The Curse of Dreadgrave Manor

CHAPTER ELEVEN - ZOMBIE ATTACK

"Run!" They both yelled and bolted for the stairs. As soon as their feet hit the first step, the basement door slammed shut above them.

"We're trapped!" Kris screamed.

Max flashed the torch around the perimeter of the room, searching for an escape plan. "Quickly, grab a plank of wood!

We'll have to defend ourselves!"

They scrambled over to the woodpile and hunted through it for a suitable makeshift weapon. Max glanced behind his shoulder. The torchlight lit up Montgomery Dreadgrave's zombie crawling down the wall, his terrifying form with gaunt, elongated limbs resembled a spider. His glowing blood-red eyes were fixated on them with murderous intent.

"It's no use! All of these planks are rotted through!" He cried. "Wait... There's something back here!" Kris seized onto Max tightly, and he snapped his head around. Kris was right. Concealed behind the woodpile was an opening to a ventilation shaft.

"Let's get out of here!"

Max threw himself in headfirst, and Kris followed hastily behind, hindered by the heavy book. Frantically, they crawled through the winding maze of tunnels. It was dark except for thin pinpricks of light that seeped through the rusted holes in the metal panels, giving them just enough light to see where they were going. An earsplitting screech howled through the shaft followed by a series of loud and fast bangs.

"He's in the tunnel!" Kris yelled. "We have to go faster!" "I think I can see a ladder up ahead!" Max called back. The shaft curved to the right and as Kris arrived at the ladder, she noticed Max's shoes scurrying away into the tunnel at the top.

"Hey, wait!" She shouted.

She hurled the book up, and it landed with a dull thud on the ledge above her. She climbed up as fast as she could but froze when she reached the last rung. The next shaft forked into two different directions. Another hideous scream wailed beneath her.

"Max!" She shouted down both tunnels. "Which way did you go?"

"Kris!" His reply echoed throughout the shafts from every direction. "I'm down this way!"

There was a loud clanging noise underneath her, and the ladder shook hard. She tightened her grip and glanced down. The glowing eyes of Montgomery Dreadgrave stared straight up at her. He grinned maniacally in triumph and began to ascend the shaft. Kris screamed and scrambled down the right-hand tunnel, thrusting the book ahead of her.

The book is slowing me down, she thought. I'll have to get rid of it!

She turned and waited for the right moment.

Now!

She threw the book as hard as she could just as the zombie's head came into view, and it struck him directly on his partially exposed brain. He screamed, clutching hold of his head as he recoiled in pain. Seizing her chance, she clambered through the tunnel and noticed a square of dim light ahead of her.

A way out!

With the adrenaline pumping through her, she raced forward and emerged into a cramped room. Another deafening scream echoed from the ventilation shaft, this time laced with even more rage and deadly hunger. Kris frantically looked around the store cupboard she had now found herself in. It was empty except for a tall broom cabinet in the corner. With nothing else to defend herself with, she dashed over and pushed it as hard as she could. At first, the massive cabinet resisted moving. Kris repositioned herself, and using the wall behind her as leverage, pushed harder. This time, it loudly screeched as it relented and she hauled the cabinet across the floor. Montgomery's enraged face burst out from the shaft. With all her strength, Kris heaved and unleashed her most fearsome battle cry. The cabinet tipped over and went crashing down onto the unsuspecting zombie's head. He let out an agonising scream, and a series of loud bangs followed, signalling his hasty retreat. Kris' world fell quiet at last, except for the sound of her panicked breathing. Something twinkled from underneath the cabinet, catching her eye. Intrigued, she bent down and found a small ornate key on a broken chain caught underneath the corner of the cabinet.

This must have been around his neck!

She looked around, now aware that Max was nowhere to be seen. She was vulnerable and alone.

Now what?