

Everyone who saw them screamed and bolted from the water.

“Out of towners!” one person screeched.

“Strangers at our lake!” cried another.

“Those dudes stole our boards!” a teen boy complained.

Kkkkerrrwooooshhhh!
The wave crashed on the sandy shore, and the horrible gray creatures leaped off the surfboards onto the sand.

Jeff stared at them, dropping his hot dog in the sand. Mustard side down. “Ooops, I guess I'll just have to get another one!” He shot up a dune and dived over the counter of the hot dog stand.

In a flash, everyone was screaming and running all over the beach. People were bumping into each other in a mad scramble to leave.

But Liz couldn't move. She stared at the bulging heads, black eyes rolling around and around, purple tongues hanging out of lipless mouths, and large holes for noses. “No, these are definitely not regular surfers,” she mumbled. “Teenagers, either!”

“Run and hide!” cried Holly, grabbing Liz.

“Right!” said Liz. She tore off with Holly and jumped over the counter of the hot dog stand, landing on Jeff.

“No fair!” he grunted. “I got here first!”

“You took the best place!” Holly snapped.

The kids poked their heads over the counter.

The gray creatures shuffled up the beach. They wore brightly colored suits with big, flared shoulders and army belts crisscrossing their chests.

“Different,” said Jeff. “But stylish!”

The creatures shuffled their feet, which glinted from their shiny silver boots.

“They should pick up their feet,” Holly snarled softly. “My mom would kill them for spraying sand like that!”

“From the looks of these guys,” said Liz, “I'd say someone beat your mom to it.”

“Nice lake,” Jeff hissed. “Who knew dead people lived here?”

Suddenly, horror struck Liz. A brightly colored beach ball rolled over a dune right to the silver-booted feet of one very ugly creature.

He made a gurgling, whining sort of noise.

“No!” gasped Liz. “Look!”

A little girl, no more than a year old, came stumbling up to the top of the dune after the beach ball. A few steps behind her was her father. “Say Da-da,” he coaxed her. “Come on, honey, say Da-da. Say your first word!”

The toddler giggled and scrambled to the top of the dune. She stopped. Inches from her face was the hideously ugly, dusty, dead-looking face of the creature. It towered over her.

The thing's forehead breathed in and out. He gurgled and groaned down at the tiny girl.

She wobbled, her chubby fingers waving in the air at the thing standing before her. Suddenly, she spoke.

“Z-z-z-zom — beeeee!” she mumbled.

Her first word.

Liz heard the creature whine a little, and tilt its head to the side. Then it lunged at the little girl.

“Hey!” screamed the girl's father, yanking her back down the dune. “I thought this was a private lake!”

Jeff tapped Liz on the shoulder. “Did that girl say
zombie?”

The flaky creature grunted and gurgled and whined some more, then snapped up the beach ball. He held it out in one hand, made his other into a fist, and served the ball high into the air.

Within seconds, he and his fellow zombies were playing a heated game of beach volleyball.

“Is this weird or is this weird?” asked Holly.

Liz nodded slowly. “Both.”

At one point, an ugly creature leaped for the ball, missed, and fell flat in the sand.

Kra
—
thump!
The creature shattered into a dozen parts — hands, arms, legs, feet, head — all went scattering across the sand.

“I'm gonna be sick!” Holly gulped.

In a flash, however, another creature picked up the detached head and spiked it over the net.

“Point!” groaned the zombies.

4

Brain Eaters!

“Oh,” gasped Holly, cupping her hand over her mouth. “That's just gross!”

“Right,” whispered Liz. Then, taking herself by surprise, she added, “But a good lesson in team spirit.”

Something told her she was right about that. Team spirit. Principal Bell always talked about it.

“Excuse me,” said Jeff, “but unless we plan on being zombie food, we've got to get out of here!”

He looked around. “Maybe we can bolt for the clubhouse while they're playing head ball.”

Suddenly, the creatures stopped playing.

“Or maybe not,” Jeff said.

The creatures shuffled around the cook-out fire that the teenagers had left burning. They splashed water on it using an abandoned beach pail. A thick puff of smoke filled the air. They sat down and breathed the smoke in.

Their dead eyes bulged.

One of them stood up. He was taller than the rest. His head had pulsing knobs all over it and his Ping-Pong eyeballs rolled from side to side.

“Good-looking guy,” Liz whispered. “He must be their leader.”

Another creature picked up the set of bongo drums the teenagers had left behind and began tapping on them slowly, rhythmically.

Tap-tappa-tap. Tap-tappa-tap.

The tall one moved to the center of the group and started swaying back and forth to the beat. All the bulging Ping-Pong eye-balls looked to him. He began to sing. The song went like this —

Once, we were so cool and shiny,
Now we are dead and we're whiny.
Hey! We've all gone so flaky
And now our poor hearts are achy.

To get to our planet so far —
The planet that we call Mar —
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

“Mar —
zzzzzzzzzzzz?”
Jeff snorted into Liz's shoulder. “That doesn't make sense.”

“They're dead, Jeff,” said Liz. But before she could brush her shoulder, all the creatures rose to sing a second verse!

Our skin is dry like crepe paper,
If we don't eat brains — we're vapor!
Fresh brains are good for what ails us,
Until the mother ship sails us

Back to our planet so far —
The planet that we call Mar —
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

At that instant, the knob-faced creature pointed up to the sky directly over the mountains to the north. All the zombies looked.

“Mars is that way,” mumbled Liz. “These zombies are from Mars!”

A tear rolled from one of knob-head's eyeballs and disappeared in the flaky skin of his cheek.

