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

their shambling carcasses up the roadway, though far fewer than in recent days.  The miners headed inside for their meal, while Firecracker, The Colonel, Apocalypse Girl, Junior and myself took over for them.  Dragging the rotting carcasses of dead Dead was ever so entertaining.  The ice covering the road made for an interesting experience, as well.  On the one hand, the icy smooth surface made for easy going with the dead-Dead-dragging, but after the fourth time I had fallen on my arse to gales of Apocalypse Girl's chuckling, I was more pissed at it than grateful.
     
     
     
    Most of the corpses finally taken care of, all that remained was to clear the Dead that had congregated in the middle of the road.  Perhaps a hundred, maybe a few more or less.  You don't bother counting the Dead, there are either some, lots, lots , or shitloads.  Or so many that all you can do is scream and run the other way, assuming there is one.
     
     
     
    Because of the precarious footing that the icy road presented us with, we opted for guns rather than melee weapons, as the Dead that falls down on top of you when you're trying to bash its skull in is likely to be the one that gets you.
     
     
     
    There was once a time, in what seemed the long distant past now, when even the sound of one bullet being fired would have nearly made me shit myself, but now...  Now the Dead fell under our onslaught, as we moved slowly down the road towards them.  The road soon needed clearing once again, and we dragged the nearest group to the pyres while Apocalypse Girl kept an eye on the shamblers nearing us.
     
     
     
    She fired off a warning shot, as we agreed she would if they got too close, and we turned around to deal with the threat only to see that the Dead had mainly turned around and seemed to be heading for the incoming survivors.  Several trailing Dead turned towards us at the sound of her gunfire, but the main horde had already moved away, set on their own tasty goals.  We heard the faint sounds of gunfire in the distance, these survivors were able to look after themselves, but they needed a hand.
     
     
     
    Firecracker ordered Apocalypse Girl back to base for backup, giving her a single look that silenced her protest before it had even begun.  We checked our ammo situation, found it satisfactory for the task at hand, and Redbeard led the charge, as we carefully picked our way through, around and over dead Dead in order to reach the Dead before they reached the Living that were on their way.  It was lucky for us all, Think Tank group and incoming survivors both, that the Dead were as slow and clumsy as they were, because that icy road befouled them as well, not to mention their awkward gait and slow pace rendered catching them up a task that was simply executed.  Before much longer Apocalypse Girl rejoined us, with a trio of miners and The Twin in tow.
     
     
     
    More guns blazing, this time closer than before.  It appeared as though the newcomers were adopting our tactics, gunning the Dead down in a line as they advanced slowly up the road.  We answered their barrage with a hail of bullets of our own, tearing into the Dead putting many down.
     
     
     
    A voice came from the encroaching gloom ahead of us, challenging us.  I shouted back asking what their diet was like these days.  They replied that they had not found anything that could reasonably be called food in weeks, that they had been scavenging from the Dead in the worst cases.  The Colonel and I shared a meaningful look.  One of them shouted that there had been a few people in their group that had resorted to eating the Dead but that they had made them leave in disgust.  Another replied that they'd rather starve than that!   Still another pointed out that they were starving anyway.
     
     
     
    I called out to them once more, saying that they needed to hand over their weapons and surrender.  One asked why the hell would they do that, and Firecracker just laughed,