Free Zombified (Episode 1): Wooneyville by Matt Di Spirito Page B

stairs.
    "Down the roof, Pop!  Move!"  Joey stepped back, slung Zeus over one shoulder, and drew the Glock.  He swapped magazines from a belt holster and freed the slide.
    Hank skidded down the shingles, tumbling into the truck bed with a yelp.
    "You all right, Pop?"
    "I'll live!  Get your butt down here!"
    Joey heard Hank's shotgun bark: BOOM! KA-CHINK. BOOM!
    "On my way!"  Joey emptied another clip into the zombies trying to squeeze through the attic door, which was thoroughly jammed up. 
    That should slow 'em down , he thought.  He reloaded the Glock and slipped into the holster.  Gripping the top sill, he swung both legs out the window and hit the roof on his feet; he surfed down and landed in the truck.
    "That's how you do it, Pop."
    "I'll try and remember that next time, wise guy."  Pop decapitated another zombie, ejecting the last shell.  "The damned things are climbing up the dead ones!" 
    Sure enough, zombies hauled up the side of the truck, stepping over the corpses, and clawed at Hank and Joey. 
    "Can you get in the cabin, Pop?"
    Hank glanced at the sliding rear window and shook his head.  "Cover me while I reload the 12-gauge and then you can get in there and get us out of here."
    Joey drew his sword and alternated between slicing zombie skullcaps and blowing them off.  He finished another magazine while Hank loaded up.
    "I'm good.  Let's get out of here!"  Hank yelled, cocking the shotgun.
    Joey went headfirst into the cab, wriggling through the window.  As his hips passed through, a hand clamped down on his ankle.
    "Pop, something's got me!  Fuckin' shoot it!"
    Joey heard a scuffle, then the sound of a gun stock whapping against skull.  His leg was released.  Hank yelled and Joey heard a thump.  Zombies climbed into the truck bed, and one of them had Hank pinned against the side. 
    "Pop!"  Joey reached back, making to climb out of the window.
    "Start the damn truck, Joe!  Get us out of here! Now!"  Hank shoved the zombie off him and blasted it apart with the shotgun.  The rear window was showered with congealing blood.
    Joey fired up Bad Betty and punched it.
    Hank slid the length of the bed, smacking into the tailgate.  Zombies toppled out of the truck, disappearing into the rain-soaked night.
    "Pop, you okay?"  Joey threw open the rear windows and glanced back.  "Pop!"
    "Yeah, kid, I'm okay."  His face appeared at the window.  Blood streaked down from a head wound, winding over his jaw and dripping on his shirt.
    "What the fuck happened to your head?"
    "Your driving happened.  When you took off tear-assing through the mud, I flew back and cracked my noggin on the gate."
    "Shit, sorry about that, Pop."  Joey cleared the thicker trees and turned onto the dirt road, heading back to Peasquimet Road, then onto route 99 and back home.
    "I'll live.  One of those damn things almost bit off my finger.  I fed him the shotgun instead."  Hank grinned.  "Pass me a first aid kit, would ya, Joe?"
    Joey stretched over, opened the glove box, and fished out the kit.  He passed it over his shoulder to Hank. 
    Bad Betty turned onto Peasquimet Road, mauling a trio of zombies staggering in the right lane. 
    "How far do you think it's spread?"  Hank asked, pressing a wad of gauze to his scalp.  "Do you think Yankee Heights and Garden Harbor are gone?"
    "It happened pretty fuckin' fast, Pop."  Joey recalled sitting on his couch, watching the draft, and waking up two or three hours later to a shitload of flesh-eating zombies.  "As soon as it started, it spread too quick to stop.  People seemed sick--just sick, like the flu--and they treated it like that.  When those sick people got worse, friends and family called an ambulance or brought 'em to the medical center."
    Joey swerved into the left lane, avoiding a turned-over minivan, and plowed down an armless zombie. 
    "Dozens started dying at the center and then coming back, attacking their family members and the medical staff.  People at