The Corporal raised a fist. “Don’t worry Captain,” he said firmly, “we’ll buy you all the time you need to unload.”
“That’s what I’m counting on,” he replied.
The soldier by the railing made the final check before turning and giving him the thumbs up.
“Looks like we’re good to go, here,” Odom said.
Jinx nodded. “We’re ready to rock-and-roll too.”
The Captain nodded and pulled out his walkie-talkie, raising it to his mouth. “We are ready to go up here,” he said.
“Yes sir, moving out,” the soldier from the bridge replied.
Odom put the radio away and turned to face the three groups, each of them six strong. The boat began to move from position towards the bay entrance.
“Everybody listen up,” he declared. “Just gave the order, so we’ll be on shore in a matter of minutes. We have a handful of snipers on board, so once we make landfall, they’ll be covering your descent. You all have your assignments.” He raised his chin. “Be safe out there.”
There was a chorus of “Yes, sir!” as the Captain headed back inside the ship.
Jinx approached the railing and stood next to Stein and Burch, staring out at the bay as it grew closer and closer.
“What do you say, Jinx?” Burch asked. “You think we got a chance of pulling this off?”
The Corporal grinned. “Yeah, it’ll be a walk in the park,” he said, spreading his arms. “A giant, zombie filled park.”
“You able to find us anything fun?” Stein asked.
Jinx smirked. “Oh yeah,” he said, “but if I tell you about them, it won’t be a surprise.” He winked and then headed over to Spence and Dickerson, who were prepping their teams. “If you gentlemen don’t mind,” he said to catch their attention, “I’d like my team to be the first over the side. We have the furthest to go, so I’d like to get a jump on it.”
“Fine by me,” Spence replied. “My team isn’t too happy I volunteered them for this, so pretty sure if I made us go first, I’d be in line for a friendly fire incident.”
Dickerson chuckled. “Look forward to following in your carnage-filled footsteps.”
“Come on Sergeant, that was one time,” Jinx drawled, rolling his eyes.
Dickerson shook his head. “One for me,” he corrected. “I’ve heard stories from others who have followed you into battle.”
“What can I say?” Jinx replied, puffing out his chest. “I take pride in my work.”
The trio shared a laugh and then exchanged fist bumps.
“You stay safe out there,” he said, in a rare moment of seriousness. “We’ll swap stories on the march to Olympia.”
“Back at you,” Dickerson replied.
The Corporal headed back to his team, all of which stood, looking out over the water. The ship was passing through the entrance to the bay and making the turn towards the landing zone. The beachhead was another thousand yards away and closing quick.
“Okay, we’re first over the side,” Jinx announced. “So, as soon as we stop moving, get those chains over and start climbing.” He looked around. “Who has binoculars for me?”
Rollins reached into his bag, pulling out a pair and handing them over. Jinx looked through them to the beach, seeing several dozen zombies wandering about, some of which were looking towards the beastly ship.
“Damn, we’re going to be coming into a crowd,” he muttered. He looked past them at the thick line of trees about a hundred yards behind. It was hard to see, but he spotted movement within the branches. He continued to scan, finally focusing on a small shack at the far end of the beach. “Got movement in the trees, too.”
“Any idea how thick the woods are?” Burch asked.
Jinx tilted his head back and forth. “Twenty, thirty yards max,” he said. “Edge of town is on the other side of it, which is where the real fun begins.”
“If there’s this many on the beach, we could be coming in for one hell of a welcoming party,” Jarvis said dryly.
Jinx nodded. “Which means we’re going to have to move quick,” he said. “As soon as your boots hit the sand, make your way to the shack on the far end of the beach. That’s the rally point.”
“And the zombies?” Rollins asked.
The Corporal handed back the binoculars. “Clear the landing zone for the other teams and let the snipers handle the ones coming from the woods,” he instructed. “We got a double load out, but four hundred and twenty rounds is gonna go quick. Questions?”
The team shook their heads, making noises in the negative.
