All Suzy and I can do is watch the events unfold from the edge of the tunnel, kilometers above our apartment. 

I look down with bated breath. The little island is being overrun by zombies while Master Mind is speeding towards it with his jetpack. Joy, who was right there, can’t be seen anywhere. Justin, still obsessed, is fighting the zombies on Bonnie’s Revenge, which is now approaching the grey castle. He doesn’t know Joy is in trouble, and in his present state, he doesn’t seem to care. 

The zombies below break into our home through the door and the windows. If Joy is there, I don’t see how she can survive. All she has are the laser pistol and the sword which she wears on her belt. 

Master Mind lands in our garden and sprays dozens of zombies with bullets, all aimed at their heads. 

Zombies fall, but I can’t see Joy’s small, blonde head from above. 

“She must have gone inside,” Suzy says.

I hold her hand. This is too frightening. 

Master Mind leaps into our house through the broken door. 

I can hear his automatic guns. 

Zombies fall out of windows. 

There are more shots, more shots, and even more shots. 

Then there is a spurt of fire from the inside that shatters one of the back windows. 

“Oh, my god,” Suzy says. 

Master Mind leaps outside that window, and looks around. 

“He hasn’t found her yet,” I tell Suzy. 

Master Mind looks around in all directions, as more and more zombies cross the water and swarm the island. 

“Where could she be?” Suzy asks. “We don’t have hiding places.”

She means not from a zombie attack or from a killer robot that’s looking to save you. 

Master Mind leaps to the roof of the building as dozens more enter our home below him. 

“Joy is still in there!” Suzy says. Her hand, in mine, is shaking. 

Master Mind fires a rocket at Bonnie’s Revenge. What’s he doing?

Bonnie’s Revenge has parked above the grey castle. The missile is headed right towards it. 

“JUSTIN SHELLEY!” Master Mind’s voice is so loud, we can hear it all the way up here. “TURN AROUND!” 

I can now see that the rocket is headed to the deck, not the body, of the ship. 

Justin turns around, just in time to see the rocket hit him. It explodes on impact. And suddenly the new landmass is gone, the castle is gone, and all the zombies are gone. 

Master Mind scared Justin enough to wake him up! And with him, all his dreams have disappeared. 

Master Mind leaps off the roof and lands on our porch. 

Almost immediately, Joy emerges from the door and jumps on him. 

“Oh, thank god,” Suzy exhales. “Thank god!” 

Master Mind, holding Joy, fires up the jetpack and is in the air. 

Beneath them, the zombies return. The landmass returns. The castle returns. And now I see that Justin has returned to Bonnie’s Revenge. 

“How did she survive?” Suzy asks. I shake my head. 

I guess we’ll find out.

(To be continued…) 

—Told by Grampa Walt