The Last Kids on Earth and the Zombie Parade

Once again Jack cannot sleep. He is playing Mario Kart with Quint when they hear a banging noise nearby. They realize it is coming from Alfred continuously bumping into the cage, and soon hear the shrieking noise somewhere in the distance. Quint goes to wake June and Dirk, while Jack attempts to put a helmet with a flashing light on Alfred’s head so that they don’t lose him in the dark or among the zombie crowd. They follow Alfred from their pickup truck—dubbed “Big Mama”—always staying a couple of blocks behind him.

They follow Alfred for almost an hour as he makes his way through town and joins a throng of zombies shuffling toward the forest on the edge of town. The group is forced to follow on foot once the zombies enter the forest and walk for another hour. The shrieking gets louder and louder until they reach a clearing with a large, gnarled, monstrous-looking tree at its center. The tree is covered in pulsating Vine-Thingies—monster vines the group has encountered in town before—and it becomes clear the sound is emanating from the tree. As each zombie shuffles into the clearing, the Vine-Thingies grab the zombies and pull them into the tree, which proceeds to eat them.