ZOMBAY DES REFUSES: THE YA ROOM

Okay, everyone. It’s the final countdown. This is it. Tonight, all entries for Zombie Idol will be collected. Your Celebrity Judges (Meg Cabot, John Green, Justine Larbalestier, E. Lockhart and I) are all here, sitting down, ready to make the final selections.

You have until the clock strikes midnight here in New York City.

Tomorrow, Your Celebrity Judges will present the five undead contestants. YOU will choose one winner of Round Two.

On Monday, our two finalists will battle it out. Because only one can be the ZOMBIE IDOL.

I know. It’s all VERY EXCITING.

What’s even more exciting is that I have VERY SERIOUSLY BIG NEWS to tell you about the release of Suite Scarlett . . . but I can’t tell you the details until Zombie Idol is over. Just know . . . if you’re waiting for the release of Suite Scarlett, YOU WILL NOT HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL MAY. And Scholastic is having a contest . . . with a Prize . . . capital P, Prize . . . serious, ding-ding, worth actual money super-cool Prize. Even I want this Prize . . . except, I am part of the Prize . . . and there will be books, and goodies, and . . .

I can’t say any more. Next week. Next week I can.

Hold on. Just . . . just let me sit down for a minute. This . . . it’s all so much . . .

All right.

Today, I bring you another room from our wonderful gallery. I feel that it is fitting to close the Zombay des Refuses with this room . . . the YA room. I could keep going . . . I have so many more zombies to share. But one of you guys would have to come over here and help me deal with my laundry, and frankly, I don’t expect that of you.

But please . . . enjoy tonight’s selection. And if you haven’t gotten in your zombie . . . HURRY! Hurry like a 28 Days Later Zombie is after you!



You, in the middle of the deadline.


Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Reese

"Isabella." He pronounced my full name carefully, then playfully ruffled my hair with his free hand. A rather matted clump of hair and congealed scalp fell to the dewey ground. "I couldn't live with myself if I ever hurt you. To never see your inert eyes stare off into the distance... It would be unendurable."

At this point I was gazing deep into his eyes. Past those astonishingly beautiful golden orbs. Brane back ther. I thought. Frozen brane. mmmmm Oh. How I longed to eat him.

He gently stroked my face from hairline to chin. A layer of skin peeled off into his icy hand. He tucked it into his back pocket. "Simply enchanting."

He smiled my favorite crooked smile.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
R. Riley

Zombifina the zombie watched the couple rowing on the lake with longing. Her eye twitched; her undead mouth began to fill with drool. Brains.

“How well we pull together, don’t we?” said Amy, who objected to silence just then.
Zombifina pulled on her water wings, stampeding into the water.

“So well that I wish we might always pull in the same boat. Will you Amy?” very tenderly. Tender, thought Zombifina. Tender, tender brains.

“Yes, Laurie,” very low.

Then they both stopped rowing, and unconsciously added a pretty little tableau of human love and happiness to the dissolving views reflected in the lake.
Which was generally a bad idea. They allowed Zombifina to gain valuable ground—er, water—in the pursuit of their brains!

It was a lucky thing for the future Mr. and Mrs. Laurence that there was a multitude of jellyfish in the lake that day.



Zombies love boats, and are eager to join any sailing trips you may be planning.


TTFN by Lauren Myracle
E. Ranieri

Snowzombie: UHhhhhh. :-)
Zombiegirl: uh uhhh uhh :-)
Snowzombie: uhh....!



The Truth about Forever by Sarah Dessen
britx333

"So what is that?" I asked him, forcing the words out, then immediately realized I was looking at him, not the creature at the side of his arm, so this question could concern just about anything. And I added--- face flushing, God help me--- "Your friends, I mean. I've never been able to see what it is."

This full sentence, an inquiry to boot, seemed to me on par with Helen Keller finally signing W-A-T-E-R. I mean, really.

"Oh," he said, pushing the side of the creature. "It's just my zombie. You saw it the first day you came out to Delia's right?"

