Flesh of the Zombie Read Online Free PDF Page B

about one-hit Underlands …”
    “I still don’t get it,” admitted Luke. “How can singing a song cause you to vanish in a puff of smoke?”
    “It must have been the spell ingredients Dixon stole from Everwell’s,” said Resus. “If Sir Otto mixed them together as he wrote the song, playing and singing it could well be the key to release the spell’s effects. Sort of like a password.”
    “We could do with something like that to get us out of this drain,” groaned Luke, struggling to make himself comfortable against the damp wall.
    “And it stinks down here,” said Tee.
    “Well, feel free to walk away any time,” snorted Resus.
    “We aren’t leaving Tee to the mercy of those monsters,” defended Cleo, glaring at the vampire in the darkness.
    “He’s
one
of those monsters!” countered Resus.
    “Resus Negative,” snapped Cleo, “I would have thought that you, of all people, would appreciate that you shouldn’t judge a person by their appearance.”
    “If you’re going to start on about me not being a real vampire again—”
    “Nobody’s starting anything,” Luke interrupted hurriedly. “We’ve got a problem, and the only way to solve it is to go to this Underlandsplace and get Brain Drain back up here to continue playing.”
    “You’re crazy,” said Resus. “No one goes to the Underlands on purpose!”
    “Well, if we’ve any hope of collecting the next relic from Vein,” said Luke, “I guess we’re going to have to be the first.”
    “You don’t get it. We
can’t
go to the Underlands,” said Resus. “The only creatures who even vaguely know how to get there are zombies, and as they’re all currently out for our blood, we haven’t got one to tunnel us there.”
    Tee cleared his throat. “Actually,” he said, “you have …”
    Resus produced a jar of glow-worms from his cloak and used their dim light to check the time. “That’s two hours we’ve been down here,” he moaned, “and we’re no closer to the Underlands than when we started!”
    “You don’t know that,” said Cleo, collecting up the soil produced by Tee as he dug deeper into the ground. She in turn passed the earth back to Luke, who used it to fill in the rear of the tunnel. “We could be almost there.”
    “Nonsense!” scoffed Resus. “I doubt we’ve travelled more than two or three metres. It’ll take days at this rate.”
    Luke wiped the sweat from his face with a muddy hand. Tunnelling under Scream Street was hard enough without Resus and Cleo arguing all the way. “We don’t know how far or how deep we’ve gone,” he said patiently. “I suggest we trust Tee’s instincts for the time being.”
    “Instincts?” laughed Resus, flinging his hands out. “He’s simply digging in the general direction of down. You don’t need zombie instincts to tell you that!”
    “Stop waving about,” said Luke. “We’ll be down here a lot longer if you collapse the tunnel and bury us alive.”
    Ignoring him, Resus continued to rant. “All I’m saying is that we’ll need to dig deeper than the sewer if we hope to get anywhere at all.” The vampire punched his fist down to emphasize his point, and as he did so his arm smashed through the floor of the tunnel and opened up a hole. Before he could even cry out in shock, the vampire had fallen through it into nothingness.
    Luke lunged forwards and grabbed his friend’swrist as he slipped through the gap.

    “Don’t let go!” Resus shouted in panic, his voice echoing around the tunnel above. Risking a glance down, he discovered that he was dangling high above the ground in what looked like another world. The sky was a deep pulsing red, and Luke’s arm appeared to be clutching his own through a bank of swirling, plum-coloured clouds.
    Luke, Cleo and Tee dragged Resus back through the hole. The vampire struggled to catch his breath. “The Underlands …” he gasped. “We’re here!”
    “All I can see is some kind of purple mist,” said Cleo,