“Let’s get ready to roll, then,” Jinx said.
The soldiers geared up, loading up their ammunition and gear bags, and checking their files. Burch leaned over and looked at the chains, inspecting the thick gauge metal with large chunks welded to it every few yards for hand holds.
“This is some Frankenstein bullshit right here,” he muttered.
The deck teams lined up on the railing, bracing themselves as the ship hurtled towards the shoreline. As they reached the hundred yard line, the PA system crackled to life.
“All hands, brace for impact!” the Captain bellowed.
The ship began to run aground as it approached the shore, hitting the low part of the sea floor. Everyone lurched forward as the momentum quickly stalled. There was a horrific loud sound of metal vs rocks as the ship skidded along the sand.
The strike teams rattled around, holding onto the railing. Jinx’s eyes were wide, a massive grin on his face as if he were on a roller coaster. A few members of his team looked excited as well, prompting a few of Spence’s team to stare at him with furrowed brows.
Jinx flashed them a hand with his pointer and pinky fingers extended in the iconic devil horns sign, letting out a whoop.
Finally, the ship came to a stop on the shore, the front end of the ship about ten yards onto the beach.
“Chains overboard!” Jinx barked, and his team moved fast.
The soldiers shoved the heavy chains over the side of the ship. It took two people on each one to get it going, but soon the metal plummeted to the ground below.
Jinx looked over the side, all four lines close together, no more than five yards apart, landing on the sand below. One of the chains smacked a zombie on the shoulder, ripping the arm clean off.
“So close Davila,” the Corporal cried, “you almost had a headshot!”
Davila chuckled and tapped his gun. “Don’t worry, I’ll make up for it.”
“Davila, Jarvis, Rollins, on me,” Jinx said, “let’s move!” He hopped over the railing and grabbed onto the chain as his three teammates did the same.
He looked down the forty yards to the ground, watching the dozen zombies directly below them, and a few dozen more on either side of them on the beach, and headed their way. He climbed down quickly, hand over hand with his feet walking down the side, moving faster than his soldiers. When he was about ten yards from the ground, he stopped, looking at the dozen zombies reaching up for him hungrily.
Jinx wrapped his off-hand around the chain, enough to support his weight. He pulled his handgun, and then opened fire, one by one popping rounds into rotted foreheads, dropping them.
A few seconds later, the other three members of his team were level with him, joining in the execution of the ghouls.
“Landing zone is clear!” Jinx said, holstering his gun. “Move!”
The four troops dropped the rest of the way to the ground, quickly finding their footing on the sand and raising their assault rifles.
“Jarvis with me,” Jinx said, moving his hand in quick flicks of his wrist. “Rollins, Davila, other side.”
He moved to the left of the ship, taking aim at the twenty or so zombies that moved towards them, the closest five yards away. The duo acted as a single unit, moving forward and executing ghouls with precision, stepping over the fallen corpses to reach the next one in line.
The entire firefight was over in a matter of moments, with t
he two soldiers mowing through the crowd with ease. As Jarvis shot the last remaining zombie in the face at nearly point blank range, she turned and gave her Corporal a high five.
“Fucked ‘em up, Jinx,” she declared.
He nodded. “Yeah, we did,” he agreed with a grin. “Lot more waiting on the same treatment, let’s move.”
They rushed back to the ship as Stein and Burch hit the ground.
“Let’s go,” Jinx called, “rally point.”
The four soldiers moved across the beach, headed towards the old shack at the far end. As they went, they saw a trail of death from Rollins and Davila who’d cut through the immediate group of zombies.
When they spotted the shack, fifty yards away, there were several zombies emerging from the woods. As they ran, gunshots boomed from the ship, and the zombies began to fall as the backs of their heads exploded.
Rollins and Davila took a knee on the side of the shack as the other four caught up, and the shorter man nodded to the Corporal.
“Off to a good start,” Davila said.
Jinx nodded. “Yeah, we navigated through your handiwork on the beach,” he said. “Nice job.”
