Night of the Living Zombie Bugs (Speed Bump & Slingshot Misadventure Series #3)
128
Night of the Living Zombie Bugs (Speed Bump & Slingshot Misadventure Series #3)
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Overview
Book 3 in the Speed Bump and Slingshot Misadventures series starring two slacker friends on a frightful odyssey through a zombie-filled forest!
Speed Bump and Slingshot investigate a potential zombie outbreak in their neck of the forest. As newly minted members of the Eagle Scouts, they're doing their best to be brave, but when a creepy crow confirms their suspicions, these chicken-hearted birds lose their cool. To make matters worse—they're not just zombie-birds, they're ZOMBIE-BUGS! Can these hesitant heroes cast their fears aside and face the cicadas newly risen from the underworld? Or will the zombie-bugs conquer all and transform Speed Bump and Slingshot into the undead?
Find out in Book 3 of this hilarious chapter book series!
A Christy Ottaviano Book
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781250114013 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) |
| Publication date: | 10/24/2017 |
| Series: | Speed Bump & Slingshot Misadventure Series , #3 |
| Sold by: | Macmillan |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 128 |
| Lexile: | 570L (what's this?) |
| File size: | 131 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
| Age Range: | 7 - 10 Years |
About the Author
DAVE COVERLY is a nationally syndicated cartoonist whose Speed Bump cartoons appear in more than 200 newspapers, including The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and Parade magazine. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
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 2
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.
CHAPTER 3
'FRAIDY BIRDs
"Are you sure it wasn't just, you know, sleeping?" Early Bird asked.
"No way!" Speed Bump said. "We poked it really hard! No one could sleep through that!"
"Well, boys, I don't know what to tell you," Early Bird said. He bit off half of the worm he'd gotten that morning and tossed the other half to a drooling Slingshot. "But I think you'd better sleep with one eye open tonight, in case that ZOMBIE POSSUM COMES TO GET YOU!"
"Very funny," Speed Bump said, looking nervously out the door. "Come on, Slingshot, let's go."
Speed Bump and Slingshot could hear Early Bird laughing as they flew away.
"I don't care what your brother says, I know what we saw," Slingshot said as they soared over the forest. The sky had a faint orange glow from the setting sun. "I'm never going to fall asleep tonight!"
"Yeah, my tail feathers are still shaking."
"You know what we should do?"
"Stop letting our imaginations run wild?"
"No, mon ami. We should have a slumber party so we're not so scared."
"Great idea! Let's get Hoover and Soda Pop!"
They flew off into the dusk to find their friends, listening for little mousy burps and hoping Hoover would be done sleeping for the day. Nighttime was pretty scary without him.
CHAPTER 4
BFFS
"BRRAAAP!"
"Oh, sorry, we thought you were someone else. You don't happen to know a burping mouse, do you?"
"You mean Soda Pop? Everyone knows Soda Pop." The bird buddies looked at each other with surprise — not because the bullfrog knew the mouse's name, but because her voice was soft and pretty.
"Yeah, that's him! We're trying to track him down, but the forest is huge."
"Sounds like you two need a BFF."
Slingshot looked puzzled. "'Best Friends Forever'? We already are!"
"No, silly. 'Bullfrog Friend Finder.'"
She let out another loud "brraaap," and suddenly the forest was echoing with other bullfrogs "braaping" and "blurking" and "barrooging" from their hiding places inside old logs and under the plant life.
It was silent for a moment, and then there was a rustling behind them.
Soda Pop came around a tree, his whiskers still quivering from the burp.
"My feathered friends! Look at you two, being brave and coming into the forest at night again!" After the hugs and high fives and bonjours, they turned to thank the bullfrog, but she was gone. They heard a small splash in the distance.
"We came to invite you to a slumber party at Speed Bump's place!" Slingshot said as he snatched a mosquito out of the air.
"A slumber party? Tonight? That sounds fun and sort of, um, sudden."
The birds told their mouse buddy about the possum and how it didn't move and how many times they poked it — hard! — and about the dirt on its fur and its evil glare, and then they told him about the old fortune teller rook and how everyone KNOWS she's seen zombies and so they must be real.
Soda Pop took a deep breath. The full moon had slipped out from behind the evening clouds, making his gray face appear to glow. Speed Bump and Slingshot couldn't believe what he said next:
"It's even worse than you think," Soda Pop whispered, holding on to his tail. "I hear she says there are zombies in this forest."