“And they're homesick,” Holly whispered. “That's so sad. I wonder if they need help or — ”

“We need brains!” the zombie leader shouted loudly. “Living, breathing brains! Or else we will all dry out and die. When you see a good brain, put a little mark on their forehead, like this!” He tapped at the air. “It means — good eats for later!”

Then the bongo pounding started again. This time it was faster, harder, and more violent than before. The groaning and droning and moaning got louder. The creatures stomped around in the sand. Some of them began to wail like wolves.

“I think maybe they're hungry,” Holly whispered.

“Yeah, hungry for brains!” Liz said.

“But still, one of them was crying,” said Holly.

“Um,” Jeff mumbled. “All in favor of getting out of here say so now!”

“So now!” said Liz.

“So now!” said Holly.

The alien zombie drumming on the bongos was going crazy, pounding harder and harder!

Kra — THUMP!

A flaky gray finger smashed against the bongos, snapped off, flipped over, and landed on the hot dog counter inches away from the kids!

Liz moved back instantly. The finger wriggled across the counter.

Then, before you could say —
gross!
— it sprang up and tapped Holly right in the forehead!

“Grosssssss!”
she screamed, jumping up.

The bongos stopped. The creatures turned toward the hot dog stand.

“Brains!” The knob-faced one howled, pointing at the kids.

5

Snaaaack Time!

Immediately, the surfers from Mars split into two attack groups and charged the hot dog stand.

“Uh-oh,” Jeff gasped. “Commandos!”

“Sorry, guys!” cried Holly, rubbing her forehead. “The finger grossed me out.”

“Never mind!” yelled Liz, grabbing a handful of uncooked dogs and stacking them on the counter in front of her. “Grab some ammo!” Then Liz began hurling the hot dogs one by one over the counter at the zombies. “We have to defend ourselves!”

The zombies leaped and jumped at the hot dogs. They gobbled them right up and kept charging.

“They're hungry, all right,” quipped Jeff. “Now they need the good stuff!” He reached over and pulled up two squeeze bottles of thick, yellow mustard. He laid them down on the counter like little cannons and began pounding them with his fists.

Splurp! Sklish! Splap!

Spurts and splashes of mustard shot through the air and into the faces of the zombie attackers. They dived for the sand to avoid the spicy spray.

“Ugh!” groaned one zombie, flicking his flaky finger at a fleck of mustard in his dead eye!

“Ha!” yelped Jeff. “A real snack attack!”

Liz wondered how long they could keep this up. “Feed me! Feed me!” she cried, hurling hot dog after hot dog at the zombie commandos.

“They'll remember this as Custer's last hot dog stand!” Jeff yelped, pounding more.

The zombies leaped for the dogs and gobbled them. “Not brains,” knob-face said, a hot dog in each hand. “But not bad!”

“Out of dogs!” screamed Holly. “We'll have to switch to burgers!” She tore open a bag of hamburger patties and began flinging them wildly like Frisbees.

Suddenly, the zombies stopped their attack to watch the burgers zipping overhead. The patties looked like little flying saucers spinning across the blue desert sky.

“Home!” cried one zombie. A tear welled up and disappeared into its flaky cheek.

“Oh!” gasped Holly. “That's so sweet!”

“Brains!” knob-face reminded his fellow attackers.

“Brainnnnnnns!” the commandos chanted.

Suddenly —
craaaaaaack!

An arm broke through the back of the stand!

“They're getting in!” Liz cried out, ducking back as a gray hand groped around.

“I just splurped my last splurp!” Jeff gasped, pounding a tiny drip of mustard from an empty squeeze bottle.

“Get the brains!” the knobby zombie leader shouted to his troops.

In a flash, Liz bolted over the front of the counter, pulling Holly along with her. They dropped to the sand. “To the clubhouse!” Liz cried. Then she and Holly began to make their way across the dunes to the old shingled building.

Jeff tumbled out of the stand right behind them, but he slipped getting to his feet.

“Help!” he shouted. But the Martians cut him off. He looked around the dunes. There was nowhere to go. Nowhere but up!

Jeff bolted to his feet and climbed up a lifeguard chair looming above him.

But the ugly squad attacked the chair!

Flaky gray hands clutched at Jeff's feet. He kicked back, stomping his heels wildly.
Kkkk!
A flaky head snapped back and dropped to the sand!

“Sorry, man!” winced Jeff.

Suddenly, from behind him, he heard a call.

“Hey, zombies! Nyah-nyah!”

The zombies turned.

It was Liz, holding up her bangs and showing her forehead. Holly was behind her, making a face at Liz.

“Yum!” yelled knob-face. “Let's go!”

The squad deserted Jeff on the chair and shuffled across the sand after Liz.

“Hey!” shouted Jeff. “What's wrong with
my
brain?”

THONKA-THONKA-THONKA!

A
huge roaring, grinding, thundering sound filled the air. The sky darkened above the beach. The water in Lake Lake swirled.

Liz gasped as a black shadow spread low across the sand.

Holly fell instantly to the sand.

Liz dived. “Watch out!” she screamed.

6

Under Party Lights

RRRRRRR!
It was horrible! The beach turned into a swirling tornado of wind.

Liz and Holly lay motionless on the sand.

Jeff didn't. He started walking into the tornado. “Mother?” he cried.

“Jeff, no!” Liz screamed. But the dark, thundering noise came so low she couldn't move.

Out of the noise and wind a jet-powered helicopter appeared. It roared low over the beach. Sand swirled up in funnels everywhere.