“What do you mean?” I ask her. “What’s going to happen?”
“Look, we don’t have time to talk about it. Those sigils won’t hold them for long, and I’m drawing the wrong kind of attention. I’ll try to draw them off for a bit. But promise me you’ll get help.”
“Are you going to be all right?” I ask her.
“Promise me, Stanley.”
“Okay, I promise. But are you going to be all right?”
“You’re too sensitive, you know that, Stanley? But it’s not me you should be worried about.”
Then she turns into a nearly invisible blur, rushing off into the night.
From far away I hear a howl, followed by another, and another. Wolves.
My hackles rise, and I want to howl along with them. But I can’t. We’ve got more immediate problems. The zombies are shambling toward us again.
“What do we do?” Enrique says, behind me.
“We’ve got to hold them off somehow,” I say. “Or distract them. Get them out of here.”
“Dude, you really think we should go out there?” Jonathan asks.
But my phone is ringing again as I watch the zombies surrounded by sigils. How long before they try a different route?
“Hello?”
“Hey, stranger, it’s me, Meredith.”
“Oh, hey, Meredith. What’s up?”
“Don’t come by Carolina’s place right now.”
“Why not?” I ask.
“Why do you think?” she asks.
“It’s dangerous?” I ask tentatively. What does she know?
Meredith laughs. “Are you afraid of the dark all of a sudden? Or is it Enrique? Or Jonathan? Since when is Lansfeld dangerous?”
“Forget it,” I say. “I was just kidding.”
“Stanley, you are one odd boy,” she says.
“Takes one to know one,” I say.
“So now I’m an odd boy?” Meredith asks.
“No, actually you’re a beautiful girl,” I say. “Smart, too.”
Jonathan is looking at me like I’m crazy. Enrique is rolling his eyes. The guys across the street line up at the sidewalk.
“Thanks,” she says. “You’re kind of cute yourself.”
“So why shouldn’t we go to Carolina’s place?”
“‘Cause we’re taking a walk. In the cemetery. Spooky, huh? And then in the woods. Just me and Carolina. We’re going to go see where they’re constructing the mall. Zach’s been telling us about the pollution there.”