Just as the word zombies came out of Soda Pop's mouth, a huge shadow flew over them all.
Speed Bump jumped into Slingshot's arms.
CHAPTER 5
A ROOK IN A CROOKED TREE
Hoover landed behind the group with a soft flutter of his giant wings.
"No, it's true! My chipmunk friend heard it from a skunk who heard it from a bat who heard it from a raccoon on the other side of the forest!"
After thinking it over for a few minutes, they agreed. It was always wise to listen to Hoover.
The three of them huddled together on the owl's back and were lifted into the night sky.
"I feel safer up here," Speed Bump said, looking over the side.
"Yep. No zombies in the sky!" Soda Pop agreed.
"But what if there are zombie flying squirrels?" Slingshot wondered.
Hoover rolled his enormous eyes and turned his head all the way around to face them. "THERE ARE NO ... Listen, you guys just need to relax, okay? See that ridge? The rook lives in an ancient pine tree on the other side. Just talk about something less scary than zombies until we get there."
They were quiet the rest of the way. Speed Bump fell asleep for a few minutes, and Slingshot nibbled on a few fleas he found underneath Hoover's feathers.
"There it is."
Hoover pointed to a tall, scraggly pine tree that stuck out above the others. It looked like a crooked finger, bent as if to say, This way, if you dare. Soda Pop managed a squeaky little burp. Speed Bump and Slingshot gulped loudly.
As they flew closer, they could see a hole in the top of the swaying pine. It was the shape of a bird's eye, and it glowed yellow. Hoover lifted his massive wings and coasted down onto a branch just below it.
"All right, my fretful friends, here's your chance to find out about zombies once and for all."
"I have butterflies in my stomach," Speed Bump said.
"I WISH I had butterflies in my stomach," Slingshot said. "Mmm, butterflies ..."
"I'm having second thoughts," Soda Pop squeaked.
"Don't make me turn myself around and take you all home!" Hoover said. "Go on in. The old rook might look creepy, but I hear she's harmless."
They peered through the hole, their eyes adjusting to the bright glow from inside.
"Whoa," all three said in unison.
The room was full of jars of fireflies balanced on bent shelves. They glowed on old tables and all over the floor, too. Hanging from the ceiling were strings with colorful feathers on them. In all the nooks and crannies were sticks put together in weird patterns, pinecones pecked into animal shapes, bits of aluminum and yarn, and a few odd things none of them had ever seen before.
Then the shadow of a bird rose up in the back of the room, as if growing from the floor! Above its long, pointy beak was a strangely pointed head, and the bird flowed toward them, as if floating on a breeze. Its voice sounded like two dry branches rubbing against each other.
CHAPTER 6
A SQUAB STORY
"How do I know your names, you wonder? I know all. I see all. You're here because you have a question about ..." The old rook leaned toward them and raised one eyebrow. "ZOMBIES!"
"Yes!" Speed Bump exclaimed. "Do they really exist? HAVE YOU SEEN THEM?"
"You might want to sit down for this, my young friends."
They sat in a semicircle in front of her on spongy mushroom tops.
The old rook bent down and looked them in the eye.
"Yes, zombies are real."
The friends gasped.
"And yes, I have seen them myself!"
"I KNEW IT!" Slingshot croaked.
A faraway look came over the rook's eyes. "When I was a squab — a baby rook — my grandmother told me tales about the zombie creatures that would come out of the earth. 'Every seventeen years,' she said, 'they emerge from the dirt in the thousands, their large red eyes staring through you, their loud screams making your blood feel as cold as a penguin egg.'"
"Of course, I didn't believe her. 'What a silly story,' I said! So she took me to the edge of the forest one night, just before dawn, so that I would know. I saw them myself, the hideous beasts still covered in dirt, rising from the dead and crawling out of their holes in the ground!"
They all gasped.
"That's when I realized: The world is a very strange and mysterious place indeed!"
The friends were speechless. Then the rook said: "And this is what I need to tell you — that was seventeen years ago TONIGHT."
"NO!" Speed Bump and Slingshot said, huddling together. Soda Pop shivered as if a cold wind had passed through him.
"Are you just trying to scare us?" the mouse asked.
"If you don't believe me, take this and see for yourself!"
"What is it?" Speed Bump whimpered.
"A Zombie Map! You'll never find them without it."
"Because they're underground?"
"Yes. But also because you four are terrible with directions."
