The Monster Apocalypse

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER TEN

Cody Warts stared at his iPhone screen. He was up forty points. One more fatality, and he'd win the game.

"Ooooh," his little sister Clara said. "Mom's gonna be mad if she sees you playing that."

"Shut up, tattle-tale."

"I'm not a tattle-tale."

"Yes you are!" Cody shouted, still not looking away from the screen. "Tattle-tale, tattle-tale!"

The six-year-old girl groaned, jumped away from the table, and said, "Mom! Cody called me a tattle-tale again!"

"Cody, be nice to your sister," his mom said, as she grabbed at least twenty napkins and carried the tray of fast food over to the table farthest to the back of the McDonalds restaurant.

"OK, Mom," the boy said condescendingly. "I'll do that."

She set the tray down and snapped her fingers loud right next to his face. He blinked for the first time in three minutes, but he still wouldn't glance, not even for a second, at his mother. His eyes were glued on the iPhone game.

"Cody, look at me when I'm talking to you," she said.

"Hold on," he said. He was only nine years old, but he had already started making a habit of talking back to his mom, and not bowing down to her demands every single time she got upset at him over something.

"Cody," she said, this time more stern, "is that what I think it is?"

"No."

She grabbed the cell phone and pulled it out of his hands. "How many freaking times do I have to tell you—"

"Mom!" Cody jumped away from the table and reached for the phone. "Give it back!"

"No."

"But I'm on the last level!"

She clicked the phone off and brought it down to her side. "First of all, Cody, it's not your phone, it's mine. I'm the one who paid for it. And secondly, I told you that you could only use it if you play age-appropriate games—"

"Zombies VS Vampires is totally age-appropriate!"

"Do you think I was born yesterday? Sit down and eat your burger."

Cody didn't budge. He looked ready to start screaming. They were making a pit-stop in Minden, Nevada, before heading over to Lake Tahoe for the weekend, and while this McDonalds was one of the emptiest this family of three had every stepped inside, Cody's mom still didn't want her kid throwing a tantrum for others to see.

"Did you hear me?"

"I heard you, Mom."

"Don't talk back to me. Sit down. Now!"

Cody turned back toward the table, but leaped toward his mom unexpectedly and grabbed the iPhone right out of her hand. He raced to the other side of the McDonalds and clicked back to the main menu of his monster fighting game. He hit RESUME and watched in dismay as the final big baddie—a tall, creepy vampire with a black hat—severed his character's neck and started drinking his blood. YOU LOSE splattered across the screen in big red letters. It was done. He had lost.

"Nooooo!" Cody shouted. "Mom! You made me lose the game—"

His mother appeared behind him, snatched the phone back out of his hands, and grabbed him by his collared shirt. "Now you listen to me, Cody! I've had it up to here with you today. You just lost all privileges of playing video games for the whole next week. You hear me?"