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Brendan’s teeth clamped down on to Cordelia’s hand before she even knew what was happening.
“Ouch! He bit me!” Cordelia shrieked.
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Cordelia screamed as she looked at the gruesome bite wound on her hand. She wondered if she might faint just from seeing it.
Eleanor joined in with Cordelia’s screams until the colossus’s mouth sounded like a haunted house. Cordelia looked up from her throbbing hand to see Brendan slowly chewing on his own arm like he was munching on a chicken tender.
“Don’t eat yourself, you jerk!” Cordelia yelled, slapping Brendan across the face with her good hand.
Suddenly Jagger’s mouth shook violently, sending all three Walker children flying.
“What happened?” Cordelia asked as she stood up uneasily, still holding her injured hand.
Eleanor knocked twice on Fat Jagger’s lower lip. He understood the signal and opened his mouth just enough for Eleanor to peek outside.
“We made it out of the bay!” Eleanor shouted excitedly.
But her excited expression instantly turned to one of horror. Coming right at them were helicopters, police boats, SWAT trucks and patrol cars, all loaded to the brim with enough firepower to take out a whole family of Fat Jaggers.
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Across the city of San Francisco, the residents feared that another Great Earthquake was upon them as the ground shook and rumbled. As cars rattled on their tyres and anti-theft security alarms blared. As windows shattered, causing sleeping children to scream out into the early morning fog. As the entire city pounded to a steady beat like it was sitting atop a huge bass drum at a Rolling Stones concert.
But it was no earthquake.
Rather, it was a huge colossus named Fat Jagger bounding across the city in long loping steps. Crushing mailboxes, trees and parked cars under his massive feet as he ran through streets.
Several helicopters were in close pursuit, including a small SFPD chopper and a dark green military helicopter manned by members of the US National Guard. A stream of large-calibre bullets ripped across the sky and tore into the giant’s back like a swarm of angry wasps.
A second later, a series of missiles erupted from the twin cannons mounted just below the whirring blades of the National Guard helicopter. They zipped across the faded pink sky and connected with the colossus. The colossus screamed in pain, his teeth gritted together to keep his mouth closed.
Inside Fat Jagger’s mouth, the Walker kids screamed as pinholes of light started to appear in his cheeks from the large-calibre machine-gun fire. Cordelia pushed Eleanor down on to Fat Jagger’s tongue, behind a row of molars, as blood pooled around their feet.
They peeked over the gumline and spotted their zombie brother. Not only had becoming a zombie robbed Brendan of his youthful looks, but also his sense of personal safety. He stumbled around Jagger’s tongue, right in the middle of the fire fight. Gunfire exploded all around him.
“We need to help Brendan!” Eleanor screamed over the deafening battle.
Cordelia was about to respond, but it was too late. The National Guard helicopter let loose another burst of high-calibre rounds, sending Brendan sprawling on to Fat Jagger’s tongue.
“Brendan, noooo!” Eleanor shrieked.
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Cordelia quickly hugged Eleanor, shielding her eyes. Brendan’s body lay in the middle of Jagger’s tongue.
How could this have happened? Cordelia let her face fall into Eleanor’s shoulder; she was too shocked to even cry. Cordelia thought she might never be able to move again. But then the sound of a low groan caused her to lift her head quickly.
Brendan’s head rolled as if coming out of a very deep sleep. He slowly climbed to his feet to resume the search for a snack. He was much more interested in finding something to munch on.
“What?” Cordelia said.
She had just seen her only brother shot with enough force to stop an elephant, and now he was walking around like everything was fine.
“I told you! Zombies can only be stopped if their brains are destroyed,” Eleanor explained. “You should put down Pride and Prejudice and read The Zombie Survival Guide sometime!”
The two sisters wanted to run and hug their brother, but didn’t since it was likely that he would take a bite out of their faces if they tried.
Suddenly, Fat Jagger rocked violently to the right, sending the three Walkers sprawling once again. Every bullet, missile and rocket impact could be felt inside Jagger’s mouth and a gust of hot air rushed out of his lungs each time he winced in pain.
“I don’t think Jagger can last much longer,” Cordelia said, almost in tears. “We need to get to Kristoff House!”
They held on as Fat Jagger moaned in pain, which only made Eleanor sob more. Through her tears, she spotted Brendan fighting to keep his balance on the increasingly uneasy surface. Eleanor quickly bent down and unlaced her left shoe.
“Cordelia, I need a distraction,” she said as she began working on her right shoelace. “Get Brendan’s attention!”
Cordelia stood up and took a deep breath; her last encounter with Brendan hadn’t gone so well.
“Hey, Dawn of the Dork!” Cordelia yelled as she walked towards her zombified brother.