"How did you — oh, right, you know all."
"If you dare go, remember this: Do not look directly at them. Their eyes are huge and red and will freeze you with fear. Brrr." The rook shook all over and adjusted her head scarf.
CHAPTER 7
LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!
"New plan — we should fly home and go to bed," said Soda Pop. "Zombies! Ugh. Who needs 'em!"
"Maybe," said Speed Bump. "But what if that old rook is just crazy? What if we find out zombies DON'T exist? Then we can stop being scared!"
"Yeah, we have to know. Besides, Hoover will protect us!" Slingshot said, his face buried in the Zombie Map. "By the way, why does it say NEWS on here? Is this news?"
"Those letters stand for North, East, West, and South," Hoover said over his shoulder. "Wow, you really ARE bad at directions."
They flew for hours. Eventually, as the hills of the forest below flattened out and the pine trees gave way to maples and oaks, the night sky began to lighten.
"Well, at least it's getting less creepy outside," Speed Bump said. "Hey, Slingshot, let me take a look at that map."
"But —"
"Seriously, we might be getting close, and I don't want us to miss the spot."
"Okay, okay — here."
Slingshot held the map out to his friend. Speed Bump reached to take it, and just as the tip of his wing was on it, a gust of wind sent the map whirling into the sky.
The map danced and darted, then dipped behind a row of trees.
"Down there!" Soda Pop pointed. "Behind those oaks!"
Hoover dove back into the forest. The map had disappeared in the gloom.
"We're at the end of the forest. Where else could it have gone?" Hoover said as they picked through small bushes and poked around old logs.
The three friends plopped down on their tails, leaning against the stump of a fallen tree. Hoover walked over to them.
He looked up at his friend, but Slingshot was half asleep and making eating noises.
There was a rumbling sound.
"Slingshot, was that your stomach?"
The rumble got louder. Slingshot leaned over and put his ear near his tummy.
"Nope. Not me."
Suddenly, the tree trunk began to shake. The bushes started rustling, louder and louder. Hoover looked down at his claws.
"What on earth is going on?"
The ground all around them was moving and shifting. Stones bounced and clicked off one another. It was happening as far as they could see, in the forest and out into the field beyond.
"I think you mean what UNDER the earth is going on," Soda Pop yelled.
Hoover jumped onto the tree stump, and the rest of the friends huddled around him.
Mounds of dirt began popping up, some of them almost as big as Speed Bump and Soda Pop. The echo of mounds shook and shifted and cast quivering shadows as the morning sun began to peek over the distant hill. Then a cluster of mounds appeared right in front of them. They all screamed.
"Something's coming out of the ground!"
"Hoover!" yelled Soda Pop. "Fly us home! Now!"
"I can't feel my wings!" the owl yelled back in a small, terrified voice.
The mounds grew higher and higher. Then the dirt began to fall away, and terrifying creatures appeared. Their hard shells were the color of rusty metal, and six thick, spiky legs stuck out at weird angles from their bodies as they dragged themselves out of the ground. One creature tilted its head up toward them — it had enormous red eyes!
It was the scariest, ugliest thing they'd ever seen.
"ZOMBIE BUGS!" shouted Slingshot. "Don't look into their dead eyes!"
They shuffled in a half circle to face the other way.
"They're on this side, too!"
They shuffled in a quarter circle.
"There are even more over here!"
They shuffled and shuffled and shuffled, like the hands on a clock, but it did no good. They were surrounded by those horrible, bulbous red eyes!
They closed their eyes tight and braced for the swarm.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Night of the Living Zombie Bugs"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Dave Coverly.
Excerpted by permission of Henry Holt and Company.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
TITLE PAGE,
COPYRIGHT NOTICE,
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS,
DEDICATION,
Chapter Zero: THE BEGINNING OF THE END!,
Chapter One: REST IN PEACE,
Chapter Two: 'FRAIDY BIRDS,
Chapter Three: BFFS,
Chapter Four: A ROOK IN A CROOKED TREE,
Chapter Five: A SQUAB STORY,
Chapter Six: LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!,
Chapter Seven: SCARED OUT OF THEIR SKIN,
Chapter Eight: ZOMBIE LOVE,
Chapter Nine: AMIS POUR TOUJOURS,
TRUE CICADA FACTS/NOT-SO-TRUE CICADA FACTS,
ALSO BY DAVE COVERLY,
ABOUT THE AUTHOR,
COPYRIGHT,