CHAPTER ZERO
THE BEGINNING OF THE END!
“It’s Speed Bump! I can’t wake him up! None of my usual tricks worked, not even taking off his headphones and yelling at him!”
“Did you try tipping over his nest?”
“Yes!” Slingshot cried. “I tried EVERYTHING!
“Oh, I hope he’s not…” Slingshot couldn’t even bring himself to finish that thought, it was so horrible.
“That DOES sound serious. Quick, Slingshot, follow me to my brother’s hole in the tree!”
The pair flew through the forest as fast as their wings would take them.
Inside Speed Bump’s room was a terrifying scene.
Slingshot shrieked.
Early Bird got a very solemn look on his face. He turned to Slingshot, put a wing on his shoulder, and said, “This is not good, not good at all. If Speed Bump is a zombie, it means other birds are turning into zombies, too.”
Slingshot gasped and chewed his wing feathers.
“In fact, this zombie plague may have spread as far as Africa by now. Have you ever seen a zombie parrot? It’s not a pretty sight.” Early Bird paused. “Well, I take that back. Parrots are really colorful, so they’re still a pretty sight. But you catch my drift.”
“Holy crow, what if the plague has spread all the way to Antarctica?” Slingshot asked.
“There could be terrifying zombie penguins there already! Okay, maybe not too terrifying because they’re usually so cute!”
“And hummingbirds!” Early Bird continued. “Zombie hummingbirds would be so fast! Then again, they’re tiny, right? Seriously, we could just knock them aside with our wings, no problem.”
Early Bird burst out laughing.
“Slingshot, buddy, I’m kidding! My brother’s just sleepwalking. He’s been doing it since he was a chick. I’ll bet he even wandered around inside his egg before he hatched!”
Slingshot looked wary. “So … no zombie pigeons, either?”
“No zombie ANYTHING. Watch, I’ll show you the trick to wake him up when he’s like this.”
Early Bird slowly lifted one of Speed Bump’s tiny wings and tickled underneath it. Speed Bump stopped groaning. His body began to shake and his little tail started to twitch. One eye opened, then the other. His beak moved but no sound came out.
Suddenly Speed Bump was rolling around on the floor, gasping out squeaky little laughs. Then he stopped, sat up, and looked toward the hole in the tree.
“Word of warning if you ever try this,” Early Bird said, “tickling wakes him up, but it also makes him tinkle.”
CHAPTER ONE
REST IN PEACE
“Call me Squishymeal,” said Slingshot as he dropped a juicy bug into his mouth.
“What?” Speed Bump said, looking over his shoulder. He was kicking berries toward a hole in the Sycamore tree. “Do you really give insects names before you eat them?”
“Sometimes.”
The bird buddies hopped off the branch and glided through the trees together.
“How do you know? Maybe there are!” Slingshot shuddered at the thought. “Zombie ostriches. Ugh.”
“Have you ever seen a zombie?”
“No. But I’d never seen an evil Nightcrawler before, or a mouse that burps, or a mall full of shadows, or a bird that lives in a trash can, or—”
“Okay, Okay, I get it. That’s not the same, though,” Speed Bump sighed.
“Maybe not, but the finch twins said they heard from the potoo, who heard from the oriole, who heard from the sparrow’s third cousin that the old fortune-teller rook on the far side of the forest has seen zombies.”
They flapped and bobbed, eating the occasional bug out of the air and swooping down to Speed Bump’s favorite berry bush. Slingshot was munching and making little happy noises, juice dribbling down his chin, when he suddenly stopped.
“Speedy, what’s that?”
Speed Bump rolled his eyes. “NOW what? Why are you so jumpy today?”
Slingshot pointed to the ground. A mound of gray fur was sticking out from the other side of the bush. There was a long, pink tail, and four feet with curved, sharp claws.
“Sshhh,” whispered Speed Bump.
“Let’s get out of here.”
“No, wait, it’s not moving. Let’s peek over the top.”
Slingshot squeaked and covered his beak. “It’s a possum! Look at its scary, pointed face and little fangs! Those fang things freak me out!”
Speed Bump flew down near the possum, being careful not to stand too close.
It didn’t move.
“Slingshot! I think it might be … might be … dead!”
Slingshot stood behind his friend.
Speed Bump poked the possum gently with a stick. It didn’t move. He poked it harder. It still didn’t move. He poked it a few more times, just to be sure.
“It’s gone. That’s so sad.”
The friends sighed and Slingshot put his arm around his buddy.
Suddenly, the possum jumped to its feet. The birds screamed, and Speed Bump leaped into Slingshot’s arms. The possum glared at them with its narrow eyes and hissed.
Then, with a flick of its bald tail, the possum ambled off toward the forest, grumbling as it shook the dirt off its fur.
Slingshot dropped Speed Bump.
Copyright © 2017 by Dave Coverly
