“What’d you do?” Warner asked.
“I didn’t mean to!” Tara scowled at Warner then looked at the computer. “What the heck is that?”
“It’s a message,” Kevin whispered, his voice tinged with anticipation.
They watched as the coded message scrolled down the computer screen, stopping abruptly and morphing into English through a neat little translator programming code that TJ had installed. “SOS. Need interstellar coordinates. SOS. Need interstellar coordinates. SOS.”
“Quick,” Warner said. “Send it a map of our solar system.”
TJ typed frantically on the laptop, pulling up a diagram of Earth’s solar system.
“Now give it our longitude and latitude,” said Kevin.
They waited in suspense by the lakeside, hoping for a reply. “I don’t know,” Kevin said, beginning to get discouraged after ten minutes of silence. “Maybe someone’s messing with us?”
“But no one knows we’re even out here,” Warner said.
Alexander, Kevin thought. Is he spying on us?
“Come on, Kevin,” said Tara. “It has to be real. Let’s try it again.” She turned to TJ. “Resend the coordinates, Teej.”
TJ nodded, interlocking his fingers and pushing out the palms of his hands. As his knuckles cracked, the night sky suddenly opened up with a bright neon-blue flash.
“Whoa,” Warner and Tara said together.
Kevin blinked twice, completely speechless. He squinted and watched as a speck of otherworldly light started to grow against the dark backdrop of the sky. At first it looked like a normal star, but as the speck became larger and larger, Kevin could see a UFO hurtling toward them on a billowing trail of gray smoke. This can’t really be happening.
“Get down!” Kevin shouted as the UFO flew right over their heads.
The four of them ducked for cover as the spacecraft crashed into the lake, sending a large wave rippling toward the shore.
“Holy Moley Mother of Cannoli!” TJ spoke for the first time since the beginning of camp. “Did you just see that?”
Tara, Warner, and Kevin all turned their heads to TJ.
“Dude,” Warner said. “I totally forgot you even knew how to talk.”
Kevin swiveled his head back and forth, waiting for one of their counselors to check out the commotion, but the camp was still.
“Omigosh,” Tara cried out, pointing toward the center of the lake. Something had burst to the surface and was flailing frantically in the water.
“It can’t swim,” Kevin shouted, and ran toward the paddleboats that were beached on the lakeshore. “We gotta save it! Come on!”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many sincere thanks to Emilia Rhodes for helping me navigate through the rough, zombie-infested waters; to Josh Bank and Sara Shandler for throwing me some bait; to Alice Jerman and Sarah Landis for reeling me in and not letting me drift; and to Ryan Harbage for helping me catch the big fish.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JOHN KLOEPFER began his writing career at five years old with a one-sentence short story: “And then one day the monsters came.” He lives in New York City, where he is preparing for a massive zombie invasion.
DAVID DEGRAND has been drawing cartoons since he was a kid. When he’s not drawing goofy pictures of gross stuff, he plays video games, watches old cartoons and weird movies, and collects toys and books. His biggest goal is to create something his son will find cool someday. He lives with his wife and family in Texas.
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CREDITS
Cover art by David DeGrand
Cover design by Ray Shappell
COPYRIGHT
THE ZOMBIE CHASERS: ZOMBIES OF THE CARIBBEAN
Copyright © 2014 by Alloy Entertainment and John Kloepfer
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kloepfer, John.
Zombies of the Caribbean / by John Kloepfer ; illustrated by David DeGrand.—First edition.
pages cm.—(The zombie chasers ; 6)
Summary: “The zombie chasers head to the high seas in search of a cure for the rezombified nation”—Provided by publisher.
[1. Zombies—Fiction. 2. Pirates—Fiction. 3. Cruise ships—Fiction. 4. Caribbean Area—Fiction.] I. DeGrand, David, illustrator. II. Title.
PZ7.K6845Zr 2014 2014022033
[Fic]—dc23 CIP
AC
EPub Edition © SEPTEMBER 2014 ISBN: 9780062290267
14 15 16 17 18 CG/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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