I felt myself nodding, but truthfully I was just staring at the black, think lines, of the zombie's mouth, now fully revealed: a heart was also in his hands. This one, of course, smaller, and contained a circle bordered by tribal pattern, almost like it was gnawed on, but otherwise it was the same. The flat palm, fingers extended, the red heart in its center.

"Right," I said. Like the first time I'd seen it, I couldn't help think that it was familiar, something pricking my subconscious, as weird as that sounded. "Is it mean, or something?"

"Sort of." He looked down as he said it. "It ate my mom when I was just a kid."

"Really."

"Yeah. She had this whole thing about how they were connected, that's her heart in his hands." He ran his fingers of the bright red heart, then looked at me. "You know, feeling and zombie are always linked, one can't exist without the other. It's sort of a hippie thing. She was into that stuff."

"I like it," I said. "I mean, the idea of it. It makes sense."


Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
kheidianne

A zombie was at the peak of the hill, staring right at her. Then the horizon seemed to slip away in front of her, and Tally crouched, ready for impact. David was oblivious looking at the artificial tree that was to his right.

The ground disappeared. The zombie was clinging to the front of the boards, his fingers scrabbling over the knobby edge trying to get a grip.

Tally pushed off with all her strength, forcing her hoverboards down the steep side of the hill, where they would bring themselves to a halt. The zombie fell with the boards, crashing into the hill with an echoing thud. She and David had switched off their crash bracelets –they didn’t want the boards following them over the wire. Not yet. Not with a zombie on them.

Tally soared into midair, still climbing for a few more seconds. The outer city lay below her, a vast patchwork of light and dark. She spread her arms and legs. Gaining distance from the zombie.



Looking for Alaska by John Green
S. Mckee

And as the zombies chased us, we went.

Three seconds later, a huge zombie unexpectedly burst out of the pops. It sounded, to me, like the automatic gunfire in Decapitation, except louder. We were twenty steps away from the droning piece of walking flesh already, and I thought my eardrums would burst.

I thought: Well, he should certainly hear it; of course the zombie would hear himself moaning. Why on earth do they incessantly moan?

To escape their droning, we ran past the soccer field and into the woods, running uphill and with only the vaguest sense of direction. We got lucky though; the zombies weren't agile enough to follow. They were stupidly stumbling over tiny twigs. They sure know how to moan, but they couldn't figure out how to walk. In the dark, fallen branches and moss-covered rocks appeared at the last possible second, and I slipped and fell repeatedly and worried that the Eagle – the leader of this flesh thirsty pack - would catch up, but I just kept getting up and running beside Takumi, away from the classrooms and the dorm circle – hotspots for zombies (of course). We ran like we had golden shoes. I ran like a cheetah – well, like a cheetah that smoked too much. And then, after precisely one minute of running, Takumi stopped, and ripped open his backpack; he took out his collection of vinyl records, perfect for throwing at zombies' heads.



13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson
A. Enders

"I nicked a little toy," he said, pinching the Godzilla between his fingers. "It’s nothing."

"It’s not nothing."

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, Ginny noticed a zombie lumbering down the platform. He was headed straight toward a homeless man who had his fist closed tightly.

Keith, noticing Ginny’s attention was elsewhere, looked over to the right where he saw the zombie and homeless man begin to grapple. Keith’s eyebrows rose in a mixture of surprise and amusement.

The zombie and homeless man continued to struggle, nearly knocking into Ginny. Keith pulled Ginny to the side, still transfixed by what appeared to be a fight to the death right before them.

"Oh my gosh!" a shocked woman exclaimed. Just as she screamed, the zombie and homeless man free fell to the tracks below. The crowd surged forward to watch the excitement.

As quickly as the fight began, it was over with the snap of the homeless man’s neck. A shocked gasp arose from the crowd and was shortly followed with a relieved sigh when the zombie decided against devouring the homeless man’s entrails.

The zombie pulled himself back onto the platform and shuffled over to a bright, shiny coin lying near a bench. A businessman said disinterestedly, "I think that is what they were fighting over."

Ginny and Keith stared at each other in disbelief.

Keith walked over to the edge of the platform and tossed the little toy down onto the tracks, then wandered back.



Visit Ginny's zombified London!


See the contact button? USE IT. YOU DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME!