The Smoky Corridor

125

When Zack reached the top of the ladder, he was inside some kind of box.

Malik was two rungs behind him.

“You killed her!” he heard Judy cry.

“That’s right.” Joseph Donnelly’s voice. “Just like her no-account relative Patrick J. Cooper killed us!”

“The hero teacher?”

“He weren’t no hero, lady! He put a bullet in our brains and set that fire. Tried to make it look like we were the ones who done it! He got his, though. The door to his classroom locked behind him. He couldn’t escape, neither. Died with us, went straight to hell. Me and Joe stuck around ’cause some new grown-up had to pay for what that greedy gold-grubbing teacher done to us!”

Zack finally realized why Davy and Mr. Willoughby wouldn’t let him talk to any adults about what was going on underneath the school. They’d end up dead. The Donnellys would kill them.

“We’re done now.” The voice of Seth.

“No, we’re not! We’re gonna kill these two, too!”

“No, we are not!”

“Yes, we are!”

“Malik?” Zack said in a quick whisper. “Stay in here. Keep your eye on Azalea.”

“Okay.”

Zack sprang out of the box, tumbled to the ground.

The first thing he saw was Zipper lying on his side. Whimpering.

Zack scrambled to his feet. Realized he had just crawled out of the furnace underneath the boiler in the same room where he and Malik had been before they went through the back door to the small room.

“Zack!” shouted Judy and his father.

“Where’s the zombie?”

Judy pointed to a heap on the floor. “Out cold.”

“We were told he’d lose his zombification,” said Seth, “if the one who bit him found his soul. Did you do that for Mr. McNulty, Zack?”

“Yeah, Seth. I did.” He bent down to pet Zip, who thumped his tail. “Who hurt my dog?”

“The zombie,” said Joseph. “It wasn’t us.”

Zack was fuming. “But you guys told him to do it!”

“Not really,” said Joseph. “Besides, the zombie only listens to Seth, not me. So if you’re gonna blame anybody—”

And that was when Davy appeared. “All right,” he said to the Donnelly brothers. “You boys got your revenge. Ain’t no reason to haunt here no more. Time to move on.”

“Thank you!” said Seth.

“B-b-but …,” stammered Joseph.

“Vamoose, Joseph. Daniel Boone hisself wants a word with you. Davy Crockett, too!”

The Donnelly brothers disappeared.

Davy moved closer to Zack.

“I gotta go, pardner. Need to escort the Donnelly boys up to their tribunal. They’ll go easy on Seth.”

“What about Joseph?”

“Can’t rightly say. Folks upstairs will see that justice gets done.”

Zack nodded.

“You done good, Zack. Real good. We didn’t think nobody could go up against Horace P. Pettimore and his zombies. But, dang—you sure did!”

“I finally figured out why you wouldn’t let me tell any adults about what was going on. Guess the rules are there for a reason.”

“Sometimes,” Davy said with a wink. “Sometimes.”

And then he vanished.

Zack’s dad raised a hand. “Um, isn’t that the boy who used to …”

Judy laughed. “Yes, honey.”

“So he was a ghost, even then?”

“Yep,” said Zack. “He sure was.”

The fake furnace door swung open.

“Zack?” said Malik.

And then Azalea shoved him out of her way and crawled into the room.