Brendan cocked his head in Cordelia’s direction. He shuffled towards what he hoped would be his next meal, stopping to groan after each uneasy step – until suddenly his legs wouldn’t move any more. He groaned again before toppling over, a shoelace tied around his ankles.
“Nice one, Nell!” Cordelia said.
Eleanor grabbed Brendan’s arms and tied his wrists together with her other shoelace, careful to avoid his snapping jaws. Even with the future of her family on the line, Eleanor’s confidence surged through her. It felt good to know that she could actually help save her siblings – especially with a plan that was all her own.
Once Brendan was tied up, the two girls dragged him to the back of Fat Jagger’s mouth and nestled him under the colossus’s gigantic tongue for safety. Eleanor almost giggled at the image of zombie Brendan tucked under a giant’s tongue like a pig in a blanket. But the reality of the situation quickly erased her smile.
“I hope your plan works once we get to Kristoff House, Eleanor, whatever it is,” Cordelia said. “There are three lives on the line now.”
“Who’s the third?” Eleanor asked.
“Me,” Cordelia said, holding up her wounded hand, already feeling a little woozy from the zombification process. “Brendan bit me. If my calculations are correct … I should start turning into a zombie in about twelve minutes.”
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“How close are we?” Eleanor yelled, as Fat Jagger stumbled again.
He opened his mouth just enough for Cordelia and Eleanor to peek outside. They saw Kristoff House sitting atop Sea Cliff Avenue a few more bounding steps away.
More rockets collided with Fat Jagger’s back as he reached the house. He fell to his knees on the huge lawn next to Kristoff House, groaning in pain.
“Spit us into the attic, Fat Jagger!” Eleanor screamed, tears pouring down her face now.
She knew Fat Jagger was dying. Her only hope of saving him was if her plan worked. But the problem was, now that they were actually here, she was less convinced than ever that it actually would. It was a long shot, and she knew it.
Fat Jagger gently poked a hole into the peaked roof of Kristoff House with his massive index finger. He bent forward slightly and spat the contents of his mouth into the attic. Then he slumped backwards into a cross-legged sitting position like a small child getting ready for story time, exhausted and breathing heavily and barely able to keep his eyes open. But he had done it; he’d finally saved the Walkers.
Fat Jagger smiled triumphantly, breathed his last breath, and then slumped forward on to the driveway, his face crushing a police cruiser like it was made of paper.
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The three Walker children and the Storm King spilled into the empty attic of Kristoff House, sloshing inside a tidal wave of warm and smelly Fat Jagger spit. They slid across the wooden floor like freshly caught fish being dumped on to a dock.
Eleanor climbed to her feet, slipped a few times, and then rushed over to the attic window. She watched in horror as Fat Jagger slumped over on to the driveway.
“He’s dead!” Eleanor screamed. “They killed Fat Jagger!”
Guilt and grief ripped into her heart, as she realised that his death was on her hands. She was the one who insisted that they summon Fat Jagger that night. It was her idea to bring him to the surface. He had been safe and sound inside the bay, and now he was dead, and it was all her fault.
Her plan was mostly forgotten now, washed away by an overwhelming sense of sorrow. Eleanor fell to her knees and sobbed, crying harder than she had since she was two years old.
She looked over at Cordelia for support, but saw that her sister was just as distraught by the death of their friend as she was. Brendan, on the other hand, seemed perfectly content.
He was chewing on a pigeon.
“Brendan, get that out of your mouth,” Cordelia commanded.
Zombie Brendan looked up, opened his mouth, and the pigeon escaped, flying away through the hole in the roof.
Eleanor probably would have stayed there crying, unable to move, right up until the moment the National Guard soldiers (who were currently breaking down the front door) rushed upstairs to find them. But her sister’s chilling scream brought Eleanor rushing back to reality.
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Eleanor spun around to find herself face to face with the Storm King. Not a decomposing zombie version, but a very much alive Storm King. He rose up towards the ceiling, arms spread on either side of his body. His face was restored back to the ugly, sagging lump of grey that it had been on the day he died.
He grinned at her sickeningly. His teeth, yellow and crooked, gleamed in the morning sun that now streamed into the attic through the massive hole in the roof above him.
“Hello, my dear,” he said. “Brendan’s appearance certainly has changed. I actually prefer this new look. Ugliness creates fear in others. Fear creates power. My … shall we say, unique face has certainly opened many doors for me.”
Instead of screaming in terror the way Cordelia had, or even backing away from the monster in front of her, Eleanor, amazingly, smiled.
“It worked,” she said triumphantly. “My plan actually worked!”
