Night of the Zombie Zookeeper CHAPTER ONE Zoos Are Cool


Everybody loves the zoo, right? Hey, who doesn’t like cool animals? Who doesn’t want to spend the day hanging out with lions, tigers, bears, and snakes? Okay, maybe not the snakes. They make my skin crawl.

But the rest of the zoo? Believe it or not, I’m just like every other kid. I love zoos!

I mean, where else can you see animals from all over the world in one place . . . up close?



Not to mention the merry-go-round, ice-cream stands, and a train that goes all the way around the park. Want to get from the apes to the petting farm without standing up? Then all aboard the Zoo Choo Train!



Zoos even have the coolest gift shops. They have huge stuffed animals and stretchy rubber snakes. Oh, in case you didn’t know, I think fake snakes are fine. The gift shop also has T-shirts, magnets, and those key chains with your name on it. Of course, they never have a key chain with “Andres” on it, so maybe I don’t like the key chains so much. But still, the zoo is great.





I mean, it’s kind of great.



Well . . . except for the snakes, like I said. Also, the zoo always has peacocks roaming free across the grounds. I have never trusted those peacocks. Why are they allowed to walk around? It’s not like they are here to see the other animals.



I’ll tell you what they are after: food. I had a bad run-in with a peacock one time. That sneaky bird stole a soft pretzel right out of my hand. And the pretzel was still warm!



And I’ll never forget the time I spilled bird food all over myself in the bird habitat.

That did not turn out well.

Hmm, now that I think about it, once I was feeding a goat at the zoo . . . but the goat ate my video game instead of his real food.

Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have been playing it while I was feeding the goat, but I was just about to beat my high score!



It’s no wonder the animals are always looking for something new to eat. Have you seen what the zoo feeds them? Leaves, cold fish, and something called “pellets,” whatever that is.



But none of that food is half as bad as what the zookeeper is carrying in that bucket now. It looks like something Desmond Cole’s mom would make. Something she has made!



But that’s not why Desmond and I are tailing this zookeeper. We’re the Ghost Patrol. Maybe you can see us hiding right here. See, there is something odd about this zookeeper.