“Good-bye tasty, children!” laughed the bigger rhino-rilla, powering up his blaster!
Wesley looked around for some way to escape, but there was no way out. They were too high up to jump off the roof, and too far away from the edge to even try. Without his TorrentBoy powers, he couldn't stop the bad guys from zapping them. They were stuck!
“Let's do it on the count of three,” said the shorter rhino-rilla, “So … one…”
“Two…”
“Three…”
“BRAINS!” screamed Gabby suddenly, lurching forward with wild, crazy eyes.
The two rhino-rillas looked shocked.
“I thought you said on three!” complained the first.
“I did! That's what I said!”
“I thought you meant one, two, three, zap. Not one, two, zap.”
“That's what I thought I meant too! Did you zap early?”
The other rhino-rilla checked his zapper, shrugged.
“I don't think so. How do you know if you zapped?”
“I don't know. I've never done it before.”
They stood there, staring at the ends of their zappers with confused looks on their big ugly faces. Meanwhile, Gabby the zombie was snarling and stumbling around, right between the two of them. Wesley wanted to go and help her, but he was afraid she was going to try to eat his brains.
“BRAINS!” she screamed again, and both rhino-rillas got so scared they pointed the zappers at her. “ROAR!” she said.
“She's scary,” said the bigger one, “Look at her eyes. Yick!”
“Let's just zap the other one and get outta here,” agreed the smaller one.
They both turned towards Wesley, who put his hands up to protect himself, as if it would help.
“Come on, guys!” he pleaded, “You don't want to do this! Let's talk a bit! Maybe we can come up with a compromise or something!”
“Compro-what?” laughed the big one, “I don't think so, stinky kid.”
“We just want to zap you and get out of here, before your little friend here says something really scary.”
“RHINO BRAINS!” screamed Gabby, and both rhino-rillas quickly turned around and pointed at her, right between them. Their hands were shaking, they were so scared.
“What did you say?” the big one whimpered.
“I said,” Gabby smirked in a very un-zombie way, “rhino brains are itty bitty small!”
Both rhino-rillas (and Wesley, too) nearly fell over from shock!
“She's faking!” shouted the little one, and they both pulled the triggers on their zappers! And just as they did, Gabby ducked down and out of the way … the brain-sucking blasts crossed over her head, and the two rhino-rillas hit each other! They fell onto their backs, sizzling like steaks.
“Itty bitty brains,” Gabby said, fixing her hair.
“Gabby!” Wesley gasped, running to her side, “I thought you were a zombie too!”
“It's not hard to act like one,” Gabby said with a smile, “you just open your eyes really wide and talk like a two-year-old.”
Wesley looked down at the guards, whose eyes were starting to open wide. All of a sudden, the smaller rhino-rilla let out a loud shriek, and tried to get to his feet, yelling: “BRAINS!” as loud as he could.
Wesley glanced at Gabby, who sighed.
“Time to run,” he said, and they took off towards the stairs. Just as they got there, the door burst open and a bunch of zombies stared out, eyes wide and crazy, mouths dripping hungrily.
“Is emergency now!” they screamed.
Wesley slammed the door back on their faces with a crunch.
“Is ouch!”
“We've got to find another way off the roof,” Wesley said, looking around desperately. Off in the distance, they saw the zombified rhino-rillas walking towards them … they didn't have much time before they'd be caught!
“What about the fire escape on the other side of the school?” Gabby said suddenly.
“Does it go all the way to the roof?” Wesley asked, looking down that way. They'd have to get past the rhino-rillas first. He was not looking forward to that.
“I'm pretty sure it does. It's our only hope, Wesley!”
Wesley nodded to her: “Then let's go!”
They started run towards the rhino-zombies who were busy bumping into each other like a pair of toddlers on roller skates.
The bigger rhino-rilla saw them coming, let out a big, horrifying yell and ran straight at them. His big metallic hands slammed into the ground, missing Wesley by a sliver! Wesley ducked fast and pulled Gabby under the legs of the second one, who fell on his face trying to twist to watch them go.
“I see it!” Wesley called, looking ahead at the edge of a fire escape peeking over the edge of the wall.
“I've almost got enough power!” said Rezzit, “Just hold on a bit longer!”
“I'm trying!” Wesley grunted, and helped Gabby onto the ladder. The rhino-rillas had got back to their feet, and they were starting to follow … but worse than that, the zombies in the stairwell had found a way up, and they were coming too!
“Hurry hurry hurry!” Wesley shouted to Gabby, “We've got to go!”
She was a few rungs down the ladder when her foot slipped, and she fell down fast! She barely caught hold of the ladder again, and her arm went CRACK as she stopped halfway down the school.
“Gabby!” Wesley called, starting down after her, “Are you okay?”
“Okay?!” she yelped, “Are you dumb? Just hurry up and get down here before … oh no!”
The rhino-rillas had reached the ladder, and the big one reached for Wesley’s head, snatching angrily.
“BRAINS!” it growled, barely missing him.
“Look out below!” Wesley shouted, and slid down to right next to Gabby as fast as he could.
The whole ladder shook, and when they looked up, they saw the rhino-rillas had ripped it right off the building!
“Brains come here!”
The big one started shaking the ladder back and forth, trying to make Wesley and Gabby fall. They held on tight, lurching this way and that, but never unwrapping their arms from the rungs. Wesley felt like he was about to throw up.
Then, in front of him, he saw it: the cafeteria! It was right next to them! The windows were open a crack … but if they aimed it right...
“Gabby! We've got to jump!”
“Jump?” she gasped, “We're too high!”
“It's our only hope! Come on!”
Wesley waited for a second, then a second more, and then, with all his strength, he threw himself off the ladder and right through the opening of the window, landing on a table, and bouncing onto the floor!
“That hurt,” he complained, right before Gabby bounced in after him, and landed on his back. “More hurting … ouch …”
“That was fun!” Gabby said, getting to her feet.
Then she looked a lot less happy.
There, all around them, were at least thirty more zombies, all with the crazy eyes, all looking straight at them.
“It's lunch time, isn't it?” Gabby sighed.
“And guess what's on the menu?” Wesley muttered, backing up.
“BRAINS!” shouted all the zombies at once!