Cordelia climbed to her feet, ready to tackle the Storm King before he could harm her sister. But now she stood there gaping at the smiling face of her younger sister. Of course! Cordelia wanted to kick herself for not thinking of it.
With the many rifts opening up between the book world and real world, some of the magic the Kristoff House possessed in the book world had crossed over. In the book world, skeletons brought into the attic came back to life. And the Storm King’s body had pretty much been nothing but a skeleton covered in scraps of withered flesh.
Eleanor was a genius!
“We need your help!” Cordelia said to the Storm King, as the sounds of National Guard troops breaking down the front door reverberated through the floors below them.
The Storm King spun around, his eyes wide.
“I know precisely what is going on,” he said, the usual menace in his voice surprisingly muted. “It’s my magic. Since my rather untimely death, it has weakened. My book world and the real world are colliding. I never should have created it to begin with – there were better places to hide that wretched Book of Doom and Desire. Perhaps back where we found it in the first place …”
“We don’t have time for this,” Cordelia pleaded. “We all make mistakes, we get it. But now how do we fix it?”
“Fat Jagger is dead,” Eleanor added, pointing across the attic. “Brendan’s a zombie and he bit Deal, so she’s about three minutes from joining him! Can we undo it all somehow? Please …”
Her plea came out as a whimper as her newfound confidence began to wane. After all, it was entirely conceivable that the Storm King would offer no answers. The death of Fat Jagger, Brendan’s new hunger for flesh, Cordelia’s eventual turning, all of the destruction Fat Jagger had accidentally caused trying to get them here … it was more than Eleanor could bear to think about.
“I can save them,” the Storm King said, almost as if reading her mind. “We can save all of them. We can seal off the two worlds from each other for ever, and undo all of the damage that’s been caused. There is a magical fail-safe that I created when I made the book world. I always leave a way out, a way to undo the effects of any spells or magical constructs. That’s the first rule of the Lorekeepers. No magic should ever be permanent.”
As he spoke, he floated over to Brendan’s body and easily hoisted him on to his shoulder, belying the appearance of his withered old frame. Draped across the Storm King’s shoulder, Brendan tried to gnaw at the old man’s back, his teeth clacking together viciously.
They heard the National Guard troops in the hallway below them, searching the rooms on the second floor of the house. It would only be a matter of minutes before they discovered the attic.
The Storm King carried Brendan over to the far side of the room, just past the folded-up attic stairs. He pressed his hand against the wall and muttered several words under his breath.
“In nomine Domini rex aperto tempestas.”
A section of the wall suddenly vanished, opening a doorway into the secret passages that existed within Kristoff House. The Storm King turned back to face Cordelia and Eleanor. His eyes blazed as if they were on fire, the intensity causing both of the Walker sisters to look away.
“Follow me,” he said and then disappeared inside the dark passageway with Brendan still slung over his shoulder.
Eleanor and Cordelia met each other’s stare before they cautiously followed the Storm King. As she entered the passageway, Cordelia looked down at her right arm. The skin up to her elbow was turning a pale shade of green and already decaying. A growing headache pulsated at the back of her skull, making it increasingly difficult to focus on anything.
She clearly didn’t have much longer.
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The Storm King spoke quickly as he lead them through a maze of passageways lit by an eerie green glow.
“We don’t have much time,” he said. “If we don’t get to the chamber soon, you and your brother will spend the rest of eternity as undead monsters. We need to get you three back into my books as soon as possible.”
“Your books?” Cordelia said. “We have to go back?”
“Yes,” the Storm King hissed, as he sped up through the interminably endless stone passages.
“But why?”
“There are three enchanted items hidden inside the book world, items called Worldkeepers.”
“What are Worldkeepers?” Eleanor asked.
“Merely objects,” the Storm King said. “But objects that, when used together, act as a key between the two worlds. They must be retrieved and brought to my brother, Eugene, in Tinz. He can help you get them to the Door of Ways. If all three Worldkeepers pass through the Door of Ways at the exact same time, then they will act as a locking mechanism, permanently sealing off the worlds from each other.”
“Wait, did you say your brother Eugene?” Cordelia asked.
She never knew he had a brother. Surely he must be dead by now, in any case – only magic had kept Denver alive so much longer than he should have been.
“Yes, my brother has been in Tinz for decades now,” the Storm King said. “There isn’t time to explain further, but once you retrieve the Worldkeepers, you must bring them to Eugene. He will help you from there.”
“Why can’t you just come with us?” Eleanor asked.
“I can no longer go back,” he said. “The same forces that trapped Dahlia inside the book world are keeping me out. It almost certainly has something to do with my death. Now enough jibber-jabber, we need to move!”
