THE ZOMBIE PLAYGROUND

CHAPTER THREE

Was it Droz?

Was it Ash?

Was it the mailman?

“No, it’s Sunday,” Brin said.

Paul had his mouth partway open, mostly in confusion at Brin’s words.

“Did I say that out loud?” she said.

“You did.”

Paul tried to swallow a tiny sliver of the chicken, while Brin shifted her body around and bent her head toward the entrance hallway. She could only hear whispering; she could make out hardly any of the conversation.

“Yes, sure, come in,” Tessa said.

Brin heard the door slam. She turned back toward the table just in time to see her mom, and Chace’s mom Jeanie, enter the kitchen.

Now it was Brin’s turn to start choking, even though she didn’t have any food in her mouth.

“Hi Brin,” the woman said.

“Mrs. Anderson.” Brin scooted back in her chair. “Hello.”

She knew why Chace’s mom was here—she hadn’t heard from her boy yet. And, barring a miracle (or some kind of vampire resurrection), she would never hear from her boy again. The last time Brin saw Chace he had ten vampires or more chomping on his neck, chest, legs, and feet. She had seen his terrified demeanor, that horrified look of defeat. Chace was gone.  

“So Brin, Jeanie here says Chace still hasn’t come home. He was at your movie shoot, right?”

“That’s right.”

Tessa crossed her arms and stared at her daughter with suspicion. “So… where is he?”

Brin paused, but she knew she couldn’t stay silent for long. On the way back from Bodie, the group had decided on a story to tell the parents, the students, the teachers, the authority figures. They knew how much trouble they could get into if they said Chace and Sawyer had been killed, and they knew they certainly would be first in line for the nearest insane asylum if they told everybody Chace and Sawyer had been murdered by vampires. They had to come up with a lie that would keep them all out of harm’s way.

“Well, he was still in Bodie the last time I saw him,” Brin said. That part was true. “We finished filming this morning, but Sawyer wanted to stay and do a few more shots with Chace. They said they wanted to film a few more scary scenes. The rest of us wanted to leave, and since we had two cars, the ones who wanted to come back early did so.”

“He wanted to stay and film another scene?” Jeanie said in bewilderment. “What was this project for again?”

“It’s for our Film class,” Brin said. “It’s worth a huge chunk of our grade. We all worked really hard on it, Chace and Sawyer included.”

“But doing more work than what was needed? That’s so unlike my son.”

Brin shrugged and took a moment in the awkward silence to analyze the woman’s appearance. A bit on the hefty side, with a bowl cut, pink sweater, baggy jeans, and a rear end twice as big as her own head, she didn’t look like she could be the mother of a boy as dashingly handsome as Chace. “He’s probably back in Grisly by now. Maybe he hasn’t come home yet.”

“Yeah,” his mom said. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Does anyone know who this Sawyer kid’s parents are, or how I might be able to reach them?”

Brin and Tessa shook their heads. Paul didn’t move a muscle.

“Who’s this?” Jeanie said, pointing at the white-faced beanpole.