Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 2): February by Dave Rowlands

to be on the other side of the street, so we went sideways, jumping first one fence, running across that back yard and jumping another before returning once more to the street.
     
     
     
    The Dead had gathered round our coffee house, and as we watched the front door was battered in under the sheer weight of the fifty or so of them that had crowded the front porch.  More Dead from further up the street spotted the commotion and shuffled over to join in, hoping for some hot tasty meat, or some intestines to chew on.  We kept low, heading across the street straight into the back yard of the next house.
     
     
     
    The Dead knew we were on the move, as one of them moving to join the horde from the opposite direction, close to us and behind us as we watched the main group, followed us into the back yard.  The festering carcass of a dog, dead from starvation, lay across our path, and Junior tripped over it, creating a loud enough ruckus that the Dead in China could probably have heard it.  Apocalypse Girl clobbered our tail with her crowbar, taking a look out into the street as Redbeard helped Junior up.
     
     
     
    “They're coming, guys,”  She said, and we moved to the back fence.  We needed something to get up high enough to reach the top of this fence, it towered above us.  Redbeard went to the side of the house, where we had made our entry into the back yard, saying that he would hold them off while we do something about it.  A moment later he squeezed off a couple of rounds.  Junior ran shoulder first at back door of the house, and screamed in pain.  Apocalypse Girl swore, loudly, and ran to his aid.  I followed, and turned the handle.  The door swung inwards, and Junior looked instantly incredibly embarrassed.  More gunshots rang out as The Son and I scoured the interior of the house.  There was a large, sticky pool of blood that had to have been drying for at least a month covering the kitchen floor, and a large dining table nearby, seats flung about in abandon.
     
     
     
    We went for the table, both of us putting our weapons down momentarily while we attempted to get it the fuck outside.  The Son screamed as a Dead hand latched onto his ankle.  I quickly glanced under the table, and saw that he was in no immediate danger of being eaten, but he was panicking and not likely to listen to me.  I grabbed my sword and stabbed it through the Dead one's forehead, then slapped The Son in the face, telling him that he is alright now.  He nodded, then we grabbed the table, dragging it outside.
     
     
     
    I ordered Junior to help out moving the table, and Apocalypse Girl I told to run back into the house and grab our weapons.  Redbeard was walking slowly backwards, firing once with each step, glancing back briefly to check that we had dealt with the fence before he bolted for the table.
     
     
     
    Just using it as a table would not work, that much was clear, but we were able to overturn it, such that it became rather a handy ramp, including legs that we were able to hang onto and climb up the fence with.  Apocalypse Girl, tossing the weapons over, and The Son went first followed by Junior and myself.
     
     
     
    The next yard was almost worse.  Apocalypse Girl had managed to roll out of the way as soon as she had landed, making room for me, but Junior landed on top of The Son, and a moment later, Redbeard's entire bulk crushed them from above.  To top it off, this family had clearly been celebrating the new year at home, as they were all still there, staring at us.  Mother, father, three kids of various flavours, aunts and uncles, probably a grandparent or two.  Maybe three.  It was hard to tell who had been whom when the entire family was now Dead and stumbling towards us.

I snatched up my sword and began to slice into Dead skulls, cleaving apart most of the family before they could get to us, by which time Redbeard had recovered enough to put a pair of bullets into the heads of the final two