“So what’s next?” Rollins asked, keeping watch on their flank.
Jinx looked out from behind cover towards the woods, which was about fifty yards away, running for hundreds of yards in both directions. There were dozens of rotted corpses emerging from the trees, and they were starting to make headway to the ship, the numbers greater than what the snipers could keep up with.
The Corporal pulled out a satellite image of the area on their side of the bridge. “Bridge is on the south part of town, so let’s stick as close to the south as we can,” he said, running his finger along the paper. “The woods are going to be a bitch with as many of those things, so we need to push through. Rally point is this wrecker yard looking place. Teams of two, watch each other’s backs, and let’s move.”
He and Jarvis broke off first, Davila and Rollins shortly after, leaving Burch and Stein as the final team.
The three mini-teams broke out into the open, spreading out about ten yards apart from each other and racing towards the tree line. There were a few dozen zombies ahead of them, with more coming out of the woodwork as they grew closer.
“Knock ‘em down and keep moving,” Jinx said.
The duo reached the first few who were a few yards apart. Both soldiers lowered their shoulders and rammed into a zombie each, sending the flailing corpses tumbling to the ground. Their presence drew the attention of numerous zombies around them, who quickly changed their target from the ship to them.
Jinx and Jarvis made it to the woods, seeing the trees packed full of the dead, but at least broken up thanks to the thick trunks. They darted to the left, hoping to put a little distance between them and the other two teams.
The Corporal led the way, his partner a few yards behind. He drew his handgun for close encounters, as they were far too many creatures to simply push through. He came around a tree, quickly popping a zombie in the head before shoving the lifeless corpse aside.
There was a torrent of gunfire coming from the other two teams, and he furrowed his brow in concern, wondering how bad it was on the other side. He had to concentrate on himself, however, as he came around a thick trunk and spotted half a dozen creatures blocking his path.
“Jarvis!” he barked.
She stepped up with her assault rifle, peppering the zombie group with some three-round bursts, dropping most of them. The Corporal put a bullet in the last remaining creatures for good measure.
“Five outta six, not bad,” he said, and she wrinkled her nose as she followed him deeper into the woods.
They avoided the outstretched hands of several ghouls continually drawn to their noise. Soon, the daylight at the far end of the woods peeked through to them.
“Keep pushing, almost there,” Jinx said.
He took out a few more zombies, making their run a bit easier. They pumped their legs hard, darting around a couple more trees before emerging into a field on the other side of the woods. There were a handful of corpses in the field, but they were spread out fairly well.
“Looks like the first wave of those things aren’t too bad,” Jinx mused. “Snipers and those other teams should be able to clear them out.”
He glanced to the right, hoping to see his teammates emerging, but they hadn’t yet. Instead, all he heard was more gunfire in the woods. He took a deep breath, and then glanced at Jarvis, whose eyes were hard to mask her own concern.
“They can handle themselves,” the Corporal assured her, “let’s get a move on.”
Jinx and Jarvis moved briskly across the field, avoiding the spread out zombies as they went. Soon, they hit a road and started moving to the south. A quarter mile later they spotted the driveway to Eddie’s Scrapyard.
“Stay alert,” he said quietly, “silent kills if possible.”
Jarvis nodded and slung her rifle over her shoulder, drawing her knife as they jogged down the dirty driveway. As they grew closer to the small building, they spotted numerous broken down cars stacked up along the side of the road.
The sounds of moaning and flesh smacking against metal erupted from the other side of the wall of cars, but it didn’t seem as if the creatures could get through.
Jinx rushed up to the window of the small dilapidated building that looked like it would collapse if someone punched it in just the right place. He peered inside, seeing a darkened messy office, but no movement.
“Let’s get inside,” he whispered, and turned the knob, but it was locked. He studied the door for a moment, the weathered wood with peeling paint, and then gave it a forceful straight kick. The entire frame shattered, and the door hung open. “Knock, knock,” he murmured.
