THE ZOMBIE PLAYGROUND

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

On the drive to the cemetery at 9:30 A.M. on Saturday morning, Brin peered out the window to see a most marvelous sunny day in Grisly, Nevada. The clouds from the last two weeks had vanished, and the sun, which had been so shy throughout most of January, was finally presenting its happy face for all to see. She wasn’t feeling well—a knot in her stomach that woke her up in the middle of the night had come back to haunt her—and part of her had almost been hoping for a gloomy day, the kind of overcast weather that would put today’s mournful scenario into perspective.

“Are they doing them together?” Ash said from the passenger seat. “Sawyer and Chace’s funerals I mean?”

“I don’t know,” Brin said. “I just know Chace’s starts at ten.”

“There’s gonna be so many people there. We’re not gonna find anywhere to park.”

“It’ll be fine. If we have to walk, we’ll walk.”

“I don’t feel like walking,” Ash said. “I hate exercise. That’s why I love movies. You just sit and watch.”

“Ahh, so the truth comes out. You like movies because you’re lazy.”

“Well, horror movies give me a work-out sometimes. If it’s really scary I might jump a little in my seat. I might scream. Screaming is hard work. You have to use, like, thousands of your facial muscles.”

“I don’t think that’s true.”

“I think it is.”

“Oh my God,” Brin said.

Ash shook his head in frustration. “What? I’m telling you, there have been scientific studies—”

“No,” she said, pointing forward. “Look.”

The cemetery parking lot was not only completely full, but cars were cluttering up the dirt that connected the cemetery to Macabre Golf Course. Hundreds of students, parents, and teachers, many dressed in their finest black suits and dresses, sauntered forward toward the cemetery with glazed looks of melancholy and disbelief.

“There’s nowhere to park,” Brin said.

“There has to be somewhere.”

“This is ridiculous.”

“I know. This tells a lot about our town. The big Saturday get-together is a freakin’ funeral.”

“Tell me about it,” she said, veering past the parked cars to find an exit back to the main road. “And to think, we’re gonna be one of the only ones here who actually saw Chace and Sawyer die.”

“I didn’t see Sawyer die,” Ash said. “What happened to him again?”

“I don’t want to go into it.”

Brin turned back onto the main road, where cars were parked alongside the street for seemingly a mile in both directions. She drove down the winding road for a minute or longer until she was finally able to find a spot.

“It’s gonna take forever to walk to the cemetery from here,” Ash said.

“I’m sorry, Ash. Did you want me to drop you off back in the parking lot? Like a chauffeur?”

“That would be fantastic!”

“I was joking. Come on. You need the exercise.”

“What did I just tell you about exercise?”

Brin kicked her door open. “Shut up, doofus. Let’s go.”

Brin and Ash stepped out into the morning sun, both yawning after getting just four hours of sleep apiece. Their movie night had gone later than expected, and when Brin finally got into bed, she couldn’t stop her mind from racing.