They stood at the entrance, waiting patiently for something to come out, but nothing did. Just to be safe, they did a quick sweep of the building, finding it empty.
“See if you can find anything useful and wait on the others,” Jinx instructed.
Jarvis raised an eyebrow. “Where are you off to?” she asked.
“Going to check and see what’s coming up,” he replied, and then headed out of the building. He checked the satellite image of the area, noting a short line of trees to the north of the junkyard. On the other side of that was the main residential area that stretched on for several blocks before the bridge.
He readied his knife, not wanting to draw attention to himself, and walked through the woods. There were only a couple of zombies milling about, both of whom had become entangled in roots and branches, writhing in anger at being unable to free themselves. They got agitated when they spotted a fresh meal, moaning and thrashing about.
“Was going to let you slide,” the Corporal muttered, “but you had to start making a racket.” He stepped up and executed two swift knife blows, slumping the creatures over in their entangled mess. He cleaned his knife off on one of their shirts before sheathing it.
Moans erupted from the other side of the woods, and he moved slowly and silently. He inched to the edge of the trees, stopping about ten yards before exiting, which was close enough to see out without giving up his position.
He swallowed hard at the sight of a small army of zombies, easily hundreds of them, closer to a thousand than zero. All of them moved up the street towards the gunfire coming from the ship, faint but still loud enough to attract attention.
Shit, he thought bitterly, if this group makes it to the beach they can forget about gaining a foothold. We’re gonna have to do something.
CHAPTER FOUR
Jinx ran back through the woods, getting to the rally point as Davila and Rollins walked up the driveway. They turned and saw the Corporal running towards them, which made them stiffen for a moment before they realized nothing was chasing him.
“Holy shit, you scared the fuck out of me,” Davila said, letting out a deep whoosh of breath. “Thought we had a runner.”
Jinx shook his head, ches
t heaving. “It’s worse than that,” he replied. “Come on, let’s get to the others.”
They picked up the pace, reaching the building where the other three members of their team stood waiting.
“What did you find?” Jarvis asked.
The Corporal took a deep breath. “There are a thousand of those things on the other side of the tree line, and they’re all headed towards the ship,” he said. “If we don’t distract them, there’s no way our guys will get a foothold.”
Jarvis cocked her head, smiling as she held up a set of keys. “It’s a good thing I found these, then,” she declared, jingling the keys.
The boys all shared confused glances, and she smiled even bigger, waving for them to follow her. She led the pack out the back door towards the personal parking lot. As the lot came into view, the soldiers stopped short and stared at the sight.
“That…” Burch gaped. “That is a big ass truck.”
Standing before them was a souped up pickup truck, with a major lift kit and oversized wheels. It wasn’t quite a monster truck like one would see at rallies, but the front bumper was almost four feet off of the ground. It was jet black, with tack fire decals running down the side of it from the front wheels.
“Did we hit a teleporter and end up in Alabama?” Stein asked.
Burch barked a laugh. “You tell us,” he said. “Do you have the sudden urge to fuck your sister?”
“Nah, wouldn’t want your sister to get jealous,” Stein shot back.
Davila snorted. “Please, you couldn’t get Burch’s sister with a stack full of fifties.”
Both men paused and stared at their shorter friend.
“Not sure if you were insulting me or Stein,” Burch admitted.
Davila shrugged, giving them a sheepish smile. “It’s the rare two for one deal.”
Jarvis jingled the keys again. “If you boys are done,” she prompted, “which one of you is coming along for the ride?”
“Burch, you’re with Jarvis,” Jinx said as he pulled out the satellite image again. The soldiers clustered around him to have a look as he pointed to the areas of interest. “If you head due north of here, you’ll run into the main road,” he began. “Get up there and start heading towards the water, look for something to blow up. Lay on the horn the entire time, shoot, do whatever you can to draw the crowd your way.”
Dead America The Northwest Invasion | Book 6 | Dead America-Seattle [Part 4] Page 2